Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/332

320 advantages over the Greater Antilles, in that they lie in the path of the northeast trade winds, and, being small, the winds sweep over them as over the deck of a ship. There is no alternating sea breeze and land breeze, because there is not sufficient land to be heated by day to form an upward current, and to cool by night and form a downward and outward current; but there is always a gentle movement of the air toward the west, without the intervals of calms which characterize the Greater Antilles. But any of the West India Islands, no doubt, furnish many locations in good sanitary condition where the intelligent invalid may find bodily and mental repose, and let his muscles relax and take comfort, while his enfeebled skin, long constringed by cold and debilitated by clothing, is stimulated by genial warmth to doing its long.-neglected duty, for a time at least, while the kidneys, heart, and lungs are given a much-needed rest.

It should be understood that I do not think all cases would be benefited by a sojourn in a tropical climate, but I feel assured that for a large number of carefully selected cases no resource of climate can be so promotive of improved metabolism as a well-selected location and suitably regulated life during several winter months in the tropics, from time to time, especially if closely followed by a change to a higher latitude or altitude and cooler locality during the following summer.

Not least among the advantages of a tropical climate for a temporary sojourn in certain cases is the change of food which is, or at least ought to be, always effected. It would be a very unwise proceeding to subsist upon a diet essentially the same as one is accustomed to at home. In the first place, there are not many of our American stomachs that do not need a rest, and one of the objects to be sought in living in a warm climate is to give the overworked stomach a chance to recuperate; not only because there is no necessity for the same amount and quality of food to be digested, but we can find in the fruits of a country food which is not only very easily digested, but which supplies nearly all the requisites for wholesome nutrition under the changed conditions. The best fruits of the tropics are very perishable—so much so that we never see them in New York. Now, I am not advocating an exclusively fruit diet; but I think when people from the north go to the tropics for "climatic therapeutics" they should make it a point to eat very sparingly of meats and even farinaceous food, and endeavor to supply Nature's wants by using largely of the fruits of the country—especially those soft, sweet, and perishable fruits which do not last more than a day or two. Thus we have, besides the influences of steady warmth and moisture, the added advantage of a change of diet, which is no small factor in modifying the metabolism which we seek.