A short treatise on the Kissingen Rakoczy and Bitterwater / by L. Weber.

  • Weber, Leonard, approximately 1802-1867.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short treatise on the Kissingen Rakoczy and Bitterwater / by L. Weber. 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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    GENEKAL REMAEKS. No other remedy requires in so great a degree a clear observa- tion, free from all speculations concerning the manner of its oper- ations, as does a mineral water. Experience alone can throw light upon the mode of its operation; for, though a knowledge of the single elements of a medicinal spring will by no means suffice to form a judgment of its effects, it seems certain, that these de- pend upon a union of the different ingredients, the temperature, the amount of gas in the water, &c. It is not the greater or smaller quantity of the constituent parts, but that inner difference of the compound or intermixture of the same as a whole, the manner whereof can in but a small degree be learned from chemi- cal investigation, which is the chief cause oi' the specific differ- ence in the operations of different mineral waters. If it be admitted that mineral waters, as a means of cure, should be used especially in the warmer seasons, it is nevertheless true, that the use of a mineral water in winter will have the same bene- ficial effect, provided a necessarily greater care be employed; for the medicinal springs retain the same unvaried chemical and physical properties during all the seasons of the year. It is necessary, and especially serviceable to the patient, that he should be made aware of the danger of an arbitrary and care- less use of the remedy, while taking the mineral waters, and that he should be made sensible of the folly of expecting a wonderful effect in a short time, as if a cure could be brought about by force. It is often the afterworkings which produce a favorable change. As it would be in vain to attempt to give the number of doses of any drug beforehand, it would be equally futile to prescribe the number of glasses of the mineral water that should be taken, and nothing would prove more prejudicial to a patient than to favor the maxim : Much helps much. Although it is an old rule that the patient should drink min- eral water in the morning upon an empty stomach, still in cases in which it seems necessary, it may be taken in the evening, pro- vided the quantity do not exceed one or two glasses. For many