Some remarks on medicinal mineral waters, natural and artificial : their efficacy in the treatment of chronic diseases, and rules for their employment, especially those of Carlsbad, Ems, Kissingen, Marienbad, Pyrmont, Pullna, Seidschutz, and Heilbrunn / by S. Hanbury Smith.

  • Smith, Samuel Hanbury, 1810-1894.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some remarks on medicinal mineral waters, natural and artificial : their efficacy in the treatment of chronic diseases, and rules for their employment, especially those of Carlsbad, Ems, Kissingen, Marienbad, Pyrmont, Pullna, Seidschutz, and Heilbrunn / by S. Hanbury Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    springs, than it is possible to bring about in the laboratory; and that, therefore, these natural productions cannot be suc- cessfully imitated. But every tyro in chemistry knows that the chemical components of a mineral water are united with each other in certain definite proportions, and no other, ac- cording to immutable laws now well understood. Chemical analysis is capable of detecting the minutest portion of an in- gredient in gallons of its solution; and therefore the quantity of each element being given, the proportions in which bodies combine known, and due regard had to the influence of tem- perature, pressure, quantity, and order of solution, it is evi- dently as practicable to reproduce exactly the compound solu- tion called a mineral water, as it is to reproduce exactly Glauber's or Epsom salt, or sal-ammoniac, by a mixture of their ingredients in due proportion and in a proper manner— a thing which is every day accomplished on the largest manu- facturing scale—although the processes required are delicate and difficult, and require greater accuracy and care than per- haps any known in the whole range of the chemical arts. There are some again who entertain the superstitious notion that mineral waters possess some mysterious attribute, agency, spirit, or ingredient, not to be detected by chemical analysis, even the most searching and exact; and to this something they attribute the truly wonderful healing powers of some waters, especially such as contain but a small proportionate amount of salts in solution. Such views are entirely visionary, and, together with the sneers of interested persons, and all other objections whatsoever which have been or may be brought against properly prepared artificial mineral waters, are met by the now well established fact, that neither in physical nor in medicinal properties can they be distinguished from the na- tural. They have the same smell, taste, color, and temper- ature; by analysis yield the same results; and thirty years' experience, in countries where the art of healing and the suc- cessful cultivation of the medical sciences are unsurpassed if equaled, has proved beyond all further cavil that the artificial perfectly resemble the natural waters, both in the direct re-