STATE AGRICULTURAL BOCIETY. 33] 



lected, where forests are destroyed, vegetation rots, and Btreams are stag- 

 nant, wherever drainage is neglected, these diseases appear. The coasl 

 belt owes its healthtulness, not to sanitary precautions, but to temperature 

 and wind. Their modus operandi is not known. 



In recent years niueh study lias been given to the etiology of these dis- 

 eases. Brilliant bacteriological discoveries have been made. Must confi- 

 dently has it been asserted that the bacilli of malaria, cholera, typhoid 

 fever." diphtheria, phthisis, etc., were discovered. In a recent publication 

 Sternberg notes sixty-five different bacilli, forty-one of which are patholog- 

 ical. No one doubts the presence of these bacilli, and while all who look- 

 hopefully on the future of medicine, who would see it raised from an art 

 to a science, eagerly await future investigations to confirm, it must he con- 

 fessed, that cause and effect have not, as yet, been established. Taking 

 for granted that the germ theory is correct, the explanation of the health- 

 ful effects exerted by the coast climate is simple: though certain germs 

 may he present, they do not luxuriate in a climate whose temperature is 

 moderate; and that certain of those which are present are destroyed by the 

 wind. That our healthtulness is mainly due to the wind cannot he doubted. 

 It may act mechanically by blowing and scattering the germs, or, what is 

 more probable, it possesses an inherent germicide power: for certain acute 

 diseases, such as inlluenza, whooping-cough, rheumatism, and erysipelas 

 are of frequent occurrence. Why erysipelas (idiopathic) should be at times 

 endemic and puerperal fever occur so infrequently, I cannot conjecture, 

 unless it be that the germs of one flourish in a cool climate while the other 

 demands heat for its proper development. The only case of puerperal 

 fever that I have seen here occurred during a spell of unusually warm 

 • weather and very near the residence of a person who, a month before, suf- 

 fered from an attack of idiopathic erysipelas. Though, because of the 

 destruction of forests, there is much vegetable decomposition, malaria is 

 seldom found. When hrought from the interior it immediately assumes a 

 remittent type and. without medicine, will often terminate in recovery. 

 Measles and scarlatina have been epidemic, but they occur in a form so 

 light as to be scarcely recognizable — seldom confining the patients to bed. 

 On the other hand, in whooping-cough, the symptoms are usually intensi- 

 fied and a residence away from the coast is often made Decessary for its 

 cure. In Crescent City and the country surrounding there has never been 

 an authentic case of variola, diphtheria, or typhoid fever. In the main 

 this assertion holds good for the coast, except in those centers of popula- 

 tion where the inherent impurities overcome the sanitary influence of the 

 climate, or in regions away from the coast and sheltered from the winds. 

 This wind, besides possessing moisture and coolness, is surcharged with 

 ozone, and much of its influence is to be attributed to the oxidizing power 

 of this agent. 



Certain chronic diseases are attributable to the secondary effect of this 

 climate. Californians (and by Californians San Franciscans are usually 

 meant) live a notoriously fast life. Persons coming to San Francisco from 

 the interior valleys or the East are, at first, chilled by the cool, fog-bearing 

 wind; but this chilliness soon gives way to a feeling of exaltation and well- 

 being, difficult for those who have not experienced it to understand. _ No 

 intolerable noon-day heat compels a siesta. Their food is bolted and diges- 

 tion retarded; their gait resembles a run more than a walk; early and 

 late their minds unceasingly act, and when the nervous force is exhausted, 

 too often alcohol is used to stimulate their flagging energy. At fifty they 

 are old. Such a life is conducive to nervous derangements as well as dis- 

 eases of the heart. From the fact that women, also, are unusually subject 



