CLIMATE AND


HEALTH.


tion that the disastrous cold snaps occurred December
30th and March 29th, when the thermometer registered
about 200 above zero for a few hours, and ice formed in
Jacksonville and damaged fruits, flowers, and crops. It
caused no personal suffering, and was damaging to fruits
and crops only of the tenderest kind, because unexpected
like any climatic calamity. Such severe cold weather is
not usual in this State, and should not be regarded as an
evil liable to occur frequently. It was an exception. Its
damage was less than from a drought, wet season, or locust-
plague, so frequently occurring in other States. The rainy,
cloudy days of December and January were so unexpected
and un-Florida-like, that all felt disgusted.
 I must say, however, that we were somewhat reconciled
to our disasters and discomfort, as we read of the actual
and widespread suffering at the North and in the great
Northwest. I recollect that in February we were reading
almost daily in the newspapers of great storms of snow and
sleet, of delays and dangers on railways, of interruptions to
telegraphic communication, of loss of life and property, of
terrible suffering from cold and hunger, of whole regions


devastated by floods, and of the entire machinery of busi-
ness and transportation brought to a standstill. At the
same time, in many parts of the North, diphtheria, small-
pox, and similar scourges, were causing the death of many
thousands, involving doctors' bills (if no worse) for hun-
dreds of poor families whose resources were already strained
in procuring fuel and clothes for the necessary warmth.
Now, it is the plain unvarnished truth that that same month
of February, 1881, in every part of Florida, was as warm,
as sunny, as genial, and as healthy, as any May month ever


seen in the North. Fruits and flowers were growing every-
where, crops were being planted or gathered, straw-hats
and light clothes were common, and-in the more southern
regions--swimming and bathing in the ponds and in the