Bethesda.

Date: 1885

Series: 613.122 B465 - "Bethesda;:

a Traveler's Criticism on Our Health Resorts, Their Scenery, Climatic Peculiarities and Curative Influence.

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Early Florida Medicine

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[page 15]

BETHESDA.

tive in its influence, and an antidote to malaria. We pass on consideration of some of the resorts on the

St. John's River

which is not so much a river as a chain of inland lakes ; for, from Jacksonville to Pilatka, over seventy-five miles, the river is in no place less than a mile in width, and in many places it is more than six miles wide. visitors pass a considerable portion of their time in excursions on these river-lakes. As they sit uner an awning on the steamer's deck, they may watch sailing boats gliding here and there ; steamers of all sizes passing and repassing ; everything seems news and strange, especially the shores covered with forests of oak, willows, and cypress trees, their branches festooned with Spanish moss, and interlaced with vines of various kinds. The vegetation, the birds in the air, the fish, and the reptiles, all remind them that they are in a tropical region, with myriads of novel, attractive, and interesting objects to investigate. If you inquire of these thousands of tourists who crowd the steamers the object they have in view in this journey, more than one half will answer that it is to get rid of their nervous trouble ; they complain of having been overworked, and suffering from insomnia nad great restlessness at night, for years — and increasing tendency to headache, and a dull pain in the base of the brain, thus affecting their spine, and incidentally, through the nerves, the heart, kidneys, and lungs. In fact, they all feel all run down, and come to Florida to find the "BETHESDA," the healing waters in which they may bathe and be made whole ; but looking over the steamer's side they remark, sotto voce : "The St. John's too muddy. Is there any clear, pure water higher up towards Sanford or Enterprise?"

Just here, let us consider for a few moments this peculiar, indescribable disease which has developed to such and alarming extent in the United States during the past twenty-five years, —

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SILVER SPRINGS, FLORIDA

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