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From the same cause we may frequently observe remarkable changes occur in the character of a cough, at the breaking up of a frost; in some cases the expectoration will be checked, and in others promoted by a sudden change from a dry to a moist atmosphere. Can a more instructive illustration be offered of that important fact, which I have been labouring in every page to impress upon the mind of the young practitioner, that, remedies are only relative agents?

In the course of considerable experience in the treatment of pulmonary complaints, and in the influence of climate and seasons upon them, I have repeatedly observed the rapid transition from moisture to dryness to occasion very remarkable effects upon the disease; and I much question whether an attention to such a condition of the atmosphere does not deserve as much consideration in the election of a suitable place of residence for such invalids, as the more obvious circumstance of temperature. I have been long in the habit of recommending to persons confined in artificially warmed apartments, to evaporate a certain portion of water, whenever the external air has become excessively dry by the prevalence of the north-east winds, which so frequently infest this island during the months of Spring; and the most marked advantage has attended the practice. But in such cases the practitioner must ever be guided by the symptoms of each particular case; it would be worse than useless to lay down any general precept for his guidance. We cannot then be surprised that such a difference of opinion should exist amongst practitioners of equal eminence, respecting the influence of a marine atmosphere; some advocating its advantages to the pulmonary invalid, and others maintaining with equal confidence the injurious tendency of such localities; each party appeals to experience in justification of his opinion, and with equal candour and justice; but the cases from the results of which the medical inference has been drawn, however parallel they may have appeared, differed in those essential points to which we have alluded, and upon which the question of climate would seem to turn. There is another circumstance connected with the subject of atmospheric moisture which it is also essential to remember,—that the air gains a considerable increase in its power of conducting caloric, by becoming saturated with aqueous vapour; thus, when a thaw takes place, and the thermometer rises a few degrees above 32°, the air, instead of impressing us with the sensation of increased temperature, actually appears much colder.