55 



Thus it would appear, that while our low elevation and southern 

 declension gives us a warmer and more genial climate, than if we fa- 

 ced to the north, or were convulsed into mountain ranges, still these 

 very circumstances render us liable to the sudden changes which re- 

 sult from alternations of winds so excitable as ours. These sudden 

 changes are known and felt by all, and as the}" are, in great measure, 

 bevond the control of man, the force of this element must not be for- 

 gotten when we are summing up the good and bad qualities of our 

 climate. 



But these things, vastly important as they are, would not of them- 

 selves enable us to develope the causes of our diseases. There are 

 other elements which must not be forgotten. Among them are the 

 nature of the surface and the character of our soils. Our whole State 

 may be considered under three heads, which are sufficiently compre- 

 hensive to embrace every part. For the sake of order, let us first 

 consider the bottom lands. It is needless to specify these minutely. 

 They have one invariable character from the Balize to the Falls of 

 St. Anthony, and to the base of the Rocky Mountains, on the Missou- 

 ri ; nor is the character different on our smaller streams, except in de- 

 gree. They are exceedingly fertile ; they are very damp from river 

 influences, even when not subject to overflow ; but most of them are 

 annually submerged, and then there are pond's, sloughs, <fcc. which, 

 as reservoirs, add to the prevalent moisture. As a consequence, 

 they are exceedingly destructive to health and human life. The in- 

 habitants, no matter from what region they come, soon become sub- 

 jects of some form of what, for want of a more comprehensive and 

 precise term, is called bilious disease, and unless they fly from their 

 homes, they are again and again attacked, until the constitution is 

 broken down, and some organic disease supervening, they sooner or 

 later sink into the grave the victims of malaria. But this may be pro- 

 tracted for many years, the patient becoming listless, sluggish, good- 

 for-nothing, and carrying with . him visceral enlargements of great 

 size. In one case, that of a thin tall female, I found an enlarged 

 spleen reaching from beneath the ribs to the pubes — a distance in her 

 case of more than twelve inches. These dwellers on the bottoms 

 must be a short-lived race, nor are they a prosperous one ; owing to 

 repeated sicknesses they tend their crops badly, and thus from year 

 to year they fall behind their neighbors on the uplands. They live 

 in cabins daube'l with mud, with wooden chimneys, and no o-lass in 

 their windows. They lack energy to burn lime-kilns, although the 

 rock and fuel may be quite accessible in some neighboring bluff. It 

 makes but little differenc*- whether the bottom is prairie or timberland. 



