468 THE MOUNTAIN. 



vernment authority, all facts observed of value for the pro- 

 fession. The accounts of common travelers have been col- 

 lected, and sifted severely for any elements of the science of 

 sanitary climatology which they might contain in their col- 

 lected facts. Faith in the change of air, as a sanative influ- 

 ence, has become extra-professional, and is now the ground 

 of ordinary experience, so that it is constantly suggested to 

 the valetudinarian by his friends, to visit foreign countries, 

 to take a sea voyage for sea air, to go to the mountains for 

 mountain air, or even to go a few miles into the country for 

 country air. So general a series of conclusions must have 

 its origin in the natural constitution of things, and the great 

 problem of change of air, as a curative resource, stands with 

 the verdict of approval from the human race. This general 

 faith is valuable, as enabling the profession to apply its 

 science and skill to vast ranges of diseases amenable to the 

 power of change of locality and the therapeutics of special 

 habitats. From the gross, glaring facts of the wonderful 

 power of even a few miles, to change and cure extensive 

 chains of morbid symptoms, the conviction was forced upon 

 the mind, that the medicine, and poison of airs and places, 

 was an important region of knowledge demanding rigid 

 scrutiny, patient investigation, and vigilant observation. 

 The regular profession, ever awake to the highest interests 

 of humanity, has labored hard in this field, and with results, 

 as ever, signal and honorable, significant and wise. The 

 literature of medicine, in this department, has expanded 

 largely, and the well-educated physician's library now con- 

 tains volumes and essays, learned and precise, on the " Sana- 

 tive Influence of Climate, 7 '* " Change of Climate Considered 

 as a Remedy in Dyspeptic, Pulmonary, and other Chronic 

 Affections,"! " Geography of Health and Disease, "J " Sys- 

 tematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological, and Practical, on 

 the Principal Diseases of the Interior Yalley of North 

 America, " "General Sanitary Relations of the United 



* Sir James Clark, Bart., M.D. f D. J. T. Francis, M.D. 



% A. K. Johnston. g Daniel Drake, M.D. 



