434- Coiifequences of the equable Temperature of 



FaiSs fuch as tliefe are to be confidered as the bafis of general opinion conceruing the 

 alteration of our climate ; while old age, connet£ling thefe appearances with the fragility 

 of declining life, and a decayed conftitution, has become querulous in proportion to its 

 feelings, and, judging of external phenomena by the exaggerated teft of its own acute 

 fcnfations, emphatically pronounces that the feafons are now kfs favourable than for- 

 merly. 



On the Confequences of this Equability of Temperature to /inimal and Vegetable Life. 



FROM the tranfient perufal of this Memoir, a rapid and impatient mind would pro- 

 bably draw numberlefs falfe conclufions. The fa61:s here recorded feem to wear a gloomy 

 afpcfl; to mark a gradual deterioration of our feafons; to indicate a climate, harfh, un- 

 genial, and of confequence fterile in its nature ; clouded, humid, tempeftuous, cheerlefs^ 

 and unf iendly to animal and vegetable life. 



All thefe conclufions contradi£l: experience, and may be overturned by a calm confideraw 

 tion of the phenomena themfelves. 



Experience teaches us that dry feafons and eafterly gales arc, in our ifland, invariable 

 fources of feeble yeg*etation and numerous difeafes*; and the hiftory of the world informs 

 us that winds, whether hot or cold, are in their nature deleterious to animal and vegetable 

 life, in proportion as they become deprived of humidity. The warm air of the African 

 defert breathes defolation over the parched land of Egypt and Syria, before it is yet felt is 

 a tempeft f. Even our own wefterly winds, the Atlantic meflengers of health and fer- 

 tility to our ifland, after traverfing the cold and dry trail of the vaft Siberian continent, 

 bear nothing but flerility, and almoft perpetual winter, to the unhappy climate of Kam- 

 fchatka %. 



Heat or cold in extremes, dry air in rapid motion, and molft air in a ftagnant Hate, feem 

 to be the principal external fources of human difeafes; and climates are generally found 

 favourable to health and longevity in proportion as they are exempt from thefe natural 

 caufes of diforder and decay. 



It ought therefore to be inferred, a priori, that Ireland, celebrated for the fingular equa- 

 bility of its temperature, and the ceafelefs motion of an atmofphere always influenced by 

 the moifture of the Atlantic, fhould be likewife charafteriftically free from natural difeafe j 

 and experience proves that this conclufion is true. 



The exhaufting agues of North America, or the fens of England § ; the fatal fluxes 

 •which prevail in the low countries of the continent of Europe; the dreadful bilious dif- 

 tempers of both the Indies ; the peftilence which defolates the African and Afiatic cli- 



* Of this the influenza, attendant on the caflcrly winds of Tpring in the prefent year ('"95), affords 

 a ftrong inftance. 



■f See Volney's account of Egypt and Syria. 



J The latitude of Kamfchatka corrcfponds with that of Ireland ; the wefterly winds are prevalent in each ; 

 yet the former experiences a rigorous winter of nine months, and the latter rarely of as many days. See 

 Cook's Voyage in 1 779, vol. iii. ch. 6. 



§ The ague is fo rare in feveral parts of Ireland, that inany pcrfons arc totally unacquainted with it. In the 

 northern province the author has never met with the difeafe, and its exiftence there is generally denied. 



mates. 



