CHAPTEB XVII 



CLIMATE 



When we speak of the climate of a place we refer to 

 conditions of temperature, to the relative dryness or damp- 

 ness of the air, to the presence or absence of winds, to 

 rain, its absence or excess, and to altitude. The whole 

 question of climate depends upon these factors of which, 

 perhaps, temperature is the most important. 



Though extremes of temperature may be a cause of 

 death, and certain conditions of wind and rain predispose 

 to disease, yet the science of bacteriology has largely 

 exposed the fallacy which underlies the argument of 

 blaming climate as a cause of unhealthiness ; the pesti- 

 lential vapours and miasma, so prominent a feature in the 

 pathology of a few years ago, have vanished under the 

 exactitude of experimental inquiry. What was originally 

 considered a deadly vapour now frequently turns out to be 

 a deadly insect. 



The fact is that though climates are spoken of as healthy 

 and unhealthy, we know very little of the real influence on 

 health of climate as above defined ; exact observation 

 shows that what used to be attributed to climate may now 

 turn out to be a micro-organism. Further, climate has been 

 blamed when the fault lay with insanitary surroundings, 

 and the neglect of sanitary precautions ; especially has this 

 been the case in hot countries. 



A country may be unhealthy for one class of animal and 

 not for others, which proves that it is not a question of 

 climate ; no better example could be quoted than South 



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