Beaches have been thought of as bad places where no one wanted to be. The beach wasn’t considered a place for relaxation or entertainment. The beach can be cold, hot, sandy, wet, and uncomfortable. There was also the perspective of drowning. (Swanson) Many people felt that the beach isn’t the ideal place to go and cool off on hot days. The coastal landscape was where only shipwrecks, natural disaster …show more content…
The ocean was a good source of food for many people, it was where long journeys began and ended, but more people came to the beach for recreation and fun (Blei). The people no longer felt that long journeys were a bad thing and that the beach was a fun place to hang out. In the Roman empire, they had public baths or pools but there was only enough room to stand, people then started to find other less crowded places to hang out in the water (Steenwyk 9). The Romans sought the seaside or coast as a place to be, years before the English changed their perspective on the vast body of water. Elizabeth Steenwyk said in her book Let's Go to the Beach: a History of Sun and Fun by the Sea, “Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan were but a few of the explorers who saw life in the new world and rushed home with reports of emerald waters and pristine beaches where native men and women lived seemingly perfect lives.” When these explorers discovered such a place they notice the good lives people were living and thought maybe they could live that way too. Swimming in the ocean became a trend in Great Britain and it was available to every level of society (Steenwyk 8). Swimming was something that everyone started to love and enjoy. There was one thing about the beach that was related to society, the rich got the best parts of the beach and the poor people got the part of the beach …show more content…
The epidemics of the eighteenth century like the digestive complaints, fevers, melancholia, tremors, nervous tics, and stupidity were all believed to be caused by the pollution and deterioration of society (Braun). The poor conditions of the city were believed to be the cause of every sickness and disease. The cities of Australia were polluted and doctors had the prescription of sea air, and soon resorts sprung up around the country (Discovering the Beach). Australian doctors were trying to find something to help cure the illnesses from the pollution thoughts of fresh sea air would improve health and people went to sea resorts for this fresh air. The beach was then looked at as a fully stocked pharmacy with tons of different therapies to help with many different illnesses. One therapy was the cold shock of water, which was thought to contract tumors and promote the circulation of humors (Braun). People with tumors would go and submerge themselves into the cold water every day to make the tumor disappear. Doctors who issued the prescription of water therapy was to prescribe exactly how often, how long, under what conditions, and which part of the body should make contact with the waves (Swanson). Doctors had felt they could cure everything with the ocean therapies by giving a specific descriptive prescription to each and every patient for their needs. Another therapy was dunking them under water