File:A Reference handbook of the medical sciences - embracing the entire range of scientific and practical medicine and allied science (1885) (14782067334).jpg

Identifier: refere07buck (find matches)
Title: A Reference handbook of the medical sciences : embracing the entire range of scientific and practical medicine and allied science
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry), 1842-1922
Subjects: Medicine
Publisher: New York : William Wood
Contributing Library: Yale University, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Yale University, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

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ppear to exerciseany influence upon either endemic or epidemic maladies. The aspect of the volcanic Antilles is mountainous andhighly picturesque : blue pyramidal outlines stand inbold relief on the horizon, and conical peaks lose theirsummits in the clouds. Everywhere the west differsfrom the east coast; the former, nearer the eruptive cen-tre, ends in high abrupt cliffs and capes, indented bydeep bays and safe harbors, where are found the princi-pal ports ; the latter, made up of gradual slopes, whichare mere continuations of the submarine calcareous andmadreporic deposits, form shoals and reefs and danger-ous breakers that render approach difficult. The earthis everywhere covered with luxurious vegetation ; nu-merous rills of water find their way over clefts and fis-sured rock to the sea, and during the rainy season halfsubmerged land and marsh are a source of constantfever-producing miasms. Mountain streams and grandi-ose aspect of the vegetation, are, in fact, so characteris- 734
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785 West Indies.West Indies. REFERENCE HANDBOOK OF THE MEDICAL SCIENCES. tic of the West Indies, that one writer speaks of Ja-maica as the land of streams and woods, and Darwinas a great, wild, untidy, luxuriant, hothouse. The calcareous islands, in striking contrast with thepreceding, are comparatively flat. The rocks that giverelief to the landscape are of white limestone. Largetrees, rare on these islands, are met with only in clumps.The soil has an arid aspect, but in places is marvellouslyproductive, some of the islands in reality being vast gar-dens of sugar-cane. Meteorologically, the character of the West Indianclimate presents nothing excessive. The meteorologicalyear, consisting of two seasons, may be classed in thesection of climatology to which is given the name dior-ique (Sis, two ; apa, season). The mean annual surfacetemperature of the water in the Caribbean Sea and theGulf of Mexico is about 80.5° F. The mean surface tem-perature for March is about 77° ; the mean for

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