[To Tim Eprroa OP TEE a 'sritcrAna."] Sin,—Your correspondent, "X. X.
X.," in the Spectator of January 7th, has put in very convincing language a fact which has been daily demonstrated at Nordrach, in Southern Germany, for the last ten years and upwards. In an Anstalt there employed for the treatment of consumption the patients are daily subjected to all the conditions which in England are supposed to produce colds,—exposure to rain and cold, wet feet, and the draughts from constantly open windows are the order of the day. Patients are encouraged to disregard rain and cold entirely, and often sit in wet things until they dry on their bodies! Suffering myself from phthisis, I spent some ten months at this place, and from the first day was compelled to adopt the rule of the place, which much to my surprise did no harm whatever, and on the whole I may say that I gained considerably in health while there, the greatest gain being that I learned the way never to take cold, and from the day I reached Nordrach until now—nearly three years—I have never had the least trace of a cold, by con- tinuing at home the simple and reasonable plan of always having windows wide open day and night, summer and winter.
In this month's Nineteenth Century a Mr. Gibson has an interesting article on Nordrach, and the treatment of phthisis there, in which the percentage of cures given is so high that I could not endorse his views. But the fact that during the ten months of my stay I never saw a person with a cold proves conclusively that even persons in very frail health, and suffering from lung disease, may be subjected to all winds and weathers, to night air, open windows on wet and windy nights, and the greatest extremes of temperature without any ill effect, if they will never enervate their bodies by remaining in hot and ill-ventilated rooms.—I am, Sir, &c., ERNST LAMBERT.
`Lonsdale; Combe Down, Bath, January 9th.
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