ABSTRACT
Scotland's spas had never been other than of very minor significance, but with the arrival of hydropathy, or the cold water cure, in the early Victorian period, an enthusiasm to which the Scots took, for the first time there was the chance to claim a niche within the profitable market of health tourism. For a while the movement, in the form of large curative institutions known as the 'hydros', flourished, thanks in no small measure to the commitment to temperance within its therapeutic regime. Scotland was never a major player in international spa tourism, but in the nineteenth century, with hydropathy it carved out an interesting niche in the water therapy market as will be shown. Hydropathy was radical in that it stood outside the main medical camp. Hydros moreover were self-contained centres; all the facilities for the patient or visitor were provided in or from the establishment, rather than in the surrounding community, which meant staffing and equipment.
