1846.] Meteorology of Western Asia. 165 



places, we are unable to give, according to the plan pursued with 

 regard to the other points from which we have records, any pro- 

 minent meteorological peculiarities. A great tendency to inter- 

 mittent fever is known to exist on the plains of Oormia, and may 

 be mentioned as one peculiarity of the climate of that place as a 

 mission station. The cause of this is no doubt to be found, either 

 in the miasmata of the city or the exhalations from the great lake 

 which bounds those plains on the east. 



From observations made for several years by the missionaries 

 resident in Beirut, Trebizond and Oormia, it has been found that 

 by leaving those cities for the mountains near at hand, during the 

 summer months, they obtain a healthier and far more pleasant 

 place of residence. This has led to a caretul comparison between 

 the temperature of the plain and the places of resort on the 

 mountains, and in neither of these cases does the average varia- 

 tion exceed 7° or 8° Fahrenheit. Still, the variation in one's 

 feelings is very manifest, even in ascending four or five hundred 

 feet. While on the plain the parched and sultiy air of a sum- 

 mer's day seems almost insupportable, the breeze of the upper 

 strata of air seems to refresh and revive the spirits, and to infuse 

 new life into the whole system. " What is the cause of this effect 

 on the physical frame?" is yet a question open for investigation. 

 Would the residents at Oormia be refreshed by a sudden removal 

 to the sides of Mt. Lebanon, or to the hills back of Trebizond? 

 If so, as such a removal would bring them two or three thousand 

 feet nearer the level of the sea, it is plain that the effect is not 

 produced, as is commonly supposed, by the diminished pressure 

 of the atmosphere in elevated regions. Without doubt, differ- 

 ences in the electrical state of the air, will yet be found a fertile 

 cause of various modifications in the working of the nervous 

 system, but as we have thus far been unable to obtain any facts 

 of this kind in respect to the cases now referred to, we must leave 

 the question they suggest where we found it. 



Receipts. — Pies. — Take four eggs, one and a half pints of dried 

 apples after they are saturated. Beat the eggs in a coffee cup 

 full of sugar, add one pint of cream and a little salt. Make a 

 mixture of the whole by stirring well : it is sufficient for three 

 pies. 



Johnny Ca/ce.— Take three pints of Indian meal, half pint of 

 cream, half spoonful of ginger and spice each, coffee cup full of 

 sugar, two eggs beat together, and add half tea spoonful salera- 

 tus, some salt and a few dried currents or berries. The cake to 

 be made soft, or of the consistence of a stiff pan cake. Those 

 who prefer it, may omit the sugar. 



