COLORADO AS A WINTER SANITARIUM. 673 



maps, furnished by the Signal-Service Bureau to the Colorado State 

 Medical Society, at the time that they gave the series illustrating 

 absolute humidity. This is a series of four maps, representing iu 

 color and by seasons the amount of cloudiness existing throughout the 

 United States. They show that Denver was iu the region of greatest 

 sunshine for the autumn and winter of the year 1882, while in the 

 spring mouths of the same year the greatest amount of sunshine was 

 found in lower Arizona, and the country immediately surrounding it. 



This element of sunshine, as affecting the ability of an invalid to 

 lead an out-of-door life, can not be too highly estimated. That most 

 eminent authority. Dr. Austin Flint, in speaking of the good to be 

 derived in cases of consumption from a life out of doors, writes, *' It is 

 probable that to this source much of the benefit derived from change 

 of climate is to be referred." * Certainly the experience of every prac- 

 titioner of medicine, who has had much to do with treating the disease, 

 will bear out the assertion of the distinguished writer, and it may 

 safely be said that, coeteris paribus, a patient's recovery will depend 

 very largely upon his ability to lead an out-of-door life. 



So well recognized a principle is this, that our medical journals 

 nowadays are teeming with instructions to patients, who, for lack of 

 means or other cause, are unable to take a change of climate, as to how 

 they can best lead out-of-door lives at home, going so far, in some 

 instances, as to advise them to wrap up warmly and sit in an open 

 window, where they can get sunshine and fresh air without a draught. 



Finally, stress is laid on the fact that Davos is in a sheltered val- 

 ley. Without going into details, for it is not necessary to enumerate 

 such places, it may be stated that there are towns situated at various 

 elevations among our mountains and foot-hills, so sheltered as to be 

 very free from winds, and adapted to receiving both the direct and 

 reflected rays of the sun. 



If it be admitted, then, that the Davos climate is the ideal one for 

 a consumptive — and the writer of the article referred to, together with 

 many European authorities, seems to regard it as such — we think that 

 we have clearly proved that, as regards the elements of great elevation 

 above sea-level, a minimum of watery vapor in the air, a clear sun, 

 a clean atmosphere free from zymotic germs and fog, and a sheltered 

 position, Colorado fills the bill as completely as does Davos itself. 



Consideration of the Climatic Conditions of an Invalid's 

 Day. — It may not be out of place now to refer to the charges that 

 some writers have preferred against this climate. One throws it up 

 against us that we have high winds, which cause our visitors to com- 

 plain.f Another says, "The enormous monthly and also diurnal 

 range of temperature must severely try any man." \ While a third, 



* Pepper's " System of Medicine," vol. iii, p. 432. 

 f "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," June 12, 1884. 

 X "New York Herald " editorial, December 29, 1883. 

 VOL. XXTIII. — 43 



