PEALE.] THERAPEUTICAL USE OF THERMAL SPRINGS. 367 



THERAPEUTICS. 



This is scarcely the place to consider the therapeutical value of ther- 

 mal springs, but a few words may not be out of place, especially with 

 reference to the Yellowstone National Park. The pages of ancient 

 writers contain frequent mention of thermal springs. Temples were 

 erected near them, and they were made the sites of medical schools, 

 hospitals, baths, and resorts for the amusement of the sick. Their cura- 

 tive effects were widely celebrated. 



The springs of Tiberias were used by the Eomans, and, with those of 

 Ischia, still maintain their reputation. 



The most celebrated bathing-place of the Eoman Empire was the hot 

 sulphur springs of Baiae, on the gulf of Naples. 



In their conquest of Northern and Western Europe the Komans sought 

 out the springs of the country, and in Acqui, Aix or Aachen, Dax, &c., 

 the names of modern towns derived from the Latin aqua, we have testi- 

 mony of their former celebrity as watering-places. 



Pliny, in his Natural History (book xxxi, § 1), says, in speaking of 

 water and springs, "They spring wholesome from the earth, on every 

 side, and in a thousand lands; the cold, the hot, the hot and cold to- 

 gether, as at Tarbellum (Dax), in Aquitania, or on the Pyrenees, where 

 they are separated only by a small interval, or get the warm and tepid, 

 announcing relief to the sick, and flowing from the earth only for man, 

 of all living things." Among the Eomans warm bathing was indulged 

 in to excess, and at one time there were eight hundred thermse in the 

 city of Eome. Many traces of the Eoman baths remain. They were 

 buddings of grandeur and magnificence, adorned with every architect- 

 ural beauty, statuary, and mosaics. The baths of Diocletian and the 

 baths of Caracalla were the most celebrated. 



The reputation of thermal si^rings for medicinal and bathing purposes 

 has descended to the present day, as the spas of Europe and our own 

 watering i)laces prove. In this i^ractical age, however, we have shorn 

 the springs of the superstitions of the ancients, and the busy habits of 

 modern times do not admit of the time and elaborate preparation that 

 was bestowed upon the bath in the luxurious days of Imperial Eome. 



We no longer depend upon hearsay as to the reputation of springs in 

 the cure of disease. The chemist analyzes the waters and classifies 

 them according to their constituents. His system will not, however, 

 always agree with the therapeutical classification, for two waters may 

 be chemically alike and yet very uniike in their medicinal effects. There 

 is something that seems to escape him. 



In Europe both the chemical composition and therapeutical effects of 

 the principal thermal springs have been carefully studied, and until the 

 same is done with the springs of the Yellowstone National Park all that 

 can be said upon the subject must of necessity be to a certain extent 

 tentative. All the chemical analyses that have been made are but as 

 a drop in a bucket of water. 



In New Zealand, in the township of Eotorua, under "the thermal 

 springs districts acts of 1881," a medical officer has been appointed in 

 charge of the district and a hospital erected, where the waters will be 

 used so as to enable patients to receive the full benefit of their advan- 

 tages. 



A laboratory also has been established for the purpose of facilitating 

 a thorough analysis and study of the composition and therapeutic values 

 of the various waters, so that by their use a definite line of treatment 

 in different forms of disease may be arrived at. 



