788 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON THE 



From the 1st of January 1838 till the 1st of 

 June 1841, the mortality of the metropolis from 

 diseases of the digestive organs, was during winter, 

 1,982 ; in spring, 2,139; in summer, 2,978 ; and 

 in autumn, 2,263. 



The facts contained in the foregoing tables, 

 especially the two last, are exceedingly instruc- 

 tive in a theoretical and practical point of view, 

 as showing the influence of external temperature 

 in modifying the general character of diseases, 

 together with the true method of treating, or 

 rather of preventing them. Should pathologists 

 still assert, as they have long done, that phthisis 

 depends on a hereditary predisposition to the for- 

 mation of tubercles, and not on the influence of 

 cold, nor vicissitudes of temperature, I answer, 

 that in the middle and higher latitudes it destroys 

 a much larger proportion of lives than any other 

 disease, that according to Dr. Granville, 38 per 

 cent, of the mortality in St. Petersburg,* 1 is from 

 consumption. In the United States north of 40, 

 where the mean temperature of winter is from 25 

 to 34, it has been estimated at 24 per cent. But 

 in the middle latitudes of Europe, the mortality 

 is about 20 per cent. ; and varies from 1 2 to 15 per 



* Other writers state that phthisis is less prevalent in Russia 

 than in Britain and France. But in cold countries, far more at- 

 tention is paid to warm clothing, and a regulated temperature 

 within doors. And it is probable, however, that the disease is less 

 prevalent in climates which are cold and dry, ceterisparibus, than 

 in such as are cold and moist. 



