Clinical lectures on diseases of the urinary organs : delivered at University College Hospital / by Sir Henry Thompson.

  • Thompson, Henry, Sir, 1820-1904.
Date:
1882
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on diseases of the urinary organs : delivered at University College Hospital / by Sir Henry Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    132/192 (page 120)
    the bowels will probably follow soon after ; perhaps two. That quantity, you see, would contain about 25 grains of sulphate of soda and 20 grains of sulphate of magnesia, which, taken in any com- bination you please from a druggist's drawer, would have no appreciable action; the patient might be a little uncomfortable perhaps, but there would be no action of the bowels. To repeat what I have said : if you evaporate a quantity of Friedrichs- halle water in a warm water bath so as to avoid decomposition of the salt, or even loss of the water of crystallisation, and so obtain as perfect a product as a chemist can produce, and administer four times as much of this salt as that Avhich exists in a dose of the natural water, you will still not produce such efficient or certain re- sults as the small quantity contained in the natural water will give. So that there is something, which I do not pretend to explain, and certainly shall not speculate about here, which distinguishes the action of mineral waters from the action of salts which are made by our pharmaceutical processes. The next water on my list is that of Marienbad, and it contains no sulphate of magnesia, 48 grains of sulphate of soda in the pint, with 9 grains of carbonate of soda, and a small quantity of iron. With these constituents, there is enough free carbonic acid to make it an agreeable and slightly sparkling draught. Rather more than half a pint produces for most persons an easy motion. If this water is exposed to the air for a day or two, there will be an obvious brown deposit of the iron, and it may be regarded as a slightly ferrugi- nous water, although this character is not important for our purpose. If there were a sufficiently large demand for it to enable us to have it quite fresh, it would be an admirable remedy here. But it bears transport badly, soon losing its carbonic acid, and depositing its iron, besides becoming less palatable, and light for the stomach. Carlsbad is next to be noticed, with its many springs, all of which contain about 20 grains of sulphate of soda and ] 3 of carbonate of soda in the pint; and contrary to the common belief, differ from each other solely in point of temperature, which is very high in the Sprlidel, the central source, and in the remotest is higher than that of the human body. Carlsbad water is often supposed to be purgative, but is not so unless taken very^ largely. No quantity ever given here exerts a laxative action on the bowels. The influence it exercises on the animal economy, although probably chiefly due to the sulphate of soda element, is not in any way as an aperient. The ' Carlsbad Salts,' which are widely and popularly known as an aperient, but sold at an ex- orbitant price and bringing a vast revenue to the Carlsbad makers, are simply sul- phate of soda (with perhaps a trace of carbonate) or * Glauber's salts; ' and differ in no respect, except in name, from that common but valuable aperient, as- made here and in other countries. Then we come to the water of Franz- ensbad, which contains 30 grains of sul- phate of soda, 6 of carbonate, and a little- iron, which Carlsbad does not. That closes this group of springs. Next I shall just point out the dis- tinctive characters of the alkaline waters which are so popular in this country. First and best known is that of Vichy, which contains only 3 grains of sulphate of soda, but nearly 50 grains of carbonate of soda, in the pint—a powerful solution.. After that is the water of Vals, which is also from the volcanic district of France^ some of the springs of which contain up- wards of CO grains of carbonate of'soda,, and nothing else worth mentioning. These two waters are extremely famous, and their sources are much resorted to by patients for the cure of gout and gravel. The waters are also largely exported ta other countries. Another alkaline water is that of Evian, on the south shore of the Lake of Geneva, which I name here because it has a certain reputation as a resort for calculous patients. The alka- line constituent, carbonate of soda, is pre- sent, however, in very small quantity, and this spring ranks, as regards the influence of that agent, below the others named. . Under the continued daily use of strong alkaline waters, the uric-acid deposits disappear—that is, they are dis- solved by the alkali. Inasmuch, also, a& this appears to have some beneficial action on the liver, a certain degree of benefit is- perhaps also attained. Thus such patients are often better for a time after a visit to Vichy ; but, as a rule, are not permanently benefited. I am satisfied, after observa- tion on the spot, and also of the effect of the waters taken here, that they only temporarily mitigate the complaint, and