324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or else travel north till they come to fireplaces, stoves, ovens, or 

 other means for artificial warmth. Inquiry into the sanitation 

 not only of residences but of the towns should never be neglected. 

 I suppose the climate of the southern and southeastern coast of 

 Spain is perhaps the most genial on the Mediterranean, and 

 equally the most dangerous for Americans to abide in on account 

 of the lack of proper drainage and other attention to sanitation. 

 But the same may be said of much of the coast except on portions 

 of the Riviera, where in certain places much improvement has 

 been and is being effected in that respect. 



There are generally good reasons for many of the customs and 

 habits of the natives of any region, and there will be found ad- 

 vantages in adopting many of their ideas and methods so far as 

 practicable. Along the Riviera people flock indoors with the 

 going down of the sun : and there is good reason for it. At Nice, 

 I have seen the thermometer register a fall of 25 F. within an 

 hour as the sun neared the horizon. Such sudden cooling might 

 be dangerous to an American dyspeptic with his limited power of 

 reaction. Going indoors reduces this difference of temperature. 

 Right across the Gulf of Lyons, in Barcelona, Spain, in nearly 

 the same latitude and about the same mean temperature, the 

 habit of the people is to be out of doors in the evening, promenad- 

 ing, visiting theaters and cafes, and the ladies doing their shop- 

 ping till midnight and after. They find evening the best time for 

 many purposes because there is very little change between the 

 temperatures day and night. My thermometer was hung in an 

 alley which the sun never reached, and all I could make it do was 

 to record the extreme difference of two degrees between six 

 o'clock in the morning and two o'clock in the afternoon during 

 a week. I was still a thermometer dupe at that time. I have 

 since broken my thermometers, and they will never endanger my 

 sanity any more. 



But it is not always convenient or even possible for one needing 

 the therapeutic advantages of change of climate to go to Europe, 

 nor is such a change necessary or even desirable in many cases. 

 There is a great deal of as good climate as the world affords in 

 our own country ; and almost any change from low to high 

 temperature, from damp to dry, from low to high altitudes, from 

 seashore to mountains, from regions of high cultivation to the 

 balsamic air of primeval forests or the reverse, can be had with- 

 out the fatigue and expense of long sea voyages and wide stretches 

 of turbulent sea between the traveler and anxious friends at 

 home. The " sunny south " offers much that is admirable both 

 in quality and variety of climate suited to various conditions. 

 The main idea should not be the search for the perfect climate 

 which does nowhere exist, but the question should be, "What 



