The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-06-10
Health and Disease in the United
States. ID.

4 Our readers know that it is usual for in
valids to 90 in search of health to lOcali-
| ties which are supposed TO be favorable to
| the cure of the diseases with which they
are afflicted. For example, many con
sunptives gOto Minnesota where the air
lis crisp and dry, and therefore healthful
for the lungs; others spend the winter In
the baimy climare of Florida, where. they
are free from the rude. east winds of New
England. Those persons who are subject
to malarial diseases, caused by living in
low, fiat, damp sections, repair to hilly
spots, where they are free from swampy
vapors. Happily. our country is blessed
with every variety and grade of tempers-
ture, from the torrid heat of Texas TO the
| long-enduring frosts and SHOWS of north
ern Maine and northern Oregon; so that,
whatever the climate desired by the inva-
lid, it may be found within our confines,
aud there is little necessity to seek.it
Eacross the ocean. o. ed lgl
1t has been ascertained, with care and
certainty, what diseases are most rife in
every part of the Union, and what diseases
are, on the other hand, rare in each sec
ton I; and in the last census the resalts,O
these observations are set forth in detail,
with maps which show them at glance.
These maps are very interesting to study.
Each map represents the whole area of
the Union, and the degrees of the prev
alenee of each disease are shown by va
rying shades of certain color. For in
stance, the map showing the relative
prevalence of consumption has very deep
blue spots for those sections where it Is
most common, spots of little lighter blue
for the place where it is somewhat less
common, and so on to the white spots,
where it is little known. The prevalence
of malarial diseases is shown by different
shades of orange; of enteric diseases and
fevers by different shades of pink; and in.
testinal diseases by different shades of
green.
Looking at these maps you will find that
consumption finds its most numerous
victims in the Northern and Northwestern
States, especially in Northern New Eng
land, in parts OF Southern Ohio and lndi-
ana, and Northern Kentucky, while it is
more or less prevalent, also, in Eastern
Tennessee and Western North Carolina.
The deep blue tells the same tale on the
central part of the coast of California. Out
of every ten thousand deaths in these sec
tiOns, from fourteen hundred to two thou
sand are from consumption; in Massa.
chusetts, New Hampshire and Maine thsy
quite reach the latter figure. On the other
hand. consumption is very rare in South
ern California, in almost the whole Of
Florida, in central Georgia, and in the
Southwestern States and far Western
Territories.
If the North is the most severely scOurg-
ed by consumption, the South, less sub
ject to it, has its own special affiiction in
malarial diseases. These are very COM
mon along the coast from Maryland to
Florida, and in the Gulf and Western
States. They are most prevalent in East
ern, South Carolina, the Florida peninsula,
certain parts of Texas, Louisiana and Ar
kansas and i'm many of these localities,
out of ten thousand deaths, from nine to
fourteen hundred are caused by this class
OF diseases. H
FeverS are pretty evenly scattered over
the face of the country. They are most
common, perhaps, in certain parts of
Georgia, Mississippi, Minnesota, Missouri
and Texas. where two thousand out of
every ten thousand deaths proceed from
them.
Diseases of the bowels, such as dysen-
terry and diarrh9a, are also prevalent in
all sections; there is scarcely State in
which there are not localities where the
deaths from them reach from nine to four
teen hundred out of ten thousand.
OF all diseases, consumption is the most
fatal in the United States. In 1870 the
deaths from this dread visitor to our house
holds reached seventy-four thousand out
of total OF two hundred and sixty thou
sand deaths.
Next comes pneumonia, of which forty
thousand died, and then, in order, typhus
and enteric feVers, which carried of, re-
spectively, twenty-five thousand.
1t is interesting to note, too, that more
females than males die of consumption,
though males aud females are in about
equal numbers in this country; this may
be in part explained, perhaps, by the more
active habits and greater physical exercise
of men, who go abroad to their daily Ia
bOrs, leaving their wives, sisters and
daughters to spend the greater part of
their time indoors.