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Preparing a hot pack.
(M4480.1998.34) |
From the late 19th to early 20th century, medical
treatments at the Royal Pump Rooms became more specialized
and electrical therapies were introduced in addition
to drinking and bathing in the spa water.
From
1948 the Medical unit at the Royal Pump Rooms was
funded by the National Health Service. Patients were
referred from the Warneford hospital and elsewhere
in the Midlands
and sometimes beyond. Private patients, referred by
their GPs
were also treated here.
By
the 1950s advances in surgery and the use of drugs
meant that spas had a changed role. The emphasis
was now on rehabilitation and applied treatments were
being used much less than active exercises. At the
Royal Pump Rooms the Ladies Pool was partly filled
in and a ramp was added converting it into a hydrotherapy
pool for physiotherapy treatment. It was often used
to treat patients with rheumatism and polio. Shortly
after this, the individual treatment baths were removed
from the medical corridor and were replaced with a
gym.
The
NHS medical department continued to operate at the
Royal Pump Rooms until the late 1990s.
Below
are some descriptions of the specific treatments that
were carried out here. This is an area that we are
continuing to learn about through our research into
the medical collection.
Hydrotherapy and Bath Treatments
Vichy
Massage
Douche:
A massage under warm sprays of spa water. The patient
lay on a wooden or concrete slab and was massaged
while overhead piping showered water onto the body.
This was usually to treat rheumatism and chronic body
pain.
Aix
Massage Douche:
This treatment had the same principle as the Vichy
Massage, but treated only part of the body using a
single hose.
Scotch
Massage Douche:
A massage under alternating hot and cold hoses.
Plombieres
Suite: A
colonic irrigation unit in which two intestinal
douches used spa water to treat constipation.
Nauheim
Bath:
Carbon Dioxide bath to treat heart and rheumatic problems.
Zotofoam
Bath:
Hot foam bath used to treat obesity until the 1960s.
Saline
Bath: Various forms of bathing using spa water,
including zotofoam baths to treat obesity. They worked
by stimulating muscles and circulation, soothing muscles
or increasing the metabolism
Slipper
Baths
Slipper
baths were more of a public service than a treatment
at the Pump Rooms. In
the 1950s Leamington
inhabitants without running
water used to use the baths once a week for a luxury.
Therapool
Treatments and Polio
Therapool
From
the 1950s onwards exercises in the specially designed
hydrotherapy pool were a central part of most treatments.
Weights and floats were sometimes used to exercise
specific parts of the body. Benches and later beds
in the pool were used to steady patients in the water
and create resistance.
Vortex
Bath:
Individual whirlpool
treatment in a deep tub filled with hot aerated water.
Often used to treat the effects of polio
Heat and Light Treatments
Hot
and Cold Packs
Packs of Fullers earth were either kept hot in tubs
of simmering water or cold in small freezers before
being wrapped in towels and applied to painful joints.
Infra
Red Heat (radiant heat):
Treatment under an infra red lamp, to treat gouty and
rheumatic conditions.
UV
Light:
Treatment under a UV lamp, to treat skin disease,
tuberculosis and rheumatic conditions.
Paraffin
wax:
Hands or feet were immersed in paraffin to build up
insulating layers around a limb. This was repeated
several times until a thick coating of wax was formed.
Wax is poor conductor of heat so it released therapeutic
heat slowly into the body.
Berthollet
Steam Cabinet
Electrotherapy
This
was a form of physiotherapy in which nerves and muscles
were stimulated using various types of electrical
current. Electrodes were sometimes placed next to
the skin or electricity was passed into the body through
a bath of spa water. These treatments helped to develop
wasted muscles or to stimulate blood supply
High
Frequency Treatment/Shortwave
Diathermy:
Used to generate heat deep in tissue, to stimulate
blood supply and reduce inflammation.
Microwave Diathermy
A form of high frequency for warming people and treating
rheumatic conditions and nerves.
Low
frequency Currents (faradism, galvanism, sinusoidal):
To tone wasted muscles or increase blood supply to
wasted limbs.
Schnee
Four Cell Bath:
The patient's arms and legs were immersed in baths
of saline solution with an electric current passed
through them. This was mainly to treat rheumatic conditions
without the inconvenience of a full body bath.
Ionisation:
Drugs were passed electrically through the skin so
that they reached affected tissues directly.
Interferential
Treatment: Two
‘interfering’ medium frequency currents
were passed through the body to treat muscle pain
such as from sports injury.
Massage:
Highly skilled manipulation of stiff/painful parts of
the body.
Remedial
Exercises:
Re-educative exercises, including sling suspension
therapy - using slings to create tension and exercise
parts of the body.
Traction:
Cervical
(neck traction) or Lumbar (back traction)
using coaches and slings to support and stretch the
body.
Physiotherapy Treatments |
