148 Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 



21. About the year 1762, the inhabitants living 

 upon Carver's-Creek*, a branch of the river called 

 Cape-Fear, in North-Carolina, at the distance of about 

 one hundred miles above the mouth of this river (but, 

 perhaps, not more than forty miles, in a straight 

 course, from the sea-coast), were severely afflicted 

 with a malignant fever, which was deemed contagious. 

 The most urgent symptom was a pain in the head ; 

 and a black vomiting accompanied some of the cases. 

 The disease was particularly mortal to the male sex, 

 especially those of a full phlethoric constitution, and 

 was called the " Pleurisy in the head." For about 

 seven years preceding the appearance of the fever 

 (which raged in the autumn), there had been so great 

 a drought, that the people seemed to fear, they were 

 never again to have rain. After the commencement 

 of the disease, there fell a greater quantity of rain in 

 three months, than had fallen in seven years before. — 

 The fever was not confined to the settlement at Car- 

 ver's Creek, but prevailed very generally through the 

 maritime part of North-Carolina, at the same time. 

 Editor'.? MS. Medical Journal, 

 for 1794. 



22. A plant called the Scour-Grass is very common 

 in many parts of the United- States, &.c. It is the 

 Equisetum hyemale of Linnaeus. There are many 



* About sixty miles from Faycttcville. 



