Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/62



would be quite impossible to describe all the complicated diseases which we treat at Carlsbad, and upon which we are called to give our opinion. What has been said in the preceeding chapter, will however sufficiently point out the cases in which our waters can be recommanded. Chronic affections offering in general an immense field, we cannot say with precision where their efficacy begins and where it ends. Practical tact and a thorough investigation of the symptoms must help practitioners in their judgement; but few mistakes will occur, if they pay due attention to the following classification, given above sixty years ago by David Becher, which, in spite of all the vicissitudes of medical doctrines and nosological nomenclatures, remains still the most rational. I shall