Healing Waters - A History of Victorian Spas

Modern spas are wellness resorts that offer beauty treatments, massages and complementary therapies. Victorian spas were sanitariums, providing "water cure" treatments supplemented by massage, vibration, electricity and radioactivity.
Rooted in the palliative health reforms of the early 19th century, spas of the Victorian Age grew out of the hydrotherapy institutions of the 1840s--an alternative to the horrors of bleeding and purging. The regimen focused on diet, rest, cessation of alcohol and foods that upset the stomach, stress reduction and plenty of water. The treatments, though sometimes of a dubious nature, formed the transition from the primitive methods of "heroic medicine" to the era of scientifically based practices.

List of contents

Table of Contents

Preface

Significant Dates in the Evolution of the Victorian Spa

One.¿Healing Waters

Two.¿Heroic Medicine Indeed

Three.¿Towards Gentler Treatments

Four.¿The Quest for Healthy Eating

Five.¿Water as the Universal Cure

Six.¿The Water Cure Comes to America

Seven.¿Elusive Victorian Diseases

Eight.¿Taking the Plunge

Nine.¿Bathing the Insides

Ten.¿Shocking Treatments

Eleven.¿Treatments Galore

Twelve.¿Victorian Watering Places

Thirteen.¿Springs and Spas in America

Fourteen.¿The Battle Creek San

Fifteen.¿The Cereal Battles

Sixteen.¿The Spas Transform

Postscript

Glossary: Victorian Medical Terminology

Appendix: Composition of Representative Mineral Springs

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Jeremy Agnew, a biomedical electronics consultant, holds a PhD in engineering and has been involved in the design and manufacture of medical devices for more than 30 years. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has written several books on the Old West.

Product details

• Authors: Jeremy Agnew, Agnew Jeremy
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.03.2019
• EAN: 9781476674599
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-7459-9
• No. of pages: 248
• Dimensions: 178 mm x 254 mm x 13 mm
• Weight: 449 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Europe, HEALTH & FITNESS / General, HISTORY / World, Social & cultural history, TRAVEL / Food, Lodging & Transportation / Resorts & Spas, c 1800 to c 1900, Social and cultural history, 1837–1901 (Victorian period)