Health-seeking in Tenerife and Madeira.

  • Mackenzie, Sir Morell, 1837-1892.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health-seeking in Tenerife and Madeira. 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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    of Tenerifean streets is chiefly due to the almost total absence of vehicular traffic; one soon becomes accustomed to the quiet of the towns, however, and even ceases after a time to notice it. For many invalids, too, the very stillness has a soothing effect, which no doubt plays some part in the general beneficial effect of the change. Orotava is almost the only place in Tenerife where there is any hotel accommodation for invalids, and even there it is still far from adequate. The place has suffered indirectly from the exuberant en- thusiasm of Mr. Ernest Hart, to whose opinion, after his visit in the spring of 1887, great weight was rightly attached. He described the climate, the scenery, the products vegetable and human, and the ar- rangements for the reception of invalids, with such tropical luxuriance of epithet, that the island was invaded the following winter by crowds of sufferers, real and imaginary, with their friends and attendants. The result was that the hotel accommodation proved utterly insuf- ficient, the arrangements were unsatisfactory, and considerable dis- comfort was caused. Last winter, accordingly, there was a marked falling off in the number of invalids who visited Tenerife. Very few of those who had experienced the miseries of life in an over- crowded hotel went back the following winter. On the other hand, those who had been fortunate enough to get villas for themselves almost without exception returned, or remained through the summer on the island. It was the want of proper accommodation, therefore, and not dissatisfaction with the climate, which caused the diminution in the number of visitors. That there was disappointment with the climate in some cases, however, is undeniable, and this is only what was to be expected. The exaggerated reports of the health-giving properties of Tenerife led people to expect miracles; when the inevitable disenchantment followed, the blame of the failure was, of course, laid on the climate. On this subject I shall have some- thing to say further on. A third cause for the diminished influx of visitors to Orotova last winter was a false report that was circulated as to the presence of yellow fever at Santa Cruz. This was naturally taken by most people to mean the capital of Tenerife; there had not, however, been any cases of yellow fever there, but one or two had been imported into Santa Cruz in the Island of Palma. The Tenerifeans have not failed to profit by the lesson of last winter. The science of hotel management has been carefully studied, and nothing could be more satisfactory than the arrangements now made at Orotava for the comfort of guests. On this point the testi- mony of the English people whom I met was practically unanimous, and from my own experience I can conscientiously add my voice to the rest. The ' Grand Hotel and Sanatorium' of Orotava is situated at Puerto, .some fifty feet above the level of the sea. It was originally