53 



Evening Session, 7£ o'clock, p. m. 



Society met and was called to order by the chair. 



The following report by Dr. J. F. Henry, on the Topography, Cli- 

 mate and Diseases of Iowa, presented through the President of the 

 Society, was read and adopted. 



REPORT. 

 On I he Medical Topography, Climate and Diseases of Iowa 

 Mr. President : 



As Chairman of the Committee of our State Medical Society, to 

 whom the above subjects were assigned, I beg leave respectfully to 

 make the following report : 



The State of Iowa, extending from the mouth of the Des Moines 

 river in latitude 40° 22' on the south, to latitude 43° 30' in the north, 

 occupies a happy position on the map. It constitutes a belt of about 

 3° in width, just a little south of the middle belt of the North Tem- 

 perate Zone ; and so far as climatical influence depends on latitude, 

 it may challenge a comparison with any other portion of the United 

 States. The same parallel extended eastward would embrace Middle 

 and Northern Illinois, and Southern Wisconsin ; Northern Indiana 

 and Southern Michigan ; Northern Ohio and Pennsylvania ; South- 

 ern New York ; the Southern New England States, and the Southern 

 portion of Vermont and New Hampshire. These regions are now 

 considered the most salubrious in our country, though many portions 

 of them, in their early settlement, were desolated by the various forms 

 of malarious disease. Viewed in another aspect, it also challenges a 

 comparison with the countries enumerated. 



At the mouth of the Des Moines, the Mississippi, at low water 

 mark, is only 444 feet above tide water; at Burlington, 486 ; at Rock 

 Island, 528 ; at Prairie Du Chien, 652, and the Upper Iowa river, 

 near the northern boundary of the State, about 660. The elevation 

 of the contiguous bluffs ranges from 150 to 250 feet above these lev- 

 els. Progressing westward, the country gradually rises, until we 

 come to the Ootean des Prairies, between the Des Moines river and the 

 Spirit Lake, where we reach an elevation of 1414 feet. This is un- 

 questionably the highest land in Iowa. The Spirit Lake, one of the 

 principal heads of the Little Sioux of the Missouri, is 1310 feetabove 

 tide water. From this the country declines to the southwest until it 

 reaches the Missouri, which, on the average, has a water level at cor- 

 responding parallels, of almost double that of the Mississippi. So far 

 then, as elevation influences climate, our State has a warmer climate 

 than is found in the States east of Illinois. Another view of this mat- 

 ter seems to possess great interest. Our whole State may be consid- 



