, 1881-02-06
BAD WEATHER FOE HEALTH.

Almost everybody has become Impressed
with the fact that the present winter has beer
an exceptionally unhealthy season. This is
not true Of Chicago alone, but Of nearly
every region In the country. The vita
statistics Of tue year will probably show that
| the deatl-rate III Chicugo remains, as it has
been in the past, lower than that of any other
! large community in Europe Or America; but
! they will also be likely to show an increase
| everywhere in the extent Of disease and in
| tie humber Of deaths. The conditions have
been such as to develop ailments of all kinds
that affect tile weakest parts in Individual
constitutions and to so. debi1itate the system
as to impair the power Of physical resistance
against the attack Of disease. As cloth
tears, at the weakest part. or (: boiler
rents where there is an imperfcction, so the
man yields under certain Influences, such rs
cold or biiiousness, at the frallest point. No
specific character OF disease has been de-
veloped by the unusual condition, except it
be what has been called t'winter choera,''
and that seems to be no more nor less than
aggravated biliousncss which takes 4 dif-
ferent form in different persons. But all
the diseases that are produced or aggravated
by unfavorable atmospheric conditions
such rs colds, coughs, influenza, diphtheria,
rheumatism, pneumonia, and the like-haye
been more general and troublesome than
usual. It has been the rule everywhere that
people get sick more easily and recover more
slowly than is their habit, and that those who
have been threatened with any constitu-
t'onal premonition of disease have either
err ,1,r.J 41 H. A.
pliasZed by worse symptoms.
The doctors do not seem to have given any
satisfactory explanation of this abnormal
condition of things. Perhaps they do not
know. DIR. Blackburn, Governor Of Ken
lucky, is reported MS having said that there
was too mitch (more likely too little) ozone
In the air during the fall, and attributed the
epizo0tie diseases AMONG the horses and cat
tie to that fact; he Is also represented rs
having predicted a reaction from this cuudi-
ton, i'll which a lack of ozone will probably
lead to an epidemic of cholera. But this
theory is not very intelligible to 1aymen, and
does not seem to account in any case for the
extent Of winter troubles. In plain and
comprehensive way, we think that the
explanation is to be found In the
long stretch Of cold weather, which
has been raw, damp, and chilling even when
tie thermometer did not register extreme
cold and to tie continuous absence of sun
sllite, There have been weeks at a time
during the past three months when the ravs
OF the sun could not penetrate through the
dense mist that oyerhung the sky. During
that period the whole public was il. the sftua-
ton of family who live OH the shaded side |
Of house, or in the shadow of some neigh +
boring wall where the sunshine does not
reach them. The t1ealth-giving warmth of
The suns rays have been withheld from The
human system, aud the tendency has been to
The atmosphere has been
lense and noisome as a consequence There
we're several nights, so cold that the weather
'ught to have been clear, when the fog In
his region was as thick as it ever is in Lon
lon. The dampness aud chill together have
t times been so aggressive that the trees,
nd bushes, aud fences, and telegraph
Fires have glistened for days at z
tretch, with small icicles that gave the
ppearance which they occasionally hare for