"Half the year we freeze, half the year we roast." As a result of our climatic environment we are more sensitive to heat and cold than foreigners. We keep the temperature of our homes and asylums ten degrees warmer than do the English. Nervous patients cannot tolerate intense cold or prolonged heat, hence like the birds when winter comes they instinctively seek the south, and when the heat of summer approaches they avail themselves of the grateful coolness of our northern lakes. Also dryness of atmosphere tends to nerve-sensitiveness. A moderate rain-fall, with relatively speaking infrequent lakes, and a generally clear sky must produce a dry atmosphere. Aside from the rain-fall there are more clouds in different sections of the United States, and England and France, than in our own State. Clouds by virtue of a well-known physical law prevent evaporation, hence the very clouds decking the sky are conservators of moisture, and a moist atmosphere is inimical to nervousness. We see, therefore, that even a cloudless sky has its objections; a verification of the old proverb "that there is no rose without thorns." In winter our snow fall is generally light, the sky the greater part of the time is an undimmed azure; the atmosphere must consequently be very dry. Prolonged cold keeps us indoors, in an over-dry, over-heated atmosphere. These mutual influences act and inter-act upon each other, and the result of their combined action is an ever increasing nerve-susceptibility. According to Beard, a dry atmosphere, it matters not whether it be indoors or out, heightens all the processes of waste and repair; it accelerates, in other words, the wheels of being, hence we live more intensely in a dry atmosphere than a moist one. Prof. Huxley describes two kinds of perspiration, insensible and sensible. In the former the moisture of the body is eliminated in the form of vapor; in the latter it accumulates in varying quantity on its surface. Evaporation presupposes evolution and radiation of heat, and the

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quantity of heat dissipated is in exact proportion to the activity with which the vital and complex changes we call life occur. In a dry atmosphere this metabolism of tissue takes place rapidly, the air as it were greedily absorbs the moisture of the body with a quickening of the machinery of life, and a consequent impoverishment of all the tissues, especially nervous tissue, of the body. If there be a moist atmosphere, sensible perspiration accumulates upon the surface of the body. The evolution and radiation of heat is lessened, and the wheels of metabolic activity are perceptibly slowed.

The

The exhausting tendency of a dry atmosphere, and the conservative nature of a moist one, is thus clearly indicated, while the exact relation of each to the increasing nervousness of the age, can be accurately estimated. difference between the electrical condition of a dry and moist atmosphere has only to be investigated in order that its nerve-exciting tendency may be duly appreciated. Dr. Mitchell says that rheumatic and neuralgic patients can foretell, because of the aggravation of their symptoms, the approach of a storm hours or even a day before it breaks. That the symptoms of patients suffering from the neurosis are aggravated by the differences of electrical tension induced in the atmosphere by storms, has been frequently observed by myself. One of my patients, in addition to being restless, irritable and despondent, suffers from that form of morbid fear that we call pantaphobia— afraid of everything; she cannot be persuaded to leave the Another lady I house until the sky has become clear. have known to suffer markedly from the approach of a storm attended with great electrical phenomena. She did not complain of astraphobia, but of nausea, tremors, and severe pain in the ovarian region. The explanation of the nerve irritability above described is evidently a lack of equipoise in the electrical condition of the atmosphere acting upon a sensitive nervous system. Electrical phenom

ena, whether attended by storms or not, always intensify the symptoms of the functional nervous diseases. The electrical disturbances that characterized the magnificent display and inimitable beauty of the Northern lights of last fall and winter, were attended with a general nerve irritability; many persons passed restless nights, while not a few were seriously prostrated. I always expect to find this class of patients worse just before and during a storm and am seldom disappointed. Any elementary work of physics will explain the philosophy of the above statements. In a dry atmosphere the diffusion of electrical force is not uniform, and hence the prevailing condition is that of inequality of tension; while, on the contrary, in a moist atmosphere, conduction of electrical force takes place naturally and easily. Its diffusion is symmetrical and general, and therefore there does not arise that disturbing element, viz., an inequality of tension that characterizes a dry atmosphere. The lack of electrical equipoise that obtains in a dry atmosphere disturbs the electrical condition of the human body, and nerve irritation is the result. In a moist atmosphere, says Beard, the body nerve has its own electrical condition seriously disturbed, nor is it generally affected by the want of equilibrium in the atmosphere in which it exists. If a dry atmosphere by virtue of its inequality of electrical tension thus irritates and exhausts a sensitive nervous system, will not the same cause ultimately, if acting for an indefinite period upon a healthy nervous system, undermine and exhaust it?

"Everywhere," says Herbert Spencer, at his farewell banquet, "have I been struck with the number of faces which told in strong lines of burdens that had been borne. I have been struck too with the large number of grayhaired men, and in every circle I have met men who have themselves suffered from nervous collapse, due to stress of business, and I de but echo the opinion of all observant

quantity of heat dissipated is in exact proportion to the activity with which the vital and complex changes we call life occur. In a dry atmosphere this metabolism of tissue takes place rapidly, the air as it were greedily absorbs the moisture of the body with a quickening of the machinery of life, and a consequent impoverishment of all the tissues, especially nervous tissue, of the body. If there be a moist atmosphere, sensible perspiration accumulates upon the surface of the body. The evolution and radiation of heat is lessened, and the wheels of metabolic activity are perceptibly slowed.

The exhausting tendency of a dry atmosphere, and the conservative nature of a moist one, is thus clearly indicated, while the exact relation of each to the increasing nervousness of the age, can be accurately estimated. The difference between the electrical condition of a dry and moist atmosphere has only to be investigated in order that its nerve-exciting tendency may be duly appreciated. Dr. Mitchell says that rheumatic and neuralgic patients can foretell, because of the aggravation of their symptoms, the approach of a storm hours or even a day before it breaks. That the symptoms of patients suffering from the neurosis are aggravated by the differences of electrical tension induced in the atmosphere by storms, has been frequently observed by myself. One of my patients, in addition to being restless, irritable and despondent, suffers from that form of morbid fear that we call pantaphobiaafraid of everything; she cannot be persuaded to leave the house until the sky has become clear. Another lady I have known to suffer markedly from the approach of a storm attended with great electrical phenomena. She did not complain of astraphobia, but of nausea, tremors, and severe pain in the ovarian region. The explanation of the nerve irritability above described is evidently a lack of equipoise in the electrical condition of the atmosphere acting upon a sensitive nervous system. Electrical phenom

ena, whether attended by storms or not, always intensify the symptoms of the functional nervous diseases. The electrical disturbances that characterized the magnificent display and inimitable beauty of the Northern lights of last fall and winter, were attended with a general nerve irritability; many persons passed restless nights, while not a few were seriously prostrated. I always expect to find this class of patients worse just before and during a storm and am seldom disappointed. Any elementary work of physics will explain the philosophy of the above statements. In a dry atmosphere the diffusion of electrical force is not uniform, and hence the prevailing condition is that of inequality of tension; while, on the contrary, in a moist atmosphere, conduction of electrical force takes place naturally and easily. Its diffusion is symmetrical and general, and therefore there does not arise that disturbing element, viz., an inequality of tension that characterizes a dry atmosphere. The lack of electrical equipoise that obtains in a dry atmosphere disturbs the electrical condition of the human body, and nerve irritation is the result. In a moist atmosphere, says Beard, the body nerve has its own electrical condition seriously disturbed, nor is it generally affected by the want of equilibrium in the atmosphere in which it exists. If a dry atmosphere by virtue of its inequality of electrical tension thus irritates and exhausts a sensitive nervous system, will not the same cause ultimately, if acting for an indefinite period upon a healthy nervous system, undermine and exhaust it?

"Everywhere," says Herbert Spencer, at his farewell banquet, "have I been struck with the number of faces which told in strong lines of burdens that had been borne. I have been struck too with the large number of grayhaired men, and in every circle I have met men who have themselves suffered from nervous collapse, due to stress of business, and I de but echo the opinion of all observant