as an entity, that there is no such a thing as malaria. This negative way of reasoning would prove the non-existence of the contagions of nearly all varieties. As a matter of observation, we have been able to predict that those who live in houses built of green timber, and adjacent to large surfaces which have been fallowed up, so as to expose much animal and vegetable matter, are almost sure to have some form of bilious diseases in the summer or autumn.

In reference to the topography of this section, I have observed that those who live near to stagnant water, that is subject to have the soil exposed to the sun, are quite subject to chills; and those whose residence is in or near a deep hollow leading to the river, rarely ever escape chills and fever; those hollows seeming to be flues that conduct the malaria. And those who live on the margin of the river, where the water is still and smooth, are not near as apt to have chills as those who live near the rapids, where there is constant evaporation going on, thus impregnating the surrounding air.

Such is the influence of the causes of periodical diseases, whether of malarious origin or not, that when the system is once morbidly impressed by the poison, that the whole nervous and vascular systems become functionally diseased to such a degree that organic disease frequently results. The great nerve centres soon become so impaired and enervated that hyperemia ensues-styled by some author's neuramia. This congested condition of the great nerve centres ultimately leads to serious lesions of nutrition-a condition called leucocythemia or white cell condition of the blood.

If I were an advocate of the animalcular origin of periodic fevers, I would be tempted to account for the return of the chills in the spring, in those who have had them in the autumn, by the presence of a fresh crop of animalcules in the spring, in harmony with Nature's prolific laws; but as I do not embrace that hypothesis, with regard to the etiology of chills, I account for their return in the spring on the assumption that the cause has been held in abeyance by hygienic influences of the winter; and that the return of warm weather in the early spring has somewhat weakened the vital powers of resistance, and inattention on the part of the patient to the sudden vicissitudes of weather, weakens the function of the excito-thermal nerves.

We sometimes find in malarious locations typhoid fever associated with bilious fever. This association I have always found to occur in malarious sections, when typhoid happened to be prevailing at the same time. In such a complication, the bilious type of the disease may be well marked, and after convalescence seems to have set in, the usual symptoms of typhoid fever will be well developed in the course of twenty-four or forty-eight hours.

The most frequent exciting causes that I have observed of chills, are the sudden vicissitudes of weather, and inattention to proper clothing. The system demands tonics, suitable nutriment, neurotic and hæmatic restoratives.

REPORT ON THE TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY, AND DISEASES OF MADISON COUNTY.

BY GEORGE D. NORRIS, A.M., M. D., OF HUNTSVILLE.

Topography.-Madison county is situated in the north part of Alabama, bordering on the State of Tennessee, and between the parallels of 34° 30′ and 35° north latitude, and 9° and 10° longitude west from Washington. Its area is 850 square miles. It is intersected by Flint and Paint Rock rivers, affluents of the Tennessee, which forms the southern boundary. The surface is mountainous and hilly, soil very fertile and extensively cultivated. This county abounds in beautiful rivers and creeks, their source from the ridge between the waters of Elk and Flint rivers affording abundant water power for factories and mills.

The population, according to the last census, is 31,000 inhabitants. The peculiar features of this county are the little areas of table lands upon the tops of the mountains, which are capped by sandstone. When this is removed they sink nearly to the level of the valleys. The mineral springs of the county are numerous; Gerons in the north part, Black Sulphur, as Johnson's wells, near Meridianville, and Chalybeate on the mountains, of which I have not the analysis. The forests abound in fine timber, such as the white, red, black, Spanish, willow, post and chestnut oaks. These are sub-divided into over and under-cup. The stately liriodendron tulipifera, one hundred feet without a limb, and ten feet in diameter, chestnuts equally as large; the elms in variety, the gums, hickory, maples, especially sugar, black and white walnuts, wild cherry, beech, cucumber, black locust, lynn, sycamore, cedar, dogwood, paw-paw, while enormous grape-vines rear their stems to the tops of the loftiest trees; all evince the fertility of the soil. Its streams abound in fish, and its forests and fields with deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, partridges, and pigeons, while the swamps are alive with ducks, plovers, snipe and woodcocks. Its mountains have coal of excellent quality, and the anticlinal ridges of the Devo

nian rocks will no doubt yield, in time, ample supplies of kerosene, when its deep caverns are tapped by the drill of the searcher. The principal mountains are-Monte Sano, near Huntsville, 1,565 feet above tide water, and Capshan's mountain in the western part of the county, which is but a counterpart of the Cumberland mountains, isolated and alone. The Memphis and Charleston Railroad passes nearly through the centre of the county, while another road is in contemplation connecting Tennessee with Alabama. The city of Huntsville, the most beautiful city in the world, stands in a valley, nearly surrounded by spurs of the Cumberland mountains, that run down right and left to Tennessee river; set as a diamond within emeralds, and, seen from the top of Monte Sano, it presents the most enchanting view. Its men are noted for their intellectuality and hospitality, and, its women for their beauty and refinement. Huntsville has an elevation of 612 feet above tide water; population between 5,000 and 6,000. The one great feature of Huntsville is its immense spring, which bursting forth from its hard chalky rocks, not only supplies the city with abundance of pure water, but vents a stream at the rate of 825 cubic feet per minute.

The towns of the county are-New Market, 809 feet above tide water, Maysville, Vienna, Triana, Madison, 573 feet above tide water, Brownsboro 631, Cluttsville, Meridianville and Hazlegreen. This county was honored by the residence of some of the brightest lights of our profession, viz.: Drs. Thomas Fearne, Alexander Erskine, John Y. Bassett, Dabney Wharton, F. H. Newman, and L. B. Sheffy. Sleeping in the ground, dead to this earth, but alive in our hearts, and awake in our thoughts, and a few workers in the profession are left, their heads whitening for the grave, yet a noble band of young men will fill their places, and reflect great honor upon this county in the rapid advancement of medication.

The geology of Madison county is peculiarly interesting. The mountains and knobs scattered over the county are not the result of elevation, but of the depression of the rest of the surrounding country by denudation, as is evident from the remarkable terraces extending around the sides of the mountians. They are everywhere present, and result from the unequal washing of strata composing said mountains; many of the limestones are highly argillaceous and subject to disintegration; and if an underlying bed be less destructible, it remains to form a terrace, whilst the upper one is washed away. These terraces are frequently ten or twelve feet wide, and in length may be traced around the mountain. The bed of sandstone above is, in many places, out-cropping in vertical ledges that expose at their base a thin seam of coal. The strata may be designated as follows: Chalky limestone, magnesian limestone, ordinary limestone, containing the fossil archimedes in abundance, a stratum of yellow limestone, a thick bed of limestone, sandstone, with impressions of coal plants. We have then silurian and devonian rocks, the latter represented by the black slate or more properly

Cherty

cher

shale, which is found on all the principal streams that flow from the north into the Tennessee river, between Flint river in Madison and Shoal creek in Lauderdale county. This rock, which is quite uniform in lithological character, is composed of dark colored argillaceous slates, fully saturated with kerosene, so much so as to burn with a flame. It varies in thickness from twenty to sixty feet; only one fossil has as yet been found in this rock, a small lingula. Encrinital limestone is also abundant; spirifer striatus is found near Huntsville in a thick stratum of coarse chrystalline limestone, above this is a bed abounding in peutremites florealis and pyriformis, with the remains of fishes, amongst the latter, teeth of psammodus and cladodus, are conspicuous. The late Dr. Newman, of Huntsville, discovered a species which was called after him, Cladodus Newmani, as well as Cladodus Magnificus. Impressions of fossil plants of the coal period are abundant in a bed of sandstone near Huntsville. The thickness of the carboniferous rocks of this county is estimated at 1,500 feet. Beds of magnesian and hydraulic limestone and strata of limestone having an oolitic structure, are found forming a conspicuous part of the rocks of the mountains of Madison.

Analysis of carboniferous limestone, Huntsville, spec. gravity =2,676 dissolves readily in muriatic acid.

92.17

61

97

32

Trace

5.75

99.64

Whitesburg, sp. grav. 2.702, dissolves easily in muriatic acid.

Carbonate of Lime..

Climatology.-Mean annual temperature-Monte Sano, 54° 5'; Valley of the Tennessee, 59° 7'. Temperature for several years-Mean, 58° 88'. Mean temperature of different seasons for several years— Winter, 53° 44′; spring, 64° 76'; summer, 80° 46′; autumn, 68° 15′. Mean temperature of warmest month, 82° 93'. Mean temperature of coldest month, 50° 69'. Temperature of the spring on Monte Sano, 55° 6'; air, 80° 6'-July. Temperature of the spring at Huntsville, 60° 8'; air, 80° 6'-July. Mean fall of rain in 1871,

4.56 inches. Snow. Unfortunately, a series of observations for many years was mislaid, therefore cannot give as full a table as desired.

We have here a mild and equable temperature, which admits of out-door labor nearly every day in the year. The snow fall is but slight, and does not remain for any considerable time upon the ground. We have had more snow this year by far than any year since 1843. The heat of summer is tempered by cool breezes from the mountains, they forming points of condensation which gives us rain in due season, and having no excessive drouths. Our winter crops of vegetables, such as cabbage, kale, onions, turnips, celery, salsify, carrots, beets, parsnips, lettuce and spinach remain in the ground all winter unhurt. Our gardens are planted early, often in January, in peas; and plants raised in frames are set in the open ground as early as March. No lands in the world will yield more kindly to the influences of manuring and skilful cultivation. The health of this beautiful county is most unquestionable. With regard to the diversity of the agricultural products of this county, no other country on the globe can be compared to it, except with those few localities along mountain terraces, where the products are controlled by altitude instead of latitude. All the berries grow in profusion, the strawberry in particular, while the roadsides and woods abound in blackberries and grapes. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, damsons and apricots grow in profusion, while the grape can be cultivated with the greatest success, making most excellent wine. The woods are full of the luscious Muscadine, and its congener, the Scuppernong, spreads its branches from year to year, requiring no cutting, no pruning, and yielding enormously-one single vine, in time, covering an acre of ground.

This county is the home of the peach, growing on the road sides, and for variety, size and excellence cannot be surpassed. They bear in three years from the seed, and without cultivation.

The grasses, Clover, Herds, Timothy, Blue, Orchard, and Crab, a native variety, grow in profusion and yield large crops.

Cotton is the main staple product, and is celebrated in the markets of the world as uplands. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, Irish and sweet potatoes, peanuts, castor oil bean, sorghum, broom corn, pumpkin, squash, sage, hops, willow, calamus aromaticus, horse radish, mustard, pepper and sumac grow in large quantities, with but little care. Figs need only the slightest protection to yield large crops of fruit. Tobacco is indigenous and successfully grown. Rice is also planted, and for home use yields ample crops. This county is admirably adapted for raising stock, particularly sheep and cattle.

Diseases.-Malarial, so-called, are the principal, sometimes in the malignant form. Enteric has its cycles; from 1832 to 1842 malarial prevailed; then the type was changed, and for several years enteric was the most common, completely masking the malarial type. In