MOISTURE. See HUMIDITY.
The moisture of the air has considerable effects on the human body. For the quantity and quality of the food, and the proportion of the meat to the drink, being given, the weight of a human body is less, and consequently its discharges greater in dry weather than in wet weather; which may be thus accounted for: the moisture of the air moistens the fibres of the skin and lessens perspiration by lessening their vibratory motion. When perspiration is thus lessened by the moisture of the air, urine indeed is by degrees increased, but not equally. Hence, according to Dr Bryan Robinson, we learn, that to keep a body of the same weight in wet weather as in dry, either the quantity of food must be lessened, or the proportion of the meat to the drink increased; and both these may be done by lessening the drink without making any change in the meat.
The instrument used for determining the degree of moisture in the air, is called an hygrometer. See HYGROMETER.