Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/208

Rh 190 MADRID Owing to its elevated and exposed situation, the climate of Madrid has some marked peculiarities. In winter the mean temperature is 43 Fahr., and as many as sixteen degrees of frost have been observed ; the mean in summer is 76 Fahr., but a temperature of 107 has been registered ; and the daily oscillation sometimes amounts to as much as 57. The readings in sun and shade at the same moment are also widely different. The tendency to inflammatory disorders in the population is, as might be expected from these circumstances, very pronounced ; but against it must be set the advantages of a dry atmosphere and a cloudless sky, and in point of fact the city is not exceptionally unhealthy ; its salubrity has been much enhanced by the recent introduction of a plentiful supply of pure water from the Lozoya (32 miles distant). The form of Madrid proper is almost that of a square with the corners rounded off; from east to west it measures rather less than from north to south. It was formerly surrounded by a poor wall, partly of brick, partly of earth, some 20 feet in height, and pierced by five principal gates (puertas) and eleven &quot; portillos.&quot; Of these gateways only three, the Puerta de Alcala on the east, the Puerta de Toledo on the south, and the Portillo de San Vicente on the west, now actually exist ; the first and the third were erected in the time of Charles III., and the second in honour of the restoration of Ferdinand VII.; all have some architectural pretensions. The Manzanares (or rather its bed, for the stream is at most seasons of the year quite insignificant) is spanned by six bridges, the Puente de Toledo and that of Segovia being the chief. The Puerta del Sol (formerly the east gate and tower of the city, having on its front a representation of the sun Plan of Madrid. whence the name) is now the central plaza, and the favourite lounge and place of most traffic in the city ; the animated scene it presents has been described with more or less fulness in almost every book of Spanish travel. On its south side stands the Palacio de la Gobernacion, or Home Office, a heavy square building, by a French architect, J. Marquet, and dating from 1768. From the Puerta del Sol diverge, immediately or mediately, almost all the principal streets of Madrid eastward by north, the Calle de Alcala, terminating in the Prado ; eastward, the Carrera de San Geronimo, terminating by the Plaza de las Cortes also in the Prado ; southward, the Calle de Carretas ; westward, the Calle Mayor, which leads to the council chamber and to the palace, and the Calle del Arenal, ter minating in the Plaza de Isabel II. and the opera-house ; north-westward, the Calles de Preciados and Del Carmen ; and northward, the Calle de la Montera, which afterwards divides into the Calle de Fuencarral to the left and the Calle de Hortaleza to the right. Of these the Calle de Alcala is the finest; it is bordered on both, sides with acacias, and contains some elegant buildings, including the museum of natural history, formerly the general custom house, dating from 1769, and the offices of the Board of Trade (Ministerio de Hacienda) on the north side, and on the south, the palace of the duke of Sesto (the site of which is about to be occupied by the new buildings of the Banco de Espaiia or Bank of Spain) ; its irregularity in point of width and level, however, detracts much from its appearance. The Plaza de las Cortes is so called from the Congreso de los Diputados, or House of Commons, on its north side, a building in the Corinthian style, but of little merit; the square contains a bronze