M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 213 
That close observer, Doctor Rutty, tells us, that “a series of hot and dry weather, 
evergin summer, is what the farmer ought not to expect, but to provide for the con- 
trary.”’—Natural History of the County of Dublin, Vol. II. p. 281. 
In the Introduction to Cox’s History of Ireland, the comparison is made between 
the climate of England and Ireland. The summers are stated to be warmer, and the 
winters colder in England, than in Ireland. He adds, thus—‘“ It may be expected, that 
as the bogs are drained, and the country grows populous, the Trish air will meliorate, 
since it is already brought to that pass, that fluxes and dysenteries, which are the 
country diseases, are neither so rife, nor so mortal, as they have been heretofore.” 
In the reign of William III. the potatoe culture was extending itself in some degree 
in Ireland, the country was denuded of timber, and was therefore less shaded in sum- 
mer, than it was in the time of Cambrensis. By Cox’s statement, bowel complaints 
had become less prevalent than before. 
The trenches in the potatoe culture, were admirably adapted for quickly removing 
superfluous water, as the best mode of forming them is in the direction of the summit 
of a range of hills at right angles with it. It was, therefore, no wonder, that in the 
places where the culture of the potatoe was commenced, some improvement should 
be experienced in the time of Cox, in the reign of TVilliam the Third. 
As the country was denuded of trees, and as the surface was not shaded in every 
direction by luxuriant stalks of potatoes in summer, as it is at present, when a warm 
summer occurred, the inhabitants must have experienced some inconvenience from 
heat. Leland says of the garrison, during the celebrated siege of Derry—‘ The 
heats of summer proved even pestilential to men fatigued and confined ; and their 
scanty, and unwholesome diet, inflamed their disorders.” 
The history of the war at this period, in Ireland, affords ample testimony of the 
general moist character of the climate. 
Some extracts from Leland may answer better than a long commentary. Speaking 
of the sufferings of Schomberg’s army, he says—‘‘ His men had already experienced 
the hardships of their present service, wasted by a fatiguing march in rain and tem- 
pest, in cold and hunger, through a country, dispiriting by its aspect, and by the in- 
clemency of the season rendered still more dreary and distressing.” 
When Schomberg halted, waiting for the arrival of artillery and provisions, the si- 
tuation of the army is thus described by Leland—* His soldiers in a confined and 
unwholesome situation, in the midst of damps and winter showers, without sufficient 
food, fuel, or covering, an unfriendly climate and inclement season, soon weakened 
‘the whole army by fluxes, and a burning fever was caught from the garrison of Derry. 
The English, unaccustomed to severities, confined to a low and moist situation, 
drenched with perpetual showers, without the means of health, or the relief necessary 
in sickness, died daily, in great numbers.” 
When strong efforts were made for the removal of the sick of the army, to places 
