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OBSERVATIONS
A CHANGE  OP CLIMATE
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READ BEFORE THE COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE IN 1826, AND
  PUBLISHED IN THE MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL.
ADDITIONAL REMARKS
RED SULPHUR SPRINGS OF VIRGINIA.
X
BY HENRY HUNTT, M. D.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
PRINTED BT JACOB OIDEOV, JR.
       1834. 
\
^ 
OBSERVATIONS
              ON
A Change  of Climate
              rN
   No subject demands more seriously the considera-
tion of the philanthropist and the physician, than the
choice of climate best adapted for the relief of persons
laboring under pulmonary disease.  Amidst the great
improvements in medicine, we have to deplore the
neglect of this important subject.  Pulmonary Con-
sumption, at this time, is the most fatal and destruc-
tive  disease which  afflicts the human race; and its
ravages are rendered more peculiarly distressing, as
it generally selects the most interesting and promis-
ing part of creation.   When  its character is once
fully established, it bids defiance, in almost all cases,
to the best directed means of the physician, and pur-
sues a sure and determined course, to a fatal  termi-
nation.
   Taking this gloomy and melancholy view of Pul-
monary Consumption in its confirmed state, it becomes
the imperious duty  of the physician to inquire, mia- 
4
 utely and diligently, into its causes;  by doing which,
 he is better qualified ultimately to  render essential
 services to humanity, by discovering the best means
 of preventing, or of curing it in its  forming state.
 While  investigating these causes, we are irresistibly
 led to inquire, what are the situations  most liable to
 Pulmonary  Complaints?  This is a grave and  im-
 portant question.  From the most scrupulous investi-
 gation of  the subject, we are urged to  conclude, that
 the Sea Coast, in all countries, is most liable  to this de-
 structive  disease.   We are  aware, that this may be
 explained, by referring it to the moist atmosphere,
 and sudden  changes of temperature peculiar to those
situations; and it is true that the great preservative
 against pulmonary complaints is warmth, and an equal
 or at  least a uniform  mild temperature; but if  the
 frequency of this disease on the sea coast were prin-
 cipally owing to a moist atmosphere and sudden tran-
 sitions of  temperature, why is not Pulmonary Con-
 sumption as  prevalent on  our great lakes  as on  the
 sea-shore?  The fact is, that this disease, on the bor-
 ders of our lakes is  rare, when  compared with its
 ravages on the  sea-shore.   We must, therefore, look
 to some other cause for its destructive ravages in  the
 neighborhood of the sea, besides moisture and sudden
 changes of temperature, and we feel perfectly satisfied 
5
that this cause arises from a mixture of land and sea
air.
    Professor Rush, that great observer of cause and
effect, in his Inquiry on Pulmonary Consumption, ob-
serves, that " situations exposed to the sea should be
carefully avoided, for it is a singular fact, that, while
consumptive persons are benefitted by the sea air when
they breathe it on the ocean, they are always injured
by that portion of it which  they breathe on the sea-
shore.  To show its influence not only in aggravating
but in predisposing to consumptions, and in adding to
the mortality of another disease of the  lungs, I shall
subjoin the following facts :  From one-fourth to one-
half of the adults who die in Great Britain, Dr. Willin
says, perish with this disease.  In Salem, in the State
of Massachusetts, which is situated near the sea, and
exposed  during many months in the year to a moist
east wind, there died in the year 1799, one hundred
and sixty persons;  fifty-three died of consumption,
making nearly one third of the whole number.  Eight
more died  of lung fever, probably what was called in
Philadelphia the galloping  species of that disease.
Consumptions  are more frequent  in Boston, Rhode
Island, and New York, from their vicinity to the sea-
shore, than they are in Philadelphia.  In the neigh-
borhood of Cape May, which lies near the sea-shore 
6
of New Jersey, there are three religious  societies,
among whom the influenza prevailed in 1790.  Its
mortality, under equal circumstances, was in the exact
ratio to their vicinity to  the sea.   The deaths were
most numerous in that society which was nearest to it.
   " These unfriendly effects of the air in the above
pulmonary  diseases, do not appear to  be produced
simply by its moisture.   Consumptions are scarcely
known in the  moist  atmosphere which so generally
prevails in  Linconshire, in England, and in the in-
land ports of Holland and Ireland."
   Professor Fodere, a learned physician who resided
many years at Nice, in speaking of consumption, ob-
serves, " it would appear, that  there must be on the
Mediterranean some other source of evil, beside mere
variability of climate; and I am disposed to look for
this in the impregnation of its atmosphere with some
of the muriatic salts of the ocean."
    Sir  Alexander Crichton, late  physician  to  the
Emperor of Russia, states, that " the sea-coast, what-
ever may be its locality,  is highly injurious to phth-
isical patients, provided there be any breach of con-
tinuity in the pulmonary  apparatus."
    It is admitted that sea air, when breathed alone,
is favorable to Pulmonary Consumption, and gene-
rally allays, or suspends  the  cough ; and it is a re- 
7
markable fact, well known to sea-faring men, that old
sailors, laboring under chronic cough, can always an-
ticipate the approach of land by their cough, which
becomes aggravated as soon as they breathe this mix-
ture of land and sea air.
    Mr. Poinsett, our distinguished Minister in Mex-
ico,  who labored under a chronic  cough,  observed
that his cough, during a sea voyage, was always sus-
pended, and invariably became aggravated as soon as
he reached soundings.
    Dr.  Rush states, that  he  " crossed the Atlantic
Ocean in the year  1766, with a sea captain who an-
nounced to his  passengers the agreeable news, that
they were near the British coast, before any discovery
had been made of their situation by soundings, or by
a change in the color of the water.  Upon asking him
upon what he founded his opinion, he said, he had
been sneezing, which he added was the sign of an ap-
proaching cold, and that in the course of upwards of
twenty years he had  never made the land without
being affected in a similar manner."
    These are important facts, and  deserve  the most
serious  and deliberate consideration.  They plainly
show that there is something in the atmosphere of the
neighborhood of the sea-shore dileterious to the lungs, 
8
 besides moisture, and sudden changes of temperature.
 Dr.  Parr, in noticing Dr. Rush's suggestion  of the
 disadvantages  that may arise from a mixture of land
 and sea air, observes " until these have  been found
 to differ, we may neglect the distinction as an unne-
 cessary refinement."   This is  certainly a very un-
 philosophical conclusion, and is unworthy the high
 reputation of Dr. Parr.   The particular states of the
 atmosphere which cause diseases in different seasons,
 are totally unknown to the medical profession, and the
subject is " wrapt in  inexplicable mystery,"  some-
 times one disease is excited, sometimes another; and
would Dr. Parr, or any other person pretend to deny
that  these various  diseases were produced by some
peculiar  state  of the atmosphere, because they were
unable to trace those different changes?  This objec*
tioii then in the present state of our knowledge, can-
not affect the doctrine which we are  endeavoring to
establish.  We will, therefore, discard it, and proceed
to give an account of the mortality from consumption
in different parts of the country.
   In Salem, Mass* during the last five years, it is cal-
 culated that the  mortality from consumption is about
one-fifth  of all the inhabitants  that have died.—In
Boston, about one-sixth,~In New York, about cfne- 
9
 fifth.—In Philadelphia, about one-seventh.—In Bal-
 timore,  about one-seventh.—In Washington, about
 one-eighth .—In Charleston, S. C. about one-sixth.
    Sullivan's Island is very unfavorable to consump-
 tive invalids.   Dr. Richard Randall, late a surgeon in
 the United States' army, who was stationed at different
 military posts throughout the southern country, states,
 that to those predisposed to phthisis,  the air of Sulli-
 van's Island is highly dileterious in comparison with
 that of Charleston—that acute pneumonic inflamma-
 tion is also more prevalent in the  former than in the
 latter place: that the air  of the City of  Charleston,
 though otherwise more pure than that of the interior
 of lower Carolina, is not so well adapted to those pre-
 disposed to phthisis :^that the inhabitants of Augusta,
 Savannah, and New, Origans, though possessing fewer
 advantages of climaqj Jft less obnoxious  to pulmonary
 affections, than those residing in the  otherwise com-
 paratively healthy situations on the sea board. " Soon
 after my arrival," says he, " at Sullivan's Island in
 1821, as surgeon to  that  military  post, I thought I
 discovered a stronger predisposition among the sol-
 diers to pulmonary affections  of  all kinds, than I had
 observed at any former stations at the south, and  my
experience during the succeeding winters confirmed
this belief; for the proportion of cases of pneumonia,
                             2 
10
and of deaths from phthisis, were three fold greater at
this post than at my former stations in the interior of
Georgia and Alabama."
   The bay of St. Louis and Passa Christiana are also
very unfavorable to pulmonary complaints.   Colonel
George Gibson, of the United States' army, who was
stationed at the  latter  place during three summers,
informed me that Passa Christiana was a great resort
for invalids from every description of disease; and it
was a remarkable fact, that the consumptive cases sur-
vived  but  a  short  time  after their arrival  there:
whereas invalids of every other description recovered
most rapidly.  This fact is  totally subversive of the
common  opinion  relative to the  cause of pulmonary
affections  in  the neighborhood  of the sea.   Passa
Christiana is liable to no variety  of temperature—its
atmosphere is warmed by thJKulph stream, and  is
exempt by distance and the intervening forest from
the cold air of the mountains.
   It is evident as we recede from the sea shore, that
the cases of Pulmonary Consumption become  dimin-
ished.  This  disease is scarcely known  among the
Indians of our forest; and in many parts of the inte-
rior of the country consumption is extremely rare;
particularly on the borders  of Ohio, Mississippi, and
Missouri, where  bilious  intermittent fevers  mostly 
11
 prevail.   Colonel Benton, of the United States' Se«
 nate, from Missouri, informed me that the climate of
 that State was  peculiarly favorable to consumptive
 invalids;  and this fact is so notorious, that many jfler-
 sons afflicted with this complaint have removed their
 residence to Missouri, in order to prolong their lives.
 It is not unusual in  that climate for consumptive in-
 valids to linger a long time;—sometimes ten or fifteen
 years, whereas near the sea-shore it generally destroys
 life in a few months.
   Pulmonary  Consumption is very destructive  in
 Great Britain, and the annual victims to its ravages
 are calculated at fifty-five thousand.  Dr. Good states,
 that in Great Britain this disease carries off usually
 about one-fourth of its inhabitants—at Paris about
 one-fifth,  and at Vienna about one-sixth, while it is
 by no means  common in Russia.   " It is a singular;
fact," says he, " and not well accounted for, that  of
all places which have hitherto been compared, the
proportional mortality from  consumption appears  to
have been the greatest at Bristol; and this not among
its occasional visitors, but its  permanent inhabitants;
and  yet, as though in defiance of experience, this
very  place has  been chosen as the great  resort  of
consumptive persons."
<m.tc  - 
12
   The south of France, which has  been a fashion-
able resort for consumptive patients for the last sixty
years, and was first brought into notice by  Dr. Smal-
let?is perhaps of all others, the most fatal climate to
this  unfortunate  class of  invalids.   No American,
within our recollection, afflicted with this complaint,
has ever visited the south of France, who did not fall
a sacrifice to its climate.   Dr.  James Clark, of Eng-
land,  influenced by  a spirit  of inquiry, which  does
honor  to  his heart  and his  profession, visited  the
south of France and Italy, bordering on the Mediter-
ranean ; and from information  obtained on the spot,
as well from observation, as from  conversations with
the most intelligent and experienced medical gentle-
men, he has published a most valuable treatise on the
climate of those places, containing  more  important
information  than any other work  which has  ever
been written on the same subject; in which he con-
cludes, that the climate of those  places is most fatal
to all invalids laboring  under  pulmonary  affections.
    Professor Fodere  observes, " I have always been
astonished that our older physicians  should have sent
their consumptive patients to our sea-shores, since it
is irrefragably proved, by the experience of our time,
that the climate of the shores  of the Mediterranean
is hurtful to such invalids.   At Marseilles, Nice, and 
                        13
 Villa Franca, consumption is not, as in Switzerland,
 on the banks of the Soane, and  in Alsace, a chronic
 disease; on  the contrary I have very often seen  it
 terminate in forty days."  Again, he observes, "upon
 the whole, I consider it as contrary to experience to
 send  patients afflicted with the tubercular phthisis to
 the sea shore, and yet it is singular  that the practice
 should continue to be persisted in."
    Dr. Samuel  Sinclair, surgeon in the British  Navy,
 after several years' service in the Mediterranean, and
 especially in the fleet employed  off the shores  of the
 south of France, says,  " I am the more  desirous  of
 making known my own experience in this matter,  as
 I am  well convinced that  the prevalent opinions re-
 specting it are  most erroneous.   So  far from coin-
 ciding with these opinions, I must declare  that I am
 borne out by the united  experience of all my medical
 friends  who have served in that country, in asserting
 that the climate of the Mediterranean, more especially,
 at certain seasons of the year, is particularly hostile  to
 phthisical patients, and productive of pulmonary com-
 plaints."
    Sir A. Crichton  regrets that patients are still sent
 to Nice, Naples, and Madeira, all which places are
destructive to these unfortunate  people.   " It is  a
singular circumstance,"  says Dr. Clark, " that  while 
14
the English  practitioners  were sending  their con-
sumptive patients to the shores of the Mediterranean,
our Naval medical officers  navigating that sea, were
sending theirs to England."
    Dr. James Johnson, in his valuable treatise on the
diseases of tropical climates shows, by comparing pul-
monic and other diseases received into the hospitals
of Minorca, Malta, and Gibraltar, from the Mediter-
ranean fleet, during the years  1810, 11, and 12, that
the ratio of pulmonic to other complaints was  one to
two and a half.  " Out of 455  cases of phthisis alone,
one hundred  and fifty-one died before the remainder
could be shipped off for England, where in all proba-
bility most of them perished; whereas, out of 124^
cases of fever, only fifty eight died, and a  very small
number were invalided.   This authentic document
will speak  volumes on the climate of the Mediter-
ranean."
   It is well known  to  the  American officers who
have cruised in the Mediterranean sea, that all sailors
predisposed to Pulmonary  Consumption,  who  have
visited that sea, have fallen victims to this  complaint;
and many others, whose constitutions have never be-
fore exhibited any signs of pulmonic affections, have
been seriously predisposed to the disease by remain-
ing in that climate. 
15
    After taking this review of the effects of different
climates in pulmonary diseases, we are irresistibly led
to conclude, that  the United States afford advantages
more favorable in this complaint than any other coun-
try yet known.   Here  the consumptive invalid has
the advantage of every variety of soil and  climate—
every  facility in travelling—mineral waters that are
valuable in diseases of the lungs ;  and above all, the
heart-felt satisfaction of enjoying the sympathy, kind-
ness, and hospitality of his  countrymen.   Let us,
therefore, abandon this blind and cruel  fashion of
sending our consumptive  patients to the south of
France, Italy, and other foreign  countries, where it
has been  incontestibly  proven that the  climate is a
sure passport to the grave.
    Pulmonary Consumption,  unlike most  other dis-
eases, makes its approach in the  most deceitful and
insidious manner.  It  carries with it a fascinating
charm  that  lulls  suspicion, and wraps its victims in
the most  fatal  delusion.  It, therefore,  becomes the
duty of the physician to act with candor, honesty, and
decision; his conduct should admit of no compromise.
He should feel compelled by the most sacred obliga-
tion, to communicate to the patient, or his friends, the
earliest information of the approach of this terrible
disease; and to urge in the strongest terms the impor- 
16
 tance of a uniform  mild temperature, exercise, and
 a  change of  air.  By such  prompt and judicious
 instructions many thousand lives  might probably be
 saved, which are sacrificed by the tame and palliating
 conduct of the profession.
    The  consumptive invalid should  always  remove
 as far from the sea as possible, and take as much ex-
 ercise as is consistent  with his strength, particularly
 on horseback; his diet should be such as is most easily
 digested—mild and nutricious.   High hills or moun-
 tains should be  carefully avoided; the air of such
 places  is  too pure; there,  the oxygen  gass is too
 stimulating, and  is apt to  increase the inflammatory
 action,  to suppress  the usual  expectoration  and
 sometimes to produce hcemoptysis.   Low grounds,
 on the contrary, appear always favorable to consump-
 tive patients;  there, the air is of a low quality, and
 therefore not so stimulating to the lungs.  From ex-
 periments which have been made in breathing the
hydrocarbonate, and from observation, we are induced
 to believe that marshy countries, distant from the sea,
 where bilious intermittent fevers prevail, are  also fa-
vorable to consumptive invalids. Places where animal
putrifaction  takes place  are  generally favorable to
weak  lungs.  There the  hydrogen gas which is in-
 termixed with common air, destroys the irritability of 
17
 the living fibre, subdues inflammatory action, and im-
 proves the secretions.  Thus it has been related, that
 a confirmed consumption has been cured by a resi-
 dence in  a  coal mine; and  that butchers,  cat-gut
 makers, tanners, soap-makers, &c. surrounded by a
 vapour impregnated with hydrogen, are never liable
 to Pulmonary Consumption ;  and it may be from this
 cause that consumptive patients derive benefit from
 a residence in cow-houses.
   The Red Sulphur Springs in Virginia have ac-
 quired of late great reputation in pulmonary affec-
 tions ;  and from the high and important testimony in
 favor of these waters, we do not hesitate to recommend
 them most earnestly to the consumptive invalid.
   The Red Sulphur Springs are situated in a deep
narrow valley, between two mountains running from
 N. E. to S.  W. near Indian Creek, a branch of New
River, distant more than twenty miles S. W. of Mon-
 roe court house.
   Dr. George W. Crump,  a member of Congress
from Virginia,  states that he labored several years
under a pulmonary affection, accompanied with hec-
tic fever, profuse perspiration, prostration of muscular
strength, great emaciation, and much derangement of
the whole alimentary canal.  " In this state," says he,
 " I resorted to the waters of the Red Sulphur Spring,
                              3 
*
                       18
and combined with their use a shock-bath every mora-
ing—my diet consisted almost  entirely of rye-mush,
milk and honey.   In the course of a few days the
circulation became more equally distributed, the colle-
quative sweat was checked, the expectoration became
more laudable, and the whole organic economy invig-
orated.  By a persevering use of this  plan for two
seasons, I  have been entirely relieved from every
pulmonic symptom."  " The water is extremely cold
(for spring water) and is remarkably transparent and
light;  it acts  principally  on the skin and kidneys,
and not unfrequently, some aperient  medicine is re-
quired to prevent constipation of the  bowels."  In
every  instance, says Dr. C, which has  fallen under
my observation, and they were very numerous, it pro-
duced a rapid reduction of the pulse.
   Dr. Huger, of Charleston, South Carolina, was af-
flicted some years  ago with pulmonary disease, and
all his friends  thought his disease hopeless; in  this
situation he was  advised  to visit the Red  Sulphur
Springs in Virginia, and from the use of those waters
during one season, he was perfectly restored to health.
The Doctor states, that he was enabled by the aid of
those waters to regulate his pulse almost as he pleased.
He is now  living  in South Carolina,  and is one  of
the healthiest men in that State. 
19
   In a letter dated at the Springs to a friend, from
F. W. Gilmer, Esq. professor of law in the university
of Virginia, who was laboring under pulmonary affec-
tion, he states, " these waters are as far superior to all
others  as those of Ballyspelling were to all others in
Ireland.  In three hours they allayed my cough so as
to take away all that was unpleasant in it.  They  dif-
fuse a sense of coolness, freshness, and newer life over
the whole  system.  They abate the pulse most ra-
pidly,  remove fever, moisture, ^^ucate, and soften
whatever is hard  and dry—make^ie sleep as though
he had taken an anodyne—are the safest of all waters,
and indeed have  no ill quality."
    The following communication I received from Dr.
R. H. Bradford, a learned and experienced physician
of Virginia, who was a practitioner of medicine at the
Red Sulphur Springs during nine or ten seasons:
    *' The  Red Sulphur Spring  is situated in a deep
 narrow valley betwTeen two mountains in  the county
of Monroe, Virginia, about 25  miles  S.  W. of the
town of Union, the seat of the courts of justice held in
 that county; it rises on the same creek as  the  Salt
 Sulphur Spring, and is about 22 miles lower down,
and within a few miles of the New or Kenhawa river,
into which this creek empties its waters. The interval
between the two mountains  being very narrow, there 
20
is  no room for exercise except  on the strip of land
which lies on each side of the creek.   The climate is
such as is usually found in similar situations.—The
mornings and evenings (in summer) are cool, and the
middle of the day generally hot.—Fogs are frequent,
and there is a general dampness in the atmosphere,
but it did not appear to affect unfavorably the invalids.
   "About the year 1822 the waters of this spring were
analyzed by an eminent chemist, Dr. John Cullen, of
Richmond, VirginJkjlhd were found to contain a large
quantity of sulphuJBed hydrogen gas—but no  salt or
mineral substance could be detected—that their con-
tents are gaseous is further proven by the fact, that the
water on being boiled, becomes perfectly pure and
tasteless, and is used  in cooking and other domestic
purposes.   The coloring matter  deposited  in  the
spring, (which is a beautiful crimson) is supposed  to
be a  vegetable matter—its properties are unknown.
   " When the author of these observations began to
attend these springs, such  was  the reputation  of the
waters, that he was induced to devote much attention
to their effects on the diseases for which they were at
ttiat time employed.  The results were so extraordi-
nary that he was,  among others, the cause of  the an-
alysis which it has been said was made of them, and
which has ultimately led to  a more rational  application
of them as a remedy. 
21
      " The effect of the water on the pulse is one of the
   numerous, singular, and powerful properties belong-
   ing to it.  In about one-third or one fourth  of  the
   cases in which it is employed, the pulse is reduced
   from fifteen to thirty strokes in a minute.  It lessens
   arterial action to such a degree, that it seldom fails to
   remove fever, difficulty of breathing, and pain in  the
^>cnest—unfortunately it does not lessen the appetite,
   which being commonly indulged, a  fullness of habit
   rapidly follows  its use—this gives rise to  increased
   cough, pain, and spitting of blood.  From much obser-
   vation, I would recommend such patients as cannot
   restrain the indulgence of their appetite to remain at
   home; in such cases, the Red  Sulphur Water will do
   no good, and  may  do much  injury—but when the
   patient can  practice  self denial,  the water may  be
   taken with greater advantage in all pulmonary casesy
   than any other remedy I have ever seen employed  for
   that purpose.  It is also an important remedy in cases
   of enlarged liver or spleen, in dispepsia, and in diseases
   of the mucus membrane generally.  I did not observe
   that  active exercise or  early rising  did  any injury.
   The sportsmen  who went out early were generally
   more  benefitted than others  who remained within
   their  cabins, or took  but  little exercise.  The Red
   Sulphur Water has no effect on the bowels, of course, it 
22
may be taken very freely—six, eight, or ten glasses a
day.  If the patient should be subject to hectic chills,
it is best to omit the water during the morning, and
take it in the afternoon, and at night.
    " During the use of the Red Sulphur Water, I
would advise that no other medicine or remedy should
be blended with it—certainly the less the better.
  "To derive much advantage from a course of these
the patient should commence the use of them early in
July, and continue to take them daily until  the  mid-
dle of September."
    After remaining at the Red  Sulphur  Springs
during the  summer, the best winter residence for the
consumptive invalid would be in the interior of South
Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama.   There the soil and
climate are  peculiarly favorable to such persons during
the winter  and spring seasons; and the atmosphere
impregnated with the  effluvia of the pine forest, is
highly grateful  and advantageous in all pulmonary
affections.
    In choosing the location for a residence, great cau-
tion should be observed in selecting such as is well
protected from  the north and east winds, and exposed
as much as possible to the warm and cheering  influ-
ence of the sun. 
f
                          ERRATA.
Page 9, line 17, for "and" read "are."
 "  12, line 3, for "Smallet" read "Smollet."
 "  20, line 11, for "sulphurated" read "sulphuretted."
 "  22, line 8, after "these" at the end, insert "waters. 
»•'  *f: