Litchfield enquirer., 1856-01-24
Causes Of Early Consumption In Men
 and Anamals.
BY PROF. JAMES J. NAPLES

| BY PROF. JAMES J. MAPLEs.
 The question is often asked, why it is
 that those who live at or near the level of the
 sea, are more subject to that scourge oi
 mankind, Consunption, than the hardy
 mountaineer And it is often answered, & that it is due to the differeece of their food and exercise.'' To this, as well as many other tri,e sayings. the adags tha, |" Public Report is Public Liar," may be justly applied
 The true cause of narrow chests and small and feeble lungs is easily defined by the naturalist. Buffon tells us that all ani-
 mals inhabiting high attitudes, have larger
 lungs and more copious chests than those residing in valleys. Audubon and Wilson
 both agree in stating that such birds as are accustomed to the highest flights, have the largest air-receptacles for respiratory pur- poses. The same class of animals which inhabits the mountains. if brought into the valley, although exercised in the same man. ner, will often become pulmonic; while an animal removed from the valley to the mountain, without any change in diet or exercise, expands it's chest. and obtains a corresponding increased action of the lungs. Nature has so adapted the physiological confguration, that it may undergo these | changes as occasion may require and if it were mol so, every monntaineer on visit ing the valley would lose his life by a col. lapse of his lungs and every inhabtant of the lowlands would die of suffication for want of sufficient oxygen, while breathing the lighter dlated atmosphere of the moun- tain.
 All this is easily accounted for, and the rationale IS within the comprehension of the meanest intellect.
 From the height of the atmosphere it is well known that al the level of ihe sea its superincumbent weigh, is fifteen pounds to every square inch ot surface exposed 10 its aciion-snd that consequently, as air is very elastic, that which We breathe in low regions Is in very compressed state. One of the great objects of respiration is to enable the blood to rob from the air receiv- ed within the lungs ,he oxygen contained in it-and the blood will not be content, nor continue 10 perform its proper offices, with any less than its necessary quantity of this important element.
 Now suppose cubic foot of air to be enclosed in a tight and fragile vessel, and q or other high elevation. IL will be found to expand as il loses it's superintendent | weight by being elevated at no impractical ble neigh, to double its bulk and 10 burst its prison wall. If then cubic foot ofair | of the valley contains two proporlionas of oxygen. that of the mountain, from being ! expanded, will contain but ome-and there fore the resident of these high attitudes is compelled 10 breathe double the bulk of air to supply the blood with the same weight | of oxygen. Nature enables the confiyura- ton of man, as well as of all other animals, | to meet this change. And the chest and the lungs from natural causes alone, en- | large themselves for their new office. The city of Mexico is nine thousand feet above the level of the sea--ani in this To- l cality narrow chests and diseased lungs are unknown-while from the extreme di- lation of the atmosphere, animal substance never become standing its proximity to ,he equator, and consequ uen, high temperature
 It must not he supposed, from this ex- , treme case. that slight elevations between the basement and garret stories of high house may he taken advantage of for the use of the early con,umptive-and the heights of Weehswken, and the Ca,skill and other mountains, are fully sufficient for the restoration of the inciptcnt pulmon- ic.
 Those invalids who visit the West In l dies and remain at Matanzas, Havana and other ioc localities, die-while those who reside on the Highlands of Cuba, St. Croix and else where. recover withou, reference to any other fact than mere elevation and moderate temperature. There are other advantages which will arise to inva!ids from high elevation. The | exha'ations from the surface of their bo- dies should be got rid of with the greatest possible degree of rapidi,y. lf they are surrounded by an atmosphere of nearly the same weight as that of the gases given of
 from the surface of the body. these gases
 will mix with and be carried away by the
 atmosphere slowly: whereas; when sur
 rounded by the light atmospheres of high elevation, the heavy exhaled sasses fall of.
 with greater rapidiiy. for the same reason
 that cannon.b ball will faIl more rapidly
 through water than through melted lard
 the upper atmosphere bein glighter and thin.
 ner than the lower.
 These facts will be more clearly under.
 stood, when we reflect ,ha, if the body be
 enclosed in vanished silken bag, such as
 balloons are made of, and tied around ,he
 neck, so as to prevent the escape of gasses
 given of from the surface of the body not l withstanding the mou,hi s free to breathe
 the outside atmosphere, the person so en
 cased will die in a short time.
 The missionaries who report the state o
 health of the poor inhabting the basement.
 and cellars of city, inform us. that life i. shortened by such residences and dormito
 ries more than one-ha!f The reports c
 pr. Edwin Chadwick. of Lordon, ana Doctors Griscom and Stevens, of New , York, corrobotate these facts; they all at tribute u however 10 want of sufficient ven
 i,iaton; bat as most of these sufferers di, , l of pulmonary diseases, it is equally fair |, suppose that it is from want of suficien 7 elevation.
 TIE RIsHr PLACE TO Buy Coops Tn ' place to by goods cheap, is where they ad
 certise. Who ever heard of d skin fiu 0 | l. l.. k.