1898 Denver CO by Pen & Picture

DENVER AS A HEALTH CENTRE

"Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,
When drooping health and spirits go amiss."--Thomson.

The climate of Denver has been the magnet which has drawn to her more of her residents and wealth than any other single attraction.

From daily observations taken by the late F. J. B. Crane of Denver, it is shown that from July 20, 1872, to February 22, 1885, there were but thirty-two days on which the sun failed to appear. From October 30, 1879, to February 5, 1881, not a day passed upon which the sun was obscured during the entire time.

According to the observations of the United States Signal Service Bureau the average temperature of Denver is 49.1 ° (the average maximum being 79.2° and the average minimum 19.7°); the average rainfall or melted snow, 14.95 inches; the average number of days per annum on which rain or snow fall, 81; average number of sunny days, 340.

Doctor Solly, Colorado Springs, in his recent standard work, "Medical Climatology," says: "In Denver the direct rays of the sun usually melt the snow in a few hours, and the ground lies dry and unfrozen nearly all the winter. Denver's advantages as a winter resort should be better known."

Above: Views in City Park

Captain Glassford, Signal Officer, U. S. Army, says: "The altitude of Denver and the dryness of the climate minimize the heat to the extent of 22°; in other words, from the recorded temperature subtract 22° to find the real, sensible summer heat. The Denver summer corresponds, as to the feelings of those who pass through it, to that of Manitoba, the Thousand Islands, the Adirondacks, or the White Mountains. When the published record of the heat in Boston, New York, Washington, St. Louis and Chicago is above 100°, it is simply unbearable; while the same recorded temperature at Denver, is attended with little discomfort. Why? Because, in the East moisture is present to a very considerable extent in the atmosphere, while in Denver it is almost absent." The altitude and dryness equally minimize the cold of winter.

Dr. Carl Ruedi, Davos Platz, Switzerland, says: "Colorado has natural advantages and climatic conditions which equal or surpass the best European health resorts." As a matter of fact, there is an ever increasing colony in Denver and Colorado of European semi-invalids, who, after trying Davos for a while, have come to Denver and Colorado permanently.

Dr. Charteris, Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica, Glasgow University, says: "My autumn holiday has enabled me to visit Colorado and I am convinced that in its pure, dry air many patients who linger at home only to die might there get better and work and do well."

Dr. C. T. Williams, Senior Surgeon of the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Chest Diseases, ex-President of the Royal Meteorological Society, and ex-President of the Medical Society of London, says: "The climate of Colorado is dry and sunny, with bracing energizing qualities, permitting out door exercises every day all the year round, the favorable results of which are seen in large numbers of former invalids whom it has rescued from the life of invalidism and converted into healthy, active workers."

Denver in 1897 had the lowest death rate of any city of its size in America, viz., 11.24 per 1,000, per annum. Deducting the number of deaths from consumption contracted elsewhere, the death rate was 9.34 per 1,000 population.

Above: "The Home"

Dr. J. A. Lindsay, an eminent authority, says: "The most notable advance in the treatment of consumption achieved during the present century has unquestionably been the rapid progress in public and professional favor of the high altitude sanatoria."

Sir Andrew Clark, the celebrated specialist of London, knighted by the Queen in recognition of his professional eminence, says: "I am as sure as I can be that recoveries from phthisis, judiciously treated at high altitudes, are much more numerous and much more lasting than those treated by any other method at any other place."

Dr. Burney Yeo, London, the author of "Climate and Health Resorts," says: "In selecting a climate for a consumptive, the first question which occurs to us is the inquiry as regards the proportion of pleasant, sunny days in which out door exercise can be safely enjoyed. The first desideratum is a large proportion of fine, sunny weather. In all such cases (consumption) there is one essential and predominating condition to be fulfilled, as we have already said, and that is the selection of a climate in which an out door life in fresh, pure air can be largely followed." Denver exactly supplies the conditions laid down by Dr. Yeo.

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