rOKESTS AS SITES FOR SANATORIA 21 



those which abound in pitch and balsam, are most beneficial 

 to consumptives or to those who do not gather strength 

 after a long illness ; and they are of more value than a 

 voyage to Egypt." Most of the descriptions in text-books (4) 

 of sanatoria on the continent, and even in the British 

 Isles, lay stress on the woodland or forest nature of the 

 situation. In the United States Dr, A. L. Loomis of New 

 York was one of the first to send tuberculous patients 

 systematically to the Adirondack Forest, that they might 

 have the benefit of the purest and most invigorating air (5). 



The main features of the open-air treatment of phthisis, 

 perhaps insisted on earliest by Dr. Geo. Bodington of Sutton 

 Ooldfield, Warwickshire, in 1840, and by Dr. Henry 

 MacCormac of Belfast in 1856, were first systematised at 

 the Nordrach Colonic Sanatorium, which, founded originally 

 by Dr. Walther, was acquired by the Baden Insurance 

 Company in 1908. "It is a hamlet, not an institution, 

 in a sheltered valley surrounded by pine-clad heights in 

 the midst of the Black Forest." The Nordrach treatment 

 consists in an absolutely open-air life, day and night, and 

 in sunshine, fog, and rain ; abundant diet ; rest before 

 meals ; and exercise regulated by the bodily temperature. 

 Graduated labour, at ordinary kinds of outdoor work, seems 

 to be the best form of exercise (6), and has been introduced 

 at the Brompton Hospital Sanatorium at Frimley, In pine 

 forests these conditions are readily satisfied, as patients get 

 pure air and an attractive milieu for exercise, while useful 

 and interesting forestry work can be carried on in the 

 winter. Intense cold, fogs, etc., do not interfere with the 

 open-air treatment ; but this could not be carried on without 

 danger in windy places. 



Walther believed in the paramount importance of purity 

 of air, and associated with it paucity of population, which 

 is the rule in forest districts. Where pine trees abound, 

 the soil is usually dry and is often sandy. A treeless site 

 is a great disadvantage for a sanatorium ; but the trees 

 must not be crowded around the building so as to interfere 

 with ventilation. 



