From information which has recently reached me, I am persuaded, that our dutch ancestors paid more attention to the improvement and natural history of the country, than has been generally imagined. We are, as yet, greatly in the dark with respect to events and observations during their occupancy of New Netherland, as they termed their country; but the means of information are amply within our reach. De Leart wrote a book respecting it, wherein he gives a very particular account of the indians; and Megapolensis, an eminent dutch minister, who formerly lived in this city, also published a work on this country when a dutch province; and I have now before me a manuscript translation made by the rev. dr. Bassett, of dr. Van der Donk's History of New Netherland, published in 1655. It is very interesting, and it is to be hoped, that that worthy gentleman will meet with sufficient encouragement to publish it, and also correct translation of De Laert and Megapolensis, for which no man in this country is better qualified. Van der Donk states, that a certain surgeon, a resident of New Netherland, had formed an extensive botanical garden, in which he planted many medical roots, which he cultivated from the woods adjacent to his ahode; but by the removal of that worthy gentleman from the country, his humane and patriotic exertions were lost to the world. This, I undertake to say, was the first botanical garden established in this part of America. It appears, also, from this work, that most of the medicinal and other herbs, with which the country abounds, were known to our dutch forefath ers; that they took uncommon pains to introduce the best cereal grainina, legumens, and excellent vegetables, and fruit of various kinds, and have even cultivated canary seed; that they introduced the white and red, the cornelian and stock roses, wall flowers, tulips, imperial flowers, the white lily, and lily of the valley, ladies' rose, violet, and gold flower, and that the country abounded with flowers peculiar to it, of the most beautiful kind, to which the european was an entire stranger; viz. the sunflower, the red and yellow lily, the morning glory, the white, yellow, and red marygold, a species of wild eglantine, the different kinds of the bell flower, and many others.

Our dutch ancestors also turned their attention to improving the dyes of the Country: great hopes were entertained from the wild indigo; and they not only supposed that the common indigo might be raised to great advantage, but they actually tried the experiment. Seed was imported from Holland. The first attempt failed, owing, as it was supposed, to an extraordinary drought which prevented the plant from coming to maturity: but another experiment completely succeeded the seed was sown near New Amsterdam, (New-York,) and a great crop was obtained; specimens were sent to the mother country, where good judges pronounced it of a superior quality. But what is still more extraordinary is, that there is reason to believe that it was contemplated to introduce

the famous orchilla weed. When the spaniards discovered the Canary Islands, they sought for it as eagerly as they did for gold: it was probable, that it was made use of to produce the gertulian purple of the ancients; and they also had in their view other vegetable dyes, which we cannot now accurately designate. "The crap plant," says Van der Donk, "for dying red, is not cultivated in New Neth; erland, but it is not to be questioned, that if it were tried it would yield well." I must repeat my wish, that this curious work may soon see the light. It ap pears from it, that the country was so remarkably healthy at that time, that it was a strange thing to hear of a person being sick; that the east wind did not extend far west; and that the climate was as mild at that period as it now is.

NOTE 37.

It

See Busching's Geography, vol. 1. Temple's Works, vol. 3. Walpoliana. There can be no doubt but that several species of some of these trees existed in a wild state at home, previous to their introduction from foreign countries. is presumable, for instance, that the chesnut always grew in Italy, and the cherry in France; but different kinds, on account of their superior excellence arising from cultivation, were imported by the ancient romans. Wherever their

arms extended, they availed themselves of the choice fruits of the conquered countries, and the great generals who brought them to Rome took pride in giving them their own names, as in memory of some great service or pleasure they had done their country; so that not only laws and battles, but several sorts of apples or mala, and of pears, were called Manlian, and Claudian, Pompeian, and Tiberian, and by several other such noble names. Thus, in process of time, the inhabitants of Italy, who formerly lived on acorns, made the whole world tributary to their subsistence, as well as to their glory. Humboldt, in his Aecount of New Spain, (vol. 2.) says, that the prunus avium is indigenous in Germany and France, and has existed from the most remote antiquity in their forests, like the robur and the linden tree; while other species of cherry-trees, which are considered as varieties, become permanent, and of which the fruits are more savoury than the prunus avium have come to those countries through the romans from Asia Minor, and particularly from the kingdom of Pontus.

Turnips and carrots are considered indigenous roots of France; our cauliflowers came from Cyprus; our artichokes from Sicily!; lettuce from Cos; and shallots, or eschallots, from Ascalon. The art of gardening was introduced into Eng

land from the continent about 1509, prior to which most of the present produce of kitchen gardens was imported from the Netherlands.

NOTE 38.

The comparative mortality of London has not only greatly diminished withio the last fifty or sixty years, but a number of diseases which, previous to that period, were very destructive, have almost entirely disappeared; for instance, the plague, the rickets, and the scurvy: while others that were formerly considered very mortal, are now viewed as no longer formidable; such as the small pox, the dysentery and intermittent fevers.

Other diseases, supposed to be less dependent on the physical than on the moral and political changes which Great Britain has undergone, have increased in number and fatality; and are attributed, chiefly, to the increase of manufactures; and, consequently, of the number of sedentary and otherwise unwholesome occupations to the augmentation of the national wealth, and with it, of luxury and high feeding; and to the fluctuations in the conditions of life, attendant on the spirit of commercial speculation. To the first of these sources is ascribed, in part, the regular increase of the consumption, during the last century; to the second, the more inconsiderable, but scarcely less regular, increase of apoplexy, palsy, gout, and sudden deaths; and to the last, the more frequent occurrence of insanity in its different forms: and the increase of intemperance and vice, in a large and populous city, doubtless contributes much to the augmentation of all these diseases.

Dr. Heberden states the proportion of these three classes of disease, at the beginning, middle, and end, of the eighteenth century, to have been as follows:

If we compare the mortality from consumption, at those three periods, with the total mortality, we find, that in 1669 the deaths, from consumption, were, to the

whole, as,

The reports of consumption, in other parts of Great Britain, correspond, in a great degree, with the accounts of its prevalence in London, and, therefore, render this ascription of its causes and origin unsatisfactory.

Dr. Lettsom, however, in a letter to dr. Hosack, on the diseases of London, (Amer. Med. and Phil. Reg. vol. 2) says, "Whilst the phthisis pulmonalis is rapidly increasing in America, and in the european continent, it is diminishing here. The croup is less fatal, in consequence of the immediate and free use of the lancet, and of leeches, with purgatives, than heretofore; nor is angina scarlatina either so frequent or so fatal. The typhus is almost extinct, and the cholera morbus is unfrequent; and, as far as my experience extends, the syphilis is milder, or easier cured; and, lately, such has been the prolongation of health and life as to lessen the premiums of insurance considerably."

Out of 19,954 deaths, in London, in 1808, 5,220 are ascribed to the consumption. The christenings, in that year were 19,906, nearly equal to the burials.

In 1809, the healthiest year which London ever enjoyed, there were 16,680 deaths, 4,570 of which were produced by the consumption; the number of christenings was 19,612, making the excess of births above the deaths nearly 3,000. (See the London Annual Medical Review and Register, for 1808 and 1809.)

Dr. James E. Smith says, that "In Italy, consumptions are found to be very contagious, though less evidently so in England." It is intimated, if my meme ry serves me, in that excellent work, the Emporium, that the general use of cotton shirts, etc. may have a pernicious influence in producing this disease. Its increased fatality in Europe, as well as in America, is, probably, owing to a complication of causes; and, indeed, the periodical prevalence and disappear ance of certain diseases, must be classed among those arcana which providence has concealed from man.

Salubrious as the climate of Madeira is generally reckoned, we find, that even there pulmonary diseases cut off a great number of the inhabitants. Of the various districts of North America, New-York has been considered, by many, as being especially favoured with regard to the mildness of its seasons; and the changes of its weather were referred chiefly to the difference in the prevailing winds. Among a series of interesting remarks on the climate and diseases of New-York, made by lieutenant-governor Colden, about seventy years ago, and inserted in the American Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. 1. this medi

called the minds of medical observers to the peculiar nature of intra-tropical diseases. The appearance of the yellow fever at Boulam, in 1793; its general prevalence in most of the West India islands; and subsequently, its more extensive diffusion in different parts of the United States, have been the means of enlarging the original limits of the controversy, and have given to the discussion an interest inferior to none among medical inquiries. Pre-eminent among the european authors who have entered upon this discussion, may be considered the celebrated dr. Chisholm and dr. Haygarth, whose respective writings on the malignant yellow fever are monuments of the learning and talents of their authors, and may be pronounced the most able and satisfactory works in support of the doctrines which they have espoused; as the writings of our late distinguished countrymen, doctors Rush and Miller, may be referred to as containing the best summary of the theories which these authors have embraced,

Although the specific nature of the matter by which certain diseases are propagated is still imperfectly understood, yet it were idle to deny the existence of contagion; and it is certain we have recently ascertained, in no inconsiderable degree, the laws by which it is governed. "In the present state of medical knowledge," says the Edinburgh Review, "it would not, we conceive, be at all more absurd to deny the existence of fever altogether, than to maintain that it is not propagated by contagion.". Review of Dr. Haygarth's Letter to Dr. Percival.

An attempt was made by the late dr. Richard Bayley, of New-York, to establish a distinction between contagion and infection, and to discriminate the diseases arising from these two different sources. (Treatise on the Yellow Fever of New York, 1795.) This distinction has been adopted by some european physicians, and, among others, by dr. Joseph Adams, but without the due acknowLedginent.

About the year 1797, dr. Mitchill promulgated his ingenious doctrines on the pestilential fluids, and in 1804, dr. Edward Miller made public his Attempt to Deduce a Nomenclature of certain Febrile and Pestilential Diseases from the origin and nature of their remote cause. Medical Repository, vol. I and 7.

In July, 1803, a new theory on the laws governing the communication of contagious and infectious diseases, was published by dr. Hosack, in a letter addressed to dr. Colin Chisholm. (Vide Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. 5.) Dr. Hosack admits the distinction proposed by dr. Bayley to approach nearer the truth than any other that had hitherto been offered, but he does not consider it as presenting a view of the whole truth. Those diseases which are communicable from one person to another, and are generally considered of a contagious or infectious nature, are distributed by dr. H. into three classes. First, such as

are communicated exclusively by contact; as itch, siphylis, sibbens, laanda of