"What is intermittent, Professor?" asked Felix. "Is it the kind they don't have in Ireland?"
"I should say that it was."
"An intermittent fever, Felix, is one that comes and goes, like the old woman's soap," interjected Mrs. Blossom, the nurse; and everybody laughed to hear her say anything.
"The diseases most dreaded in these islands are consumption, dysentery, and anæmia"—
"Mercy, Professor!" cried Mr. Woolridge.
"The reduction in the amount of blood in the system, and the condition resulting from this loss, is anæmia. Dr. Hawkes can explain it more fully," replied the professor.
"Not necessary," added the surgeon.
"As all over the Eastern Archipelago, there are two seasons, the wet and the dry, produced by the monsoons; but the irregularity of the surface variously modifies the result. For the southern and western sides of the mountains the south-west monsoons give the wet season, and the north-east the dry season, and vice versa. Manila is subjected by the influence of the south-west winds to rains from June to November, with dry weather the rest of the year.
"The temperature is about the same all the year round. The coolest month is December, when the glass stays at about 77°; and in May, the hottest month, at 86°. Of course there are days, and times of day, when the temperature is lower than the one, and higher than the other. The extremes where we are going vary only about 25°—from 66° to 91°; and we have it hotter than the last in New York. The average rainfall is about seventy inches, varying by months from one-third of an inch in March, to twenty inches in August.
"The flora of the islands is just what you would expect in this climate. Nearly or quite all the plants you have found in the other islands you have visited are to be found here. Particularly plenteous here are the fibrous plants, and abaca forms in its prepared state one of the most important exports of the islands. This is a sort of plantain from which comes the Manila hemp, as it is sometimes called, though it is a misnomer; and with us it is called simply manila, the sailors tell me. It is extensively cultivated here, and grows something like the banana.