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31. SOBRE O CLIMA – II

 

            MY DEAR EDITH, – I am glad to hear that my letter on climate interested you so much and am quite willing, since you wish it, to continue the subject. You ask me to explain to you in what manner the air of cities differs from country air, and why I said that the propinquity of large towns must be taken into consideration in gauging the quality of any given atmosphere.

 

            Other things being equal, the air in and near great centres of human habitation is warmer and drier, but less pure than that of the open country. The presence of trees, or of other vegetation, always diminishes the heating effect of the solar rays on the soil, which, if denuded of herbage and foliage, as in towns, becomes very warm during daytime, and reflects heat with considerable intensity. Moreover, the soil of towns is usually well drained, and hence, again, far drier than that of grassy and uninhabited places. Moisture, as I pointed out in my first letter, is attracted and encouraged by foliage, so that forests are always more or less humid. As for the purity of the atmosphere, it is easy to understand that in this respect there is an enormous difference between cities and country districts. The air of cities is loaded with organic and mineral particles, arising from exhalations of living bodies, the diffusion of suspended dust, and the presence of smoke, consisting chiefly of

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vapour of sulphur and of unconsumed carbon. Dr. Angus Smith has computed that in a large town like Manchester the air breathed by every inhabitant in the space of ten hours contains thirty-seven millions of organic spores besides suspended mineral particles. I remember being, when a student, greatly astonished at a post-mortem examination held on a man who had spent all his life in the East-end of London, by finding the entire surface of both his lungs encrusted with a complete pall of fine black dust, which, being scraped away gently with the thumb-nail, exposed the healthy tissue of the organs beneath it. In my innocence I had at first supposed this unsightly sable covering to indicate a diseased state of the lungs; but it was only carbon dust deposited inside the chest by the bronchial apparatus, and resulting from the fact that this man had for some fifty years or so continuously inhaled a smoky and soot-laden atmosphere! The air of towns, as Professor Tyndall has shown in his many interesting microscopic and other investigations, is filled with floating infinitesimal fragments of every imaginable kind of material. Dust of iron from wheels and machinery, dust of wheat and other grain from bakeries, dust of cotton, linen, velvet, fur, wool, and other fabrics from the clothes of the citizens, dust of wood and stone from the pavement of the roads, particles of manure, vegetable and animal germs, atoms of food of all sorts, and other products too various to enumerate, jostle each other in the atmosphere of London and all cities. As for other constituents of town air, it contains very little ozone, and a great deal, comparatively, of carbonic acid gas. One of the most mischievous social tendencies of the present time is that which leads the inhabitants of civilised countries to mass themselves together in crowded areas, forsaking the villages and

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hamlets in which our ancestors spent such long and healthy lives. The continual inhalation of vitiated air, loaded with the products of decomposition, and depleted of vitalising elements, occasions much of the lassitude, nervous irritability, craving for alcohol and stimulants of all kinds, sleeplessness, pallor, anaemia, and other complaints common to residents in great towns. The atmosphere of such places is burntatmosphere, deprived of all invigorating and naturally stimulant qualities, and hence the need so often felt by those who constantly breathe it for artificial stimulants and hot drinks after meals. Smoky air, moreover, irritates mechanically the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat, setting up dryness, tickling, hoarseness and congestion; and all these symptoms contribute also to create thirst and feverishness, thus inducing improper habits of diet and abnormal desire for strong beverages. Drunkenness is a commoner vice among the poor of cities than it is with country peasants.

 

            You will gather from these remarks that I do not think city air, on the whole, very healthful. It is, nevertheless, distinctly beneficial in some seasons to some cases, as, for instance, in spring and summer to persons who suffer from hay asthma, chronic catarrh, rheumatism, and certain forms of hysteria. But even such patients as these ought not to live continuously in towns, and care should be taken in every instance to select dry, well-drained, and high situations for residence. As for country air, that of inland districts, sheltered from cold sweeping winds by the proximity of forests or mountain gauges, is best suited for convalescents from acute diseases, fevers, or general inflammatory maladies. For such cases mountain or sea air would be too exciting, and might, very likely, retard instead of hastening recovery, by

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prematurely stimulating the activity of the circulation, or by arousing an appetite for food incompatible with the capacity of an enfeebled digestive system. “Chi va piano va sano,” says the Italian proverb, the wisdom of which is nowise better exemplified than in application to invalids of the type just mentioned. But where repose and gradual healing by soothing processes are not necessary, where muscular debility and organic exhaustion do not make rest imperative, the bracing influence of high altitudes or of sea-breezes may be extremely beneficial. Mental depression, irritability of disposition, impaired appetite; deterioration by prolonged sojourn in cities, harassing cares or brain pressure; as well as dyspepsia, atony of the digestive organs, and many types of nervous complaint, – all find their most potent remedy in Alpine resorts. For renovation of the nervous system, and especially of the brain, fatigued with labour or long-continued ill-health, there is nothing comparable to mountain air. It is also, in the opinion of many physicians, especially valuable in cases of incipient and even advanced consumption, chronic asthma, and bronchial affections. “A certain morbid sensitiveness to cold, or rather to ‘taking cold,’ is,” says Dr. Burney Yeo, “often greatly lessened by a residence in the bracing, rarefied air of elevated localities.” As a rule, young and middle-aged persons benefit more from a visit to mountain “stations” than elderly people, probably because the latter are less able to bear the changeful and stimulating atmosphere of high altitudes than those whose circulatory and respiratory organs are capable of being roused to more vigorous activity.

 

            After surgical operations, or accidents, or in convalescence following grave chronic disorders, sea air is far better than either inland or Alpine air. In my former

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letter I pointed out the beneficent effect of sea air in cases of recent zymotic complaints, rickets, wasting disease, and some forms of scrofula, so that I need not again insist upon this fact or its causes; but I may add to what I then said on the subject that aged persons who do not suffer from rheumatism are usually benefited by sea air on account of its even temperature, which braces, without trying, the animal forces. Of course, however, you must remember that I am now speaking very generally, for seaside places differ enormously in regard to character. All the west and south coasts of England, for instance, possess a far warmer, moister, and more relaxing climate than those on our eastern shores. Torquay, Bournemouth, and Hastings differ widely in temperature from Cromer, Scarborough, or Whitby, and invalids with very sensitive throats or chests, who derive benefit from frequenting the former places, would suffer proportionately from the bracing winds of the latter. But I must not go into particulars, for I am not writing a guide-book for invalids, but only a friendly letter to an inquiring “gossip.”

 

 

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