The Climate of Louisiana.--The Yellow Fever.
That a country, the fourth part of which consists of marshes, stagnant
waters, rivers, and lakes, and which is so near the torrid zone, cannot
be altogether healthy, is not to be denied. Although Louisiana is not so
salubrious a country as the creoles or settlers inured to the climate,
would persuade us that it is; on the other hand it is not the seat of
the plague, or of continued disease, as the North Americans or Europeans
imagine. Louisiana is no doubt a most agreeable country during the
winter and spring. The former commences in December, and continues
through January. Rains and showers will sometimes fall, during several
successive weeks, snow very seldom. North and north-east winds prevail;
a south wind will occasionally change the temperature, on a sudden, from
a northern April day to the heat of summer. The coldest winter
experienced for twenty years past, was that of the year 1821; the
gutters were choked up with ice, and water exposed in buckets, froze to
the thickness of an inch and a half. Fahrenheit's thermometer fell to
20° below zero. In this year, the orange, lime, and even fig-trees were
destroyed by the frost.
Towards the close of January the Mississippi rises, and the ice of the
Ohio breaks up. This river, seldom, however, causes an inundation. This
is generally reserved for the Missouri, the principal river that empties
itself into the Mississippi. With the month of February the spring
breaks forth in Louisiana. Frequent rains fall in this month, the
vegetation advances astonishingly, and the trees receive their new
foliage. On the 1st of March we had potatoes grown in the open fields,
pease, beans, and artichokes. South winds prevail alternately with
north-west winds. The month of March is undoubtedly the finest season in
Louisiana; there are sometimes night frosts, though scarcely felt by any
one except the creoles, and the equally tender orange flowers. The
thermometer is in this month at 68°-70°. At this time prevails a
disease, the influenza, which arises from the sudden alternations of
cold and warm weather; it has carried off several persons. It is always
necessary to wear cotton shirts, whether in cold or warm weather.
Towards the close of March, the fruit-trees have done blooming, the
forests are clad in their new verdure, and all nature bursts out in the
most exuberant vegetation; every thing develops itself in the country
with gigantic strides. Already the musquitoes are beginning to make
their troublesome appearance, and musquito bars become necessary. Still
the heat is moderate, being cooled by the north winds and the refreshing
waters of the Mississippi. May brings with it the heat of a northern
summer, moderated however, by cooling north and north-east breezes. The
thermometer is at 78° to 80°. At this season, frequent showers and
hurricanes coming from the south, rage with the utmost fury in those
extensive plains. With the month of June the heats become oppressive;
there is not a breath of air to be felt; the musquitos come in millions;
one is incessantly pursued by those troublesome insects. The worst,
however, is, that they will sometimes force their way through the
musquito bars. Nothing is more disagreeable than this buzzing sound, and
the pain occasioned by their sting; they keep you from sleeping the
whole night. Still they are not so troublesome as the millepedes, an
insect whose sting causes a most painful sensation. In the month of July
the heat increases. August, September, and October, are dangerous months
in New Orleans. A deep silence reigns during this time in the city, most
of the stores and magazines are shut up. No one is to be seen in the
streets in the day time except negroes and people of colour. No carriage
except the funeral hearse. At the approach of evening the doors open,
and the inhabitants pour forth, to enjoy the air, and to walk on the
Levee above and below the city. The yellow fever has not made its
appearance since 1822. It is not the extraordinary heat which causes
this baneful disease, the temperature seldom exceeding 100°. In the year
1825, when the thermometer rose in New York and Boston above 108°, it
was in New Orleans, no more than 97°. It is the pestilential miasmata
which rise from the swamps and marshes, and infect the air to a degree
which it is difficult to describe. These oppressive exhalations load the
air, and it is almost impossible to draw breath. If a breeze comes at
all, it is a south wind, which, from its baneful influence, exhausts the
last remaining force after throwing you into a dreadful state of
perspiration. The years 1811, 1814, and 1823, were the most terrible of
any for New Orleans. From sixty to eighty persons were buried every day,
and nothing was to be seen but coffins carried about on all sides. Whole
streets in the upper suburb, (inhabited chiefly by Americans and
Germans) were cleared of their inhabitants, and New Orleans was
literally one vast cemetery. Among the inhabitants, the poorer classes
were mostly exposed to the attacks of the unsparing and deadly disease,
as their situation did not permit them to stay at home; thus women were
for this reason, less exposed to its effects; and least of all the
wealthiest inhabitants, who were not compelled to quit their dwellings.
The creoles and others who were seasoned to the climate, were little
affected. The creole, mulatto, and negro women, are said to be the most
skilful in the cure of the disease. In 1822, hundreds of patients died
under the hands of the most experienced physicians, when these old women
commonly succeeded in restoring their own patients. Their preservatives
and medicines are as simple as they are efficacious, and every stranger
who intends to stay the summer in New Orleans, should make himself
acquainted with one of these women, in case a necessity should arise for
requiring their attendance. They give such ample proofs of their
superior skill, as to claim in this point a preference over the ablest
physicians.
The inhabitants are in general forewarned of the approaching disease, by
the swarms of musquitoes; although they come in sufficient quantity
every summer, they make their appearance in infinitely greater numbers
previously to a yellow fever.
This is said to have been the case on the three occasions already
mentioned. At such a time all business is of course suspended. The port
is empty, the stores are shut up. Those officers alone whose presence is
indispensable, or who have overcome the yellow fever, will remain with a
set of wretches, who, like beasts of prey feed upon the relics of the
dead, speculating upon the misery of their fellow creatures so far, as
not unfrequently to buy at auctions the very beds upon which they have
been known to expire in a few days afterwards. The first rain, succeeded
by a little frost, banishes the deadly guest, and every one returns to
his former business.
It is to be hoped, that this scourge of the land, if it should not be
wholly extirpated, will at least become less prevalent for the future.
The police regulations adopted during the last four years, have proved
very effectual. Among these are a strict attention to cleanliness,
watering the streets by means of the gutters, shutting up the grog-shops
after nine o'clock; and removing from the city all the poor and
houseless people, at the expense of the corporation, as soon as the
least indication of approaching infection is perceived. These, and
several other wise regulations will, it is hoped, contribute greatly to
increase the population, and to give the new comers a firmer guarantee
for their lives, than they have hitherto found. When the plans in
contemplation shall have been carried into effect, and the swamps behind
the city drained, a measure the more beneficial, as the soil of these
swamps is beyond all imagination fertile; then the surrounding country,
and the city itself, will become as healthy as any other part of the
Union. With the increasing population, we have no doubt, that Louisiana
will present the same features, as Egypt in former days, bearing, as
it does, the most exact resemblance to that country. During six
months, and already at the present time, it is a delightful place,
successfully resorted to from the north, by persons in a weak state of
health. The mildness of the climate, which even during the two winter
months, is seldom interrupted by frost, the most luxuriant tropical
fruits--bananas, pine-apples, oranges, lemons, figs, cocoa-nuts, &c.,
partly reared in the country, partly imported in ship loads from the
Havannah, a distance of only a few hundred miles; excellent oysters,
turtle of the best kind, arriving every hour; fish from the lake
Pontchartrain; game, venison of all sorts; vegetables of the finest
growth,--all these advantages give New Orleans a superiority over almost
every other place. Sobriety, temperance, and moderation in the use of
sensual enjoyments, and especially in the intercourse with the sex, with
a strict attention to the state of health, and an instant resort to the
necessary preservatives in case of derangement in the digestive
system,--such are the precautions that will best enable a stranger to
guard against the attacks of the disorders incident to this place.