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of the air may be great, with either a low or a high temperature. 
The exact influence of these changes upon the human frame 
doubtless depends much upon the health and temperament of each 
particular person. A state of weather that occasions no incon- 
venience to some persons may be highly prejudicial to others. Yet 
even the strongest are liable to feel the changes more or less.* 
We almost all complain of the heat when the thermometer gets 
up to 80° or more, and how much is our discomfort increased 
when this high temperature is combined with a high dew-point, 
such as usually occurs with a south or south-west wind, the air 
being then especially what we call sultry, causing a feeling of 
lassitude, and indisposing to any exertion of body or mind. 
If, on the other hand, the temperature is low, whether in 
winter or summer, and the air dry with northerly winds, we do 
not think much about the cold, but rather feel braced for work 
and out-of-door exercise. If, however, in winter especially, with- 
out any rise of the temperature, the air after a time becomes 
loaded with moisture from the setting in above of a south-westerly 
wind, the current next the earth being still from the north, it is 
then to our feelings what we call raw, or both cold and damp, and 
more hurtful perhaps to persons in delicate health, if exposed 
to it, than any other ordinary weather. 
Now certain of these weather conditions may prevail to a 
greater degree in a particular locality than in other localities not 
very far off. Climate is often determined by local causes ; by 
the nature of the soil, by proximity to the sea or large sheets of 
water, or by the configuration of the ground. Such agencies 
exercise an influence independent of the usual atmospheric changes, 
and are always operating to the advantage or disadvantage of a 
* It is said of Goethe, that “though his frame was strong and muscular,” 
and though “excelling in all active sports, he was almost a barometer in 
semsitiveness to atmospheric influences.” —Lewes’s Story of Goethe’s Life. p. 
49. 
