A Truthful Woman in Southern California by Kate Sanborn (read this if .txt) 📕

fogs, excess of humidity in winter owing to protracted rains (thirty inches in five months, from November, 1892, to March of this year); hot, dry winds that prevail in summer, with wind and sand storms, which have a debilitating effect on nervous systems, and are irritating to the mucous membrane."

How refreshing to find one person who does not consider his own refuge from disease an ideal health-resort! He also owns that doctors do not know yet how to treat such troubles as bronchitis, as is proven by their experimenting upon patients in Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and Pasadena. And he closes his letter in this way:

"When local jealousies have subsided, and contending climates have had their day, the thing of cardinal importance for an invalid such as you have mentioned to do when about to change his or her home will be, not to attach too much importance to this or that particular climatic condition as determined by the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer, and other meteorological instruments, nor to lay too much stress on a difference of a few hundred or thousand feet of elevation above the sea; but choose a home where the environments will afford the invalid or valetudinarian the greatest opportunity of living out-of-doors, and of spending the hours of sunshine in riding, driving, walking, and in other ways, whereby the entrance of pure air into the lungs is facilitated. In Pasadena the days in winter are warm enough to make outdoor life attractive and healthful, while the number of sunny days throughout the year is above the average of that prevailing in many other deservedly popular health-resorts."

I will also quote a letter received from Dr. W. B. Berry, formerly of Montclair, N. J., who, coming to Southern California an almost hopeless invalid, is now fairly well, and will probably entirely regain his health. He also is careful and conservative in statement, and therefore commands serious attention:

"Riverside, Cal., May 2, 1893.

"Dear Miss Sanborn: To recommend any place to an invalid is to an
experienced climate-hunter no doubt, at times, a duty, - certainly
it is a duty from which he shrinks.

"One does not see so many advanced cases of pulmonary disease here
as at either Asheville or Colorado Springs. The thousands of miles
of alkali, sage-brush, and desolation might explain that, but it
does seem to me that a much larger proportion of consumptives are
'doing well' in this country than in those.

" Pure dry air , pure water , and clean dry soil are the
climatic elements essential for the pulmonary invalid, and for most
others. These conditions can be found at Riverside and its vicinity
during a large proportion of the year.

"Here, too, are cool walks, with sunshine or shade, as may be
desired, and things on every side to interest. For, unfortunately,
the man with a sore chest has a brain and a spinal cord to be
stimulated and fed, not to speak of those little heartstrings
undiscovered by the anatomist, and which yet tug and pull mightily
in a far country.

"In short, it would seem that any consumptive in an early stage of
his disease who does not thrive at a moderate altitude would do
well to come here and to stay - that is, if he will remember that
all the climate is out-of-doors."

My own troublesome throat is almost as good as new, and I am proud to name my physician, Outdoors, M.D. Come and consult the same unfailing restorer.

I have given, according to my humble ability, la verdad cierta - the absolute truth - about the small fraction of the State known as Southern California.

I came with gargle and note-book, but long ago gave up the former; and as for these jottings, I offer them to those who want to see this much-talked-of Earthly Paradise as in a verbal mirror. And to all a cordial au revoir !

"Adieu to thee again!
A vain adieu!
There can be no farewell to scene like thine:
The mind is colored by thy every hue." Imprint

Publication Date: 05-20-2008

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