And lastly, they often effect a cure in a number of anomalous diseases, whose causes are not known, and to which indeed, a name cannot be given; as, for example, loss of power and feeling in the limbs, a tendency to syncope followed by cramps, some cases of epilepsy and asthma; also in certain disturbances of the mental functions. In all these cases, the Carlsbad waters seem to act as an alterative.
The venerable Hufeland published in 1815, a treatise on the chief medicinal springs in Germany. He recommends the use of the Carlsbad waters in cases of constipation, tympanites, incipient disorganisation of the stomach and bowels and other abdominal viscera, more especially of the liver, of chronic jaundice, of congestion of the mesenteric and portal veins; also in nervous ailments, as amaurosis, hypochondriasis, and in various forms of calculous disease. He also strongly recommends them in most of the forms of gout. The Carlsbad waters, in addition to their purgative qualities, are possessed of remarkable alterative powers, so that often they effect quite a change in the state of the blood and other fluids of the body, depriving them of all acrimonious and hurtful particles, and restoring them to a condition of health. Hence their striking utility in numerous cases of cachexia, which are irremediable by ordinary medical treatment.—Hlawaczek.
VALETUDINARIUM.
It is often more easy to ascertain the internal condition of the body through the medium of external phenomena, than that of the mind through the physiognomy of the countenance. To the experienced observer, the complexion, the expression, the eye, the gait, the tone of voice, the figure, the proportion of the different parts of the body, and many other indications incapable of description, convey very authentic information respecting the condition of organs and structures that are far removed from sight. It is in a great sanitarium like this, where invalids are gathered from all quarters of the world, that a young physician, under the guidance of an old one, might beneficially study the physiognomy of diseases. For, although the greater number of spas have much that is common, both as respects the waters and the maladies for which they are taken, yet each spa, or at least, each class of spas, exhibits some characteristic features among the mass of visitors, indicative of the maladies which led them to the Hygeian fountains of the place. Thus it is impossible to stand long at the Fontaine Elisée of Aix-la-Chapelle, without discerning a large sprinkling of cutaneous complaints, however carefully they may be concealed by the wearers of them. It is in vain that—
“Wrapp’d in his robe white Lepra hides his stains,”
the features of the leper disclose the worm that torments him by day and by night. The French and Germans are universally imbued with the doctrine that the repression of a certain malady, which has got the musical soubriquet of “Scotch-fiddle,” is the cause of half the evils to which flesh is heir. On this account, the continental folks have a great longing, or rather a violent itching for sulphureous waters. The slightest odour of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in a newly-discovered spring, is a real treasure—and in the old ones, it is sure to preserve reputation to endless ages!
The neighbouring mineral source—Spa—together with Schwalbach, Brockenau, Bocklet, and other chalybeate springs, attract a different class of votaries—namely, the pallid, the debilitated, the leucophlegmatic—those, in fact, who have been sucked, and left bloodless by vampyre diseases.
The emblem of Wisbaden might be a swelled and gouty foot—that of Wildbad a crutch, or a hobbling paralytic invalid—Kissengen, the tumid liver and green fat—Marienbad, the paunch of Falstaff, and the jaundiced eye.
But Carlsbad presents a greater medley than any of the other spas that I have visited. When we contemplate, even for a single morning, the crowds that surround the Sprudel alone, presenting specimens of almost every human infirmity, not in solitary cases, but often in trains of twenties or thirties in succession—when we consider that, in these various specimens, there are many that are of a diametrically opposite nature to each other—yet all cured or relieved by an upheaving fountain that never varies in temperature, taste, or composition—doubts may well arise whether there is not some truth in the sarcastic remark of an eminent philosopher,—that “there are more false facts than false theories in physic.”—But there is something to be said per contra. 1st. Many complaints which are thought and believed to be cured by mineral waters, are only relieved pro tempore—and the contradiction seldom or never appears. 2d. Many different diseases are produced by the same causes acting on different constitutions. Thus luxurious living and idleness will, in one person, induce gout—in a second, hæmorrhoids—in a third, liver complaint—in a fourth, rupture of a bloodvessel in the lungs—in a fifth, congestion in the brain—in a sixth, paralysis—in a seventh, stone in the kidney or bladder,—and the list might be far extended. Now, if the same cause or class of causes produce such a number of different maladies; there is nothing unreasonable in the supposition that the same remedy, or class of remedies, may be useful in abating or even removing those varied disorders.