Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/445

Rh hundred to sixteen hundred feet at the Missouri Valley to from eighteen hundred to three thousand feet at the brines, "is the sunland of Dakota. It is drier than the east divide country." Contrary to what might be expected in a latitude so far north, the winters are short. The season usually begins about the holidays; with the exception of a few disagreeable days that come with the late fall rains, the weather is usually delightful. At times in midwinter the thermometer registers much below zero. These days of low temperature invariably follow a fall of snow, and before the bright sunshine that is sure to come has tempered the dry, cutting atmosphere. A very notable feature of this climate to those who have never before spent the winter in Dakota is their ability to pursue their outdoor employments on the coldest days without unusual discomfort. A temperature that would render outdoor pursuits impossible in an air laden with moisture will in this dry, sunny air be almost unnoticeable. Storms are frequent, but not as a rule destructive or dangerous. Probably the most disagreeable feature of this season as well as of all seasons in the Missouri basin are the sudden and ofttimes extreme changes of temperature. But in the coldest weather the United States Signal reports show that the temperature is not so low by several degrees at Pierre or Bismarck on the Missouri River as in the same latitudes east of the Missouri divide. Spring begins early. The warmth and sunshine bring this season fully a month in advance of the damper localities in the same latitude and many miles south in the Mississippi. In summer the days are often warm, but rarely oppressive. The autumn is the most delightful season of the year, and the year usually passes away with it. The favorable features of Dakota for health-seekers are that it possesses the proper altitude; that it has a water supply of the very purest; that by far the largest number of days of all seasons are days of sunshine; that it has a dry, porous soil; that it can not for years be overcrowded; that severe and fatal diseases do not extensively prevail; and that it has plenty of advantages for industrial pursuits, thousands of acres of cheap productive land, and a place where the poor and the prospective invalid can found a permanent home. The disadvantages are, that there are present to a certain degree sudden and depressing atmospheric changes; and that it lacks a great variety of means for diversion, although hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and other sports can be followed almost daily.

Mind Cures.—Why, asks Dr. A. T. Schofield, of Friedenheim Hospital, are not the great therapeutic powers of the mind given their due place and prominence in medical treatment? "Does any practical medical man doubt these powers? Is he not aware of the ingredient 'faith' which, if added to his prescriptions, makes them often all-powerful for good? Does he not know the value of strongly asserting that the medicines will produce such and such effects as a powerful means of securing them? Has he never witnessed the therapeutic value through the mind of the dentist's waiting room in curing toothache, or of the consultant's spacious dining room and back numbers of Punch, combined with the physician's august presence in the consulting room? And has he not seen how much more efficacious the very same drugs have proved when prescribed in such solemn surroundings than in his own humbler environment and less august presence?" Among the most valuable instruments of mental therapeutics is the mantelpiece striking clock. Sir Dyce Duckworth insists upon the great efficacy, in cases of persistent vomiting, of giving the liquid food in teaspoonfuls every five minutes by the dock. Food thus given is more readily retained, and all the more so if the clock can be clearly observed by the patient himself from the bed. At the exact time the mind, acting through the brain, enables the stomach (perhaps by some inhibitory power over the vomiting center in the medulla) to retain the food. The clock has also proved to be valuable in labor in promoting regularity in the intervals between the pains, as well as in the appointment of the hours for nursing the child. Its real value in these, as in all cases, is truly scientific, and lies in its potent aid toward rapidly forming accurate psychophysical habits or artificial reflexes in the brain. The clock is a strong aid to sleep by enabling a person to go to bed at exactly