CHAPTER XII - THE STIMULATION OF THE ALPS
To any one who should come from a southern sanitarium to the Alps,
the row of sun-burned faces round the table would present the first
surprise. He would begin by looking for the invalids, and he would
lose his pains, for not one out of five of even the bad cases bears
the mark of sickness on his face. The plump sunshine from above and
its strong reverberation from below colour the skin like an Indian
climate; the treatment, which consists mainly of the open air,
exposes even the sickliest to tan, and a tableful of invalids comes,
in a month or two, to resemble a tableful of hunters. But although
he may be thus surprised at the first glance, his astonishment will
grow greater, as he experiences the effects of the climate on
himself. In many ways it is a trying business to reside upon the
Alps: the stomach is exercised, the appetite often languishes; the
liver may at times rebel; and because you have come so far from
metropolitan advantages, it does not follow that you shall recover.
But one thing is undeniable - that in the rare air, clear, cold, and
blinding light of Alpine winters, a man takes a certain troubled
delight in his existence which can nowhere else be paralleled.
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