The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 233

Notes and Documents

necessary to make them comfortable. The whole building needs ceil-
ing over head, and the principal Ward requires lathing and plaster-
ing, weatherboarding being an insufficient protection in winter against
northers. The stove pipe in this room running through the roof is
unsafe, and should be replaced by a chimney.
The prevailing diseases at the post are diarrhoea, dysentery, remit-
tent and intermittent fevers, and (until the past year) scurvey. Since
the present command has been at the post, however, this last disease
has entirely disappeared, owing to their being plentifully supplied
with potatoes and other vegetables by purchase from the company
funds, the intensity of the heat and the insufficiency of rain rendering
it impossible to cultivate gardens.
The position is considered decidedly healthy.- Very few cases of
intermittent fever originate there, but almost all arise from the ex-
posure of detached service. The cases of remittent fever are confined
almost exclusively to unacclimated recruits, and generally are trace-
able to excessive use of liquor; and the same may be said of the
worst cases of dysentery and diarrhoea.
The thermometer often falls during the autumn and winter months
from 750 or 800 to below the freezing point in the same day and
sometimes in a few hours. During the hot months it often indicates
io6 and 1o8 in the shade, but the mean maximum in summer is
about o1020 at 3 P. M. The minimum recorded is 1x8. The total quan-
tity of rain falling during the year averages 15.15 inches. The water
of the Rio Grande in dry seasons is strongly impregnated with lime,
but its use is not known to be productive of bad effects. The average
of deaths in the year has been six, and the number of men present
150. The sick of detachments of artillery, dragoons and riflemen, sta-
tioned at various points above and below on the river, have been
sent to this hospital.
The foregoing observations are deduced from the Hospital Reg-
isters and include a period of three years.
(To be continued)

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