Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/305



HE great importance of a winter sanitarium for patients suffering from or threatened with consumption and other allied diseases has long been recognized and acted upon in Europe. The favorite resort of this description is the valley of Davos, in the Engadine, in Switzerland, where, at an elevation of five thousand four hundred feet above sea-level, the patients enjoy, during the winter months, in a sheltered position, brilliant sunshine, and an early equable sun temperature from sunrise to sunset.

Dr. Hermann Weber, one of the highest authorities in Europe on chest-diseases, thus summarizes the physiological effects of the climate of Davos:

1. Increased activity of the skin, better nutrition, and invigoration of the skin.

2. Strengthening of the heart and the contractile fibers of the vascular system, with augmented frequency of the heart's contractions at first, but reversion to the normal state after a longer sojourn, together with greater force of each contraction, and thereby increased suction-power.

3. More rapid respiration at first, but return to the normal rate after a few days. Probable increase of depth of inspirations. Strengthening of the respiratory muscles, and probably also of the elastic fibers of the finest bronchial branches. Increased flow of blood through the lungs.

4. Generally a marked increase in the excretion of water through the lungs, and increased and facilitated excretion of carbonic acid.