Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

usually become constipated and require the assis tance of medicine;" and adds, "in many instances it may be found advisable to add 20 or 30 grains of sulphate of magnesia to the water." Such being the case, no possible combination can be formed more suitable for this purpose, than the neutral purging salts which the water contains, and which here, as in the instances of Cheltenham and Leamington, having rendered it so exceedingly useful to the invalid. These remarks are forced upon me by the statements of Dr. Scudamore, which from the comparisons taken from his own work, cannot be considered correct.

It may be taken with proper management either as a tonic, an alterative, or aperient, and therefore becomes more especially useful in a wide range of complaints connected with biliary derangement and atony of the stomach. There are many who, after having taken the sulphur water at Harrogate, are recommended to proceed to Cheltenham, a journey unpleasant to some and inconvenient as well as expensive to others. This step, so far at least as concerns the relative properties of the waters, is evidently unnecessary, and may be entirely superseded by a similar course of this water upon the spot. In the article on mineral waters already referred to Dr.. T

Thomson thus sums up the comparison between Leamington and Cheltenham "It is obvious from this that the waters of Leamington will be useful in the same diseases as are cured or alleviated by Cheltenham waters. The two watering places are so nearly on so nearly on a par that invalida may repair to each with equal advantage. Convenience or caprice, therefore, may be left to decide the difference between them." Directions for its use, and an enumeration of the diseases in which it has been found most beneficial will be afterwards detailed.

CHALYBEATE SPRINGS.

CLASS III.

This is the most numerous, and was long considered the most important class of mineral waters. There is scarcely a county in England, and no kingdom with which we are acquainted, which does not possess simple chalybeate springs. Iron being the most universal metallic agent in nature, is found mixed in various forms and proportions with almost all unorganized substances, and is intimately combined with living organized bodies. It is acted upon by air, acids, and water, and it is in combination with these that we have now to consider its properties and effects. Chalybeates are remarkably uniform in their qualities: the iron is generally found in the state of protoxide, held in solution by carbonic acid; occasionally however, as at Moffat, it is combined with the sulphuric acid, which dissolves a much larger

quantity of iron than has ever yet been found in Dr. Thomson combination with the carbonic.

states, that an imperial gallon of the Moffat Cha lybeate contains protosulphate of iron 36.743 grs. The quantity of iron which the carbonated chalybeate springs contain seldom exceeds five grains in a gallon of the water, while in most instances it does not amount to one or two grains; yet from this minute quantity the most astonishing effects are frequently produced by a well regulated course of chalybeate water. It is uniformly stimulant, tonic, and diuretic, and where the carbonic acid exists in considerable quantity, is highly exhilarating. That one-eighth of a grain of carbonate of iron should exert such a sensible influence upon the system is only to be accounted for by its being diffused by a mild acid through a large quantity of water, in which state it is readily taken up by the absorbents, and thus penetrates the most minute vessels of the body, imparting vigour and strength, and improved spirits to its exhausted powers.

The effects of concentration, combination, and dilution in various substances connected with the materia medica are well known to the profession, and become an important study to the successful practitioner. The medical virtues of an ounce can be concentrated into a grain; a simple inert

substance combined with another becomes a virulent poison, while by dilution the action of many others are increased in a tenfold ratio, and should the solvent coincide with the intention of the remedy, its power upon the system is again greatly augmented. It is with such views that the effects of mineral waters, more especially of chalybeates, ought to be considered; for although no difference can be distinguished between a grain of iron obtained from a chalybeate spring, and that procured from any other process, and their action, when given in artificial combination, is the same; yet a very great difference may, and as experience proves, does exist in their relative powers, when the single grain is used in natural combination with the water.

The sensible properties of the chalybeate waters at Harrogate, and wherever I have examined similar springs, or remarked their description by others, are equally uniform with their mineral contents. The appearance of the water when first taken from the well is remarkably clear and' bright; there is no perceptible smell; it sparkles. gently when poured from one glass into another when at rest air globules slowly separate, and adhere slowly to the sides of the glass; the taste is. light, cooling, and refreshing, neither ascidulous

« VorigeDoorgaan »