The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions / by James Johnson and James Ranald Martin.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions / by James Johnson and James Ranald Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Medical men, to whom a right understanding of the subject is para- mount, are happily beginning to be aware of this fact, and it is with much satisfaction I find one of the latest writers on medical topography in Eng- land declaring, that the character of a climate is much more faithfully indicated by such a natural test as its infiuence on vegetable products, “ than by any instrumental, or artificial, means whatever. Dr. Mason Good asserts, with truth, that it is no exclusive reproach to medicine that meteorology has hitherto been turned to so httle practicd advantage; “ for of all the subdivisions of general philosophy, there is none so little entitled to the name of science as meteorology itself. And, tin the naturalist has explained the variations of the barometer, the phy- sician need not blush at being incapable of turning to account the supposed influence of the planets, or unfolding the origin, or tracing the capricious courses of epidemics and pestilences. Malte-Brun’s division of physical chmate shah here be adopted, because it marks the points to which our inquiries may most profitably be directed, in- asmuch as a consideration of the details, as given by that admirable wnter, brings us at once to the discovery of such errors in the physical condition of any given place, as may lead to its improvement, and the consequent pre- vention of disease—the great end of medical topography. When apin, we look back to our native country, and boast of its pure and bracing air, et us not forget the all-important fact, “that it is man himself who has in a great measure created these salubrious climates. France, Germany and Eng- land, not more than twenty ages ago, resembled Canada and Chinese Tarta^, countries situated, as weU as om- Europe, at a mean distance between the equator and the pole.” “ Whenever nature is more powerful than industry, whether for goo ^ for bad, man receives from the climate an invariable and irresistible im- pulseand so it is here in Bengal, “for bad.” in consequence of the total absence of that “ industry,” which elsewhere moulds nature to the purposes of man, for his “ good.” r i. j Physical climate, says Malte-Brun, comprehends the degree of heat and cold, the drought, the humidity, and the salubrity which occur m any given region of the earth. The causes of physical climate he states to be nine in number. 1st. The action of the sun upon the atmosphere. 2nd. The interior temperature of the globe. 3rd. Elevation of the earth above the level of the ocean. 4th. The general mclination of the surface and its local exposure. 5th. Tlie position of its mountains relatively to the cwdinal pomts. 6th. The neighbourhood of great seas and their relative situation. 7th Geological nature of the soil. 8th. Degree of cultivation and of population at which a country has arrived.