History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 37

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958

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THE INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

This was organized in June, 1852, at Delavan. The whole number of deaf and dumb per- sons in the state, as shown by the census of 1875, was 720. The report for 1866 gives the number of pupils as 156.

Little sickness, a few cases of sore throat, and slight bowel affections comprise nearly all the ailments; and the physician's report adds: "The sanitary reports of the institution from its earliest history to the present date has been a guarantee of the healthiness of the location. Having gone carefully over the most reliable tabulated statements of deaf-mutism, its parent-

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

age, its home, its causes, and its origin, we would most earnestly call the attention of the public to the fact that the chief cause comes under the head of congenital, 75 of the 150 pupils in this institution having this origin. Such a fearful proportion as this must of necessity have its origin in a cause or causes proportionately fearful. Nor, fortunately, is the causation a mystery, since most careful examination leaves not a shadow of doubt that consanguineous marriages are the sources of this great evil. Without occupying further space by illustrative tables and arguments, we would simply direct the attention of our legislators and thoughtful men to the law of this dis- case - which is, that the number of deaf and dumb, imbeciles, and idiots is in direct keeping with the degree of consunguinity. With such a law and exhibit before us, would not a legislative inquiry into the subject, with the view of adopting preventive means, be a wise step? The evil is fear- ful; the cause is plain ; so, too, is the remedy."

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS.

This institution is situated on the banks of the Fox river, at Waukesha, and was organized in 1860. The whole number of the inmates since it was opened in July, 1860, to October 10. 1876, was 1,291. The whole number of inmates for 1876 was 415. Of these, since the period of opening up to date, October, 1876, 25 have died : 8, of typhoid fever; I, of typhoid erysipelas ; 1, of gastric fever; 3, of brain fever; 1, nervous fever; 2, congestion of the lungs; 2, congestive chills ; 5, of consumption; 1 of dropsy ; and i of inflammatory rheumatism.

THE STATE PRISON.

This was located at Waupun in July, 1857. On September 30, 1876, there were 266 inmates. But one death from natural causes occurred during the year. The health of the prisoners has been unusually good, the prevalent affections attendant upon the seasons, of a mild and manageable character.

STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.

This institution, located near Madison, was opened for patients in July, 1860. The total number of admissions down to the year 1877, was 1, 227 males, 1,122 females, total 2,349. Over one half of these have been improved ; nearly one third recovered ; while less than one quarter have been discharged unimproved. Total number of deaths, 288. At the commencement of the year, October 1, 1875, there were in the hospital 376 patients. In the report for the year ending September 30, 1876, we find the past year has been one of unusual health in the hospital. No serious epidemic has prevailed, although 20 deaths have been reported, 7 fatally ill before admis- sion, 4 worn-out cases, etc. Insanity, coming as it does, under this head of an article on State Health, is of the highest interest from a state point of view, not only because so much may be done to remedy it, but that still more can and ought to be done by the state to prevent it. Our insane amount to 1 in 700 of the whole population, the total number in hospitals, poor-houses and prisons being in round numbers 1,400. It is a striking fact, calling for our earnest consideration, that the Germans, Irish and Scandinavians import and transmit more insanity - three to one - than the American-born population produce. The causes assigned for this disparity, are, as affecting importation, that those in whom there is an hereditary tendency to disease constitute the migratory class, for the reason that those who are sound and in the full possession of their powers are most apt to contend successfully in the struggle to live and maintain their position at home ; while those who are most unsound and unequal to life's contests are unable to migrate. In other words, the strongest will not leave, the weakest can not leave. By this, the character of the migratory is defined. As affects transmission, poverty is a most fruitful parent of insanity, so too is poor land. Says Dr. Boughton, superintendent of the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane:

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Wisconsin is characterized by a large poor class, especially in the northern part of the state, where people without means have settled on new and poorly paying farms, where their life is made up of hard work, exposure to a severe climate, bad and insufficient diet, cheerless homes, etc., etc. These canses are prolific in the production of insanity. It is easy, therefore, to trace the causes that give us so large a per cent. of insane in many of the counties of the state. Nor is it of less interest to know. as Dr. B. adds: We draw our patients from those families where phthisis pulmonalis, rheumatism and insanity prevail. Insanity and rheumatism are interchange- able in hereditary cases, so too are insanity and phithisis. What may be accomplished by intel- ligent efforts to stem the increase of insanity in our state ? Much. Early treatment is one means, this is of course curative in its character. And its necessity and advantage are well illustrated in table No. ro of the annual report of Dr. Boughton, for 1876, where it is seen that 45.33 of males, and 44.59 of the females who had been sent to the State Hospital having been insane but three months before admission, were cured, the proportion of cures becoming less in proportion to the longer duration of insanity before admission. As a preventive means, the dissemination of the kind of knowledge that shows indisputably that insanity is largely hereditary, and conse- quently that intermarriage with families so tainted should on the one hand be avoided by the citizen, and on the other hand, perhaps, prevented by the state, (congress at the same time restraining or preventing as far as possible persons so tainted from settling in this country.) By the state, inasmuch as the great burthen of caring for the insane falls upon the state. Still other preventive means are found in the improved cultivation of our lands and in our improved education ; in fact, in whatever lessens the trials of the poor and lifts them out of ignorance and pauperism. It is only by culture, says Hufeland, that man acquires perfection, morally, mentally and physically. His whole organization is so ordered that he may either become nothing or anything, hyperculture and the want of cultivation being alike destructive.

THE NORTHERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.

This hospital was opened at Oshkosh, May, 1873. The total number under treatment September 30, 1876 was - males 246, females 257, total 503. No ailment of an epidemic charac- tor has affected the health of the household, which has been generally good. The report of Dr. Kempster is full of suggestive matter for the legislator and sociologist.

CITY OF MILWAUKEE.

Still adhering to the plan, in writing the sanitary history of the state, of gathering up all the health statistics which properly belong to us, we now take up those of Milwaukee, the only city in Wisconsin, so far as we know, that has kept up a system of statistics of its diseases. The city is built on each side of the mouth of Milwaukee river, on the west shore of Lake Michi- gan in lat. 43º 3' 45" .N., long. 87º 57' W., and is considered remarkable for its healthy climate. The board of health has furnished us with its report for 1870 and downward. The character of its mortality from June 19, 1869, to March 31. 1870, is thus summarized : In children under five years of age, 758 out of 1,249 deaths, consumption, 93 ; convulsions, 128; cholera infantum, 59; diarrhoa, 128; scarlet fever, 132; typhoid fever, 52; inflammation of the lungs, 41 ; still- born, 79. This disproportionate number of still-born children is attributed in part to a laxity of morals. The deaths from consumption in Milwaukee are 71% out of every 100, one third less out of a like number of deaths than in San Francisco, in which city, in 4,000 deaths, 441 died of con- sumption, being 11 out of every roo deaths for the year ending July, 1869. The deaths for 1870 numbered 1,655, the population being at the last census report, 71,636.

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

TABLE OF PRINCIPAL CAUSES.

Consumption

143

Inflammation of lungs 56

The Milwaukee population being about

Convulsions

259

72,000, the death rate per annum for

Diarrhea 131

every 1,000 inhabitants would be 21.

Diptheria 74 after proper deductions of deaths from

Scarlet fever 52

Typhoid fever

Old age

Still-born

123

other causes than from disease, showing very favorably as compared with other cities.

Glasgow has 39 to every 1,000; Liverpool, 36; London, 25 ; New Orleans, 54; New York. 32; San Francisco, 24; Milwaukee, 21. Among seventeen of the principal cities of the Union, Milwaukee ranks the ninth in rate of mortality. An impression has prevailed that Milwaukee is subject to a large and disproportionate amount of lung and allied diseases. Statistics disprove this, its deaths from consumption being only 6 per cent., while those of Chicago are 7.75; of St. Louis, 9.68; of Cincinnati, 11.95; and of Boston, 19.31. But few cases of malarial disease occur in Milwaukee, and fewer cases of intestinal fever than in the interior of the state. The mortality among children is explained by its occurring chiefly among the poor foreign-born population, where all that can incite and aggravate disease is always to be found.

This, (the historical part of the health article), will doubtless call forth from the profession much additional and desirable matter, but excepting what will further appear under the head of Madison it is proper to say that we have exhausted the sources of information on the subject within our reach.

HEALTH RESORTS.

Next in order would seem to come some notice of the summer and health resorts of Wiscon- sin, which, significant of the salubrity of the state, are not only becoming more numerous, but Also more frequented from year to year.

Madison, the capital of the state, with a population of 11,000, is built on an isthmus between two considerable lakes, from 70 to 125 feet above their level; So miles west of Milwaukee, in latitude 43° 5' north, and longitude 89º 20' west, in the northern temperate region. The lake basins, and also the neck of land between them, have a linear arrangement, trending northeast and southwest. The same linear topography characterises the whole adjacent country and the boun- dary lines of its various geological formations, this striking feature being due to the former move- ment of glacier ice over the face of the country. AAt two points, one mile apart, the Capitol and University hills, respectively 348 and 370 feet above the level of Lake Michigan, rise prominently above the rest of the isthmus. Both of these hills are heaps of drift material from 100 to 126 feet thickness, according to the record of the artesian well. The neck of land on which Madison stands is of the same material. The same boring discloses to us the underlying rock structure, pene- trating 614 feet of friable quartzose sandstone belonging to the Potsdam series, 101% feet of red shale belonging to the same series, and 20912 feet of crystalline rocks belonging to the AArchæan. In the country immediately around Madison, the altitude is generally considerably greater, and the higher grounds are occupied by various strata, nearly horizontal, of sandstone and limestone. The Potsdam sandstone rises about 30 feet above the level of Lake Mendota, on its northern shore, where at McBride's Point it may be seen overlaid by the next and hitherto unrecognized layer, one of more or less impure, dark-colored, magnesian limestone, to which the name of Men- dota is assigned, and which furnishes a good building stone. The descent of these strata is about

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HEALTH OF WISCONSIN.

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 1o to 20 per cent. of calca- reous 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 gray- ish, 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 com- forts 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 south- west 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 dysen- tery. 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 situa- tion 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.

Racine, some 25 miles south by cast by rail from Milwaukee and 62 by rail from Chicago, is built upon the banks and some 40 feet above the level of the lake. Its soil is a sandy loam and

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

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 de- lightfully 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 Wis- consin, 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 over- looking 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, diarrhea, 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

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HEALTHI OF WISCONSIN.

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 Wiscon- sin 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, how- ever, 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 com- mitted 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 respira- tory 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 dimin- ished, and the human machine is put under a high-pressure rate of living, conducive only to its

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

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 prefer- able 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 favor- ably with that of other states, as may be seen in the following table :

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History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 37

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 958

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958