The Sea Kill or Cure by Rosemary Morris

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In September 1804, Jane Austen, wrote to her sister, Cassandra, from Weymouth, “I continue quite well in proof of which I have bathed again this morning.”
Dr Richard Russell had developed the ‘sea water’ cure and made swimming in the sea and drinking the water fashionable. The doctor’s description of the sea was ‘a vast medicated bath’ which patients could benefit from.
In 1783 when the Prince of Wales was twenty-one, he visited Brighthelmstone, later called Brighton, and from then on visited the seaside resort every year. Society followed the pleasure-loving prince to the seaside where they enjoyed sea-air and swam.
Clean sea-air provided relief from smoke from coal fires which polluted cities. Due to poor diet deficient in fruit and vegetables and lack of personal hygiene, chronic constipation, gout, skin diseases, and other health problems were rife. Drinking sea water either killed, cured or had no effect on patients.
In my novel Friday’s Child, the heroine, Lady Margaret declares the spa water in Cheltenham tastes disgusting. However, for hundreds of years, drinking the waters had purged those who drank them, and in Dr Robert Wittie’s pamphlet published in 1667 he also mentioned the benefits derived from sea water.
Spa water was bottled and sold. Subsequently sea water, to which crabs’ eyes, tar and sponges were sometimes added, was bottled and marketed. Mixed with milk, patients drank a lot.
As a child I shuddered when my mother dosed me with milk of magnesia but, looking back, I would prefer her noxious medicine to that sea water and its additives. I doubt even spoonful of sugar would have helped me to swallow the foul-tasting medicine.
In my novel Wednesday’s Child, Amelia, the heroine protests when Dr Cray breaks the news that her grandmother is suffering from a fatal tumour in her stomach. Amelia protests. “But, before you examined my grandmother, on Doctor Sutton’s instructions she has been bled, blistered and purged, besides drinking seawater with roasted crabs’ eyes, and bathing in the sea, all of which he assured us would cure her.”
In common with the fictional characters, Cray and Sutton, many doctors in seaside towns made their fortunes from those seeking cures.
At the thought of drinking sea water every day, I am grateful for conventional treatment and after reading this I am sure you will agree.

Novels by Rosemary Morris

Early 18th Century novels: Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess

Regency Novels False Pretences.

Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week Books one to Six, Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child and Thursday’s Child. Friday’s Child. (The novels are not dependent on each other, although events in previous novels are referred to and characters reappear.

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One
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