NOTES ON HISTORY AND CLIMATE OF NEW MEXICO. 329 



doubt that rapid changes of the barometer are more favorable for the 

 more important functions of life than its relative stability ; and this 

 probably explains in a measure the value of both mountain and sea air." 

 It also explains the benefit experienced frequently by confirmed invalids 

 in a change from inland to seashore, or from mountain to sea-level, or 

 vice versa. 



Dr. Holland, iu his " Medical Notes and Eetlectious," expresses the 

 opinion " that the action of diflerent degrees of atmospheric pressure in 

 disturbing the bodily functions and general health is rather derived from 

 the frequency of fluctuation than from any state long continued either 

 above or below the average standard ; that of the two conditions, sud- 

 denly incurred, the human frame isbetter cajxible of withstanding a rarefied 

 than a condensed atmosphere ; and that, iu either case, the previous 

 health and proneness to disorder iu particular orgnns are gn-atly con- 

 cerned in determining the results on the body." 



He supports some of these views from the fact that '' there are in- 

 habited places in America, such as the town of Potosi, at an elevation 

 of more than 13,000 feet, the inhabitants of which seem to have tolerable 

 health." (Medical Times and Gazetle, London, September 9, 1870, p. 

 299.) 



At all elevated places the diurnal variations, barometric and ther- 

 mometric, are sufficiently great to meet the demands of the economy for 

 change, and these are augmented agreeably, and changed again, with 

 the months and seasons as they come. At the same time the extremes 

 of temperature are not experienced iu high as in low altitudes ; cer- 

 tainly the mountains are devoid of the intense heatofothermore northern 

 but lower localities. 



The annual range of the thermometer at some places otherwise 

 favorable becomes too exczssive to be compatible with health in weak 

 constitutions. At some low places the long continuance of summer- 

 heat debilitates so greatly that months pass before normal vigor is 

 regained. Extreme heat of long continuance involves even fatal pros- 

 tration in a very few hours when the action of the skin is suspended, 

 (insolation ;) and this may occur in localities where, in a. few months, 

 an almost Arctic rigor is experienced. We fail to find in the mountains 

 such experiences or such results ; on the contrary, the air is invigorat- 

 ing and bracing at all seasons under conditions that prevail elsewhere, 

 and not involving extreme exposure. 



The contrast is particularly noticeable iu India between the low jjlains 

 and the hill stations. 



We find the Savoyard, the Swiss, and the residents of mountains 

 generally, of our time, as hardy as the mountaineers of history. They 

 do not degenerate at home, nor until they migrate to the lowlands. 

 The inhabitants of Greorgia, Circassia, and Cashmere, and the hill tribes 

 of India are a superior race. The Arabs and Abyssiuians on the elevated 

 lands of the desert and on the sides of the mountains from which the 



