Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/621

Rh without precipitation. Such precisely is the 'sticky' weather mentioned, and its effect must have been deadly to produce such results.

In accounting for the unusual number of assaults and misdemeanors in the public schools for low humidities, as discussed in the paper cited, the electrical potential of the atmosphere for such meteorological conditions was considered the cause. It is a fact conceded by scientists that at every point upon the earth's surface there are lines of electrical force extending off into space, and that the potential is roughly in a reverse ratio to the humidity prevailing at a given time. This electrical condition for regions of universally low humidity, as the altitudes of our western plateaus, is very marked and productive of no slight effects. These

seem to be a mental and even physical exhilaration, productive of energy which in the long-run generally proves to be in excess of the normal healthy possibilities. The result is for those regions a tendency to overwork, especially mentally, with a resulting state of collapse. Although these conditions are not so marked for the higher humidities of the sea level, they nevertheless exist to a degree, and without doubt in New York City there is less individual surplus energy when the humidity is relatively high than when relatively low. This would lead us to infer that, from the showing of this condition, suicide was excessive when energy was low. This relation of occurrence to available energy is reversed for certain of the figures, but other conditions enter in which are discussed in the conclusion of this paper.