566 surgeons' reports — Kentucky — second district. 



suitable for water-power, the water is not good. Springs are scarce ; wells and ponds supply tbo 

 country with drinking and stock water, which is easily obtained by digging, as there is a stratum 

 of blue clay, from three to eight feet in thickness, some fifteen feet below the surface, so dense 

 that all the surface- water passes over the top of it. 



Sandstone abounds here, with but little limestone. Almost the entire district is covered with 

 dense and lofty forests of excellent timber. No country, I think, excels it in beauty, variety, and 

 usefulness of its trees, among which may be named the tulip, (or poplar,) black and white walnut, 

 oak, hickory, beech, gum, chesnut, and cypress trees. 



The district may be classed as considerably above the average in the productiveness of its soil. 

 Tobacco, wheat, and corn are the principal products cultivated ; yet the soil is well adapted to the 

 growth of domestic grasses, the cereals, and a great variety of vegetables and esculent roots. 

 The climate is delightful in the spring, summer, and autumn months. The winters are severe iu 

 consequence of the liability to sudden changes of temperature, being situated midway between the 

 extreme north and the extreme south. If we have a southern wind in midwinter, we may have a 

 day so w^rm that a person will be comfortable in shirt-sleeves; but, should the wind change during 

 the night, the next day may be so cold and the change so sudden that the same person can scarcely 

 be made comfortable with all the clothing he can put on. The winters are becoming gradually 

 more intensely cold, because of the country being more opened by clearing aw ay the forests in 

 cultivating farms. The change in this respect during a period of thirty years is quite perceptible. 

 At this season of the year, and in early spring, inflammatory diseases, such as pneumonia, rheuma- 

 tism, and flux, or dysentery, prevail, caused by the sudden changes of temperature, and the frequent 

 rains and thaws, which leave the ground wet and icy. Typhoid tendencies are also prevalent at 

 this season ; and the inflammatory diseases above named are liable to assume a typhoid type after 

 the vital energies have become depressed. 



In the more malarial portions of the district, where vegetation is most luxuriant, and where 

 large Ibrests have been killed, and the trees have fallen upon the ground to decompose, much 

 miasmatic effluvium is thrown off ; and, in addition to the ordinary ujalarious fev^ers, we have occa- 

 sional visitations of malignant erysipelas in an epidemic form, quite intractable and fatal, generally 

 attacking the throat, face, and head. Diphtheria has also made its appearance several times of late 

 years iu an epidemic and fatal form. The atmosphere acting as a medium, these influences appear 

 often to be transported several miles into the table-lands, which, but for their being contiguous to, or 

 within reach of, these influences, would be comparatively free from these epidemic diseases. Late 

 in summer, and during the fall months, l)ilious, intermittent, and enteric fevers prevail, and are 

 ascribable to malarious influences. At this season of the year, in the less-improved portions of the 

 district, where there is not sufficient cleared land to pasture domestic animals, and they have to 

 run at large, a disease prevails known as miUc-sicJcness or bilious vomiting, and the system, once 

 prostrated by this disease, rarely, if ever, recovers its former vigor or endurance. 



This disease is supposed to be caused by a poison which enters into the flesh of sheep, hogs, and 

 beef cattle, and into the milk and butter of cows. The legislature of Kentucky has long since ofi'ered 

 a large reward to be paid to any one discovering the cause of this disease, so destructive to human 

 life and that of domestic animals. Many investigations have been made, but as yet no person has 

 been able to earn the reward. That it is caused by vegetation is sustained by the well-known fact, 

 that, as soon as the ground where it prevails is cleared and cultivated, the disease disappears. 



A large majority of the inhabitants of this district are engaged in the active pursuit of agri- 

 culture, with mechanics, merchants, and professional men iu sufiicient numbers to supply the home 

 demand lor implements and merchandise and the successful prosecution of the professions of law 

 and medicine. 



The principal products of exportation are tobacco and hogs. 



The inhabitants may be described as plain and substantial in habits, dress, and diet. They 

 are large consumers of their own "/«?(/ and /iowu'w?/," and perhaps eat more gross meat than is con- 

 sistent with delicacy and refinement; but it admirably fits them for the hardships of a western agri- 

 cultural life. Keligious ami moral institutions are the rule here; and the largest amount of tolera- 

 tion to the various religious denominations is cheerfully conceded. The number of square miles 

 in the district is five thousand five hundred and eleven. 



