The Bath waters : their uses and effects in the cure and relief of various chronic diseases / by James Tunstall, M.D.

  • Tunstall, James, -1880.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bath waters : their uses and effects in the cure and relief of various chronic diseases / by James Tunstall, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the bath improves the volume and strength of the arterial pulse, producing increased action without increased inflammation. This results from the fact that its efi'ects are universal, and that it does not excite one organ at the expense of another, that is to say in all cases where no organic internal disease exists. The above effects arise from the first action of the bath ; but in order that we may rightly estimate its value as a remedy to be continued for a certain period of time, it will be necessary to take a cursoiy view of the solid contents which chemistry has shewn to be contained in the springs of Bath. Their salts are those which are most grateful to the system, because they supply many of the ingre- dients which the blood requires in perfect health, and their introduction into the system by means of the vessels of the cuticular surface, enables them to be distributed throughout, and to become elimi- nated therefrom in improved secretions from the liver, skin, and kidneys, all which organs are altered in their secreting function by diseased action, and the altered constitution of the circulating fluid. But there are two other ingredients in these waters which claim a large share of then merits— the free carbonic acid, and the protocarbonate of iron. The free carbonic acid gives to these springs their pecuhar balmy feehng, and by its gentle stimulus to the surface, brings into action the vessels more immediately concerned in the disease, and being applied in combination with the salts referred to