The month of February in all latitudes in the United States is uncertain.  The birth of George Washington in it has not raised it in public esteem.  In the North, it is a month to flee from; in the South, at best it is a waiting month—­a month of rain and fickle skies.  A good deal has been done for it.  It is the month of St. Valentine, it is distinguished by the leap-year addition of a day, and ought to be a favorite of the gentle sex; but it remains a sort of off period in the year.  Its brevity recommends it, but no one would take any notice of it were it not for its effect upon character.  A month of rigid weather is supposed to brace up the moral nature, and a month of gentleness is supposed to soften the asperities of the disposition, but February contributes to neither of these ends.  It is neither a tonic nor a soother; that is, in most parts of our inexplicable land.  We make no complaint of this.  It is probably well to have a period in the year that tests character to the utmost, and the person who can enter spring through the gate of February a better man or woman is likely to adorn society the rest of the year.

February, however, is merely an illustration of the effect of weather upon the disposition.  Persons differ in regard to their sensitiveness to cloudy, rainy, and gloomy days.  We recognize this in a general way, but the relation of temper and disposition to the weather has never been scientifically studied.  Our observation of the influence of climate is mostly with regard to physical infirmities.  We know the effect of damp weather upon rheumatics, and of the east wind upon gouty subjects, but too little allowance is made for the influence of weather upon the spirits and the conduct of men.  We know that a long period of gloomy weather leads to suicides, and we observe that long-continued clouds and rain beget “crossness” and ill-temper, and we are all familiar with the universal exhilaration of sunshine and clear air upon any company of men and women.  But the point we wish to make is that neither society nor the law makes any allowance for the aberrations of human nature caused by dull and unpleasant weather.  And this is very singular in this humanitarian age, when excuse is found for nearly every moral delinquency in heredity or environment, that the greatest factor of discontent and crookedness, the weather, should be left out of consideration altogether.  The relation of crime to the temperature and the humidity of the atmosphere is not taken into account.  Yet crime and eccentricity of conduct are very much the result of atmospheric conditions, since they depend upon the temper and the spirit of the community.  Many people are habitually blue and down-hearted in sour weather; a long spell of cloudy, damp, cold weather depresses everybody, lowers hope, tends to melancholy; and people when they are not cheerful are more apt to fall into evil ways, as a rule, than when they are in a normal state of good-humor.  And aside