Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/83

 will do well to have their mouth put in order before the use of the waters, and to continue, during it, the usual attentions commanded by cleanliness. Sage and bread are at least useless.

It is generally ascertained that our water’s dissolve the callus of fractured bones, and that opinion seems to have no other support than a single fact, faithfully related, but falsely interpreted. It has, however, produced as much sensation as if confirmed by daily experience. Gentlemen of the army, in the Austrian as well as in foreign services, feeling themselves more particularly interested in it, admit as an axiom, that: Whoever does not wish to experience the disjunction of a fractured bone, must not drink the Carlsbad waters. That erroneous opinion preventing people who have met with such accidents, from drinking the waters, in cases where they are evidently indicated, I shall relate the observation published by the celebrated Dr. Hufeland, which has alone given rise to this general belief (Hufeland’s Journal der praktischen Heilkunde, Bd. XLIII. 4. Stück, p. 135. 1816).

“On the 12th of June 1716. Mr. de F., when travelling, broke his arm. Fifteen days afterwards, the fracture being sufficiently solid, the patient, to whom, before the accident, Carlsbad had been ordered for abdominal complaints, was sent there by his physician. On his arrival, the callous matter was found regularly spread on the fracture; a proper bandage was applied by a skil surgeon, Dr.