NATURE 



145 



THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 



MEDICAL TREATMENT BY HEALTH 

 RESORTS. 

 Clirnatolhcrapy and Balneotherapy : the Climates and 

 Mineral Water Health Resorts (Spas) of Europe 

 and North Africa. By Sir Hermann Weber and 

 Dr. E. Parkes Weber. Being- a third edition of 

 The Mineral Waters and Health Resorts of Europe, 

 much enlarged in respect to Medical Climatology. 

 Pp. Sjv (London : Smith, Elder and Co., 1907.) 

 Price 15X. 6rf. net. 



A S the causation and character of chronic ailments 

 ■^^ are better understood, more and more reliance 

 is placed upon baths and climates for their treatment. 

 The health resorts combine many conditions favour- 

 able to health, and, in fact, represent more or less 

 a return to nature, a reaction which becomes neces- 

 sary in proportion to the increase of civilisation. The 

 work of Sir Hermann and Dr. Parkes Weber upon 

 these topics is well known in America and Europe, 

 and is conveniently presented in the present volume, 

 which has been much enlarged in the section of 

 climatotherapy. It now affords the most complete 

 account of the therapeutics of climate, waters, and 

 baths that has yet been published in our language. 



The real difficulty in the use of these natural 

 agencies has been ignorance. Indeed, so vast an 

 amount of detailed information of localities, which 

 is apt to get out of date, must be combined with 

 special experience and power of selection, that not 

 even every physician is likely to be an expert in these 

 subjects. In cases of difficulty, and where individual 

 characters have to be primarily considered, the expert 

 must, of course, have the last word, but for every- 

 day purposes this book presents a clear account of 

 general principles and a mine of useful information, 

 and will form a work of reference helpful alike to the 

 practitioner and the public. 



Change of climate is but one of the objects of 

 going abroad. The influence of environment at the 

 health resort, and of travel per se, both upon bodily 

 and mental functions, are rightly emphasised in this 

 work. They are, indeed, often a more essential 

 element of treatment than either climates or baths. 

 As regards climate, it will now be generally admitted 

 that there are comparatively few disorders for which 

 the climates of Great Britain are not as well adapted 

 as any other. If a necessary exception be made for 

 some forms of consumption and of chronic joint 

 disease and defective circulation, and for failing 

 vitality of old age — for all of which a less humid 

 and more sunny winter climate is sometimes advisable 

 • — our health seekers might well, as respects climate, 

 remain within our own shores. The present authors, 

 after a survey of many climates, give little counten- 

 ance to the common complaint of the " changeable 

 weather " of these islands, but rather affirm that 

 " frequent moderate changes of weather are favour- 

 able to health and vigour." Although we may be 

 limited, as the meteorologists inform us, to less than 

 NO. 1963, VOL. 76] 



one-third of our possible sunshine, whilst Italy with 

 a more translucent air enjoys more than one-half; 

 although the microbes and spores in the atmosphere 

 of our towns may reach to many hundreds or 

 thousands in the cubic metre, whilst they are absent 

 from the alpine, arctic, and ocean airs, yet notwith- 

 standing our people have developed, thanks partly 

 to the climate, a power of resistance to disease which 

 gives them, on the whole, a standard of health and 

 energy probably unsurpassed in the world. 



We note the useful distinctions drawn between the 

 various marine climates. The umrmer group for 

 winter use include the equable and humid climates 

 like those of Madeira, the West Indies and Ajaccio, 

 and also relatively dry climates like those of the 

 western Riviera. Again, the colder seaside resorts 

 of northern Europe and the Baltic are valuable 

 bracing stations in summer. In dealing with the 

 effects of climates of high altitude, an interesting 

 fact, to which Sir H. Weber has already directed 

 attention, is again stated, namely, that an elevation 

 of 500 feet to 800 feet in Great Britain is equivalent 

 or more than equivalent to 2000 feet or 3000 feet 

 in southern Europe. The statement is well within 

 the truth, and many instances could be adduced in 

 confirmation, for example, the highlands of the 

 north-east of Scotland. The quality of the air in 

 that region appears to resemble that of the Alps with- 

 out the rarefaction, and it is a remarkable fact that 

 some of the disorders, such as degenerative vascular 

 changes, dilatation of the heart, and nervous prostra- 

 tion, which are unfavourably affected by an alpine 

 climate, are markedly benefited in our own more 

 northern but less elevated and equally bracing 

 climates. The effect of latitude upon conditions of 

 disease might well receive more detailed treatment in 

 a future edition. 



The recent additions to our knowledge of soil and 

 subsoil as factors in climate are here well sum- 

 marised, but our appreciation of the effect of local 

 variations is still very imperfect. Here, as else- 

 where, there exists a body of valuable but empirical 

 observation, which needs to be collated and 

 systematised. For example, the influence both of 

 soil and subsoil upon rheumatism is of acknowledged 

 importance. 



The second half of this volume is devoted to 

 balneotherapy. This is a branch of medical science 

 and practice in which, thanks to the conscientious 

 work of modern spa physicians, a very salutary 

 change has been effected of late years. Like other 

 branches of treatment, it was once vitiated by 

 charlatanism, and later obscured by irrational tradi- 

 tion and routine. Balneotherapy has been founded 

 anew upon exact observation, and the present treatise 

 is a striking testimony to the fact. We are here 

 furnished with a good resumd of the effects of the 

 different classes of mineral waters, of which some of 

 the most active are but weakly mineralised. Not 

 many years ago it was often denied by competent 

 authority that ingredients in such dilution could have 

 any therapeutic effect, and the curative results ex- 

 perienced were ascribed to the imagination. It is 



H 



