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51
As art proved unavailing it is not surprising that a voice here and there was
raised in favour of Nature, but these voices, such is the strength of use and custom,
cried in the wilderness or fell upon deaf ears.
One of these voices was that of Dr. George Bodington who opened what would
now be called a sanatorium, the first of its kind, at Sutton Cold field, where he
practised the principles of the necessity of a continuous supply of fresh unheated air,
keeping the rooms so open that the air should be indistinguishable from the pure
air outside. He expressed the opinion that "cold is never too intense for a consumptive
patient." Convinced by his experience of the truth of his observations he
published in 1840 an essay on "the cure of pulmonary consumption on principles,
natural, national and successful," in which he advocated a generous diet, fresh air day
and night, together with systematic arrangements with regard to exercise.
Bodington was thereupon attacked with the utmost venom by press and
populace, including his medical brethren, and received the most bitter and contemptuous
treatment.
He was before his time. He was regarded as a lunatic; his patients were
driven from his institution. Bodington's revenge was to turn his sanatorium into
an asylum for the insane.
Thus, while the seeds of open-air therapy were first sown in England, they fell
on barren ground. Later the light began to break through in foreign countries, and
it was only after general acceptance of the principles was achieved abroad that the
truth at last prevailed in this country.
Sanatorium treatment for consumptives began in Germany in 1859 where
Brehmer founded a sanatorium.
Like Bodington and other pioneers in England, he suffered fierce opposition and
ofttimes abuse, but he persisted with his efforts and after long fighting he convinced
the world of the soundness and importance of his principles and practice.
Brehmer had noted that people forced by their occupation to follow an open-air
life did not succumb to tuberculosis in spite of the fact that their relatives who
followed indoor occupations were not immune.
His experience was amongst peasants living at a high altitude. He reasoned
that " anything that protects one man from falling ill must be able, if properly
employed, to cure another of the same disease."
He evolved a regime which included seven principles:—
(i) A life in the open air.
(ii) A high altitude.
(iii) Complete freedom from debilitating circumstances.
(iv) Methodical hill climbing.
(v) Constant medical supervision.
(vi) Abundant supply of food in which milk, fatty food and vegetables
occupy the chief place.
(vii) Hydrotherapy.
In these principles of Brehmer are to be found almost all that is still thought of
importance in regard to health in the open-air school. Only one of Brehmer's
principles has proved in universal experience in every country not to be essential and
that is the principle of altitude.
Naturally coming from such an authority, whose teaching was at long last
accepted, the idea that a high altitude was necessary persisted long, and at the end
of the last century it was still generally held in England that every consumptive
must go to Switzerland to have any chance of cure.
Gradually, however, it was found that by following Brehmer's principles of
treatment consumptives could be cured in low-lying and humid countries, and that
expensive journeys to central Europe were not essential.
The great objection to Brehmer's views raised by medical men and others in
England was that patients, especially delicate people, could not stand the necessary
exposure, but on submission to the test of practice it was shown that no amount of
exposure to wet conditions or variation of temperature in the open air causes the most