jo The West American Scientist. 



obtained in this line of physical development on the farms of 

 Senator Stanford, and others, have fully established this gift of the 

 climate. In man, the results are fully as wonderful; as nowhere 

 does man reach that amount of physical perfection that is reached 

 in this part of California. In no other clime does he reach the 

 same old age or enjoy such an uninterrupted long existence of 

 health and physical well-being with an absolute freedom from all 

 diseases; nowhere else does childhood go through the diseases 

 that beset it from the day of birth with such safety to life or to 

 the subsequent health. The usual diseases of childhood here lose 

 their virulence and fatality; diseases like scarlatina are never 

 followed by those sequelae that are elsewhere so fatal or crippling 

 to the future health. There being here no seasons, there is like- 

 wise an absence of all diseases that are peculiar to season or to 

 seasonal changes; neither the annoying abdominal affections of 

 the summer which leave the foundation for future organic disease 

 of the abdominal organs, or the acute or insidious chest diseases, 

 which elsewhere pave the way for phthisis are to be met with in 

 Southern California. 



One great advantage that the youth enjoys with benefit to the 

 physique is the free and constant ventilation which is here pos- 

 sible; so that while at school — be it in dormitory, class-room or 

 recreation hall— the fresh air is always accessible. There are never 

 any high winds, nor is there ever what might be called a perfect 

 calm, so that the air is always in motion, and there is never such 

 a thing as a still air. There are never present those dark gloomy 

 days so trying to the eyes and spirits of students. The constant 

 possibility to out-door exercise is somechingof great importance, 

 as it can be said that there are hardly six days in the year on 

 which the sun does not shine for some part of the day, The char- 

 acter of the soil, by its hardness makes drainage a thing of the 

 greatest facility, so that soon after the hardest of showers there 

 is no mud, and even rubbers can well be dispensed with. 



The lack of seasons and the continuous varieties of fruits and 

 vegetables that the climate here makes possible, prevents any of 

 those gastric or intestinal diseases, that are so common in the 

 East. Fresh fish, vegetables, fruits and the best of meats are 

 always in the market, and the youths are in no danger from any 

 tuberculous infection from either meat or milk, as during an 

 eighteen years' residence I have neither heard of nor seen a 

 tuberculous cow or animal. 



The regularity of the food supplies, the proper admixture of 

 the quality, and the evenness of the seasons never requiring any 

 change as to the nature of the diet, all tend to a moderation and 

 temperance both in the matter of food and drink that tells wonder- 

 fully on the physique and promotes perfect health, and in the end, 

 the most vigorous of old age. The researches of Bowditch, of 

 the Massachusetts State Board of Health, into the question of the 

 use of intoxicants — an enquiry so extended that it covered the 

 whole of the civilized globe — fully established the fact that the 



