Ben Rhydding.

  • Macleod, William, 1820-1904.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ben Rhydding. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    never-failing subject of conversation (the weather was rarely mentioned, except with reference to out-door exercise)—each other's complaints, the baths to be taken, and the walks to be d It is perhaps time, however, we informed the uninitiated that Ben Rhydding is what is commonly called a hydropathic establishment—a place for the water-cure ; but let us promptly assure the horrified reader that it is not a place where the doctrine that cold water cures everything is either preached or practised. The practice is such as is or may be adopted by any orthodox Hospital Physician in London : and with their doings we happen to be tolerably familiar. Dr. Macleod, the Resident Physician, is a man who knows how to use the system without abusing it, and he is at all times prompt to apply the appropriate remedy to the prevailing disease, be that what it may. 'J he means relied upon for the cure of such maladies as we referred to first of all are mostly hygienic—rest, quiet, good air, good food, and exercise : but should a line of treatment be indicated by any gentleman sending a patient there, it is faithfully carried out until its efficacy or its uselessness is fairly shown ; or should .my addition to it be deemed advisable by Dr. Macleod himself, it is promptly supplied, modified, or improved on, as the case may require. But it will be best to give some idea of the day's routine in the case of an invalid such as we have figured, thereby perhaps best deM.iil.iing the ways of the place. Early in the morning that is, by six or seven—the bath-man knocks at the door with a pair of large rough sheds on his arm, and tells you he has come to make ready your bath. In many instances the bath is in the individual's own room, but sometimes he has to make his way to one or other of the bath-rooms scattered through the building. These baths are merely shallow zmc tubs, in which one can sit down with his legs extended in front of him. They are partly filled with water pure and cold from the hills, and so filled the stranger is invited to get out of his warm bed and get into the cold water, having previously wetted his head and face. The instant he is seated he is saluted with a pail of cold water over his back and shoulders, the bath-man rubs the bai k and limbs ; but about two minutes of this is enough for anybody, and the bather is speedily on the floor, where he is enveloped, first in one, then in the other of the sheets, and quickly rubbed dry. With a good circulation the reaction is wonderful, and one feels all oxer in a healthy glow; but this would be too much for the more weakly, and in their instance the cold water is duly tempered with warm before its application. The next thing to be done after dressing is a run up on to the hills or a turn through the grounds, to get an appetite for breakfast. Many take advantage of this early excursion to procure their morning draught of pure clean water from a fountain high up above the house-. We think we can pronounce it healthier than the runi-and-milk of some valetudinarians, or the even more questionable beverages of others. But with the cold bath, the morning mountain air, and what not, by eight o'clock most portentous appetites are produced, and the first breakfast-bell is the signal for trooping back to house. Most visitors breakfast in the great dining-hall, where all meals are served, but some do so in their private apartments. The meal itself consists of tea or coffee, bread-and-butter, eggs, and cold meat, varied from time to time with fish; and the rapidity with which the solids disappear vouch for the efficacy of this treatment in recovering an appetite. After breakfast there is a general dispersal—some to read the mc.r.ing papers, others to write letters for the early post to town, and so on. The stronger most likely betake themselves to the moors, or are off on some of the many excursions to be made in the neighbourhood. Those undergoing treatment probably remain behind, as for them, in the middle of the day, there is another bath, perhaps the rain-bath—a contrivance whereby a multitude of little jets of cold water are made to play at all sorts of angles on the surface of the bod)-. This can be withstood but for a short time, but the reaction is fine. Or. again, there may be, in the case of ladies with uterine troubles, the sitz-bath ; or, yet again, if the skin acts badly, the Roman or hot-air bath, or the pack. This last form of cold water application seems to be singularly useful, and might with great propriety be employed more generally for reducing temperature. The patient's bed is prepared for the pack by having all the bed-clothes turned down, and a