fl2 On Mineral Waters, 



diet, in these cases, leads to ruined health, often to fatuity, 

 palsy and epilepsy, as to long train of other nervous affec- 

 tions: and, attributing the great increase of nervous disorders 

 and of palsies, in nriodern society, and chiefly in young females 

 in the opulent classes, to the recent introduction and abuse of 

 cupping, so does he denounce the similar self-empirical abuse 

 of purgatives, especially of those most currently used and 

 abused, calomel, salts, and mineral waters. On all this and 

 far more than we dare to quote or notice, we recommend his 

 remarks and his work in general to the serious attention of 

 our readers, and very particularly to the several studious 

 and often fanciful persons, wherever existing, who think 

 that life cannot go on without physic, and who, in the 

 abuse of these powerful remedies, whether from their own 

 notions or the recommendations of routine practitioners, 

 are preparing the way to their graves with thorns and 

 misery. 



We would gladly have noticed his last chapter ; but we 

 have so far exceeded our bounds, that we must end abruptly ; 

 being the more inclined to do this because it is a theoretical 

 view of all that has preceded, stated in a condensed and 

 purely abstract manner, and therefore the less fitted for the 

 readers of our Journal. 



On Mineral Waters, Natural and ArtificiaL 

 Communicated by Mr. A. Walcker. 



The earliest physicians and philosophers regarded mineral 

 waters as an important class of remedies ; and in our own days, 

 from the time of Frederic Hoffman, doAvnvvards, whom we may 

 justly entitle the scientific restorer of their use, their value has 

 acquired ample confirmation from the evidence of medical 

 writers. Yet, professional men have not been wanting, who 

 have considered mineral waters as nearly inert ; and have at- 

 tributed the cures, performed by them, chiefly to the mode of 

 living resorted to during their use. 



That the observance of a strict regimen, relaxation from the 

 business and from the cares of life, together with the invigorating 

 recreations of a watering place, must, in themselves, have a 

 salutary tendency on an invalid, cannot admit of a doubt. If 

 we, however, reflect, that such mineral waters, as are least liable 



