active and the blood pressure is lowered.

Besides the effect of altitude on blood pressure, as previously
declared, patients with dangerously high blood pressure should, if
possible, not be subjected to intense cold. In other words, a person
with hyper-tension, if financially able, should not remain in a cold
climate during the winter. On the other hand, even if he is stout
and feels sufficiently warm with light clothing during the winter,
his skin becoming chilled adds to his tension. Therefore he should
be clothed as warmly as he will tolerate.

After a period which may be termed the normal period of hypertension
in normal life, as age advances the systolic tension may lower,
provided there is no kidney lesion. This is due to the slowly
developing chronic myocarditis and a lessening of the tension and
therefore lessening of the resistance to the heart. This may be
nature's method of lengthening the life of the individual. In other
words, as the arteries grow older the force of the heart slightly
lessens, the blood pressure lowers, and the individual is safer.
This frequently occurs in otherwise perfectly normal individuals,
without treatment.

When the blood pressure is suddenly excessively high from any cause,
venesection may be life saving, and should perhaps be more
frequently done than it is. It may save a heart that is in agony
from tension, and may prevent an apoplexy. It is of little value
except temporarily in uremic conditions, but at other times it may,
at the time, save life and allow other methods of reducing the
dangerous tension to become effective. A chronic high tension
patient may be repeatedly bled, although such treatment will not