The winter meteorology of Egypt and its influence on disease / by H. E. Leigh Canney.

  • Canney, H. E. Leigh.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The winter meteorology of Egypt and its influence on disease / by H. E. Leigh Canney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    11/88
    Up to the present time such observations as have been made on the climate of Egypt, as far as they have been consecutively taken, have been generally limited to Alexandria and Cairo. No definite knowledge has been obtained of the conditions present in the Nile valley. As regards the desert, from the nature of its inhospitable surroundings, our sources of information are limited to the notes and observations of various scientific expeditions that have traversed the Sahara to and from the Nile valley, and these, being taken in transit, naturally are not continuous for any spot for any long period. Observations at Luxor or some other point in the Nile valley, south of Cairo, have been taken by men residing for a short time, such as those by Mr. Maclean, M.B., B.S., at Luxor in 1868,—very excellent in themselves, yet not arranged to be synchronous and comparable with observations at other stations, and, therefore, of limited value. The remaining observations available are those of travellers on the Nile itself, generally in dahabeahs and under constantly varying conditions. The present series of observations was undertaken three years ago, with the kind assistance of several friends at other stations in Egypt, provided with similar instruments, and working on the same method at comparable sites, in order to arrive at a knowledge of the climate of Egypt generally, and of the Nile valley specially, during the winter. Such information was specially needed by those of us resident as physicians in the country, and by the medical profession generally. In this paper, hoAvever, the medical aspects of the climate, interesting though they would be, will not be discussed. General Climatic Conditions. Although this paper will be limited to the winter conditions chiefly, reference will occasionally be made to the conditions present at other times of the year. Egypt, like other countries, depends for its climate upon its surroundings; the geographical, geological, and topographical conditions of these surroundings will largely influence such factors of its climate as thetemperature, humidity, and the presence of air-borne particles, organic or inorganic. The consideration of the surroinidings is especially important, in the case of Egypt, if we are to attempt to understand its climate. Egypt, as we shall consider it in this paper, is nothing else but that portion of the Sahara, only eight or ten miles broad for nine-tenths of its