REDCAR – Therapeutics of the Seaside 1870

Accreditation The Redcar & Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 23/09/1870.

Therapeutics of the Sea-Side
(With Special Reference to the North East Coast)

     A paper on this subject was read at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association at Newcastle, in August last, By Dr. Oliver, of Coatham. The following summary of the contents is extracted from the British Medical Journal;- The author believed it highly probable that, while sea-air lessons the coetaneous and pulmonary exhalation, sea bathing and sea-water baths should to some extent prove corrective of the prejudicial actions of sea-air in certain cases. Increase of appetite is perhaps the best and most obvious indication of the beneficial effect of sea-air. Where the sea-air is prejudicial, Dr. Oliver had sometimes found good to result from the liberal use of alcohol; but as a rule, when stimulants can be dispensed with, more benefit is derived from sea-air without them. Dr. Oliver gave an account of the climate of Redcar and Saltburn on the coast of Cleveland, and of his own experience there. The climate is dry and bracing; the beach is broad, firm, and sandy, and extends about ten miles along the coast: wave constantly breaking over it charge the air with a fine salt spray.

     The coast of Cleveland appeared to the author especially useful in the following cases: Convalescents; diseases of children; especially those dependent on retardation of nutritive changes; scrofula; functional disorders of the nervous system; atonic dyspepsia; debility produce by town life; degenerative changes in the tissues, as in old age and in the prematurely old; and some cases of spasmodic asthma. The cases for which the climate was unsuitable were described as being these attended with irritability and dryness of the bronchial tubes; inflammatory skin affections; tubercular consumption in all stages; and Bright’s disease. In conclusion, Dr. Oliver observed that the climate of the North East Coast is well calculated to call forth and develop vital energy, and thus invigorate an enfeebled system; but the substratum of energy submitted to it must not be too low, nor have been lowered by exhausting organic disease, or the result may be that still further depression is produced.

FacebookTwitterDiggMore...

dean July 16, 2011 Uncategorized