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Climatic Treatment of Disease: Western North Carolina as a Health Resort

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  • beyond ordinary comprehension, that it seems verily a battle with the powers and principalities of the air. The so-called " germ theory of disease " has passed from the realm of theory into that of demonstration as fact, and based upon our present knowledge, confessedly fragmentary and imperfect, yet sufficiently exact from which to make deductions, sanitation has become in a large measure a science. From this standpoint, climatology is invested with a new interest and value, as seen especially in the contributions of the last few years. A surgically clean wound means an aseptic wound. The aphorism of Hippocrates, " pure air, pure water, pure soil," signifies now an air, water and soil free from infectious elements of disease, and this must be defined as the most important factor pertaining to a health resort, sought under the name of climate. This subject, which is far too large for the present occasion, must be epitomized in a general way, as the individual. wisely adapted to his surroundings. Life carries with it, as an inherent property, a vital, resisting power by which the individual is able to adapt himself to surroundings and overcome deleterious influences. These phenomena we call the " laws of life," beyond the limits of which life itself ceases. Thus heat, water, food, oxygen, etc., must be furnished within fixed limits. Departures from the ideal standard which we call health lessen the vital, resisting power of organs, as well as of individuals, and pave the way for the introduction of pathological factors. Nature has provided man with an armor efficient to withstand and repel the invisible foes with which he is ordinarily surrounded. An unbroken skin is a coat of mail invulnerable to his surgical foes. The steady police surveillance of the cilia of the epithelium which lines our respiratory passages is ever ready to seize and expel the intruder, be it bacillary, or any other form of atmospheric contamination. When the defenders of the castle are
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