Healing Waters: A History of Victorian Spas Contributor(s): Agnew, Jeremy (Author) |
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ISBN: 1476674590 ISBN-13: 9781476674599 Publisher: McFarland and Company, Inc. OUR PRICE: $49.45 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Travel | Food, Lodging & Transportation - Resorts & Spas - History | World - General - Health & Fitness |
Dewey: 613.122 |
LCCN: 2019004318 |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.9" W x 9.9" (1.00 lbs) 248 pages |
Themes: - Topical - Health & Fitness |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: 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. |