TEPLITZ.[79]
A long journey of sixty odd miles from Prague, through a country varied, and often interesting, brings us to the fertile valley of Teplitz studded with chateaux and villas, and well cultivated. The hills and mountains, for many miles before we reach Teplitz, are all conical and volcanic. This is the great wash-tub of Germany. What prodigious masses of exuviæ, suds, and sordes, must annually float down the Elbe to fertilize its shores! Three great public baths (and now a fourth, at Schoneau) for men, women, and children, respectively, display an immense number of human beings—all Adams and Eves without fig-leaves—immersed in water at a temperature sometimes of 114° of Fahrenheit, inhaling a dense steam, through which you could formerly have scarcely distinguished them—panting, perspiring, and streaming blood from scarifications on their backs to prevent their brains from being torn up by the excited circulation! Such was a picture from which Dante might have drawn some of his scenes in the inferno—except that here, it was not the “purgatory” of guilty souls, but the “expurgatorium,” of unclean bodies.[80]
The natural temperature of these waters is from 120° to 84°—and the chief ingredient is carbonate of soda—about two or three grains in the pint.[81] The private baths are upwards of eighty in number, in the town, besides the long range of most elegant new baths in the village of Schonau—decidedly the most superb bathing-places in Europe, and are in full request from morn till dewy eve. The water is limpid, and soon after immersion in a blood-heat temperature, or even lower, the surface of the body (according to Dr. Granville) becomes rough, rigid, and even wrinkled—a condition that obtains for some time after leaving the bath.[82] Perspiration also is visible on the skin, in big round drops, while the individual is proceeding to dry and dress. At a higher temperature than that of the blood—say from 108° to 112° or 114°, the action of the bath on the circulation and excitability is emphatic, and must often be extremely dangerous. The excitation first induced, is, and must be followed by a corresponding degree of depression or exhaustion. The reputation of the Teplitz baths is probably as much founded on the high temperature at which they are used, as on the composition of the waters themselves. There ought to be a mart at Teplitz for the sale of cast-off or second-hand crutches! “I may state (says Dr. Granville) that the specific virtue of these baths lies in the power they possess of restoring a cripple—it matters little from what cause—to perfect motion and elasticity.” Among the list of maladies that may be perfectly cured here, we have—“all cases of suppressed gout, chronic rheumatism, diseases of the articulations, paralytic affections, contracted limbs, old wounds, night pains in the bones, and many other diseases.”—Granville. Again, Dr. G. avers that—“with proper management I should not despair of recovering from all his ailments, the most pitiable object of gouty tyranny.” These are strong assurances. But I would strenuously caution the victim of suppressed gout respecting the baths of Teplitz, where the temperature is much higher, though the ingredients are not much stronger than in the waters of Wildbad or Pfeffers.
A physician, though young in years, yet of good promise, at Teplitz, (Dr. Richter) has written an interesting little work on these waters, and as it is in French, I would recommend it to the perusal of those who go to Teplitz for the purpose of bathing. During my stay at this celebrated spa, I had the advantage of Dr. Richter’s company and experience through the whole of the bathing establishments, and, through his influence, was permitted (being only a doctor) to visit the public baths—even those in which the women were bathing, with the greatest facility. It was at Schonau that I first saw the female bath in full operation. There might be about twenty women in the basin, when Dr. R. and myself entered. There was a slight commotion among the bathers on my first appearance, which quickly subsided, when my profession was announced and my privilege explained. Dr. R. published his work in 1840, and it is the most authentic guide and authority on the subject. I shall here give a condensed analysis of the small volume.
The various sources of the waters here differ but little in their chemical, physical, or even thermal properties. The water is limpid, and does not become turbid by standing, nor does it disengage bubbles of gas or air, with the exception of the Gartenquelle. The temperature varies from 120° Fahrenheit (the Hauptquelle), to 80° (the Gartenquelle). The tunnels and reservoirs over which the waters pass become coated with a brownish-yellow substance, composed chiefly of silex and acidulated oxide of iron. There are other depositions and incrustations into which the carbonates of lime and magnesia, as well as manganese and strontia, enter. In the wells of Steinbad, Stadtbad, and Gartenquelle, there have been observed various thermal oscillatoria. These waters do not present the same slowness in boiling and cooling that some other hot spas have evinced.
The great disproportion between the physiological action and the chemical composition of the Teplitz waters, has given rise to numerous speculations, and support the grand argument that there is an occult quality in mineral waters which defies our minutest chemistry. One thing is obvious, that these waters are alkaline, saline, and chalybeate—and consequently that they possess, at one and the same time, solvent and tonic qualities, which are greatly augmented by their temperature. Dr. R. very properly investigates their physical and physiological action, according as they are applied hot, warm, tepid, or cold to the body. They may be termed hot, when above 100°—very hot when approaching to 120°—warm at blood-heat (98°)—tepid, when under 90°—and cold at the temperature of the earth or air.
The very hot bath (110° to 115°) produces quickly a general excitation of the circulation and sensibility, like all other hot waters. It augments the secretions, ending in considerable perspiration—and followed ultimately by relaxation in the muscular and fibrous systems, and a general softening of all the solid parts. When the bath is very warm, we have often, in addition to the foregoing phenomena, oppression at the chest—anxiety—palpitation—vertigo—dimness of sight—heaviness about the head—syncope—and even apoplexy. It need hardly be added, that baths at such a temperature as to induce the foregoing train of symptoms, are very dangerous, and hardly ever necessary.
But even at a moderate temperature—96° or 98°—these baths produce, after a few days, sleeplessness, constipation, great disposition to perspiration, emaciation, susceptibility to cold or damp, aggravation of gouty or rheumatic pains, the aching of old wounds, prostration of strength, &c. These occur about the eighth day, and, after more or less duration, gradually disappear. After this period, there generally appears an eruption on the skin, of a whitish yellow or red colour, accompanied by considerable itching, discharging a watery humour, and finally desquamating, with occasionally some fever.