Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/63

 add to it, some miscellaneous observations, without systematic order, upon various essential points of our practice.

The virtues of the Carlsbad waters, says Becher, can be reduced to five principal effects:


 * 1) They correct the weakness of the primae viae, free them from matters collected and accumulated there, even when inveterate.
 * 2) They resolve and dissipate obstructions, particularly those of the abdomen.
 * 3) They correct, change, evacuate the acrimony of the blood, or drive it towards the lower exor the surface of the body.
 * 4) They expell from the urinary passages sand, gravel and calculi.
 * 5) They have often proved very beneficial in many serious disorders, produced by occult causes, difficult to point out.

The last paragraph shows particularly the great utility of providing patients sent to Carlsbad with a good history of their complaints, which are in general complicated, obstinate, and arise from a variety of causes, climate, mode of life, etc. Such invalids, careless about the past, lay often the highest importance upon insignificant circumstances, and say nothing about those which would throw light upon their case. As to instructions, about the mode of drinking, bathing, douching, and steaming, as well as about regimen and diet, which of course should be entirely