NO. I AIR AND TUBERCULOSIS — HINSDALE 99 



more natural methods of accomplishing" the results aimed at. The 

 judicious use of exercises has been advocated for centuries and this 

 plan of treatment has passed through most interesting phases, long 

 advocated, then condemned and later revived. Some of the recent 

 advocates of exercise by graduated labor invoke the very latest 

 knowledge of the pathology of tuberculosis in support of this method. 



The bad effects of exercise on tuberculosis patients at the well- 

 known climatic stations have been widely commented on and number- 

 less histories of patients going to their death when caution might 

 have saved them are on record. Patients going from the lower ele- 

 vations to altitudes of five and six thousand feet do not seem to 

 realize at first how necessary are rest and thorough acclimatization 

 for their safety during the earlier weeks or months of treatment. 

 The higher stations are natural gymnasia where diseased lungs may 

 be trained or overtrained ; where accidents may happen to the inex- 

 perienced and rash, or even to the old time expert if he neglects to 

 exercise proper judgment. No fall from the trapeze is more fatal 

 in its effect than some mountain expedition or other adventure by 

 the tuberculous patient. Dr. Solly was wont to say that nowhere is 

 the invalid fool more quickly punished for his folly than in Colorado. 



We are concerned, at present, with exercise as it relates to the 

 breathing habit and the aeration of the diseased lung. Exercises 

 and improved breathing habits can be carried out and acquired at the 

 sea-level or at higher elevations. We believe that at the moderate 

 or higher altitudes breathing exercises are more effective for good 

 and tend more fully to develop the thoracic movements and capacity 

 than at the lower levels (see page 62). Minor has recently reviewed 

 this subject in a paper on the " Use and Abuse of Pulmonary Gym- 

 nastics in the Treatment of Tuberculosis " and holds that they are 

 beneficial in properly selected cases. That such measures are abused 

 by those who use them indiscriminately and unintelligently we all 

 know. 



ATMOSPHERIC COMPRESSION OF LUNG 



Fifteen years ago Cornet came out strongly against exercises and 

 others of experience take even more radical ground. The principle 

 of rest has been carried to such an extreme that surgical measures, 

 such as strapping the affected side to insure complete immobilization, 

 have been adopted.^ The most radical measure was the introduction 



* Charles Denison, Trans. Amer. Climat. Ass., Vol. 21, 1905. 



