The ocean as a health resort : a practical handbook of the sea for the use of tourists and health-seekers / by William S. Wilson ; with a chart showing the ocean-routes and illustrating the physical geography of the sea.

  • Wilson, William Samuel.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean as a health resort : a practical handbook of the sea for the use of tourists and health-seekers / by William S. Wilson ; with a chart showing the ocean-routes and illustrating the physical geography of the sea. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.

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    of the most powerful character. The fact that some of these conditions are at first sight somewhat contradictory does not detract from their usefulness. Every physician knows that a judicious combination or alternation of opposite remedies will often prove most successful in the treatment of disease; and there is nothinor in a gradual transition from climate to climate that need interfere with the benefit to be derived from the equability of temper- ature at sea, as regards a limited daily range; nor is there anything in the bracing efi'ects of strong sea breezes to injuriously counteract the sedative influences of a humid air, high barometric pressure, and perfect rest. That the blendinof of these various causes of orood, not- withstanding the drawbacks inseparable from sea life, very often achieves the happiest results is beyond dispute; and there can be little doubt that in proportion as the subject is more studied, and the hygienic conditions of passenger ships are improved, so \vill the thalasso- climatic treatment, not only for invalids, but for the jaded and over-worked, gain ground in public estimation. If it be asked whether it would not be possible to enjoy at a well-chosen seaside health resort, the advan- taofes to be derived from an ocean vovao-e, a neffative reply must be emphatically given. At our own favourite sanatoria, as well as those on the shores of the Mediter- ranean, the sea air is, at the best, a sadly adulterated article. When the wind blows from the land, it will contain all the impurities peculiar to the district, which may be marshy, malarious, or otherwise unhealthy. There will also be the various insanitary emanations of the city or the town itself But even when the wind blows off the sea, the air is far from being as pure as could be wished. Seaweed and other vegetable and animal matters in various stages of decay, to say nothing of the
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