MANUAL OF THE nIlAGIRI DISTRICT. 35 



CHAPTER IV. 

 CLIMATE, METEOROLOGY, AND HEALTH. 



First notices of the climate. — Reports on the medical topography. — Climates. 

 — Thermometrical and barometrical observations. — Doddabetta Observatory. 

 — Wellington Observatory. — Meteorological tables. — Temperature compared. 

 — Winds. — Table of virinds. — Hurricanes. — Eifect of wind on barometer. — Rain- 

 fall. — Average fall.— Extremes. — Rain-gauge stations. — Hygrometrical observa- 

 tions. — Vital statistics. — Comparative tables. — Vaccination. — Results. — Special 

 reports, Ootacamand. — Wellington. 



PART I. 



The climate of these hills has been the subject of frequent CHAP. IV, 

 discussion from their first occupation by Europeans in 1819 up to PART i. 

 recent years. The discovery of a spot within the tropics possess- „ „ 



ing a climate with many of the advantages and but few of the — 



disadvantages of the climates of those countries, within the ^5^.* ^'^^^^^^ 

 temperate zones, with which Anglo-Indians of the day were 

 familiar, excited the keenest interest.^ 



" When you look over the register of the thermometer which 

 I now send you," writes a prophetic friend of the writer, whose 

 letter is published in the Madras Gazette, 17th June 1820, and 

 who had been three months on the plateau, " the wonderful 

 equality of the temperature in the shade throughout the month 

 must strike you as remarkable, the difference between the highest 

 and lowest degrees at 6 in the morning being only 7| , at 8 o'clock 

 5, at noon 7, and the same at 8 o'clock at night. This cool and 

 equal temperature ought to prove highly beneficial to invalids 

 suffering from the diseases or debility produced by a long resi- 

 dence in a hot climate. We have here none of those hot close 

 nights which allow no rest to the sick ; it is always agreeable to 

 sleep under a blanket ; and one awakes in the morning revived 

 and refreshed. You are aware that I came up here much debili- 

 i tated from the effects of a severe fever. I speak, therefore, from 



I| * See letters in the Madras Co-nrier, 23rd February 1819, printed in the 

 * Appendix. 



Letters in the Madras Gazette, 19th April and 17th June 1820, 14th March 

 ' 1821, 15th June 1822, 20fch August and 22nd October 1825 ; also a series of 



letters during 1825 and 1826 by " Philanthropes " in the Bengal Ildrkaru, 



republished in the Madras Courier. 



