9 feet to the mile in a due southerly direction. Overlying the Mendota beds are again sandstone layers, the uppermost portions of which are occasionally charged with 10 to 20 per cent. of calcareous and dolomitic matter, and then furnish a cream-colored building stone of considerable value. Most of this stratum which has been designated as the Madison sandstone, is, however, quite non-calcareous, being either a ferruginous brown stone, or a quite pure, white, nearly loose sand. In the latter phase it is of value for the manufacture of glass. In a number of quarries, cuttings and exposed places around the city, the Madison beds are seen to be overlaid by a grayish, magnesian limestone, the lower magnesian, varying very considerably in its character, but largely composed of a flinty-textured, heavy-bedded, quite pure dolomite, which is burnt into a good quality of lime. Its thickness exceeds 80 feet. Madison, with the conveniences and comforts of a capital city, from its easy access by railroads, from not only in itself being beautiful, but from its beautiful surroundings, from its good society, charming climate, and artesian mineral water, is naturally a great summer resort. Though there are no vital statistics of the city to refer to, a residence of nearly a quarter of a century has made us sufficiently acquainted with its sanitary history, which is more or less the sanitary history of this part of the state, and in a measure of the state itself. In 1844 and 1845, it was visited by an epidemic malarial fever of a bilious type, and not unfrequently fatal, which passed very generally through the state, and was attributed to the turning up of the soil. It was most virulent in the autumns. Again in 1854 it was visited by a light choleraic epidemic, which also swept the state, assuming very generally a particularly mild type. Again in 1857 it suffered lightly from the epidemic dysentery, which passed through the state. In 1865, it suffered from a visitation of diptheria, the disease prevailing generally over the state at that time. It has also had two visitations of the epidemic grip (grippe), or influenza. The last invasion, some five years since, commencing in a manner perhaps worthy of noting, by first affecting the horses very generally, and again, by beginning on the east side of the city, while the other epidemics for the past twenty-five years (unless the choleraic visitation was an exception) came in on the southwest side of the city, as has been the case, so far as we have been able to observe with the light epidemics to which children are subject. But little typhoid fever is found here, and the aguish fevers when they occur are light and easy of control. There is but little diarrhoea or dysentery. Pneumonia and its allied affections are more common, so is rheumatism, and so neuralgia. Inflammatory croup, however, is very rare, sporadic diptheria seeming to be taking its place. All the ordinary eruptive fevers of children are and always have been of a peculiarly mild. type. Prairie du Chien, situated immediately at the junction of the Wisconsin with the Mississippi, is built about 70 feet above low water, and 642 feet above the level of the sea. The cliffs on both sides of the river present on their summits the lower strata of the blue Silurian limestone of Cincinnati, beneath which are found sandstone and magnesian limestone down to the water's edge. We give this notice of Prairie du Chien for the purpose of bringing to the knowledge of the public that it possesses one of the most superb artesian wells in the state, which is attracting many persons by its remedial mineral properties. Green Bay sanitarily may be considered as sufficiently indicated under the head of Fort Howard. It is, however, proper to add that from its geographical position and beautiful situation at the head of the bay, its easy access both by railroad and steamboat, its pleasant days and cool summer nights, it has naturally become quite a popular summer resort, particularly for southern people. built Racine, some 25 miles south by east by rail from Milwaukee and 62 by rail from Chicago, is upon the banks and some 40 feet above the level of the lake. Its soil is a sandy loam and gravel, consequently it has a dry, healthy surface, and is much frequented in the summer for its coolness and salubrity. Waukesha, 18 miles west of Milwaukee by railroad, is a healthy, pleasant place of resort at all times on account of its mineral water, so well known and so highly appreciated throughout the country. Oconomowoc, 32 miles by railroad west by north of Milwaukee, is a healthy and delightfully located resort for the summer. Its many lakes and drives form its chief attractions, and though its accommodations were considered ample, during the past summer they were found totally inadequate to meet the demands of its numerous visitors. The Dalles, at Kilbourn City, by rail 16 miles from Portage, is unsurpassed in the northwest for the novelty, romantic character, and striking beauty of its rock and river scenery. It is high and dry; has pure water and fine air, and every-day boat and drive views enough to fill up a month pleasantly. Lake Geneva, 70 miles by rail from Chicago, is built on the north side of the lake, is justly celebrated for its beauty, and its reputation as a summer resort is growing. Green Lake, six miles west of Ripon, and 89 northwest from Milwaukee, is some 15 miles long and three broad, surrounded by beautiful groves and prairies; and is claimed to be one of the healthiest little places on the continent. Devil's Lake is 36 miles by rail north of Madison. Of all the romantic little spots in Wisconsin, and they are innumerable, there is none more romantic or worthy of a summer visitor's admiration than this. It is, though shut in from the rude world by bluffs 500 feet high, a very favorite resort, and should be especially so for those who seek quiet, and rest, and health. Sparta, 246 miles by rail from Chicago, is pleasantly and healthily situated, and its artesian mineral water strongly impregnated with carbonate of iron, having, it is said, over 14 grains in solution to the imperial gallon, an unusually large proportion, attracts its annual summer crowd. Sheboygan, 62 miles by rail north of Milwaukee, from its handsome position on a bluff overlooking the lake, and from the beauty of its surroundings as well as from the character of its mineral waters, is an attractive summer resort. Elkhart Lake, 57 miles by rail north of Milwaukee, is rapidly acquiring a good name from those seeking health or pleasure. CHANGE IN DISEASES. In order to ascertain whether the classes of diseases in the state at the date of Carver's travels are the same which prevail to-day, we have compared his description of them with those tabulated in the army medical reports of Forts Howard, Crawford and Winnebago, and again with those given in the U. S. Census for 1870, and with the medical statistics of the city of Milwaukee. The three distinct and prominent classes prevailing from Carver's to the present time, are, in the order of prevalence, diseases of the respiratory organs, consumption, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc.; diseases of the digestive organs, enteritis, dysentery, diarrhoea, etc.; and the malarial fevers. At Fort Howard alone do the diseases of the digestive organs seem to have outnumbered those of the respiratory organs. So far as it is possible to gather from the reports of the commissioners of Indian affairs, these features of the relative prevalence of the three classes of disease are not disturbed. There are, however, some disturbing or qualifying agencies operating and affecting the amount or distribution of these classes in different areas or belts. For instance, there are two irregular areas in the state; the one extending from the Mississippi east and north, and the other starting almost as low down as Madison, and running up as far as Green Bay, which are more subject to malarial diseases than are the other parts of the state. While it is found that those parts of the state least subject to diseases of the digestive organs are, a belt along the western shore of Lake Michigan, and a belt running from near Prairie du Chien north into the pineries. Again, it is found that the part of the state most subject to enteric, cerebro-spinal and typhus fevers, is quite a narrow belt running north from the southern border line into the center of the state, or about two-thirds of the distance toward the pineries. All along the western shore of Lake Michigan, and stretching across the country by way of Fond du Lac to the Mississippi, is a belt much less subject to these disorders. It is equally beyond question that the western shore of Lake Michigan, and the southern shore of Lake Superior, as well as the western half of the southern boundary line of the pineries, are less affected with consumption than the interior parts of the state. The tendency of these diseases is certainly to amelioration. The sanitary history of Wisconsin does not differ from that of any other state east of us, in this striking particular; the farther you trace back the history of disease, the worse its type is found to be. It follows, then, that the improvement in public health must progress with the general improvement of the state, as has been the case with the eastern states, and that the consequent amelioration of our malarial diseases especially will tend to mitigate infectious diseases. The ameliorating influences, however, that sanitary science has brought to bear upon disease, of which England is so happy an illustration, has scarcely as yet begun to be known to us. But the time has come at last when this science is moving both the hearts and minds of thinking and humane men in the state, and its voice has been heard in our legislative halls, evoking a law by which we are, as a people, to be governed, as by any other enactment. The organization of a state board of health is a new era in our humanity. In this board is invested all legal power over the state health. To it is committed all the sanitary responsibility of the state, and the greatest good to the people at large must follow the efforts it is making. There are many other points of sanitary interest to which it is desirable to call the attention of those interested in Wisconsin. It is a popular truth that a dry climate, all other things being equal, is a healthy climate. Our hygrometrical records show Wisconsin to have one of the driest climates in the United States. Choleraic diseases rarely prevail unless in a comparatively stagnant state of the atmosphere, where they are most fatal. Where high winds prevail such diseases are rare. The winds in Wisconsin, while proverbially high and frequent (carrying away and dissipating malarial emanations), are not destructive to life or property, as is the case, by their violence, in some of the adjoining states. A moist, warm atmosphere is always provocative of disease. Such a state of atmosphere is rare with us, and still more rarely continuous beyond a day or two. Moist air is the medium of malarial poisoning, holding as it does in solution gases and poisonous exhalations. Its character is readily illustrated by the peculiar smell of some marsh lands on autumnal evenings. Such a state of moisture is seen only in our lowest shut-in marshes (where there is but little or no air-current), and then only for a very limited period, in very hot weather. But too much importance is attached by the public to a simply dry atmosphere for respiratory diseases. The same mistake is made with regard to the good effects in such disorders of simply high elevations. Dry air in itself or a high elevation in itself, or both combined, are not necessarily favorable to health, or curative of disease. In the light and rare atmosphere of Pike's Peak, an elevation of 6,000 feet, the pulse is accelerated, the amount of sleep is diminished, and the human machine is put under a high-pressure rate of living, conducive only to its injury. The average rate of the pulse in healthy visitors is from 115 to 120 per minute (the normal rate, in moderate elevations, being about 75). And where there is any organic affection of the heart, or tendency to bleeding from the lungs, it is just this very dry atmosphere and high elevation that make these remedies (?) destructive. Hence it is that Wisconsin, for the generality of lung diseases, especially when accompanied with hemorrhage, or with heart disease, is preferable to Colorado. It may be objected, that the diseases of the respiratory organs are in excess of other diseases in Wisconsin. This feature, however, is not confined to the cold belt of our temperate latitudes-our proportion of respiratory diseases, be it noted, comparing most favorably with that of other states, as may be seen in the following table: CLIMATOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PULMONARY DISEASES. STATES. Massachusetts, 1850, U. S. Census. Now, while the mortuary statistics of the United States census for 1850 are acknowledged to be imperfect, they are, nevertheless, undoubtedly correct as to the causes of mortality. But besides this statistical evidence of the climatological causes of disease, there are certain relative general, if not special, truths which serve to guide us in our estimate. Respiratory diseases of all kinds increase in proportion as the temperature decreases, the humidity of the air being the same. Another equally certain element in the production of this class of diseases is variableness of climate. Still, this feature of our climate is only an element in causation, and affects us, as we shall see in the table below, very little as compared with other states. Indeed, it is still disputed whether there is not more consumption in tropical climates than in temperate climates. This much is admitted, however, that consumption is rare in the arctic regions. Dr. Terry says the annual ratio of pulmonary diseases is lower in the northern than in the southern regions of the United States, and Dr. Drake, an equally eminent authority, recommends those suffering from or threatened with pulmonary affections, to retreat to the colder districts of the country, citing among others localities near Lake Superior-a recommendation which our experience of nearly half a century endorses. PROPORTION OF PNEUMONIA TO CONSUMPTION IN THE DIFFERENT STATES. When we compare the general death-rate of Wisconsin with that of the other states of the Union, we find that it compares most favorably with that of Vermont, the healthiest of the New England states. The United States census of 1850, 1860 and 1870, gives Wisconsin 94 deaths to 10,000 of the population, while it gives Vermont 101 to every 10,000 of her inhabitants. The census of 1870 shows that the death-rate from consumption in Minnesota, Iowa, California and Wisconsin are alike. These four states show the lowest death-rate among the states from consumption, the mortality being 13 to 14 per cent. of the whole death-rate. Climatologically considered, then, there is not a more healthy state in the Union than the state of Wisconsin. But for health purposes something more is requisite than climate. Climate and soil must be equally good. Men should shun the soil, no matter how rich it be, if the climate is inimical to health, and rather choose the climate that is salubrious, even if the soil is not so rich. In Wisconsin, generally speaking, the soil and climate are equally conducive to health, and alike good for agricultural purposes. |