182 EFFECTS OF WEATHER CHAP. 5. 



known to produce epidemics,* in many countries 

 where violent atmospherical complaints prevail. 

 And in every country of the world I believe the 

 East Wind is almost proverbially unhealthy. 

 Casual changes to East produce headache and 

 nervous complaints, and a long continued Wind 

 from that quarter produces an unwholesome 

 season. Another curious thing is, that with 

 East Winds good astronomical observations 

 cannot be made : the luminous objects seeming 

 to dance or wave about in the field of the tele- 

 scope. 



But though we admit the influence of atmo- 

 spheric peculiarities on our health, yet the 

 manner and extent of their operation cannot 

 easily be ascertained. They may deprive 

 persons, already weak, of a portion of their 

 electricity, and thus the energies of the brain 

 and nervous system may be diminished: or 

 the atmospheric electricity, being unequally 

 distributed in the air, or propagated downward 

 at intervals, it may occasion an irregular 

 distribution of it in our bodies, and produce 

 an irregularity of function. A living animal 



* I must beg leave to refer to my Observations on the 

 Periodical Influence of Atmosphere on Diseases, and to M. 

 JMc. Lean's Book on Epidemic Diseases. 



