On the Mont Dore cure and the proper way to use it : in the rheumatic, gouty, scrofulous, syphilitic, tuberculous, dartrous, and other morbid constitutional states; also in asthma, consumption, bronchitis, emphysema, naso-pulmonary catarrh, and other affections of the throat, chest and mucous membranes / by Horace Dobell.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the Mont Dore cure and the proper way to use it : in the rheumatic, gouty, scrofulous, syphilitic, tuberculous, dartrous, and other morbid constitutional states; also in asthma, consumption, bronchitis, emphysema, naso-pulmonary catarrh, and other affections of the throat, chest and mucous membranes / by Horace Dobell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    43/232 (page 31)
    that the 30 or 40 grains of mineral matter in each litre of the waters [see Table II.] drunk or bathed in have a therapeutic influence as resolvent, diuretic, diaphoretic, alterative, and tonic agents ; let us admit that the alkaline salts and the traces of lithig,, calcium, rubidium, etc., combat the rheumatic diathesis, and that the arseniate of soda and the bicarbonate of the protoxide of iron brace up the altered rheumatic patient,—after all these have been duly considered the question i-emains :— are these the only factors in the cure, or is there any- thing else to be taken into account ? We may even admit that the combination of these constituents, in a natural water, has an effect much more powerful and emphatic than we could hope to obtain by the adminis- tration of the ingredients in an artificial solution. Natural serum sanguinis, for example, has properties which no arti- ficial imitation, however close, has ever yet succeeded in attaining, or may be hoped to attain. I cannot help thinking, however, after allowance has been made for all arguments of this kind, that part of the secret of the cure, even in rheumatic cases, is due to the form of the application as much as to its nature; while in chest- aft'ections, I am sure this is so. In the case of rheu- matism, there can be little doubt that the free carbonic acid acts as a calmative of the accompanying pain. At other places (Saint Nectaire, for instance),baths of carbonic acid gas are given to relieve neuralgic pains, and particu- larly sciatica, before patients can bear baths of mineral water. But, in addition to this, I think the hot baths and hot douches must exei-t an influence much more powerful than could be hoped for from cold applications of the same ingredients. In chest-afiections there can be no doubt that this is the case—the hot baths and douches there