A
f7.
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
\jlUi-.X^f%\  i o* n »
'■'"'*,^(*i
ON
& G-@ & £ & A ^ & ® Hr;
delivered at the
OPENING OF THE THIRD SESSION
OF THE
?....."0  /J
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA.
. H. BARTON, Mf. B;
                By E
PROFESSOR Of THE THEORT AND PRACTICE! OP MEDICINE, MEMBER OP THE MfiClCAL BOARD OF
       -Louisiana, administrator op the charity hospital, *e. ftc
PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST o* THE CLASS.
     NEW ORLEANS:
COMMERCIAL BULLETI
            1837.
          win
N PRINT.      '/ 
    At  a special meeting of the Class of the Medical  College ol  Louisiana,
held on Wednesday, the 22d March,  1837,  Resolutions were  unanimously
adopted expressive of their high sense of the importance of Professor Barton's
Lecture on Acclimation, delivered at the commencement of the present session,
and also of their conviction that its publicity would be  highly  calculated not
only to  promote the cause of science, but also that of  humanity,  and remove
the films of ignorance and prejudice from the eyes of our countrymen with re-
gard to this porti6n of our country.
  It was further resolved that a committee of two be appointed to wait on the
Doctor, to express the feelings of the  Class and request a copy of his address
for publication.
                                           G. M. ORMOND, Chairman.
  WHITEMAN WILCOX, Secretary.
     <t. COLMAR,         } r,
       W,  n  w         i Committee.
       m. C. Williams,  )
   March 23,  1837.
                                           New Orleans, March 26.
Gentlemen:
    I feel highly flattered by your request.  My humble efforts have been, for
many years, devoted to  the correction of the manifold errors that have so  ex-
tensively prevailed, not only here but to the north, with regard to our climate;
to dissipate the prejudices that  have so materially retarded its growth;  and to
developc the  magnificent resources of our great south  western country.  I
have reason to believe that those efforts have not been, altogether, unsuccess-
ful.
  The remarks I have  made upon the subject of Acclimation, if true, are im-
measurably important to our section of country, for much has been written by
high and standard authorities in our profession, the basis of whose  views  is
founded on error, and whose superstructure is  destructive of  all those princi-
ples of Hygiene, and  of course, ol health, which are applicable to this coun-
try.   Eighteen years of observation here  entitles  me to  speak with freedom,
as I speak  from experience, to show wherein closet  men  who write from hypo-
thetical assumption, give advice founded on  false  data.   I  believe  the good
of the country will be materially influenced, by the exposition and  proper ap-
 plication of the views contained in the lecture you have done  me the honor to
ask for publication.  With these impressions I do not hesitate to comply with
your wishes, though it was not prepared, nor is it fit,  for the ordeal of criticism.
   With my ardent wishes for your success in your profession, and your wel-
 fare in life,
           I remain very respectfully,
                        Your obedient servant,
                                                   E. H. BARTON.
   Messrs.  Colmar &. Williams, Committee, Sic. 
LECTURE
 Gextle&en:
              It has fallen to my province to open our third course ofLectures,
 and  I do  so  in  presenting to you in the  name  of my colleagues,  the most
 cordial welcome.   Though no house is built expressly for the accomodation of
 the class, all the  advantages the most magnificent edifice dedicated to science
 could have afforded, are at our bidding;  though young as a school we are  all
 older than those principles of your profession which are the distinguishing char-
 acteristics of modern medicine:  not  drawing distinction, then, either from  an
 edifice, or the ago of our institution,—nor from the repntation of our predeces-
 sors, wc stand before you as the humble, but earnest labourers in the cause of
 our science, with the determination to raise a name for ourselves, which shall
 be estimated by our success in teaching the science as it  is—in shewing you
 its important practical and  useful parts—in demonstrating disease at the bed
 side and how to cure it;  these require not splendid halls nor the power or witch-
 cry of eloquent rhetoric—they require what I trust and believe you will be fur-
 nished by my colleagues—proper principles and the mode of applying them.
   Previously to going directly into the branch  of medicine which I  have  the
 honor to teach, I propose occupying your  time this morning  in inviting your
 attention to a subject of the deepest interest to  every man exchanging  a north-
 ern for  a southern climate—it is that of acclimation*, and probably there is
 no subject to which I could direct it of m ire importance to be properly under-
 stood than it.   This will be duly appreciated by you when you reflect upon the
 migratory character of our countrymen, and that this great  southern country,
 the very garden and  store house of the confederacy, has  been and is peopled
 mainly by inhabitants coming from sections  of country so very different  in cli-
 mate from it.   There is another  reason  why you should bo  acquainted with
 it—representatives as you are of such  a wide extent of  territory,  with the
 usual  uncertainty of medical students, what region of  our happy  country shall
 be the theatre of  your  destiny,  it is  of  the utmost importance  to  yourselves
 individually to understand the  principles and the data bearing on acclimati  n,
 but of still greater importance  to  the  people at large, and yet they must look
 to .you for the  proper information on  the  subject.   The mortality  attendant  on
 acclimation—proceeding almost entirely from an ignorance of the means of ren-
 dering the process easy,  and pointing out those shoals  upon which  so  many
 thousands have been wrecked and lost, I  have  no doubt, exceeds the  calcula-
 tion of the most heartless traducer of this region of country.  The sad renown
 for perennial pestilence  which the southern  portions of the Union  and  parti-
 cularly this  state,  and more especially this city, has obtained, is mainly attribut-
 able tof the cost of acclimation.   You sec then  I can neither over-rate its im-
 porance, nor the interest  necessarily attached to it.   Were the subject properly
 understood and acted on, the  great dread and apprehension with regard to this
 climate would  be removed—this horrible  "charnel house" of New Orleans and
 the swamps  and  bilious fevers  of the South, would  be no longer held mm as a
scare-crow to frighten aw.-y a popnlation, which but  for this, would be spread
over every portion of this fertile and beautiful country. 
I
  Let  us proceed to investigate, then, what is the meaning and philosophy of
acclimatio.v.  By acclimation we mean the adaptation of man's, physical and
moral nature to the physical and moral condition of a country.  Man's power
in this  respect ha<» been much over-rated—his physical nature has been sup-
posed to possess the attributes of  universal adaptation,  but very  erroneously.
Man possesses lesFin this respect than many other animals—the dog and horse
for  instance.  With  whatever power  he may be endowed  over inferior  crea-
tion, he owes it to his superior intellect—an intelligence that enables him  to
take advantage  of circumstances—to adapt himself to  the conditions around
him—to  catch the manners and habits of the natives—'to study well the clime,
to mould to its manners his obsequious frame, and mitigate the ills he cannot
shun.'
  The principal physical conditions we are to understand with reference to this
adaptation, are those which constitute the  elements of  climate,—the chief  of
which  are—temperature—moisture—winds—elevation,  &c.
  The principal moral conditions are  those comprehended in manners, modes
of life, &c.  The physical  are obvious to every one* and  will be particularly
adverted to  hereafter.  The effect of moral  circumstances and  conditions,
though very curious, have not  been sufficiently pourtrayed, and however in-
scrutable, are as undeniable as the  physical.  Thus, with all the infinite and
marvellous varieties of  individual expression,  there is, nevertheless, it is ad-
mitted, a national physiognomy, to show the effect  of this  influence.   Hence
.every one can detect a French  face from an American—the  difference is equal-
ly striking  in  an  Irish, English, Scotch,  German, Italian, Chinese,  Indian,
itc. Sic.  And it  is as  well established that the removal to and incorporation
of  a new stock of emigrants with a native,  will in a few generations, and some-
times in  a  shorter time, lose most of their  original peculiarities, and become
identified with those into whose country they have removed.   Such has been
eminently the case in various  parts of our own country.   The city of Phila-
delphia was originally settled  by Quakers, yet notwithstanding the constant
and varied ingress of emigration to it  since, the manners  of the  great mass
still strosgly partake  of the  simplicity  and  peculiarity of that demure and
guileless sect.  The same  is true of almost every one of the states—each has
more  or less of peculiarity,  notwithstanding the constant  influx from the
others.  It has been remarked by  foreigners that the American countenance,
as  a whole, has the same  cast of features as that of the Aborigines,  and the
portrait of our Washington has been  pointed  to as furnishing a striking evi-
dence  of the fact.
  Further evidence of the same fact has been produced, of even the influence
■of  one generation on the children of Europeans sent to Botany Bay—they are
all, almost without exception,  of the same color of hair and eyes—complex-
ion and disposition.   The same has been remarked of the  descendants of the
English settlers in Ireland in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  and  they were even
said to be—Hybernis  ipsis Hyberniores.  The children  born in Ireland of
Scotch parents assume the character of their mother country, even more surely
than they  acquire its accent.   The Irish and Scotch sprung from  the same
stock; of course  they were the same, but  a change of country,  &.c.  has had
 such an  influence upon them that none can be more distinct and unlike.  The
 same general facts  are fully illustrated  in the Creole of our own state, let his
 parentage be American, French or Spanish, or a descendant of the early inha-
 bitants.  The influence of climate, then, is almost  unbounded, and might have
 been farther illustrated by numberless  examples in the history  of nations.
   The fact, therefore, is undeniable,  that there are vast  physical and moral
jntfuences  incidental to a change of climate, and universal  experience attests, 
.5
 that in this alteration  or mutation  to adapt man to the new position in which
 Providence may place his lot, there is usually great mortality.
   I now propose to make the interesting inquiry—how far this mortality is in-
 evitable,  or controllable by the intelligence of man, and how far the physical
 conditions I have  adverted to, can  be limited in their influence and shorn of
 their virulence.  There are doubtless  situations on the surface  of the globe,
 where no skill of adaptation,  as  yet devised,  nor any  period of habituation,
 can blunt or lessen their deleterious impressions.  In such places animal life is
 poisoned in its source;  its growth is stunted;  its energy is sapped, and its very
 limited duration attests their unfriendliness  to existence.  The  industry and
 researches of travellers have even discovered situations where the  very exis-
 tence of animal life is impossible, like those sterile spots that forbid vegetation,
 or, where the fabled Upas  sheds  its blasting influence around.  One of these
 is situated  near Acapulco in Mexico, and   another in  the  East  Indies—
 valleys unaffected by winds, with  a stagnant and immoveable air forever hang-
 ing over  them—where the breezes of heaven never reach—that  are  literally
 Golgothas—'valleys of the  shadow  of death,' that no  living being can visit
 and return from alive.   The fabled Avernus of the ancients is here realized—
 the bones of the victims  of temerity whiten the surface of the earth, and  re-
 main as beacons to warn the traveller  of the abodes of death;  stunted is the
 vegetation in and around  it;  it is even said that birds cannot fly through them
 with impunity.
   With these exceptions, and they are very few, man is endowed with the
 power, by the exercise of his  distinguishing characteristic (intellect) of seeing,
 foreseeing, and  surmounting  all  obstacles,  and obeying the  early behest of
 heaven, of 'subduing the  earth so that he may cultivate and enjoy it.'
   How far then can man so far modify the influence of climate upon him, as
 to render the transition from  one  climate to another,  and particularly  from a
 cold to a warm one, (the particular object of our research,) safe,  and how can
 he so far protect himself, while his system is undergoing the  change, as not to
 be unnecessarily exposed ?
   The  principal agent that  is appretiable  and controllable by us,  and that
 constitutes the  greatest agent in  these climatural  modifications, is difference
 of temperature.   The system of the inhabitant  of a cold region has the calo-
 rific (or heat-producing  process)  in a state  of great activity to adapt it to
 the  temperature of the region he dwells in.   When he moves south, this pro-
 cess  is no longer required, to  the same  extent, and  consequently the individual
 coming from the north to the south suffers in  a twofold degree—1st.  from the
 increased temperature of the region itself;  and 2nd. from  the habitual  activi-
 ty of the organic action in him which engenders animal  heat.   This power of
 engendering heat, and retaining nearly the  same  temperature  under  almost
 every variety of exposure, is  a property peculiar to life,,  and  in  consequence
 of it, even vegetables have a power  of controlling their  own temperature,
 though in a much more limited degree.  Without this power of adaptation, it
 is obvious that man must have  been chained for life to the climate which gave
 him birth, and even there have suffered constantly from the change of seasons.
   This process  of  calorification in man  is accommodated to the latitude in
 which he  is placed.  In more northern latitudes  its  requirements are much
 greater for the very existence of  animal  life,  and  the expenditure of it,  in
 winter, must be exceedingly great.   As we proceed south, these demands no
 longer exist, (to the same  degree.)  The  habit, however,  has been formed,
 and time and  other means are  requisite, to reduce the  process to the lessened
demands of the system.   Fortunately for  us, in this  respect, the visiting a
warm climate  is, to the system, as the occurrence of summer;  unless assisted 
by artificial excitants and  provocatives, less food,  and particularly of a stimu-
lating nature, is craved for, under its relaxing zephyrs, than under the bracing
blasts of winter:  these  indications  of its greater or less activity in proportion
to the demands of the system seem to be a wise provision in the economy of
nature, to prevent that fulness of the bloodvessels  that would be oppressive in
summer, and with the effect of  accumulating it in winter, when  there is  such
a demand for the calorific energies of the  system.
   There are  other circumstances besides  that  of temperature upon which cli-
mate is dependent for its influence and effects.  It is a well known fact,  that  a
slight, an inappretiable difference, of soil will be readily shown in the  different
qualities of the products of vegetation—soils similar in  appearance and expo-
sure, of the same neighborhood, produce vegetables and fruit of varying flavor
and other qualities.  Sheep, of the  sarhc kind,  in adjoining and apparently
similar pastures, have  differently flavored mutton;  even  their wool differs,
and they exchange these qualities in exchanging pastures.  It is a most limit-
ed spot that yields the celebrated  Tokay, and  transplantation has in vain at-
tempted to acquire, for its products, its much admired bouquet.  These hidden
mysteries of nature are  fruitlessly sought for—the cause "let  sages versed in
nature's lore explain."  Fortunately for us, it is of little practical importance;
all that is valuable upon this subject is  easily  controllable by information de-
rived from experience and observation.
   Nor does climate depend upon latitude  alone; east and west have also their
peculiarities,  as  well from position, elevation, winds, soil, &c.  and  it has been
accordingly remarked, that of an  equal number of Europeans embarking for
the unhealthy parts of the East and West  Indies, a greater portion of the latter
would perish during the  first year after their arrival,  but the acclimatement of
the remainder being more complete,  a far greater number would probably be
alive at the end  of 10 years, than of those who established themselves in the
eastern hemisphere.  This fact has  been fully proved in  English regiments
sent to the East and West Indies.  Of a 1000 British troops arriving  in Ja-
maica, it has been calculated that between one third and one half perish during
the first year after their disembarkation,  whilst of a similar  number sent to
India, not more than  one fourth will fall victims to the climate during an equal
space of time.   But, as just observed, this disproportion of mortality diminish-
es every succeeding  year, till finally in about 5 or 6 years, the  loss  of both
parties will have been about the same.
   The western coast of Africa is by far a more burning clime than that  of the
eastern, in the same  degree of  latitude.   Witness the  lightly bronzed com-
plexion of the natives  of the eastern  coast, and compare it with the  rayless
black of the native of the Gold  Coast.   The prevailing winds are eastern, and
they come upon the natives of the former in all their bracing freshness, while
"tis almost with the siroc's breath they steam the western borderer, after pass-
ing over  the  furnace   of  Afric's burning sand plains.   Comparisons equally
striking, of other latitudes, in different countries, could  be added, did  our time
admit of it.
   To give these,remarks a practical  bearing—their only  real value—and as
there is but one  condition  (of the physical constituents  of climate) that we
can be said to thoroughly understand, or  which it is necessary to control,  (ex-
cept  moisture,  which  will be  mentioned hereafter,) the varving amount of
caloric  and the  calorific process,  we must necessarily confine ourselves to  the
regulation of these, so as to  adapt  them  to the varying circumstances of the
changes contemplated  or effected.   How then  is this to be effected?   The
first is, to lower atmospheric temperature or avoid exposure to it, and will be
mentioned hereafter.   With regard to the second,  the  corrective influence is 
derivablo from such sources or means as  lessen the influence of the tempera-
ture upon man directly—by lessening the activity of the calorific process, and
by diminishing the  impressionability of his system,  or  its susceptibility  to
heat, by duly  protecting and giving tone to the surface.
  To fulfil these objects, the  various modes of depletion, direct and indirect,
comprehended in  the  antiphlogistic  treatment, are plainly indicated.  They
are—avoiding exposure to an elevated temperature, moderate clothing  and ex-
ercise, cooling drinks,  the strictest temperance, light diet, and when the calo-
rific process  exists  in excess, with a full  habit  of body, bleeding, the tepid
bath and cooling purging is  called for.
  There are other means, still less understood, that require some explanation.
  The influence of climate  is  first felt and  most sensibly felt, upon the  surface.
It is there that its most active influences arc  made, and it is there must be made
the impressions  to remove and modify  them.  This may  be considered as a
primary principle;  others are more or less subservient to it.  All animals have
coverings to adapt them to the  climate they  inhabit—in changing their climate,
most of those that are exposed, likewise, in process of time, have such changes
effected in their attires, as  to adapt them to their new positions, as the thick
wool of the northern sheep becomes, on being removed into hot countries,  con-
vertad into or exchanged for, hair, &.c.
  Were farther  proof  required, (for which  I have so little time,) the fact that
the appearance  of the  skin is indicative  of the health  of the  individual, is a
matter of common observation; the ruddy complexion  of health, the pale, jaun-
diced,  shrivelled condition of disease, with its diminished vitality;  the impor-
tance of its undisturbed  secretion, the influence  of its  suppression,  of wet
clothes, drafts of air, wet feet, in the production of disease in warm climates,
where  the system  is made additionally susceptible  from a long continuance of
an elevated temperature,  and  not  from miasm; the influence of the cold bath,
of friction, of flannel,  and even corpulency,  in protecting the system, is  in
corroboration  of these  general views.  The importance of the bath and  friction
cannot be overrated.  I have seen persons  that were  unacclimated, pass un-
scathed, under their influence and  temperance, through the worst epidemics  of
this country.
  It has been remarked, with great truth, that those men who are  accustomed
to a rude, laborious life,  who are little regardful  of the unseasonableness  of
the weather,  to  the vicissitudes of which they are constantly exposing them-
selves, certainly live in the  enjoyment of health and vigor, like other animals:
nor was it till  man discovered and brought to  perfection  artificial means of de-
fending the body generally from  the extremities of the seasons, that  he was
subdued by the severity of his native clime.   But, we must treat man as he is;
and inasmuch as  he has acquired these  susceptibilities,  and cultivated this
delicacy, it is essential for his comfort and sometimes  even for his existence,
that it  should be overcome or modified by such antidotes and correctives, as we
shall presently point out.
  The indications that I have laid down and their fulfilment seem to be so
plain and self evident, that  it is surprising there ever should have been  a doubt
or disagreement  with regard to the proper course.  I have no hesitation in ex-
pressing my belief that the error of the counsel given to those going South, to
employ stimulants  to counteract the supposed debilitating  influence of  a warm
climate, (which has no mean authority for its advocacy,) has arisen from con-
fownding the effect of the long continuance of heat, with that  of first impres-
sions—the one bearing,  often calling for stimulants—the other, (proceeding
directly from  the stimulus of heat,) adding to and heightening all the injurious
effects  of a hot  climate.  This fatal  error  has carried  millions to the grave, 
fi
 and will continue to do so until men reason rightly  from effects to causes.—
 Experience upon this subject lends its important aid and  confirms the value of
 the theory;  a few references to illustrative authority will not  be out of  place.
   \)r. Davy relates in his travels in Ceylon, from his personal observation, that
 nn first landing in a tropical climate, the standard heat of the body of a Euro-
 pean is raised 2 or 3 degrees, and febrile symptoms occur, which require tem-
 perance—the avoiding every cause of excitement of the vascular  system, and
 the use of aperient medicines, for its removal.   The elevation  of the tempera-
 ture pf the surrounding  atmosphere is so great, (as in all  warm climates,) that
 no relief can be obtained from that source, and the  consequence  would  be a
 apeedy  destruction of the vital  functions, if nature had not  afforded relief
 through the cutaneous system, .and thus established a healthy equilibrium.
   Dr. Rush, in  his Inquiries, mentions the case of a regiment of European
 troops,  arriving in the sickly season in the West Indies, saved from the devas-
 tation other troops were suffering,  by being bled  to a man, and not a  case (I
 think) of fever,  occurred among them.  The same indefatigable collector of
 facts also mentions the case of a Yankee captain, saving his whole ship's crew,
 similarly circumstanced, by exhibiting to them a cathartic of sea water every
 morning.
   The influence of care—of the free use of flannel and cleanliness, is shewn
 too,  in the remarkable health enjoyed in  the British  ship of war 'Valorous,'
 which,  after two years' service among the  icebergs of Labrador, went imme-
 diately  to the West Indies, visiting almost every one of them, and  returning
 to England without losing a man, out of  150.
   The same immunity was enjoyed in the  "Recruit," under  the same careful
 treatment, lying 9 weeks at Vera Cruz, while the other vessels of the  squad-
 ron, with whom they were in constant intercourse, lost from 25  to 50 each.
   A late distinguished writer has attributed the comparative immunity from
 what has been called 'malarious  disease,' enjoyed by the  ancient Romans, to
 their being always attired in warm woollen dresses.  This remark is justified
 by the observation, that since the period  at which the use of  woollen clothing
 came again into vogue,  intermittent  fevers have very sensibly  diminished in
 Rome.  Even in the warmest weather, the shepherds are now clothed in sheep
skins.   Similar means have  been  found  effectual in preserving  the  health of
 laborers digging  drains,  and  excavating canals  in marshy  grounds,  where,
 previous to  the employment  of  this precaution, the mortality from fever  was
 considerable.
   The distinguished Dr. Mosely,  who has had such extensive  experience in
hot climates, and who has written a valuable work  con tropical  diseases,' avers,
that  water should be the  only drink there.  Dr. Johnson,  the eminent author
of the work on'tropical  climates,'whose experience here is  probably greater
than any living authority,  fully concurs with Dr. Mosely in the propriety of ab-
staining from all stimulants.  Were it necessary to appeal farther to the  au-
thority of  experience, the great mass of the profession practising in  warm cli-
 mates might be cited in  corroboration, and the experience particularly in this
place, would be most emphatic and  trumpet-tongued.
   There is a valuable lesson furnished us  upon this subject, and it is by the na-
 tive or acclimated population themselves, and none are more to the point—it is
 that  of graduating our living and habits by that  standard which unfailing in-
 stinct and experience have taught them, is adapted  to their positions.   This is a
 universal truth, whose single exception or prerequisite is, that in coming from
 a cold to a hot climate, the calorific process must first be reduced  to the scale of
 the native.  This is a rule of such general application, so reasonable, so often
 proved by experience, that it is  surprising that it is not universally  enforced 
9
  upon those changing climates.   The English cockney, in contempt of what he-
  calls native effeminacy, exposes himself without an umbrella to the scorching
  rays of an Indian sun, and afterwards quaffs his glass and gormandizes, as in
  the invigorating climate of London, and condemns the climate for prostrating
  him.   The more  accommodating Frenchman confines himself to vegetables
  and soup,  and  withstands influences  under  which the other  sinks   And so
  with our northern brethren, this climate has to stand answerable for all the sin9
  of juleps and champagne—beef and bacon!
    Capt. Parry, in his perilous voyages to discover a north west passage, found
  that in proportion as his men adapted the manners and habits of the indigenous
  inhabitants, so did they with the more facility bear the climate, and he found
  that an exclusive animal diet, a large use of oil and fat meats,  was  the true  se-
  cret of life in those frozen regions, and he expressed his conviction, that if his
  sailors could swill blubber oil with as much gout as the natives, and conform to
  their usages and experience, the unhappy destiny of the many men who have
  wintered in those icy solitudes would have been very different.
    And how afflictive to humanity has  been  the experience afforded  by the
  numberless travellers whose lives have been sacrificed by the unfriendly cli-
  mates of Africa and  India, unprepared by a knowledge of the customs of the
  natives, or the requirements of climate, they have blundered on with European
  habits, until death has put a period to their wanderings.  Such too has lent to
  war a scourge of tenfold devastation, from the ignorance of those having; its
  direction,  upon  this subject.   From the possession of this knowledge, the
  rigors of an arctic winter have now no terrors.  It has been made, with a de-
  tention of near two years, without losing a man; and there cannot be a doubt
  that with the same attention to the 'non-naturals,'* a like immunity would be en-
 joyed in the south.
    There are certain Hygienic rules to be followed during the process of accli-
  mation, which time permits me  only very briefly  to advert to—in the careful
  observance of which  individuals are enabled  to resist morbific elimatural influ-
  ences they are unavoidably exposed to.  They prescribe certain regulations
  with regard to  diet,  drinks, clothing,  habits op life, &c.
    This  is not  the place to descend to much  detail into these circumstances.—
 Thoy will  come in more appropriately at an  early period of our course.  I
 shall then merely fill up, in a general manner, the outline I have sketched.
    The kind of diet required during the process of acclimation  is clearly inferri-
  ble from the position  laid down  with regard to calorification,  and has been, in
 general, mentioned.   It is to be of the lightest kind, of plain unirritating vege-
 tables, of little animal food during the first summer, and that fresh—and avoid-
 ing much indulgence in salt food.  The advice of using salt food  in hot wea-
 ther, given by a distinguished  Professor, now  no more, has cost thousands of
 Jives, some to my own personal knowledge.   The second summer a  little more
 freedom may be indulged.  After acclimation, a more  generous living is advi-
 sable.   I have little doubt that  good living is conducive to healthy as giving
 that degree of tone to the system that enables it to  resist the influence of mor-
 bific  causes.
   The same general principles are applicable to drinks, absolutely forbidding
 those of a stimulating  nature, as increasing the range of those organic actions,
 and particularly those of the gastric system, already over-stimulated by the cli-

  * Note.—Under this term the ancient  physicians comprehended air, meat,  drink,
eleep.  watching, motion*  rest, the retentions and excretions,  and the  affections oftha
mind;  or, in other  words, those principal' matters which do not enter into the imposition
of the body, but at the same time are necessary to its existence.
                                   2 
10
mate:  Bland and acidulated drinks, (where they agree,) and the Seltzer water,
are highly refreshing and  proper.   The consequences of indulging in stimula-
ting drinks in a warm climate have been recently shewn on another occasion.*
The  indulgence, particularly the intemperate use of ardent spirits, retards ac-
climation, multiplies the chances of febrile excitement, and lessens the pros-
pect of passing the acclimating fever with safety.   It has been shewn in the
address just referred to, that they act in a direct line with and aggravate all the
injurious influences of a hot climate and season.  This  influence was exhibited
in a  remarkable manner from  the  records of the  Charity Hospital, (the only
data of the kind in this country.)   From  these  it appears that the mortality in
that  house in 1835 amounted to 1226;  of these 910 or 4 fifths!  were produced
by intemperance, and  that only nine of this number had passed through their
acclimation! a more pregnant and condemnatory fact of the use of stimulating
drinks  in a hot climate  could not be cited.   I know of no circumstances in
which they are necessary for health,  whether from exposure to wet, heat, or fa-
tigue, and believe them to be injurious and only a counterfeiter of good in all.
   Clothing  must be adapted to circumstances, bearing  in mind the  general
principles, and  that the surface is the great avenue to  disease.  A corpulent
individual will require less  than a  spare man.  If exposed much to the sun
with a liability to perspire freely, increased susceptibility is produced.  Hence
that  kind of clothing is requisite, which, though light, is a  bad  conductor of
 caloric, for the heat of exposure to the direct rays of the sun  is greater than
that  of the human body.   If the occupation does  not exact such an exposure,
 or loss of fluids by perspiration; then light cool clothing is clearly called for.
   With regard to the habits of life, the errors have  not been less  serious
 than extensive; I cannot  stop to enumerate them in detail; they may be infer-
 red  from the advice I am about to give.   Early rising,  to enjoy the delightful
 freshness of the morning breeze,  is highly  conducive  to health.   An  early
 breakfast is the only 'fortifying' the stomach requires.
   Exercise  is of great importance in this climate.   It should be taken during
 the  early morning and evening hours, avoiding the  mid day sun.   The  night
 air is only injurious to those who have been exposed much to the sun  and ex-
 cessive perspirations during the day;  otherwise it is grateful  and safe, parti-
 cularly if  in motion,  carefully avoiding  the extent of chilliness.  Probably
 there is no habit more universal or that would strike a stranger more forcibly,
 on visiting this country for the first time  in summer, than the general  habit of
 setting out and indulging in the evening air,  (and particularly in this city,) and
 with perfect safety, under the restrictions just laid  down, in defiance of all the
 predictions of the miasmatists.
   There  is  no  habit  more eminently promotive of health   and  long  life,
 and as a preventative to disease, than  the free use of the Bath.   Believing
 that the main avenue to  climatural disease to be the surface, that its  appear-
 ance is the main index to the condition of the individual—the protection of that
 surface—the fortifying it against the inroads  of morbific impressions, which
 are principally through the .medium of the atmosphere, to which it is constant-
 ly exposed—the removal or modification of that sensibility and impressionabili-
 ty, upon which its.  susceptibility depends, surely cannot be over-rated.  This
  is done by the purifying  and cleansing process of  the bath—opening the clog-
  ged and exciting the torpid capillaries, giving tone to the surface.by its tempe-
  rature and quality, and by frictions with the flesh brush.  They should be daily
  administered.                                         .           .      .
    From these Hygienic rules with regard to the  individual, it is but  an easy
  and natural transition fto pass to that of communities,  in which are embraced,

   * Vide Address ' On the applicability ©f stimulants in  a hot  climate,' by the author. 
11
among other objects, the important condition formerly adverted to—that of re-
ducing atmospheric temperature.  This is not the place to go into details upon
a subject so fruitful.   I shall hence limit myself to such remarks as have not
been dwelt  upon, or but sparingly, by others, confining myself to our present
location.
   The speedy removal of offensive filth is too obvious  but to  be mentioned:
the  streams of running water in the gutters, not only for their purifying influ-
ence, but their affects upon the temperature, and particularly when spread on
the  streets, has not been sufficiently attended to, in all parts  of the city.   The
amount of caloric taken up by water passing to a state of vapor, is almost incre-
dible to those unacquainted  with  the principles of chemistry,  and amounts to
near 900 degrees—the  air is then proportionally cooled, and the dust inciden-
tal to our miserable system of paving, effectually kept down.
   There is  another objection to our climate and locality—and though carried
to the extent of the  argumentum ad absurdum,  yet  being, to  some extent,  a
great evil, merits a careful notice of the physician, or of one  desirous of ame-
liorating the condition of the climate.  I allude to the "great dampness" alle-
ged  to exist here.   Surrounded as the city  is by arms of the sea on many sides,
and  by morasses at no great  distance,  and having the river running by our
doors, which, for probably six  months in  the year, from February to July, is
higher than the level of  our streets;* it is certainly allowed that there are great
causes of moisture.j"  The extent, however, to which this moisture is injurious,
has  not been, by any means, so clearly  ascertained.  Such is the propensity
and  the unfortunate weakness of the human mind,  that the moment a plausible
cause to  which an  evil  may  be  ascribed is ascertained to exist,  no matter to
what extent, all evil is at once attributed  to it.  and  reason is obscured by,the
blindness of prejudice and prepossession; not a moment is left to reflect what
would have  been the condition of New Orleans, if  it had been situated upon  a
dry arid  plain, instead of being surrounded  by  these sources for lowering its
temperature.  Its average annual temperature, instead of being about 66 as it
is now, would probably have reached 6 to 8 degrees higher, the average tempe-
rature of similar  latitudes elsewhere.   Our sickliest seasons are our hottest
and  dryest—our most injurious winds (northern  quarters) are the  most drying,
and  the  dryest  skin is  the most uncomfortable one.  Here then are positive
benefits from this fruitful  source of all our supposed evils.
   Yet still it  is freely acknowledged that there  is loo much dampness often  in
our  atmosphere; and when so, it has the effect  of increasing our atmospheric
vicissitudes, and particularly between  day  and night—it augments the fall of
dew, with all its injurious influences,  and the amount of rain—renders the cli-
mate, in a measure, unfit for the continued preservation of various kinds of mer-
chandize, and certainly is productive, when combined with a very  elevated tem-
perature, of increased disease.  It is gratifying, however, to know, that  every
natural evil has a remedy, and that a kind Providence has  placed within the
reach of the industry and intelligence of man, means for the removal of all.

  * It is a great mistake to suppose that the vicinity to the surface of sub-terrene water,
as noticed by our wells and digging, depends entirely upon the height  of the river, it
being supposed to be  passed through by percolation, or  capillary attraction.  From a
number of experiments repeatedly made by-myself on the subject. I am clearly of opi-
nion,  that it depends more upon the quantity of water that falls in rains;  the quality of
the soil being such as to retain it. and the moderate Inclination preventing  its passing off
rapidly.  Hence the additional force to the recommendation in the text, to be mentioned
presently,  of the species of pave ment to meet this difficulty.
  I Sje Table A. in Appendix.             + See Table B. in Appendix. 
12
                                       #
 Let us pause for a moment  and  consider  with whit  facility the cause of all
 these  evils may be removed.
   The first and most important step to accomplish that valuable end is a proper
 system of paving; and as there is none that adds, also,  so much to our com-
 fort and convenience—that enables us more to benefit by our commercial ad-
 vantages, or is more conducive to health, you will excuse my going a little more
 into detail.   Its important influence in the prevention of disease has long been
 remarked in Europe, where unpaved cities have been much more subject to
 epidemic diseases than the paved, and  in this country (U. States)  it has been
 noticed  that disease  has sometimes  been  confined to the unpaved portions of
 cities,  and none can be ignorant  of the remarkable  ameliorations  that have
 taken  place  in the public health in this city since the extension of the pave-
 ments, bad and  imperfect as they are, though I do not attribute the whole to
 this influence, and the time is not  distant, if this and other means shall be per-
 fected, that the salubrity of the place will be as remarkable as it was formerly
 the reverse.
   Our present system of pebble paving is expensive in the outlay and constant-
 ly requiring repairs—is a burdensome tax to every man who keeps a horse or
 wheel carriage of any description—is very annoying in the noise and dust which
 it subjects the neighborhood of all  streets where it exists, and does not prevent
 evaporation from the soil beneath either of moisture or offensive smells, and though
 it is better than  none, it  in a great measure fails in  the great  essential of a
 pavement here.  The substitute I  would recommend is a wooden pavement, of
 durable materials,   properly cemented  together, and  of such depth  in the soil
 and such arch, as to render it of sufficient solidity.  It has all the advantages
 and none of the disadvantages of the pebble pavement; it produces or permits
 no noise, no dust, no mud, no stagnant water; no evaporation through it;  no
 offensive smells, no filth.   The idea of  its being unhealthy  is one of those he-
 retical hypotheses that I  cannot  stop to combat now,  but  which  I shall dwell
 upon, in extenso, when we reach that part of our course where we have to ex-
 amine  the various speculations with regard to that very Briareus—malaria.  I
 shall only observe now, that if a  something called miasma, the supposed cause
 of fever, be the result of heat, moisture and  putrefaction of dead organic mat-
 ter, animal and vegetable, we should have much less of it, when the soil, a
 mixture of both, would be covered with a solid floor, a foot thick, impassable to
 any  thiiig, than when  we  have—mud, original soil,  filth,  and evaporation
 through the pebble pavement, all of which would be prevented by the other.*
   The next most important step is the draining the neighboring marshes, clear-
 ing  them of forest growth, and subjecting  them to cultivation:  the sun and
 winds would then keep them dry, with the aid of the invaluable draining com-
 pany.
   But this is not all; our courts and back yards should be kept as dry and clean
 as the  streets—the rooms of our dwellings large, with lofty ceilings, with care-
 ful exclusion of light and reflected heat during the day, but open to the evening
 air.  It  is from such causes  that the interior  of St. Paul's and Westminster,
 in London, and of Notre Dame and  St. Sulpice in Paris, are from 6 to 8 degrees
 cooler  than the adjoining houses.   And if the highest elevation of the thermo-
meter never exceeds 88 degrees,! in the hottest climate and season, with per-

  * I rejoice to see a commensement of the wooden pavements since the above remarks
 were written, although of a most imperfect kind,yet they, (the boat  gunwales.) are inf-
initely more adapted to our moist and yielding soil, than any kind ofetone, flat or rouno.
   t Vide De La Beetles' Geology, Amer. edition 
13
  feet exclusion of radiated caloric and light, how very comfortable we have it in
  our power to make  it here, in latitude near  30, where the thermometer, with
  radiation, rarely  reaches to 90, and the average of our summer  months at the
  hottest parts of the day, is only 83.27u.
    No less important to the enjoyment and perpetuation of health, is a free and
  sufficient ventilation.  Medical records are pregnant with valuable and inte-
  resting details upon this subject—from the celebrated black hole of Calcutta to
  the Assizes of Oxford,—the jail and hospital fevers, and the proverbial unheal-
  thiness of the leeward stations in the West Indies.  Stagnant air  is injurious
  every where—motion in air, as in water, is essential to its salubrity, as in fael
  it is to every condition of life.  It is eminently so  in warm countries.   Fortu-
  nately for us, calm weather is hardly known to us—our happy vicinage to the
  gulf stream,  and to the alternations of large  bodies  of land  and water, keep
  the elements constantly stirring around us.   Our interests and pleasure here
  happily coincide to invite the refreshing zephyrs.  From an examination of my
  meteorological journal, which I have carefully collated, for a number of years
  back,  it appears that  during the six  warm  months,  (when they are most want-
  ing,) the  most frequent winds are the S.  W. and  S. E.*   It  is obvious then*
  that the windows and  doors of our houses should be made, as far as practica-
  ble, to correspond with these directions, carefully excluding all dry  or norther-
  ly winds—as productive of a dry, disagreeable, chilly or burning state of the
  skin, and tending to  produce disease,  and in fact our worst forms of autumnal
  fever  are cotemporaneous with winds from the N. N. E.  and N. W.  They
  should be  carefully   excluded from  our houses  during these periods.   The-
  streets should be at right angles, and in a direction  to correspond with the most
  frequent winds, to insure the greatest ventilation, without obstruction.
    He, then, who carefully traces  effects to causes, and reasens upon their re-
  spective influences, is not permitted to doubt  that if, in obedience to a proper
  system of medical police, there is established  a mode  of paving that shall pre-
  vent the accumulation of filth or stagnant water above, and evaporation from
  the moist soil  beneath—a sufficient draining,  clearing and cultivation of the
  swamps in the neighborhood—a removal of impediments to a  proper  ventila-
  tion—curtailing irradiations of elevated temperature—lowering the heat of the
  streets by streams of running water and its occasional diffusion over the sur-
  face—with  a  suitable attention to hygiene rules,  and  with an  accommoda-
  tion of our habits to  the altered conditions,  in  the various relations which
  a change  of climate exacts—there cannot be a doubt that this city would not
 only be dry enough for all the purposes and demands of commerce,  but  would
 be unequalled for its salubrity by any city on this continent.
   Fortunately, our climate is subject to no great variety of diseases that is in-
 digenous, when compared with other portions of our country, a large proportion
 of our  complaints, having other sources, many  of the afflicted coming here for
 the benefit of climate.   And if our acclimatement  is sometimes severe, it is
 the only ordeal we have to pass through—no such immunity is enjoyed in the
 northern portion of the U. States—no period of acclimation can protect the
 pulmonary organs of the natives or emigrants from a  scourge that yearly takes
 off, in some of their healthiest cities, 1 in every 4.52 of their deaths.
  It is impossible to obtain correct data in order to give precise  details  upon
 the subject of our own diseases—the nearest approach  to it is derived from the
 records of the Charity Hospital,  which furnishes about  1  in 3.86 of our annual
mortality.  In comparing the detail derived from that source, it will result, that
pulmonary  consumption, which carries off in the northern cities 1  in every 5 or
* Vide Table of Winds in Appendix—C. 
n
t; of their deaths, is here fatal to about  1 in 50, few of which doubtless origi-
nated here.*  Of pulmonary diseases in general, which in the northern cities
carries off near 1 in every 4 of their deaths,  is  here fatal to  about 1 in 30, of
which about one third were acclimated,! furnishing, in fact, a ratio of pulmo-
nary diseases to the entire mortality of that house,  probably unprecedented in
any country, and in private practice, it is probably less.
  Of the class fevers, the great mass of our mortality consists,—these records
shew the proportion of  1  in every 2.92 of the entire mortality of the house,
and the estimated are  taken from  years of the greatest mortality that ever  oc-
curred in this country.   But it must not be forgotten that a large proportion of
this  consists  of the unacclimated—the  exposed  and besotted,  of which  New
Orleans has a larger ratio probably than any city in the Union.   From a state-
ment from the books,  it appears that there were actually of unacclimated  indi-
viduals nearly four fifths of the whole.  The mortality of the acclimated popu-
lation in the house from fevers, to the entire moitality is 1 in 29.02, and of the
unacclimated there appears a proportion of 1 in 6, and the cost of acclimation
through  fever, so far  as these returis furnish an  estimate, is annually about
131—and if the relative proportion in this house to the entire city mortality be
correct in this respect, (in fact much  the  largest portion die in the Charity Hos-
pital,) the annual mortality in the city through acclimation may be estimated at
about 507, and be it recollected, however, that the estimate embraces  one of the
epidemic years, (1832.)
  The mortality in early life in Philadelphia is about one half the  entire mortal-
ity, and so unfriendly is the climate to early life, that one half  these die within
the year.  We have no data of our own with which to compare it.   I feel  very
confident, however, that it  does not exceed one fourth of these  proportions.  It is
almost useless to stop to lament these deficiencies.   For want of them we know
not the mean duration of life—the chances of living—when we are traduced by
all the world for the precariousness of existence here, when but  a little trouble
would give  the exact  truth;  nor  the cost of acclimation, circumstances indis-
pensable to insurance.   Indeed, no record could be more valuable and interest-
ing to  the country.  Oblivious darkness as to the past shrouds and  must for-
ever shroud it—no laborious research, no searching scrutinies can throw much
light upon it.  We  are all so absorbed in the future, that little thought is given
to the past.  This, to be sure, is not true wisdom; we are leaving out the most
important data with regard to our progressive condition, and blunder on in  ig-
norance and uncertainty.   Were such data present to prove that the health of
the place is actually and materially ameliorating, of which there cannot  be a
doubt, but there is wanting the official proof to convey to  and  produce convic-
tion on others, millions might be  added to the value of our property,  and the
city would become  duly  appreciated.
   The period of removal to any climate is  when the temperature of  the coun-
try you move from is, in the revolution of its  seasons, the nearest to that you
are moving to.   And the reason is  obvious, because the  calorific process will
have been most on a par with both, will  have equalized  itself with the tempe-
ratures  actually existing, and there will be,  consequently, the least shock to

  * It is proper to state that these data  are not only imperfect, but vary greatly in different years.  In some
years, the cases of Phthisis to the entire mortality in the houss is but 1 in 80, and in another in 14, (in 1832.)
  t This is very difficult to ascertain from our imperfect records.  From the same source I have procured
smost of the above data, it appears that iu a series of years, of the phthisical patients in that institution, the
average of the acclimated to the unacclimated were as 8 to 20.  This, however, can hardly be considered cor-
rect, many persons coming to this climate, for its generally acknowledged benefit in pulmonary affections, with
strong phthisical predispositions and liabilities, which may and do ultimately become developed, after they have
been here thre» years (or "acclimated,") and hence add materially to the number. 
15
the system.   If you are moving to the north, you should seize the period when
our mild winter is  closing  its march,  and a few weeks of travelling would
hardly leave you conscious of any  change.  On the contrary, if it is your in-
tention to remove south, from the northern and  middle states, the temperature
of their late autumnal season is much the same as that of our winters; hence
that is the safest  period for removal south, as the system will have already mea-
surably accommodated itself to the condition existing here, and the reduction
incidental to a calorific  process at its maximum, would be  but paitially re-
quired.
  The enquiry so often made—how long a period is required for the acclimating
process,  and what  assurance have  we that it  is passed?—is  not so easily an-
swered,«to a mathematical certainty, but sufficiently so for all practical purpo-
ses.   There are various compound considerations to influence it—the tempera-
ment of the individual—his habits and modes of life—the more or  less north-
ern his place of departure, &c.   Following the directions and governed by the
principles here laid down—three years, at the farthest, may  be considered a
fair period for this much valued immunity.   But it may be acquired in less,—a
severe or protracted attack of a febrile disease may  reduce  the tone of the
system to that condition to which a long residence in a warm  climate subjects
us all.
   It has been most erroneously supposed that this probationary period must be
accompanied with fever to  procure the rewarded acclimation, and many are
most reckless  of their health, regardless of all prudential considerations, pre-
suming  there  is  no other road of safety but through this much dreaded one.__
It is often a fatal error, for it is  most obvious that however that condition of con-
stitution is  acquired by which this much dreaded result is obtained—the end  is
the same, immunity, influenced very much by  his conformity or departure in
his habits and modes of life, from those principles already laid down.  There is
no secret or system about it, nor is  there any specific inoculation necessary.__
It is most true, that much the largest portion pass through this ordeal, and the
reason is as obvious as the prevalence—there is departure from those hyo-ienic
rules  and restrictions, that so wonderfully, yet rationally adapts the yielding
system of man to the requirements  of a different  order of things, and he pays
the  penalty accordingly.
   In those  parts of our country which are constantly varying  in their aspects
 from successive  clearing and  cultivation, there can  be no  steadiness in the
conditions to constitute climate, hence the system has not the time to habituate
itself to any condition, and there can be no acclimation.  It is  for this reason
that the period which elapses between the fjrst removal of the forest  growth
and general cultivation, the native and emigrant possess nearly equal advanta-
 ges,  and each is subject to the seasoning or acclimating process, and the coun-
try,  during this period,  is  generally sickly;—hence the constant necessity
which exists, for a continuance of those hygienic rules and  restrictions, which
are requisite during this process.   And from the various changes in the condi-
tions that go to  constitute climate, (and particularly with regard to tempera-
ture,) the  acclimation to a northern country, where the extremes of tempera-
ture  are so much greater, is much more difficult than in a southern one__hence
the frequency in the repetitions of attacks of yellow fever,  (besides their own
peculiar diseases,)  subjecting those it seizes to almost constant repetition  on
each visitation, as has been so  frequently remarked in Philadelphia and else-
where, while here this repetition is almost unknown, unless with such a change
 of climate  as would  be equivalent to a northern winter.  It  is for this reason
that in the most equable climate, habituation to its condition,  or acclimation
is most facilitated, and it is for the same reason that aggravated seasons of sick- 
16
  ness may be most reasonably expected, when there is the greatest difference
  between  the winter and summer temperature,  and my long  experience in this
  country has fully corroborated the fact.
    In the north the most  active apparatus of the «»ystem is the respiratory,  on
  account of the great demand for caloric to enable the inhabitants to withst ind
  the  influence of cold on  their systems, and  hence the  predominance  of their
  pulmonary diseases over others.  But on coming to  the south, where this in-
  creased temperature is no longer required to  preserve the integrity of his orga-
  nization, this active demand on the respiratory system is diminished, and trans-
  ferred to other systems, now called into more active operation—viz: the circu-
  latory and gastro-intestinal—1st,  from the direct effect of heat in awakening
  the great organ of the circulation, and its numerous branches into increased
  activity; and 2dly—from  the immediate influence of this increased tempera-
  ture on the skin, and through it on the  gastro-intestinal surface, with which it
  is associated in the closest sympathetic connexion, and hence the result—fever
 and intestinal affections, the great outlets of human life in southern countries.
 The character of these latter affections—the  cause and the mode of operation,
 will all point to a course of treatment that is  as rational and satisfactory in
 theory, as  it has been successful  and conclusive from experience—it is the
 sedulous avoidance of each and every gradation of stimulation to organs that
 are now threatened with disorganization from its excess.  I speak now  especi-
 ally to the unacclimated: when, however, the system has become  worn  down
 by the debilitating influence of a protracted continuance of an elevated tempe-
 rature, an order of stimuli, then, of a permanent kind may be advisable.  In
 an admission of this kind,  however, I exclude the necessity of the  diffusable
 stimulants of any kind whatever, ardent spirits especially.
   It would detain you too long to enumerate all  the diseases and conditions of
 life from which benefit has  been received in exchanging a northern for a  south-
 ern clime—let me refer to a  few, the principal  of them—as the pulmonary—
 cardiac and calculous affections—gout,  rheumatism, scrofula—old chronic af-
 fections—for worn-down  constitutions—for advanced  age and delicate early
 life: and the advantage derived  here has resulted from—the diffusion of ex-
 citement—its translation to the capillaries of the periphery, and the unlocking
 in  that proportion, those numerous congestions and local actions which seem
 to  have chained in their  embrace the vitality of the system.  The lessened
 demand for the exercise of those organs, (the pulmonary,) one of whose func-
 tions it is to increase the  heat,  and calling into activity oihers that are tor-
 pid or worn down, by  the  application of a  mild  and constant stimulus,
 (heat,) which, when  duly  accommodated to the  wants of the system, supplies
 one of those natural  demands without  which we  cannot live, resuscitates
 exhausted nature, and prolongs the  period of human  existence.  History
 teems with the  effects of such removals:—the ancient Romans of the higher
 latitudes of Italy,  worn down by intemperance and age, were wont to  emi-
 grate to the  warmer sun and purer air  of the Mediterranean, and  thus  of
 adding many years to their lives.  Such, also,  we are told,  has  been  the
 habit of the Portuguese,  who emigrate to  the Brazils,  to renovate their ex-
 hausted constitutions.  And such will be, as it has been to some extent, the
 habit  in our own country, and  the  sunny  clime  and  mild, temperature of
 Louisiana,  which has been proved to have been  more favorable, especially to
 the extremes of human life,  than  any other portion of  our common country,
 will be the ordinary  resort of the aged-—the deligate and the young—the
decrepid and  the afflicted—the diseased  and worn down constitutioiw-of other
 portions of the Union.  Happy Louisiana!  With a soil inexhaustible in fer-
tility—with a position accessible,  with unparalleJled facility, by  water an4 
                                          17

land,  at all times,  from every portion of the globe,—with wealth and refine
ment  almost unrivalled,  and with a climate that is equally friendly to  the native
population and the afflicted of other countries, you are destined to be the lonj
desired and envied Utopia of other nations.
AP  PENDIX.
TABLE A.
Avcrajo monthly recession of the Missis"
  sippifrom high, water marls, at IVew Or«
  lciii>i"iveraKC for the years 1833-4-5«Gi
JANUARY,
FRBRUAKY,
MARCH,
APRIL,
MAY,
JUNE
Inches
 7.91)
 5.13
 4.27
 2.94
 4.63
 1.72
| JULY,
I AUGUST,
 SEPTEMBER,
 OCTOBKR,
 NOVEMBER,
| DECEMBER,
Indies
 5.82
 7.97
13.10
13.33
12.31
 8.84
Monthly fall of rain on an average of 4 last years.
Inchei
4.69
2.08
2.64
5.31
2.44
6.17
JULY,
AUGUST,
SEPTEMBER,
OCTOBER,
NOVEMBER,
DECEMBER,
Total,
Inchei
 5.63
 5.24
 6.79
 1.29
 3.10
 2.97
23.33

47.3S
TABLE B.
Of Temperatures of New Orleans by SEASONS.
'AVERAGE Of 1833— '4—'5-'6	Averaga at j Average at sunrise | mid day	Average in 1 Average at 1 Average at 1 Highest the sun | sun set | 10 at night |	Lowest	General Average	Range
Winter Averaga Spring Average Summer Average Fall Average	47.57 1 5S.46 62.10 | 70.52 76.72 | 83.27 64.20 72.89	| 54.1.8 1 !.'» | 72.66 68.23 | 63.41 | 86. 104.96 80.75 1 78.29 ■ 1 83. 70.63 67.13 83.66 III!	28.66 46. 72. 34.	53.17 66.06 79.73 68.73 66.93	41.66 27.47 16.56 32.61
  The temperature of Cairo in Eijypt, at least 6 minutes north of us, is 73 degrees.  The temperature by
■calculation, for the latitude of 30 degrees, would make it 76.66 deg. (or the six warm months—it is actually
but 72.91 deg.
TABLE  C.
T.iblcshowlaqj the relative and prosressive frequency of the -various "WINDS at New
 Orle in.* during the months of April, 31 ay, June, July, August and September of the
 last four years.  Notices of the -winds beliif usually taken thrice a day.
april	MAY'		JUNE		JULY		AUGUST | SEPT. ]			'-------------------
a 18.25	S W	22.25	SVV	23.25	SE	16.25	SW	19.75	NE 18.50	The following table thews the Winds according
S E 17.75	SE	11.	SE	13.	sw	13.	SE	10.50	SE 13.25	to their successive urevalency, duriuglhe above six
a w 10.75	N E	10.75	s	8.25	E	9.75	S	9.25	E 12.25	
E 8.	E	6.50	E	7.	NW	9.33	NE	9.	N 10.50	
N VV 7.75	NW	6.	NW	7.	S	9.25	NW	9.	N W 10.33	J2 w o, g»
N E 7.00	VV	5-50	VV	5.25	NE	7.66	N	8.66	S 7.	
W 5.75	VV	4.50	N E	5.	VV	7.33	W	8.50	S W 5.66	
>I 5.25	N	4.	N	4.75	N	7.	E	5.25	w 4.33u SSajBaSg?