The mineral springs of the United States and Canada : with analyses and notes on the prominent spas of Europe, and a list of sea-side resorts / by Geo. E. Walton.

  • Walton, George E. (George Edward), 1839-1917.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mineral springs of the United States and Canada : with analyses and notes on the prominent spas of Europe, and a list of sea-side resorts / by Geo. E. Walton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    101/464 (page 79)
    sodium that we must resort. 1 These waters are used both internally and in the form of baths. The strong brine-bath, formed by concentration of saline waters, is especially useful. Speaking of these baths, after giving the indications for cod- liver oil, Niemeyer says: It is far more difficult to furnish definite instructions for the use of the brine-baths, whose anti- scrofulous virtues enjoy a reputation almost as great as that of cod-liver oil. We know too little about the action of these baths, and about the effect which they produce upon nutrition, and the advantages derived from the salt, iodine, and bromine, which they contain, to enable us to determine upon theoreti- cal principles where they are indicated, and where they are unlikely to do good. . . . Hence there is no resource but to send persons who have in vain tried cod-liver oil, and other anti-scrofulous remedies, to Kreutznach, Ischel, Kosen, or Wit- tekind, or some similar watering-place, in the hope that they may be among those to whom the baths will exhibit their anti- scrofulous virtues, which are by no means illusory. 2 Sea-bathing also enters appropriately into the treatment of certain conditions of scrofulous habit. Here the action is complex, for, adjoined to immersion in the saline waters of the ocean, we have the continuous inhalation of sea-air. Sea- baths seem best adapted to those conditions in which the scrofulous diathesis is not fully developed. When the dys- crasia is well marked, and inveterate local manifestations are exhibited, they do not answer so good a purpose. Sulphur-waters are deemed especially applicable to those forms of scrofula accompanied by lesions of the skin, known as scrofulides. For these scrofulous diseases of the skin Hardy tells us, in the form of baths mineral waters possess a happy influence; the sulphur-waters, and, above all, those which are very rich in sulphur; good success is also obtained by the bromo-iodated waters. 3 In this country, besides waters of the classes named, the 1 Dictionnaire Generate des Eaux Minerales, tome ii., p. 749. 2 Text-Book of Medicine, American edition, vol. ii., p. 747. 3 Lecons sur la Scrofule et les Scrofulides, Paris, 18&4, p. 91.