#health #tuberculosis ## Southern Colorado as a Health Resort, pg. 4 As a health resort, Trinidad and Las Animas county are not excelled by any part of Colorado Territory. By the surveys of Professors Guyot, Whitney and Parry, the altitude of Trinidad, above the sea level is 5,800 feet. -- Fisher's Peak in its immediate vicinity, and not over six miles distant; is 7,759, while the Snowy range, in sight north and west, is 11,700 feet. This altitude has the remarkable effect of tempering all our seasons, giving us in summer a cool temperature, such as is found in more northern latitudes, while our winters are but rarely cooler, *on the average*, than the winter seasons of Florida. It is true, that we have occasional days of bitter cold weather, but they will not be found to exceed half a dozen, between November and May, and even this does not occur every year. To the large class of invalids, whose diseases arise from exposure to bleak winds, damp fogs, the slushy thaws of winter and the sudden changed from heat to cold and from cold to heat, which is so characteristic of the winters of the Eastern and Middle States, this county is the best health resort. Here we have none of the damp fogs, which often hand, like a pall, upon lower lands. The air is always clear and bright, making it a luxury to breathe it; each inhalation acting as a tonic to the whole system. This is especially the case in all diseases of the throat and lungs, in all which the tendency here is towards a rapid and perfect cure, if the invalid is not too far gone. Our country can show *the lowest average* of deaths, from pulmonary disease, and a careful investigation of the reported deaths from pulmonary disease will demonstrate, that a majority are of those, who have come here in advanced stages of the disease, in fact, too far gone ever to recover. In a residence of over two and a half years in Trinidad, the number of consumptives, who have dies, to the knowledge of the writer, has been not exceeding five, in a population of fifteen hundred. Day after day the sun shines with unclouded brightness so that in midwinter, on nine our of every ten days, it is possible to sit out of doors from ten o'clock A.M. to three P.M., without suffering any ill effects by so doing. Such weather is, in truth, a constant and urgent invitation to out-door exercise. There is little dampness under foot, as over head. Until the middle of March, snow *seldom* falls. One or two falls a month, not exceeding in inch or two in depth, at a time, is the utmost. When it does fall, it will not remain more than a day or two, and then it vanishes imperceptibly, causing none of that disagreeable unpleasantness, which tends a thaw in the states. In a word, *sloppy muddy* weather is unknown here. As quickly as the snow dissolves, the moisture is soaked up by the dry soil. Our summers our not sultry, the thermometer rarely, if ever, rising beyond 70* to 80* Farenheit. Rain as as rule falls only in June, July and August, and generally only in the afternoon. Yet our rains are mostly spiteful little showers, lasting but a few minutes, no such constant rains, as are know in lower latitudes, being ever heard of in this country. Even in the summer the temperature, early in the morning, and late in the evening is such, as to require heavier clothing, than is worn in the middle of the day. Our nights are delightfully cool and pleasant. At no time, even in mid-summer, can we sleep without one or two blankets on the bed. From this, which is by no means a highly colored, statement of the climate of Colorado, especially that part known as Southern Colorado, immediately adjacent to the Territory of New Mexico, invalids can see that this country offers them superior advantages for a restoration to health. Many invalids, who have come here from the states, in search of health, have been known to say, that nothing, but circumstances beyond their control, would ever induce them to return to the states, to make them their permanent home. Among the diseases, for which our climate is peculiarly benficial, are Pthisis, Dyspepsia and Asthma. A residence here has a peculiarly bracing effect on pthisical patients, who come in the earlier stages of their disease. Dyspepsia too and most of the diseases, which originate in indigestion, are either wholly banished or at least much relieved in this climate. But while climate has much to do with this, there is another element here, which has great influence in correcting the evils of the digestive organs. Colorado wheat, is particularly nourishing, and is in many ways superior to that of the states in the nutritive qualities, arising no doubt in a great measure from the character of the soil, on which it is raised. The beef of this country, is that of cattle, fed all the year round on the peculiarly nutritive grasses of our hills and uplands, never, in any case, *stall* fed. Hence it is delightfully tender, and possesses a nutritive and digestive quality unknown to the meats, raised in the states. The same can be said of mutton and other meats. Las Animas and Bent counties are the two great cattle and sheep counties of Southern Colorado. During the past winter of 1873-74, over 20,000 head of beef cattle wintered between Trinidad, in Las Animas county, and Las Animas, in Bent county. Beef of the finest quality can at all times be found, in abundance in our market, as well as other meats. More attention has been paid to market gardening in the past year, and now a full supply of vegetables of nearly every kind can be obtained, without difficulty. Hence variety can be combined with nourishing qualities of food, to heal all diseases of the digestive organs, which are in themselves curable. Our drinking water is the pure soft water of our river, and is, in great measure, melted snow from our mountains. All these, united with the salutary influence of our rarefied air, will soon restore the invalid, who suffers from dyspepsia and its kindred diseases to a health, to which he as a stranger in the states. The same can be said of asthma and consumption, when, especially in the latter class of diseases, are parties afflicted do not postpone their visit to Southern Colorado, until they are past cure. The following we copy from a letter of Dr. Dennison of Denver, published January 15, 1874. It applies equally to Trinidad and Southern Colorado, as well as to Denver, with the additional advantage that Trinidad lies 240 miles south of Denver, and over 125 south of the *Divide*, by which it is protected from the cold, bleak, north winds to which Denver is subject: "The influences which seem to combine, in Colorado, to benefit sufferers from thoracic diseases, are various. Probably more important than is usually recognized, is *altitude*, which, it would seem, is chiefly mechanical in its effect, for, consequent upon it, there is lessened atmospheric pressure, and it is positively necessary for lungs to have proportionately greater expansion, in order to get the needed about of oxygen, than on the coast, 5,300 feet below Denver. The circulation, of course, acts in harmony with this increased respiratory power, which results in increased combustion. Waste and repair are both more rapid and complete; adipose is called into requisition, and animal economy becomes dominant. The average rancheman of Colorado gives one an idea of the effect of out-door life in elevated regions. He is a *lean* fellow, with well-browned complexion, good hard muscles, and great endurance. The idea of such a man having tuberculosis would seem almost preposterous. His blood is habitually well oxygenized; and even if he had tubercular matter in him to deposit, the room could hardly be spared for it in his lungs. He may get pneumonia, perhaps, resulting in grangene or pneumonic phthisis; but it seems the origination of military tubercle rarely occurs above the altitude of 5,000 feet. The increased amount of electricity, too, due to altitude, very likely has a salutary influence in strengthening enfeebled nervous systems. The small amount of rail-fall (about twelve inches a year), the great amount of sunshine, and the porosity of the soil, favor a dryness of the atmosphere, directly opposite to what Dr. Bowditch, of Boston, has proved, by tabulated opinions of physicians, to be a chief cause of phthisis - "soil moisture." The diseases prevalent in, and probably incident to, great altitudes, in winter, seem to be catarrh, which annoys new comers, rheumatism, and bronchitis. The change of residence from lowlands to this airy region is of such a nature that an accurate knowledge, of the character and varying influences of this climate, is of special importance to those suffering with disease of the respiratory or circulatory organs. This will be evident to any who will impartially study the results of residence here of various classes of invalids, especially *consumptives*; and thus is appears that a more careful discrimination should be made, than has hitherto obtained, as to who obtained, as to who should, and who should not, resort to this climate and altitude. From what I have written above as to the *mechanical* effect of altitude, it would appear, on reflection, that this element might prove injurious, as well as beneficial; and that to some, who hardly had lung surface enough to get a fair amount of oxygen below, the rarified atmosphere of even the lower portions of Colorado might not be the most appropriate. If the evidence of *probable* deaths from *altitude* were needed, to substantiate this statement, it could be given. Among others, the case of John C. Heenan, the pugilist, would seems to be interesting in this connection. Once he received a blow on the left side of the upper part of his chest, from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. In Colorado, he had an attack of hemorrhage. After a while, apparently in pretty good condition, he started for Southern California. He is said to have died of hemorrhage, int he cars, at one of the highest points of the Union Pacific railroad. Those who have never visited our mountain region (ranging as it does from six to fourteen thousand feet above the sea), in advising their patients to go up into the mountains in Colorado, and have a good time, would seem to set unadvisedly, in view of the hemorrhages and other drawbacks such a course is said to have entailed. Generally speaking, patients, on coming here, do well to take life easy for a while, till they get somewhat acclimated: not to allows the buoyancy and exhilaration of this light air to deceive them into too great confidence in their circulation and respiration get used to the change. As to this immediate vicinity (our personal experience has not yet extended further in Colorado,) when we think of the multitude who are insidiously gliding into confirmed phthisis in low, damp homes in the States, who could here almost certainly be restored to health; and of the many who come too late to be benefited *here*, (to hasten to their graves, or be sent back East, disappointed,) the words of Burus seem appropriate: "It's hardly in a body's power To keep, at times, frae bein' sour, To see how things are shared." And yet it is very difficult to give a rule which should decide, in all cases, who should come as high as this, and the method of their coming. But were I to decide, in a general way, who should *not* come directly here, (not that some of them might not hope to arrive eventually at these great altitudes, but because it seems they could better go elsewhere, at least in winter), I should name the following classes of cases: 1. Phthisical patients having any organic disease of the heart. 2. Phthisical patients, one-fourth or more of whose lungs are seriously diseased, and rendered useless, especially, if they contain any cavities, also those of decidedly hemorrhagic diathesis, or whose pulse is uniformly very rapid, and women, or persons of delicate constitutions, whose lungs are quite liable to take on frequently recurring attacks of inflammation. As March and April are said to be "winter months" here, as well as in many places East, perhaps the time specified above ought to be extended toward May. Even in the summer, considering the imperative demand, with each decided elevation, for increased expansion of the lungs, or breathing capacity, it would seem that a *sudden* change, from below a thousand to over five thousand feet above the sea, would generally be an extreme measure for such as I have specified; it is said there are those living hereabouts, who once had cavities in their lungs, and in whom the disease seems now to be arrested. It is reasonable to suppose that the reputation of Colorado, as a health resort, would not only be maintained, but increased, if this and other necessary customs of the first settlers were more in vogue now, (together with the observance of some such precautions as mentioned above), thus leading invalids to profit by outdoor life and health-giving sunshine, instead of spending much time in doors, as too many seem to do, befriending *each other* and *cast iron stoves*, crooning and sympathizing over their various symptoms, in rooms none too spacious nor well ventilated, considering the thinness of the air. In thus touching upon, what seems to him, the salient points, the writer will be pleased if he has even poorly shown some of the peculiar advantages of health-seekers, which obtain in Colorado -- one of nature's prominent hospitals. -- *From the Chicago Medical Examiner of January 15, '74*. Dr. Joseph Pancoast, of Philadelphia, the eminent physician and professor in Jefferson Medical College, writing of Colorado, says: "That in regard to the great questions which concern invalids, heat, cold, dryness and humidity, and freeness of the air from every noxious quality, Colorado presents peculiar attractions, that can scarcely fail to make it one of the great sanitaria of the North American continent. Its weather, which is more than ordinarily clear and serene, and its scenery, unexampled almost for interest and beauty, invites the invalid to outdoor exercise, and its mineral springs of varied qualities, and grateful to the taste, will be found very beneficial in well-apportioned cases. Colorado lies in the Northern part of the temperate zone, which is deemed in all climates the most conducive to health and longevity. It is protected by its mountain ranges against the cold winds of the West, and by its continental slopes of the paludal fevers of the Mississipi Valley. If greater warmth be required in the winter, the railroad which extends southward, places it within easy reach of the invalid. There is no climate that fulfills all that is wished for the special invalid. Few are now willing to send consumptives to the variable winter climate of Southern Europe, where there are weekly alterations of hot winds from the South, and frozen blasts from the mountain ranges of the North. The African climates are in many respects better, yet the extreme heat which characterizes them is prejudicial to the consumptive, and Dr. Shnepp, of Alexandria, has shown us that phthisic is a common disease in Cairo, forming about fourteen per cent, of the general mortality. The great elevation and consequent rarefaction of the atmosphere in Colorado, with its thermometric moderation in all seasons, give to that region an especial advantage as a general sanitarium. Yet this, though found extremely beneficial to many forms of asthma, and in the early stages of consumption by expansion of the lung cells, may be prejudicial, when cavities have formed in the lungs which require contraction of the parts for their relief. It would therefore, be well for invalids who think of visiting Colorado to read the remarks of Dr. Bancroft, of Denver, which have been founded upon personal experience in that locality." The remarks by Dr. Bancroft, referred to by, Dr. Pancoast, are as follows: "I believe that any person with a fair constitution, who settles in any portion of Colorado, stands a better chance of enjoying a healthful life, and of finally attaining the full period allotted to man -- three score years and ten -- than in any other part of the Union. To the young of consumptive families it offers special inducements, for here many a brilliant and useful life, that might be lost in a less strengthening climate before reaching the meridian of manhood, may be prolonged to a vigorous old age. The classes of invalids who may expect to receive benefit by a residence in Colorado, are wide and varied. Those suffering from many disorders, induced by derangement of the digestive organs, functional affections of the liver, and debility caused by over-exertion of either the physical or mental forces, in whom the heart is sound, are improved by even a short sojourn in this invigorating air. Those troubled with chronic laryngitia and bronchitis are generally permanently relieved, while suffers with asthma almost invariable experience an immediate and perfect cure, unless it is complicated with emphysema, or organic diseases of the heart, in which case improvement is slow an not complete. In the incipient stage of pulmonary consumption the effort of the climate is very marked in its tendency to relieve local and chronic inflammation, to arrest the deposit of tubercles, and to prevent the ulceration of the matter already deposited. It also permanently arrests the progress of the disease, after small cavities have been formed in the lungs, in cases where there is no hereditary tendency to it. Even where this tendency does strongly exist, Colorado air may stay the course of the complaint for years, if it is so sought in the very outset of the disease. The wheat of Colorado is not surpasses in quality by any raised in the United States; and cattle in huge herds wander of the hills and plains, finding rich sustenance all the year round in the prairie grass; therefore, bread-stuffs and beef are good, plentiful and cheap, which is an advantage to the country second only to its air, it being a known fact that in regions where abundance of good bread and beef with all their rich, blood-making qualities, are within the reach of every family, pulmonary consumption is rarely prevalent. While earnestly recommending the curative powers of Colorado, I must strongly warn persons in the advanced stage of pulmonary consumption, against venturing into the rare air of these elevated plains; because of the necessity for increased action of the respiratory organs, tends to hasten, instead of retarding a fatal termination. The same cause is applicable to any form of organic disease of the heart, excepting that induced by asthma." Source Document: ![[trinidad-enterprise-1874-07-23-health-resort-KP-ad-ATSF-grenada.pdf]]