THE EARTH. t 3l 



There are many other disorders incident to the human body, tha< 

 seem the offspring of heat ; but to mention no other, tnat very lassi 

 tude which prevails in all the tropical climates, may be considered as 

 a disease. The inhabitants of India,* says a modern philosopher, sus 

 tain an unceasing languor, from the heats of their climate, and are tor 

 pid in the midst of profusion. For this reason, the great Disposer ol 

 nature has clothed their country with trees of an amazing height, 

 whose shade might defend them from the beams of the sun ; and whose 

 continual freshness might, in some measure, temperate their fierceness. 

 From these shades, therefore, the air receives refreshing moisture, and 

 animals a cooling protection. The whole race of savage animals re- 

 tire, in the midst of the day, to the very centre of the forest, not so 

 much to avoid their enemy man, as to find a defence against the 

 raging heats of the season. This advantage which arises from shade 

 in torrid climates, may probably afford a solution for that extraordi- 

 nary circumstance related by Boyle, which he imputes to a different 

 cause. In the island of Ternate, belonging to the Dutch, a place that 

 had been long celebrated for its beauty and healthfulness, the clove- 

 trees grew in such plenty, that they in some measure lessened their 

 own value : for this reason, the Dutch resolved to cut down the forests, 

 and thus to raise the price of the commodity : but they had soon rea- 

 son to repent of their avarice ; for such a change ensued, by cutting 

 down the trees, that the whole island, from being healthy and delight- 

 ful, having lost its charming shades, became extremely sickly, and has 

 actually continued so to this day. Boerhaave considered heat so pre- 

 judicial to health, that he was never seen to go near a fire. 



An opposite set of calamities are the consequence, in climates where 

 the air is condensed by cold. In such places, all that train of distem- 

 pers which are known to arise from obstructed perspiration, are very 

 common ;t eruptions, boils, scurvy, and a loathsome leprosy, that 

 covers the whole body with a scurf, and white putrid ulcers. These 

 disorders also are infectious ; and, while they thus banish the patient 

 from society, they generally accompany him to the grave. The men 

 of those climates seldom attain to the age of fifty ; but the women, 

 who do not lead such laborious lives, are found to live longer. 



The autumnal complaints which attend a wet summer, indicate the 

 dangers of a moist air. The long continuance of an east wind also, 

 shews the prejudice of a dry one. Mineral exhalations, when copious, 

 are every where known to be fatal ; and although we probably owe 

 the increase and luxuriance of vegetation to a moderate degree of their 

 warmth, yet the natives of those countries where there are mines in 

 plenty, but too often experience the noxious effects of their vicinity. 

 Those trades also that deal in the preparations of metals of all kinds, 

 are always unwholesome ; and the workmen, after some time, are 

 generally seen to labour under palsies, and other nervous complaints. 

 The vapours from some vegetable substances are well known to Ue 

 attended with dangerous effects. The shade of the machine! tree, in 

 America, is said to be fatal, as was that of the juniper, if we may credit 

 'he anci3nts. Those who walk through fields of poppies, or in auv 



* I in"i Amenitates, vol. v. p. 444 A Crantz's History oi Greenland, vol. i. p. 235 



