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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    and some other public institutions of the State, illustrate the extent to which the mineral resources of the commonwealth have been explored. The stores of knowledge thus accumulated, and the labors of those who had more recently occupied themselves in studying the mineralogy of the State, were carefully reviewed by Dr. Beck ; and these, with his own extensive researches, he brought together, ana- lyzed and arranged, pursuant to the principles which govern the classification of minerals, in the volume to which we have referred. In treating the subject in its various relations, Dr. Beck first divides it into two parts, viz., 1. Economical, and, 2. Descriptive Mine- ralogy. It is chiefly in the former of these departments we find the matters which immediately connect the subject, or identify it with medicine. It is, therefore, in relation to some of the more interest- ing topics in this department, that we propose to confine our ob- servations. Of the metallic ores in the State, that of iron exists in great abundance. Large ferruginous deposits in the form of the mag- netic oxide are distributed in beds or veins, in the primary rocks, as already mentioned, and in some of the rocks of a later geolo- gical period. Magnetic iron sand is found on the sea-coast of Long Island, and on the shores of the Hudson, and some of the tributa- ries of that river, and also on the shores of the great northern lakes. The specular oxide of iron occurs chiefly in the primary formations; and the lenticular or argillaceous iron ore in the western part of the State, where it abounds. The hydrous peroxide of iron (hydrated sesquioxide of iron), or limonite is the most important, and one of the most abundant and extensively distributed of the iron ores, and is the one from which is obtained a large portion of the iron manufactured in the State. Disseminated, in small quantities, over the northeastern and southern counties of the State, are various other metallic ores. Copper, lead, and zinc ores occur in Columbia, Dutchess, Herkimer, Orange, St. Lawrence, and Ulster counties. Copper is also found in Erie, Jefferson, Niagara, Rockland, and Warren counties, and lead and zinc in Lewis, Monroe, Montgomery, and Oneida coun- ties, and lead in Washington County. Arsenic occurs in Colum- bia, Putnam, and Essex counties, and titanium in Jefferson, Orange, St. Lawrence, Essex, Montgomery, and New York counties. Ce- rium has been found in Monroe and Orange counties, and native silver at Sing Sing, in Westchester County. A locality of sulphu-