surgeons' reports PENNSYLVANIA SEVENTH DISTRICT. 309 



the months of February and M;iU!h, erysipelas made, its appearance, eansin^ some mortality. 

 A very severe epidemic varioloid lingered in the borough of West Chester during the entire 

 winter. A very wide-spread epidemic of stomatitis, ulcerated sore throat, and herpetic affec- 

 tion of the fiiuces was rife at the close of the winter, sparing no class, sex, nor age. Toward the 

 close of winter, tlie so-called s[)ottcd fever (cerebrospinal meningitis) made its ai»i)earance, 

 causing many deaths. 



Population and occitpatiom. — The northern and western parts of the county were originally 

 settled by Irish Protestants ; but, prior to tLe Revolution, they gave way to the Dutch and Germans. 

 The sontlreiTi and middle portions were originally settled by English Quakers, and the eastern part 

 by the Welsh. The populations of these sections of the county retain at the present day many of 

 the distinctive traits of character belonging to their ancestors, and are noted for their general 

 intelligence, industry, and thrift. Although iron, cotton, and woolen manufactories, besides the 

 various mechanical branches, afford employment to a large portion of the population, yet Chester 

 Couuty is among the first agricultural districts of the State ; the last census exhibiting four hundred 

 thousand acres of improved land, which is divided into live thousand towns. The populatiou of 

 Chester County is about eighty-one tliousand and five hundred. 



^'■Reasons why any particular diseases or disabilities have disqualified a greater ratio per thousand 

 from military scrviceP — 1. Cachexia, and diseases of uncertain seat ; 2. Want of due capacity of the 

 chest, and other indications of a liability, to pulmonic diseases; 3. Feebleness of constitution, either 

 natural or acquired, and deficient stamina ; 4. Loss of many teeth, or the teeth being much decayed. 

 Under these four heads, which are embraced under sections 9 and 20, paragraph 85, Eevised Regu- 

 lations Piovost-Marshal-General's Bureau, a much greater number of exemptions have been granted 

 than under any other two sections within the paragraph. 



The causes of the frecpiency of the above diseases and disabilities are apparent: hereditary 

 predisposition, influenced by mode of life; occupation; and other circumstances by which we are 

 surrounded. 



Medical topography and geology of Delaware County. — Delaware County is bounded on the east 

 by Philadelphia County, on the north by Montgomery, and on the northwest by Ciiester, and on the 

 .south and southwest by Delaware River and State. It is divided into twenty-one townships and ' 

 four boroughs, and contains one hundred and seventy -seven square miles of territory. The bor- 

 ough of Media, situated in the center of the county, is the seat of justice. In 18G0, Delaware County 

 contained thirty-one thousand five iiundred and ninety-seven inhabitants: twenty-nine thousand 

 nine hundred and forty-eight whites and one thousand six hundred and forty-nine colored. 



Hydrography and drainage. — The county is principally drained by five large and numerous small 

 streams rising in and passing through it, nearly all of these being good mill-streams and extensively 

 used lor manufacturing purposes. These streams have a general course a little east of south, and, 

 after traversing the whole breadth of the county, empty into the Delaware River. The Brandy wine 

 forms a part of the western boundary of the county. Springs of excellent soft water are plentiful 

 throughout. 



Character of the surface. — Leaving out of view the meadow-lands bordering on the Delaware 

 River, the face of the country is generally undulating, and in some parts hilly; and, with the excep- 

 tion of a small part of the townshii) of Radnor, which is drained by the Gulf Creek, it has a general 

 slope toward the Delaware River. This slope, though general, is not entirely gradual. There m-^.y 

 be particularly observed a sudden elevation in the land, extending in a transverse direction to the 

 streams across the whole extent of the county. This sudden elevation in "the land, or " water-shed," 

 as it has been termed, is at a distance of from three to five miles from the meadows, and nearly 

 parallel to the Delaware. 



Although in the beds of the several streams, this abrupt rise in the land is in a manner obliter- 

 ated, yet it nevertheless gives rise to numerous water-powers very contiguous to each other. The 

 princii)al creeks mentioned have a rapid descent from their several sources to the head of tide- 

 water. The following is a very close approximation to the elevation of the sources of the principal 

 streams above tide-water : 



Source of Cobb's Creek, 392 feet above tide-water. 



Source of Itheu Creek, 399 feet above tide- water. 



