Abstract
AT the Harrogate Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, Mr. L. C. W. Bonacina delivered an address on “The Study of Weather and Climate in Relation to Public Welfare”, which has been published in the (, No. 10). He points out that the effect of climate on general well-being is so complex that it is not possible to discriminate between the different elements, but that in Great Britain the general effect is distinctly favourable. Hence it follows that the effect of a marked change of climate, even if superficially an improvement, as for example a doubling of the amount of bright sunshine, might not really be to our advantage. The great importance laid on sunshine is “probably only an exaggerated response to the evil consequence of smoke-vitiated light and air in the great industrial centres, and the curative results in proper doses of natural or artificial sunlight”. The wind and the rain, by cleansing the air, are also of great value, and Mr. Bonacina is in full agreement with the trend of modern ideas in emphasising the importance for health of frequent contrasts of weather, and especially of temperature and wind. He ends on a practical note by insisting that the open-air study of weather and especially clouds also makes for health by training the powers of observation and inference. Forecasts ‘on tap’ by wireless are a very good thing, but there are occasions, for example in mountaineering, when much discomfort or even risk might be avoided by the ability to foresee a storm an hour or two ahead.
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Climate and Health. Nature 136, 750–751 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136750c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136750c0