The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 36

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899

USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc. > Part 36

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What influence these isotherms have upon our belts of disease there are no data to show. But from their influence upon vegetable life, one can not but infer a similar good influence on the animal economy. This is a question for the future.

BAROMETRICAL.

Yearly mean of barometer at 32º F. as observed at the University of Wisconsin, altitude 1,088 feet above the sea :

1869. 28.932 inches.

1873. 28.892 inches,

1870_ 28.867 =

1874

28.867 =

1871 28.986 =

1875- .28.750 4

1872

-28.898

1876.

. 28.920

Atmospheric pressure, as indicated by the barometer, is an important element in the causation of disease, far more so than is generally thought. The barometer indicates not only the coming of the storm, but that state of the atmosphere which gives rise to health at one time, and to disease at another. When the barometer is high, both the body and mind have a feeling of elasticity, of vigor and activity, and when the barometer ranges low, the feelings of both are just the reverse ; and both of these states, commonly attributed to temperature, are mostly the result of change in the barometric pressure. Many inflammations, as of the lungs, etc., commonly

235

HEALTH OF WISCONSIN.

attributed to change in the temperature, have their origin in barometrical vicissitudes.

WINDS.

Generally speaking, the atmospheric movement is from the west. It is of little purpose what the surface wind may be, as this does not affect the fact of the constancy of the westerly winds in the middle latitudes. The showers and cumulus clouds of the summer always have this movement. The belt of westerly winds is the belt of constant and equally distributed rains, the feature of our winds upon which so much of our health and comfort depends.

CLIMATOLOGICAL CHANGES FROM SETTLING THE STATE.

There are many theories afloat concerning the effects of reclaiming the soil and the destruc- tion of its forests. To us, a new people and a new state, the question is one of great moment, the more so that it is still in our power not only to watch the effects of such changes, but still more so to control them in a measure for our good. As to the effects upon animal and vegetable life, it would appear that so far as relates to the clearing away of forests, the whole change of conditions is limited to the surface, and dependent for the most part on the retention and slow evaporation in the forest, in contrast with the rapid drainage and evaporation in the open space. The springs, diminishing in number and volume in our more settled parts of the state, do not indicate a lessening rain-fall. It is a well ascertained fact that in other places so denuded, which have been allowed to cover themselves again with forests, the springs reappear, and the streams are as full as before such denudation. With us, happily, while the destruction of forests is going on in various parts of the state, their second growth is also going on, both in the pineries, where new varieties of hard-wood take the place of the pine, and in the more cultivated parts of the state, cultivation forbidding, as it does, the practice so much in vogue some years ago, of running fires through the undergrowth. Thus, though the renewal of forests may not be keeping pace with their destruction, it would seem clear that as time advances, the springs and streams in the more cultivated sections of the state will fill and flow again, increasing in proportion as the second growth increases and expands.

The change, however, from denudation, though strictly limited to the surface, affects the surface in other ways than simply in the retention and evaporation of rain. When the winter winds are blowing, the want of the sheltering protection of belts of trees is bitterly felt, both by man and beast. And so, too, in the almost tropical heats of the summer ; both languish and suffer from the want of shade. Nor is the effect of denudation less sensibly felt by vegetable life. The growing of our more delicate fruits, like the peach, the plum, the pear, the better varieties of the cherry and gooseberry, with the beautiful half-hardy flowering shrubs, all of which flourished so well in a number of our older counties some twenty years ago, are as a rule no longer to be found in those localities, having died out, as is believed, from exposure to the cold winds, to the south west winds in particular, and for want of the protecting influence of the woods. In fruits, how ever, we have this compensation, that, while the more tender varieties have been disappearing, the hardier and equally good varieties, especially of apples, have been increasing, while the grape (than which nothing speaks better for climatology), of which we grow some 150 varieties, the strawberry, the raspberry, blackberry and currant, etc., hold their ground. Nor are the cattle suffering as much as formerly, or as much as is perhaps popularly believed, from this want of forests or tree shelter. With the better breeds which our farmers have been able of late years to purchase, with better blood and better food, and better care, our stock instead of dwindling in condition, or in number, from the effect of cold, has progressed in quality and quantity, and com petes with the best in the Chicago and the New York markets.

236

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

There can, however, be no doubt that the planting of groves and belts of trees in exposed localities, would be serviceable in many ways; in tempering the air and imparting to it an agreeable moisture in the summer; in modifying the severity of the cold in winter ; in moderating the extreme changes to which our climate is subject; and thus in a measure preventing those discomforts and diseases which occur from sudden changes of temperature. Besides, these plantings, when made between our homes or villages and malarial marshes southwest of us, serve (by the aid of our prevailing southwest winds) to break up, to send over and above and beyond us the malarial substratum of air to which we are otherwise injuriously exposed.

The effects of reclaiming the soil, or "breaking " as it is called in the west, have, years ago, when the state first began to be settled, been disastrous to health and to life. The moist sod being turned over in hot weather, and left to undergo through the summer a putrifying fomen- tative process, gave rise to the worst kind of malarial, typhoid (bilious) and dysenteric disease. Not, however, that the virulence or mortality altogether depended upon the soil emanations. These were undoubtedly aggravated by the absolute poverty of the early settlers, who were wanting in everything, in proper homes, proper food and proper medical attendance, medicines and nursing. These fevers have swept the state years ago, particularly in the autumns of 1844 and 1845, but are now only observed from time to time in limited localities, following in the autumn the summer's "breaking." But it is pleasing to be able to add that through the advancing prosperity of the state, the greater abundance of the necessaries and comforts of life, and the facilities for obtaining medical care, the diseases incident to "settling " are much less common and much less fatal than formerly.

RELATIONS OF CLIMATOLOGY TO SANITARY STATUS.

One of the principal reasons for gathering climatological observations, is to obtain sanitary information, which serves to show us where man may live with the greatest safety to his health. Every country, we might perhaps correctly say every state, has, if not its peculiar diseases, at least its peculiar type of diseases. And by nothing is either this type or variety of disease so much influenced as by climate. Hence the great importance of the study of climatology to health and disease, nay, even to the kind of medicine and to the regulating of the dose to be given. It is, however, best to caution the reader that these meteorological observations are not always made at points where they would most accurately show the salubrity of a geographical district, by reason of the fact that the positions were chosen not for this special purpose, but for purely military purposes. We allude to the forts of Wisconsin, from which our statistics for the most part come. Another caution it is also well to bear in mind in looking over the class of diseases reported at these stations in connection with their observations. The diseases are those of the military of the period, a class from which no very favorable health reports could be expected, considering their habits, exposure, and the influences incidental to frontier life.

The geography of disease and climate is of special interest to the public, and a knowledge especially necessary to the state authorities, as it is only by such a knowledge that state legis- lation can possibly restrain or root out the endemic diseases of the state. In connection with the gathering of vital statistics must go the collection of meteorological and topographical statistics, as without these two latter the former is comparatively useless for sanitary purposes. More particularly does this apply to the malarial diseases of the state.

Acclimation is very rarely discussed or even alluded to by our people in relation to Wisconsin, for the reason that, come from whatever part of Europe men may, or from the eastern states, acclimation is acquired for the most part unconsciously, rarely attended by any malarial affection, unless by exposure in such low, moist localities, where even the natives of the state could not

237

HEALTH OF WISCONSIN.

live with impunity. It seems to be well enough established that where malaria exists, whether in London, New York, or Wisconsin ; where the causes of malarial disease are permanent, the effects are permanent, and that there is no positive acclimation to malaria. Hence it should follow that since life and malaria are irreconcilable, we should root out the enemy, as we readily can by drainage and cultivation, or, where drainage is impossible, by the planting of those shrubs or trees which are found to thrive best, and thereby prove the best evaporators in such localities. Our climate, approximating as it does the 45th degree (being equi-distant from the equator and pole), would a priori be a common ground of compromise and safety, and from this geographical position is not liable to objections existing either north or south of us.

INFLUENCE OF NATIONALITIES.

Our population is of such a confessedly heterogeneous character that naturally enough it suggests the question : Has this intermingling of different nationalities sensibly affected our health conditions ? Certainly not, so far as intermarriages between the nations of the Caucasian race are concerned. This opinion is given first upon the fact that our classes of diseases have neither changed nor increased in their intensity by reason of such admixture, so far as can be learned by the statistics or the history of disease in the northwest. Imported cases of disease are of course excepted. Second, because all that we can gather from statistics and history concern- ing such intermingling of blood goes to prove that it is beneficial in every respect, physically, mentally,and morally.

England, of all nations, is said to be the best illustration of the good attending an intermingling of the blood of different nations, for the reason that the English character is supposed to be, comparatively speaking, good, and that of all countries she has been perhaps more frequently invaded, and to a greater or less part settled by foreign peoples than any other.

From a residence of nearly a quarter of a century in the center of Wisconsin, and from an adequate knowledge of its people, whose nationalities are so various and whose intermarriages are so common, it is at least presumable that we should have heard of or noted any peculiar or injurious results, had any such occurred. None such, however, have been observed. Some fears have been expressed concerning the influence of Celtic blood upon the American temperament, already too nervous, as is alleged. It is scarcely necessary to say that these fears are unsupported by figures or facts. Reasoning from analogy, it would seem safe to affirm that the general inter- mingling by intermarriage now going on in our population, confined to the Caucasian nationali- ties, will tend to preserve the good old Anglo-Saxon character, rather than to create any new char- acter for our people. If this view needed support or confirmation, it is to be found in some very interesting truths in relation to it. Mr. Edwin Seguin, in his work on Idiocy, lays special stress on the influences of races in regard to idiocy and other infirmities, like deafness. He says that the crossing of races, which contributed to the elimination of some vices of the blood (as may be the case in the United States, where there are proportionally less deaf and dumb than in Europe), produces a favorable effect on the health of the population, and cites as an example, Belgium, which has fewer deaf and dumb than any country in Europe, owing to the influence of the crossing of races in past ages from the crowds of northern tribes passing, mingling and partly settling there "On the way to England.

We are aware that it has been predicted that our future will give us a new type, distinct from all other peoples, and that with this type must come not only new diseases but modifications or aggravations of the present diseases, in particular, consumption and insanity. But so long as.we are in a formative state as a nation, and that this state seems likely to continue so long as the country has lands to be occupied and there are people in Europe to occupy them, such spec- ulations can be but of little value.

LI. .

238

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

OCCUPATIONS, FOOD, EDUCATION, ETC., AS AFFECTING PUBLIC HEALTH.

The two chief factors of the social and sanitary well-being of a people are a proper educa tion of the man and a proper cultivation of the soil. Our two principal occupations in Wisconsin are education and agriculture, the learners in the schools being in excess of the laborers on the soil. A happier combination could scarcely be desired, to form an intelligent and a health people. How this will affect our habits in the future it is easy to conceive, but for the present may be said (of so many different nationalities are we composed), that we have no habits whic serve to distinguish us from the people of other northwestern states. A well-fed and a well-taug people, no matter how mixed its origin, must sooner or later become homogeneous and a mak - of customs. In the mean time we can only speak of our habits as those of a people in general having an abundance of food, though it is to be wished the workers ate more beef and mutton, and less salt-pork, and that whisky was less plentiful in the land. The clothing is sufficient, fuel is cheap, and the dwellings comfortable. Upon the whole, the habits of the people are conducive to health. It is thought unnecessary to refer to the influence upon health in general of other occupations, for the reason that manufacturers, traders and transporters are for the most part localized, and perhaps not sufficiently numerous to exercise any marked influence on the state health.

HISTORY OF DISEASE.

In searching for historical data of disease in Wisconsin, we are able to go back to the year 1766, commencing with the aborigines. The Indians, says Carver, in his chapter on their diseases,. in general are healthy and subject to few diseases. Consumption from fatigue and exposure he notices, but adds that the disorder to which they are most subject is pleurisy. They are like- wise afflicted with dropsy and paralytic complaints. It is to be presumed that while Carver is. speaking generally, he means his remarks to apply, perhaps, more particularly to those Indians with whom he lived so long, the Sioux of this state. That they were subject to fevers is gathered from the use of their remedies for fever, the " fever bush " being an ancient Indian remedy, and. equally valued by the inhabitants of the interior parts of the colonies. Besides this, they had their remedies for complaints of the bowels, and for all inflammatory complaints. These notices: sufficiently indicate the class of diseases which have certainly followed in the wake of the Indi- ans, and are still occurring to his white brother, making it plain enough that lung diseases, bowel complaints, and fevers are in fact native to the state. The fact must not be ignored that the Indian is subject to the same diseases as the human race in general.

After Carver, we may quote Major Long's expedition in 1824. The principal disease of the Sacs appears to be a mortification of the intestinal canal, more common among men than women,. the disease proving fatal in four days if not relieved. It is unaccompanied with pain, and is neither hernia, dysentery, nor hemorrhoids. Intermittents were prevalent, and the small-pox visited them at different periods. As the Chippewas have a common Algonquin origin with the Sacs, and as their home and customs were the same, it may be expected that their diseases were simi- lar. The principal disease to which the Chippewas are liable is consumption of the lungs, generally affecting them between the ages of 30 and 40; they linger along for a year or two, but always fall victims to it. Many of them die of a bowel complaint which prevails every year. This disease does not partake, however, of the nature of dysentery. They are frequently affected with sore eyes. Blindness is not common. Many of them become deaf at an early age.

Referring to the report of the commissioner of Indian affairs for 1854, we find that the decrease in the number of the Menomonees is accounted for by the ravages of small-pox, in 1838,.

239

HEALTH OF WISCONSIN.

of the cholera, in 1847 (which latter was superinduced by misery and starvation), and by the fever, which from time to time, commonly in the winter, has been raging among them, being clearly the consequence of want of provisions and other necessaries. The report for 1850 says, there has been considerable sickness among the Winnebagoes for several months past ; dysentery has been the prevalent disease, confined mostly to children. For 1857 : the Winnebagoes have suffered considerably from chronic diseases, scrofula and consumption. For 1859: the chief malady among the Winnebagoes is phthisis pulmonalis and its analogous diseases, having its source in hereditary origin. Some of the malignant diseases are occasionally met with among them, and intermittent and remittent fevers. In 1863: of the Menomonees, there is a large mortality list of the tribes under my charge. Measles and some of the more common eruptive diseases are the causes. But the most common and most fatal disease which affects the Indians at this agency is pneumonia, generally of an acute character. There is but little tubercular

disease to be found in any of these tribes, Menomonees, Stockbridges, Oneidas, etc. In the report for 1865, one can not but notice with some regret the absence of all allusion, except to small-pox, to the diseases of the Indians. Regret, because reliable information of such diseases serves a variety of valuable purposes, for comparison, confirmation, etc., of those of the white population. For these reasons, if for none other, it is to be hoped that the attention of the proper authorities will be called to this feature of such reports.

The first reliable report on the diseases of the people (as distinguished from the Indians) of Wisconsin to which we have had access, is Lawson's Army Report of Registered Diseases, for Io years, commencing 1829, and ending 1838 (ten years before the admission of Wisconsin into the Union as a state).

FORT HOWARD, GREEN BAY.

Intermittent fever

This abstract exhibits the second quar-

Remittent do

ters only, the mean strength being

Synochal

1,702.

Typhus

Diseases of respiratory organs.

101

Diseases of digestive organs

184

Diseases of brain and nervous system

Dropsies

Rheumatic affections.

All other diseases 114, excepting vene- real diseases, abcesses, wounds, ul- cers, injuries, and ebriety cases.

Under the class of diseases of the respiratory organs, are comprised 384 catarrh, 6 pneu- monia, 60 pleuritis, and 28 phthisis pulmonalis; under the class of digestive organs, 376 diar- Thoa and dysentery, 184 colic and cholera, and 10 hepatitis ; under the class of diseases of the brain and nervous system, 15 epilepsy, etc. The deaths from all causes, according to the post returns, are 25, being 112 per cent. per annum. The annual rate of intermittent cases is 6, and that of remittent is 3, per 100 of mean strength.

TABLE OF RATIO OF SICKNESS AT FORT HOWARD.

SEASONS.

MEAN STRENGTH.

NUMBER TREATED.

RATE PER 1,000 OF MEAN STRENGTH TREATED QUARTERLY.

10 first quarters

1,764

715

405

so second

1,702

726

425

9 third

1,526

1,073

703

10 fourth

1,594

636

399

Annual rate.

1,647

3,150

1.913

240

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN

Every man has consequently, on an average, been reported sick about once in every six months, showing this region to be extraordinarily salubrious. The annual ratio of mortality, according to the medical reports, is i'6 per cent .; and of the adjutant-general's returns, Itt per cent.

FORT WINNEBAGO.

Intermittent fever. 21

Remittent fever.

Synochal fever I

only, the mean strength being 1,571.

Typhus fever

Diseases of the respiratory organs. 141

Diseases of digestive organs. 90

Diseases of brain and nervous system. 2

Rheumatic affections. 26

All other diseases, 80, with the exceptions as above.

Under the class of diseases of the respiratory organs are comprised 448 catarrh, 11 pneu- monia, 29 pleuritis and 10 phthisis pulmonalis; under the head of digestive organs, 193 diarrhea and dysentery, 149 colic and cholera, and 17 hepatitis; under the class of brain and nervous system, I epilepsy. The total number of deaths, according to the post returns, is 20. Of these, 3 are from phthisis pulmonalis, I pleuritis, 2 chronic hepatitis, I gastric enteritis, I splenitis, etc.

TABLE OF RATIO OF SICKNESS AT FORT WINNEBAGO.

SEASONS.

MEAN STRENGTH.

NUMBER TREATED.

RATE PER 1,000 OF MEAN STRENGTH TREATED QUARTERLY.

10 first quarters.

1,535

552

360

10 second

1,505

517

343

10 third "

1.527

581

380

10 fourth "

1.571

495

315

Annual ratio.

1,534

2,145

1,398

Every man on an average is consequently reported sick once in eight months and a half.

FORT CRAWFORD.

Intermittent fever

262

Remittent fever

Synochal fever

This abstract exhibits the third quarters only, the mean strength being 1,885.

Typhus fever.

Diseases of respiratory organs. .177

Diseases of digestive organs. 722

Diseases of brain and nervous system

Rheumatic affections.

This abstract exhibits the fourth quarters

All other diseases, 309, with the same list of exceptions as above.

Under the class of diseases of the respiratory organs are included 1,048 of catarrh, 28 pneu- monia, 75 pleuritis and 13 phthisis pulmonalis; under the head of digestive organs, 933 diarrhea and dysentery, and 195 colic and cholera; under the head of brain and nervous diseases, 7 epilepsy, etc. The total of deaths, according to the post returns, is 94, the annual ratio being 216 per cent. The causes of death are: 6 phthisis pulmonalis, 6 epidemic cholera, I common cholera, 4 remittent fever, 3 dysentery, etc. . In the third quarter of 1830 there were 154 cases of fever, while the same quarter of 1836, with a greater strength, affords but one case, the difference seeming to depend upon the temperature.

241

HEALTH OF WISCONSIN.

The relative agency of the seasons in the production of disease in general is shown in the annexed table :

TABLE EXHIBITING THE RATIO OF SICKNESS.

SEASONS.

MEAN STRENGTH.

NUMBER TREATED).

RATIO PER 1,000 OF MEAN STRENGTH TREATED QUARTERLY.

9 first quarters.

1,660

987

595

IO second "

1,749

1,267

724

Io third

1,885

1,948

1,033

10 fourth

1,878

1,270

676

Annual ratio

1,793

5,472

3,052

Consequently every man on an average has been reported sick once in nearly every four- months. But high as this ratio of sickness is, at this fort, and, indeed, at the others, it is low considering the topographical surroundings of the posts. But besides these injurious topograph- ical and other influences already alluded to, there were still other elements of mischief among the men at these stations, such as " bad bread and bad whisky," and salt meat, a dietary table giving rise, if not to " land-scurvy," as was the case at the posts lower down in the Mississippi valley (more fatal than either small-pox or cholera), at least to its concomitant diseases.

The reason for using these early data of the United States Army medical reports in pref- erence to later ones is, that even though the later ones may be somewhat more correct in certain particulars, the former serve to establish, as it were, a connecting link (though a long one) between the historical sketch of the diseases of the Indian and those of the white settler; and again - these posts being no longer occupied - no further data are obtainable.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 36

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 899

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899