Scarborough as a health resort : its physical geography, geology, climate & vital statistics, with a health guide map, &c / [by A. Haviland].

  • Haviland, Alfred, -1903
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scarborough as a health resort : its physical geography, geology, climate & vital statistics, with a health guide map, &c / [by A. Haviland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    borough, .should bo well studied with regard in their elegibility for the prolonged residence of the young, and those having charge of them, especially in cases where there is a tendency to what may bo strictly termed the national disease of the youth of England—Consumption. In 18G8, I commenced a series of investigations a.s to the geographical distribution of the principal diseases in England and Wales: commencing Avith the distribution of Heart Disease, Consumption, Cancer, Ecvers, Sic, which I illustrated by maps, the first three of which I exhil)ited at my lecture at the Old Town Hall, in Scarborough, in July last. In this introduction I propose to give a short summary of the results of my encpiiries into that part of the natiu-al history of Con- sumption (Phthisis) which involves its geographical distribu- tion in England, for the .simple reason that Scarborough will exemplify some of the principal conditions of climate that are favourable in the preventive treatment of this disease. In the first place I have sliown iii my work on this subject, that persons having any liereditarj'^ taint of consumption in tbe lungs cannot stand the full force of prevailing winds from whatever direction they blow, and have proved that, on this account, the highest mortality in England is always to be found in those parts that, from geographical position and physical conformation, give free access to the winds, allowing them to pursue their course unrestrainedly. ]\Iy map of the dis- tribution of this disease distinctly .shows how the groups of high mortality are always to be found wherever these condi- tions are obtained. Erom the ITorth to the South of the WeMicrn Avatershed of Wales, we find an almost unbroken series of high mortality districts from the coast line to the backbone of the Princi-. pality, separating the Eastern from the Western watershed; the latter of which is characterised by a tract of country, sloping gradually to the sea, and furrowed by the courses of short torrential rivers, having the axes of their vallej's in the direction of the prevailing sea winds. On this side therefore we find everything favouring the free rush of the winds from the sea coast up to the summit of the parting ridge : here then is experienced the winds' iwM force; true it is that they are xmrc as well as forcMe ; their jmritu however docs not