Remarks on the supply of water to the metropolis : with an account of the natural history of water in its simple and combined states, and of the chemical composition and medical uses of all the known mineral waters being a guide to foreign and British watering places / by Michael Ryan.

  • Ryan, Michael, 1800-1840.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the supply of water to the metropolis : with an account of the natural history of water in its simple and combined states, and of the chemical composition and medical uses of all the known mineral waters being a guide to foreign and British watering places / by Michael Ryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4(5 duce warmth. Delicate females who cannot rise early may take a light breakfast, and bathe in two hours afterwards. Sea water differs from fresh by containing more chemical constituents; and Sea Bathing can be borne longer than simple, for it induces a greater re-action of the system, and if used incautiously much less noxious powers.— The temperature of the Cold Bath is from 30° to 65°, the Tepid Bath from 62Q to 90^, and The Warm from 97° to 100°. • 1 ’ The affusion of cold water has been used with f 4. great advantage in Putrid, Typhus, Intermit¬ tent, Remittent, Hectic and Scarlet Fevers; in Small-pox, Measles and Plague, in Inflammations of the Eye, Brain, Throat, in Bleeding from the Nose, Lungs, Stomach and Uterus, in the form of bath in certain kinds of Palsy, Indigestion, Ner¬ vous, Bilious Diseases, Chlorisis, Locked-jaw, Pal¬ pitation, Hysterics, Plydrophobia, General Debi¬ lity, in Melancholy, Madness, Scrofula, Scurvy, Leprosy, several Diseases of the Skin, in Ptheuma- tism, Sec. Sec. Sec. The Cold Bath diminishes the volume of the fluids, contracts the solids, causes numbness and paleness with a sense of drowsiness and inactivity, the joints become rigid and inflexible, and the limbs are affected with pains, ^contractions and swellings. The Warm Bath quickens the pulse and breath¬ ing, reddens the skin, and increases palpitation, it relaxes the solids, increases the bulk of the fluids, and removes impurities from the surface of the body. Bathing is dangerous in fullness of blood to the head, or in plethoric habits. I. An aperient should he always taken, unless great weakness be pre¬ sent, previous to the commencement of cold fresh water bathing. II. The morning is the best time for bathing, prior to taking food ; and never when the body is overheated, y III. A sudden plunge so as to cause one shock, the head being im¬ mersed first, is quite sufficient; though persons may swim for ten mi¬ nutes in sea water, then the body to be rubbed dry, after which gentle exercise for a few minutes will be useful. IV. Bathing once in two days is said to be most beneficial; for if ■used on two successive days the repetition of the shock will diminish it* effects. V. Sea Water taken internally possesses no quality superior to any other aperient; it is not antiscorbutic, or a greater sweetnerof the blood than any other purgative if used freely so as-to act on the bowels.—It*