Their rains, except in the depth of winter, are extremely agreeable and refreshing. All the summer long they last but a few hours at a time, and sometimes not above half an hour, and then immediately succeeds clear sunshine again. But in that short time it rains so powerfully, that it quits the debt of a long drought, and makes everything green and gay.
I have heard that this country is reproached with sudden and dangerous changes of weather, but that imputation is unjust; for tho' it be true, that in the winter, when the wind comes over those vast mountains and lakes to the north-west, which are supposed to retain vast magazines of ice, and snow, the weather is then very rigorous; yet in spring, summer and autumn, such winds are only cool and pleasant breezes, which serve to refresh the air, and correct those excesses of heat, which the situation would otherwise make that country liable to.
CHAPTER XX.
OF THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO VIRGINIA.
§ 82. While we are upon the climate, and its accidents, it will not be improper to mention the diseases incident to Virginia. Distempers come not there by choaking up the spirits, with a foggy and thick air, as in some northern climes; nor by a stifling heat, that exhales the vigor of those that dwell in a more southerly latitude: but by a willful and foolish indulging themselves in those pleasures, which in a warm and fruitful country, nature lavishes upon mankind, for their happiness, and not for their destruction.
Thus I have seen persons impatient of heat, lie almost naked upon the cold grass in the shades, and there, often forgetting themselves, fall asleep. Nay, many are so imprudent, as to do this in an evening, and perhaps lie so all night; when between the clew from heaven, and the damps from the earth, such impressions are made upon the humors of their body, as occasion fatal distempers.
Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action, and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone.