Chapter III 



THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS AND 

 EXPERIMENTS 



In the present chapter, we shall review the manifold explana- 

 tions given by different authors, travellers, physicians, and physi- 

 ologists of the symptoms the varied descriptions of which we have 

 given in the preceding chapters. We shall add the reports of the 

 few experiments made in laboratories to throw light on these 

 obscure problems. This will be only an exposition of theories; 

 criticisms will come in the following chapter. 



We shall follow here a strictly chronological order, since the 

 proposed explanations would naturally show the effects of current 

 physiological theories. 



The first traveller to describe mountain sickness is, as we have 

 seen, the Jesuit Acosta; ' he gave an explanation of it which we 

 quote in full, and which is admirable for its shrewdness, the sound- 

 ness of its views, and its clearness of expression. On the one 

 hand, he specifies the real cause, and on the other, he rejects in 

 advance a mistaken hypothesis: 



There is no doubt (he says) that the cause of this distress and 

 strange affliction is the wind, or the air current there, because the 

 chief and best remedy to be found is to close the nose, the ears and 

 the mouth as tightly as possible, and to cover oneself with garments, 

 especially the stomach, since the air is so thin and penetrating that 

 it pierces the very vitals .... 



By this I am convinced that the element of the air is in this place 

 so thin and so delicate that it is not proportioned to human breathing, 

 which requires it denser and more temperate .... 



On passes of the Nevada mountains and others of Europe which I 

 have seen, no matter how cold the air there may be, nevertheless this 

 cold does not take away the appetite to eat; on the contrary, it 

 awakens it and does not cause vomiting in the stomach. In the 

 Indies .... it happens at the same place even when the sun is warm, 



195 



