48 



plan. Another beautiful bath-house was erected, in 

 1831, near the Sprudel, and the Hospital -Baths, 

 without speaking of those which every one can take 

 in his own lodgings, prepared with Sprudel water, 

 pure or mixed with the river water , according to 

 medical prescription. Every house owner is provided 

 with a bathing -room, a bathing -tub, and buckets to 

 carry the water. 



According to comparative experiments made last 

 year by Dr. Romberg of Berlin and myself, in order 

 to ascertain a point contested by many, the Sprudel 

 water lost 21 1 /, R. , and common water, artificially 

 heated, 33 R. in half an hour. 



The advantages of steam- baths had long been 

 praised , and patients at Carlsbad had now and then 

 imagined some imperfect mode of applying vapour in 

 various ailments, rheumatism, gout, contractions of 

 limbs, but without any methodical principles. Fabian 

 Summer, a native of Carlsbad, speaks, in 1571, of 

 Sudaria communia , without describing that sweating 

 establishment, so that now no body knows whether 

 they were , like russian baths , prepared with the 

 vapour of common water, or composed of the Sprudel 

 vapour, which requires another mode of application, 

 on account of its effects upon the organs of respi- 

 ration. Enormous clouds of vapour rose , during 

 ages, from our hot wells, lost in the wide atmosphere. 

 The first impulse was at last given to vaporous mede- 

 cine by the celebrated Mr. d'Arcet and Dr. Gales, of 

 Paris, who invented boxes for sulphurous fumigations. 



