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

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  • '4 vation, but also by the cold, dry air, and makes the distinction that in the sunshine the coldness pertains rather to the atmosphere than to the individual. Speaking of his personal experience in the high Alps in November, at the elevation of 10,000 feet, without an overcoat, he says: "As long as I remained in the sunshine I never felt warmer in August or September in the same localities; but in the shade an overcoat would have been just a comfort, though I did not feel cold, in spite of a temperature of only 20° to 250 F., the air being perfectly calm. A black bulb thermometer in vacuo, showed in the sun between 88° and 920 F., while an ordinary thermometer registered only between 310 and 32° F." He sums up the advantages attained in mountain health resorts to be as follows: " 1st. The atmospheric purity or aseptic nature, the comparative absence of floating matter. 2d. Dryness of the air and soil, comparative absence of mist. 3d. The coolness of the air-temperature and the great warmth of the sun- temperature. 4th. The rarefaction and low pressure of the air. 5th. The intensity of the light. 6th. The stillness of the air in winter. 7th. A large amount of ozone. The effects on the invalid suited to such climates are, increase of appetite, improvement of sanguification and general nutrition, strengthening of the heart and circulation, raising of muscular and nervous energy and of activity of the skin." Observations have been made in some of the South American high altitude stations, as at Janja, of more than 10,000 feet above the sea. The range of temperature during an entire year was between 500 and 6o° F., with the sky always clear and sunny, and an atmosphere pure and bracing, which invites to out- of-doors exercise and enjoyment. In an atmosphere as cold as the winter in the Alps or the Rocky mountains, it is essential to select localities where protection from wind is attained, since the motion of an atmosphere thus cold abstracts heat rapidly. In
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