Consumption-stricken settlers were restored to health by frontier life

Evidence

But oh! what a hard, narrow life it is with which I am now in contact! A narrow and unattractive religion, which I believe still to be genuine, and an intense but narrow patriotism, are the only higher influences. Chalmers came from Illinois nine years ago, pronounced by the doctors to be far gone in consumption, and in two years he was strong. They are a queer family; somewhere in the remote Highlands I have seen such another. Its head is tall, gaunt, lean, and ragged, and has lost one eye. On an English road one would think him a starving or a dangerous beggar. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 64

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that frontier open-air living cured a man doctors had condemned for consumption connects to the broader 19th-century faith that western climates healed tuberculosis, a belief behind many sanatorium and emigration movements. — connects to: British settlers endured frontier discomfort that foreigners improved with elegance. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 155; Pioneer settlers lived in grinding poverty without basic comforts or proper clothing. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 67; Frontier settlers told time by the appearance of mountain peaks. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 181

Broader Connections

• British settlers endured frontier discomfort that foreigners improved with elegance. #expands (0.90) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 155
• Pioneer settlers lived in grinding poverty without basic comforts or proper clothing. #complicates (0.88) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 67