A report on the health and mortality of the city of Memphis, Tenn., for the year 1852 / by Charles Todd Quintard.

  • Quintard, C. T. (Charles Todd), 1824-1898.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the health and mortality of the city of Memphis, Tenn., for the year 1852 / by Charles Todd Quintard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    temperature of summer and winter] which describe four curves within the same space, presenting alternately a mild and an excessive climate. As these lines on the coast of the Atlantic present comparatively little deviation from the terrestrial parallel, the ratio of catarrhal diseases is low; ad- vancing into the interior, the line of equal summer rises and that of winter sinks, and the ratio increases proportion- ally; proceeding into the region of the lakes, the lines again converge beneath the controlling power of the waters, and the ratio of Catarrh and Influenza is modified accordingly; again advancing into the interior beyond these ocean-lakes, the average rises in proportion as the isotheral and isochei- mal curves tend to opposite directions. And in regard to Pleuritis and Pneumonia he establishes the fact that the aver- age number of cases is much lower in the cold and variable climate of our northern and eastern states, than in the mid- dle and south-western regions of the United States. At the south-western parts the annual ratio is 92, whilst on the coast of New England it is only 41. That the relations of man to the external world in every phase of his being are very intimate, can be denied by no one—and that the laws of these relations and the modifications of them may be determined and fully and accurately established, no one can doubt who examines the history and rapid progress of the arts—of philosophy and the sciences. There is another truth that forces itself upon the mind in this connexion— and it is the fact that the insalubrity of a country or section may be diminished, or destroyed by the progress of civiliza- tion, and a proper application of the arts and sciences to the exigencies of human existence. To this we are in a great measure to refer the increased average duration of life. A distinguished professor, in a recent lecture before the Me- chanic's Institute of Cincinnati, says, that in the latter part of the 16th century, one-half of all that were born, died under five years of age, and the average longevity of the whole population was but 18 years. In the 17th centu-