r does anything more than give nature a better chance, may
speedily or more tardily need the service of an undertaker; and the
invalid whose powers are responsive to kindly influences may live so
long, being unable to get away, that life will be a burden to him. The
person in ordinary health will find very little that is hostile to the
orderly organic processes. In order to appreciate the winter climate of
Southern California one should stay here the year through, and select
the days that suit his idea of winter from any of the months. From the
fact that the greatest humidity is in the summer and the least in the
winter months, he may wear an overcoat in July in a temperature,
according to the thermometer, which in January would render the overcoat
unnecessary. It is dampness that causes both cold and heat to be most
felt. The lowest temperatures, in Southern California generally, are
caused only by the extreme dryness of the air; in the long nights of
December and January there is a more rapid and longer continued
radiation of heat. It must be a dry and clear night that will send the
temperature down to thirty-four degrees. But the effect of the sun upon
this air is instantaneous, and the cold morning is followed at once by a
warm forenoon; the difference between the average heat of July and the
average cold of January, measured by the thermometer, is not great in
the valleys, foot-hills, and on the coast. Five points give this result
of average for January and July respectively: Santa Barbara, 52 deg., 66 deg.;
San Bernardino, 51 deg., 70 deg.; Pomona, 52 deg., 68 deg.; Los Angeles, 52 deg., 67 deg.; San
Diego, 53 deg., 66 deg.. The day in the winter months is warmer in the interior
and the nights are cooler than on the coast, as shown by the following
figures for January: 7 A.M., Los Angeles, 46.5 deg.; San Diego, 47.5 deg.; 3
P.M., Los Angeles, 65.2 deg.; San Diego, 60.9 deg.. In the summer the difference
is greater. In June I saw the thermometer reach 103 deg. in Los Angeles when
it was only 79 deg. in San Diego. But I have seen the weather unendurable in
New York with a temperature of 85 deg., while this dry heat of 103 deg. was not
oppressive. The extraordinary equanimity of the coast climate (certainly
the driest marine climate in my experience) will be evident from the
average mean for each month, from records of sixteen years, ending in
1877, taken at San Diego, giving each month in order, beginning with
January: