244 Mr Black m the Climate 



ferences of situation and changes of wind. The Father of Me- 

 teorology, as well as of Physic, in his treatise on Airs, Waters, 

 and Localities, has faithfully recorded the influence of winds 

 and situation on the constitution of the atmosphere ; and, from 

 every observation which I have been enabled to make, it ap- 

 pears, that, amidst the wrecks and changes which the face of 

 every country on the shores of this sea has experienced, the 

 same characteristic climate, general and particular, exists, as it 

 did, upwards of twenty-two centviries ago ; and that the obser- 

 vations of Hippocrates may still be considered the best synopsis 

 of the meteorology of this part of the world. 



Equable as the general climate has been remarked to be, yet, 

 if one day is compared often with another, or one part even with 

 another of the same day, the atmospheric vicissitude is some- 

 times very considerable ; and particularly as respects the humi- 

 dity of the air. Such changes are most sensibly felt on the 

 shores of Europe, and on the south coasts of Greece and Tur- 

 key in Asia ; and it is on a line, equally distant from Africa and 

 Europe, that such variable states of the atmosphere are least 

 perceptible. Malta is, therefore, thought to be most out of the 

 sphere of this vicissitude, yet a great change of wind at this 

 place is attended with very sensible changes of its climate ; and 

 it is by no means that desirable residence for an invalid which it 

 is thought by many to be. 



A moist or damp atmosphere is certainly to be avoided by 

 the majority of invalids ; and that of England is so much blam- 

 ed in this respect, as to be accounted the chief cause of the pul- 

 monary complaints prevalent in the kingdom. The moisture 

 of the English atmosphere, except under the influence of rare 

 localities, is perhaps less than that of Malta ; for Humboldt has 

 found, by hydrometrical observations, the superior humidity of 

 the atnr.osphere as we approach the equator. Invalids who ge- 

 nerally resort to Malta and Italy, are of relaxed fibres of body ; 

 and one argument against the salubrity of the last mentioned 

 place for them, is, that, in removing from England, they avoid 

 little, if any, atmospheric humidity ; added to which, they re- 

 move to an increased temperature, which must still farther in- 

 crease the relaxing effects derived from humiditv. In corrobo- 

 ration of this, we every day see people who, by chronic disease*; 



