Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/74

 frequent pains about the pit of the stomach, were so violent, and the variations of her yellow complexion so sudden, that neither of the two physicians who had attended her for two years, nor myself, could doubt of the existence of gall-stones. The above-mentioned investigation took place, but perhaps not often enough, and without result. Her excruciating pains brought on frequent cataleptic fits, during which she stretched her arms, and joined her hands in the attitude of prayer; she remained then, with staring eyes and absence of mind, above a quarter of an hour, in that state, till the fit subsided and was followed by the three stages of an ague: shivering, heat and perspiration, which lasted a few hours. The storm over, she only felt fatigued, but was soon well enough to go out, to walk and to attend to all her social duties. The waters operated copiously, her urin was turbid and yellow, and she had at Carlsbad only one cataleptic fit, of which I was eye-witness. Having experienced moral affections of a grievous nature, she had two or three slight ague-fits, but no cataleptic symptoms.

In cases of sand and gravel, our waters are particularly efficacious. George Handsh tells us, in the Journal he kept in 1574, that archduke Ferdinand was freed at Carlsbad from three urinary calculi, one of which was as big as an almond; and P. G. Schacher wrote, in 1711, an interesting paper: De thermarum Carolinarum usu in renum et vesicae calculo. I have attended a great number of patients,