468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



than when the air is dense ; but ozone and electricity both increase as 

 we rise, and very likely this fact will explain the exhilaration and in- 

 vigoration which not only consumptives but nervously exhausted pa- 

 tients experience on removing to the mountains. The benefit that 

 consumptives find, by residence in elevated districts, is almost entirely 

 of a general, stimulating tonic character, that could very well be 

 explained by the ozone and electricity which they inhale far more 

 abundantly than in the lowlands. The benefit derived from a change 

 of residence from the city to the country may be, in part, similarly 

 explained. 



The influence of atmospheric electricity and ozone must always be 

 taken into consideration in estimating the effects of medical treatment. 

 Exacerbations of neuralgia, or rheumatic pain, or general malaise, or 

 attacks of melancholia, or mania, may be excited by low atmospheric 

 conditions, when, perchance, we suppose that the treatment we em- 

 ploy is working badly ; and, conversely, the exhilaration that patients 

 feel at various times should sometimes redound to the credit, not of the 

 physician, but of the electricity or ozone in the air. There are days 

 when all our patients seem to be depressed — all appear to be going 

 down — and there are days when all appear to be doing well. Wc can- 

 not be too cautious in attributing these changes to other factors be- 

 sides the treatment we employ. We are justified in encouraging dis- 

 heartened patients, who are ready to perish, with the hope that, not 

 unlikely, they may be suffering from low atmospheric conditions that 

 will in time correct themselves. 



In order to settle some of the questions raised in this paper, I 

 would offer these four suggestions : 



I. Let daily observations in atmospheric electricity and ozone be 

 undertaken under the patronage of the governments of different coun- 

 tries at all meteorological and astronomical stations. These observa- 

 tions, carried on for a number of years, would help to answer many 

 important queries, and, among others, whether there is more or less of 

 atmospheric ozone in America than in Europe. The data derived from 

 such comparative researches would help, perhaps, to explain the pecul- 

 iar and unparalleled nervousness of the people of the United States. 

 They might help to explain the extraordinarily stimulating character 

 of the climate of California. They might help to explain the fact 

 that, on the Pacific coast, sunstroke is not apt to occur, even under 

 very high temperature ; while, in the East, prostration from ex- 

 posure to heat not very excessive is, almost every summer, a common 

 affection. 



II. Let comparative observations be made of the atmospheric elec- 

 tricity and ozone of low and elevated regions. The data derived from 

 such observations might help to explain the great benefit that con- 

 sumptives and nervous patients so often find by a residence among 

 the mountains. They might help to explain the absolute relief or cure 



