176 
STRUMA.—EAST WINDS. 
large river winding up between the hills. This 
same vapour exists of course at all seasons, though 
in summer in a lessened form. I safely affirm that 
through the causes I have named, but very few good 
constitutions exist in those spots and places low- 
situated with which I have been medically 
acquainted. 
Notwithstanding however the highly deleterious 
influence of such an atmosphere surcharged with 
water on the excreting surface of our bodies, 
on the secreting membrance of the lungs and even 
on respiration itself, not to forget also the inflamma¬ 
tory affections brought on in various parts by change 
of situation of the inflammatory attack, or through 
sympathy of these with the important offices of the 
general envelope, it must be observed that mere 
humidity of itself is not the general cause of those 
complaints which are vulgarly called “ colds,” but 
that it is the circumstance of change which produ¬ 
ces this result, even that from damp hazy weather 
to clear and frosty, as indeed the proved suscepti¬ 
bility of the skin would have led one a priori to 
suppose. 
Whatever tends to depress or deteriorate the vital 
energies of the constitution, tends to that affection 
termed scrofula , a disease which manifests itself 
under a multiplicity of forms and from which no 
portion of the frame can claim exemption. In con¬ 
junction with the weakening powers of the climate 
an unhealthful diet co-operates prejudically on the 
lower orders of persons in this county taken in the 
mass, and the two causes together produce a taint 
of this malady spread over this section of the popu¬ 
lation, though towards the moor it becomes less 
and less common. 
East winds are from certain phenomena which 
they occasion by the sudden change or revulsion 
of temperature induced, somewhat worthy of especial 
