ifi the Himcdayah Mountains. 289 



cold season, and invalids in the hot, would, I should think, 

 be cured, and the most aggravated cases alleviated at least, by 

 a residence in the climate. As pulmonary complaints are, it 

 appears, endemic in the place where the action of the lungs must 

 be increased from the rarity of the atmosphere, it would not 

 be wise to send them to such a climate, although the allevia- 

 tion they might obtain in the change from the heat of the 

 plains for a short period, might be thought to render it humane. 

 However, as much was at stake in the success of the first at- 

 tempt at the establishing an invalid depot in the hills for his 

 Majesty's forces, I communicated my ideas on these subjects in 

 a letter to the surgeons of King's regiments, from which the in- 

 valids were to be selected, of which I formerly inclosed you a 

 copy. 



The time necessary to remain on the hills, must or course 

 depend upon the nature of the case ; but a residence of eight 

 months (that is, from the beginning of March to the end of Oc- 

 tober) may probably suffice for the generality of cases ; and 

 this, with the subsequent and previous four months of the cold 

 season, will give the patient an uninterrupted sixteen months of 

 cool weather. But in a rigid comparison of the powers of a hill 

 and European climate, in radically curing the most aggravated 

 cases of Indian disease, it will be necessary to give to both an 

 equal quantity of time to produce their respective effects. In the 

 selection of a convalescent post, the elevation of 6500 feet was 

 deemed indispensable, it giving a mean temperature of about 55°. 

 Three or four hundred feet higher or lower may depress or ele- 

 vate the thermometer one degree. The top of the range will 

 enjoy the most equable temperature, and if, at the same time, at 

 the head of a valley, there will be generally a cool breeze in 

 summer ; but there are sites on the northern and southern sides 

 of the ranges, that afford shelter and warmth, and the contrary, 

 as to summer and winter. But the general temperature of Lan- 

 dour is so equable, that these considerations are not so material 

 as they may be elsewhere. The part of the range to which the 

 name of Mussooree is more especially applied, being already oc- 

 cupied with bungalows, it was necessary to erect the invalid 

 buildings at Landour, a continuation of the range, and in fact 

 preferable to Mussooree, from which it may be distant by the road 



