The Wilmingtonian., 1888-08-25
sEASHORE OR MOUNTAINS.
Beneats OF Mountain Air Confrasted with
Those OF Sea Bathing.


to the seashore ?' Unless have some
knowledge of their pecularities OF constitu-
tion or disease, l answer to the effect that it
is impossible to say which is the more suit
able. Nothing can determine the point def
nitely except an actual trial. If the inter-
rogator lives permanently in the vicinity of
the ocean / usually tell him to go to the
mountains. If bis home is in the interior
l advise him to try the sesshore. In either
case l add: 'Tf 1t does not suit you try the
other" Generally speaking, 1t is mere
matter of choice, depending upon { ther fac
tors than health, change being the one thing
needful. A removal to place a few miles
distant from that at which person perma-
nently resides will often be sufficient to give
the necessary change of air.
Undoubtedly, however, mountain region
is pre- eminently suited for some people, as
the seashore ia for others. The trouble is
that we can not always predict which will
be the more beneficial till we have called
actual experience to our assistance.
WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS.
In the first place the air of the mountain
is less dense than that of the seashore. 1t
contains less amount of oxygen in any given
quantity and hence, in order that blood may
be duly oxygenized, the respiration must be
more active. A person living in mountain
GUS regions, breathing, as he does, more
actively than one living on lower plane,
has more fully developed lungs and larger
chest. 1t would seem proper, therefore,
that those who have narrow chests and a
tendency to lung diseases would do well to
spend month or two in the summer in
high attitudes and in climbing mountain
Sides have frequently witnessed the good
results of such course of life. The greater
part OF New Mexico, for instance, is from
5000 to 1000 feet above the level of the sea.
have seen many weak, puny, narrow
chested men and women, who at their homes
| on the seaboard painted violently from the
slightest exertion, become after few
months residence in Santa Fe strong and
ruddy, with their breathing capacity greatly
increased and able to walk briskly two or
three miles or climb up to the top of a steep
mesa without losing their wind.
| Again, the air OF mountains possesses a
greater amount of ozone than that of the
seashore. What particular effect ozone may
have upon the health of a man has not yet
been clearly made out, In some directions
it seems to be absolutely injurious. There
| is good evidence to show that 1t is often pro.
ductive of bronchial affections and especially
of influenza. During epidemics of this
disease an increased amount of ozone has
been found in the atmosphere.
On the other hand there is no doubt that
ozone is great purifier OF the atmosphere
and it Is doubtless owing to the increased
amount of this agent in the air of mountain
regions that its salubrity is in great mea
sure due. have subjected putroscent mea
and vegetables to the action of ozone, ant
invariably the bad smell was at once cor
rected. 1t may, therefore, be regarded as {
destroyerof certain germs which are capabl
of producing disease.
MALARIAs FAvoRITE MONTH.
The month of Augustus of all the summe
months that during which malarial disease
are most likely to prevail. For persons suf
feriug from such affections, or who are labl
! to be attacked, the mountains afford SAT
refuge and one of which they should prompt
, ly avail themselves. A few weeks spent q
i an altitude Of from 1000 to 5000 feet abov
the sea or more, IL it can be convenient
: reached, will kill the malarial germs in tt
b system and make them safe for at lea'
J another year.
: During my service at Fort Riley, in Kal
q sas, cholera prevailed on two occasion to
d very great extent. While it continued IL
d air was dry aud contained no ozone. Nov
, ozone is formed when an electric spark
- passed through oxygen or common air. tt
Leculiar odor which we notice during Il
le working of statioal electrical machine
8 Immediately after an electrical dischar
70 during thunderstorm is ozone. VIII
# cholera was at its height at Fort Riley
is severe thunderstorm occurred on each oct
ne sion. The course Of the epidemic was
IN once arrested at the same time ozone rea
y, peared in the atmosphere.
~ In 1s40, when was medical officer OF t
es troops that marched across the Plains fir,
W Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, in N
~ Mexico, cholera remained with us, seiz
two or three victims every day until
reached an altitude Of 1000 feet above
level of the sea, when it Immediately dis
,ss peared. Cholera in the CatskillS or
ore Adirondacks or the Rocky Mountains
el- other similar regions would be an impo
lg- bility.
nd The water met with in the mountain
, is ordinarily free from organic matter, thor
ers occasionally it is highly impreguated "