miles of the city, but in that time there is often so much ice floating that it is not safe for vessels to go to sea or to come in. The winter is above six weeks longer at Albany, than at New-York, that place being 160 miles further up Hudson's river. It is likewise longer at Philadelphia than here, though that town be above a degree and a half more to the southward. This is owing to that place being situated upon a fresh-water river, which more easily freezes, and to its distance from the sea. : all liquors, except The thermometer in the month of January is generally about 80. I observed it twice at 100, and once at 103; then the frost and cold were excessive spirits, froze. I found Madeira wine (which is a very strong wine) frozen in the morning in a room where there had been a good fire all day till eleven at night. Hudson's river was then frozen over at the town, where it is about two miles broad and the water very salt, so that people passed over upon the ice in crowds; but the ice did not continue fast at this place above three days. In the beginning of winter people are in danger of rheumatic pains, and in February of bastard pleurisies. The air of the country being almost always clear, and its spring strong, we have few consumptions, or diseases of the lungs.* I never heard of a broken-winded horse in * How shall we account for the extraordinary mortality occasioned by this disease at the present day? If our climate at that early period was so conducive to health, and particularly well calculated for pulmonic affections, and if what change has been effected in it be for the better, we must attribute it principally to the increase of dissipa. tion, and the great imprudence in dress, and not to what many have asserted, the very nature and vicissitudes of our seasons. EDITORS. this country. People inclined to be consumptive in England, are often perfectly cured by our fine air, but if there be ulcers formed they die in a little time. The climate grows every day better as the country is cleared of the woods, and more healthy, as all the people that have lived long here testify. This has even been sensible to me, though I have been but about twelve years in the country; I therefore doubt not but it will in time become one of the most agreeable and healthy climates on the face of the earth. As it is at present I prefer it to the climates of England, and I believe most people that have lived any considerable time here, and are returned to England, will confirm this. III. OBSERVATIONS on the Fever which prevailed in the City of New-York in 1741 and 2, written in 1743, by the late Hon. CADWALLADER COLDEN. Communicated to Dr. DAVID HOSACK by C. D. COLDEN, Esq.* SIR, ACCORDING to my promise in our conversation upon the late sickness in New-York, I now send you an abstract of the piece I then shewed you, with my thoughts * The present essay, on the fever of 1741 and 2, is printed from a copy corrected and enlarged by the author himself, and has been very lately found in a manuscript volume of his papers. Thus improved, it will doubtless be read with great interest by the philosophical as well as medical reader. EDITORS. on the sickness, and how I conceive it may be prevented for the future. I shall be glad if it prove of any use, and Am, Sir, Your humble Servt. No man who has any share of humanity or regard for the welfare of the society wherein he lives, can with indifference observe or hear of the mortality which has prevailed among the inhabitants of the city of New-York these two last summers, but will be desirous to give what assistance to his neighbours he can, by any information which has come to his knowledge, or by any other means in his power. When any disease yearly returns in a particular place, while the country around remains free from it, people naturally conclude, that it is owing to something peculiar to that place, and in order to discover whether any thing peculiar to the soil or air of New-York may. reasonably be supposed to be the cause of these epidemical fevers, I shall make an abstract from a book which I have by me on the subject of malignant and pestilential fevers, occasioned by a faulty air or soil in particular places, wrote by Lancisi, physician to Pope Clement XI. a man of great character both as to his skill in physic and his probity, who treats of this subject more fully and clearly than any author I have seen. I expect this may be the more acceptable because it is a rare book and perhaps not another copy of it in this part of the world besides that which I have. I think there is the more reason for admonishing the inhabitants of New-York on this, because, by their be ingoriginally from the northern climates, where the ill effects of stagnating waters are not so remarkable as in the warm climates, they may be more negligent in this point, and less apprehensive of the danger that arises from thence. These fevers recur yearly in the summer from the time the weather begins to grow hot to the end of September : they commonly cease during the winter colds: they are milder at their first appearance, but grow more and more malignant as the season advances; they are at first commonly of the intermittent kind, but more frequently (especially as the hot weather advances) the paroxysms only remit, and at the same time many have continued fevers, with frequent exacerbations rather than remissions: the sick contract a dead, dusky, yellow complexion, and before they die purple eruptions frequently happen on the skin: the intestines are almost always affected, and have been found generally sphacelated in the bodies which have been opened; the brain is likewise often affected and all the worst symptoms of fevers generally attend these before death, though sometimes the fever appears so mild, that the sick is not thought in danger till apoplectic or comatose symptoms appear, which declare him past recovery: they have seldom any regular crisis, but the sick, when they recover, continue long weak and infirm, and they are often succeeded by chronical distempers. These are the general characters of these fevers, collected from several parts of this book. Lancisi at first gives a more general account of these fevers, from the ancient Roman historians, and first he observes, that the place whereon Rome was built was, in its natural state, unhealthy, and for that reason avoided by the first inhabitants of the country; that this unhealthiness was occasioned by swamps and stagnating waters between the hills on which the city was afterwards built, as appears from Ovid 6. Fastorum. "Hic ubi nunc fora sunt, uda, ténuere paludes Amne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras Nil præter, solices, cassaque canna fuit.” As the first inhabitants of Rome suffered much from these stagnating waters, their kings bestowed a great part of their care in draining these low grounds, and it is taken notice of by historians, as a memorable act of Tarquinius Priscus, that he drained Velabrum by a very notable canal. Pliny takes notice, as one of the greater works of M. Agrippa, that he cut through mountains in order to bring seven rivers into the city, to wash and cleanse the canals and sewers of all filth, and that he had in a manner undermined the whole city, in order to keep it clean and healthy. The Roman historians observe, that as often as these drains were neglected and stopped, so that the water and filth stagnated, the city became unhealthy, and the inhabitants were wasted by malignant and pestilential fevers. When this happened the Romans spared no cost to cleanse and keep the city clean. C. Aquilius writes, that the common. sewers being by neglect stopped the censors bestowed a thousand talents in opening and cleansing of them. In order to keep the city always clean, the Romans chose magistrates, called ædiles, and curatores for that purpose, who had under them several companies of men continually employed in that work: they wore a particular badge to distinguish them, and, for their encouragement, enjoyed special privileges, and were freed from all other public services. Rr |