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).

  • James Johnson
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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    seen. The winds vary in tlieir temperature and dry- ness or humidity, according to the point from whence they blow, and tlie season of the year. From the north and west they are moist and cool, as passing over the ocean ; from all the other points they are l»ot and dry, as coming over vast tracks of burning sand. The south wind, in particular, is called the KamsiUf Simoom, SamieU Sfc. the heat of whicii is similar to that of a large oven at the moment of di'awing out the bread. The atmosphere now assumes an alarming aspect—the sky becomes dark and lurid—the sun loses his splendour, and appears of a violet colour. This wind increasing gradually as it continues, af- fects all animated nature. Respiration becomes diffi- cult—the skin parched and dry ; and the body is con- sumed as though by an inward fire, for no quantity of drink can restore the perspiration. In Decf»niber and January, howtver, these southerly winds ar-.* cool, as they then come over the snow-capt mount-tins of Abyssinia, the sun being at his furthest southern de- clination. Now, as, in summer, the most prevalent winds come from the Mediterranean sea, impregnated with aqueous particles, so copious dews are precipitated in the nights of this period, all through the delta in par- ticular, occasioned by, and increasing the diurnal transition' Thus at Alexandria, after sun-set, in the month of April, the clothes exposed to the air, and the terraces are soaked by the dews, as though there had been a fall of rain. To this it may be added that a portion of the valley of Egypt is annually over- flowed, for two or three months in the summer, by the waters of the Nile, either by natural inundation, artificial canals, or machinery. If this slight medico-topographical sketch, be com- pared with what I have said respecting Bengal and the Coast of Coromandel, it will, at once, be perceiv- ed that the climate of Egypt combines^ in a conside-
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