Spa treatment : selection of patients and the choice of a suitable spa / by Neville Wood.

  • Wood, Neville.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Spa treatment : selection of patients and the choice of a suitable spa / by Neville Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    developing into the principal street by the erection of the finest buildings, and minor streets shaping themselves as requirements have grown, without any prevision that when the town increased in importance their narrowness would cramp its grandeur. In Germany, whether this foresight has been actually exercised I do not know, but towns when fully developed look as if they had originally been laid out with a view to their ultimate expansion. The result is that German spas have better planned and more spacious public recreation grounds, and that the streets present an air of greater dignity. In France S07ne of the spas are shamefully kept, the banks of lovely little streams are strewn with ordure, and along the roads there are sights so disgusting that they are best left undescribed. In Germany, on the other hand, we find a cleanliness so scrupu- lous that it is reminiscent of the deck of a man-of-war. In France the tendency is for each spa to specialise in the class of cases it seeks to attract. We are given a list of the diseases considered to be amenable to the treatment, and also those which on no account should be sent. Both in selection and rejection, but chiefly in the latter, these lists sometimes seem to be quite arbitrary. As an example, it is stated of one of the springs that the water has no influence above the diaphragm ! In Germany, on the other hand, many resorts claim nearly the whole list of the diseases, and this because, less regard being had to the specific nature of the disease than to underlying constitu- tional conditions, it is held that these can be beneficially in- fluenced in one way or another by totally dissimilar therapeutic agents. In general balneological equipment the Germans hold a decisive lead. The perso7i7iel of the bath-houses is under better discipline, and to secure proper attention incessant tipping is not required, as is so frequently the case in France. 1 he personal and social aspect of spa life from an international standpoint is a more delicate subject to handle, but I may give it as the generally accepted impression that taken collectively the French are more pleasing neighbours than the Teutons. The Germans display ceremonious politeness, but the French add a 4