54 Historical 



very painful, which increases the pain in the head. One also expe- 

 riences vertigo, buzzing in the ears, sometimes drowsiness .... 



Another phenomenon is muscular fatigue. . . . This difficulty in 

 muscular contraction is experienced even on horseback, and to such an 

 extent that persons who are unable to move have to be taken down 

 from their horses. But after the first few days, this great fatigue dis- 

 appears completely after a very short rest. In the cities, new-comers 

 are easily recognized; they stop for a few seconds every 40 or 50 steps. 



Respiration and circulation are speeded up in proportion to the 

 elevation. The dyspnea is extreme, the inspirations very frequent. 



The heart-beats are stronger, more numerous; at the least effort 

 one is attacked by violent palpitations which continue when he is riding 

 as well as when he is walking. Even at night, one is often awakened 

 with a start by strong palpitations in the midst of the calmest sleep. . . . 



The beating of the arteries is stronger, that of the intra-cranial 

 arteries very painful, the pulse is vibrating, almost as in aortic insuf- 

 ficiency. A rather frequent symptom is a nasal, buccal, or pulmonary 

 hemorrhage; hemorrhages from the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane 

 are rare. . . . But when one becomes used to the rarefied air, when equi- 

 librium is established, and when the different systems are in harmony 

 with the surrounding medium, hemorrhages are no more frequent than 

 anywhere else ... An important symptom is the tendency to syncope, 

 and so one must be very careful about bleeding the patient .... 



The nervous symptoms are the first to disappear; the headache lasts 

 hardly 12 to 24 hours; the nausea and vomiting no longer . . . The third or 

 fourth day, appetite revives a little; as soon as the patient can take a 

 little nourishment, the heaviness in the head disappears in its turn, 

 and there remain only the difficulty of respiration and the rapidity of 

 the heart-beats, palpitations occurring at the least effort, and making 

 the lack of breath still worse. Later, when equilibrium has been estab- 

 lished, little by little all these symptoms disappear, generally at the 

 end of a few weeks, and one becomes perfectly acclimated to these 

 lofty regions. 



So Guilbert thinks that one can become perfectly acclimated to 

 lofty regions. He recalls the words of M. Boussingault, which we 

 quoted above, and adds: 



Pichincha is 4996 meters high; the Bolivian general Santa Cruz 

 defeated the Spaniards there in 1822. Two years after, at Ayacucho, a 

 village situated at about the same height, the Colombian general Sucre 

 defeated the viceroy La Serna. . . . 



At Corocoro (4430 meters) I saw very bloody bull-fights. These 

 bulls, nimble and wild, might have given pleasure to the travellers 

 mentioned by Lombard, 53 who saw at La Paz bulls which were gentle 

 and unable to make the least effort without vomiting; these were bulls 

 which had recently been brought to the mountains and which were 

 affected by the soroche, which attacks animals as well as men. ... It 

 is very rare to cross the Cordilleras without witnessing the sickness 

 of some beast of burden, attacked by the soroche; it is hastily unloaded, 

 rubbed, and after a moment of rest, allowed to follow at liberty. 



