the real and only cause of those formidable diseases to which this city and its vicinity are subject. It is one of the anomalies of the New World, not yet very satisfactorily accounted for, that the intensity of the heat in summer, and of the cold in winter, is much greater than in the Old World, on the same parallels of latitude. This difference is very obvious all along the eastern shores of the American continent, but no where is it so striking as at New-Orleans. From the end of November till the end of March, the weather is generally cold and rainy, with frequent hard frosts. At those times the thermometer ranges from 20° to 40° in the shade; and there are instances, I am told, even in so low a latitude as 29° north, where, in the night, it is only a few degrees above Zero. On the contrary, during summer this climate has all the characteristics of the torrid zone; the thermometer stands at 87° or 90° in the shade. At New-Orleans, especially, the weather is close and suffocating, from its distance from the sea, and, consequently, the entire absence of that inestimable luxury of a tropical climate, the sea-breeze; from the air being loaded with watery vapours; and from the smell of the mud of the river and swamps, which is often, even in winter, very sensibly offensive.

The description here given of the climate and soil of NewOrleans will apply, almost without alteration, to the contigu ous district of the Floridas. In the former, indeed, there are traces of human care and refinement; but, in the latter, Nature still pours forth her gifts in solitary and unprofitable exuberance. Never did I see a shore more inauspicious and uninviting. The whole country is a dreary flat, indented with stagnant creeks, salt-water lagoons, and muddy rivers, whose waters are concealed by the darkness of endless woods, that approach to the very brink of the sea, as if envious of its dominion. Here there is no variety,-no eminence to relieve the eye while wandering over the insipid level of dingy green,— not a single appeal to human feelings,-not one object to call forth those mixed undefined associations of interesting simplicity, domestic content, happy industry, and cheerful civilization, which constitute the charm of the rural landscape in

Europe. On the contrary, the whole scene suggests vague impressions of solitary terror, and savage wildness, and presses home upon the heart the chilling ideas of dereliction and desolation.*

The local peculiarities in the climate and soil of New-Orleans give rise, during winter, to epidemic dysentery, and, in summer, to marsh fevers of a very rapid and dangerous form, from which the inhabitants, but particularly strangers, suffer most severely. The occurrence of such complaints, some readers, from the above detail, will be prepared to expect as a necessary consequence. Lest others, however, should be sceptical, it shall be my business, by and bye, to make this preliminary picture of the medical topography of the country subservient to discussions of higher interest, and to prove, by facts, the reasonableness of opinions.

"Hoc opus exiguum vario sermone levemus:

Perque vices aliquid, quod tempora longa videri

Non sinat, in medium vacuas referamus ad aures."—OVID. Metam.

About the middle of November 1814, the expeditionary force destined to act against New-Orleans, arrived at Jamaica, under the command of Vice-Admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander Cochrane. That island had been pitched upon as the pivot of extensive military operations against the southern shores of the United States; and the whole fleet of ships of war and transports having rendezvoused there, took their departure from Negril Bay, at the west end of the island, about the end of November, full of health and hope.

Before the middle of December, the fleet arrived on the coast of Florida, and took steps for disembarking the troops without delay, a measure against which Nature seemed to have opposed ample and almost unsurmountable obstacles. It

* I am sorry that my account of this district is so entirely opposite to the published opinions of the venerable traveller, M. Chateaubriand. In hyperbolical raptures, and in the very pith of sentimentality, has this amiable enthusiast declaimed about "the oaks of Florida," ,""the spirit of the desert," -"the pleasures of an Indian camp,”—and all the delightful et cæteras of a savage life!!'Tis indeed passing strange. But," De Gustibus," &c.

would have been desirable for the fleet to have proceeded up the main channel of the Mississippi, by which an approach to the town would have been secured; but, besides lesser shoals, its mouth was secured by a bar, having only 10 feet water, over which none of the frigates, and very few of the transports, could pass, however lightened. Besides, at that season of the year, the river being swollen with rains, the current was running strong down. Its tortuous course, too, would have required a great variety of winds to make good the passage of an hundred miles up; and its principal detours and elbows were defended by Port Placquemaine, and other batteries of great strength.

This point of approach being out of the question, the fleet, passing betwixt two sandy uninhabited isles, in a very intricate navigation, made its way into the gorge of one of those broad salt-water lakes (considerably to the left of the river's mouth) that runs a length of way into the country, and embraces one of the minor outlets of the Mississippi. The water, however, was so uniformly shallow, that the frigates and transports grounded in the mud, at the distance of 70 miles from the nearest point of the Delta on which New-Orleans stands; and, consequently, all disembarkation was, of necessity, conducted at this disadvantageous distance. Moreover, the passage of this lake was obstructed by five large American smacks or gun-vessels, mounting several heavy guns each, and admirably adapted, from their build, for operating in those shallow

waters.

The latter vexatious obstacle, however, was soon conquered by our sailors, who showed, on this occasion, all that "as triplex,"-that careless characteristic valour for which they are so illustrious. The boats of the fleet, manned and armed, were sent away, and, after a tiresome row of 36 hours, succeeded in penning the enemy up in a creek, where they attacked them against the superior odds of their position and their force; and, after a furious engagement, captured every one of them. This achievement was decidedly gallant, and would have stood amidst the most brilliant feats of naval warfare, had not the subsequent failure of the main object of the expedition thrown a bleak shade over its lustre.

The wounded on this occasion belonging to the different ships were not very numerous. The only thing I find worthy of commemoration was the rather unusual number of instances of tetanus supervening to the wounds, although the weather was dry, frosty, and apparently favourable to their healing. One case of marked tetanus, I understand, was successfully treated on the stimulating plan; but my information is not sufficiently precise to admit of particulars.

The landing of the troops was conducted by the boats of the ships of war and transports; but the distance was so great, and the weather so tempestuous, that it was the latter end of December ere the whole army was disembarked before NewOrleans. Even when this important object was achieved, there was little or no remission of toil to the sailors, for the army still required to be supplied with warlike stores, and fed from the fleet, at a distance of 70 miles.

About the beginning of January, 1815, bowel-complaints, which had previously appeared amongst the boats' crews and the fatigue-parties of the army, began to be very rife. They varied in degree of severity, from the milder symptoms of dysentery to its most aggravated forms. I may enumerate, in a few words, the symptoms of this disease. The patients, for the most part, complained of severe tormina, tenesmus, scanty bloody dejections, want of appetite and strength, pains all over them, and a disposition to vomit on taking either food or drink. The tongue was white or yellow; the eye languid; the pulse above 100, small, and easily compressed; the skin often dry, or covered with clammy sweat, but always considerably increased in temperature.

The causes were, generally speaking, obvious enough. The men had been rowing all day, and sleeping all night, in the open boats. They had incautiously drank the brackish water of the lakes, and had sometimes been obliged to eat their beef and pork raw, when, on an emergency, they were deprived of an opportunity of cooking it. They were often drenched with rain or with spray, without being able to put on dry clothes. Added to all this, the weather was extremely cold, particularly in the night, the thermometer before sun-rise being often

as low as 25 or 26 degrees, rising no higher during the day than 30 or 38 degrees, and seldom above 50°.*

The locality of the general rendezvous for the boats was very bad (though the best that can be found), being a miry place, covered with reeds, and abounding in miasmal exhalations.

The encampment of the army, too, was on a swampy spot on the left bank of the Mississippi, about six miles below New-Orleans. Indeed, the whole vicinity is a swamp, which, after the rains, so frequent at that season of the year, became a perfect puddle. Having the Mississippi on their left, they drank its discoloured and polluted water, and were exposed to the effluvium of its slimy mud, as well as to the paludal exhalations of an impracticable wooden morass on their right. The huts also in which the troops were sheltered were far from being impervious either to rain or cold; so that, upon the whole, the army and navy, in point of privations, were much upon a par.

On the first appearance of dysentery, its treatment was commenced by a flannel roller bound tight round the abdomen, and ordering flannel clothing next the skin, if the patients had it not already. Saline cathartics, or oleum ricini, with a few grains of calomel, were repeatedly given, until the stools were increased in quantity, and more freely rendered. At the same time, plentiful dilution, with tepid gruel, warm tea, rice-water (seasoned with sugar and a little wine), decoctions of lintseed or of gum-arabic, I always considered of primary importance.

When the primæ viæ had been fully evacuated, an attempt was made to restore the natural secretions, and open the pores of the skin. Antimonial powder, with opium, was employed for this purpose, but more generally the pulvis ipecacuanha compositus, which certainly seemed to succeed best.

* These observations of the thermometer are repeated from my own inspection. On this occasion the cold was so intense, that several of the boats' crews were incapacitated for some days, by pain and numbness of the lower extremities. Many soldiers of the negro regiments had their feet frost-bitten, and lost their toes by the consequent gangrene and sphacelus. Some of them even died in the camp, or in the boats, from excessive cold.