NO. I AIR AND TUBERCULOSIS — HINSDALE I3I 



ties of temperature and humidity may as well be considered together. 

 Undoubtedly for the majority of cases in the first stage the climate 

 should be dry and the temperature comfortable — not warm enough to 

 be relaxing, but not so cold as to be repellent and restrict exercise or 

 out-of-door life. It is true that in special localities better results 

 are obtained during the cold months than during the summer. This 

 is true of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in the State of New 

 York. One reason for this is that in winter the lakes and ponds 

 are frozen and covered with dry snow; the air is drier. It is far 

 enough north and at a sufficient altitude to escape the alternate freez- 

 ing and thawing that is experienced in New York City, where un- 

 questionably it is less favorable for the consumptive during the cold 

 season than during the warm months. Take Florida and South 

 Carolina : Undoubtedly the best season there is during the winter 

 months, as the summers are oppressively warm and wet. The 

 winter is the dry season and the temperature is comfortable. The 

 interior of Florida forty or fifty miles from either coast is reasonably 

 dry. As far as Arizona and New Mexico are concerned, the sum- 

 mers are too hot at all the lower elevations for any invalid, but at 

 the higher elevations, 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 feet, the summer heat 

 is not oppressive. Along the southern coast of California and at 

 many of the resorts somewhat inland, as good results are obtained 

 in summer as in winter, although the latter is the more fashionable 

 season for eastern visitors. The southern California resorts which 

 have been most frequented by consumptives vary greatly between 

 themselves as regards the important question of humidity. That a 

 place is frequented by consumptives does not prove that it is a desir- 

 able place for them. Many of them are misguided, wandering in- 

 valids, sent out from the east with little or no judgment as to their 

 individual needs and with no proper knowledge on the part of their 

 medical advisers as to the humidity or local character of the places 

 to which they are destined. A man, for instance, will go to Los 

 Angeles. It does not take him long to find out that while the air 

 is fairly dry from ii a. m. to 5 p. m., it is always damp at night. 

 Six hours out of twenty- four are dry, the remaining eighteen are 

 decidedly damp. The physicians of Los Angeles do not claim that 

 their climate is a suitable one for cases of tuberculosis and usually 

 send these cases to the interior stations, such as Redlands or River- 

 side, Monrovia or Altadena. Many are sent to Arizona. Experience 

 shows that consumptives do better if they avoid the coast region. 

 Or, if near the coast, as at Santa Barbara, they are better if they 



