The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions: being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and coast of Africa (Volume 2).

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions: being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and coast of Africa (Volume 2). 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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    on MEDITERRANEAN DISEASES than lias cvcr yet been collected through a single medium. Before entering on localities, however, it may not be improper to make a few general observations on this extensive inlet. Placed between the burning sands of Africa on one side, and the Alps and Pyrenees on the other, the Me- diterranean skies are alternately parched by the South-east—chilled by the North-west, or stifled by the sirocco winds. Thus from Barcelona to Genoa, the iron-bound Coast presents a succession of dreary mountains and craggy rocks, the tops of the former being frequently covered with snow, from the begin- ning of March till the end of May. From these the frigid Euroclydons descend in whirlwinds upon the contiguous ocean; wliile at other times, the sirocco breathes fire from the deserts of Salmra and Lybia. During the continuance of this wind, all nature ap- pears to languish; vegetation withers and dies—the beasts of the field droop; while tliose who are strongly susceptible to electrical changes in the air, such as precede and attend a thunder storm, will easily under- stand the effects of the sirocco on the human frame, as an increased degree of the sensations which they then experience. The animal spirits seem too mucli exhausted to admit of the least bodily exertion, and the spring and elasticity of the air, appear to be lost. The heat exceeds that of the most fervid weather in Spain or Malta. This accession of temperature is ra- pid—almost instantaneous; and the whole atmosphere feels as if inflamed. The pores of the skin seem at once opened, and all the fibres relaxed. It sometimes blows for several days together, at a medium heat of 112°, depressing the spirits, and so suspending the powers of digestion, that people who venture to eat a hearty supper arc generally found dead next morn- ing. Fortunately for animated nature, it is common- ly succeeded by the Tramontane or north wind, which.