99 



THE COAST REGION. 



with tliat of other cities; and while inimerous locahtics alon<2^ the coast, 

 as Mount Plcapant, Sullivan's island, and Beaufort, and many other 

 places were much frequented as health resorts during the summer 

 months, even by people from the up-couiltry, it was confidently predicted, 

 at tlie commencement of the late war, that no picket line along the coast 

 betAvecn the armies could be maintained during the sunmier months. 

 To the surjjrise of nearly every one, however, such did not prove to be 

 the case. Climatic influences interfered in no way Avitli the vigorous 

 prosecution of hostilities. And it was demonstrated that large Ixxlies of 

 white men, under proper hygienic regulations, with the use of quinine as 

 a preventive, might be safely counted on to endure unusual exposure and 

 toil on these shores during the heat of summer. Since the war numerous 

 white families, who formerly removed to the North or to the up-country 

 during summer, have remained upon their farms the year round in the 

 enjoj-ment of their usual health. By the census enumeration of June, 

 1880, the death rate among the rural population of the entire sea island 

 district was fourteen per one thousand for the preceding year. Of the 

 twenty-three, white men who were enumerators of the tenth cen&us on 

 the sea islands, during the months of June and July, 1880, there was no 

 day lost from work on account of sickness, though many of them Avere 

 unaccustomed to the exposures which the work necessitated. Doubtless 

 the prophylactic use of cpiinine has had something to do with the 

 apparently increased healthfulness of this section, but it is also true thai 

 the danger to health was formerly greatly overestimated. With thorough 

 drainage and careful attention to the rules of health, and especially to 

 securing pure drinking water, there is no question that fevers might be 

 expelled here as completely as they were from the fens of Cambridgeshire, 

 in England, where they once prevailed, but have since yielded to 

 the above methods. During the excessively hot and dry summer of 

 1728, "yellow fever" made its first appearance in Charleston. At greater 

 or less intervals of time it has since visited the city during the summer 

 months. After 1748 it did not make its appearance during a period of 

 forty-four years. John Drayton writes, in 1801, "to the natives and long 

 inha])itants of the city it has not yet been injurious." The germs of this 

 disease have never been naturalized on this coast, and reipiire a fresh 

 importation every year. An epidemic occurring in Charleston during the 

 war being clearly traced to a vessel from Havana, that had run the block- 

 ade, and, as Mr. Drayton describes it, this disease still remains restricted 

 to certain localities, within a few miles of which perfect immunity from 

 it may be enjoyed. This was clearly shown in the very fatal epidemic 

 imported into Port Royal in 1877, causing a number of deaths there, 

 while no case originated in the town of Beaufort, four miles distant, to 



