Medical observations on meteorological associations in the nineteenth century

Abstract

At a time when disease aetiology was still unclear, the medical profession often assumed that climatic environment influenced both the onset and the progression of medical disorders. This encouraged physicians to collect climatic observations in attempts to relate illness to the environment providing a source of unrecognised information data relating to climate. Previously unreported nineteenth century medical sources detailing meteorological data for the Maltese Islands are reviewed in the light of known published sources of climate observations.