140 ARTIFICIAL CHELTENHAM WATER. 



lity of procuring the natural water in a proper State except 

 at the spring; or the scarcity and exorbitant price of the 

 aerated artificial imitation, which too is very seldom to be 

 met with properly prepared. 

 The carbonic The simple solution of the saline matter of these waters 

 ^anmportance is often P rescribed witn tne most happy effects. This, how- 

 i»it. ever, entirely wants one very active and important ingre- 



dient of the natural water, the carbonic acid; by the lively 

 pungency of which, when in sufficient quantity, the offen- 

 sive taste of the salts is concealed, and a nauseous medicine 

 is converted into an agreeable beverage. This is only one, 

 and perhaps the least of the advantages of the carbonic acid. 

 By virtue of it, and the iron which it holds in solution, the 

 use of this water may be persevered in for a long time with- 

 out inconvenience: for during its employment the appetite 

 will be improved, and the digestive organs strengthened : 

 The more of and the greater quantity of this acid the water can be made 

 this it contains to contain, the less offensive will it be to the palate, and the 



tli€ better 



less it will be liable to be rejected by the stomach, while the 

 whole system, sympathizing with the tonic effects it pro-? 

 duces on that organ, will be the more speedily invigorated. 

 Us chief uses, ^ would be out of place here, to enter largely into the 

 medicinal properties of this water*, I shall just enumerate- 

 the principal affections of the system, in which it has been 

 found particularly useful. Those, whose biliary organs a 

 long residence in a warm climate has impaired, seldom fail 

 to receive much benefit from a course of Cheltenham water, 

 and its use may be continued even under circumstances of 

 great debility : and will be emimently serviceable if any 

 symptoms of dropsy or anasarca threaten, as so often hap«r 

 pens in affections of the liver. In glandular obstructions its 

 use has often been attended with success. In all cases where 

 the secretion of bile is vitiated, or irregular; and in jaun- 

 dice from resistance to a free discharge from the gall blad-> 

 der, attended with sense of heat and distention after eating, 

 this water will be employed with particular advantage. For 

 removing a sense of fulness about the head in the plethoric, 

 and for carrying oft' the effects of any excess in eating or 



• See Dr. Saunders's Treatise on Mineral Waters, 1805. 



drinking 



