118 ON CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 



to the patient ; in other words, to that of his natal air. 

 That the change from the low country to the mountain air 

 of the Neilgherries, is nearly equivalent to that of a return 

 to Great Britain, will scarcely be questioned, on perusing the 

 preceding account of the meteorology of the hills ; and we 

 are therefore bound to anticipate as good effects from the one, 

 as from the other, provided we make allowances for the 

 countervailing effects of the suddenness of the transition. 



In returning to Europe, besides the inappreciable moral 

 influence of a return to friends, home, and country, the pa- 

 tient has the benefit of a prolonged sea-voyage, a curative agent 

 in many instances of first-rate importance, and he has the 

 further advantage, of a gradual and twice-repeated change of 

 climate. While, in ascending the hills, he has to undergo 

 the transition, from the temperature of Madras to that of the 

 south of England, in the course of a single day, sometimes of 

 a few hours, much as if he were to ascend from the Coro- 

 mandel Coast in a balloon, in the afternoon of a red hot day 

 in May, and land, in the course of five or six hours, on the 

 coast of Devonshire. 



This sudden transition, where the constitution is prepared 

 for it, has its advantages in a great majority of cases : 



1st. By exciting a healthy re-action in the system. 



2nd. By exciting a new action, which overcomes the dis- 

 eased one. 



3rd. By restoring the healthy powers of the constitution, 

 and the general tone of the viscera, particularly the diges- 

 tive organs. 



4th. By removing the eternally recurring causes of irrita- 

 tion, in the low country, such as heat, moisture, closeness, &c. 



5th. By breaking the habit of disease ; a consideration 

 of vast importance in some of the most obstinate forms of 



