The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-15
.FOUNTA|NOF YOUTH FOUND IN CLOUDS High Altitude Is Enemy of
 Disease EXPERIMENTS MADE Investigations Made on Pike Peak Thoroughly Demonstrate Human Blood There Has Great Re-
 sistance Against Sickness


 Roof of the World, the Himalayas. The human race was then strong and free from all disease. Will mankind. weakened and physically degenerate, have to return to the mountain tops in order to regain strength and life?
 Human blood at the top of Pike's Peak contains 3S per cent more red corpuscles than it does at the sea level. Human blood on Pikes Peak contains 50 per cent more white corpuscles
 Human blood on the mountain tops has a 50 per cent greater resistance to tho forces of disease.
 These statements have been verified and their truth established beyond all dues- ton, scientific or otherwise, by experi- ments now in progress at the top of the Colorado mountains, 14,0OO feet above sea level
 Therefore the mountain plateaus await such of the weddings and the diseased wbo are able to reach these fields of 1e- juvenation. For the city poor and the city slaves of business, will not artificial heights be constructed?
 If the human blood is enriched anc purified within a few days by the mere fact of elevation, why will 1t not be praa- teal in time to have floating hospitals in the air? The science of flying is making such progress there seems little question that within a few years the mechanical difficulties of such project will have been removed,
 It will be possible to construct aerial sanitoriums that will float above the cities. These may be in the nature of captive balloons, or they may be de- velopment of the heavier than air ma chimes. They may perhaps be anchored or they may float unattached In the lat ter case they probably would sail away from the zenith of the city in order to avoid the smoke impurities in the air. Access for patients might be through pas senger aeroplanes.
 With such an arrangement the man who is both sick and busy might prolong his life and perhaps secure new health without loss of business time. At the conclusion of his business day, in place of taking the "L' he would take the ele vator. He would go up a few thousand feet for his hours of recreation and of sleep, to return again in the morning for business. His blood would be enriched by nights in the aerial sanitarum. Ills lungs, forced to fight for the scant oXy- gen of the upper air, would develop strength and throw off the afflictions. Tuberculosis pneumonia and all the dis eases of impoverished blood would be checked and perhaps cured,
 The skyscrapers. in effect are at the present time giving business men and women someting of the advantags of an aerial sanitarium or a trip to the noun tains.
 The present investigations on Pikes Peak have furnished a more satisfactory explanation than was formerly eXtant as to the reason why the blood is improved by residence in mountainous places and why tubercuar patients so frequently im- prove in health. The change is due to the fact that the lungs are forced to work. The lungs, so 1t is now contended, have the power to secrete oxygen from the air and add 1t to the blood. But this is done only when the lungs are forced to act At sea level the amount of oxygen in the air is larger and the air pressure heavier As result the lungs do not have 10 se- crete. The oxygen Is forced almost me- chemically into the blood. The lungs. through lack of exercise. become weak, just as the muscles would.
 Taken to a high altitude the patient Is likely to suffer from mountain sickness. This is because the lungs have lost their facility in oxygen secretion and the pa- tfent is suffering from partial oxygen starvation. An instant relief can be se- cured by the use of an oxygen tank. After the patient has been in the mountains for few days or weeks his lungs rapidly de- velop their power to secrete the oxygen and the blood is soon supplied with the normal amount. As time goes on the lungs become more and more vigorous and the amount of oxygen pressed into the blood by them is larger than eyer be- fore. The patient is running up precipices and taking 20 mile walks be- fore breakfast.
 The scientists now at work on these problems on Pike's Peak, two and one half miles above sea level. are Dr. J. s. Holdane, F. R. s., an authority on respi- ration; pr. c. Gordon Douglas, a blood expert, both of Oxford university and Dr. Yandell Henderson of Yale universi. ty, credited with furnishing the scientific explanation of the surgical shock, and Dr. D. c. Schneider of Colorado college, Colorado Springs, author of work on blood pressure. Miss Mabel P. Fitzpat- rick. an Oxford woman, is gathering. data at lower attitudes. The investigations are being carried on at the instance of the Royal society of London, an organization maintained chiefly for scientific research
 The increase of haemogiobin (red color. ing matter. or red corpuscles) in the blood at high attitudes is not caused by q concentration of the blood but by n scarcity of oxygen which stimulates the bone marrow to unusual activity. The volume of the blood remains the same but the blood increases in richness
 The primary object of these experi- ments, says Dr. Henderson, "is to throw light on the manner in which man becomes acclmated in high attitudes. One line of Investigation is to determine changes in the blood. Here I find the red colorlng matter in my blood is about l35, as compared with 100 at sea lever In Colorado Springs, or Monitou it prop- ably would be from 110 to 12O. Manager Robinson of the Summit house on the peak, has about 140 but he has lived up here for long time.
 Another line of investigation concerns the action of the heart. Does the heart increase the force, as well as the speed Of It's stroke in high, attitudes? That is what we are yet to decide. At sea level the heart beats at about 70 strokes minute: on the peak, 90. There has been great deal of discussion as to whether the force of the stroke increases when the speed is increased.
 ''The newest point we have determined is in regard to the secretion of oxygen in the blood by the lungs. Experiments along this line are proving an entirely new theory. Dr. Haldane was one of the first to believe that the lungs did secrete nxy- gen in the blood at high attitudes, when at sea level the oxygen, 1t Is generally te- lieved and pretty clearly established. IS merely effused through the lungs. The lungs develop with exercise. just as do the muscles. and the reason pneumonia is so fatal in high attitudes is that through exercise the epithelium of the cells Of the lungs is thickened and toughened and the oxygen does not dffuse rapidly enough
 We have noticed newcomers here. There lips generally are blue showing