D. 8. Yulee, United Statee Senate, October, 1866M


"and


have


served


also with an army on the Northern frontier, and, from


my experience of the


influence of


climate


active opera-


tions in the field on the health of soldiers, I have no hesitation
in expressing the belief that, had the troops engaged in the
Florida War been engaged for the same length of time in ac-
tive operations, in winter and summer, on the frontiers of Can-


ada, though the cases of


disease might have


been less numer-


oue, the mortality would


have


been


infinitely- greater, than


was experienced in Florida."
 Tourists are industriously warned, by persons interested in


other localities in Florida, against the malaria of the St.


River.


is undeniable


that


persons


do occasionally


John's
suffer.


from it during the winter season.


except to those who


But it rarely gives trouble


are unusually careless in exposing them-


selves, or in drinking well instead of


cistern water.


The State abounds in springs of


excellent water, but


they


are not always accessible.


Rain-water, however, may always


be had, even in the driest seasons, by providing


large cisterns


storage.


Lately,


water


been


procured


bor"jg


through the calcareous crust to the depth of sixty feet or more,


and the water, when filtered, is pleasant to the taste.


A quali-


tative


analysis


one of these wells in the yard of the Put-


nam House, made by my friend Prof. Witthaus, gives the fol-


lowing result


bonate)


Lime (carbonate and sulphate); magnesia (car-


ammonia, soda, chlorine, carbonic acid, sulphuric acid-


(traces); silicic acid


tity.


organic matter; the latter in small quan-


This water ought not to take the place of rain-water for


drinking-purposes.


occur in


The cases of intermittent fever which do


the winter, generally among those who are visiting


different points of interest up and down the river, and more
or less exposed at night, are very manageable. It is not fair,
however, to attribute every case of fever, which occurs among
Northern visitors, to the Florida climate, since the disease has
been so very prevalent, almost over the whole of the Northern
States during the last five years, both in winter and summer,


that it would


more


rational to


attribute the outbreak to


latent disease contracted at home, and developed, as ia ohL-


_1


i


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