Purton Spa : with a brief account of the history, properties, uses and effects of it's [sic] bromo-iodated & sulphated spring.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Purton Spa : with a brief account of the history, properties, uses and effects of it's [sic] bromo-iodated & sulphated spring. 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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    of these brine waters, and that, as a natural result, there should be a growing want of faith in the efficiency of mineral waters in general. And to show the importance of the high proportion of sulphated salts existing in the Pur ton waters, it is only necessary to state that at least nineteen-twentieths of the diseases to which the human body is subject are consequent upon a deranged state of the digestive organs. The Purton water is essentially a sulphated saline; the sulphated salts, as will be seen by reference to the foregoing analysis, preponderate in quantity, as well as in number, over the muriated [common salt] in the proportion of eight to one by weight. The sulphate of potash, an extremely valuable diuretic and alterative salt, does not, I beliere, occur in combination with the three remain- ing sulphates—namely, sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, and sulphate of lime—in any of the other mineral waters of England, and it is but rarely found in those of the Continent. The carbonate of potash is another rare and valuable salt in the Purton water, and it cannot, from a medical point of view, be over-estimated; for in gout and rheumatism, stomach and liver affections, and their numerous complications, skin diseases, &c, it and the sulphated salts alone form a valuable prescription. The combination of iodine and bromine with these sulphates is as remarkable as it is singular and valuable, and it is hoped, with much confidence, that in the union of these powerful and special alteratives with the aperient and diuretic sulphated salts, the great desideratum may be found—an efficient remedy for the prevention and cure of consumption, bron- chial affections, enlarged glands, scrofula, &c. The iron, phosphoric acid, and sulphuretted hydrogen, follow in all but delicate traces, and by their tonic, stimulant, and alterative properties, even in homoeopathic pr@portions, are important and valuable adjuncts to the other constituents. The proportion of free carbonic acid gas in the Purton mineral water, viz., 50.4 cubic inches to the imperial gallon, is, I believe, in great excess of that of any other English mineral water. In this respect (although not so highly charged with the gas), in tempera- ture, viz., 58-| degrees Fahrenheit, and in holding four similar salts, the Purton mineral water, as before stated, resembles the springs of Pyrmont more than any other. Carbonic acid gas, in general, is an element which is deficient
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