II.

ACCOUNT of the CLIMATE and DISEASES of New-York, by CADWALLADER COLDEN, Surveyor-General of the Province. Communicated to the Editors by his Grandson, C. D. Colden, Esq.*

THE city of New-York lies nearly in 40 deg. and 40 min. of North latitude, and about five hours west from London. The climate partakes of the extreme climates: sometimes the summer is as hot as in the torrid zone, and the winter often is not less cold than in the northern parts of Europe. The heat and cold depend very much upon the winds, and, for that reason, in the same season of the year, are very various. In the summer, when the wind blows from the north-west (which frequently happens) the air is agreeably cool, but in the winter it is piercing cold. A southerly and south-westerly wind, if it continue any

*The present article gives an account of the climate and of the diseases of this city as they prevailed here almost ninety years ago; and as we have but very few observations relative to our country of a similar kind, and written at so early a period, the editors have considered it worthy insertion in the Register; as introductory to the author's celebrated paper on the fever of 1741-2, it is particularly deserving of attention. And by those philosophers who have so strenuously contended that an amelioration in the temperature of our climate has taken place, in a regular and constant ratio with our numerous settlements and extensive improvements, the remark of Dr. Colden, when he says, he " doubts not it will in time become one "of the most agreeable and healthy climates on the face of the 6% earth," will be considered as correct, and corroborated by common observation and experience. EDITORS.

time, in summer, becomes very hot, and if we want winds, which sometimes happens in July and August, the air becomes sultry. Southerly winds in winter make the cold very moderate. We have much less rain or snow than in England, and the heaven is seldom overcast with clouds. The north-west wind being so extremely cold, even so far south as North-Carolina, I believe is owing to the high ridge of mountains which lies to the westward of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and this province, though it be generally attributed to the great lakes which lie to the north-westward of this province: for it is observed in all other countries, that the winds which come from any great quantity of water, are not so cold as those that come from mountains, and are always accompanied with rain or moisture, whereas the north-west winds here are very dry; besides, the winds from the lakes must be stopt in their course by these high mountains which lie betwixt us and the lakes. This is confirmed by what I am told by those who have continued some time in the Sennekas country near Iagara, on the west side of these mountains, that the north-west winds there are always accompanied with rain as the easterly winds are here.

Though there be so great a variety of weather in this country, the height of the mercury in the barometer does not suffer so great changes as in England. I have had a barometer by me about six years and never observed the mercury lower than 29 inches and 7 or 8 tenths of an inch, and it is generally betwixt 30 and 30 and an half inches high, though I have sometimes observed it 31 inches high, which is as high as it is ever observed in England or I think any where else; but it is so high only in the time of very hard frost.

૨૧

The spring is much later than in England: we perceive but very little of it before the latter end of April: March is generally cold and windy, though for the most part the latter end of February be mild and warm. The winds in March are generally northerly, and they as well as the cold are owing to the melting of the snow to the northward of us, for these winds are always preceded by some warm weather either in the latter end of February or beginning of March. The lateness of the spring is owing to the whole country being covered with wood, so that the sun cannot easily dissolve the snow which lies under the trees, or warms the earth. The lateness of the spring makes it short, the hot weather succeeding the cold very quickly. In the spring the people are subject to pleurisies and inflammatory fevers, as in all other countries, upon the breaking up of hard winters; but not so much as in Pennsylvania and in the countries to the southward. The country people, and such as are most exposed to the cold, are most liable to these distempers. Perhaps the reason of the southern countries being more subject to pleurisies is, that in those countries the poorer sort are not so well cloathed and have not such warm houses as in this.

The summer begins in the end of May, and continues hot to the beginning of September. July and August are the most sultry months, and very often rainy. The air in these two months is always full of moisture, so much that the doors and windows are observed then to be more swelled than at any other time of the year, and iron rusts so much that it is difficult to keep any instrument clean which is made of that metal, though the weather be extremely hot at the same time. A far.

greater quantity of dew likewise falls in these months than at any other time, and begins to fall a considerable while before sun-set. The mornings are frequently foggy, especially near the river and marshes, after sun-rising. This proceeds from the quantity of vapour which falls in the night, and is easily raised, but it is generally dissipated before ten in the morning. The heat in these months is a great deal more uneasy than in June, though a greater quantity of the sun's rays falls upon the earth in that month than in these. This is owing to the quantity of vapour in the air, which retains the heat and becomes in a manner scalding. For it is always observed that the heat is a great deal more uneasy before rain (though the sun does not shine clear) than it is after a shower, when it shines with its greatest brightness; and a burning-glass before rain does not burn so vehemently as it does after rain. If the air continues sultry after rain, we expect more rain speedily, or a great quantity of dew that night. The air is frequently fanned in the hot months with sudden gusts of north-west winds. They commonly arise in the afternoon, and blow violently for half an hour or a little more, with heavy showers of rain and thunder-claps, and leave the air agreeably cool and strene. When the country was first settled, these gusts were very frequent, hardly a day in the hot seasons passing without them: but now, since the country begins to be cleared, the summer is not so sultry, and these gusts are not near so frequent. They are likewise much more frequent in the provinces to the southward of us than in this.

The thermometer (mine is of Mr. Patrick's make) in the summer, within doors, where the sun cannot reach, is generally about 20, though at sometimes it is above 15, and at other times below 30. In June, I tried the difference

betwixt what it was in the house and the open air, where it was exposed to the sun's rays betwixt 2 and 3 in the afternoon, which is generally the hottest time of the day, and found the spirit rise 36 degrees, or parts, marked on the thermometer, above what it was in the house. The thermometer in the house stood at 26, and exposed to the sun rose 5 degrees above the place marked 0.

The months of July, August, and beginning of September are the most sickly months in the year; more people being sick and more children dying than in all the rest of the year. The epidemical diseases are intermitting fever, cholera morbus, and fluxes. The intermitting fevers are not near so frequent in this province as in those more to the southward, but I think fluxes are more frequent in this town than in Philadelphia. Two reasons may be assigned for this: first, the poor people at this time eat abundance of water-melons and other such kinds of fruit more than they do in Philadelphia: the other is, that the water in the town is not near so good as there, being brackish and so hard (as it is commonly termed) that it will not dissolve soap.

The fall in this country (and all over the main of America is most agreeable from the beginning of September to the middle of November; the weather being mid and dry, the sky always serene, and the people healthy.

We reckon the winter from the middle of November to March, though the violent froses do not usually begin till about Christmas, and then to the middle of February it is extremely cold, the great river, during that time, being frozen so hard, that horses and sieds pass daily upon it. However it does not ever rent freeze prishin severn!