Chap. 32.] HOW MINEEAL WATEBS SHOULD BE USED. 
495 
with sulphur are good for the sinews/^ and aluminous waters 
are useful for paralysis and similar relaxations of the system. 
Those, again, which are impregnated with bitumen or nitre, the 
waters of Cutilia,^^ for example, are drunk as a purgative.^^ 
Many persons quite pride themselves on enduring the heat 
of mineral waters for many hours together ; a most pernicious 
practice, however, as they should be used but very little longer 
than the ordinary bath, after which the bather should be 
shampooed^^ with cold water, and not leave the bath without 
being rubbed with oil. This last operation, however, is com- 
monly regarded as altogether foreign to the use of mineral baths ; 
and hence it is, that there is no situation in which men's 
bodies are more exposed to the chances of disease, the head 
becoming saturated with the intensity of the odours exhaled, 
and left exposed, perspiring as it is, to the coldness of the 
atmosphere, while all the rest of the body is immersed in the 
water. 
There is another mistake, also, of a similar description, made 
by those who pride themselves upon drinking enormous 
quantities of these waters and I myself have seen persons, 
before now, so swollen with drinking it that the very rings on 
their fingers were entirely concealed by the skin, owing to 
their inability to discharge the vast quantities of water which 
they had swallowed. It is for this reason, too, that these 
waters should never be drunk without taking a taste of salt 
every now and then. The very mud,^^ too, of mineral springs 
may be employed to good purpose ; but, to be eifectual, after 
being applied to the body, it must be left to dry in the sun. 
It must not be supposed, however, that all hot waters are 
^0 Or rather, as Ajasson says, for cutaneous diseases. 
61 See B. iii. c. 17. 
62 In conformity with Sillig's suggestion, we reject " atque " as an in- 
terpolation. 63 ««Mulceri." 
6'! In spite of what Pliny says, in some cases the use of a mineral bath 
is recommended for a long period of time together. At Leuk or Laech, 
for instance, in the Valais, the patients, Ajasson says, remain in the bath, 
as much as eight hours together. 
65 To promote expectoration, Dalechamps says ; or rather vomiting, 
according to Holland. 
66 This substance, Ajasson sa3^s, is still used in medicine ; that of the 
waters of Silvanez, for example, in the department of Aveyron, is highly 
celebrated for the cure of inveterate ulcers, and sciatica. The mud baths, 
too, of Saint Amand, enjoy an European reputation. 
