hot distemperature of the air. The hardiest men are offended with this
heat, and stiffest clowns cannot resist it, as Constantine affirms,
_Agricult. l. 2. c. 45._ They that are naturally born in such air, may not
[1521]endure it, as Niger records of some part of Mesopotamia, now called
Diarbecha: _Quibusdam in locis saevienti aestui adeo subjecta est, ut
pleraque animalia fervore solis et coeli extinguantur_, 'tis so hot there
in some places, that men of the country and cattle are killed with it; and
[1522]Adricomius of Arabia Felix, by reason of myrrh, frankincense, and hot
spices there growing, the air is so obnoxious to their brains, that the
very inhabitants at some times cannot abide it, much less weaklings and
strangers. [1523]Amatus Lusitanus, _cent. 1. curat. 45_, reports of a young
maid, that was one Vincent a currier's daughter, some thirteen years of
age, that would wash her hair in the heat of the day (in July) and so let
it dry in the sun, [1524]"to make it yellow, but by that means tarrying too
long in the heat, she inflamed her head, and made herself mad."

Cold air in the other extreme is almost as bad as hot, and so doth
Montaltus esteem of it, _c. 11_, if it be dry withal. In those northern
countries, the people are therefore generally dull, heavy, and many
witches, which (as I have before quoted) Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus, Baptista
Porta ascribe to melancholy. But these cold climes are more subject to
natural melancholy (not this artificial) which is cold and dry: for which
cause [1525]Mercurius Britannicus belike puts melancholy men to inhabit
just under the Pole. The worst of the three is a [1526]thick, cloudy,
misty, foggy air, or such as come from fens, moorish grounds, lakes,
muck-hills, draughts, sinks, where any carcasses, or carrion lies, or from
whence any stinking fulsome smell comes: Galen, Avicenna, Mercurialis, new
and old physicians, hold that such air is unwholesome, and engenders
melancholy, plagues, and what not? [1527]Alexandretta, an haven-town in the
Mediterranean Sea, Saint John de Ulloa, an haven in Nova-Hispania, are much