Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/87



have seen that the fame of Carlsbad began with the use of water-baths; that steam-baths are the third period of our medical history; and that the superiority of our present institutions is founded upon the junction of our therapeutic resources, though drinking remains the most important part of the treatment. It would be almost impossible to describe the various cases in which water-baths prove useful, but we may say in general that they assist power-fully the internal cure, in a variety of rheumatic, gouty and herpetic cases; that they often facilitate the passage of biliary and urinary concretions, and that they are more efficacious, and less productive of congestions, when the secretory and excretory action of the water on the bowels and kidneys has already commenced. *