Noah Webster's (1758-1843) talents were eclectic. Not only was he a superb lexicographer, a prolific writer of schoolbooks, but also a surprisingly keen epidemiologist.
School children of the 1830's who read his History of the United States learned the following about acute and chronic diseases:
Diseases of the United States. The ordinary diseases of the United States are the same as those which invade mankind in all similar climates. The usual epidemics are hooping cough (sic), measles, influenza, scarlet fever, with some milder eruptive diseases. These diseases are periodical, though the periods are not exactly uniform. The autumnal diseases are chiefly dysentery and bilious fevers of all grades, from slight intermittents to the malignant fever, which is denominated pestilence. The dysentery appears, in scattered cases every year; but in some autumns becomes epidemic with great mortality. It however never invades large cities with such general mortality, as it does particular parts of the country. The malignant bilious fever occurs occasionally, but chiefly in large towns on the sea coast, or on rivers, or near lakes and stagnant water.
Chronic Diseases. In the northern region of the United States, and especially on the sea shore, the consumption is the most general and fatal chronic complaint; carrying off in some places, a fifth of the inhabitants. In the middle region it is prevalent, but in a less degree; and in the southern, is still less destructive. Rheumatic complaints, gout, and hypochondriac affections are common. In the country west of the mountains, between the Ohio and the lakes, the goiter, or swelling upon the throat, is very prevalent among the whites, but not among the natives.1
A natural experiment of the consequences of concentrating former prisoners in the same neighborhoods
