HEALTH FULNESS. 145 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Healthfuluess. — Reserve Forces, and Probable Future of the Race in 

 Nebraska. 



IS Nebraska a healthy region? That is a question which is more 

 frequently asked than any other by many classes contemplating 

 removal to Nebraska. Among the special questions asked are: 

 Do fever and ague, dyspepsia, consumption, etc., exist here? No 

 spot on the globe is absolutely free from disease, but this State is 

 singularly exempt from its severe forms. Fever and ague are 

 rarely met with. The fact is that less malarial diseases exist here 

 than in any other western State. When they do occur it is owing 

 to limited local causes, or extraordinary exposure, and they are 

 generally successfully treated by the simplest remedies. The bad 

 cases that have been met were invariably contracted elsewhere, 

 and came here in the hope of having the disease cured by our 

 climate. They never were disappointed if they here gave nature 

 a chance to exert its full health-making power on their bodies. 

 Every effect must have a cause, and the cause of this general 

 exemption from this class of diseases is probably found in the 

 peculiar climate and surface conditions of the State. The general 

 drainage of the State, as we have seen, is the best possible. Its 

 general slope is east and south, the southeastern corner being the 

 lowest. The rivers with the smaller streams that flow into them 

 have high banks, on top of which the flood plains begin, and extend 

 to a greater or less distance back to the bluffs where there is another 

 rise to the general plain above. The rivers themselves are gener- 

 ally comparatively rapid, and their flood plains are rarely a dead 

 level, but descend gradually in the direction of the main streams. 

 And although often the flood plain is slightly higher next to the 

 river than it is next to the bluffs, the water that tends to accumulate 

 there is earned off by the lateral tributaries that join the main 

 stream. As these smaller tributaries are met with every few miles, 

 and often on an average every mile, the drainage of even the 

 great majority of the bottom lands is complete. 

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