Several oaks and other trees dropt their leaves here in winter, which however keep them ever green, a little more to the south, and in Carolina.
November the 30th. It has been observed, that the Europeans in North America, whether they were born in Sweden, [[361]]England, Germany or Holland; or in North America, of European parents, always lost their teeth much sooner than common; the women especially were subject to this disagreeable circumstance, the men did not suffer so much from it. Girls not above twenty years old, frequently had lost half of their teeth, without any hopes of getting new ones: I have attempted to penetrate into the causes of this early shedding of the teeth, but I know not, whether I have hit upon a true one. Many people were of opinion that the air of this country hurt the teeth: so much is certain that the weather can no where be subject to more frequent and sudden changes; for the end of a hot day, often turns out piercing cold, and vice versa. Yet this change of weather, cannot be looked upon as having any effect upon the shedding of the teeth, for the Indians prove the contrary: they live in the same air, and always keep fine, entire white teeth; this I have seen myself, and have been assured of by every body: others ascribe it to the great quantities of fruit and sweet meats which are here eaten. But I have known many people, who never eat any fruit, and nevertheless had hardly a tooth left.
I then began to suspect the tea, which [[362]]is drank here in the morning and afternoon, especially by women, and is so common at present, that there is hardly a farmer’s wife or a poor woman, who does not drink tea in the morning: I was confirmed in this opinion when I took a journey through some parts of the country which were still inhabited by Indians. For Major General Johnson told me at that time, that several of the Indians who lived close to the European settlements, had learnt to drink tea. And it has been observed, that such of the Indian women, as used themselves too much to this liquor, had in the same manner as the European women, lost their teeth prematurely, though they had formerly been quite sound. Those again, who had not used tea preserved their teeth strong and sound to a great age.
I afterwards found, that the use of tea could not entirely cause this accident. Several young women who lived in this country, but were born in Europe, complained that they lost most of their teeth after they came to America: I asked, whether they did not think that it arose from the frequent use of tea, as it was known, that strong tea, as it were enters into and corrodes the teeth; but they answered, that they had lost their teeth before they [[363]]had began to drink tea, but continuing my enquiries, I found at last a sufficient cause, to account for the loss of their teeth: each of these women owned, that they were accustomed to eat every thing hot, and nothing was good in their opinion, unless they could eat it as fast as it came from the fire. This is likewise the case with the women in the country who lose their teeth much sooner and more abundantly than the men. They drink tea in greater quantity and much oftener, in the morning, and even at noon, when the employment of the men will not allow them to sit at the tea-table. Besides that, the Englishmen care very little for tea, and a bowl of punch is much more agreeable to them. When the English women drink tea, they never pour it out of the cup into the saucer, but drink it hot as it is out of the former. The Indian women in imitation of them, swallow the tea in the same manner. On the contrary those Indians whose teeth are sound, never eat any thing hot, but take their meat either quite cold, or only just milk warm.
I asked the Swedish churchwarden in Philadelphia, Mr. Bengtson, and a number of old Swedes, whether their parents and countrymen had likewise lost their teeth as soon as the American colonists; but they [[364]]told me that they had preserved them to a very great age. Bengtson assured me, that his father at the age of seventy, cracked peach stones and the black walnuts with his teeth, notwithstanding their great hardness, which at this time no body dares to venture at that age. This confirms what I have before said, for at that time the use of tea was not yet known in North America.
No disease is more common here, than that which the English call fever and ague, which is sometimes quotidian, tertian or quartan. But it often happens, that a person who has had a tertian ague, after losing it for a week or two, gets a quotidian ague in its stead, which after a while again changes into a tertian. The fever commonly attacks the people at the end of August, or beginning of September, and commonly continues during autumn and winter till towards spring, when it ceases entirely.
Strangers who arrive here, commonly are attacked by this sickness the first or second year after their arrival; and it is more violent upon them, than upon the natives, so that they sometimes die of it; but if they escape the first time, they have the advantage of not being visited again the next year, or perhaps never any more. It is [[365]]commonly said here, that strangers get the fever to accustom them to the climate. The natives of European offspring, have annual fits of this ague in some parts of the country: some however are soon delivered from it, with others on the contrary it continues for six months together, and others are afflicted with it till they die. The Indians also suffer it, but not so violently as the Europeans. No age is secured against it: in those places where it rages annually, you see old men and women attacked with it; and even children in the cradle, sometimes not above three weeks old: it is likewise quotidian, tertian or quartan with them. This autumn the ague was more violent here, than it commonly used to be. People who are afflicted with it, look as pale as death, and are greatly weakened, but in general are not prevented from doing their work in the intervals. It is remarkable, that every year there are great parts of the country where this fever rages, and others where scarce a single person has been taken ill. It likewise is worth notice, that there are places where the people cannot remember that it formerly prevailed in their country, though at present it begins to grow more common: yet there was no other visible difference between the several [[366]]places. All the old Swedes, Englishmen, Germans, &c. unanimously asserted, that the fever had never been so violent, and of such continuance when they were boys, as it is at present. They were likewise generally of opinion, that about the year 1680, there were not so many people afflicted with it, as about this time. However others equally old, were of opinion that the fever was proportionably as common formerly, as it is at present; but that it could not at that time be so sensibly perceived, on account of the scarcity of inhabitants, and the great distance of their settlements from each other; it is therefore probable that the effects of the fever have at all times been equal.
It would be difficult to determine the true causes of this disease; they seem to be numerous, and not always alike: sometimes, and I believe commonly several of them unite. I have taken all possible care to sound the opinions of the physicians here on that head, and I here offer them to the reader.
Some of them think that the peculiar qualities of the air of this country cause this fever; but most of them assert that it is generated by the standing and putrid water, which it seems is confirmed by experience. [[367]]For it has been observed in this country, that such people as live in the neighbourhood of Morasses or Swamps, or in places where a stagnant, stinking water is to be met with, are commonly infested with the fever and ague every year, and get it more readily than others. And this chiefly happens at a time of the year when those stagnant waters are most evaporated by the excessive heat of the sun, and the air is filled with the most noxious vapors. The fever likewise is very violent in all places which have a very low situation, and where salt water comes up with the tide twice in twenty four hours, and unites with the stagnant, fresh water in the country. Therefore on travelling in summer over such low places where fresh and salt water unite, the nauseous stench arising from thence often forces the traveller to stop his nose. On that account most of the inhabitants of Penn’s neck, and Salem in New Jersey, where the ground has the above-mentioned quality, are annually infested with the fever to a much greater degree, than the inhabitants of the higher country. If an inhabitant of the higher part of the country, where the people are free from the fever, removes into the lower parts, he may be well assured that the fever will attack [[368]]him at the usual time, and that he will get it again every year, as long as he continues in that country. People of the liveliest complexion on coming into the low parts of the country, and continuing there for some time, have entirely lost their colour and become quite pale. However this cannot be the sole cause of the fever, as I have been in several parts of the country which had a low situation and had stagnant waters near them, where the people declared they seldom suffered from this sickness: but these places were about two or three degrees more northerly.
Others were of opinion that diet did very much towards it, and chiefly laid the blame upon the inconsiderate and intemperate consumption of fruit. This is particularly the case with the Europeans, who come into America, and are not used to its climate and its fruit; for those who are born here can bear more, yet are not entirely free from the bad effects of eating too much. I have heard many Englishmen, Germans, and others speak from their own experience on this account; they owned, that they had often tried, and were certain that after eating a water melon once or twice before they had breakfasted, they would have the fever and ague in a few [[369]]days after. Yet it is remarkable, that the French in Canada told me that fevers were less common in that country, though they consumed as many water melons as the English colonies, and that it had never been observed that they occasioned a fever; but that on coming in the hot season to the Illinois, an Indian nation which is nearly in the same latitude with Pensylvania and New Jersey, they could not eat a water melon without feeling the shaking fits of an ague, and that the Indians therefore warned them not to eat of so dangerous a fruit. Query, Does not this lead us to think that the greater heat in Pensylvania, and the country of the Illinois, which are both five or six degrees more southerly than Canada, makes fruit in some measure more dangerous? In the English North American colonies, every countryman plants a number of water melons, which are eaten whilst the people make hay, or during the harvest when they have nothing upon their stomachs, in order to cool them during the great heat, as that juicy fruit seems very proper to give refreshment. In the same manner melons, cucumbers, gourds, squashes, mulberries, apples, peaches, cherries, and such like fruit are eaten here in summer, and altogether contribute to the attacks of the ague. [[370]]