THE EARTH. 219 



ness might, in some measure, temperate their fierceness. From 

 these shades, therefore, the air receives refreshing moisture, and 

 animals a cooling protection. The whole race of savage animals 

 retire in the midst of the day, to the very centre of the forests, 

 •/ot so much to avoid their enemy man, as to find a defence 

 against the raging heats of the season. This advantage which 

 arises from shades in torrid climates, may probably afibrd a solu- 

 tion for that extraordinary circumstance related by Boyle, which 

 he imputes to a different cause. In the island of Ternate, he- 

 longing to the Dutch, a place that had been long celebrated for 

 its beauty and healthfulness, the clove-trees grew in such plenty, 

 that they in some measure lessened their own value : for this 

 reason, the Dutch resolved to cut down the forests, and thus to 

 raise the price of the commodity : but they had soon reason to 

 repent of their avarice ; for such a change ensued, by cutting 

 down the trees, that the whole island from being healthy and 

 delightful, having lost its charming shades, became extremely 

 sickly, and hp^ actually continued so to this day. Boerhaave con- 

 sidered heat so prejudicial to health, that he was never seen to 

 go near a fire. 



An opposite set of calamities are the consequence, in climates 

 where the air is condensed by cold. In such places, all that 

 train of distempers which are known to arise from obstructed 

 perspiration, are very common ;- eruptions, boils, scurvy, and a 

 loathsome leprosy, that covers the whole body with a scurf, and 

 white putrid ulcers. These disorders also are infectious .; and, 

 while they thus banish the patient from society, they generally 

 accomjjany him to the grave. The men of those climates seldom 

 attain to the age of fifty ; but the women, who do not lead such 

 laborious lives, are fou)id to live longer. 



The autumnal complaints which attend a wet summer, indi- 

 cate the dangers of a moist air. The long continuance of an 

 east wind also, shows the prejudice of a dry one. Mineral ex . 

 halations, when copious, are every where known to be faUil ; and 

 although we probably owe the increase and luxuriance of vegeta 

 tion to a moderate degree of their warmth, yet the natives ot 

 those countries where there are mines in plenty, but too often 

 e.tpericnce the noxious effects of their vicinity. Those trades 



2 Krajity.'s History of Oreenlaiid, vol. i. p. 835. 

 T 



