5anitar^ Benefits of if)e (Jdirondac^ 



Forest. 



THE strongest factor in the forestry movement at present is the demand for 

 forest preservation — a demand which is supported strongly by the many 

 people who utilize our forests as a health resort, and by the invalids who 

 find within their shelter a natural sanitarium where relief can be obtained from 

 various diseases. 



The sanitary value of our forests cannot be overestimated. In addition to their 

 furnishing a summer home for the overcrowded population of our towns and cities, a 

 place where rest, recuperation and vigor may be gained by our highly nervous and 

 overworked people, the healthful and purifying influence of coniferous forests has 

 been thoroughly established. The belief that the atmosphere of evergreen forests has 

 a curative effect upon persons suffering from pulmonary phthisis is a very old one. 

 The old Romans sent patients with ulcerated lungs to Libra, where by breathing the 

 healthful exhalations of the pines with which the country abounded, they are said to 

 have lived many years freed from their complaints. 



The testimony, based on personal, careful and scientific investigation of such men 

 as Dr. E. L. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, cannot be set aside. Himself an invalid 

 restored to health by forest life, he has devoted himself to the question of environ- 

 ment in its relation to tuberculosis, and has demonstrated the value of the terebinthine 

 forests of the Adirondack region as an agent in warding off pulmonary disease. He 

 says that 



" Twenty-five per cent, of the patients sent to the Adirondacks suffering from incipient con- 

 sumption come back cured — a proportion only surpassed by the State of Colorado. As a 

 sanitarium for the State and City of New York alone, the value of this region is inestimable, and 

 many professional men will be at a loss where to send their suffering patients who are unable to 

 pay the expenses of a trip to Colorado or California, unless some steps be immediately taken 

 to save to the State this heritage that should be preserved for the people." 



Dr. Alfred L. Loomis, of New York* (a well-known specialist on pulmonary 

 disease), has also given scientific testimony to the value of evergreen forests as a 

 therapeutic agent in lung affections. He writes: 



" Having long since been convinced by my observations th^t evergreen forests have a power- 

 ful purifying effect upon the surrounding atmosphere, and that it is rendered antiseptic by the 

 chemical combinations which are constantly going on in them, I invite attention to some con. 

 ditions which may explain their therapeutic power. Such ambiguous terms as ' balsamic 



* Deceased. 



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