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
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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![BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ON CONSUMPTIVE PATIENTS. ].5 ficially. It will often eradicate the tendency to con- sumption, and establish the constitution for life. Even in these cases where the first stage of the disease is more fully established, a few months at sea will frequently arrest the mischief, and sometimes effect a permanent cure. It is when the disease has passed into its later stages that the advisability of sending a consumptive patient to sea becomes more doubtful. Even then great benefit will sometimes be obtained; but the question whether the possible good that may result will weigh against the certain loss of home comforts and the many incon- veniences of ship life, is one that can only be decided by the physician in attendance on the case. Unfortunately but few statistics bearing on this sub- ject have been recorded, but such as are obtainable all point one way. First, as to the preventive influence of the sea climate in regard to consumption. The registration returns of deaths amongst sailors of the mercantile marine show that the proportion of deaths from consumption as com- pared with those from other causes is ten times less than it is amongst the English land population. But if we take only the deaths that occur between the ages of fifteen and forty-five (the usual period during which sailors remain at sea) we shall find the i-esult still more favourable—the proportion of deaths from consumption as against those from all other causes being; sixteen timts less at sea than on land. Next as to the remedial effects of the ocean climate in the treatment of consumption. Dr. Theodore Williams has published statistics of eighteen-cases in which the sea treatment received a thorough trial. Of these eighteen cases, sixteen improved, one remained stationary, and only one became worse. As some explanation of the extremely favourable results shown in this series of cases, it should](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20996810_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
