The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-26
THE HEAT PHEN NONIENA OF THE PRE-
SENT YEAR.
From the n. Y. Herald.

SEM u EAR.
From the n. Y. Herald.
When we wrote, some days ago, in refer
ence to the fearful drought and heat which
have almost destroyed the crops on wide
belt of the European Continent, we laid the
fattering JUNCTION to our souls that the hot
spell Of our atmosphere was at an end. But
the solar fervors have returned upon us dur
ing the past week with redoubled fierceness
While the temperature in New York city has
ranged between six o'clock in the morning
and six o'clock in the evening, from ninety
degrees to ninety ght degrees Fahrenheit,
in the shade and therein has exceeded the
rate at Galveston, New Orleans, Key West
and Havana, the heat has been even more
extreme at several points in the West. At St.
Louis it sent the mercury up to one hundred
and four in the shade on the 23d, while at
Peoria, ILL.,, it drove the tickle fluid
to one hundred and six on the
21st instant. These are rates al
most beyond human endurance, for
it must be remembered that in the
greater number of the homes occupied by
the poorer classes the heat ascends from ten
to fifteen degrees above the outside tempera-
ture, and that there the aged and the juve-
nile members of the household have chiefly
to remain. 1t is impossible not to fear that
a long continuance of such more than African
torridity must result in widespread epidemic
An increase of but very few degrees would
materially impair the chances of existence for
thousands whose daily avocations call them
out Of doors. AS it is while we write this
article the colossal marble image of
st. Paul in the niche on the facade of the
grave old church directly opposite the Herald
office, on Broadway, seems, with half open
mouth and upturned face, to pant, not merely
through exhaustion, but with an expression
of awe, as though beholding apocalyptic por-
nv. =
walls of the adjacent buildings radiate the
heat like huge burning glasses, and while il
dazzles the gaze to look at them the reflected
beams of heat thrown back from them strike
on the skin like fiery darts. Were the entire
City Hall Park not shorn as now of half its
fair proportions, but fully restored and con-
verted into one vast cluster of sparkling
water-jet and fountains, the thirsty palpi-
tating multitude would well-nigh drink it
dry. Poor humanity actually suffers at every
motion and with every step, and the real
death-roll is steadily increased far beyond the
ordinary returns.
Upon examination of our exchanges we
find that this intense heat extends over a zone
in America of about eight hundred miles in
width, north and SOUTH and reaching from
here to the Pacific in longitude. At nearly
all points within that zone the temperature
is admitted to be higher than was ever known
there before for the same length of time, and
up to the latest moment of advice there
seems to have been no diminution. If we
now turn our attention to the Eastern CONT
nent similar state of things confronts us
there. The latitude of Paris swelters under
a heat of ninety-ive degrees in the shade,
the parks of London are SO barred of herbage
and exhausted of water that their deer are
half fed upon foliage and twigs clipped from
the Trees, and the SUBMITS of the Alps, where
they are seen, gleam with wavering and
baleful effulgence, as though they, too, were
tongues of ire darting UP from the earth in
! its agony. The European belt of fervent
| heat corresponds almost exactly with our own,
! and no doubt the ocean link between is glow
| ing with nearly equal severity, the relief
there, if any, resulting from the fogs and
clouds, accompanied by gusts of wind and
dashes of rain which such intense evaporation
must occasion.
Astronomers and psychologists are busy en-
| deavoriDg to study out the causes of this ex-
ceptional condition, the aggregate effect of
which upon our planet is equal TO forces so
stupendous as to strike the unaccustomed
min3 with terror The general conclusion is
! that the entire solar system is passing
through region of the starry heavens in
its sublime circuit around the remoter centre,
that exerts peculiar electrical effects upon
not only all the attendant orbs but on the
vast luminary which furnishes our chief sup
ply of light and heat. The main question
now to thoughtful minds is how much longer
these heat phenomena are to last, and what
will be the summing up of their results to
the nations directly affected That they are
to be followed by further disturbance of the
elements great storms of wind, thunder and
lightning, and possibly by visible electrical
manifestations in the heavens, of remarkable
splendor and power, it is quite natural, on
scientific principles, to anticipate. But we
may have confidence that the Power in whose
presence ''the channels of the sea appear" and
1.-THE foundations of the world are discovered
has ordained and governed all these dispense
| tions for the best.