564 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Dr. Wm. C. Bailey, who is doing such excellent work with con- 

 sumptives at Las Vegas, N. M., informs me that the yearly average of 

 humidity at his altitude is 40 per cent. The average at Denver is about 

 50 per cent, at 70 degrees temperature. When we consider the great 

 and rapid changes of temperature at such favorable locations, and 

 think of the wide range of relative humidity experienced even in the 

 course of one day, we see at once that the engineer at Limair, starting 

 with his great caverns of air of a uniform temperature, and uniform 

 percentage of relative humidity, has a simple problem to solve in 

 keeping the sanitarium at an equable temperature, and in what is con- 

 sidered the normal percentage of relative humidity. Attempts are now 

 being made to furnish hospitals and large public buildings with these 

 desirable conditions of a dustless, cool air, of uniform temperature and 

 humidity; but while the j)roblem is theoretically possible, the outside 

 conditions are such as to make the undertaking one of such expense as 

 to be impracticable. 



The practical side of this question from a therapeutic view-point 

 appeals to those familiar with throat and lung diseases. For hay 

 fever, asthma and all bronchial affections, not tuberculous, these con- 

 ditions are ideal, and for patients of this class have already given 

 excellent results. We can not imagine conditions better calculated for 

 the ^^reservation of infant health during the hot summer months, when 

 the rapid atmospheric changes of our cities play such havoc with their 

 powers of resistance to intestinal infections. 



We now know the relatively minor role that the tubercle bacillus 

 plays in the destruction of the consumptive patient, and the great 

 advantage of placing the early tuberculous process in an air free from 

 dust and the secondary bacterial invaders. We know how injurious 

 to some patients are the climatic changes of a sea voyage, or of the 

 seaside resort, and how badly others react to a change of altitude. Here 

 we have an abundance of cool, pure air rapidly circulating in sunny 

 rooms easily kept at constant conditions of temperature and humidity. 

 Consumptives are not taken at this sanitarium, but I think it is only 

 a question of time when those afflicted with tuberculosis of the air pas- 

 sages may enjoy the benefits to be derived at Luray and other caverns 

 of the world by living in houses modeled after Limair. 



