COLORADO FOR INVALIDS. 319 



situated that he can have an abundance of plain, nutritious food, well 

 cooked, and a variety sufficient to invite the palate. It stands to rea- 

 son that if the waste in the system, produced by the disease, is not 

 only to be made good, but if, in addition, as is desirable, the patient 

 is to put on fat, he must take into his system material sufficient in 

 quality and quantity wherewith to do it. Any place, be it on a ranch 

 or at a boarding-house, where the table is uninviting and nauseous, 

 is a bad one for the invalid, and one that he should leave as soon as 

 possible. It is on this ground that we base a good deal of our objec- 

 tion to ranch-life. As indicated, the food is usually poor in quality, 

 insufficient in quantity, and indigestible. Contrary to what might be 

 supposed, even on a cattle-ranch, milk is seldom to be had, and, if the 

 black coffee is to be drunk au lait, it is made so with condensed milk. 

 The life, also, is monotonous and trying, and the distance from medi- 

 cal assistance, if needed, is so great as to be, in hsemorrhagic cases, of 

 serious importance. The writer is convinced that ranch-life, the so- 

 called " ranch-cure for consumptives," especially those just out from 

 the East, is a mistake ; and he is certain that its good qualities, in giv- 

 ing occupation and an out-of-door life, are to be had without the bad 

 ones, by going to some one of the many towns on the eastern slopes 

 of the Rocky Mountains. 



In conclusion, it may be appropriate to speak very briefly of the 

 classes of pulmonary troubles to which this climate is adapted. It 

 will not be possible to give a complete list, nor to attempt to catalogue 

 the varieties, but merely to mention, in the most general way, the 

 kinds of pulmonary disease that experience has shown to be relieved in 

 Colorado. It may not be inappropriate to begin with a strong nega- 

 tive, and to say that this climate is not adapted to persons suffering 

 from the last stages of phthisis. The elevation and rarity of the air 

 throw so much extra work on the already embarrassed heart and 

 lungs that the difficulty is increased and the end is only hastened. 

 Such cases need the comforts of home, and the consolation of friends, 

 more than change of scene or climate ; and we protest against the 

 cruelty of sending such invalids to Colorado as a dernier ressort, when 

 the probable issue will be that they have been subjected to an exhaust- 

 ing and fatiguing journey only to give up their life, in a short time, 

 in a strange land. The opinion that the altitude is not suited to hsem- 

 orrhagic cases is generally discountenanced by the medical profession 

 in this State. Such cases are found to do very well here if they be 

 taken early enough ; and experience shows that there is nothing in 

 mere altitude to increase the tendency to relapses. Even those cases 

 where there is a strong hereditary tendency to phthisis are found to 

 do admirably in this climate, provided they come early enough. The 

 so-called catarrhal pneumonias, in the early stages, where resolution is 

 slow, are admirably adapted to this climate. Bronchitic and asthmatic 

 patients find relief and cure here. Where heart-lesions exist, especially 



