SANITARY AND METBOROLOGIGAL, 143 
the earth.” It is proverbial that there may be “death in the 
pot;” but we should never forget that it is equally true that there 
is often death in the pitcher and the pail; and good physicians 
in our day, when a malignant disease is developed, immediately 
examine the character and condition of the water supply. 
The reader must, in regard to this question of health, keep 
ever in mind those peculiarities of the Bahama islands which we - 
have endeavored to describe. Perfectly shielded from the cold 
by the Gulf stream, which throws its warm, wide, watery arm 
around them on the west and north—a shield which the frost 
king finds absolutely impenetrable—it is ensured an atmosphere 
of unending summer. Winter, in our sense of the word, is liter- 
ally unknown; while, at the same time, the islands are exempt 
from the dry, scorching heat, which banishes the white race from 
tropical regions in many parts of the world. The polar currents, 
aqueous and acrial, are completely transformed when they en- 
counter the Gulf Stream, and all the discomfort is quickly taken 
out of them, so that the Bahamas, languidly reclining in the lap 
of summor, are slightly but agreeably refreshed by the coldest 
winds that ever reach them from the north and west. 
It is in this that their superiority as a winter resort for the 
American people over the states of the Gulf consists. Upon the 
main land, the north winds make a clear sweep to the Gulf of 
Mexico. ‘There is nothing to obstruct their course. The valley 
of the Mississippi seems to have been scooped out to facilitate 
their progress. With the Appellachian chain of mountains on 
one side, and the Gulf Stream on the other, a great highway is 
formed for Boreas over both the land and water sides of our At- 
lantic coast. And he travels over it in his icy chariot altogether 
too frequently for the health and comfort of those who leave their 
northern homes to search for summer in either of the states of 
the south. ‘ 
