The Climate of the Central Rio Grande Valley 



In Its Relation to the Treatment of Tuberculosis and Diseases of 

 the Throat and Lungs 



By JAMES H. WROTH, M. O. 



1 



HROI GH the many years while the United Statp ■ 

 had troops stationed throughout New Mexico it 

 was discovered that the Rio Grande valley pre- 

 sented an unusual ])rotection against tubercular 

 troubles. Long before the time of scientific in- 

 vestigation as to cause and effect these facts were 

 brought to the attention of the army surgeons of 

 the various posts and Central New Mexico was 

 regarded as the favored spot to which tubercular 

 troubles should be sent with the highest proba- 

 bility of permanent relief. All this w^as recognized before the causation of 

 tuberculosis had been diagnosed by the microscope. The works of 

 Barthohv, Bertelej:te and Smart had conclusively proven that there was 

 something in the Rio Grande valley which exercised an inhibitory or 

 restraining eft'ect upon the cause of tuberculosis and these facts were rec- 

 ognized long before any satisfactory explanation of their existence could 

 be given. 



It is now uniformly conceded that sunlight and dryness are at least 

 potent factors, if not the main factors, in the curative process against the 

 White Scourge, which attracts so much attention at present. Coincident 

 with the discovery of the cause of tuberculosis (the bacillus) the United 

 States government caused to be issued a resume of the weather observa- 

 tions made at the various posts of the United States ami}- in New Mexico. 

 These posts have long since been abandoned, but fortunately for the 

 medical profession ancl the world at large, the obser\ations have been 

 kept up by voluntary disinterested observers, until we have, all over the 

 territory observations ranging over a sufficient term of years to make 

 them of practical value. The compilation of thirty-five years of observa- 

 tion proves that the ten-inch rainfall belt coming westward through 

 Texas, extends a long, narrow prolongation north, within the Rio Grande 

 valley as far as Embudo, New Mexico. This prolongation is nowhere 

 more than twenty-five miles wide and is confined absolutely between the 

 mountain ranges bordering the Rio Grande on the east and west. 



Within the finger-like projection there exists an isolated ''island" of 

 dryness extending from Bernalillo on the north to Sabinal on the south. 

 of which "island" Albuquerque is the geographical center. This "island" 

 is 25 to 50 per cent drier than any other part of the ten-inch rainfall belt. 



Here we have the scientific solution of the facts recognized long ago, 

 that Central New Mexico is better prepared, better equipped by nature to 

 provide for the care and treatment of tuberculosis than any other part of 



