The Alpine winter cure : with notes on Davos Platz, Wiesen, St. Moritz, and the Maloja / by A.T. Tucker Wise.

  • Wise, A. T. Tucker (Alfred Thomas Tucker), 1848-1928.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Alpine winter cure : with notes on Davos Platz, Wiesen, St. Moritz, and the Maloja / by A.T. Tucker Wise. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    country—if on an eminence, the better. The neighbourhood chosen should be dry and high; the soil generally of a light loam, a sandy, or gravelly bottom. The atmosphere is in such situations comparatively free from fogs and dampness. The patient ought never to be deterred by the state of the w eather from exercise in the open air; if wet and rainy, a covered vehicle should be employed, with open windows. The cold is never too severe for the consumptive patient in this climate. The cooler the air which passes into the lungs, the greater will be the benefit the patient will derive. Sharp, frosty days in the winter season are most favourable. The application of cold, pure air to the interior surface of the lungs is the most powerful sedative that can be applied, and does more to promote the healing and closing of cavities and ulcers of the lungs than any other means that can be em- ployed. . . . Many persons are alarmed and deterred from taking much exercise in the open air from the circum- stance of their coughing much on their first emerging from the warm room of a house, but this shows that the air of the room was too warm, not that the common atmosphere was too cold.” As adjuncts, he advocated the use of milk, wine, and generous diet, {a) In these remarkable sentences are clearly signalised the indications for residence at such health resorts as the high Swiss Valleys, and they anticipate in an unmis- takable manner the treatment of pulmonary disease or weak- ness by what is now termed, somewhat euphoniously, “ the high altitude cure.” This English practitioner appears to have been the first, or among the first, to introduce to notice as a therapeutic agent “ dry, frosty air,” which has proved itself to be a remedy of practical value and application in the treatment of disease. In more recent years Dr. Hermann Weber, with eventual (a) “ Essay on the Treatment and Cure of Pulmomwry Consumption.” By George Bodington. 1840. B2