The mineral waters of Vals.

Date:
[between 1864 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mineral waters of Vals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    prove particularly useful in cases of gravel requiring the employment of alkaline drinks. “ The excess of carbonic acid and the considerable proportions of bicarbonate of soda evidently give the Waters of Vais these varied properties, whilst the bicarbonates of lime and magnesia, which have a similar effect, assist in the good work. “ The sulphate of soda and other neutral salts are fortunately present in too small a quantity to excite /purgation, and cannot have any other result but to promote the secretion of urine, even when the waters are taken in large quantities. “ The bicarbonate of iron is not in such a large pro¬ portion as to over-stimulate the organism, but yet its proportion is sufficient to counteract general de¬ bility and to recruit the powers of life when ex¬ hausted by tedious illness, fatigue, and over-anxiety, improper diet, and bad hygienic conditions. “ Their good effect must be assisted by the restor¬ ation of the digestive action, under the influence of the carbonic acid and alkaline bicarbonates. “ The iron and manganese, associated as they are with an excess of carbonic acid, must render these mineral waters of service, in inducing a return of the periodic uterine discharge, and in restoring its proper physiological action. “ The constituents of the Vais Waters are most remarkable, whether we consider the elements found in solution, or the association of so many therapeu¬ tical agents in such happy relative proportions, that they seem to have been fortuitously arranged so as to obtain the best possible results.” (“ The Waters of Vais.”)