able day. These conditions arc practiaally beyond our control, yet a 

 careful observation of them, siiioplemented by a day's notice of what 

 conditions to expect, will enable us to so adjust our affairs as to take 

 advantage of favorable conditions and to reduce to a minimum the 

 injury caused by the unfavorable ones. 



CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 



Some people attribute all their ills to the weather. While this is, of 

 coHrse, an extreme view of matters, it is still true that a careful com- 

 parison of the weather and the health records for a long series of 

 years shows that there is a well-defined relation between the preva- 

 lence and severity of certain diseases and the state of the weather. 

 Eheumatism is one of the old weather prophets and pneumonia is a 

 typical cold-weather disease, the dangers of which are intensified by 

 sudden changes of temperature. Careful observation has shown that 

 when the water in wells rises after a prolonged drouth there is a 

 marked increase in diseases of the tj'phoid-fever class, owing to the 

 germs being carried into the wells. In hot weather there is a great 

 increase in the death rate of children, especially in the poorer quarters 

 of large cities. Actual experiments have shown that this is in great 

 measure due to disease germs carried in such food as milk. The hot, 

 moist weather furnishes the most favorable conditions for the multi- 

 plication of the germs causing such diseases. 



CLIMATE .VXD COMMERCE. 



It is difficult for one who has not been connected with a w»ather 

 office to realize how great and how varied are the commercial inter- 

 ests that daily seek information regarding the weather conditions and 

 how these interests are controlled by the information received. The 

 shipper of perishable materials, such as fruit, vegetables and meat, 

 knows what losses may be caused either by extreme hot or cold 

 weather. Financial and humanitarian motives lead the shipper of live 

 stock to scan the "probabilities" carefully. If a destructive hot wind 

 occurs in the western part of the corn belt at a critical period iu the 

 growth of the crop, its efi"ect is shown not only on the crop, but in 

 every corn market in the world. 



Eailroads are most frequent users both of predictions and weather 

 records, and reciprocate by rendering valuable aid in distributing pre- 

 dictions along their lines. 



