Page 100 - Demo

U TW Vsanitarium |san%u0259%u02c8ter%u0113%u0259m| noun (plural sanitariums or sanitaria).An establishment for the medical treatment of people who areconvalescing or have a chronic illness. ORIGIN: mid 19th century:pseudo-Latin, from Latin sanitas %u2018health.%u2019spa |sp%u00e4| noun.A mineral spring considered to have health-giving properties, or a placeor resort with a mineral spring. ORIGIN: early 17th century: from Spa asmall town in eastern Belgium.Sanitariums and SpasAt the beginning of the 19th century, tuberculosis killed as many as one in seven people. By the 1880s, it was known that bacteria caused the disease. Soon, sanitariums were established to isolate, care, and treat patients%u2014even though there was no anti-bacterial medication yet available. These facilities often had open spaces and porches where patients could receive a %u201cfresh air cure%u201d by being exposed to breezes and sunshine. Good nutrition was also thought important, as well as bed rest in an on-your-back, horizontal position. Tubercular patients were generally organized into three classes, based on where they were in the progression of their disease: hospital, semi-ambulant, and ambulant. Patients in hospital wards were prescribed round-the-clock bed rest. Semi-ambulant patients were permitted to leave their beds several times a day, and were often housed in separate wards or pavilions. Ambulant patients, who were close to being cured, were assigned open-air cottages away from the main hospital buildings. The 1943 discovery of streptomycin, which could treat tubercular bacilli infections, greatly reduced the prevalence of the disease. So much so, that by the 1960s it was no longer considered a serious public health threat. This led to the abandonment of most TB sanitariums. At the height of their popularity there were over 200 water-cure establishments across the country. To help alleviate a variety of symptoms and maladies, they offered various forms of hydrotherapy by using hot or cold mineral-water baths, water massage, mud baths, as well as the ingestion of their particular mineral-laden water. Often the water, from local wells, springs, or streams, contained odiferous sulfer in relatively high concentrations which promoters felt made their water beneficial. Commonly, there were various other %u201chealthy%u201d minerals also present.