I was in the country nearly a year,
exposed much of the time to great hardships and privations, sleeping,
for the most part, in the open air, and I never felt while there the
first pang of disease, or the slightest indication of bad health. On
some portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, where
vegetation is rank, and decays in the autumn, the malaria produces
chills and fever, but generally the attacks are slight, and yield
easily to medicine. The atmosphere is so pure and preservative along
the coast, that I never saw putrified flesh, although I have seen, in
midsummer, dead carcasses lying exposed to the sun and weather for
months. They emitted no offensive smell. There is but little disease in
the country arising from the climate.
The botany and flora of California are rich, and will hereafter form a
fruitful field of discovery to the naturalist. There are numerous
plants reported to possess extraordinary medical virtues. The
"soap-plant" (_amole_) is one which appears to be among the most
serviceable. The root, which is the saponaceous portion of the plant,
resembles the onion, but possesses the quality of cleansing linen equal
to any "oleic soap" manufactured by my friends Cornwall and Brother, of
Louisville, Ky.
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