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and occasion the overflow of the Nile, and the consequent
dampness, by evaporation, of the hot air. In
Jersey, the winds are equally prevalent from across
the Atlantic ocean; and they are equally laden with
moisture and with saline particles; while the climate
is sufficiently warm, during the prevalence of those
winds that blow from the Gulph stream and heated
currents of the Atlantic, to cause constant evaporation
from the bare rocks and sands at low tide (as explained
above), and to keep the atmosphere in a state of
almost continual dampness. Since then it is to the
constant inhalation of a damp and saline atmosphere
that the freedom of the Egyptians from consumption
is attributed, might not the same cause be expected to
produce the same result in Jersey ? and might we not
infer, a priori, that Jersey (at least as compared with
England) would exhibit a comparative immunity from
phthisis ? And such in truth I believe to be the case
in a marked degree,—in a degree indeed beyond what
I dare at this moment undertake positively to mention:
for, from the circumstance of there being no public
registration of disease, any statement on the subject
can only be at present founded on individual experience.
But without speaking positively to the fact,
I have strong ground for believing, that the proportion
of cases of genuine consumption here, as compared
with most of the English counties, is not one half, or
even a third; and that of these, by far the majority are
found among the British, who have come to the island
with a strong hereditary tendency to phthisis; or with
the actual development of some of its pathognomonic
symptoms.
I shall only say farther, that I believe the climate of
Jersey to be the most suitable, for those labouring
under pulmonic diseases, of any in Europe: while for
those with hsepatic derangements, it is perhaps the
least so : for, where so many learned persons are
agreed, no doubt can remain as to the validity of their
testimony respecting the ineligibility of most or all of
those places in the continent to which consumptive
persons have been long recommended to resort. I
believe Jersey to be preferable to any of them; since
(besides the other causes abovementioned) I know of
no place where the saíne equality of temperature is
preserved throughout the whole year. It is sufficiently
cool to prevent that exhaustion to which invalids are
subject in more southern countries; while the average
warmth may be fairly stated at from 4 to 6 degrees
beyond that of London. The words of the poet are
here something more than a mere poetical flight.
Hie ver perpetuum, atque alienis mensibus aestas.
On a subject so deeply interesting as this; and in
which the results of my observation are as remarkable
in themselves as they were unanticipated by me, I
should not have felt warranted in trusting to my own
experience only. I have therefore availed myself on
this matter of statistical inquiry, of the information
which I could collect from other sources: and among
these, the following communication from a gentleman
of great accuracy of observation, and upon whose
memory, in the absence of more authentic documents,
considerable reliance may be placed, will be seen
to bear out the statement made in a foregoing page.
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