A treatise on the use and abuse of mineral waters : Also rules necessary to be observed by invalids who visit the chalybeate springs of the Old and New Tunbridge Wells. Together with remarks on the immoderate use of sea water / By Hugh Smith.

Hugh Smith

Date:: [1776?]

Credit: A treatise on the use and abuse of mineral waters : Also rules necessary to be observed by invalids who visit the chalybeate springs of the Old and New Tunbridge Wells. Together with remarks on the immoderate use of sea water / By Hugh Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$I \ [’ 12 ] Jng is improper, violent Cathartics are inju- . rious, and all Evacuations which tend to reduce the Strength of the Patient muft be avoided : fuch Practice is unwarrantable, unlkilful, fatal. Nature, in chronic Complaints, requires a Spur; and the native Chalybeate Water, when pro¬ perly adminiflered, is a powerful Spur indeed— but many unlkilful Riders are continually thrown out of the Courfe, by ufing it too furioully. It is a ludicrous, but a true Obfervation, that the World, in general, think they cannot have too much of a good Thing: Hence the com¬ mon BlelTings of Life oftentimes become the Sources of Mifery. The hofpitable Table is thus abufed by the voracious Glutton, while the beaftly Drunkard has Reafon to curfe the gene¬ rous Juice of the Grape. But will any one: prefume, from thefe Conliderations, to argue,, that Food is not necelTary for the Support of: Man ? or that generous Wines are not refrelh- ing Cordials to the Temperate and the Wife? It: is not the proper Ufe, but the abfurd Abufe,. i that renders many Things poifonous, which are, in themfdves, not only innocent, but even falu- tary to animal Life. To bring this Obfervation home to our prefent. Purpofe—i mean firft to fpeak againftthe Abufe of the native Chalybeate Water—It is a miftaken Notion and a vulgar Error, that Patients cannot drink$