Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. ... To which are now added, some important observations concerning sea-bathing, and the use of the mineral waters; with many other additions / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. ... To which are now added, some important observations concerning sea-bathing, and the use of the mineral waters; with many other additions / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    641/802 (page 395)
    ✓ OF MINERAL WATERS. 595 In entering upon a courfe of the Tunbridge waters, it is always beft to begin with a fmall dofc, not exceeding a quarter of a pint, about half an hour before breakfaft, to be repeated, at regular intervals, once or twice in the fore- noon, according to the plealantnefs of the fenfations it excites. The quantity may be foon augmented to half a pint or even more at each dofe, if agreeable, or necef- fary, as the waters lofe much of their medicinal effed by continued ufe, the ftimulus wearing off in about fix or eight weeks, and making no peculiar imprefiion on the ftomach or habit. The ufual hours for the three doles are eight o’clock, ten o’clock, and twelve. A light breakfaft at nine will not impede the proper a£l;ion°of the waters; and as one of their efFeds is to improve the appetite, its indulgence fhould be under the control of moderation. But I have elfewhere enlarged fo fully on the advantages of temperance, as well as of early hours and exercife, that I need not ftop here to point out their importance in promoting the falutary operation of any courfe of medicines either natural or artificial. As fome perfons may be too foon prejudiced againft the ufe of chalybeates by any unpleafant or unexpedted fenfations at firft, it is proper to inform them, that giddi- nefs and fometime§ a heavinefs of the head, naufea, vo- miting, a flight pain about the heart, and a fenfe offul- nefs over the whole body, though by no means uncom- mon fymptoms on beginning a courfe of thefe waters will difappear after a little ufe. It is only when they ftub- bornly continue, that they fhould be regarded as a proof that the waters are not fuited to the nature of the compfeint, or to the patient’s Qonftitution. The naufea or ficknefs being often occafioned by the coldnefs of the frefli-drawn water, adling on an empty or a very weak and irruable ftomach, it is advifable in the firft inftance not to drink the waters fafting, till the ftomach becomes gradua ly reconciled to them ; and, in cafe of extreme irritability, it is a common and judicious pradice at Tun- bridge to immerle in hot water a bottle filled with the chalybeate, and well corked, that the chilJnefs may be di- evaporation of the fixed air as pof- fible. Where this abounds, as in the v^acers of the Gcr * man