Medical climatology; or, A topographical and meteorological description of the localities resorted to in winter and summer : by invalids of various classes, both at home and abroad.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical climatology; or, A topographical and meteorological description of the localities resorted to in winter and summer : by invalids of various classes, both at home and abroad. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    501/536 (page 481)
    obtains. The deposition of dew is neither so frequent nor so copious as, from the clearness of the sky and its calm- ness after sunset in the summer and autumn months, might be expected. The aimual rain-fall at Malta is considerable, although there are exceptional years of excessive and injurious drought. There is but little regularity observable in the times of its precipitation or in the quantity which falls at any one time. According to General Elphinstone's observa- tions, there were in the several months of the year 1833 the following number of days in which rain fell:—January, 23 ; February, 10 ; March, 8 ; April, 6 ; May, 3 ; June, 5 ; July, 0; August, 0; September, 9; October, 11; Novem- ber, 9 ; December, 6. Showers are far more common than continued rain, a really rainy day being almost unknown in the island. In autumn the showers are sometimes very heavy, and occasion great destruction. The mean maximum height of the barometer, in 1833, was 3014, and the mean minimum, 29-58. Violent thunder storms not unfrequently occur in autumn and winter; they are in- variably attended by heavy falls of rain, or of hail if the weather be cool. The island of Gozo, being slightly more elevated than Malta, enjoys perhaps a somewhat cooler summer; and as Malta lies between it and the sirocco, that wind is a little improved in its condition, and in a slight degree less dis- agreeable in its effects upon the constitution, when it reaches Gozo. In all other respects the climate of the two islands is identical. As a resort for invalids there are several objections to be urged against Malta, but there are other circumstances in its favour. Of the former, the fact of its being a garrison town, whilst it adds to the enjoyment of a few, is generally x