William Addison

“ The views are every where extremely beautiful, and the hills above are intersected in every direction by walks or pathways of easy ascent, much frequented, during the summer, by pedestrians, and invalids on donkeys, enjoying the pure invigorating breezes there, far removed from those injurious atmospheric depositions too often met with in the vales below. ”

“ Upon the whole, I should imagine, that there are many delicate constitutions to which the constant and habitual use of hard water (and most spring waters are hard, some very much so indeed) proves positively injurious; and a trifling degree of irritation thus originated in a weak habit, conjoined, perhaps, with not a very pure air, may certainly be sufficient to excite some positive, perhaps scrofulous, or other, complaint. In such cases, the really medicinal effects derived from a residence at Malvern, may be easily understood. ”

“ The mean temperature of a climate, is generally regarded as made up of the average impression of the sun due to its latitude upon the surface of the globe. But in considering the climate of any place in Great Britain, this statement must be taken with some limitation: according to it, the cloudy days would be the coldest, but, during the winter season in this country, it is not generally so; on the contrary, the south-west winds, during the winter months, bring up large and copious accessions of vapour, of a high constituent temperature, warming the air, and raising the thermometer ”

“ An investigation into the nature and consistence of the soil—the conditions of its surface—the circumstances attendant upon the exhalations arising therefrom—and, above all, the phenomena resulting from their precipitation; conjoined with careful observations on the daily temperature, pressure, motion, and vapour of the air—will be much more likely to elucidate the object of such an inquiry, than the greatest attention bestowed on the latter mentioned points only. ”

“ I found the summit of the Worcestershire Beacon to be 924 feet above the village; this gives about 520 feet as the height of Great Malvern.
At this elevation the houses are sheltered from the wind by the high rocky masses behind; and although quite open to the east, still they are more sheltered from winds blowing from this quarter than from any other. The reason of this I have elsewhere stated to be the precipitous rise of the hill close to the houses, which, in a very decided degree, lessens or breaks the force of the current of air. ”

“ The variations in the other phenomena usually embraced in meteorological registers, wind, rain, &c. do not furnish materials sufficient, in any degree, to account for differences in the salubrity of these or other places.
In attempting to point out any adequate reason for the greater salubrity of one place than another, we are constrained to look to other circumstances than those usually embraced in meteorological enquiries: neither the thermometer, barometer, nor hygrometer, furnishing sufficient data for the purpose. ”

“ In many cases of disease and irritation in the bladder, attended with frequent desire to make water, and pain after its evacuation, also in disorders of the urinary organs, accompanied with the lithic acid, or phosphatic deposit in the urine, I have seen a very liberal internal use of the water decidedly beneficial; and elderly persons, afflicted with organic changes in these organs, have often acknowledged to me that they live in greater comfort, and are freer from irritation or pain, at Malvern than elsewhere. ”

“ Saint Helena is a high mountainous island, lying in the south-east trade wind, and the harbour of James Town is on the leeward side of the island. Ships rounding the point to enter, and, as would seem, getting under shelter of the land, are obliged to have all ready for handing in sail, or the strong gusts and eddies coming down from the mountains would carry away some of the lighter masts, although just previously they had been exposed safely to the whole force of the unrestrained current. ”

“ From a careful consideration of the subject, I cannot but conclude that Terrestrial Radiation is one of the most important of those meteorological phenomena usually considered as influencing the health of communities or individuals; and that every circumstance which can in any way diminish its influence, or circumscribe its effect, should be pointed out. [11]
It is very true that neither the climate, soil, nor natural constitution of a country, are the modellers of the character of nations ”

“ The houses at Malvern appear to lie between those fogs which result from the cold of radiation, and those descending from above; and, speaking from my own observation, I should remark, that they are oftener enveloped in the latter species of fog than the former. When the lower edge of a cloud descends so as to obscure objects raised only 500 or 600 feet above the mean level of the earth's surface, the barometer will generally be found low, and the temperature, except, perhaps, in the summer months, above the mean of the season ”

“ The number of deaths in the population of the eastern division, between birth and 10, is to the number in all England as 72 to 100; from 10 to 20, where 100 die in all England, 106 die in the eastern division; from 20 to 30, the mortality in the eastern division is 1-8th more than in all England; after the age of 30, the deaths are again less in the eastern division than in England at large up to the age of 50 ”

“ A great many persons have received benefit from it, even when unable to bear a stronger water of the same kind—as the Tunbridge wells, and others.
CLIMATE.
The village of Great Malvern, which has long been celebrated for the beauty of its scenery, the healthiness of its situation, and the purity of its air and water, is situated in a kind of recess formed between two of the highest points in the chain of hills. The Worcestershire Beacon, the most elevated, is above, and to the south-west, of the village; the north hill, another high and prominent point, is on the north-west. ”

“ One of the evils seriously felt in agricultural districts, is the great number of very young married persons with large families of little children, who become chargeable upon the several parishes; and, from the above facts, it appears that, in the rural district around the Malvern hills, nearly one-half of such marriages are contracted in the neighbouring large towns—principally (perhaps wholly) in Worcester! An evil, surely, calling for notice and correction, because detrimental to the morals of the parties, by facilitating imprudent and secret matches ”

“ Even in cases where the ulcers and fistulous openings are kept up by disease of the bones, the air, water, and situation of Malvern, often effect a great and marked improvement, and sometimes a perfect cure. ”

“ On the eastern side the descent is at first very precipitous, and then the slope is gradual into the plain just noticed; on the west the primitive hills mingle themselves with the secondary, at a greater elevation. In the former direction the horizon is bounded by the low lias escarpments of east Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and the öolite of Bredon, Cheltenham, and Gloucester; in the latter by the black mountains, and other hills in South Wales and Shropshire.
Along the base of the Malvern hills, on either side, is a purely agricultural country. ”

“ In a clear sky, during the winter, the earth radiates heat, even in the middle of the day, almost as fast as it receives it, so that the temperature, in the shade, during a bright day at this season, advances but little; but warm vapour and dense clouds not only prevent the earth's radiating its heat, but, at this season, bring with them a positive warmth.
↑ That the reader may be put in possession of the practical application of these corrections we shall subjoin the detail of the process, taking the mean height of the barometer for September 1834 in London and Malvern. ”

“ It is well known that the atmosphere has mingled with it variable quantities of aqueous vapour, and likewise the exhalations arising from the materials exposed on the surface of the earth to the sun; it is also known that aqueous vapour increases the vaporizing force of all substances, becoming, as it were, an active agent, carrying off every diffusive emanation into the air. We can readily distinguish several earths and stones by their smell, nay, the metals themselves are not all devoid of odour, some particles, therefore, however minute they may be, pass from them into the air ”

“ If we consider the production of epidemical diseases an evidence of their effects, we may then reasonably conclude that they generally descend when the vapour with which they are associated is condensed, though, perhaps, they sometimes remain and accumulate until some hidden operation in the higher regions favours their precipitation. ”

“ In some females the diseased gland grows to a large size without producing any, or only trifling inconvenience—a little difficulty of breathing in walking up hill. Persons afflicted with this unsightly complaint, are chiefly, but not universally, females: in one or two instances I have observed male children born with a decided fullness and enlargement of the thyroid gland. ”

“ On the east lie the parishes of Great and Little Malvern, Hanley Castle, Welland, Leigh, Madresfield, and the chapelry of Newland, forming the eastern division of the district under consideration. The soil here, near the hills, is of a dry gravelly nature, resulting from the disintegration of the materials which compose the constituent rock ”

“ The left portion of the thyroid, through which the seton had passed, and to which the principal attention had been directed, extended from the ramus of the jaw to the clavicle: the upper edge of the right tumour commenced just below the larynx, and between the two tumours the trachea was very much compressed. This tumour on the right side was found to be only the superior portion of a very much enlarged thyroid gland, which extended completely into the chest behind the first rib, and, altogether, as large as two closed fists, four-fifths of it being in the cavity of the chest. ”

“ But, when they descend again upon the earth, they accumulate in the lowest strata of the atmosphere, are often appreciable by the senses, and, in many localities, unquestionably prejudicial. Whether the extraneous matters always descend when the aqueous vapour which bears them upward is condensed, or whether they sometimes remain in the upper regions an indefinite period, and then gradually, by some natural operation, accumulate and fall down, is a question not, perhaps, easily determined. ”

“ There is no manufacture carried on in the district under consideration; and only such handicraft business as is sufficient for the demands of the resident inhabitants. With an increasing population, therefore, a decrease in the number of families employed in agriculture, must be distributed among the little shop-keepers, the beer or public-house keepers, labourers, or paupers. ”

“ In the Isle of Ely, which may be regarded as a specimen of the marshy districts of England, more than one-third of the children born, die before the end of the second year, and one half in the same district die before the end of the fifteenth year of their age. ”

“ The general habits of the peasantry are very similar, in most respects, to those of their brethren in the other agricultural districts of the kingdom. They are quiet, remarkably civil, and hospitable; living, principally, in little detached cottages, thatched with straw, overrun with the rose and honeysuckle, and surrounded by a garden stocked with apple and pear trees, but too often deficient of comforts within. ”

“ During the winter, I have very frequently observed the maximum of the thermometer at eleven or twelve at night, or even one or two in the morning, a result that can only be due to a change of wind, and the consequent accession of warm vapour. ”

“ Wind.—The hills at Malvern influence so much the force and direction of the wind, that it is often very difficult to determine precisely the point whence the great atmospheric current comes; it is not always that there are clouds by which to determine ”

“ In many parts on this side there is scarcely sufficient soil to cover the bare rock, and vegetation often suffers from a deficiency of moisture, though the valleys lying between the various woody eminences are many of them rich and fertile; there are here also numerous apple and pear orchards, and a larger proportion of hop plantations. ”

“ This sedentary in-door work is not, altogether, incompatible with the care of a small family, and is, therefore, a great assistance to the poor. Females are not often seen in the fields, performing out-door work: when they do so, their earnings are from 6d. ”

“ We may find that we cannot deduce from these influences, the mental attributes of any portion of the human race; indeed, we well know, that in the same country, in the same spot, nay, under the same roof, are to be found persons entirely differing from each other in intellectual faculties, and in corporeal conformation and strength; nevertheless, it is equally true that the health of individuals does depend, very much, upon peculiarities of locality, determining certain meteorological effects.
The height of the Worcestershire Beacon is stated, by Col. ”

“ Everything has been studied in this instrument to render accuracy attainable, with as little trouble as possible to the observer. The diameter of the tube renders the correction for capillary action almost unnecessary. The correction for the capacity of the cistern has been contrived to be 1-100th of the result above or below the neutral point 30.576.
The barometer I have used at Great Malvern, is an instrument carefully constructed by myself. The tube is 34 inches long, its exterior diameter .5 inch, and the diameter of the bore .250 inch. The mercury has been boiled throughout in the tube. ”