52 Notices respecting New Books. 



the selection of the most advantageous place of residence. I 

 think I have 5>hovvn that little is to be expected from sending 

 them to the South of France, or Nice. Without having adduced 

 equal evidence on Naples, I am nevertheless of opinion that it 

 is as bad as either. The choice, then, as far as my observation 

 goes, appears to lie between Rome and Pisa. Future obser- 

 vations must determine which of these deserves the preference ; 

 and, perhaps, whether the benefit to be derived from a winter's 

 residence at either, is sufficient to repay the inconveniences at- 

 tending so long a journey, when the disease has made any pro- 

 gress. 



" There are two principal circumstances in considering a place 

 of residence in a medical point of view — First, the general nature 

 of its climate, and, secondly, tlie effects of this on disease. The 

 first may be ascertained without much difficulty. The second is at- 

 tended with very considerable difficulty, requires much cautious 

 observation, and the experience of a far greater nunii^cr of cases 

 than generally come under the observation of any individual. It 

 is on this point that much information is still wanted, as it is by 

 experience alone that the question of the propriety or impro- 

 priety of sending our consumptive patients abroad, can finally 

 and for ever be set at rest. To repeat what I have before ob- 

 .served — I am not without hopes tliat these remarks may have at 

 least this utility, namely, of inducing the medical men who have 

 visited, and who are annually visiting, these climates, to make 

 their observations public. I shall only furtber add, that if from 

 future observation I find that any opinion I have given in these 

 pages has been too hastily formed, or is contradicted bv further 

 experience, I shall take the earliest opportunity of making it 

 known, as my oidy object is to ascertain the truth. 



*' To sum up in few words the opinion I have formed from 

 all the observations I have been enabled to make on the effects of 

 climate in pulmonary consumption — It appears to me, tJien, that 

 the change of our English climate for a residence in the milder 

 ones of the south of Europe, is much more beneficial as a pre- 

 ventive of the disease, than, I fear, it will ever be found as a 

 means of cure of it when formed. In the young and growing 

 members of delicate, scrophulous, and consumptive families, how- 

 ever, continued ''or some winters during that age when the body 

 is attaining its full growth, and when catarrhal affections are at- 

 tended with the greatest danger, it may have great inRuence in 

 checking the tendency to hereditary disease. Even when tuber- 

 cles already exist in the lungs in a state of irritation, a residence 

 for some years in a mild temperature, together with the adoption 

 of a proper regimen, may be the means of allaying the irritation, 

 and consequently of preventing the suppuration of these tuber- 

 cles. 



