Researches on meteorology / by Bennet Dowler.

  • Dowler, Bennet, 1797-1879.
Date:
[1848?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on meteorology / by Bennet Dowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    great portion of America, horses, cattle etc. multiply with astonishing rapidity without labor or care, while, in the low temperature of high latitudes, nearly all would perish in a single winter unless provided for at geat expense. Meteorology, independently of its medical utility, deserves the pa- tronage of every government. It is gratifying to observe from time to time that the Congress of the United States has passed laws appro- priating money for continuing the meteorological observations at the military posts, under the direction of the Surgeon General. The knowledge hence arising, from its tendency to accumulation, will be enhanced with the lapse of time. For a century and a half after the Anglo-Saxons settled in North America, this subject attracted but little attention—consequently the data do not now exist for illustrating one of the most interesting problems, namely the influences resulting from the clearing, draining, and cultivating the soil. A correct, continious meteorological history, from the first settlements in New England, Virginia, Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, is wanting to show the comparative humidity, temperature, and salubrity of the past and present. A correct thermal chart is a national desideratum, especially in America; since it would afford the intelligent planter a guide, in ad- vance of expensive and often ruinous experiments, in attempting to cultivate and acclimate plants in a temperature uncongenial to their natural requirements: the orange, palm, olive, vine, fig, banana,* coffee, tea, rice, wheat, maize, cotton, sugar-cane and many other valuable plants, which might be named as examples. The best coffee or wine cannot be produced, except in such places as have a certain and very limited maximum, minimum and mean temperature. It is to be deplored that our planters neglect the science of meteoro- logy, in which they have a pecuniary as well as a scientific interest. Planters enjoy opportunities for studying the thermal adaptations of many useful plants, denied to nearly all authors. There are doubt- lessly zones for cotton, sugar and so forth, which a faithful thermo- metrical history of a few years would point out as superior to all other belts for quality, quantity, and economy. Humboldt considers a mean annual temperature from 75° to 77° as superior to all others for producing the sugar-cane, though he says it may be reared where the mean falls beiow 66 or 63°. He says, whatever may be the latitude of a place, that good wine cannot be produced unless the mean annual temperature exceed 49°. 55, while the mean of winter must not fall below 32°, nor that of summer below 64°. 4. The range most favorable to the production of coffee, is, according to a late writer,f very limited in Cuba, having for its maximum 80° and for its minimum 75°. Fever, cholera and con- sumption, health and longevity, are not thus restricted by thermal lines, nor by humidity, nor disiccation. * The Galveston News, (Nov. 1847), asserts that a portion of Texas equals Cuba in producing this most valuable plant, which transcends all others in the amount of its nutritious matter on a given area. f Tumbull's Cuba.