Account of the bathing seasons, 1854 and 1855 / by P. M. Mess.

  • Mess, Pieter Marinus.
Date:
[1855]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of the bathing seasons, 1854 and 1855 / by P. M. Mess. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    textui-es; as rlieumatisni, in the form of headache, pains in tlie joints, and in tlie loins. 1V°. Affections liaving then- seat in the organs of respiration, iukI circulation : tuberculosis, catarrhus chronicus, asthma, tussis i convulsiva, gi-eat sensibility to changes in the weather, and thence, frequent attacks of bronchitis, in children tendency to renewal of seizures of angina menibranacea, and cardiac disorders. ! V°. Affections belonging to the organs of the abdomen: disturbed digestion, retarded peristaltic action, haemon-hoidal disease, hypo- chondriasis, diarrhoea. Vl°. Affections of the uropoietic and generative systems : Bright's disease and albuminuria, chronic inflammation of bladder, inconti- nence of ui-ine, spermatorrhoea, amenoiTho^a, dysmenorrhoea, and disorders during and after pregnancy. VII°. Affections having their seat in the blood: scrofulosis, in- clufling certain forms of caries and diseases of the joints, chronic gout, and chlorosis. Under these heads are embraced the vaiious diseases which pre- sented themselves at Scheveningen, in the years 1854 and 1855, in search of recovery or amelioration by means of the sea-bathing cure. I need scarcely tell, that some patients apj^eared disappointed iii their expectations, and that to others the result was really somewhat unfavourable ; but the greater portion left the establishment either greatly improved, or with liealth entirely restored. The reasons for this were various. Magic virtue, which some appear willing to attribute to the sea-baths, belongs as little to them as to any other remedy, by means of which science seeks either to soothe, or to diminish, or to dispel human suffiaidng. The term magic virtue is used advisedly: for I Avas, indeed, often astonished at the impatience displayed, not only by the patients, but even by their physicians, when a complaint which hatl already Itisted many years, which liad| been aggravated by prejudicial habits of living, and which was tor-i mented still by a whole farrago of medicaments, could not be re-l moved or alleviated by a course of baths for three, four, or, at mosti five weeks. Such individuals forget, firstly, that it is usual wit™ many to feel themselves worse during the first fortnight, under thm influence of the sea air and tlie bathing. They become otl:eiM languid, fatigued, do not sleep soundly, or are oppi'essed witM drowsiness; and their discontent on this score frequently tends stilfl farther to their prejudice. Then succeed the one or two remainin J weeks, and the prospect of a more favourable iss\ie begins to becom« ap]xu-ent; but the period allotted for the cure has already elapsedB and the patient returns home, exclaiming of^en unjustly: oleinii ^ operum perdidi ! Were these persons to evince greater patience, or they were willing to renew the cure before finally judging, I shoulH be less obliged to range them among the uin-casonably disappointeoH Some otliers, left to themselves during the cure, f;])plic(l « unsuitably, or did not keep in mind sufficiently for what pui'l^o^