IVcai/ier, Walci- and J)iscase. 



WEATHER, WATlvR AND DISEASE * 

 Bv Dk. \Vm. Carson. 



Our morning salutations to our friends and neighbors, per- 

 taining to the weather, are not things of social significance 

 only. They serve an admirable purpose, as a sort of introduc- 

 tion to the more serious business of the day, and are not 

 intended to be analytical or profound. They imply, however, 

 an outside world, a relation of it to the individual, experi- 

 ential and dependent as to the latter — in the imperial prese je 

 of nature's law. 



The individual comes into his environment, with adjust- 

 ments of structure and function, prepared by many successive 

 generations. He dies after leaving to his de.scendents the 

 essential features of his constitution- — but the eternal forces 

 of nature survive him — to demon.strate in an inipres.sive way 

 the perpetuity of the environment and the transient existence 

 of the individual. It is from this point of view — the mutual 

 relations between the individual and weather, water and 

 disease — that we propose to speak this evening. In the pro- 

 gress of science, or knowledge in general, there are two 

 methods by which results are accomplished — first, that of 

 observation; second, that of experiment. Centuries may 

 elapse between the ob.servation of a phenomenon, or fact, and 

 its experimental or scientific proof or explanation, so that we 

 may paraphrase a sentence and say that in the vastness of 

 science " One day is as a thousand years and a thou.sand years 

 as one day." Various causes have proved obstructive. The 

 survival and spread of myths have curiously shaded the bright 

 light of correct observation. The tenacity of theological 

 dogmas has interposed effectual barriers, against which scien- 

 tific methods have slowly prevailed. 



Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine so-called, wrote thus 

 more than 2000 years ago: " Whoever desires to understand 



'A lecture delivered in the Free I^ecture Course of tlie Society, March 3, 1892. 



