REPORT ON MINKRAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 45 



sky, because they did not understand how such ponderous masses 

 could have continued suspended in it. And on the other hand, 

 granting that a spring possesses peculiar virtues, we must sup- 

 pose that it differs, either in its mechanical, or chemical proper- 

 ties, from the rest. 



Accordingly those springs, which are believed on good autho- 

 rity to possess medicinal virtues, ought properly to find a place, 

 not merely in a professional treatise on the subject, but also in 

 one that affects to consider it scientifically. 



Most countries affoi'd examples of springs, that appear almost 

 chemically pure, to which medicinal qualities have been accord- 

 ed : thus Gastein in the Saltzburg, and Loueche in the Swiss 

 Alps, amongst thermal waters ; and Malvern in England, 

 amongst cold ones*, are very sparingly charged with mineral 

 matter, and what they contain consists of ingredients appa- 

 rently not calculated to exert any action upon the animal 

 system. 



How far the reputation enjoyed by these springs may be 

 owing to other causes, such as the purity of the air, the change 

 of diet, mode of living, &c., it is for the enlightened physician 

 to inform us, and an interesting field of physiological inquiry 

 seems to be open to him, in examining the effects exerted upon 

 the system by that long-continued immersion in warm water, to 

 which it is the practice of invalids in several of these watering 

 places to resortf. 



It is remarkable, that a very large proportion of those cele- Causes of 

 brated warm springs lie at a considerable elevation. Thus *eirngcncy 

 Gastein is 3100 feet above the sea, Loueche 4400, and Pfeffers *^°"''' 

 2128 feet; now one may easily imagine, that the exhalation 

 from the surface of the body, and the activity of the functions 

 thereon dependent, may be much promoted by the practice of 

 the invalid, of remaining alternately immersed, in water of so 

 high a temperature, and in so rarified an atmosphere. If, how- 

 ever, after taking this and other circumstances into account, 

 the testimony, in favour of some specific action derived from the 

 spring itself upon the animal oeconomy, should seem imexcep- 



* Dr. Hastings, in his Illustratiom of the Natural History of Worcestershire, 

 1834, states, that its efficacj'is found to be very considerable in arthritic, cal- 

 culous, dyspeptic, and scrofulous cases. 



t Dr. Gairdner doubts the statement I had on a former occasion made on 

 this point ; but I can assure him, from personal observation at Loueche, and 

 by quite sufficient testimony as to Gastein, that in both these baths it is the 

 practice to remain immersed, for periods of time, varying from four to ten 

 hours, during the process of cure. At Buda too, and at Glasshutte in Hun- 

 garj', the peasants continue in the public baths for a length of time, that would 

 quite astonish an English physician. 



