South Africa as a health resort / by E. Symes Thompson.

  • Symes-Thompson, Edmund, 1837-1906.
Date:
[1888]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: South Africa as a health resort / by E. Symes Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    been told by parties visiting the Cape that it was very difficult to find suitable accommodation for those who were in delicate health. In some places there is very good accommodation, but there are not many really suitable hotels for invahds. It is not the business of the steamboat owners to provide this accommodation. I did think of it; in fact, the necessities of my own position in travelling about made me desire such accommodation upon land; but I could not see how it was possible for me to take in hand the estabHshment of hotel accommodation, even near the sea. Cer- tainly I have taken a considerable interest in the hotel now in course of construction at Grand Canary, on the way to the Cape, and I should be very glad to see similar enterprise shown in places I could name in South Africa, suitable as health resorts. But, as I have said, there are good hotels, some of them very comfortable indeed. This need of good hotels throughout the interior and in health-giving districts is a great want for invalids and ordinary travellers, and, most of all, of course, for invalids. I find frequently that persons entrusted to our care for conveyance to ■ the Cape speak of this matter on their return, and regret that-, owing to the lack of accommodation, they have been unable to% stay as long as they desired, and to enjoy the full benefits of the- admirable dry climate, so beneficial to health, which distinguishes that part of the world. The high ground of the Transvaal and the Free State, as well as of the Cape and Natal, is an agreeable and health-giving territory. I have travelled about 1,000 miles by carriage over the Veldt, sometimes good roads, sometimes not. I cannot say that the accommodation provided for the ordinary traveller by wagons, referred to by a preceding speaker, is all one can desire. Every day, however, the means of locomotion are being improved.. It must interest people in this country, especially delicate people,, to know that South Africa is a place where they might prolong, their existence, and lead a happy life. I myself could tell you of many cases of ladies and gentlemen, of young people and old, who have recovered their health through a residence in that country permanently, and of others who after a short visit have derived' enormous advantage and permanent benefit. That, howevei-, would lead me into some relation of circumstances connected with their mode of getting there, which would have very much the appearance of an advertisement, and that is not within the scope of my observations. South Africa is, I say, a fine place for health. The necessity for good accommodation on the part of travellers passing to and from the gold mines and the diamond