Page:Guide through Carlsbad and its environs.djvu/16

 of 7000 feet through the clefts of the rocks, forming the range of mountains surrounding the valley of the Sprudel, gradually rises to a temperature of 60° R.=167° F. (as usual in such depths), decomposes and dissolves, by the aid of carbonic acid gas, a portion of the mineral constituents contained in the rocks, and being impregnated with them, and forced upward, partly by the pressure of the waters behind and partly by subterranean gases, it finally appears on the surface as a hot spring.

As the chemical constituents of all the mineral springs of Carlsbad are the same, there can be no question but that their restorative powers are precisely similar in their action on the human body. The principal difference lies in the higher or lower temperature of the spring in question, and is rather in relation to the higher or lower state of irritability of the vascular system, or to the constitution of the patient, than to the disease itself.

The mineral waters act—

A. By coming into immediate contact with the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, and we notice this action—1. As animating, modifying, and soothing the nerves of these parts. 2. As healing with regard to the mucous membrane of