72 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. IV, endeavouring to propel the blood tlirougli the relaxed or dilated 



PART III. blood-vessels. This accounts for the number of people who com- 



Wellington. plain of oppression and difficulty of breathing with increased action 



Medical of the heart, amounting in some to cardialsfia on first arrival from 

 Report on ° -,■ . ^ ■ , 



Climate, &c. the plams. it is an unpleasant condition^ which passes off as the 



system accommodates itself to the elevation. From the same cause 

 persons on first arrival at the Hills suffer from sleeplessness and 

 giddiness, with marked dilatation of the pupils, due to an insuffi- 

 ciency of blood being propelled to the brain by the embarrassed 

 heart. This symptom is distressing and is not benefited, 

 as a rule, by narcotics, but bromide of potassium with quassia is 

 useful by its sedative and tonic action. For the same reason 

 lung diseases, particularly phthisis, do badly throughout their 

 whole course on the Hills. For a similar cause hfemorrhages are 

 not of unfrequent occurrence, and the medical man has to guard 

 against this, particularly in women after confinement. Cases of 

 neuralgia during the easterly winds do badly, relapses are fre- 

 quent ; in fact it has been known to have originated by a residence 

 here, and a change to the plains seems to be the only cure. 



It may be stated then that the climate of the Hills is decidedly 

 injurious to cases of organic disease of the abdominal and thoracic 

 viscera, secondary syphilitic disease, and cases of dysentery 

 complicated with liver, also diarrhoea of a chronic nature. It is 

 particularly prejudicial to cardiac, cerebral, and lung affections, 

 and to diseases of the liver and kidneys. This can be easily under- 

 stood when one considers that action of the skin and lungs, which 

 are the great contemporaneous channels of relief to these organs 

 in the plains, is in the one instance, the skin, totally checked, and 

 in the other, the lungs, called upon by elevation to do much more 

 than double work. This is shown by persons going up hill 

 suffering from dyspnoea, which results from the system demand- 

 ing more oxygen. 



Any violent exercise is prejudicial, as it is thought liable to 

 produce disease of the circulatory system, and for this reason 

 gymnastic exercises are discouraged, and shot drill is not allowed. 

 Elderly persons are liable to irregularity of the bowels, due to 

 torpid action of the liver, and diarrhoea is common on first 

 arrival, unless great precautions are obsei^ved to avoid internal 

 congestions, this being nature's mode of relief, considering that 

 there is no transpiration through the skin ; and women from the 

 same cause, on first arrival, are liable to have their menstrual 

 functions interrupted. Children cannot be too carefully looked 

 after, and especially is it necessary to protect them from cold 

 winds by warm clothing. Teething is a most trying ordeal, 

 children at that period being more liable to acute abdominal and 

 thoracic attacks. Thoy should be clothed in flannel and all 



