The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-04-06
AIR OF MAMMOTH CAVE.
So Pure and Bracing That 1t Might Ne
Utilized For Sanitarium.

So Pure and Bracing That 1t Might Re
Utilized For Sanitarium.
In The Century there is an article
on "The Mammoth Cave of Ken
tucky" by John R. Proctor, former
ly state geologist of Kentucky. Mr..
Proctor, in describing the tour of
the cave, says:
Some distance OH we come upon
two stone cottages built against one
of the walls of the avenue. These
are the remains of a number that
were built in tho cave in 1S43 for
the abode of consumptive patients.
1t was believed that tho pure air OF
the cave would effect cure, and IS
consumptives took up their abode
here, and remained for five months
without going outside. 1t is said
that when they did so out three died
before they could reach the hotel.
Something more than purity is re-
quired-sunlight. 1t is said that
the saltpeter miners had remarkable
health while working in the cave,
and persons with weak lungs are
certainly benefited by short walks
in this atmosphere. I believe, in
time, that these immense reservoirs
of dry, pure antiseptic air will be
utilized for the cure of consumption
and asthma, not by sending the pa
tient into the cave, but by bringing
the air into sunlit sanitariums on
the dry, well drained elevated sand
stone plateaus above the caves.
We know the air is dry, because
the timber carried in in 1912 has not
decayed, and iron hinges have been
hero since 1S43 and show no sign of
rust. We know the air is pure, be-
cause here animal matter does not
decay, but simply dries up. The
mummies found in the caves we're
not prepared mummies, but, simply
desiccated bodies. The uniform
temperature of from So degrees to
81 degrees the year round has been
demonstrated. Consumptives take
long sea voyages ard visit high al
titudes to get the benefit of aceptic
atmosphere, but they suffer from
variations of temperature, from
storms, and at high attitudes exer-
else cannot be taken, while the cave
air predisposes one to take exercise
with little fatigue. I have known
delicate women to walk for nine
hours in the cave, clambering up
steep ascents and over rocks, and
come out Of the cave feeling no
sense of fatigue until they reached
the warm, impure air outside,
charged with the odors of decayed
vegetation, when they would al
most faint and would require as
sistance in ascending the path to the
hotel.
We think the atmosphere in the
glen at the entrance remarkable for
purity before we have become sensi-
tive by hours in the pure atmos-
phere Of the cave. Ionce went with
friend and a guide to Roaring
river and several other remote
places, which required remaining in
the cave overnight. 1t was night
when we came out, and we had be-
come so sensitive by our stay of 36
hours in the pure air of the cave
that we were almost overcome by
the suffocating mephitic odors and
oppressiveness of the outer air. We
dreaded to inhale it into our lungs
and returned again and again into
the pure air flowing from the cave.
Air freed from bacteria is one Of
the main reasons for success in
modern surgery and sanitarium
into which this air could be pumped
would doubtless be resorted to for
difficult surgical operations. Con-
sumptives in high attitudes are com.
PEELED to remain indoors in winter
weather and breathe the vitiated air
of closed rooms, while in sanitari-
ums supplied with cave air, by let
ting the air in at the upper part of
tho ,,oo,,,c op1 ont O I tho lower mart
all exhalations would pass out and
pure air would be constantly rush
ing in at uniform temperature,
winter and summer. Then it would
be boon if we could escape the op-
pressive heat of summer into hotels
kept cool and pure by the air from
these great dry caves.
Hospitality That Paid.
Gambling clubs are being raided