Change of Climate
The difference in disease produced by change to warmer or colder climate has been thus ably illustrated by Dr. Graves:
We observe that the English in India suffer greatly from liver disease; whilst, on the other hand, negroes and natives frequently die of phthisis (consumption) in England. Monkeys die of consumption, so do lions and tigers. This is a very important fact in the pathology of phthisis, as tending to prove that although phthisis is in many instances distinctly hereditary, nevertheless it may be, and is, frequently acquired. Nothing can furnish a stronger proof that phthisis may be acquired than the instances I have adduced, for I need not tell you that no lion or tiger is ever born in warm climates of a consumptive sire, or ever dies there of tubercular disease. An additional illustration of the influence heat exercises on the size of the liver is afforded by the celebrated Strasburg geese. By feeding these birds in a particular way, and keeping them in artificial heat, the liver becomes diseased, grows to an enormous size, and in this state furnishes the materials of the famous pâté. How many instances occur where our citizens, exposing themselves to the long continued operation of the very same causes, confinement, overfeeding, heat, and want of exercise, are affected by them in exactly the same way! How slight the difference between the morbid phenomena displayed in the post-mortem of a city feaster and the autopsy of an over-fed goose.