ersons escape the second year without being afflicted with this
weakening complaint; the mode of treatment is repeated doses of calomel,
with castor-oil or salts, and is followed up by quinine. Those persons
who do not choose to employ medical advice on the subject, dose
themselves with ginger-tea, strong infusion of hyson, or any other
powerful green tea, pepper, and whiskey, with many other remedies that
have the sanction of custom or quackery.

I will not dwell on this uncomfortable period, further than to tell you
that we considered the complaint to have had its origin in a malaria,
arising from a cellar below the kitchen. When the snow melted, this
cellar became half full of water, either from the moisture draining
through the spongy earth, or from the rising of a spring beneath the
house; be it as it may, the heat of the cooking and Franklin stoves in
the kitchen and parlour, caused a fermentation to take place in the
stagnant fluid before it could be emptied; the effluvia arising from
this mass of putrifying water affected us all. The female servant, who
was the most exposed to its baneful influence, was the first of our
household that fell sick, after which, we each in turn became unable to
assist each other. I think I suffer an additional portion of the malady
from seeing the sufferings of my dear husband and my beloved child.

I lost the ague in a fortnight's time,--thanks to calomel and quinine;
so did my babe and his nurse: it has, however, hung on my husband during
the whole of the summer, and thrown a damp upon his exertions and gloom
upon his spirits. This is the certain effect of ague, it causes the same
sort of depression on the spirits as a nervous fever. My dear child has
not been well ever since he had the ague, and looks very pale and
spiritless.

We should have been in a most miserable condition, being unable to
procure a female servant, a nurse, or any one to attend upon us, and
totally unable to help ourselves; but for the prompt assistance of Mary
on one side, and Susannah on the other, I know not what would have
become of us in our sore trouble.

This summer has been excessively hot and dry; the waters in the lakes
and rivers being lower than they had been known for many years; scarcely
a drop of rain fell for several weeks. This extreme drought rendered the
potatoe-crop a decided failure. Our Indian-corn was very fine; so were
the pumpkins. We had some fine vegetables in the garden, especia