330 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



absence among us of many diseases prevalent in corresponding latitudes 

 elsewhere on the continent. 



The cold, inhospitable winters of the Eastern States, with their attend- 

 ant discomforts and perils, are here replaced by green fields and genial 

 sunshine; and never-failing ocean winds temper the heat of summer, ren- 

 dering possible during the whole year almost a constant out-door life; a 

 feature which constitutes so large a factor in the therapeutics of disease, 

 and which adds so materially to the pleasure and enjoyment of all. 



In Marysville the mean average temperature is 64° F. The highest 

 summer temperature rarely exceeds 95°, and the mercury seldoms falls 

 below 30° above zero in the coldest weather. The hottest days of summer 

 are invariably followed by a cool, refreshing sea breeze at night, which, 

 together with the phenomenal dryness of the atmosphere during the sum- 

 mer months, gives complete immunity from many diseases which have 

 their origin in climatic influences. Sunstroke and prostration from heat 

 are almost unknown, and the ratio of deaths from pulmonary complaints, 

 which number among their victims a larger percentage of deaths than 

 from all other causes in more rigid and less equable climates, is here 

 notably small, as shown by the statistics of the hygiene of the United 

 States Army for a series of years. 



In the early settlement of the State, intermittent and malarious fevers 

 were common along the borders of the Feather and Yuba Rivers and their 

 tributaries. At the present time they are seldon encountered, and when 

 they do appear it is in a mild, non-malignant type, and easily controlled. 

 The impression that these and kindred fevers yet prevail here to a consid- 

 erable extent is still shared by many persons acquainted with our surround- 

 ings at that period, but who are ignorant of the changes that have since 

 taken place in our environments. At that time the low, flat lands extend- 

 ing on either side of the river channels sustained a luxuriant growth of veg- 

 etable matter, the decay and decomposition of which, at some seasons of 

 the year, produced serious illness among our early pioneers, unacclimated 

 as they were, and, in many instances, poorly housed, ill fed, and destitute 

 often not only of the comforts, but of the necessaries of life. But these 

 conditions no longer exist. For years past these bottom lands have been 

 completely covered to a depth of from six to eighteen feet, by sand and 

 gravel, deposited upon them during the annual inundations to which they 

 are subjected in the time of spring freshets. Thus the principal insanitary 

 condition of the whole valley has been effectually and permanently 

 removed. 



In support of these statements, the mortuary reports of the State Board 

 of Health indicate that the death rate in Marysville, the most populous 

 city in the district under consideration, and the only place furnishing a 

 record of deaths, compares favorably with the lowest mortality reported 

 from any other town or city in the State. The latest published statistics 

 for 1885 and 1886, inclusive, show the annual death rate, collected from 

 sixty-four towns and cities in the State, to be eighteen per thousand. 

 Marysville furnishes her quota, with less than ten per thousand; and if our 

 means of obtaining a record of all the deaths that occur in both counties 

 were such that a correct list could be obtained, we would, in all probabil- 

 ity, find this reduced to less than seven per thousand. These necrological 

 tables, prepared as they are with as much care and accuracy as practicable, 

 demonstrate beyond controversy the relative healthfulness of Yuba and 

 Sutter Counties. But the mortality rate in every community depends 

 largely upon the prevalence and virulency, or the absence of the so called 

 diseases of childhood — diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, and kindred affec- 



