SIJKGKONS' REPORTS ILLINOIS SEVENTH DISTRICT. 443 



The large <in:intit.v ol' stagiiaiit water wliicli lies npoit tlie f'aee of tlie eomitry in tlie spiiiig, aiid 

 wbicli evaporates (liiiiiif; the tore-part of suimuer, taken in connection with the long and hot sum 

 iner seasons, will readily suggest that the prevailing diseases of the country are of the miasmatic 

 character. As might he expected, they are intermittent, remittent, and bilious fevers. Nearly all 

 other diseases are modilied by, and partake of, the bilious form, as rheumatism, i)ueumonia, pleuiisy, 

 bronchitis, &c. The disea.ses named are much more prevalent in this district than farther south, 

 and, from what I can learn, more so than in the Eastern States in the same latitude, where mias- 

 matic winds do not prevail. There are in this district nearly all the conditions u])ou wlnvU mias- 

 matic fevers are generally considered to depend,, such as are found in most malarious districts, to 

 wit, the great abundance of stagnant water, the necessary length of hot summer weather, and the 

 alluvial deposit. 



It is generally supposed that vegetable decomposition is the great source from which the 

 malarious poisons which induce intermittent and remittent bilious disorders emanate ; but it is 

 doubtful whether there is a sufidcient amount of this decomposition going on in this district to 

 account for the prevalence of these fevers. It is true that there is a considerable amount of it going 

 on in the timbered land during the warm season of the year ; but in the prairie.s, which constitute 

 from seven to eight tenths of the* territory of this district, there is scarcely any vegetable decom 

 liosition. This was more particularly true of this country in the earlier .settlement of it, when it was 

 much more sickly Irom the greater prevalence of these fevers than at present. The prairies were 

 then, and in fact are yet, to a considerable extent hurned off every fall, when nearly all the i)on(ls 

 and sloughs are dried up, leaviug thus almost no vegetation to be decomposed. It is true that 

 it is considered to be somewhat more sickly in and around the groves of timber than at some dis- 

 tance from them ; but the groves, being on lower ground than the prairies, generally have more stag- 

 nant water to eva[iorate, and the [)rocess continues later in the .sea.son. I think, however, there is 

 not much difference in the iiealth of the two localities. » * * 



"" As the country is being settled up and the drainage is improved, it becomes more healthy than 

 during the earlier settlements, though there is much more vegetable matter in the form of gra.ss 

 unL)urued and left for decomposition in the numerous and large farms in the prairies than formerly. 

 In districts where there is much stagnant water to be evaporated by the heat of summer, miasmatic 

 fevers are prevalent, and in such districts of country under some circumstances we find a great 

 amount of vegetable matter decomposing, but it by no means follows that the eftiuvia emanating 

 from this vegetable decompo.sition produce these fevers ; and it would seem that the facts above 

 stated somewhat controvert the idea. We know that the evaporation of stagnant water by sum- 

 mer heat is necessary to induce these fevers, but we do not know that the decomposition of vege- 

 table matter is rjecessary. # # * 



The position has been taken that miasmatic districts are unfavorable to the development of 

 tubercular phthisis, or that the miasQiatic poison counteracts tuberculosis; but I am coini)elled to 

 believe from my own observation and experience, as far as this district is concerned, that the idea 

 is entirely erroneou.s. It is quite common here to meet with persons whose health has suflered 

 from long-standing intermittents in some disguised form, in whom the blood has become impover- 

 ished, the digestive, assimilative, and nutritive functions greatly impaired, and the pabulum 

 designed for the nutrition of the ti.ssucs so degraded as to be capable of merely forming kakoplastic 

 deposits. The final result often is that the lungs, so frequently the seat of these deposits, become 

 tuberculous. It is from this cause, as I conceive, that tubercular phthisis is much more common 

 in this country than it was in North Carolina, where I for some time practiced medicine, and where 

 miasmatic fevers were rarely seen. 



* * * It is difficult for me to answer the question asked, namely : " Reasons 



why any particular disease or disability have disqualified a greater ratio per thousand from military 

 scr\ ice;" but I am of opinion that in the miasmatic poison of this district may be found the reason 

 or cause for so many cases of permanent physical disability disqualifying from military 

 service. # # * 



The district is inhabited chiefly by a farming community; and I think it is not speaking too 

 boastingly to say that as a rule it is settled by an intelligent, industrious, (lersevering, and honest 

 population ; at least equal in these respects to most communities, and generally as temperate. It 



