The principal health-resorts of Europe and Africa for the treatment of chronic diseases / by Thomas More Madden.

  • Madden, Thomas More, 1838-1902.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principal health-resorts of Europe and Africa for the treatment of chronic diseases / by Thomas More Madden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    any distinct disease, but from general loss of health, apparently the result not only of the alteration of the mode of life, but still more the consec[uence of the change of clime, and, in another was only averted by the return of the patient to his native air. Did space admit it would be easy to show that it is not merely the physical constitution and bodily health of man which are influenced by climate, but that his national pecu- liarities are to some extent affected by this cause. Thus, for instance, the cold and ungenial, but bracing, climates of Switzer- land or Scotland, the rugged mountains they inhabit, and the sterile soil they cultivate, have probably assisted in developing the enterprising and hardy character of the Swiss mountaineer or Scotch Highlander ; whilst the flat and monotonous land of Holland, and its chill humid atmosphere, may thus have a part in forming the sluggish disposition and phlegmatic tempera* ment of the Dutch. The frequent changes of weather and of temperature to which the inhabitants of this country are ex- posed are, in like manner, reflected in the restless energy and mental activity of the people. Nor does the bright cloudless sky, and unvaryingly warm and sunny atmosphere of the south of Spain or Italy, less powerfully foster the poetic or imagina- tive faculties—perhaps at the expense of the more practical and sterner qualities of the mind. If such be the influence of climate on entire races, modify- ing not only their external form, the relative importance of the functions of many of their internal organs and the diseases that prevail in each isothermal zone, how great must be its influence on individual men, more especially when these are