Bath, Contrexéville and the lime sulphated waters : with their use in medicine / by John Macpherson.

  • Macpherson, John, 1817-1890.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bath, Contrexéville and the lime sulphated waters : with their use in medicine / by John Macpherson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CHAPTER II. “Let those who, with upraised eyebrows, despise simplicity of practice in chronic diseases, consider how many and how different affections are cured by the use of baths and of mineral waters, the value of which has been tested by a series of ages. Invalids, who have tried all the most extolled remedies without benefit, are found to fly to them for aid.” Boerhaave, Prelections. Having now got some general ideas about alkaline waters, we pass on to the sulpkated ones. The present popularity of Contrexeville and, though in a lesser degree, of Yittel and of Weissenburg, in the treatment of certain affections has led me to enquire whether there is anything special in their composition, and whether similar waters have been or are now employed in an analogous manner. I say similar waters, for the prac- tice is not yet extinct, of comparing wells of dissimilar composition, and then of inferring the necessary supe- riority of the water, that is most highly mineralised. For instance, the 17'9G grs. in the pint of the Bath waters have been favourably contrasted with the 2-00 grs. of Plombi&res. Such comparisons are of no value. For this purpose I have, as I have already said, selected a few typical waters, with all of which I am acquainted, not that ordinary visits to baths convey any very accurate information, because they are usually too short, and because the visitor is very much in the