420 APPENDIX. 



der a milder summers sun, will be frozen up with the sur- 

 rounding rivers, lakes, and seas. 



The causes of this change have also been the subject of no 

 little dispute ; but it is thought that numerous circumstances 

 connected with the rapid settlement of the United States will 

 show that it has been produced mainly by the clearing of the 

 country, and the cultivation of the soil. Had accurate obser- 

 vations been kept, it is believed that the change in the climate 

 of the United States would appear to have been as rapid, in 

 comparison with that in Europe, as the increase of population 

 and the extension of cultivation has been unexampled ; and 

 that the effect has in both cases borne as exact a proportion to 

 the cause, as could be expected in a subject susceptible of so 

 many variations from accidental and extrinsic circumstances. 



How far the character of the diseases of a country are af- 

 fected by difference of temperature can of course only be de- 

 cided by numerous observations, many circumstances however 

 render it probable that whether observations are made at vari- 

 ous places within the same period, or at the same place through 

 a succession of years, we shall find a close connection be- 

 tween the temperature of the several parts of the year and the 

 diseases of the place or period. 



From the sick reports of the army, intermittent and remit- 

 tent fevers appear at present to be the prevailing diseases of 

 the greater part of our country, and there is reason to believe 

 that the proportion of remittents has not only increased with- 

 in a few years, but that they are much more frequently com- 

 bined with symptoms of derangement of the biliary organs. 



Out of 7000 cases of acute disease, upwards of 3000 were 

 of fevers of an intermittent and remittent type, 1750 of in- 

 flammatory complaints common to all parts of the country 

 during the winter months; and of the remainder, the greater 

 part were of disorders peculiar to the life, habits, and duties 

 of a soldier in all situations. At the western posts by far the 

 greater proportion of cases are intermittents. At the south- 

 ern and middle Atlantic stations, remittents of a decidedly 



