The treatment of gastro-hepatic dyspepsia at Vichy, Carlsbad, and Cheltenham / by Gustave Monod.

  • Monod, Gustave.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of gastro-hepatic dyspepsia at Vichy, Carlsbad, and Cheltenham / by Gustave Monod. 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.

    3/12
    Many a practitioner interested in hydrology must occasionally have felt hesitation when called upon to decide whether a course of spa treat- ment is appropriate for his patient, and to determine which of many competing stations is the most suitable for that purpose. The problem is, indeed, one of considerable complexity, demanding for its solution an insight, sometimes intuitive, into human temperament, a considerable knowledge of thermal methods, and a sufficient familiarity with climate and topography. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the physician sometimes hesitates, and the patient, even though a typically suitable subject for spa treatment, may leave the consulting-room still in doubt as to its necessity for him, and with the name of the watering- place not definitely settled. So, at any rate, may he interpreted the experience of, I suppose, every spa practitioner. He finds that a notable proportion of his patients arrive without definite medical prescription, and possessed with notions, hazy or erroneous, in matters which we deem to be of capital importance. Have I not myself encountered at Yichy a Scotch lady sent there by her doctor to enjoy the “ mountain scenery ” ; and did I not in England meet two medical men who placed that famous resort in Germany ? An unconscious tribute to Yichy, perhaps; for in the bad old times now passing away, and under influences now losing force, no good thing thermal could come out of France. Every important spa has inherited traditions, some of which remain fixed while others are modified under the influence of scientific experi- ment, though there is ever an inclination towards change at the bidding of mere conjecture. Nevertheless, a solid substratum remains, and evolution is based in the main on clinical observation. It may in fact be said that each spa is a separate school of specialized medicine. But in the literature emanating from these resorts it is difficult to winnow the wheat from the chaff—to distinguish sober clinical fact from fictitious reclame. More difficult still is it to form accurate deductions even from