Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology / A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.

by George Michael James Giles

The places have also been selected so as to illustrate the changes in season we met with in passing from North to South, and indicate much the same sequence that has already been noticed in the case of the Malay Archipelago, but the temperatures are several degrees lower in the case of each corresponding latitude, so that, while the Malay Islands are stormy and trying, the Polynesian groups are amongst the most pleasant of the warm climates of the world. Except in the Marshall groups, and in some of the Fijis, the rainfall is moderate for localities situated so near the equator.

Table of Rainfall of Pacific Islands.
Month	Honolulu, Hawaii		Marshall Group		Apia, Samoa		Fiji, Qara Valu		New Hebrides, Tongatabu		New Caledonia, Noumea
	Ins.	Mm.	Ins.	Mm.	Ins.	Mm.	Ins.	Mm.	Ins.	Mm.	Ins.	Mm.
January	4·03	102	11·46	291	16·42	417	22·48	571	9·18	233	3·98	101
February	4·58	116	11·90	300	20·23	514	17·48	450	6·83	173	4·38	110
March	3·77	96	17·92	455	12·68	321	36·97	932	6·37	162	4·58	116
April	3·14	79	14·15	359	8·66	220	31·26	794	10·35	263	5·20	132
May	3·15	80	20·20	513	6·97	177	10·95	276	8·19	208	5·18	130
June	1·82	46	15·58	396	5·39	137	24·10	612	8·12	206	4·18	106
July	2·53	64	15·44	392	3·32	84	12·76	324	1·66	42	3·32	84
August	2·28	58	13·58	345	6·18	157	32·95	835	3·68	93	2·38	60
September	1·85	47	13·45	342	8·54	217	14·65	372	7·08	180	2·83	72
October	2·28	58	15·47	293	6·97	177	19·28	490	7·18	182	2·56	65
November	5·16	131	11·30	387	12·20	310	7·14	181	3·58	91	3·03	77
December	4·93	125	17·48	444	17·63	447	17·48	444	4·45	113	3·23	82
Year	39·45	1,002	177·87	4,517	125·15	3,178	247·85	6,281	76·62	1,946	44·68	1,135

Qara Valu has been selected as having the heaviest rainfall recorded in this part of the world, and it must not be imagined that such a chronic downpour is in any way typical of the Fiji Islands, most of which have a comparatively moderate rainfall; Bua with 98·35 ins. (2,497 mm.), and Lesuha with 97·15 ins. (2,465 mm.), being fairer examples; but there is the same tendency to a comparatively even distribution throughout the year.

These islands are, it is almost needless to remark, occasionally visited by terrible tornadoes, but are normally continuously under the influence of the trade winds, which here do not suffer from interruption, during the summer solstice, from disturbance due to the area of low pressure that originates from the superheating of land and water over Australia and the islands and confined seas that intervene between it and the Asiatic continent.

The American Continent.

—Like the islands of the Pacific, climatic data in America are characterised by lower levels than are met with in the great land masses of Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a result of this we find that, although we know that New York can produce a most discreditable array of cases of sunstroke in the height of summer, it is only the extreme southern portion of the United States that really merits the title to belong to the category of hot climates. There are doubtless to be met with fiercely hot places in Mexico, and malarious foci in the isthmus of Darien, which may rival anything to be met with in the old world, but speaking generally, climates are generally milder than those of corresponding places on this side of the “herring pond.”

Commencing with the Southern United States, all that need be described in the present work is the belt extending from California in the west to Florida in the east.

Los Angeles, California.
Month	Monthly Means		Absolute Maxima		Absolute Minima		Relative Humidity %	Monthly Rainfall		Number of Rainy Days
	F.	C.	F.	C.	F.	C.		Ins.	Mm.
January	54	12·2	87	30·6	30	-1·1	66	2·80	71·1	6
February	55	12·8	88	31·1	28	-2·2	69	2·82	71·3	6
March	57	13·9	99	37·2	31	-0·6	73	2·72	68·7	7
April	60	15·6	99	37·2	38	3·3	73	1·10	27·9	4
May	63	17·2	103	39·4	41	5·0	74	0·51	12·7	3
June	67	19·4	100	37·8	46	7·8	73	0·10	2·5	1
July	71	21·7	109	42·8	50	10·0	74	0·02	0·0	0
August	72	22·2	106	41·1	51	10·6	74	0·04	0·1	0
September	70	21·1	108	42·2	44	6·7	72	0·04	0·1	0
October	64	17·8	96	35·6	40	4·4	71	0·81	20·4	3
November	60	15·6	96	35·6	34	1·1	64	1·47	36·9	3
December	56	13·3	88	31·1	30	-1·1	65	3·28	82·7	6

The climate of California is undoubtedly one of the finest in the world. Like the rest of the western seaboard of America, the rainfall is small, but there is always sufficient water for cultivation by the agency of irrigation; and the clearness of the atmosphere and genial temperature renders this State the ideal of the physician in search for health resorts. Apart, indeed, from the excitements of “euchre” and the germs introduced by the Chinese settler, it seems difficult to understand why anyone should suffer illness in such a climate as that of Los Angeles, whose principal characteristics are epitomised in the above table. Let us hope, however, that “Ah Sin” has not driven the angels too far away for recall by the rapidly advancing sanitation of American civilisation.

With a total rainfall of only 15·43 ins. (392 mm.), and a remarkably high percentage of hours of sunshine, even during the rainy months, one begins to understand how it is that a Californian fellow-member of the Golf Club of Rome used to complain of the “gloom” of a Roman winter. The one drawback is the enormous daily range of over 50° F., which must be necessarily trying to delicate subjects who neglect obvious precautions; but avoidance of the fierce heat out of doors of the afternoon, and the chill that follows sunset, should suffice to neutralise this defect. Across the sierras, in Texas the rainfall remains very scanty, amounting to no more than 9·8 ins. (250 mm.) in the district of El Paso, but improves steadily as we approach the eastern frontier, where it reaches 52 ins. (1,320 mm.) at Galveston, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This place is regarded as a health resort for the Southern States; Dr. Solly, the American authority on medical climatology, writes:—