Page:Guide through Carlsbad and its environs.djvu/12

 of Lobkowitz, which must have been written not later than the year 1500, as the poet died in that year.

Till the year 1520, Carlsbad was only known as a bathing place, when, at the suggestion of Dr. Payer, people also began to drink the waters. It was also due to this physician that the first medical work about Carlsbad was printed in the year 1522.

The first definite examination of the physical and chemical properties of the mineral waters of Carlsbad was made by Dr. David Becher, in the year 1766, and it is but right to say, that the new medical history of Carlsbad dates its origin from the energy and zeal of this distinguished disciple of Hippocrates. Since Dr. Becher’s examination (now more than 100 years ago), the physical and chemical properties of the mineral waters of Carlsbad have not changed in the least.

It is quite unnecessary to state how Carlsbad gradually, during the six centuries since it first became known, attained its present appearance and size; suffice it to say that, considering its drinking and bathing establishments, its dwelling-houses, promenades, and places of public amusement, it is now undoubtedly one of the largest and most comfortable watering-places on the continent; the number of visitors in 1883 had risen to 20,692