NO. I AIR AND TUBERCULOSIS — HINSDALE 'J'J 



therapy. These discordant notes find utterances among those who 

 have been compelled to treat the poorer class of consumptives in our 

 cities at the seaboard and who have obtained some excellent results. 

 Stress is laid on the beneficial influence, for example, of cold.^ The 

 fact that patients improve more in winter than in summer is cited 

 to prove that " cold air in itself seems to cure in a manner which 

 nothing else can accomplish. * * * Sunshine is not essential — 

 excellent results may be obtained in climates where the sun is rarely 

 seen. Mere outdoor living seems to be the essential element, and 

 yet there does not seem to be any doubt that quicker results are ob- 

 tained in the cold season than in the summer." 



EFFECT OF COLD AIR 



There is truth in the proposition that cold air is better for the 

 consumptive than heated air. It is usually purer and is unquestion- 

 ably more stimulating to the vital forces. Warm sleeping rooms are 

 positively bad because of deficient ventilation. Warmth debilitates 

 and opens the way to bacterial invasion. Hot weather is relaxing, 

 while moderate cold, or greater cold with proper safeguards, acts as 

 a tonic and fortifies the well and sick alike against disease. 



The good efifect of cold air in tuberculosis is commonly noted by 

 physicians and patients. The following extract from a letter from 

 a tuberculous patient, dated Saranac Lake, New York, February 

 19, 1908, is interesting: 



I have not felt the cold up here this winter as I feared I might, although 

 the mercury has nearly disappeared on one or two memorable nights. 46° 

 below zero is the coldest I have seen it but it was reported 50° below in the 

 village. I am quite used to the cold now as I sit out on the porch all day 

 and have not missed a day yet; but there is one redeeming feature about the 

 cold up here and that is that zero weather does not seem nearly so cold 

 as 20° above in Philadelphia. I really do not begin to feel it until it gets to 

 20° below, although it is usually too cold to use my hands even in milder 

 weather. J. D. 



This patient was 22 years old, had been at Saranac fifteen months 

 and is reported perfectly well and weighs 180 pounds. He is ap- 

 parently cured. He remains well, Nov., 1913. 



' Editorial, American Medicine, Philadelphia, January 20, igo6. 

 See A. D. Blackader, M. D. : The Advantages of a Cold, Dry Climate in the 

 Treatment of Some Forms of Disease (N. Y. Med. Journ., Aug. 3, 1912). 



