A letter to Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B. F.R.S., being a medical commentary on the results of the recent analysis of the Buxton tepid water : to which are appended a statement of the improvements now in progress at Buxton and Dr. Playfair's analytical report / by William Henry Robertson.

  • Robertson, William Henry.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B. F.R.S., being a medical commentary on the results of the recent analysis of the Buxton tepid water : to which are appended a statement of the improvements now in progress at Buxton and Dr. Playfair's analytical report / by William Henry Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    even that, in much rarer cases, its immediate effect is to stimulate to the extent of intoxication ; and it need he no longer matter of surprise that the use of the hath of this water is usually followed by so remarkably perfect a degree of reaction; or that, whether the water is externally or internally used, the appetite and digestion should he so generally and to so great a degree promoted,, and the vascular and nervous systems so appreciably stimulated. These effects, in whatever degree they may he presented, may probably he referred to the influence of so large an amount of nitrogen, thus offered to the system in a fiee and readily available condition. But the Buxton tepid water has a secondary and more important and more lasting effect on the system an effect which is only manifested twelve, eighteen, or twenty- four hours after using the hath, and, in regard to the internal use of the water, when the hath is not used at all, only manifested when its use has been continued foi several successive days—an effect well described as the water-fever, from being evidenced by a greater or less amount of general febrile action. In some cases, a greater or less degree of this feverish condition attends the whole subsequent continuance of the use of the water ; and, in most instances, this feverish state is followed by a degree of languor, and eventually of debility, that usually corresponds in some measure with the amount of febrile excitement, being, however, subject likewise to the modi¬ fying influences of age, sex, temperament, ailment, &c. This great secondary effect of the Buxton tepid water, with which its action and value as a curative agent is intimately connected, may have to he ascribed to the presence of some hitherto undetected constituent or con¬ stituents, which the chemistry of a future time may he able to discover. It will probably he thought by some
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