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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



nounced regeneration so strikingly shown at great heights. How long this 

 latest explanation will withstand the attacks of the increasing number of 

 Alpine physiologists remains to be seen.^ 



The latest observations show that arterial blood contains con- 

 siderably more oxygen at high altitudes than at sea level. The 

 pulmonary alveoli have a special power of extracting or secreting 

 oxygen and this power is increased in high altitudes, this increase 

 not disappearing until a considerable time after descent to sea level. 



W. R. Huggard, of London, an unbiassed and judicial observer, 

 says : " The diminished frequency of tuberculosis with altitude may, 

 I think, be taken as established." ' Hirsch ' held the same opinion and 

 based his statement on statistics from various places. 



Thirteen years ago, Dr. Solly endeavored to show this statistically 

 and arranged three tables which we append. 



TABLE I 

 Comparative Results in Sanatoria in High and Low Climates 



COMBINED first AND SECOND-STAGE CASES ONLY 



(Taken from Dr. Walters, pp. 52 and 53) 



Altitude 



LOWLAND CLIMATES i 



Goerbersdorf (Manasse) ! 1,840 ft. 



Falkenstein (Dettweiler) 1.375 ft. 



Reiboldsgriin (Driver) 

 Total 



HIGHLAND CLIMATES 



Leysin (Bernier) 

 Davos (Turban) 



2,300 ft. 



4,150 ft. 



5.115 ft. 



Arosa (Jacobi) I 6,000 ft. 



Total 



Number of 

 Cases 



3,615 

 1,022 

 2,000 



6,637 



Z1 

 302 



259 

 "598" 



Number 

 Benefited 



Per Cent 



1,294 36 



746 -72, 



1,400 i 70 



3,440 ! Average. 51 



34 

 269 

 212 



92 

 89 

 82 



515 Average, 



71 



The total average of benefited in low climates was 71 per cent' 

 " " " " " high " " 86 



1 Without Goerbersdorf. 



The Goerbersdorf reports up to 1884 are so much lower in the percent of 

 benefited to the others — owing, perhaps, to some different method of estimating 

 results, or, perhaps, to their being taken so many years ago, when the material 

 was worse and the treatment perhaps not as efficient — that probably it would 

 bring out the truth better to omit them. 



^Editorial in Journ. Amer. Med. Ass., July 26, 1913. 



''W. R. Huggard: A Handbook of Climatic Treatment, London, 1906, p. 

 124. 



* Hirsch : Geographical and Historical Pathology, New Sydenham Society 

 Translation, 1886, Vol. 3, p. 440. 



