Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-10-14

especially appllcdDl6 10 Ine SdlI-neluS.
These asthmatics and consumptives
claim that the farther they get below
sea-level and the dryer the atmosphere,
the easier they breathe. The rheumatics
claim that the heat and dryness I'M
proves the circulation.
My stay was not long enough to make
any trustworthy observations, but it oc-
Cured to me that, aside from dryness-
mean annual, relative humidity certainly
not over twenty-five-and equability
there was considerable atmospheric
pressure at a point $50 feet below sea-
level, and that we had here mod
erately compressed air on large
scale. In recent paper on
the use OF the pneumatic cabi-
net, the author, from many cases In
practice, shows that compressed air re-
lieves asthmatics and cases OF phthisls.
He says the compressed air will gradu-
ally force its way into every part OF the
lung, in order that the pressure may be
the same on the inside as on the out.
| While the proportion of oxygen is, OF
course, not increased, yet there is an in
creased quantity in given space, and
we really have the oxygen treatment on
an extensive scale.
The physician may say that at from
200 to $50 feet below sea-level the pres
sure would not be as much as in the
cabinet. That is true, but the patient
goes into the cabinet for, say half an
hour. three or four times a week, while
if he lis at a point like Salton he is
breathing this moderately compressed
air all the time, day and night. This is
simply on the principle of the pneumatic
chamber of Tabarie, the first one ever
employed. This is the method
recommended by DR.. A. H.
Smith. He refers to the therapeu
tic value of the increased amount of oxy'
gen inhaled. He says compressed air If
useful in catarrh of the mucus mem
brane, in acute and subacute infamma-
ton of the respiratory mucus membrane
in restoring the permeability of air
tubes occluded by exudation or other
wise, in asthma, in pulmonary hemor
rhage, in pleuretic effusion, in simple
an9mia, in inveterate cases OF psoriasis
and ichthyosis and in the various
forms and stages of phthisis. He does
not recommend it in pulmonary empty
sema. DR.. Smith says compressed all
should be used promptly and persever
ingly on the earliest recognizable signs
of apical catarrh in those predisposed tC
chest disease. He also especially recon-
mends it as an Alternative.
Of course my deductions are tentative
but 1 hope by calling attention to this
unique region to gain the assistance o
intelligent observers.
If phthisical or asthmatic patient o
considerable vigor intends coming t.
Southern California, his physician nigh
be justified in suggesting that-excep
during the summer months-he stop a
Indio, ard from there test the climate O.
this basin. If not suited or benefited
it is but two hours ride by rail to Beau
ment, delightful resort, with excellent
accommodations two thousand five hun
dred feet above sea-level; but two hours
more to the pine forests in the
thousand to ten thousand feet
above sea level, or to Riverside, Mon
rovia, Pomona, or Whittier, all about
l, 600 feet above the sea ; or to Los An
geles, $50 feet above sea level; or to
Santa Monica, Long Beach, Santa Bar
bara, or San Diego, directly on the coast
and but nine hours ride by rail and boa
to Catalina Islands, twenty-five miles
out at sea, where typical ocean atmos
phere can be epjo' ed. Thus an error il
location can be quickly corrected.
Note. Other places below sea-level-Sink Of
the Amorgosa !Arroyo del Muerto), in Easter
California, 225 feet below sea-level. Th
Caspian Sea, eighty-fve feet below sea-level
Lake Assal, east, of Abyssinia in the Afa
country, eight miles long and four miles wide
is about 76O feet below sea-level. 1t shores arr
covered with a. crust of salt abou
a foot thick, This salt is a.; e sor o rex
1t by the caravans to Abyssinia. whey they fine
a ready market There are several other de
pressions about six hundred feet below sea
level in this vicinity. The noted oasis siwah
in the Libyan desert, three hundred miles west
| of Cairo is one hundred and twenty feet be-
low sea-level. Here are beautiful datep palm
groves, and h re also the apricot the
olive, the pomegrduare ana the vine are ex-
| tensively cultivated In in the same desert i,
the oasis ArGi, Two hundred and siXty-six fee
| below aea-level There are also numerous othe
| depressions in the desert portion of Algeria anG
at various points on the Sahara Desert From
the Southern California Practitioner for Octo
bar.