Report on the medical topography and epidemics of the state of New York : Submitted to the American Medical Association at its annual meeting at New Haven in June, 1860 / By Joseph M. Smith.

  • Smith, Joseph Mather, 1789-1866.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the medical topography and epidemics of the state of New York : Submitted to the American Medical Association at its annual meeting at New Haven in June, 1860 / By Joseph M. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    The lithological characters of the system in question are somewhat various. Some of the rocks consist of red shale or slate, and fine grained red sandstone, others of dark colored shale and slate, and sometimes of hard greenish gray sandstone. These rocks compose a large portion of the Catskill Mountains, and the same formation extends from these mountains into the counties of Sullivan, Ulster, Greene, Albany, Schoharie, Delaware, Chenango, Otsego, Broome, and Tioga, and a part of the western territory of the State. It is noticeable, that where traces of coal appear, the old red sandstone underlies the conglomerate on which that material is superposed.1 4. CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. Though coal does not occur in a notable quantity in the State of New York, yet as there are rocks which are usually associated in age and position with the great coal measures, it has been deemed proper to apply to them the term Carboniferous System. All the workable coal seams of the country, says Mr. Hall, are confined to this formation, and he further says, but a single member, the lowest of the series, occurs in the State; unless it may be in the counties of Delaware and Sullivan. This member, the conglome- rate (or equivalent of the mill-stone grit of England), forms nume- rous outliers in the fourth district. It consists of pebbles of white quartz and coarse sand. The quadrangular forms in which this silicious conglomerate is broken up into large masses, and the mode in which they are exposed and arranged on the surface of the earth, give to them so strong an architectural resemblance as to occasion some of their groups to be called Ruined Cities, Rock City, &c. In some situations the conglomerate passes into sand- stone ; but in neither of these forms is the rock remarkable for fossil remains; when these are found it is usually in the sandstone. The palseontological features of these deposits are more manifest in their extension beyond the boundaries of the State. The local- ities in which the conglomerate of the carboniferous system is mostly found, are the southern border counties of Chemung, Alle- ghany, and Steuben. As the rock in question is found in Pennsyl- 1 In regard to the old red sandstone, no one can hesitate to adopt the sentiment of Mr. Hall, that, it is to be hoped, that some one with powers of investigation and description like Mr. Miller, of Glasgow, will one day give us a work upon the old red sandstone of the Catskill Mountains, similar to his upon the same rock in Scotland.