REMEDIAL VALUE OF THE CLIMATE OF FLORIDA. 645 



In consideration of these facts, we are compelled to cast aside tables 

 of " relative humidity " as valueless when taken alone, for the purpose 

 of determining the humidity of climates. The physical properties of 

 vapor in the air the absolute humidity are essential elements which 

 can not be ignored, and are of exceeding significance in the treatment 

 of disease. 



We have given prominence to this topic, inasmuch as the pamphlet 

 of Dr. Kenworthy is widely circulated by the Bureau of Immigration 

 of the State of Florida, and is quoted in a pamphlet on Florida issued 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, and also in the well- 

 known work on Florida by G. H. Barbour, as establishing conclusively 

 the dryness of the climate. It well shows how figures, correct in them- 

 selves, may, by misapprehension of their import, become the source of 

 mischievous error. 



Given a peninsular land subjected to the burning rays of a semi- 

 tropical sun and surrounded by an ocean of warm water, the average 

 temperature of which is 77 Fahr.* then it is not necessary to ask 

 the Signal Service whether the climate be moist or dry. If they sup- 

 plied us with tables of absolute humidity, they could only add to our 

 information accurate knowledge of the excess of moisture. Every 

 breeze that blows touches the face with the softness of a moist May 

 morning at the North. The atmosphere is delicious, balmy. 



In addition to physical sensation and deductions drawn from geo- 

 graphical position, there ai*e other reasons for deciding that the climate 

 is moist. The necessity of frequently emptying closets during the 

 summer season, and drying clothing-apparel ; the impossibility of using 

 cellars, because of the quickness with which mold destroys goods there 

 stored ; the thick formation of vert-cle-gris on articles of brass ; the 

 rapid decay of structures made of wood, as compared with Northern 

 localities ; the presence almost everywhere of the Southern moss (Til- 

 landsia), swaying in festoons from the trees these facts tell of exces- 

 sive atmospheric moisture. 



Sunshine, which is so cheering to the invalid, and the absence of 

 which is so depressing even to the well, is abundant in Florida. There 

 it glitters continually on leaf and flower. Five years' observation at 

 Jacksonville shows an average of only seven cloudy days for each 

 winter month, the other twenty-three being arched by a soft Italian- 

 like sky. 



What relation electrical potential may have to climate as regards 



The absolute humidity is calculated f rom " Table X '' of " Smithsonian Meteorological 

 Tables," by Guyot, giving weight of vapor in grains troy, contained in a cubic foot of 

 saturated air between and 105 Fahr. 



* The temperature of the surface-water of the Gulf of Mexico, off Key West, in May, 

 was Y7i Fahr., as determined by the United States Coast Survey, 1857, p. 102. 



The average temperature of the St. John's River, at Jacksonville, to the depth of 

 eighteen feet, determined by daily observations by Sergeant J. W. Smith, United States 

 Signal Service, from September, 1881, to March, 1882, is 70 Fahr. 



