“Died at her residence, of a nauseous smell, Margaret Smith, in the 40th year of her age.” If in the mortuary column of this or every other paper, the expression “died of typhoid fever” was stricken out, and in it stead printed “died of a nauseous smell,” the frequency with which we should find these words occurring would not a little surprise and alarm us.

Is it, indeed true, that nauseous smells actually kill? That they are very disagreeable we all know, but that they are deadly not everyone is fully aware. We are accustomed to regard our olfactories as sources from which pleasure may be derived, rather than as monitors to warn us against unwholesome and destructive odors. Did we trust them in the latter capacity and heed their monitions, delicate and almost imperceptible as they frequently are, much sickness and many deaths would every year be prevented.

It is a fact now very well understood in the medical profession that all excrementitious matters of the human body received into the body again through the lungs, or the pores, or the mouth are direct and deadly poisons. They will kill as certainly as arsenic, or prussic acid, or a pellet of cold lead, if enough of them are taken.

Prince Albert died of a minute crevice in the mouldering mansion of an old London sewer that ran under a closet adjoining his summer sitting-room. The odor was imperceptible, but it made Queen Victoria a mourner all her days. One among the distinguished and lamented American dead in 1869 died of a water closet adjoining his office which was not properly drained. The papers said “typhoid fever,” and thousands mourned his “untimely removal from a field of extensive usefulness here, to his everlasting reward.” The clergy and pious people called it “an inscrutable and mysterious Providence;” the doctors said “imperfect sewerage.”

In the country there are fewer deaths from this cause than in the city, for reasons quite obvious: populations are not crowded together, and effete matters are returned more promptly to the soil. Yet in the most healthy localities typhoid fever sometimes occurs, and may always be traced to its only source.

In the summer of 1860 the writer of this article spent some months on the plateau of the Cumberland Mountains, that which, perhaps, the world does not afford a more salubrious region. Within a mile of our cottage an entire family lay prostrate with typhoid fever, and two of their number died. What was the matter there? In one large log cabin, imperfectly lighted and ill ventilated, ten persons, ate, slept, lived. There was carried on all the work of the family; the beds were never aired, the linen seldom ever washed, and the slops were thrown where ease and convenience suggested. To a healthy pair of lungs the atmosphere within and around the house was simply intolerable. But they had become accustomed to the odor, though it utterly refused to make peace with them.

As the warmth of the sun increases, more and more vigilance should be used by the house-keeper to keep everything in and around her premises perfectly sweet and wholesome. Dry earth will completely disinfect and deodorize every offensive substance. Where this cannot be applied, lime, dilute sulphuric acid, and copperas water form very good substitutes. Particular attention should be paid to the drainage of the sink, especially if that and the well are contiguous. Sleeping rooms should be thoroughly aired and sunned every day, and the bedding hung upon a line or fence at least once every week during hot weather. If these simple rules are religiously observed, whatever other diseases may affect the family, typhoid fever will not be among them.–Hearth and Home.

Some discoveries have lately been made in New Mexico which will, doubtless, be the subject of protracted and highly interesting archaeological research. Governor Arny, the Special Indian Agent for that Territory, is the authority for the existence of these curiosities his knowledge of which has been gained by personal inspection. It became necessary, in the discharge of his official duties for Governor Arny to visit the Utah Indians, at the west of the San Juan River. To do this, he had to traverse a part of the great range known as the Sierra Madre Mountains, and here particularly in what is called the Canon de Chelly, the discoveries referred to have been made. We have, of late, been so overwhelmed with accounts of astonishing natural wonders newly found in the heart of the continent, that Governor Arny’s description of strange ravines, whose walls tower perpendicularly to an altitude of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, “the rock strata being as perfect as if laid by the skilled hands of masons, and entirely symmetrical,” may excite only a passing comment. But the ruins found among these lonely canons will attract more eager and substantial attention.

These consist, we are assured, of the deserted remains of ancient Aztec cities “many of which bear the evidence of having been populous to the extent of many thousands of inhabitants.” The term Aztec is here used in its common and inaccurate sense, being applicable, in strictness, to only one of the seven Mexican tribes which collectively bore the name of Nahuatlecas. These tribes are supposed to have come from the North, from a region known as Aztlan. Their traditions say that they emerged from seven caverns in that region, which most investigators have placed north of the River Gila.

The interesting question now arises whether these vast canons or mountain gorges, described by Governor Arny, are affirmed by him to be filled, in some instances, with ruins, may not have been the original Aztlan. It is at least evident, by reading his descriptions, and comparing them with such traditionary chronicles as we already possess, that this supposition is extremely plausible. The period of the departure of the seven tribes, and of their arrival in the valley of Mexico, is commonly reckoned to have been between 1064 and 1164. Perhaps a close examination of newly-discovered ruins will have the effect either of affirming or rectifying this estimate. In any case it will doubtless furnish us with important revelations of the past history of the continent.

The accounts already received from Governor Arny and his party are substantially to the following purport: The ruins discovered are of stone and of great extent. In each town or collection of buildings, one edifice has been found hewn out of the solid rock, about twenty feet square, containing one room, and in this room a single human skeleton. In the centre of these apartments there are traces of fire, and the theory of the observers is that these solitary rooms were altar places, and the skeletons those of the officiating priests. It will be remembered that fire was always kept burning, as a religious rite, on the altars of the Aztecs; the Indian tradition being ultimately it would light Montezuma back again to his people–he being not an earthly ruler only, but their Messiah or Eternal King. It is asserted by our informants that the structures contain handsome arches and other architectural devices and ornaments; and that the builders must have been skilled in the manufacture and use of edged tools, in masonry and other mechanical arts. Some of the buildings, unlike most of the ruins further south in Central America and elsewhere are reported to be seven or eight stories in height. There are no stair-cases in these lofty piles so that it is inferred the upper stories were reached by ladders planted against the walls. Others of the edifices are perfectly round, built very substantially of cut stone, and plastered inside. Tokens abound of the occupation of these places by dense and well instructed populations, and it seems reasonable to anticipate that to the wonder of natural scenery and mineral treasure abounding in that neighborhood there is about to be added such records of the men who once dwelt therein as will be, at least, as interesting.

The only doubt likely to be raised relative to the importance or probable significance of Governor Arny’s discoveries, is whether his buildings may not belong to the class of “Cassas Grandes” once held to mark the successive steps of the Aztec migration (which is supposed to have taken over 150 years from the starting point before reaching Chanuliepec) but since attributed to the Moquis or to the Pueblo Indians. If the accounts that have come to us are precisely accurate, we should say this hypothesis was out of the question; since the buildings would necessarily have been the work of a far higher civilization than any of the class last mentioned.–N. Y. Times

On Tuesday morning last, while Mr. William Thompson, assisted by Robert R. Smith, was engaged in making an excavation near the house of the former, about half a mile north of West Hickory, preparatory to erecting a derrick, they exhumed an enormous helmet of iron, which was corroded with dust. Further digging brought to light a sword, which measured nine feet in length. Curiosity incited them to enlarge the hole, and after some little time they discovered the bones of two enormous feet. Following up the “lead” they had so unexpectedly struck, in a few hours’ time they had unearthed a well-preserved skeleton of an enormous giant, belonging to a species of the human family which probably inhabited this and other parts of the world at that time of which the Bible speaks, when it says “And there were giants in those days.” The helmet is said to be of the shape of those found among the ruins of Nineveh. The bones of the skeleton are remarkably white. The teeth are all in their places, and all of them are double and of extraordinary size. These relics have been taken to Tionesta, where they are visited by large numbers of people daily. When his giantship was in the flesh he must have stood 18 feet in his stockings. These remarkable relics will be forwarded to New York early next week. The joints of the skeleton are now being glued together. These remains were found about 12 feet below the surface of a mound which had been thrown up probably centuries ago, and which was not more than three feet above the level of the ground around it. Here is another nut for antiquarians to crack.–Oil City Times.

The Memories of Fifty Years, by William H. Sparks. Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest.

In this case, “Southwest” means Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. William Henry Sparks (1800-1882) was a lawyer and prolific poet.(?!) You can read more about him here.

Thanks to the (anonymous) Post-Processor!

The Chicago Tribune re-states its theory on this subject as follows:

1. The presence of sun spots this year causes an average reduction of about two degrees of Fahrenheit in the amount of heat supplied to the earth by the sun.

2. The necessary effect of this will be a diminished evaporation from the ocean and this will be evident in a lessened rain-fall on the land.

3. About two-fifths of all the heat received by the earth from the sun is carried off by evaporation, 972 degrees of heat being rendered latent in the conversion of water into vapor. With a small rain-fall, very little calorie is carried off in this way, and a much larger proportion of the solar heat than usual is retained in the ground, and remains in the lower strata of the atmosphere. Hence there will be a much greater degree of sensible heat on many parts of the land surface of the earth, as a consequence of a lessened supply to the whole globe.

The deductions, above given as well as those not here stated, have all been accurately verified by the facts–so for it is probable that the writer, who is not a mere dreamer, but has made the physical sciences the subjects of a life study, has made a discovery in this direction, which will be recognized as such by the scientific world. It is probable that he will ere long put the results of his researches in a more permanent form than that of a newspaper column.

The Chicago Interior publishes a letter from Mr. Nichols, of Tecumseh, dated May 18th, and declares him to be “a man of conscience and understanding.” He says:

“Our village and vicinity constitute a scene of special interest just now, on account of an ancient fossil recently brought to light. A few days ago, as some men were cutting a ditch through a piece of low land, some four miles northeast of our village, they came upon some huge bones, which, on further investigation, proved to be the bones of a Mastodon. They were imbedded in a stratum composed mainly of clay and sand, of yellowish complexion, overlaid by about two or two and a half feet of black muck, and having a stratum of very moist and more thoroughly digested vegetable matter underneath. Directly over the principal remains stood an oak tree of some eighteen inches in diameter and having fifty-five concentric circles.

“The skeleton, as a whole, was very imperfect, both as to the number of pieces and in respect to preservation. Some of the parts, however, to wit: vertebra, part of the jaw, a portion of a tusk, several molars, leg bones, etc, were in a very natural state. From the worn state of the teeth it is inferred, very naturally, that the animal was old. The bones also, being much dispersed about over an area of some thirty feet diameter, would seem to indicate that the creature was not inadvertently cast in the mire, but that it had, through weakness, caused by time or disease, laid down upon the ground, died, and been torn to pieces by surviving and devouring wild beasts.

“As to the dimensions of the animal, Professor Winchell, of the University of Michigan, having examined the remains, thinks that it must have stood some twelve or thirteen feet in length. The main tusk, of which a section, about one yard in length, is in tolerable preservation, is ascertained to have been, when entire, about nine and a half feet in length. This conclusion is reached by measuring the matrix in which it reposed, and which, from the clay of which it is mainly composed, is in a remarkable state of preservation. Its diameter in the middle is nearly or quite four inches, and the curve, which was upward, was very gentle and graceful. But, alas, a prodigious weapon to contend with!”