absence of rank vegetation. This makes New Mexico, in its general expanse, a splendid sanitarium for hay fever as well as for consumption. IMPARTIAL TRIBUTES. The fame of New Mexico as a sanitarium for persons suffering from or threatened with pulmonary disorders has become world-wide. Having reached the unanimous conclusion from the study of statistics and from actual experience that a change of climate affords the only certain and permanent cure for consumption, the leading physicians of Europe as well as of the United States have for several years been making exhaustive investigations with a view to finding the climatic conditions best adapted to persons afflicted with weak and diseased lungs. These impartial and conscientious observers are unanimous in their conclusion that the sections least affected with consumption and most favorable to its treatment and cure are those which combine most thoroughly in their climates aridity, altitude, sunshine, scanty vegetation, and absence of extremes of either heat or cold, and the consensus of opinion is that in New Mexico are found more of the beneficial climatic characteristics sought and fewer drawbacks than in any other country in the world. This was the verdict of the committee appointed in 1885 by the Medical Congress of France to make thorough examination in any part of the world that gave promise of the requisite climate. This committee agreed that the greatest equability was to be found in the valleys of a mountainous country, where of necessity there would be comparative immunity from the winds and storms which sweep over the plains and coast regions; that the proper temperature would be found between the thirty-second and thirtysixth degrees of latitude, where the patient would not be exposed to the severe weather of the north or the enervating influences of the south; that the altitude necessary to give the best degree of atmospheric pressure was about 5,000 feet above the sea level; and, after visiting Asia, Africa, North and South America, that the Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico was the locality wherein the necessary conditions were found in the highest degree. It was further found that but one locality-a small territory in the northern part of Africacompared favorably with it. The American Health Resort Association, whose physicians have traveled extensively and made special studies of climatic and kindred conditions in New Mexico, unequivocally indorsed the report of the French physicians and pronounced New Mexico, particularly the central part, the most suitable section in the world for the arrest and cure of pulmonary diseases. ESPECIALLY NEW MEXICO. Dr. George Halley, professor of surgery, Kansas City Medical College, says: New Mexico possesses the seven great requisites of a sanitarium for the treatment of consumptive patients and those suffering from bronchial and certain forms of throat affections: First, a very dry, aseptic air, experiment showing that the atmosphere is as free from harmful bacteria as that of midocean-the purest known to science; second, a light atmospheric pressure, caused by the high altitude of the country and ample table-lands where the air has free movement and the rays of the sun uninterrupted play; third, a maximum of sunshine and minimum of cloud; fourth, a slight variation of temperature only between the extremes of heat and cold; fifth, a minimum likelihood of sudden changes of temperature; sixth, a light, porous, dry soil; seventh (and very important), a low dewpoint. I have sent my patients there, and the result has always been beneficial. It seems at first sight a long distance for patients to travel, from France to New Mexico; but there is I believe no climate in southern Europe or northern Africa the localities hitherto utilized for this purpose by Europeans that can compare for a moment with that of New Mexico and parts of Colorado for the treatment of consumption. Speaking of the immunity of New Mexico from consumption, exSurg. Gen. W. A. Hammond, United States Army, says: New Mexico is by far the most favorable residence in the United States for those predisposed or affected with phthisis (consumption). In a service of three years in New Mexico, during which period I served at eight different stations, I saw but three cases of phthisis, and these were in persons recently arrived from elsewhere. Dr. O. D. Walker, professor of physiology and diseases of the nervous system in the Keokuk Medical College, Keokuk, Iowa, and formerly physician in charge at the Government Indian School, Lawrence, Kans., makes the following interesting and valuable report of his observations in New Mexico: I have carefully observed the salutary effects of this climate upon patients. A young lady, aged about 18, came to me July 1, 1896, suffering from incipient phthisis. She was having night sweats, losing flesh, looking pale, and suffered from a very distressing cough. The microscope showed an abundance of tubercle bacilli. I used creosote and injections of Paquin's serum without marked benefit, and finally advised her to go to Las Cruces, N. Mex., which she did. Her cough rapidly improved and the night sweats stopped; she gained 20 pounds in flesh in a few months, and grew strong and hearty. I saw her in Keokuk July 5 last. She seemed to be perfectly well. Had she remained in the Mississippi Valley I think she would have succumbed to this then rapidly progressing disease within six months under any line of treatment. Dr. Gatchell, in the Medical Era: The highest interior of our continent, comprised in the great table-land extending from the Great Divide in Colorado through New Mexico, is not excelled anywhere in the world as a resort for consumptives. The altitude, the dryness, the purity of the atmosphere, and the large amount of ozone it contains combine to create conditions very favorable to recovery from phthisis. F. H. Atkins, M. D., in the Climatologist: The air here (New Mexico) is very dry, but its rarity is tonic and stimulating. The various altitudes and latitudes give a great variety of climates as to temperature and atmospheric tenuity, but all are alike in dryness. The Los Angeles Bullion says: The climate of New Mexico leaves nothing to desire, and it constitutes an element of growth and prosperity in the future that is too important to remain neglected. In a paper read before the Climatological Association, Dr. E. W. Shauffler, of Kansas City, Mo., spoke of the climate of New Mexico as follows: It is the winter temperature to which I wish to call attention, as well as the small amount of rainfall and the small number of cloudy days, these conditions combining to constitute the charm of the winter, during which season the invalid can walk or even sit out of doors almost every day. Combined with the mild temperature there is, as I have before remarked, a bracing tonic quality to the air, due perhaps in part to its rarity and dryness, which I have failed to find in the air of Florida, of the Gulf, or even San Antonio, Tex. In view of its winter climate, its altitude, the great dryness of the atmosphere and soil, and the remark. able preponderance of clear and fair days, especially during the winter and spring months, I think it must be conceded that this region presents many of the requi sites of a winter resort for persons suffering from pulmonary complaints. Nor is this merely a theoretical conclusion. It is confirmed by the experience of a considerable number of asthmatic, bronchitic, and phthisical patients who have already tested the virtues of this climate. Dr. J. F. Danter, one of the representatives of the American Health Association, says in the Medical Visitor: I think that New Mexico surpassest any locality for consumptives I have yet visited, and I have been all over California, Colorado, the South, the Sandwich Islands, and Europe. I am decidedly of the opinion that the region visited is, for consumptives, superior to any other part of the United States or of the world of which I have any practical knowledge. The Kansas City Medical Record, a high authority on such matters, in an editorial article on "Health Resorts," says: It has been a great satisfaction to us to find our opinion regarding the sanitary characteristics of New Mexico indorsed in a most significant manner by some very high authorities on the subject. Some time ago a party of medico-scientists, commissioned by the Societe Medicale of France, arrived in New Mexico after inspecting many parts of the world held in high esteem as winter and summer resorts for consumptives. Their object in thus journeying was to examine and report upon the sanitary qualifications of these different localities and countries, the end in view being the location of a sanitarium for the treatment of consumption. The commission (with we believe the exception of one member, personally interested in another locality) reported upon New Mexico as in every respect better suited for such a purpose than any country they had visited, including far-famed Algeria and other places heretofore noted as health resorts, especially emphasizing the fact that a case of consumption was never known to originate in New Mexico. Finally, no less an authority than the United States Government can now be given in support of the proposition that New Mexico is superior to all other sections of the United States for the climatic treatment of consumption. Reports on the past year's work at the General Military Hospital at Fort Bayard and the United States Marine Hospital Sanitorium at Fort Stanton appear elsewhere in this report. COMPARATIVE CLIMATIC DATA. In conclusive support of the general statements contained in the foregoing pages carefully compiled tables are given, the data having been drawn from the records of the United States Weather Bureau, comparing the important climatic conditions prevailing at Santa Fe, N. Mex., 1900, with those officially recorded at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and El Paso, the last-named city not being included in the sunshine table for the reason that the data was not at command. The comparison is made with Santa Fe because it is the only city in the Territory where the Government maintains a regular Weather Bureau station, and hence it is impracticable to make the comparison with other localities. It will be observed, however, that Aztec, in the northwestern county of the Territory; Albert, in the extreme northeastern part; Roswell, in the southeastern part; Mesilla Park, in the southern part, and Albuquerque, in the central part, where subweather stations have been established within a few years, are included in the tables of precipitation and temperatures. As already mentioned, the same general climatic conditions prevail throughout the Territory, the only marked variations being in temperatures, which are of course governed and diversified to some extent by differences in latitude and altitude. |