January 23, 19 15 
LAND AND WATER 
THE WAR AND HEALTH RESORTS 
By A SPECIALIST 
NOT content with organised ei^orts to capture 
the trade of the enemy, those in intellectual 
authority are challenging the right of Germany 
to claim superioritj' in the realms of the applied 
sciences. There can be no doubt that many of 
us have been too prone to accept GormanN-'s opinion of 
herself without sufficient analysis and disputation, and this 
may account for the arrogance which has ended in tlie claim 
of Germany to dominate the world. German institutions 
and methods had become so idolised in this country that, as 
one writer put it, " we must either imitate them or perish." 
The war has changed all that. It would be foolish to go to 
the other extreme and underrate the great work accomplished 
by Germany in most of the spheres of human activity. That 
would be playing her own favourite game of belittlcment : 
but we are no longer going to bow down to an idol, and we 
know, after careful inquiry into their title-deeds, that the 
universal claim of superiority on the part of the enemy is 
an arrogant delusion. 
In the matters of hygiene or therapeutics Germany 
might seem able to meet the challenge of superiority better 
than in most spheres. We have not hesitated in accepting 
the excellence of their health resorts and watering-places in 
a very practical way. We have been amongst their best 
patrons. We had ceased to admit ourselves as rivals, with 
a subserviency which onlj' the present state of national 
antagonism may impress upon us. The doctors of Harrogate, 
Buxton, Bath, and the rest, are now actually courageous 
enough to submit their claim for consideration, even at the 
high standard Germany claims to have set for itself, and to 
have some part in the capture of Teutonic interests. This 
is as it should be. 
For perfection in one branch of medical hygiene I have 
indeed looked in vain throughout Germany and Austria, and 
have found it " a long, long way " from the beaten tracks 
of therapeutics. Perfection is a big word, and yet it seems to 
come to my pen easily after visiting an institution which 
I found, not exactly " at the back of beyond," but far north- 
ward on the civilised paths which fringe the northern seas. 
In an institution looking out across the Moray Firth to the 
Black Isle, in a country of rare beauty and equable climate, 
there exists to-day a diagnostic and therapeutic system 
that, in the thorough and delicate minutice of its methods, 
seems to me to admit no rivalry throughout the whole inter- 
national domain of medicine. I do not make this claim 
without a sense of responsibility, as I make it without 
prejudice, having neither axes to grind nor logs to roll in the 
matter. I have assured myself of the fact that those in 
authority are actual pioneers in the systematic study and 
treatment of disorders of metabolism. 
Some twenty years ago a distinguished man of science 
made the prophecy that the future of therapeutics would 
be in the hands of the bio-chemists, or, to put it in less 
scientific phraseology, that the medical treatment of disea.se 
would depend to a major extent upon a study of the changes 
that take place in the chemical conditions of the body. 
The institution of which I write is, then, the first of its kind 
in the United Kingdom which is concerned with the treatment 
of the disorder of metabolism, founded upon an elaborate 
and systematic study of the chemical changes which are 
effected by these disorders. I have made a fairly prolonged 
investigation into the practices at this institution, and, well 
accustomed as I had been to scientific methods, it was a 
source of great satisfaction to find that there did exist an 
establishment that was absolutely unaffected by any of the 
laissez-faire or empirical methods of the medical flaneur — 
an institution which counted neither upon some certain 
" cure " nor pushed a scientific " panacea " as an effective 
method for nine out of ten cases of disorder. Having some 
years ago severed all connection with medical science, and 
being unconnected with any of its interests, my view may 
seem the more detached and unprejudiced. 
Each case is treated on its own merits. To the aid of 
the individual patient is called the elaborate investigations 
of physicians, analytical chemist, and bacteriologist. Pro- 
longed medical diagnosis is supplemented by the most 
minute day-to-day record of blood, alimentarv, and other 
conditions. Diet is as carefully and systematically prescribed 
as medicine, baths, and other healing agents ; and the effect 
of food, baths, medicine, exercise, etc., noted and tabulated 
each day with an attention to uniformity and svstem which 
inspires a confidence wliich is lacking in other "more or less 
haphazard methods. This institution is not a place at which 
to play at being cured. .Sleep, exercise, rest, diet, baths, 
massage. X-ray analysis, are all treate^i with the respect 
which must be paid by the patient who desires to obtain the 
beneficent results at which the higher forms of medicine aim. 
There is no slackness ; the etiology or history of each case is 
noted in the fullest detail ; the exact nature of the disorder 
is arrived at by a prolonged study made by the physicians, 
the X-ray specialist, and the chemist, and the effects of 
restriction — increase and modification, as the case may be — 
duly noted in the elaborate tables which accompany the 
history of the case. The whole staff are in constant 
collaboration, and each day the patient is examined with 
the assistance of all the elaborate and up-to-date machinery 
available in the institution. The chemical laboratories 
would do credit to a university, as the various baths are 
entirely modern and effective. 
Dietary — an important item in the establishment — is 
conducted on the most subtle principles. There are not 
half a dozen possible diets for a particular disease, but half 
a hundred, and these are carefully prepared under the eye 
of the " diet sister " on the nursing staff (an important item'* 
and the . results carefully noted, the idea being — s,a.y in a 
case of diabetes — not to give the patient the minimum but 
the maximum that he can stand. A careful study of sugar 
and acetone results gives the physician an excellent idea in 
what way Hes the patient's "salvation." Each patient here 
has one prescribed meal, which is written on a new menu 
placed before him at each meal. There is, therefore, no 
monotony but a delightful variety consistent with the results 
aimed at. Exercise, baths, and medicine are regulated on 
more or less the same system, under the guidance not only 
of the medical staff but that of the expert nurses. 
It is gratifying to learn, from both physician and patient 
alike, that in such cases as diabetes, colitis, anaemia, gout, 
heart trouble, emaciation, and other disorders the results 
have been most noteworthy, not only in the matter of cure, 
but as also affording, in the more untractable cases, a 
unique basis on which to found the life of the patient after 
he leaves the institution. The lengthy report drawn up for 
the benefit of the physician who may be looking after the 
patient in his private life is one of the most valuable practices 
of the establishment, giving an elaborate summary of the 
investigations, treatment, and food capabilities of the patient 
on which to base his future dietary and therapeusis. 
Apart from the remarkable scientific facilities with 
which I have dwelt, I came away from my visit with delightful 
memories of social and geographical amenities. The 
delightful golf and tennis courses, tlie excellent shootings, 
the facilities afforded for fishing and curling, the charming 
park and gardens, the noble sea views and unequalled seaside 
walks, the mild winter climate, the high percentage of 
sunshine, the low rainfall, the dry and porous soil, the teeming 
historical associations, left me a memory which will not soon 
fade. More than anything else, I came away with a strong 
impression of the word " thorough " and the thought that it 
must be very consoling to those who will be cut off from 
continental " cures " by the war that there is in the north 
of Scotland an institution which has not a rival throughout 
the continent of Europe. 
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