Lecture on the progress and success of the Droitwich brine baths : with a short history of cases and their treatment / by Mr. Bainbrigge.

  • Bainbrigge, William Henry, 1806-1884.
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lecture on the progress and success of the Droitwich brine baths : with a short history of cases and their treatment / by Mr. Bainbrigge. 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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    action was set up by the Baths; on the gi’onncl that the skin can be made to act vicariously when functional derangement of the organs exist, and upon this identity of function I lay the foundation of the structure of cure, so to speak, and build upon it in cases such as those wo have referred to. By the Droitwich Brine we can not only restore a natural and better tone to the skin, but by so powerful an agent cause the latter to act vicarious- ly, which it will do in certain forms of disorder to which Saline Bathing affords a useful measure of relief. It may be said this vicarious action is too trifling to relieve such severe symptoms as those witnessed in cases of Diabetes, but the three cases I have alluded to proved the contrary, as the symptoms in each case gradually were relieved and all trace of them disappeared. In concluding this necessarily short account of the effects of these Waters, (on diifereut diseases), so far as time has permitted me to do so, I would now state that since the opening of the Establishment commencing on the 1st day of January, 1876, and ending June, 1877, one thousand and twenty-seven cases, including all classes, were treated at the Baths. This number, when I look at it, seems almost incredible, but it is nevertheless the fact, and I think my hearers will bear me out when I say that it is a con- vincing proof of the incalculable power of these Waters, for to this power only can the cures be attributed, no puffing adver- tisements having been resorted to, unless the remarks of a few grateful patients be so considered. The course adopted has been to treat each case upon the principles of physiology and to leave the Di’oitwich Brine to do the rest. Let me once again remind the public of the danger and disappointment which may follow the indiscriminate use of the Baths. The Bath that ciu-es one class of sufferers has often little or no effect upon others—pre- cautions have to be obseiwed in the application of the Water, and the constitutional condition of the invalid must be carefully examined. 8o much perhaps may not have been needlessly said of the treatment of cases in a popular lecture of this kind. But the opportunity of addressing so important an assembly must not be thrown away, and in the interests of humanity I must make bold to ask, whether such results as 1 have been able to describe ought