358 Weai/ie?- at Rome 



and a good deal resembled the raw days of an English 

 November. A very high wind from the south, on the 2d and 

 Sd of February. Lightning and thunder on the 18th of 

 November, and 15th and 27th of January. A slight shock 

 of the earthquake which totally destroyed the city of Fuhgno, 

 &c., on the 1 3th of January, was felt at Rome, the same day, 

 by some individuals, but not generally. 



Though the season has been thus mild, it has not been 

 proportionally healthy : nearly one fourth of the population 

 having been attacked in December with the influenza, which 

 was often severe, and not seldom fatal. It may deserve re- 

 marking, that the regular progress of this disease (known in 

 France under the name of la grippe), during the summer and 

 autumn, through great part of Europe, from the month of 

 June, when it was prevalent in England, to January, when it 

 had reached Palermo in Sicily (having passed step by step 

 through France, Savoy, Switzerland, and the west side of 

 Italy, to Rome and Naples), does not seem easily explained on 

 any theory of atmospheric influence, which could scarcely 

 have migrated so regularly from place to place during so long 

 a period ; and rather confirms the opinions of those Italian 

 physicians who refer it to contagion, and assert that the same 

 disease ran a similar course through several parts of Europe 

 and Italy in 1782. 



Moisture. — Some travellers have spoken of the climate of 

 Rome as very damp, from having observed the stone staircases 

 and passages sometimes dripping with wet ; but this is only an 

 accidental occurrence, such as happens elsewhere, owing to 

 the change of the wind to the south from a quarter previously 

 colder, and the consequent condensation of the atmospheric 

 moisture on the stonework of the interior of buildings, before 

 they have had time to acquire the warmer temperature of the 

 recent wind. Generally speaking, to judge from ordinary 

 appearances, there has been no ground to complain of the 

 moisture of the climate at Rome during the winter. It should 

 be mentioned, however, that I never recollect to have before 

 noticed so copious a deposition of dew as was often to be seen, 

 in the mornings, upon the surface of the pavement of some of 

 the open squares and roads outside of the town ; while the 

 pavement of the streets in the interior of the city, owing, I 

 suppose, to the adjoining houses counteracting the effect of 

 terrestrial radiation, was perfectly dry. It may also deserve 

 notice, in reference to that mysterious pest Malaria, but for 

 which Rome and its vicinity would be a paradise, that all the 

 Romans agree in regarding the hour just after sunset as that 

 when it is most essential to guard against exposure to the 



