356 The Weather in Relation to Health. 



suit of two observations — but the sum of the two observations 

 made at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. were now given in the society's 

 monthly tables, making the observations apparently double those 

 in Mr Andson's table. At Drumlanrig the prevailing winds, as 

 at Dumfries, were south-westerly, there being 216 at the former 

 against 190 which he had calculated as the observations of Mr 

 Andson. Direct westerly winds at Drumlanrig were much fewer, 

 64 against 115. North-westerly were much more prevalent at 

 Drumlanrig, 199 against 83. North-easterly and easterly were 

 much more prevalent at Dumfries, the north-easterly numbering 

 61 against 44 at Drumlanrig, and the easterly numbering 89 

 against 5. Mr Andson indicated that the year was one of low 

 barometer at Dumfries. The same remark held good over the 

 whole of Scotland, only three months being in excess of their 

 average, viz., June, September, and November. All the other 

 months were below the average. Comparing the temperature of 

 Dumfries with that of other parts of Scotland, he found that 

 Dumfries was somewhat favoured. He did not know that it was 

 exactly the hottest place in Scotland, but there were two months 

 during which it certainly had that characteristic, in May and 

 July, when the highest temperature of 79.7 and 80 respectively 

 were recorded. The lowest temperature of the year at Dumfries 

 was 17 degrees on 14th January. On the same day at Drumlanrig 

 it was 13. The rainfall at Dumfries was 13 inches, and at 

 Drumlanrig 18 inches in excess of their respective averages. 

 Dealing afterwards with the influence which the weather made 

 upon the mortality from various diseases, Dr Ross said he was 

 not prepared to state that during the year the weather had 

 abnormally affected health. The fact of the matter was that, 

 if anything, last year had been one of the healthiest they had 

 experienced, and showed one of the lowest death-rates. Taking 

 the whole county, but excluding the burgh of Dumfries, for 

 which he had not the requisite data, the death-rate was 15.609 

 per thousand. It was not always very easy to gather from a 

 statement of that kind whether the year had been a healthy one 

 or not, but he would put it in another way. If they took the 

 average death-rates and calculated from them what they might 

 call the expected deaths, they would find that there should have 

 been something like 961, whereas the actual deaths amounted to 

 915, so that the mortality during 1903 was considerably less than 



