An inaugural address on some of the relations of meteorological phenomena to man : delivered before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, October, 1882 / by John W. Tripe.

  • Tripe, John William, 1821-1892.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural address on some of the relations of meteorological phenomena to man : delivered before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, October, 1882 / by John W. Tripe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    are often insufficient to have produced death, or because they were evidently returned as a cover for something to be hidden, as death from child birth. In large numbers these errors do not much interfere with the results, especially if the investigation be a comparison of deaths from similar causes in several years, as the percentages of such registrations probably do not vary to a marked extent in different years. I feel, therefore, that we are treading on tolerably firm ground, when we compare variations of the weather with mortality returns, due allowance being made for certain disturbing causes which will be mentioned in another part of my address. I do not propose discussing the effects of all meteorological phenomena on man, in the first place, because the subject is much too large for an address, and secondly, because sufficient data are wanting for a complete inquiry into the subject. I shall not enter into the effects of climate (although it will be advisable to refer to some of the causes of different climates), because this word includes not only all the meteorological elements which are classed together under the term “ weather,” but also the physical peculiarities of the locality in question, such as its nearness to large surfaces of water and to swamps; the nature of the soil, the configuration of the ground, and the extent of forests and other vegetation which modify the climate of a place to a very great extent. Indeed, alterations in the proportion of land covered with water and forests have changed the climates of many countries to such an extent, as to have rendered lands fertile and healthy, which were at one time almost uninhabitable, or to have made unhealthy or sterile, localities formerly healthful and fruitful. The part played by oceanic currents in making the climate of England temperate and pleasant, instead of being almost unen- durable, and indeed, of causing this earth to be habitable over a great part of its surface, is scarcely sufficiently recognised. I trust, therefore, that I shall be excused for referring briefly to this subject, which has been admirably treated in Croll’s Climate and Time. This writer, who is one of the most trustworthy on this subject, and who has very deeply investigated it, says, that if the heat derived from the Gulf Stream were taken away from the North Atlantic, the surface-water would have a temperature of minus 3?, or 35° below freezing point. That the heat hourly dispersed from the stream would be able, if applied to steam-engines, to develop as much power as would be required by nearly four hundred millions of our largest iron-clad steam vessels. Part of this heat is used in