truth,--Dear Sir, Your very humble Servant.

LETTER XXXVII

NICE, April 2, 1765.

DEAR DOCTOR,--As I have now passed a second winter at Nice I think
myself qualified to make some further remarks on this climate. During
the heats of last summer, I flattered myself with the prospect of the
fine weather I should enjoy in the winter; but neither I, nor any
person in this country, could foresee the rainy weather that prevailed
from the middle of November, till the twentieth of March. In this short
period of four months, we have had fifty-six days of rain, which I take
to be a greater quantity than generally falls during the six worst
months of the year in the county of Middlesex, especially as it was,
for the most part, a heavy, continued rain. The south winds generally
predominate in the wet season at Nice: but this winter the rain was
accompanied with every wind that blows, except the south; though the
most frequent were those that came from the east and north quarters.
Notwithstanding these great rains, such as were never known before at
Nice in the memory of man, the intermediate days of fair weather were
delightful, and the ground seemed perfectly dry. The air itself was
perfectly free from moisture. Though I live upon a ground floor,
surrounded on three sides by a garden, I could not perceive the least
damp, either on the floors, or the furniture; neither was I much
incommoded by the asthma, which used always to harass me most in wet
weather. In a word, I passed the winter here much more comfortably than
I expected. About the vernal equinox, however, I caught a violent cold,
which was attended with a difficulty of breathing, and as the sun
advances towards the tropic, I find myself still more subject to
rheums. As the heat increases, the humours of the body are rarefied,
and, of consequence, the pores of the skin are opened; while the east
wind sweeping over the Alps and Apennines, covered with snow, continues
surprisingly sharp and penetrating. Even the people of the country, who
enjoy good health, are afraid of exposing themselves to the air at this
season, the intemperature of which may last till the middle of May,
when all the snow on the mountains will probably be melted: then the
air will become mild and balmy, till, in the progress of summer, it
grows disagreeably hot, and the strong evaporation from the sea makes
it so saline, as to be unhealthy for those who have a scorbutical
habit. When the sea-breez