New-York tribune., 1883-06-17
CALIFORNIAN HOLIDAYS.
FACTS FOR INVALIDS.


NORDHoFF, June 9.
Every year the crowd Of invaids pushing into
Southern California increases. and when the winter
settles upon the land the counties of Santa Barbara
and San Bernardino seem to be shaken by one gen.
eral cough As a rule these ailng visitors do not
know where to establish themselves and have no
clear idea what sort of q place they want Ply
scians in the East and Europe cannot give their
patients definite instructions on this point because
they know too little about the Pacific coast health
resorts 1t is only notorious that the winter climate
of Southern California is mild and pleasant and
that It has had remarkable effect in many cases OF
pulmonary disease; but there are no data by which
the advantages of different sections in this pleasant
region can be compared -and the suitability of this
that town in this that type of disorder be
determined. Tables OF temperature rainfall, rela-
tive humidity, ETC., are published in many books,
hotel circulars. and other compendiums of useful
information but most of them are of dubious au-
thorty at best, and as they are not made upon any
uniform system they cannot be taken as the basis
of comparison. Look. for example. at the figures in
the best and most popular of modern books CALI
forna. namely, Mr.. Charles NOrdhof's. He accepts
Santa Barbara and San Bernardino as representing
the coast and interior respectivey-in which he Is
no doubt quite right His meteorological tables are
not arranged for comparison, and they seem oshow
only that during the invalid season" San Bernar-
dino has somewhat higher temperature, with o
lower relative humidity, than Santa Barbara.
But in the first place the averages presented here
are deceptive. Those for San Bernardino the
means of three observations taken between p o. no.
and p. m that is, in the warm hours of the day /;
while the readings at Santa Barbara were recorded
at a. M. noon aud p. m; no comparison between
them therefore is possible And in the next place
it does even follow, from this imperfect show
ing that San BernardIno. the hasty reader might
suppose. is the drier place of the two The term
relative humidity" is misleading. To say that
the mean relative humidity of San BernardinO In
January is 61 and that of santa Barbara H. slgni-
es nothing at all in the absence ofstztstlcs of tenn
perature; and yet it is after just such mutilated
formula that the comparison is generally made.
When we say that the temperature is $40 and the
relative humidity II, that the air contains
II per cent of the total amount Of moisture which
air is capable Of containing at temperature of $40
but air will hold more and more vapor the
warmer it gets II per cent at 5lo really means less
moisture than 81 per cent at $50. Thus it happens
that the conclusions deducible from Mr.. NordhofPs
tables quite different from what they appear to
be on their face. have taken the trouble to work
out the absolute humidity" indicated by these
figures, with the aid of the wcl-known Hygromet-
rcal Tables prepared by Mr.. James Glaisher. The
absolute humidity means the number of grains of
vaporin cubic foot of air. and is of course the true
test Of the dryness of the atmosphere. But since
the figures not taken by the saue observers,
under the conditions at the same
hours. nor, as far as we know, by the methods
or in the year, they of no value in deter
mining the characteristics Of the two climates. 1
give them principally an illustration of the falla-
ciousness Of the ordinary tables: