70 MANUAL OF THE NlLAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. IV, it gives a result of 63 degrees, which is nearly correct, that of 

 PART III. Wellington being 62°-6. 



Wellingtox. Ozone is an electric condition of the air which is present 

 Medical at all times, but particularly during thunder-storms. The name is 



Climate &c. derived from the peculiar smell emitted when it is produced 

 artificially by an electric machine. It is oxygen in an allotropic 



Ozone. state, a bin -oxide of hydrogen, and is generated by the discharge 



of electricity into the air. A reference to the ozone tables for 

 the months of October and June, when there is an electric 

 condition present, prior to the bursting of the monsoons, shows that 

 the atmosphere is filled with it. This is shown by the depth of 

 color on the ozone papers. The mode by which oxygen passes 

 into ozone is inexplicable. All we know is that it is produced 

 when electricity is discharged into the air. It tends to cleanse 

 und purify the atmosphere, but is in itself so powerful that 

 animals expire when placed in pure ozone. 



Climate, and The climate at Wellington, although only 11 degrees from the 



on healTh^'^ equator, is most salubrious, temperate, and invigorating. The 

 thermometer seldom rises in the shade above 75 degrees, and the 

 days throughout the cold months are clear and bracing. The 

 mornings are always refreshing, and, if the character and time of 

 the setting in of the south-west monsoon is regular, the months 

 of the middle part of the year are pleasant and healthy. 



The objections to the Hills are that the valleys intersecting 

 them contain jungle, where malarious fever may be contracted. 

 These are to be particularly avoided, especially at night or in 

 the evening after sun-set. This is in consequence of the varia- 

 tions of temperature being greater than in the higher situations. 

 The sun's rays, however, are powerful throughout the year, 

 and one is never safe in being exposed to them without having 

 the head properly protected. The health of the inhabitants 

 greatly depends upon the regular periods of the monsoons, as by 

 them the ravines, hill-sides, and gullies are washed of the decajdng 

 vegetation, and in consequence the atmosphere is rendered pure 

 and free from malaria ; whereas, if the monsoons are not regular 

 or sufficient, this vegetation decomposes, the atmosphere becomes 

 tainted and malarious. Fevers are endemic. For, although we 

 are taught that an elevation of 4,500 feet is beyond malarial 

 influence, experience shows that not only are attacks of fever 

 frequent, but that they originate on these hills, and, as there is 

 a good deal of marshy ground in the ravines about Wellington, 

 owing to springs issuing from their sides and jungle growing on 

 their slopes, malaria is generated especially in wet weather, 

 producing relapses in persons whose constitutions are affected. 

 It is most difficult to eradicate this malaria from the system. 



Attacks of febricula from chill and exposure to the sun with 

 high temperature, shivcrings, with severe headache, suffused eyes, 



