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Home  >  Blog  >  Dr McGregor-Robertson’s Guide to Spa Resorts

Dr McGregor-Robertson’s Guide to Spa Resorts

Trish Burgess Posted on01/05/201207/04/2016 Lucky Dip 27 Comments

I know some of you (Kelloggsville?) have been wondering what has happened to the expert advice gleaned from The Household Physician 1874 (updated 1907). You may recall I shared the good doctor’s wisdom in the following posts:  Have you got the Painters in?, Hysterical Women and Guide to Exercise. 

For those of you considering your summer vacation, rather than make decisions based on whether there is a decent Kids’ Club or how far the hotel is from the beach, let Dr McGregor-Robertson guide you to a more healthy holiday. I normally have a little fun with Dr McG’s old-fashioned advice but actually the section about health resorts was quite enlightening and there were many pages devoted to it. Maybe the tourist industry is missing a trick here? Let’s bring back the traditional spa resorts and return to the days of ‘taking the waters’. Who needs a hot stone massage when you can try out The Grape Cure in the Tyrol and the Bitter Waters of Bohemia?

The health benefits of the spas including Bath, Matlock, Buxton (“not for the very enfeebled or delicate owing to the risk of catching cold”) Harrogate (“a favourite for overworked businessmen”), Leamington and  Woodhall are highlighted in the chapter on mineral baths: excellent for symptoms including chronic gout, skin diseases and rheumatism.

However other spas caught my eye and I had to share these little gems:

Leukerbad: “The baths are employed chiefly in chronic skin disease, the duration of the bath extending from half an hour to eight hours. The bathers are attired in woollen mantles and capes, and pass the time in the bath playing dominoes and chess, taking luncheon on boards floated to them.  Both sexes bathe together, chiefly Swiss and French.”

Schlangenbad: “The baths are beautifully arranged and have a great reputation for quieting and strengthening the nervous system, and are resorted to very much by hysterical ladies”

Teplitz: “have a special reputation for old gunshot wounds”

Homburg: “The Elizabeth spring has an opening effect on the bowels after three glasses and the waters are employed in congestions of abdominal organs, and are especially useful in gout, rheumatism and to those indisposed after a winter’s round of gaieties”

Carlsbad: “The chief spring is the Sprudel, situated in the centre of the town, over which has been erected a glass-domed building.  It rises with a throbbing movement 4 or 5 feet in the air, falling back into an ornamental basin, round which stand girls who fix the glasses of the visitors on to the end of long rods and dip them into the cauldron”

Ems: “The waters here are specially employed for chronic catarrh of the air passages, specially in gouty persons. A spring – Bubenquelle – used for bathing purposes, and particularly in the form of an ascending douche, used to be famous for disorders of the womb”

Eaux Bonnes: “It is said to produce excellent results in clergyman’s sore throat”

Porgues: “At one time enjoyed great popularity for dyspepsia and bladder irritability and catarrh.”

Bad-Nauheim: One spring is named Friedrich-Wilhelm’s, the other, Great Sprudel, and a third, No.14.”

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27 Comments

  1. libby Reply
    01/05/2012 at 4:48 pm

    I knew I was missing something…I haven't had my winter gaieties yet……..and my home town is Leamington Spa, where the water is foul!

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 7:52 pm

      You see, if you'd had more winter gaieties you would have been ready for a decent spa break.
      Leamington comes under the heading 'Bitter Waters' as they have Epsom salts in it, good for sluggish conditions of the bowels!

  2. Frances Reply
    01/05/2012 at 4:52 pm

    Hysterical ladies bathing….! ..and getting your lunch floated to you on a board sounds like fun. Fabulous stuff! Do clergymen have a different sort of sore throat to non religious types?

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 7:53 pm

      The floating lunch idea is now called 'all inclusive' in hotel terms, I believe 😉

  3. Kelloggs Ville Reply
    01/05/2012 at 5:09 pm

    I would be concerned about exactly what was in the water if 3 glasses was enough for bowel opening..chlorea?

    I could do with us going somewhere that creates a throbbing movement in the air but think 4 or 5 feet is beyond both of us.

    and the thought of sharing luncheon in a bath with people chiefly with chronic skin disease…well I think a little bit of sick just came up. Thanks for that.

    Point me in the direction of Schlangenbad though, I'm moving in.

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 7:55 pm

      I'm sure the sloughed skin sticks to the woollen capes, so you've no need to worry 🙂

  4. Kelloggs Ville Reply
    01/05/2012 at 5:10 pm

    Ps I would love Dr McGregor-Robertson to guide me but suspect Tara Cain is ahead of me in the queue 😉

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 7:59 pm

      Are you taking about the Victorian idea of doctor-induced orgasm to solve hysteria? If I remember rightly, our Scottish Dr McG was far too strait-laced for that nonsense…or if he did assist the ladies, he didn't write about it in these books.

    • Kelloggs Ville Reply
      01/05/2012 at 8:30 pm

      I can't believe you said it out loud *sniggers behind hand*. It's unfortunate I have the wrong doctor, he's probably turning in his grave!

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 6:13 am

      Living with a doctor in the house means I've got over being embarrassed about ruderies. You should see some of the magazines we get delivered!
      I think the reason you associate Dr McG-R with the above practice, is that when I wrote the post about hysteria someone mentioned it in the comments and we all got a bit skittish about it!

  5. Steve Reply
    01/05/2012 at 6:09 pm

    So if I want a sore throat curing do I have to become a clergyman?

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 8:00 pm

      Maybe it's the kind of sore throat you get when you're hot under the collar?

  6. Very Bored in Catalunya Reply
    01/05/2012 at 7:09 pm

    Ooh those frisky Swiss and French in their wollen capes and mantles. I'm definitely booking myself into Homborg, I'm done in from my winter gaities.

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      01/05/2012 at 8:07 pm

      Just make sure you don't have more than three glasses of the water in Homburg- at least not in public.

  7. Troy Reply
    01/05/2012 at 10:37 pm

    For an exciting holiday I would definitely go to see the glass-domed building that rises throbbingly 4 to 5 feet in the air. Must be an awesome sight!
    And I would only drink three glasses of water in Homburg if I was first sitting comfortably.

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 6:15 am

      I agree, they should reinstate it and arrange coach trips. I'd go.

  8. Funky Wellies Reply
    02/05/2012 at 7:59 am

    Aboslutely hilarious! I wonder if my fellow coutrymen in Leukerbad are aware of Dr McGregor-Robertson's review?!

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 8:07 am

      I wondered if you might read this. I was thinking of you when I came across these resorts. Remember your woollen cape next time you're there!

  9. BavarianSojourn Reply
    02/05/2012 at 8:19 am

    I want my lunch floated to me on a board!! You can keep the rest of it though. I believe that German Citizens are actually entitled to a fully paid up week at a health farm once every couple of years or something if what I have been informed is true… Can't be bad! (well it can be bad – get it?!)… 😀

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 9:06 am

      You mean you don't fancy the ascending douche at Ems? It would be like sitting over the jets in a jacuzzi. Very bad! 🙂

  10. Sarah Reply
    02/05/2012 at 9:40 am

    "and are resorted to very much by hysterical ladies"

    I believe all they needed was a good shag… 😉

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 7:27 pm

      Doubtless if they were on their holidays they might have managed that too 😉

  11. About Last Weekend Reply
    02/05/2012 at 7:22 pm

    I'm definitely that hysterical lady! And so many clergyman have sore throats? What have they been doing for Lord's sake?

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      02/05/2012 at 7:28 pm

      Probably in the days before they had microphones in churches?

  12. Curry Queen Reply
    05/05/2012 at 8:20 am

    Homburg sounds like the place for me, though the Shah might benefit from a stint at Teplitz….

    • Trish @ Mums Gone To... Reply
      06/05/2012 at 12:35 pm

      Ooh has he got some old gunshot wounds then?

  13. Jp Resort Reply
    18/05/2012 at 10:57 am

    Are you bugged of going outside Delhi for your vacation? Well, you can now make Jaypee creations as your holiday destination that will offer nothing but ceaseless relaxation, super-palatable food, grand accommodation, rejuvenating spa and some more recreational facilities. Enjoy your spa resort vacations Delhi to make the most of your hard-earned hoildays.

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