Southern Comt of England. 95 



the latter become diminished in their capacity ; the absolute volume 

 of air received, beinfr small, in proportion as it is rarefied. 



*' In proportion also to the existing weight of the atmosphere, is 

 the quantity of oxygen, which passes into the lungs, and there ap- 

 propriated to the important end it is destined to fulfil in the animal 

 economy ; and the necessity for a quick succession of inspirations 

 is diminished in the same ratio ; while, on the contrary, respiration 

 acquires equally an increased rapidity on high hills, and in air 

 deteriorated by frequent inhalation. 



** Dr. Wells took unusual pains to ascertain the influence of 

 situation on consumption, and he has adduced many examples in 

 corroboration of the comparative rareness of the disease under a 

 heavy atmosphere. He remarks, that he was led to undertake this 

 enquiry, from having heard, so long back as the year 1779, that it 

 was common in Flanders to remove the consumptive to the low and 

 marshy parts of the country for their benefit. Mr. Mansford has 

 also collected numerous instances of the greater prevalence of con- 

 sumption in high, than in low situations, and Drs. Darwin, Cullen, 

 Beddoes, and others, have consequently advised the removal of in- 

 valids liable to this disease, from the higher to lower parts of the 

 country ; and this practice is more or less common in most king- 

 doms where the disorder prevails. 



*' At Aix la Chapelle, consumptions are said to be very rare, 

 while at Monjoye, a mountainous country, only twenty-eight miles 

 distant, this disease carries off a large proportion of the inhabitants. 

 it is also said that the hill of Montmorency, near Paris, which is 

 dry, sandy, and much exposed, is very productive of consumptive 

 disorders, and that those who visit it, with any predisposition to 

 these complaints, almost invariably derive unfavourable effects from 

 the change ; and the same remark applies, with no less certainty, 

 to many of the hilly parts of our own country. 



" The inhabitants also of the mountainous parts of Portugal and 

 Italy* are very subject to consumption, while those of Finland, Den- 

 mark, and Holland, are much less liable to its attacks. 



*' There is, consequently, amply sufficient reason for supposing, 

 that it is partly from causes of this kind, connected with a greater 

 degree of exposure, that this disease has been found to be less 

 common in low situations than in any other. This circumstance 

 has given rise to the idea that consumption and intermittent fevers, 

 cannot exist to a great extent in the same district; which latter 

 opinion is, nevertheless, erroneous, as they are not only found in 

 the same situation, but even in the same individual. 



" Although, therefore, there is no sufficient reason for making 

 choice of those more marshy districts which have been selected, on 

 the continent especially, for consumptive patients, notwithstanding 

 their tendency to produce intermittent fevers, we ought not to disre- 

 gard the benefits arising from an increased weight of the atmosphere, 

 in those situations where the latter disease need not he encountered* 



