Transactions of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama

that the summer, although marked by some very hot days, was a pleasant one. The highest point reached by the thermometer was 95° at 31.5 P. M., July 17th, and after that not again until 22d August, at the same hour, did it reach so high a point.

The heat of the sun being tempered by the gulf winds, which are ordinarily very regular, commencing about 10 A. M., and dying out about 2 P. M., to set in again before sunset, and continue through the night until just before day-break; the past summer was notably deficient in these periodic winds, which made it a hotter one than usual. During two years when I kept an accurate record of the temperature, I never saw the mercury in the shade mark more than 930, and this only two or three times in each year.

The character of our summer rains, so delightful in their influence, is peculiar to the gulf coast and sea boards--coming in sudden showers and pouring down over a limited district, often not more than one-third of the city, a surprising quantity of water. If the showers occur during the day, the immediate effect is unpleasant and unwholesome, the air becoming dense and oppressive from the rapid evaporation from the sandy soil, but when occurring during the night, the effect is the reverse. The past summer, as will be seen by the tables, was a dry one.

Topography.--The site upon which Mobile is built, is on the west side of Mobile river, commencing at, or near, the point of land marking the mouth of the river, and designated on the accompanying map as "Choctaw Point." It extends northward from this point about two miles, and westward about two miles. The city limits include a larger surface, but the above dimensions will nearly define the city proper.

The ground rises gradually from the river to Wilkinson street, from which to Broad street the surface is nearly level. At Broad another elevation begins, which extends westward several miles Lafayette street, rising forty feet above the level of the river, until beyond Spring Hill (six miles) a high plateau is reached, a marsh intervening.

North of the city, and defining its northern limit, runs a stream, (One Mile Creek,) which, as will be inferred from its course, drains a large portion of the north-western section. The creek is bounded by a wide marsh or bog, which, commencing at the river terminus of Marion street, runs south-west to near the gas works, (Seventh Ward,) then northwest, crossing Centre street west of the reservoir, and extending to city limits and Three Mile Creek. At its widest part, this bog is quite half a mile; it surrounds two sides of the Seventh Ward, in which resides more than one-third of our negro population. From the point at which Three Mile Creek begins, or the western boundary to the junction of Dauphin Way and Lafay ette street, the water is shed into Three Mile Creek. East of Lafayette and north of Government street, the bulk of the water is drained to Broad, then into One Mile Creek, by Broad, St. Louis

and Wilkinson. East of Wilkinson the drainage is via the streets eastward to the river. From west of Ann, and south of Dauphin, the water is carried through a large drain running northward via Ann and Tennessee to the bay. East of Ann, between Church and Virginia, it drains through the city to the river.

Choctaw Point Swamp, referred to in the report, covers about one hundred and fifty acres. There is a plan now on foot for converting this pest into a public park. South of Virginia street, to and beyond the city limits, is a level plateau, with a few high points and many low places, holding water after rain. This is intersected by small streams running into the bay, fringed on either side as they empty, by bad, boggy marshes.

With these exceptions, the general disposition of the city site is a plateau, containing, in places, designated upon the map, low spots, some of which nearly always contain water; these are numerous in the section of the city south and south-west of the intersection of Wilkinson and Charleston, and between the Washington Avenue car stables and cemetery. During the present winter much of this portion of the town has been drained by newly-cut outlets.

From Choctaw Point southward the shore is a wide beach, covered during high tide to the depth of one or two feet of water; at other times exposed to the width of, in places, one-eighth of a mile. On this is deposited quantities of river sediment and drift-wood.

The chief localities of malarial fevers, particularly congestive, were in those portions of the town containing ponds, or bounded by swamp. Several of the cases of hemorrhagic malarial fever originated south of the foot of Conti street, near the Gulf City Hotel.

For the map of the city herewith presented, and for information as to the topography, I am under obligations to Col. J. A. Brown, City Engineer.