The Cheapest Medicine Under the Sun: Open-Air Baths in Old Natural Medicine

sanatorium_uniwersytetu_jagiellonskiego_nac.jpg, default, Jagiellonian University sanatorium for children suffering from tuberculosis, Bystre in Zakopane, 1931–39, photo: Narodowe Archiwum Państwowe NAC

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The air quality in many Polish towns currently leaves much to be desired, and the phrase ‘to spend time out in the fresh air’ sounds increasingly archaic. In the past, however, aerotherapy – or appropriately arranged time spent outdoors – was treated as a medicine and recommended for the relief of many ailments (primarily in lung diseases), but also as an element of daily hygiene. ‘Through light and open-air baths, apart from the skin of the body, all of its other organs experience excitement’, we read in the biweekly Zdrowie (Health) from 1928.

It was in Sokołowsko (then Görbersdorf) that the world’s first mountain tuberculosis sanatorium was established, where the pulmonologist Hermann Brehmer used, among other methods, climatic treatment. ‘In ancient times, it was a common custom for men at dusk, completely undressed, lying on the ground in gardens or on the flat roofs of their homes, to be visibly bathing in the open air’, wrote the 19th-century magazine Rozmaitości (Variety), with an air of regret that the healing practices of the past were largely forgotten. In the following century, however, natural medicine returned on a large scale to praising the air and the sun as natural remedies, and specialists, based on scientific evidence, warmly encouraged people to indulge in this type of bathing.

Helio- & aerotherapy that intoxicate

‘Leczenie słońcem i powietrzem (helio- i aeroterapja) wogóle, a w zdrojowiskach w szczególności’ by Paweł Gantkowski, 1869–1938, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa Polona

Professor of medical sciences and social activist Paweł Gantkowski in his 1935 publication Leczenie słońcem i powietrzem (helio- i aeroterapja) wogóle, a w zdrojowiskach w szczególności (Treatment With Sun and Air [Helio- and Aerotherapy] in General, and in Health Resorts in Particular) argued that, since we can survive without food or water for several days or even weeks but without air for a few minutes at most, it therefore is of key importance for our well-being and should enjoy the special attention of doctors. Temperature, humidity, pressure and air movement have a direct impact on the human body. The atmosphere is closely related to the permeability of light rays; therefore, in addition to open-air baths, those taken in the sun are also extremely important.

The agency of the sun, especially the ‘extraviolet’ (i.e. ultraviolet) nature of its radiation, affects the quality of the air, including its ionization. One of the mysterious hypotheses cited by the author was the ‘soothing and even intoxicating effect of air on our nervous system, the effect of air that is to a certain extent narcotic’. He derived this from observations of children and tuberculosis patients: the former, when exposed to greater amounts of oxygen than before, would calm down and fall asleep, while tuberculosis patients ‘lying on verandas in the open air, use the air to soothe their coughing fits as if they had taken some narcotic drug’. Some researchers suspected at the time that this effect was caused by… nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas, used, among other things, to anaesthetize patients (and nowadays, for example, for filling packets of crisps to protect them from drying out).

Playing at bowls without clothes

‘O leczeniu suchot płucnych w szpitalu i w domu’ by Seweryn Sterling (Łódź: Rychliński and Wegner, 1905), p. 29, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa Polona

‘A sea of air and light’ was perceived as the natural milieu of human existence analogous to fish in the aquatic environment. In the brochure Kąpiele powietrzno-słoneczne (Open-Air and Sun Baths) published in 1909 in the series Biblioteczka Przyrodolecznicza doktora Łuczyńskiego i Sozanskiego (Nature Therapy Library of Doctors Łuczyński and Sozanski), the authors complained about ‘gowns, shoes, umbrellas and shawls’ as cultural tools that stand in the way of utilising the health-promoting properties of being outdoors. ‘In order to balance the damage done to the body by today’s clothing, people should learn how to exploit light and air within today’s culture’, we read in the introduction.

Dr Łuczyński further argued that, just as plants draw from solar energy, people also ‘absorb the most subtle shades of sensation’ through nerve receptors, although the whole process is extremely mysterious and basically inaccessible to human understanding. A strictly scientific approach to the issue of sun and open-air treatment thus entered into a peculiar marriage with the belief in the existence of almost magical phenomena, the mechanism of which exceeds human cognitive abilities. But what exactly were sun and air baths supposed to consist of? Examples of therapeutic techniques were presented, among others, in the Krótki zarys pielęgniarstwa (Brief Outline of Nursing) presented by the physician and local government activist (and in the years 1918–19 also the deputy mayor of Warsaw) Józef Zawadzki in 1920. A sick person was advised to lie naked on a deckchair (with only their head covered) and change position at 3–10-minute intervals. After about forty minutes of such a ‘bath’, it was obligatory to wash oneself with water heated by the sun.

The bathing area had to be sheltered from the wind, and in winter the treatment could be carried out in rooms with glass ceilings and walls. From today’s perspective, it is difficult to point out any significant difference between this type of therapeutic practice and ordinary sunbathing, but indeed, recreational sunbathing was not practiced in those times, and tanned skin was not the aesthetic ideal. Zawadzki, on the other hand, defined sunbathing as ‘movements without clothing in the open air while exposed to the sun’. This included playing football, tennis or bowls (which, in the case of naked players, must have been quite an interesting phenomenon). For those who preferred the privacy of enclosed spaces instead of games without clothes, the author recommended gymnastics in a ventilated room with a temperature of no less than 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit).

Eugenia Lewicka & her Solarium

‘Wskazówki dla kuracjuszy uczęszczających do Zakładu Leczniczego Stosowania Słońca, Powietrza i Ruchu im. dr. E. Lewickiej (Solarium)’ by Halina Wasilewska-Łobzowa (Druskienniki: Państwowy Zakład Zdrojowy, 1938 [Vilnius: Zak. Graf. ‘Znicz’]), photo: Biblioteka Narodowa Polona

One of the enthusiasts of climate therapy was Eugenia Lewicka, a doctor and physiotherapist, one of Józef Piłsudski’s very close friends, founder of the Solarium, aka the Medical Centre for the Use of Sun, Air and Movement in the then Polish and now Lithuanian Druskienniki, where a famous spa was located. It enjoyed a considerable reputation and a rich history: in addition to Piłsudski, it was also visited in their day by Stanisław Moniuszko and Eliza Orzeszkowa. After Lewicka’s mysterious death (she was found unconscious at the age of 34 after an overdose of Luminal, a sleeping pill; it was not determined whether the overdose was intentional, accidental, or involved a third party), the Druskienniki Solarium was named after her.

The press described her in her eulogy as ‘one of the most outstanding women of the contemporary young generation’, a leading advocate of sports, air and sunlight therapy, emphasizing that she was extremely determined in her mission and that she personally carried out the first physical work of preparing the area for her facility. Lewicka was a pioneer of sports medicine in Poland, as well as an activist for the development of women’s sports, alongside such suffragettes as Kazimiera Muszałówna, an incredible figure in the field of the popularization of movement and sports journalism. Her close acquaintance with Piłsudski (there are many theories on the topic of their affair) allowed Lewicka to lobby effectively for institutional solutions in the matter of women’s sports.

Smoking ban in the spa

The later director of the facility initiated by Lewicka continued the founder’s mission: among tips for spa patients in Druskienniki, Halina Wasilewska-Łobzowa included, among others, recommendations for people with obesity, ischemic disease, for those suffering from skin diseases or chronic pneumonia. The doctor praised above all staying in cold air, which supposedly has a beneficial effect on the metabolism. She advised taking sun to strengthen the immune system, to increase the number of red blood cells and for its bactericidal effect. All participants in treatment at Eugenia Lewicka’s facility received individual guidelines regarding its course before starting – for example, sunlight therapy was not recommended for ‘frail people’ or those suffering from ‘cardiac neurosis’, while air baths should be avoided ‘in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis where there is a tendency to haemorrhage’.

Physical exercises were also adapted to the condition, age and sex of the patient: groups were divided into ‘strong’, ‘medium’ and ‘weak’, and each of them received leotards in the same colour. For the sake of the well-being of those undergoing treatment, bringing books to the spa grounds was – perhaps surprisingly – forbidden, and ‘handling correspondence’ was also forbidden, as was ‘discussing business’ and holding discussions on professional topics. Interestingly, it was also emphasized that smoking cigarettes was not allowed during classes. Indeed, cigarette smoke could get in the way of benefitting from the soothing effects of air.

Bashlyk & wool underwear

Teachers’ Sanatorium, Zakopane, patients resting on veranda, 1925–30, photo: Zakład Nowoczesnej Fotografii Wytwornej H. Schabenbeck, Zakopane / Narodowe Archiwum Państwowe NAC

Softly upholstered benches set in a garden gazebo and on them pillows made of sea grass; beds with double duvets in spacious rooms, where no less than 45 cubic meters should be allocated per patient; a clock, scales, flowers on windowsills and a ‘proper dining table’; felt boots, gloves and a bashlyk (a kind of hood with long ends that can be tied around the neck) for each patient – this is how Seweryn Leopold Sterling, a physician-phthisiologist (as a pulmonologist was once called), imagined the ward for the treatment of tuberculosis, proclaiming the motto ‘Clean air day and night’. In his opinion, aerotherapy should not be limited to veranda sessions: the windows in the treatment rooms should be open almost all the time, even in freezing weather, with breaks for dressing or eating. According to Sterling, the only contraindication was fog; even a heavy frost did not prevent at least a short stay in the lounge area.

As you can see, we are unable to find a coherent definition of air baths today. Some specialists considered any increased exposure to fresh air to be aerotherapy, while others emphasized that it was important for the person undergoing therapy to be naked during treatment and, ideally, to remain in motion, doing sports or exercising.

Cosmetic trends

‘Polska na morzu’, collective work, 1935, p. 246, photo: Bałtycka Biblioteka Cyfrowa

Taking advantage of the benefits of fresh air and sunlight was not only part of the treatment for tuberculosis or related diseases. Aerotherapy was treated simply as a part of a hygienic life, or even as a cosmetic procedure. The interwar magazine Kosmetyka Nowoczesna (Modern Cosmetology) encouraged people to take an air bath early in the morning (before breakfast) as part of a forest walk combined with gentle exercises. What we associate today with the mindfulness practice of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) originating in Japan used to function as one of the most accessible and versatile native methods of healing and hygiene. In the interwar period, heliotherapy (also known as ‘sunning’ [słońcowanie]) became a fashionable trend, and women stopped running away from the sun, thus tanned skin was no longer associated exclusively with social classes that worked physically outdoors:

[…] we remember before the war how women covered themselves from the sun’s rays, how in the countryside they often spent entire days in the shade of trees, how people wore hats with specially wide brims to avoid a suntan, how fashionable at that time a pale face was, how easy it was to distinguish a tanned peasant from a city dweller.

– we read in Kosmetyka Nowoczesna, one of the issues of which opened with an extensive, almost five-page article on air- and sunbathing. Aero- and heliotherapy were supposed to help both overweight people (allegedly, after 15–20 baths, you could lose – or rather sweat out – as much as 4 kilograms) and the excessively slim. This magic was explained by increased metabolism, which supposedly ‘makes a fat person slimmer and a thin person heavier’. And what about continuing the therapy in winter? Even then, solariums were available, allowing you to sunbathe without having to ‘bathe’ outside. However, the key was to use natural sunlight as often as possible – the cheapest of available medicines – in order to ‘create the largest possible supply of radiant energy in your body for the entire winter’.

_{Sources: 1. P. Gantkowski, Leczenie słońcem i powietrzem (helio- i aeroterapia) wogóle, a w zdrojowiskach w szczególności, Warsaw, 1935; 2. S. Sterling, O leczeniu suchot płucnych w szpitalu i w domu, Łódź, 1905; 3. P. Tarkowski, ‘Wkład kobiet lekarzy w rozwój medycyny sportowej w Polsce w okresie międzywojennym’, Dzieje kultury fizycznej i turystyki w Polsce w końcu XIX i XX wieku, vol. 1 of Z najnowszych dziejów kultury fizycznej i turystyki w Polsce, Częstochowa, 2018; 4. Kosmetyka Nowoczesna: Uroda : Higiena : Zdrowie : Miesięcznik 4, no 37 (February 1937).}

Translated from Polish by Michał Pelczar

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