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Antiqua
Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung.
“In the low countries of Mexico, as in Eu-rope, the sudden suppression of transpiration is
one of the principal occasional causes of gastric
or bilious fevers, and especially of CholeraMorbus, which exhibits symptoms so frightful.
The climate of Acapulco, whose temperament
is uniform throughout the different seasons of
the year, permits these sudden suppressions of
transpiration, from the singular coolness which
prevails there for several hours before sun rising.
On those coasts strangers not acclimated, if,
being slightly clothed, they travel in the night,
or sleep in open air. In Cumana, and other
places of equinoctial climate, the temperature
does not diminish towards sun-rising more than
one or two degrees of the Centigrade thermo-
meter (1-8 to 3-6, of Fahrenheit.) In the day
time the thermometer is, there, at 82 to 84 of F.
and in the night at 73 to 75. At Acapulco I
have found the temperature in the day-time at
84 to 86—during the night it is about 79—but,
for about three hours before sun-rising, it sinks
rapidly to 60 or 64.
“This change produces a very sensible im-
pression on the organs. In no other part of the
tropical regions have I felt so great coolness in
the latter part of the night; we seem to pass
suddenly from summer to autumn, and yet the
sun has hardly risen before we complain of the
heat. In a climate in which health depends
chiefly on the functions of the skin, and in
which the organs are affected with the slightest
changes of temperature, a diminution of 18 or
20 degrees produces suppressions of transpi-
ration, extremely dangerous to Europeans not
acclimated.”
Is it not very proper to attribute many, if not
most, of our diseases in the United-States, to
the same cause, viz: the sensible diminution of
temperature in the latter part of the night,
during August and September?