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 / [R.E. Scoresby-Jackson].

  • Jackson, R. E. Scoresby (Robert Edmund), 1835-1867
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 / [R.E. Scoresby-Jackson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    end so salutary, whilst other sources of impurity, which by reason of their extent are beyond his control, will be ad- verted to when describing the localities in which they occur. Electricity ancl Ozone.—It would he inconsistent with the cursory nature of these remarks to attempt an elucidation of the various hypotheses which exist relative to the in- fluence of atmospheric electricity upon the physical well- being of mankind. The correlations of electricity and bio- logy are still, indeed, so much the subject of controversy, that it would scarcely he possible, within our limits, even so much as to mention the elaborate researches which ha\e been made with a view of determining their reciprocal actions ; nor would data so contradictory in themselves be likely to lead us to a satisfactory deduction. That the subtile fluid which permeates the atmosphere around us at all times, and with ever varying intensity, does influence not only our physical but also our mental condition, can- not be doubted; but the manner of its action has not hitherto been clearly defined. It has been observed that during the visitations of epidemics, certain electric pheno- mena, such as silent liyhtninys, and e\ en violent thunder- storms, have prevailed; and, moreover, that the progress of the disease and that of the electrical discharges has usually been along the margin of rivers. It was noticed that previous to the epidemic of cholera in 1854, the atmosphere for a considerable period manifested no symptoms of electric disturbance at all, hut that during the prevalence of the epidemic positive electricity was powerfully indicated. Closely allied with electricity, and probably arising from it, we have another occult atmospheric ingredient whose mysterious nature has been made the subject of compara- tively recent inquiry. Ozone was the discovery of Professor Schonbein of Basle, who, about the year 1840, noticed that