As found by A. and Y. Loewy and Luntz,[251] mountain air improves the processes of oxidation and increases the number and depth of the respirations. All this, however, according to these savants, is the result of the exciting action of the sunshine. It speaks volumes for the health-giving properties of mountain air that the inhabitants of such spots, especially in Scotland, Switzerland, and Norway, have such fresh rosy cheeks. These we notice more particularly among the females, especially in young girls who are freer from the agencies harmful to good health, such as alcohol, sexual excesses, etc. In Norway almost all the young girls have fresh red cheeks, for which, indeed, they are noted, due to the delightful air on its mountains and forests, with which the whole land is almost covered. Footnote 251: Quoted after Landois: “Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen,” Berlin, Wien, 1905, eleventh edition, p. 235. I had the opportunity of proving for myself, after spending a certain time in a resort on the top of a mountain in Norway, the delightful purity and invigorating quality of the air, which was due to the large amount of oxygen. As a confrère expressed it, there was champagne in the air! It was not soiled here by any manufacturing plant, the curse of so many places with fine air. Norway, one of the most extensive countries in Europe, has at the same time a very small population, only about two millions, and very few factories, so that the air is not polluted either by a dense population or by the smoke of manufactories. Scotland, with its highlands, has also a similar air, and the color of the Scotch lassies is not far behind their Norwegian sisters. This can be admitted as a scientific argument for the relations of health in the country. But Americans need not travel so far. There is as good a climate and wonderfully fresh air in the Rocky Mountains, and also in other highly elevated places, of which America can boast many more than Europe. But whether there or in Europe it would be necessary to give up all occupations for a few months, or at least for several weeks after every six months. This time we should pass in those elevated places where we can climb every day; climbing presents an excellent opportunity to get much fresh air into our lungs, as we are then obliged to take much deeper inspirations, thereby obtaining more oxygen from the pure air of the mountains. As we shall show in the next chapter, exercise combined with fresh air is of the greatest importance to our health and chances for a long life and a green old age.