.-JOTES ON HISTORY AND CLIMATE OF NEW MEXICO. 337 



The earth is a good conductor, aud the " com tnou reservoir " of electricity 

 dry air is a good insulator ; but when the air contains moisture it con- 

 ducts electricity, and this, says Ganot, (page CIO, Elementary Treatise 

 on Physics, New York, 18G9,) is the principal source of the loss of elec- 

 tricity. In the same way that metals do not become electrified by fric- 

 tion on account of their great conductivity, animals do not exhibit this 

 property in a marked degree until comparatively insulated by a dry at- 

 mosphere. Animal bodies daily retaining, for any prolonged period, a 

 greater store of electricity, or using up this electricity as a force, may 

 be materially different from what they would be in a humid environment. 



The electric tension and density of a metallic sphere is found to be 

 uniform over its surface. On an elongated ellipsoid it accumulates 

 at the most acute points, and the upheaved masses of mountains would 

 appear to us favorable points for a special distribution of electric force. 



It is much to be desired that observations as to the amount of ozone, 

 of humidity, and atmospheric electricity be more generally made in the 

 interest of those seeking for climatic relief aud to furnisb data for our 

 guidance. 



I have the impression that a moderate altitude should first be sought, 

 and, as convalescence and vigor are assured, a higher and more bracing 

 air could be borne with benefit. 



In this country the statistician is at a disadvantage ; there are no 

 boards of health, no registration of diseases. 



The rector of the cathedral has been kind enough to give me the sta- 

 tistics of deaths among the Catholic population of the parish of Santa 

 Fe from 1869 to December 14, 1876, amounting to 1,005 deaths in eight 

 years in a parish estimated between 7,000 and 8,000. From this I esti- 

 mate the average yearly death-rate, 125, being about one death to 00 

 Catholic population, a mortality of 16 per 1,000 in the parish. 



Of the death rate in the Territory I have no information. Dr. Lewis 

 Kennon, (of Fort Selden,) as quoted by Mr. Brevoort, says : "The lowest 

 death-rate from tubercular diseases is in New Me^xico." 



"The censuses of 1860 and 1870 give 25 per cent, in New England, 14 

 in Minnesota, from 5 to 6 in different Southern States, and 3 per cent, in 

 New Mexico." (New Mexico, by Elias Brevoort, 1874, p. 27.) 



Dr. Symington informs me that, in a residence of eight years in this 

 Territory, he has seen but two cases of phthisis among natives, and 

 they were young j)ersous. 



In Switzerland (according to Dr. Lombard, of Geneva, Gazette des 

 Hospitaux, of October 26, 1876 ; London Medical Times and Gazette, 



and nine days were moist for a while from rain or snow. It is proper, however, to remark 

 that in the rainy or wet season of the year sunshine and clear skies are noticed every 

 day, the rain coming in showers. The whole amount of humidity was only 15.06 inches 

 for the year; maximum velocity of wind, 38 miles per hour. 



I take pleasure in acknowledging the prompt facilities extended to me by the United 

 States signal and military telegraph services in furnishing information and data as to 

 observations made by them. 

 22 s 



