Alpine heights and change of climate in the prevention and treatment of pulmonary consumption / by Charles R. Drysdale.

  • Drysdale, Charles R. (Charles Robert), 1829-1907.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alpine heights and change of climate in the prevention and treatment of pulmonary consumption / by Charles R. Drysdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sputum of the tuberculous upon rabbits with such astonishing results, I have often thought with him that there seemed to be some¬ thing almost specific in the way in which tubercle, when it has once become deposited in the lungs, continues to ravage in all directions, apparently to a great extent by its poisonous properties in the economy ; and when we have before us the remarkable example of iodide of potassium, with its power of arresting the spread of syphilitic ulcers even in the lungs, is it forbidden entirely to look forward to the time when perchance some salt or other remedy may be found able to arrest the progress of some forms of cancerous or tuberculous ulcerations ? In default of all such actively curative agents, our present remedies are, I believe, entirely those which are placed within the domain of hygiene, and it is now my task to examine the evidence for the advantage said to be derived from change of climate, and especially from a residence in Alpine climates in the treatment of consumption. The remark has been long made by physicians and travellers, that consumption is much rarer in localities situated far above the level of the sea. Thus, Yon Humboldt, in his “ Notes of a Traveller,” published as long ago as 1853, mentions that the town of Quito, 9,000 feet above the sea, as also that of Santa Fe de Bogota, somewhat of a like elevation, were both of them free from consumption. Holton, an American traveller, in a work entitled “ New Granada,” published in New York in 1857, asserts! that the hospitals of Bogota do not contain a single consumptive patient. Dr. Smith (Travels in Chili and Peru), who lived nine years in Peru, informs us that the Peruvians are so persuaded as to the immunity of elevated regions from tuberculosis, that they send their patients into localities situated among the Sierras, upwards of 10,000 feet above the sea. A German doctor, Tschudi,* observes that phthisis, which is common in the low country and on the sea¬ shore, becomes very rare in proportion as we ascend the mountains, and that at 13,000 feet it is completely absent. Some physicians who have visited the highlands of Mexico, are quite as unanimous as to the rarity of consumption in certain altitudes, and that it is very rare at Mexico itself. Mr. Newton, writing on the “ Medical Topography of Mexico” in 1848, states that consumption is very rare in that town, which is situated about 7,000 feet above the sea, A French physician, indeed, M. Jourdanet, seems quite enthusiastic as to the value of high climates in this disease. Writing in 1864 on “ Mexico, its Climate, Hygiene, and Diseases,” he says, “ Le jour ou les hommes le voudront, le ciel de l’Anahuac eteindra la tuberculisation du poumon.” Although several of these works just cited are at variance with the results arrived at by * “ Ueber die geographische Yerbreitung der Krankheit in Peru” (Oesterr. Medic. Wochschaft, 1846).