Pilgrimages to the Spas in Pursuit of Health and Recreation: With an inquiry into the comparative merits of different mineral waters: the maladies to which they are applicable, and those in which they are injuriousJohnson, James
Science
Pilgrimages to the Spas in Pursuit of Health and Recreation: With an inquiry into the comparative merits of different mineral waters: the maladies to which they are applicable, and those in which they are injurious
Johnson, James
Balneology; Health resorts; Mineral waters
exhibition of drugs, the relief would only be temporary, and the frequent
repetition of the same or analogous measures, would be necessary, and
would tend but little to the permanent amelioration of the patient. In
several of these cases, especially where there exists hardness or tension
in the region of the liver, spleen, or in other parts of the abdomen, the
douche will be of material assistance in the treatment.”
“In many cases of paralysis, baths of mineral waters offer the most
efficient, and often the only means of arousing the nervous energy of
the system, and of the paralysed parts; and few have a more beneficial
influence in this way than those of Wisbaden; but here again it cannot
always be determined beforehand, that baths of this kind will be more
effectual than those of other springs containing but a small proportion
of solid and gaseous substance, as the latter occasionally succeed after
the failure of the former. In the obscurity which still envelops the mode
of action of mineral baths, this cannot be satisfactorily accounted for,
except upon the principle of idiosyncrasy, or by the supposition that
the disturbing action of a thoroughly impregnated spring is less adapted
to certain of these cases, than the more tranquilizing and sedative
influence of a simple thermal, or slightly alkaline, warm spring. In most
instances, however, where there does not exist a high degree of nervous
excitability, or tendency to fulness in the cerebral vessels, the baths
of Wisbaden may be used with great prospect of advantage; especially when
the complaint is of a rheumatic origin, depending upon the impression
of poisonous influences upon the nervous system, as malaria, the abuse
of mercury, or the employment of this and some other metals by workmen;
as also in those cases, where the disease appears to be of a purely
local nature, not connected with cerebral disease, but arising from
deficient energy of the nerves of the part, or of the spinal marrow,
consequent upon exposure to cold and wet, or other analogous causes.
Even in paralysis affecting a limb or one side of the body, remaining
after an apoplectic seizure, baths of this and other mineral waters
may often be advantageously employed, provided there be no symptoms of
cerebral congestion, or organic disease. Plethoric individuals, and those
whose digestive organs are disordered, will frequently require some
preparatory treatment, previous to using the baths, in paralytic, as well
as in other diseases. These, then, are the principal diseases which the
Wisbaden waters are more especially calculated to relieve, and in which
their use in the form of baths and douches is the most essential part of
the treatment. There are besides various other complaints to which the
external or internal use of the water, or both combined, is extremely
suitable, in common with several other mineral springs; but of which
the peculiar circumstances of each case require to be investigated, in
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