Dupont's artesian well, Louisville, Kentucky : Report, analysis, and medical properties of its water, with remarks upon the nature of artesian wells / by J. Lawrence Smith.

  • Smith, J. Lawrence (John Lawrence), 1818-1883.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dupont's artesian well, Louisville, Kentucky : Report, analysis, and medical properties of its water, with remarks upon the nature of artesian wells / by J. Lawrence Smith. 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.

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    may be, continued use of the water is sure to be felt by that system. T-his substance, iodine, was discovered in 1811, and very shortly afterwards its medical virtues were ascertained, and it now ranks among the most important medical remedies. Within the last few weeks additional attention has been called to the subject by Dr. Boinet, in a communication made to the Academy of Medicine, in Paris. The doctor proposes the intro- duction of iodine into the daily food of persons laboring under any of the forms of this disease, such as worms, cretinism, enlarged glands, etc. Wherever iodine, he states, is abundantly diffused throughout the air,* these disorders are rarely seen, and that the energy of the vital functions is in the direct ratio of the quantity of iodine existing in the animal economy. He proposes to iodize bread, cakes, sirups, etc., etc., simply by the introduction of such plants as naturally contain iodine, viz: all kinds of sea-weeds and cruciferous plants, or else by using the water of iodized springs, or salts con- taining the same principle. Under these forms the quantity of iodine administered is so small as to commu- nicate no peculiar taste to the edible substance. After ten years' experience, during which Dr. Boinet has treated children specially selected by a physician of a Bureau de Bienfaisance for their scrofulous habit, he has come to the conclusion that the diet he proposes, if persevered in for some months, will not only cure scrofula but ulcerous habits, diseases of the skin, op- thalmia, caries of the bones, etc. The Academy of Medicine has referred Dr. Boinet's paper to a commission composed of Drs. Chatin and Trousseau. If there be any correctness in Dr. Boinet's statement, all mineral waters containing iodine will be invested with new interest. Sufficient has been said to give a correct idea of the 'Reference is made to M. Chatin's recent experiments, (showing the existence of iodine in the air.