SUKGEONS' BEPOBTS PENNSYLVANIA — SIXTH DISTRICT. 305 



As tlie surface of the whole county, with tlie exception of the limestone-region, may be 

 described as rolling, or even hilly, every part of the county is well cultivated, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the limestone valley, is well supplied with springs of good water. In the region last 

 referred to, there are two springs of local celebrity, and with power suflicient for heavy manufac- 

 tories. The one is at Spring Mill, and the other near Valley Forge, and both are coutiguous to the 

 Schuylkill River. Immense quantities of lime are produced in this valley for the Philadelphia 

 maiket and for the farmers of the county. 



Vast bodies of iron ore are also obtained here, and excellent blue and white marble are found 

 in a stratum occupying the center of the valley. Along the Perkiouien Creek, near the Schuylkill, 

 mines of lead and copi)er have been extensively worked. Spring Mill and Conshohocken, the 

 latter with a [lopulation of three thousand inhabitants, are places at which iron in great quantities 

 is uianufactured ; while Norristown, (the county-seat,) one of the most beautiful towns in the State, 

 with its ten thousand inhabitants, is emphatically a manufacturing place, having exteusive grain, 

 cotton, and iron mills. These places, with the borough of Pottstown, a manufacturing place, witli 

 about four thousand inhabitants, are all situated on the eastern side of the Schuylkill River. 



As to prevalent diseases, and causes conducive thereto, there is nothing in the topography of 

 this part of the district to give a positive character to its diseases ; uor have epidemics been more 

 life or malignant than in places under the same latitude or in the saaie isothermal range. 



Two years siuce, and for the lirst time, we were visited by a most .severe epidemic of spotted 

 fever, or cerebro-spiual meuingitis, which disappeared after the lapse of a few weeks, but which 

 now at distant intervals comes s])oradically to the surface. 



Lehigh County is bounded on the northwest by the Blue Mountains, separating it from Schuyl- 

 kill and Carbon Counties, northeast by Northampton, southeast by Bucks, and southwest by Mont- 

 gomery and Berks Counties. It contains three hundred and eighty-nine square miles, or two 

 hundred and forty eight thousand nine hundred and sixty-one acres. The physical condition of 

 the county is diversified; the surface is generally level, some portions rolling, others broken and 

 somewhat rugged. The water-shed of the western portion of the county is south and west into the 

 Little Lehigh River. The South Mountain crosses the southeast portion of the county. This 

 mountain range is a primary formation, abounding with iron-ore, copper, and lead. 



Between the South and Blue Mountaius is the fertile Kittatiuuy Valley, perhai)s unsurpassed 

 in agricultural wealth, being highly cultivated by an industrious class of good old Pennsylvania 

 Germans. The valley portion of the county is nearly divided between the limestone and clay- 

 slate formation. A small area in the upper portion of the county is diluvial, having bowlders of 

 considerable size ; toward the Little Lehigh it is alluvial and marshy. 



The most important [)roductions are those of agricultuie. Considerable progress has, however 

 been made iu many branches of manufacturing industry, and the development of the mineral 

 resources of the county within the last ten or more years shows that there are vast deposits of iron- 

 ore, zinc, and tire-clay, which now supply a number of furnaces, rolling-mills, «&c. 



Along the northeastern portion of the county are found vast beds of excellent slate, which 

 has of late years been raised and manufactured for rooting, for school-slates, and for ornamental 

 purposes. As an agricultuial county, there is none superior in the State, and especially do the 

 rich townships of Saucon, the two Macuugies, the two Whitehalls, Salsburg, and Ilanover, yield 

 a plentiful return to the honest, hard-working farmers; the best proofs of which are to be seen iu 

 their splendid houses and barns, and iu the magnificent condition of their farms. 



The cliu^ate is moderately healthy all the year round. The diseases which have prevailed for 

 the last year or two have been mostly of a mild nature. They were variola, rubeola, diphtheria, 

 enteric fever, and some few cases of spotted fever. Variola prevailed quite exteusively this spring 

 throughout the' whole county; the mortality iu comparison with the extent and severity of the 

 disease was unusually small, owing greatly to the more extensive practice of vaccination, and the 

 dilfereut modes of treatment from former ages. Enteric fever prevails the whole year round in 

 some localilies of the county, coutiniug itself to the marshy region, and in the neighborhood of the 

 watercourses; the fever also si)reads to the interior; and in the fall of the year epidemics are quite 

 exteusive. The bulk of nu)rtality is from this disease. » » # 



In my experieuce, cardiac aflections have relieved more men from the draft or military service 



