Beck on Salt Storms, i^c. 395 



regions, is owing to their proximity to the ocean. In confir- 

 mation, he states that he has himself experienced the irritating 

 effects of the air of the Delta upon the organ of vision.* 



In those cases of scurvy which occur in long voyages, the 

 saline nature of the atmosphere co-operates very powerfully 

 with salt provisions and bad water, in producing that general 

 vitiation of the system which characterizes this disorder. 



Of all diseases, however, those of the lungs appear to be 

 most aflfected by a saline air. I have known a lady of this 

 city who had been afflicted for many years with asthma, to be 

 essentially benefited by a voyage across the Atlantic. Another 

 case has fallen under my observation, of a lady troubled with 

 asthma, being much relieved by removing from the inte- 

 rior to this city. What proves beyond a doubt that her relief 

 is owing to the air she breathes, is, that whenever she takes a 

 jaunt into the country, she is sure to suffer a paroxysm of her 

 old complaint. 



Pulmonary consumption certainly prevails more on the sea- 

 coast, than in the interior. In all our sea-port towns, it is this 

 disorder which so frightfully augments the catalogue of our 

 bills of mortality. According to Dr. Rush, " in Salem, in the 

 state of Massachusetts, which is situated near the sea, and ex- 

 posed, during many months of the year, to a moist east wind, 

 there died in the year 1799, 160 persons ; fifty-three of whom 

 died of the consumption."! In Philadelphia, which is more 

 remote from the sea, the deaths from consumption are much 

 less numerous than in New- York, or the other cities immedi- 

 ately on the coast. In Great Britain, which is exposed to the 

 sea on all sides, it is calculated that about 65,000 die an- 

 nually from this disease. 



* On the subject of the Egyptian ophthalmia, it may be asked " why it does not 

 appear in innumerable other situations, equally exposed to salt air, as Cape Cod, 

 and the West-India Islands ?" To this it may be replied, that in the production 

 of any disease whatever, a predisposing' state of the system is as necessary as an 

 exciting cause. This predisposition appears to exist in a great degree among the 

 Egyptians, and depends upon the nature of their climate, their habits, and mode of 

 living, all of which have a tendency to produce debility of the eyes, and thus render 

 Ihem more susceyiUble of the impression of those causes which excite inflammation, 

 t Rush's Medical Observations and Inquiries, Vol.11, p. 132. 



