ON CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 117 



the health-inspiring breeze of the mountain top, we are likely 

 to remain in ignorance. Whether the cause be, an actual 

 difference in the chemical constitution of the air, or merely 

 that there has been a change made, from the self-defiled at- 

 mosphere, surrounding the sick couch, to one as yet free from 

 the exhalations of disease, are points which we are yet una- 

 ble to pronounce upon, though we see it every day proved by 

 the fact of a change, even though from a lower to a higher 

 situation, from a purer to a less pure atmosphere, operating 

 the most miraculous cures in cases, to all human appearance, 

 hopeless. Much must be doubtless attributed to the moral 

 effects, of a removal from the contemplation of objects asso- 

 ciated, in the mind of the patient, with images of suffering 

 and death ;* but still, so decided is the benefit derived, that 

 we are compelled to acknowledge, though unable to account 

 philosophically for the cause, that change of air is one of the 

 most powerful curative means we possess. And when this 

 change involves a variation of temperature, and moisture, (two 

 conditions of the air, for the agency of which we can fully 

 account) to any considerable or remarkable degree, we are 

 justified in anticipating the most marked advantage from it. 

 The effects of a change, to an atmosphere of nearly the same 

 condition, are, at best, transitory, and after the system becomes 

 habituated to it, a relapse is generally the consequence. When, 

 however, the transition is so great, as to produce a general 

 re-action of the system, we may hope, not only to find the 

 diseased action checked, but permanently altered : and this 

 is, for many reasons, stiU more decidedly the case, when the 

 condition of the new atmosphere approaches to that habitual 



* As, for instance, in a change of rooms, which, in sickness, is often 

 felt as a great relief from gloomy associations, and the enmii always 

 attendant on long confinement. 



