CLIMATE AND HEALTH 63 



In foreign countries the same principles apply. In Germany, 

 for instance, there is a bad time in August, but it does not last 

 so long as the similar period during the winter. In Italy the 

 summer is worse than in Germany, for the longer duration of the 

 hot weather lengthens the period of increased deaths. The 

 Italian winter is also much worse than the German winter, which 

 seems surprising at first. This is partly because the Italians, 

 like other people who live in relatively uniform climates with little 

 variation from day to day, lack endurance. Moreover, the care 

 of health receives much more attention in Germany than in Italy. 

 The Japanese curve in Figure 7 also shows the dominating effect 

 of climate. In Japan the late summer and early fall are very 

 damp as well as hot. Hence this season is much worse than the 

 winters or than any of the summers thus far discussed. 



We might go on with a large number of other curves of this 

 kind, for nearly sixty million deaths have actually been plotted in 

 this way. They all demonstrate the dependence of health upon 

 climate. It will be better, however, to inquire now into the precise 

 conditions of climate which promote health and which thus in- 

 fluence the business and civilization of the world. For this purpose 

 let us examine about 9,000,000 deaths in the United States, 

 France, and Italy, and see under what conditions of temperature, 

 humidity, and variability the deathrate is highest or lowest. To 

 begin with temperature and humidity. Figures 8 B to 11 are what 

 are known as "climographs" for the northern and southern halves 

 of France and Italy respectively. A climograph is simply a dia- 

 gram representing the effect of climate upon living beings. The 

 method by which these have been prepared is explained in the 

 Appendix. In the present diagrams the figures on the left indicate 

 the average temperature taking day and night together. Those 

 at the top indicate the average humidity in the same way. Dark 

 shading means good health and light shading poor health. The 

 unshaded areas mean that no months have the particular combi- 



