334 Memorias do la Sociedad Científica 


10 Inland altitudes contrasted with sea air (total abscence 
of land influence); but in certain cases sea voyages and island 
resorts to be prefered as compromise substitutes for high al- 
titudes. (?) 
El Dr. Denison, después de trabajos dilatados llegó á for- 
mar una carta de los Estados Unidos con indicación del grado 
de humedad para cada punto: comparó con la estadística de mor- 
talidad encontrando que: “the arrest of phthisis is far more su- 
rely to be aceomplished as you go toward the extreme of dry- 
ness from the mean; than as you go in the opposite direction 
from the mean toward the extreme of moisture. Indeed, it is 
the very moist climates which furnish most of the cases to be 
arrested in the very dry sections.” The chief argument in fa- 
yor of atmospheric dryness is based upon the increased transpi- 
ration of aqueous vapor from the lungs, in a degree according to 
the dryness of the air breathed. 
“The germs of disease need warmth and moisture in which 
to live and flourish. It is reasonable to infer that the preferen- 
ce shown by the bacilli of tubercle for a locus habitandi in pul- 
monary tissue is in no small degree governed by the catarrhal * 
or other products of inlammatory change, which clog or close 
" the alveoli and connecting bronchioles. well, then, if these se- 
eretions or morbid products could be removed, and at the same 
time the bacilli which inhabit them thrown off, the result would 
certainly be salutary. These could be so expelled if they could 
be reached by the iuhaled air, and this in turn had the requisi - 
te absorbent power. This absorbent power is just what the in- 
haled air possesses through its quality of dryness, and in pro- 
portion thereto. Absortion takes place through the difference 
in weight (relative humidity) between the moisture inhaled and 
that expelled. This especially takes places if cold air is inhaled, 
which is then raised to the temperature of the body, and has 
greater power for holding moisture.” : 
Nuestro autor ha calculado la diferencia de la transpiración 
