Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/326

314 temperature, food, humidity, and other influences affecting him. The effect on the individual varies according to his susceptibility and the degree and intensity of the factors acting on him. In some cases sluggish functional activities are energized with a tonic effect. But when that is the case it does not follow that the new climate is necessarily intrinsically better than the one from which he came. In other cases the effect of climate change often proves atonic, depressing, and injurious; but a bad effect on an individual does not prove that the climate is necessarily worse than the one to which he was formerly accustomed. It may happen that influences, good in themselves, may be injudiciously employed: as, if a person requiring a cooler climate, such as that of the coast of Maine, for instance, should try Labrador, and it should be more than he could bear; or, if one needed a milder climate and should find Para too depressing. Even the relatively slight difference between the European and American sides of the Atlantic often proves serious to the immigrant during the process of acclimatization, and many succumb, though it is probably true that the majority of immigrants find themselves invigorated in their new conditions of life on this side of the Atlantic.

My object is to call your attention strongly to the well-known fact that change of climate and its attendant circumstances, even when not of any extreme character or degree, does produce an impression more or less profound on the vital processes, and that the nature, degree, and general therapeutic or pathological character of these influences should be more carefully studied than they have thus far been studied, so that when consulted by our patients we may have some definite advice to give in regard to locations best suited to the inquirer's special needs; or, if we can not do so much, we ought at least to be able to give our patients some very positive ideas as to the kind of climate to seek, and especially what to avoid. For instance, California is seven hundred and seventy miles long. It embraces, according to Dr. Remondino, at least seven climates, distinctly different from each other, and all very different from the climatic conditions existing on this side of our continent. What is the sense in telling a patient with a hole at the top of his lung to "go to California" without instructing him in regard to the location to which he should go, or at least what kind of climate he should look for? Without some specific information such a patient is likely to drop into a place better calculated to shorten than to prolong his days. To be sure, all the climates of California are characterized by a dryness exceeding what is known in the east, and this fact gives some relative advantages. But unquestionably the air may be too dry in certain localities for certain cases. Is it not too much to expect a patient to find out what the doctor who sends