Sanatoriums are often in a healthy climate, usually in the countryside. The idea of healing was an important reason for the historical wave of establishments of sanatoria, especially at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
One sought, for instance, the healing of consumptives especially tuberculosis before the discovery of antibiotics or alcoholism , but also of more obscure addictions and longings of hysteria , masturbation , fatigue and emotional exhaustion.
Facility operators were often charitable associations, such as the Order of St. John and the newly founded social welfare insurance companies. Sanatoriums should not be confused with the Russian sanatoriums from the time of the Soviet Union, which were a type of sanatorium resort residence for workers.
The first suggestion of sanatoria in the modern sense was likely made by George Bodington , who opened a sanatorium in Sutton Coldfield in and later published his essay "On the Treatment and Cure of Pulmonary Consumption" [ 3 ] in His novel approach was dismissed as "very crude ideas and unsupported assertions" by reviewers in the Lancet , [ 4 ] and his sanatorium was converted to an asylum soon after.
The rationale for sanatoria in the pre- antibiotic era was that a regimen of rest and good nutrition offered the best chance that the patient's immune system would "wall off" pockets of pulmonary TB infection. Patients were exposed to plentiful amounts of high altitude, fresh air, and good nutrition.
