jin Essay on the medical Effects of Climates. 259 



'metropolis, as a standard, are the south of England, the 

 south of Europe, the islands of the Mediterranean, Madeira, 

 and the West Indies. 



There do not appear to he any precise accounts of the 

 proportionate inortaiity from consumption at any place 

 upon the southern coasts of this island, on a scale sutiHcienlly 

 extensive for the comparison ; but there is al)undant reason 

 to ihiiik that such a report would he greatly in favour of 

 the salubrity of these criasts, more so indeed than any 

 conclusions, that we should be at all authorised to form, 

 from such thermometrical observations as have hitherto 

 been compared. A greater number of registers is still want- 

 ing to obtain sufficient evidence for the inquiry : and it 

 would be desirable that some journal should be kept at one 

 of the Scilly islands, as a situation fully exposed to the in- 

 fluence of the sea air; for there can be little doubt that, for 

 equability of teinperature, a very small island must have 

 great advantages above every other situation on shore. But 

 in the present state of our knowledge on this subject, al- 

 though we are fully justified in recommending a residence in 

 Devonshire or Cornwall as advisable in a certain stasre of 

 consumption, it does not appear that any meteorological 

 observations will authorise us to represent the advantages, 

 to be gained by such a residence, as by any means equiva- 

 lent to those which may be found in remoter situations ; nor 

 that the empirical testimony, derived from accounts of the 

 comparative prevalence of the disease, is at all so clear, or 

 so firmly established, as to make up for the want of evidence 

 of a great and decided superiority of .he climate. 



In the south of Europe, the situations which have been 

 most frequented are Lisbon, or some other part of the penin- 

 sula, the neighbourhood of Montpelier, and different parts 

 «f Italy. In Spain, and probably in Portugal, consumption 

 is said to be not common, but by no means wholly un- 

 known; and whether from accident, or fiom causes which 

 are likely to have a cunstant operation, the climate of Portu- 

 gal has certainly failed, in a number of instances, of pro- 

 ducing any materiui benefit, where there has been api>arcntly 

 a very fair chance for the pntienl's reeovcrv. With respect 

 to the south of France, it is perhaps siuficlent to remark, 

 that the general proportion of deaths from consimiption at 

 Marseilles is tullv as great, as the greatest which has been 

 observed in Loudon, where, accordmg to Dr. Mcbcrder^'s 

 rei^i.'k, its prevalence has of lafe years Ixen so much i'l'- 

 ereii^d. In Italy the disease appears to be decidedly less 

 irequeiit : and there is no reason to doubt but ihiU, in the 

 i\ 2 southern 



