CLIMATOLOGY OF NEW MEXICO.

PREVALENCE OF PULMONARY COMPLAINTS.

Phthisis pulmonalis, or consumption, is probably the greatest existing scourge of the human race, at least in the northern and middle latitudes. The statistical information touching its ravages are appalling. It is accountable for about one-sixth of the deaths north of the Tropics, and there is high authority for the assertion that of the entire population of the globe 1 in every 373 persons dies of it. This includes countries where the disease is not prevalent, so that of necessity it makes the death rate very much larger in localities where it is so common. Another authority says:

Four-sevenths of the human race are said to suffer with diseases of the respiratory organs, while two-sevenths of them die.

According to conservative estimates 125,000 persons annually die of consumption in the United States, and in most of the States every year witnesses a marked increase in the number of deaths from this malady. The latest available data show that 27 per cent of the deaths in the country are due to diseases of the respiratory organs. In the light of the showing of the last census report that during the year 1890, 102,199 persons died of consumption in the United States, against 84,217 in 1880, and that during the same year the mortality from this disease in New York was 14,854, or twice what it was in 1880, no wonder philanthropists look forward with dread to the disclosures of the census of 1900. What a mighty army of human beings annually to be sent to their graves by one disease? Cholera and yellow-fever epidemics sink into insignificance by comparison. Consider for a moment that the total number of Federal soldiers killed and mortally wounded in battle during the four years of the civil war was 110,070, or only 7,871 more than the number of deaths charged as pulmonary diseases in the United States during 1890.

Consultation of official statistics show that consumption and kindred complaints are very much more prevalent in certain section of the country than others. In New England about 25,000 annually succumb to this destroyer, and in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri more than that number are yearly claimed by it. It is also alarmingly prevalent in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This statement may be applied to all the Northern and Eastern States and to all of Canada. The humid atmosphere of California, Oregon, and Washington claims many victims. In the Southern States, while not so common, it is nevertheless an active destroyer. The entire Rocky Mountain region is remarkably exempt from it.

NEVER ORIGINATES IN NEW MEXICO.

An idea of the comparative prevalence of the disease in different sections is given in the following proportions: Maine, 50; the rest of New England, 25; Southern States, 6, and New Mexico, 3, the last being less than anywhere else in the United States. Indeed, there is no record of a single case of consumption ever having originated in this Territory. The malady is absolutely unknown to the natives and they have no name for it in their common vocabulary. The children of consumptive parents coming here from the East grow up without the taint, and the percentage of imported cases of consumption that

have been permanently cured here is so large that the following statement of a physician practicing in this Territory is undoubtedly justified:

There are more men in New Mexico who have recovered from consumption after having been given over by their doctors in the States than are to be found in all the rest of the country put together.

The reasons are purely climatic. Harsh, humid, changeable atmospheric conditions, with a maximum of cloudiness and a minimum of sunshine, breed consumption and all other affections of the respiratory organs, and so long as persons afflicted in a greater or less degree with these complaints remain under the conditions indicated their cases are hopeless. Medical science may afford temporary relief, but can not stay the ravages of the insidious disease, and premature death is certain. This fact has been so well established by experience and is so universally admitted by capable and conscientious physicians of all schools that nothing need be said in support of it. It is conceded by all who have studied the momentous subject, including the leading specialists of Europe, as well as of the United States, that change of climate and this alone will effect a cure.

Early in the search for the desired climate, the fact that New Mexico was exempt from diseases of the throat and respiratory organs, and that unless too far advanced these diseases rapidly disappeared under its climatic influences, arrested the serious attention of physicians and other scientific men. The thorough and impartial investigations that have followed have resulted in the publication of a multiplicity of glowing, discriminating, and deserved tributes to the peerless climate and varied natural resources of New Mexico from the pens of prominent physicians, journalists, and specialists in climatology. The consensus of opinion of all these writers is that New Mexico not only possesses the best possible climate for the cure of all manner of pulmonary troubles, but affords men of enterprise, industry, and small means exceptionally promising opportunities to earn a livelihood amid surroundings most conducive to comfort and happiness.

GENERAL CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.

The term New Mexico is a broad one. It embraces an area of 122,560 square miles. Its eastern border extends south 345 miles from the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, or the southern boundary of Colorado, to the thirty-second parallel of latitude, or the Texas line; its western border extends south 390 miles from the Colorado line to a point on the northern boundary of the Republic of Mexico; and its width from east to west is 335 miles. It lies broadside to the sun, sloping from north to south, with an average altitude of 7,000 feet above sea level in the northern counties and an elevation of only about 3,500 feet in the southern part, while many mountain peaks reach altitudes varying from 8,000 to 13,000 feet. The Continental Divide passes through it, so that the waters of the Rio Grande, Canadian, and Pecos rivers and their numerous affluents ultimately find their way to the Atlantic through the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and those of the Animas, San Juan, and Gila rivers and their tributaries flow southwesterly toward the Pacific. It is better supplied with water courses than any other State or Territory of the Rocky Mountains, all of which collect supplies of rare purity from the melting snows of the high altitudes. Besides, the existence of great bodies of fresh water underlying most of the Territory is proved by the

development of flowing artesian wells in many places and the almost universal success that has attended pumping water from ordinary wells by means of windmills.

This imperial domain, embracing rugged mountain ranges, irregular foothills, broad expanses of table-lands and valleys only a few feet above the flowing rivers, lying between the parallels of latitude that include southern Virginia and the Carolinas, and varying in altitude from 3,500 to 13,000 feet above tide water, naturally presents many modifications of the general climatic conditions. Of course lower temperatures prevail in the northern than in the southern parts, and it is thus possible for invalids easily to govern their movements so as to enjoy the summer warmth of the temperate zone all the year round. But with this minor modification, incident to topography and contour, the general characteristics of the climate throughout the Territory are remarkably uniform.

LAND OF SUNSHINE AND BLUE SKIES.

All agree that the climate of New Mexico is one of its greatest glories. It is emphatically a land of sunshine and blue skies, where extremes of heat and cold are unknown, where in summer it is never uncomfortable in the shade, and where in winter it is never uncomfortably cold in the sun. Even the hottest midsummer days in the southern valleys are pleasanter than similar days in the East because the dry air rapidly absorbs the dampness of the skin and has a cooling effect and the shade is always refreshing. In a dry climate the metallic thermometer does not indicate the real temperature felt by a human body. It has been demonstrated that a temperature of 90° in New Mexico is no more oppressive than 72° in St. Louis. In the northern valleys, some of them as much as 7,000 feet above sea level, the summer temperatures average from 60° to 67°, just right to promote the healthy growth of flowers, fruits, grains, and general vegetation. The nights are usually cool and invigorating in the southern as well as in the northern sections, and however warm the day may have been or how fatiguing its occupations the resident or sojourner can always depend upon enjoying a night of refreshing sleep.

In spite of the high altitudes the winter temperature in the northern parts does not average as low as in the lower Ohio Valley and the snowfall is never greater than is actually needed; while in the southern valleys zero weather and snow are practically unknown. In all sections there are fewer cloudy days in winter than in summer. As a rule the winter days are bright, crisp, and sunny. Outdoor work, even mining in the highest mountains, is rarely ever interrupted by cold weather or snow, and there are few days when invalids can not enjoy the benefits of exercise in the fresh air and sunshine. In general terms it may be said that New Mexico enjoys the summer climate of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the winter climate of Tennessee and North Carolina, and the spring climate of southern Illinois and Ohio. But it posseses one vitally important advantage that belongs to none of these places. The dry air minimizes the effect of both heat and cold.

DRY AND RAREFIED AIR.

New Mexico lies in the region of greatest dryness in the United States. The relative humidity of the Territory ranges from 29 to 43 per cent, according to locality, as compared with an average of 69.2

per cent at Boston, 73.1 per cent at Buffalo, and 79.2 per cent at Olympia. The annual rainfall for the whole Territory is approximately 10.2 inches. Little snow falls except high up in the mountains. The dryness of the climate is not intermittent, but perpetual. Compare the rainfall in the valleys of New Mexico of less than an inch per month, two-thirds of which falls during the summer months, with an average yearly precipitation at New York of 43 inches, Boston 45 inches, and Savannah 48 inches. Thus an idea is gained of the smallness of the rain supply in this Territory. Being far remote from large bodies of water, and owing to the high altitudes, dews and fogs are unknown. The sheltering mountain ranges, breaking the force of the winds from the north, west, and east, account for the entire absence of blizzards and cyclones.

Owing to the fact that the average altitude of the Territory is about 5,600 feet above sea level, the atmospheric pressure is light, and the pure rarefied air is rendered deliciously crisp and invigorating by the presence of an exceptionally large percentage of ozone and all the other elements essential to the enjoyment of the highest measure of health and happiness. In the language of an authority on climatology, "If we reckon the surface of the human body at 16 square feet-the average proportion--we see that at an altitude of 6,000 feet the body of a man is relieved of the enormous weight of 7,000 pounds, or at 7,000 feet, more than 8,000 pounds." The area of respiratory surface of both lungs of a man is reckoned at 1,400 square inches. Thus the great relief of pressure on weak lungs afforded by the light dry air of New Mexico becomes plainly apparent. At the same time the ozone acts as a constant tonic. The effect is to quicken and enlarge respiration and stimulate to fresh endeavor. The lungs are very elastic. While the pressure of the blood within them remains the same, naturally the first effect of a removal from the damp, heavy atmosphere of the seashore is a healthy expansion of the lungs, because, in order to procure the necessary amount of oxygen, much more of it must be inhaled, and so every lung cell is brought into use. The girth of the chest usually increases from 2 to 5 inches, and the size of the lungs is correspondingly increased.

The rarefication of the air here is so great that distance is practically annihilated. Mountains and hills 20 and 30 miles off seem not more than 3 or 4 miles away, and stand revealed from base to summit in all their rugged grandeur and beauty of green, brown, gray, ocher, and crimson. The lights are high and the shadows dense, while at points through the lower hills are opened vistas of monarch peaks more than 100 miles distant. Here and there a tiny cloud dapples these shouldering giants and again they blaze out in naked beauty. There is hardly a hamlet in New Mexico that does not afford these beautiful views. Expanding the lungs with pure and healing ozone, laden with balsamic odors, blown down from the wooded mountain slopes and gorges, amid such magnificent surroundings, acts as a ceaseless inspiration. Truly every day is "elixir to the breath and velvet to the cheek." It cures the sick without the aid of doctors or medicine, refreshes and renews the tired worker, and adds zest and joy to the life of the well man.

Another feature should be mentioned. The dry air of this region is remarkably aseptic. Fresh meat exposed to it cures, but never spoils. This fact has arrested the attention of surgeons, and has led to serious talk of the establishment of one or more large surgical hospitals in the Territory. In this connection should also be noted the