Arizona : the land of sunshine and silver, health and prosperity, the place for ideal homes / by John A. Black.

Black, John A.

Date:: 1890

Credit: Arizona : the land of sunshine and silver, health and prosperity, the place for ideal homes / by John A. Black. 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.

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$THE CLIMATE OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. The follaiving is from the pen of Dr. John Traill Green, of Tucson: UNTIL a few months ago the medical profession were almost unan- imous in the opinion that the climatic treatment was (excepting in rare cases) the only successful treatment of tuberculosis. Within this time the experiments of Koch and Shurly have opened a new field, but while we await their results it seems proper that some facts in re- gard to Southern Arizona should be added to the literature of climatol- ogy. Our Territory has advanced far enough to offer all requisite ac- commodations and comforts to the weakest invalid, but its chief charm is that it has NOT advanced enough to have the fresh air of its cities polluted by the exhallations from all classes of diseased humanity, nor its low adobe houses, with their high ceilings, transformed into lofty, crowded hotels, every room in which has been poisoned by deadly germs. In describing our climate four general divisions seem necessary: 1. The humidity of the atmosphere. 2. The rarity of the atmosphere. 3. The temperature. 4. Irritating elements that may be detrimental. I. THE HUMIDITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE. The dryness of a climate depends on, (a) the amount of rainfall, (b) the amount of dew, (c) the rapidity of evaporation, (d) the porosity of the soil. The U. S. Signal Service report of the rainfall at Tucson, covering nearly twenty years, is as follows: Latitude 32 deg. 14 min., longitude no deg. 52 min; altitude 2390 feet. Jan I Feb ] Mar | Apr | May | June | July \ Aug | Sep j Oct | Nov | T)ec .71 I .85 I .69 I .26 I .07 I .08 I 2.90 I 2.74 I 1.21 I .34 I .49 [ \^<^ Yearly average, 11.46 inches. It must not be forgotten that an estimate of climatic dryness can not be formed from a study of the rainfall alone. A minimum fall in an atmosphere in which there is but slight evaporation, or in a region where there is almost no porosity of the$