Chapter II: Preface (2)

The Indians are said to be successful in predicting the events of diseases. While diseases are simple, the marks which distinguish them, or characterize their several stages, are generally uniform and obvious to the most indifferent observer. These marks afford so much certainty, that the Indians sometimes kill their physicians for a false prognosis, charging the death of the patient to their carelessness, or ignorance. They estimate the danger of their patients by the degrees of appetite; while an Indian is able to eat, he is looked upon as free from danger. But when we consider the number and variety in the signs of diseases, among civilized nations, together with the shortness of life, the fallacy of memory, and the uncertainty of observation, where shall we find a physician willing to risk his reputation, much less his life, upon the prediction of the event of our acute diseases? We can derive no advantage from the simple sign, by which the Indians estimate the danger of their patients; for we daily see a want of appetite for food in diseases which are attended with no danger; and we sometimes observe an unusual degree of this appetite to precede the agonies of death. I honour the name of HIPPOCRATES: but forgive me, ye votaries of antiquity, if I attempt to pluck a few grey hairs from his venerable head. I was once an idolater at his altar, nor did I turn apostate from his worship, till I was taught, that not a tenth part of his prognostics corresponded with modern experience, or observation. The pulse[14], urine, and sweats, from which the principal signs of life and death have been taken, are so variable, in most of the acute diseases of civilized nations, that the wisest physicians have in some measure excluded the prognosis from being a part of their profession.

[14] Doctor Cullen used to inform his pupils, that after forty years'
experience, he could find no relation between his own
observations on the pulse, and those made by Doctor Solano. The
climate and customs of the people in Spain being so different
from the climate and customs of the present inhabitants of
Britain, may account for the diversity of their observations.
Doctor Heberden's remarks upon the pulse, in the second volume of
the Medical Transactions, are calculated to show how little the
issue of diseases can be learned from it.

I am here insensibly led to make an apology for the instability of the theories and practice of physic. The theory of physic is founded upon the laws of the animal economy. These (unlike the laws of the mind, or the common laws of matter) do not appear at once, but are gradually brought to light by the phænomena of diseases. The success of nature in curing the simple diseases of Saxony, laid the foundation for the ANIMA MEDICA of Doctor STAHL. The endemics of Holland[15] led Doctor BOERHAAVE to seek for the causes of all diseases in the FLUIDS. And the universal prevalence of diseases of the NERVES, in Great-Britain, led Doctor CULLEN to discover their peculiar laws, and to found a system upon them; a system, which will probably last till some new diseases are let loose upon the human species, which shall unfold other laws of the animal economy.

[15] "The scurvy is very frequent in Holland; and draws its origin
partly from their strong food, sea-fish, and smoked flesh, and
partly from their dense and moist air, together with their bad
water." Hoffman on Endemical Distempers.

"We are now in North-Holland; and I have never seen, among so
few people, so many infected with the leprosy as here. They say
the reason is, because they eat so much fish." Howell's Familiar
Letters.

It is in consequence of this fluctuation in the principles and practice of physic, being so necessarily connected with the changes in the customs of civilized nations, that old and young physicians so often disagree in their opinions and practices. And it is by attending to the constant changes in these customs of civilized nations, that those physicians have generally become the most eminent, who have soonest emancipated themselves from the tyranny of the schools of physic; and have occasionally accommodated their principles and practice to the changes in diseases[16]. This variety in diseases, which is produced by the changes in the customs of civilized nations, will enable us to account for many of the contradictions which are to be found in authors of equal candour and abilities, who have written upon the materia medica.

[16] We may learn from these observations, the great impropriety of
those Egyptian laws which oblige physicians to adopt, in all
cases, the prescriptions which had been collected, and approved
of, by the physicians of former ages. Every change in the customs
of civilized nations, produces a change in their diseases, which
calls for a change in their remedies. What havoc would plentiful
bleeding, purging, and small beer, formerly used with so much
success by Dr. Sydenham in the cure of fevers, now make upon the
enfeebled citizens of London! The fevers of the same, and of more
southern latitudes, still admit of such antiphlogistic remedies.
In the room of these, bark, wine, and other cordial medicines,
are prescribed in London in almost every kind of fever.

In forming a comparative view of the REMEDIES of the Indians, with those of civilized nations, we shall remark, that the want of success in a medicine is occasioned by one of the following causes:

First, our ignorance of the disease. Secondly, an ignorance of a suitable remedy. Thirdly, a want of efficacy in the remedy.

Considering the violence of the diseases of the Indians, it is probable their want of success is always occasioned by a want of efficacy in their medicines. But the case is very different among the civilized nations. Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts (if I may be allowed the expression) and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more--we have increased their mortality.

I shall not pause to beg pardon of the faculty, for acknowledging, in this public manner, the weaknesses of our profession. I am pursuing Truth, and while I can keep my eye fixed upon my guide, I am indifferent whether I am led, provided she is my leader.

But further, the Indian submits to his disease, without one fearful emotion from his doubtfulness of its event; and at last meets his fate without an an anxious wish for futurity; except it is of being admitted to an "equal sky," where

"His faithful dog shall bear him company."

But, among civilized nations, the influence of a false religion in good, and of a true religion in bad men, has converted even the fear of death into a disease. It is this original distemper of the imagination which renders the plague most fatal, upon his first appearance in a country.

Under all these disadvantages in the state of medicine, among civilized nations, do more in proportion die of the diseases peculiar to them, than of fevers, casualties, and old age, among the Indians? If we take our account from the city of London, we shall find this to be the case. Near a twentieth part of its inhabitants perish one year with another. Nor does the natural increase of inhabitants supply this yearly waste. If we judge from the bills of mortality, the city of London contains fewer inhabitants, by several thousands, than it did forty years ago. It appears from this fact, and many others of a like nature, which might be adduced, that although the difficulty of supporting children, together with some peculiar customs of the Indians, which we mentioned, limit their number, yet they multiply faster, and die in a smaller proportion than civilized nations, under the circumstances we have described. The Indians, we are told, were numerous in this country, before the Europeans settled among them. Travellers agree likewise in describing numbers of both sexes who exhibited all the marks of extreme old age. It is remarkable that age seldom impairs the faculties of their minds.

The mortality peculiar to those Indian tribes who have mingled with the white people, must be ascribed to the extensive mischief of spiritous liquors. When these have not acted, they have suffered from having accommodated themselves too suddenly to the European diet, dress, and manners. It does not become us to pry too much into futurity; but if we may judge from the fate of the original natives of Hispaniola, Jamaica, and the provinces on the continent, we may venture to foretel, that, in proportion as the white people multiply, the Indians will diminish; so that in a few centuries they will probably be entirely extirpated[17].

[17] Even the influence of CHRISTIAN principles has not been able to
put a stop to the mortality introduced among the Indians, by
their intercourse with the Europeans. Dr. Cotton Mather, in a
letter to sir William Ashurst, printed in Boston, in the year
1705, says, "that about five years before there were about thirty
Indian congregations in the southern parts of the province
of Massachusetts-Bay." The same author, in his history of
New-England, says, "That in the islands of Nantucket and Martha's
Vineyard, there were 3000 _adult_ Indians, 1600 of whom professed
the christian religion." At present there is but _one_ Indian
congregation in the whole Massachusetts province.

It may serve to extend our knowledge of diseases, to remark, that
epidemics were often observed to prevail among the Indians in
Nantucket, without affecting the white people.

It may be said, that health among the Indians, like insensibility to cold and hunger, is proportioned to their need of it; and that the less degrees, or entire want of health, are no interruption to the ordinary business of civilized life.

To obviate this supposition, we shall first attend to the effects of a single disease in those people who are the principal wheels in the machine of civil society. Justice has stopt its current, victories have been lost, wars have been prolonged, and embassies delayed, by the principal actors in these departments of government being suddenly laid up by a fit of the gout. How many offences are daily committed against the rules of good breeding, by the tedious histories of our diseases, which compose so great a part of modern conversation! What sums of money have been lavished in foreign countries in pursuit of health[18]! Families have been ruined by the unavoidable expences of medicines and watering-places. In a word, the swarms of beggars which infest so many of the European countries, urge their petitions for charity chiefly by arguments derived from real or counterfeit diseases, which render them incapable of supporting themselves[19].

[18] It is said, there are seldom less than 20,000 British subjects in
France and Italy; one half of whom reside or travel in those
countries upon the account of their health.

[19] Templeman computes, that Scotland contains 1,500,000 inhabitants;
100,000 of whom, according to Mr. Fletcher, are supported at the
public expence. The proportion of poor people is much greater in
England, Ireland, France, and Italy.

But may not civilization, while it abates the violence of natural diseases, increase the lenity of those that are artificial, in the same manner that it lessens the strength of natural vices by multiplying them? To answer this question, it will only be necessary to ask another: Who should exchange the heat, thirst, and uneasiness of a fever, for one fit of the colic or stone?

The history of the number, combination, and fashions of the remedies we have given, may serve to humble the pride of philosophy; and to convince us, that with all the advantages of the whole circle of sciences, we are still ignorant of antidotes to many of the diseases of civilized nations. We sometimes sooth our ignorance, by reproaching our idleness in not investigating the remedies peculiar to this country. We are taught to believe that every herb that grows in our woods is possessed of some medicinal virtue, and that Heaven would be wanting in benignity, if our country did not produce remedies for all the different diseases of its inhabitants. It would be arrogating too much to suppose that man was the only creature in our world for whom vegetables grow. The beasts, birds, and insects, derive their sustenance either directly or indirectly from them; while many of them were probably intended, from their variety in figure, foliage, and colour, only to serve as ornaments for our globe. It would seem strange that the Author of nature should furnish every spot of ground with medicines adapted to the diseases of its inhabitants, and at the same time deny it the more necessary articles of food and clothing. I know not whether Heaven has provided every country with antidotes even to the _natural_ diseases of its inhabitants. The intermitting fever is common in almost every corner of the globe; but a sovereign remedy for it has been discovered only in South-America. The combination of bitter and astringent substances, which serve as a succedaneum to the Peruvian bark, is as much a preparation of art, as calomel or tartar emetic. Societies stand in need of each other as much as individuals; and the goodness of the Deity remains unimpeached when we suppose, that he intended medicines to serve (with other articles) to promote that knowledge, humanity, and politeness among the inhabitants of the earth, which have been so justly attributed to commerce.

We have no discoveries in the materia medica to hope for from the Indians in North-America. It would be a reproach to our schools of physic, if modern physicians were not more successful than the Indians, even in the treatment of their own diseases.

Do the blessings of civilization compensate for the sacrifice we make of natural health, as well as of natural liberty? This question must be answered under some limitations. When natural liberty is given up for laws which enslave instead of protecting us, we are immense losers by the exchange. Thus, if we arm the whole elements against our health, and render every pore in the body an avenue for a disease, we pay too high a price for the blessings of civilization.

In governments which have departed entirely from their simplicity, partial evils are to be cured by nothing but an entire renovation of their constitution. Let the world bear with the professions of law, physic, and divinity; and let the lawyer, physician, and divine yet learn to bear with each other. They are all necessary, in the present state of society. In like manner, let the woman of fashion forget the delicacy of her sex, and submit to be delivered by a man-midwife[20]. Let her snatch her offspring from her breast, and send it to repair the weakness of its stamina, with the milk of a ruddy cottager[21]. Let art supply the place of nature in the preparation and digestion of all our aliment. Let our fine ladies keep up their colour with carmine, and their spirits with ratifia; and let our fine gentlemen defend themselves from the excesses of heat and cold, with lavender and hartshorn. These customs have become necessary in the corrupt stages of society. We must imitate, in these cases, the practice of those physicians who consult the appetite only, in diseases which do not admit of a remedy.

[20] In the enervated age of Athens, a law was passed which confined
the practice of midwifery only to the men. It was, however,
repealed, upon a woman's dying in childbirth, rather than
be delivered by a man-midwife. It appears from the bills of
mortality in London and Dublin, that about one in seventy of
those women die in childbirth, who are in the hands of midwives;
but from the accounts of the lying-in hospitals in those cities,
which are under the care of man-midwives, only one in a hundred
and forty perishes in childbirth.

[21] There has been much common-place declamation against the custom
among the great, of not suckling their children. Nurses were
common in Rome, in the declension of the empire: hence we find
Cornelia commended as a rare example of maternal virtue, as much
for suckling her sons, as for teaching them eloquence. That
nurses were common in Egypt, is probable from the contract which
Pharaoh's daughter made with the unknown mother of Moses, to
allow her wages for suckling her own child. The same degrees of
civilization require the same customs. A woman whose times for
eating and sleeping are constantly interrupted by the calls of
enervating pleasures, must always afford milk of an unwholesome
nature. It may truly be said of a child doomed to live on this
aliment, that, as soon as it receives its

------"breath,
It sucks in "the lurking principles of death."

The state of a country in point of population, temperance, and industry, is so connected with its diseases, that a tolerable idea may be formed of it, by looking over its bills of mortality. HOSPITALS, with all their boasted advantages, exhibit at the same time monuments of the charity and depravity of a people[22]. The opulence of physicians, and the divisions of their offices, into those of surgery, pharmacy, and midwifery, are likewise proofs of the declining state of a country. In the infancy of the Roman empire, the priest performed the office of a physician; so simple were the principles and practice of physic. It was only in the declension of the empire that physicians vied with the emperors of Rome in magnificence and splendour[23].

[22] "Aurengezebe, emperor of Persia, being asked, Why he did not build
hospitals? said, _I will make my empire so rich, that there shall
be no need of hospitals_. He ought to have said, I will begin by
rendering my subjects rich, and then I will build hospitals.

"At Rome, the hospitals place every one at his ease, except those
who labour, those who are industrious, those who have lands, and
those who are engaged in trade.

"I have observed, that wealthy nations have need of hospitals,
because fortune subjects them to a thousand accidents; but it
is plain, that transient assistances are better than perpetual
foundations. The evil is momentary; it is necessary, therefore,
that the succour should be of the same nature, and that it be
applied to particular accidents." Spirit of Laws, b. xxiii. ch.
29.

It was reserved for the present generation to substitute in the
room of public hospitals private DISPENSARIES for the relief of
the sick. Philosophy and christianity alike concur in deriving
praise and benefit from these excellent institutions. They
exhibit something like an application of the mechanical powers
to the purposes of benevolence; for in what other charitable
institutions do we perceive so great a _quantity_ of distress
relieved by so small an expence?

[23] The first regular practitioners of physic in Rome, were women and
slaves. The profession was confined to them above six hundred
years. The Romans, during this period, lived chiefly upon
vegetables, particularly upon PULSE; and hence they were called,
by their neighbours, PULTIFAGI. They were likewise early inured
to the healthy employments of war and husbandry. Their diseases,
of course, were too few and simple to render the cure of them
an object of liberal profession. When their diseases became
more numerous and complicated, their investigation and cure
required the aids of philosophy. The profession from this time
became liberal; and maintained a rank with the other professions
which are founded upon the imperfection and depravity of human
institutions. Physicians are as necessary in the advanced stages
of society as surgeons, although their office is less ancient
and certain. There are many artificial diseases, in which they
give certain relief; and even where their art fails, their
prescriptions are still necessary, in order to smooth the avenues
of death.

I am sorry to add, in this place, that the number of patients in the HOSPITAL, and incurables in the ALMSHOUSE of this city, show that we are treading in the enervated steps of our fellow subjects in Britain. Our bills of mortality likewise show the encroachments of British diseases upon us. The NERVOUS FEVER has become so familiar to us, that we look upon it as a natural disease. Dr. Sydenham, so faithful in his history of fevers, takes no notice of it. Dr. Cadwallader informed me, that it made its first appearance in this city about five and twenty years ago. It will be impossible to name the CONSUMPTION without recalling to our minds the memory of some friend or relation, who has perished within these few years by that disease. Its rapid progress among us has been unjustly attributed to the growing resemblance of our climate to that of Great-Britain. The HYSTERIC and HYPOCHONDRIAC DISEASES, once peculiar to the chambers of the great, are now to be found in our kitchens and workshops. All these diseases have been produced by our having deserted the simple diet and manners of our ancestors.

The blessings of literature, commerce, and religion were not _originally_ purchased at the expence of health. The complete enjoyment of health is as compatible with civilization, as the enjoyment of civil liberty. We read of countries, rich in every thing that can form national happiness and national grandeur, the diseases of which are nearly as few and simple as those of the Indians. We hear of no diseases among the Jews, while they were under their democratical form of government, except such as were inflicted by a supernatural power[24]. We should be tempted to doubt the accounts given of the populousness of that people, did we not see the practice of their simple customs producing nearly the same populousness in Egypt, Rome, and other countries of antiquity. The empire of China, it is said, contains more inhabitants than the whole of Europe. The political institutions of that country have exempted its inhabitants from a large share of the diseases of other civilized nations. The inhabitants of Switzerland, Denmark, Norway[25], and Sweden, enjoy the chief advantages of civilization without having surrendered for them the blessings of natural health. But it is unnecessary to appeal to ancient or remote nations to prove, that health is not incompatible with civilization. The inhabitants of many parts of New-England, particularly of the province of Connecticut, are but little affected by artificial diseases. Some of you may remember the time, and our fathers have told those of us who do not, when the diseases of PENNSYLVANIA were as few and as simple as those of the Indians. The food of the inhabitants was then simple; their only drink was water; their appetites were restrained by labour; religion excluded the influence of sickening passions; private hospitality supplied the want of a public hospital; nature was their only nurse, and temperance their principal physician. But I must not dwell upon this retrospect of primæval manners; and I am too strongly impressed with a hope of a revival of such happy days, to pronounce them the golden age of our province.

[24] The principal employments of the Jews, like those of the Romans in
their simple ages, consisted in war and husbandry. Their diet was
plain, consisting chiefly of vegetables. Their only remedies were
plasters and ointments; which were calculated for those diseases
which are produced by accidents. In proportion as they receded
from their simple customs, we find artificial diseases prevail
among them. The leprosy made its appearance in their journey
through the wilderness. King Asa's pains in his feet, were
probably brought on by a fit of the gout. Saul and Nebuchadnezzar
were afflicted with a melancholy. In the time of our Saviour,
we find an account of all those diseases in Judea, which mark
the declension of a people; such as, the palsy, epilepsy, mania,
blindness, hæmorrhagia uterina, &c. It is unnecessary to suppose,
that they were let loose at this juncture, on purpose to give
our Saviour an opportunity of making them the chief subject of
his miracles. They had been produced from natural causes, by
the gradual depravity of their manners. It is remarkable, that
our Saviour chose those artificial diseases for the subject of
his miracles, in preference to natural diseases. The efforts
of nature, and the operation of medicines, are too slow and
uncertain in these cases to detract in the least from the
validity of the miracle. He cured Peter's mother-in-law, it is
true, of a fever; but to show that the cure was miraculous, the
sacred historian adds (contrary to what is common after a fever),
"that she arose _immediately_, and ministered unto them."

[25] In the city of Bergen, which consists of 30,000 inhabitants, there
is but one physician; who is supported at the expense of the
public. Pontoppidan's Nat. Hist. of Norway.

Our esteem for the customs of our savage neighbours will be lessened, when we add, that civilization does not preclude the honours of old age. The proportion of old people is much greater among civilized, than among savage nations. It would be easy to decide this assertion in our favour, by appealing to facts in the natural histories of Britain, Norway, Sweden, North-America[26], and several of the West-India islands.

[26] It has been urged against the state of longevity in America, that
the Europeans, who settle among us, generally arrive to a
greater age than the Americans. This is not occasioned so much
by a peculiar firmness in their stamina, as by an increase of
vigour which the constitution acquires by a change of climate. A
Frenchman (cæteris paribus) outlives an Englishman in England. A
Hollander prolongs his life by removing to the Cape of Good Hope.
A Portuguese gains fifteen or twenty years by removing to Brazil.
And there are good reasons to believe, that a North-American
would derive the same advantages, in point of health and
longevity, by removing to Europe, which a European derives from
coming to this country.

From a calculation made by an ingenious foreigner, it appears,
that a greater proportion of old people are to be found in
Connecticut, than in any colony in North-America. This colony
contains 180,000 inhabitants. They have no public hospitals or
poor-houses; nor is a beggar to be seen among them. There cannot
be more striking proofs than these facts of the simplicity of
their manners.

The laws of decency and nature are not necessarily abolished by the customs of civilized nations. In many of these, we read of women among whom nature alone still performs the office of a midwife[27], and who feel the obligations of suckling their children to be equally binding with the common obligations of morality.

[27] Parturition, in the simple ages of all countries, is performed by
nature. The Israelitish women were delivered even without the
help of the Egyptian midwives. We read of but two women who died
in child-birth in the whole history of the Jews. Dr. Bancroft
says, that child-bearing is attended with so little pain in
Guiana, that the women seem to be exempted from the curse
inflicted upon Eve. These easy births are not confined to warm
climates. They are equally safe and easy in Norway and Iceland,
according to Pontoppidan and Anderson's histories of those
countries.

Civilization does not render us less fit for the necessary hardships of war. We read of armies of civilized nations, who have endured degrees of cold, hunger, and fatigue, which have not been exceeded by the savages of any country[28].

[28] Civilized nations have, in the end, always conquered savages as
much by their ability to bear hardships, as by their superior
military skill. Soldiers are not to be chosen indiscriminately.
The greatest generals have looked upon sound constitutions to
be as essential to soldiers, as bravery or military discipline.
Count Saxe refused soldiers born and bred in large cities; and
sought for such only as were bred in mountainous countries.
The King of Prussia calls young soldiers only to the dangers
and honours of the field, in his elegant poem, Sur l'Art de la
Guerre, chant 1. Old soldiers generally lose the advantages of
their veteranism, by their habits of idleness and debauchery. An
able general, and experienced officers, will always supply the
defects of age in young soldiers.

Civilization does not always multiply the avenues of death. It appears from the bills of mortality, of many countries, that fewer in proportion die among civilized, than among savage nations.

Even the charms of beauty are heightened by civilization. We read of stateliness, proportion, line teeth[29] and complexions, in both sexes, forming the principal outlines of national characters.

[29] Bad teeth are observed chiefly in middle latitudes, which are
subject to alternate heats and colds. The inhabitants of Norway
and Russia are as remarkable for their fine teeth as the
inhabitants of Africa. We observe fine teeth to be universal
likewise among the inhabitants of France, who live in a
_variable_ climate. These have been ascribed to their protecting
their heads from the action of the night air by means of woollen
night-caps, and to the extraordinary attention to the teeth of
their children. These precautions secure good teeth; and are
absolutely necessary in all variable climates, where people do
not adopt all the customs of the savage life.

The danger of many diseases is not proportioned to their violence, but to their duration. America has advanced but a few paces in luxury and effeminacy. There is yet strength enough in her vitals to give life to those parts which are decayed. She may tread back her steps. For this purpose,

I. Let our children be educated in a manner more agreeable to nature.

II. Let the common people (who constitute the wealth and strength of our country) be preserved from the effects of ardent spirits. Had I a double portion of all that eloquence which has been employed in describing the political evils that lately threatened our country, it would be too little to set forth the numerous and complicated _physical_ and _moral_ evils which these liquors have introduced among us. To encounter this _hydra_ requires an arm accustomed, like that of Hercules, to vanquish monsters. Sir William Temple tells us, that formerly in Spain no man could be admitted as an evidence in a court, who had once been convicted of drunkenness. I do not call for so severe a law in this country. Let us first try the force of severe manners. Lycurgus governed more by these, than by his laws. "Boni mores non bonæ leges," according to Tacitus, were the bulwarks of virtue among the ancient Germans.

III. I despair of being able to call the votaries of Bacchus from their bottle, and shall therefore leave them to be roused by the more eloquent twinges of the gout.

IV. Let us be cautious what kind of manufactures we admit among us. The rickets made their first appearance in the manufacturing towns in England. Dr. Fothergill informed me, that he had often observed, when a pupil, that the greatest part of the chronic patients in the London Hospital were Spittal-field weavers. I would not be understood, from these facts, to discourage those manufactures which employ women and children: these suffer few inconveniences from a sedentary life: nor do I mean to offer the least restraint to those manufactories among men, which admit of free air, and the exercise of all their limbs. Perhaps a pure air, and the abstraction of spiritous liquors, might render sedentary employments less unhealthy in America, even among men, than in the populous towns of Great-Britain.

The population of a country is not to be accomplished by rewards and punishments. And it is happy for America, that the universal prevalence of the protestant religion, the checks lately given to negro slavery, the general unwillingness among us to acknowledge the usurpations of primogeniture, the universal practice of inoculation for the small-pox, and the absence of the plague, render the interposition of government for that purpose unnecessary.

These advantages can only be secured to our country by AGRICULTURE. This is the true basis of national health, riches, and populousness. Nations, like individuals, never rise higher than when they are ignorant whether they are tending. It is impossible to tell from history what will be the effects of agriculture, industry, temperance, and commerce, urged on by the competition of colonies, united in the same general pursuits, in a country, which for extent, variety of soil, climate, and number of navigable rivers, has never been equalled in any quarter of the globe. America is the theatre where human nature will probably receive her last and principal literary, moral, and political honours.

But I recall myself from the ages of futurity. The province of Pennsylvania has already shown to her sister colonies, the influence of agriculture and commerce upon the number and happiness of a people. It is scarcely a hundred years since our illustrious legislator, with a handful of men, landed upon these shores. Although the perfection of our government, the healthiness of our climate, and the fertility of our soil, seemed to ensure a rapid settlement of the province; yet it would have required a prescience bordering upon divine, to have foretold, that in such a short space of time, the province would contain above 300,000 inhabitants; and that nearly 30,000 of this number should compose a city, which should be the third, if not the second in commerce in the British empire. The pursuits of literature require leisure and a total recess from clearing forests, planting, building, and all the common toils of settling a new country: but before these arduous works were accomplished, the SCIENCES, ever fond of the company of liberty and industry, chose this spot for the seat of their empire in this new world. Our COLLEGE, so catholic in its foundation, and extensive in its objects, already sees her sons executing offices in the highest departments of society. I have now the honour of speaking in the presence of a most respectable number of philosophers, physicians, astronomers, botanists, patriots, and legislators; many of whom have already seized the prizes of honour, which their ancestors had allotted to a much later posterity. Our first offering had scarcely found its way into the temple of fame, when the oldest societies in Europe turned their eyes upon us, expecting with impatience to see the mighty fabric of science, which, like a well-built arch, can only rest upon the whole of its materials, completely finished from the treasures of this unexplored quarter of the globe.

It reflects equal honour upon our society and the honourable assembly of our province, to acknowledge, that we have always found the latter willing to encourage by their patronage, and reward by their liberality, all our schemes for promoting useful knowledge. What may we not expect from this harmony between the sciences and government! Methinks I see canals cut, rivers once impassable rendered navigable, bridges erected, and roads improved, to facilitate the exportation of grain. I see the banks of our rivers vying in fruitfulness with the banks of the river of Egypt. I behold our farmers nobles; our merchants princes. But I forbear--imagination cannot swell with the subject.

I beg leave to conclude, by deriving an argument from our connection with the legislature, to remind my auditors of the duty they owe to the society. Patriotism and literature are here connected together; and a man cannot neglect the one, without being destitute of the other. Nature and our ancestors have completed their works among us; and have left us nothing to do, but to enlarge and perpetuate our own happiness.

AN ACCOUNT

OF THE

_CLIMATE OF PENNSYLVANIA_,

AND ITS

INFLUENCE UPON THE HUMAN BODY.

In order to render the observations upon the epidemic diseases which compose the following volumes more useful, it will be necessary to prefix to them a short account of the climate of Pennsylvania, and of its influence upon the human body. This account may perhaps serve further, to lead to future discoveries, and more extensive observations, upon this subject.

The state of Pennsylvania lies between 39° 43' 25", and 42° north latitude, including, of course, 2° 16' 35", equal to 157 miles from its southern to its northern boundary. The western extremity of the state is in the longitude of 5° 23' 40", and the eastern, is that of 27' from the meridian of Philadelphia, comprehending in a due west course 311 miles, exclusive of the territory lately purchased by Pennsylvania from the United States, of which as yet no accurate surveys have been obtained. The state is bounded on the south by part of the state of Delaware, by the whole state of Maryland, and by Virginia to her western extremity. The last named state, the territory lately ceded to Connecticut, and Lake Erie, (part of which is included in Pennsylvania) form the western and north-western boundaries of the state. Part of New-York, and the territory lately ceded to Pennsylvania, with a part of Lake Erie, compose the northern, and another part of New-York, with a large extent of New-Jersey (separated from Pennsylvania by the river Delaware), compose the eastern boundaries of the state. The lands which form these boundaries (except a part of the states of Delaware, Maryland, and New-Jersey) are in a state of nature. A large tract of the western and north-eastern parts of Pennsylvania are nearly in the same uncultivated situation.

The state of Pennsylvania is intersected and diversified with numerous rivers and mountains. To describe, or even to name them all, would far exceed the limits I have proposed to this account of our climate. It will be sufficient only to remark, that one of these rivers, viz. the Susquehannah, begins at the northern boundary of the state, twelve miles from the river Delaware, and winding several hundred miles, through a variegated country, enters the state of Maryland on the southern line, fifty-eight miles westward of Philadelphia; that each of these rivers is supplied by numerous streams of various sizes; that tides flow in parts of two of them, viz. in the Delaware and Schuylkill; that the rest rise and fall alternately in wet and dry weather; and that they descend with great rapidity, over prominent beds of rocks in many places, until they empty themselves into the bays of Delaware and Chesapeak on the east, and into the Ohio on the western part of the state.

The mountains form a considerable part of the state of Pennsylvania. Many of them appear to be reserved as perpetual marks of the original empire of nature in this country. The Allegany, which crosses the state about two hundred miles from Philadelphia, in a north, inclining to an eastern course, is the most considerable and extensive of these mountains. It is called by the Indians the back-bone of the continent. Its height, in different places, is supposed to be about 1,300 feet from the adjacent plains.

The soil of Pennsylvania is diversified by its vicinity to mountains and rivers. The vallies and bottoms consist of a black mould, which extends from a foot to four feet in depth. But in general a deep clay forms the surface of the earth. Immense beds of limestone lie beneath this clay in many parts of the state. This account of the soil of Pennsylvania is confined wholly to the lands on the east side of the Allegany mountain. The soil on the west side of this mountain, shall be described in another place.

The city of Philadelphia lies in the latitude of 39° 57', in longitude 75° 8' from Greenwich, and fifty-five miles west from the Atlantic ocean.

It is situated about four miles due north from the conflux of the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill. The buildings, which consist chiefly of brick, extend nearly three miles north and south along the Delaware, and above half a mile due west towards the Schuylkill, to which river the limits of the city extend, the whole of which includes a distance of two miles from the Delaware. The land near the rivers, between the city and the conflux of the rivers, is in general low, moist, and subject to be overflowed. The greatest part of it is meadow ground. The land to the northward and westward, in the vicinity of the city, is high, and in general well cultivated. Before the year 1778, the ground between the present improvements of the city, and the river Schuylkill, was covered with woods. These, together with large tracts of wood to the northward of the city, were cut down during the winter the British army had possession of Philadelphia. I shall hereafter mention the influence which the cutting down of these woods, and the subsequent cultivation of the grounds in the neighbourhood of the city, have had upon the health of its inhabitants.

The mean height of the ground on which the city stands, is about forty feet above the river Delaware. One of the longest and most populous streets in the city rises only a few feet above the river. The air at the north is much purer than at the south end of the city; hence the lamps exhibit a fainter flame in its southern than its northern parts.

The tide of the Delaware seldom rises more than six feet. It flows four miles in an hour. The width of the river near the city is about a mile.

The city, with the adjoining districts of Southwark and the Northern Liberties, contains between 70 and 80,000 inhabitants.

From the accounts which have been handed down to us by our ancestors, there is reason to believe that the climate of Pennsylvania has undergone a material change. Thunder and lightning are less frequent, and the cold of our winters and heat of our summers are less uniform, than they were forty or fifty years ago. Nor is this all. The springs are much colder, and the autumns more temperate than formerly, insomuch that cattle are not housed so soon by one month as they were in former years. Within the last eight years, there have been some exceptions to part of these observations. The winter of the year 1779-80, was uniformly and uncommonly cold. The river Delaware was frozen near three months during this winter, and public roads for waggons and sleighs connected the city of Philadelphia in many places with the Jersey shore. The thickness of the ice in the river near the city, was from sixteen to nineteen inches, and the depth of the frost in the ground was from four to five feet, according to the exposure of the ground, and the quality of the soil. This extraordinary depth of the frost in the earth, compared with its depth in more northern and colder countries, is occasioned by the long delay of snow, which leaves the earth without a covering during the last autumnal and the first winter months. Many plants were destroyed by the intenseness of the cold during this winter. The ears of horned cattle and the feet of hogs exposed to the air, were frost-bitten; squirrels perished in their holes, and partridges were often found dead in the neighbourhood of farm houses. The mercury in January stood for several hours at 5° below 0, in Fahrenheit's thermometer; and during the whole of this month (except on one day), it never rose in the city of Philadelphia so high as to the freezing point.

The cold in the winter of the year 1783-4 was as intense, but not so steady, as it was in the winter that has been described. It differed from it materially in one particular, viz. there was a thaw in the month of January, which opened all our rivers for a few days.

The summer which succeeded the winter of 1779-80, was uniformly warm. The mercury in the thermometer, during this summer, stood on one day (the 15th of August) at 95°, and fluctuated between 93°, and 80° for many weeks. The thermometer, in every reference that has been, or shall be made to it, stood in the shade in the open air.

I know it has been said by many old people, that the winters in Pennsylvania are less cold, and the summers less warm, than they were forty or fifty years ago. The want of thermometrical observations before, and during those years, renders it difficult to decide this question. Perhaps the difference of clothing and sensation between youth and old age, in winter and summer, may have laid the foundation of this opinion. I suspect the mean temperature of the air in Pennsylvania has not altered, but that the principal change in our climate consists in the heat and cold being less confined than formerly to their natural seasons. I adopt the opinion of Doctor Williamson[30] respecting the diminution of the cold in the southern, being occasioned by the cultivation of the northern parts of Europe; but no such cultivation has taken place in the countries which lie to the north-west of Pennsylvania, nor do the partial and imperfect improvements which have been made in the north-west parts of the state, appear to be sufficient to lessen the cold, even in the city of Philadelphia. I have been able to collect no facts, which dispose me to believe that the winters were colder before the year 1740, than they have been since. In the memorable winter of 1739-40, the Delaware was crossed on the ice, in sleighs, on the 5th of March, old style, and did not open till the 13th of the same month. The ground was covered during this winter with a deep snow, and the rays of the sun were constantly obscured by a mist, which hung in the upper regions of the air. In the winter of 1779-80, the river was navigable on the 4th of March; the depth of the snow was moderate, and the gloominess of the cold was sometime suspended for a few days by a cheerful sun. From these facts, it is probable the winter of 1739-40 was colder than the winter of 1779-80.

[30] American Philosophical Transactions, vol. I.

The winter of 1804-5 exhibited so many peculiarities that it deserves a place in the history of the climate of Pennsylvania. The navigation of the Delaware was obstructed on the 18th of December. The weather partook of every disagreeable and distressing property of every cold climate on the globe. These were intense cold, deep snows, hail, sleet, high winds, and heavy rains. They generally occurred in succession, but sometimes most of them took place in the course of four and twenty hours. A serene and star-light evening, often preceded a tempestuous day. The mercury stood for many days, in Philadelphia, at 4° and 6° above 0 in Fahrenheit's thermometer. The medium depth of the snow was two feet, but from its fall being accompanied with high winds, its height in many places was three and four feet, particularly in roads, which it rendered so impassable, as to interrupt business and social intercourse, in many parts of the state. From the great depth of the snow, the ground was so much protected from the cold, that the frost extended but six inches below its surface. The newspapers daily furnished distressing accounts of persons perishing with the cold by land and water, and of shipwrecks on every part of the coast of the United States. Poultry were found dead, or with frozen feet, in their coops, in many places.

This intense cold was not confined to Pennsylvania. In Norfolk, in Virginia, the mercury stood at 18° above 0 on the 22d of January. At Lexington, in Kentucky, it stood at 0 on the 21st of the same month. In Lower Canada the snow was seven feet in depth, which is three feet deeper than in common years. And such was the quantity of ice collected in the northern seas, that a ship was destroyed, and several vessels injured, by large masses of it, floating between the 41st and 42d degrees of north latitude.

Great fears were entertained of an inundation in Pennsylvania, from a sudden thaw of the immense quantities of snow and ice that had accumulated during the winter, in every part of the state; but happily they both dissolved away so gradually, as scarcely to injure a bridge or a road. On the 28th of February the Delaware was navigable, and on the 2d of March no ice was to be seen in it.

Having premised these general remarks, I proceed to observe, that there are seldom more than twenty or thirty days in summer or winter, in Pennsylvania, in which the mercury rises above 80° in the former, or falls below 30° in the latter season. Some old people have remarked, that the number of _extremely_ cold and warm days in successive summers and winters, bears an exact proportion to each other. This was strictly true in the years 1787 and 1788.

The warmest part of the day in summer is at two, in ordinary, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, in extremely warm weather. From these hours, the heat gradually diminishes till the ensuing morning. The coolest part of the four and twenty hours, is at the break of day. There are seldom more than three or four nights in a summer in which the heat of the air is nearly the same as in the preceding day. After the warmest days, the evenings are generally agreeable, and often delightful. The higher the mercury rises in the day time, the lower it falls the succeeding night. The mercury at 80° generally falls to 68°, while it descends, when at 60°, but to 56°. This disproportion between the temperature of the day and night, in summer is always greatest in the month of August. The dews at this time are heavy in proportion to the coolness of the evening. They are sometimes so considerable as to wet the clothes; and there are instances in which marsh-meadows, and even creeks, which have been dry during the summer, have been supplied with their usual waters from no other source, than the dews which have fallen in this month, or in the first weeks of September.

There is another circumstance connected with the one just mentioned, which contributes very much to mitigate the heat of summer, and that is, it seldom continues more than two or three days without being succeeded with showers of rain, accompanied sometimes by thunder and lightning, and afterwards by a north-west wind, which produces a coolness in the air that is highly invigorating and agreeable.

The warmest weather is _generally_ in the month of July. But intensely warm days are often felt in May, June, August, and September. In the annexed table of the weather for the year 1787, there is an exception to the first of these remarks. It shows that the mean heat of August was greater by a few degrees than that of July.

The transitions from heat to cold are often very sudden, and sometimes to very distant degrees. After a day in which the mercury has stood at 86° and even 90°, it sometimes falls, in the course of a single night, to the 65th, and even to the 60th degree, insomuch that fires have been found necessary the ensuing morning, especially if the change in the temperature of the air has been accompanied by rain and a south-east wind. In a summer month, in the year 1775, the mercury was observed to fall 20° in an hour and a half. There are few summers in which fires are not agreeable during some parts of them. My ingenious friend, Mr. David Rittenhouse, whose talent for accurate observation extends alike to all subjects, informed me, that he had never passed a summer, during his residence in the country, without discovering frost in every month of the year, except July.

The weather is equally variable in Pennsylvania during the greatest part of the winter. The mercury fell from 37° to 4-1/2° below 0 in four and twenty hours, between the fourth and fifth of February, 1788. In this season nature seems to play at cross purposes. Heavy falls of snow are often succeeded in a few days by a general thaw, which frequently in a short time leaves no vestige of the snow. The rivers Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehannah have sometimes been frozen (so as to bear horses and carriages of all kinds) and thawed so as to be passable in boats, two or three times in the course of the same winter. The ice is formed for the most part in a gradual manner, and seldom till the water has been previously chilled by a fall of snow. Sometimes its production is more sudden. On the night of the 31st of December, 1764, the Delaware was completely frozen over between ten o'clock at night and eight the next morning, so as to bear the weight of a man. An unusual vapour like a fog was seen to rise from the water, in its passage from a fluid to a solid state.