338 NOTES ON HISTORY AND CLIMATE OF NEW MEXICO. 



November 11, 187G, p. 552) the mean mortality resulting from phthisis 

 pulmonalis is 77 per 1,000 deaths, being a much lower proportion than 

 most of the countries of Europe. Th us in Belgium this varies from 168 to 

 198, and in England is 124. * * # Two iuHuences are brought into 

 view by Dr. Lombard's investigations, viz: The deleterious effects of in- 

 dustrial occupations as compared to agricultural, and the benefit of high 

 altitudes, cases of phthisis being less frequent in proportion to the height 

 attained, so that it entirely disappears in high valleys. 



The Medical Statistics United States Army — Abstract of Principal 

 Diseases — show a total of 8 cases (3 deaths) in an average mean strength 

 of 5,873 troops, from phthisis pulmonalis, in the six years from 1849 to 

 1854. For the same period, in diseases of the respiratory system, "New 

 York, New England, and the region about the great lakes exhibit the 

 largest ratios; and Florida, Texas, and New Mexico the smallest, being, 

 in the ratio of cases per 1,000 of mean strength, New England, 4.8; 

 New York harbor, 5.9; great lakes, 4.5; Atlantic coast of Florida, 2.3 ; 

 Gulf coast of Florida, 6.9; Texas southern frontier, 4.00; western 

 frontier of Texas, 3.9; New Mexico, 1.3." The conclusions of Dr. R. H. 

 Coolidge, U. S. A., the compiler, (Medical Statistics United States 

 Army,) are, I believe, accepted to-day: "1st. That temperature, consid- 

 ered by itself, does not exert that marked controlling influence upon 

 the development or progress of phthisis which has been attributed to 

 it. * * 2d. That the most important atmospherical condition for 

 a consumptive is dryness. * * 3d. That next to dryness in- im- 

 portance is an agreeable temperature — a temperature uniform for long 

 periods, and not disturbed by sudden or frequent changes. * * A 

 uniformly low temperature is much to be preferred to a uniformly high 

 temperature. The former exerts a tonic and stimulating effect upon 

 the general system, while the latter produces general debility and nerv- 

 ous exhaustion. The worst possible climate for a consumptive is one 

 with a long-continued high temperature and a high dew-point." 



Confirmatory of all this, and the fact that " New Mexico is by far the 

 most favorable residence in the United States for those predisposed to 

 or affected with phthisis," may be consulted the testimony and experi- 

 ence of several medical officers of the United States Army. (Quoted 

 in Hammond's Hygiene, p. 280.) 



An examination of the sickness and mortality tables of the troops 

 serving in New Mexico from 1861 to 1865, published in the Medical and 

 Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, Part I, Washington, 

 1870, pp. 138, 280, 430, and 588, Order V, Diseases of the Respiratory 

 Organs, shows the following cases: 



