DAVOS-PLATZ AS A HEALTH-RESORT.* OF all winter places for weak
people, Davos is perhaps the safest, if not the pleasantest and most attractive. This distinction it owes to the remarkable dryness of its air, to the comparative absence of wind, to the even temperature main- tained in the hotels, and to the bracing qualitiesbf mountain climate. It is difficult to be in bad spirits when a constant stimulus is given to the nerves and appetite. With common caution, colds may here be more easily avoided than in the de- lightful but insidious warmth of the South, and exercise can be taken without the risk of over-fatigue. It follows that invalids who have a fund of vigour in their constitutions are enabled to draw upon it for the repair of wasted tissues and the recovery of normal functions. Besides being protected from the immediate progress of disease, they enjoy a chance of surmounting the causes of it, and of hardening themselves against its recurrence. The stimulative and sustaining purity of mountain air is the one curative agent relied on at Davos ; and probably the very sim- plicity of the method, in cases where nature still can do much to help herself, is the main secret of those astonishing results which often follow on a winter residence in the high Alps. To represent Davos as the unique and sole sufficient place of cure for consumption, when Egypt, Madeira, long sea-voyages, and even the health-resorts of Algeria and the Riviera have yielded so many favourable instances of recovery, would be ridiculous. Yet the advocate of this Alpine valley can plead with reason that six months spent there in a good hotel offer fewer risks than a journey to Australia and back again, and that, as against a winter on the Nile, the advantage of cheapness is decidedly in favour of the mountains. Comparing Davos with the Mediterranean stations, we are led to believe that some con- stitutions are more adapted to the one condition than the other. It is the business of the invalid himself, rather than that of his medical adviser, to find by experience which of the two types of climate suits him. But should a trial of Davos result in disappointment, the other alternative is always open to him, for he can reach the railway at all seasons of the year, by driving five hours in a diligence.
So much has lately been said and written about Davos, that the curiosity of the public is not a little excited. People naturally seek to know exactly what manner of place it is—not merely from a medical point of view, but also as compared with other Swiss resorts—before they take the step, always serious in cases of real illness, of going so far to settle there, even for a season. The book before us amply supplies the desired information. It begins with a chapter on the health-conditions of the climate and the method of the cure, in which the writer's personal ex- periences and observations prolonged through many years have been condensed with much practical skill. The life of the place in summer and in winter is next described in two picturesque sections, after which follows an account of the walks and excur- sions in the valley and its neighbourhood. A long chapter is devoted to the botany, geology, ornithology, and other natural resources of the district, for the compilation of which the writer has drawn upon first-hand knowledge of scientific thoroughness. The past history of the Grisons forms the subject of the next section, which is followed by a chapter on the present life of the Davos peasantry. Both of these are highly commendable attempts to deal comprehensively and sympathetically with subjects which the ordinary local guide-book usually treats in a way to disgust the reader. The book ends with a closely-packed compendium of hints on practical topics, regarding the routes to be taken in
• Davos-Plats: a New Alpine Resort for Sick and Sound in Summer and lYinter. By One who knows II well. London : Stanford. 1878.
summer and in winter, the clothing to be worn, hotels, prices, and all the many things that enable a visitor to lay his plans and calculate their cost beforehand.
We have summarised the contents of the book, because it is, in our opinion, so far as its conception goes, the ideal of an Alpine Guide-book, standing almost alone in the fullness of its information, the variety of its subjects, and its intelligent sym- pathy with everything of interest in the place. It is not written as a professional or commercial puff, nor, again, does it suffer from the superficial cursoriness with which a general Guide-book to a country has to treat one of its subordinate districts. The writing of it has been a labour of love to one who, as the title- page declares, knows Davos well. Having tried to characterise its distinguishing merits, we must frankly state that the book shows signs throughout of an enthusiastic prepossession in favour of Davos and all that belongs to it. The reader should take its rosy descriptions of the winter climate with much reservation ; for the simple fact is that Davos suffers from bad weather nearly as much as most places, and the grand merit of it as a health-station is not that its skies are always unclouded, but that sick people thrive there, in spite of ..what elsewhere would make them ill. Again, the writer's confidence in the winter-cure leads to some exaggeration, which experience too plainly exposes. A simi- lar enthusiasm colours the style, which is often over-loaded, and inflates the praises of scenery, by no means highly distin- guished for grandeur or beauty, when judged by the standard of other districts. We might also, if this were the fitting place, say something about the partiality which renders the author a somewhat unsafe guide in respect to certain local details. The book is substantially so good, so sincere in intention, and with some allowances so true to fact, that we trust a little lowering of its tone may render a second edition more consonant with sober justice. At present, the expectations raised by the author's glowing picture are not unfrequently frustrated, and the place itself suffers undeservedly by having been portrayed in hues of the imagination.
Summer at Davos is much the same as summer anywhere in Switzerland, at the height of 5,200 feet above the sea, except that there are few tourists, in comparison with the many invalids. In winter the life is quite unique. Nearly one thousand visitors were housed together in the several hotels last year, consisting of Germans and English, in pretty equal numbers ; French, Dutch, Russians, Italians, and people of even more distant nationalities. Amateur theatricals and concerts, balls, bazaars, and such-like watering-place amusements, wore a decidedly in- ternational appearance ; and the gaiety of the place was further heightened by a poor theatre and a pretty good band. So far Davos did not differ much from other health-resorts; but the common existence of all these people in frozen snow, forming a colony almost as sequestered as the company on board an ocean steamer, and conscious that they were destined to reside together for a period of some six months, led at times to curious displays of national character. The Anglo-Saxon race asserted itself, for example, by forming a committee for investigating the local charities, on which reports were published, suggesting and imperatively demanding certain radical changes. This led to warfare with the excellent people who manage the charities. Conducted in due form, by means of public meetings, pamphlets, and elections of representatives, this struggle never exceeded the bounds of courtesy ; and while it passed the time, it may also have served to bring the residents and visitors into more practical work- ing relations than would have otherwise been possible. It is strange how quickly,. in spite of, or perhaps in consequence of, the monotony of life at Davos, a winter slips away. But what is still more curious, is that the people who for six months have been complaining of its dullness, are rueful when the time comes for their departure, and during the next few weeks spend their leisure moments in writing to each other memories of the simple pleasures they have left behind them in exchange for a damp, inhospitable world.
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