The increase of whites, during the last ten years, was 17,946, or nine and one-seventh per cent.; of blacks, 51,583, or thirty-four and a half per cent. The proportion of blacks to whites is nearly as twenty to twenty-one. By the last census it appears that there were of white persons * Longevity.-Dr Ramsay gives the names and places of residence of ten persons living when he wrote, (in 1808,) aged from 100 to 110; of thirteen from 90 to 98 years; of twelve from 80 to 89. Another list of persons, who died between 1797 and 1808, contains the names and residence of nine individuals aged from 100 to 114 years; of nine from 90 to 95; and of thirty between 80 and 90. A third list of persons, who died before 1797, con Civil or Administrative Division of the State of South Carolina, with the Population of each County and Chief Town, in 1810, the Year of the late Enumeration. tains the names and residence of twelve persons aged between 82 and 96 years. Those who had survived their 80th year were ge nerally emigrants from Europe, and lived in the upper country. Few residents of the low country see their 80th year, though many live to 60, and several to 70, with their faculties entire. One negro, born in Carolina, lived to the age of 120. The names in this and other tables, opposite to which there are no numbers, are those of new counties, created subsequently to the last census, by subdividing the larger old counties, as the popula tion increases. + In 1817 the population of Charleston was 22,944, of which 11,229 were white inhabitants, and 11,715 people of colour. Diseases. All the low country along the sea coast, and to the distance of eighty miles in the interior, is liable to bilious and intermitting fever during the three months of autumn. This is owing partly to the inundation of the rice lands, and partly to the exhalations of marshy places. During this season, no white servants can be induced to share the labour of the slave, and it is even difficult to procure overseers. The atmosphere is unhealthy from the middle of June to the commencement of frost. The rich inhabitants, to avoid the danger, go to the northern states, to Rhode Island, and New York; but this temporary emigration is both inconvenient and expensive, and one cannot but wonder why the mountainous parts of South Carolina, equally healthy, and more picturesque, have not been made the place of fashionable retreat. pear The yellow fever visited Charleston in 1699, 1703, 1728, 1732, 1739, 1745, 1748, but did not again aptill 1792, when it became almost annual till the year 1807, carrying off, in some of its worst years, from 148 to 239 persons. In 1792 and 1794, 150 persons died in each year. The white population was then about 8000. It ceased for several years, but reappeared in the autumn of 1817, and carried off 1249 persons. It prevailed only in the lowest and most crowded parts of the city, inhabited chiefly by foreigners, to whom it has always been most fatal. In no instance has its ravages been extended beyond the city. The dangerous effects arising from drinking cold water during the great heats of summer, so well known in the northern states, do not occur at Charleston, owing to the water of the wells being near the surface of the earth, and preserving a temperature of sixty-five degrees, which is twelve degrees higher than that of the wells of Philadelphia. Bilious remitting autumnal fevers have decreased; pleurisies, formerly common and dangerous, are now rare and easily cured; the thrush in children, cholera morbus, and iliac passion, have in a great measure disappeared. Consumptions are more common, resulting, perhaps, from the growing wealth of the inhabitants, and their fashionable dresses. Vaccination was introduced by Dr Ramsay in 1802, four years after Dr Jenner's discovery. In the south-western parts, dysentery is the most prevalent disease, and generally prevails more or less during the months of July, August, and September. Diseases of the throat are common, often accompanied with scarlet fever, or scarlatina anginosa. Measles are epidemic, but not attended with any particular mortality. Influenza is a serious and frequent epidemic. That of 1807, which broke out in New York in August, reached Charleston early in September; and, in the course of a few weeks, 14,000 persons, about half of the population of Charleston, were afflicted with this disease; of whom forty-five died-thirteen white persons, and thirty-two negroes; the former were generally advanced in years. The mortality was greater in Georgetown and Beaufort. The hooping-cough rages more or less every year. In 1804, it proved fatal to sixty-four children in Charleston. Tetanus is more common than in colder countries. Twenty-one cases, most of which were fatal, were reported to the Medical Society between September 1791 and August 1795. Gravel and nephritic complaints are rare. Only three operations for the stone had been performed in 1809 at Charleston, while seventeen had been performed at Philadelphia by Dr Bond, sixty at New York by Dr Jones, and 200 in Connecticut by Dr Turner. Chronical diseases are much less common than in the northern states; acute diseases more com, mon. Manners and Character.—The Carolinians are distinguished by their elegant manners, their politeness and hospitality to strangers. Travellers, with or without letters of introduction, are always well received at the plantations of private gentlemen. The disposition to relieve indigence is general at Charleston; and, though private contributions are frequent, the public D d VOL. II. |