CLIMATE AND HEALTH 69 



certain number die from malnutrition, and some from over- 

 eating or from eating unwholesome food, but the total from all 

 such causes is slight. Moreover, the excess of deaths in one 

 year over another because of variations in food is almost negli- 

 gible. Thus while food and drink are highly important, they are 

 not really variables and cannot be appealed to as causes of the 

 great variability in the deathrate from day to day, week to week, 

 month to month, and year to year. 



With pjr th^__£fljSP ifi diffprfjit "Air is the first necessity of 

 life. We may live without food for days and without water for 

 hours; but we cannot live without air more than a few minutes. 

 Our air supply is therefore of more importance than our food or 

 water supply, and good ventilation becomes the first rule of 

 hygiene." These words are taken from the beginning of the first 

 chapter of a book called "How to Live." It is extremely signifi- 

 cant that they were written by Professor Fisher who has an 

 international reputation as an expert on food, and by Dr. Fisk 

 whose reputation is largely based upon his work in respect to 

 drink. These experts upon food and drink look upon air as the 

 most important factor in health because air is the great variable. 

 The air varies constantly in temperature, humidity, movement, 

 electrification, percentage of carbon dioxide, dustiness, and many 

 other characteristics. A room cannot be closed an hour without 

 causing a distinct change in the quality of the air. Coupled with 

 all this is the fact that the human body is far more sensitive to 

 the air than to any other feature of environment. A person who 

 without a tremor can eat raw oysters, hot soup, cold lobster 

 salad, frozen ice cream, and hot coffee, will become uncomfortable 

 in a minute if air at a temperature of 65° instead of 70° blows on 

 her neck. 



As an example of the importance of the air, that is, of climate, 

 take New York City from 1900 to 1915. The following table 

 shows the average temperature of the months of March and July 



