Public Parks. 77 



This table reveals the fact that the ordinary fevers are not very 

 fatal here, and that few die of Intermittent Fever, the number being 

 greatest in 186S. Remittent Fever killed more in 1866 than in either 

 of the other years. Congestive Fever was most fatal in 1867 ; and I 

 have no doubt that such was also the case, in 1867, with regard to 

 Typhoid Fever, as a great many inore cases occurred here during 

 that year, owing to the dryness of the summer and autumn. I am 

 satisfied that in 1866, a great many cases of cholera were reported 

 as dying of Remittent and Typhoid Fevers, because they occasionally 

 assumed a typhoid or low character and did not die for several days 

 after the attack. Of the number reported, at least 70 are of this 

 character, and it will be observed that the number of both diseases is 

 much greater in the last half of the year than the first, and that there 

 was suddenly a great falling off in Typhoid Fever for December, 

 which is not the case in the other years for that month. My personal 

 experience confirms this position, and when the remarkably small 

 quantity of rain that fell during the year 1867, and particularly in 

 summer and autumn, and the prevalence of Typhoid Fever are taken 

 into consideration, although the mortality was not so very great, I 

 am inclined to believe that the position assumed by Buhl* is 

 correct, that Typhoid Fever increases as the water gets low in the 

 soil. It will, therefore, be seen that a dry summer and autumn con- 

 duce to fevers, while a wet summer and autumn increase bowel 

 affections. In a dry season the earth cracks in consequence of the 

 evaporation of the water it contains, and with this evaporation 

 are set free gases that are contained in the soil, in addition to the 

 decomposition of vegetable matter, the necessary result of the atmos- 

 phere and light coming in contact with it.f These conditions do 

 not obtain when the ground is covered or saturated with water. 



* Zeitschrift fiir Biologic, 1865. 



t The normal quantity of carbonic acid contained in the atmosphere is 1.4 volumes per 1000, but 

 the air in the soil contains a large quantity, derived by absorption, or the action of ram, and in an 

 enriched soil like ours, more largely from the decay of vegetation. It has been found to amount to 10, 

 and even 20 per cent. In addition to the carbonic acid, there is also carburetted hydrogen. Cultivation 

 of the soil, in the immediate vicinity of the city, would cause the consumption of these gases by vege- 

 tation, and therefore, would materially assist in rendering them innoxious in dry weather, when their 

 escape into the atmosphere is most marked upon health. 



