CLIMATE. 
US 
leaf is soon shrivelled, and every thing formed of 
wood is warped and cracked. The effect of these 
winds on animated bodies is equally pernicious, 
and when they blow in sudden squalls, they some- 
times occasion immediate death. Respiration 
becomes quick and difficult, the pores of the skin 
are closed, and a feverish habit is induced by sup- 
pressed perspiration. The ardent heat pervades 
every substance, and the element of water, di- 
vested of its coolness, is rendered incapable of mi- 
tigating the intolerable sensation excited. Dead 
silence reigns in the streets ; the inhabitants, by 
confining themselves to their houses, vainly at- 
tempt to elude the showers of fine penetrating 
dust, which, according to the Oriental expres- 
sion, will enter an egg through the pores of the 
shell. These are the hot winds of the desert, 
termed by the Arabs simoom^ and by the Turks 
samiel. They are frequently denominated the 
winds of fifty days, because they prevail chiefly 
between Easter and Whitsuntide, or during the 
fifty days at the period of the equinox. When 
they continue longer than three days, their heat 
becomes insupportable, and peculiarly injurious 
to persons of a plethoric habit.* These winds, 
in spring so destructive by their heat, are in win- 
ter, from the beginning of December to the end 
* Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria? Vol I. p. 62, 
VOL. ir. H 
