Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/328

316 winter and summer. The springs furnish agreeable bathing, the climate is mild and stimulating; it is so sheltered from the winds as to be warm, even in winter, and socially it is attractive. The hot springs at Las Yegas, New Mexico, combine the advantages of a good winter climate, excellent hotel accommodations, and baths of natural hot water. The temperature of these springs varies from 71° to 136° Fahr., and they contain salts of soda and lime. We give tables showing the constituents of these several waters:

Denver itself makes a good winter resort, as it combines the comforts and attractions of a city with a dry, warm, and sunny climate. But no directions can be given as regards the place that is best suited to any individual case; that should be determined by some competent physician who would take into consideration the demands of the case and the season of the year. In the summer it is well for the invalid to go into the mountains, either camping out or going to some of the resorts; in the winter, let him do as the Indians did, come down to the edge of the plains.

The inclination to exercise to excess and to overdo is a tendency which the phthisical invalid should guard against. The increased activity of the heart, bearing in its train an increase of metamorphosis and an exalted vitality, frequently leads the invalid to overrate his strength and to exercise too violently. In this way irreparable injury is not infrequently done. The exhilaration produced by the tonic air, coupled with the restlessness incident to change of scene, often induce patients, who should be resting and becoming acclimated, to take long and exhausting walks, or to ride distances that would tax the energies of a well man. It is difficult for most phthisical invalids to understand that they are not as strong as they once were, and to teach them that exercise does not mean exhausting effort. There is a wrong impression, common to this class, which leads them to think that in order to