326 NOTES ON HISTORY AND CLIMATE OF NEW MEXICO. 



lu Dr. Vollum's special report on the diseases of Utah, [ibid., pp. 341- 

 343,) he regards the altitude and climate of Utah on phtliisis as favor- 

 able. * * "If a case comes here in the incipient stage, and is well 

 situated for comforts, that it will get well spontaneously from the bene- 

 ficial effects of this altitude and the inland dry character of the atmos- 

 l^here. It is the boast of the people that this is not a consumptive coun- 

 try, which is my opinion decidedly. On the other hand, it is believed 

 that if a patient comes here in the later stages of the disease, that the 

 atmosphere is too rare to give the proper support, and that the case will 

 be hastened to a termination more speedily than on the sea-coast. * * 

 The beneficial influence of this climate on asthma is deckled and deserves 

 a pro'mine7it mention. It is also the boast of the people, as well as the 

 physicians, that asthma cannot exist here, excepting under a relieved 

 and modified condition ; which I think is the case." 



Very many invalids are attracted annually to the mineral-waters of 

 Manitou, Colorado, (G,370 feet above the sea-level, and 8,000 below the 

 summit of Pike's Peak,) where there are several springs containing car- 

 bonic acid and carbonate of soda, (as the Navajoe, Manitou, and Ute 

 sodaj) purging carbonated soda-waters, modified by the presence of sul- 

 phate of soda and potash, as the "Little Chief" and "Shoshone;" and fer- 

 ruginous carbonated soda-waters containing carbonate of iron, as in the 

 " Iron Ute" and the " Little Chief" mineral springs. 



In a memoir (Saint Louis, 1875) on the climate of this region, by S. 

 Edwin Solly, M. E. C. S., (late house surgeon to St. Tliomas Hos- 

 pital, London,) reference is made to the decrease of pressure in a rarefied 

 atmosphere, causing a diminution of the gases of the blood and lymph, 

 and this probably checks the advance of phthisis, as unquestionably 

 beneficial in certain cases. In phthisis, where the weakness is not ex- 

 cessive but there is anaemia and want of assimilation, a high elevation 

 with a moderate supply of stimulants and a course of cold douches is 

 generally beneficial. The greater dryness of mountain air acts bene- 

 ficially on phthisis, probably for the most part in the manner indicated 

 by Dr. Herman Weber : " We may here mention that although the loss 

 of moisture to the whole organism may not be greater in high than in 

 low elevatiouSj yet the acknowledged greater loss through the lungs may 

 be accompanied by local effects in certain morbid conditions of the res- 

 piratory organs, as well as by producing a more active circulation in the 

 lungs in order to supply the required moisture, as also by favoring a 

 kind of drying up of surface^ secreting a morbid amount of mucus and 

 pus, and also of moist exudations within the tissue. Possibly the ini- 

 jirovement in many cases of chronic catarrhal pneumonia may be pro- 

 duced by this increased afflux of blood and increased loss of moisture.'' 



"Yery highly situated places are adapted for winter treatment (of 

 phthisis) on account of the greater number of clear days." (Braun.) 

 And for another reason they are specially desirable in the winter ; be- 

 cause in high elevations there is less moisture during the winter than at 



