The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-01-11

The entrance to the cave Is at the end
of ravine back Of the Cave Hotel, and.
11S feet below the building. The visit
OF goes down winding path until he
arrives at the place where the ravine
seems to have run up against precip-
itous bluff and knocked . huge hole in;
the hillside. The hole Is the mouth of
the cave. It Is twenty-four feet In
height and thirty wide. A small stream
of clear water flows from between the
rocks above the opening and falls upon
the rocky bed below with pleasing ef-
feet. At nearly every season Of the
year o constant fog or bank OF mist OBJ
scures the entrance, caused by the meet
ing of two stmospheres, one of which Is
colder than the other, and thus con-;
denses the moisture in the air where the
meeting takes place. Upon the day
we entered the cave the temperature in
side and out happened to be about the
same, and the fog was absent, some
thing that rarely occurs. The tempera-.
ture of the air of the cave never rises,
Until recently it was declared that the
constant tempersture inside the cave,
winter, spring, summer and autumn, was
scientific tests have shown that this
measurement was marked five degrees
too high. The temperature was shown
to be but 81 deg, and from that It new
er varies. The atmosphere Is very pure.
Oxygen and nitrogen bear the same re-
lation to each other in the cave atmos-
phere that they do in the air outside;
but there is much less carbonic acid gas
in the cave than is found in the air we
breathe. In the drier parts of the cav
erns the proportion is about 1-5000th,
and near the river is still less. Not o
trace Of ammonia has ever been
found in the cave proper.
The humidity Of the atmosphere
varies as you descend to the river and
lake-regions. In the upper avenues and
chambers, upon the walls and floors Of
which nitrate of lime is deposited, there
is destitution of moisture almost abso-
lutte. Here animal matter mummifes
instead of decaying by putrefaction. A
dead body left in these passes would
turn to mummy. In these same re-
gions, for the same reasons, dust never
rises. Not q trace of ozone oan be do.
tected. 1t is said that the atmosphere
of the cave Is the most exhilarating on:
the face of the earth. Fragile, delicate.
women have been known 10 travel on
foot over ten and even twenty miles of
the rocky, rough passages in the cave,
experiencing littleor no fatigue, where
as they could not walk one-third that
distance In the open air. The great
purity Of the caves atmosphere Is not
fully realized until the explorer emerges
into the 'ssweet, pure country air" of
the outside world, The passage from
one to the other ut first Is like transition
from the air of the streets into close.
dormitory where . score Of sleepers
have spent the night.
This extreme purity of the atmos-
phere Of the cave founded the impress
sion, some years ago, that resi-
dence there would cure, or ut least
check, consumption. The test was q
sorrowful one. A half dozen oonsump-
tives, about 1S43, entered the cave for;
the distance of mile, or more, where
they erected huts of stone and some of
wood, in which they took up their resi-
dence. During the first few days they
were greatly encouraged by the effect.
Then began a reaction. Several of
them soon died in the cave, and all the
rest expired soon after their return to
the external air. Let physicians explain
the cause Of this effect. Short trips in
to the cave are advantageous 10 people
afflicted with lung trouble, inhammatory
rheumatism and dysentery.@Cbr. On
cinnati Commercial.