Manitou, Colorado, U.S.A. : its mineral waters and climate / by S. Edwin Solly.

  • Solly, S. Edwin (Samuel Edwin), 1845-1906.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manitou, Colorado, U.S.A. : its mineral waters and climate / by S. Edwin Solly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Difference in ac- tion of carbo- nate of soda and chloride of sodi- um. Carbonate of so- da its infliK'nce on disease. Its action modi- fied by the other constituents. of substance; that large doses, on the contrary, retard the process by diminishing the oxidation of nitrogenous combinations.* With respect to the difference in action of carbonate of soda and chloride of sodium, it may be safely stated that though both equally keep the blood alkaline and supplement each other in so doing, yet, while small doses of carbonate of soda promote waste of tissue by favoring the change of fibrine into urea, etc., and, if long continued, cause emaciation, chloride of sodium in small doses, on the other hand, checks the change of the constituents of the blood into albumin- ous fluid, and so retards waste, is more rapidly eliminated from the body, and is much more tardy in dissolving the albumen and fibrine. Again, in large doses, carbonate of soda retards the waste of tissue, while in similar doses of chloride of sodium there is a considerable increase of change of substance. So we see that in large doses, carbonate of soda diminishes the amount of urea secreted; chloride of sodium increases it, while in small doses the converse holds good. In small doses such as eight or ten grains, carbonate of soda in its direct action improves digestion by absorbing the excess of acidity in the stomach and intestines, but if continued for some time it tends to lessen the appetite and checks the proper supply of nourishment to the body. It has also a directly diuretic effect in common with the potash salts; its more remote beneficial effects come under the head of those produced by alteratives—that is by its power of increasing the waste of tissue and getting rid of useless and effete substances; from the blood it removes the injurious products of a diseased action and stimu- lates the tissues to renovate themselves, and prepares the way for the reception of newer and healthier material, thus altering for good the more or less abnormal action of the body. It is however evident that if in the first place the stumach being normally acid in order to digest the food, soda has a bad effect if it removes more than what ever excess of acidity there may be; and secondly, if beyond getting rid of waste tissue it increases unduly the waste of healthy substance, also, the body will become emaciated, because the supply of ntw tissue will not be equal to the waste of old. Nature however in a mineral water, such as the Navnjoe, has supplied us with correctives for this depressing tendency of the soda in the carbonic acid, which acting as a local stimu- lant to the stomach and intestines, increases the secretion of healthy gastric juice, and in the chloride of .sodium (common salt), which checks without directly opposing the waste of substance by exerting its well * About fourteen to twenty-five per cent., according to Kasse. The solution of albumen in the serum of the blood is closely connected with tlie presence of carbonate of soda and chloride of sodium, and when the albumen is diminished the alkaline salts and water in- crease ; but, as yet, there is nothing to show that the amount of albumen can be lessened by the administration of an excess of alkaline salts.
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