The Patient and the Weather

With the appearance of this relatively slim printed volume, Petersen's monographic work on the relationship of the weather to disease is both commenced and completed. Reviews of volumes II, III and IV, the latter divided into three parts, and the second half of volume I, have already appeared in these pages, and Petersen's thesis relative to the changes in the capillary bed due to the weather has been summarized so that those who are interested in this phenomenon already have an idea of what he has been driving at. This introductory volume, the only one which is printed—the others were lithoprinted— gives a background of Petersen's extensive study. It discusses to some extent Greek medicine and to a great extent the attitude of Hippocrates toward weather changes with a regard to disease, which can be summed up in the words "All diseases are fundamentally due to interference with oxidation." The