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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE CLIMATE AND DISEASES 
 
 OF AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. JOHANN DAVID ^CHOEPFF 
 
 SURGEON OF THE ANSPACH-BAYREUTH TROOPS IN" AMERICA 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 JAMES READ CHADWICK, M. A., M. D. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK: HURD AND HOUGHTON 
 
 CambriDgc: Cfjc fiitoctgi&e $reg0 
 
 1875 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/climatediseasesoOOschrich 
 
S^3 
 
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The pamphlet in which were printed the following letters, 
 addressed to Professor Delins of Erlangen, was unearthed 
 while I was ransacking an antiquarian hookstore in Munich, 
 Bavaria. The letters have been considered of medico-histor- 
 ical interest, and as I cannot learn that they are to be found 
 in any library on this side of the Atlantic, I venture to lay 
 them before the profession. The pamphlet bears the date 
 1781, and was printed in Erlangen. The notes and introduc- 
 tion to the following translation are mine. J. R. C. 
 
 M374345 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Of all the princes reigning over the smaller German states during 
 the eighteenth century, there were none whose sway was so arbitrary, 
 and whose tyranny was so freely exercised, as those of the Margraves 
 of Anspach and Bayreuth. The cruelty and lawlessness of these petty 
 rulers cannot be better illustrated than by citing two incidents that oc- 
 curred but a few years before the American Revolution. As Charles 
 Frederick William, Margrave of Anspach (1723-1757), was one day 
 walking with his mistress, she expressed the wish to see a chimney- 
 sweep, who had just emerged upon the roof of the Bruckberg Castle, fall 
 to the ground ; whereupon his Highness, to gratify her, shot jhe man 
 dead. To the widow, who came to crave his mercy, he made a gift of five 
 florins. In Bayreuth the same state of affairs existed. The Margrave 
 Frederick Christian (1763-1769) had contracted the disagreeable habit 
 of venting his spleen by belaboring his subjects with a cane in broad 
 daylight. High and low, noble and civilian, cabinet minister and 
 officers, none were safe from this unmistakable proof of the sovereign's 
 ill-temper. As this habit became daily harder to bear, a meeting was 
 called to consider what action the nobility, and especially the military, 
 should take with reference to this inclination of the margrave. u The 
 high nobility and the very worthy corps of officers " came to the val- 
 iant determination that they would ask the court preacher to intercede 
 with his serene Highness, and beo; him to have a greater regard for a 
 soldier's pride. At the same time it was moreover decided that a 
 thrashing at the hands of their ruler should not be deemed derogatory 
 to the honor of a subject, and that all the money received from him in 
 condonation of such acts should be deposited in a common treasury. 
 
 From these two princes Charles Alexander inherited the principali- 
 
6 Introduction. 
 
 ties of Anspach and Bayreuth, and, what was worse, the disposition, 
 habits, and traditions of his ancestors. His territory embraced one hun- 
 dred and forty square miles, and was peopled with four hundred thou- 
 sand subjects. The American war found him so involved in debt, and 
 the country so impoverished by taxation, that he hailed with joy the 
 prospect of replenishing his empty coffers by the sale of troops to En- 
 gland. The advances of his agent in London, however, were for a long 
 time repelled, owing to the bad reputation that his soldiers had earned 
 in previous campaigns, and it was not until February 1, 1777, that a 
 contract was signed, whereby England obtained the services of two 
 regiments of infantry, one company of grenadiers, and a division of 
 Jagers, in all, twelve hundred and eighty-five men. 1 The terms w T ere 
 thirty crowns a head in cash, and a yearly subsidy of forty-five thousand 
 crowns. The only stipulation in the treaty relating to medical matters 
 is Article XII., the same as that made with the Hessians, which reads as 
 follows : " The sick of the Hessian troops shall remain under the care of 
 the physicians, surgeons, and other persons appointed for that purpose 
 under the orders of the general commanding the corps of that nation, 
 and everything shall be allowed them that his majesty allows his own 
 troops." 2 
 
 The regiments started for Ochsenfurt on March 5, 1777, but had not 
 proceeded many miles before they broke into open revolt. In a letter 
 of Benjamin Franklin, written from Paris to a Mr. Winthrop in Boston, 
 I find the following : " Les recrues du Prince d'Anspach se sont re- 
 volte'es, elles ont refuse* de marcher. Ce prince a done £te force de les 
 desarmer et enchainer, et de les conduire lui-meme de la sorte a la tete 
 de ses gardes jusqu'au bord de la mer." 3 The troops sailed from Dor- 
 trecht in seventeen transports on March 30th, reached Portsmouth on 
 April 1st, sailed thence five days later, and finally entered New York 
 harbor on June 3d. Their first camp was on Staten Island, where 
 they passed part of the summer. Some companies were present at the 
 battles of Brandywine, Monmouth Court House, and at the capture of 
 Forts Clinton and Montgomery. From July, 1777, to July, 1778, 
 
 1 Der Soldatenhandel deutscher Fiirsten nach Amcrika. Fricdrich Kapp. Berlin. 1874. 
 
 2 New York Packet, June 6, 1776. 
 
 8 Re'sume de l'Histoire des Revolutions de 1'Ame'rique Septentrionale. Par P. J. S. 
 Dupuy. Paris. 1826. 2 vols. 
 
Introduction. 7 
 
 they wore in camp on a small island opposite Newport, whence they 
 retreated on July 27th to Newport, owing to the arrival of the French 
 fleet, and encamped on Windmill Hill. In October they received 
 recruits from Germany, and on January 11, 1779, transports arrived 
 bringing, among others, " the celebrated Dr. Schopff from Anspach." x 
 
 The Anspach-Bayreuth troops were kept in and about New York 
 until July, 1781, when they were sent to reinforce Cornwallis's army 
 at Yorktown ; ,k here dysentery and typhoid fever were rife, owing to 
 the heat and to the scarcity and poor quality of the food." -During the 
 of Yorktown they occupied the left wing of the army, and lost 
 fifty killed or wounded, and fifty by desertion. After the surrender of 
 Cornwall is in October, 1781, they were confined in the prison at Win- 
 chester until the spring of 1783, when peace was proclaimed. Of the 
 sixteen hundred and forty-four Anspach-Bayreuth troops who served in 
 America, four hundred and sixty-one were lost. 
 
 Dr. Schopff did not return to Europe with his fellow-countrymen, 
 but devoted two years to travel, as a result of which he published at 
 Erlangen, in 1788, " Reise durch einige der mittlern und siidlichen 
 Vereinigten Xord - Amerikanischen Staaten nach Ost- Florida und 
 der Bahama-Inseln, unternommen in den Jahren 1783 und 1784 von 
 Johann David Schopff d. U. W. D. Hochfurstl. Brandenb. Onolzb. 
 und Culmb. Hof und Militar-Medicns, Land-physikus des Mediz. Col- 
 leg, zu Beureuth, Rath, und der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde 
 zu Berlin Mitglied." 
 
 1 Die Deutschen Hiilfstruppen im nordanierikanischen Befreiungskriege 1776 bis 1783. 
 Max. von Eelkiiiff. Hannover. 1863. 
 
I. 
 
 THE DISEASES OF AMERICA. 
 
 New York, December, 1780. 
 It is natural that the inhabitants of so changeable a clime as this should 
 be affected, in one way or another, by the peculiar climatic influences 
 to which they are exposed. More or less weakness, effeminacy, inca- 
 pacity, and kindred qualities characterize the nations that live either in 
 a very hot or a very cold climate. Only mild and uniformly temperate 
 regions form a people that become distinguished for ability, industry, 
 and the strength requisite for great undertakings. I am too little ac- 
 quainted with the native Americans to speak from my own knowledge ; 
 but Robertson is led by his observations to say, " The Americans are 
 more remarkable for their quickness than strength ; they resemble beasts 
 of prey rather than beasts of burden. They not only are disinclined 
 to hard labor, but also are incapable of it ; and if they are by force 
 aroused from their inherent indolence and compelled to work, they sink 
 under enterprises which the inhabitants of the Old World would have 
 completed with the greatest ease. The beardless face and the smooth 
 skin of the American appears to indicate a want of strength which 
 is caused by some vice in his frame. He lacks one of the external 
 signs of manhood and strength." 1 Besides these natural causes, po- 
 litical and moral ones combine to brino; about the result. The indi- 
 viduals of European descent here appear, as a rule, to have lost the 
 muscular strength, the sturdy build, and the manly form of the nations 
 from whom they have sprung. Lank, feeble, weak, without the bloom 
 and hardy aspect of youthful health, the American is more like a rapid- 
 growing weed than an oak, which attains to a durable strength by a 
 
 1 By a misapplication which can hardly be regarded as other than willful, the writer makes 
 the above quotation apply to the native American (whites), whereas a reference to the orig- 
 inal shows that Robertson was describing the Indian aborigines. 
 
10 The Diseases of America. 
 
 slow growth. A single glance is all that is required to distinguish an 
 American from a European, and if the latter has once withstood the 
 hardships of the first change of climate, he may forever defy competition 
 with the native American. I do not know how many old persons there 
 may be in America, but the majority of those whom I have seen, that 
 had attained the age of seventy or eighty years, have been either Euro- 
 peans or of European parentage, from which source they had inherited 
 their hardy constitutions. The American troops, although they fight in 
 a climate to which from youth up they have been accustomed, invaria- 
 bly suffer from the inclemencies of the weather, the insalubrity of the 
 swamps, and the fatigues of the campaigns, quite as much as, and even 
 more than, the royal European troops. When our soldiers have been 
 sickly, theirs have been doubly so, and disease has frequently been rife 
 among them when our men have been enjoying the best of health. 
 Even in and about New York, diseases often prevail among the inhab- 
 itants when our army hospitals are almost entirely empty. The cause 
 of this so universally noticeable weakness seems to lie in the frequent 
 changes of weather and the great extremes of heat and cold. Heat 
 greatly relaxes and enfeebles their sinews, whereas cold renders them 
 constantly hard and stiff, until finally they become powerless, like a 
 spring that has often been bent to and fro. This is especially true of 
 the so-called middle colonies. Virginia, although one of the most 
 southern provinces, produces, nevertheless, a healthier and stouter race 
 of men, as well as of horses, than the other colonies. The heat, to 
 which this colony is exposed by its southern position, is considerably 
 moderated by constant sea-breezes, numerous streams, and the propin- 
 quity of the mountains. Owing to its meridional situation, its winter 
 also is milder and more uniform than in the north, so that the weather 
 is more enjoyable throughout the whole year than in any of the other 
 provinces. Greater strength and vivacity are consequently imparted to 
 its entire animate creation. 
 
 Franklin, with an admirable and cunning craft that astonished all 
 Europe, calculated the extremely rapid increase of population in the 
 provinces ; but, taking all the circumstances into account, it is doubtful 
 whether even the present number of inhabitants would be maintained 
 without the steady immigration from Europe. It is true that the 
 
The Diseases of America, 11 
 
 marriages are fruitful ; of this we have remarkable instances among our 
 troops. 1 I have been assured that a disproportionately larger number of 
 children die here than in Europe, although, by the almost universal 
 practice of inoculation of small-pox, countless multitudes are saved from 
 a death to which the unconquerable prejudice of our fatherland still 
 continues to offer sacrifice. As, however, no records of births and deaths 
 are published, these statements are not trustworthy. Whether the 
 climate exerts an influence upon the character of Americans, and if so 
 to what extent, I am not prepared to state. On the whole, the people 
 seem to have no decided general characteristics ; such as they have are 
 purely negative ones, determined by the country and nation from which 
 they trace their descent. A promiscuous crowd of almost all nations of 
 Europe, of Jews and negroes, of all creeds and sects, of people who have 
 settled here for such diverse reasons, and often in order to escape legal 
 penalties, here congregates and ingrafts upon the common country of 
 their adoption the sentiments, manners, and habits of life which each 
 individual has brought with him. Such a mixture will require a long 
 fermentation before it will contain the spirit, the feelings, and the im- 
 print of a united people. The present war does not yet justify the 
 Americans in comparing themselves to those nations who have made 
 their mark in history by their noble courage and exalted love of freedom. 
 They cannot be compared with these either for their motives, their 
 opinions, or their conduct. It seems as though all nationalities which 
 have transplanted themselves hither had carefully discarded the one 
 good side of their character in order to promote the equality of stations 
 so dear to every American, because, as they probably knew, the black 
 color admits of but few shades. 2 
 
 1 This is especially true of the Europeans here. The American women are not very pro- 
 lific. They are amazed at the fourteenth pregnancy of the queen, and, when I tell them 
 that I know mothers with eighteen and twenty-four living children, those who accept the 
 story at all cannot help betraying envy in the expression of their countenances. (Schbpff.) 
 
 2 That these disparaging remarks were reciprocated by our countrymen may be seen by 
 citations from the daily journals of that period. The Boston Gazette of November 2, 1778, 
 has a letter from Rhode Island dated October ISth, which states that on " the day of the bat- 
 tle, the Anspach troops robbed every house in their way, and plundered families of beds and 
 every rag of clothing." From Rivington's Gazette of May 17, 1783, I take the following: 
 " The Hessians are a kind, peaceable people, inveterately fond of smoking and pea-coffee; 
 their offenses are chiefly of the sly kind, such as stealing at night." Of their heartlessness 
 
12 The Diseases of America, 
 
 Allow me, before closing, to append a few brief remarks about the 
 diseases common to these regions, irrespective of those arising from 
 the manners and exigencies of the life and occupations. There is quite 
 a number of diseases dependent upon other more universal causes. No 
 summer passes without many of the inhabitants being suddenly stricken 
 down during the hottest days by what appears to be apoplexy ; this is 
 especially common after violent exercise, but occurs not infrequently 
 when the individual has remained quietly in his house. Instances are 
 plenty of laboring men, who have been exposed to the heat of the day, 
 falling dead after an imprudent cold drink ; such a sad event is not of 
 rare occurrence in the streets. The battle near Monmouth, 1 on June 
 28, 1778, was remarkable from one circumstance which has not its 
 parallel in the history of the New World ; without receiving a wound, 
 fifty-nine men fell on our side solely from the extraordinary heat and 
 fatigue of the day ; and many on the side of the rebels succumbed to 
 the same causes, in spite of their men being more accustomed to the 
 climate. A few days later, a battalion of Hessian grenadiers marched 
 on a hot afternoon only a few miles out of the city ; when midway on 
 the route, a young officer and a man from the ranks fell dead. Soon 
 after our arrival in America, Seitz's company of grenadiers lost two 
 men during a forced march in Jersey. 2 A hundred similar instances 
 might be adduced. I have never had an opportunity of witnessing a 
 
 we have many proofs ; one quotation is peculiarly appropriate in this connection. " October 
 24, 1777. This hospital (at Albany ?) is now crowded with officers and soldiers from the 
 field of battle; those belonging to the British and Hessian troops are accommodated in the 
 same hospital with our own men, and receive equal care and attention. The foreigners are 
 under the care and management of their own surgeons. I have been present at some of 
 their capital operations, and remarked that the English surgeons performed with skill and 
 dexterity ; but the Germans, with few exceptions, do no credit to their profession ; some of 
 them are the most uncouth and clumsy operators I ever witnessed, and appear to be destitute 
 of all sympathy and tenderness towards the suffering patient." (A Military Journal during 
 the American Revolutionary War. By James Thacher, M. 1). Boston. 1827. Page 112.) 
 
 1 " This retreat of the British army, of which so little has been said in history, was much 
 more remarkable than that of Moreau, which is regarded in our time as a sort of miracle, 
 and really was so." (Betractungen fiber die neuere Kriegskunst. Vom General Baron von 
 Ochs. Cassel. 1817.) 
 
 a This company belonged to the Anspach regiment, commanded by Colonel Von Eyk. 
 They landed upon Staten Island on June 3, 1777, and went into camp at Coils-Ferry. On 
 June 11th, which was a very hot day, they made this march to Amboy, at the mouth of the 
 Raritan, and remained there till spring. 
 
The Diseases of America. 13 
 
 death from this cause ; but, according to the accounts, some fall suddenly 
 dead, whereas others pass first into a kind of frenzy ; some become black 
 and blue in the face, and the blood gushes from the mouth and nostrils, 
 whereas others are found lying motionless beside the pool or spring 
 where thev had thought to slake their thirst. These instances suffi- 
 ciently indicate the cause of the sudden death. It is remarkable that 
 cases of this description are not of more common occurrence, consider- 
 ing the extreme heat to which the troops, and especially the German, 
 have at times been exposed while on the march and in battle ; enveloped 
 as our men are in heavy woolen garments and tight leggings, and carry- 
 ing the entire weight of a gun, sixty cartridges, knapsack, and rations, 
 thev cannot but suffer doubly from all the discomforts of such days. 
 The English, who are more used to fighting in warm countries, provide 
 their troops in summer with a lighter clothing, adapted to the climate, 
 and leave them the free use of their limbs which is so necessary to sol- 
 diers on the march ; they do not seem to believe that the same garments 
 that keep a man warm in Nova Zembla must also keep him cool in 
 Jamaica. When the heat is uniform, and the troops are resting quietly 
 in healthy camps, they endure it quite easjly. During the warmest 
 days of last August, the army hospitals had the smallest number of 
 patients and of deaths in the whole year, but the moment the weather 
 became changeable various diseases began to prevail. During moist 
 and unstable summer weather, it is chiefly dysentery and kindred dis- 
 eases that abound. Attacks of cholera, with incessant bilious vomiting 
 and purging, have been common among our soldiers during the hottest 
 seasons, but they are generally arrested in one or two days by the ad- 
 ministration of emetics or cathartics — and quite often without them — 
 as soon as the unusual and perhaps injurious quantity of bile, to the for- 
 mation of which warm seasons and countries are so conducive, has been 
 ejected. These attacks have seldom been attended by any marked 
 degree of fever ; during their prevalence we have never had a single 
 obstinate case of dysentery. 1 
 
 i " Not only was the march (in Canada) very fatiguing, but, as the heat of the sun in- 
 creased, many of the German troops under Riedesel's command fell sick, so that by the 
 middle of July (they landed in June) upwards of three hundred of the Brunswickers were 
 lying ill either in the military hospital or in private houses. Most of them suffered from a 
 violent diarrhoea, accompanied by fever, brought on by the sudden changes of temperature 
 
14 The Diseases of America. 
 
 A peculiar kind of eruption, if it may be so called, known by the 
 name of the " prickling heat," is almost universal here in summer. The 
 skin is covered with a quantity of large or small red spots that are occa- 
 sionally attended by a disagreeable itching sensation, from which symp- 
 tom the name is derived. The spots are not raised, but come and go 
 with the increase or decrease of the heat. People who keep in-doors 
 do not have them so often, or to so marked a degree, as those who are 
 exposed to the sun. On my own person I have observed them during 
 the midday hours, most commonly after having been out ; my entire 
 skin would then be red. When the weather begins to moderate this 
 eruption disappears, and the skin desquamates almost imperceptibly. 
 The common people, who are universally disposed to regard every erup- 
 tion as healthy, look upon " prickling heat " in the same way, and there- 
 fore consider its sudden subsidence to be injurious ; it is not so, how- 
 ever, except in so far as this action is attended by the suppression of 
 evaporation. The whole appearance is nothing more than a greater 
 determination of red blood to the vessels of the skin, when they are 
 relaxed by the heat from without. The rays of the sun are often pow- 
 erful enough to raise vesicles on the tender parts of the body when 
 exposed. 1 
 
 The surface of our body is so sensitive to the slightest influences, 
 when the heat is very great, that nothing is commoner than to meet 
 people with catarrhs and colds at such times. The least fall of the ther- 
 mometer, after a long spell of hot weather, is also extremely trying. 
 At midday on August 19th we had a temperature of 86° ; in the even- 
 ing it was 79°; and the next morning 64°. It was strange to me not to 
 find, on waking, the least trace of perspiration ; my whole skin was as 
 dry as parchment, and felt over my whole body just as leather garments 
 do which have been wet and rapidly dried ; the " prickling heat " had 
 vanished, and many of the vesicles which the sun had raised on the 
 
 of the climate — warm days and cold nights — to which they were wholly unaccustomed." 
 (Letters and Journal of Mrs. General Riedesel. Berlin. 1800. Translated by W. L. Stone, 
 Albany, 1867.) 
 
 1 "By weaning my daughter the beginning of May, I brought upon myself an eruption, 
 to which most people in this warm climate are subject. Little pimples came out over the 
 whole limb, which itches so that one has no peace whatever. They come with the hot and 
 disappear with the cold weather; otherwise the person is perfectly well." (Riedesel, 
 page 180.) 
 
TJie Diseases of America. 15 
 
 exposed parts of my body bad dried and already begun to desquamate. 
 I felt, however, brighter and more lively tban before. We are accus- 
 tomed eitber to wake in a profuse perspiration or to fall into this state 
 on the slightest exertion. On the morning referred to above, I noticed 
 that my pulse was stronger and fuller than on the preceding day, and that 
 the desire to micturate roused me from sleep, which had not happened 
 for a long time before. About midday, when the heat again increased, 
 I experienced an unpleasant prickling over my whole body. My atten- 
 tion was particularly drawn to this remarkable change because, two 
 days later, the temperature rose higher than ever, and similar fluctua- 
 tions afterwards brought many patients into the hospital. 
 
 Among the autumnal affections, remittent and intermittent fever take 
 the precedence ; they are often accompanied by bilious attacks, and 
 assume the perfect type of the West Indian fevers. The autumns of 
 1779 and 1780 were more favorable to their development than the pre- 
 ceding one. There was an unusual number of fever patients among 
 the soldiers as well as among civilians. The greater sickliness of the 
 past two years, and especially since the army has been here, is very 
 striking ; according to the unanimous statements of the inhabitants and 
 physicians of this place, these years are quite exceptional when compared 
 with the years of peace, and no explanation can be given for this differ- 
 ence. 1 Perhaps, however, an opinion about this question might be haz- 
 
 1 June, 1775. " Autumnal fevers prevailed much in the army (at Cambridge), and dys- 
 entery was very severe and very fatal." (Thacher, 1. c.) 
 
 "The situation (New York) is said to be perfectly healthy, but fresh water is so very 
 scarce that the purchase of this essential article is attended with a considerable expense." 
 
 New York, August 9, 1776. "The air of the whole city seems infected. In almost 
 every street there is a horrid smell." (Solomon Drowne, M. D., in New York during the 
 Revolution.) 
 
 In addition to the causes of insalubrity suggested by the last two quotations, scarcity of 
 food was also experienced. With respect to one article of diet this was effected in a strange 
 way, if we are to credit the facts stated in the two following paragraphs, taken from inde- 
 pendent chroniclers. 
 
 " Lobsters of a prodigious size were, till of late, caught in vast numbers (in North and 
 East rivers), but it is a fact, surprising as it may appear, that since the late incessant can- 
 nonading they have entirely forsaken the coast, not one having been taken or seen since the 
 commencement of the hostilities." (Letters from America during 1769-1777, inclusive. 
 London. 1792.) 
 
 " In Nova Scotia it was remarked upon as a curious occurrence that while before the Revo- 
 lution lobsters or large crawfish had never been seen in this vicinity, yet no sooner had that 
 
16 The Diseases of America. 
 
 arded in view of the scientific experiments on the importance of the 
 vegetable kingdom in purifying the air that have quite recently been 
 published by Dr. Ingenhouss. There is a belief, founded upon univer- 
 sal experience, that the varieties of fever of which we are speaking are 
 chiefly generated by emanations from foul, marshy, and stagnant waters ; 
 at all events, they abound chiefly in districts of this description. The 
 level country of America is everywhere covered with vast swamps and 
 morasses ; myriads of plants, shrubs, and trees here find a most sul- 
 phurous nutriment in the vegetable earth that has been accumulating 
 undisturbed for so many centuries ; such places are consequently almost 
 impenetrable ; the eye cannot even see the ground, into which the foot 
 sinks at every step. The first settlers were everywhere obliged to clear 
 the land of wood to get a field for dwellings and tillage, but throughout 
 America the newly-settled regions were generally found to be extremely 
 insalubrious until, after the lapse of years, the ground was dried by 
 exposure to the sun and by other means, so that the neighboring dwell- 
 ings were rendered more healthy. 
 
 This chano-e is of common occurrence when new land is cleared and 
 rendered arable in the interior of the country. In the regions along 
 the coast that are termed settled and inhabited there are, nevertheless, 
 considerable stretches of such swampy forest and wilderness, which, to 
 all appearances, are still in their pristine condition ; the emanations from 
 these are, however, in part retained and purified by the thick covering 
 of shrubs, as shown by Ingenhouss's experiments. The army required 
 an immense amount of wflod during a four years' stay in one small dis- 
 trict of this description. Instead of wood being felled in spots here and 
 there, and a great stretch of land being drawn upon to meet the de- 
 mands of the chief city — the requirements of which were at that time 
 smaller than now — as had been the custom of those who owned the 
 fields and woodlands, great forests have of late been successively exter- 
 minated and the formerly overgrown swamps and morasses been laid bare. 
 Here is a prolific source of diseases, which, having nothing to limit 
 them or stay their ravages, spread to all the neighboring regions, and 
 may generate a host of previously but little known affections. The sub- 
 struggle commenced than numbers of them left the continent of North America and came 
 to New Scotland. This gave rise to a standing joke among the people of this place 
 that the lobsters were good royalists and accordingly wore the English (red) uniforms." 
 (Riedesel.) 
 
Tlie Diseases of America. 17 
 
 sequent experiments of the author quoted show, in addition, the reason 
 why this impurity of the air is more marked in autumn and in autumnal 
 weather than in summer or in summer weather, since in the latter the 
 days are longer and the action of the sun more powerful, the atmosphere 
 clearer, and the vegetable kingdom in full activity. 
 
 It is wonderful that during this whole war [1775-1783] no conta- 
 gious fevers have spread among the troops. Different varieties of them 
 have of course been seen in the hospitals ; where the latter have been 
 crowded, continued fevers have often absorbed all the poison of the 
 contagious ones and been converted into such, yet they have never 
 spread outside the hospitals, but have been soon arrested by the removal 
 of a part of the patients. With respect to the dysentery I cannot recall 
 that it has ever been especially contagious. The young girls and chil- 
 dren of this country, whose chief delicacies are unripe and sour apples, 
 especially when baked and served with milk, make evident the insig- 
 nificant role played by unripe fruit in the production of these diseases. 
 Our men suffered principally from dysentery during the first summer 
 and autumn after our arrival ; this was, however, to be ascribed more 
 to general causes than to contagion. 
 
 The winter is also accompanied by the host of inflammatory affections, 
 and especially those of the chest, which are its attendants everywhere. 
 Quite recently the physicians had scarcely anything to do throughout 
 the whole winter. Fur garments and stoves are but little used by the 
 inhabitants of the country, with the exception of the Germans ; one source 
 of hibernal diseases is consequently cut off. The troops, owing to their 
 service and to the absence of the comforts of civilization, are more 
 exposed to the inclemencies of the winter and feel its severities more 
 keenly. Damp quarters and the scarcity of vegetables toward the end 
 of winter give rise, in addition, to isolated cases of scurvy 1 in the 
 army ; Seyboth's regiment in 1779 suffered more from scurvy in Rliod- 
 Eyland than any other in the army lias ever done. Two forms of dis- 
 ease, which are common in England and other parts of Europe, but not 
 
 1 "During our sojourn in this place (Long Island) I often saw people buried up to their 
 necks in the earth ; for in this manner they cure the scurvy." (Riedesel.) 
 
 Two other of the popular medical superstitions of the day are recorded by this charming 
 writer : " It is said that the smoke made by burning cedar is very injurious to the nerves ; 
 so much so as to cause women with child to bring forth prematurely." ( Riedesel, page 1 1*5.) 
 
 " Maple sugar has only one fault, that it is too brown ; otherwise it is right good, especially 
 for diseases of the breast." (Riedesel, page 193.) 
 
18 The Diseases of America. 
 
 in our fatherland, so far as I can remember, also occur here : croup 
 (angina membranosa), which consists of a membranous skin lining the 
 air passages and recognized chiefly by a high cooing tone during in- 
 spiration ; and the mumps, which is a swelling of the glands in the neck 
 and of the testicles. Both are principally confined to children, and the 
 latter seems almost to belong to the contagious diseases ; at any rate, a 
 whole school of boys has often been attacked by it. 
 
 I have made a point of opening the bodies of those who have died in 
 our hospital, when time, place, and circumstances have allowed. This 
 calls to my mind one point which seems to me quite remarkable. In at 
 least two thirds of the autopsies we have found large or small clots in 
 the cavities of the heart and the large vessels ; they are white and of a 
 thick, viscid consistency, like the fibrinous coat on the blood in inflamma- 
 tions, or like the inorganic gelatinous membranes which I have often seen 
 covering the surface of the lungs and other internal organs after inflam- 
 mations. In all these cases there was good reason to think that their 
 formation was of remote date, though in many instances there had been 
 no symptoms pointing to such an affection. I cannot recall having 
 seen or heard of so frequent an occurrence of clots in the various an- 
 atomical schools which I have attended. If it is true that they are 
 less often noticed elsewhere, I can discover no more common cause to 
 explain this fact than the greater consumption of spirituous liquors to 
 which our men are here addicted. A quart of rum is given to a man 
 in seven days, but the majority take twice as much in that time, 1 and 
 the injurious effects of intemperance are often manifested by intestinal 
 derangements, slow fever, general loss of strength, with which train of 
 symptoms many depart from this world. Rum and water, under the 
 name of " grog," is the universal drink in America ; it is deemed the 
 healthiest and best of beverages, and really is of use in the warm seasons 
 of the year, when the strength of the whole body and especially of the 
 
 1 A letter of August 2, 1775, says : " It is not to be wondered that the fatigue of duty, bad 
 nccommodation, and the use of too much spirits should produce fevers in the camp. The 
 soldiers cannot be kept from rum ; sixpence will buy a quart of West India rum, and a four- 
 I ence is the price of a quart of this country rum." (History of the Siege of Boston, by 
 Richard Frothingbam, Jr.) 
 
 " Camp near Ticonderoga, July 5, 1777. In consideration of the beat of the weather and 
 the alacrity with which the men have worked, a refreshment of rum will be given to the 
 whole army, at the rate of 0| a man." (Burgoyne's Orderly Book. Albany. 1860.) 
 
The Diseases of America. 19 
 
 digestive organs is greatly impaired. While the army is on the march, 
 the men are constantly seen mixing their rations of rum with the drink- 
 ing water, whereby not only does the latter lose a part of its chilliness, 
 but a more invigorating effect is produced, and many troubles averted 
 which might come from the inordinate use of the former. But it hap- 
 pens here as everywhere else that the lovers of rum are wont to extol 
 its merits not in hot weather alone, but also in cold, in moist, in foggy, 
 and so on throughout the year. 
 
 The rations 1 that are given to the troops in the British service in 
 North America are, as is the pay, better than in any other service. 
 One man receives in seven days, or seven men receive in one day, eight 
 pounds of beef, four pounds of salt pork or six pounds of boiled beef, 
 three pints of peas, half a pint of rice, six ounces of butter, nine and 
 one half gills of rum (eight gills make a quart), and during the summer 
 months one quart of thin beer, brewed from the cones of a species of 
 pine, and called spruce-beer. 2 This seems to be one of the best possi- 
 ble rations for troops. At any rate, as I have already said, nothing is 
 heard among the troops here of the common contagious diseases, about 
 which physicians with other armies, especially during the last war in 
 Europe, have talked so much. 3 Despite all that has been said about 
 the injurious effect of pork, — which may have been the reason of its 
 having been forbidden by the Mosaic law, — in this army, notwithstand- 
 ing the constant consumption of salt pork, no ill effects have been ob- 
 
 1 In September, 1776, the ration in the American army was " one pound of beef or pork, 
 one pound of bread or flour a day, a small quantity of vegetables when to be had, one gill 
 of rum or whisky a day ; a small quantity of vinegar, salt, soap, and candles a week." 
 (Thacher.) 
 
 - " After May, the troops received so-called English small or table beer, one quart a day 
 to each man. ' It was,' writes a German soldier, ( made from wood, herbs, and molasses, 
 i. e., boiled syrup, tastes quite sweet, is healthy, good to drink, and resembles our wood- 
 tea or Brust trank/ The Germans therefore called it Brust-bier, because it tasted like 
 Brust-thee." (Eelking, Die Deutschen Hiilfstruppen, page 169.) 
 
 3 "The hospitals (in America) were most excellent, so that in spite of the severity of the 
 climate, no such ravaging plagues prevailed as we have seen in the subsequent wars." (Von 
 Ochs.) 
 
 Von Ochs was adjutant of the Hessian Colonel von Wiirtemberg, who commanded the 
 British advance posts at Kingsbridge. This colonel received news from a French lady that 
 the French under Rochambeau, together with the American army, really intended to capt- 
 ure Cornwallis, and not to make the descent upon Staten Island. General Clinton, how- 
 ever, gave no credence to the story. Vide Von Ochs, 1. c, page 57. 
 
20 The Diseases of America. 
 
 served, and moreover scarcely anything is known of the common skin 
 diseases which used to be laid to its account ; when affections of the 
 skin have occurred, they have invariably been produced and kept up by 
 a neglect of external cleanliness. The troops prefer salt pork to boiled 
 beef, or even fresh meat, and soon tire of the latter especially. Fevers 
 with eruptions are rare, at least in the army. In nearly four years I 
 have had but two patients with eruptions like the purples. Small-pox 
 loses much of its attendant horror and danger from the general inocula- 
 tions. 1 As there are always some cases of small-pox in New York, 
 partly in the natural and partly in the modified form, it has gradually 
 become the custom to inoculate all the prisoners and renegades who 
 come here and have not had the disease, and that, too, without re- 
 spect to age or season. There are very few instances, I might almost 
 say none, of any ill effect from inoculation. I have heard trustworthy 
 
 1 Inoculation with small-pox matter was introduced into Boston, at the instance of Cot- 
 ton Mather, by Zabdiel Boylston in 1720, "who began to inoculate at the risk, not only of 
 his practice, but even of his life. The friends and enemies of the practice filled the newspapers 
 of the day with arguments for and against it. The whole of the influence which the learn- 
 ing and piety of the New England clergy has always given them was exerted ; and the 
 whole of it was necessary to induce his hearers to consent to inoculation. The practice by 
 degrees extended from New England to New York and Philadelphia, and finally to Charles- 
 ton, where it was partially adopted in 1738, and afterwards became general in 1760." (A 
 Review of the Improvements, Progress, and State of Medicine in the XVIIIth Century. Da- 
 vid Ramsay, M. D. Charleston. 1800.) Small-pox was rife in Boston during the occupancy 
 of the British troops (1776). On July 3d, orders were given for a general inoculation of the 
 inhabitants and troops. General Washington was inoculated in New York on June 27, 
 1776. 
 
 (Solomon Drowne, M. D., of Rhode Island, to Miss Sally Drowne.) 
 
 " Gen. Hosp., N. Y., July 13, 1776. 
 
 " I am glad our Assembly have allowed of Inoculation, and hope you and Brother Bill 
 will not defer receiving that disease (y e S. Pox) which taken by chance have proved the 
 Bain of tens of Thousands ; when it comes so near you, cloathed in gentleness, — all its Ter- 
 ribleness cast aside." (New York during the American Revolution.) 
 
 The New York Packet for June 27, 1 776, has the following item : " Williamsburg, Virginia, 
 June 15. We learn from Gloucester that Lord Dunmore has erected hospitals on Guyon's 
 Tsland ; and that his friend Andrew Sprawle is dead, and that they are inoculating blacks 
 lor the small-pox. His Lordship, before the departure of the fleet from Norfolk Harbor, 
 had two of these wretches inoculated and sent ashore, in order to spread the infection, but it 
 was happily prevented." 
 
 In December, 1779, Mrs. General Riedesel took her children to the country-seat of General 
 Clinton, near New York, for the purpose of having them inoculated. "Carolina lost her 
 whooping-cough, but immediately after it came back and lasted a whole year." (Riedesel.) 
 
The Diseases of America. "21 
 
 people assert that they have not lost one oat of three thousand or 
 four thousand individuals whom they have inoculated. I was an eye- 
 witness of the following event : More than three hundred prisoners 
 who took the small-pox last winter were confined in a sugar-house with- 
 out other beds than woolen blankets upon the hard floor, without 
 other diet than the above-mentioned rations, without treatment other 
 than a few cathartics ; yet all recovered in the most favorable man- 
 ner. If there were no other advantages attending inoculation, the 
 relief from the habitual dread of catching the disease would' be reason 
 enough for continuing its practice. 
 
 There are very few people in Rhod-E viand who have had the small- 
 pox. In deference to the sentiments of the greater part of the old in- 
 habitants, who dread inoculation quite as much as infection, and in part 
 owing to the obstinacy of several influential families, the greatest efforts 
 are constantly made to avert any possibility of contagion. To prevent 
 the dissemination of the poison, it has for many years been the custom 
 to send those really affected, or supposed to be affected, with small-pox, 
 to a small island that lies near Rhod-Eyland. In order to propitiate 
 the inhabitants, inoculation was repeatedly forbidden while the royal 
 troops were there ; since we have left, every wagon that arrives from 
 this city is anxiously searched. On the other hand, the inhabitants 
 scarcely dare to leave the island, but if they must come here, they are 
 forced to submit to inoculation, in order to escape infection. The 
 treatment of the patients on the little island, which is consequently 
 called Bladder-Eyland, is not the most careful. The island is only 
 separated from the main land by a channel about fifty paces wide. No 
 one ventures to cross as long as there are patients there. The means 
 of subsistence are laid upon the shore, where they are sought by the 
 man who is appointed to look after the sick. A physician rarely, if 
 ever, crosses to the island, as he would not be allowed to visit any of 
 his other patients subsequently, for fear lest he should transmit the con- 
 tagion. When he must cross in spite of the risk, he visits the island 
 in a complete suit of oil-silk, which is quite enough to excite alarm in 
 the young or weak patients. As a rule, however, he inquires after the 
 sufferers from this side of the channel, and prescribes at that distance. 1 
 
 1 Dr. Jenner vaccinated his first patient in 1796. This practice was introduced into 
 America in the same year by Dr. James Jackson and Dr. Waterhouse. 
 
22 The Diseases of America. 
 
 Most new-comers to this country have to pay tribute to the climate 
 by some indisposition or other, especially if they land during the hot 
 season of the year. Our troops arrived here in July. From that time 
 till October most of our men were, one after another, in the hospitals of 
 New York, or in the regimental hospitals on Staaten-Eyland or at Har- 
 lem ; there were very few who escaped without an attack of dysentery 
 or fever. During the first twelve months we lost many men, but dur- 
 ing the next twelve months barely thirty, and now, as a rule, hardly 
 more than we lose in our fatherland. A sound European constitution 
 soon accustoms itself to all the inclemencies of the climate, so that most 
 of the patients in the hospitals are usually recruits. One fact is worthy 
 of mention in this connection, which perhaps testifies as forcibly as any- 
 thing can to the need of acclimatization, and is moreover universally 
 admitted to be true. In a new-comer, almost every bite of the mos- 
 quito (Culex jnpiens, L.) produces a boil during the first year after his 
 arrival, but fails to have this effect in the subsequent years. 1 
 
 The contrast between military and civil practice is very great. In 
 the former the command " You must take this or that ; you must be 
 healthy " is often supreme. Death, to be sure, often refuses obedience, 
 but for a long time he has treated us with indulgence. Just as hypo- 
 chondria blunts our senses in time of peace (in war its mark is worth 
 nothing), so does a tumult sometimes render us indisposed to serious 
 study ; no one, however, would wish to, or could, remain indifferent to 
 fortunate or unfortunate, to political or warlike events in which his 
 interests were at all involved. 
 
 P. S. January 20, 1781. The departure of several returning in- 
 valids has been delayed until now, and I have had no opportunity of 
 forwarding the letter sooner. This winter is precisely the reverse of 
 
 1 It is strange that the protection afforded by inoculation of various animal poisons, 
 especially as illustrated by the effect of mosquito bites upon recent immigrants to this country, 
 should have escaped comment for nearly a century, until attention was called to it by Dr. J. 
 C. White in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for November 9, 1871. 
 
 When in London during the spring of 1873, I heard that one of the great hotels was 
 infested by mosquitoes, and that the effect of the bites was so dreadful as to drive most of the 
 English guests from the house. As biting mosquitoes had never before been seen in England, 
 and had not appeared in any other quarter of the city, it was presumed that the insects were 
 introduced by some American in his luggage. It would be interesting to have a report of 
 this invasion from some medical man in London. 
 
The Diseases of America, 23 
 
 the last : it almost seems to me as though Heaven wished to give us 
 during our stay a sample of all the marvelous peculiarities of the cli- 
 mate, and then perhaps to send us home in peace. The summer of 
 1779 was unusually moist and unhealthy ; it was followed by an ex- 
 ceptionally cold winter, and this succeeded by a burning hot summer. 
 The present winter has been so mild that I have not seen the thermom- 
 eter below the freezing point of Fahrenheit more than three times ; it 
 has commonly, stood between 40° and 60°. We have had but few 
 fires, and have often dined with open windows and doors. The grass 
 has remained quite green, and in many spots has even been growing. 
 Instead of snow, of which we had a sample as early as November 1st, 
 we subsequently had rain. We had a Carolina winter. Last night 
 with a northeast wind we had a fall of snow, but it will not lie long. 
 The coining summer will probably be unusually cold in order to com- 
 plete the list of paradoxes. 
 
 New York, February 18, 1781. 
 
 Our winter has remained very mild, though we have had several 
 severe storms this month, and some frosty days. The thermometer has 
 not however as yet been more than six or eight degrees below the freez- 
 ing point. It may have stood lower during some of the nights. The 
 troops have been very healthy. There are not more than two hundred 
 and fifty patients in the principal hospitals, 1 and to judge from the con- 
 dition of our men, scarcely one in twenty-four is sick ; these affections 
 are trifling, or attack those with feeble and decrepit bodies, as might 
 occur anywhere. 
 
 1 One of the principal hospitals was the building occupied by King's College, which after 
 the war was revived as Columbia College. 
 
 The New York Hospital was organized in 1769, but the foundation was not laid until 
 July 27, 1773; the building was nearly consumed by fire on February 28, 1775. The loss 
 was estimated at £7000, to meet which the legislature granted £4000, but the completion of 
 the edifice was prevented by the war, during which the house was occupied by the English 
 and Hessian soldiers as barracks, and occasionally as a hospital. Vide Historical Sketch 
 of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York, 
 New York, 1813 ; also An Account of the New York Hospital. 
 
II. 
 
 THE CLIMATE AND WEATHER OF AMERICA. 
 
 New York, December 20, 1780. 
 
 I regret not having seen the southern colonies, yet I am satisfied 
 that in this part of the country and in the middle colonies there is field 
 enough for new observations. The few Europeans who have traveled 
 through these regions have, I hope, not been so impolite as to leave 
 nothing for their successors, — and against discoveries on the part of 
 the native-born Americans we are assured for many years to come. 
 Making money and procuring luxuries are still their sole aims, and the 
 sciences are only cultivated with reference to these dominant ideas. 
 
 The first and most striking comment of all travelers, not only in the 
 northern but also in the southern half of America, may be summed up 
 in this statement : that all the experience as to climate and weather 
 acquired on the three old continents cannot be in the least applied to the 
 new one. Cold has here the upper hand. As I, however, have only 
 had a chance to see a very insignificant portion of the whole country, — 
 namely, that along the coast from Delaware Bay to Rhod-Eylaiid and a 
 small part of the adjoining provinces of Pennsylvania, East and West 
 Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Rhod-Ey!and, I must confine my 
 remarks chiefly to this section. 
 
 When we were first approaching the coast of New York, 1 I foolishly 
 flattered myself that I should find a mild, fertile, and agreeable climate, 
 such as those countries in Europe enjoy which lie in the same latitude. 
 I was however soon convinced that the difference between the two 
 was very considerable. A part of the States of the Church, the north- 
 ern part of Naples, the southern provinces of France and Spain, and 
 
 1 In Januarv, 1779. 
 
The Climate and Weather of North America. 25 
 
 the equally delightful countries in the East, have the same solar eleva- 
 tion as the above-mentioned provinces in America. But all the agree- 
 able features, all the advantages which have earned for Italy the name 
 of the Garden of Europe, all the delicate wines, the excellent cereals, 
 the multitude of delicious fruits which abound under the same paral- 
 lel in Europe, and even much farther to the north, are here want- 
 ing. Instead of the moderate summers and mild winters of Naples, we 
 have here heat and cold of extraordinary severity in both seasons, and 
 no products which can be compared with those of that region. The 
 two Carolinas and Floridas, although the most southerly colonies and 
 exposed to the hottest summers, experience nevertheless for a longer 
 or shorter period every year, all the effects of a winter often severe. 
 These comparisons are still more striking when applied to the northern 
 regions of America. In the latitude of 48°, 49°, and 50°, we enjoy in 
 our fatherland a mild, temperate climate, sufficiently warm to produce 
 good wines, cereals, and delicious fruits. A land of almost eternal ice 
 and snow occupies the same parallels in North America. New Scot- 
 land, 1 Newfoundland, Canada, and New Britain 2 are as much unlike 
 the countries lying parallel to them in Europe as winter is to summer. 
 These provinces, as well as Labrador and the country about Hudson's 
 Bay, are enveloped in ice and snow for rather more than half the year, 
 so that Europeans living in the same latitude have not yet ventured to 
 settle there. The same cereals and fruits which are cultivated in Eu- 
 rope far above the fiftieth degree, here cease to grow at about the fortieth 
 degree. Wheat, for instance, hardly ripens any farther north. Alba- 
 nia and New England produce but little, and that of inferior quality. 
 The author of the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains 
 estimates the difference of warmth between the Old and New T World at 
 twelve degrees. 
 
 New York and Philadelphia languish in the- summer months, often 
 for many successive days, under a heat which, according to the sensa- 
 tions and testimony of travelers, as well as the height of the thermom- 
 eter, is as great as in the West Indies and the most southerly portions 
 of the terra firma ; it does not, however, persist so uninterruptedly and 
 for so many months as there. Almost every summer the Fahrenheit 
 
 1 Nova Scotia. 2 New England. 
 
26 The Climate and Weather of North America. 
 
 thermometer has been observed repeatedly to stand at 95°, 96°, and 97°. 
 At the end of June and in July, 1778, while the British army was re- 
 treating from Philadelphia to Jersey, it remained for eight successive 
 days between 91° and 96°, and on the 28th of June, the day on which 
 the battle near Monmouth Court House took place, the thermometer 
 was at 96°. In Rhod-Eyland, which, owing to its exposed position on 
 the sea, has a temperate summer, I have frequently seen the mercury 
 in June, July, and August, between 84° and 90° ; in this last summer 
 we had an unusually persistent drought and heat in July and Au- 
 gust. The height of the Fahrenheit thermometer at midday in the shade 
 was 84°, 88°, 90°, 92°, and 96°, on successive days. Uncovered and ex- 
 posed to the sun it rose to 106°, 110°, 115°, etc. In the sun, but covered 
 with a thin, black silk ribbon to prevent refraction of the sun's rays, the 
 mercury in my thermometer filled the whole length of the glass, but 
 this only extended to 123°. On the other hand we have seen Dr. 
 Nooth's thermometers, which are prepared with great exactitude and 
 are marked to above the boiling point of water, stand between 128° and 
 135°, and once, on the 24th of August, at 146°, when covered as above 
 and exposed to the sun, or laid upon a stone which was warmed by the 
 solar rays. In the night mine has stood at 79°, 82°, 88°, and 90°, dur- 
 ing the hottest weather. 
 
 More unexpected, however, is the extreme cold of the winter when 
 taken in connection with the latitude of the position and the heat of the 
 summer. To judge from the variations of the weather, one would think 
 that this stretch of territory was transported every year from under the 
 line up to the north pole. The credulous Americans have long flat- 
 tered themselves that, by the great progress of cultivation and by the 
 destruction of the forests of the country, their climate has for some 
 years been rendered much milder, and the severity of their winters 
 been moderated. The past winter, however, has disappointed these 
 premature anticipations. Few of the inhabitants can remember a simi- 
 lar one in respect to the severity or persistence of the cold and frost, and 
 to the amount of the snow-fall. Even as early as the end of November 
 and first weeks of December a steady frost set in ; snow fell frequently 
 and remained everywhere upon the ground ; in ordinary winters this is 
 not wont to occur until four to six weeks later. Back in the country 
 
The Climate and Weather of North America. 27 
 
 such an amount fell in various snow-storms that sleighs were driven 
 over all the fences. In January the severest cold was experienced ; the 
 North and East rivers froze so thick that loaded sleds were driven over 
 both. All excursions towards Powles Hook, expeditions, all kinds of pro- 
 visions and even t\velve-p<5uud cannon were carried to and fro upon the 
 ice for nearly four weeks. Sleighs passed from here to Staaten-E viand 
 and Long-Eyland, and from one to the other of these islands. Between 
 East Bay and Westchester people went for twenty miles upon the ice. 
 In Philadelphia the usual oxen feast was held upon the Delaware, the 
 river being frozen down to the bay. The position of the southern prov- 
 inces protected them this time as little as ever from the inclemency of 
 the winter. The James and York rivers, in latitude 37°, were frozen 
 hard, and Chesapeake Bay was full of ice.. The streams in Georgia 
 and Carolina, in latitudes 32° and 33°, were covered with ice an inch 
 thick. Instances of the extraordinary effects of cold in former years 
 throughout the southern provinces are constantly recalled. " On Feb- 
 ruary 7, 1747, it froze so hard in Charleston that two bottles, which 
 someone had taken into bed, were found in the morning burst, and the 
 water changed into a lump of ice. In one kitchen where a fire was 
 kept up, the water, nevertheless, in an earthen vessel, which contained 
 a live eel, froze to the bottom. On January 3, 176o, Mr. Bertram ex- 
 perienced such extraordinary cold in St. Augustine in latitude 30°, 
 that in one night the ground along St. John's River was frozen an 
 inch thick and all the lemon and banana trees about St. Augustine suc- 
 cumbed to the cold." 2 The famous winter of 1740, and perhaps a few 
 others may, judging from the accounts and sensations of the inhabitants, 
 be compared with this one for cold. According to observations which 
 were taken before the war by gentlemen at the New York college, the 
 mercury had often been seen under 6° below zero, 38° beneath the 
 freezing point; in the last one this was a common occurrence. My 
 thermometer only extends to zero, so that I have not been able to take 
 any observations about the extreme fall of the mercury, though I have 
 several times seen the tube quite empty. I doubt if so striking a contrast 
 between heat and cold has been experienced in any other part of the 
 inhabited globe as in this place whose climate has been so extolled by 
 1 Kobertson's History of America, vol. ii., page 331. 
 
28 The Climate and Weather of North America. 
 
 Franklin. From 13° below zero to a warmth of 96° in the shade, the 
 difference is 109°, and to the greatest heat of the sun, 136°, amounts to 
 159° ; the climate of England, on the other hand, though in a northerly 
 situation, is so tempered that the variation from the greatest heat to the 
 greatest cold does not exceed 65° in the shade. 1 
 
 It is not enough that the extremes of heat and cold are so far apart ; 
 it is not enough that in the uninterrupted cycle of ages, the effect of one 
 or other is reduced to nought, and that the laud, which is exposed to 
 all the discomforts of the torrid and frigid zones, yet does not enjoy the 
 advantages of either. Rapid variations from heat to cold constantly take 
 place every four or five days in these regions. In the north the weather 
 appears to be somewhat more stable ; yet very warm days often occur 
 in the months of February and March, and alternate with frost and 
 snow. It freezes in the middle of April, and often even in May. In 
 the winter of 1779 people were brought to the hospital in Philadelphia 
 with frozen toes, although on that day the thermometer was standing at 
 70°, and they were Only suffering from the frost of the preceding night. 
 We have sat with doors and windows open in February, without a fire, 
 and yet, on the other hand, we have often been glad to have a fire in 
 the middle of summer. On December 25, 1778, I encountered one of 
 the most terrible northerly storms, on board a ship in the Sound. The 
 mercury stood between 4° and 20° for a number of days, and immedi- 
 ately afterwards, the transition from the old to the new year brought us 
 a most delightful spring weather of 45°-68°. In the month of July, 1779, 
 there followed upon great warmth so frequent rains with easterly and 
 northeasterly gales, and such cool days, that delicate individuals had to 
 have fires. On the 20th of last August, after a long series of hot days, 
 we saw the thermometer suddenly fall to 63° and rise on the 24th to 
 92°. It is incredible what disagreeable physical sensations are produced 
 by these sudden contrasts, not to mention the prevalent diseases. When 
 the Russian plunges from his vapor bath immediately into th'e snow, or 
 into the stream that is covered with ice, I hardly think he suffers half 
 as much as we do from the incessant changes of the weather. On the 
 last day of October we had quite a warm afternoon ; between five and 
 
 1 The greatest cold ever experienced in England was 15°. The greatest heat, in August, 
 1779, was 70°. (Schoepff.) 
 
The Climate and Weather of North America. 29 
 
 six in the evening there was thunder and lightning in the distance, and 
 
 O DO* 
 
 nothing was more unexpected than to find, on the next morning, Novem- 
 ber 1st, the whole ground covered with snow to the depth of an inch, and 
 vet at eight o'clock in the morning the mercury had already risen to 80°. 
 If America should ever have a Thomson (thus far she has not pro- 
 duced even a tolerable poet), I cannot imagine which season of the 
 year he would find it worth his while to celebrate. 
 
 The only moderately agreeable months are September and October. 
 The charm of spring is unknown and unfelt. A steady April weather 
 is experienced through the months of March, April, and May — alternate 
 summer and winter. Then, of a sudden, a moderate heat supervenes, in 
 the intervals of which eastern and cool northern winds remind us of the 
 scarcely defunct winter. The vegetable kingdom comes to life several 
 weeks later than in England and no earlier than in Germany. . . . North- 
 westerly winds are the most common in this part of the world ; they 
 prevail during all seasons of the year and are often not spent till they 
 have crossed the Atlantic. Upon them Columbus based his belief in 
 the existence of a then unknown western continent. Although they 
 often assail us in the rudest manner, and are so chilly, even in the hot- 
 test summer weather, we must yet credit them with the greatest of 
 benefits, since they expedite the voyage to Europeans who are hasten- 
 ing home to their mild, civilized, and in every respect excellent father- 
 land. It almost seems as though the westerly gales, fogs, and mighty 
 seas had been cast in the way of Europeans by a beneficent Prov- 
 idence as so many warnings to keep off. When they have been over- 
 come, nothing is found but the gloomy shadow to the bright picture of 
 home. 
 
 It has been calculated that land-winds prevail in North America dur- 
 ing three fourths of the year ; these expedite the return of ships to 
 Europe, so that they make the trip in half the time required for the out- 
 ward voyage. To shorten the passage from Europe it is necessary to 
 steer far to the south, so as to reach the trade-winds. Single ships and 
 merchantmen therefore often diverge as far as the twenty-sixth degree of 
 southern latitude. Transports are not able to follow this course for fear 
 of exposing the troops to the great heat, particularly when the sun is in 
 the northern hemisphere. 
 
30 The Climate and Weather of North America. 
 
 It has been observed that the severest storms commonly approach on 
 the side toward which the wind is blowing [to leeward] ; a north- 
 west storm, for instance, breaks out a day earlier in Virginia than in 
 Boston. The cause of this is apparent, for if the atmosphere in the 
 south becomes rarefied for any reason, the denser air will at once move 
 from the adjacent regions in that direction ; an influx from the north is 
 thus gradually set up. 
 
 Besides these winds, there exist along the coast of North America 
 during the hot days, the so-called sea-breezes. They do not penetrate 
 for any distance inland ; Philadelphia, which lies far from the sea, is 
 never reached by them, so that the heat is heavy and oppressive ; Bos- 
 ton, at the head of a deep bay, feels them but little. New York is, in 
 a manner, sheltered from them by the heights of Long and Staaten Ey- 
 lands, yet they seldom fail to reach the city with the flood-tide. Their 
 effect is most marked in Rhod-Eyland, where, owing to its immediate 
 propinquity to the sea, the excessive midday heat is greatly moderated. 
 For this and other reasons this island is always regarded as an agreea- 
 ble and healthy summer resort ; people of means frequently come there 
 from the West Indies and the southern provinces to pass the summer. 
 The land-breezes, — which in the West Indian Eylands and in most 
 warm countries alternate with the sea-breezes and render the nights 
 cool by blowing from the land towards the sea, — are not much felt 
 here, at least, not invariably ; they occasionally spring up toward mid- 
 night or later, and die down toward sunrise. In summer there is apt 
 to be a calm in the morning and evening ; this and the sea-breezes 
 through the day have often detained ships for many days in the harbor 
 of New York. Another disagreeable feature of this coast is the thick, 
 heavy fogs which collect in the summer, produce an unpleasant, sultry 
 weather, and are often so thick as to wet one's clothes The na- 
 tives consider them to be harmless, which is true, in so far as they contain 
 no injurious exhalations from stagnant water or marshes, but are simply 
 sea-water disseminated in the air 
 
 It is a pet theory of the Americans that the excessive cold of their 
 country is imparted to the wind chiefly by the snow which lies so long 
 in their boundless forests. They base this belief upon a fallacious ex- 
 perience. Thus I have heard several old inhabitants assert that the 
 
The Climate and Weather of North America. 31 
 
 cold has not been nearly so severe in recent winters as it was twenty 
 or thirty years ago ; in the interval of time very many forests have been 
 leveled. This opinion is based only upon physical sensations, and the 
 memory is very likely to be at fault in comparing the experiences of dif- 
 ferent years. Daring the war, a much greater amount of wood than 
 usual has been cut in this neighborhood by both armies ; the past winter 
 has nevertheless been more severe than any of its predecessors ; all 
 these considerations make it very desirable that proofs should be brought 
 forward in support of the above assertion. 
 
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