CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 315 



him away from home and friends himself does not know ? Be- 

 sides, there are many constituent elements which enter in to make 

 up what we call " climate." The first of these to be mentioned is 

 usually the thermometrical readings, and the " mean " tempera- 

 ture is generally quoted as proof positive of superiority when it 

 varies a few degrees one way or the other from that of another 

 locality with which it is compared. Now, the truth is, that to 

 know the mean temperature of a place, and to know only that, is 

 to know very little about its climate. The physiological effects 

 of a climate must necessarily include the degree of humidity, the 

 force and direction of the prevailing winds, the sunshine and 

 cloudiness ; the fogs and their characteristics whether thin or 

 dense, high or low, whether coming down from the mountains or 

 rolling in from the sea ; besides other unmeasurable influences not 

 seen though felt : all these and more must be appreciated in order 

 to give the single factor of relative temperature any positive 

 quality whatever. For instance, the mean temperature of the 

 seven hundred and seventy miles along and near the coast of 

 California varies but a few degrees, though the extremes vary 

 much. But the physiological effects of the climates of different 

 areas vary greatly. There are stiff northwest winds from off the 

 Pacific, carrying a thin, swift-moving fog that chills an invalid 

 to the bone, during July and August in San Francisco. To 

 correspond to the sensations, the thermometer there lies like a 

 cheap watch, and should be twenty degrees lower. A few miles 

 back from the coast, with less wind and little fog, one's bodily 

 comfort is perfect, and life is worth living, though the unlucky 

 thermometer persists in recording nearly the same average as 

 when you had been shivering on the coast. I conclude that the 

 physiological influence of a given temperature below a certain 

 degree, say below sixty, with the wind ten or fifteen miles an 

 hour, is equal to at least ten or fifteen degrees lower in scale. On 

 the other hand, a thermometrical showing of 90 and over is not 

 uncomfortable if there is a gentle breeze and little humidity, but 

 with a strong wind becomes a sirocco, when prostrations are 

 numerous, and, if long continued, many aged and feeble die under 

 its influence. In one of the interior valleys of California I have 

 seen the thermometer indicate 100 to 110 F. for days and weeks 

 together, and no one complained of the heat as excessive, while 

 all labor of man and beast went on as usual, and prostrations are 

 unknown. I refer to the temperature in the shade. In the sun, 

 where men work, it must be ten or fifteen degrees higher. In 

 New York, when summer heat approaches 90 we expect many 

 prostrations and some deaths. I am not trying to show that 110 

 of heat in California with no prostrations is a better climate than 

 New York at 90 and many prostrations, but to illustrate the 



