temperature which occur even in the same village or within a very limited space, nor the influences exercised by natural circumstances, which would appear of no consequence to the inexperienced, over the sanitary incidents of a single street.

Results show we are right in regarding the natural position, I have described thus briefly, as an important accessory to the maintenance and recovery of health. We do not depend on hypotheses, comparisons, or argument to prove this-experience of facts demonstrates it every day in the year.

CHAPTER II.

CLIMATE, METEOROLOGY, &c., OF SANDGATE.

ALL the advantages generally attained in the residence of the invalid in the towns along the south coast are shared by Sandgate. It has, besides, some peculiarities of its own. Let us proceed to consider what they are. Nearly all writers on the climate of the shores of our southern seas are obliged to admit the existence of one drawback to its healthful properties, and allude to one very serious evil as of frequent I allude to what is commonly called

occurrence.

"The subject," says Dr. Martin, in his able and interesting work, "is one of great importance to a large class of invalids. My own experience, I must confess, of their effects on the susceptible mucous lining of the air passages of pulmonary invalids, differs widely from that of some members of my profession, who believe them innocuous. I have found them very prejudicial, and especially when they occur in the colder months of the year. Those who have experienced the chilly sensation which is felt when passing through the dense canopy of a cloud-enveloped mountain, will at once recognise that peculiar dry fog by

which every point on the coast of Britain is occasionally visited. It deposits no moisture, which may be accounted for by the supposition that the various substances with which it comes in contact have at the time a higher temperature, and thus prevent any humidity from being lodged upon them. We must not confound this fog with those from whence Britain has derived its sobriquet of "Le pays des brouillards." The mists which prevail throughout England at certain periods of the year, and which among our countrymen obtain the name of "Scotch mists," are essentially different in this respect, that, although they give the sensation of chilliness to the body, they in reality part with much of their latent heat, and really tend to heighten the temperature of the surrounding stratum of air, through the cold effects of which it has been compelled to part with their moisture in minutely divided particles. The reeking coppice on a dull autumnal day gives us the idea of the moist fog or mist, whilst the dense, dry, London fog of a November day, apart from its most offensive and deleterious constituent of smoke, is no bad type of the sea fog of our coasts.

"These fogs are principally met with during the last month of spring (May) and the first of summer, but they rarely continue beyond three or four hours, and are not sufficiently frequent to demand further notice in this chapter."

"I have frequently," says Dr. Belcombe, in Hinderwell's History of Scarborough, "observed these

fogs to rise from the sea like a little cloud, which, spreading itself on the horizon, drives upon the shore, and in an instant obscures the brightest day. They seldom extend far from the coast, often not more than a mile, and rarely farther than the neighbouring hills. Coming into a sea fog, from the sunshine of a clear day, resembles entering an ice-house in summer. The north-east winds are very keen at this season."

Now, I have no hesitation in saying that this " sea fog," which is so great a plague to the invalid along this coast, which visits the favoured Undercliff, haunts Hastings, and clings so persistently to the Devonshire coast from one extremity of it to the other, is almost unknown at Sandgate. The peculiar position of the place protects us most effectually from the visitations of this fog, so that it may be seen at the distance of a mile, or a mile and-a-half, driving over the sea and along the hill sides like a whirling thunder-cloud, while the atmosphere in the town and along the road is quite free from it. This fact is proved by careful meteorological tables, and is, by experience, well known to the inhabitants

"Even," says the Local Guide,'"when fogs hang gloomily upon the hills to the northward, the little slip of land at their foot, which extends from Sandgate to Hythe, along the sea-side, is favoured by the genial influence of the sun; and, in the scorching heat of summer, is refreshed by soft and cooling breezes from the sea."

In order to substantiate this assertion I beg to

refer to the following table, which is carefully drawn up from observations extending over a period of nine years, in which it will be seen how many foggy days" we have on an average of that number of years. It must be remembered, however, that many of these "foggy" days were not "sea-foggy," but were marked by the former appellation, because a thick haze hung over the cliffs in the distance, arising sometimes from heat and sometimes from the condensation of warm vapours on approaching the beach of the sea.

* The prevalent wind in January is west. The " fog" is rather seadrift, and low flying scud, than the damp exhalation which usually bears that name, and it is frequently of a higher temperature than the surrounding air.