The Effect of Change of Climate. — An inhabitant of a temperate climate going to a tropical country will suffer from excitement of the nervous and vascular systems, by the heat and moisture of the air. The respiratory functions become less active; while there is a decrease of the ordinary action of the kidneys in carrying off the refuse matters of the circulation. The consequence is that the skin and the liver have an excess of work thrown upon them (to speak metaphorically, and also exactly), in order to rid the system of certain effete elements which the lungs cannot throw off. Hence the " seasoning fevers," as they are called, and the disorders of the liver to which Europeans are specially liable on arrival in a hot climate, and to which full often they render themselves the more obnoxious by injudicious diet. An eminent English authority says that: Europeans visiting hot climates should live abstemiously, taking every means to promote the functions of the skin by moderate exercise, and by daily free ablutions. Exposure of the head to the heat of the sun should be carefully avoided, as well as the risk of contracting fever by exposure to dews, the cold, and the malaria of the night air. Warm clothing should be worn at night by new-comers, as the extremes of day and night temperature in tropical regions often pass through a very wide range. The effects of a warm and moist climate upon the inhabit- ants of colder regions, in decreasing the functional activity of the lungs, and increasing that of the liver and skin, has formed the basis of the recommendation of a change from a cold to a warm climate in pulmonary affections. It is, however, very doubtful whether the relaxing and enervating influence of the keat on the nervous system does not more than counterbalance 410 MfiDtCmAL this functional compensation. Certainly, when disease m the lungs has advanced much, more harm than good generally comes of the migration. On the other hand, the tonic and bracing effect of a cold climate more frequently checks the advance of consumption, if care is taken to protect the surface from sudden chills, and so to protect it as to ensure a free cir- culation of the blood in the skin by out-door exercise. The British Hippocrates, Sydenham, was wont to call horse exercise the " palmarium remedy " for consumption, so strongly was he convinced of the importance of out-door exercise. A confir- mation of this opinion is to be found in the fact that coachmen (if temperate men) are among the healthiest classes. In the days when locomotion was performed more on horseback than is now the case, it was said that " bagmen," or commercial travelers, enjoyed a singular freedom from consumption. Unfortunately, however, these men, then as now, too often threw away their better health by their irregularities in other directions. While the stress of the effects of removal to warm climates upon the inhabitants of temperate regions is thus seen to fall upon the liver and skin, the reverse is seen to occur when the natives of hot climates migrate to colder countries. The negro, brought direct from Africa to England, will almost surely be the victim of consumption.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The Effect of Change of Climate. — An inhabitant of a temperate climate going to a tropical country will suffer from excitement of the nervous and vascular systems, by the heat and moisture of the air. The respiratory functions become less active; while there is a decrease of the ordinary action of the kidneys in carrying off the refuse matters of the circulation. The consequence is that the skin and the liver have an excess of work thrown upon them (to speak metaphorically, and also exactly), in order to rid the system of certain effete elements which the lungs cannot throw off. Hence the " seasoning fevers," as they are called, and the disorders of the liver to which Europeans are specially liable on arrival in a hot climate, and to which full often they render themselves the more obnoxious by injudicious diet. An eminent English authority says that: Europeans visiting hot climates should live abstemiously, taking every means to promote the functions of the skin by moderate exercise, and by daily free ablutions. Exposure of the head to the heat of the sun should be carefully avoided, as well as the risk of contracting fever by exposure to dews, the cold, and the malaria of the night air. Warm clothing should be worn at night by new-comers, as the extremes of day and night temperature in tropical regions often pass through a very wide range. The effects of a warm and moist climate upon the inhabitants of colder regions, in decreasing the functional activity of the lungs, and increasing that of the liver and skin, has formed the basis of the recommendation of a change from a cold to a warm climate in pulmonary affections. It is, however, very doubtful whether the relaxing and enervating influence of the keat on the nervous system does not more than counterbalance 410 MEDICAL this functional compensation. Certainly, when disease m the lungs has advanced much, more harm than good generally comes of the migration. On the other hand, the tonic and bracing effect of a cold climate more frequently checks the advance of consumption, if care is taken to protect the surface from sudden chills, and so to protect it as to ensure a free circulation of the blood in the skin by out-door exercise. The British Hippocrates, Sydenham, was wont to call horse exercise the " palmarium remedy " for consumption, so strongly was he convinced of the importance of out-door exercise. A confirmation of this opinion is to be found in the fact that coachmen (if temperate men) are among the healthiest classes. In the days when locomotion was performed more on horseback than is now the case, it was said that " bagmen," or commercial travelers, enjoyed a singular freedom from consumption. Unfortunately, however, these men, then as now, too often threw away their better health by their irregularities in other directions. While the stress of the effects of removal to warm climates upon the inhabitants of temperate regions is thus seen to fall upon the liver and skin, the reverse is seen to occur when the natives of hot climates migrate to colder countries. The negro, brought direct from Africa to England, will almost surely be the victim of consumption.

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