Re: The Heatwave; Europe, and it's implications...

From Canada, Roderick Barman writes; "If an individual is not used to very hot weather, it is not just a question of not taking the right precautions: e.g. don't go out in the sun (only mad dogs and Englishmen do that), drink lots of liquid, keep still and as cool as possible. The real difficulty is that people don't appreciate how hot it is and so continue to live as they usually do and thus either don't or can't take remedial action until it is too late. I mention this point because my wife and I were able to survive perfectly well in London, England, during the recent heat wave, because we are accustomed to high summer in Rio de Janeiro and know the danger signals and how to respond. But most Europeans don't know either.

Much of the problem in London was simply that the transportation system, above all the tube/underground, is so antiquated and so fragile that any unusual occurrence causes some part of the system (whether rails, electrical, or engines) to malfunction, and chaos results. Being grounded for half an hour in an undergound train without any cooling system and no liquid would be hell, but fortunately I did not suffer that fate"

Eric Weiss of Stanford Medical School can give us professional advice: "Note that 'ignorance and stupidity' are one of the first symptoms of heat illness (really). Poor judgment comes early with either heat or cold illness and often leads to worse situations. Heat illness in the elderly can be an insidious problem, worsened, perhaps, by poor mobility and prescription medication (water pills and others)". RH: Be helpful. If you note that a colleague is ignorant and stupid, tell him to stay cool. Where the does expression "He's got water on the brain" come from?

George Sassoon comments on "The French have given a name to the extraordinary heatwave that killed so many thousands of the nations' elderly: la Canicule": "This word refers simply to the "dog days" at the end of July, the time of year when Sirius, the dog star, rises with the Sun. It has no particular connection to heat waves as such. I believe that this "heliacal rising of Sirius" was of great significance to the Ancient Egyptians, as it coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile".

RH:
Spanish sources say that "la canicula" is the hottest period of the year. The excellent National Geographic Atlas of the World has a detailed, big, two-page spread giving the temperature and rainfall for selected places around the world.. For Madrid dog-days are indeed the hottest of the year. In Rome, where the word originated, the canicula seems to mark the beginning of the hot season, as it does in Paris, Obviously this varies from place to place, and certainly is not true in the southern hemisphere. I am sorry for priests, who wear their tight-fitting black cassocks even in summer. They must be as hot as hell, which is not the preferred abode of priests. Sirius is part of the Canis Major (bigger dog) constellation, hence the expression"dog days".