The ancient history of Carlsbad is interesting: it shews the powers of mendacious tradition. There is a certain mountain on the left bank of the Teple, termed Hirschensprung [Spring of the stag], which carries in its very name a wondrous tale.
As early as the middle of the fourteenth century, Charles IV. Emperor of Germany, and King of Bohemia, was pursuing a stag, and the animal, pressed closely by the hounds, ascended that lofty mountain. The huntsmen, unable to follow, on account of the steepness of the ascent, were returning by the bank of the river, supposing they had lost their game, when—imagine their surprise—they heard the cries of the scalded animal on the opposite side. The cause was easily explained. In the last despairing hope of escape, the animal had made a leap, from the top of the Hirschensprung, over the Teple; and had fallen, quite accidentally, into the boiling, bubbling Sprudel. The distance, as the crow flies, may be a mile, perhaps a mile and a half (more or less), a difference in tradition’s eye, of no importance. Thus the stag was found, and the Sprudel discovered, simultaneously. Tradition’s stories are always complete. King Charles happened to have a bad leg, for which (of course) the exercise of hunting was beneficial; he happened to try the waters, and happened to get well. The place henceforth assumed his name, Carlsbad (Charles’ bath), and rose by degrees to the importance it now possesses.
[69] Although the proportion of iodine and other materials, appears small to the Allopath, it is reckoned prodigious by the Homœopath, who indeed, considers that the surplus waters which flow from the Sprudel into the Teple, are quite sufficient to impregnate the stream of the Elbe at Hamburgh abundantly for all medicinal purposes. M. Creutzburg calculates that, in the course of a season at Carlsbad, during which he drank 404 goblets of the waters, there were 3¼ grains of hydriodate of soda, in that quantity. The quantity of carbonic acid gas in the pint is about 12 cubic inches.
[70] There is another spring, the Bernard’s Brunnen, near the New Brunnen, which has a temperature as high as that of the Sprudel; but I believe it is seldom used. The Schlossbrunnen, much higher up the hill, is the least hot of all—and the Marktbrunnen, near the Muhlbrunn, is next to it in temperature. It exhales some odour of sulphur.
[71] Note from Mr. Spitta.
I brought home one of the pretty stamps, made of Sprudelstein; and had the cruelty to break it up for chemical examination. I found it to be composed, as stalactites in all parts of the world are, of the earthy carbonates; which, originally held in solution by carbonic acid gas, are precipitated on its escape. The Sprudel contains a very small quantity of carbonic acid, only sufficient, as Beecher has observed, to keep its earthy carbonates in solution. As the water approaches the exit of the cauldron, and the gas ceases to be under pressure, it resumes its wonted elasticity, passes quietly off with the vapour which issues from the boiler, and leaves its irony carbonates, sticking to the edge of the reservoir. Carbonate of lime is the main ingredient of the Sprudelstein—it contains besides, carbonate of magnesia and iron; to the latter, its reddish-brown colour is to be attributed. There is a portion of iron also, as peroxyde; and minute traces of one or two other substances. With regard to the incrustations: they are nothing more nor less than petrifactions (as they are called), made exactly in the same manner as other petrifactions, by the deposition of the earthy carbonates. The difference in colour from other petrifactions arises from the difference in the composition of the Sprudel water and the water in other parts, where the white incrustations are formed. The Sprudel contains a small quantity of the carbonate of iron. This is deposited with the carbonates of lime and magnesia; and hence the brown colour.
[72] “Le celebre Carus a publié une tres-interessant Memoire sur les Eaux Minerales, sur leur vitalité, sur leur formation dans le sein de la terre, qu’il considere comme un organism animé, dont ces eaux sont les secretions, aussi differentes entre elles que les fluides elaborés par les divers organs secretoires du corps humain.”—De Carro.
It must be confessed that the idea of daily ingurgitating such lots of secretions from some “great unknown” animal in the bowels of the earth, is not a very comfortable one, and requires a stouter stomach than that which is necessary for the digestion of the bear’s broth at Wisbaden. There is one consolation, that the whole is a dream; since there is just as much proof or probability of the Spas of Germany being a secretion from a living animal, as that the German Ocean is a secretion from Neptune or Amphitrite.
[73] The remarkable influence of mind over matter, and hope over both, was exemplified in 1839, in the person of Surgeon Fraser, of the Bombay establishment. Being reduced almost to a skeleton by a disease, the nature of which could not be ascertained, he happened to see my review of Dr. Granville’s book, and immediately determined to travel over-land to Carlsbad. He embarked in a steamer for Suez—thence was carried in a litter between two camels across the Desert—embarked again at Alexandria for Constantinople—thence through the Black Sea up the Danube, and on to Carlsbad, all this journey being sustained by hope, aided by “change of air.” At Carlsbad the waters were eagerly taken; but alas! were found to do no good! He lost confidence in them, and proceeded to Marienbad in a litter. He died two days after his arrival there, and left his bones in Bohemia! There is little doubt that had he travelled on, instead of stopping at Carlsbad, he might have reached his native mountains in the Highlands.
On dissection the disease was found to be in the mesenteric glands.