A hand-book of the Peak of Derbyshire, and to the use of the Buxton mineral waters / by William Henry Robertson ; with ... a botanical commentary & list of plants by the late Miss Hawkins.

  • Robertson, William Henry.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A hand-book of the Peak of Derbyshire, and to the use of the Buxton mineral waters / by William Henry Robertson ; with ... a botanical commentary & list of plants by the late Miss Hawkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    343/350
    Price Is., A LETTER TO DR. LYON PLAYFAIR, C.B., F.R.S., BY DR. ROBERTSON, OF BUXTON. Being a Medical Commentary on the Results of the Recent Analysis of the Buxton Tepid Water; to which are prefixed a Statement of the Improvements now in Progress in Buxton; and Dr. Playfair’s Analytical Report. “Dr. Robertson is well and favourably known to the profession by his previous writings; and he is fortunate on the present occa- sion in dealing with a subject at once novel and important. It appears that Buxton has had, of late years, such an increasing influx of invalids, that the town and baths could not properly accommodate them, and the owner of the baths and adjacent pro- perty, the Duke of Devonshire, has consequently made great im- provements to meet the public wants, under the superintendence of Sir Joseph Paxton. In connection with these alterations, which have quite transformed the facilities for bathing, the Duke requested Dr. Playfair to make an analysis of the thermal springs, which, it will he seen, has resulted in a discovery of great consequences to the reputation of the celebrated waters. It was found that every imperial gallon of the waters contained 206 cubic inches of nitro- gen ; and upon this gaseous element Dr. Playfair considers the medical properties of the Buxton waters entirely to depend. We ma7 judge of the importance of this discovery by the circumstance stated by Dr. Robertson that hitherto only 5'57 cubic inches per gallon were supposed to be the proportion in which this important element was contained in these waters. As 120 gallons are dis- charged from these springs per minute, the whole discharge of nitrogen per minute amounts to 24,720 cubic inches. “■^r; Robertson, after lucidly comparing the analysis of Dr. Playfair with other analyses, and with the analysis of other ther- mal waters, looks forward to new discoveries, and thus concludes his interesting pamphlet:— f J Zn w!!ld r?tUre 1° reit,eratf’ as a possibly needful corollary to the above statements and inferences, the opinion that all the X,‘,T1 B“‘»» tepid water, Jld e^oiauj itTgre.t Hnn nf iactl0u’ scarcely be ascribed even to the large propor- tion of nitrogen which it must now be held to contain (significant and vaiuabie as it must be admitted to be), but may still be referable this mfv bTtbe°f S°Te hlth.ert0 undetected constituent. However and TYb ’n ^T1 aLd TgUlarly laSting effects of these baths, putable h The™ USe i* thf Wateic’ are unquestionable and india. of most'™J al.most 8Pfcific for the relief or alleviation the ntfi t o rheumatism, and of many cases of gout, for which the use of other means and appliances has been sought and tried