I’m always intrigued when Austen characters, feeling ill and out of sorts, take a trip to the ocean to solve their health problems. Why did Regency doctors prescribe the sea cure, and is there anything to it? (And how do I get my doctor to write me a prescription for a beach vacation?) I decided to investigate.
This site is ending, so I moved this post. Read the rest of it here & learn what Regency and modern physicians think.
My dog never had leprous spots either, as we spent much time oceanside in San Diego. 2 out of 2. You MUST be correct. Thank you, Dr.Odegaard!
We definitely need to publish this in a medical journal!
Hmm. For the last 13 years, we’ve lived part of every year by the sea in Crete and my asthma has gone from controllable with inhalers to almost non-existent… Never thought of sea air as a poss. reason!!
Sounds like you need to spend more time in Crete to get more data for this. It’d be for science, after all.
Can’t afford to, but… nice idea, though!!!
Sea air and saltwater are supposed to be healing. I like to walk and read and spend time with family and our dog who does not have leprosy either!lol
I like walking with my dog too–by the sea. 🙂
I would happily volunteer to offer myself as an experiment. For science, of course!
One possible explanation is that if you’re at the sea, you’re not breathing in the crud that was in city air, even back then.
I used to bike a lot to keep healthy(ish), but we havent’ taken the bikes out much the last few years. What we do enjoy is walking. I might not be up to Lizzy Bennet’s standards, but I do enjoy a good ramble down (well-paved) paths and up (gentle) hillsides to see spectacular scenery. As long as there is tea and cake afterwards.
I thought of that too–that the people in London must have benefited from getting near the sea and away from the smog.
I like a good walk too. But your idea of tea and cakes afterwards is a good addition. (That’s a post for another day–how did these characters stay so thin when they were always eating cakes with their tea every day?!)
Did they not know drinking sea water will kill you?
Aye, there’s the rub. 🙂 It seems like they drank it in smaller doses, not enough to kill themselves, with the belief that a little has benefits (and a lot…doesn’t). But it was also a remedy doctors turned to because there were so many diseases they couldn’t cure, and they hoped this would be the magical panacea.
Drinking sea water must have been a fad cure for something in the late 1970s because i remember my grandfather having someone bring him gallons of seawater periodically and every evening after dinner he would have a drink just a little bit
Amount was those tiny paper cups they had in school when you had to do that swish and spit after lunch everyday trying to help reduce childhood cavaties…..wow just remembered having to do that it was sòooooooo long ago.
I only spent the weekends at my grandparents and cant remember what ailment my grandfather was tryingvto eliminate im thinking he might have had a skin condition psoarsis or something in that type of problem but sea water will kill you from drinking it my grandfather passed away in 1979 after a brief hospital stay from an undiagnosed aneurysm which burst. I was very close to my grandfather he went into the hospital on a wednesday sunday they had not diagnosed him and grandma was antsy to get him back home she was begging his doctors to please find out what is going on and release him that she would care for him make sure he did each and every thing as often as directed if she could just take him back home and care for him i remember this like it was yesterday the doctor assured her they were doing their best to diagnose so they could treat and hopefully release him to go home and continue treatment if needed but he would rest better at home her catering to him that she he and the lil lady at the window(me)all would be much happier. I was jumping up and down on the inside already comtemplating what sickness i would come down with wednesday evening which would cause me not to be able to go to school thursday and i could be there right when he got home i was so giddy and happy thinking how nice it was going to be having him back home safe and well grandma relaxed not all worried and on edge just all be back to normal. After . Talking with the doctor we stayed maybe another hour then went home.the doctor said they had a few more test to run get results in the next day or two then start treatment and hopefully thursday he would be able to return home to finish his healing umless it was somthing that might need more care and attention than could be handled at home without around the clock professional care then they may be able to get him a nurse if that was a possibility but at this moment thursday is the nearest to a release date i can give you.. my parents came and got me as usual later that evening i went home telling my siblings that i got to visit with grandpa at the hospital that he was really tired and in some pain but he talked joked laughed tried to tickle me a few times that he seemed like people did when they just had a cold but he was coming home thursday so then he would be all better or have to take medicine and rest. To finish getting better they dont know whats wrong yet relayed he loved them for him during the night i thought i heard the phone ringing but just turned over then few minutes later i heard my daddy talking and my momma crying. At that split second i knew what it was tears welled up in my eyes i sat up and just started crying hysterically feeling like someone had ripped my heart out and already missing him then it hit me grandma oh no she is devestated im sure i had also been hugging my little dog i moved her to the back of the bed got out of bed went to my patents room after grabbing my shoes and told them i was ready to go. Go where my dad said i said to grandmas shes gonna need me to stay with her my mom blew her nose eased her crying just a bit told me yea your daddy will take you in a few minutes but you need to pack your suitcase like its the weekend i ran gave her a hug asked her if she was going to be ok if i went she said yes thanks told me grandama would need me bc she didnt like being alone. That night my grandfather was home early before thursday that night i fell asleep in the living room floor underneath his casket i cried myself to sleep there.his aneurysm nurst sunday night and he hemmorrhaged to death i never heard a doctor say it directly but heard my grandma talking about dean and that damn sea water about how she told grandpa mot to drink that stuff itd raise his blood pressure. We burried him on thursday so in a way the doctor was right bc thats the day i consider he went to his forever home completely healed in no pain and getting the best rest and care imaginable! I was almost 12 years old. Sorry but i just needed to share this it made me smile for a bit remembering my grandfather .bless everyone!
Ginger
Thanks for sharing this memory, Ginger. What a special relationship you had with both grandparents. Your grandma must have really appreciated you coming to stay with her after his passing.
I had hoped you weren’t joking about the ‘Leeches: Were they really that bad’. I was really looking forward to reading that one!
Huh. I’ll have to think about it. Maybe the history of leeches for medical purposes *would* be interesting…
(My son went camping and encountered leeches, and he seemed to think they really are that bad.)
Thanks for the idea. I’ll keep it in mind.
[…] to home, the British seaside was bustling with invalids.Doctors prescribed sea air and cold bathing, thought to revitalise both body and mind. Towns like Brighton, Scarborough, and Torquay were […]
[…] dose of fresh sea salt air. Where are the Regency Doctors and their prescriptions for “sea cure” when you need […]
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