The condition of animals bespeak the great plenty of food that falls to their share. The horses employed in removing goods to and from the wharfs, and in stage coaches, are fat, and in high spirits. They are not so rough-legged, so broad, or so strong-limbed, as the draught horses of Britain; but they are better adapted for speed. Hogs, running in the streets, are numerous, but they are not starvelings. I have seen several of them that would yield upwards of 300 lbs. of pork without special feeding. Speaking of hogs, I would mention by the way, that they are allowed to run at large for the purpose of cleaning the streets. An economical way of procuring scavengers, {8} but one that leads to a commutation of nuisance rather than a final removal of it. _July 12._ Last night the heat was excessive, and not accompanied with a breath of wind. It was in vain that I thrust my head out at an open window to be cooled. The effluvia arising from the streets is, in a great measure, occasioned by a high temperature. I imagine that a copious evolution of phosphorized hydrogen gas goes on in such weather. I could not sleep till three or four o’clock. This morning I heard that some people who had suffered from the heat and stillness of the air, had stretched themselves on carpets, or sat by open room doors, or in passages. Nights so very oppressive are said to occur rarely. In high and inland parts of the country they do not occur at all. This is not the most proper season of the year for Europeans arriving here. Yesterday and to-day the heat has been excessive, the thermometer in the shade stood at 97¹⁄₂°. In such a degree of heat it is imprudent to take much exercise. The temperature of the human body being lower than that of the air, the former is deprived of the cooling process usually produced by evaporation. Should the heat of the blood be increased in such a case, fever commences. We had an example of this, in a young man, one of the emigrants on board the Glenthorn, who exerted himself too much in getting baggage ashore. He was this day removed to Brooklyn, a high-lying village on Long Island, about a mile from New York. Transitions from heat to cold are, perhaps, still more dangerous; of late, eleven persons have died in the city by drinking cold water. Several of them were strangers newly landed. Water should not be drunk immediately from the {9} well, but should be allowed previously to stand for a few minutes in the air. It should be taken in small mouthfuls, and these heated in the mouth for two or three seconds before swallowing. Precautions of this kind ought to be strictly attended to, while heated by exercise or the sun’s rays. Spirits are often mixed with water, to prevent the injurious effects of the latter. This corrective, however much extolled, ought to be taken in very small quantities. Here, as in Britain, there are many who resort to spirituous liquors as the sovereign medicine, both in hot and in cold weather.