The times., 1898-08-03
THE NEWEST CURE.
Patients Who Walk About in the
Open Air I'm the Altogether.
From the Strand Magazine-)


AS the ancient gods stalked upon Oiym-
pus, so the most up-to-date invalid gam
bols upon the hillside above Veldes, Aus
tria-that is, strictly unadorned. In this
most curious santarium they have car
ried the Kneipp barefoot doctrines 70 their
logical end. They have returned TO the
Adamic altogether, and pass the DAYS alb
sorbing oxygen and sunlight through the
pores of the skin
There is a hill for men and another for
women At night they sleep in open huts
by the waters edge. The theory upon
which this curious institution rests is for
mulated thus:
There is no life without air. no health
without light We not only breathe
through our lungs but through our skin.
which contains millions of minute blood
vessels thirsting for oxygen and millions
of nerves thirsting for light. Where there
is blood there ought TO be air; where
there are nerves there ought TO be light
The light of the sun favors the change of
matter; in other words, the process OF life
Another beneficial influence of the air
bath lies in the constant changes of sun
light and shade. heat and cold of the at
mosphere. by which the skin is stimulat-
ed-a stimulus that does not remain con-
fined TO the surface of the body, but is
extended, through the nerves, to the re-
motest internal organs"
A Mr.. j. Russell, an English gentleman,
has recently spent month at Veldes. and
relates his experiences in the Strand Mag
aZine.
I'm accordance with the rules of the
game, therefore. we rose every morning
soon after 5, and, having walked, my
friend and l. to the Hill of Men. our
wives to the Hill of Women. in the
scantiest clothing consistent with what
is called decency. we forthwith spent the
f,,ip ~
or shadow. jumping. digging. or reading
according TO temperament, and break
fasting on the milk, bread and honey we
had brought with us from the hut. The
humors of the situation we may leave to
the ready imagination-rney will appeal
to everybody; the delights though our
tastes will be called in question. we can
youch for out of our own experience.
After our strange air bath on the top
of the hill we used 10 walk back. clothed
to another strange bath at the bottom.
where. for the best part of an hour, we
lay out on a slanting roof, bare, save for
our heads TO the full blaze of the sun.
Then, for twenty minutes by the clock,
we were swathed tighc IN our blankets
and then taken indoors, plunged into
tub OF tepid water and massaged by ex-
pert attendants. BY the time we got
back on our bare-and not infrequently
tender-feet 10 the huts, we were quite
ready for the simple vegetarian midday
meal that awaited us under the huge,
common dining roof
THE consumptive who has been at
Veldes for twenty successive Summers
and is still alive takes the Doctor the
head of the institution, most seriously;
my friend, who is returning for the fifth
time this Summer, because he finds he
weathers the Winter after month in
Veldes better than after a month any,
where else. takes him more (or less) Sc
riously, while l, who have been twice
and still would go-partly for the rents
1t patches in the body. chiefly for the
rents it tears in the commonplace-can
hardly be said, suppose, to take him
not seriously"