Memoranda on Tours and Touraine Part 5

_Saline._ These waters owe their properties altogether to saline compounds. Those which predominate and give their character to the waters of this cla.s.s are either,

1. Salts, the basis of which is Lime.

2. Muriate of Soda and Magnesia.

3. Sulphate of Magnesia.

4. Alkaline Carbonates, particularly Carbonate of Soda.

They are mostly purgative, the powers of the salts they contain being very much increased by the large proportion of water in which they are exhibited.

There are but few _Cold Saline Springs_ in France, viz: those of Andabre or Camares in the department of Aveyron; Jouhe, dep: Jura; Pouillon, dep: Landes; Niederbronn, dep: Lower Rhine. They are employed in diseases which require continued and moderate intestinal evacuations; such as dyspepsia hypochondriasis, chronic hepat.i.tis, jaundice and strumous swellings. They are more grateful to the stomach when carbonic acid gas is also present; and when they contain Iron as in the springs of Camares, their tonic powers combined with their purgative qualities, render them still more useful in dyspeptic complaints and amenorrhoea.

To this cla.s.s the water of the Ocean belongs. The quant.i.ty of saline matter _Sea Water_ contains varies in different lat.i.tudes thus, between 10 and 20 it is rather more than 1/24; at the equator it is 1/25; and at 57 north it is only 1/27. The saline ingredients in 10,000 parts of sea water according to the last a.n.a.lysis of Dr. Murray, are, muriate of Soda 220.01; muriate of lime, 7.84; muriate of Magnesia, 42.08; and Sulphate of Soda 33.16. When brought up from a great depth, its taste is purely saline; but when taken from the surface it is disagreeably bitter, owing, perhaps, to the animal and vegetable matters suspended in it. Its specific gravity varies from 1.0269 to 1.0285; and it does not freeze until cooled down to 28.5 Fahrenheit. Its medicinal properties are the same as those of the saline purgative waters, but more powerful; and as a bath, its efficacy is much superior to that of fresh water.

The general effects of mineral waters are modified by temperature, whether they be taken internally, or applied externally.

In some _Warm Saline Springs_ as those of Plombieres, and Bains, in the department of Vosges; Luxeuil, dep. Haute Saone; Bourbon-Lancy, dep.

Saone-et-Loire; Bourbonne-les-Bains, dep. Haute-Marne; Chaudes-Aigues, dep. Cantal; Avene, Balaruc, dep. l'Herault; La Motte, dep. l'Isere; Bagnols, dep. l'Orne; Aix-en-Provence; dep. Bouches-du-Rhone; St.-Laurent-Les-Bains, dep. l'Ardeche; Sylvanes, dep. l'Aveyron; Cap-Bern, Bagneres, Bigorre, dep. Upper Pyrenees; Encausse, dep.

Haute-Garonne; Neris, dep. l'Allier; their virtues depend princ.i.p.ally on the height of temperature. And in others which have been found to contain scarcely any foreign matter, the simple diluent power of the pure water seems to produce the benefit that results from drinking them.

ACIDULOUS. Waters of this cla.s.s owe their properties chiefly to Carbonic Acid. They sparkle when drawn from the spring, or when poured into a gla.s.s; have an acidulous taste, and become vapid when exposed to the air. Besides free carbonic acid, on the presence of which these qualities depend, acidulous waters contain generally carbonates of Soda, of Lime, of Magnesia, and of Iron; and sometimes muriate of Soda.

They may be divided into _thermal_ or _warm acidulous waters_, and _cold acidulous waters_.

The temperature of the former rarely exceeds 72 F. while that of the latter is generally about 55 F. Of the warm acidulous waters are those of Mont-D'or, Saint Nectaire, Clermont-Ferrand, in the department of Puy-de-Dome; Vichy, Bourbon-l'Archambault, dep. l'Allier; Audinac, Ussat, dep. l'Arriege; Chateauneuf, Saint-Mart, Chatel-guion, dep.

Puy-de-Dome; Dax, dep. Landes; Saint Alban on the left of the river Loire.

Of the _cold acidulous waters_ there is Pougues in the department of Nievre; Chateldon, Bar, Saint-Myon, Medague, Vic-le-Comte, dep.

Puy-de-Dome; Mont-Brison, Saint-Galmier, dep. Loire; Langeac, dep.

Haute-Loire. They are tonic and diuretic; and in large doses produce a sensible degree of exhilaration.

They all afford a grateful and moderate stimulus to the stomach, but the _warm acidulous springs_ are to be preferred as there are few of this kind that do not contain a small portion of Iron and a larger portion of carbonic acid gas, and are especially useful in all cases of impaired digestion; while those which contain alkaline carbonates, as Pougues and Saint-Galmier, are more particularly employed as palliatives in calculous affections.

CHALYBEATE. Waters thus named owe their properties to iron in combination generally with carbonic acid; and as the latter is usually in excess, they are often acidulous as well as chalybeate. The metal is found also in the form of a sulphate, but the instances of this are very rare.

Chalybeate waters have a styptic or inky taste: they are, when fresh drawn, transparent, but become black when mixed with tincture of nut-galls; but an ochery sediment soon falls, and the water loses its taste. If the iron be in the state of sulphate, however, no sediment falls; and the black colour is produced by the above test, even after the water has been boiled and filtered. Chalybeate springs are very numerous in France, some of the following are much frequented: Rennes-Les-bains, in the department of l'Aude; Saint-Honore, Pa.s.sy, near Paris; Forges, Aumale, Rouen, dep. Seine-inferieure; Contrexeville, dep.

Vosges; Bussang, Provins, dep. Seine-et-Marne; La Chapelle-G.o.defroi, dep. of l'Aube; Saint-Gondon, Noyers, dep. Loiret; Fontenelle, dep.

Vendee; Watweiler, Upper-Rhine; Cransac, dep. l'Aveyron; Sainte-Marie, dep. Cantal; Sermaise, dep. Marne; Ferrieres, Segray, dep. Loiret; Alais, dep. Gard; Boulogne-sur-Mer, dep. Pas-de-Calais; Vals, dep.

l'Ardeche.

Chalybeate waters are powerful tonics, and are employed in dyspepsia, scrofulous affections, cancer, amenorrhoea, chlorosis, and other diseases of debility for which the artificial preparations of iron are used. Much of the benefit derived from the use of chalybeate waters depends on the extreme division of the metalic salts they contain, as well as the vehicle in which it is held in solution; while at the same time their operation is much modified by the carbonic acid gas by which the iron is suspended. When the water is a carbonated chalybeate, it should be drunk the moment it is drawn from the spring; but the same precaution is not necessary with a water containing sulphate of iron.

SULPHUREOUS. Waters cla.s.sed under this head derive their character chiefly from sulphureted hydrogen gas; which in some of them is uncombined, while in others it is united with lime or an alkali. They are transparent when newly drawn from the spring, and have a foetid odour which is gradually lost from exposure to the air, and the water becomes turbid. When they are strongly impregnated with the gas, they redden infusion of litmus, and exhibit some other of the characteristics of acids; and, even in a weak state, they blacken silver and lead.

Besides containing sulphureted hydrogen gas, they are not unfrequently, also, impregnated with carbonic acid. They generally contain muriate of Magnesia or other saline matters, which modify their powers as a remedy.

The _warm sulphureous springs_ in France are those of Bareges, Saint-Sauveur, dep. Upper Pyrenees; Cauterets, Bonnes, Cambo, dep. Lower Pyrenees; Bagneres-de-Luchon, dep. Haute-Garonne; Ax, dep. l'Arriege; Greoult, Digne, dep. Lower Alpes; Castera-Verduzan, dep. Gers; Bagnols, dep. Lozere; evaux, dep. Creuse; Saint-Amand, dep. Nord; Loeche, right of the Rhone; Aix-la-Chapelle. The _cold sulphureous waters_ are those of Enghien-les-Bains, in the department of Seine-et-Oise; La Roche-Posay, dep. Vienne; Uriage, near Gren.o.ble.

These waters are resorted to chiefly by patients who labour under cutaneous affections and are applied locally as well as drunk.

They are slightly sudorific and diuretic, and apt to occasion in some patients headache of short duration, directly after they are taken.

They are also employed for curing visceral and scrofulous obstructions, torpor of the intestines, chronic engorgements of the joints: sprains of long standing, obstinate catarrhs, rheumatism, etc, and in some dyspeptic and hypochondriacal cases.

The _warm_ sulphureous waters are to be preferred; attention however should be paid to the state of the bowels during their course which ought to be kept free from any acc.u.mulation by the aid of some mild aperient medicine; Spa Doctors trust almost entirely to the aperient operation of the waters and doubtless, the crises, spa-fevers, and re-actions described by foreign writers on the spas are often attributable to the want of combining some mild mercurial alterative and aperient with the use of the waters, and that many cures are prevented or rendered ineffectual by the dread of mercury entertained by continental Physicians. The following what Dr. Johnson terms the _Auxilio-Preservative_ will be found of essential service taken every night before drinking the morning waters.

R,

Ext: Col: Co:

Pil: Rhei: Co: a a gr. XL

Pil: Hydrarg: -- gr. X

Ol: Caryoph: -- gr. VI

ft. pil: XX capt. 1 vel: ij hora somni.

It is however absolutely necessary on patients arriving at any spa, to consult the resident Physician.

With respect to the use of mineral waters in general, we consider them as most important, and extremely beneficial in the treatment of disease; some of the good effects of all of them however, must be allowed to proceed from change of air and scene; relaxation from business, amus.e.m.e.nt, temperance, and regular hours, and under these circ.u.mstances the drinking the waters at the springs possesses advantages which cannot be obtained from artificial waters, however excellent the imitations may be, nor even from the natural water, when bottled and conveyed to a distance from the springs.

SPAS

OF

CENTRAL FRANCE.

THERMAL SALINE WATERS,

PLOMBIeRES.

_Plombiers_, a small town in the department of Vosges, twenty-four leagues from Nancy, is situated between mountains in a deep narrow valley watered by the Augrome.

According to a careful a.n.a.lysis made by M. Vauquelin, these waters contain Subcarbonate of Soda, Sulphate of Soda, Chloride of Sodium, Subcarbonate of Lime, and Silex. He affirms that they also contain an animal matter greatly resembling gelatine, which performs an important part in their action upon the animal economy; to this ingredient he attributes the fetid odour which occasionally arises from the waters.

The thermal waters of Plombieres, are cla.s.sed as follows:--1st The _Bain des Dames_; having a heat of 126 Fahr 2nd--The _Source du Chene_, or _du Crucifix_; this is the only one of the waters not used for bathing, but solely for drinking. 3d--The _source du Grand-Bain_ or _du milieu_, the temperature of the former is 130: and of the latter 142 Fah. The _Grand Bain_ is called the _Bain des pauvres_.

4th--The _Bain-tempere_, which is supplied by two sources; one at 90 and the other at 113 Fah. 5th--The _Pet.i.t-Bain_ or _Capucins_, is 113 Fah. Its basin is divided into two parts, the temperature of the water there being 95 to 97 Fah. 6th--The _Bain-Neuf_ or _Royal_, has a square basin which receives the waters from a source formerly called _l'enfer_, and had originally, a temperature of 153 Fah. being the hottest of the number. 7th--There is another source, called the source _de Ba.s.sompierre_, situated at the upper part of the town.

These waters are stimulant, giving increased activity to the circulation, and in great reputation for the cure of Chlorosis (green sickness) chronic enteritis, neuralgia, scrofula, and in the chronic and painful stages of gout and rhumatism. Although rarely beneficial in severe cutaneous diseases they are in much esteem for their unctuous qualities, which impart softness to the skin and allay superficial irritations.