100 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



ture has a stimulative influence similar to that of the cold bath. 

 This observation seems to explain the familiar clinical fact that 

 tuberculosis may be treated advantageously in very cold climates. 

 The results of sleeping in the open air in an almost arctic tem- 

 perature are familiar to clinicians. The cold temperature is 

 probably as directly beneficial as the fresh air itself. 



As to exercise, practised before the patient reaches a stage of 

 asthenia that makes it dangerous, the beneficial results are equally 

 little in doubt. Mountain climbing, with attendant fatigue falling 

 just short of extreme exhaustion, is a recognized therapeutic 

 measure of the utmost importance. In all probability, the climb- 

 ing rather than the mountain air produces the benefit. 



Incidentally we may note, in confirmation of the view of ery- 

 throcytic activities here presented, that the blood is thicker at 

 high altitudes, so that the red corpuscles are relatively more 

 abundant and hence patrol the blood better ; but that the total 

 amount of hemoglobin is not correspondingly increased (Viault, 

 Abderhalden). 



The value of the cold bath has long been recognized by a few 

 astute clinicians, who have found it difficult to gain headway for 

 their views partly, perhaps, because the rationale of the benefits 

 to be expected has hitherto been obscure. The knowledge that 

 the cold bath directly stimulates the production of an additional 

 army of leucocytes; coupled with the belief that the leucocyte 

 is the pre-eminent agent of immunization against the direct inva- 

 sion of bacilli, furnishes the all-sufficient answer. The cold bath 

 may have other beneficial effects, but this one alone justifies its 

 use in all bacterial diseases in which there is an inherent tendency 

 to defective leucocytosis. 



A striking illustration of the value of the cold bath is fur- 

 nished in the reports of the Munich military hospital, in which 

 records of more than eight thousand cases show that since the 

 cold bath was used habitually in the treatment of typhoid fever 

 the mortality of that disease was reduced from forty-two per 

 cent, to three per cent. 



As to the matter of a liberal diet, there would be no difference 

 of opinion in the case of the consumptive, but opinions might 

 differ, and undoubtedly would differ, when acute fevers are in 

 question. Indeed, the old familiar rule to "starve a fever" has 

 been an axiom upon which the average physician has acted some- 

 what persistently. But it has recently been suggested by Cole- 

 man that this rule is perhaps as fallacious as the other rule, now 

 fortunately abandoned, that the fever patient should be deprived 

 of water as well as of food. Coleman reports gratifying results 

 in typhoid fever cases in which a liberal diet was provided. "Not 



