Peru as It Is, Volume 2 (of 2): A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That CountrySmith, Archibald
History
Peru as It Is, Volume 2 (of 2): A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That Country
Smith, Archibald
Peru -- Description and travel
The water of the four baths fitted up for the sick is of the same quality
with the one here analyzed; with the difference that in the three last
its temperature is less, and that it does not disengage in such quantity
the sulphuretted hydrogen nor the carbonic acid.
The _new water_ of Haenk, and that from another jet or source which has
been more recently discovered, possess the same qualities with those
of the baths; differing, however, in this respect, that they do not
disengage sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The water recently discovered,
of which the temperature is 91°, contains more iron, but not in such
quantity as the waters of the ferruginous bath. It is of a somewhat
sweetish acidulated taste, and it leaves a certain asperity on the
palate. Reagents act upon these in the same way as they do on the
sulphurous water.
PECULIARITIES OBSERVABLE IN THE SULPHUROUS WATER BATHS.
Shortly after having entered the bath, the whole body becomes covered
with numberless air-globules of a pearly appearance. Some degree of heat
and pungency is felt all over the skin; and, soon after immersion in the
water, the smell from it ceases to be perceived. It occasions a slight
degree of uneasiness in respiration, arising from the large quantity of
carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen which arises from its surface.
MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF THE SULPHUROUS WATER.
According to Dr. Don Jose Maria Adriasola y Arve of Arequipa, it has been
found by experience, that, since times of remote antiquity, the baths
of the sulphurous waters of Yura have produced the most salutary and
specific effects in a great variety of cutaneous diseases. In various
instances of chronic disorder of the bowels, and dysentery attended with
intestinal ulceration and wasting of the general system, or what has been
improperly termed intestinal consumption, Dr. Vargas found that these
waters restored the healthy action of the digestive organs, kept up a
proper cuticular discharge, and radically cured such apparently hopeless
cases.
This same water is also allowed to be excellent for the cure of chronic
rheumatism, certain deep-seated pains, and contracted joints, &c.
Mr. Rivero gives the following method as that by which invalids are to
profit by the use of the sulphurous baths of Yura.
The first four or six baths must be taken in the bathing-places named
Desague or Sepultura, which emit less gas and are of lower temperature;
for by entering the bath called Tigre, which is the most active, the
body experiences a very disagreeable sensation, and at the same time the
breast is peculiarly affected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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