PART in. THE CYCLE OF A YEAR. 13 



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(UNI7EESITY 



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PART III. 



THE CYCLE OF A YEAR. 



IT was to medical men that the public were first distinctly 

 indebted for a knowledge of the temperature -mildness 

 of the Madeiran climate ; and the names of Drs. Gour- 

 lay, Heberden, Ren ton, and Heineken are thankfully 

 remembered in the island for what they published in 

 their respective days. But the reason why, of that 

 temperature moderation, was still undiscovered ; and an 

 erroneous idea generally prevailed, asserting that the air 

 of Madeira was uniformly, even essentially, dry ; and. its 

 sky characteristically " of a deep and stainless blue, 

 unsullied by a single cloud." Wherefore, in 1834-5 came 

 the very man whom truth, touching watery vapour in 

 Madeira, required, viz. the young, the enthusiastic, the 

 sadly weak in health, but the devoted student of hygro- 

 metry, Dr. J. A. Mason. And though excellent guide- 

 books by Robert White and J. M. Rendell have been 

 written since then, well garnished, too, with scientific 

 observations ; and though the present British and Ger- 

 man physicians residing on the island, Drs. Grabham 



