90 Experimental PhilosopJiy. [Lecture 7. 



grass is parched up like hay. Household furni- 

 ture is cracked and destroyed, the pannels of 

 wainscots split, the joints of a well-laid floor of 

 seasoned wood will be opened so as to admit the 

 breadth of a finger between them, and the covers 

 of books, though shut up in a close chest, are 

 bent as if they had been exposed to the fire. Nor 

 does the human body escape ; the eyes, nostrils, 

 lips, and palate are parched up, and made very 

 uneasy. Though the air is cool, there is a prick- 

 ling heat all over the skin ; and if the harmattan 

 continues four or five days, the scarf skin peels 

 off*. . This wind, though fatal to vegetable life, is 

 said to be conducive to the health of the human 

 body. It stops -all epidemics; indeed no infec- 

 tion can be communicated, even by inoculation, 

 during its continuance. It relieves patients la- 

 bouring under fevers, and is remarkable for the 

 cure of ulcers and cutaneous diseases. 



The sirocco is as deleterious as the harmattan 

 is salubrious. It is common in Italy and the 

 south of France. In the former it is called the 

 sirocco, from a common opinion that it blows 

 from Syria ; in the latter it is called the Levant 

 wind. The medium heat of the atmosphere while it 

 it blows, is one hundred and twelve degrees. It is 

 fatal to vegetables, and often destructive to the 

 human species. It depresses the spirits in an un- 

 usual degree ; it suspends the power of digestion, 

 so that those who eat a heavy supper, while it 

 continues, are often found dead in their beds in 



