The climate and diseases of America / by Johann David Schoff ; translated by James Read Chadwick.

  • Schöpf, Johann David, 1752-1800.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The climate and diseases of America / by Johann David Schoff ; translated by James Read Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    40/52 page 30
    It has been observed that the severest storms commonly approach on tlie side toward which tlie wind is blowing [to leeward] ; a north- west storm, for instance, breaks out a day earlier in Virginia than in Boston. The cause of this is apparent, for if the atmosphere in the south becomes rarefied for any reason, the denser air will at once move from the adjacent regions in that direction ; an influx from the north is thus gradually set up. Besides these winds, there exist along the coast of North America during the hot days, the so-called sea-breezes. They do not penetrate for any distance inland ; Philadelphia, which lies far from the sea, is never reached by them, so that the heat is heav}'’ and oppressive ; Bos- ton, at the head of a deep bay, feels them but little. New York is, in a manner, sheltered from them by the heights of Long and Staaten Ey- lands, yet they seldom fail to reach the city with the flood-tide. Their effect is most marked in Rhod-Eyland, where, owing to its immediate propinquity to the sea, the excessive midday heat is greatly moderated. For this and other reasons this island is always regarded as an agreea- ble and healthy summer resort ; people of means frequently come there from the West Indies and the southern provinces to pass the summer. The land-breezes, — which in the West Indian Eylands and in most warm countries alternate with the sea-breezes and render the nights O cool by blowing from the land towards the sea, — are not much felt here, at least, not invariably; they occasionally spring up toward mid- night or later, and die down toward sunrise. In summer there is apt to be a calm in the morning and evening ; this and the sea-breezes through the day have often detained ships for many days in the harbor of New Yoi'k. Another disagreeable feature of this coast is the thick, heavy fogs which collect in the summer, produce an unpleasant, sultry weather, and are often so thick as to wet one’s clothes The na- tives consider them to be harmless, which is true, in so far as they contain no injurious exhalations fronr stagnant water or marshes, but are simply sea-water disseminated in the air It is a pet theory of the Americans that the excessive cold of their countiy is imparted to the wind chiefly by the snow which lies so long in their boundless forests. They base this belief upon a fallacious ex- perience. Thus I have heard several old inhabitants assert that the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3