209 
1878.] t° Health and Comfort . 
post was established, is ng°, observed at 2.25 p.m., 
June 16th, 1859. A temperature of ioo° may exist at Fort 
Yuma for weeks in succession, and there will be no addi- 
tional cases of sickness in consequence. . . . We have none 
of the malarial diseases. . . . No ice is formed at anytime; 
29° has been indicated by a registering thermometer, in 
January, 1872. The mean temperature, day and night, of 
January, however, is 57°; that of July is 95 0 . The average 
rainfall during four years was a litttle over 2 inches each 
year.’ ” 
Any who wish to corroborate or question these views as 
to the healthiness or unhealthiness of dry air, hot or cold, 
can examine authorities, or investigate or observe for them- 
selves ; the conclusions they will reach can be confidently 
anticipated. But the proof or argument cannot be further 
extended in this paper, and it must be claimed that there 
exist good grounds to believe that dry air, per se, of what- 
ever temperature it may be found on the surface of the 
earth, is not unhealthy ; that, as regards disease, such air 
possesses both preventive and curative qualities of great 
value ; and that on the other hand, moist air, such as pro- 
motes vegetable growth, is not desirable for breathing, on 
sanitary grounds. Asserting these views, the question nar- 
rows down to — Given a habitat or place of residence, where 
some degree of moisture and vegetation does thrive for a 
portion of the year at least, what effect on the system do 
the variations of moisture produce, from season to season, 
from day to day, and during such of the seasons as the 
comfort of inhabitants may call for artificial warmth, from 
one place to another on the same day ? 
§. Clothing, houses, and fires are the means by which 
mankind is enabled to inhabit the face of the earth. It is 
an artificial existence for an animal whose natural life would 
otherwise be limited to a small belt of the torrid zone, where 
the temperature never falls below about 8o° nor rises above 
ioo°. As residents of the northern United States we cannot 
expeCt to avoid, and do not expeCt to ameliorate, the vicissi- 
tudes of climate out of doors. Hot or cold, rainy or dry, 
with air relatively humid or otherwise, life in all countries 
means endurance under artificial guards or protections from 
natural inclemencies. We clothe ourselves by the umbrella 
on the one hand, or the great coat on the other ; open or 
close our doors ; induce cool breezes, or gather around fires, 
in search of the comfortable uniform loss of heat by the 
system. The efforts to accomplish this end, by means of 
VOL. vm. (n.s.) * p 
