Dictionary.net

• The climate of Malta is pretty equable, the range of temperature in the twenty-four hours being rarely more than 6. The air is almost always dry and clear. The most disagreeable wind is the sirocco, which is the source of more or less suffering to the pulmonary invalid. The winter climate is favourable. Dr. Liddell thinks that no place which he has seen in the south of Europe can compete with Malta, for a mild, dry, bracing air in November, December, and part of January; and during the other winter and spring months, he thinks it is equal to any of them.

1846 - Medical lexicon: a dictionary of medical science
By Robley Dunglison