EXPERIMENTAL 
ESSAYS 
On the VIRTUES of the 
Bath and Bristol WATERS. 
By ALEX. SUTHERLAND, 
OF BATH, M. D. 
THE THIRD EDITION. 
IMPROVED AND CORRECTED. 
Multa enim in modo rei & circumstantiis nova sunt, quœ, 
in genere, nova non sunt. Qui autem ad observandum
adjicit animum, ei etiam, in rebus quœ vulgares videntur, 
multa observatu digna occurrunt. 
BACON De Augmentis Scientiarum. 
LONDON: 
Printed for A. TENNENT, Bookseller, in BATH; and
sold by S. CROWDER, in Pater-noster Row.
MDCCLXXII.



THE INTRODUCTION 
HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
Hugh, Earl of Northumberland, 
Baron Warkworth, and Baronet, Knight of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter, Lord-Lieutenant, and 
Governor-General of Ireland, Lord of the Bed- 
chamber to His Majesty, Lord-Lieutenant of the 
County of Middlesex, &c. &c. &c. 
My LORD, 
FROM a survey of that harmony which sub- 
sists between the parts of the creation, we 
may reasonably suppose that every man is ac- 
countable for those talents with which God has
a2 intrusted

70 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
universally agreed to be a native mineral salt ex- 
tracted from its proper ore, brought hither in 
pieces of a greyish colour, clammy or greasy to 
the touch, found in the mountains of White Tar- 
tary, and in some places of Persia. 
As far as its virtues have been discovered, it 
may be said to be aperient, stimulant, and at- 
tendant, particularly useful in promoting the lo- 
chia, menses; and urine. Mixed with blood it 
dilutes it, and seems to volatize the fluids. Its 
spirit discovers neither acidity nor alkalescency, 
nor can an acid be got from it by distillation, 
according to Lemery, Memoirs de l’Acad. 1728 
and 29. 
4. VITRIOL is a saline metallic substance com- 
posed of an acid and a metal. This acid, when 
it meets with an earth, makes an alum;
when it meets with a metal, it corrodes
it, and forms vitriol. 
Vitriol. 
Their virtues are styptic and astringent. By 
strengthening the fibres, they prove diuretic, 
are very nauseous, and so emetic. Too rigid 
to circulate through the vessels of worms, they
destroy them. They cicatrize more powerful- 
ly than alum. Quercetanus was so bewitched 
with vitriol, that he believed it contained the
virtues of the whole pharmacopoeia. Our sub- 
ject leads us only so far as it claims in natural di- 
lution. 
GTREEN VITRIOL is produced by the mixture 
of an acid sulphureous spirit with an irony sub- 
stance, Most mineral waters contain a quantity 
of irony matter; when therefore the subtile uni- 
versal acid sulphureous exhalations, in rising up, 
meet with irony particles, they unite themselves 
thereto, and thus produce a vitriolic principle, of 
a texture proportionable to the union; the Vitri- 
olum


INTRODUCTION. 
intrusted him. Of our imperfect endeavours, di- 
vine happiness stands in no need. By administer- 
ing to the wants of society, every man has it in 
his power to please the Almighty; in this, inte- 
rest and duty coincide. 
To your Lordship, the sovereign director of 
the general drama has assigned a part truly con- 
spicuous. Your actions uniformly proclaim you 
the patron of arts, as well as the friend of hu- 
man nature. By singular munificence, Ormond 
won the affections of the Irish. By faith invio- 
late, Dorset gained their confidence. By gentle 
rule, Chesterfield maintained tranquillity. To 
singular munificence, faith inviolate, and gentle 
rule, you joined disinterestedness, humanity and
affability. Scorning ignoble precedents, to the 
emoluments of office, you added princely re- 
venues; you enriched the province which you 
protected. In your Vice-royalty you may truly 
be said to have reflected honour on the Prince 
whom you so worthily represent. While Hi- 
bernia boasts of freedom, your government will 
stand as a model worthy of imitation. 
To me the almighty disposer has assigned a 
part which has the good of mankind for its ob- 
ject; and therefore intituled to your Lordship’s 
protection. Health is a subject philosophical, as 
well as medical. Plutarch, Cornaro, Lessius, 
Bacon, Boyle and Addison, have all treated of 
the subject of health. In no branch of the heal- 
ing art, is the subject of health more perhaps con- 
cerned than in that of Thermology. In diseases a- 
cute and chronical, water bids fair to answer every
indication. By temperance, exercise, and bath- 
ing, the very seeds of diseases are eliminated. 
Caeterum rari sunt morbi, sive communes tato corpori, 
sive particulas ipsas privatim occupantes, quos oppor- 
tuna Balneorum administratio on persanet, says the 
great

INTRODUCTION. 
great Baccius. With Fred. Hoffman, the mo- 
dern prince of mineral-water writers, we may 
venture to affirm, “ Mineral waters come the 
“ nearest in nature to what has vainly been 
“ searched after, an Universal Medicine.” 
IN fruitless speculations we advance. In solid 
doctrines we rather degenerate. Among the an- 
tients, the doctrine of waters was one ot the car- 
dinal branches of medicine. In this kingdom, wa- 
ters are used only as extreme unction. Baths are 
rude, uncultivated, and neglected. Our prede- 
cessors in practice have left us historical facts
faithfully, and accurately related. Scorning the 
bright example, we seem to content ourselves, 
with implicit belief; we neither improve ourselves, 
nor inform posterity. The sphere of Bath and 
Bristol waters seem rather circumscribed. Among 
the antients, Sailing was another cardinal branch
of medicine. In an island, we rarely try the ex- 
periment. In the practice of physic, as in other 
professions, there are fashionable arts, prejudices, 
and ignorances, in their consequences, equally 
fatal with errors experimental or practical. In 
discrediting waters, patients and practitioners 
mutually conspire. From theoretical notions, 
waters are damned in the very diseases which they
specifically cure. To pass over numberless proofs, 
Doctor Mead was the patron as well as ornament 
of that art which he professed. Stranger to the 
principles which compose Bath waters, or argu- 
ing from the relaxing property of simple warm 
water, (in his Manila & Praecepta Medica) he 
dogmatically lays down an assertion, which prac- 
tice daily confutes, Immersiones callidae paraliticis
omnibus nocent. 
PATIENTS, headstrong follow the dictates of 
their own imaginations, or the unseasonable sug- 
a3 gestions

INTRODUCTION.
gestions of designing meddlers; for the saving of 
paultry fees, they too often throw away the ex- 
pences of long journies, and their lives sometimes 
to the bargain. 
ALARMED by deaths unexpected, or uninform- 
ed by histories of cures, distant practitioners na- 
turally suspect mineral waters, condemning phy- 
sicians who had only the nominal care of patients 
peevish and refractory. In similar cases they arm
others with general directions; or cure them by 
epistolary correspondence. In symptoms variable 
and dangerous, they boldly counsel draughts of 
waters fraught with daggers; or, timidly order 
quantities so unavailing, that death often anti- 
cipates the cure. 
PERSUADED that it was my duty to investi- 
gate those instruments of health which provi- 
dence had put into my hands (in the first edition 
of my Attempts to revive Antient Medical Doctrines) 
I employed the leisure hours of years, in ascer- 
taining the nature and qualities of those foun- 
tains at which it was my lot to practise. Your 
Lordship did me the honour of accompanying me 
through the ruins of our Roman Baths; as relicts
truly Sacred, you deigned to preserve samples of 
Roman flues, bricks, and mortar. Towards the 
restoration of ruins truly venerable, (remember, 
My Lord) you was pleased to promise your par- 
liamentary interest. Honoured with such patron- 
age, from an analytical Essay, my little volume 
swelled to a size which far exceeded my first in- 
tention. Taught by experience, that where mi- 
neral waters failed, sea voyages succeeded, I ap- 
plied myself to the study of Sea-Voyages. Taught 
by the same experience, that where sea voyages 
proved ineffectual, many were restored by local 
remedies, I pursued the study of Local Remedies.
On

INTRODUCTION. 
On the subject of these my favourite pursuits,
little assisted by the moderns, I sedulously revolved 
the records of the antients. Forgetful of my in- 
terest, at no small expence, I printed, altered, 
and printed again. Attached to truth, I frankly 
exposed the laedentia as well as the juvantia; on 
every occasion, I was more free with my own 
failures, than with those of others. With the 
ingenuous De Haen, truly may I say rite, casteque, 
nostra notavi, fausta quam infausta, tam inutilia
quam perfecta; coaevis scribimus et posteris. 
Books may be compared to pictures. To their 
first sketches, painters are naturally partial; so
are authors to their manuscripts. When pictures 
come to receive the last touch, painters are sur- 
prised that they could not discover their blemishes 
before. While my labours were my own, I was 
loth to part with proofs which I had gathered 
with labour. Warmed with my subject, I was 
more attentive to matter than to manner. By 
ascertaining the nature and qualities of subjects 
so interesting, I hoped to lay some claim to the 
approbation of men concerned for the improve- 
ment of the healing art. Secure in the rectitude 
of my intentions, for the sake of my intentions, 
I flattered myself that my indiscretions might 
have been overlooked. Nor was I altogether dis- 
appointed. Partial to my failures, the Doctors 
Glass, Gilchrist, Lind, and Huxham were po- 
litely pleased to own that I had carried my re- 
searches on the same subjects, far beyond theirs; 
almost in the same words, they frankly acknow- 
ledged my Attempts to have been laborious, learn- 
ed, useful, and candid. Pleased with that simpli- 
city of practice which I laboured to restore, too 
truly, they foresaw my provoking the resentment 
of those who traffic with the art. For presuming 
a4 to

INTRODUCTION. 
to think for himself, in former days, Doctor Gui- 
dot called his brother Mayow a Novel-writer, 
judging him the wisest who takes things for granted, 
and who does not pragmatically contradict the unani- 
mous consent of judicious writers.—When Doctor 
J. Hen. Schutte was employed in the discovery 
of the mineral waters of Cleves, he loudly com- 
plains of the impertinence, and malevolence of 
men who did their utmost to disappoint a disco- 
very unexceptionably beneficial. For presuming
to reform, with my predecessor Mayow, I was 
deemed a novel-writer. By honestly endeavouring 
to found the virtues of Bath and Bristol waters 
on the rock of Observation, can it be credited, to
my astonishment, I found I had provoked the 
whispers of men whose bread depended on the 
promulgation of Bath and Bristol waters? Doc- 
tor Schutte laboured under the protection of his
Prussian Majesty. Truth triumphed, the virtues 
of the waters of Cleves are now universally ac- 
knowledged. 
FLATTERED on one side, was I obstinately to 
continue blind to my imperfections? Censured 
on the other, was I, for fear of censure, to drop
the cultivation of doctrines so interesting? Under 
your Lordship’s banner, what has truth to fear? 
Preferring truth to opinion, I resolved on a mid- 
dle course. From slander, and friendship, I ex- 
tracted truth. By narrowly prying into my own 
faults, I discovered faults which escaped criticism. 
On mature reflection, I blush not to acknow- 
ledge that, with more zeal than prudence, I in- 
veighed against Vulgar errors. My first Attempts 
were complex, crude, and unpolished. To men 
of eminence I relinquish the Herculean labour of
reforming the practice of physic. On the uncul- 
tivated fields of Antient Baths, Bath and Bristol
Waters,


INTRODUCTION. 
Waters, Sea Voyages, and Local Remedies, be mine  
the humbler talk still to labour. In separate es- 
says it may not perhaps be so difficult to do justice 
to particular subjects. The ruins of my first edi- 
tion I resolve to employ as materials for neater
edifices. 
DISAPPOINTED in foreign materials, I, for the
present, pass over the first part of my general 
work, beginning with the second. In your own 
person, you have, more than once, experienced 
the good effects of Bath waters. In the case of
your most exemplary son Lord Warkworth, with 
equal surprize and joy, your Lordship once con- 
fessed the power of Bristol waters. To the power 
of Bristol waters (with leave I proclaim it) the 
public stands indebted for the preservation of a
life which already begins to be an ornament to 
the public. Your Lordship did me the honour 
to peruse my manuscript; with the appearances 
of the residua of my experiments, you was pleased
to express your satisfaction. In your Lordship’s 
conversation, I always found pleasure mixed with 
instruction. In the gentleman, you cultivated those 
arts which adorn the nobleman. Uncommon  
with the generality of patrons, in researches phi- 
losophical and chymical, your judgment is second 
to none. 
MEDICATED WATERS are the workmanship 
of wise nature; in their principles, they differ so
much, that, even in the genus of those vulgarly 
called Chalybeates, it is hardly possible to discover 
two springs similar in taste, weight, salts, spirits,
or quantity. There are chalybeates which bear 
exportation, such as the Pyrmont, and Pohoun. 
There are chalybeates which become seculent, 
such as those of Cleve, or Geronster. There are 
chalybeates highly saturated with iron earth, and 
a5 ill

INTRODUCTION. 
ill provided with purging salts, such as those of 
Tunbridge, or Islington. These are chalybeates which 
contain a bitter purging salt, such as those of Scar- 
borough, Epsom, and Cheltenham. As are their in- 
gredients, so are their virtues. Those which plen- 
tifully suspend iron earth, have the virtues of crocus 
martis astringens; in relaxed bowels they are highly 
beneficial. Those which imbibe plenty of bitter 
purging salts are adapted to cachexies, jaundice, 
dropsy &c. Hot waters differ also from one ano- 
ther. These differences arise from the different 
quantity of that inflammable principle, with which
they happen to be impregnated. 
CHYMICAL EXPERIMENTS discover those dif- 
ferences. But, as the processes of nature surpass 
our imperfect endeavours, so do the principles of 
waters escape our nicest inquiries. With Baccius 
we may truly say “ Sedulo ergo fatebimur humani 
“ ingenii conjecturam non pertingere in certas rerum
“ proprietates, quae sunt occultae, et multae in a- 
“ quis.” To supply the deficiencies of chymical 
experiments, it is my purpose to reconcile the 
principles of the waters to reason; or, in other 
words, to confirm their virtues by memorable 
histories of diseases, or Cases. 
FACTS are evidences which neither craft nor 
malice can invalidate. In the ages of simplicity, 
external and accidental diseases were only regarded. 
Internal and spontaneous were rare; when they 
appeared, they were looked upon as the judg- 
ments of heaven. At the time of the Trojan 
war, ulcers and wounds were the employments 
of Apollo, Chiron, and Æsculapius. So little 
was the practice of physic known, that the father 
Æsculapius is said to have died of a pleuropneu- 
mony; his carcase was avoided because it looked 
black. 
In

INTRODUCTION. 
In after ages, the descendants of this same fa- 
ther of physic extended their views. They dis- 
persed, and erected themselves into societies and
schools. There they kept Registers of Diseases, 
of their antecedent causes, symptoms, periods, 
and consequences, of what had been hurtful, and 
what had been useful. They collated their ob- 
servations, and, from various experiments, deter- 
mined those things and methods which had been 
found useful in practice. Thus it was that phy- 
sic became a regular art. To Tables of health 
hung up in the Temple of Æsculapius, Hippocrates 
is said to have owed that amazing skill which 
moderns, with all their improvements, can hard- 
ly comprehend. In his books of Epidemics, he 
has set down every observation that occurred in 
his practice, with this view perhaps, that suc- 
ceeding physicians, imitating his example in par- 
ticular diseases, might bring the medical art to
some degree of perfection. 
To this collection of Epidemics, Galen added 
much.—Of the Arabians we find Rhasis a religi- 
ous admirer of the Greeks. With him we may 
join Avenzoar. The rest, contenting themselves 
with the invention of the antients, added nothing 
to the improvement of the art, if we except a 
few Nostrums. By their religion, they were for- 
bidden to dissect human bodies. Thus they were 
prevented from investigating the latent causes of
diseases. 
After these, the study of Observation was bu- 
ried in an age of barbarism. Gentilis, Gradius,
Placentinus, Valescus, and Gattinaria, have trans- 
mitted a few rare examples, smothered under the 
rubbish of obscure commentary. 
In this third and last age, we have seen the art 
of physic restored to its primitive simplicity and 
splendour. In his Observationn Medicae Rariores,
a6 Schenkius


INTRODUCTION. 
Schenkius has collected the works of some who 
pursued the road of observation. 
Albacus (in his second hook) says, Plurimum arbi- 
tror prudenti medico prodesse, si quamplurima notet 
exempla quœ sequatur. Tulpius, Aretaeus, Heister, 
Sydenham and Hoffman have improved the art. 
By sweeping away scholastic rubbish, Boerhaave 
has reconciled reason and experience., Stahl (in 
his Chemical Lectures) used to charge his pupils 
not to suffer their fancies to be led away by the 
subtle reasonings of the Cartesian philosophy. He
demonstrated that physic could not be rendered 
demonstrative, scientific, or beneficial, unless the- 
ory was confirmed by observation, or experiment. 
Royal Societies are noble institutions. Such 
was the Edinburgh Medical-Society. Such is that 
of London, such our present Medical Musaeum; 
and such are all the rest. In medical observations, 
the physicians of Vienna seem, at present, to ex- 
cell. Every practitioner has it in his power to
add a mite to medical knowledge; every practi- 
tioner has not matter for a book. 
OBSERVATIONS are, in no branch of medi- 
cine, so necessary as in that of mineral waters.
Some diseases yield to bathing, some to drinking; 
some require their united efforts. On the subject 
of mineral waters, hypothetic reasonings are, at 
best, precarious. Experience is the touch-stone.
In no branch of medicine are observations so 
much wanted; this has been the complaint of
past times, and is of the present. 
Doctor Jones published his Baths Ayde in the 
year 1572. “ I wish (says he) that patients 
“ would leave a note of the commodity received, 
“ with an account of their calling and condition, 
“ remembering the day of their entering the 
“ Bath, and the day of their departure, with the 
“ name


INTRODUCTION. 
“ name of the infirmity, paying four-pence to 
“ the poors box for registering the benefit received, 
“ until a physician be appointed.”—Dr. Jorden 
(in his book of Hot-Bathing) expresses himself 
thus. “ I will not pretend to reckon up all the 
“ benefits which our baths produce; but if we 
“ had a Register kept of the manifold cures which
“ have been wrought by the use of our baths, it 
“ would appear of what great use they are.”—
Dr. Pierce (in his preface) speaks thus. “ It
“ hath been very often desired (and, by many 
“ wondered that it was not done, if for no other 
“ benefit than that of the city) that a catalogue 
“ of eminent cures should every year be printed.” 
After assigning reasons for this omission, he pro- 
ceeds thus. “ Now, if instead of that, there be 
“ a Manuel of every one’s price and pocket 
“ (which is the chief end of this undertaking) 
“ that shall, under the head of every disease, give
“ examples of remarkable cures, it may attain 
“ all the ends proposed. Success good or bad, 
“ let it honestly be declared; that as the one 
“ may supply the place of a Landmark, the other 
“ may do the office of a Buoy.”—In Doctor Sum- 
mers’s Vindication of Warm-Bathing in Palsies, he
roundly tells the President and Governors of the 
Bath Infirmary to whom he addresses his Essay, 
“ The public has a right to be informed how far 
“ their benefactions have answered, that they
“ may thereby be encouraged to partake of a 
“ blessing, the streams of which may flow on 
“ themselves.” 
In Dr. Swinhow’s most ingenious Inaugural Disser- 
tation, De Thermarum Antiquitate, Contentis, & Usu, 
we find one caution highly apposite to our subject. 
“ Cæterum optime arti medicæ consultum foret, si 
“ historiæ quædam ægrorum, qui sontibus medi- 
“ catis

INTRODUCTION. 
“ catis usi sunt, fideli calamo conscriptæ suernit, 
“ in quibus notentur turn singulares horum casus, 
“ turn methodus bibendi unicuique magis accom- 
“ moda, cæteraque omnia que ad pleniorem hu- 
“ jus præstantissimi medicinæ generis cognitio- 
“ nem utcunque facere possint.” 
Bath-waters are neither saponaceous nor nitrous. 
Remarkable cures have, nevertheless, been per- 
formed by the concurrence of Soap and Nitre, 
Who would be so hardy as to prescribe mineral 
waters in Asthma’s, or Dropsies? In Asthma’s and
Dropsies, the reader will soon be convinced of 
the utility of Bath-waters. 
When wonderful cures are duly ascertained, 
we are bound to pursue the road of observation 
even in contradiction to hypothesis. Truth is not 
the less truth because our dull senses cannot com- 
prehend the modus operandi. Obstinancy proceeds 
from a vain opinion that the chymistry of nature 
ought to bend to our imperfect discoveries. The 
acid of Bath-water may be assisted by the natural 
acidity of the stomach, so as to neutralize alka- 
line medicines. This water manifestly decom- 
poses soap, yet (in Mrs. Elliot’s case) soap was ad- 
ministered to two or three ounces a day. The 
cure proceeded much better with soap than with- 
out.—In Mr. Lyon’s case, Nitre was administered
to six drachms a day, together with soap, 
Bath-water, drank at a distance, has perform- 
ed cures. Thus encouraged, patients have leap- 
ed to the fountain-head with joy. There they 
have produced untoward symptoms. The same- 
patients have again drank them cold, and have 
found their cure. 
Dr. Nugent communicated a case which un- 
questionably proves the position. This gentle- 
man practised many years at Bath, now in Lon- 
don.


INTRODUCTION. 
don. Of the propriety, or impropriety of Bath 
Waters, there lives not perhaps a better judge. 
“ MRS. COLBORNE, aged 53, of a scorbutic 
“ gross habit, was subject to erysepelatous erup- 
“ tions, with a periodical hæmorrhoidal flux, on 
“ the cessation of which, she gradually lost her 
“ appetite, complained of rheumatic complaints,
“ with an indolent tumour on the right side of 
“ the belly, by the gradual increase of which, 
“ the was reduced to a great degree of weakness;
“ the threw up every thing. 
“ She had tried variety of medicines. Bath-
“ water was at last proposed. She drank it in 
“ London, and with considerable benefit. This 
“ induced her to try it at the fountain, which the
“ did. She was soon convinced of her error. 
“ Bath water aggravated every complaint, the 
“ was obliged to desist. Little discouraged by 
“ this first attempt, the waited till the Bath-water 
“ symptoms had abated. She made a second at- 
“ tempt, with the same success. She contented 
“ herself with cold Bath water. She was cured.” 
The volatile principle, which, in pulmonic 
cases, may be prejudicial, flies off, or precipitates. 
The fixed parts retain their strengthening quali- 
ties, may, and are used with great benefit. There 
is no medicine that is capable of doing mischief,
but what may be made to do good, prudently ad- 
ministered. 
Dr. Underhill’s Short account of Hot-well-water 
Cures is the only collection that ever was pub- 
lished on that subject. It was printed in the year 
1703. In his time, patients who reaped benefit 
at the Wells were wont to leave certificates of the
benefit received, signed by their own hands. From 
this Autography, and from the testimonies of resi- 
denters in Bristol, then cured and alive, has this
facetious


INTRODUCTION. 
facetious author compiled his short account. On 
our present subject he expresses himfself thus. 
“ The great and good God, who formed man- 
“ kind all of the same clay, afflicts all with like 
“ diseases. To show forth his mercy, he freely 
“ bestows medicated waters, and puts it in the 
“ hearts of Princes, and many of the first  Quali- 
“ ty, to order their names and diseases, for the 
“ sake of the public, to be exposed in print, as
“ we see in Guidot’s System De Thermis Britanni- 
“ cis, and Pierce’s Bath Memoirs. The like is 
“ performed by other Mineral-Water-Writers. 
“ There are some notwithstanding who are scru- 
“ pulous in having their Cases published, mistak- 
“ ing their honour for their humour. The good 
“ man, quantum in se, will not let his fellow- 
“ creatures languish for want of putting to his 
“ helpful hand, he will rather benefit all, he 
“ loves his neighbour as himself. 
“ Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcer a celat.” 
IN the opinion of the great Boyle, The 
knowledge of mineral waters can never be ac- 
quired by any other method than that of analy- 
sis confirmed by experience. On the rocks of a- 
nalysis and experience, I have founded this first 
specimen of my second edition. By your attach- 
ment to the liberal arts, I would have the world 
to know, that I am not more ambitious of your 
countenance as a patron, than of your approba- 
tion as a judge. You have already been pleased 
to patronize my first Attempts. As a part of the 
general work, this naturally claims your second 
protection. Numberless are the authorities to 
which I own myself indebted. To hold these au- 
thorities up in the best light; by my own expe-
rience,

INTRODUCTION. 
rience, to confirm the observations of others be 
all my ambition. From your Lordship’s candour, 
well-meaning writers have nothing to dread. 
What pleasure to revolve histories of cure which 
had eluded the most judicious art! What satisfac- 
tion to be convinced that nature’s compositions 
surpass those of art! With what rapture must 
the ingenuous distant physician welcome patients 
whom before he had deliberately doomed to death! 
How gladly will he, in similar cases, fly to the 
same cities of refuge! From such, well-meaning
writers fear no censure. 
To the public, I beg leave to conclude with 
that apology which the Marquis De Santa Cruz 
makes for his Maximes Militaires et Politiques. 
Je suis un architecte qui ai ramasse des materiaux 
de divers endroits; d’autrui j’ai pris la pierre, 
et le bois; mais la forme de l’ édifice est toute de moi.
L’ouvrage des araignées to n’est pas plus estimable parce 
qu’elles produissent leur toils d’elles memes, ni le mien 
n’est pas plus meprisable, parce qu’a l’example des 
Abeilles, je tire le suc de fleurs étrangers. 
THE



THE 
CONTENTS. 
THE INRODUCTION contains a plan of the 
work. 
CHAP. I. Principles common to Bath and Bristol 
waters—Page 1 
Of Air—4 
—Spirit—6 
II. Principles peculiar to Bath water—22 
Of Iron—23 
—Salts and Earths—25 
—Sulphur—28
III. Principles peculiar to Bristol water—38 
Of Salts—40 
—Eart—42
IV. A rational account of the virtues of the 
several principles applied to Disease in 
general—44
Human body, its principles—59 
Virtues of Air—63 
—Spirit—65 
—Iron—66 
—Salts—68 
—Earths—72 
—Sulphur—73 
—Water—74 
DISEASES CURED BY BATH WATER—80 
V. Disorders of the First Passages—82 
Of Deglutition—85 
Of

CONTENTS 
—Depraved Appetite—89 
—Pains of the Stomach—92 
—Bilious Cholic—97 
—Hysteric Cholic—103 
—Dry-belly-ach—104 
VI. Disorders of the Urinary Passages—123 
Of Diabetes cured by Bath water—127 
VII. Diseases of the breast cured by Bath
water, particularly Asthma—131 
VIII. Of the Gout—140 
IX. Of the Rheumatism—162 
—Lumbago—165 
—Sciatica—166
X. Of cutaneous Diseases—169 
—Leprosy 
—Scrophula—172
—Scurvy —175
XI. Of Palsy—184
—Lameness after Fevers—196 
—Sprains—197
—from the Tendo Achillis—198
—from white Swelling—199
—from Wounds—200
—from Falls—201 
XII. Of the Jaundice—203 
XIII. Of the Dropsy—213 
XIV. Of Female Diseases—219 
—Obstruction  
—Immoderate Discharges—222 
—Barrenness—223 
—Abortion—226 
—Pregnancy—227 
DISEASES CURED BY BRISTOL WATER—230 
XV. Of Diseases of the Breast  
—Cough 
—Consumption—232
—Hectic Fever—234
Of

CONTENTS. 
Of Haemoptoe—235 
—Asthma  
XVI. Of Diseases of
the Urinary Passages—251 
—Diabetes 
—Gravel and Stone—261 
—Bloody Urine—266 
XVII. Of Diseases of the Stomach and Guts—269 
XVIII. Of external Disorders—272
XIX. Of REGIMEN, in general—275 
—DIET—277 
—Drinks—286 
—Tea and Coffee—288 
—AIR—293 
—EXERCISE—302 
—SLEEP—310 
—EVACUATIONS—311
—Bleeding—312
—Purging—317 
—Vomiting—320
—Sweating—324
—THE PASSIONS—325 



ERRORS of the PRESS.
Page 12, (marginal note) for Air volatile, read Acid volatile. 
12, (marginal note) for deprived of Air, read deprived or 
Acid. 
For the second marked page 11, read 13. 
13, line 17, for twelve more months, read twelve months
more. 
23, line 1, for 4, read 3. 
27, line 1, for passes, read pass. 
30, line 29, for well to, read well as to, 
46, line 33, for Parents, read Patients. 
51, line 7, for causts, read causis. 
72, line 17, for earth, read earths. 
77, line 7, for hebitate, read hebetate, 
88, line the last, leave out dem. 
110, line 3, leave out will. 
line 30, for lubricating, read lubricated, 
114, margin, for Causes, read Cases, 
128, line 24, for gout whey, read goat whey.
134, line 26, leave out not. 
139, line 5, for occular, read ocular. 
154, line 36, for whe, read when. 
169, line 14, for momentory, read momentary. 
174, line 15, for hot bath, read the hot bath. 
230, line 19, for now my purpose, read it is now my purpose. 
240, line 31, for timeously, read timely. 
283, line 33, for roasted, read broiled. 
284, line 8, for proven, read proved. 
289, line 3, leave out separately. 
line 32, for iomatous, read comatous. 




[1]
CHAP. I. 
OF PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
BATH and BRISTOL WATERS.
FOR health, or amusement, Bath and Bristol 
Hot-Wells have, time immemorial, been
frequented by chymists, natu- 
Generalindo-lence.
ralists, and philosophers. The num- 
ber of physicians has kept pace with 
the increase of patients. Without evidence, Bath
and Bristol waters have been accounted sulphure- 
ous, alkaline, saponaceous, ferrugineous, alumi- 
nous, and every thing but what they really are. 
The waters have now and then performed sur- 
prising cures. Had they been rationally investi- 
gated, their sphere must have been farther ex- 
tended. Critically to examine every author who
has attempted to analise Bath and Bristol waters, 
were labour lost. In disproving imaginary prin- 
ciples, opinions fall to the ground. What avail 
disquisitions about nitrous salts, while we know 
that nitre never yet existed in waters? What a- 
vail argumentations about salt of vitriol, while 
we know that the acid of vitriol is only to be 
found? 
A There

2 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
There are certain tribes of substances calcu- 
lated for discovering the principles of waters, 
which are the surer for having been tri- 
ed, which have held, and will hold, 
when we and our works come to be 
forgotten. By analogy and experiment, 
it is my purpose cooly and candidly to elucidate 
the truth. 
Chemical ex- 
periments, 
their use. 
Lord Chancellor Bacon’s Novum Organum Sci- 
entiarum contains a rational scientific method of
investigating the natures of things. Chymical ex- 
periments are not to be rejected because they 
cannot amount to mathematical demonstration. 
This objection bears equally hard on every art 
whose principles are employed in medicine. 
Every hypothesis is liable to errour; for this rea- 
son, man is fallible. The most active principles 
of waters can never perhaps be subjected to our 
senses. Antimonial cups communicate an eme- 
tic quality to liquors contained, while the con- 
taining vessels seem to have parted with no part 
of their weight; or, at least, none that analysis
can discover. Waters, doubtless, are impreg- 
nated with the effluvia of mineral substances yet 
unknown. How can we otherwise account for 
the wonderful effects of springs, in which no- 
thing but the pure element can be discovered;
such as the Piperine, or the Malvern? “ Variae 
“ dantur aquae heterogeneis qualitatibus imbu- 
“ tae, quae vulgarem explorandi methodum, a- 
“ deoque cognitionem nostram fallunt. Referen- 
“ di huc sunt quidam fontes salutares Slangen- 
“ badenses, Piperinae, Toplicenses, in quibus, prae- 
“ ter eximiam levitatem, vulgaria examina ni- 
“ hil fere peregrini et solidi deprehendere pos- 
“ sunt. Huc pertinet insignis Becheri observatio 
“ de spiritu luti caerulei in scaturiginibus obvij, 
magnarum

3 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ magnarum plane virium licet insipidus fit.” 
Jumckerij Consp. Chem. Tab. de Aq. & Becher. Physi 
subterran. passim. Chymistry promises verisimili- 
tude, which, if we modestly pursue, we may 
avoid the paths of ignorance, rashness, and ar- 
rogance. The very pillars of phisiology are 
Founded on chymistry. Digestion, chylification, 
sanguification, and the secretions, are all nature’s 
chymical processes. By the help of chymistry, 
we are enabled to separate mixtures the most 
compound, to exhibit principles, or contents, to
the cognizance of sense. Experiments demon- 
strate what our dull senses can never discover, 
viz. That water is capable of dissolving and sus- 
pending the hardest bodies, and the heaviest me- 
tals. Nor is the art of chymistry, particularly 
that branch of examining waters, so difficult as 
is commonly imagined. Those who have a 
mind to catch the weak by their weak sides, may
consult Boyle on Colours, Boerhaave’s Chymis- 
try, with Hierne’s Appendix to his Acta & Ten- 
tamina Medica. In examining waters, judgement 
is more requisite than genius. The means of 
discovering their contents, virtues, and uses, are 
already in the hands of man; nothing more is 
wanting to compleat the work, than a prudent 
scientific manner of using the means; or, to 
speak more plainly, the art of Induction. The 
bodies which dissolve in waters without altering 
their transparency, seem reducible to Air, Spirit, 
Salts, Earths, Iron, and Sulphur, Whether (by 
the help of chymistry) these are to be discovered 
in Bath and Bristol Waters, is the subject of 
this and the two following chapters. 
A2 I. Of

4 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
I. OF AIR.
To demonstrate the existence of water in water 
were labour lost. The first principle 
that presents itself in water is Air. Air 
seems to be, more or less, contained in every
water. 
Air.
1. SUBJECTED to the air-pump, Bath and 
Bristol waters dart air-bubbles from 
the bottom of the vessel to the surface. 
Experiments. 
2. BRISTOL WATER just pumped appears of 
a whitish colour, owing, doubtless, to the great
quantity of bubbles which it contains. As it 
cools, these bubbles disappear; nor can this whi- 
tish colour, ever after, be restored; a manifest 
proof of their having lost something very subtile. 
3. SET over a fire, in an open vessel, Bristol 
Water covers its sides with small air-bubbles. 
As it increases in heat, these bubbles increase in
number and bulk. They mount up to the top 
with such rapidity, that they put on the appear- 
ance of boiling, before the water comes thorough- 
ly to be heated. 
4. I filled a quart bottle with Bath water at the
hot-bath-pump. Over the neck of the bottle I 
bound a large bladder, well oiled on the outside. 
The bladder immediately began to swell, and, 
pressed upwards filled two-thirds with elastic air, 
hard as it so much of the bladder had been blown 
up by the mouth. 
5. I, in like manner, bound a bladder over 
the neck of a large quart bottle of Bristol wa- 
ter brought over to Bath. I placed the bottle 
before the fire. The air gradually began to 
distend the bladder, before the neck of the 
bottle, which was left empty, felt hot; com- 
pressed

5 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
pressed upwards, it exhibited an elastic ball, one 
third of its capacity.—This experiment may al- 
ways be produced by heat, often without. My 
authorities are Chrouet’s Connaissance des Eaux mine- 
rales d’Aix de chaud Fontaine, et de Spa, p. 68, &
Shaw’s Enquiry into the contents of Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 137—139. 
6. Statical Essays, vol. i. p. 181, and vol. ii. p. 
267, the ingenious Hales has extracted and deter- 
mined the different quantities of air contained in
different waters. 
7. To know whether this was air or spirit. Dr. 
Shaw made the following experiment. He filled
an open cylindrical glass with the fresh 
purgative Scarborough water, and put 
it under the receiver of an air-pump, 
then exhausting the air, till it ceased 
to emit any more, he took the water out, and put
a little powder of galls thereto. The water 
changed its colour, and turned purple, as strong- 
ly as before it was set under the receiver. Whence 
he infers that the mineral spirit did not escape a- 
long with the air-bubbles, and consequently 
that these air-bubbles and the mineral spirit are 
different principles. This conclusion he con- 
firms. 
Air and spi-
rit different
principles.
By the common experiment with galls he 
found that the chalybeate Scarborough spring 
contained more of the mineral spirit than the 
purging. By the experiment of the air-pump, he
found that the purging water discharged more 
air-bubbles than the chalybeate. He filled a 
quart bottle with the last, to which he fitted a 
bladder, as before described. The ball of subtle 
matter was not above one fourth-part so large as 
in the other. “ This experiment (he infers) 
“ therefore, if found constant, intimates, that air 
A3 “ and

6 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
“ and mineral spirit are two things; and that 
“ where the one is largely contained, the other 
“ may be less. It is chiefly on account of 
“ this large portion of air naturally contained
“ in the purging water, that we rather incline 
“ to make it a principle; for, if no more air 
“ could be discovered here than in common wa- 
“ water, or the ordinary sorts of purging waters, 
“ such as Epsom, Dulwich, Acton, &c. there 
“ could be no just foundation for making air a 
“ principle.” Vide Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, part ii. sect. 6. p. 140, 141. 
II. OF SPIRIT. 
1. BATH and Bristol waters fresh drawn from
the pump, manifestly sparkle, and throw 
off a mist, or vapor. After standing in 
the open air, they put off this appearance.
Spirit. 
2. BATH and Bristol Waters fresh drawn from 
the pump, seem grateful to the stomach, and 
cheer the spirits. By standing in the open air, 
they lose these properties. 
3. BATH and Bristol Waters drank at the 
pump have a sort of intoxicating quality, give an
alacrity, or occasion a head-ach, drowsiness, or 
ebriety. Drank at a distance, warmed or cold, 
they have no such effects. Hence may we infer 
that both these waters contain a spirit. Nor 
were the ancients unacquainted with this proper- 
ty. In his book De Architectura, lib. viii. cap. 3, 
Vitruvius expresses himself thus; Sunt etiam fon- 
tes uti vino mixti, quemadmodum est unus Paphlago- 
niae, ex quo etiam sine vino potantes fiunt temulenti. 
—Such are mentioned by Ovid, in his Meta- 
morphosis:
—Lyncestius

7 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS:
—Lyncestius amnis
Quem quicunque parum moderato gutture traxit, 
Haud aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset. 
Quodque magis mirum est, sunt qui non corpora 
tantum
Verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores. 
Cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae, 
Æthiopesque lacus? quos si quis faucibus hausit, 
Aut furit, aud mirum patitur gravitate soporem. 
tantum 
Lib. i. cap. viii, Valerius Maximus mentions 
ont, spring in Macedonia, and another in Agro Ca- 
lena, quo homines inebriantur.—In his Quœst, Na- 
tural. lib. iii. cap. 20, Seneca assigns this spirit as 
one of the causes of taste in waters; quotes O- 
vid, to confirm his opinion in assigning this spirit 
as the cause of ebriety.—In his Hist. Natural, 
lib. ii. cap. 103, and lib. xxi. cap. 2, Pliny makes
mention of the Lyncestian water causing drun- 
kenness.—In his Experiments, and Observations on 
Malvern Waters. Dr. Wall makes the like re- 
mark; page 154. 
4. AFTER the departure of air and spirit, one 
would naturally expect some sensible 
change; and indeed it seems reasona- 
ble to think that the specific gravity of
waters were thus increased, as their absolute comes 
to be diminished. Hoffman used a gra- 
duated instrument for ascertaining the 
weight of different waters. He sus- 
pected that the elastic spirit buoyed up the instru- 
ment; that therefore the experiment was less to 
be depended on, the specific gravity increasing as 
the spirit evaporated.—Dr. Short (in his History of
Mineral Waters, p. 56. 45. 164. 170. Edit. 1734.) 
subjected certain medicated waters to the air-
Gravity of 
waters.
Proved from
experment. 
A4 pump,

8 PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
pump, or exposed them in an open vessel. He 
found their specific gravity thus increased; he
assigns the reason. “ Exinde liquet aquam ali— 
“ quas particulas amisisse, quae quoniam neque 
“ vehiculum ipsum, neque fixa ejus contenta sunt, 
“ aër aut spiritus prorsus sunt censendae.” 
Dr. Home (in his Essay on Dunse Spaw, p. 160. 
163.) bottled up some of the water, corked it 
dole, and, after some time, found it lighter by 
some grains. He sagaciously assigns the reason; 
the escape of the Spirit. 
5. NOR is this opinion of the spirit of waters 
inconsistent either with reason or, ana-
logy. Water becomes insipid after 
having been exposed to the air. The 
same happens to oils and wines; they lose their 
strength, virtues, smell, and taste; they become 
vapid. The same happens to aromatic plants. 
Nothing proves the text so much as liquor in the 
state of fermentation, which continually throws 
up air, together with spirit, manisest to the senses. 
See Boerhaave’s Elements Chetn. Part iii. Process xii. 
& xiii. 
From ana-
logy.
6. WHAT laws this spirit is subjected to, seems
still to remain a secret. Hoffman thinks 
the Thermae are sooner deprived of their 
spirit than the Acidulae. The author 
seems not to have sufficiently distinguished be- 
tween air and spirit; nay, he seems to have con- 
founded the one with the other, under the com- 
mon name of spirit. Heat certainly rarifies and 
dissipates air; air escapes without spirit, and spirit 
escapes without air, as we have seen. 
Spirit its
laws.
7. WHAT sort of spirit this may be, or in what
form it exists in waters, we are now to 
inquire. Naturalists in general, main- 
tain that the spirit pf waters consists of 
Spirit its na-
ture
iron

9 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
iron or oker, minutely subtilized. When they 
come to explain its manner of existence, they 
differ. As (under the head of Air) we 
have fully explained, some are of opi- 
nion that this metal is divided into mi-
nute particles, and suspended by the     
means of a certain Acid, which, as they say, is 
the proper menstruum of metals. This seems to 
be Hoffman’s opinion; nor is he clear on the 
head; he speaks of an “ aethereo quodam valde 
“ mobili, ac subtili fluido, spiritu universali, 
“ fonte & causa omnis spirituascentiae, sedem su- 
“ am, vim, atque virtutem maxime collocatam 
“ habente in sulphure, substantia valde tenui, 
“ fluida, admodumque elaslica, et volatili, cum
“ universali mineralium sulphureo ente combina-
“ ta, omnesque terrarum tractus pervagante, a- 
“ nima quasi mineralium, variarumque mutatio- 
“ num, & effectuum qui in promptuario subter- 
“ raneo contingunt, causa.” Hoffman. Element. 
Aquar. Mineral. recte dijudicand & examinand. 
§. 8. 16. 18. alibique passim. According to 
this opinion, the spirit of water is no more nor 
less than a volatile vitriol. Those who contend for 
this doctrine, maintain that as this subtile acid 
flies off, it carries along with it some particles
of iron, which it suspends in solution, that it 
precipitates, or leaves others behind in form of 
an ochraceous martial-like matter, as in the ex- 
periment mentioned with the powder of galls. 
Astringents are said to absorb or blunt the acidum
solvens, by which the particles of iron once dis- 
solved now precipitate; hence change of colour. 
Nor can this be supposed to be owing to any vo- 
latility of dissolved metal; for, let but a vitriolic 
acid be added to any ferrugineous water, that (by  
Consists of
metal dissolv-
ed by an acid.
A5 the


10
PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
the escape of the acids) has become effete, the 
gall-tinging quality is forthwith restored. 
That there exists a certain Universal Vitriolico- 
sulphureous Acid, which pervades every thing, and 
which (by dissolving iron) constitutes 
the spirit of mineral waters, from posi- 
tive proofs we learn.—“ Take an al- 
“ kaline salt, expose it to the air in a 
“ place where neither damps, vapors, nor sun can
“ approach, it will be converted into a Tartarus 
“ Vitriolatus”—Mineral fumes are inflammable. 
Collected into bladders, they may be carried to 
any distance. Opened near a candle, they catch 
fire. When ore is poor, miners shut up this va- 
por, that (by being imbibed by the phlogiston) it 
may enrich the metals, heighten their splendour, 
and make them malleable. Mineral fumes con- 
tain a portion of the phlogiston; the more they
are impregnated with this inflammable principle, 
the more volatile, powerful, and penetrating they
are. Dr. Teichmeyer, professor of physic in the 
university of Jena, relates a memorable instance 
of a chalybeate spaw, in the Lordship of Cracow,
a manifest proof of our text. This spaw was, 
not long ago, set on fire by lightning, which oc- 
casioned no small damage to the adjoining forests, 
and was with great difficulty extinguished. It is 
remarkable, that this fountain may be kindled at 
any time by the means of a candle. But, it is 
as remarkable, that this water, removed from the 
well, cannot be set on fire. This author adds, 
that he could relate several methods by which the 
inflammable principle of mineral waters might be 
made patent to the senses. “ When (continues 
“ he) in the manner aforesaid, medicinal waters 
“ exist, then the acid becomes invigorated by 
“ the phlogiston contained in the mineral fumes. 
Universal 
Vitriolic
acid.
“ it


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ it dissolve the finest parts of the Iron Earth, 
“ which solution is, at the same time, attracted 
“ by this principium infammabile, and incorporat- 
“ ed with the water concrete.”
8. These fumes cannot be said to be the products- 
fire, because, when they meet with fire, they 
burn. Air is the agent that constitutes, moves,  
and disperses these fumes thro’ the bowels of the 
earth. This appears by that affection, or readi- 
ness with which it unites with the external air. 
9. THAT vapors, air, or fumes are necessary 
adjuncts in the composition of mineral waters, we
cannot doubt. Hoffman quotes a mo- 
dern instance from Lic. Andrea. A
chalybeate well in the Dukedom of Wirtenberg all 
of a sudden lost its virtue and efficacy. The rea- 
son of this change was found to be owing to the 
digging of stone-cutters, which accidentally broke 
through a cavity of the rock, out of which issued
a strong mineral fume. The cavity was immedi- 
ately ordered to be carefully closed up, the well 
recovered its pristine qualities. See Dr. Turner’s
Appendix to his Herbal, printed at Coin, page 4. Dr. 
Seippius has recorded a similar account in his His- 
tory of the Pyrmont Waters, page 48. 
Air vitriolic. 
This vapor is of an acid nature, none other 
than that Acidum universale, or Vitrioline acid,
which has its birth in the bowels of the earth,
and not in the ocean, as Stahl and Newman have 
proved by experiments too long to be here re- 
cited. 
THAT the acid of sea salt owes its production
to the vitrioline add, we know by the trite expe- 
riment. “ Smelt common salt with the 
“ simplest phlogiston, destitute of salt 
“ or acid, then may some brimstone, 
“ and even a little vitriol, be produced.”
Acid of sea
salt what.
A6 10. THAT

12 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
10. THAT this acid is of a subtile volatile na- 
ture we cannot doubt, if we allow ourselves to be 
guided only by our senses. It impreg- 
nates the air, so that it proves offen-
sive to some asthmatics. It corrodes the iron- 
works in and about the baths. Copper rings have, 
for this reason, been bequeathed for the use of the 
bathers to hold by, as may be seen by the inscrip- 
tions therereon recorded. 
Air volatile.
11. As this acid vapor flies off, the water be- 
comes turbid, so that the bottom of the baths can 
hardly be discovered, at the depth of 
two or three feet. The earthy parts 
which were before suspended by means 
of this mineral acid spirit joined to the 
natural heat, now preponderate, and adhere to 
the sides of the glasses, and to the walls of the 
baths, in the form of a pale ochrous earth. In 
the closest and quickest corking, this, vapour so
far escapes, that some precipitation is formed by
the time that the water cools. 
Deprived of
air waters 
become secu- 
lent. 
Such chalybeate waters lose their texture as 
soon as they come to be exposed to the air. They 
are unfit for exportation; at a distance they are 
nevertheless friendly to many constitutions. The 
iron earth is the matrix in which the vitrioline a- 
cid is generated; yet it is well known that neither 
all iron minerals, nor the same, at all times, are 
provided with this acid; for so, all common wa- 
ters would be chalybeates, because there are hard- 
ly any which have not, in some part of their pas- 
sage, a communication with iron ore. When a 
water meets with an iron ore vein that contains a 
portion of the acid vapour, this vapour is concen- 
trated with the water; the chalybeate spaw be- 
comes complete. When it meets with too great 
a quantity of the acid, it is useless or noxious- 
When


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
When the air meets with that Sublimate which 
Basil Valentine calls the seed of metal, and which 
Linden calls the metallic nutriment, which exists 
in a soft state like the Butter of Antimony, and 
that subsists in quantity, then this matter is 
brought by the acid in the air into agitation, by
which it receives additional substances. These 
fumes arise, in some places, more abundantly than
in others. 
12. Dr. Teichmeyer relates an experiment that 
proves the great power of the Air and the Acid
therein contained. “ He exposed fil- 
“ ings of Iron to the open air, rain, 
“ snow, sun, and moon-shine. In a 
“ year’s time, these filings were redu- 
“ ced to a Crocus, which he washed and laeviga- 
“ ted. This he exposed for twelve more months. 
“ Then he put it into a Retort, and distilled it
“ gradually through all the degrees of fire. In 
“ the neck of the retort, he discovered a black 
“ greasy stinking materies viscosa, et quosi butyrosa, 
“ in which was contained a good portion of 
“ Quicksilver.” “ This experiment (says Lin- 
“ den) which I could corroborate with many in- 
“ stances, evidently proves that the Air has pow- 
“ er with the primogenial Acid therein contain- 
“ ed, without any other addition, to open the 
“ iron, so that it may yield its mercurial con- 
“ tents.” 
Air and acid 
their joint
powers.
13. THIS acid proceeds from the Pyrite, which
disunited composes the Bath-sand; the phlogiston 
or inflammable principle having escap-
ed. The phlogiston thus fled, the a- 
cid of the sulphur forms an union with 
the metallic parts of the pyrite. This constitutes 
the chalybeate principle.  
The acid pro-
cedes from the
Pyrite.
IT


14 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
14. IT is well known that acids dissolve iron. 
Alkalis and absorbents precipitate iron. Chalybe- 
ate waters consist of iron dissolved in 
some kind of acid. Galls and astrin- 
gent vegetables act as absorbents, and 
cause a precipitation, in colour, from 
different shades of purple or blue to 
black, according to the nature of the acid in 
which the iron is dissolved, and the proportion of
the saturation, or strength of the solution. The 
stronger the solution of the metal, the more of 
the astringent will be required, and the deeper the 
colour will be struck, and e. c. This knowlege 
accounts for the mystery of dying. 
Chalybeate 
waters consist 
of iron dis- 
solved in an 
acid. 
15. EXPERIENCE tells us that volatile and fixed 
alkalis attract acids which before kept earths or 
metals in solution. The metallic or 
earthly parts are precipitated, and a 
neutral salt is produced which determines the na- 
ture of the acid. 
Experiments.
SPIRIT of hartshorn, or Sal-ammoniac, drop- 
ped into a glass of Bath-water hot, causes an 
ebullition and a milkiness with a yellowish hue 
which gives a light precipitate of the same cast, 
and throws up an earthy pellicle. The like ef- 
fect is wrought in the water cold and well corked, 
though more slowly, less sensibly, and more 
whitish. 
THE acid saturated with the volatile, or fixed 
alkali, gives Glauber’s secret Sal-ammoniac in the 
one, and Vitriolated-tartar by the other, which 
proves the acid to be vitriolic. 
HENCE the absurdity of prescribing volatile-al- 
kaline salts, spirits, soap, milk, &c. with waters 
hard, in the strictest sense. Bath-wa- 
ters are utterly unfit for domestic pur- 
poses. They thicken, strengthen and harden, in- 
Inference.
stead


15 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
stead of resolving or relaxing, as theorists ignorant- 
ly suppose. 
ALL the simple as well as fermented vegetable 
acids mix naturally and easily with Bath-waters. 
Distilled vinegar causes no change of colour, or 
other alteration. The mineral acids, except in 
a concentrated state, or when the vitriolic is add- 
ed in such a quantity as to excite more heat, mix 
kindly. 
16. To this doctrine of Acids, the trite expe- 
riment with Syrup of violets generally used to prove
the existence of an alkali may seem 
repugnant. It must be confessed that 
this syrup turns the waters to a sea-green, and in
eight hours after to a bright grass-green. 
Objection. 
17. THIS is an appearance that overbears those 
who deny the existence of an alkali in chalybeate 
waters. And, to say the truth, this has perplexed 
learned and ingenious men, who, by not consi- 
dering the matter deeply, yielded up the point to
those who maintained an alkali. Let us harken 
to Linden, Page 114, he says, “ This 
“ mistake arises from not properly dis-
“ tinguishing the differences in matter. Iron Vi- 
“ triol has such a green colour as the syrup of 
“ violets assumes when mixed with chalybeate 
“ waters, yet there can be no man so ignorant as
“ to imagine that this proceeds from an alkali, 
“ as the acid predominates so much in the com- 
“ pound. 
Answered.
“ Verdigrease is perfectly green, manufac- 
“ tured with vinegar and copper. I know no 
“ alkali that is accessary to this; the copper ap- 
“ pears in blue crystals when dissolved and cry- 
“ stallized. 
“ Pour Aqua fortis on Iron ore, it becomes in- 
“ stantly green. Supposing even an alkali in the  
“ iron

16 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
“ iron ore, the green colour cannot be owing to 
“ that; because the acid is predominant, and 
“ were there alkali enough in the ore to occasion
“ this green colour, it would discover itself by 
“ an effervescence. 
“ The solution of perfect iron yields a green 
“ colour as soon as it is dissolved by acids. Thus, 
“ we see by how many various ways green co- 
“ lours may be produced; therefore may we con- 
“ clude that the green colour in these aquatic 
“ mixtures is essentially inherent in the Iron ore, 
“ without assistance of alkalies, syrup of violets, 
“ or any thing of the like nature. 
“ Whence is it then that this green colour is 
“ produced? 
“ Syrup of violets contains an iron earth; from
“ it may be produced an iron earth by art. 
“ The acid in the chalybeate water is checked 
“ by the mucilage of the iron ore, which is pro- 
“ bably the true reason why the water preserves 
“ its crystalline purity unmixed. 
“ Syrup of violets sets acids and alkalies at li- 
“ berty. It acts only naturally when it sets the 
“ acid free from the mucilagium ferri; the more 
“ it subsides, the stronger the green colour ap- 
“ pears; the acid works naturally on the iron 
“ earth dissolved into atoms most minute. This 
“ is the real cause. Tor if this green colour of 
“ the syrup was owing to an alkaline quality of 
“ the waters, that share of alkali requisite to 
“ produce it would constitute such a dispropor- 
“ tioned ingredient that they would be as caustic 
“ as Soap-lees, which is by no means the case.” 
BATH WATER curdles milk, as every nurse 
knows. Powerful, nevertheless, as this 
Acid appears to be, it does not alter the 
colour of the juice of Turnsol, the Heliotropon tri- 
Bath water 
curdles milk. 
coccum

17 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
coccum of C. Bauhinus.—Aken Waters recover 
spots made in paper by Acids. So must Bath Wa- 
ter, had it (like the former) contained an Alkali. 
BRISTOL WATERS, as it boils, loses its pellu- 
cidity, and deposits an earthy chalky-like matter 
on the bottom and sides of the vessel. 
Thus it comes to be robbed of its mi- 
neral acid. It now becomes soft, fit
for domestic purposes, of mixing with 
soap, washing, brewing, &c. That Bristol Wa- 
ter contains an acid, and that this acid is of a vo- 
latile nature, the following experiments evince. 
Bristol Wa- 
ter acid and
volatile.
1. A glass of Bristol Water poured on a few 
grains of Sal Armoniac, dissolved it im- 
mediately with a sensible effervescence. 
Experiments. 
2. Spir. Sal Armoniac with a fixed alkali pro- 
duced the same effect. 
3. Solution of Sal Tartar produces the same 
effervecence; but gives the liquor a milkiness 
which precipitates a whitish light earthy sub- 
stance. 
4. Solution of Soap curdles and makes the wa- 
ter turbid. 
5. The same substances poured into common 
water distilled, produced no sensible change. 
6. In different glasses of common water distil- 
led, were dropped Spir. Vitrioli; in others other 
mineral acids. To these were added volatile alka- 
line salt, volatile alkaline spirit, fixed alkaline
salt and solution of soap. The same appearances 
arose as when these were first added to the Bristol 
Water. 
HENCE may we conclude, That these waters 
do contain an Acid. By means of this acid it is
that (in the two first experiments) the  
effervescence is produced. In the third 
the additional circumstance of the milkiness arises
Corollaries.
from

18 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
from the fixed alkaline solution attacking the acid 
of the waters more strongly than did the calcari- 
ous earth, by means of which it is no longer 
soluble, but becomes cognizible in form of a 
white precipitate, which was in a saline state 
while united with the acid, and so soluble in 
water. 
In the fourth, the Soap becomes decomposed, 
the Oil swims on the top, while the Acid and Al- 
kali lay hold of one another. 
If these waters are kept but a day, corked ne- 
ver so close; or, if they are boiled, and then 
these experiments made, neither the effervescence 
nor the decomposition will appear. The milki- 
ness and the precipitate will insue, because the 
waters are robbed of their power of dissolving
earthy substances. 
HENCE it is also manifest, That the Acid of
these waters is of a volatile nature. 
7. To determine the nature of this acid, let us
drop a solution of Silver in spirit of ni- 
tre. The mixture puts on the appear- 
ance of milky, and deposits a white 
precipitate. 
Bristol water 
neutral and 
vitriolic. 
8. In a glass of water pour a solution of Lead 
in the same spirit, the same phoenomena appear. 
FROM these trials it is demonstrable that the 
alkaline basis of Sea-salt is contained in these wa- 
ters; for (by the union thereof with 
the nitrous acid) an Aqua-regia is form- 
ed which dissolves gold, but touches not silver, 
nor lead. In consequence of which the precipi- 
tation insues. 
Corollary. 
9. Pour a solution of Quicksilver in spirit of ni- 
tre into a glass of water, it grows turbid and de- 
posits a yellow precipitate, which confirms the 
foregoing experiment. 
10. To


19 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
10. To solutions of Bristol Water turbid or 
precipitated by Spir. Sal. Armon. Sal. Tartar, Calx 
viv. &c. pour Oil of Vitriol, the transparency is 
immediately restored. 
11. Ol. Tartar per deliq. added to that which 
contains oil of vitriol, a great effervescence in- 
sues, and the heat goes off but slowly. 
12. Solution of silver was added to the water. 
To this was added Soap-lee, which caused a black 
precipitate by standing, which could not be dis- 
turbed by Spir. Sal. Armoniac. 
HENCE we may infer that this water contains 
a great share of phlogiston, with vitrio- 
lic spirit medicated and absorbed by a 
calcarious earth. 
Corollary.
13. To a glass of water, Scarlet dye was added. 
A small precipitate insued, the upper part remain- 
ed of a fine scarlet colour. As soon as Spir. Sal. 
Armoniac was added, it struck an opaque purple 
colour. 
HENCE may we conclude that this water is (in 
its natural state) neutral in all respects, rather 
inclinable to the vitriolic acid; which 
is the reason that it continues its scar-
let colour; but, as soon as an urinous spirit is 
added, then the Cochineal loses its scarlet colour, 
and turns to purple. 
Corollary.
14. The water was also tried with blue dye, and 
pompadore, without any alteration. This con- 
firms the last experiment. 
FROM the sum and substance of the foregoing 
experiments, we conclude, that the whole nature 
and texture of Bristol water (not even its warmth 
excepted) depends on the vitriolic acid. 
THESE are others who maintain. 
That the spirit of waters consists of fer- 
reous particles dissolved without the in- 
Spirit said to 
consist of iron 
without the 
acid. 
terposition



20 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
terposition of an acid. In support of this opinion 
these urge, That a sort of ink may be prepared, 
by infusing pure iron in simple water, saturated 
with the powder of galls. Nor does Shaw dis- 
own the fact, See his Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 151—158.—In infusions of filings of iron 
with water distilled, there appear certain phoeno- 
mena, not dissimilar to those which may be seen 
in mineral waters. See Home’s Essay on Dunse- 
spaw, p. 157, 158. The subtile particles escape 
in form of spirit, the heavier precipitate as in so- 
lutions of iron by acids. If so, why (say they) 
may not iron in like manner, be supposed to be 
dissolved in mineral springs? 
In his Essay on Dunse-spaw, p. 60. 62. 157. 160. 
Dr. Home observes, that some of the ferreous 
particles settle on the surface, in the form of a 
thin pellicle, not unlike to that which is com- 
monly observed on the surface of lime water.— 
In Dr. Whytt’s ingenious Essay on Lione water, 
p. 62, 63, & 74, 75. he has experimentally dis- 
proved the existence of an acid in Lime-water.— 
Shaw’s Experiment with astringents seems no less 
to favour this opinion than the other. If the 
powder of galls, tea-leaves, or any other astrin- 
gent precipitate iron, by absorbing the acid, may 
not the same phoenomena be expected from al- 
kaline substances? From such mixtures, such ap- 
pearances never happen. They therefore con- 
clude, that this effect of galls ought rather to be 
attributed to that astringent property common to 
such substances, by which they attract the parti- 
cles of iron, and thus tinge water blue, purple, 
or black, by which the heavier particles also fall 
to the bottom. This opinion they think confirm- 
ed by the following experiment. “ In his Expe- 
“ riments and Observations on Chalybeate Waters,
“ Dr.



21 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ Dr. Hales observes, That many natural wa- 
“ ters, after they had deposited their oker, and 
“ afterwards suffered such a degree of corruption 
“ as to be there by resolved (by the help of pow- 
“ der of Galls) put on as intense a colour, as if 
“ they had been just taken up at the fountain- 
“ head.” Hence they infer, that the spirit of 
water is iron per se, or incorporated with sulphur, 
or some other principle, divided into particles most 
minute by the chymistry of nature, without the 
interposition of an acid. Nor does this opinion 
differ from the former, otherwise than in the 
manner of the solvent. In both, the spirit of 
waters is allowed to consist of iron, or oker mi- 
nutely subtilized, one by the help of a volatile 
vitriolic acid, the other without. In his elabo- 
rate inaugural dissertation De Thermarum antiqui- 
tate, contentis, et usu, Swinhow seems inclined to 
the latter. His words are these; “ Tamen hanc 
“ sententiam pertinacius profiteri nolim, dico ta- 
“ men, in praesenti, mihi visum probabiliorem.” 
From analogy, as well as from arguments and 
experiments stated and compared, I am inclined 
to believe, that Bath and Bristol Wa- 
ters contain a Spirit; that this spirit 
consists of Iron subtilized and suspended by the 
means of an Acid, and that this acid is none 
other than that Universal Vitriolico-sulphureous prin- 
ciple which pervades the bowels of the earth, and 
which constitutes the life, soul, and spirit of me- 
dicated waters. So much for principles common 
to Bath and Bristol Waters; we now proceed to 
those which are peculiar to Bath Water. 
Corollary. 
CHAP.



22 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR 
CHAP. II. 
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BATH WATERS.
Particular
experiments. 
1. DURING the spring and sum- 
mer months, there are black 
slimy cakes which float on the surface of the baths. 
These were supposed to be cakes of floating sul- 
phur. Mr. Haviland apothecary, first discovered 
them to be aquatic plants conveyed thro’ the cran- 
nies of the rocks to the fountain head, the Jelly 
moss, or Conferva gelatinosa, omnium tenerrima et 
minima, aquarum limo innascens, of Ray.
Oker.  
2. THE baths, as far as high-water- 
mark, are lined with a pale yellow sub- 
stance; as are the conduits which carry off the re- 
dundant water. 
To discover the different degrees of heat, the 
following trials were made. By Farenheit’s ther- 
mometer, the hottest spring in the 
King’s Bath raised the quicksilver to 
103.—In the coolest part of the same 
bath to 100.—In the hot bath it stands at 100 or 
101.—In the Cross Bath 93, 94 —The Queen’s 
Bath is only a reservoir from the King’s, it raises 
the mercury to 93, 94. The heat at the pumps 
varied by every trial. At the Cross Bath, the 
mercury sunk from 110 to 105.—The Hoth Bath 
from 116 to 112.—The King’s from 116 to 
114. 
Heat of the 
springs. 
The lowest trials equal the heat of the human 
blood in a healthy state, and (according to Hip- 
pocrates} are therefore friendly to the constitu- 
tion. 
4. WEIGHED



23 TO BATH WATER.
4. WEIGHED, Hot Bath water ap-
pears to bear the ratio of oz. 4:6:0:12 
to oz. 4:6:0:16 cold. 
Gravity.
By these experiments we learn. That the dif- 
ferent springs are differently impregnated, and 
differently heated; their produce also 
is different.—We learn also that they
spring not from the same source; for if one of the 
cisterns is kept empty, this prevents not the cistern 
at the head of any other spring from filling in its 
usual time, notwithstanding all the springs break 
out within the compass of half an acre, in the 
form of a triangle, whose base measures 415 feet, 
its longer side 380, and its shorter about 110. 
Generals premised, we now proceed to investi- 
gate particular principles.
Corollaries. 
I. Of IRON. 
UNDER the heads of Air and Spirit, it fully ap- 
pears, That (by the interposition of the Univer- 
sal Vitriolic Acid) Iron is not only dis- 
solved, but suspended also in waters;
that, as this acid escapes, the walls of 
the baths and the conduits become incrusted with 
a pale or yellow oker; that waters, vulgarly and 
improperly termed chalybeate, lose their texture, 
by being exposed to air, and become unfit for 
exportation; that the iron-earth is the matrix in 
which the vitriolic acid is generated; that when a 
water meets with an iron-ore vein which con- 
tains a portion of the universal acid, the acid va- 
pour comes to be concentrated with the water, 
the chalybeate spaw becomes complete; that 
when it meets with too great a quantity of the 
acid, it becomes noxious, and that this acid pro- 
ceeds from the pyrite, which disunited, composes 
Bath water
feruginous.
the


24 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath-sand. Thus, the acid of sulphur forms 
an union with the metallic parts of the pyrite. 
This constitutes the ferrugineous principle of 
Bath waters, as by the following tells will ap- 
pear. 
Experiments 
on the Bath 
sand. 
THE first mineral substance that pre- 
sents itself to our view, is that Sand- 
like substance, thrown up at the sources 
of the springs, especially when the in- 
verted cisterns are taken up to be cleaned. 
1. To the taste, this substance is ferrugineous, 
and manifestly styptic. 
2. THE water in which it is washed, strikes a 
blue with an infusion of logwood, and a purple 
with galls. 
3. THE residuum, calcined till it ceases to 
fume, moved to the magnet, some particles are 
attracted. 
4. THE Baths and drains are lined with a yel- 
low oker. 
5. WITH infusions of logwood, galls, tea, 
pomegranate-bark, balaustine, &c. the waters 
fresh pumped, change to purple. Thus the fer- 
rugineous principle seems incontestibly to exist. 
We now proceed to determine the portion of iron 
contained in a given quantity of water. 
6. IN the third volume of the Edinburgh Me- 
dical Essays, we find an experiment recorded by 
Professor Monro, which enables us 
(with some sort of certainty) to deter- 
mine the quantity of iron contained in 
waters. He observes that the propor- 
tion of iron in its salt, or vitriol, is little more 
than one third. If one ounce of this salt of steel 
be dissolved in 20 ounces of water Troy-weight, 
142 drops of which solution weigh two drachms, 
every such drop will contain 1/75 of a grain of iron. 
Quantity of 
iron contain- 
ed. 
By



25 TO BATH WATER.
By this standard, the Doctors Charleton and 
Lucas have investigated the quantity of iron con- 
tained in Bath waters. According to the former 
(Essay on Bath Waters, p. 9.) the chalybeate prin- 
ciple in a pint of King’s Bath pump water 
comes out to be 1/70 of a grain nearly; in the Hot 
and Cross Bath pump water 1/140. According to the 
latter (Essay on Mineral waters, p. 293.) every pint 
of the King’s Bath pump water may be supposed 
to contain 1/37 of a grain of iron. 
In an inconclusive experiment of this sort, it 
signifies little on which side the quantity scrupu- 
lously lies. The experiments of both tend to 
corroborate the existence of iron. This extreme 
divisibility and tenuity of metal is the work man- 
ship of wise Nature, who deals out her sanative 
compositions in quantities which heal safer and 
surer than waters deeply saturated. 
II. Of SALTS and EARTHS.
WHEN I had prepared my materials for the 
press, I happily met with Dr. Linden, a German, 
trained up (as is common in that country) to 
Metallurgy and Mineralurgy, from his infancy. 
Assisted by Mr. Morgan, an expert practical chy- 
mist of the city of Bristol, in his elaboratory, we 
proceeded to experiments more demonstrative and 
more satisfactory far than those which I had la- 
boured. 
EXP. I. 
TWENTY-NINE pints of King’s Bath water 
were filled at the cock in a wickered 
bottle, and carried to Bristol, where it 
was put into a glass retort in B. A. The water 
Experiments.
B steamed



26 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
steamed away gently, without coming to a boil- 
ing heat. 
There appeared no pellicles, no change of co- 
lour in the liquor. To the upper part of the re- 
tort there adhered clear pellucid salts. The par- 
ticles which fell to the bottom were also salts, ra- 
ther insipid to the taste. 
There were no earthy parts perceptible to the 
naked eye, excepting some few yellow specks. 
Principles peculiar 
EXP. II. 
A PINT and a half of the evaporated water was 
caught in a vessel which received it as it dropped 
from the mouth of the retort. This had the ap- 
pearance of a bittern of common salt. This was 
put into a Florence flask, which was again com- 
mitted to the sand. The liquor continued transpa- 
rent. There precipitated a calcarious earth, in 
appearance, of the mature of Magnesia Alba. The
same magnesia, or earth, if it is to be so called, 
may at any time, be obtained from common bit- 
tern. 
I have preserved the lixivium still to be seen, 
of the very taste and consistence of brine, and co- 
lourless. 
How different these appearances of ours from 
those mentioned by former inquirers, Liquors 
terrestrious, unctuous, brown, Madeira, successions of 
pellicles, calcarious earths, nitres, alkaline and ni- 
trous salts, &c! When waters are evaporated 
in large, flat, open vessels, may not external 
dust intermix with the process? May not precipi- 
tant boiling, in some measure, account for such facti- 
tious principles? Alkaline salts are artificial earthy 
productions. The volatile acid of the salt is de- 
tained by the alkaline earth, and mixes so closely 
that



27 TO BATH WATER.
that both passes together thro’ the filtre. When these 
cause an effervescence with acids, the phoenome- 
non is owing to the alkaline earth which consti- 
tutes the basis of the neutral salt, which gives the 
purging quality to the waters. The powder which 
puts on the appearance of calcarious earth, is none 
other than Bath-quarry stone dissolved by the 
vitriolic acid. To confirm this assertion, Let 
this same stone be dissolved in spirit of vitriol, 
then mixed with water; let the water be poured 
off after settling, you have the calcarious earth. 
If it is precipitated with water distilled from lime 
and soap-lees, the earth will appear to be Bath- 
quarry stone. 
EXP. III.
EXAMINED in a microscope, the salts put on 
the forms of six or seven crystals of different sorts. 
On the different forms into which cry-
stals shoot, little stress is to be laid. 
Our senses are too gross to dive into the elemental 
structure of bodies; so that, for aught we know, 
there may be as many elemental differences, as 
there are species of salts; or perhaps all salts, in
their ultimate elements, may be the same. This 
we know, that no two salts of the same denomi- 
nation will, upon trial, answer the same proofs in 
every respect. We beg leave only to observe, 
that the Bath-water-salts crystallized in B. A. so 
does Borax, in opposition to the common nature 
of simple salts. Hence we infer, That out of 
Bath-water-salt a perfect Borax might be manu- 
factured.—The Salt of the first evaporation seem- 
ed to have a vitriolic taste.—That of the lixivium 
evaporated, had a large share of the marine. 
Salts.
B2 III.




28 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
III. OF SULPHUR.
1. In waters hot and cold, Sulphur seems to 
dwell, though it is often difficult, sometimes im- 
possible, corporeally to exhibit it. In 
the baths of Austria and Hungary, Dr. 
Browne not only observed true flowers of sulphur 
sticking to the conduits; but also declares that 
the waters, in a few minutes, turned silver black, 
and heightened the natural colour of gold, Phi- 
losoph. Trans. N°. 59.—In the Caesarean baths at 
Aix la Chapelle, flowers of brimstone are sublima- 
ted by natural heat, and collected in pound- 
weights.—Harrigate Spaw (according to Dr. Shaw) 
contains actual brimstone floating like feathers, 
separable by simple straining.—In Acidulae as well 
as Thermae, he has discovered signs of sulpbur, 
History of Mineral Waters, p. 54, 55, 88. and 
through the whole latter part. See Migniot’s Traité  
des Eaux Minerales de St. Amand, p. 13. 20. 23.—
In Moffat Waters, Plummer, a late learned profes- 
sor of chymistry, discovered many signs of sul- 
phur; Edinb. Med. Essays, Vol. i. Essay viii.—
In Scarborough Waters putrified, Dr. Shaw has 
discovered sulphur, though he could not in the 
water fresh, Enquiry, p. 136.—Of Dunse Spaw 
we have a similar instance, by the ingenious Dr. 
Home, p. 78, 90, 91.
Sulphur. 
2. MIGNIOT and Blondel (treating of the wa- 
ters of Aix) record a very singular remark, viz. 
Not one grain of fixed sulphur can be obtain- 
ed from even those waters, which not only 
smell strong of sulphur, but throw up hand- 
fuls of flowers of brimstone. The former 
expresses himself thus, “ Si on vouloit nier que 
“ les caux d’ Aix la Chapelle soient sulfureuses.
“ on




29 TO BATH WATER.
“ on n’auroit qu’a lever une des pierres de mal- 
“ sonerie de leurs bassins, & on trouveroit des 
“ fleurs à poignées; cependant on a eu beau 
“ tourner le corps des eaux en tout sens, on n’a
“ pû encore reussir d’en tirer ur seul grain, non 
“ plus que des notres. Traité des Eaux Minerales 
“ de S. Amand, p. 22, 23.”—The latter thus; 
“ Omnes hi fontes Corneliani, &c. sulphur maxi- 
“ me olent, habentque oleose dissolutum, ac bal- 
“ samicis mixtum. Illud, in aquis his & Cae- 
“ saeranis ita subtile est, ut in aquarum examine, 
“ qualiacunque vasa, etiam vitrea pertranseat, et 
“ ne granum illius colligi aut videri possit.” 
Therm. Aquisgranensium, & Porcetanarum descrip- 
tio, cap. v. p. 80. 
The celebrated Fred. Hoffman seems to have 
been mistaken, when he rashly pronounces his o- 
pinion, That there are very few springs which 
contain sulphur in any shape. By what, from a- 
nalogy, has already appeared, his experiments seem 
to be too general, and too much confined. There 
are waters which run hot with an abominable 
stench, and which tarnish not silver, yet exhibit
manifest signs of a volatile subtile sulphur, suffi- 
cient to convince us that they are impregnated 
with that principle; nor are they the less salutary 
for being slightly saturated. 
Gaping at clouds of smoke towering up from 
the surfaces of natural hot baths, ignorants 
naturally dream of volcano’s, abysses, subter- 
ranean fires, &c. Without evidence, physicians 
have traditionally supposed, Bath waters sul- 
phureous; as they supposed so they practised
On the existence, or non-existence of mineral 
contents depends the rationality of practice. The 
question of sulphur cannot therefore be indiffe-  
B3 rent.



30 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
rent. With that same indulgence which we 
crave, it is our purpose candidly and coolly to 
wade through this important question. 
Mayow
THE first who had the courage to 
deny the existence of sulphur in Bath 
waters, was Mayow, and that so faintly, that he 
hardly challenges attention. 
DOCTOR CHARLETON seems neither to have 
proved, nor denied the existence of sulphur. Dis- 
appointed in his hopes of exhibiting 
real sulphur, he extends the meaning of 
the word so as to comprehend unctuous, or oily 
bodies. To produce this supposed principle, he 
proceeds to analogous experiments with infusions 
of brimstone in spring water; he extracts a sulphu- 
reous tincture from the residuum of Bath water with 
Salt of Tartar. To sulphur he imputes changes 
which naturally result from the agents which he 
employs. He says, “It is a controverted point, 
“ whether or no Bath waters be impregnated with 
“ sulphur.” 
Charleton.
WHITE he was preparing his materials for the 
press, Doctor Lucas came to Bath, fully possessed 
with the current notion of sulphur. 
Sulphur was the first principle which he 
proceeded to investigate. Disappointed in certain 
leading experiments, and piqued at Dr. Charle- 
ton’s pretensions to the discovery of that vegeta- 
ble which swims on the surface of the baths; as 
well to sulphur’s being a matter of controversy, 
he changed his battery, and publicly made expe- 
riments in proof of the non-existence of sulphur. 
His arguments seemed then to me conclusive. 
Subsequent experiments have induced me to alter 
my opinion, Dies diem docet. Instructed by my 
fellow-labourer, I am not without hopes of con- 
Lucas. 
vincing



31 TO BATH WATER. 
vincing the reader, that Bath waters are really 
and truly sulphureous. 
MUD taken up fresh from the bottoms of the 
baths, smell manifestly of sulphur. 
BATH-SAND, sprinkled on a red-hot iron, emits 
a blue flame, with a suffocating vapor. 
To Dr. Lucas the public is indebted for the 
discovery of a fraud, which had blinded the un- 
derstandings of learned and unlearned; and which 
was, on all occasions, adduced as an irrefragable 
proof of sulphur, I mean the trick of transmuting 
shillings into guineas. He bribed one of the wo- 
men-guides; the divulged the mysterious men- 
struum, Stale Urine. Had this gentleman bestow- 
ed as much of his labour in proof of the exis- 
tence, as he has done on the non-existence of 
sulphur, I humbly think he might have succced- 
ed better. Let the public judge. 
α. He dropped a solution of silver in an alka- 
line ley into Bath water. He observes (page 299) 
that it grew milky, and put on a putrid 
smell; a double decomposition insued, 
of sulphur and of earth. He asks, 
“ How then can Bath water be a solution of sul- 
“ phur, or sulphureous, when it gives no indi- 
“ cation of that mineral, and is not even capable 
“ of suspending it in a solution?” 
Lucas’s pro-
cess.
His own assertion proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, by the same parity of reason that acids 
precipitate the sulphur out of the alka- 
line solution, the sulphur contained in
the water mingles with the sulphur in the solu- 
tion, while both come to be precipitated by the 
acid contained in the water. Were there no sul- 
phur in the water, this separation could not insue, 
the whole would unite into one neutral concrete. 
Answered.
In sulphureous waters, there is no such thing 
B4 to



32 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
to be expected as a solution of sulphur, such as 
is produced by art. In nature’s elaboratory, the 
particles of sulphur are not dissolved, but sus- 
pended. 
β. “ He mixed a solution of Corrosive Sublimate 
(page 303), and observed that the mixture put on 
a slight milkiness only, without precipitation. 
From this appearance he says, Had there been sul- 
phur in the water of any sort, a milkiness, and a pre- 
cipitation must have insued. 
γ. “ He mixed a solution of Quicksilver (page 
304) with Bath water. This raised a bright milky 
cloud, growing suddenly opaque, and then chang- 
ing or precipitating to yellow, which, upon stir- 
ting, grows white again. Instead of this yellow 
being produced by the imaginary sulphur of the 
waters, he affirms that this colour and precipita- 
tion are produced by the union of the absorbent 
earth, and the universal acid.” 
To the two last, and all his other mercurial 
experiments, we beg leave to offer one general 
answer. Metallic solutions are, at best, 
but impotent proofs. Had the Bath 
waters been sublimated, as they ought to have 
been, and then been found not to change colour, 
they might then have justly been pronounced void 
of sulphur. The production of the union of the 
absorbent earth and universal acid is merely hy- 
pothetical, or rather proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, if common brimstone is dissolved in 
order to make Lac Sulphuris the precipitate is 
white. But, if the sulphur is separated from An- 
timony, or any other mineral, then indeed an o- 
range-coloured precipitate insues. The springs 
must be supposed to rise through a brimstone quar- 
ry to produce this yellow colour. In the Bath 
Answered.
waters


33 TO BATH WATER.
waters the sulphur is only suspended in small 
atoms. 
δ. “ He mixed a solution of Silver, page 305. 
This (he says) caused bright bluish white clouds, 
which soon coagulated, appeared opaque, and pre- 
cipitated suddenly in grumes.—These bluish
white clouds, &c. are evidences of the existence 
of sulphur; for, from experience we know, that 
(in the bowels of the earth, as well as in Smelting 
houses) brimstone coagulates all metals and mine- 
rals that are in a dissolved state. Hence it is, 
that the sulphur contained in the Bath water act 
its natural part, by reducing the silver dissolved in 
the Aqua fortis into a solid state, a manifest proof 
of sulphur.” 
ε. “ He supposes the dissolvent acids either pure, 
or mixed with martial, or other earths, or inflam- 
mable principles. As they happen to be colour- 
less or coloured, so they form different Luna cor- 
nua’s with the metals which they attract.” 
THESE are hypothetic notions; for, if sol- 
vents contained coloured, or colourless earths, or in- 
flammable principles, they could not 
dissolve metals, while they were in pos-
session of such contents. Hence, may we ven- 
ture to affirm. That the colour which this ingeni- 
ous artist places in his solvent, was the produc- 
tion of sulphur contained in the Bath-water. 
Answered. 
δ. “ Solutions of Sea-salt (he says) produce the 
same effects with solutions of sulphur, and from 
the same causes.” 
THESE experiments plead neither for or against 
sulphur. The phlogiston never evaporates; nor is 
it in the power of chymistry to separate it. 
from water, be it ever so vapid; as may be 
demonstrated from common electrical experiments. 
The waters of Aken may be deprived- of their  
Answered.
B5 “ volatile



34 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
volatile spirit, which has a share in the production 
of colours; but this has no connection with sul- 
phur. 
η. “ He then proceeded to evaporate the wa- 
ter (page 310) without any sensible smell. The 
residuum, thrown upon an ignited iron, fumed 
slightly without visible flame, or acid vapor, 
without scintillating, fulgurating, or crepita- 
ting. Had sulphur and nitre entered the com- 
position, the effects of gun-powder must have 
insued.” 
THESE experiments are inconclusive; for cathar- 
tic salts, and many other things will 
fulminate without sulphur, while others 
again will not fulminate with sulphur. 
Answered.
θ. He concludes thus, “ Let the inordinate 
“ lovers of brimstone know, that sulphur actually 
“ dissolved, is decomposed in the evaporation, 
“ the phlogiston flying off, while the acid satu- 
“ rates the alkaline salt; that digestions of the 
“ residuum with Salt of Tartar may heighten the 
“ colour, but this proceeds from that oily sub- 
“ stance which is inherent in water in general; 
“ that this is no solution of sulphur appears from 
“ this, that acids cause neither stench nor preci- 
“ pitation in the tincture, which must have hap- 
“ pened had they contained sulphur.” 
WE have just observed, That this same phlo-
giston is far from being volatile. It is of an unc- 
tuous nature, the cause of colour, and 
splendour in metals. Was the phlo- 
giston to evaporate in boiling, how could the 
smelter produce metal out of his furnace? Sul- 
phureous smells cannot be produced from waters 
so slightly impregnated with sulphur as ours are. 
To discover the existence of sulphur therefore in 
Bath water, mixtures of metallic solutions (as we
Answered.
observed



35 TO BATH WATER.
observed before) are unavailing and exceptionable 
experiments. Sublimation is the ordeal trial. By
Sublimation we hope to demonstrate, that Bath 
water changes its colour, and answers all the 
characteristics of real brimstone. 
EXP. I. 
ONE ounce of Bath water mud, or rather pre- 
cipitate, taken up at the bottom of the King’s 
Bath, smelled most sensibly of sulphur. 
We mixed one ounce of this mud, 
with half an ounce of white Arsenic.
The mixture was put into a Florence flask, and
sublimated in B. A. In the neck of the flask
there was produced a deep orange colour, or red- 
dish arsenic, of the nature of Auri-pigmentum. 
Author's
process.
EXP. II. 
WITH the same materials, and, in the same- 
manner, the same experiment was-repeated. The 
same exactly were the appearances. 
EXP. III, 
THE residuum of the evaporation of twenty- 
nine pints, mentioned under the Section of Salts, 
and Earths, about two drachms (for it was not 
weighed) was, with equal quantities of white Arse- 
nic, put into a Florence flask, and sublimated as in 
Exp.: first and second. In the neck of the flask a
sublimate appears inclining to yellow. For, as 
yellow, or red inclining arsenic cannot exist, or 
naturally be produced, nor artificially imitated 
without the help of real common brimstone, it is 
therefore plain from experiments 1, 2, 3, that
B6 the

36 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath mud, or precipitate, contains a perfect 
sulphur. These experiments are so much the 
more to be depended on, as it is well known that 
arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the quan- 
tity ever so small, or entangled. The deeper the 
orange yellow, or ruby-like colour the arsenic 
is tinged with, the greater the quantity of sul- 
phur. Newman, Stahl, Henckel, Potter, and 
other naturalists, maintain that there are no me- 
talline or mineral ores without arsenic, nor, con- 
sequently, mineral waters. Those waters in which 
arsenic predominates, purge and vomit. As Bath 
waters neither (in general) purge nor vomit; and 
as they, in part, owe their heat to mondic, ox py- 
rites, we may hence infer, that they contain sul- 
phur; enough, at least, to subdue the poisonous 
quality of the arsenic, without defeating its salu- 
tary purposes. 
THESE are blood-warm waters, such as Bux- 
ton, and Taffy’s-well, which are warm without 
sulphur, These contain no sulphur, nor any mi- 
neral whatever. Their warmth proceeds from a 
steam, which arises from marle, or rotten lime- 
stone. But there are no waters which contain 
salts, destitute of sulphur; for salts cannot be
generated without sulphur. 
THAT experiment of Boerhaave’s adduced to 
discover the fraud of sulphur suspended in al- 
kaline salts, or Golden tincture, bears no analogy
with Bath, or any other sulphureous water. For, 
in waters truly sulphureous, the sulphur is mixed
with the aqueous fluid, by the help of the mine- 
ral ferment, such as is caused by a bituminous 
substance. If we drop this alkaline solution in- 
to a glass of Bath water, it soon grows milky. 
The oily, or inflammable principle thus set at li- 
berty by the acid, regales the nostrils with a rot-
ten

37 TO BATH WATER. 
ten sulphureous smell. This experiment serves
to prove the existence of an acid in the water. It 
serves also to prove, That Bath water contains 
brimstone; for brimstone is nothing but the in- 
flammable principle united with the vitriolic acid. 
FROM the sum total, we may ven- 
ture to pronounce, That Bath water 
contains. 
Conclusion.
1. THE HOT ELEMENTARY FLUID. 
2. AIR. 
3. SPRIT. 
4. IRON.
5. SALTS.
6. SULPHUR.
CHAP.

38 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
CHAP. III.
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BRISTOL
WATER	
OF the volatile vitriolic acid of Bristol water 
we have treated in that chapter which speaks 
of principles common to Bath and Bristol waters. 
To particular experiments we now proceed; and 
first to such as fall under the cognizance of 
sense. 
Taste.
1. To the Taste, Bristol water is par- 
ticularly grateful, leaving a sense of 
stipticity on the palate. 
Smell.
2. To the Smell, it is inodorous. 
3. To the Touch, it is luke-warm. “ In sum- 
mer 1744, the Earl of Macclesfield made experi- 
ments forty days successively morn- 
ing and evening. The scale of his 
Thermometer divided the distance from 
the freezing point to the boiling, into 
100 parts. The degrees were divided into parts 
of degrees. During the whole, the difference 
never rose or fell a full degree. So that 24 5/8 of
his Lordship’s scale (the medium of his observa- 
tions) corresponds to 76 degrees of Fahrenheit’s. 
Experiments 
to prove the 
degree of heat.
In July 1751, Dr. Davis, late of Bath, made 
repeated experiments with Fahrenheit’s, and found
the mercury rise between 76 and 77 degrees. The 
season was remarkably cold and rainy, and yet 
the heat was not sensibly less the day after the 
water was fouled by excessive showers and land- 
floods.  
These trials stand recorded, and may be seen 
in a book now in the possession of the pumpers.” 
June

39 TO BRISTOL WATER.
June 24, 1761, the heat of the water raised 
Fahrenheit’s Thermometer, at the cock, to 76 1/2,
then 3 degrees higher than the external air. That 
very day, the Thermometer was immersed in wa- 
ter as it issued from the pump of a well of com- 
mon spring water belonging to the neighbouring 
Rock-house. The quicksilver rose to 56 1/2 only. 
On December the first, the coldest day of this 
winter, Mr. Renaudet, an ingenious surgeon, re- 
sident at the Hot Wells, made a trial of the heat. 
In his own bed-chamber, without fire, the mer- 
cury sunk, at 9 A.M. to 35 1/2. At 3 P.M. it 
rose to 38. He then immerged the instrument in- 
to one of the drinking glasses at the Hot Well 
pump. It raised the quicksilver to 76 1/8. So that 
Bristol water appears to be only 3/8 of a degree less 
warm on the coldest day in winter, than on the 
hottest day of summer. This trifling difference 
may perhaps be owing to the action of the cold 
external air on that part of the plate which is not
immerged in the water. Hence we learn, that 
Bristol water is warmer than common spring wa- 
ter by 20 degrees; and 20 degrees below the heat 
of the human blood in a healthy state. 
4. WEIGHED, it is of the same spe- 
cific gravity with distilled water. 
Weight.
It loses only a portion of that elastic air which
evaporates before the bottles can be corked. It 
contains neither animal, vegetable, nor sulphure- 
ous particles; so that it may truly be said to be 
void of the seeds of corruption. Hence may we 
account for its singular quality of bearing expor- 
tation. With a bottle kept twenty-five years, I 
made the common experiments, to which it an- 
swered as well as with water pumped one day. 
5. WITH


40 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR5. 
No iron.
5. WITH Vegetable Astringents, Bristol 
water produces no other change of co- 
lour than with distilled water. 
6. To distilled water in which Salt of Iron had 
been dissolved, I added Tincture of galls the 
purple colour was immediately produced. 
These waters stain not linen with what we call 
iron moulds; nor is there the least appearance of 
that yellow oker that lines tire reservoirs of iron
waters.—Hence may we pronounce that Bristol 
water contains no principle of Iron fixed or vola- 
tile.—To its fixed principles we now proceed. 
Salts.
7. THIRTY pints of Bristol water 
were poured into a glass retort, placed 
in a sand-heat in Mr. Morgan’s Elaborately. 
Common spring water was poured into another 
glass retort placed in the same sand. Neither 
were brought to the degree of boiling; they eva- 
porated by gentle steaming. In the retort filled
with Bristol water there arose a pellicle, which 
did not appear in the other. The water continued 
white or transparent, till the whole was evapo- 
rated. The residuum weighed ninety grains. 
The salts being dissolved, there remained one 
half of an earthy matter, 
8. The Salt slightly confined in a Florence 
flask attracted moisture, a proof of its being of
the alkaline nature of common esculent sea-salt. 
Exposed to the air, it increases in weight, and 
grows white, or mealy. 
9. VIEWED in a microscope, this salt exhibited 
the form of sea-salt, and calcarious, or muratic, 
the alkaline nitre of Egypt, the Natrum Egyptia- 
cum, or Sal Murale, of the antients. This salt 
is not purgative, as the salt of most mineral waters 
are. It is of a strengthening nature. Was it 
therefor extracted, and administred together with
the

41 TO BRISTOL WATER.
the waters, their virtues might be much im- 
proved. 
DR. KEIR (in his ingenious Essay on Bristol wa- 
ters) pronounces it nitrous chiefly. His principal 
arguments are drawn from the forms in which 
the crystals shoot. But, this test is fallacious, as 
he candidly owns (page 26) He confesses that, 
on a red-hot iron, it neither flamed nor smok- 
ed; nay, it continued fixed in the fire without 
any other alteration, but the total loss of its pel- 
lucidity, page 81. 
10. PUT on charcoal, and melted with a fol- 
dering pipe, it crepitated very little, and, after 
the crepitation was over, melted like a fixed al- 
kali. It blistered in a small degree, and continu- 
ed in a soft state while in the fire, in a manner 
like Borax; with this difference, that it stained
the poker like wax, which Borax does not. As 
the muriatic salt, or Natrum, is a basis to that of
Borax, no wonder that these appearances corres- 
pond. It does not swell into bubbles like Alum, 
nor does it emit a white flame like Nitre. Cal- 
cined with Charcoal, it imbibes the inflammable 
principle, and forms a hepar sulphuris. 
11. INTO a solution of this salt, pour a few 
drops of the folution of Silver in Spirit of Nitre. 
It instantly throws up light clouds, which fall in 
the form of white precipitate. 
12. THE Lixivium of Bristol Salts causes no 
manner of alteration, or effervescence with Spirit 
of Vitriol. 
13. DROPPED into Oleum Tartari per deliquium, 
it caused a congelation, or a kind of petre- 
faction. 
14. THE same lixivium changes the syrup of 
Violets into purple, A solution of Borax did the 
same.  
15.  The

42 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
15. The Earth of Bristol Water (by calcina- 
tion) gives lime; whence it has gene- 
rally been taken for a calcarious earth, 
but that conclusion is vague. Soap-lees cause, it
is true, no alteration. This indeed is a proof of 
lime, which makes it a neutral, as lime renders 
the alkali a neutral to constitute the soap-lee. 
Dr. Keir supposes part of the lime-stone re- 
duced into powder by the native acid spirit 
which pervades the caverns of the earth, and 
which corrodes it to a point of saturation. 
This he offers only as a conjecture, for (page 
87) he says, “ It is not hence to be inferred 
that this water can be of the same nature with 
common lime-water; that it owes its heat to 
actual fire; or the igneous parts contained in 
lime-stone. Page 91, he gives up his corroded 
powder, and allows the fixed contents to be Nitres,
Marine-salt and Calcarious Earth.”
Earth. 
16. THIS earth did not dissolve in fresh di- 
stilled water, or even in the acid of sea-salt. It 
caused an ebullition with acids, which seemed to 
confirm the opinion of lime. But there dis- 
solved only one half in the aforesaid acid. The 
remainder put on the appearance of an indissolu- 
ble selenite. 
THE earthy part of Bristol water may be 
said to be a Magnesia Alba, fabricated in nature’s 
elaboratory, by the help of the universal vitriolic
acid. 
Conclusion.
FROM the sum total of these 
Experiments, we may rationally con- 
clude, 
1. THAT those who account Bristol water to 
be a mere elementary fluid, found their ipse dixits
on ignorance, the parent of prejudice.  
2. THAT

43 TO BRISTOL WATER:
2. THAT those who have charged It with Iron, 
Nitre, Alum, Sulphur, Chalk, or Lime, have ei- 
ther ventured their opinions without experiments, 
or have erred in their analysis. 
The component parts of Bristol water are,
1. THE TEPID AQUEOUS FLUID.
2. AIR.
3. SPIRIT.
4. NEUTRAL SALT.
5. ABSORBENT EARTH.
CHAP.

44 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
CHAP. IV.
OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF BATH AND
BRISTOL WATERS, APPLIED TO THE HU-
MAN BODY.	
FROM the experience of twenty years, 
Frederick Hoffman has declared, “ That 
“ certain springs, at certain seasons, 
“ are frequented by men who have 
“ written in an inelegant manner; that their 
“ manner of prescribing has been no less pre- 
“ posterous; that theory is, at best, fallacious; 
“ and, that the practice of mineral waters can 
“ never be ascertained without experience.” 
Bath and Bristol waters have been analysed by 
numbers; various, discordant, and inconsistent 
virtues have been assigned; never yet have their 
principles been reconciled to practice. In the 
three preceding chapters, I have attempted to ascer- 
tain their principles; my present purpose is to recon- 
cile those principles to the symptoms to which they 
naturally or rationally are adapted. Nor am I (in 
this my attempt) unapprised of those difficulties 
which attend researches which admit not of de- 
monstration. By pursuing those tracks which ex- 
perience has pointed out, we may however be 
enabled to throw in our aid at those critical sea- 
sons when nature seems to lead the way; instead 
of counteracting her intentions, we may mitigate 
symptoms, where we cannot cure diseases. 
IN my first chapter, I made mention of the only
rational scientific method of extending 
the sphere of mineral waters, I mean, 
the Art of Induction; by this we are en- 
abled to discover those laws, means, or actions 
Art of in- 
duction.
by

45 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS: 
by which they produce their effects. To bring 
this art to some sort of precision, it may be first
necessary to be acquainted with the seats, causes, 
diagnostics, and prognostics of diseases. 
To adapt the virtues of mineral waters to par- 
ticular diseases, it may be previously necessary to
comprehend general doctrines; this is Boerhaave’s 
aphoristical doctrine. On the subjects of inflam- 
mation, pain, and obstruction, he has so fully en- 
larged, that, generals once understood, particu- 
lar disorders seem self-evident. Acute diseases na- 
turally fall under the province of simple soft wa- 
ter artificially heated; such may be had here, 
there, or any where, and, therefore, fall not im- 
mediately under my subject. 
In chronic diseases, there is room for deliberation; 
Chronic diseases generally take root before the pa- 
tient complains. Sick people are rarely tractable; 
when danger seems to cease, they generally forget 
the Doctor. For these, and similar reasons, Cel- 
sus thinks chronic diseases more difficult of cure 
than acute; physicians have much better hopes of 
a peripneumony than a phthisis. The same Celsus 
calls Cachexy, malus corporis habitus. From a survey
of the causes of Cachexy, we hope to prove that 
the solids are restored by the fluids. If the fluids 
posses not qualities necessary for nutrition, the 
solids cannot be restored. When the humours 
come to be drained off by evacuations sensible or 
insensible, the body continues not to be nou- 
rished. 
GUTTA cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe caden- 
do. Just so it fares with the human frame; the 
fluids strike four thousand times in the space of
one hour, against the sides of converging canals. 
The epidermis peels off, and grows again; we 
cut our nails, they grow again; so fares it with
our

46 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
our hair. Parts of our solids pass off by spit- 
tie, urine, bile, and excrements; the solids daily 
perish. 
IN health, the urine is rather high-coloured, 
with a proper sediment. In cachectics, the urine 
is crude, and colourless. In weak circulations, 
insensible perspiration ceases; the skin becomes 
parched, nasty, and dry. What used to pass by 
the skin, now takes the road of the ureters; Hip- 
pocrates observes, that the body cannot be nou- 
rished, while the urine continues to be crude, 
thin, and watry. If it passes in quantity, the 
body wastes; if it stagnates, it produces a λευΧον
φλεγμα, or dropsy. In cachectics, muscular mo- 
tion languishes, so does the force of the heart and 
arteries. The great veins have hardly strength to 
empty themselves; the third order of vessels can 
no longer resorb that lymph which the exhalant 
arteries pour forth. The Tunica cellulosa swells, 
oedema’s arise, particularly in places most remote 
from the heart. Hence languor, and debility of 
pulse; hence palpitation and difficulty of breath- 
ing, as Aretaeus well observes, in his Caus. et 
Sign. morb. diuturnor. Such patients ought not to 
be purged, but strengthened. 
THE Origins of diseases are not so complex as 
commonly believed, neither is the method of cure. 
Boerhaave (in his Academical Praelec- 
tions) was wont to observe, That there 
were many who despised the practice of 
the antients, because (in diseases differing in their 
symptoms) they applied the same, or similar reme- 
dies. Parents are affronted if they are confined to
the same simple regimen. They think themselves 
well used if they meet with Doctors who ransack 
dispensatories, changing, compounding, and re- 
compounding every hour, while far more surely 
Origins of di- 
seases simples.
and

47 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
and sooner they empty the pocket than the dis- 
ease; dum longe certius crumenam exhauriunt quam 
morbum. Let those who despise simplicity of 
practice, consider how many, and how different 
diseases have, for ages, been cured by the use 
of Baths and Mineral waters. To these invalids 
are obliged to fly after having, to no purpose, 
tried nostrums the most extolled. Considerent ili 
qui simplicitatem artis, in morhis chronicis, elato su-
percilio, contemnunt, quot et quam diversi morbi cu- 
rentur Thermarum et Aquarum mineralium usu, per 
tot saecula, prohato. Ad haec coguntur confugere ae-
gri, decantatissima alia remedia experti, absque ullo 
fructu. 
FROM a consideration of the difference of 
causes which produce cachexy, we hope to make 
it appear that different and opposite remedies are 
sometimes required. When the body is puffed up 
with viscid humors occasioned by the debility of
the solids, strengthening medicines are the in- 
struments. When attenuated humors pass off 
and cannot be replaced by nourishment, when 
the vessels thus contract, and the sick waste, 
moistening and incrassating remedies are indi- 
cated. 
Different diseases require different preparations. 
Girls bloated with pale inert mucous cacochymy 
require Iron dissolved in vegetable acids, rather 
than Iron in substance; because filings inviscate 
themselves in the mucus of the first passage, and 
thus avail but little. But, if there are signs of a 
predominant acid, then let Iron be given in sub- 
stance, because it not only blunts the acid acri- 
mony; but, dissolved in this acid, produces its 
effecs. 
Those


48 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Those disorders which arise from inflammatory 
lentor are increased by Bristol water, and exaspe- 
rated by Bath. Pituitous lentor falls 
under the power of both. Humors 
transgress by excessive dilution, or by 
putrescency. For that flaccidity of fo- 
lids induced by excessive dilution, we find filings 
of Iron successfully recommended. In dilution 
caused by putrescency, we find Acids successfully 
also recommended. When the body comes to 
be bloated with humors inert and phlegmatic, 
Chalybeates are indicated. Thus, in a word, chro- 
nical disorders, in general, fall under the power 
of some or other of those principles which consti- 
tute mineral waters. For, filings of Iron, and 
Oil of Vitriol are only succedaneums to mineral 
Waters. 
Mineral wa- 
ters differ in 
their princi- 
ples.
Some waters contain the elementary fluid only. 
Such have we named. If simple dilution is only 
required, these are the waters. If acids predo- 
minate, Seltzer waters are indicated. If the ac- 
tion of the solids is to be increased, Spaw and 
Bath waters inspire the very foul of Iron into pale 
languid carcasses, so does Tunbridge. If foul 
Scurvy predominates, Scarborough and Cheltenham 
conduce. In Worms, and Itch, Harrigate has 
done wonders. If Scrophula taints the blood, 
Mossat Wells promise a cure.—In Consumptions 
arising from tubercles, or in cases where the 
aerial vessels are choaked, Bristol’s penetrating
salts have cleared the passages. Its Absorbent 
Earth has corrected that acrid humour which vel- 
licates the nervous coat of the intestines. Thus 
has it stopped fluxes in which Opiates and Astrin- 
gents have done mischief, by stopping expectora- 
tion. Its native Acid has banished colliquative 
sweats, and quenched that thirst which is the 
constant

49 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
constant attendant of the diabetes particularly, 
and of fevers. The blood has thus again ac- 
quired its natural balsamic quality. Fresh lustre 
has sparkled in the eyes of patients doomed to 
death. 
CACHEXY thus naturally falls under the province 
of mineral waters; cachexy thus naturally 
becomes my theme. This imperfect work 
may fall into the hands of men, in whose more pene- 
trating sight, physiological disquisitions may ap- 
pear superfluous. In the eyes of such, I hope 
for pardon, if, for the sake of the many, I tres- 
pass on the patience of the few. The subject of mi- 
neral waters is still rude and uncultivated. Pursu- 
ing the footsteps of Boerhaave, that great restorer of
physic, it is my purpose to inquire into the causes, 
seats, diagnostics, prognostics, and cure of cachexy. 
By adapting the virtues of the several principles 
which constitute Bath and Bristol waters, distant 
practitioners may no longer wonder why patients 
labouring under inveterate ailments, receive cures 
at these fountains.
Cachexy. 
§. I. THE antients reckoned three 
causes of disease, Remote, Predisponent, 
and Proximate.
Causes of 
Cachexy. 
1. THE Passions claim the first place. Of these 
I purpose to treat expressly in the last 
part of this work. Suffice it here in 
general to say, that nothing so sensibly disturbs
the actions of the solids and fluids. 
Passions.
2. DEEP EXERCISES of mind debilitate the 
nerves, consume the strength, destroy 
concoction, and hinder the secretions. 
Hence it is that the studious are subject to flatu- 
lence, hypochondriac disorders, palsy, and lean- 
ness. 
Study.
C 3. POISONS


50 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
3. POISONS, by reason of the celerity of their 
operation, claim the next place. These are ve- 
getable, animal, and mineral. The
first; act immediately on the nerves of
the stomach and intestines. The nature of ani- 
mal poison is still unknown. The last operate 
also on the first passages. To this class we refer 
various sorts of medicines, which produce like 
symptoms, anxiety, sighing, convulsions, inflam- 
mations, and gangrene. 
Poisons. 
4. OF the different qualities and effects of
Air, I have treated in my Essay on the 
Use of Sea Voyages, as well as in that 
chapter which treats of Consumptions. 
Air. 
5. BESIDES the evident qualities of air, there 
are others not discoverable by the senses, morbi- 
fic particles floating in the air. There 
are effluvia which arise from excrements, 
rotten vegetables, insects, and marshy grounds. 
There are subterranean salts, oils, and metals. 
There are morbific miasmata arising from small- 
pox, measles, and other infectious disorders, 
wasted through the air, and again multiplied in 
the human body. These morbific particles act 
on the surface of the body, in the ratio of the 
subtilty, celerity, motion, and figure of their 
particles. They enter the blood; By the first 
passages, together with the saliva; By the in- 
halant vessels of the skin; but, chiefly, By the 
bibulous vessels of the lungs. 
Effluvia.
6. SUPPRESSIONS of natural evacuations pro- 
duce chronical disorders. Retention of excre- 
ment produces wind, crudity, pains of 
the stomach and head; of urine, drop- 
sy, anasarca, and fever; of perspiration, liftless- 
ness, cough, rheumatism, fever, and almost eve- 
ry disease; of the menses, consumption, vomit- 
Suppressions.
5 ing,

 

51 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
ing, or spitting of blood, green sickness, hyste- 
rics, cachexy, hectic, &c. of the haemorhoids, 
asthma, hypo, pleurisy, and peripneumony. 
Quanda enim singula quae aderant, non revertantur, 
binc sequitur corporis gravitas, pallor subinde repe-
tens, venter flatibus referus, oculi concavi, &c. 
Aretaeus De causts & signis morbor. diuturnor. Lib. i, 
Cap. l6. p. 47. 
7.INTROPULSIONS of skin disorders 
produce symptoins more terrible. 
Intropulsions.
8. OF Aliment I purpose to speak in the last
part. Suffice it here in general to ob- 
serve, That excessive satiety and absti- 
nence are both productive of chronical dis- 
orders. 
Diet.
9. WATCHING hurts the nerves, 
hinders perspiration, relaxes the fibres, 
and corrodes the juices. 
Watching.
§. II. THE Effects of remote causes 
are diminished or increased according to 
the nature of the body which they oc- 
cupy. 
Causes predis-
ponent. 
1. WEAKLY PEOPLE are,in gene- 
ral, predidposed to disease, and e.c. 
Infirm.
2. THE frame of the body disposes
certain bodies to certain diseases, e.g. 
Long necked narrow chested people are 
liable to consumption.—Short necked to apo- 
plexy.—Fat to asthma.
Make of the
body.
Rigidity.
3. RIGID FIBRES quicken the circulation, in- 
crease heat, and thicken the blood. The body 
comes thus to be disposed to pleurisy, 
rheumatism, and inflammatory fevers. 
—Where, e.c. the serous part of the blood pre- 
ponderates, and the secretions are deficient, ca- 
chexy, dropsy, oedematous swellings, intermit- 
Rigidity.
C2 tents,

52 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
tents, remittents, and nervous fevers, are the 
consequences. 
Delicacy.
4. DELICATE FRAMES are subject
to haemoptoes and consumptions. 
Blood dis- 
solved. 
5. THIN watry blood produces scur- 
vy, haemorrhages, dysenteries, and pu- 
trid diseases. 
6. As men succeed to their fathers fortunes, so
do they inherit their diseases. From a certain he- 
reditary structure of the solids and flu- 
ids, the body is disposed to hysterics, 
stone, consumption, epilepsy, scrophula, rheuma- 
tism, gout, &c. 
Inheritance. 
7. SOME diseases pave the way for others, as 
asthma for dropsy, cholic for palsy, measles for 
consumption, &c. Particular parts once 
injured, are affected from the slightest 
cause. Neque enim morbi derepente ho- 
minibus accidunt, sed paulatim collecti confertim se 
produnt, says Hippocrates. 
Diseases pro- 
ductive of 
diseases. 
8. DIFFERENT AGES are subject to different 
diseases. Infancy has its teething, red- 
gum, worms, rickets; youth its inflam- 
mations; old-age dropsy, asthma, obstructions, 
&c. 
Age.
Women.
9. WOMEN are predisposed to green- 
sickness, hysterics, nervous disorders, 
and violent affections of the mind. 
Proximate 
Causes.
§. III. THE Proximate Causes of di- 
seases are, it must be confessed, often
past finding out. Experience has, how- 
ever, established some general causes. 
1. STAGNATIONS of Blood produce inflamma- 
tory fevers of Serum, spasms, drop- 
sies, anasarcas, &c. of Lymph, glandu- 
lar swellings; of the Nervous juice, apoplexies 
and palsies.  
Stagnations. 
2. PLETHORY

53 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. PLETHORY distends the vascular system. 
Hence debility, heaviness, head-ach, 
dreams, difficulty of breathing, hyste- 
rics, hypochondriacs, polypous concretions, in- 
flammatory fevers, &c. 
Plethory.
3. HIGH SAUCES, and fermented liquors give, 
rise to cutaneous eruptions, rheumatism, gout, 
defluxions, cholics, wasting, and hec- 
tic.—Acidities of the first passages give 
rise to belchings, anxiety, gripes, green stools, 
looseness, and constipation. 
Intemperance.
4. INTERNAL HARDNESSES, (by pressing on 
other parts) produce dropsies, asthmas, 
flatus’s, and various other disorders, ac- 
cording to the part affected. 
Schirri.
5. INTERNAL SUPPURATIONS produce diseases
inconquerable. Reabsorbed they infect
the blood with putrid cacochymy. 
Hence hectic, night sweats, wasting, &c. 
Suppurations. 
6. ACUTE DISEASES terminate in 
death, health, or other diseases; in 
which last case they may be said to be 
ill-cured; though, in many instances, it 
is not in the power of the most expert to pre-
vent it. 
Acute termi-
nate in chro-
nic.
7. CONCRETIONS of all sorts produce chroni- 
cal disorders. If the bile is stopped in its passage 
from the gall-bladder into the duode- 
num, it necessarily stagnates; while 
the thinner part is absorbed, the thicker inspis-
sates, and produces chronical obstructions, jaun- 
dice, pain in the right hypochondre, difficulty of 
breathing, &c. Concretions in the kidneys, 
produce pains, inflammation, vomiting, ul- 
cers, bloody waters, suppression of urine, &c. 
That unctuous smegma which oozes through the
Concretions.
C3 cuticular







54 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
cuticular vessels, if it stagnates, inspissates, and 
produces steatomatous swellings. 
8. THERE are spontaneous changes which nei- 
ther can be seen, nor prevented; hence chro- 
nical disorders. Blood drawn from the 
arm of a healthy man separates into glo- 
bules red and serous. If a man lies in 
a syncope for even a few minutes, his blood stag- 
nates in the ventricles, sinus’s, and auricles of 
the heart, pulmonary artery, sinus’s of the brain 
and uterine vessels: hence palpitations, fixed pain, 
intermitting pulse, anxiety, difficulty of breath- 
ing, fainting, and death. 
Spontaneous 
changes. 
This was the unhappy fate of my patient, Cap- 
tain Dorrel of the navy. Five years before, 
he fell into a syncope produced by 
watching and hard duty. From that 
instant he laboured under the complaints above 
recited. His days were shortened by injudicious 
bleedings, which destroyed the vis vitae; he died
cachectic.
Case.
Worms.
9. FROM Worms nestling in the 
first passages, arise cholic-pains, erra- 
tic-fevers, convulsions, false appetite, perforations, 
and death. 
This was the fate of Master Tyrrel, a pro- 
mising young scholar at Claverton school, near 
Bath. Called for in a hurry, I found 
him feverish, with a fixed pain in his 
side. Having no reason to suspect worms, he 
was, according to custom, bled and blistered
on the part. Next day, I found the fever un- 
commonly abated, the pain was equally in- 
tense, and fixed in the opposite side. From 
that hour, I treated the disorder as from worms,
nor was I mistake; for in a very short 
time, he voided two round worms five or six 
Case. 
inches

55 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
inches long. By pursuing the same regimen, 
I flattered myself with the hopes of a complete 
cure. My hopes were vain; for, one morn- 
ing, as I thought I had left him in a fair way, 
a servant came galloping over the Downs, with
news that Master was dying. Hastening 
back, I found him in a cold sweat, faint- 
ings, pulse scarcely distinguishable. By the 
help of cordials incessantly repeated, he was
kept alive for some hours only. Surprised at
such uncommon appearances, I examined the 
body, and found the abdomen greatly distend- 
ed. On laying it open, there issued forth an 
ash-coloured liquor, of the consistence of wa- 
ter-gruel, some quarts in quantity. Intense 
cold, intolerable stench, and precipitance pre- 
vented my searching for the perforation thro’ 
which this liquor must have passed. In the 
abdomen there were no worms; but in the 
small guts there were fix, as large as the for- 
mer, and dead. 
10. ACCIDENTS give rise to chronical diseases. 
By bruises never divulged, children 
have been subject, all their lives, to 
convulsions and idiotism.—From vertebral distor- 
tions, incurable asthmas and palsies have been pro- 
duced. 
Accidents.
§. IV. FEVERISH DISORDERS, which terminate 
soon, and which proceed from contagion, have 
their seats in the fluids.—1. Fevers 
inflammatory and putrid have their seats 
in the red globules; in the serum, slow 
fevers, rheumatism, and gout; in the lymph, ve- 
nereal and other pestilential disorders; in the
nervous fluid, nervous fevers, effects of smells,
and many poisons, such as opium, nightshade.
Seat of Ca-
chexy.
C4 &c.

56 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
&c. This last is the most dangerous, because on 
this spirituous fluid bodily strength depends. 
2. NERVOUS and membraneous parts of the 
body appropriated to motion and sensation, are 
the seats of many diseases; the brain 
to epilepsy, madness, lethargy, apo- 
plexy; the nerves to spasms, convul- 
sions, tetanus, palpitations, convulsive asthmas, 
vomiting, hysterics, hypochondriacs, and palsy. 
Nerves and
Membranes.
3. THE intestinal tube is more liable to disease 
than any other part of the body. This is com- 
posed of folds and windings; the cir- 
culation is slow; this way goes air 
replete with morbific particles, as also meats
of different and opposite natures; this is the pas- 
sage for the saliva, pancreatic juice, both biles, 
with other humours and liquors fermentable. 
Here the fibrous part of the food sufFers corrup- 
tion. The intestinal tube is the seat of heart- 
burn, anxiety, wind, spasms, cholics, ilium, ili- 
ac passion, diarrhaea, dysentery, head-ach, and
vertigo. 
Guts.
§. V. THE knowlege of Diagnostics is that 
branch of pathology which treats of the specific 
nature and difference of diseases re- 
sembling one another. Without this 
physicians cannot form prognostics; they become 
the sport of apothecaries apprentices and nurses. 
As are the different colour, tenacity, acrimony, 
and fluidity of infarcted liquors, so are the diffe- 
rent effects of cachexy, viz. whiteness of the skin, 
yellowish, paleness, lividness, redness; heaviness, 
palpitations, crude pale urine, and wasting. The 
change of the humours is best perceived where the 
vessels are most naked, as in the white of the 
eye, lips, inside of the mouth. To sum up the 
whole, the physician need only recollect what the 
Diagnostics.
patient


57 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
patient was, and compare that picture with the 
present. 
§. VI. PROGNOSTICS vary with the causes.
Suppose, e.g. upon inquiry, I find that the pre- 
sent depraved habit of body arises from 
improper diet, I prognosticate a cure, 
because I reasonably expect from a better.—
Suppose cachexy arise from defect of animal mo- 
tion, I promise a cure, provided I can depend 
upon the patient’s exchanging a life of sloth for 
activity.—Green-sick girls may easily be cured by
drinking waters impregnated with Iron-ore and
Exercise, provided they abstain from tea.—
Suppose cachexy arise from the vice of some pu- 
rulent or schirrous viscus, the physician who sees 
farthest promises least.—Laesions of some viscera
are more dangerous than those of others. Sup- 
pose, for example, vertigo, trembling, weakness
of memory, or sleepiness joined to cachexy, the 
prognostic is apoplexy.—Suppose the patient 
breathes hard on the least motion, we have reason
to suspect a collection of watery colluvies in the 
thorax, inde passim prognosis. 
Prognostics.
1. PROGNOSTICS vary according to the durations
of the disease. Diseases, at first, affect 
one viscus only; in time they contami- 
nate all. Quocirca (says Aretaeus) ab hac enascen- 
tes morbi inevitabiles sunt Hydrops, Phthisis, Colli- 
quationes. 
Durations.
2. IN forming prognostics, attention is to be paid
to age.—Boys grow cachectic from devouring 
fruit; a purge, and a few astringents, 
set them, agaim on their legs. Cachex- 
ies are not common to young people. Old peo-
ple, be they never so found, are daily bending to- 
ward some incurable ailment. Senes juvenibus ple-
Age.
C5 rumque


58 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
rumque minus aegrotant; quicunque vero morhls diu- 
turnis oboriuntur, eum frequentius intereunt, says the 
divine old man, Aphor. 39.
§. VII. WHEN we take a survey of the human 
frame, we may well cry out with the Royal 
Psalmist, Fearfully and wonderfully are 
we made! From a variety of causes, 
the nerves are irritated. By this irrita- 
tion, the nervous juice rushes in upon 
the fibres; thus the motion of solids and fluids
comes to be accelerated; thus is their action in- 
creased. Hence superfluous humours evacuated; 
hence vicious quality corrected; hence stagna- 
tions dissolved; hence obstructions opened; hence 
diseases vanquished.—Ignorant of the 
circulation, and its mechanical powers, 
the antients ascribed the whole business of me- 
dicine to nature. By nature, we understand those 
powers which are exerted without the help of 
man. In this sense, the common saying is truly 
verified. Medicus minister, natura medicatrix. But
nature is not always all-sufficient. In many chro- 
nical diseases, e. g. rickets, hysteric, p—x, &c. nature 
makes no attempt; no cure is to be expected. In 
extravasations, e.g. stone, worms, collections of 
matter; nature’s endeavours are not only insalu- 
tary, but destructive. Nature sometimes does 
good, sometimes harm. Diseases are not, there- 
fore, blindly to be trusted to nature. 
Cure of Ca-
chexy in ge-
eral.
Nature.
To supply the defects of nature, art is to be 
called. Weak attempts are to be assisted, tumul- 
tuous bridled, straying directed. This 
is the business of art. When, for the 
preservation of health, or the conquering of di- 
sease, nature points out something to be done, 
this we call Indication. Indication arises, From 
Art.
a


59 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
a knowlege of proximate causes; From ex- 
perience; and, From knowlege and experi- 
ence united. Happy the patient, when these twin
sisters travel hand in hand to the same goal! 
Art can effect nothing without instruments. 
The instruments of art are called Remedies. Me- 
dical instruments are three-fold. Diet, Surgery,
and Pharmacy. Of the first I purpose to treat at 
large in the last part. The second falls not im- 
mediately under my subject. Medicines may be 
divided into Alteratives, Strengtheners, Anodynes, 
and Specifics. Such, in all respects, are Mineral 
Waters in general. Such are Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters in particular. The powers of these waters
continue to be obscured, 1. Because the particu- 
lar circumstances of diseases are seldom investi- 
gated. 2. Because the causes of diseases are of- 
ten hid from our eyes. 3. Because the principles, 
on which the powers of the waters depend are sel- 
dom subjected to mechanical laws. 4. Because 
the administration of waters is so confounded 
with shop compositions, that physicians themselves 
are often at a loss to know to what the effects are
to be ascribed. 
§. VIII. RATIONALLY to proceed, it may not 
only be necessary to comprehend general doctrines, 
but also to compare the principles of the 
human frame, with those which con- 
stitute Mineral waters. Their affinity 
will not, perhaps, be found so distant, 
as we may commonly think. Pursuing the ge- 
neral philosophic opinion, those principles or ele- 
ments which compose the human mechanism, 
may be reduced to Water, earth, the inflammable 
principle, acid, alkali, spirit, fire, air, and the prin- 
ciple peculiar to iron. Professor Gaubius calculates
Principles of 
the human
body.
C6 that

60 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
that principle of water which enters the com-
position, at about nine-tenths of the whole. 
The proportions of the other principles cannot 
so exactly be computed; it seems not improbable,
that the principle earth makes the greatest part of 
the weight of the remaining tenth. According
to Menghini’s most ingenious experiments, (Jour- 
nal de Scavans d’ Ital. Tom. 3. page 645.) the prin-
ciple of iron enters the blood in the ratio of one
scruple to two ounces; so that (in a body con- 
taining eighteen pounds of blood) iron makes, 
three ounces of the composition. These princi- 
ples intimately blended compose our solids and
fluids.
1. OUR SOLIDS have properties common to solid 
bodies in general; they have others particular 
to animals. They are, in general, des- 
tined to make certain efforts, by a co- 
hesion proportioned to resistance, attended with 
rigidity of the bones, and flexility of the other
parts. Besides those properties which are com- 
mon to solid bodies in general, the members of 
the human body have particular, such as sensibili- 
ty, and muscular motion, as Haller has most 
ingeniously demonstrated. There are certain fi- 
bres destined to transmit those impressions which
are made on the body, to the foul. These are 
the organs of sense; these communicate our sen- 
sations of pleasure, pain, and danger.—There 
are other fibres endowed with the faculty of con- 
tracting themselves. This faculty gathers strength 
by anger; and loses by grief, or fear. The parts 
of the body are destined to different offices; le-
vers, pumps, cords, pullies, strainers, pipes, reser- 
voirs, presses, &c.
Solids.
2. ELAS


61 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. ELASTICITY is not only the cause of many 
effects, but it has a singular influence on the func- 
tions of the human body. There are 
certain fundamental rules relative to 
these effects, which lead us to a certain exacti- 
tude in our conceptions of life, health, diseases, 
together with the operations of medicines; those 
of mineral waters in particular, 1. Suppose a fi- 
bre stretched, its elasticity diminishes of course. 
This we know from the common experiment of 
tuning a fiddle. Hence we learn, that (by wake- 
fulness, or excess of exercise) the organs are all 
on the stretch, the tone of the fibres diminishes, 
the spirits flag, strength decays. 2. Fibres gra- 
dually relaxed, acquire a certain degree of ten- 
sion. 3 Suppose two strings unbent, one all 
at once, the other, by degrees; the first becomes
the weakest; between every tension, the other 
acquires a degree of strength. Thus it is that 
large bleedings debilitate much more sensibly than
the same quantity drawn at different times. The 
same may be affirmed of evacuation in general.
Elasticity.
In many cases elasticity determines the de- 
gree of sensibility; for sensibility is proportioned
to vibratility. Sensibility and vibratility depend 
on three conditions; elasticity of the part, its de- 
gree of tension, and tenuity. This is verified in 
instruments whose strings are elastic and small; 
their tones are shriller.—As it is with musical in- 
struments, so is it with the human machine; the 
degree of sensibility is proportioned to the quan- 
tity and subtility of the nerves, joined to their 
degree of tension, with the elasticity of their last 
expansion. Thus, in delicate persons, the fibres 
being smaller, have the greater degree of vibrati- 
lity; these are more sensible, tho’ sometimes 
less

62 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
less elastic; as a small fiddle-string is more vibra- 
tile than a thick, made of stuff less elastic. Ad- 
dition of tension quickens the sensations. Put 
any thing favoury into your lips, the nervous 
papillae raise themselves; this erection adds to
the exquisiteness of taste. Whatever encreases 
the tension of the skin increases the sensibili- 
ty of the touch. This is verified in local in- 
flammations; the nerves which are spred on the- 
skin are in a degree of laceration; hence pain; 
this, particularly, is the case in the gout. What- 
ever diminishes tension, diminishes sensibility. 
Those who are relaxed are, of course, insensible, 
dull, and phlegmatic. This is verified in people 
who oversleep, or fatigue themselves, and in pa- 
ralytics. On this, the doctrine of bleeding, purg- 
ing, fomentations, cataplasms, pumping, and bathing
is founded. 
3. EVERY one knows blood when he sees 
it. This blood is formed out of chyle, a liquor 
which resembles milk, produced from 
food, partly by the action of the sto- 
mach intestines, partly by the mix- 
ture of the bile, spittle, and other 
dissolvents, assisted, not a little, by the genial 
heat of the bowels. This chyle is absorbed by 
pipes which carry it into the common mass; 
in which it is changed by the action of 
the solids, particularly the lungs. The blood 
is contained in vessels of different bores, of which
the heart is the base. The contraction of the 
heart forces the blood into the arteries. These 
contracting, push it into the veins, thro’ which 
it is forced back again to the heart. The arte- 
ries terminate different ways. Some are continu- 
ed to the veins. Others become so small, that 
The fluids, 
their circula- 
tion. 
the

63 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
the blood cannot pass without being divided. One 
red globule divides itself into six yellow. There 
are other vessels which circulate fluids still more 
subtile. Every pipe has its particular appropria- 
tion; some accompany, and nourish the muscular 
fibres; others empty themselves into cavities des- 
tined for their reception; others absorb superabun- 
dant liquors; others filtrate, others evacuate. 
The skin is pierced every where.
4. THIS short sketch of the human mechanism 
naturally leads us to the Soul. That connection
which subsists between the soul and bo- 
dy, is more certain than clear; they 
cordially communicate their impressions to each- 
other. The nerves are the organs by which these 
impresions are communicated; the manner is still 
undetermined. Of the nature of the soul we are 
ignorant; the little that we do know, proclaims a 
God. 
The soul.
WE now proceed to inquire into the Virtues of 
the Principles demonstrated; or, in other words, 
to apply them to the human body. 
I. Air. 
FROM experiments, we learn that air appears 
to be in a state of compressure while it is immersed
in water; so as readily to escape on the 
first opportunity. It seems to exert a 
kind ot struggling motion, so as to keep 
the watry particles at a greater distance, or render 
the whole specifically lighter. Certain it is, the 
specific gravity of water appears to be considerably 
increased on the avolation of the air, tho’ the 
mineral spirit may still be left behind. Hence 
Air, its
virtues.
may

64 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
may we infer that the use of air is to rarify the
water, to render it more light and subtile, while 
it continues in its native form. This seems to 
be confirmed by experience. Water drank at the 
pump is lighter, flies up to the head, and distends 
the vessels. 
The natural heat of the body, by ratifying this 
air, widens the passages, and renders it more sub- 
tile and penetrating; thus, by entering the small- 
est vessels, it opens obstructions, and cleanses the 
smallest canals. 
The elastic quality of air may be the cause of 
that quickness, briskness, and taste, commonly 
observed in waters drank at the pump. 
Lord Bacon judges that the best water, for 
domestic uses, which evaporates fastest over the 
fire. Hippocrates supposes that to be the best, for 
the same purposes, which soonest heats and cools. 
Pyrmont waters break the bottles, especially 
when they are set near the fire, or filled up 
to the top. For this reason, it is usual to let the 
bottles stand a little before corking, that a portion
of the air may escape. A little space ought also 
to be left for the air, at the top; for nothing 
spoils liquors so much as common air. Wines, 
in casks half empty, grow vapid. Mineral wa- 
ters become sluggish and indolent. 
Mineral waters ought to be drank early in 
the morning; because the external heat, by in- 
creasing the internal motion, dissipates their elas- 
tic parts. “ Dr. Shaw remarks (of Scarborough 
“ water, p. 143 ) that, though it retains its purga- 
“ tive quality after the air is gone; yet, it seems 
“ not to pass so far into the habit of the body, 
“ nor does it produce all its effects, as when 
“ drank fresh.” In some cases, it is however 
more

65 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
more adviseable to drink it at a distance, espe- 
cially where the viscera are unfound. This cau- 
tion is particularly necessary in respect of Bath 
waters. 
II. SPIRIT. 
THE SPIRIT of waters (by experiments ad- 
duced) is allowed to consist of iron subtilized. 
By mineral spirit, we understand an elas- 
tic fluid blended with the sulphureous 
parts of minerals, and which pervades 
the bowels of the earth, so as to become the ani- 
mating principle of mineral waters. This is 
the doctrine of Boyle, Hoffman, Becher, Lis- 
ter, &c. 
Spirit, its 
Virtues.
As for the virtues of principles, we can 
account no otherwise than by examining the 
substances of which they are found to con-
sist; so, for the virtues of the Spirit, we con- 
sequently have recourse to the known properties 
of iron. The irony particles found in Bath 
waters, bear, it is true, but a small proportion, 
win point of saturation, to the common shop- 
compositions. Natural ferrugineous waters are, 
for this very reason, preferable to shop tinctures. 
or solutions, just as far as the works of almigh- 
ty chymistry exceed imperfect artificial disco- 
veries. 
The medicinal virtues of Spirit, or, in other 
words, iron subtilised, are allowed to be de- 
obstruent, and strengthening, To this spirit it
is owing, that the waters do not cool or weaken 
the body, but rather heat, and invigorate; so as 
to increase the appetite, raise the pulse, and give 
a

66 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
a rosy colour to the cheeks. This is the princi- 
ple that causes them to pass so nimbly, open ob- 
structions, and throw off peccant humours. When 
this principle comes to be lost, (as has indeed 
happened to many springs,) the most celebrated 
mineral waters lose their credit, and sink to the 
condition of common water. Thus far Spirit; 
we now proceed to the virtues of iron substantial- 
ly found in Bath waters. 
III. IRON
IRON is absorbent, it ferments with acids, and 
blunts them to such a degree as to render them
imperceptible. This fermentation in- 
creases according to the quantity of 
ore, and degree of acidity. Filings of 
iron occasion belchings, like those caused by sul- 
phureous waters. When the stomach does not 
abound with acidity, they dissolve not easily, but 
clog the stomach. They ought therefore to be 
mixed with Rhenish wine. Solutions of iron are 
strongly styptic. With infusions of most astrin- 
gents, it turns black as ink. 
Iron, its Vir- 
tues.
Salt of iron coagulates the serum of new drawn 
blood. This is not to be used as an argument a- 
gainst its use; for, in persons who have taken 
chalybeates for some time, we observe their excre- 
ments black; and, on dissection, we have observ- 
ed the Tunica villosa, in the same manner, chang- 
ed to black, but no alteration in the Lacteals, 
or any way beyond the Primae Viae. Hence may 
we infer, that it does not enter the blood, but 
seems to undergo a precipitation in the first pas- 
sages, by which it is considerably deprived of its 
stringency. This change is not proper to iron 
alone,

67 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
alone, it is common also to most astringents. 
Its astringency is distinguishable by its taste;
it occasions a nausea, sometimes vomiting.
Hence we learn its stimulus, which is greatly in- 
creased by its weight. Its corroborating quality 
is, not a little, increased by the belchings which 
it occasions; for, thereby it either generates, or 
rarefies the air, which communicates an elastic 
force to our solids, whereby they are assisted in
their functions. 
In practice, iron is preferable to steel, as it is
to all other metals. Its absorbency, astringency, 
and stimulancy, are easily demonstrated. It is al- 
so attenuant, and aperient. It is therefore useful 
in all disorders which take their rise from acidity in 
the first passages, such as Hypochondriac and Hyste-
ric Cachexy, Quartan Agues, Dropsies, Worms, Ob- 
structions of the Menses, and Immoderate discharges, 
Jaundice, Fluor Albus, Diarrhaeas, and Haermorr- 
hages. In chronical disorders, it is the sheet- 
anchor. 
Every corner of the island abounds with 
chalybeate-waters vulgarly and improperly so 
called; for, on examination, we find that they 
contain a very fine crocus of iron-ore suspended
in the watry fluid. This is hone other than that 
yellow oker which paints the sides of our baths of
a yellowish hue, and which dyes the rills which 
flow from such springs. Ferrugineous waters are 
nature’s productions, more subtile, homogeneous, 
and safe, than artificial productions tortured thro’ 
fire, or altered by the interposition of corrosive 
menstruums. Hence there arises a question, Whe- 
ther the softest Oker, or Minera ferri, found 
in the course of mineral springs, may not be 
capable of affording better chalybeate medicines 
than those usually ordered in Dispensatories? Be  
this

68 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
this as it will, we may venture to affirm, That 
where chalybeates are indicated, next to mineral 
waters, iron, in substance, is preferable to every 
human preparation. 
IV. SALTS.
SALTS comprehend that class of minerals 
which melts with heat, turns solid, hard, and
friable with cold, is soluble in water; 
by evaporation, may again be reduced 
to their original form; and are gene- 
rally pellucid and pungent to the taste. Water 
frozen puts on the form of salt. Boerhaave, in 
his chymical lectures, was wont to say, that it 
differed only from salt in its insipid property, and 
its facility in dissolving. 
Salts, their 
Virtues.
There are various salts, Marin, Gemm, Com- 
mun, Glauber. Ammon. Nitr. Alumen. Borax, Vi- 
triolic, &c. In that chapter which treats Of the 
Principles of Bath Water, we have discovered a 
salt of the nature of Borax, and a Marine. In 
that chapter which treats Of the Principles of Bris- 
tol Water, we have discovered the alkaline basis of 
sea salt. Both waters, partake of the Universal Vi- 
triolic Acid. To the virtues of these my present 
researches are chiefly confined. 
Most Salts are comprehended under the two 
general heads of Sal Marin, Gemm, or Fossile.
The first comprehends all sorts of sea salt, how- 
ever extracted, the second all those dug out of 
the earth; and, because some imagine that the 
sea derives its taste from the latter, we begin with 
that. 
1. SAL GEMMAE is a white hard pellucid crys- 
talline substance, of a more acrid pene- 
trating taste than common salt pro- 
Sal-Gem.
duced

69 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
duced from mines, the most noted of which are 
those in Poland and Catalonia. The former have 
been open ever since the year 1252; some say 
they are 180 fathoms deep. Such quantities have 
been dug; up as to leave a cavern which admits of 
spacious streets, and regular buildings, sufficient 
to contain a little commonwealth which never 
sees the fun. 
2. SAL COMMUNE MARIS consists of white cu- 
bical crystals not so solid as the former, tho’ resem- 
bling it greatly in taste, not quite so pe- 
netrating, rather a little bituminous. 
This salt is extracted from sea water by evapora- 
tion, with a mixture of animal substance. There 
are salt lakes which yield salt in the same manner. 
Sal Marin and Sal Gemmae dissolve in the same 
quantity of water; in distillation, they afford the 
same acid; either makes a menstruum for gold. 
They effervesce neither with acids nor alkalies. 
Warm water dissolves no more sea salt than 
cold. 
Sea salt. 
Their virtues are the same. They heat, dry, 
cause thirst, increase the circulation, strengthen
the solids, attenuate the fluids, quicken the ap- 
petite, promote urine and perspiration, prevent 
putrefaction, and, if given in quantity, open the 
belly. They enter the lacteals, and take the 
whole round of circulation. Mixed with the 
blood, they prevent its coagulation, nor are 
they to be altered by any of its functions; but 
pass off plentifully by urine, as the taste may
discover. 
3. BORAX is a white crystalline salt, in colour 
much resembling alum, in smaller oblong pieces,
of a penetrating nitro-saline urinous 
taste, without stipticity or smell. It is 
easily dissolved by fire, hardly by air. It is now 
Borax. 
universally

71 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
olum martis blandum, not the Vitriolum vulgare, aut 
cupri sui generis. Simple as well as fermented ve- 
gitable acids mix naturally and kindly with Bath 
and Bristol waters. This vitriolic principle is the 
medium which keeps the other principles united, 
that powerful instrument, without which all the 
rest were effete. This acid it is that subdues that 
hydra of a fever which, in many diseases, ex- 
pends the natural nourishment in unnatural secre- 
tions. Acids have, in all ages, been used as An- 
liseptics. Late experiments have only corrobora- 
ted what antient experience had discovered. 
Oxycrate was the Panacaea of Hippocrates. 
In his Commentaries on this divine author, Dr. 
Glass inculcates the use of Vinegar. Boerhaave 
(De morbis ex alcalino spontaneo) says, Curatio per- 
ficitur alimentis potibusve acescentibus, vel jam aci-
dis, sapis acetosis.—In the Confluent Small-Pox, Sy-
denham acidulated the drink with Spirit of Vi- 
triol—Mead (in the Confluent Small-Pox) says, 
Ex hoc genere praestantissima sunt Cortex Peruvianus, 
Alumen, et Spiritus, qui Oleum dicitur Vitrioli.— 
At one time, the Malignant putrid Fever employ- 
ed the pens of Huxham and Pringle. Without 
personal knowlege, or correspondence, they hard- 
ly differ in history, cause, or cure; a manifest 
proof that nature appears the same, in every age, 
to those who rationally trace her paths. In the 
eyes of both, Acids are the true Antiseptics. 
To ascertain the antiseptic quality of Salts, 
Doctor Pringle made experiments. After having
shown that alkaline salts do not promote putre- 
faction, he proceeds (page 376, Edit. I.) to exa- 
mine other salts, and, by comparing them with 
the standard Sea-salt, of all, the weakest antisep- 
tic, he found the ratio as follows;
Sea-

72 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Sea-salt—1
Sal Gemmae—1 +
Tartar vitriolated—2
Crude Sal Ammon.—3
Nitre—4 +
Borax—12 +
Alum—30 +
V. EARTHS.
In different arts, Earth has different accepta- 
tions. Earth, in the chymical language, denotes 
a substance which every simple affords, 
soluble neither by fire nor water. Earth’s 
mixed with water, separate, turn soft, 
are sometimes suspended in it, then again fall 
down like mud, leaving the water clear, without 
communicating any tincture. These are called 
Argillae. There is another species of earth, which, 
put into water, neither crumbles nor precipitates; 
and, tho’ they imbibe a considerable quantity of 
it, yet they still retain their former figure and
consistence, These are the Cretaceae. 
Earths, their
virtues.
The former are moderately astringent and dry- 
ing; blunt acrimony, absorb humidity; with a- 
cids, acquire a sort of vitriolic quality; hence 
they strengthen lax intestines, restore the tone of
the fibres, and thus avail in many diseases of the 
first passages. Their alexipharmic quality is a 
mere creature of fancy; nor are they of any other 
use in malignant fevers than by inviscating, or 
sheathing acrid particles, not even the boasted
Boles of the shops; for they enter not the lacteals. 
The Terrae Lemniae, Silesiacae, Melitae, Lignicen- 
ses, &c. are much commended by Dioscorides for 
virtues which we have great reason to suspect. 
Common clay, or Fullers earth, freed from sand,
afford 


73 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
afford an acid spirit, and may claim the same 
virtues. 
The Cretaceae are all antacid and absorbent. 
This explains their effects. They are useful in all 
diseases arising from the corroding acrimony of 
humours in the first passages, or laxity of fibres. 
By their absorbent quality, they destroy acids; 
and, with them, turn either to a vitriolic or alu- 
minous nature; hence commended in Heart-burns, 
Diarrhaeas, &c. Experiments demonstrate this; 
for we see them effervesce with acids. Mixed 
with stale beer, it becomes sweet. If the hops 
are overcome by acids, chalk restores the bitter- 
ness, but turns vapid if not soon used. Chalk
calcined affords a calx viva, that of the Dispensa- 
tory. Tournefort affirms that chalk heats water, 
I never made the experiment. 
VI. SULPHUR.
SULPHUR is a mineral susible in a small de- 
gree of heat, volatile in a stronger, inflammable, 
emits a blue flame, and a suffocating
vapour. Sulphur opens the belly, and 
promotes insensible perspiration; it 
passes thro’ the whole habit, and manifestly tran- 
spires through the pores, as appears from the sul- 
phureous smell of patients who use it, as also from 
tinging silver, in their pockets. It is a celebrated
remedy in cutaneous disorders, internally and ex- 
ternally applied. It prevents the purulent dia- 
thesis of the blood. It is antiseptic, it prevents 
the intestinal motion of animal fluids, and fer- 
mentation of vegetables. It corrects saline acri- 
mony, preserves the tone of the solids, and in- 
creases sweat, as well as perspiration. It con- 
tains most of the virtues of the Balm of Gilead, 
Sulphur, its 
virtues. 
D it

74 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
it preserves the tone of the vessels without mak- 
ing them rigid or flexible. It promotes expectora- 
tion, and heals ulcers of the lungs. It is also an- 
thelmintic. By the mixture of sulphur, mercury
becomes inactive; when antimonial or mercurial 
medicines exceed in operation, sulphur abates 
their violence; it checks the highest salivation, 
but never ought to be administered in cases at- 
tended with inflammation. Arsenic is rendered 
almost innocent by mixture with sulphur. This 
we have seen confirmed by that experiment made 
to discover the existence of sulphur in Bath wa- 
ters; for, as we there observed, it is well known, 
that arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the 
quantity never so small. 
Hence we infer, That should a small propor- 
tion of arsenic adhere to the sulphur, it, pos- 
sibly, may not, hence, receive any poisonous
quality. 
VII. WATER. 
NOR Is the simplest water destitute of medici- 
nal virtues. By its moisture, thinness, or rare- 
faction, it is wondrously serviceable in 
preserving and restoring health. It dis- 
solves thick viscid humours, dilutes mor- 
bific salts, and discharges coagulations. 
Water, its 
virtues. 
The fountains at Schlensingen, Bebra and Oste- 
rode, contain no other principle than the simple
fluid. They have nevertheless signalized their 
virtues in the Stone, Gravel, Scurvy, Rheumatism, 
&c.—St. Winifred’s Well in Flint- 
shire, of itself, a natural curiosity: 
without intermission, or variation, it 
raises above a hundred tons of water in a minute. 
This water is void of every mineral particle, tho’ 
St. Wini- 
fred’s Well. 
it

75 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
it rises in the midst of hills abounding with mine- 
rals. It possesses an uncommon portion of the 
Spiritus Rector, by some called Spiritus Mundi, or 
Universalis. Was this water applied to practice, 
doubtless it would perform, cures in many dis- 
orders. 
THE Holy-well at Malvern is a spring of un- 
common purity. Two quarts evaporated in an 
open silver vessel, left only half a grain 
of earth, with a quantity of saline mat- 
ter, so inconsiderable, that it could not 
be estimated. From experience, confirmed by 
Cases incontrovertible, we learn, That it has prov- 
ed eminently serviceabls in scrophulous cases, old 
ulcers and fistulas, obstructed glands, schirrous and 
cancerous cases, disorders of the eyes and eye-lids, dis- 
orders of the urinary passages, cutaneous diseases,
coughs scorbutic and scrophulous, loss of appetite, and
profuse female discharges; for the truth of which 
we appeal to Doctor Wall’s judicious Experiments 
and Observations on Malvern Waters. 
Malvern
water. 
THE Circulation preserves the body from cor- 
ruption. Animal juices prove corruptible in a 
state of warmth, rest, and moisture. To preserve 
the circulation of balmy juices, it is necessary 
that the blood should be continually refreshed by 
an aereal, elastic, similar fluid. Water is agree- 
able to the animal juices. The blood contains 
two parts of serum to one of red globules. It 
contains besides an aereal, aethereal, subtile prin- 
ciple, manifestly appearing by its bubbling in va- 
cuo. Nothing therefore can be so natural to the 
human frame; nothing can so well preserve life. 
Water divides viscous sizy humours. It dilutes 
saline earthy scorbutic salts. These it discharges 
by the proper emunctories or outlets of the 
body. 
D2 There

76 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ There are springs hot and cold, says Hoffman, 
which (by the strictest examination) manifest not 
the leaft sign of mineral, and yet are highly valu- 
able. The waters of Toplitz nearly resemble the 
Piperine springs in Rhetia; they are extremely 
hot. Though they preserve their native purity 
mixed with acids, or alkali’s; tho’, on evapora- 
tion, they leave no solid substance behind, yet 
they have considerable virtues in disorders exter- 
nal, and internal. The Schlangenbad springs of 
Hesse contain no saline, earthy, irony, or o- 
ther mineral principle that art can extract. By
drinking and bathing, they nevertheless perform
surprising cures. The waters of Wilhelms-brun 
throw up abundance of bubbles in vacuo; they 
neither grow thick, nor precipitate any thing on 
the addition of oil of Tartar, a solution of silver, or 
sugar of lead. They suffer no change from the 
common experiments of galls, acids, alkali’s, &c.” 
Most of the cold springs at Bath are hard. Dr. 
Lucas examined the water of the Mill-spring op- 
posite to the Hot-well; he found it sparkle like 
the Poubon. It loses none of its pellucidity on 
standing open for hours. It weighed one grain 
less than distilled water. With acids or alkali’s, 
it gave very slight appearances, &c. On evapo- 
ration it only gave five grains of residuum to a 
pint. The virtues of such waters probably de- 
pend on their levity and subtilty. The purer 
perhaps the more powerful. 
Water-drinkers are the most healthy, and long
lived. Water is the best menstruum for dissolv- 
ing aliment, extracting chyle, and carrying them 
through their proper canals. Water dissolves that 
viscous slime which lines the glandular coats of 
the stomach and duodenum. Nor is water incon- 
sistent with fruit; for in Spain, Portugal, and 
France,


77
BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
France, water is the common beverage, and fruit 
the greatest part of diet. Water-drinkers are re- 
markable for white teeth for rottenness of the 
teeth is caused by scurvy, a disease prevented 
by the use of water. Water-drinkers are much 
brisker chan those who indulge in ale. Malt- 
liquors blunt the appetite, and hebitate the senses, 
they are fit only for men accustomed to labour, or 
exercise. Persons of delicate constitutions and se- 
dentary lives ought to accustom themselves to cold 
water, and wine. 
Water not only prevents, but cures diseases. 
Fevers are occasioned by an increased velocity of
the fluids, and a rigidity of the solids. These 
create heat. Heat dissipates the thinnest part of 
the fluids. The remainder forms obstructions. 
The blood must be diluted, heat and inflamma- 
tion allayed, stagnating juices propelled, and mor- 
bific matter discharged. No medicine bids so 
fair for these purposes as water. By ptisans alone, 
Hippocrates cured fevers in his days more judi- 
ciously and more certainly far than we with all 
our modern specifics. He was truly the minister 
of nature. We commit violence on nature every 
day. 
Chronical diseases take their rise from obstruc- 
tions, or foulness of the juices. By mineral wa- 
ters, surprisig cures are daily performed. Those 
cures are principally owing to the pure element. 
Numberless are the instances of waters perform- 
ing cures when no vestige of mineral could be 
discovered. 
1. Dr. Baynard says, “ I once knew a gen- 
“ tleman of plentiful fortune who fell into de- 
“ cay: while he was in the King’s 
“ Bench, his wife and children lived 
“ on bread and water. Never did I see such a 
Cases.
D3 change.

78 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ change. The children, who were always ail- 
“ ing and valetudinary, in coughs, green sick- 
“ ness. King’s-evil, &c. now looked fresh, well- 
“ coloured, and plump.” 
2. “ He tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, 
“ who, from a leaky ship, was set on shore on- 
“ the desolate island Juan Fernandes, where he 
“ lived four years, and four months; during 
“ which time he eat nothing but goats flesh, 
“ without bread or salt, and drank nothing but
“ fair water. He told me, at the Bath, where 
“ I met him, that he was three times stronger 
“ than ever he had been. But, being taken up 
“ by the Duke and Dutchess Privaters of Bristol,
“ and living on ship’s provisions, his strength 
“ left him crinitim, like Sampson’s hair; in one 
“ month’s time, he had no more strength than
“ another man.” 
To recount the virtues of the compound were 
to anticipate particular disquisitions with cases, 
or cures incontrovertible. From reason 
and experience I may venture, in gene- 
ral, to affirm, that where the disease is curable, 
where the director knows his tools, and where 
the patient co-operates, Bath and Bristol waters 
are inferior to none. And that where they have 
hurt, they have been injudiciously administered.
Conclusion.  
How inelegant our preparations of iron com- 
pared to nature’s solution in its own universal 
acid! Who can suspend 1/35 part of a grain of iron
in a pint of water? How harsh our preparations 
of oil, or elixir of vitriol, compared to nature’s 
Vitriolic Acid? If we may thus expatiate on the 
particular virtues of separate ingredients, what 
may we not expect from the united efforts of 
The ONE GREAT WHOLE! How light in the 
balance are the labours of a Helmont, to the pro- 
cesses

79 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
cesses of Almighty Chymistry! When mineral wa- 
ters purge, they occasion no loss of strength. 
When they pass by urine, they cause no stran- 
gury. When they promote perspiration, they oc- 
casion no fainting. Persons of all ages, sexes, 
and constitutions, drink mineral waters success- 
fully. With the celebrated F. Hoffman we 
may venture to pronounce, “ Mineral Waters
“ come, the nearest, in nature, to what has
“ vainly been searched after, an Universal Medi- 
“ cine; nor can this be disputed, but by such
“ as derive their arguments from ignorance, or 
“ indolence.”
D4 OF

80 DISEASES CURED 
OF
DISEASES 
CURED BY
BATH WATER.
FROM the days of Hippocrates, to the be- 
ginning of the present century, the study of 
physic may be said to have continued 
vague, indefinite, and uncertain. There 
were heresies in divinity, so there were in physic. 
Every age produced men eminent in the profes- 
sion, Bellini’s, Baglivis, Pitcairns, and Friends. 
Every student was prepossessed in favour of some 
particular system. As was the theory, such was 
the practice. By sweeping away scholastic jargon, 
Boerhaave happily reduced the healing art to rea- 
son and simplicity. In his Treatise De Cognoscen- 
dis & Curandis Morbis, he has selected, and classes 
the several doctrines, under particular heads. In 
his Principia Medicinae, Doctor Home may truly 
be said to have surpassed his great master. In 
point of mineral science, this nation may be said
to be yet at the threshold only. Indolence has 
circumscribed the powers of Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters to the same diseases in which they were ad- 
ministred in the days of our forefathers. Bath 
waters are condemned in the very disorders in 
which they act as specifics. Treading in the steps 
Preamble. 
of

81 BY BATH WATER.
of the celebrated Boerhaave, and the ingenious 
Home; and shaking off prejudices of all sorts, it 
is my purpose, 1. To lay down rational deduc- 
tions of those diseases in which they are said to 
have been useful. 2. To extend their practice to
new diseases; and 3. To confirm these deduc- 
tions by memorable cures, or Cases. This is the 
plan pursued by the Doctors Cocci and Lim- 
bourg, in their elaborate Treatises on the wa- 
ters of Pisa, and Spa. In this mirrour, distant 
practitioners may be satisfied in what cases Bath
and Bristol waters are indicated. By perusing 
similar cases, patients may be encouraged to fly 
to the same cities of refuge. Bath and Bristol 
waters are not to be recommended as panacaeas; 
like other active medicines, they may, and do
often exceed their bounds. 
D5 CHAP.

82 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. V.
OF 
DISORDERS
OF THE
FIRST PASSAGES.
DISORDERS of the first passages are, of 
all others, the most difficult to cure, and
the most apt to recur. Yet, what is as true as 
surprising; there are hardly any less handled, or 
less uhderstood. 
To form an adequate idea of status, ructation,
belching, or wind, it may be necessary to take a
slight survey of the doctrine of Diges- 
tion. Chymists, when they would 
digest any substance, first pound it in a mor- 
tar, then pour a liquor on it; next set it in a 
warm place, shaking the containing vessel from
time to time. Art is only nature’s ape. Before the
art of chymistry was known, nature performed 
this process in the stomach of animals every day. 
By the most curious configuration of parts, and
action of muscles, our food is ground down by 
the teeth, then moistened by the spittle. It is 
then protruded down the gullet, where it is sof- 
tened by an unctuous humour distilled from the 
glands of that canal. Thence it slips into the 
stomach, where it is farther diluted. There it is
subtilised by internal air, macerated by the heat 
of the circumabient viscera, agitated by the per- 
petual friction of the muscular coat of the sto- 
mach, by the pulsation of the arteries, by the al- 
Digestion.
ternate.

83 BY BATH WATER.
ternate elevation and depression of the midriff, as 
also by the compression of the muscles of the 
lower belly. From the stomach it is propelled 
into the small guts, in the form of a thick uni- 
form ash-coloured fluid. There it receives a 
thick yellow bitter bile from the gall bladder, 
another scarce yellow or bitter, from the liver, 
with a limpid mild fluid from the sweet-bread. 
These liquors resolve viscid substances, incorpo- 
rate oily and watry; and, thus prepare the food 
for entering into those vessels which convey the 
chyle to the circulation. This constitutes diges- 
tion, or concoction, a process worthy of the con- 
sideration of those who undertake the cure of 
disorders of the stomach and guts. 
While digestion is perfect, wind passes freely
upwards, or downwards; the stomach is never 
swelled, pained, or inflated. The aliment under- 
goes no considerable change. When digestion is 
imperfect, the patient complains of pain, belch- 
ing, inflation, cholic, sourness, heart-burn, vo- 
miting, looseness, &c. There is an elastic air 
carried down with whatever we eat, or drink. 
The spittle abounds with froth. Air is even car- 
ried with the chyle into the blood. There is a 
perpetual fund for wind or flatus, pain; &c. 
That the stomachs of animals who follow the 
dictates of nature should continue found, we 
need not be surprised. But, that the stomachs of
animals who offer violence to nature every hour, 
should continue found, can only be imputed to 
the wisdom of him who fashioned our clay. High 
fauces, discordant mixtures, immoderate cram- 
ming, heats and colds generate air, distend the 
stomach, and shut up both orifices. By continu- 
ing in the stomach, the food ferments and petri- 
fies; fermentation, putrefaction and rarifaction
D6 distend


84 DISEASES CURED
distend the fibres to their full stretch; thus they 
produce pain. When the upper orifice comes to 
be relaxed, part of the air rushes up into the 
gullet where it is again confined by fresh spasm; 
there it produces the sense of a ball, which pres- 
sing on the membranous back part of the wind- 
pipe, brings on difficulty of breathing. When 
the lower orifice comes, to be relaxed, the pent- 
up air rushes along the course of the guts, pro- 
ducing spasms, pains, cholics, &c. Animal hu- 
mours naturally putrify, and produce an acid sui 
generis. This acid passing along with air velli- 
cates and distends the intestinal fibres, producing
pains, belchings, vomitings, stools, &c. Re- 
pulsions of cuticular eruptions give rise also to
disorders of the stomach. There is a particular 
sympathy between the nerves of the stomach and 
those of the extremities. Those who are subject
to chilliness of the feet are very liable to cholics. 
THE INDICATIONS which naturally arise, are 
to cleanse and strengthen. Vomits and purges 
clear the intestinal tube of that filth 
which vellicates the fibres. In order 
to cure those who have been long, in a man- 
ner starved, it is necessary to fill the vessels with 
good blood; good blood cannot be obtained with- 
out good digestion. To mend the digestion, sto- 
machics are indicated; the best stomachics are
bitters and steel. In disorders of the first passages, 
patients are generally languid, emaciated, dispi- 
rited and desponding; they hardly can be prevail- 
ed on to submit to evacuants, strengthners, anti- 
spasmodics, emenagogues, nervous, and other me- 
dical intentions. 
Indications.
MINERAL WATERS answer every intention; 
mineral waters fill the vessels with good blood; 
mineral waters are the only remedies which (in 
these

85 BY BATH WATER.
these cases) operate cito, tute, et jucunde. To au- 
thorities antient and modern I appeal. 
I. OF DEGLUTITION.
THE finger of the Almighty is fairly to be 
traced in every member of the human frame, in 
none more stupendously perhaps than in those or- 
gans which serve the purposes of Deglutition. 
Those operations which conspire to this great 
purpose are so various, manifold, and delicate, 
that nothing but almighty providence can account
for the duration of so exquisite a machine during
the period of life. If deglutition is hurt, diges- 
tion, chylification, and all the other animal func- 
tions cease. For want of sustenance, man starves 
and dies. “ Jam operosa fit arte deglutitio, tot 
“ conspirantes organorum adeo multiplicium & 
“ concurrentium actiones huc requiruntur; unde 
“ laeditur frequenter, varie; & scitur cur a cibo
“ sicco areant, rigescant, nec deglutire plus va- 
“ lent fauces; Cur, perdita uvula, deglutienti 
“ tussis, et suffocationis minae? Cur, sisso velo 
“ palatino, deglutienda per nares exitum molian- 
“ tur? Velum mobile palati valvulae officio sun- 
“ gi narium respectu; & musculi deprimentis, 
“ ratione pharyngis, inde quoque constat.” 
Boerhaav. Institut. Med. pag. 49. 
When the action of swallowing has defied the 
utmost researches of art, Bath water has perform- 
ed wonders. 
1. From Dr. Pierce we have the two following
facts. “ Mr. Yarburgh a gentleman of 56, hav- 
“ ing (for many years) been subject to 
“ a difficulty in swallowing, liquids es-
“ pecially, came to Bath. He had con- 
“ sulted a variety of physicians, who, accord- 
Pierce's
Cases.
3 “ ing

86 DESEASES CURED
“ ing to their idea of the disease, treated him all 
“ differently. 
“ He swallowed the waters with no small diffi- 
“ culty at first; but, by degrees, that obstacle 
“ was removed. He had his neck and stomach 
“ pumped in the Bath. He went away very much 
“ advantaged.” 
2. “ Mrs. Kirby of Bishops-Waltham, aged 40, 
“ had (some years past) a scarlet fever; and, be- 
“ ing put into a sweat, took cold, which brought 
“ on a defluxion of cold rheum, which had like 
“ to have suffocated her. From that time, she 
“ had a more than ordinary streightness, with 
“ some difficulty of swallowing. Two or three 
“ years after, having a violent haemorrhage from
“ both nostrils, which, by cold applications, was 
“ as often stopped; but in March 1693, falling 
“ a bleeding in the night, she was blooded to a
“ great quantity, which brought on a thorough 
“ inability of deglutition. She could chew, and, 
“ with her tongue, thrust it back to the top of 
“ the gullet, but down it would not go without 
“ the help of her finger, which often she was 
“ obliged to do, for fear of starving. 
“ At first, she hardly could swallow the water 
“ by spoonfuls. Soon afterwards she drank half 
“ a pint at a draught, and three pints in the 
“ morning, and more. After a month’s drink- 
“ ing, I advised pumping her neck and throat. 
“ After six months she went home so much re- 
“ covered, that fine continued well all the winter. 
“ She returned in summer, drank and pumped, 
“ as before, with no small addition to her former 
“ benefit.” 
3. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ Madam Philips (in a palsy of the muscles 
“ of

87 BY BATH WATER. 
“ of the throat) by bathing and drinking received 
“ great benefit.” 
“ OF those who drink waters on account of 
“ the weakness of the organs serving for nutri- 
“ tion, Baccius (De Thermis, page III) 
“ says, There are not a few who want 
“ corroborant baths. Of corroborant, 
“ or comforting waters, the common ratio is that, 
“ by a peculiar virtue, or, by equality of tempe- 
“ rament, they may so confirm the nature of par- 
“ ticular viscera that they may be enabled to re- 
“ ject superfluous humours; of this virtue are 
“ the waters of Grotta, Villa sub Luca, &c. Such
“ we may pronounce the Bath waters. 
Antient ana-
logical gene- 
ral proofs.
“ There are waters which have the property 
“ of exsuding phlegm, viscidities, and crudities 
“ of all sorts, such as the Porretanae, which con- 
“ tain alum, and a little iron. The Albulae are 
“ noted Diuretics. Salt waters generally act by 
“ vomit. Those waters called Atramentosa vomit 
“ violently, such as that of the Styx in Arcadia, 
“ by which, it is said, that Alexander the con- 
“ queror of the world was killed. There are o- 
“ ther waters which stop vomiting and nausea, 
“ iron wraters especially.” 
In hot affections of the stomach the antients 
prescribed baths gently cooling, of the iron kind. 
Acid waters were also recommended internally, 
and externally. In dry, desperate debilities of
the stomach, they used tepid baths of common 
soft water. In sighings, they ordered cold water 
at meals. In Cholera’s Galen ordered glysters of 
salt water, drinking warm water. In the Passio 
Caeliaca, and lienteric crude fluxes, Celsus success- 
fully recommended refrigerant iron opening wa- 
ters. The same were ordered in redundancies of 
black bile, with saburration, and arenation. 
For

88 DISEASES CURED
For creating appetite the nitrous, salt, and wa- 
ters, such as the Grotta, were recommended. 
These, convalescents and women with child ap- 
proached safely. 
“ Per haec itaque quae communiter nutrito- 
“ riis accommodata sunt remedia, facile Balnea 
“ quae ventriculum juvant, inferemus, says Bac- 
“ cius De Thermis, page 112. Corroborant enim, 
“ ac frigida simul et sub callidae faciunt tem- 
“ periei eadem balnea tam epotae, quam, in bal- 
“ neis ebibitae, et quae ex ea ortum habent af- 
“ fectiones, debilitatem, ac dolorem tollunt ven- 
“ triculi. Calidis vero harum partium intempe- 
“ ramentis succurrendum per balnea quae modice 
“ refrigerant, reprimantque, astrictoria facultate, 
“ ut, ex Ferratis, appositiffima eft Ficuncella aqua 
“ in potibus, Villa Lucae, Sanctae Crucis ad 
“ Baias. 
“ Acidae vero aquae omni, id genus, calidae 
“ intemperiae propriae, quales ad Anticolum in
“ Campania, &c. 
“ Ubi enim confirmata intemperies vicit hu- 
“ midum, sicca ac desperanda introducitur ven- 
“ triculi tabes, aquis dulcibus temperatis con- 
“ sulendum, ac per Hydrolaei fotus. Singultui 
“ vero per frigidam cibis superbibitam, ac te- 
“ pidam. 
“ Choleram vero sedant, in fine, Ficuncellae, 
“ Porretanae, Villa Lucae, &c. nec minus Clyste- 
“ res ex salsa, auctore Galeno. 
“ Subcutiles aquas videtur probasse Celsus in 
“ Caeliaca passione, ac Lienteriae fluxibus quibus
“ Grottae potiones egregie medentur, et aliae ex 
“ serri natura, refrigerantes, astringentesque, va- 
“ cuando, ut Porretanae. 
“ Atra vero bile, in ventriculo vexatis, eaedem 
“ dem consuluntur, cum Arenatione. 
“ Ad

89 BY BATH WATER.
“ Ad excitandam vero appetentiam nitratae fa- 
“ ciunt et salsae, et acida privata facultate, qua- 
“ les Grottae, quae reconvalescentes etiam et praeg- 
“ nantes circa noxam appetere promittunt. Nox- 
“ am vero e diverso Caninae famis voracitatem co- 
“ hibent Cellenses ebibitae in Helvetiis.” 
FOR the operation, and effects of Bathing in 
these, and other diseases, I beg leave to refer the 
reader to my Attempt to revive that practice. Suffice 
it here, in general to affirm, That, in cholics, 
gripes, atrophy, cramps, and other internal mala- 
dies, bathing cures where drinking fails. 
II. OF DEPRAVED APPETITE.
1. “ Dr. Pierce mentions the case of Sir Wil- 
“ liam Clark, Captain of Horse, who, (by colds
“ and other irregularities attending 
“ winter campaigns) had wholly lost his
“ appetite. He supplied in drink what
“ he was deficient in eating. These brought on 
“ a Cachexy, he looked yellow in the face, reach- 
“ ed in the morning, was tired, fainty, and sub- 
“ ject to a diarrhaea. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ In this state he came to Bath April 1693. 
“ Willing to be well, but hating to take phy- 
“ sic, or even to drink the waters regularly, he
“ bathed sometimes, and drank sometimes, by 
“ which he recovered wonderfully. His vomit- 
“ ing ceased, his looseness stopped, he eat mut- 
“ ton and drank sack. His complexion cleared, 
“ he returned to Flanders to his duty.” 
2. “ Mr. Ellesby Minister of Chiswick came 
“ down very faint, weak and stomachless about 
“ the middle of April 1690. Every thing that he 
“ eat he threw up. He was withal in great pain.
“ he

90 DISEASES CURED
“ he could neither sleep at night, nor sit easy by 
“ day. He had the jaundice also. 
“ He drank the waters for ten days, and found 
“ no benefit. But, at length, the waters opened 
“ his body, which was always costive, cleared 
“ the first passages, restore his appetite, and a- 
“ bated his pains. He returned in August, and, 
“ by that trial, was so much mended, that he 
“ whose voice could not be heard across a bed- 
“ chamber, preached in our large church with 
“ great applause.” 
Baynard's
Cases.
Dr. Baynard (speaking of Bath wa- 
ters) says, “ In decayed stomachs, and 
“ scorbutic atrophies, and most diseases of the 
“ liver and spleen, I hardly ever knew them 
« fail.” 
3. “ Madam B. a Lady of quality, loathed 
“ every thing she smelt or saw; she was so weak 
“ that she hardly could stand; she vomited up 
“ every thing, she took little or no rest, her 
“ pulse was hardly perceptible, her eyes sunk, 
“ with ructations, cholic pains, hysteric fits, and
“ clammy sweats. 
“ When I first saw her, I considered her in 
“ Lady Loyd’s case exactly, when the vital flame 
“ was blinking in the socket (by the cautious use 
“ of Bath waters, and Bitters) she had a new life 
“ put to lease. 
“ This lady was so very weak that at first I 
“ gave her only two or three spoonfuls of wa- 
“ ter, and about an hour after, a little more 
“ water, then bitters, and so by degrees, I 
“ brought her to bear half a pint hot from the 
“ pump, which staid without loathing, or vo- 
“ miting. 
“ She now began to bear the smell of meats, 
“ she took a little chicken broth, then eat a little 
“ meat;

91 BY BATH WATER.
meat; and in the space of nine or ten weeks, 
“ recovered so, that when she walked in the Grove,
“ she was pointed at, saying, There’s the Lady 
“ who was so weak.” 
4. “ A gentleman with a decayed stomach, 
“ wan and pale look, staggering under a load 
“ of nothing but skin and bone. From a strong
“ young man, wine, women and watching had 
“ reduced him to a mere skeleton, he could not
“ swallovv the least sustenance without vomit- 
“ ing.
“ By the use of the water, and temperance, he 
“ came to his stomach; his flesh plumped, his 
“ colour returned. In ten weeks he was as well 
“ as ever.” 
5. From Dr. Guidot’s Register wc have the fol- 
lowing. “ Henry Owen of Threadneedle-street, 
“ troubled with an indigestion, wind, 
“ obstruction of urine, and tormenting 
“ pains of the bowels, came to Bath 
“ the second time, the first having proved ineffec- 
“ tual, where he drank only three pints for a 
“ week, and bathed fifteen, times in the Cross- 
“ bath, in which he drank three pints of water, 
“ and received a cure. After leaving off, he 
“ voided a great quantity of fabulous matter for 
“ three months time by urine; and now, from a 
“ thin consumptive, and deplored spectacle, he
“ is become fleshy, of a good countenance, 
“ and laudable healthy temper. This account 
“ I had from his own mouth, February 1686.” 
Guidot's
Cases.
IN restoring the tone of stomachs 
destroyed by hard drinking, Bath water 
may truly be said to be specific. It 
were superfluous to produce examples, the fact is 
notorious.
Hard drink-
ing. 
III.

92 DISEASES CURED
III. OF PAINS OF THE STOMACH.
STOMACH PAINS have obtained various names, 
Cardialgia, Attritio Ventriculi, Heart-burn, &c. 
These are supposed to be caused by the 
action of corrosive humours on that 
plexus nervorum which covers the orifice 
of the stomach, and which takes its rise from the 
Par vagum, or eight pair of Willis. 
Stomach 
aches.
1. “ Juvenis quidam stomachum debilem ha- 
“ bebat, et per ingestionem, saepe lien- 
“ terias passus est, corpore macilento
“ haemorhoidibus afflicto. Bene pur- 
“ gaturn ad balneum Villae Luccae ac- 
“ cedere juffi, et convaluit.” 
Proofs anti- 
ent and ana- 
logical. Ugu- 
linus De Bal- 
neisa Pisanis.
2. “ Dominus Maltesta pessime dispositus erat 
“ in putritivis; per annos tredecem, vexatus e- 
“ rat fluxu stomachico & hepatico, corpore ex- 
“ tenuato, haemorhoidas patiente, cum ardore u- 
“ rinae; erat etiam podagricus. Caepi ab aped- 
“ tivis quae statim prosuerunt; postremo balne- 
“ um consului, medicis aliis reclamantibus. Ivit
“ et mire convaluit.” 
 3. From Dr. Pierce we have the following Cases, 
and first of his own wife. “ She had long been
“ subject to pains in her stomach, she 
“ had the advice of all the physicians 
“ who attended the court hither, and 
“ all to no purpose. She had been naturally sub- 
“ ject to a consumption, and was worn out by 
“ pain. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ She began these waters at last, and went on 
“ with that success, that, in a little time, she 
“ began to be at ease, and was at length freed 
“ from her pains; she recovered her lost appe- 
“ tite, gathered flesh and strength, and continued 
“ free 


93 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from her returns of pain longer than after 
“ any course of physic she had taken before. 
“ Whenever she found any bodings of pain, she 
“ applied to the waters at any season, and found 
“ her cure.” 
4. “ Sir Willoughby Aston was violently seized 
“ with this Cardialgia, and finding no relief in 
“ the country, he was hackneyed away to Tun- 
“ bridge-wells by an eminent physician of London. 
“ These increased his pain so that he seemed to be 
“ inwardly convulsed. 
“ He came into my house on the twelfth of 
“ September 1693, his torture was so great that 
“ he was forced to take anodynes, and that fre- 
“ quently. Without any other preparation than 
“ an anodyne the first night, he drank three pints
“ next morning, which, after a while, was in- 
“ creased to two quarts, or more. In one week 
“ he had manifest abatement of his pain, and, in
“ a month, was perfectly well.” 
5. “ Sir James Rushout came to Bath in No- 
“ vember 1760. Besides violent pains he com- 
“ plained of four corroding eructations, which
“ he compared to vinegar, oil of vitriol, and aqua 
“ fortis. Long had he been troubled with it, and 
“ much had been done for it, all to no purpose. 
“ He brought down directions and medicines 
“ with him from town. The waters passed well 
“ enough, he had some degree of abatement of 
“ pain. After about three weeks, they began to 
“ discharge quantities of adust choler by stool, 
“ which alarming his family, they applied to 
“ me. I encouraged the flux, as by it, I 
“ found his complaints abated. Thus he reco- 
vered.
6. From

94 DISEASES CURED
6. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ George Kelly of Covent–  
“ Garden, Barber, aged 23, had been 
“ long afflicted, and almost worn out 
“ by tormenting pains in his stomach and guts, 
“ with a hectic fever. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters fourteen days, from 
three pints to eight, and, at a fortnight's end, 
“ received considerable benefit. He bathed four 
“ times; and, in one month’s time, was perfect- 
“ ly restored.”
7. Ten years ago, Mr. Hone of London, 
Painter, came down for belching, flatulency, indi- 
gestion, and total loss of appetite. By 
drinking the waters, his complaints va- 
nished almost the very first week. He 
continued however to play with the waters five 
weeks longer, returned well, and continues to
this day. 
Author’s 
Cases.
8. Mr. Jackson of London, Irish Linen-Mer- 
chant, came down about the same lime, and 
with the same complaints, he found a cure al- 
most as soon. 
9. At the request of my worthy friend Dr. 
Campbell of Hereford, I visited his father, Mr. 
John Campbell, man-midwife at Sutton near Chip-
penham, aged seventy, of an excellent constitu- 
tion and regular life. 
His Tunica albuginea, nails, and skin were 
yellow, so was his urine. He bad been subject
to Agues. His Stomach had lost; its digestive and
expulsive faculties. For a week or two his food 
lay quiet, and yet he had a stool almost regularly 
once a day. When his stomach was quite dis- 
tended, he felt a sense of weight, pressure, and 
uneasiness for some days. These were succeeded 
by racking pain, violent reachings, and excessive 
shakings,


95 BY BATH WATER.
shakings, or rather shiverings, which terminated 
in profound sleep. After the paroxysm, the yel- 
lowness, and itching was universal. The last 
continued, the first disappeared in a few days. 
I recommended the Bath waters. His hopes, 
and wishes were for death. Much against his in- 
clination, I forced him into my chaise, and con- 
ducted him to Bath. Without preparation, I put 
him on drinking the waters, first, in small quan- 
tities, gradually increased. His intermissions were 
longer, his appetite, spirits, and hopes increased. 
His paroxysms however returned. 
Despairing of cure, and tired of life, he would
go home at the end of six weeks. He drank the 
waters at home, a pint twice a day, with forty 
drops of Elix. Vitriol, acid, always once, some- 
times twice a day. The effects are extracted 
from his Letter of date Nov. 4, 1761, now be- 
fore me, “ For the first month two or three se- 
“ vere attacks. My fits then abated until they 
“ quite ceased. The universal itching continued
“ for months. Now I am well; my urine has 
“ been natural a great while. I have a very 
“ good appetite, which I check, as you desired, 
“ I now and then venture on a wing or breast 
“ of a fowl; I long for meat. My waters, and 
“ my drops I continue, and resolve so to do 
“ (God willing) through the winter. I have 
“ changed your opening tincture for Sal Absynth. 
“ and Mercur. dulcis, which are more agreeable. 
“ I have had two severe bouts of purging. In 
“ other respect I am as well as a man of my 
“ time of life can be, for which, though you 
“ forced me to my cure, be pleased (Worthiest 
“ Sir) to accept of the thanks of 
“ Your most obliged humble Servant, 
“ John Campbell. ”
10. Miss

96 DISEASES CURED
10. Miss Davies was sent down from London 
for an acidity and pain in her stomach. She 
found relief the very first week.—The last four 
took not ten shillings worth of medicine among 
them. 
11. The Reverend Mr. Simons of Kent deli- 
vered the following history into my hands, which 
he desired should be published. “ About the mid- 
“ dle of September 1760, I was first taken ill 
“ with a pain of my bowels, and, in a day or two, 
“ it became most excruciating. Nothing past 
“ through me; but, in few days, these symp- 
“ toms were removed, by the aid of medicine. 
“ I remained however totally without appetite, 
“ my digestion was extremely weak, and I had, 
“ at times, great pain in my stomach. By change 
“ of air, exercise, and medicine, I got rid of 
“ my pain, but the want of appetite, and diges- 
“ tion still remained, so that I became much e- 
“ maciated, and so weak that, at times, I was like 
“ to faint away. 
“ In December I came to Bath, and began to 
“ drink the waters. The pain of my stomach 
“ returned; I continued nevertheless to drink 
“ them, and was taken with a violent vomiting, 
“ which was relieved by medicine. I continued 
“ the waters, and rode out in a chaise, in which
“ I was very ill. 
“ In a few days my appetite returned, and my 
“ pains left me, and returned no more. I con- 
“ tinued nevertheless to drink the waters for six 
“ weeks at that time, and returned next Novem- 
“ ber to confirm my cure. I drink them now, 
“ and (thanks to God, and the waters) am in very
“ good health.” 
IV.


97 BY BATH WATERS.
IV. OF THE BILIOUS CHOLIC. 
THE BILIOUS CHOLIC is a violent pain which 
begins with a fever that lasts a few hours. The 
bowels seem to be tied together, or 
pursed up and perforated as it were with 
a sharp-pointed instrument. The pain abates 
and comes on again. In the beginning, the pain
is not so certainly fixed in one place, nor the vo- 
miting so frequent, the belly yields with less diffi- 
culty to purgatives. But, the more the pain in- 
creases, the more obstinately it fixes in one place, 
the vomiting returns the oftener, and the belly is 
more costive, till it generates at length into an 
Iliac Passion. 
Description.
This disorder is distinguished from a fit of the
Stone by the following signs. 
In the stone, the pain is fixed in the 
kidney, and extends from thence along 
the ureter to the testicle. 
Difference 
between a fit 
of the cholic, 
and that of 
the Stone. 
In the cholic, it shifts and straitens the 
belly, as if it was bound with a girdle. 
In the cholic, the pain increases after eating. In 
the stone, it rather abates. 
The cholic is more relieved by purging and vo- 
miting than the stone. 
In the stone, the urine is at first clear and thin, 
but afterwards lets fall a sediment, and afterwards
gravel and small pieces of stone. 
In the cholic, the urine is turbid from the be- 
ginning. 
In Disorders of the Intestines Baccius declares the 
power ot mineral waters, pag. 114. “ Pertinent 
“ autem ad Intestinorum affectiones 
“ tam jure potus quam balnei omnia 
“ quae paulo ante ad nutritionis instru- 
Proofs ana- 
logical.  
E mentorum

98 DISEASES CURED
“ mentorum tutelam citavimus. Galenus (De 
“ san. tuenda) inter delectoria medicamenta, enu- 
“ merat usum aquarum sponte manantium, leni- 
“ ter evacuantium, ad mesaraicarum obstructiones, 
“ simulacque corroborandum. Talis Plaga, et 
“ Juncaria ad Baias quae excrementa abstergunt, 
“ aperiunt obstructa, et refrigerant. Efficaciores
“ aeneae, Grottae imprimis, et Porretanae ex alu- 
“ mine, et ferro nobiles Albulae. 
“ In Dysentericis cruciatibus revocant hodie sere 
“ omnes de morte ad vitam Aquae Salmacidae, ser- 
“ vanturque in longinquas regiones adlatae toto
“ anno, incorruptae. Harum antiqua laus est 
“ a salis natura, attestante Cor. Celso. In Dy- 
“ sentericis muriam quam asperrimam suadet Te- 
“ mison. Muria (inquit Dioscorides) Dysente-
“ ricis infunditur, etiam si nomae intestina corri- 
“ piant. Eadem testatur Plinius, et etiam Paulas 
“ dicens Muria et portulacae succus dysentericis con- 
“ venit. Notum in Dysentericis curari nonnul- 
“ los harum potu in principiis, affectu sciz. non
“ admodum acri, nec cruento. Porro, ubi no- 
“ mae apparuerint, i. e. cum manifesta erosione, 
“ et purulentis excrementis, naturam signfincat 
“ tunc pus movere, ac concoctionem moliri, ju- 
“ vandamque abstersione, et exsiccatione per has
“ aquas. Memini hic Romae Alex. Fortunatum 
“ medicum, pro harum aquarum penuria, Dios- 
“ coridis exemplo donasse urinam humanam quam 
“ recentem, et in clysteriis, et in potibus, i- 
“ doneo successu, quod, ea ratione non damna- 
“ verim. 
“ Caeterum plurimae, id genus, aquae vermes 
“ ingeneratos enecant, extruduntque, maxime a- 
“ marae omnes, acres, ac fortes, quales ex atra- 
“ menti materia in Volaterrano, &c. 
“ Flatibus

99 BY THE WATER.
“ Flatibus vero ex intimis intestinorum discu- 
“ tiendis, ut in Colica usu venit, ac in Ilei crucia- 
“ tibus, praedictarum potus non medice operan- 
“ tur, item clysteribus, torsione praesertim infes-
“ tante. Efficacissima Aqua Aponi, Asculanae, Lu- 
“ canae, Caiae, Aquisgrani, Cellenses, &c. bitumi- 
“ nosae, salsa, omnes ubicunque terrarum, pro 
“ calido fomite actuali, digerentes, de discuffo- 
“ riae. Colicae Alexander Trallianus exhibet 
“ Thermales aquas quae evacuant, et calfaciunt
“ et item Avicenna xvi. tertii. 
“ Siccae vero intemperiei, ut siccantia et cali- 
“ da balnea improbantur, ita balneis dulcibus u- 
“ tendum, et ex herbis emollientibus, hydrolae- 
“ um, et oleum. Porro discufforii balnei vice ar- 
“ tificialia aliquando sufficimus ut Vaporarii usus,
“ atque olei, vel hydrolei, folio tepbnte, si faeces 
“ indurentur, vel sicca alvi intemperie pendeant 
“ dolor. 
“ Frigidis vero intemperiebus satis calorifica sa- 
“ ciunt, competenti usu.” 
1. From Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we have the
following Cases. “ Mr. Collins Woolrich apothe- 
“ cary of Shrewsbury, was seized with 
“ torturing pains in the stomach, bow- 
“ els, and back, successively, for the 
“ space of ten hours, and then ceased of a sud- 
“ den. The next night it began and ended as 
“ before, and so day after day, from six at night
“ till four in the morning, from the ninth of 
“ September 1683, till May, when the warmth 
“ of the season kept off the disorder till Septem- 
“ ber following, when it began as before, and 
“ so year after year (excepting 1686) for seven or 
“ eight months together, during which time he 
“ was necessitated to vomit about an hour and a 
“ half after eating constantly, his paroxysm con- 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
E2 “ tinuing

100 DISEASES CURED
“ tinuing ten hours, all which reduced him to 
“ great weakness, languor and dispiritedness. 
“ By Dr. Baynard’s advice and mine, he im- 
“ mediately began the waters, for he had been 
“ sufficiently prepared at home. After the sixth 
“ morning, he perceived a sudden and manifest 
“ removal of a load from his stomach into his 
“ lower bowels, and presently had a large dis- 
“ charge by stool. From that day he had neither 
“ pains nor vomitings, yet he kept on drinking
“ the waters for a month at least. 
“ He kept free from any return till 1691, when
“ finding some disposition to it, he returned in 
“ August, and drank them with the same success; 
“ for it returned not again till September 1693, 
“ when he came hither again, and was relieved 
“ the third time. 
“ He hath been here the two past seasons for 
“ prevention, and is resolved so to continue to do
“ as long as it pleases God to grant him strength. 
“ This is the patient’s own account delivered 
“ verbatim, this last season 1695.” 
2. Captain Wilkinson of Brewer-street, Agents 
had, for many years, been a martyr to the stone
and bilious cholic. After thorough trials 
of all pretended Solvents, and emaciated 
by incessant pain, he chearfully submit- 
ted to the operation of lithotomy. When the 
stone was extracted, he told the surgeon that he 
would willingly submit to a second cutting, if, 
by that, he could be cured of his cholic. His 
vomitings were then so incessant, that his sto- 
mach could keep nothing. In this condition he 
was transported to Bath; where, for some time, 
he threw up Bath water, and every thing else. 
By degrees the water prevailed. His stomach 
bore a little food, he gathered strength. His pa- 
Author’s 
Cases. 
roxysms

101 BY BATH WATER.
roxysms continued however to return now and 
then as usual. The harbingers of the fit were 
tingling and involuntary motions of the knees. 
To these succeeded violent reachings and racking 
pains. Pills of opium he threw up as fast as he 
swallowed them. Visiting him one day in the fit, 
I enquired whether opiate glysters had ever been 
prescribed. To which he answered, no. A glys- 
ter of the common decoction with one ounce of 
the Tincture of Assa fetida, and forty drops of
Laudanum, was immediately injected. In a quar- 
ter of an hour afterwards he threw himself down 
on the bed, and slept eight hours, awaking in
heaven, as he called it. Twenty four hours af- 
ter, the paroxysm returned with equal violence. 
The same glyster was injected, with the addition
of twenty drops of laudanum. The same sleep 
and ease insued. Twenty four hours after, the 
same symptoms returned; he begged for the same 
glyster, which procured not only the same cessa- 
tion from pain, but a total cure. By perseverance 
in the waters, he recovered complexion, appetite, 
strength, and spirits, so that he lived for years a 
comfort to all who knew him. 
3. Lieutenant Matthews, of the ship of war 
Duke, delivered into my hands the following state
of his case, drawn by Dr. Huxham of Plymouth, 
the physician who had attended him for twelve 
months and upwards.—“ He hath long been sub- 
“ ject to a variety of nervous disorders, great fla- 
“ tulence, costiveness, frequent pain, and very 
“ great acidity in the stomach. He hath lately 
“ had several very severe attacks of a bilious cholic, 
“ with continual vomiting of sour phlegm, and 
“ vast quantity of yellow and very green bile, 
“ great distension of the belly, pain in his loins, 
“ and difficulty of urine commonly high colour- 
E3 “ ed.

102 DISEASES CURED
“ ed. He sleeps badly, hath very little appetite, 
“ and worse digestion.”—To which let me add, 
that he was so weak, when he set out, that he was 
obliged to be lifted into his chaise. 
By easy journeys he arrived much recruited. 
Without preparation I prescribed the water in very 
small quantities. His sickness abated, his trem- 
blings declined, his appetite increased, his sleep 
returned, his skin changed its yellow hue, he gal- 
loped on the Downs every day. During his two 
months course of drinking and bathing, he had 
but few returns of his reachings or sickness, and
these very tolerable. He now and then complain- 
ed of heat, and restless nights, for which I or- 
dered some doses of nitre and testaceous powders, 
which bringing on a gentle diaphoresis, relieved 
him. He had been used to an opening pill, in- 
stead of which I advised him to eat half a dozen 
china oranges every day, and to drink punch 
made of Seville, by which his body was kept solu- 
ble. Without the help of medicine he grew 
plump and jolly, complaining now and then of 
flying pains in his joints. Finding that he had 
formerly been subject to the gout, I advised him 
to make haste home. Hardly had he rested from 
his journey, before he was attacked with a smart 
fit, which completed his cure. 
4. FROM the coast of Guinea, Captain John 
Clarke of the frigate Melampe, came to Bath e- 
maciated and tormented with the relicts of a bi- 
lious disorder, in which his life was often despair- 
ed of, and which obliged him to quit. By bath- 
ing and drinking, he perfectly recovered. 
5. THE Honourable F. Cary, Governor of 
Goree, left that island in a state of health the 
most hopeless. By a bloody flux and bilious fe- 
ver, he was reduced to the greatest degree of 
weakness,

103 BY BATH WATER.
weakness, attended with swelled legs, wasting, 
and cachexy. His bloody flux degenerated into 
a lientery; his food passed through indigested; 
he was frequently tormented with griping pains, 
nausea and sickness.—By easy journies, he first 
arrived at Bristol-Hot-Wells, where every glass 
aggravated his pains and produced vomitings. 
Bristol he exchanged for Bath, where he reco- 
vered completely in the space of three months, 
by the internal use of the waters, little assisted by
medicine. 
V. OF THE HYSTERIC CHOLIC.
THE Hysteric Cholic is rather a symptom of the 
hysteric passion, than a particular disease. It is
accompanied with violent pain about 
the scrobiculum cordis, and a discharge of 
green humours upwards, quick weak pulse, diffi- 
cult respiration, great dejection, and sometimes 
delirium. This sort of cholic is peculiar to hy- 
pochondriac men, as well as to hysteric women. 
It often terminates in a jaundice, which goes off 
spontaneously. 
Description.
From Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we have the follow- 
ing Cases, 1. “ Mrs. Farier of Norwich, aged 
“ thirty, was sorely afflicted with this 
“ sort of cholic. She had tried va- 
“ riety of regimens, to very little pur- 
“ pose. She had been sufficiently vomited and
“ purged. 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
“ I ordered her three pints of water at the 
“ King's pump next morning. She enlarged the 
“ quantity to four or five. When she was cos- 
“ tive, she had opening stomachic pills. After 
“ drinking some time, she bathed, had her sto- 
“  mach pumped, and was at length sent away so 
E4 “ well,

104 DISEASES CURED
“ well, that she continued free from violent pains 
“ all the following winter and spring. She re- 
“ returned next summer, nevertheless, to confirm 
“ the health which she had got.”—“ Many more 
“ instances of Histeric Cholics cured by water- 
“ drinking and pumping might be produced, but, 
“ for brevity’s sake, are omitted.” 
2. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Edward Wyke of Westminster, a gentleman 
“ much troubled with the spleen and 
“ cholic, came to Bath July 1688, so 
“ full of pain, and so weak, that he 
“ went crooked. He was scorched with continu- 
“ al fever and thirst. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters as much as he could 
“ bear for many days. After one month he en- 
“ creased the quantity, and thus recovered, for 
“ which he gave public thanks in the church of
“ St. Peter and Paul.” 
VI. OF THE DRY BELLY-ACH.
PAULUS ÆGINETA who flourished about the 
fourth century, seems to be the first who describ- 
ed this cholic. Lib. iii. cap. xviii. pag. 
31. From his days to those of Francis 
Citesius, physician to Henry the fourth 
of France, this disease was partially described by
various authors. Citesius was a Poictovien by 
birth. This disease then raging in that province, 
he applied himself to the study of it with un- 
common assiduity, treating accurately of its ori- 
gin, symptoms, cause and cure; he gave it the 
name, by which it since has been commonly 
known, Cholica Pictonum; tho’, with equal pro- 
priety, it may be called Cholica universalis; for 
there is hardly a corner of the globe but what 
History of the 
disease.
has

105 BY BATH WATER.
has felt its direful effects, with this distinction, 
that in warm countries it seems rather epidemic, 
in cold accidental. From the days of Citesius to 
those of Boerhaave, we meet with hardly any 
thing equal to what Citesius wrote. Boerhaave 
lectured on it in his annual course with great ac- 
curacy and judgment, In the year 1724, an epi- 
demic cholic raged in the west of England. In 
the year 1738, Dr. Huxham published his most 
valuable Opusculum de Morbo Cholico Damnoniorum. 
Since that time, many others have written on the 
same subject. In his Ratio Medendi, published
1761, De Haen bestows a chapter on this disease, 
by the common title, Colica Pictonum. 
For an accurate catalogue of symptoms, I re- 
fer my reader to Boerhaave’s Aphorisms, Huxham’s 
Opusculum, and De Haen’s chap. xxiv. 
Sufficient it may be for me to observe, 
that men in health are attacked with most excru- 
ciating pains about the region of the navel. The
deltoid muscles seem to vanish; the joint of the 
shoulder seems only to be covered with a skin. 
The fleshy part of the hand which covers the first
phalanx of the thumb, wastes away. The whole 
muscular fabric decays; the arms hang useless, 
like flails; respiration labours; the eyes lose their 
lustre; the complexion grows wan; nausea, vo- 
mitings, costiveness, constipation, melancholy,
and despondency succeed. 
Symptoms.
THAT this cholic proceeds from poisons, we 
cannot doubt; miners, plummers, founders, pain- 
ters and potters are subject to this disease. 
In his Academical Praelections, Boer- 
haave was of this opinion. “ Frequentes habui 
“  occasiones mirabilem hunc morhum videndi; 
“  et licet non negem illum ab aliis causis nasei
“  posce, tamen frequenter observavi in illis qui
Causes.  
E5 “ plumbo

106 DISEASES CURED
“ plumbo fundendo, cerussam preparando, &c. ope- 
“ ram debent.”—Hoffman describcs those cholics 
which afflict the German miners in calcining and 
separating the lead from the ore. Wines sophis- 
ticated with sacharum saturni bring on the dry 
belly-ach. To give their wines a better flavour 
and higher colour, wine merchants mix them 
with sugar of lead. This was the common 
custom of wine merchants in Germany. Boer- 
haave tells us that some of them were hang- 
ed for the offence. In his Praelections, he 
says, “ Observavi hunc morbum frequentem 
“ in opulentis, qui exquisitissima vina magno 
“ fatis pretio redemerant, forte plumbo edulco- 
“ rata, uti novimus olim a fraudulentis oenopo- 
“ lis in Germania factum effe.” Universal con- 
“ sent allows this paralysis, paresis, remissio, or 
lameness to proceed from a translation of morbific 
matter derived from the intestines, or rather me- 
sentery, by the interposition of the nerves. Ægi- 
neta’s authority confirms this, “ Nostris tempo- 
“ ribus, colicus quidam dolor molestus suit, ex 
“ quo imprimis superstites futures artuum motus 
“ omni modo privatio sequebatur, critica quadam 
“ metastasi factae.” This seems to countenance 
the opinion of those who maintain the convey- 
ance of nourishment by the nerves, allowing the 
blood vessels to serve only for containing the stream 
that keeps the AvΤoμαΤov in motion. Whether 
this paralysis proceeds from transposition of mor- 
bid matter, or from that wonderful susceptibility 
or sympathy of parts, seems yet undecided, nor 
can it well be determined. Sufficient it is for us 
to be instructed, that there are five pair of nerves 
arising from different places, and (after wonderful 
complications) distributed among the muscles 
which belong to the humerus, arms, wrist, and
fingers.



107 BY BATH WATER.
fingers. Sufficient it is for us to know, that there 
is a nerve which communicates with these five, 
together with the nerves of the small guts and me- 
sentery. Our bodies are, as it were, one sheet of 
nerves. Nerves form the very papillae which 
serve the purposes of taste at the point ot our 
tongue, and of feeling to our fingers ends. Ig- 
norants vainly place their hopes in local applica- 
tions, while those who are versed in anatomy 
strike at the root. How beautiful that candid 
confession of that illustrious follower of nature 
Boerhaave! “ Well do I remember where the 
“ opinions of the antients stood me in stead, and 
“ (with joy) do I confess, that sometimes have I 
“ cured palsies of the extremities, the consequen- 
“ ces of that disorder called the Colica Pictonum, 
“ while I applied frictions, aromatic plaisters, &c. 
to the abdomen alone.” 
THAT Dry belly-achs proceed from apples and 
cyder, Huxham has evinced. “ Diuturnum ci- 
“ bi potusque pomofi usum an abusum dicam, 
“ causam fuisse hujus morbi nullus dubito; quia 
“ neminem vidi eo correptum qui his abstinue- 
“ rat.” This disease (he says) raged chiefly a- 
mong the poor, who almost lived that year on 
apples, of which there was such a harvest, that 
the hogs fed on apples, and were infected with 
the same cholic. “ Sed et hoc etiam porcorum 
“ genus male tulit pomorum ingluviem: conta- 
“ buerunt omnes, perierunt plurimi.” About the 
harvest, he observes that cholics are endemic and 
epidemic in the west; as Horace, of old, observ- 
ed. “ In his oris, morbi torminosi sunt quasi 
“ endemici et epidemici, omni fere autumno, ut 
“ olim cecinit Horatius 
“ Pomifero, grave tempus, anno.”
E6 DRY 



108 DISEASES CURED
DRY BELLY-ACHS proceed also from severs im- 
perfectly cured. Dr. Tronchin quotes several ex- 
amples from Fernelius, Ballonius, Spigellius, 
Charles Piso, Citesius, Riverius, Willis, and his 
own experience in an epidemic fever which raged 
at Amsterdam, in the year 1727, and some years
after.—He mentions instances of dry belly achs 
and cholics consequences of gout and rheurnatism, 
from the authorities of Constantius Africanus, 
Gaddesden, Duretus, Fonseca, Mercurialis, Mus- 
grave, and his own experience.—Obstructed 
Perspiration has also produced the dry belly-ach, 
as we learn from Sanctorian experiments, as well 
as from the experience of the same Tronchin. 
This ingenious author gives instances of dry 
belly-achs proceeding also from scurvy melancholy, 
and passions of the mind. 
IN a letter from Senac to this author, we find 
an ingenuous confession, that after dissecting a- 
bout fifty persons who died of this distemper, he 
could find nothing that afforded any light. When 
the disorder takes its seat in the nerves, or ani- 
mal spirits, what light can we expect from ana- 
tomical dissecting? Finding the nature of the di- 
sease abstruse, and the method of cure contradic- 
tory and temporary, De Haen applied himself 
to the investigation of that cardinal symptom,
which produces the paroxysm, Constipation: to 
this he rationally directs the cure. “ Morbum- 
“ vidi, tractavi, recentem, provectum, diutur- 
“ num, annosum, cum omnibus suis variantibus 
“ symptomatibus, concomitantibus, aut sequen- 
“ tibus. Hinc didici ab inimica causa intestina 
“ vehementer constringi, faeces in iisdem con- 
“ tentas, exsuccas durasque reddi, tum etiam a 
“ cellulis vehementer contractis, Colo potissimum 
“ in intestino; in parvos eofdemque oblongos.
“ globos



109 BY BATH WATER.
“ globos formari; demum vero, turn colon maxi- 
“ me, tum et Ileum cum suis exsuccis duris-
“ simisque contentis, in solidam veluti massam 
“ coire, omniaque vasa nervos comprimendo, 
“ ferocia illa tormenta producere. Haec morbi, 
“ fi demum vera Pictonum colica dici debeat, justa 
“ idea, vera imago.” 
SOUR PUNCH has been numbered among the 
causes of the dry belly ach; and perhaps, some- 
times not unjustly. On different con- 
stitutions, the same aliments and the 
same medicines act differently. I can 
eat half a pound of honey without 
being griped. I know others who would un- 
doubtedly be thrown into severe cholics, by a 
single tea-spoonful. One man’s meat, we say, 
is another man’s poison. About thirty years a- 
go, strong sweet punch was the beverage of the 
West-Indies. Dry belly-achs were then very fre- 
quent. Weak four punih fucceeded; dry belly- 
achs have not been near so common. In spite of 
experience, West Indians, now begin to dread the 
acid. In the garrisons of Minorca, Gibraltar, 
and on board our ships of war, oceans of punch 
have been drank. Dry belly-achs were no more 
frequent in these garrisons, and on board these 
ships, than in other places. In hot countries the 
mass of blood is melted down; those who are 
not actually attacked with putrid bilious fevers, 
are in an incipient state of putrescency. What 
can resist putrescency so effectually as that rich 
flavoured vegetable juice of ripe limes, assisted by 
the finest sugar, and the choicest spirit! What so 
grateful to the parched throat! In the Caribbee
Islands, the ladies, remarkable for temperance, 
drink this beverage all the day long. Women 
seldom are infected with this disease; never, I 
Sour punch 
no cause of 
the dry belly- 
ach.  
verily



110 DISEASES CURED
verily believe from this cause; and men rarely, if 
ever. This is not altogether my own sentiment; 
there are many who will bear me witness. I 
have leave to mention the name of one man of 
good sense, strict probity, and well versed in the 
study of physic, I mean Governor Bell, who re- 
sided many years in Africa. From the whole of 
his conversation, and experience, he declared that 
while he last commanded at Cape Coast, he was, 
for three long years, parched up with a consuming 
slow fever; nothing was so grateful to his sto- 
mach as four weak punch. In this he indulged to 
the surprize of those who were about him; nay, he 
often drank off whole goblets of fresh lime juice; so 
far from suffering, he verily believes that this, 
more than any thing else, contributed to save 
him from total putrescency. I could name one 
who has drank as much hot four punch as would 
fill our greatest bath, and now enjoys good health, 
I could name scores who have been afflicted with 
the dry belly-ach, and no man can guess at the 
cause. Sour punch may therefore be added to 
the long list of vulgar errors. 
HAVING pointed out the disease, we now pro- 
ceed to the cure. As the causes are various, so 
must the indications. If bile vellicates 
the nerves, the morbid matter is to be 
evacuated by vomits and purges. The belly must 
be fomented without, and lubricating within. 
Semicupia are of great use. The parts are to be 
dipped in medicated springs. Chalybeate waters, 
riding, and change of air complete the cure. 
Cure. 
HUXHAM (in his method of cure) condemns 
bleeding, from experience. How beau- 
tiful his confession! “ Fateor equidem 
“ me cum antequam morbi naturam 
“ perspexeram, quibusdam sanguinis missionem 
Huxham's 
method. 
“ im-



111 BY BATH WATER.
“ imperasse: omnes enim hi in grave animi deli-
“ quium inciderunt.”—In pains of the back and 
joints he tried it: “ Infausto ut plurimum eventu; 
“ omnes fere paralitico effectu correpti vim pror- 
“ fus motumque manuum perdiderunt.” What 
makes particularly to my purpose is his opinion of 
Water external and internal. “ At ne fic quidem
“ alvus respondet, totum abdomen foveri jubeo 
“ fomento emolliente. Hoc blando vapore abdominis 
“ integumenta penetrat, ac intestina ipfa demul- 
“ cet, rigidas emollit fibras, easque nimis tensas 
“ relaxat. Mirandum plane successum saepe no- 
“ tavi ex applicatione hujusmodi R. Rad Alth.
“ Sen. Lin. &c. Affectus longe feliciores expec- 
“ tandi sunt, si aeger in semicupium demittatur ex 
“ iisdem paratum. Haud raro profecto vidi sae-
“ vissimum paroxysmum nephriticum solo balnei ufu 
“ derepente solutum, cum nec praelarga sangui- 
“ nis missio, nec laudani doses veto profecissent
“ hilum. 
“ Ad hunc morbum profligandum non solum 
“ primas vias purgare necesse eft, diluenda eft in- 
“ super sanguinis acrimonia salina. Inter diluen- 
“ αρlsοv μεv γswρ. Ex omnibus Aquis laudo
“ Pyrmontensum aut Spadanam; haec siquidem 
“ principio praedita chalybeate, non tantum sales 
“ optime dissolvi, fed et crasin sanguinis firmat, 
“ ac fibrarum tonum roborat. Qui consensum 
“ intestina inter et cutim observaverat, haud ita 
“ multum obstuperet videndo turn colicos dolo- 
“ res, tum rheumatismos, post sudationem peni- 
“ tus fere sublatos, pro tempore faltem; frequeti- 
“ ter enim sudores sponte erumpentes hanc aegri- 
“ tudinem allevabant admodum.” In confirma- 
tion of which Baglivi (Cap. De Colica) says, 
“ Colica habitualis et endemica, a vino acido praeser-  
“ tim




112 DISEASES CURED
“ tim oriunda, solis sanatur sudoriferis, vespere ta- 
“ men interposito anodyno. 
“ Post sudationem diluentia, prae ceteris au- 
“ tem Aqua ferruglnea purissima diu potanda, ut 
“ corruptae nimirum nova puraque materia ad- 
“ misceatur, ut debitus servetur sanguinis fluor, 
“ et ejus corrigatur acrimonia.” 
AFTER running over the different methods of 
cure laid down by almost all the authors who 
wrote on the subject, De Haen commu- 
nicates one process of cure spirited, 
sagacious, rational, and judicious. 
“ Mense April 1757, homo viginti et aliquot an- 
“ norum in nosocomium nostrum ferebatur. Pa- 
“ roxvsmum presentem horruimus omnes, vomi- 
“ tus, dolores intolerabiles, ejulatus, convulfio- 
“ nes toto corpora violentissimas, epilepsiae in- 
“ star, et spasmum maxillae. Nudato abdomine 
“ quid veluti convelli, convolvique in abdomine 
“ cernebamus, quod ipfo tactu durum.—Mede- 
“ lam fic institui, Emplastrum paregoricum ven- 
“ triculi region! admovi; oleum lini tepidum fre- 
“ quenter injici curavi; emulsa camphorata & 
“ paregorica, subin ipsum oleum ore fumenda de- 
“ di. Cataplasma emolientissimum toti circum- 
“ volvi abdomini; et quia abdominis compressio
“ manu facta videbatur lenire dolorem, cataplas- 
“ ma hoc fasciis abdomen comprimentibus firma- 
“ ri curavi.—Horum usu alvo prodiere (ut in per- 
“ fectissima Colica Pictonum.) rotunda, dura, parva, 
“ Scyhala, eaque copiosissima; quibus tandem tna- 
“ teries pultacea successit. His demum paroxys- 
“ mus filuit, neque rediit; ita ut miser, a bien- 
“ nio, non meminisset tantae doloris absentiae. 
“ Durities in abdomine percepta mole decrevit, 
“ vires rediere, appetitus, somnus. Legit vel 
“ ambulat, tota die hilaris. Alvo autem quo- 
De Haen’s 
method. 
“ dam



113 BY BATH WATER.
“ dam die carens, initia deprehendit repetituri do- 
“ loris; enema oleosum dolorem quidem solvit, 
“ fed denuo parva, rotunda, dura Scybala prodi- 
“ ere. Non ablata ergo causa, diaeta lactea vi- 
“ debatur curam absolutura; cujus experiundi 
“ gratia, hominem diu in nosocomio servassem, ni 
“ prae morum intolerabilitate, ejiciendum fuisset. 
“ —Tribus aliis eadem cura successit; expurga- 
“ tis quippe fordibus, lac copiosum, assiduum- 
“ que, nervos et sufficienter molles, et debite for- 
“ tes facit. Ter quater in anno relapsos lac de- 
“ mum incolumes servavit.”—To this pattern 
of practice, let us add his generous confession and 
opinion. How often are we ignorant of the na- 
ture and seat of poisons? How often have the 
poisoned died after the whole artillery of purges, 
vomits, diaphoretics, and alteratives has been ex- 
pended? “ Catholica methodus utendi aqua cali- 
“ day lacte multo, aqua mellita, oleoque, copio- 
“ sissimis omni modo applicatis, interne, externe, 
“ ore, ano; haec inquam noto et ignoto veneno 
“ ex aequo prodest. Scatent exemplis volu- 
“ mina.” 
FROM the testimonies of almost every author 
who has treated disorders of the intestinal tube, 
we find waters internally and externally 
recommended. In my first edition, 
(speaking of Dr, Huxham’s most valuable trea- 
tise) I expressed myself thus, “ Had this judicious 
“ author been but as well acquainted with the 
“ principles and virtues of Bath waters, as he 
“ seems to be with reason, sagacity and books, 
“ he would have found the thread of his labour 
“ often cut short; he would have been convinc- 
“ ed that Bath waters surpass all the hopes which 
“ he judiciously places in their succedaneums.” 
In a letter of that gentleman’s now before me, 
Conclusion.
(after



114 DISEASES CURED
(after acknowledging great benefit received by the 
Master Plummer and Brasier of Plymouth-Dock, in 
a severe cholic, attended with a paralysis of-hands 
and legs) he expresses himself, to the credit of 
our waters, thus: “ More than thirty years a- 
“ ago, I very well knew the use of your Bath 
“ water, in a paresis, or weakness of the limbs 
“ brought on by cholical disorders, especially 
“ that from the Cyder-cholic, and have, I believe, 
“ first and last, recommended thirty or forty pa- 
“ tients to the use of the waters on that account; 
“ many of whom received very great advantages; 
“ some were more relieved by bathing in the sea; 
“ probably, I may soon have it in my power to 
“ recommend more.”—Most of the treatises 
which have been written on the dry belly-ach, 
have been published many years. Boerhaave’s
Aphorisms and Commentaries are in every body’s 
hands. This disorder commonly passing by the 
name of the West India cholic, seems still but little 
known in this country. Cases mistaken for gout 
and rheumatism, have been treated in the anti- 
phlogistic regimen; after the regular torture of 
months, miserable cripples have been abandoned as 
bewitched. To obviate mistakes, I have taken 
some pains, not only to give the reader a general 
idea of the disease, but to point out those authors 
who have treated it in a masterly convincing man- 
ner. When the dry belly-ach has baffled the 
most judicious, and most experienced, our baths 
have been loaded with crutches. To facts I appeal. 
1. “ The Rev. Mr. Pilkington of Lincolnshire,
“ aged thirty-three, lived near the fens. 
“ After a fit of the cholic, he was 
“ crippled, and emaciated all over, his 
“ hands hung like flails. 
Pierce’s 
Causes.
“ I put him on a course of drinking. He 
“ staid six or seven weeks, went away much 
“ mended,



115 BY BATH WATER.
“ mended, returned next year, and compleated 
“ his cure.” 
2. “ Miss Kiblewhite, afterwards Lady Ken- 
“ rick, was violently pained in the bowels and 
“ limbs, joints and musculous parts, so tender 
“ that she could not bear to be touched. She 
“ had convulsions and hysteric fits. She was 
“ withal emaciated to a skeleton. She had gone 
“ through the materia medica, by the direction of 
“ the celebrated Willis. With no little labour 
“ she was conveyed hither in a litter, positively 
“ against the Doctor’s opinion. 
“ She was dropped down into the bath in a 
“ kind of cradle. By the bath she found some 
“ ease, but no strength or stomach. She was 
“ therefore put upon drinking. She used choly- 
“ beates, antiscorbutics, cephalics, anodynes, cordials, 
“ and hysterics. She had ease by bathing in the Cross- 
“ Bath, and drinking at the King’s-bathing-pump,
“ but no stength till she bathed in the Queen’s, 
“ and King’s. She came three or four years fol- 
“ lowing at first, then at four years distance, and 
“ at six, bearing children mean while. In her 
“ total enervation the optic nerves suffered with 
“ the rest; but as her limbs came to be restored, 
“ so was her fight strengthened.” 
3. “ The Lady Marchioness Normanby was sent 
“ hither in May 1688. From a bilious cholic, 
“ her hips, knees, ancles, feet, arms, and fin- 
“ gers were contracted. When her joints at- 
“ tempted to be stretched out, she roared out with 
“ pain. Her ancles were drawn inwards. 
“ She began with drinking. After a fortnight 
“ she was put into the Cross-Bath. She had been 
“ used, to opiates, which when we dared to leave 
“ off, she began to get ground. She suffered her 
“ legs to be laid streight, and to be set upon her  
“ feet,




116 DISEASES CURED
“ feet, her ancles turned not out so much; she
“ began to feed herself. There little alterations 
“ were all we dared to boast of after three months 
“ trial, at which time (the season being hot, and 
“ therefore unfit for bathing) her ladyship return- 
“ ed, lying on a bed in the coach. 
“ After her return, she arrived to a consi- 
“ derable pitch of health, strength, and active- 
“ ness, to which I was an eye-witness the spring 
“ following.”
“ It were tedious (adds the Doctor) to give 
“ every case that I could instance on this head 
“ Let it suffice to name the persons, who found 
“ cure in the same disorder, since there was but 
“ little difference in their symptoms, and method 
“ of cure.” 
4. “ Mrs. Beare of Devonshire, received great 
“ benefit, after four seasons.—Lord Thanet 
“ cured in three months.—Mr. Petit of Reading 
“ cured.—From Ireland, Sir William Davis, 
“ Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, recovered. Sir 
“ William Tichborn recovered after several trials. 
“ Sir John Cole recovered after several trials. 
“ Alderman Best of Dublin. Captain Harrison.
“ —From the isles of Guernsey and Jersey, Ma- 
“ dam Patriarch, after several seasons, cured. Mrs. 
“ Martin had a remarkable speedy cure. Peters, 
“ a Surgeon, cum multis aliis.—From the Carib- 
“ bee Islands, Colonel Hallet, Richard his bro- 
“ ther, Mr. Bond, and many others for the same 
“ loss of limbs from the dry belly-ach (as they call 
“ it) were here relieved, if not perfectly re- 
“ stored.” 
“ Let us hearken to Baynard. “ I have visited 
“ Bath for thirty-six years, and have 
“ seen wonderful and most deplorable 
“ cases there cured, and some in a very little 
Baynard. 
“ time



117 BY BATH WATER.
“ time (where care and caution has been observ- 
“ ed) especially in the West India Gripes and Cho- 
“ lics, where a paralysis has been general, and o- 
“ thers with arms, hands and legs strangely con- 
“ tracted.” 
1. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Peter Bonamy, Sub-dean of Guernsey, 
“ three years troubled with the cholic, 
“ and loss of limbs. There was scor- 
“ butic taint also, by which the skin 
“ was infested with pustulous eruptions, the fin- 
“ gers contracted, the internal muscular flesh of 
“ of the thumb wasted, with paleness and lan- 
“ guor. 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
“ He used the temperate Baths for a month at 
“ first with considerable relief, the second season 
“ more, and, after four years absence, he return- 
“ ed with an athletic habit of body.” 
2. “ Moses Levermore, Surgeon, of Nevis, 
“ afflicted with the belly-ach and palsey, by the use 
“ of the King’s and Cross-Baths received cure. I 
“ saw him well in London 1688.—Elias Pome- 
“ roy of Devon, had the same disease, and same 
“ cure.” 
1. The case of Miss Menzies of Dumfries, was 
as bad almost as any of the preceding, with this 
singular particular. Every three weeks 
she was taken with a cholic fit which 
lasted ten or eleven days and nights, 
with racking pain. During this paroxysm she 
could neither eat nor drink, she lulled her misery 
with laudanum. Under Dr. Gilchrist’s judicious 
care she had tried every regimen. 
Author’s
Cases.
Two or three days after she arrived at Bath, her 
cholic paroxysm came on. I advised her the free 
use of laudanum, and nothing else. Immediately 
after her fit she began the water, which prevent- 
ed



118 DISEASES CURED
ed the return of the cholic. She bathed also. 
This regimen she continued for five or six months 
with great advantage. Going out to the ball one 
night, and taking off the flannel rollers which 
swaithed her swelled legs, she catched cold, and 
had the first return of her pain. She continued 
eight months in all; the muscles of her thumbs 
plumped up, she wound up her watch, wrote 
half a dozen letters a day, and returned almost 
well. she took no other medicine but an open- 
ing pill.
2. Mr. Fletcher of Kent, was often here for 
the same disorder. His cholic pain yielded almost 
instantaneously to the waters, though his hands 
did him little service. 
3. Mr. Bennet, son to a schoolmaster near 
Ware came to Bath in this disorder. During his 
stay he had a severe fit with racking pain, con- 
stant vomiting, costiveness, &c. Sharp glysters 
purges, fomentations, semi-cupiums, and all o- 
ther common aids were administered; to no 
purpose. Deliberating on some medicine that 
might remove the spasm, and operate briskly, with- 
out loading the stomach, or provoking vomiting, 
I happily fixed on the following, Resin Jallap 
gran X. Merc. dulc. l. crass. gran. vii. Extract.
Theb. gran. i. m. f. pilulae statim sumend. Soon he 
voided one plug of excrement which was black as 
a cinder, and so hard that it rebounded like a ball 
from the floor, with an immediate relief from 
pain, vomiting, and every other dangerous symp- 
toms. By the use of gentle soft purges, the pas- 
sage was kept open, till he recovered strength. 
By the internal and external use of the waters, 
he recovered of this disorder, together with the 
supervening small-pox; and is, as I am told, 
now alive, and in good health,
4. Captain





119 BY BATH WATER.
4. Captain Arch. Millar of the navy, came 
from the conquest of Senegal afflicted with the 
loss of limbs, and other symptoms common to 
this disorder. In a very severe fit attended with 
costiveness, pain, vomiting. &c. I was called to 
consult with Doctor Gusthart, his first physician. 
Purges, glysters, baths, and other methods had 
judiciously been tried. Calling to mind my suc- 
cess with the last patient, I proposed the same, 
which was immediately agreed to, and administer- 
ed with the same success. In about six weeks, by 
the use of Bath waters internal and external, he 
recovered flesh, strength, appetite, and sleep. Rid- 
ing out one day in an open chaise, and caught in 
a shower, he relapsed, and was attacked with a 
fit, not quite so threatning as the former. Dr. 
Barry and I were both called in. Various reme- 
dies were tried, the constipation, pain, fever, vo- 
miting, and every symptom waxed worse. The 
patient requested the pills which had formerly 
relieved him; they were administered, and with 
the same success. The Bath waters after- 
wards completed the cure. For several years 
after he served with credit, and now enjoys perfect 
health.
5. Captain Scroop of the navy, came to Bath 
for the same cholic. While I attended him, he 
was taken with a fit as severe as the former, with 
this addition, that by straining, he had a falling 
down of the great gut, which, constricted
by the sphincter, could not be totally re- 
duced. The same pills were administered, and 
with the same success; but before the passage 
was obtained, a portion of the great gut was 
actually mortified, and cut off by Mr. Wright, 
surgeon of this city. What was singular in this gen- 
tleman’s case, he voided thin large bilious stools,
without



120 DISEASES CURED
without one bit of hard excrement; this obstruc- 
tion was the real effect of spasm relieved by the 
opiate. By the use of the Bath waters he had a 
complete cure, and, to the end of the war, did 
honour to his station. 
6. From the hand-writing of Mr. Anthony 
Jones, student of Oxford, the following case is 
printed. “ For some years past I have been af- 
“ flicted with a pain in my heels, which fre- 
“ quendy shifted to my stomach; for these two 
“ years last, my stomach could never be said to
“ be free. My last fit began in February, and 
“ continued till May, with perpetual reachings 
“ of green and yellow bile. At Oxford, my dis- 
“ order was unhappily treated as gout. I swal- 
“ lowed the hottest medicines; rum was to me 
“ no warmer than pump water. Violent pain at- 
“ tacked the muscles of my shoulders, gradually
“ descending till it deprived me of the use of 
“ both arms. My skin became so tender that 
“ the softest touch was insupportable; my voice 
“ was small and feeble; my eyes dim, with total 
“ relaxation. In the most deplorable condition 
“ I was carried to Bath, where (by six months 
“ perseverance in the use of drinking, pumping, 
“ and bathing) I have recovered so well that I 
“ daily ride out, eat, and sleep; and though I 
“ have not yet recovered the perfect use of my 
“ limbs, yet, by the divine permission, and effi- 
“ cacy of the waters, I doubt not of enjoying a 
“ complete cure. October 22, 1761.” 
7. George Cruikshanks, Esq. while he lived 
at Amsterdam, was more than once afflicted with 
this cholic, for which he was bled, purged, and 
otherwise injudiciously treated, the disease then
being new in that country. His fits were of long
duration; with great danger he escapcd. For
5 remain-

121 BY BATH WATER.
remaining pain, relaxation, and lameness, he 
made use of the Bath waters, and with great 
benefit. 
8. Mr. Edward Gregory, Captain of a Guiney 
ship, lived on that coast fourteen years, during 
which he was often attacked with this disease, and
never completely cured. Last year he came to 
Bath, emaciated, and deprived of the use of his 
hands, and frequently attacked with pains of his
bowels. By four months bathing and drinking, 
he recovered, and is now on a voyage to the 
same coast. One circumstance he communicated 
to me, which I think it my duty to communi- 
cate. On a voyage to Rhode Island, at the time 
of his landing he had been fourteen days without 
a stool, racked with pain, helpless, and hopeless, 
Mr. Forbes, a practitioner of that island, coming 
on board, asked the Captain, if he had any good 
Castile soap, which being produced, he said, ne- 
ver fear Captain, I will cure you in a crack. 
Shaving some of the bluest part of the soap down, 
he dissolved it in fresh milk, gave his patient two 
tea spoonfuls, with orders to repeat it in an hour; 
which he did, and was immediately rid of his 
constipation, and every complaint, excepting the 
lameness of his hands. He assured me that this 
he often experienced on himself, and many others 
afterwards, and hardly ever without success. Mr. 
Forbes assured him that it was his common prac- 
tice, and as successful as common. 
In the annual publication of the Bath Infirmary, 
relative to disorders of the nerves, the general 
article stands thus, Lamenesses and weak- 
nesses from tumors, contusions, colics, 
colds, falls, &c. From this complex 
account, little light can be drawn in relation to 
dry belly-achs, or any other particular disease; 
Proofs from 
the Infirma- 
ry. 
F yet,

122 DISEASES CURED
yet, from Dr. Summers’s industry, as well as 
from proper knowlege, we can affirm that there 
are numbers who annually receive cures in that 
hospital, particularly miners, or mechanics in- 
fected from working in metals. In the years 1763, 
and 1764, there were twenty-nine dry belly-achs 
cured, and eighteen much better. In Summers’s 
short Essay, we find one pattern truly worthy of
imitation; with this we close this chapter.—
“ In the Infirmary, there is now to be seen 
“ a young man of about nineteen years of age, 
“  who (after a voyage to these parts) was, two 
“ years ago, seized with a West-India cholic. 
“ When he was admitted, his arms hung useless 
“ by his sides, his hands dropped inwards, his 
“ fingers were so contracted, that it was in no 
“ man’s power to move them; his legs were con- 
“ tracted up to his buttocks, he stood on his 
“ knees, and was wasted to a skeleton. By the 
“ use of bathing he now walks without crutches; 
“ his hands, legs and arms have regained their 
“ wonted plumpness.”
CHAP.

123 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VI. 
OF DISORDERS OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
IN compliance with fashion, I refer rational 
deductions of diseases of the urinary passages,
to that part which treats of Bristol wa- 
ters. Suffice it here, in general to ob- 
serve, that as the same diseases differ in different
constitutions, so are the same diseases cured by 
different waters. “ That water should be ex- 
“ pelled by water, that drowned men should be 
“ brought to life by being drowned, is a miracle
“ (says Doctor Baynard) that surpasses St. Wine- 
“ fred’s. There are not however wanting in- 
“ stances of hydropics cured by drinking; a 
“ proof how little we know either of nature or 
“ art.” With other arts, physic has its fashions; 
so have wells. In diseases of the urinary passages, 
Bath waters have answered where Bristol waters 
have failed. Such, nevertheless, is the force of 
fashion, that diabetes, dysury, gravel, stone, ne- 
phritic pains, gleets, and other diseases of the u- 
rinary passages are (by universal consent) con- 
signed to Bristol. If Bristol waters fail, patients
are given up as incurable. Mankind, in general, 
stare at the surface of things. Reformers are 
upbraided for departing from common practice. 
In justice to Bath water, I take the liberty, ne- 
vertheless, to produce cures of diseases of the u- 
rinary passages, some of diseases never before at- 
tempted. 
Preamble.
1. In Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, p. 
364, we find the following Cases. 
“ Sir Thomas Ogle, aged forty, was
Pierce’s
Cases.
F2 “ so

124 DISEASES CURED
“ so frequently pressed to make water, and al- 
“ ways with sharpness and pain, that he could 
“ hardly be long together quiet, without emul- 
“ sions, and strong anodynes. He had taken 
“ loads of medicines. 
“ I ordered him Diacassia or Manna, half an 
“ ounce over night, or early in the morning; 
“ and, about seven in the morning, to drink 
“ three pints of King’s Bath water. When he 
“ took not of the Electuary, he drank two quarts; 
“ and, after a while five pints. They gave him 
“ usually two or three stools, but past mostly by
“ urine, and did not bring off a great deal of 
“ gravel neither; but manifestly abated the acri- 
“ mony of urine, so that he retained his water, 
“ and made it in large quantities.”
2. “ Mr. Belke, aged thirty, of the Six 
“ Clerks Office, had been afflicted with the 
“ same distemper. He drank the waters for five 
“ weeks. They passed by stool and urine; he 
“ was cured.”
3. “ Sir John Cotton, of Botrux-costle, had for 
“ many years been afflicted with severe fits of the
“ gravel and stone. He made dark turbid urine, 
“ he voided much gravel and stones of consider- 
“ able bigness and craggedness, which, by lace- 
“ rating the vessels, occasioned bloody water. 
“ I began with a purging nephritic bolus. He 
“ drank three pints of water, which, by degrees, 
“ he increased to two quarts. Never did wa- 
“ ters agree sooner, pass easier, and better. He 
“ brought off great quantities of sabulum, and 
“ small stones rough and scabrous, bigger than 
“ barley corns, but friable. He held so well all 
“ the winter, that this encouraged him to return
“ next summer, and drank them till the fabulous 
“ matter ceased, and he was free from fits.”
4. “ Mrs.

125 BY BATH WATER.
4. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Carne, aged seventy-two, 
“ hath been subject to nephritic pains almost fif- 
“ ty years, with frequent fits, and voiding of 
“ large rough stones. Every time she finds the 
“ least pain or disorder in the region of the kid- 
“ neys, she drinks three pints or two quarts of 
“ the King’s pump-water, in a morning, be the 
“ season what it will, and continues till she voids 
“ gravel or stones of a greyish colour, one of the 
“ worst colours, which gives her ease.” 
5. “ The second wife of Captain Henry Chap- 
“ man of this city, was used, of her own head, 
“ to go and fit three or four hours in the hottest
“ part of the King’s Bath, and drink largely of 
“ the water. To this she imputed the bringing off 
“ the stone easier. She is now living in the 80th 
“ year of her age.” 
6. “ Mr. Smith, steward to Lord Digby, was 
“ horribly decrepid with gout and stone. He had 
“ a perpetual desire of making water, with great 
“ sharpness, pain, and stoppage for days toge- 
“ ther. His joints were knotted with the gout. 
“ By drinking, he daily discharged vast quan- 
“ tities of gravel, stones, and mucous matter. 
“ He bathed, not by my consent. The nodes 
“ of his toes, fingers, and knees began to look
“ red and soft. Some of these tumors opened of 
“ themselves, others were laid open. The con- 
“ creted chalk was picked out little by little. He 
“ began to set his feet to the ground, bend his 
“ knees, support his body, handle his crutches, 
“ and at last walked with a stick.” 
7. “ Mr. Edward Bushed, senior, Alderman of 
“ Bath, aged seventy-three, laboured for eleven
“ months under torturing nephritic pains. At 
“ last he made bloody water, which encouraged 
“ him to try the water. His common dose is a  
F3 quart

126 DISEASES CURED
“ quart every morning with a spoonful of syrup 
“ of marshmallows. This doing for nineteen 
“ months together, he had perfect ease. By 
“ drinking stale beer, he now and then relapses, 
“ but his pains are not so violent. I have often
“ heard him say, how miserable a man had I 
“ been, had I lived any where but at Bath.” 
8. “ Mrs. Studley, of All Cannings, had long
“ been afflicted with continual urgings to make 
“ water, smartings, and violent pains, with small 
“ streaks of blood, with a heavy ropy sediment, 
“ which stuck to the bottom of the pot like bird- 
“ lime, and stunk abominably. By drinking she 
“ found ease. She bathed also, and found bene- 
“ fit. Business called her away too soon.” 
“ Not a few (says the good old doctor) have 
“ been cured, by regularly drinking the waters, 
“ of inveterate virulent gonorrhoeas, and of those
“ weaknesses which they usually leave behind 
“ them; for Bath waters cleanse, heal, and 
“ strengthen the parts concerned, and (as in all 
“ other acidities, acrimony, and sharpness of the 
“ blood and nervous juice) they correct that cor- 
“ rosiveness, and dilute that acrimony, and con- 
“ sequently alter the temper of that matter that 
“ is discharged, and, by its balsamic virtue, heals
“ the parts excoriated. 
“ This remedy will indifferently serve for the 
“ softer sex also, who (though they call it by 
“ another name) are too much liable to the same 
“ distemper. I dare not give instances, though 
“ I have them by me.” 
Guidot’s
Cases. 
Guidot (in his Bath-Register) gives 
the following cases. 
9. “ Mr. Thomas Brookes, minister, sixty 
“ years old, having for sixteen years a gravative 
“ pain in the back and kidneys, came to Bath, 
“ where

127 BY BATH WATER.
“ where he drank the waters, and voided fine pow- 
“ der, which subsiding in the urinal, and evaporated 
“ ad siccitatem, made eight pills as big as pistol bul- 
“ lets, of the colour and consistence of stone. 
“ At his return home he evacuated as much as 
“ made forty-four more. All the matter voided, 
“ in no long time, was enough to make a ball 
“ of stone six ounces weight, which coming a- 
“ way, the heavy pain in the kidneys and back 
“ ceased. Seven years after, I saw these balls not 
“ at all relented, so hard that they rebounded 
“ like marbles.” 
10. “ A certain person unknown, for benefit 
“ received in distempers relating to the passages of
“ urine, gave public thanks in the church of St.  
“ Peter and Paul, 14th of October, 1688.” 
DIABETES.
OF this disorder, I purpose to treat particu- 
larly, under the head Of Diseases cured by Bristol 
Waters. The following history is printed from 
the hand-writing of Captain Chaplin, of the 
Navy, the very first proof of its kind.
11. “ To the honour of Bath waters, 
as well as testimony of the prescriber’s 
judgment, I desire the following case 
may be published. 
“ About the latter end of the year 
1761, the time of our equipping for 
the expedition to Belleisle, I began to find myself
troubled with an unusual heat in the palms of my 
hands and soles of my feet, with great thirst and 
restlessness at nights, attended with a surprising 
loss of flesh; though my appetite and digestion 
continued very good. 
Author’s 
Cases. 
Proofs of 
Diabetes cur- 
ed by Bath 
Water. 
F4 “ Things

128 DISEASES CURED
“ Things continued thus all that winter—In 
the ensuing summer I was employed on a service, 
that obliged me to be a good deal exposed in the 
sun, at the demolition of the fortifications at Aix;
by way of cooling, I used to indulge in drinking 
Cream of Tartar and water, or a thin sharp French 
white wine and water. Neither of which, tho’
pleasing whilst they went down, allayed either 
my drought or heat: but I am afraid rather serv- 
ed to encrease the whole of my complaints.—
In the latter end of that year my sloop was ordered
to the Mediterranean, where I remained twelve 
months;—there I found my heat and drought 
greatly abated. I perspired more freely than I 
had used to do for some time; began to rest bet- 
ter at nights, and to recover my flesh. But on 
my coming to England this time twelve month, 
all my former complaints returned with more vio- 
lence than ever, with the addition of an hectic 
fever. It was then the opinion of every body 
that I was in a deep consumption, though I had 
very little cough, unless now and then, when I 
caught a fresh cold. I was advised riding and the 
gout-whey, when the season should come, both 
of which I followed to very little purpose, and 
was at last forbid riding intirely, as it was found
to fatigue me too much. 
“ In the month of last August, it was first ob- 
served, that my urine was of a very pale colour, 
of a sweet taste and smell, and that I voided more 
of it in the space of twenty-four hours, by two 
pounds, than I took of liquids; in short, my dis- 
order was found to be a confirmed Diabetes.—I 
was then advised to hurry to Bristol to drink the 
Hot-well waters. I accordingly got there about 
the middle of September last, and continued, with- 
out intermission, daily to drink them, and take 
medicine

129 BY BATH WATER.
medicine, for twelve weeks, without much bene- 
fit, unless, that in the first week I found the 
parchedness of my mouth, and great drought 
somewhat abated, as also the quantity of my u- 
rine, but my flesh and strength continued to 
waste.—At the end of that time, that is, about 
eight weeks ago, I came here to see you, with- 
out any thoughts or intention of using the Bath 
waters, when you, advised me to come over and 
try them, which I accordingly did, and have 
(thank God) benefited by them so much, as to 
have intirely got the better of all my complaints, 
as also to have recovered my flesh and strength to 
a surprising degree; for which great blessing I 
shall always remain, with the utmost gratitude and
respect,
Dear Sir, 
Your most obliged, 
And most Humble Servant, 
Feb. 7, 1764. 
James Chaplin ” 
To Doctor Sutherland.
12. Mrs. Fleming’s Case will be particularly 
described in that chapter which treats of Diabetes. 
This winter all her diabetic symptoms returned 
with violence, her appetite, flesh, and strength
failed; she hardly could stand on her legs; in a 
word, no body expected that she could live one 
month. I pressed her return to Bristol Hot-wells, 
went so far as to assure her that her life was at 
stake. My arguments were vain; she positively 
told me, she could not go at that time of 
the year, if she died; she begged that I would  
F5 prescribe


130 DISEASES CURED 
prescribe something that might keep her alive till 
the spring. Instructed by Chaplin’s success, I ad- 
vised Bath waters with Elixir Vitriol. Every 
day produced visible amendment; she is now 
strong and active, without one symptom of her 
disease, excepting a little of the sweet taste of
the urine, and that at an age far advanced. 
BESIDE these express cases, the curious reader 
may find not a few proofs interspersed with the 
histories of other diseases cured by Bath water, 
particularly in that memorable gouty case of Mr. 
Long’s. 
CHAP.

131 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
IN Compliance with fashion, I refer particular
deductions of pectoral diseases to that part of 
this book, which expresly treats Of Diseases cured
by Bristol Water. Suffice it here, in general, to 
observe, that those who, without evidence, fancy 
heat, fire and brimstone, synonimous ideas are 
incapable of conceiving how smoking waters 
should be safe in the disorders of the lungs. Those 
who confine the causes of cough, catarrh, and 
asthma to inflammation only, hurry away patients 
to Bristol. If they answer not, the wretched sick 
is given up to death. In asthmas, the very air of 
Bath is doomed pestilential. In consultation with 
able Bath physicians, I have more than once pres- 
sed asthmatics, not to tarry twenty-four hours 
within these walls. Instructed by experience, I 
now abjure these ignorances. In this very city 
there lives an upholsterer, Richard Evat by name, 
who chuses his residence at Bath, as the only air 
in which he could freely breathe, ever since the 
hard frost 1739. At the age of threescore, he 
now breathes freely, and enjoys perfect health. 
Doctor Smollet’s Case is an irrefragable proof of 
the doctrine. There are pectoral disorders which 
yield to Bristol waters only; there are others
which require a mineral more active, invigorat- 
ing and powerful. There are thin, acrid ca- 
tarrhs; so are there viscous, cold, and inert. 
There are hot consuming hectics, so there are
putrid. There are consumptions from putrid; so 
there are consumptions from obstructed lungs. 
F6 There

132 DISEASES CURED
There are genuine, dry, nervous asthmas; so 
there are spurious, moist, and catarrhous. Some 
proceed from irritation; others from obstruction. 
In some cases demulcents are indicated, in others 
attenuants. To conclude, Bath waters have 
cured coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, and asth- 
mas, when all other aids have failed. Let facts
speak for themselves. 
1. To Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we are obliged. 
“ The Lady Duchess of Ormond, aged 
“ sixty, came to Bath in September 
“ 1673. Her disorder was an invete- 
“ rate cough and asthma; she was forced to sit
“ upright in bed. 
Pierce’s
Cases. 
“ She drank the waters first in small quanti- 
“ ties. Bearing them well, the dose was increas- 
“ ed. She drank them on for a month, with lit- 
“ tie intermission, and so much relief that she 
“ expectorated more freely, and lay down in bed, 
“ her appetite increased, she rested better, she
“ bore her journey back better. 
“ Passing the following winter (the season in 
“ which such distempers usually increase) much 
“ better, she came again four different seasons. 
“ Every time she improved the first advantage.”
2. “ Lady Mary Kirk, aged forty, subject to 
“ an asthma, so that she was obliged to be bol- 
“ stered up for nights together, came hither and 
“ drank the waters several seasons following, with
“ great advantage, insomuch that in the year 
“ 1693, she had few or no returns of those fits 
“ which usually attacked her in cold and wet sea-
“ sons. In a letter of hers, now in my posses- 
“ sion, she says that for the whole winter past, 
“ (which to every body else hath been very se- 
“ vere) she has not so much as felt an oppression 
“ at her breast, much less a cough, that kept her 
“ from

133 BY BATH WATER.
“ from sleeping or eating a meal’s meat; that she 
“ goes abroad in all weathers, stays out till nine, 
“ and rests not a bit the worse. She returned last 
“ summer, and staid till the latter end of Octo- 
“ ber, and bathed even in the Hot-Bath as well 
“ as drank the waters, and did very well.” 
3. “A very worthy Lady, whose name I con- 
“ ceal, because I have not her leave, between 
“ 30 and 40 came hither in August, 1693. From 
“ inheritance she was hydropical, scorbutical, and 
“ asthmatical. She had gone through the col- 
“ lege. 
“ After a fortnight’s drinking, I permitted her 
“ to use the Cross-Bath, which had a different 
“ operation on her than it commonly has. It pro- 
“ moted the passing of the waters by urine; she 
“ was more lightsome, and breathed more freely. 
“ She drank and bathed for a month. Next year 
“ she used the same course for three months. She
“ found great advantage.” 
4. “ Mrs. Mary Whitaker, a virgin of thirty— 
“ nine, from Pottern, Wiltshire, came hither in 
“ May, 1681. The winter before, her cough was 
“ so violent that she spate blood. In January she 
“ was seized with a palpitation of the heart, the 
“ most troublesome symptom of all, and what she
“ took to be the cause of her difficulty of breath- 
“ ing, whereas it seemed to me that the nervous 
“ asthma (for such I took hers to be) caused the 
“ palpitation. The cough was violent without 
“ expectoration. She wheezed greatly. Upon 
“ the least motion she looked black in the face. 
“ Her heart beat as if it would come out of her 
“ body. She was always hot and feverish, had a 
“ quick labouring pulse. Her symptoms were 
“ greatly aggravated by her short journey of 14 
“ miles, 
“ I

134 DISEASES CURED
“ I ordered the waters with Sal-Prunel, Pecto- 
“ rals, and Paregorics. This method she con- 
“ tinued for a month or five weeks, and was by 
“ it perfectly restored, and is alive and well this
“ day.” 
5. “ Sir Henry Andrews, of Loftsbury, aged 
“ seventy-one, came hither for a Scorbutic Asthma, 
“ with the morphew on his back, breast, and shoul- 
“ ders, and weakness in his limbs. 
“ He bathed and drank with such success, that 
“ he came year after year, till other illnesses ren- 
“ dered him incapable to bear the journey.” 
6. “ The Marchioness of Antrim, aged sixty- 
“ two, had been many years troubled with a cough 
“ and shortness of breath. 
“ She drank the waters mostly, bathed but sel- 
“ dom, continued five or six weeks, was so well 
“ the following winter that she was encouraged to
“ come a second time, she prosecuted the same 
“ course with better success.” 
7. “ Mr. Harrison, of St. Crosses, aged eigh- 
“ teen, had, from his infancy, been subject to
“ coughs and asthmatic distempers, occasioned 
“ (as was said) by a Quicksilver Girdle. He had 
“ a great palpitation, and difficulty of breathing
“ on the least motion, not even the ambling of a 
“ horse. 
“ He drank the waters for a month or more. 
“ His breath was freer, the palpitation well- 
“ nigh ceased, he rode from near Winchester to 
“ Oxford in a day. He returned a second, and 
“ a third time, to confirm the advantage re- 
“ ceived. 
8. “ Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, came hi-
“ ther in April, 1686. He had been a long time 
“ hypochondriac and scorbutic, but, for some months 
“ past, especially in the winter, was seldom
“ free

135 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from a palpitation of the heart, an inter- 
“ mittent pulse, a decayed appetite, and a bad 
“ digestion. 
“ After various trials, particularly a long cha- 
“ lybeate course, he was sent to Bath. I order- 
“ ed him Quercetan’s Tartar Pill over night, and
“ to drink two quarts of King’s Bath pump next 
“ morning. He increased the quantity by de- 
“ grees to five pints, and at last to three quarts, 
“ interposing a gentle purge now and then, and 
“ two or three bathings. At the end of five or 
“ six weeks, he set out chearful and well, with 
“ a good appetite, the palpitation almost abated, 
“ and the intermission of his pulse scarcely dis- 
“ cernible.” 
9. Summer 1761, the honourable Edward 
Finch came to Bristol Hot Wells, after an in- 
flammatory fever, for which he had 
been bled nine times, and blistered five. 
When I first saw him, he had an habitual 
cough, with a difficult expectoration of tough
viscid phlegm, without fever; he was languid, 
low-spirited, and feeble, fifty years old, and up- 
wards. 
Author’s
Cases.
I pressed him to go immediately to Bath; I gave 
him my reasons and opinion in writing, which 
were transmitted to his physician in town, and by
him disapproved. This being the case, I added 
Bitters to the Bristol waters, with a restorative 
diet. Thus he recovered strength and spirits; 
but his asthmatic disorder still continued. At last
he took my advice and came to Bath, where he 
drank the waters six weeks. Every glass proved 
an expectorant, he went away perfectly re- 
stored. 
10. Mr. Partridge of the Packhorse, Turnham- 
Green, was subject to gouty complaints from his 
fourteenth


136 DISEASES CURED
fourteenth year. Last January, having caught 
cold, he was seized with an asthma; he could 
not lie in bed, his perspiration was stopped, his
legs were benumbed and swelled, without appe- 
tite. Naturally high spirited, he became so de- 
jected, that he burst often into tears on the sight 
of an old acquaintance. He came to Bath, drank 
the waters moderately, and, in six weeks time, 
was completely cured. He came down this win- 
ter by way of prevention, and is very well. 
11. Dr. Smollett, author of the History of Eng- 
land, laboured under a scorbutic humoral Asthma, 
for three years and upwards. To breathe he has 
been obliged to shift different airs, and never con- 
tinued long well in any. From a constitution 
healthy, vigorous and active, he became emaci- 
ate, low-spirited, and feeble, obliged often to 
rise out of bed, and fit up for hours; his perspi- 
ration was quite stopped, his appetite much im- 
paired, He tried variety of regimens, to very 
little purpose, was always the worse for bleeding. 
Caught in one of his fits, he put into the fore- 
said Packhorse, where he met with a director who 
counselled Bath water, from experience. Here 
he slept the very first night, and every other, for 
six weeks, drank the waters, and gained appetite, 
flesh, strength, and spirits. 
12. Mrs. Collins of this city, widow, aged 
sixty and upwards, has laboured under an Asthma
for many years. On the least motion she panted 
for breath, and was taken with violent fits of 
coughing. Her flesh wasted, her strength failed; 
by all appearances, she seemed bending fast to- 
ward the grave. By the advice of an emperic, 
she was, at last, pressed to try that healing foun- 
tain, which springs up within a few yards of her 
own house, which she did, to the quantity of a 
glass

137 BY BATH WATER.
glass, or two, a day only. She now lies flat in 
bed, sleeps well, eats heartily, her cough is va- 
nished, she walks a dozen of turns on the parade 
without being fatigued; whenever she finds a 
difficulty of breathing, she flies to the pump, and
forgets all her sorrow. She has, at different 
times, had the opinion of sundry physicians. To 
our common reproach be it confessed, Bristol wa- 
ter, bleeding, issues, pectorals, and every thing 
was counselled and tried, excepting the one thing 
needful; such strangers are we, even at this day, 
to the very tools by which we earn our daily 
bread. 
Since my last publication, I received the fol- 
lowing proof from an eminent merchant in 
Bristol. 
“ Some time since I had the pleasure of din- 
ing with you at my friend Rothley’s, who shewed
me a letter, dated the 10th instant, reminding 
me of the promise I made you, touching the pro- 
gress of a disorder I laboured with for a great 
many years. To be as good as my word, the fol- 
lowing is a description of my case, perfectly true, 
and too well known in this city to admit of the 
least doubt. 
“ From my infancy, I discovered, upon any 
Extraordinary exercise, some difficulty of breath- 
ing, but nothing remarkable ensued, till I arrived 
to twenty or thirty years of age; about which 
time shooting was a favourite diversion with me; 
and many times, being too eager in the pursuit 
of my game, I have been seized with such a short- 
ness of breath, seemingly occasioned by a blow- 
ing up of the lungs, that I have been obliged to 
sit down, sometimes for near an hour, before I 
have recovered; after that, had seldom a second 
attack the sameday.—About ten years ago, this 
long

138 DISEASES CURED
long growing complaint became a confirmed asth- 
ma, and during the course of seven or eight 
years, I endured as much misery from the disor- 
der, as I believe human nature is able to support; 
the beginning of these seizures were constantly in 
my first sleep, about an hour after I went to bed, 
and the fit generally lasted from twenty to thirty 
hours, and sometimes longer; during which time 
I was obliged to lie in one continued posture, and
my lungs so adhered, that they only supplied just 
motion enough to give life. Upon the first of 
these violent attacks I applied to an apothecary
of very considerable practice, and of whom I 
had a great opinion; he recommended me to a 
physician, and, after a due obedience to their me- 
dicines, I found no benefit. I then went to Lon- 
don to the famous Ward, he gave me some drops, 
which for a time lessened the violence and length 
of the fits, but his nostrum failed of the desired
effect; I then laid myself under another course 
of an eminent physician, who offered me his as- 
sistance out of friendship, he being big with the 
thoughts of success; and after a trial of his skill for 
5 or 6 weeks, the disorder had taken too deep root 
to be eradicated. I then had recourse to Bath, 
and the night I got there, had a fit of the asth- 
ma, as customary, which lasted till the middle of
the next day. In the evening I began with a 
common sized glass of water, and drank three 
glasses, morn, noon, and evening, the ensuing 
day; the next attack I had was faint and more 
favourable than before. I continued this course 
of drinking the waters three times a day for near 
a month, and found such amazing relief, that I 
pronounced myself cured, tho’ the next winter 
I was sensible of the disorder returning again; 
having several of the old accustomed fits. I went
again

139 BY BATH WATER.
again to Bath, drank the waters as before, and, 
thank God, found the same virtue in them, and
have now for two years continued as well as 
when you saw me, and may possibly give you
occular proof of it very soon, as I have some
thoughts of going to Bath for a few days.— 
I have given you the rise, progress, and (I hope) 
downfal of my case; and I shall be very happy,
if this narrative, thro’ your channel, can be use- 
ful to any of your patients. 
I am, Sir, 
Your very humble Servant, 
Bristol, Nov. 18, 1763
Cranfield Beecher.” 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
CHAP.

140 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. VIII. 
OF THE GOUT.
1. SYDENHAM’s description of the gout, 
regular and irregular, seems to be copied 
from nature. Boerhaave’s chapter of 
the gout (in his Aphorisms) is nothing 
else but an abstract of this. Hoffman has insert- 
ed his history in his discourse on this disease. Suc- 
ceeding writers have mangled a model worthy of 
imitation. Sydenham seems to be one of those, 
whom nature has endowed with that sagacity 
which constitutes the practical physician. Copy- 
ing the divine old pattern, this second Hippo- 
crates had the courage honestly to break through 
the clouds of ignorance, error, and prejudice; he 
gently led the art of physic into that natural path
of Observation from which she had so long stray- 
ed. Those racking pains which he felt for the 
greatest part of his own life, enabled him to, 
paint what he felt, and thereby relieve fellow-suf- 
ferers, by improving the diagnostic and curative 
parts of medicine. 
Gout. 
2. For a work of this kind, the spirit of his
descriptive part may suffice. The gout generally
makes its appearance at that period of 
life, when the circulation comes to be 
confined to a narrower sphere, when 
manly vigour declines, when the vessels begin to 
be rigid and impervious The harbingers of the 
Regular Gout are bad digestion, crudities, flatu- 
lencies, belching, heaviness, head-achs, nausea, 
loss of appetite, heart-burns, and wandering pains. 
The day preceding the fit, the appetite is sharp, 
and preternatural. 
Regular, its
history. 
The

141 BY BATH WATER.
The patient goes to bed, and sleeps quietly till 
about two in the morning, when he is awakened 
by a pain which usually seizes the great toe, heel, 
calf of the leg, or ankle. This pain resembles 
that of a dislocated bone, and is attended with a 
sensation as if warm water was poured on the 
membranes. These pains are immediately suc- 
ceeded by chilliness, shivering, and a slight fever. 
These last abate in proportion as the pain in- 
creases, which grows more violent every hour, 
till it comes to its height towards evening, re- 
sembling tension or laceration, sometimes the 
gnawing of a dog; and, at other times, a weight 
and constriction of the membranes, till it be- 
comes at last so exquisitely painful, that the pa- 
tient cannot abide the weight of the cloaths, nor 
the shaking of the floor. 
The night is not only passed in pain, but with 
a restless removal of the part affected also. This 
restlessness does not abate till about two or three 
of the clock in the morning; namely, twenty- 
four hours from the first attack. Breathing sweat 
succeeds, he falls asleep, and, upon waking, finds 
the pain much abated; the part affected, which 
before exhibited remarkable turgidness of the 
veins only, now swells. 
Next day, and perhaps two or three days after, 
if the gouty matter be copious, the part affected
comes again to be pained; the pain increases to- 
wards evening, and remits about break of day. 
In a few days, it seizes the other foot in the 
same manner; and, if the pain be violent in this, 
and that which was first seized be quite easy, the 
weakness thereof soon vanishes, it becomes strong
and healthy. The gout nevertheless affects the 
foot just seized as it did the former both in respect
to the vehemence and duration of pain. 
When

142 DISEASES CURED
When there is a copious somes of peccant mat- 
ter in the beginning, it affects both with equal 
violence; but, in general, it attacks the feet suc- 
cessively, as above. When it has seized both 
feet, the fits are irregular with respect to time 
of seizure, and continuance; but the pain al- 
ways increases in the evening, and remits in the 
morning. 
What we call a fit of the gout, is made up of 
a number of such small fits, the last of which 
prove milder, and shorter, till the peccant matter 
is expelled, and the patient recovers; which, in 
strong constitutions, and such as seldom have the 
gout, often happens in the space of fourteen days; 
in the aged, and those who have frequent returns, 
in two months; but in such as are debilitated, ei- 
ther by age, or the duration of the distemper, it
does not go off till the summer advances. 
During the first fourteen days, the urine is high- 
coloured; and, after separation, or standing, lets
fall a gravelly red sediment. Not above a third 
of the liquids taken in, is voided by urine. The 
body is generally costive. The fit is accompani- 
ed throughout with loss of appetite, chilliness to- 
wards the evening, and a heaviness, or uneasi- 
ness, even of those parts which are not affected. 
When the fit is going off, a violent itching 
seizes the foot, especially between the toes, the 
skin peels off, appetite and strength return; the 
juices come to be depurated, the patient finds him- 
self clearer in his understanding, chearful and ac- 
tive. Nature has performed her work. 
3. WHEN the body has long been habituated 
to the disease, when it has been exas- 
perated by quacking, the juices ac- 
quire a quality which supplies constant 
fuel to the flame. Debilitated nature can no 
Irregular. 
Its history. 
5 longer

143 BY BATH WATER.
longer unload her burden by the feet, the genu-
ine outlet of the morbific matter; it corrodes the 
capillary vessels, stagnates and curdles that liquor 
designed for lubricating the joints. This hardens 
into chalky matter, distends the skin, inflames, 
breaks through, and discharges itself in a fluid or 
solid form. It not only stiffens the joints, but it 
fixes on the tendons, and forms lodgments in the 
interstices of the muscles. Hence excruciating 
pains and lameness. This we call the Irregular 
Gout. 
Those particular fits which compose the gene- 
ral, sometimes continue fourteen days without 
intermission. The patient is besides afflicted with 
sickness, and a total loss of appetite. The cardi- 
nal fit continues till the summer heat comes on. 
During the intermission, the limbs are so con- 
tracted and disabled, that the patient can hardly
walk. The relicts of the morbific matter fly to 
the bowels; the haemorrhoidal vessels grow pain- 
ful; the stomach is oppressed with nauseous eruc- 
tations; the urine resembles that of a Diabetes; 
the whole man is debilitated. Hence low spirits, 
melancholy, &c. 
When the disease becomes inveterate, after 
yawning, especially in the morning, the liga- 
ments of the metatarsus are violently stretched; 
they seem as if they were squeezed with great 
force. Sometimes, though no yawning has pre- 
ceded, when the patient seems disposed to sleep, 
he feels a blow of a sudden, as if the metatarsus 
was breaking in pieces, so that he starts, roaring
out with pain. The tendons of the muscles of 
the shin-bone are seized with so violent a cramp, 
that the pain is insupportable. 
After many such racking pains, the following 
paroxysms become less painful, an earnest of ap- 
proaching

144 DISEASES CURED
proaching deliveries, by death. Nature, oppressed 
by disease and old-age, can no longer drive the 
morbific matter to the extremities. Sickness, las- 
situde, looseness, &c. usurp the place of pains. 
These ease the pains, which return as those go 
off. Thus, by a succession of pains and sickness, 
the fits are prolonged to an uncommon length. 
Pain diminishes, the patient sinks at length thro’
sickness rather than pain. In a word, pain is na- 
ture’s harsh remedy, by which she endeavours to 
relieve herself; the more violent it is, the sooner 
the fit terminates, the longer, and more perfect 
is the intermission, and e.c. 
Gout also produces stone and gravel. The 
mind sympathises also with the body. Every pa- 
roxysm may as justly be denominated a fit of an- 
ger, as a fit of gout. The rational faculties are 
so enervated, as to be disordered, on every trifling
occasion; the patient comes to be troublesome to 
others, as well as to himfelf. Fear, anxiety, and
other passions torment also, sometimes he swears, 
then prays, and anon cries. 
The organs of secretion no longer perform 
their functions; the blood, overchaged with vi- 
tiated humours, stagnates; the gouty matter ceases 
to be thrown on the extremities. Death puts an 
end to misery. This is the history of the gout, 
regular and irregular. We now proceed to enu- 
merate the causes which produce the paroxysms. 
4. PRINCES, Generals, Statesmen, Philosophers, 
the rich and opulent are the people who are ge- 
nerally subject to the gout. Provi- 
dence bestows her gifts more equally 
than we are apt to allow. The gout 
destroys more rich than poor, more wise men 
than fools; she tempers her profusion of good 
things with mixtures of evil; so that it appears
Persons at- 
tacked. 
to

145 BY BATH WATER.
to be decreed that no man shall enjoy unmixed 
happiness, or misery. The poor man’s children 
are plump and rosy, while his Lord’s look wan 
and puny. 
5. VIOLENT EXERCISE, sudden heats and colds, 
hard study, luxurious meals, night-revels, early 
venery, and the sudden interruption of 
wonted exercises, all contribute to an- 
ticipate the gout. It not only lays hold of the 
gross, intemperate, and indolent; but it attacks 
the lean, sober, and active, if they have received
the taint from gouty parents. Thus it comes to 
be interwoven with their very constitutions. Wo- 
men and children are martyrs to a disease natu- 
rally peculiar to man. The valetudinary sons of 
gouty parents feel the curses of old-age before 
they reach the years of puberty. 
Causes. 
6. THE reader will hardly expect to meet 
rules sufficient for directing him in the cure of a 
disease which baffles art. There are 
certain rocks on which gouty patients 
have suffered shipwreck; there are duties which 
they owe to themselves; these are both necessary 
to be known. In the regular gout, patience and 
flannel seem to be the requisites. The irregular 
puzzles the College.
Rules. 
Nature uninterrupted throws the morbific mat- 
ter of the gout on the extremities. Whatever 
weakens, hurries, or disturbs nature, injures the 
constitution. Evacuations of all sorts, topical 
applications, and bitters are, at best, necessary 
evils. In the last chapter, the gouty reader may 
find cautions worthy of his notice, particularly
under the section of Preparation.
7. IF Evacuants and Topics are rather hurtful 
than beneficial, whence are we to ex- 
pect a cure? Sydenham says, he can-
Bitters.
G not 


146 DISEASES CURED
not help thinking but that a radical cure may be 
found out. Till then, he supposes the primary 
cause of the gout to proceed from indigestion, to- 
gether with a consequential acrimony of the hu- 
mours. Such medicines as are moderately heat- 
ing, bitter, or pungent, purify the blood, and 
strengthen the first passages. For this purpose, 
he recommends Angelica, Elecampane, Wormwood, 
Centaury, Germander, Ground-pine, and the like, 
in a compound mixture, continued for a long 
time. Such medicines increase the circulation, 
and thus strengthen.—Of all the strengtheners of 
digestion. Dr. Cheyne prefers a strong infusion of
the bark in generous claret joined with chalybe- 
ates.—Boerhaave, Sydenham’s implicit admirer, 
says, Curatio quam contemplatio moli, et experientia 
commendavit, absolvitur restitutione vigoris in visceri- 
bus perditi. From the writings of the antients, 
as well as from experience, these gentlemen join- 
ed in the same opinion.—Caelius Aurelianus’s 
Diacentaureon, and Aetius’s Antidotes ex duobus 
Centaureae generibus, are old names for Portland’s 
powder.—Tournefort (in his Histoire des plantes 
qui naissent aux environs de Paris) gives an exact
description of it with the addition of the Centau- 
rium majus. The Faculty of Paris has adopted it 
into the Codex Medicamentorum, substituting the 
Rhaponticum in the room of the Centaurium ma- 
jus.—By the persuasion of a friend, the Duke of 
Portland took it for a hereditary gout, and found 
such relief, that humanity induced him to pub- 
lish the prescription, which differs not essentially
from Sydenham’s. Its indiscriminate use has a- 
verted fits of the gout, substituting mortal ail- 
ments in their room. 
1. “ Mr.

147 BY BATH WATER.
1. “ Mr. Fraigneau, Confectioner to the late 
“ King, was about forty years old. By a here- 
“ ditary gout, he had for many years 
“ been so much a cripple that he hob- 
“ bled only by the help of two sticks. 
“ Every year he had regular fits; in 
“ the interval was chearful, lively, and sensible. 
“ Importuned by the Great, he took Portland’s 
“ powders strictly. He lost his regular salutary 
“ fits. His stomach was at last so tanned with a 
“ farrago of astringent bitters, that it lost its re- 
“ tentive quality; he threw up every thing, even 
“ the bitters themselves. After various regimens, 
“ he came at last to Bath, where, by drinking 
“ the water, his vomiting stopped, but soon re- 
“ turned. By Dr. Nugent’s advice and mine, 
“ he took various antiemetics, all at last to no
“ purpose.”—In his case it may be worthy of 
remark, that when, by warm medicines, we could 
obtain inflammation and pain on any joint, his 
vomiting ceased, but the warmest at last proved 
ineffectual. With his last breath he cursed the 
powders. 
Portland’s 
powder fa- 
tal. 
2. “ Thomas Boucher, Esq. was also freed 
“ from his gouty fits by the powder. Sometime 
“ after he was afflicted with a violent fever, which
“ bequeathed him an inveterate rheumatism, and 
“ distortion of the joints of the fingers.” 
8. As Evacuants, Topics, and Bitters, 
all disturb nature, by taking a nearer 
view of nature, we may perhaps be led to a more 
powerful and safe specific. 
Cure.
When the stamina vitae come to be debilitated 
by intemperance, or old age; when the secretory
organs can no longer perform their office, hu- 
mours are collected in greater quantities than can 
be discharged. These undergo various alterations; 
G2 thus

148 DISEASES CURED
thus they occasion various diseases according to 
their degree of fermentation, or putrefaction. 
Hence it is that the aged are more subject to these 
diseases which proceed from indigestion than the 
young, whose vital warmth subdues, or expels 
noxious humours. Hence it is that invalids en- 
joy a better state of health in summer than in 
winter. Hence also it is that travelling into sou- 
thern climates, cures diseases incurable in nor- 
thern. Heat not only creates that juvenile fever 
which depurates gross humours, but it prevents 
their accumulation. 
This doctrine is evidently confirmed by that 
incredible relief which riding procures to people
labouring under chronical disorders. While it 
strengthens the digestive powers, it rouses that vi- 
tal heat which enables the secretory organs to pu- 
rify the blood. 
Proinde curatio absolvitur (1) restitutione vigoris 
in visceribus perditi, (2) Ablutione liquidi jam cor- 
rupti stuenils in vasis, vel stagnantis. 
HAD Sydenham been acquainted with the in- 
ternal virtues of Mineral Waters, or had he weigh- 
ed the effects of Warm Bathing in his 
judicious mind, he would have found 
a medicine endowed with virtues far su- 
periour to his admired Bitters, a medi- 
cine which (in the course of days, or weeks) not
only restores the lost vigour of the bowels, but 
depurates and carries off corrupted juices, a me- 
dicine which cures cito, tute, et jucunde. 
Mineral
waters spe-
cific.
In all ages, waters have been used internally 
and externally. The practice of drinking and bath- 
ing is rationally and succinctly laid down 
by Baccius, in his book De Thermis, 
pag. 119, and 120, under the article, 
Juncturarum et Articulorum morbis. Having laid
Baccius’s
doctrine. 
down

149 BY BATH WATER.
down rules for treating other affections proceeding 
from cold temperament, he observes that, in the 
gout, the joints are inflated, pained, and con- 
tracted from cold temperament also; these there- 
fore he proceeds to cure in the same manner, per 
calida balnea, concedenti usu. According to the 
different indications, he lays down different me- 
thods of cure; for slight affections, he proposes 
drinking; for more stubborn, bathing, nam irve-
teratom arthritim, seu chiragra fit, feu podagra, sive 
Ischias, parcius sanabit potatio; lavacra majorem ha- 
behunt efficaciam. 
By way of preparation, he advises the patient 
to drink a cup of purging waters for some morn- 
ings, to absterge those viscidities which give rise 
to the gout, quae crassas a latis meatibus visciditates, 
—In an universal gout, he orders the patient to 
bathe in warm discussory water. If there happens 
suspicion of distillation from the head, he refers 
him to the pump, as in nervous affections, quas 
etiam fi distillatio imputetur (ut plerumque fit) ad
usum Ducciae, qualiter in nervosis, usurpare licebit. 
He orders conspersions not only on the occiput, 
for the prevention of distillation, but on the mem- 
ber swelled or afflicted; by way of discussion, he 
advises lutations also, et itidem illutamenta. In in- 
cipient cases, where there are many parts at once 
affected, he orders sweatings. At si plures, ex 
dissipata fluxione, articuli consictentur, sudationibus
etiarn utendum, quales in Baianis fudaioriis, et mul- 
tis aliis. After the flux of humours has abated, 
he advises arenation, insolation, &c. Arenatio effica- 
ciffimum remedium est universae arthritidi, tumenti- 
bus praesertim lento ac frigido humnore articulis.-
In gout arising from hot temperament, he lays 
down one admonition well worthy of notice, viz. 
G3 To

150 DISEASES CURED
To purge off those humours which, by bathing
and sweating, might be exasperated. Medicata- 
rum potiones, degerendo, vacuando, ac fluctiones in- 
hibendo, quam lavacra calidarum, ant exudatio, quae
liquatis viscidis, ac prius sopitis humoribus excitatis, 
fluxioni ne adaugeant materiam timendum. 
He recommends drinking in gouts which attack 
people in the bloom of life, or heat of summer, 
which may be by following temperate strengthen- 
ing baths. Maxime vero commoda potatio, si (ut in 
pluribus accidit) a causa calida incipiat fluxio, vigen- 
te praesertim aelate ac destate ineunte; cui ministerio 
fi lavacra commoda subsequantur, haecque temperata 
funto, et quae, ex ferri qualitate, egregie valent con- 
firmare. Such are the Balnea Villae Lucae, Caiae, 
Porretanae, Albulae, &c. and such are our Cross
and Queen’s. These strengthen weak joints, and 
alleviate pains. On this principle, Dioscorides 
bathed Ischiatics in brine. Cornelius Celsus (Lib. 
iv. cap. 24.) heated brine, with which he foment- 
ed the feet, covering the patient with a cloak. 
Baccius recommends a fomentation of the mother 
of wine in disorders, from experience. In tubs 
of fermenting wines, he orders the part affected, 
or even the whole body, if it happens to be weak, 
to be immerged. 
Solvere nodosam nescit medicina podagram was the 
opprobrium of his days, as well as ours. He, ne- 
vertheless, advises a trial of unguents and bathings
in gouty concretions. Tentandum tamen non odea 
confirmatos callos per olei, aut assiduum hydrolaei fo- 
tum emollere, exudationibus aperire, dispositos per bal- 
nea calidior a, iisdem ex alto dispersis discutere. In 
chalk-stones, gibbous and contracted joints, Bac- 
cius recommends a leaden bath in Lothoringiis, the 
Tritoli, and many more. He recommends salt 
baths, lutatiom, saburrations, vaporaries, insola- 
tions,

151 BY BATH WATER.
tions, &c. all which were rationally, and success-
fully practised at Baiae, Puteoli, Cumae, Vesuvius, 
and other places. To the doctrine of this most
sagacious practitioner, I not only think myself 
obliged to assent; but, from reason and experi- 
ence, I dare affirm, that when the waters of Bath 
come to be rationally applied, they will be found 
second to none. Bath water restores the appetite, 
promotes the lesser secretions, and paves the way 
for medicines. When the vis vitae is not, of it- 
self, sufficient for protruding the gouty somes to 
the extremities, Bath water is preferable to all the 
panacaeas of the shops. The effects of the lat- 
ter are momentory only, Bath water invigorates 
the blood, and regenerates the constitution. Ba- 
thing opens obstructions, and strengthens. In 
Dr. Home’s Principia Medicinae, page 163, this 
opinion seems to be confirmed; his words are 
these, “ Vires concoctrices roborantur chalybe, 
“ vel aquis chalybeatis, Thermis Bathoniensibus 
“ praecipue.” 
9. IN indigestion, flatulency, belching, nausea, loss 
of appetite, heart-burns, lowness of spirits, 
wandering pains, and other symptoms, 
harbingers of the gout, there are votaries who
daily own their obligations to Bath. 
Cases.
1. Sir William Yonge, every time that he came 
down, got rid of the pain of his stomach, almost 
by the first glass. The truth is notorious. 
2. Mr Greenfield, Apothecary of Marlborough, 
had, for many years, been used to regular fits of
the gout. As age advanced, the paroxysms left a 
debility of the stomach, with belchings, indiges- 
tion, and low spirits. For these complaints, he 
came down every year pale, wan, and enervated; 
Every trial converts his symptoms into a regular 
fit? which he nursed at home with patience and 
G4 flannel.


152 DISEASES CURED
flannel. He left off coming to Bath at last, and 
thus shortened his days. 
3. For the benefit of fellow-sufferers, I am re- 
quested to publish the case of John Eaton, Esq. 
of this city, an unquestionable proof of my pre- 
sent position. 
“ By frequent courses of drinking Bath-water, 
I procured regular fits of the gout, which before 
afflicted me much. In July, 1759, I was seized 
with a pain in my stomach and bowels, which, 
(though not acute) continued for near a month; 
when it left a great trembling in my hands, with
loss of appetite, and lowness of spirits. These 
symptoms continued some weeks, and ended at 
last in a weakness of my limbs, so that I could 
neither stand, turn in my bed, nor lift my hands
to my mouth. 
“ These complaints induced me to come to 
Bath. I was carried to the Pump, where I drank 
a pint of water a day, at three different draughts, 
all in the morning. 1 drank the Bath-water 
mixed with wine also at my meals. This course 
I have pursued till now, interrupting them now 
and then for a fortnight; about December I left 
them off for ten weeks. 
“ My strength increased gradually, I am now 
able to walk, and to assist myself as well as can 
be expected from a man who has been so much 
troubled with the gout, of which I had several 
slight fits since my residence at Bath. 
Bladud-Buildings, 
11th April, 1761. 
John Eaton.” 
4. Mr. Fleming, a Swiss by birth, once a mil- 
lener in Bond-street, nine years ago, was taken, 
as he played at cards, suddenly with a sickness 
and

153 BY BATH WATER.
and giddiness in his head. Getting up, he reel-
ed, and ran against the wall with such force, that 
he broke his head. By art he was so much re- 
lieved that he came to Bath, where (ignorant or 
the cause) he drank the waters, and at the end of 
fourteen days had a smart fit of the gout in both 
feet, which lasted twenty-one days. After this 
he continued well for years. In the year 1758, 
he was again attacked with violent pain of the 
stomach and head, with cough, chills, shiverings, 
&c. Doctor Shaw advised him to come to Bath. 
His affairs not permitting, he continued eleven 
weeks under his and Doctor Taylor’s hands. In 
a weakly emaciated condition, without appetite, 
or digestion, he was transported at last to Bath, 
where, by drinking the water for one week only, 
both legs swelled and inflamed. This fit lasted 
three weeks, and kept him in health for a year. 
Whenever his head or stomach complaints begin, 
he immediately sets out to the healing spring, and
finds a certain painful cure. 
WHEN the patient has gone through a regu- 
lar fit, when the paroxysms have purified the. 
habit, when he finds his spirits lively, 
and his senses clear, he ought then to 
bathe in water rather cooler than the heat of the 
human blood. Tepid bathing is a rational reme- 
dy for clearing the vessels of the dregs of the dis- 
ease. The Cold-Bath completes the cure. 
Caution.
The patient then ought to hid adieu to Bath- 
water. This caution may not perhaps be im- 
pertinent, when we consider that there are num- 
bers who blindly jog on in the circle of curing 
and procuring gouts by the same specific, till by 
indolence, waters, and drugs, constitutions come 
to be worn out. 
G5 BATH-

154 DISEASES CURED
BATH-WATER has performed wonders extern- 
ally, as well as internally. When the chalky mat- 
ter breaks through the small vessels, it 
forms lodgments in the interstices of the 
muscles, it deposites itself on the tendons, which 
it thickens, stiffens, and renders unfit for muscu- 
lar motion, it dries up that liquor which serves 
lor lubricating the joints, it forms stiff joints. 
Persons thus affected have been recovered by warm 
bathing; not on the principle of softening, or re- 
laxing, as imagined by Doctor Oliver, in his Es- 
say on the use, and abuse of warm bathing hi gouty 
cases; for I have already proved Bath-waters to 
be hard, bracing, and astringent. Nor do they 
contain particles saponaceous; for they are not 
such powerful solvents as common water. His 
little performance is nevertheless fraught with 
practical reflections, and cautions well-worthy of
the perusal of the gouty reader; a convincing 
proof that tho’ in theory we may differ, observa- 
tion and experience will direct all to the truth.
Bathing. 
OF the doctrine of Rarefaction and the effects 
of fevers artificially raised, I have treated at large, 
in my Attempt to revive the doctrine of Bathing. 
Suffice it here to say, that the diameters of the 
vessels thus enlarged, the moleculae, which were 
too large to pass in their contracted state, are 
ground down by repeated circulation and depu- 
ration. 
1. “ Dr, Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) men- 
“ tions the following case of his own father-in- 
“ law, Mr. David Tryme. From be- 
“ tween fifty and sixty, he had been 
“ subject to fits of the gout at great in- 
“ tervals, tho’ he drank freely, and rode hard. 
“ Whe he bad a fit, he used plaisters and oint- 
“ ments of all sorts. At the age of eighty-three. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ he


155 BY BATH WATER.
“ he was attacked with a severe fit, which first
“ seized his toes and fingers, to which he used to 
“ apply whatever was proposed; by which he 
“ fell into fainting fits, out of which he was 
“ with great difficulty got by the use of strong
“ waters and cordials. 
“ These threw the gout a centro in circumferen- 
“ tiam, into his hips, knees, and feet, so that he 
“ was, for some days, in excessive pain, which 
“ he chose to bear rather than again to apply his 
“ plaisters. Patience and posset-drink eased the 
“ pain, but left so great a weakness, and stiff- 
“ ness, that he could neither walk, stand, nor 
“ extend his legs. From July to April he re- 
“ mained a cripple. 
“ He was lifted in and out of the Queen’s and 
“ King’s-Baths. After three weeks bathing, he 
“ not only walked between his guides, but he 
“ swam twice round the King’s-Bath, He re- 
“ covered, and lived five years longer without 
“ any severe fit of the gout.” 
2. “ Robert Long, Esq. of Prior-Stanton, in 
“ the 89th year of his age, was much enfeebled 
“ with severe fits of the gouty was weak in his 
“ limbs, and tender in his feet. He bathed in 
“ the Cross-Bath fourteen or fifteen times. He 
“ walked more erect and nimble, has a smooth 
“ fresh florid countenance, and is likely to pass 
“ another seven years.” 
3. “ George Long, Esq. of Downside, near 
“ Wells, was, upwards of twenty years past, at-
“ tacked by the Gout and Stone. He 
“ was pained in every joint; his fing- 
“ ers became crooked, his right knee, 
“ hips, and back motionless by calculous matter, 
“ which crammed itself into every joint. He 
“ was bed-ridden. His thirst was importunate. 
Surprising
Case. 
G6 “ his

156 DISEASES CURED
“ his appetite lost, his skin shrivelled, his face 
“ meagre, his hair grey, his flesh wasted, so that 
“ he could throw the calf of his leg over his 
“ shin-bone. With all this, he had a perpetual 
“ sharpness of urine; nay, all the juices of his 
“ body had such a propensity to lapidescency, 
“ that his water being left, but a few days, in a 
“ urinal, was crusted at the side and top as thick 
“ as half a crown, with a porous kind of stone 
“ like that of a pumex. 
“ In this condition, he was, with difficulty, 
“ transported to Bath. He began with drinking 
“ the waters hot from the Pump in the morning; 
“ at meals cold, for he drank not then, nor 
“ hath he since drank any malt liquor. In a 
“ week’s time his thirst abated, and the sharp- 
“ ness of his urine lessened; his stomach began 
“ to return. After a month’s drinking, he bathed 
“ between whiles, which eased his pains much. 
“ In the Bath, he could suffer his legs to be ex- 
“ tended a little.
“ He returned home in about six weeks, and 
“ drank the waters there. In three months af- 
“ ter, he returned, bathed, and drank six weeks 
“ as before. In the mean time he gathered some 
“ flesh and strength, with some small ability to 
“ go, though criplishly. 
“ In November following his grey hairs began 
“ to fall off; new ones succeeded; nay, he says, 
“ his grey hairs turned to a soft brown, which 
“ grew so fast, that he cut more than an inch 
“ every four or five weeks. By Candlemas he 
“ hardly had a grey hair left. Even now, bate- 
“ ing a little baldness on the crown, (for he is 
“ on the wrong side of fifty) it looks like a bor- 
“ der of hair, which I have seen before whole 
“ heads were so much in use.
“ To



157 BY BATH WATER.
“ To perfect his recovery, he took a house and 
“ lived here for the most part of the next year, 
“ 1692, about which time his toe-nails, which were 
“ hard, ragged, and scaly, began to be thrust off 
“ by new and smooth ones. His arms and hands 
“ recovered strength, he had much freer motion 
“ of his joints, his muscles plumped. He was 
“ daily more and more erect; every bathing 
“ stretched him half an inch. He had now a 
“ fleshy hale habit of body, a vigorous eye, and 
“ a ruddy, plump, youthful face, especially when 
“ he mixes Sherry with his water, which he will 
“ sometimes do. In fine, he hath no fit of the 
“ Gout to lay him up long together, nor the least 
“ touch of stone, or sharpness of urine. He 
“ rode from Bath to Oxford in a day, which is 
“ forty-eight computed miles; and, but a few 
“ days before that, went from hence to his own 
“ house, which is twelve or fourteen long miles, 
“ after twelve o’clock at night; went to bed for 
“ two or three hours, rose again, and dispatched 
“ a great deal of business before dinner. His 
“ wife being asked a question about his rejuve- 
“ nescency, answered, I verily believe, if I was 
“ dead, he would marry again.” 
4. “ Dr. Guidot (in his Register of Bath) men- 
“ tions the Case of a merchant of London of se- 
“ venty years of age, so afflicted with 
“ the gout, that, for six weeks time, 
“ he could not go to bed, or rise with- 
“ out help, having also used crutches for many 
“ months. By the use of the Cross Bath, and 
“ rubbing well with the guides hands, at three 
“ seasons of Bathing, so far recovered, that using 
“ only a stick, which he usually wore, he now 
“ walks strongly, both hands and feet being flexi- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
“ ble,



158 DISEASES CURED
“ ble, and free from pain. He subscribed the be- 
“ nefit received, 5 August, 1676. R. P.” 
5. “ Sir Francis Stonor, Knt. received great 
“ benefit in great weakness from the gout, by the 
“ use of the Queen’s and King’s Bath, in grati- 
“ tude for which he gave a considerable sum of 
“ money, by which the stone rails and pavement 
“ were built about the King’s Bath.” 
In Dr. Olivers Essay before-mentioned, we find 
two Cases to our purpose. The first is contained 
in a letter from Charles Edwin, Esq. the patient, 
to the Doctor. The second relates the Case of a 
patient of Dr. Woodford’s, Reg. Prof. Med. 
Oxon. in the Bath Infirmary. 
6. “ Mr. Edwin’s second fit of the gout left a 
“ weakness in the joints of one foot. In a suc- 
“ ceeding fit, it attacked the other foot and an- 
“ kle, afterwards one of his hands, and both 
“ knees, so that he could not bend or move his 
“ ankles; he could not walk. After his third 
“ bathing, he was able to walk in his room 
“ without the help of cruches, and gained 
“ strength so as to walk about the town with a 
“ cane. 
“ He bathed sixty-five times, and pumped thir- 
“ ty-eight. It is remarkable (says the Doctor) 
“ that, during this course, he never had one 
“ symptom of the humour’s being thrown upon 
“ any vital part, neither has he had any violent 
“ fit of the gout since.” 
7. “ Philip Tuckey, aged about fifty, was 
“ born of gouty parents, and improved his woe- 
“ ful inheritance by a very free way of life. 
“ When he was about twenty-seven years old, he 
“ was attacked in the great toe. For some years 
“ he had fits at uncertain periods. About twelve 
“ years ago he got a violent cold by painting 
“ (which




159 BY BATH WATER.
“ (which was his profession) a new built house. 
“ This threw the gout all over his head, stomach, 
“ bowels and limbs. The pains continued to 
“ torment one part or other for five months, and 
“ left him so weak and lame, that he could never 
“ after walk without crutches. 
“ His knees were almost immoveable, the 
“ membranes which surround the joint being 
“ much thickened, and the tendons which draw 
“ the legs towards the thigh being hard and con- 
“ tracted. His legs, ankles and feet, were much 
“ swollen and oedematous. He had little appe- 
“ tite, and a bad digestion. His spirits were low, 
“ to which despair of recovery contributed not a 
“ little. 
“ After his first passages had been cleansed by 
“ warm purges, he began to drink the waters in 
“ moderate quantities. He soon found his appe- 
“ tite and digestion mend, his spirits were re- 
“ lieved. Having persisted in this course some 
“ days, he was ordered to bathe three times a 
“ week. He had not bathed thrice before the 
“ tendons began to supple, and to give way to 
“ the extension of his legs. By a few more 
“ bathings, the swellings of his joints gradually 
“ decreased, but without any symptom of the 
“ stagnant humour’s being translated to the head, 
“ stomach, lungs, or bowels. He took a warm 
“ purge now and then, to clean the passages, as 
“ well as to discharge the gouty matter which 
“ had been moved by bathing. Thus, he went 
“ on, gaining strength daily, so that in a month’s 
“ time, he walked two miles with only a single 
“ stick, without being tired. In this happy con- 
“ dition he was discharged in two months.” 
8. Sir Cordel Firebrace came to Bath a very 
cripple by the gout. Against the opinion of his
physicians,




160 DISEASES CURED
physician, he was carried into the Bath. He tar- 
ried, for hours together, in the very hottest parts, 
and was cured. 
The following is the Case of Doctor Sarsfield, 
Physician, of Cork. 
Dear Sir, 
Bath, April the 7th, 1764. 
9. IN approbation of your most laudable un- 
dertaking, in gratitude to Bath Waters, as well as 
for the benefit of my fellow-sufferers, I freely 
communicate the heads of my case to you, mean- 
ing only to point out, in general, the remedies I 
have reason to lay the greatest stress upon, in- 
tending to publish the case at length, with all its 
particular changes and circumstances. Naturally 
gouty, about twelve months ago I was brought 
to Bath, entirely deprived of the use of my limbs, 
not having one articulation in my body capable of 
motion, except that of my under jaw; I was in 
pretty much the same situation for fifteen months 
before, wasted to a skeleton, with universal and 
constant acute pain, restlessness, total want of 
appetite, stoppage of water, costiveness, and full 
appearance of a jaundice. I drank the waters 
with caution, increasing gradually; bathed in 
the different baths about seventy times, took gen- 
tle laxatives generally once in ten days, took 
Huxham’s Essence of Antimony, of which I believe 
I made the greatest trial that ever has been made, 
having taken to the quantity of five tea-spoonfuls 
at a time, very often without its making me sick 
at stomach. 
I cannot omit observing, that about four months 
ago I perceived a pain, with a swelling in the 
back near the right hip, which part seemed most
affected from the beginning; this gradually in- 
creased until it was thought proper to open it 
by



161 BY BATH WATER.
by a caustic; the discharge was very considerable, 
and continued till the other day, when a large 
pea was put in, and the fore is now turned into 
an issue, by which I already find great benefit, 
now that I write this for your satisfaction and 
the public good. I am free from pain, walk as 
well as ever, and enjoy, in every respect, better 
health than I did these ten years part. 
I am, 
Dear Sir, 
Your most assured friend, 
And very humble servant, 
To Dr. Alex, Sutherland. 
Dom. Sarsfield.
CHAP.




162 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. IX. 
OF THE RHEUMATISM.
1. RHEUMATISM and GOUT are so 
often mistaken for one another, and con- 
sequently mal-treated, that it may therefore be 
useful to lay down some general rules 
whereby they may be distinguished.—
Gouty matter tears the small vessels, 
and, thus, produces fevers, pain, swell- 
ings, and redness of long duration.—The pain of 
the rheumatism is tensive, heavy, gnawing; and 
continues after the fever is gone, without remark- 
able tumor, or redness.—The rheumatism often 
attacks but once or twice in life.—Paroxysms of 
the gout are rather temporary depurations than 
complete cures.—The rheumatism has been cured. 
—The gout never ought to be attempted. 
Rheumatism
and gout di-
stinguished.
2. The rheumatism is distinguished 
into febrile, and not febrile.
Division.
3. Its remote causes are sudden chills, changes 
of winds, excessive loss of blood, super- 
purgation, plethora, surfeits, drinking, 
nimia venus, intermittents, scurvy, and p—x. 
Causes.
4. Its proximate causes seem to be obstruction 
of the serous and lymphatic vessels, especially of 
the membranes and ligaments, occasioned by 
viscid acrid serum. 
5. The febrile symptoms are lassitude, rigour, chil- 
liness and heaviness of the extremities, quick hard 
pulse, thirst, restlessness, costiveness. 
After a day or two, sharp shifting pains 
occupy the joints, with swelling and inflamma- 
tion; these are increased by motion, and often 
Symptoms.
shift 




163 BY BATH WATER.
shift their seat. The blood puts on the pleuritic 
hue. Sometimes it seizes the head or bowels. 
The pains continue after the fever. Tubercles,
and stiff joints often follow. 
The non-febrile symptoms are wandering pains, 
with stiffness in the muscles, or ligaments, with- 
out swelling, chiefly. 
6. While the rheumatism occupies the extre- 
mities only, the prognostic is fair, and 
e. c. Chronic disorders or gout are 
often consequences. 
Prognostics.
7. BORN in a happier climate, our instructors, 
the antients, have left little on record on the sub- 
ject of rheumatism. They were exempted from 
diseases arising from obstructed perspiration. From 
Sydenham, the moderns seem to have borrowed 
the present practice. He was so free with the 
lancet, that, in his early practice, he destroyed 
the vis vitae, and thereby entailed tedious chroni- 
cal ailments. In pain, patients as well as physi- 
cians grasp at every thing that gives present re- 
lief; premature opiates call for bleedings. In 
their own cases, physicians ought not to trust 
themselves. When the body is in pain, the 
mind sympathises. Of this I could recount fatal 
examples.—Bath and Bristol waters increase 
the circulation and enrich the blood; and are, 
therefore, improper in rheumatisms of the febrile 
sort.—In chronic rheumatisms, or in febrile, after 
the inflammation is subdued and the first passages 
cleansed, attenuants, resolvents, diaphoretics and 
demulcents are indicated. Bath waters internal 
or external answer every intention. To facts I
appeal. 
8. In his Bath Memoirs, Dr. Pierce 
relates the following cures. 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
1.



164 DISEASES CURED
1. “ Dr. Floyde, bishop of Litchfield, had 
“ such pain and weakness in the right shoulder 
“ and arm; that it interrupted his rest; he came 
“ to Bath, and, by bathing and pumping, re- 
“ ceived such benefit, that he continued well for 
“ ten or twelve years after. It then returned 
“ with greater violence, so that his body yielded 
“ to that side. By bathing and pumping he re- 
“ covered.” 
2. “ Major Arnold complained of a very great 
“ pain and weakness from his left shoulder down- 
“ wards to his fingers end. He had pain also in 
“ his right hip, thigh and leg. He had withal 
“ a violent cough, he discharged much and foul 
“ spittle; he had little or no stomach, and some- 
“ times cast up what he had eaten. He was 
“ subject to the Stone, and formerly voided much 
“ gravel and small stones. 
“ Making too much haste to be well, he went 
“ into the Bath presently, and suffered by it. 
“ After due preparation, I put him first upon 
“ drinking the waters, because of his nephritic 
“ disorder, and then permitted him to bathe. 
“ At two months end, he returned perfectly 
“ cured as to cough, stomach, and rheuma- 
“ tism.” 
3. Dr. Guidot (in his Register) records the 
following. “ Mr. Arthur Sherstone of Brem- 
“ ham, aged fifty, after a short journey was 
“ taken with a rheumatism, which, after violent 
“ pains universal, seized on his hand, knee, and 
“ foot. He also lost the motion of his lower 
“ limbs. By bleeding, and other evacuations, 
“ the inflammation and swelling abated consider- 
“ ably, but the running pains remained so as 
“ to take away the use of both arms, by turns. 
“ By






165 BY BATH WATER.
“ By the moderate life of the Queen’s-Bath, he 
“ recovered.” 
4. “ John Binmore of Exeter, for benefit re- 
“ ceived in the rheumatism, which had superin- 
“ duced both palsy and dropsy, by drinking the 
“ waters, and the use of the mud, he gave pub- 
“ lie thanks to God.” 
5. When the army was preparing to embark 
for Belleisle, Captain Buchannan, of the Royal 
Scotch Fuzileers, was then under a sweating an- 
timonial regimen for the rheumatism. Half cur- 
ed and crippled, he would embark. Marching 
up to the attack, he fell down. Ordering his 
men to jump over him, by the assistance of a 
drummer, he gathered himself up and hobbled 
after them. By a long and cold winter’s cam- 
paign his disorder was increased. When he came 
to Bath he was crippled, hands and feet. By 
bathing and drinking he recovered. 
6. FROM May 1742, to 1760, there were 
five hundred seventy-five rheumatics admitted into 
the Bath Infirmary. Of these one hundred eighty- 
three were cured, two hundred and eighty much 
better, the rest better, or incurable. 
OF THE LUMBAGO.
THE Rheumatism, Lumbago, and Sciatica, are 
species of the same same genus. They 
differ only in the names of the parts of 
the body which they attack. 
Lumbago. 
The Lumbago is often mistaken for the Nephri- 
tis: the distinguishing sign is, the latter is attend- 
ed with vomiting, the former not. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath-Memoirs) has 
recorded the following Cases. 1. “ Wil- 
“ liam Lord Stafford was affected in 
Pierce’s 
Cases.  
“ both



166 DISEASES CURED
“ both hips, and in the lumbal muscles also. 
“ He bathed in the Cross Bath for five or six 
“ weeks, for it was summer, and went away 
“ better. In October he returned, finding his 
“ pains renewed so as to make him roar. When 
“ the weather was moderate, he bathed in the 
“ King’s Bath; when it was foul, in a tub. A- 
“ bout the middle of February he went to Lon- 
“ don recovered.” 
2. “ Lady Dowager Brooke was seized with 
“ a Lumbago, or Double Sciatica, with violent 
“ pains which bended her double. By the advice 
“ of three of the most eminent physicians of 
“ London, she had gone through several courses 
“ of physic, with hardly any amendment. A 
“ salivation was at length proposed, which she 
“ positively refused, proposing Bath of her own 
“ accord. This resolution was vehemently op- 
“ posed by three out of the four. Willis took a 
“ formal leave of her, washing his hands, and 
“ prognosticating certain death. She set out ne- 
“ vertheless in September, and entered presently 
“ on bathing in the Cross-Bath, drinking some- 
“ times of the water, in the first week she 
“ found ease, could stand upright in the Bath; 
“ in a month’s time could walk in her chamber, 
“ and was perfectly recovered. Her Doctors, 
“ when they took their leave, packed her up a 
“ peck of medicines, which she never tasted, nor 
“ indeed hardly any while she staid here.” 
OF THE SCIATICA.
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
1. Dr. Pierce’s first observation is that 
of Duke Hamilton. “ His Grace came 
“ hither very unweel, as he himself term- 
“ ed it, by reason of a pain in his hips, which 
“ caused



167 BY BATH WATER.
“ Caused him to go very lame, and disturbed his 
“ rest at night, and had done so for many months 
“ before. 
“ After due preparation, he entered the Bath, 
“ and sometimes drank the waters in the Bath 
“ only, to prevent thirst. After a week or ten 
“ days bathing, he was pumped on the affected 
“ hip. This course was continued for a month, 
“ or five weeks, by which His Grace obtained so 
“ much advantage, that he walked about with a 
“ cane, favouring that leg. On catching cold, 
“ he had afterwards minding of his illness again; 
“ but by visiting this place once or twice more, 
“ he recovered perfectly.”
2. “ Col. Mildmay’s case was more painful and 
“ more inveterate. By bathing he recovered.”
3. “ Sir John Clobery had been a colonel in 
“ Scotland, under Monk. By great fatigues, and 
“ being frequently obliged to sleep on the ground, 
“ he was seized with aches and pains in his limbs, 
“ of which he recovered. By laying in damp 
“ sheets, he was seized with a tormenting fit of 
“ a Sciatica, which held him two years, and crip- 
“ pled him.
“ He went through various regimens in Lon- 
“ don, all to no purpose. After being bled and 
“ purged, he bathed, and pumped for six or eight 
“ weeks, at the end of which he went away, 
“ not much advantaged for the present; but, 
“ after two or three months, was well at ease, 
“ upright, and streight.”
4. “ Mrs. Boswel, newly married, aged about 
“ twenty, was contracted and crippled by a sci- 
“ atica, so that she could neither stand upright, 
“ nor lay streight. She was carried in arms, 
“ not without frequent complaints of twinging  
pain.
“ She



168 DISEASES CURED
“ She had tried all forts of remedies, internal 
“ and external, without benefit. By two months 
“ bathing and pumping she mended considerably, 
“ insomuch that she could leave off her opiate, 
“ which she took twice or thrice a day to the 
“ quantity of thirty or forty drops at a time. 
“ Whether it was by the violence of her pain, 
“ or the too frequent use of these stupefactive 
“ medicines, or former inclination to hysterics, 
“ she had often very violent ones, not much 
“ short of epileptic fits. 
“ She bathed, and pumped, and thus recover- 
“ ed considerably the first season. Next year she 
“ returned and completed her cure.” 
AMONG Guidot’s two hundred Cases there are 
fourteen Sciatics, a specimen of which are the 
following. 
5. “ Benjamin Barber, Alderman of Bath, was 
“ cured by bathing and pumping.” 
6. “ Robert Sheyler was cured by three bath- 
« ings ” 
7. “ Mr. Thomas Wilkins was cured by bath- 
“ ing four times, and pumping twice.” 
CHAP.


169 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. X. 
OF CUTANEOUS DISEASES.
IN Skin Diseases Baths natural and artificial 
have been used in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. In his book (De Thermis, pag. 122.) Bac- 
cius expresses himself, Maculas autem, pruritus,
ulcuscula, scabies, lepras, papulas, el id genus alia 
per cutim vulgo manantia vitia, tum crebrae medica-
tarum potiones exterminant, tum abluunt, abolentque 
in totum abstergentium et calidarum quarumcunque lo- 
tiones. In universum, minerales aquae omnes, omnes 
salsae ac marinae ad omnigena cutis faciunt vitia. 
I. OF THE LEPROSY.
1. LEPROSY, or Elephantiasis, is a 
cuticular disease appearing in the form 
of dry, white, thin, scurfy scales.
Definition. 
2. Its diagnostic signs are itching 
with scales generally confined to the 
cuticle. Sometimes it goes deeper, and appears 
in the form of deep ulcers. 
Diagnostics,
3. This disease is generally hard to 
cure, especially if it is hereditary.
Prognostic.  
In this and other inveterate diseases of the skin, 
bathing has successfully been used in 
all ages. Baccius (pag. 122) expres- 
ses himself thus, Elephantiasi autem et quam dicunt
Lepram, nec minus omni intemperatne, ac veteri sca- 
biei. fortiora in cunctis conveniunt balnea, omnes ter- 
rae minerales, sulphursae praesertim, quales in Lu- 
tationibus commemorantur multae. The Well Cal- 
lirhoe, and the River Jordan, are said, in sacred
Cure. 
H writ,



170 DISEASES CURED
writ, to have cured Leprosies. Paulus Aegineta 
commends natural baths in the cure of Leprosies, 
praesertim aluminosarum, et quae ferrum sapiunt. Con- 
fert ipsarum potio, tum marinae harenae usus, et 
quaecunque tandem sudationibus ciendis efficaciam ha- 
bent, Vaporaria, ac Discussoria. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) expresses 
himself thus. “ For more than forty 
“ years that I have lived here, there 
“ hath not one past wherein there 
“ hath not been more than a few instances of 
“ very great cures done upon leprous, scurvy, and 
“ scabby persons. The virtue of the waters is so 
“ well known in leprous cases, that it seems al- 
“ most superfluous to bring examples. However, 
“ that this head may not be without its particular 
“ instances, I shall give some few eminent ones. 
General 
proofs.
1. “ Thomas St. Lawrence, Esq. of Ireland, 
“ aged fifteen or sixteen, was sent 
“ hither in May, 1679. For seven 
“ years past he had been afflicted with 
“ a perverse scab tending to a leprosy, which had 
“ yielded to no medicine. By my advice he was 
“ bled and purged four times, took alteratives, 
“ drank the waters, bathed and recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A poor fellow from Warwickshire came 
“ hither in the year 1684. I never saw any onc 
“ come nearer to the description of a leper in the 
“ Leviticus than this man. By drinking, and 
“ bathing in the Lepers-Bath, he was perfectly re- 
“ covered.” 
3. “ A Woodmonger of Staines brought his 
“ son hither aged about twelve or thirteen, who, 
“ from his infancy, was subject to the Vitelligo. 
“ Sometimes it was more, then less, in greater or 
“ lesser blotches on his neck, elbow, knees, face, 
“ head, arms, and thighs, with a brawny white
“ scurf,



171 BY BATH WATER.
“ scurf, which fell off and grew again. After 
“ a month’s bathing and drinking, the spots rose 
“ not so much. But, as the disease had been 
“ born with him, I advised his father to put him 
“ to school here. I could not get him to drink 
“ regularly, but he bathed every night, and some- 
“ times took physic. In a twelve month’s time 
“ he returned as found as a trout, and had been 
“ so for some months before he fet out.” 
4. FROM Dr. Guidot’s Bath Register we have 
copied the following Cases. “ Ema- 
“ nuel Weston, of Elsemore, in the 
“ county of Salop, had a scurfy head 
“ with many scales for five years. By bathing
“ and washing the head in the Lepers-Bath he 
“ was cured, June 14th, 1682.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
5. “ E. G. daughter of a musician of Bath, 
“ from her birth was troubled with a scurvy and 
“ scaly head like an elephantiasy, or leprosy. By 
“ the use of the King’s Bath, and application of 
“ the mud, with some externals, she had a found 
“ head, and thick hair. This I saw November 5, 
“ 1685.” 
6. “ Dorothy Rossington having scales falling 
“ from all her body, especially in the morning, 
“ by using the King’s and Queen’s Baths six 
“ months received cure.”  
7. “ Richard Vernon, aged fourteen, was for 
“ ten years troubled with a milder sort of leprosy, 
“ called an elephantiasy, with tawny spots, and 
“ white scales. He drank the water seven days, 
“ and bathed three weeks, by which he recover- 
“ ed. The winter following the disease broke 
“ forth. After eight weeks pursuit of the same 
“ method, he went away well. Father and son 
“ gave testimony, June 6, 1689.” 
H2 8. “ Henry 


172 DISEASES CURED 
8. “ Henry Clempson, shoemaker, came to 
“ Bath Whit-Monday, 1687, used the hot bath 
“ three months. The year following, two months, 
“ gave public thanks to Almighty God, who 
“ cured him of a white dry leprosy, called elephan- 
“ tiasy confirmed, which had miserably afflicted 
“ him for six years.” 
9. “ I John Burch, of the county of Kent, 
“ came to Bath, April 30, 1691, troubled three 
“ years with a white scurfy skin and head. Un- 
“ der the scales were reddish spots most common- 
“ ly round. I used the Bath nine weeks, and 
“ acknowledged my cure.” 
10. “ Horthy Harper, a Leper, received great 
“ benefit by the Lepers-Bath, 1693.” 
11. “ Elizabeth Smith, a Leper, whose skin 
“ was covered over with white scales, went away 
“ clean, 1693.” 
12. “ Sarah Meredith of Carleen, received 
“ benefit in an Elephantiasy by the Hot-Bath, 
“ 1693.” 
13. “ Howel Morgan, Efq. of Merioneth, re- 
“ ceived great benefit in a foul skin resembling 
“ an elephantiasy, by drinking and bathing, 
“ 1693.” 
II. OF THE SCROPHULA.
1. SCROPHULA is an indolent schir- 
rous tumour, seated chiefly in the glands 
of the neck, and degenerating into ulcers of the 
word sort. 
Definition.
2. Its chief seat is the glandular sys- 
tem in general, not the only, for it oc- 
cupies the adipose membrane, muscles, tendons, 
joints, and bones. 
Seat.
3. Par-



173 BY BATH WATER.
3. Particular nations are infested with it, viz. 
the Bavarians, Dutch, and the Tyroleze. Of these
children, persons grown up rarely. 
4. Its remote causes are crude, viscid, acid diet, 
foggy air, preceding diseases, pox, snow water, 
but, above all, hereditary taint, sometimes from 
the nurse. It is very difficult to be cured. Scro- 
phulas subnascentes abolere balneum item in Baiams et 
digerentia, et callida alia diutissime fata, ut nitrata 
calentia, ac item ebibita, quales placuit Vitruvio cele- 
brare Subcutilas aquas in Sabinis, pariterque fomenta 
ex bituminosis, ferreis, plumbeis, et ex brassica para- 
tum in Discussoriis artificialibus, says Baccius, pag. 
122. 
1. FROM Pierce’s Memoirs, we have these 
Cases. “ Lord James Butler came to Bath, June, 
“ 1677, with a chirurgeon to dress his 
“ wound, which was upon the last 
“ joint of one of his thumbs. It was 
“ judged to be scrophulous. He drank the water 
“ mostly, sometimes bathed. That hand he bath- 
“ ed morning and evening at home. After five 
“ or six weeks, the wound afforded a more laud- 
“ able quitture, which gave him encouragement 
“ to return another season, which he did, and 
“ was cured.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A son of Monsieur Du Puys, servant to 
“ James Duke of York, had a running sore on 
“ his hand, which yielded to no surgery. It was 
“ therefore deemed scrophulous. He had been 
“ touched more than once to no purpose. He 
“ drank the waters, and bathed, took vulneraries 
“ and other alteratives. In two seasons he was 
“ cured.” 
3. FROM Guidot’s Register we have 
the following. “ Francis Loughton, 
“ of the parish of St. Mark, Notting- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
H3 “ ham,



174 DISEASES CURED
“ ham, came to Bath, May 5, 1684, with two 
“ running sores, one in the leg, another in the 
“ thigh. On the use of the Lepers-Bath for two 
“ months, the ulcers healed, there remained on- 
“ ly some crookedness.” 
4. “ Edward Huddle, of Chesham, came to 
“ Bath with running ulcers all over his body. 
“ After great expences, and despair of cure, he 
“ used the Bath six weeks, and drank sparingly. 
“ His ulcers healed, he went away well, Septem- 
“ ber, 1688.” 
5. “ Margaret Geary, of the county of Aber-
“ deen troubled with lameness and running ul- 
“ cers in both knees and left shoulder for three 
“ years, by the use of hot bath received cure, 
“ August 17, 1682.” 
The only publication of Hospital Cases is one 
six-penny number, by Dr. Oliver, containing 
fourteen. Had this gentleman’s prac- 
tice been as distinctly related in the 
books from the beginning, they would 
have contained clearer proofs of the power of the 
waters. His first begins only in the year 1757. 
Among the fourteen, we find no less than six ma- 
nifest proofs of the power of the waters, in one 
of the most loathsome disorders, Leprosy. 
Infirmary 
practices. 
In that gross publication of eighteen years hos- 
pital practice, we find one article stand thus, Le- 
prosies, and foul eruptions of the skin. Under this 
general head, there were 659 admitted; of this 
number two hundred sixty-eight were cured, and 
315 much better, an unquestionable proof of the 
power of the waters.—“ From this account, 
“ indistinct as it is, and from the relations of o- 
“ ther writers, we may venture to conclude that, 
“ in this article, there is great matter of comfort 
“ to





175 BY BATH WATER:
“ to those who languish under leprosies, scrophulas,
“ scurvies, running-sores, &c.” 
In his Principia Medicinae, pag. 201. Dr. Home 
recommends serrum et aquae chalybeatae, sulphur, 
aquae sulphuratae, imprimis Moffatenses nostrae. The 
virtues of Mossat Wells, (in scrophulous cases) 
are confirmed in the Edin. Med. Essays, as well 
as by daily experience. 
III. OF THE SCURVY.
1. VARIOUS, numerous, and discordant are the 
symptoms of the scurvy; hardly can it be defined; 
it nevertheless appears to be a disease.
specific and distinct from all others.
Its distinctions seem rather to arise from different 
constitutions than from different causes. It seems 
to have been known to the antients; though, by 
reason of their short winters, and coasting 
voyages, it raged not so fiercely as with us. For 
more than a century past, the scurvy seems to 
have been the bane of our armies and fleets.
Definition. 
2. PREJUDICE has established a distinction be- 
tween sea-scurvies and land-scurvies. If we com- 
pare the pathognomonic signs of Ech- 
thius, Wierus, and others, we shall 
find them quadrate exactly with the 
narrative of Anson’s voyage. Putrid 
gums, swelled legs, rigid tendons, haemorrhages, 
sudden deaths, &c. are symptoms described by 
seamen and landmen. Its symptoms are uni- 
formly the same at sea, in Holland, Greenland,
Hungary, Cronstadt, Wiburg, in the Orkneys, and 
at Penzance. 
Sea and land 
scurvies the
same. 
3. VARIOUS have been the opinions 
concerning the causes and propagation 
of this distemper. Some believed it connate, o- 
Causes.
H4 thers



176 DISEASES CURED
thers infectious. E. c. wherever this calamity 
has been general, it may be deduced from natural 
causes. 
Of all the causes, moisture is the chief. On the 
subject of the scurvy, I have treated at large, in 
my Attempt to revive the medical use of Sea air and 
exercise. For farther satisfaction, I beg leave to 
refer the curious reader to Doctor Lind’s book on 
the subject, a master-piece of the kind. My pre- 
sent subject naturally leads me to scurvies, as they 
fall under the power of Mineral Waters. 
THERE are wandering pains which 
usurp the mask of gout, rheumatism, 
and scurvy, and which are often com- 
plications of the three. 
Pains gouty,
scorbutic and
rheumatic.
The matter is of a volatile phlogistic nature, 
it passes sometimes like electricity through the 
whole body, darting pains, convulsions, twitch- 
ings and cramps; especially when the patient is 
falling asleep, sometimes fixing with redness, in- 
flammation and pain; but, in a few minutes the 
joints grow pale and easy, the spirits flag, he be- 
comes hypochondriac, the appetite fails, diges- 
tion is imperfect, status’s prevail, the flesh wastes,
nervous atrophy succeeds. 
Sydenham says, “ Though there is remarka- 
ble difference between the true rheumatism and 
the scurvy, as intimated above, it must neverthe- 
less be owned, that there is another species of 
rheumatism which is near a-kin to the scurvy; for 
it resembles it in its capital symptoms, and re- 
quires the same method of cure nearly. The 
pain affects sometimes one part, sometimes ano- 
ther; rarely occasions swelling, nor is it attended 
with fever. It is also less fixed, sometimes it at- 
tacks the internal parts with sickness. It is of 
long duration. It chiefly attacks the female sex. 
or



177 BY BATH WATER.
or the effeminate, so that I should have referred 
it to the hysteric class, had not repeated experi- 
ence taught me that it will not yield to hysteric 
remedies.” 
Boerhaave, who has extracted his chapter of 
rheumatic aphorisms from the former, says, (Aph. 
1490) Arthritidi, podagrae, scorbutoque agnatus mor- 
bas frequentissimus, qui rheumatismus appellatur. 
Hoffman also observes, “ That there is a scor- 
butic rheumatism, in which the whole mass of
lymph and serum is vitiated with foul particles
which manifest themselves by different kinds of 
eruptions. 
“ Diluent and demulcent remedies taken free- 
ly, and continued long, are chiefly proper here. 
Mineral waters, and milk with a proper regimen, 
are likewise of great efficacy in curing this species 
of the disease.” 
Paulus Paravicinus (De Balneis Masidi) says, 
Quantum vero arthriticis, ischiadicis, convulsis, di- 
stentis, resolutis, tremulis, nerviceisque 
omnibus subveniant, exprimero non facile 
possim. Ob haec autem corporis villa po-
tissime celebres sunt, et omnium ore versantur—“ An 
“ dreas Calvus municeps meus hujus rei testis est locu- 
“ pletissimus, cui post molestissimos coxendicis dolores, 
“ femur adeo riguerat, cancretis cum gelu musculis, ut 
“ nullum medicamenti genus praeter balnea haec sensim
“ excitare potuerit.”—Doctor Lind recommends 
Warm Baths medicated with aromatic plants.
Proofs ana- 
logical. 
1. The first case of Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, 
and of his own practice, that falls under this 
head, happens to be his own.—“ I  
“ had sometimes a pain in my right
“ hip, thigh, knee and ankle, which 
“ soon moved to my shoulder and arm, in both so 
“ acute, as to render them for some time useless.
Pierce’s
Cases.
H5 “ I



178 DISEASES CURED
“ I had also a dull heavy pain in my legs, with a 
“ little swelling and small spots. 
“ After due preparation, I bathed spring and 
“ fall. I used a decoction of China, Sarsa, with 
“ Cephalics, Neurotics, Antiscorbutics, &c. I used 
“ the waters only in, and after bathing, so as to 
“ quench thirst, because I was subject to rheums, 
“ and catarrhs. By God’s blessing, Bath waters, 
“ regimen, and exercise, I now continue so well 
« seventy-fourth year of my age, that I 
“ have neither gout, stone, dropsy, cough, asth- 
« ma, nor any remainder of the scurvy, but want
“ of teeth.” 
2. “ Mrs. Jane Chase, a maiden gentlewoman, 
“ aged about twenty-four years, was taken with 
“ sharp pains in her joints only, which ran from 
« place to place by quick removes, sometimes 
« inflaming, then swelling, always painful. She 
“ was so weak that she could not stand. She had 
“ a spontaneous lassitude, want of appetite, di- 
“ gestion, palpitation, &c. 
“ After convenient preparation she bathed; 
« and, in bathing, we were obliged to support 
« her with cordials, for, at first, she could not 
“ hear a temperate bath more than twice a week, 
“ for she was brought hither in a litter. 
“ In two months time she recovered strength 
« and digestion, the tumors of her joints began 
“ to subside, the palpitation remitted. She went 
“ home on horseback, and continued the autumn 
“ and winter following, free from a relapse. She 
“ drank the waters no otherwise than to quench 
“ her thirst in the bath, and sometimes to keep 
“ her soluble. She continued many years free 
“ from this painful distemper.” 
3. “ Mrs. Green, of Stratford upon Avon, aged 
“ forty years, had a wandering scorbutic gout 
“ and



179 BY BATH WATER.
“ and rheumatism twenty years before, of which 
“ she recovered and married. It now returned, 
“ and tortured her at first between the shoulders, 
“ so that, on the least motion, she was ready to 
“ faint away. By outward applications, it moved 
“ to her limbs, hips, knees, and soles of her feet, 
“ which crippled her. 
“ After various regimens, she was brought to 
“ Bath. After slight preparation, she was put 
“ in the Cross-Bath, the most temperate. Thus, 
“ continuing to drink and bathe by turns, for five 
“ or six weeks, she returned well.” 
4. “ Mrs. Martha Greswold of Soly-bill in 
“ Warwickshire, at thirteen years of age, by ly- 
“ ing on the ground, in, or soon after a scarlet fe- 
“ ver, was taken with a rheumatism, a which left a 
“ stiffness in her joints, and other symptoms. 
“ When she came to Bath, she was twenty-three 
“ years old, so weak, as not able to use hand, or 
“ foot. Her head was also affected, so that she 
“ could hardly remember what was faid to her. 
“ After a week’s gentle preparation, she bath- 
“ ed, and pumped for seven weeks, at the end of 
“ which, she rode forty miles homeward the first
“ day. She kept well for ten years. Since that 
“ she has had severe fits of the gout, with distor- 
“ tions and nodes, for which she has often come 
“ hither; and, by drinking and bathing, has al- 
“ ways received benefit.” 
5. “ Mrs. Mary Huntly unmarried, aged a- 
“ bout thirty, in much the same case with Mrs. 
“ Chase, she had besides heats, and pimples in her 
“ face, cough, and shortness of breathing, she was 
“ also greatly obstructed. 
“ She required more preparation, but by shorter 
“ space of bathing she recovered.”  
H6 Dr.



180 DISEASES CURED
Dr. Pierce concludes his section of wandering 
pains in these words. “ Many more instances 
“ might be given. Of late, these kind of ill-
“ nesses have gone under the name of rheuma- 
“ tisms; but call them what they will, all pains 
“ and weakness remaining after this, or the gout, 
“ have certainly been recovered by moderate and 
“ regular bathing, and relapses have been prevent- 
“ ed by drinking.” 
6. Dr. Guidot (in his Bath Register) gives the 
following Cases. “ Joseph Pleydal, Archdea- 
“ con of Chichester, drank the waters 
“ in the morning, and bathed at night 
“ for rheumatic affections, and full ha- 
“ bit of body. By the use of the Cross-Bath, be 
“ received great benefit.”
Guidot’s 
Cases.
7. “ A matron of Devonshire, in an inveterate 
“ rheumatism, using the Cross-Bath, received be- 
“ nefit.” 
8. “ William Dixie, Esq. of the county of 
“ Leicester, was sadly afflicted with a rheumatism,
“ which reduced him to that degree of weakness, 
“ that, at twenty-two years of age, he seemed 
“ an old decrepid man on crutches. After the 
“ best advice that London afforded, he came to 
“ Bath rather in despair. After using the Cross- 
“ Bath two months, and the pump about one, he 
“ recovered, and gave public thanks to God in 
“ the Abbey Church.”
9. “ Mr. Edward Pierce (from hard lying dur- 
“ ing the late troubles of Ireland) was afflicted
“ with the rheumatism all over, which, at last, 
“ deprived him of the use of his right arm. By 
“ drinking and bathing in the King’s and Qeen’s
“ Baths, he received great benefit.
10. “ Mr.



181 BY BATH WATER.
10. “ Mr. Yorath, chaplain to Morgan of Tre- 
“ degar, received great benefit in a scorbutic atro- 
“ phy by drinking and bathing.” 
11. “ Mr. Abram Corea of London received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic rheumatism by drink- 
“ ing and bathing.” 
12. “ Sir Ambrose Phillips, Knight, received 
“ cure of a rheumatism, by drinking, and bath- 
“ ing.”
13. “ Edward Washbeare, of London, sixty- 
“ two years of age, came to Bath creeping on his 
“ hands and knees, and having the benefit of Bel- 
“ lot’s Hospital, used the Hot Bath six weeks, 
“ pumped in the Bath, and drank the waters. 
“ In seven weeks he walked on crutches, and 
“ perfectly recovered. I saw him, strong, erect, 
“ and found in London on the third of March, 
“ 1694, when he gave this testimony of his cure.” 
14. “ Mrs. E. Y. of London, troubled with 
“ pustulous eruptions all over her body, by bath- 
“ ing and drinking received cure.” 
15. “ Another gentlewoman having a sore 
“ running head with a briny matter, in five 
“ weeks time received a cure by drinking and 
“ pumping.” 
16. “ Charles Child, Apothecary of Bath, hav- 
“ ing salt and acrid humours, defluxing with pain 
“ in the leg and foot, received cure by bathing 
“ ten or twelve times.” 
17. “ John Worley, Vintner in Clare Market, 
“ troubled with the scurvy, and ill disposition of 
“ blood, whence eruptions of the skin, and hard 
“ bumps like the stinging of nettles, drank the 
“ waters three weeks, from seven to nine pints a 
“ day, after seven baths he was freed from his 
“ distemper.” 
18. “ Henry



182 DISEASES CURED
18. “ Henry Johnson, a Dane, with old sores, 
“ and running ulcers in the legs, hands and face, 
“ received cure by the Bath in two seasons.” 
19. “ Samuel Bret of Cornwall, came to Bath 
“ with a foul skin, used the Baths fourteen days 
“ and received cure.” 
20. “ Mr. Richard Yorath, Clerk, received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic atrophy by drinking 
“ the waters. 
21. “ Mrs. Woodcock, in a high scorbutic 
“ distemper much discolouring the skin, by drink- 
“ ing and bathing for several seasons received 
“ much benefit.” 
22. “ Mrs. Cole of Barnstaple, (in the spleen 
and scurvy) received great benefit by drinking 
“ and bathing for several seasons.” 
In his Use and Abuse of warm bathing, Dr. Oli- 
ver presents us with a memorable proof. 
23. “ Mrs. Reynolds, wife to the bishop of 
“ Londonderry, was naturally of a very thin habit 
“ of body, and very subject to gouty- 
“ rheumatic complaints, she was about 
“ thirty. When I saw her she was reduced to 
“ a skeleton, by most excruciating pains. She 
“ had been bled largely, her blood nevertheless 
« continued to be very sizy. The muscles of her 
“ throat were so affected, that she could not swal- 
“ low, or breathe without difficulty. The scarf- 
“ skin was dry, hard, and drawn tight over her 
“ whole body. I put her in the Queen’s Bath, 
“ where she staid only a few minutes, apprehend- 
“ ing danger from her extreme weakness. Soon 
“ after she got into the water, she felt her pains 
“ so much abated, and her throat so much re- 
“ lieved, that she begged leave to stay half an 
“ hour. On changing the flannel, the old scarf- 
“ skin was found cracked in many places. After 
Oliver.
“ a





183 BY BATH WATER.
“ a few bathings it peeled oft in large flakes, 
“ thicker than the true skin in its natural state. 
“ The fluids passed freely, the body plumped, 
“ the skin became soft and moist. Universal ease 
“ ensued.” 
24. Mrs. Phelps of Cote, near Bristol, for a 
year and a half and upwards, laboured under a 
complication of ailments scorbutic, 
rheumatic, and gouty. She had wan- 
dering pains, bilious vomitings, diarrhaeas, legs 
swelled and hard, with fores unconquerable 
by chirurgical art; she was bloated, unwieldy, 
breathless, without appetite, sleep, or digestion. 
In a word she was thoroughly cachectic. 
Author
In the beginning of winter, she was, with dif- 
ficulty, transported to Bath. After drinking the 
waters five months, her complaints, in general, 
began to yield. She then began to bathe, which 
she did but seldom. Her pains are now rare, so 
are her vomitings and loosenesses; the swelling 
and hardness of her legs are gone, the running 
sores have long been cicatrized, she eats, sleeps, 
and digests. To Bath-water, little assisted by 
medicine, she owes a cure which distant art in 
vain attempted. 
CHAP.




184 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. XI.
OF THE PALSY.
1. PALSY may be said to be an abolition, or 
diminution of motion, or sense, or both, 
in one or more parts of the body. 
The very word Λαραλυσls imports a 
solution of that which was before firm. So is it 
understood, in the Gospel according to St. Luke, 
Nunc solvas famulun tuum Domine. 
Definition.
Many are the diseases which proceed from lae- 
sion of the nerves; if ever there was a disease hid 
from mortal research, it may truly be said to be 
this. The nature of my present work forbids 
particular dissertations. I beg leave to recom- 
mend the curious reader to Van Eems’s book De 
Morbis Nervorum, a treasure in miniature. Suf- 
ficient it is for my purpose to reconcile the use of 
mineral waters to palsies, pointing out general 
practical hints as they occur. 
2. The remote causes of palsy are drunkenness, 
scurvy, dry belly-ach, air, wounds, compression, 
or solution of the nerves; suppression 
of usual evacuations, apoplexy, con- 
vulsion, fear, metallic fumes, pain, dislocation, 
abscess, opiates, and old age.—The proximate 
cause is interception of the nervous fluid. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are evident. 
4. The diagnostics and prognostics
are to be taken from a knowledge of 
the causes, and general distribution of 
the nerves. These differ according to the place, 
cause, degree, &c. Inde lethalis, minus lethalis, 
sanabilis, incurabilis, Boerhaav. Aphor. 1061. 
Symptoms. 
Diagnostics, 
and Prognos- 
tics. 
THE



185 BY BATH WATER. 
THE cause may exist in the substance of the 
nerve, or in the sheath. The latter may easily 
be cured, the former hardly ever.— 
Palsy, from fullness of blood, may 
easier be cured than that which pro- 
ceeds from serous colluvies accumu- 
lated within the encephalon.—Palsy in the arm 
may be borne much longer than one in the intes- 
tines; because, while the latter continues, the 
chyle cannot enter the lacteals.—The higher the 
seat the worse. The brain is the citadel, from 
which the foul detaches its commands: palsies 
which succeed violent head-achs, impede the very 
origin of the spinal marrow in its continuation 
with the medulla oblongata; if these increase, 
they produce apoplexy. If the muscles which 
dilate the chest become paralytic, life soon ceases. 
—The muscles of the throat are so numerous and 
so slender, that, when they are affected, Boer- 
haave pronounces the casealis.—The heart is a 
muscle, and may suffer a paralysis. From sud- 
den affections, mortal syncopies have followed. 
Van Swieten gives an instance, “ A nobleman 
“ beholding a young man stripped of his armour, 
“ just after he had gloriously fallen in battle, had 
“ the fatal curiosity to look at his face; discover- 
“ ing it to be his own son’s, he dropped down 
“ dead in an instant.”—“ When the small pox 
“ raged among the French Neutrals at Bristol, one 
“ of the women being informed that her husband 
“ lay just then expiring, walked up to the foot of 
“ the bed, and gazing earnestly till he fetched 
“ his last breath, dropped down for ever.”—The 
stomach receives its nerves from the two trunks 
of the eighth pair; if a paralysis happens from an 
internal cause, it is to be feared, that it lies with- 
in the encephalon. If the muscular fibres of the 
Unfavoura- 
able prognos- 
tics.  
stomach





186 DISEASES CURED
stomach come to be paralysed, the food lies an 
useless lump, the animal dies of hunger. In 
gluttons, the muscular fibres, by constant disten- 
sion, lose their contractile power, the food passes 
off crude. Hence pains, lienteries, &c.—The 
nerves of the intestines have a singular connec- 
tion with the vital functions. If these are wound- 
ed, life ceases. Iliac pains sink the stoutest into 
fits.—The bladder receives branches from the in- 
tercostals, and from the lower complexes mesentericus, 
as also from the crural; hence a paralysis, from an 
internal cause, comes to be perilous. Involuntary 
emission of urine denotes an affection of the brain. 
—A paralysis complicated with coldness, stupor, 
or insensibility is very bad. The blood no longer 
circulates, the muscles are robbed of the nervous 
juice. In his Academical Experiments on Opium, 
Dr. Alston, professor of Mat. Med. in the uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, “ showed his pupils a frog, 
“ whose hinder leg was deprived of sense and 
“ motion. Viewing the paralysed member, we 
“ plainly discovered the red globules dissolved, 
“ and the vessels distended with a homogeneous 
“ red fluid. This stagnation was the effect of 
“ the opium, which prevented the depletion of 
“ the muscular arteries.”Edin. Med. Essays, Vol. V. 
p. 155.
5. PAIN, sensation, heat, formication, and 
trembling, promise security.—Supervening fe- 
vers, and diarrhaeas, sometimes cure 
palsies.—Palsies from plethora are easi- 
ly cured.-Palsies which descend are 
less dangerous.—While the muscles continue 
plump, the prognostic is favourable. The arte- 
rious, nervous, and adipous vessels perform their 
offices.—Spontaneous sweats either cure, or in- 
crease the disease.—Where a paraplegy, or hae- 
Favourable 
prognostics.
miplegy



187 BY BATH WATER.
miplegy succeeds an apoplexy, there is room to 
hope; because the cause of the disease decreases, 
the brain begins to be relieved.—When paraly- 
tics see, hear, and taste, with the back and point 
of their tongues, if they distinguish objects by 
the parts paralysed, there are great hopes of cure. 
Palsies are easily cured, while the fabric of the 
brain, medulla oblongata, spinalis, and nerves re- 
main found.—Whatever can attenuate the morbi- 
fic matter, so as it may be dissipated and eliminat- 
ed out of the body cures the disease.—Whatever 
changes the morbific matter from a part of the 
body on which the vital functions depend to one 
less dangerous cures the disease.—Two ounces of 
glutinous serum lodged in the ventricles of the 
brain, produce terrible symptoms.—The same, or 
a larger quantity of the same matter deposited in 
the panniculus adiposus of the leg, is borne without 
molestation.—Van Swieten says, he has seen the 
drowsy, stupid, and lethargic miraculously reliev- 
ed by the swelling of their legs. Asthmatics 
have wonderfully been relieved by the swelling of 
the joints.—Palsies have been cured by a metasta- 
sis of the morbific matter. 
Fevers naturally attenuate, dissipate, and eli- 
minate obstructions. They sometimes deposite 
them on other parts. Unde febris saepe medicamenti 
virtutem exercet rations aliorum morborum. Aph. 
589.—Aph. 1017. 
6. HENCE are we enabled to draw practical les- 
sons. If we consider the wonderful fabric of the 
larynx the numerous muscles which modulate 
the aperture of the rima glottidis; if we consider 
that the pharynx, velum pendulum palati, uvula, 
tongue, and lips concur in forming the voice, all 
which are moved by muscles; if we consider how 
many muscles are destined for the pronunciation 
of




188 DISEASES CURED
of one single letter, we may cease to wonder 
why, after the cure of an apoplexy, one little 
pronunciation should remain uncured, while the 
patient distinctly pronounces other words, or let- 
ters. In differing living animals, I have often 
tied the recurrent nerves, that I might not be dis- 
turbed by their plaintive cries. What was the 
consequence? the animal became instantly dumb. 
Untying the ligature, they cry as before.—Wep- 
ferus tells us a memorable story of a woman, who 
lost her speech by the brain’s being oppressed with
serum. By coughing the expectorated a copious 
spittle, and thus recovered her speech.—De Haen 
(Ratio Medendi, pag. 224.) relates a singular in- 
stance which he cured by the powder, and de- 
coction of the leaves of the orange tree. After an
apoplectic stroke, the patient was subject to the 
following symptoms. He knew every body, and 
every thing, yet could not assign the name of one 
thing. Master of the French, Italian, and Ger- 
man languages, ask him questions in either, or 
all, he answered in the German, which before 
his illness he never used to do.—At this very time I 
attend a similar case. A gentleman who had 
spent the earlier part of his days in Holland, resi- 
ded afterwards in England, where he was trou- 
bled with a scorbutic rheumatism, which (by 
warm bathing, blisters, and alteratives) seemed
to be cured. From the time of the cure of the 
rheumatism, he seemed more or less to be affected 
with an asthma and cough. For this cough he 
drank the Bristol waters, during the two last sum- 
mers with little alleviation. In August last, I ad- 
vised him to drink the goat whey in Wales, and 
thence to repair to Italy, by sea, for the winter. 
Far beyond my expectations, (in three weeks 
time) his asthma vanished; he found himself so 
completely

189 BY BATH WATER. 
completely recovered, that he gave over the 
thoughts of his southern voyage. In his journey 
from London to Bath, he found a numbness 
which affected one side, from the crown of the 
head to the sole of the foot; he dropped his whip
frequently, and broke three chamber-pots on the 
road. Ignorant of danger, he talked of these ap- 
pearances with indifference. By my advice he 
was bled; exceeding my advice, he took salts, 
which purged him four or five times a-day, and 
that for a whole month. Calling in one sore- 
noon, I found him laid down, to sleep off a 
head-ach. His pulse seemed to be choaked, hard- 
ly to be felt. The pain occupied one haemi- 
sphere of the brain exactly, that opposite to the 
side first affected; this was the first head-ach he 
ever had felt in sixty years; his tongue faultered; 
in a word, he seemed to be on the very threshold 
of an apoplexy. I advised him to avoid sleep, to 
get up, and be bled, which was instantly per- 
formed. Returning in two or three hours, I 
found him, most imprudently, taking a vomit; 
tying up his arm, and pressing the orifice with
my finger, I took a pound more of blood away; 
then proceeded with the vomit. Desiring assist- 
ance. Dr. Canvane met me in the evening. By 
bleeding, cupping, blistering, sinapisms, purges, 
&c. we seemed to gain ground; every prescrip- 
tion answered the intention; in about a month, 
his speech and understanding returned, but he 
could neither read, nor write his name. Unable 
to bear further evacuation, we ordered an issue on 
the top of the head, about the size of half a 
crown. By degrees he came to read, write, and 
converse rationally enough, with this particular 
default; the nerves appropriated to certain func- 
tions still continued to be oppressed; though he 
had


190 DISEASES CURED
had clear ideas of things, he could not assign 
their names; when he wanted to mention the 
word pulse, putting his finger on his wrist, he 
commonly said. This is fast, or slow; he wrote 
sensibly enough, but his d’s, he made g’s, and his 
g’s, d’s. By my advice, he took the Orange leaves 
in powder and decoction for some weeks; but, 
finding no sensible relief, or grudging the expence, 
he discontinued the prescription. Soon after, his 
belly began to swell with scarcity of lateritious 
urine. At present he can bear no evacuations, 
and seems to be in great danger.—From this nar- 
rative, may we not infer that physicians may 
sometimes be over solicitous about curing diseases? 
Might not the cure of the scurvy have translated 
the morbific matter to the lungs? Might not the 
speedy cure of the asthma have given rise to the 
apoplexy? Might not the cure of the apoplexy 
have produced the dropsy? 
7. The general causes of palsies have been ex- 
plained, so have the particular. From these it ap- 
pears that nothing general can be laid 
down towards the cure; for as the 
cases are various, so must the methods of cure. 
The curatory indication is to be taken from signs
antecedent and concomitant. Suppose the verte- 
brae thrust out of their place, vain were boasted
antiparalytic remedies. The ulcer must be healed, 
the bones must be replaced. The cause must not 
only be removed, but a free flux of humours 
must be maintained through the arteries and 
nerves. This last is a task not so easy. The sub- 
stance of the nerves is so delicate, that it is too 
often destroyed by compression. The small ves- 
sels long deprived of their juices, collapse, and 
become impervious. Experiments teach us, that, 
by tying the par-vagum and intercostal nerves in 
Cure. 
live

191 BY BATH WATER.
live dogs too tightly, when the ligatures have 
been taken off, these animals languish, and in a 
few days die. Rational practitioners will there- 
fore be cautious how they promise cures in dis- 
eases which have lasted for years. Such cripples 
are happy if they find amendment; rarely are 
they cured. Practice confirms the truth, Palsies 
arsing from retention of natural evacuations are 
cured by provoking these discharges. Those from 
plethora have their proper cure. My business is
with that common chronical palsy which arises 
from inert lentor. Let art, in this case, imitate 
nature. If we run over all the remedies which 
have been commended by the most celebrated 
practitioners, it will appear that they are all cal- 
culated for answering nature’s purposes of raising
fever, dissolving, and purging. Boerhaave gives 
an instance of a Taylor’s being thrice cured of a 
palsy by a fever.—Hippocrates gives many such 
instances, so does Aretaeus.—Sydenham wish- 
ed for a remedy that could create a fever.—Ting- 
ling, itching, and convulsions are nature’s efforts. 
—Profuse diarrhaeas have cured palsies. 
Hence, again, we learn that the art of physic 
never is so beneficial as when it pursues nature’s 
steps. 
Aphor. 1068, “ Curatio ergo tentatur α, at- 
“ tenuantibus, dissipantibus, aromaticis, cepha- 
“ licis, nervinis, uterinis dictis, vegetabilibus 
“ specie fucci expressi, insusi, decocti, extracti, 
“ spiritus, conditi. β. Salibus sixis ustione, vo- 
“ latilibus distillatione, aut putrefactione hinc 
“ electis. γ. Oleis expressione, coctione, infu- 
“ sione, distillatione. δ Saponaceis ex horum 
“ combinatione per artem productis. ε. Virosis 
“ animalium partibus, insectorum succis, spiriti- 
“ bus, oleis, selibus, tincturis. ζ Salibus fos-  
“ silibus,


192
DISEASES CURED
“ silibus, crystallis metallicis, et iis ex his maxi- 
“ me compositis. η. His omnibus ut fe mutuo 
“ juvent, cum prudentia permistis; atque ho- 
“ rum quidem ufu attenuatio, dissipatio, calor 
“ febrilis obtinetur. 2. Validis stimulantibus, 
“ et impacta quaecunque fortiter, motu nervoso 
“ tremente et convulsivo excitato, excutientibus: 
“ eo imprimis sternutatoria, et vomitoria fortiora 
“ pertinent: fi aliquoties imprimis repetuntur, 
“ 3. Purgantibus per alvum calidis, solventibus, 
“ aromaticis, vegetabilibus, vel et fossilibus acri- 
“ bus, metallicisque mercurialibus, antimoniis a- 
“ deoque fortibus hydragogis, larga clofi, pluri- 
“ bus diebus successive repetita, datis: quorum 
“ ope copiosa, et aliquamdiu perdurans diarrhaea, 
“ excitetur. 4. Implendo primo vasa largo potu 
“ attenuantium praemissorum, dein excitatione 
“ majoris motus et sudoris ope spirituum accen- 
“ forum.” 
To expatiate on every particular contained in
this text, were to repeat Boerhaave’s academical 
prelections on the diseases of the nerves. Patients
generally undergo medical courses before they 
come to Bath. The power of Bath-water is my 
subject only. From reason and experience I 
hope to prove that Bath-water answers the pur- 
poses of nature, and cures palsies incurable by dis- 
tant art. 
Sanavit natura hum morbum attenuando, dissipan- 
do materiem morbosam; solvendo impacta per magnam 
febrem supervenientem, movendo per tremorem convul- 
sivum partis, educendo. Reason directs us to those 
remedies which produce nature’s effects. Si causa 
intus haerens crassa stagnansque erit, utendum tis re- 
mediis quae producere possunt illa quibus natura hunc 
morbum saepe sanavit. 
After


193 
BY BATH WATER.
After this great imitator of nature had extract- 
ed honey from almost every flower, he proposes 
at last vapor-baths, immersion, frictions, plaisters,
cupping, scarification, vesicatories, and fustigations. 
“ Frictiones externae ficcae, calidae, ad ruborem 
“ usque, vel cum spiritibus penetrante et stimu- 
“ lante virtute praeditis ex animalibus, vegetabi- 
“ libusque, aut cum oleis, linamentis, balsamis, 
“ unguentis, nervinis profunt. Balnea vaporum, 
“ immersiva; emplastra acria, aromatica, attra- 
“ hentia; cucurbitae, scarificationes; vesicato- 
“ ria; fustigationes; dolorem et levem inflam- 
“ mationem excitantia, ut urticae et similia pa- 
“ tent.” 
Of vapor-baths, and warm-bathing, we have 
treated at lage, in our Attempt to revive the Doc- 
trine of Bathing. Of frictions, oils, liniments, cup- 
ping, scarification, vesicatories, fustigation, &c, we
have also spoken under the same heads. 
Suffice it here in general to recapitulate, That 
warm water enters by the absorbent veins, mixes 
with, dilutes, and attemperates the blood; that 
active volatile mineral principles stimulate those 
nerves which are spread on the surface of the 
skin; that heat ratifies the fluids, and enlarges 
the diameters of the vessels; and that this same 
heat raises a temporary fever, which dislodges, 
subdues, and concocts obstructing matter so as to 
tender it fit to be excreted by the proper emunc- 
tories. The muscles thus relieved perform their 
respective offices; health, vigour and agility suc- 
ceed. To facts we proceed. 
1. Savonarolla (De Balneis Carpen- 
sibus, rubrica, xxiii.) says, “ Comites 
“ Carmignola et Gattamaleta Duces 
“ exercitus Venetiarum, ambo Paralysi affecti sa- 
“ ere, pro quo morbo balnea mense Januario sunt 
Proofs analo-
gical. 
I “ prosecti,


194 
DISEASES CURED
« prosecti, et ego cum eis, et hi mirabiliter con- 
“ valuerunt.” 
2. Guainerus (De Balneis Aquensibus) says, “ qui- 
“ dam, velut Stephanus lapidatus, tam brachium 
“ quam manum paralyticam habebat. Is, ut 
“ praecepi, nucham sibi embrocavit, et intra octo
“ dies liberatus est.” 
3. Bartholomoeus Taurinensis (speaking of the 
same Baths of Aix) says, “ Paralyticos duos 
“ vidi fanitati restitutos hujus solius remedii 
“ auxilio.” 
In Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we find 
the following histories.
Pierce’s 
Cases.
4. “ Colonel Sayer, aged forty, 
“ once a commander in the army of Charles I. 
“ made his composition, and retired to his estate, 
“ from whence he was dragged, in one of Oli- 
“ ver’s pretended plots, by a party of horse, and 
“ carried prisoner to London, in very bad wea- 
“ ther, and worse usage. He was confined in 
“ a damp dirty jail, where the very first night 
“ he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which de- 
“ termined in a palsy on the right side. He was 
“ soon allowed to retire to his home, where he 
“ underwent the common prescriptions in vain. 
“ When he came to Bath, he had lost the 
“ sight of one eye, his speech faultered, his me- 
“ mory was imperfect, with a giddiness. After 
“ due preparation, he drank the waters only to 
“ quench his thirst; he bathed and pumped. 
“ Finding advantage, he continued to come six 
“ weeks for ten years. He recovered so as to live 
“ to a considerable old age.” 
5. “ Mrs. Langton of Newton Park, aged 
“ twenty-three, and with child, lost her speech 
“ of a sudden, so that she uttered one word for 
“ another. Thus she continued to the time of 
“ her

195 BY BATH WATER.
“ her delivery, when it seized her so that she 
“ could not speak at all, nor apprehend what 
“ was laid to her, with the loss of the use of her 
“ limbs. 
“ By bleeding under the tongue, and some 
“ physic, she was restored somewhat to her 
“ speech, she came to Bath, by the use of which
“ she recovered so much as to throw aside her 
“ crutches. About the periods of the moon her 
“ speech was altered a little. Thus she held for 
“ five years, bearing children, or miscarrying, 
“ till within six weeks of her time, she was seiz- 
“ ed with a haemiplegia. After her delivery she 
“ came again to Bath and recovered. She re- 
“ turned several seasons, bore several children, 
“ and died at last of the Chorea Sancti Viti.” 
6. “ Master Powel, a child of six years old, 
“ had an exquisite palsy after convulsion-fits. He 
“ bathed three or four times a week, for two 
“ months, getting ground apparently after the 
“ first month, which advantage improved so after 
“ his return, that it encouraged his friends to
“ send him again and again, till he was cured, 
“ and afterwards came to be a lusty man.” 
7. “ Mrs. Duffewait, an attorney’s wife of 
“ Wells, was not only cured of a palsy, but, 
“ after twelve years barrenness, conceived by 
“ bathing.” 
8. “ The Bath-waters have not only cured 
“ palsies, but there are numerous instances also 
“ of their acting as preventatives. Sir John 
“ Gell, of Hopton, had a stupor and dullness of
“ the head, a seeming clout about the tongue, 
“ with a kind of creeping and sleepiness (as they 
“ vulgarly call it) in his arms and legs. Year 
“ after year he bathed and pumped. He died 
I2 “ without

196 DISEASES CURED
“ without any symptom of a palsy, of a Dropsy, 
“ in the eighty-second year of his age.” 
Of Dr. Guidot's 200 Observations, 
there are no less than 88 remarkable 
proofs of the power of Bath-waters in 
paralytic cases.
Guidot’s 
Cases.  
9. Mr. Crompton’s Faith and Hope, now hang 
up as Tabulae-votivae in the King’s Bath. By over- 
heating himself, and eating fruit, he 
was seized with a cholic, which de- 
prived him of the use of his limbs. 
After exhausting the pharmacopoeia, he came to
Bath, where he bathed and drank long without 
amendment. His disorder yielded at last. His 
cholicy pains were removed, he hung up his 
crutches. He often relapsed, and as often was 
restored. 
Author’s 
Cases.
10. Mrs. Dallas lost the use of her lower limbs, 
after child-bearing. By bathing she had a com- 
plete cure. 
IN my Attempt to revive the antient practice of 
bathing, (under the general head of Pumping) the 
reader will find particular cures of lamenesses from
gout, sciatica, rheumatism, palsy, scurvy, head-ach, 
deafness, falls, &c. Under the title of this chap- 
ter of Palsy, I proceed to rank lamenesses from 
other causes. 
I. LAMENESS AFTER FEVERS.
1. “ Sir John Austin, aged forty, had a trans- 
“ lation of a febrile matter on one of his legs, 
“ which suppurated, and afterwards 
“ gangrened. By the help of surgery, 
“ the wound came to be cicatrized, 
“ but there remained great weakness and pain. 
“ The limb was considerably wasted from the 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ hip


197 BY BATH WATER.
“ hip downwards. He could scarcely walk in his 
“ chamber without crutches, nor be at ease when 
“ his leg was suspended. He was therefore 
“ forced to spend the greatest part of his time in 
“ bed. 
“ After due preparation, and drinking, he 
“ bathed. In a week’s time he had ease. In 
“ one month’s time he changed his crutches for a 
“ staff. I saw him run smartly to get shelter from
“ a shower. At two month’s end he went away 
“ perfectly easy and trig. By degrees the limb 
“ recovered flesh and strength.” 
2. “ Sir Herbert Crosts was so much in the 
“ same circumstances that it would waste time 
“ to give a particular description. He left his 
“ crutches as a testimony of his cure.” 
3. “ Mrs. Hales of Coventry, aged fifty, was 
“ in 1687, seized with a malignant fever, in 
“ which she was delirious near a month. A mor- 
“ tification appeared on the lower part of the Os 
“ Sacrum, near sixteen inches round, from which 
“ (as in the two former) quantities of dead flesh
“ were cut out. The ulcer was three months 
“ before it could be cicatrized. She lost the use 
“ of her right leg and foot, both which were 
“ cold, dead, and senseless. 
“ By moderate bathing, she recovered warmth 
“ and strength in five or six weeks. Next year 
“ she bathed as long. Thus she recovered the 
“ perfect use of her leg.” 
II. LAMENESS AFTER SPRAINS. 
1. “ Lady Strode’s daughter had 
“ gone through the hands of surgeons, 
“ bone setters, and others, she was 
“ lame from a sprain. By partial and total im-
Pierce’s
Cases. 
I3 “ mersion,

198 DISEASES CURED
“ mersion, together with pumping, she had, in 
“ a little time, abatement of swelling, then a 
“ beginning of strength, she left off crutches and 
“ walked with a stick. She went through the 
“ same process for two or three years, and was, 
“ at length, perfectly recovered.” 
2. “ Mr. Pruseau, of Essex, and a neighbouring 
“ lady, Mrs. Bonham, had both weakness, pain, 
“ and swelling in the ankle-joint, with wasting
“ of the limb from the hip downwards, occasion- 
“ ed by sprains. The young gentleman’s case 
“ was much the worst. They had undergone 
“ every thing that could be used by the most emi- 
“ nent hospital surgeons and doctors, who, in 
“ consultation, recommended them to Bath. 
“ She came twice, and found a perfect cure. 
“ He came for many seasons, finding sensible re- 
“ lief every year. He walks much, and limps 
“ very little.” 
3. Miss Alexander of Edinburgh, fell from her 
horse and contused her knee. She 
was lame more than a year. She came 
to Bath, where (by pumping) she was 
restored to the use of her limbs. 
Author’s
Cases.
4. Mr. Agnew came to Bath for the same dis- 
order. Sometimes he uses the hot pump, some- 
times the cold. After three months use, he 
walks without pain, and without the help of a 
staff. 
III. LAMENESS FROM A RUPTURE OF THE
TENDO ACHILLIS.
“ The Rev. Mr. Parsons was very healthful 
“ and strong. Walking up a hill, an 
“ intolerable pain seized the calf of 
“ his leg all of a sudden, insomuch that hearing 
Pierce’s. 
“ no

199 BY BATH WATER.
“ no musket go off, he thought that somebody 
“ had shot him with a cross-bow; but being 
“ convinced of his mistake by a friend, he said 
“ he had broken something by overstraining. He 
“ fell immediately to the ground, the pain made 
“ him sweat, faint and sick, he could not stand. 
“ He was carried home, and continued lame for 
“ a long time with his limb emaciated. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which brought heat 
“ into the part, it took off the convulsions, his leg
“ and thigh began to plump. He walked five or 
“ six miles on end with a staff.” 
IV. LAMENESS FROM A WHITE-SWELLING.
1. “ Mr. Bony, aged forty, was very lame, 
“ and much pained in his right knee, with great
“ swelling, not discoloured, with the 
“ joint contracted. The whole seem- 
“ ed to be puffed up with wind or 
“ uliginous matter, which, upon pressing, mani- 
“ festly moved from one side of the joint to the 
“ other. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ The Bath gave him some ease, but lessened 
“ not the swelling, then it was pumped, after 
“ which the mud of the Bath was applied, by 
“ which he was much better; he came a second 
“ and a third time, so that there was no remainder 
“ of tumor, pain or lameness. 
2. “ Francis Hechington, of Northallerton, 
“ aged 31, came to Bath, June, 1689, with a 
“ great white swelling on his knee for six months 
“ before. He used the hot-bath and pump but 
“ five days, till the tumour was discussed.” This
humour (Dr. Guidot says) was more flatulent 
than pituitose. 
I4 V.

200 DISEASES CURED
V. LAMENESS FROM WOUNDS. 
1. “ Colonel Tuston, in a sea-fight, received 
“ a wound with contusion and fracture in his 
“ right hand by a splinter, which 
“ broke the bones of the thumb and 
“ sore-finger, and lacerated the mus- 
“ cles and tendons; a conflux of humours fall- 
“ ing on the part, it was forced to be laid open 
“ more than once, bones and splinters were ex- 
“ tracted, it was healed at last, but his hand was
“ useless, and he was pained by fits. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which quickly eased 
“ the pain, and recovered the use of some of the 
“ other three fingers. This he repeated several 
“ seasons after. The sore-finger and thumb be- 
“ came in some measure useful, tho’ a whole joint
“ of the latter was lost. The whole hand is as 
“ useful as such a hand can be.” 
2. “ The earl of Peterborough, from a wound 
“ In his right hand, came hither twice, used the 
“ same method, and got much benefit.” 
3. Captain Robertson of Bocland’s, received a 
gun-shot wound about the joint of the elbow, 
which was attended with pain, in- 
flammation, swelling, &c. By pump- 
ing he recovered so as to be able to pull off his 
hat. He has now joined his regiment in Ger- 
many.
Author’s.
VI.

201 BY BATH WATER.
VI. LAMENESS FROM FALLS.
1. “ Thomas Andrews, of Halson, 
“ came hither in June, 1682, batter- 
“ ed and bruised from head to foot by 
“ a fall; his horse laying upon him some time.
“ He had some bones dislocated, which were set. 
“ He complained of weakness, and pains in his 
“ back, hips, and his breast, so that he could 
“ not breathe freely. By six weeks bathing and 
“ pumping he returned much better, and, after 
“ some trials, he quite recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ Mr. Hollworthy, over and above the for- 
“ mer complaints, had a paralysis of one side 
“ from concussion of the brain. He was very 
“ lame, and weakly. By the same methods re- 
“ peated, he recovered with a stiffness that makes
“ him limp a little.” 
3. “ Guidot’s register contains the following, 
“ Lord Hereford, in hunting a fox, re- 
“ ceived a fall which deprived him of 
“ the motion of his right arm. By 
“ pumping and bathing, he recovered its use.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
4. “ Major Hawley had the patella-bone of 
“ his knee thrice injured by falls, which obliged
“ him to use crutches. By using the Cross-Bath, 
“ and pumping only seven times, he recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
5. “ Lord Eglington, by hunting the fox, had 
“ a fall, by which he bruised the muscles and 
“ tendons of both hands; he received hurt on 
“ his head, right shoulder, and elbow, the fing- 
“ ers losing their motion inwards, numbed, and 
“ senseless. By bathing and pumping, he was 
“ cured.” 
I5 6. “ Sir

202 DISEASES CURED
6. “ Sir Robert Holmes (in aches and bruises 
“ received at sea) received benefit by the Hot- 
“ Bath, in testimony whereof he left three brass 
“ rings.” 
FROM the opening of the Bath Infirmary, till 
May, 1760, a space of eighteen years, out of 
seven hundred fifty one paralytics, from various
causes admitted, there were one hundred eighty 
five cured, three hundred ninety-five much better; 
the rest were dismissed incurable, or refractory; 
during the first nine years, there died in the hos- 
pital twelve only.
CHAP.

23 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XII. 
OF THE JAUNDICE.
VARIOUS are the symptoms of the jaun- 
dice, various its appearances, causes and 
effects. We commonly reckon only 
two sorts, yellow and black; there are 
diversities of shades between the lightest yellow 
and the black, as Aretaeus has remarked in his 
book De causis et signis morb. diuturnor. p. 45. 
There are some jaundices which any body may 
cure; there are others which no body can. As 
jaundices of all sorts come to Bath, it may not 
be unnecessary to take a survey of this disease, so
that we may be able better to form a conjecture 
in what sorts Bath waters may cure, and in what 
they may hurt. 
History. 
1. THE YOUNG are rarely troubled with this 
disease. It commonly attacks those who brood 
over griefs, or who retain grudges or 
passions. Sadness and thought con- 
stringe the vessels so as to produce a sense of
weight and anxiety about the praecordia. Hu- 
mours thus obstructed produce polypous concre- 
tions, putrefactions, &c. 
Subjects. 
The studious and sedentary are naturally sub- 
ject to this disease, those who bend their bodies 
forward, and fit too long at meals. The bile, by 
remaining in the gall-bladder, inspissates, so that
it cannot easily pass. Galen (in his book De 
locis affectis) remarks, that the very same thing
happens to the gall-bladder as happens to the 
urinary; by retention it becomes paralytic.  
I6 2. The

204 DISEASES CURED
2. The first symptoms are, troublesome sort of 
tension about the praecordia, with a sense of 
weight. Some hours after meals, a 
sort of heart-burn, the fore-runner of 
jaundice. A slight yellow is to be discovered in 
the greater canthus of the eye, the urine begins 
to be coloured, the excrements are bilious. Of 
a sudden, anxiety, with intolerable pain at the 
pit of the stomach, sometimes over the whole 
belly, often mistaken for the cholic. Fever and 
vomiting supervene. After these symptoms have 
lasted for some hours, they remit, the whole bo- 
dy puts on the yellow hue, with an universal 
itching, the urine is tinged, the patient finds him- 
self very easy, the colour of the urine abates, so
does that of the skin; in a few days the disease 
seems to vanish. The excrements, some days 
before the paroxysm, begin to be white, clayish, 
or greasy. 
Symptoms. 
After some weeks, sometimes months, this 
round of evils returns. When the sick has suf- 
fered frequent attacks of this sort, there remains
at last a confirmed jaundice. The colour grows 
deeper, the spittle sometimes tastes bitten The 
skin changes from yellow to black, the feet swell;
so does the belly, the patient dies hydropic. 
Sometimes it is accompanied with fever so in- 
tense, that the liver inflames and suppurates, a me- 
morable instance of which stands recorded by the 
benevolent Dundas, in the Edinb. Med. Essays.
Vol. II. p. 345, &c. 
3. This inflammation has its seat in the capil- 
lary vessels of the Hepatic Artery, and the Vera 
Portarum. Injections discover the 
windings and anastomosis’s of these 
vessels over the whole substance of the liver. The 
branches of the Vena Portarum are filled with 
Seat. 
blood

205 BY BATH WATER.
blood which moves more slowly than the arterial; 
this is the reason why the signs of inflammation 
are not so manifest in this as in the other viscera; 
this may be the reason why physicians have so 
often been mistaken in their Diagnostics. 
4. THE remote causes of jaundice are cholics, 
hysteric and bilious; poisons; drastic purges; 
grief and anger; ossification or com- 
pression of the biliary ducts; pregnan- 
cy; obstruction, schirrus, or abscess of the liver; 
incermittents prematurely stopped; stones ob- 
structing the cystic duct; over-grown omenta; 
inflammation; worms; sudden chills, &c.—
The proximate causes are, 1. Regurgitation 
and absorption of bile already separated. 2. Ex- 
cess, viscidity, and acrimony of bile unsecreted. 
Causes.
5. THE diagnostic signs are yel- 
lowness of the skin, tunica albuginea, 
urine, and white excrements. 
Diagnostics.
6. THE prognostics are more favourable in 
youth than in old age, in the strong than in the
weak, in the yellow than in the black, 
in the jaundice single, than compli- 
cated with other disorders. In the last days of a
fever, supervening jaundice performs the part of 
a crisis. Jaundice supervening inflammation of 
the liver, stomach, or duodenum, portends great 
danger. Natural sweat is an excellent sign. Jaun- 
dice complicated with dropsy, may be said to be 
incurable.
Prognostics. 
7. FROM a survey of the preceding causes, we 
may conclude, that most of them are merely ac- 
cidental. Concretion may be assigned 
for the general. He who best knows 
how to dissolve and expel this obstructing matter, 
may truly be said to cure the jaundice. 
Cure. 
In

206 DISEASES CURED
In critical febrile discharges the benefit of sweat- 
ing needs no explanation. Galen (De Sanitate 
tuenda) relates the following case. Ipsum bilem, 
infarcto hepate, in sanguinem regurgitantem, per su- 
dores, amaros exivisse de corpore in ictericis osbervavi. 
Chamel (Acad, des Sciences l’an 1737, Hist. p. 69.) 
says, “ I saw a thick sweat which tinged the li- 
“ nen with a saffron colour, issue from the pores 
“ of an icteric woman, the jaundice vanishing 
“ after the sweat.” 
From theory as well as practice, we know that 
the rational cure of Jaundice depends on medi- 
cines diluent, detersive, and antiseptic, inwardly
and outwardly administered. In disorders of the 
liver arising from hot, or cold temperament, 
Galen (Method. med.) advises internals, and ex- 
ternals of a strengthening quality, such are all 
styptic mineral waters. In jaundice, and for dis- 
cussing inflations, Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) 
recommends temperate sulphureous baths, he 
mentions Bath waters in particular. Ad morbum 
regium, & ad inflationes excutiendas, nec secus sul- 
phuratarum balnea temperata Aponus, Aquisgranam, 
Bathoniae in Anglia, ne vulgares, in Italia, reite- 
rem. In frigidis vero hepaticis, seu qui obstructo aut 
indurato viscere infiantur, & cachexiam illapsi, effi- 
caciora tam intus quam foris calorifica digerentiaque 
desiderantur. 
Bath-waters are diluent, detersive and antisep- 
tic. If fomentations have availed, what better 
fomentation than warm bathing! If diuretics and 
sudorifics, what better diuretic or sudorific! 
Distant patients have gone thro’ regimens sa- 
gacious and ingenious. Bath-water improperly 
drank has converted slight jaundices into deadly 
ailments. Bath-water has cured inveterate jaun- 
dices, Van Swieten’s testimony confirms the doc-
trine.


207 BY BATH WATER.
trine. In his Commentaries on Boerhaave’s A- 
phorisms, Vol. III. p. 346, he delivers his sen- 
timents thus, “ Si jam simul consideretur mag- 
“ num numerum morborum chronicorum, in vi- 
“ sceribus abdominalibus, sedem suam habere, & 
“ imprimis in Hepate, in quod omnis sanguis ve- 
“ nosus viscerum chylopoieticorum confluit, pa- 
“ tebit ratio quare adeo efficax fit in morborum
“ chronicorum cura Aquarum Medicatarum ufus. 
“ Magna enim copia potatae hae aquae, venis bi- 
“ bulis intestinorum cito resorptae, integris fuis 
“ viribus, pro magna parte, in venam portarum 
“ veniunt, & fic, per omnia Hepatis loca distri- 
“ butae, solvunt impacta, & vafa obstructa refe- 
“ rant.” Facts are sturdy evidences. 
1. Dr. Baynard (in his book of Cold-Bathing) 
records the following Cases. “ Mr. Hadly, of an 
“ ill habit from an irregular life, had 
“ been wrong treated. He came at 
“ last to Bath. He complained in the 
“ right hypochondria, and had a great induration 
“ in the region of the liver. By purging, drink- 
“ ing, and bathing, he got a perfect cure.” 
Baynard’s
Cases.
2. “ I knew a physician who had a severe jaun- 
“ dice with a schirrous liver. He was cured by 
“ drinking Bath-water, and by eating the herb 
“ Taraxicon sallad-wife.” 
3. “ Madam Thistlewaite, of Wintersloe, re- 
“ ceived a great cure by the Bath-waters, joined
“ with other aperitives in as high a jaundice as 
“ ever was seen, which had long seized her, and 
“ she a very lean emaciated worn out weak wo- 
“ man.—In this case, and also in most diseases 
“ of the liver, I think the Bath-waters the best 
“ specific in the world, if taken seasonably with 
“ due preparatives and advice.”  
4. From

208 DISEASDES CURED
4. From Dr. Pierce we have these. “ Justice 
“ Dewy of Fordenbridge, Hants, came hither in 
“ February, 1693, in the sixtieth year 
“ of his age. His complaints were 
“ (besides the yellowness of his skin) 
“ weakness, faintness, decay of spirits, shaking 
“ in his hands, pain in his limbs, doughy swellings 
“ of the legs, clamminess of his mouth, drought, 
“ and foulness of tongue. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He had but lately undergone purging, and 
“ therefore had the less need of preparation. He 
“ took at first but two pints, then three, then two
“ quarts, seldom exceeding. They passed freely 
“ by stool and urine. 
“ Between whiles he was however purged with 
“ Rheubarb and Calomelanos, he took alteratives, 
“ and now and then intermitted the waters. A- 
“ bout the middle of his course he was let bloody 
“ which had a quantity of serum tinctured yel- 
“ low. About the latter end of his course he 
“ bathed three or four times. He had before bath- 
“ ed his legs and feet to get down, the swelling
“ which answered. 
“ He apparently got vigour and strength, a 
“ clearer countenance, and a better habit of 
“ body. Thus he returned after two months 
“ stay. He returned in May, stayed about the 
“ same time, with manifest advantage, which I 
“ suppose he yet continues to have, because he 
“ returns not to the same means by which he 
“ found so much good.” 
5. “ Michael Harvey, of Clifton, Dorset, aged 
“ sixty-six, many years subject to the Gout. Fif- 
“ teen years ago, in one of his fits, he turned 
“ yellow, took medicines for the Jaundice. In 
“ April last, he was seized with a violent pain in 
“ his stomach, which pain he was subject to by 
3 “ fits,

209 BY BATH WATER.
“ fits, but was now more than ordinary fainty, 
“ the jaundice appearing presently in his water, 
“ but not in his eyes, face and skin, till about a 
“ month after. By the advice of Radcliff and 
“ others, he took medicines to little purpose. 
“ He came to Bath the last day of August, 
“ 1696, so weak and ill that he could hardly 
“ keep life in him. The night after he had a 
“ most violent cholic fit, in which he strained 
“ very much to vomit. He was yellow all 
“ over. 
“ He set presently about drinking the waters, 
“ (being in continual pain, and stomachless) but 
“ at first in small quantities. The third time of
“ taking them, he voided a gall-stone about the 
“ bigness of a pigeon’s egg, with several lesser 
“ pieces of the same colour and consistence, a sa- 
“ bulum to the quantity of a spoonful and more. 
“ It is observable that this gentleman had a 
“ stool before the stone came off, as white, and
“ like to tobacco-pipe clay; but the stool that 
“ came with and after the stone, was as yellow 
“ as saffron. He was immediately more at case, 
“ he recovered by degrees; he goes on drinking 
“ the waters, this being the one and twentieth 
“ day of his cure, walks abroad, gives visits, eats 
“ heartily, and is very likely to recover perfectly.” 
6. Dr. Guidot records this Case. “ A worthy 
“ Knight of Devonshire, (in obstruc- 
“ tions of the Liver and Bladder of 
“ Gall) by drinking the waters twenty-one days 
“ at the pump received great benefit.”
Guidot.  
7. The Reverend Mr. Lyon, aged sixty and 
Upwards, of a gross habit, swarthy 
complexion, and choleric disposition, 
had laboured long under an inveterate 
scurvy. His legs swelled, were hard, and disco- 
Author's 
Cases. 
loured

210 DISEASES CURED
loured with large deep foul ulcers. For this dis- 
order he came to Bath. 
He drank the waters in too great a quantity. 
He carried in the hottest part of the kitchen of 
King’s Bath, sweating, scrubbing, and broiling, 
for one hour and a half at a time. 
I often gave him warning that there was dan- 
ger of throwing inflammation on the liver, al- 
ready vitiated and obstructed, as is the case in
Scorbutics. He laughed at my prognostic, scorn- 
ing the dull beaten track, as he called it. In ex- 
cessive drinking and bathing he persisted. 
My prognostics were at last verified. I found 
him one day very ill indeed. He had every symp- 
tom of the jaundice, rather black than yellow, a 
high fever with fixed pain in the region of the 
liver. 
I ordered him immediately to be bled. Next 
day, he took a gentle purge of Senna, Rad. Cur- 
cum. Rub. Tinctor. &c. which (as is common in 
cases of unfound livers) operated so immoderate- 
ly, that his pulse intermitted. His spirits flagged. 
Nature was on the point of yielding. He then 
wished he had followed the dull beaten track. 
By some little helps the symptoms abated, he 
recovered strength. During this reprieve, I or- 
dered him to take two drachms of nitre thrice a 
day, in a large glass of Bath-water, a medicine 
highly commended by Heister. He swallowed as 
much soap as he pleased. I indulged him in the 
free use of Rum-punch, enriched with sugar and
the juice of Seville-oranges. I advised him to
eat freely of China oranges.—Never was a pa- 
tient more tractable. 
His Jaundice gradually went off. His foul 
scorbutic ulcers cicatrized. The cure of his jaun- 
dice proved the cure of all his ailments. By the 
help

211 BY BATH WATER:
help of soap and lime-water, he continued (ten 
years) as well as a man of his age and habit of 
body could be. 
8. Mrs. Elliot, of Golden Square, London, la- 
boured under a constant vomiting, with racking 
pain about the orifice of the stomach. She had 
neither retained food nor medicine for a month. 
This was the case described to me by her brother- 
in-law, my late worthy friend Capt. Wilkinson, 
Agent. Supposing her complaints owing to bili- 
ary concretions then passing the Duct, I told him
that hers was truly a Bath-case. My opinion 
was related to an eminent physician then attend- 
ing. He roundly pronounced Bath-water perni- 
cious in all respects. Dr. Girningham was called
in. He adhered to my opinion. 
With great difficulty she was transported to 
Bath. When I first saw her, her pains were ex- 
quisite, she threw up laudanum and every other 
thing. She was lodged in one of those houses 
from whence there is a Slip, or communication 
into the Bath. I advised her to drink a glass of
water at any time in bed; and, as fast as she 
threw that up, another, and so continue till she 
was sure that the water began to stay on her sto- 
mach. She was also carried into the bath, some- 
times twice in a morning, and there supported 
till she began to vomit. While she was in the 
bath her pains ceased. In a few days the water 
began to stay. At once she passed twenty-two 
gall-stones, as big as beans and pease, by stool. 
At different times more. 
Her pain vanished. From a skeleton (in less 
than three weeks) she grew plump, and walked 
on the parade. The only medicine that she used 
was a deobstruent gentle purge of Rhubarb Rad. 
Curcum. Rub, Tinctor, &c. with Castile soap. 
She

212 DISEASES CURED
She went home. Her complaints returned She 
came again to Bath, where she pursued the same 
regimen, and found her cure. Profiting by ex- 
perience, she staid six months; during which 
time she drank about a quart of water a day, 
and swallowed two pounds and upwards of soap 
every week. For these eight years past she has 
enjoyed perfect health, excepting grumbling re- 
membrances of her pain, which she continues to
lull by the constant use of soap and Bath-water, 
warmed at home.” 
9. Every inhabitant of Bath knows how deep- 
ly Mr. Levellyn, builder of this city, was tinged 
with the jaundice. Every body saw him restored 
to his usual tint. He tried various Doctors, and 
various nostrums. He, mean while, drank the 
Bath-waters, and, without them, it is more than 
probable, he never could have recovered. 
CHAP.

213 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIII. 
OF THE DROPSY.
1. WHEN the serum comes to be extra- 
vasated, and stagnates in 
any of the cavities of the body, that
disease ss called Dropsy. 
Definition.
2. It may arise from many causes. 
My business is with those only which 
countenance the rationale of Bath-waters. 
Causes.
3. Its symptoms are too apparent to 
want to be enumerated. 
Symptoms. 
4. The curative indications are, to procure a
free circulation of the juices. To car- 
ry off the liquor deposited in the cavi- 
ties. To correct that fault or indisposition of the
parts, whether it he the cause or effect of the 
disease. 
Cure.
Strengthening, stimulating cordial medicines 
answer the first, especially those which are grate- 
fully acid, and gently aromatic. 
To obtain the second, the cause of the obstruc- 
tion must be found out. This must be removed 
or corrected, which is often done by Mineral 
waters. 
Steel medicines, and strengtheners gently astrin- 
gent answer the third intention, given in a proper 
dose, and seasonably administered. 
Friction, motion, and heat greatly conduce. If 
the pressure of water be 800 times greater than 
that of the atmosphere, how can we wonder that 
(in Anasarca’s especially) this pressure should thus
drive the humours into their proper channels! 
There are many examples of dropsies cured by 
Diuretics,


214 DISEASES CURED
Diuretics, vitriolate metallic medicines dissolved 
in water; such have been specifics- 
In the writings of the antients we 
find well authenticated cures of Drop- 
sies. 
Analogical 
Proofs. 
Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) says, Occurrit 
aqua Grottae omni incipienti hydropisi. Tungri aquam
in Burgundia mirificam tradunt in hydropicis, ut quae 
aquas evacuat ebihita jure balnei, flatum discutit, & 
tamen fitim extinguens. Bergomenses Trascherii a- 
quam experimentis commendant. Quae uteri vitio, 
vellienis, coacervati folent humiditates, in Ascitis spe- 
cie principle, vidimus nitratas, & falfulas quosdam 
modice purgatorias fanasse in totum. Salfarum balneo 
in Lesbo curari hydropem meminit Galenas. In Tym-
panite difcufforiae omnino facultatis effe oportet aquas, 
five in potibus principio, five in balneis in fine; idonea
quoque eft e vaporibus ipsarum calidarum evacuation 
nec minus super faxa, harenasque calentes, sub fole re- 
cubitus insolatusque. In Hyposarca assiduo praeter ce- 
tera profunt illutamenta, & in marinis, salsis lacunis, 
atramentosis paludihus, sulphurosts callidissimis, 
quantum vires sufficiunt, lavari. His (inquit Cel- 
sus) sudor evocandus in arena calida, Laconico, cli- 
bano, similibusque, Maxime utiles naturales IA sic- 
cae fudationes. Arena e littore maris sole fervefacta 
capite tenus hydropicis obruta, vulgaris praesidii est. 
Incomparable remedium ad omnem hydropem in pul- 
vere ad aquas calidas in Ischia voluntari, atque info- 
lari. Ex plumho balnea in Lothoringis omni hydropi- 
co permira hakentur cum lutamentis. Aridum &
valde potens Stygianum ex nostris, non longe ab urbe, 
& Sabatinum, Bullicanum, Thermae in Sicilia, 
omnes calidae ad hydropem valere, ab auctoribus pro- 
mittuntur. Omni autem hydropi ex falsis clysteria uti- 
lia funt, Nec minus Stuphae, hypocausta, pyrateria. 
Guianerus

215 BY BATH WATER.
Guianerus (De Balneis Aquensibus, cap. 3 ) says, 
“ Asciticam his aquis balneari jussi. Haec etiam
“ mane pintam unam illius aquae bibebat, & die 
“ alia in vesperis solum balneum intrabat; ali- 
“ quando tres pintas mane bibebat, & per dies 
“ XL hoc continuans liberata est.” 
Ugulinus (Des Balneis Comitatus Pisarum) says, 
“ Vidi ego multos in usu Balnei hujus hydropicos, 
“ & ictericos curatos.” 
1. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) gives the fol- 
lowing. “ George Russel, a tippling butcher of 
“ this city, (by going too often to 
“ the ale-house) rendered himself un- 
“ able longer to go to market, he 
“ turned sheriff’s bailiff, &c. and then drank on, 
“ till he had distended his carcass as much as he
“ had extenuated his stock. He was swollen 
“ from head to foot by an exquisite Ascites and 
“ Anasarca, and, as is usual in that distemper, 
“ was excessive thirsty; the more he drank, the 
“ more he craved for drink, and the less he dis- 
“ charged by urine. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ I first prescribed drastic purges, then Bath- 
“ water, which quenched his exorbitant thirst, 
“ as indeed it infallibly does beyond any other li- 
“ quor. They passed also so well by urine that, 
“ by repeating his purge once a week, and drink- 
“ ing the waters, he was reduced to his pristine 
“ shape. Ordering then some strengthening bit— 
“ ters, I dismissed him perfectly cured. So he 
“ held two or three years, but he returned to his 
“ beloved tipple, till he brought himself to the 
“ same pass; and, without consulting me, by 
“ the apothecary’s advice, he repeated the same 
“ regimen with the same success; and so for a 
“ third, if not for a fourth time, till at last, 
“ with continued drinking, bangs, and bruises 
“ to

216 DISEASES CURED
“ to which Bailiff’s are subject, he so corrupted 
“ his entrails, that he died of an inward impo- 
“ stumation.” 
2. “ Mr. Treagle, of Taunton, grocer, aged 
“ forty-fix, had long been scorbutic, nephritic, ca- 
“ chectic and hydropic. Finding no relief from any 
“ medicine, he came hither with his legs and 
“ thighs greatly swollen, and so weak that he 
“ was hardly able to stand; he had large red livid
“ spots in both; he made very little water, and 
“ that jaundiced; his eyes and face were of the 
“ same complexion, withal horribly desponding 
“ and melancholy. 
“ For the first wreek I purged him, made him 
“ take chalybeates, hepatics, and antiscorbutics, in- 
“ termixing the waters now and then. By these 
“ his countenance, and the colour of his water 
“ was somewhat changed. By drinking, mode- 
“ rate bathing, and purging, the shape and co- 
“ lour of his legs were also altered. At the end 
“ of six weeks, he returned very much advan-
“ taged in every respect. He carried home di- 
“ rections for a diet-drink, for which I had his 
“ thanks some years after.” 
3. “ Much in the like, if not worse circum- 
“ stances, was one Appletree, an inn-keeper, in 
“ Crookhorn, a man aged about sixty; besides the 
“ foregoing symptoms, he had a cough also, he 
“ neither could walk nor stand. 
“ He bathed and drank the waters, took pecto- 
“ rals, antiscorbutics, and hepatics. He returned
“ well, and came back next year to confirm his 
“ cure. Again he returned, goes about his busi- 
“ ness, and probably drinks with his guests, in 
“ which he never was backward, and which was 
“ supposed to be the cause of his distemper
4. “ Sir

217 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Sir Robert Holmes, whom we have al- 
“ ready recorded, cured of batters and bruises in
“ sea-fights, came here for a colica pictonum, a- 
“ trophy, and dropsy, of all which he was cured, 
“ recommended his friend Mr. Warner, Mayor of 
“ Winchester, who, after a fit of the gout, had his 
“ legs and thighs very much swollen and disco- 
“ loured with large scorbutic spots; ha made a 
“ lixiviate water in small quantities, had little or 
“ no appetite, with great thirst. 
“ I began with gentle purgatives, then put him 
“ upon drinking the waters; and, after conveni- 
“ ent time, permitted him to go into the Queen’s- 
“ Bath. His swelling abated, his pains asswaged, 
“ his strength returned, so that in less than two 
“ months he went back greatly advantaged in eve- 
“ ry respect.”—“ I might add several other instan- 
“ces of this kind, but I forbear for fear of enlarg- 
“ ing my book beyond its intended bulk.” 
OF the external and internal effects of cold wa- 
ter, Baynard (in his book of Cold baths) gives us 
the following. “ A wine-cooper, who 
“ had been a free liver, fell into a 
“ jaundice, thence a dropsy, the ascites.
“ He applied to Sir Thomas Witherly, president 
“ of the college of physicians, who treated him
“ in the usual methods, but nothing would do. 
“ He prodigiously swelled all over. Forsaken by 
“ friends and physician, he begged his wife to carry
“ him to Islington-wells, there for once to quench 
“ his thirst insatiable, and die in peace. 
Baynard’s
Cases. 
“ From between 4 in the afternoon to 9 or 10 
“ at night, he drank 14 quarts, without making 
“ one drop of water. He sunk down in the chair 
“ in a clammy sweat. Thence being laid on the 
“ bed for dead, in half an hour’s time, the people 
“ heard something make a small rattling noise like 
K “ a

218 DISEASES CURED
“ a coach in a distant gravel-way. Soon after he 
“ began to piss, and pissed in an hour’s time about 
“ 7 or 8 quarts; from the weight of the waters, 
“ he also had two or three stools. He began to 
“ speak, and desired a little warm sack, after 
“ which he fell into a profound sleep, in which 
“ he both sweat, and dribbled his urine all that
“ night. Next day, he drank 4 or 5 quarts more 
“ of water, had two stools thin and waterish, still 
“ pissed on. For five or six days he drank on, 
“ taking mutton-broth, and so recovered. The 
“ relation of this unaccountable cure had for ever 
“ been lost, had not Sir Thomas accidentally met 
“ with the good woman his wife, about two 
“ years after, and asking her, how long her hus- 
“ band had lived after he had left him? She re- 
“ plied, pointing to a little slender man standing 
“ by her, there he is, this is the husband who was 
“ your patient, and who recovered by turning his own 
“ physician.”
Of the external use of cold water, the Doctor 
gives two remarkable instances. 
1. “ James Crook of Long Acre, had dropsy, 
“ jaundice, palsy, rheumatism, and an inveterate 
“ pain in his back. 
“ In three immersions, the swellings of his legs 
“ sunk, so did the pain of his back, as did the 
“ jaundice, blowing from his nose a great quan- 
“ city of a bilious yellow matter. From the frigi- 
“ dity and pressure of the fluid we may account for 
“ his pissing more than he drank; but, how the 
“ icteric matter should be thrown off by the nose, 
“ he who can tell, erit mihi magnus Apollo.” 
2. “ A Scotchman, in an ascites, was cured. 
“ By his is girdle which I saw, he fell six inches, in 
“ five days, pissing freely all the time.” 
CHAP.

219 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIV. 
OF FEMALE DISEASES.
HIPPOCRATES (De locis in homine) may 
well be said to have spoken from experi- 
ence, when he said, αl υsεραl λανΤων
Των νοδημαΤων αlΤαl εlδlv Omnium
morhorum causae sunt uteri. Besides those diseases
which equally affect men and women, there are 
some peculiar to the fair sex. Humanity obliges 
me to point out those aids which may be had 
from the waters. Respect obliges me to mention
but few names, and those of persons long for- 
gotten. 
In general.
I. OF OBSTRUCTION.
1. OBSTRUCTION, chlorosis. febris al- 
ba, amatoria, morbus virgineus, icterus 
albus, and green sickness, are different names only
for one and the same disease. 
Definition.
2. The remote causes of obstruction are sudden 
chills, viscid food, fear, grief, ex- 
cessive evacuations, astringents, other 
diseases, &c.—Its proximate are, Rigidity of the 
uterine vessels, Cachexy, Compression, and Len- 
tor of the humours. 
Caueses.
3. The symptoms are, pain and heat of the 
loins, pulsation of the arteries, head- 
ach, want of appetite, languor, shi- 
vering, slow fever, thick red urine, inflamma- 
tion, suppuration, gangrene, varicous swellings 
of the veins of the legs, vomiting, anxiety, 
cough, palpitation, fainting, vertigo, apoplexy.  
Symptoms.
K2 madness,

220 DISEASES CURED
madness, green sickness, longings, fluor albus, 
and various haemorrhages. 
4. The prognostics vary according 
to the symptorns, time of suppression, 
age, and causes. 
Prognostics.
5. In rigidity of the vessels, relaxing fomenta- 
tions with tepid baths avail. In len- 
tor, or sluggish circulation, warm 
baths are also indicated. In poverty of juices, Bath
waters are internally indicated. From melancho- 
ly or despair, a fiddle and company are specifics. 
Cure. 
From Pierce's memoirs we have the following. 
1. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Eyles, of the Devizes, aged
“ sixteen, was very far gone in this
“ disease with hysteric fits, she was 
“ pale, thin, stomachless, faint and 
“ tired upon the least motion. She had tried me- 
“ dicines at home to no purpose. The same me- 
“ dicines with bathing, and a little water inter- 
“ nally, restored her (in six weeks time) to her 
“ appetite, complexion, and customary benefits 
“ of nature. ”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
2. “ A daughter of lady Berifford's, aged nine- 
“ teen, was brought hither June, 1693. She 
“ was, in all respects, rather worse than the for- 
“ mer. She bathed and drank. At the end of 
“ seven weeks she went off so well, that she want- 
“ ed no help of the physician. 
3. Mrs. Eliz. Wayte, aged 20, besides the 
“ symptoms of the first, had the jaundice, scur- 
“ vy and dropsy in her legs and feet. She was 
“ short-breathed to a degree, hot, and inclining 
“ to a hectic, with palpitations. She drank and 
“ bathed. n five or six weeks she walked in 
“ the meadows, recovered her appetite, com- 
“ plexion, flesh, and spirits.” 
4. “ Miss

221 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Miss La Chambre, aged thirteen, of the 
“ very complexion of the chalk, mortar, and o- 
“ ther trash which she used to devour, was faint, 
“ tired, heavy-headed. &c. I began with a vo- 
“ mit and purge. She then drank and bathed. 
“ in a few weeks she rejoiced more at the fight 
“ of a shoulder of mutton than a handful of clay. 
“ The waters gave her new life and vigour, she 
“ became a healthy young woman.”
It is not the eating of chalk, charcoal, salt, or 
such trash that brings on the green-sickness. The 
disease depraves the appetite, and thus creates a
longing after things unaccountable. The fore- 
going observation proves the fact. 
From Guidot we have drawn the following.
5. “ Mrs. Manwaring of Cheshire, 
“ (in full habit and obstructions) re- 
“ ceived benefit by bathings in the 
“ King's and Queen's. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
When the catamenia are obstructed through 
poverty of blood, or its bad disposition, the symp- 
toms enumerated in the foregoing section appear. 
The same method of cure will enable nature to- 
perform her work. 
6. “ Madam Constance Harvey in a cachexy. 
“ or ill habit of body, joined to inveterate ob- 
“ structions, received cure by bathing and drink- 
“ ing, August, 1673. 
7. “ Mrs. Margaret Hall, of Ross, received 
“ cure of a cachexy, and great obstructions by 
“ drinking and bathing for a month, June, 
“ 1673.”
8. “ Miss Finch, of Reading, in the same case,
“ received great benefit, 1693.” 
9. “ Madam Barber, in the spleen and obstruc- 
“ tions, received great benefit, 1693.”
K3 II.

222 DISEASES CURED
II. OF IMMODERATE DISCHARGES.
UNDER the head of diseases specifically cured 
by Bristol waters, I propose to treat on the sub- 
ject of female discharges. Let it suffice, in this 
place, in general, to observe, that in sanguine 
plethoric habits, Bath water aggravates every 
symptom. 
If the discharge is white, if the blood is im- 
poverished, if the disorder arises from a general 
cachexy, or bad disposition of the 
juices, Bath-water is an excellent in- 
ternal medicine. By correcting the bad disposi- 
tion, it performs the cure. If to these are joined
internal ulcers, strains, or violences of any sort, 
warm-bathing will facilitate the cure. 
Fluor albus.
Dr. Pierce gives the following cases. “ A 
“ gentlewoman of forty-three, of a sanguine com- 
“ plexion, of a scorbutic habit, had a- 
“ bout midsummer, 1679, a violent 
“ eruption of the fluor albus, which 
“ continued for a year. She took all that farra- 
“ go of astringents which is commonly prescrib- 
“ ed by apothecaries, midwives and nurses, to 
“ very little purpose. She had pains, weakness 
“ and stiffness in her joints, for which she came 
“ to Bath in May, 1680. 
“ I put her first on drinking the waters, which
“ took off the sharpness of the flux; and cased 
“ her pain, though the abatement in quantity was
“ but small. For her external pains she bathed, 
“ and drank the water between whiles. The 
“ bathing was so far from increasing the quan- 
“ tity of the fluor albus (as idle theorists imagine) 
“ that it lessened it considerably. After six weeks, 
“ she went home, where (by a decoction of the 
Pierce's 
Cases.
“ woods,

223 BY BATH WATER.
“ woods, ivory, hartshorn, &c.) shee recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
2. “ A citizen’s wife of Bristol, aged thirty- 
“ six, had a discharge of such variety of colours 
“ as easily demonstrated excoriation or ulcer. 
“ I ordered her to drink, bathe, and inject 
“ the water. By these and the help of balsam- 
“ ics and astringents, she returned well in two 
“ months.” 
3. “ A tradesman’s wife of Cirencester, about 
“ a fortnight after her delivery, was taken with a 
“ violent pain in her flank, with some swelling, 
“ which came (in two months) to be large, hard, 
“ and tender to the touch. A green fetid matter 
“ was discharged. I ordered her to drink the 
“ water, bathe, and inject. The hardness abated, 
“ the gleet ceased, she brought forth many chil- 
“ dren, and is now a buxsome widow.” 
4. “ Guidot’s Register informs us of the case 
“ of a noble lady, who the very first 
“ day that she entered the Cross-Bath, 
“ found herself cured of a prolapsus uteri, which
“ had been down for eighteen years. 
Guidot. 
III. OF BARRENNESS.
In his book De Thermis, Baccius has rationally- 
accounted for the causes of sterility; 
he has rationally also pointed out the 
cure. According to him sterility pro- 
ceeds from diverse causes, and, therefore, requires 
diverse methods of treatment. In hardness of the 
uterus, emollients and humectants are indicated,
in dry hot temperaments especially. Virago’s are 
born with a natural hardness of the uterus; they 
labour under three causes of sterility, heat, dry— 
ness, and hardness. These can be corrected only
Barrenness.
Causes. 
K4 by

224 DISEASES CURED
by assiduous use of tepid emollient baths. For 
the purpose of conception, Baccius 
declares that there is no other sort of 
remedy so certain or salutary as natural baths, 
provided they are duly and rationally administer- 
ed. Ad spem sobolis non reperirt aliud remedii genus 
nea salubrius, neque experientia certius, quam bal- 
nea ipsa nturalia, si debite, ac ex ratione ministrata 
sit, page 117. If sterility proceeds from humi- 
dity, or superfluity of humours, or weaknesses, 
it requires baths drying, and not much heating, 
ferreous, or aluminous. These may be used ex- 
ternally and internally. The Balneum Caiae, at 
Viterbo, got the name of the Lady's Bath, from its 
particular virtue; so did the Aponum, The aquae 
caldanellae were said fluores cohibere albos mulieribus, 
et gonorrhaeam viris vimque illis generativam ad- 
augere.
Cure.  
IN schirrous hardness, and swellings of the 
womb, warm mineral waters injected, or receiv- 
ed by vapour conduce, while total immersions, ra- 
ther exasperate, Fourteen years ago I met with 
a case which proves the position. 
1. A married lady came down, to Bath, with a 
hardness, and swelling of the uterus. By the 
advice of an eminent physician, since
dead, she bathed upwards of twenty 
times in the Queen and King’s baths. By constant 
bathing her flesh wasted, she became hectic. Her 
original complaint continued hard, and became 
painful. Despairing of cure, the Doctor told 
her at last, that her disorder was chirurgical, and
out of his way. When I met her she was pre- 
paring for her journey, and had sent away her 
cloaths. She told me what had been done, and 
begged my opinion. I told her, that the worst of
her complaints were the effects of improper bath-
Case.
ing.

225 BY BATH WATER.
ing. I advised her to go to the country, and drink 
asses milk for a fortnight, and return, which she 
did, I then directed her to let her maid throw uo 
a pail of warm Bath-water by the help of a flexi- 
ble syringe, every night at home, which she did. 
By degrees the pain abated, the swelling dimi- 
nished, and grew softer, she recovered flesh daily. 
I then recommended her to Dr. Smellie, who 
completed her cure with emollients, so that in a- 
bout eleven months he delivered her of a child. 
From Dr. Pierce's Memoirs. I have extracted the
following cases.
2. “ Mrs. DufFwaite was twelve 
“ years married without conceiving 
“ once. She came to Bath for a palsy. After 
“ bathing the second season, she returned home- 
“ well, and, in a month after, conceived, and 
“ had five lusty children at different births.”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “  Mrs. Hawkins, of Marlborough, forty 
“ years old, had been married thirteen or four- 
“ teen years without a child. She came hither 
“ for lameness. By long bathing, she not only 
“ got her legs, but her belly up also five different 
“ times.” 
4. “ Lady Blissington, a weak sickly person, 
“ married for years, and childless, bathed and
“ drank. By God's blessing, she not only got 
“ her health, but became a mother also.”
“ This is an effect (says the Doctor) so very 
“ well known, and so generally believed, that 
“ when any woman comes hither that is child- 
“ less, they presently say, she comes for the com- 
“ mon cause. To instance all who have sped in 
“ this errand since my living here, were to fill a 
“ volume.”  
5. “ Mrs. Clement, of Bristol, aged forty, had 
“ several children, but buried them all. She had 
K5 “ not 

226 DISEASES CURED
“ not conceived in nine years. She came and 
“ bathed for rheumatic pains. Soon after she con- 
“ ceived, and brought forth twins.” 
6. “ The very same happened to a worthy 
“ gentlewoman, Mrs. Horton, of Comend.” 
7. “ Mrs. Davers, of Monks, had eight chil- 
“ dren, but being ill of a scorbutic habit, with
“ weakness of her limbs, she bred not for six 
“ years. I ordered her the bath, which, with 
“ other helps, restored her health. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a son. 
“ She came to Bath again, fearing a relapse. By 
“ drinking the waters only, she soon conceived. 
“ She had afterwards two miscarriages, and a
“ lusty boy at forty-four.” 
IV. OF ABORTION.
THERE are not wanting instances 
of women apt to miscarry, who, by the 
use of mineral waters, have been en- 
abled to go through with their burdens. 
Prevent mis- 
carriage. 
In such cases Baccius gives numerous instances
of the power of the Porretanae, Albulae, and 
many other detergent strengthening waters, in- 
ternally and externally applied. 
Savonarola (De balneis vallis Chaim vulgo dict- 
balnea dominarum) expresses himself thus. “ This 
“ bath has received great commenda- 
“ tion in disorders of the womb, in 
“ passionibus matricis, by preparing it 
“ for conception, cleansing, absterging, and 
“ strengthening all those faults which proceed 
“ from causes cold and moist. It provokes the 
“ meness. For such purposes, the ladies frequent 
“ it daily, pro hisque passionibus mulieres indies id 
“ in vadunt. 
Collateral
proofs.
1. Guia-

227 BY BATH WATER.
1. Guianerus (De balneis aquensibus, cap. 3.) 
relates the following memorable case. “ A cer- 
“ tain lady (by reason of an obstinate white flux) 
“ could not conceive. The matter was some- 
“ times so fetid, that she loathed herself. After 
“ due preparation, she used the warm bath, and 
“ drank the water. Thus, cured of the whites, 
“ she went home, conceived, and in due time, 
“ brought forth a boy, menstruis albis purgatis, 
“ domi praegnans facta, puellum enixa est.” 
2. “ Mrs. Sherrington, after many 
“ miscarriages, came, bathed, and 
“ drank the waters for five or six 
“ weeks, in three years, she brought forth three 
“ children at different births.” 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “ Mrs. Howard, formerly maid of honour 
“ to the Dutchess of York, conceived ten times, 
“ but never carried any to the full time. She 
“ came and bathed five weeks. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a 
“ daughter in due time, as she did afterwards a 
“ son.” 
4. “ Lady Kilmurry miscarried thrice. She used 
“ the bath only five weeks, returned, conceived, 
“ and carried her burden to maturity. She miscar- 
“ ried twice or thrice again, came back, bathed
“ again. In due time, she had a daughter.” 
V. OF PREGNANCY.
INSTANCES of women who have drank and 
bathed during their pregnancy with- 
cut miscarriage. 
1. “ Mrs. Howard, of Yorkshire, 
“ came hither May, 1690, for a weak- 
“ ness in her lower limbs, for which she bathed
“ six or seven weeks till she was cured. She was 
Water safe, 
during preg- 
nancy. 
K6 “ young

228 DISEASES CURED
“ young with child just before she set cut for this
“ place, as appeared afterwards by her reckon- 
“ ing, when she was brought to bed of a lusty 
“ girl.” 
2. “ Mrs. Floyer had often miscarried, she 
“ was very hysterical. She was with child all 
“ the time while she bathed and drank, as ap- 
“ peared by the time of her delivery of a son, 
“ the strongest she ever had. She passed her 
“ month better than ever, which was imputed to 
“ the bathing.” 
3. “ Lady Cooke, the wife of a city knight, 
“ came down with some relations for pleasure. As 
“ she was here, she was willing to bathe for 
“ some pains which she was subject to in her limbs, 
“ but was doubtful, knowing herself to be young 
“ with child. She consulted me. I advised the 
“ Cross Bath with moderation. She bathed fif- 
“ teen times, and was then two months gone, as 
“ afterwards appeared by her being delivered of
“ a full-ripe child.” 
4. “ Lady Scarborough came to the Bath for 
“ lameness after rheumatism, gout, &c. She 
“ bathed even to excess after she found the child
“ quick, imputing the motion only to wind. She 
“ miscarried not, for she was, at due time, de- 
“ livered of a daughter which they called by the 
“ nick-name of the Bath-girl.” 
5. I remember an instance of a lady’s maid, 
who (to create miscarriage) bathed often in the 
hottest baths, and to no purpose. 
WHEN night-baths were more in 
fashion, our women-guides were in the 
water sometimes eight or nine hours a 
day; many of them have been with child, with- 
out miscarriage. 
Women 
guides. 
Pudendorum

229 BY BATH WATER.
Pudendorum vitiis minerales aquae valde conveni- 
unt, says Baccius, p. 118. Sunt enim bae natura- 
liter ficcae, ac ficcis ex aequo medicamen- 
tis haec Loca indigent. Humida saniosa, 
ac fistulosa fedis ulcer et quae uteri cer- 
vicem obfiderint, non possunt ullis aquae 
preusidiis percurari, quam naturallbus balneis; turn
aquis, de more, bibitis, turn iisdem per catheterem in 
loculos ipsos infusis, et calefactis biemo, quibus nos fe- 
liciter usi sunius, etiam in saevo ulcere intestini caeci, 
quod penetrans, tractu temporis, foras in inguen, ex 
ipso ulcere (mirum) ebibitas reddebat aquas.—Percu- 
ratam similiter per ejusmodi balnea in Aenaria scimus
illustrem Dominant Neapoli, quae cancrum occultum 
medicorum judicio, aut schirrum alioquin incurabilem, 
inter abdomen et uterum erat diu perpessa. 
Bathing use- 
ful in ulcers
and cancers.
WEAK ricketty children find constant relief by 
bathing. In my Attempt to revive the practice of
bathing I have quoted examples.
OF

[230]
OF 
DISEASES 
CURED BY 
BRISTOL WATER. 
CHAP. XV. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
UNDER the general head of Diseases cured hy 
Bath Water, I have given convincing proofs of 
the power of Bath water in disorders of the breast. 
Custom has appropriated disorders of the breast to 
Bristol Water only, in compliance with custom, 
I have reserved the particular disquisition of such
disorders to this chapter. To the study of Con- 
sumptions, I have given particular attention. I 
have pried into almost all the boasted nostrums. 
With the sagacious GILCHRIST, I ingenuously 
confess that, in proportion to my experience, my 
faith abates. Rationally to account for the ope- 
ration of the waters, now my purpose briefly to 
distinguish the different diseases of the breast, 
with their subject, causes, symptoms, stages, diag- 
nostics, prognostics, regimens, and method of cure.
I. OF COUGH, OR CATARRH.
1. Cough, or Catarrh is a convul- 
sive endeavour to expel whatever proves 
offensive to the lungs.
Definition.
2. IT
 

231 BY BRISTOL WATER.
2. IT is divided, into thin and sharp, 
or into viscid and inert. 
Division. 
3. The first is occasioned by sudden chills, 
winds cold and moist, east and north 
particularly, sudden changes, thaws, 
wet cloaths, relicts of former diseases, measles, 
small-pox, &c. 
Causes.
4. The second takes its rise from laxity of the 
solids, indolence, moisture, night studies, crude 
cold and watery diet, &c. 
5. The symptoms of the first are shivering, las- 
situde, watery inflamed eyes, flushed counte- 
nance, shortness of breathing, tickling 
and inclination to cough, especially 
towards night, plentiful secretion of urine, quick
hard pulse, itching and running of the nostrils, 
sneezing, inflammation, and excoriation of the 
membrana sneideriana, hoarseness, spitting of blood, 
and pulmonary phthisis. 
Symptoms. 
6. In the viscid catarrh, respiration labours, the 
lungs are oppressed with frothy mucus, the cough 
is chiefly troublesome in the morning; the mat- 
ter expectorated is whitish, bluish, and globular. 
These are succceded by tubercles, suppurations, 
and pulmonary consumptions. 
These symptoms are easily accounted for. Of 
all causes, the most common is cold. Causae ex- 
ternae quae prohibere solent perspirationem sunt aer 
frigidus, caenosus, humidus, &c. says Sanctorius.
The membrana sneideriana suffers by its com- 
munication with that membrane which covers 
the inside of the lungs. The internal and exter- 
nal parts of the thorax and abdomen become 
convulsed, because they are covered with the 
same nerves with the lungs, the eighth pair, and 
intercostals. 
7. The

232 DISEASES CURED
7. The convulsive cough is more inveterate, 
and attacks children, commonly called Chincough. 
In this, inspiration continues for some 
minutes; when it begins, it is per- 
formed by a sort of hissing, snoring, 
and clangor, occasioned by the coarctation of the 
glottis. Little or nothing is thrown up. The sto- 
mach is often provoked to vomiting. Fever super- 
venes; ulcer, haemoptoe, and phtisis follow. 
Convulsive
cough.
8. The cause of this species seems 
not yet ascertained. 
Causes.
II. OF CONSUMPTION.
1. EVERY disease that wastes the body may, 
strictly speaking, be termed consumption. This
is a wasting of the body accompanied 
with hectic fever, cough, and puru- 
lent spitting. In this country consumptions may
truly be said to be endemic. The general con- 
stitution of our air is cold, moist, and variable. 
Laxity of solids, languid circulation,, and reten- 
tion of humours are natural consequences. Dis- 
eases arising from such solids and fluids, are 
coughs, catarrhs, hectic fevers, empyema, hae- 
moptoe, sweating, asthma, &c. It is called a 
pulmonary phthisis, because it has its seat parti- 
cularly in the lungs. 
Definition.
2. It is distinguished, 1. Into or- 
dinary and symptomatic. 2. Into 
phthisis, with an abscess. 3. Into acute and
chronic. 
Division.
3. Persons subject to this disease are 
the young, long-necked, tall, narrow 
chested, and lax. 
Subjects.
4. The procatarctic causes are a- 
crid matter, metallic fumes, moist air, 
tubercles, haemoptoe, suppressions of usual eva-  
Causes. 
cuations,

233 BY BRISTOL WATER.
cuatations, inordinate passions, gluttony, drinking, 
indolence, wounds, and dregs of other diseases; 
infection, and hereditary taint. Obstruction of 
the glands of the lungs or arteries produce this, 
disease, as well as ulcers. 
5. It is divided into two stages, in- 
flammatory and suppuratory. 
Stages.
6. It begins with a dry cough, clangorous 
voice, heat, pain, oppression after motion, spit- 
ting of blood, saltish taste of the 
mouth, loss of appetite, thirst, vomit- 
ing, sadness, sense of weight in the lobe affected, 
pulse quick, soft, and small; sometimes full and 
hardish. This we call the inflammatory state. 
Symptoms.
7. Soon after the patient expectorates matter 
white, green, streaked, insipid, and fetid. The
body wastes, and seems chilly in hot weather,
with night heats, and morning sweats, diarhaea, 
dysentery, lientery, or diabetes; the palms of 
the hands burn; the tongue becomes covered 
with little ulcers; after meals the cheeks flush;
the nails grow crooked; the hair falls off; the 
feet swell; the belly shrinks upwards; parts of 
the air-vessels are thrown up by spitting; all the 
functions languish; the body grows dry; the 
eyes sink into their sockets. Laesion of degluti- 
tion, drying up of the ulcers, chills, and loss of 
strength, carry off the sick in the midst of flat- 
tering hopes. This we call the suppuratory state. 
In a Vomica pulmonum all these symptoms ap- 
pear, excepting spitting of pus. 
8. The inflammatory state is thus distinguish- 
ed from the catarrh. In the former, the cough 
is dry, a sense of weight is perceived 
in one of the lobes of the lungs. In 
the latter, defluxion only.—Putrid remittent 
fever, expectoration of pus, wasting, night sweats,
Distinction.
and

234 DISEASES CURED
and colliquative looseness, distinguish the suppu- 
ratory state from other diseases. 
AN EMPYEMA is a collection of pus between 
the lungs and the pleura. It is distin- 
guishable by the hectic fever, difficul- 
ty of breathing, cough, spitting, fluctuation of 
matter, weight and sense of pain on shifting pos- 
ture; with other signs of inflammation and sup- 
puration. 
Empyema. 
A consumption is distinguished from a Vomica 
of the Liver, by that pathognomonic 
pain which attends the latter, and 
which reaches upwards to the shoul- 
der; by tumor and pain in the part affected, nau- 
sea, vomiting, and diarhaea. 
Vomica of 
the Liver. 
A consumption is distinguished from an ab- 
scess of the stomach by symptoms pe- 
culiar to the latter, viz. Fetid eructa- 
tions, cough without expectoration, 
purulent vomiting, faintings, sweats, pain in de- 
glutition, or after; pain of the intestines, occa- 
sioned by the passing of pus; of the omentum, 
or mesentery of the kidneys; desire of lying on
the belly; purulent urine, or dysury, &c. 
Abscess of
the Stomach. 
III. OF HECTIC FEVER.
1. FEVERS which proceed slowly, 
debilitate and waste, are called Hectic. 
Definition.
2. Hectic fevers are divided into idiopathic and
symptomatic. Symptomatic hectics proceed from 
schirrous infarctions, and ulcers of the 
viscera, particularly the lungs and me- 
sentery. There are hectic fevers which proceed 
from mere acrimony. This opinion gathers 
strength from a survey of the remote causes of 
hectics, viz. Inordinate passions, grief, anger,
Division. 
care,

235 BY BRISTOL WATER. 
care, watching, excessive evacuations of all sorts;
corrosive medicines; debility of the first passages; 
past diseases; suppressions of usual evacuations; 
drunkenness. 
3. The symptoms of hectics are the 
same almost as in consumptions. 
Symptoms. 
IV. OF HAEMOPTOE. 
1. FLORID frothy blood thrown up 
from the lungs, we call Haemoptoe. 
Definition.
2. Persons are subject to this from 
the same dispositions mentioned under 
the section of consumption.
Subjects. 
3. The remote causes are violent orgasms, or 
expansion of the blood; spastic contractions of
the viscera; schirrous obstructions; 
polypus’s in the pulmonary vessels; 
plethora’s after intermissions of usual evacuations; 
anger; violent exercise; high fauces; spirituous 
liquors; violent fits of coughing; strainings; 
hard frost; inelastic air.
Causes. 
4. The preceding symptoms are shivering, las- 
situde, coldness of the extremities, anxiety, diffi-
culty of breathing, heavy undulatory 
pain about the region of the dia- 
phragm, flatus, and pain of the back. These 
symptoms are peculiar to this species of hae- 
moptoe. 
Symptoms.
V. OF ASTHMA.
1. ASTHMA is a laborious respira- 
tion, threatening suffocation.
Definition.
2. It is 1. Periodic, or continual. 
2. Moist, or dry. 3. Genuine, or 
spurious. Of the first we treat only. 
Division.
3. It

236 DISEASES CURED
3. It chiefly attacks fat people, and
after the bloom of youth. It is more 
frequent in summer than in autumn. 
Subjects.
4. Its remote causes are gross foggy air, thun- 
der, inordinate passions, small-pox, scurvy, in- 
termittents, catarrh, old ulcers cica- 
trized, suppression of wonted evacua- 
tions, repercussions of critical evacuations, gout, 
erysepilas, oedematous tumors of the feet, wounds 
of the diaphragm, hereditary taint. 
Causes.
5. Its proximate causes are, 1. Obstructions of 
the bronchia and air vessels. 2. Irritation of the
respiratory nerves; thence spasmodic contraction 
of those fibres which correct the cartilaginous- 
rings of the bronchia. 
6. The paroxysm manifests itself thus. First, 
the stomach is distended, and throws up belch- 
ings, with a sense of coarctation. 
Heat, fever, stupor, head-ach, nausea, 
and pale urine follow. The lungs feel stiff, the 
spirits are ruffled, the extremities seem benumb- 
ed, the breast feels as it were squeezed between 
two presses, the patient breathes with difficulty, 
and speaks hoarse. During the night every symp- 
tom increases. Breathing is slow, nor can it be 
performed but in an erect posture, nor without 
the assistance of the scapulae. Worse in bed than
in the cold air. Tears flow involuntary, the 
pulse feels weak, small and intermitting; the 
heart trembles, the face grows black, with a 
sense of suffocation. As the straightness remits, 
a viscid, sweet, saltish phlegm is thrown up, 
streaked with black filaments. The urine then 
is coloured, and lets fall a sediment. When the 
fit is over, the spitting ceases. As the disorder 
grow inveterate, the hands and feet swell, espe- 
cially towards night, the countenance acquires a 
Symptoms. 
livid

237 BY BRISTOL WATER.
livid cast, the patient falls into dropsy, consump- 
tion, inflammation of the lungs, lethargy, palsy, 
death. 
Prognostics.
THUS, having accounted for the causes, seats, 
symptoms, and effects of pectoral diseases in 
general, we now proceed to their several prog- 
nostics. 
1. Dry Coughs generally change into moist. 
The former are more dangerous than the latter, 
because of those inflammations, and 
ruptures of vessels which accompany
them. Better that dry coughs should turn moist, 
than moist into dry; because tubercles, putrid 
and hectic fevers generally attend the latter. 
Moist coughs hinder digestion, and bring on ca- 
chexy. To weak lungs, both sorts are bad. 
Coughs.
2. Convulsive Coughs are rarely 
dangerous. 
Convulsive. 
3. In consumptions, the following symptoms 
promise fair. Pus white, even, easily thrown
up, little or no fever, respiration free, 
cough moderate, appetite not impair-  
ed, chest wide, belly lax, youth, and the disease
yet recent.—If the disease happens to be heredita- 
ry, if the cough is severe, if the hectic heat lasts
till morning, if sleep refreshes not, if the wast- 
ing be great, if there is danger of suffocation, 
looseness, colliquative sweat, and swelling of the 
feet, the case is, at best, desperate. Acute phthi- 
sis is more dangerous than chronic, originary 
than symptomatic. The autumn promises little 
to consumptives. 
Consumptton.
4. In

238 DISEASES CURED
4. In hectic fevers, if the strength 
fails, if the hair falls off, with colli- 
quative diarhaea’s, night sweats, swell- 
ing of the feet, urine oily, and the face hippocra- 
tic, the patient has little to hope for. 
Hectic fe- 
vers. 
5. Of all haemorhages, that of eructation of 
pure blood from the lungs is the most 
dangerous. According to the habit, 
age, and vessels ruptured, the danger 
varies. It is more perilous when it arises from
weak vessels, schirrous, or polypus, than when 
it proceeds from the fluids themselves, or the in- 
termission of usual evacuations, in weak lax ha- 
bits than in strong, in old than in young, from 
ruptures of large vessels than from small. From
obstructions, women are subject to haemoptoes. 
In them it is more alarming than dangerous. 
Emenagogues, about the next time of eruption, 
bring nature to its own channel, the haemoptoe 
ceases. If part of the blood stagnates in the ae- 
real vessels, it putrifies, corrupts the found parts, 
and brings on consumption. If it happens to be 
complicated with ulcer, the patient would do 
well to think of another world.—If it returns 
often, the blood acquires acrimony from inani- 
tion. Hence it is, that (in Monasteries) those 
devotees who really fast, die all of putrid hectic 
fevers. The same juices, bv constant circular 
tion, naturally acquire putrescency; their breath 
is offensive; such generally die raving mad. 
Thus it fares with nurses who fast too long; 
their milk tastes strong of urine. Hence also it 
is that the best natured people grow peevish 
through sickness. This explains that axiom, 
Qui same moriuntur, febre moriuntur. 
Haemor- 
hages. 
6. In asthmas, the prognostics are 
more promising in youth than in old 
Asthmas.
age,

239 BY BRISTOL WATER.
age, from evacuations suppressed than from other 
causes. The more frequent and severe the pa- 
roxysms, the worse. An asthma changing into a 
peripneumony is deadly. Difficulty of breathing 
may be long borne; orthopnaea strangles old 
men suddenly. Blackness of the face, and suffo- 
cation happen from a stoppage of the blood thro' 
the lungs. Dangerous are trembling respiration, 
pulse intermittent or deficient, palsy of the upper 
extremities, faintings, palpitation, and scarcity 
of urine. When the breathing comes to be 
small and slow, when the limbs feel cold, when 
the pulse changes from slow to quick and weak, 
matters are at the worst. Thus having accounted 
for particular prognostics, we next proceed to the
several methods of cure. 
Cure. 
1. THIN, sharp catarrh calls 1. For vaenesec- 
tion, gentle purging, and mild dia- 
phoretics. 2. Acrimony is to be cor- 
rected, thinness inspissated, and the pulmonary 
vessels to be relaxed by vegetable expressed oils; 
mucilaginous decoctions; pectoral syrups and 
balsams. 3. Convulsive spasms are to be quieted 
by opiates. 4. The diet ought to be light, bland, 
milky. The skin ought to be defended from the 
air; rest is first to be indulged, then gentle ex- 
ercise. 
Thin catarrh. 
2. In viscid catarrh, 1. The peccant matter is 
to be diverted, by keeping the belly 
open, blisters and issues. 2. It is to
be attenuated by vomits, blisters, and 
medicines inciding and deterging, viz. soap, 
squills, garlick, gum-ammoniac, and vegetable 
acids. 3. The lungs are to be strengthened by
Thick ca-
tarrh. 
fumiga-

240 DISEASES CURED
fumigations, riding, friction, corroborating diet, 
and ferrugineous waters. 
3. In convulsive Coughs, medicines avail but 
little, till the disease has almost ex- 
pended its fury. These chiefly con- 
duce, 1. Bleeding. 2. Vomits, 3. 
Purges. 4. Pectorals. 5. Blisters. 6. Specifics; 
and, 7. Bitters. 
Convulsive 
cough. 
4. In the inflammatory state of consumptions, 
1. Small bleedings seasonably repeated conduce. 
2. Blisters ought frequently to be ap- 
plied. 3. Thin sharp humours are 
to be inviscated by oily incrassating 
medicines. 4. Vomits, provided the disease takes 
its rise from thin catarrh. 5. Medicines and diet 
are specifically to be directed to the causes; hae- 
morhage, scurvy, scrophula, asthma, evacua- 
tions, &c.—Crude tubercles are to be attempted 
by the most gentle deobstruents, and with the 
greatest caution. 
Consumptions 
inflammatory. 
4. The second, or suppuratory state, may be 
attempted, 1. By astringents, increasing and ag- 
glutinate. 2. Pus is to be drawn off 
by those ways which nature affects.
3. The effects of pus are to be prevented by an- 
tiseptics, incrassants, and acids. 4. The body 
is to be refreshed with light nourishing diet, air, 
sleep, avoiding venery, and passions of the mind. 
—The preservatory cure depends on little bleed- 
ings, diet, exercise, and avoiding night air.
Suppuratory.  
5. Hectics admit of no cure, unless they are 
timeously attacked. The acrimony of the blood 
is, 1. To be corrected by medicines 
demulcent and inviscating, such as al- 
mond emulsions, vegetable mucilaginous decoc- 
tions, barley, marsh-mallows, colts-foot, chicken 
broth, &c. 2. Asses milk, or breast milk, goat- 
Hectics. 
whey,



241 BY BRISTOL WATER.
whey, &c. 3. Gentle astringents, conserve of 
roses, tincture of roses, elixir vitriol, bark, fer- 
rugineous waters, &c. 4. Riding, and constant 
travelling. 5. Cleansing the first passages, by 
gentle pukes, and rhubarb. 6. Paying attention 
always to original causes. 
6. In Haemoptoes, 1. The blood is to be 
diverted from the lungs. 2. Its orgasm is to be 
tempered. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed; and, 4. Ruptured vessels are to 
be foldered.—1. The blood is to be 
diverted by vaenesection, gentle purging, glys- 
ters, and ligatures. 2. Its orgasm is to be tem- 
pered by water and nitre, acids mineral and ve- 
getable, and opiates. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed by opiates. 4. The vessels are to be consoli- 
dated by medicines oily, incrassating, and agglu- 
tinant diet, tranquility, abstinence of all sorts. 
Spitting of 
blood. 
7. In moist asthmas, the intention is to at- 
tenuate, and evacuate viscid matter, and to pre- 
vent its regeneration. Attenuation is 
performed by medicines, attenuating 
and diluting liquors. Evacuation by 
pukes. Generation of new matter, by gentle 
purges and diuretics, fontanells, blisters, and the 
bark. 
Moist asth- 
mas. 
8. In convulsive asthmas, the business is to 
quiet the orgasm of the spirits. This is accom- 
plished, 1. By diminishing the stric- 
ture by glysters, and fomentation ap- 
plied to the breast. 2. By diverting the humours 
to other places, by friction and warm pediluvia. 
3. By allaying the spasm with opiates and anti- 
spasmodics.—In the plethoric, bleeding gives im- 
mediate relief. In flatulencies, carminative glys- 
ters. After the paroxysm, the bark bids fair for 
preventing irritability. In both kinds, erect pos- 
Convulsive.
L ture, 




242 DISEASES CURED
ture, slender diet, and air serene conduce. If 
the disorder proceeds from suppression of usual 
evacuations, it is to be attempted by diaphoretics 
and restoration of such evacuations. 
FROM the preceding deduction, we naturally 
draw the following practical reflections. 
1. IN constitutions naturally good, 
when fever, sickness, cough, and wast- 
ing, give early warning when the dis- 
order happens to be endemic, and the habit not 
much impaired, common evacuations generally 
succeed. 
Evacuations 
indicated.
2. ULCERS from incysted tumours 
yield to common methods, provided 
the disorder proceeds from external in- 
juries, and the constitution be found. 
Pus, confined within its cystis, affects the 
lungs no otherwise than by pressure. When the 
cystis comes once to be expectorated, the disease
is cured.  
Incysted tu- 
mours. 
From page 99 to 105 inclusive, Gilchrist (in 
his Use of Sea Voyages in Medicine) gives histories 
of cures from incysted tumours, with the help of 
hardly any one medicine; nay, he hardly allows 
such to be called consumptions. 
3. CONSUMPTIONS from glandular obstruc- 
tions are very frequent, and very obstinate. Be- 
tween such, and scrophulas, there 
seems to be great analogy. Scrophu- 
las prevail often without visible tu- 
mour. The seat of the distemper lies often in 
the mesentery and lungs, which are covered with 
an infinitude of glands. Such obstructions fre- 
quently end in hectic and pulmonary consump- 
tion. Scurvy, vapours, and scrophula often have 
the same common cause; therefore it is that they 
are often common to the same patient, and 
Glandular 
obstructions. 
change

243 BY BRISTOL WATR:
change so often into one another. Sickly tender 
habits have often been relieved by scorbutic erup- 
tions. Eruption imprudently repelled has brought 
on tubercles, glandular swellings, topical inflam- 
mations, languor, and vapours. Some scrophu- 
las are mild, and easily admit of resolution, or 
suppuration. Others are intractable. So, in 
some consumptions, we observe mild suppura- 
tions. In true glandular consumptions, there are 
not wanting instances of cures. But, if the ha- 
bit degenerates, if new causes concur, other 
glands come to be affected, those which have 
been healed turn callous, the disease comes to be 
fatal. 
4. WHEN obstructions resolve not, when the 
lungs really come to be ulcerated, cures are very 
rare. By malignity of ulcers added to 
necessary motion of expiration and in- 
spiration, consolidation is prevented. In pectoral
diseases, various and perplexed are the contra-in- 
dications. Like fruits on the same tree, some 
are green, some coloured, some mellow, just so 
it fares with the pulmonary glands; some are 
crude, others inflamed, others suppurated, others 
broken. In fevers complicated of the inflamma- 
tory, hectic, and putrid, what hopes can we ad- 
minister? In coughs dependent on erosion, on 
catarrh, opiates, doubtless, have their use. By 
retaining acrid pus, they add to infarction; 
they debilitate, pall the appetite, and bind the 
belly; they are, at best, but temporary reliefs. 
Fever indicates the bark. Bark adds to obstruc- 
tion; and so may we say of pectorals in ge- 
neral. 
Suppuration.
5. THERE is hardly a disease in 
which common practice is more absurd 
than in this of which we treat. Coughs, 
Pectorals, 
their opera- 
tion.
L2 catarrhs,



244 DISEASES CURED
catarrhs, hectics, consumptions, asthmas and hae- 
moptoes differ from one another, and there- 
fore require different cures. Sharp catarrhs 
indicate diaphoretics, thick attenuants. Scor- 
butic consumptions yield to antiscorbutics; vene- 
real to mercurials Medicines certainly have 
their use; by restoring faultering nature, they 
often procure a truce; and, at length, a cure. 
But, from a comparative view of the delicate 
structure of the lungs, and the qualities of medi- 
cines promiscuously employed, we may venture 
to say, that consumptives are too often hurried to 
their long homes. Cloying linctus’s pall the ap- 
petite; astringents cork up, choak, and increase 
the fever. When we endeavour to cure consump- 
tions by remedies which respect the habit, we 
satisfy one indication only. Surgeons rely not 
altogether on local applications. Ulcers are the 
same, external or internal. To correct the vice 
of the fluids, to consolidate the ruptured vessels, 
are equally the intentions of the rational practi- 
tioner. By the common method of practice, one 
would think that practitioners had discovered a 
shorter passage to the lungs than by the round of 
circulation. 
6. IN cases where art has exhausted its skill, 
where nostrums have proved of none effect, where 
the mass of blood has been fused into ichorous 
corroding serum, where this same serum has run 
off in colliquative discharges, where these dis- 
charges have been increased by consuming hectic, 
where the tenement of the lungs has been broken, 
where the bronchia as well as cavity of the tho- 
rax have been filled with pus, where the body 
has not only been emaciated, but could not be 
nourished, Bristol hot-well waters have perform- 
ed wonders. The only collection of cures per- 
formed



245 BY BRISTOL WATER:
formed by those waters, is that very short treatise 
by Dr. John Underhill, of Bristol, printed in the 
year 1703. By the author’s facetious stile, it 
bears the marks of genuine simplicity. From 
this simple fountain, added to my own observa- 
tions, I hope to be able to produce proofs suffi- 
cient of my text. To facts I appeal. 
“ The Hot-well water mixeth (as he says) per 
“ minima, with wine, and other potables, so na- 
“ turally suited to all stomachs, and of such a- 
“ greeable warmth, that it never regurgitates, 
“ though common water of the same heat is an 
“ emetick, and so wonderfully fortifies the ven- 
“ tricle, that it never fails to excite an eager ap- 
“ petite. This is so well known, that instances 
“ were endless and coincident. It is of true me- 
“ rit in all Cachocyhmy, Cholic, Bilious Vomiting, 
“ Cardialgias, Dysenteries, and Fluxes of all kinds, 
“ Fevers, and all hectic Cases, all lavish Sweatings, 
“ Rheumatic Pains, Herpetes, Pustules, Itch, Scor- 
“ bute, all sorts of Ulcers inward or outward, 
“ Asthmas, King’s Evil, Dysuries. Diabetes, Kid- 
“ ney-gravel. Bladder, and other excoriations. It 
“ extinguishes all thirst. It is more binding than 
“ laxative. To diffuse the curative uses of this 
“ helpful water, I have carefully collected the 
“ following histories, attested either by the per- 
“ sons themselves, or other credible eye-witnes- 
“ ses, to obviate all suspicion of falsehood, and 
“ frivolous objection to the prejudice of the pub- 
“ lic against plain matters of fact. Res ipsa lo- 
“ quitur.” 
1. “ The Reverend Dr. Hammond, of Christ
Church, Oxon, about four years since, 
“ spared neither care nor cost for the 
“ recovery of Christopher Pyman, his 
then servitor, and now of the same college.
Underhill's 
Cases, 
L3 “ After




246 DISEASES CURED
“ After the Doctor had left him past hopes of 
“ recovery, with his funeral directions, a dismal 
“ spectacle, wasted to the last degree, in a con- 
“ sumption, at the prime of life, forsaken by his 
“ physicians, and left to the merciless hand of 
“ death by his friends, was perfectly cured by 
“ drinking the Hot-well water, and now remains- 
“ a living healthful testimony of this truth,” 
2. “ William Darvise, of West-street, Law- 
“ ford's Gate, Bristol, aged fifty-three, at the last 
“ extremity consumptive, a frightful skeleton, 
“ continually coughing, straining, and spitting 
“ day and night, appetite gone, sleep with his 
“ physicians vanished, and his friends hourly ex- 
“ pecting his death; by drinking the Hot-well 
“ water this present summer, is, to astonishment, 
“ restored to appetite and sleep, hale and active, 
“ without cough, or any remaining symptom. 
“ This, in gratitude, he desires to be published, 
“ for the sake of others in such tabid languishing 
“ circumstances. 
“ William Darvise.” 
3. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol College-green, 
“ certifies, That Capt. Richard Clark, of Horse
“ path, aged forty-six, lodged at her house for 
“ about seven weeks, in the year 1701, in which 
“ time the Hot-well checked his melting 
“ sweats, which had been long lavish, and did 
“ take off his insatiable thirst. I am since assured 
“ by his niece that he enjoys perfect health.” 
“ It seems useless (continues our author) to 
“ insert parallel, or lesser cures, which lie by, 
“ for room-sake, to manifest the effective virtues 
“ of Hot-well water in the most miserable phthisic 
“ cases; for it is, instar omnium, the last and 
“ only known subterfuge in Hectics and dyscrasy
“ of



247 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ of humours. It is a true and faithful febri- 
“ fuge at all essays ” 
1. By easy journies, Miss Lee or Birmingham, 
was conveyed to the Wells. To the dregs of the 
measles she owed her consumption. 
By profuse sweats, and colliquative 
discharges of all sorts, she was reduced 
to skin and bone. Every morning the chamber- 
maid emptied a bason, almost half full of matter, 
of an intolerable stench. 
Author's 
Cases. 
She was so weak that she could not walk up to 
the pump. She drank the water in her chair for 
the first six weeks, without the least visible a- 
mendment. After this, it began to have a sensi- 
ble effect. It threw out large boils on her back. 
At the end of three months her blood vessels seem- 
ed to be filled with fresh juices. She eat heartily, 
walked firmly, and rode on the Downs. The 
only remaining symptom was a dry teazing cough, 
which (as I have often observed) seemed now 
to be exasperated by the continuance of the 
waters. 
I advised her to go home, to drink spring-water 
acidulated with Elixir Vitriol Acid, and butter- 
milk, with riding. After six years she now con- 
tinues well.” 
2. Lord Stavordale, of a delicate frame and 
fair complexion, aged about ten or eleven, came 
down to the Wells. By the advice of the most
eminent, he had gone through the pharmaco- 
paea, he was escorted by an eminent apothecary, 
armed with baskets of antidotes for every symp- 
tom. By cough, hectic, flying pains,, and sweat- 
ing, he was so reduced, that he could hardly bear 
the motion of a post-chaise; he had thrown 
up pus. He was, at first, carried in arms, to 
drink the water at the pump. In the space of six 
L4 weeks




248 DISEASES CURED
weeks his symptoms vanished, he grew plump 
and active, galloped his little horse up and down, 
and continues well.” 
3. Master Townley, of Lancashire, of the same 
age and complexion, came hither emaciated by a 
hectic fever, attended with a cough. By the wa- 
ters acidulated with Elixir Vitriol alone, he went 
away recovered. 
4. Mr. Redpath of London, Merchant, after 
a pleuritic fever, laboured under a cough, hectic, 
sweatings, and rheumatic pains, which reduced 
him very low. He drank the waters for two 
months, summer, 1761, and went away well; 
he returned last summer and confirmed his cure. 
5. Mr. Evetts, of Birmingham, Merchant, 
came to the Wells, labouring under cough, hec- 
tic fever, cold night sweats, loss of appetite, and 
wasting. By drinking the waters but fourteen 
days, he returned almost as well as ever. He re- 
lapsed three times, found relief, but is since dead. 
6. Archibald Menzies, Esq. of Perthshire, a 
young gentleman of an athletic constitution, af- 
ter some days and nights of hard drinking, and 
steeping in wet cloaths, was taken with pleuritic 
pains, which yielded to repeated bleedings, blis- 
terings, &c. Now and then he felt a sensible 
weight in one of the lobes of the lungs, which as 
often was relieved by expectoration of fetid mat- 
ter, striated with blood. After an eruption of 
one of these vomica's, observing a clergyman car- 
ried down the stream of a rapid river, he jumped 
in, and brought him out, in a cold frosty day. 
Anxious about restoring the unfortunate, he neg- 
lected to shift his cloaths. His symptoms returned 
with violence, and yielded to the same regimen. 
Improperly treated with steel medicines, his 
symptoms returned with violence, these were re-
lieved



249 BY BRISTOL WATER.
lieved as before. By blisters and riding, his sweats 
abated last summer. But, his pleuritic pain con- 
tinued to return every fortnight, or week, unless 
prevented by copious bleeding. He was only 
troubled with the cough when nature wanted to 
ease the lungs of congested pus. As soon as that 
was thrown up, he was easy till the next attack. 
By the joint advice of the Professors Ruther- 
ford and Whytt, he rode to Bristol, a journey of 
six hundred miles. He found himself better on 
the road. Drowsiness and head-ach, the usual 
harbingers of his pleuritic paroxysm, seemed to 
indicate bleeding in London. He was also bled at 
Bath. His blood was always inflamed. He ar- 
rived at the Hot Wells early in summer, 1761; he 
drank the waters for three months, during which 
time he felt no indications for bleeding, a re- 
prieve unknown for eighteen months. By way 
of prevention, I advised him however to be bled. 
His blood was pure as a lamb’s, I repented the 
prescription. He left the wells strong, active, 
and hardy. Dreading the effects of northern 
winter air, I advised him to go to Italy by sea, 
where he staid two years, rather for pleasure; he 
now enjoys perfect health. 
7. Master Dampier, aged about fourteen, came
to the Wells emaciated, so that he was carried in 
arms to and from the pump. In one day he 
threw up matter to the quantity of a quart. To 
the waters, little assisted by medicine, he owes 
the complete recovery of his pristine vigour, 
spirits, and activity. 
8. Miss Serjant, aged twelve, came to the 
Wells in still a more unpromising condition. By 
the prognostic of a physician well acquainted with 
consumptions, she was pronounced incurable. By 
the use of the waters, little assisted by medicine,
L5 she



250 DISEASES CURED
she sleeps nine hours on a stretch, eats heartily, 
walks up and down to the Wells, and gallops on 
the Downs. 
9. Master Holiday, aged fourteen, at Eton 
School, was taken ill of a fever, which intermit- 
ted at last, and terminated in a cough, difficulty 
of breathing, loss of appetite, looseness, sweat- 
ing and hectic. By the use of the waters, asses- 
milk, and riding, he recovered in the space of 
one month. 
10. Corporal Shaw, aged twenty-three, of a 
consumptive family, came to the Wells, with a 
violent cough, spitting, sweating, languor, &c. 
By the help of one blister and the waters, he re- 
covered so perfectly, in the space of three weeks, 
that he proceeded with his regiment to Belleisle. 
11. William Sprole, Esq. caught a violent cold
for which he took variety of medicines during the 
winter. By the help of a blister his complaints 
seemed to vanish, till in the beginning of sum- 
mer, he was taken with the Influenza del aere, at 
that time epidemic. He came to the Hot Wells, 
with a cough and spitting almost constant, want 
of appetite, languor, sweating, and hectic. By 
Bristol Water, Asses-milk, and Ridings he found a
cure. 
N. B. The last five cures happened in summer,
1762 
CHAP.

251 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVI. 
OF DISEASES OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
I. OF THE DIABETES.
1. ARETAEUS was the first who gave 
any tolerable description of this disease; 
he calls it “ A flux of humours, a colliquation of 
“ blood, and a continual effusion by the kidnies 
“ and bladder.” More properly it 
may be defined, an unnatural effusion 
of urine, most commonly sweet, attended with
thirst. 
Definition. 
2. Its causes are feverish disorders cured by ex- 
cessive evacuations; bite of the serpent Situla; 
laxity of the renal glands; acrid se- 
rum; immoderate use of small liquors; 
excess of venery; stoppage of other secretions, 
&c.—Willis mentions one from indulgence in 
Rhenish wine, Lister one from Knaresborough 
water, and another from Bals. Capivi. The mass 
of blood is compounded of various globules. 
When particular globules take the road which na- 
ture affects not, there arise diseases said to pro- 
ceed ab errore loci. If the emulgent arteries, e.g. 
come to be vitiated, they receive and convey glo- 
bules designed for nutrition to the kidnies. The 
renal vessels and glands become more and more 
disposed to this unnatural discharge. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are, hunger and thirst insa- 
tiable; parched mouth; frothy spit- 
tle; varicous swellings of the abdomi- 
nal veins, with a sense of constriction; heat; 
anxiety; restlessness; hectic; swelling of the  
Symptoms.
L6 loins, 



252 DISEASES CURED
loins, testicles, and feet; constant inclination to 
void urine limpid and sweetish; wasting and 
death.—The symptoms may easily
be accounted for. The liquor dis- 
charged differs from urine in taste, co- 
lour, and smell. It is really and truly an efflux 
of chyle, little altered by circulation; hence 
taste, wasting, &c. Urine is an excrementitious 
liquor. Dr. Keir made an experiment which de- 
termines the point. “ He put a portion of dia- 
“ betic urine into a vessel over a gentle fire. Be- 
“ fore one half had evaporated, it deposited a 
“ considerable sediment. The whole mass was,
“ at last, coagulated.—The same quantity of 
“ healthy urine, treated in the same manner, eva- 
“ porated almost entirely, leaving only a little fe- 
“ tid sediment behind.” 
Cause of the 
Symptoms. 
A recent Diabetes easily yields to common 
helps, inveterate rarely. The curative indications 
are, 1. To strengthen the organs of 
digestion and the renal vessels. 2. To 
remove those obstructions which cause a diminu- 
tion of other secretions. The first intention may 
be obtained from strengtheners and astringents; 
incrassants and restoratives. The second from 
whatever restores perspiration. As it requires 
singular sagacity to distinguish between different 
and opposite causes, our wonder may cease, when 
we hear of diabetics swallowing baskets of drugs 
to little or no purpose. Under the direction of 
the most sagacious, there are but few diabetics 
who recover. The disorder has generally taken 
deep root before the patient submits. There are 
but few patients who do justice to their physici- 
ans or to themselves. If ever there was a dis- 
order adapted to mineral waters, it may be said to 
be this. In that chapter which treats of general 
Cure. 
virtues,



253 BY BRISTOL WATER:
virtues, the reader will find the specific qualities 
of the several ingredients rationally accounted for. 
Theoretical notions gather strength from the ex- 
perience of Baccius, the prince of mineral water 
writers. In treating of disorders of the urinary 
passages, he has blended them so together, that it 
is not so easy to separate his diabetic practice 
from the rest. In his book De Thermis, pag. 115, 
he expresses himself thus, “ Renum vero effec- 
“ tus, viscerum, et maxime hepatis, cui viden- 
“ tur ministerio subesse, rationem in balneis con- 
“ sequuntur, ac vesica renum. Vexantur autem 
“ renes callidae intemperiei affectu ut plurimum, 
“ tum quia renum ipforum substantia laxa pin- 
“ guitudine admodum inflammabili, participate.”
Hence, from the slightest cause, they are apt to 
heat and turn crude obstructions into stony con- 
cretions; hence also white fluxes. Diabetes, in- 
flammations, ulcers, and diseases incurable. In 
all the affections of the urinary passages, every 
water conduces that has the property of absterg- 
ing these parts, and so removing the cause. Po-
tulentae. omnes aquae quae proprietatem habent per 
urinarios meatus abstergendi, et quae immediate veluti 
causam tollunt. Nor are they less effectual, for be- 
ing of that kind, which divert the fabulous mat- 
ter by stool, quae communis est praxis in hac alma 
urbe Rama.
He directs his first intention to that hot tempe- 
rament which constitutes the basis of the disease. 
For this purpose he proposes purging waters, sub- 
tiles et mediocriter calidae effentiae aperientes, digeren- 
tas, vel non indecores, ft ad robur conferendum ferro 
quadatenus participent. Such, in a word, as de- 
terge and comfort at the same time. 
These, and all such waters cure heat of urine, 
strangury, and dysury, nocturnal polutions, in- 
voluntary



254 DISEASES CURED
voluntary seminal flux, bed-pissing, the Diabetic 
Flux, with its concomitant, thirst inextinguish- 
able. Ex eadem involuntariam ficcant seminis efflu- 
entiam, nocturnas pollutiones, improvisam per fom- 
mun emictionem, diabeticum fluxum, sitimque exinde 
natam inextingulbilem. 
Galen (in his bookie Ren. affectuum dignotione, 
ac medications) after speaking of unguents and sy- 
napisms for strengthening the reins, adds, Aqua- 
rum etiam sponte manantium usus, si nihil prohibeat. 
Maxims vero laudantur quae in potibus medicatis ex- 
purgando, pro ferri qualicunque impressione, vim quo- 
que insignem obtinent roborandi, oeneae, ferreac, sal- 
sae. Extrinsecus balnea etiam ex ferro, plumbo, vel 
aliis mineralibus roborantibus.
OF the power of Brislol Water, Doctor Harris 
(in his maister-piece, De Morbis Acutis Infantum) 
speaks thus, “ De aquis mineralibus Bristoliensi- 
“ bus, quantum in hoc morbo profint, et quan- 
“ tam existimationem merito sint affecutae, jam 
“ vulgo et idlotis innotescit. Sed et aquae illae 
“ celiberrimae in plurlbus aliis languoribus, ac 
“ debilitatibus praeterquam renum, famam et 
“ existimationem optime merentur, valetudinem 
“ infirmam insigniter roborant, et fitim in Dia- 
“ bete exortam, prae aliis omnibus, celeberrime 
“ extinguunt.” 
OF the power of Bath Water (In disorders of 
the urinary passages) I have given proofs unques- 
tionable, Of Bristol Waters we now proceed to 
treat. “ The Hot-well-water (says Underhill) 
is the true medela in that fatal dejection and dis- 
piriting by urine, the Diabetes, as appears by the 
autography of the wells.” 
1. “ Mr. William Gagg, of Bris- 
“ tol, Castle Green, a very fat man, at 
“ his prime, was seized with so violent a Dia- 
Cases.
“ beth,



255 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ beth, that he made at least three gallons of very 
“ sweet urine, with a large quantity of oil swim- 
“ ming a-top; he could not sleep for either drink- 
“ ing or pissing, when, in six days (appetite 
“ gone) so run off his fat and flesh, that he was 
“ reduced to helpless skin and bones, deferred by 
“ his physicians (not sparing money) and given 
“ over by his friends (several of his neighbours 
“ then dying of the same disease, not knowing 
“ the waters use) resolutely cast himself on God's 
“ mercy, and the Hot-well-water (though igno- 
“ rant of its use) imploring his friends to support 
“ him to the Hot well, as their last cast of kind- 
“ ness; which, with difficulty, they performed; 
“ be fainting away every step, and even in drink- 
“ ing the water. Yet, to God’s glory, and their 
“ astonishment, his strength was so sensibly re- 
“ cruited with every glass, that he made them 
“ loosen him, pretending to walk, which his 
“ friends despaired of. He walked back, never- 
“ theless, aided, now and then, by a sip of his 
“ holy-water-bottle, which, on the first trial,
“ vanquished his insatiable thirst, and stopped his 
“ pissing, and so restored his depraved appetite, 
“ that, at his return home, he eat a large favou- 
“ ry meal; and, by drinking tire water for some 
“ time, attained his perfect, state of health, living 
“ many years after. 
“ Signed, Mary Gagg, his widow.” 
2. “ Mr. William Molyneux, of Warrington, 
“ certifies, that he was excessive thirsty, and 
“ made such lavish quantity of sweet urine, of 
“ diverse colours, a thick oil swimming a-top, 
“ that, in three weeks time, he was reduced to 
“ such weakness (his Physicians diredions inef- 
“ fectual) that it was with very great difficulty
“ he



256 DISEASES CURED
“ he got to Bristol, in September, 1695, and that 
“ the very first day, by drinking, his thirst a- 
“ bated, urine checked, and became brackish, 
“ he recovered his appetite that before nauseated 
“ all flesh meat, and that, in eight days, by 
“ God’s mercy, he was perfectly cured, follow- 
“ ing the directions only of Mr. Gagg, a Baker, 
“ of this city, who, seven years before had been 
“ cured of the same disease, by drinking the 
“ same water. 
“ William Molyneux” 
3. “ Among the Hot Well Votiva, we find 
“ Mr. Rogers of Birmingham (all medicines fail- 
“ ing) signing his perfect cure at the age of 
“ threescore. 
“ Thomas Rogers.” 
4. “ Mr. Ralph Millard, Inn-keeper, at the 
“ Swan, Coleman-street, London, aged fifty, in 
“ the spring, 1699, after great medick expence, 
“ and given over by his physicians, in a Dia- 
“ betes, was directed to the Hot Wells, to which 
“ place he got with great difficulty not being 
“ able to scramble to his bed without help. By 
“ drinking the waters three weeks, he was so 
“ invigorated, that Mr. Eaglestone of College- 
“ green, Bristol, saw him lift a barrel of ale 
“ up several steps, which three other men failed 
“ to perform. In three weeks more, he re- 
“ turned to London, riding the hundred miles in 
“ two days. 
“ Joseph Eaglestone.” 
5. “ Mr. Cale, of Bristol, College-green, aged 
“ about forty, two years last past, was afflicted 
“ with a violent Diabetes, which the Hot Well 
“ water



257 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ water immediately stopped, and he hath re- 
“ mained well ever since. 
“ Gilbert Cale.”
6. “ Elizabeth Gettes, who keeps the Boar 
“ Inn, at Bristol, certifies, that Mr. James Darl- 
“ ing, of Oxon, aged about fifty, was perfectly 
“ cured last summer of a Diabeth in two months, 
“ by drinking the Hot-well-water, then lodg- 
“ ing at her house, and now remains in perfect 
“ health. 
“ Elizabeth Gettes.” 
7. John Blandy, of Inglewood-house, Esq. aged 
“ sixty-three, in less than six weeks, this sum- 
“ mer, was perfectly cured of a Diabeth by drink- 
“ ing the water, then lodging at my house. 
“ Elizabeth Browne.” 
8. “ William Beckford, of London, her Ma- 
“ jesty’s flopster, aged about forty, lodging at 
“ my house, was cured in thirteen weeks of 
“ great weakness, depraved appetite, decayed 
“ strength, and Diabetes, after other means had 
“ failed. 
“ Anne Green.” 
His list of Diabetics concludes thus. 
9. “ There is also a certificate of Capt. Ro- 
“ bert Ham’s cure, at the age of seventy-seven, 
“ by constant drinking for eight months.”—He 
adds, “ Instances seem needless, the use of the 
“ water being now so effectually known for a 
“ most sovereign remedy, even at the acme, and 
“ last extremity of a Diabetes.” 
To



258 DISEASES CURED
To Underhill’s catalogue I beg leave to add
the following, partly from undoubted authority,
partly from my own knowledge. 
10. John Strachan, Esq of Dorsetshire came 
to the Wells twelve years ago, labouring under a 
Diabetes. Finding but two chamber-pots under 
his bed, he ordered more. The chamber-maid 
brought up half a dozen; at the sight of which 
he said, These, my girl, are no more than six 
thimbles; did not modesty forbid, I could fill 
them all before your face: bring me a small wast- 
ing-tub. She brought him one that held two 
pails; this he filled every night. Before he rode 
out, he used to fill a common chamber-pot two 
or three times. 
His appetite was ravenous; of bread he 
used to eat sixteen French penny rolls a day. 
When he returned from airing, he used to eat up 
a whole fowl, and dine as if he had not eaten a 
morsel. 
For the first five weeks he drank two, three, 
four gallons a day. Reproved, he used to answer, 
I came hither to be cured, and am determined 
either to be killed or cured. About this time he 
began to mend, and was called away. Two or 
three months after he returned, drank the waters 
as before; and, in five weeks more, went away 
in perfect health, eating, drinking, and pissing 
no more than any other man. N. B. He lodged 
at Mr. Bishop's, in the Well-house. 
11. Mrs. Sugden, aged about fifty, (from cold 
and watching) fell into a Diabetes. After drink- 
ing the waters but a fortnight, she mended so 
much, that she could fit three hours without 
making water. By five weeks drinking she re- 
covered 
13. Mr.



259 BY BRISTOL WATER.
12. Mr. Biss, of Tower-hill, by frequenting 
this Well, was cured of a Diabetes.” 
13. Dr. Maddox, late Bishop of Worcester, 
came to the Wells season after season, for a Dia- 
betes, and always found relief. 
14. Nine or ten years ago, Mr. Sewen, from 
Swansea, in Wales, aged about fifty, was brought 
to the Rock-house in a horse-litter, so weak that 
he could not fit up in bed, almost a skeleton. 
The water was carried to him for the first three 
weeks; he made thrice as much water as he 
drank. In about six weeks time he walked over to 
the pump, where he drank the waters for about 
four months; at the end of which he left the 
Wells in perfect health. 
15. Mrs. Piper, of Broughton-street, London, 
came hither once or twice, almost dead, of a 
Diabetes, and is now recovered. 
16. About eight years ago, a farmer from 
Worcestershire got so well in three weeks, as to 
continue so ever since. 
17. J. Browne, a butcher of Norwich, was 
afflicted with a Diabetes for seven years, he had 
tried variety of prescriptions. After he had drank 
the Bristol waters fourteen days only, playing at 
Bishop’s billiard-table one day, he found himself 
perspire. He went to bed, drank half a pint of 
Port-wine hot, and sweated for the first time in 
seven years. After this, he continued to sweat 
on using exercise. After a stay of three months, 
he went home, and drank the waters there dur- 
ing the winter. He returned in the summer, 
tarried four months, and went off perfectly reco- 
vered, and continues well, notwithstanding hard 
drinking. 
18. Mr. Robertson, near Cork, came to the 
Hot Wells last summer, 1761. His symptoms 
were



260 DISEASES CURED
were thirst inextinguishable, ravenous appetite,
parchedness of the mouth and throat, heat of the 
stomach and bowels, varicose swellings of the 
abdomen, with a sense of constriction, as by a 
cord, anxiety, restlessness, wasting, with a con- 
stant desire of-making water, which tasted sweet- 
ish. He received great benefit, but never was 
completely cured, owing, in a great measure, to 
obstinacy, and irregularity. 
19. James Gladshall, of Yorkshire, came to 
the Hot Wells, summer, 1761, in a confirmed 
Diabetes, and was cured in, the space of two 
months. 
20. Winter, 1762, an old farmer, came to 
the Wells in a Diabetes, and went away so much 
benefited, that he declared he would return every 
year until he was cured. 
21. Mrs. Fleming, of Bath, at an advanced 
age, laboured under great thirst, parched tongue, 
fever, and flux of urine, so that her strength was 
greatly impaired, and her flesh much wasted. Un- 
der these circumstances, I persuaded her to go to 
Bristol, where (by drinking the water but one 
fortnight) her tongue became moist, her urine 
lost its sweet taste and was reduced almost to its 
natural quantity. Contrary to my advice, she 
left the salutary spring. Her symptoms returned. 
Three months after she had again recourse to the 
waters, staid one month, and was almost com- 
pletely cured. Contrary to my advice, she re- 
turned before her cure could be confirmed. Next 
winter every bad symptom returned. As I could 
not persuade her to return to Bristol, I made a 
trial of the Bath waters, which restored her sur- 
prisingly.
II.



261 BY BRISTOL WATER.
II. OF GRAVEL AND STONE. 
1. PAIN of the kidnies, ureters, and bladder, 
from impacted matter, is called Gravel 
or Stone. 
Definition.
2. The causes are luxurious as well as indi- 
gestible food; indolence; old age; 
rheumatism; gout; tartareous wines; 
hereditary taint, &c. 
Cause.  
3. The symptoms of stone in the kidnies are, 
intense or heavy pain of the loins; heat, nau- 
sea; vomiting; costiveness; exacer- 
bation of these symptoms after meals; 
sandy, bloody, and sometimes puru- 
lent matter; suppression of urine; co- 
ma; inflammation; ulceration, and consumption. 
The left kidney suffers oftener than the right.
Symptoms of 
the stone in 
the kidnies. 
When the stone falls down into the 
ureters, the pain increases; the leg 
feels benumbed; the testicles are 
drawn backwards; and the urine is, in part sup- 
pressed.  
Stone in the 
ureters. 
The stone of the bladder is attended with pain, 
difficulty, and continual desire of 
making water; tension and pain of 
the colon; titilation of the glans pe- 
nis; tenesmus; looseness; slimy water; bloody 
Water after riding, with increase of pain in the 
bladder, ureter, and nut of the yard. 
Stone in the 
bladder. 
4. The stone of the kidnies is distinguished 
from the lumbago, by vomiting, and 
sandy urine; from the cholic by the 
pain being higher, with a sense of rumbling back- 
wards; from hysterics, because this is increased 
by glysters. 
Diagnostics.
5. In 



262 DISEASES CURED
5. In the stone of the kidnies, there is great 
danger, by reason of inflammation, ulceration, 
and suppression of urine, its concomi- 
tants. It is easier dissolved in adults 
than in children. If the kidnies are ulcerated, 
the case is desperate. Suppression of urine, cold- 
ness of the extremities and convulsions, presage 
death. The stone of the bladder may be extrac- 
ted, that of the kidnies rarely. 
Prognostics. 
6. There is one cure of the fit, another out of 
the fit. The fit is allayed by subdu- 
ing the inflammation, and spasm. 1. 
By bleeding. 2. Glysters. 3. Emollient decoc- 
tions. 4. Tepid baths. 5. Opiates. 6. Rest.
Cure. 
Out of the fit, this disease is to be attacked, 
1. By Lithontriptics, rest, and keeping the belly 
rather soluble. 2. Diet. 
Gravel yields to waters ferrugineous, diuretic, 
and alkaline; such as the Seltzer.—In bloody 
urine, proceeding from laxity, debi- 
lity of the vessels, or fusion of the 
humours, Baccius (from experience) strongly re- 
commends the waters of Grotta, Porretanae, Al- 
bulae, &c. Quae et arenulas, calculumque, tom e 
vesica quam e renibus conterere ac protrudere pollicen- 
tur, et urinas provocare. On the subject of gravel 
and stone, he quotes that saying of Leonellus, a 
noble physician, founded on experience, Qui a- 
quis Thermalibus non curantur, nunquam curantur. 
Mineral waters he recommends for many pur- 
poses. From the first passages, they extrude su- 
perfluous humours; cleanse the urinary passages, 
even to the bladder; and, if they break not the 
stone, carry off the sandy particles, which add to 
its weight. They strengthen the bowels, and 
thus remove their aptitude to produce calculous 
concretions; Sola aqua Anticoli Romae assidue epota 
Gravel.
habetur





263 BY BRISTOL WATER.
habetur amuletum quoddom ac praeservativum. From 
Aetius he quotes a flagrant example of the parti- 
cular prerogative of water, which not only proves 
its abstersory power, but its moving, Lib. ii. 
cap v. Ad extrudendum impactum in vasibus urina- 
riis, vel in renibus lapillum frigidam aquam frequen- 
ter & acervatim aegro bihendarn jussi, unde, corroho- 
ratis renihus, ccclusis in illis lapis expulsus eft. What 
seems surpring, indeed, he observes that waters 
naturally petrescent possess a dissolv- 
ing quality, internally administered. 
Nam, in omni fere medicinae ufu, fatis 
quisque debet contentus effe experientia, 
unius rei non eft eadem dispositio intra ex extra, adhi-
bitae. Aqua haec super terram videnter lapidem, et ducit 
arenulas. Tales effectus contrarios manifeste vidamus 
in Albulis. The waters of the river Anio, where- 
ever they touch, turn earth, wood, and bark in- 
to stone; its streams are mixed with the turbid 
Tyber, and drank almost all the year. It is, ne- 
vertheless well known, that the people of Rome 
rarely feel the stone or gravel; rarissimi tamen la- 
pidum vitia sentiunt, nec harenulas. Page 116, he 
mentions many waters called Petrae, or petre 
scent, which were daily and successfully admini 
stered in disorders of the urinary passages, in hisce 
effectibus, antiquissimae laudis, Acidae subinde a- 
quae, quorum inrenibus, vesicaque, & meatibus uri- 
nariis expurgandis prima eff praerogativa, qualis An- 
ticoli in Campania, aciduda in Bergamensi, aliaeque in 
Germania, quae omnibus in privatibus potibus bi-
buntur. 
Waters pe- 
trescent dis- 
solve.
Hoffman places the cause of gravelish com- 
plaints in laxity of the urinary passa- 
ges. Toni renalis nimia resolutio morbo-
rum qui renes occupant potissima causa, et origo est. 
From laxity.
Qua



264 DISEASES CURED
Qua de causa temperata astringentia, et rohorantia, in 
calculo tam praeservando, quom curando palmam caete- 
ris arripiunt.—If the testimonies of Aetius, 
Baccius, and Hoffman are to be depended on, 
alleviations and cures may be expected from Bath 
and Bristol waters. Of the former we have given 
proofs unquestionable, proceed we now to the 
latter. 
Where there is a stone actually formed, Bristol
waters allay heat, dilute acrimony, and prevent 
future accretion. In actual fits of stone and gra- 
vel, these are not the remedies. In the intervals, 
Bristol water, balsamics and other medicines do 
much good. In gravelish complaints they often 
cure. 
Underhill (page 38) speaks thus. “ The Stone 
“ seems to be produced from the salso-terrene 
“ part of the blood, by too hot a ferment boiled 
“ into hardness, as brick-makers form their clay. 
“ Though the hot-well may not be the true saxi- 
“ frage water, it certainly washes the gravel out 
“ of the kidnies, and other aqueducts; and, by 
“ checking inflammation, prevents its future in- 
“ crease; an excellent preventative, doubtless, 
“ of those racking hereditary diseases, Stone and 
“ Gout. 
1. “ Mr. Eaglestone, of Bristol, aged twenty- 
“ one, was afflicted with a most restless pain in 
“ his back, and difficulty of making 
“ urine, voiding sometimes sand; 
“ whence he concluded it to be the 
“ stone, his father being tortured by it many 
“ years. By drinking two quarts of Hot Well 
“ water, fasting, at home every morning, he 
“ was cured. Gravel came off in quantity, his 
“ appetite increased, his sleep was restored, his 
“ retentive faculties were fortified, his thirst a- 
Underhill's 
Cases. 
“ bated



265 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ bated. He was so completely cured, that he 
“ has continued now twenty years free from pa- 
“ ternal disease, and every symptom of urinary
“*disorder.”
2. “ Mr. Blanchard, of Dolphin-Lane, Bristol,
“ certifies, that his son, aged six, had a total 
“ stoppage of urine for three days and nights, 
“ almost racked to death. His physicians told 
“ him there was no cure but cutting. By drink- 
“ ing the Hot-well water for half a year he was 
“ perfectly recovered, and remains in good health, 
“ now fourteen years old. 
“ Giles Blanchard.” 
3. “ Mrs. Jochem, of Bristol-key, aged about 
“ thirty, languishing under insatiable thirst, loss 
“ of appetite, and pissing of blood, tired out 
“ with ineffectual prescriptions, applied to me 
“ in June. She drank the Hot-well water, 
“ mornings and evenings. Her thirst abated, 
“ her appetite was restored, her mictus eruentus 
“ was checked, she is now breeding, as she her- 
“ self certifies. 
“ Bridget Jochem.” 
To Underhill’s let us add the two following- 
cases, which fell under my own observation. 
4. Mr. Martin, Purser of a ship of war, was 
afflicted with a diarhaea for six years, for which
he had undergone variety of regimens. He was 
also subject to gravellish complaints, voiding great
Quantities of fabulous matter. By drinking this 
water two months only, he was completely cared 
of both ailments, without the help of one me- 
dicine. 
5. Mr. Fitch, a young gentleman of Dorset- 
shire, subject to gravellish forcing a  
M resty

266 DISEASES CURED
resty horse over a bridge four years ago, sprained 
his back. Hence racking pain, bloody urine, 
and vomiting, without sleep for three weeks. He 
was bled thrice, and was otherwise judiciously 
treated by Dr. Cumming of Dorchester, who 
succeeded so far as to check the vomiting; the 
bloody urine remained, with sickness, languor, 
pain, &c. He set out for Bristol, and was three 
days in performing a journey of sixty miles. The 
bloody urine ceased the first week; he drank the 
water last summer, and has now recovered flesh, 
strength, and complexion, with the relict only 
of a dull pain about the region of the loins, 
which seems rather to be gravellish. For this he 
drank the water again, and was cured. 
III. OF BLOODY URINE.
UNDER the section of Haemoptoe, I have treat- 
ed of the general causes, symptoms, diagnostics, 
prognosties, and cure of bleedings. When blood 
thus passes off together with the urine, it comes
away without pain, the patient commonly con- 
tinues in health, unless the evacuation continues
too long, or in too great quantity. 
For this disorder, Bristol waters are constantly
frequented, and with success. 
IV. OF IMMODERATE MONTHLY DISCHARGES.
THE remote causes are, intemperance, violent 
exercise, passion, suppression of other
secretions, disorders of the uterus, &c. 
The proximate are rarefaction, acrimony, and 
thinness of the blood, with debility of the vessels.
Causes.
In

267 BY BRISTOL WATER.
In blood too much rarified, the indication is 
(according to Home, in his Principia Medicinae) 
“ Condenfare et demulcere medica- 
“ mentis coagulantibus et demulcen-
“ tibus; inter quae eminet Spir. Vitriol, cum ad- 
“ stringentibus.”—“ In Vaforum debilitate,
“ scopus eft elasticitatem restituere adstrigentibus
“ interne et externe applicatis.” 
Indication.
V. OF WEAKNESSES.
WOMEN of lax habits are commonly subject
to this disorder. 
The seat of this disorder is in the
mucous glands and exhalant arteries. 
Seat.
The remote causes are moist air, indolence,
translation of humours, immoderate flux 
of the menses, miscarriages, &c. The
proximate are serous colluvies, and laxity of
fibres. 
Causes.
The symptoms are want of appetite, depraved 
appetite, difficulty of breathing, swell- 
ing of the eye-lids, hectic fever, pain 
of the loins, turbid urine, sadness, palpitation, 
and fainting. 
Symptoms.
To cure this disease, the same Home lays down 
two intentions. 1. “ Ut humorum 
“ vitium corrigatur, et fluxus ad ute- 
“ rum impediatur. 2. Ut tonus uteri restitua- 
“ tur.” For correcting the fault of the humors, 
he proposes diaphoretics, fontanells, &c. For 
restoring the tone of the parts strengtheners, and 
astringents. 
Cure.
M2 VI.

268 DISEASES CURED.
VI. OF GLEETS.
GLEETS proceed from simple relaxation; ve- 
nereal taint, and corrosive injections. 
IN this, and the two last diseases, the cure
must be adapted to the cause, consti- 
tution, and nature of the distemper. 
Were these waters properly assisted by medicine, 
many more might find relief. False delicacy has 
made women conceal their infirmities till loss of
appetite, indigestion and unnatural discharges 
have reduced the best constitutions to skeletons. 
In general, we may affirm that where febrifuges, 
balsamics, and astringents have resisted the whole
artillery of the shops, Bristol waters have per- 
formed cures. In subduing the fever, healing, 
and strengthening the parts, Bristol waters answer 
every intention proposed by the judicious Home. 
Where they fail of cures, they mitigate symp- 
toms. Names, and cases, I forbear to mention. 
Many are the annual visitants, proofs of my as- 
sertion.
Cure.
CHAP.

269 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND GUTS.
UNDER the head of Diseases cured by 
Bath Water, I have treated particularly, 
Of Diseases of the First Passages. Both waters 
cure the same diseases; but, in all cases; they 
are neither equally salutary, nor safe. 
I. OF THE STOMACH
THAT Bristol water creates an appetite is a 
fact notorious. That it removes heart-burns, 
squeamishness, and pains of the stomach, is equal- 
ly notorious. 
Seven years ago, Mr. Garden, of Troup, in 
Aberdeenshire, came to Bath for an obstinate pain
of his stomach. The Bath waters irritated his 
disorder. By my advice he drank these; in one 
fortnight was completely cured, and now remains
in perfect health; 
II. OF THE GUTS.
MONG Bristol water drinkers, costiveness is 
so common a complaint, that we generally guard
against it in our prescriptions. 
1. Under the section of Gravel and Stone, I 
have already mentioned Mr. Martin’s cure of an 
obstinate diarhaea. 
2. Captain Williams, of the Artillery, (by 
hard duty at Martinique, and the Havannah) was 
attacked with a bilious fever and flux that resisted
all endeavours there; The Bath waters exaspe- 
M3 rated.

270 DISEASES CURED
rated every symptom, adding a cough to his other 
train of evils. At last I prevailed on him to try 
these waters, which, in a very few weeks, re- 
stored him so much that he married before he 
left the Wells. 
3. In much the same condition, Mr. Shepherd, 
of Antigua, came to Bath, with the addition of 
a pain in the region of the liver, and constant 
cough. Against my opinion, he obstinately per- 
sisted in the use of Bath waters, which aggravated 
every symptom. In a very few weeks Bristol wa- 
ter banished every symptom. 
4. Lieutenant West, of the twenty-second re- 
giment, (by hard duty at Martinique, Dominique, 
and the Havannah) was afflicted with a flux, 
which defied the most judicious prescriptions there 
and in North America. Dr. Huxham advised the 
Bristol water, which he drank about one month, 
with great benefit. By my advice he completed 
his cure by warm bathing at Bath; and that with 
the assistance of eggs boiled up with milk, his 
constant diet only. 
SIR, London, August the 20th, 1763.
“ In gratitude to the Bristol Waters, as well 
“ as for the benefit of future sufferers, I give you
“ leave to publish the following history. 
“ Soon after the reduction of Dominique, where 
“ I had the honour to command, I was seized 
“ with the intermittent fever of that country, 
“ from which I had recovered but a short time, 
“ when the fatigues of the expedition to Marti- 
“ nique brought on a relapse. 
“ I went afterwards upon the expedition a- 
“ gainst the Havannah, where my duty as Briga- 
“ dier General was interrupted a few days be- 
“ fore the reduction of the Moro, by a third re- 
“ lapse

271 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ lapse attended with a violent flux. By the ad-
“ vice of the physicians I returned to Britain as 
“ the only chance I had, of recovering my 
“ health. 
“ I failed from the Havannah the 19th of July, 
“ and arrived at Dover the 9th of September: al- 
“ most immediately upon my landing, I had a re- 
“ turn of the fever and flux to a violent degree. 
“ Though both the disorders yielded to the medi- 
“ cines that were prescribed for me by an emi- 
“ nent Physician in London, yet during the 
“ whole winter and spring I was subject to such 
“ severe relapses (the flux generally preceding the 
“ ague) that I was reduced to a skeleton.
“ I also sufFer’d much uneasiness from an in- 
“ flammation in my mouth and tongue, which 
“ reached to the anus, and was almost perpetually
“ teized (especially in the night), with making 
“ water. 
“ I set out for Bristol about the end of March, 
“ still liable to frequent and violent returns of
“ the flux, but entirely free of the ague. 
“ The complaint of my mouth and tongue, 
“ and the frequent pissing before-mentioned, were 
“ still very troublesome, and continued so for a 
“ a considerable time after my arrival at the Hoi 
« Wells. 
“ By the use of the water for six weeks, the
“ flux almost entirely left me at this time. At 
“ this time I confined myself to a milk diet, 
“ which consisted chiefly of butter-milk, with 
“ broth. By this regimen, and the continuance of
“ the water (without the help of any medicine) 
“ I got free of all my complaints about the end 
“ of June. 
Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
Rollo. 
M4 CHAP.

272 DISEASES CURED.
CHAP. XVIII. 
OF EXTERNAL DISORDERS.
FROM what has already been advanced on, 
the subject of the powers of the particular 
principles contained in waters in ge- 
neral, we may reasonably conclude
that Bristol water has its external vir- 
tues as well as others. 
Exteral dis-
orders.
Underhill, in his page 28, expresses himself 
thus; “ The Scorbute is Proteo-mutabilior, From 
“ a salt diathesis of the blood, the acuated serum
“ espuated among the muscles is a Rheumatism, 
“ on the hip a Sciatica, on the lungs a Catarrh, 
“ in the guts a Dysentery, or Diarhœa. By all 
“ the skill that I pretend to, the Bristol water bids
“ fairer to cure external disorders than pearl pre- 
“ parations. 
1. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol from the West 
“ Indies, breaking out with fiery scor- 
“ butical eruptions all over, was per- 
“ fectly cured, in three weeks time, 
“ by drinking the Hot Well water.” 
Undehill's
Cases.
2. “ William White, of Bristol, was afflicted
“ with sores fresh arising, and constant running 
“ white blisters from both his elbows to his fin- 
“ gers ends, called St. Anthony’s fire, that he 
“ could not help himself. After various other 
“ remedies, he was at last cured by drinking, 
“ and bathing in the Hot Well water.” 
3. “ John Sanders, of Bristol, had a great 
“ weakness and lameness, his knees and body 
“ blistered, and spotted all over, and almost eaten
“ up with the Scurvy. By drinking the Hot Well 
“ water, he was perfectly cured.”  
4. “ Mr.

273 BY BRISTOL WATER.
4. “ Mr. Packer, of Bristol, wine-cooper, 
“ certifies, that his brother had an ulcer of seven 
“ years standing, in the calf of his leg, from a 
“ gun-shot-wound. After all remedies tried in 
“ vain, he was cured by drinking this water six 
“ weeks only. 
“ Thomas Packer.” 
5. “ John Belcher, of the Castle Precincts, Bris- 
“ tol, at four years old, had an ulcer in his ankle
“ four years, with a hole quite through, out of 
“ which came several bones, being all the four 
“ years under pennance, was at last perfectly 
“ cured by bathing and drinking. 
“ Jane Belcher, his mother.”  
6. “ Mary Ayliff had a tumor in her lower 
“ lip, of the bigness of a hazle-nut, and hard- 
“ ness of a stone, continually running at the 
“ mouth, as if salivated, and blind with the same
“ carcinomatous humour, for at least fourteen 
“ days, judged an incurable cancer, and so left, 
“ after four years trial, in despair; By drink- 
“ ing, and bathing the parts, she is of perfect 
“ sight, and good health, praising God, and de- 
“ firing this publication for the sake of others
“ under the like melancholy circumstances. 
“ Mary. Ayliff.” 
7. “ Mr. Lucas's son, of Bristol, at four years
“ old, had his arm miserably swelled and inflam- 
“ ed, running at eight or nine holes, deemed the 
“ King's Evil, and incurable. By gentle purg- 
“ ing, drinking, and bathing, he was perfectly 
“ restored. 
“ Eliz. Lucas, his mother.”
M5 8. “ Miss

274 DISEASES CURED
8. “ Miss Lancaster, of Castle-green, Bristol, 
“ at six years old, had the King’s-evil running at 
“ one finger, out of which came a bone, with a 
“ running in her left cheek and left hand; her 
“ foot and toes hard, and cruelly swelled. By 
“ drinking, bathing, and medicines intermixed, 
“ she was cured. 
“ Mary Lancaster.”
9. “ Mrs. Demster, of College-green, Bristol,
“ had her sight so depraved with an inflammation, 
“ supposed to be the Evil, that, for four months 
“ she could not bear the light. After all other 
“ unsuccessful trials, she drank, and bathed her 
“ eyes, and is now, after ten years, quite well. 
“ Sarah Demster.” 
19. “ Thomas Reynolds, of Bristol, Mason, 
“ had the Evil six years, running quite through
“ his thigh, scars dismal, out of which worked 
“ several bones, one an inch broad, and two 
“ inches long. After K. James’s fruitless touch, 
“ with the miserable flashing of surgeons, he 
“ was reduced to skin and bone. By drinking 
“ the water in great quantities, and constantly
“ moistening the parts with rags, dipped in the 
“ water, he is now, and has been well for 
“ years past. 
“ Thomas Reynolds.” 
CHAP.

275 OF REGIMEN.
CHAP. XIX.
OF REGIMEN.
IN the three first chapters, I have endeavoured
to ascertain the nature and qualities of Bath, 
and Bristol waters. In the fourth 
I have rationally accounted for their 
virtues. In the rest I have reconciled the obser- 
vations of former inquirers to particular diseases. 
These I have not only confirmed by my own ex- 
perience, but I have extended the virtues of both 
waters, to diseases neglected and unpractised. 
Preamble.
Physicians sometimes have it in their power to 
cure diseases. Patients have it in their power to 
prevent diseases, or to preserve health. From ig- 
norance, or contempt of necessary cautions, thou- 
sands fall short of that period which natural con- 
stitution might have reached. Such are the cau- 
tions which I have reserved for the subject of this
my last chapter. 
In Mineral-water Essays, for the expence of a
few shillings, there are patients who vainly ex- 
pect rules and prescriptions sufficient for the 
whole of their conduct. Authors who thus a- 
muse, make their readers trust to broken reeds. 
At Bath there is a General Infirmary for the recep- 
tion of cases appropriated to Bath water only.
At Bath and Bristol Hot Wells, no man with- 
holds his advice from the poor. People of straigh- 
tened circumstances of all perswasions, ranks, or 
professions are freely welcome to mine. What
safely I can I freely impart. What patients owe 
to themselves I think it my duty to point out.
1. ONE general caution there is which can 
admit of no exception. Patients never ought to
M6 come

276 OF REGIMEN.
come to water-drinking places without historical 
deductions of their cases. Family physicians are 
the only judges of constitutions. One bears eva- 
cuations of all sorts; another is ruffled by the 
mildest. To some opiates are cordials divine; 
ten drops of liquid laudanum run others mad. 
The same may be said of musk, mercurials, aloes, 
and every active medicine. At this very time I 
have a patient, to whom I now and then give 
one drachm of syrup of poppies only; for three 
days after, he can hardly keep his eyes open. The
whisper of a family nurse is worth the first
thoughts of a Frewen. Physic is at best a conjec- 
tural art; this is the opinion of the great Celsus. 
2. CHRONICAL DISEASDES fall under the pro- 
vince of natural medicated waters. 
In chronical diseases, who can promise sudden 
cures? Sydenham (De podagra, p. 576,) says, 
“ No man in his senses can expect that momen- 
“ tary alterations can perfect the cure. The 
“ whole habit must be changed, the body must
“ be hammered out anew.” Suppose a young
maid labouring under the green sickness; how 
flaccid her solids, how poor her blood! Can 
poor blood be changed into rich in the course of 
days? Can the solids so soon be braced? In cur- 
ing chronic disorders, physicians rationally change 
the whole manner of living. In his Epidemics, 
Hippocrates proposes a change of the humours 
only. In chronic diseases, new manner of living, 
new air, new faces, new amusements, and new 
objects are necessary. In chronic disorders regi- 
mens are not wantonly to be changed, even tho’ 
they give not immediate relief. This is Celsus’s  
opinion, page 112. In chronical illnesses, the 
sick ought not to be flattered with hopes of speedy 
cures. Forewarned, they chearfully bear the tae-
dium.

277 OF REGIMEN.
dium of both disease and cure; they put confi- 
dence in physicians who never deceive them. 
Suppose purulent ulcer occupies the liver, who 
can promise a cure? 
3. PATIENTS labouring under similar ailments, 
naturally compare notes. By officious acquain- 
tances, the weak, dispirited, and hectic, are per- 
swaded to follow the regimen of the strong, hear- 
ty and phlegmatic. For the saving a fee, pa- 
tients throw away the whole expence, and their 
lives into the bargain. When they find them- 
selves worse, i. e. when medicines irrationally 
continued, and waters improperly used have pro- 
duced symptoms which cannot be relieved, the 
Doctor has a fresh summons. What benefit can 
patients expect from physicians in whom they 
place so little confidence? Of general precau- 
tions, the reader will find store in my Attempt to
revive the antient doctrine of Bathing. In respect 
of Diet, Exercise, Air, Sleep, Evacuation, and
Affection of the mind, there are certain rules and
cautions, without the observance of which, nei- 
ther mineral waters, nor medicines of any sort 
can avail. Of these in their order.  
§. I. OF DIET.
PROVIDENCE seems to have furnished every 
country with a mixture of foods proper for sup- 
port. The natural productions of countries are, 
generally speaking, most friendly to the constitu- 
tion. The common food of cold climates would 
ill suit the natives of southern. A pound of roast 
beef, and a quart of porter would endanger the 
life of an Indian. A piece of sugar-cane, and a
cup of water, would soon reduce an Englishman 
to a skeleton.
1. When


278 OF REGIMEN.
1. When we take in a larger quantity of ali- 
ment than our digestive faculties are 
able to assimilate, such never can turn, 
to good nourishment.  
Excess.
2. When our food is highly satu- 
rated with pungent salts and oils, such 
sauces or mixtures corrupt the blood. 
High sauces.
3. People of gross habits and feverish disorders
should eat sparingly. For, with such,
the best food turns to disease. Impura 
corpora, quo magis nutris, eo magis laedis.
Gross habits. 
4. Unseasonable abstinence has also bad conse- 
quences. For, without a supply of 
fresh chyle, animal juices naturally 
acquire a putrescency. Inanition produces fevers 
of the worst sort, as those who fast too religious- 
ly feel to their cost. 
Fasting.
5. In chronic disorders, experience best tells
what agrees, or disagrees. Such a
quantity is to be taken in as is suffi- 
cient to support, not to overload the 
stomach, to finish the meal with a relish for more. 
The food ought to be well chewed. Flesh pound- 
ed in a mortar ferments much sooner than in one 
solid lump. Whatever corrupts slowly oppresses, 
the stomach, The weak, emaciated, hectic, or 
consumptive ought to observe the strictest regi- 
men. To such, excess in things the most inno- 
cent is perilous.
Experience 
the best guide.
6. Nature abhors discordant mixtures, fish, 
flesh, wine, beer, cyder, cream and 
fruit. These distend the bowels with 
wind, and prevent digestion. 
Mixtures.
7. BREAD, milk, and the fruits of 
the earth dresssed in a plain simple man-
ner, together with water, were the ali- 
ment of Adam’s family. 
Simple food
most natural.
The

279 OF REGIMEN.
The fisft inhabitants of Greece lived on the 
spontaneous productions of the woods and fields. 
The Golden-age seems rather to have taken its 
appellation from its simplicity of manners, than 
delicacy of food. 
Contentique suis nullo cogente creatis 
Arbuteos faetus, montanaque fraga legebant 
Hesiod, Pliny, and Ovid, ascribe 
the invention of tilling the ground and 
sowing corn to Ceres. 
Bread.
Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro, 
Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitia terris. 
Bread made of the purest flower of wheat nou- 
rishes much, and binds the belly. Mixed with 
bran it is opening, and nourishes less. The Fa- 
rinacea are all antiseptics. Wheat-bread properly
fermented, and well baked, is the most valuable 
part of diet. 
8. MILK is already elaborated, prepared and 
digested in the body of the animal. It
is an extract of animal and vegetable 
food. It is replete with nutritious juices, and
wants little else than the colour to be blood. 
Milk was strongly recommended by the antients. 
The milk of Stabiae was in great vogue. Thi- 
ther consumptives were sent, not only on account 
of the sea-vapour, and the air of Vesuvius, but 
for the excellency of the milk. The Mons Lac- 
tarius of Cassiodorus is thought to have been 
there, a place celebrated for salubrity of air, and 
sanative milk.
Milk.
One  

280 OF REGIMEN.
One Davus, who went thither in a consump- 
tion writes thus, “ Huic ferocissimae 
“ passioni beneficium mentis illius di- 
“ vina tribuerunt, ubi aeris salubritas cum pin- 
“ guis arvi fecunditate consentiens, herbas pro- 
“ ducit dulcissima qualitate conditas, quarum pas- 
“ tu vaccarum herba saginata lac tanta salubrita- 
“ te-conficit, ut quibus medicorum confilia nesci- 
“ unt prodesse, folus videatur potus ille praestare 
“ reddens pristino ordine resolutam passionibus 
“ vim naturae. Replet membra evacuata vires effe- 
“ tas restaurat, et fomento quodam reparabili aegris
“ ita subvenit, quem ad fomnus labore fatigatis 
Cassiod. Lib. xi. Variar. Epist. x. 
Cases.
Baccius (De Thermic, lib. iv.) says, Neopolitani 
Medici pro ultimo refugio aegros phthificos, et qui san- 
guinem exspuunt, vel ejusmodi thoracis ulcera, et alia 
vitia patiuntur, ad Tabeas mittunt cum successu adeo 
salubri, ut sint qui in iis totam degunt vitam. Later 
instances there are not a few of consumptives
who went to the same place with Davus’s suc- 
cess. Sir Hollis Man was so bad when he em- 
barked, that his coffin was carried with him. He 
has lived many years in Italy, and is now British
Resident at Florence.
Of equal numbers, I verily believe, there are 
as many cured of consumptions by 
goat-whey, as by Bristol water. Milk
is often drank under great disadvantages, either 
in improper air, or in moorish mountainous pla- 
ces, where fogs and moisture compose an atmo- 
sphere unfriendly to wounded lungs. Fit places
may surely be found on sea-coasts, as Stabiae was, 
where the pasture might be improved by propaga- 
ting the tribe of the vulnerary plants, agreeable- 
to a hint given by Galen. Such places are the 
Goat-whey. 
faces

281 OF REGIMEN.
faces of the hills and cliffs around the Hot- 
Wells. 
WHERE feverish heat predominates, in costive 
habits especially, butter-milk and brown bread
are specifics. Boerhaave lived on this 
very diet for many years. His pupils 
have introduced it every where. In England it 
is even now the food of hogs. When I first in- 
troduced it at the Hot-Wells, my advice was treat- 
ed with ridicule; I could hardly prevail on three 
to make use of it the first season; two of the 
three were Irishmen. The practice is now uni- 
versal. 
Butter milks.
“ Dr. Baynard (in his Appendix to Floyer’s 
“ book on cold Bathing) assures his readers, that
“ by Butter-milk, several, to his knowledge, were 
“ cured of flushings, preternatural heats, and some 
“ of confirmed hectics. He quotes the concur- 
“ rent testimonies of Sir John Hodgkins to the 
“ same purpose.—“ Toby Purcell, 
“ Governour of Duncannon-fort, hath
“ drank nothing but milk, and eat bread for more
“ than twenty years, which cured him of an in- 
“ veterate gout.—Mr. William Masters of Cork,
“ drinks nothing but milk, and has recovered 
“ his limbs to a miracle.—I have had lately 
“ sent me some remarkable Cures in both Atro- 
“ phies and Phthisies by drinking Goats-milk. The 
“ common Irish feed on potatoes, and four skim- 
“ med milk. This may be the reason why they 
“ are generally free from pulmonic coughs, and 
“ consumptions.” 
Cases.
Theophilus Garencieres (in his book De Tabe 
Anglicana) says, “ Hyberni solo lactis usu qui ipsis 
“ pro potu) et cibo est, ab hoc malo se tuentur. Lac 
“ enim parte ebutyrato optime nutrit, et sanguinem 
“ laudabilem general; parte ferofa plurimum abster-
“ git,

282 OF REGIMEN.
“ git, et caseosa astringit, quae omnia ad pulmonis 
“ robur conservandum non parvi funt moments.” 
Baynard gives a remarkable instance of the ef- 
fect of Butter-milk, and Tepid Bathing. “ Mr. 
“ Hanbury of Little Myrtle, aged twenty-three, 
“ was highly feverish, with heat, thirst, quick 
“ pulse, little urine, mouth parched, reduced to 
“ skin and bones by an old ague. I prepared a 
“ Bath with violet, strawberry leaves, cichory, 
“ plantane, &c. He was bathed twice a day for 
“ seven weeks, taking nothing but butter-milk. 
“ By degrees he rose to other food, and has since 
“ had children by two wives.—Several, to my 
“ knowledge have been cured of flushings, pre- 
“ ternatural heats, and some of confirmed hectics
“ by the sole use of butter-milk.—Sir John Hod- 
“ kins, President of the Royal Society told me, 
“ that, to his knowledge, diverse persons had 
“ been cured of hectics, and phthisies, by the sole 
“ use of butter-milk.—Mr. Heby told me two in- 
“ stances of his tenants cured of hectic fevers by
“ drinking of butter-milk.” 
B. Dempsey, Clerk to Mr. Macartney, Mer- 
chant of Bristol, laboured of a violent fever with 
nocturnal exacerbations, which brought on deli- 
riums, profuse sweatings, and constant vomitings, 
which occasioned a most putrid stench, not a lit- 
tle assisted by the air of the chamber where he 
lay, which was dark and close. By Dr. Drum- 
mond’s advice and mine, he took medicines and 
ptisans, which he constantly threw up; as he did 
anti-emetics of every sort. Despairing of means 
of relief, I proposed four butter-milk, which he 
drank and kept. When we returned next day, 
we found every symptom mended. We ordered 
butter-milk for medicine and food. He recover- 
ed.—Next year (in the same bad air) he was 
seized

283 OF REGIMEN.
seized with a fever of the same kind. The same 
medicines were tried in vain. No sooner began 
he the use of butter-milk, than he began to reco- 
ver, and now enjoys a perfect state of health. 
IN acute distempers, Hippocrates has laid down, 
rules which have rarely been mended. These 
fall not properly under my theme. 
9. WHEN the fruits of the earth had un-
dergone so great a change by the Deluge, God per- 
mitted man to eat flesh. Every moving thing that 
liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb 
have I given you all things. The clean beasts were 
taken into the Ark by sevens; the unclean by 
twos. The surplus of the first was probably in- 
tended for the provision of Noah and his family. 
Moses was the first writer who selected a particu- 
lar food for the fews, viz. Bread, wine, milk, 
honey, quadrupeds that divided the hoof, and chew the 
cud, all the feathered kind, and fishes that have fins
and scales. 
Flesh.
The flesh of animals in their prime of life, of 
such as are castrated, and not used to hard labour 
is best. 
The flesh of granivorous birds is not so oily as
that of water-fowls. Mutton is the best of all 
flesh, for the delicate and robust. Bath and Bris- 
tol Hot-well mutton are excellent. Beef and 
pork are proper only for the strong, and those 
who use hard exercise. 
10. POND-FISH, such particularly as are fat
are hard of digestion. Such as are 
caught in rivers near the sea-shore are 
lighter. Boiled fish is lighter than roasted. 
Fish.
SEA-SALT moderately used with animal food,
is wholesome. To excess, the reverse. In in- 
flammatory disorders, sea-salt stimulates too much. 
By living on animal-food where falt was not to
be

284 OF REGIMEN.
be had, there are not a few instances of garrisons
and towns being over-run with scurvy, and fe- 
vers pestilential. This particularly was the case 
at Gronningen. We read of a people of the East 
Indies prohibited the use of sea-salt. These are 
notoriously infected with putrid mortal diseases. 
In that part which treats of the virtues of the
component parts of Waters, I have proven that 
sea-salt prevents putrefaction. 
11. Bitters bind the belly. Acids 
gripe the bowels. Salted things pro- 
mote stool and urine. Sweet things breed phlegm.
Bitters. 
12. Onions, leeks, raddishes, and all the al- 
calescents are antiseptic. Mustard, 
and cresses occasion a difficulty of u- 
rine. Celery is diuretic. Aromatics heat. Col- 
worts and lettuce cool. Cucumbers are cold, 
crude and hard of digestion. Ripe fruits open 
the belly. Unripe bind. Pulses of all sorts are 
windy. Honey promotes urine and stools. Soft 
bread increases acidity in stomachs troubled with
heart-burns; biscuit less. Confections and dain- 
ties tempt people to eat too much, and are there- 
fore hard of digestion. Where the aliment fer- 
ments too violently from putrescency, or from 
debility of the stomach, acids, bitters, aromatics
and alcalescents are proper. If cold cacochymy is 
added to bad habit, the patient ought to abstain 
from farinous foods and gellies, because these in- 
crease the tenacity of the humours, and e. c. If 
the body begins to be puffed up with watry hu- 
mours, broths are sparingly to be used. Roasted 
meats, and fresh-water-fish with generous wine 
are indicated. If acid acrimony abounds, as in 
young people, eggs, broths, hartshorn jellies are 
best. If e. c. the humours tend to alkaline pu- 
trescency, barley broths, bread, and milks are  
Alcalescents.
the

285 OF REGIMEN.
the foods. Acid liquors are the drinks. If broths
are allowed, they ought to be acidulated. 
Physicians may be too churlish. Certain it is
that patients generally digest those 
things easiest which their stomachs 
crave. People in fevers abhor meat; 
offer them butter-milk, or barley wa- 
ter acidulated, they snatch them gree- 
dily. Longings ought to be lessons 
to physicians. Hence it was Hippo- 
crates (De Affectionibus) lays it down 
as a maxim, Quoscunque cibos, aut obsonia, aut po- 
tus decumbentes expetunt, ea suppetant, Ji nullum cor- 
pori nocumentum sit futurum. Aphor. 38, the same 
Hippocrates lays it down as another rule, Meats 
and drinks not so very good are sweeter, and therefore
to be preferred to better more unsavory. “ A tem- 
“ pore consueta, etiamsi deteriora, infuetis minus 
“ turbare folent.” Numerous are the examples 
of patients being cured by things which they 
longed for, and which had been with-held as 
hurtful. “ In the cure of diseases, Sydenham 
“ advises physicians to pay more attention to the 
“ appetites, and ardent desires of the sick (provi- 
“ ded the things desired do not manifestly en- 
“ danger life) than to the still more dubious and
“ fallacious rules of art.”—Suppose a cachec- 
tic labouring of alkaline acrimony longs for 
broth; broth acidulated may be allowed.—Wo- 
men sometimes labouring of acid acrimony, long 
for vinegar with their food; they may be indulg- 
ed, by giving them absorbent powders before 
dinner. By such artful condescensions, physici- 
ans win their patients hearts. Concedendum ali- 
quid et consuetudini, et tempestati, et regioni, et aeta- 
ti, fays Hipp, Aph. 1—17.
Rigorous se- 
verity the 
child of igno- 
rance. 
Longings, 
useful indi- 
cations. 
13. By

286 OF REGIMEN.
13. By statical experiments, Sanctorians have 
discovered, That the body perspires 
but little while the stomach is too 
full, or too empty,—That full diet is 
prejudicial to those who use little exercise, but 
indispensibly necessary to those who labour much, 
—That food the weight of which is not felt in 
the stomach, nourishes best, and perspires most 
freely,—That he who goes to bed without sup- 
per, being hungry, will perspire but little; and, 
if he does so often, will be apt to fall into a fe- 
ver,—That the flesh of young animals, good 
mutton, and bread well baked are the best food, 
—That the body feels heavier after four ounces 
of strong food that nourishs much, such as pork, 
eel, salt-fish, or flesh, than after six ounces of 
food that nourishes little, such as fresh fish, chick- 
en, and small birds. For, where the digestion is 
difficult, the perspiration is slow.—That unu- 
sual fasting frequently repeated brings on a bad 
state of health,—That the body is more uneasy 
and heavy after six pounds taken in at one meal, 
than after eight taken in at three,—That he de- 
stroys himself slowly who makes but one meal a 
day, let him eat much or little,—That he who 
eats more than he can digest is nourished less than
he ought to be, and so becomes emaciated,— 
That to eat immoderately after immoderate exer- 
cise of body or mind is bad; for a body fatigued 
perspires but little. 
Statical 
proofs. 
Drinks.
14. NOT long after the deluge, it is probable,
Beer was invented; for Herodotus in- 
forms us, that in the corn-provinces 
in Egypt, where no vines grew, the people drank 
Beer.
a

287 OF REGIMEN.
a sort of wine made of barley, Οlνω εΧ Χςlθεvωv
πεποlημεvω. Those who have been accustomed 
to beer ought not to be severely interdicted its 
use; beer seems to have a more durable effect
than wine. Mum, or strong beer, which is an 
extract of corn, taken in small quantities with 
biscuit, proves an excellent medicine in disorders 
proceeding from cold lentor. Its spirit is fixed in
a more tenacious bond, and therefore produces 
more durable effects. Wine, beer, cyder, perry 
and all fermented liquors are antiseptic. When 
beer neither oppresses the stomach, nor binds the
belly, but passes by urine, it may be allowed. 
Where it generates wind, passes sluggishly, or 
breeds stony concretions, it ought not. 
“ NOAH began to be a husbandman, arid he 
“ planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, 
“ and was drunken.” 
Wine drank too freely weakens the man, 
as may be seen by his actions. Sweet wines pro- 
mote stools, but they excite flatulency and thirst; 
they promote expectoration, but impede urine. 
Tawny austere wines are good when the body is 
loose, provided there be no disorder in the head, 
no impediment in spitting, or making water. 
Pure wine is best for the stomach, and bowels. 
Diluted with water, it is best for the head, breast, 
and urinary passages. Strong Spanish, or Hun- 
garian wines strengthen the stomach wonder- 
fully. 
Wine. 
15. MINERAL WATERS are possessed of a spi- 
rit which helps digestion and promotes 
sleep. Patients require but little pure 
wine while they drink water. Hec- 
tics ought to drink none. Mineral 
waters are all hard, and therefore unfit for do- 
mestic purposes, until they are robbed of their 
Mineral wa- 
ters improper 
at meals.  
acid,

288 OF REGIMEN.
acid, by boiling. Injudicious as well as com- 
mon, is the practice of drinking Bath-waters at 
meals. People of lax bowels may drink them, 
none other. Pure soft water is the best of all di- 
luents, especially to those who are naturally cos- 
tive. Those who are troubled with stomach- 
complaints, ought to drink wine, or rather rum,
or brandy. The latter are lowered with water 
only; the former are composed of we know not 
what. 
16. TEA and COFFEE are now the principal 
beverages of the kingdom; at mineral-water 
places, as much as any other. There 
have been physicians of no small note, 
of the opinion that the fluids cannot 
be too much fused. From this notion they in- 
culcate the perpetual dilution of the blood, by
tepid watry liquors. Hence those encomiums of 
Bentekoe and others on Tea, Coffee, and other 
modern flip-flops. Our hardy ancestors made use 
of infusions of indigenous plants, made-wines, 
and beer. Nervous complaints were unfashiona- 
ble in their days. From the prince to the pea- 
sant, Tea and Coffee are now in constant use. 
Never were nervous diseases so frequent as at this
day. The question of Tea and Coffee cannot 
therefore be indifferent. 
Tea and Cof- 
fee. 
Luxury and avarice seem to have conspired in 
multiplying the names of Teas. Teas of all 
sorts are, most certainly, leaves of the same shrub;
different sorts take their names from the different 
countries, or different manner of manufacture;
just as we produce different beers from malt high, 
or slack dried. 
BOHEA is the most natural, simple, 
and most salutary. In gathering the 
Bohea, the trees are never injure; the leaves 
Bohea.
advance


289 OF REGIMEN.
advance to full maturity, fall, and are pre- 
served. 
GREEN TEA is plucked separately from the 
shrub, just as the leaf, in full verdure, 
begins to expand. Injured by this 
violence, the trees rarely bud again for years. 
Green Tea.
Naturally, the leaves are so disagreeably bitter 
and astringent, that to render them palatable, the 
Chinese infuse both sorts for a certain space in 
water. After this infusion, the Bohea leaves are 
generally dried in the sun and preserved for use. 
The green is dried in caldrons, or on plates of 
copper heated. The natives who roll, mix, and 
turn the leaves, are obliged to arm their hands 
with leathern gloves to defend them from the 
metallic efflorescence. In Holland, as well as in
Britain, there are itinerants who make a trade of 
purchasing tea leaves which have been used; these 
they re-manufacture so dexterously by tinging, 
rolling, and drying, that they easily impose on 
those who are fond of bargains, or any thing that 
has the appearance of being smuggled. 
THE leaves discover a degree of bitterness con- 
joined with a gentle astringency, dis- 
coverable by taste, as well as by vitri- 
olic infusion, without any sensible heat or acri- 
mony. Simply infused in water, tea braces the 
fibres of the first passages, and thus promotes di- 
gestions; it dilutes and dissolves the fluids, re- 
laxes the solids, promotes urine, corrects acri- 
mony, cools, quenches thirst, and diverts sleep. 
Hence useful in inflammatory, lethargic, ioma- 
tous, gravellish disorders, flatulencies, and head- 
achs from hard drinking. The Asiatics chiefly 
indulge in Bohea. The higher priced green they 
reserve for European markets.  
Virtues.
N Manu-

290 OF REGIMEN.
Manufactured, sophisticated, or mixed, the vir- 
tues of Tea can only be estimated from a know- 
ledge of the several ingredients with which it 
is usualJy compounded. Mischiefs imputed to 
the plant are often due to practices foreign, as 
well as domestic. This seems to gather 
strength from a comparative view of the similar 
effects of excess in tea, and small doses of verdi- 
grease. Both excite tremblings, vomitings, sick- 
ness, languor, dimness of sight, palpitation, pa- 
ralytic affections, with all those consequences 
which accompany weak fibres and watry fluids. 
In his Academical Praelections, I remember Doctor 
Alston affirmed, that (after repeated trials) he 
found that tea drinking occasioned a glaring in 
his eyes, affecting his speech; which Kempser 
(in his Amaenitates Exoticae, pag. 605 to 608) con- 
firms, classing it among the malignants, or those 
which are unfriendly to the brain and nerves. 
COFFEE, in respect of its effects good or bad, 
may be classed with tea. It is a kernel cloathed
with a thin membrane, and a sub- 
acrid pulp of a leguminous bitterish 
taste, before it is roasted. In roasting, a volatile 
salt flies off, the oil becomes a veritable oleum am- 
bustum. In drying, the tea actually undergoes 
the very same proeess; but its quantity of oil is 
fo very inconsiderable, that it discovers nothing
of an empyreuma.
Coffee.  
The virtues of Coffee seem to depend on the 
oil; which, by burning, becomes so changed, 
as to be unfit for the purpose of nu- 
trition: It may be of use in cases 
where the weakness of the first passages can be 
assisted by a gentle stimulus. In this case it proves
cephalic, quickens the circulation, promotes per- 
spirattion, and is nervous; roasted peas and beans 
Virtues. 
yield

291 OF REGIMEN.
yield a substance near akin to it. Used in excess 
it has all the bad properties of tea. 
The best purpose that I know tea or coffee 
good for, is to clear the head, and divert sleep, 
when I have a mind to protract my studies to 
late hours. For the purpose of dilution, infu- 
sions of sage, balm, rosemary, lavender, valerian, 
and many other indigenous plants are equally 
good. In cases where tea and coffee are pernici- 
ous, these are remedies. Were they of foreign 
extraction they’d be much more valued. 
THE hardest parts of animal bodies exposed to 
the vapour of warm water, become soft; harts- 
horns thus becomes scissible. From the abuse of
warm water, Hippocrates enumerates carnium ef- 
feminationem, nervorum impotentiam, mentis stupo- 
rem, haemorrhagias, animi deliquia. In Van Eem's 
Collection of Boerhaaeve’s academical prelections 
De Nervorum morbis, we find that illustrious phy- 
sician complaining that he had seen many abused 
by such flops, so enervated that they hardly drag- 
ged their languid members after them, some af- 
flicted with apoplexy and palsy. “ Notum est 
“ toties morbum chlorofin, et summum languo- 
“ rem, uteri haemorrhagias fieri mulieribus, dum
“ potibus aquosis tepidis abutuntur.” 
Theorists forget the natural state of the blood 
in health. “ Open the vein of a dairy maid, the 
“ blood, as it flows from the orifice, concretes 
“ instantly into a solid mass.—” “ Open the 
“ vein of a valetudinarian, the red globules and 
“ the serous swim about in a slimfy ill-coloured 
homogeneous fluid.” By this observation a- 
lone, practitioners know, that by too great dilu- 
tion, fox-hunters maybe converted into fribbles. 
Without a certain degree of spissitude, the hu- 
mours cannot be kept within their proper canals.  
N2 If

292 OF REGIMEN.
If the red globules are melted down to the con- 
sistence of serous, the sanguiferous vessels become 
empty. If the serous acquire the consistence of 
lymphatics, all those evils which proceed ah erro- 
re loci must insue. The whole will, in time, 
pass through the exhalant vessels, the body must
be consumed. In found bodies, the natural heat 
is maintained while the solids and fluids preserve 
their natural disposition. But, if the humours 
come to be too much diluted, the solids naturally 
become flaccid. Hence languor and chilliness. The 
watry part of the blood accumulates in the cavi- 
ties of the body; hence Cachexy, Dropsy, &c. 
Were the custom of tea drinking confined to peo- 
ple of rigid fibres and active lives; the penetrating
quality of the fluid added, to the saponaceous anti- 
septic property of the sugar, would render the in- 
fusion miscible with the blood. Obstructions 
might be removed, acrid salts diluted, viscid 
phlegm dissolved. The astringency of the plant 
might answer the good purpose of passing off the 
liquor more quickly. The sanguinary, bilious, 
phlegmatic and melancholic might all find relief. 
Fevers might be prevented in the young, aches 
and obstructions in the old. The belly might be 
kept soluble, the urinary passages cleansed, and 
insensible perspiration, the healthiest of all secre- 
tions, might be promoted. 
But, such is the force of example; the lazy, 
indolent and effeminate, men and women of 
weak nerves, relaxed fibres, and foul juices, in- 
dulge themselves, twice or thrice a day, in the 
immoderate use of, a tipple, which enervates 
more and more. They dilute medicated waters 
with water warm and relaxing. They dread the 
effect of the plant which (by its astringency) is
calculated to brace the muscular coat of their
weak

293 OF REGIMEN.
weak stomachs. They make use of an infusion 
so weak that it relaxes more and more. Hence 
indigestion, sickness, fainting, tremours, with all 
their direful consequences. The contractile fi- 
bres lose their elasticicy, the food lies like a load. 
Hence sourness, flatulencies, vapours, &c. They 
desert the springs of health with disgust, while they
daily labour to counteract the virtues of the waters. 
THOSE poetic proofs which close the different 
sections of this last chapter, are extracted from Dr. 
Armstrong's most ingenious poem on the Art of
preserving Health.
“ PROMPTED by instinct's never erring power,
“ Each creature knows its proper aliment; 
“ But man, th’ inhabitant of ev’ry clime, 
“ With all the commoners of nature feeds. 
“ Directed, bounded by this power within, 
“ Their cravings arc well aim'd: Voluptuous man
“ Is by superior faculties misled; 
“ Misled from pleasure ev’n in quest of joy. 
“ Sated with nature’s boons, what thousands seek,
“ With dishes tortur’d from their native taste, 
“ And mad variety, to spur beyond 
“ Its wiser will the jaded appetite.” 
§. II. OF AIR.
IN my Treatise Of the use of Sea Voyages, and
in my chapter of Pectoral Diseases, I have treated of
the properties of air. In this section, for the sake 
of method, I propose only to lay down general 
cautions relative to domestic air. 
1. AIR has an inconceivable influence on the 
human frame. Man may live whole days with- 
out food; not a moment without air. 
Epidemical diseases attack persons of
all ranks, those who differ extremely in point of
Air. 
N3 diet,

294 OF REGIMEN.
diet, exercise, amusement, occupation, &c. In 
his judicious Observations on the Diseases of Minor- 
ca, Dr. Cleghorn has observed, that the diseases 
which affected the regular temperate natives, and 
the drunken irregular soldiers, were the same in 
point of violence, attack, and duration.—In such 
cases, change of diet avails but little. Those 
who dread infection must change air. No man 
in his senses would tarry in Constantinople during
the plague. 
2. PATIENTS have not always the means of 
travelling, or changing air. It is therefore the
duty of those who watch over the 
health of their fellow citizens, 1. To 
measure the heat of the human blood, in diffe- 
rent ages, constitutions, and diseases; and 2. To 
attend to those effects which different airs, winds, 
and seasons have on particular constitutions. If 
the climate cannot conveniently be changed, we 
always have it in our power to alter the nature 
and qualities of that particular atmosphere in 
which patients breathe; or, in other words, we 
may accommodate the nature of the air to the na- 
ture of that season which is known to be most
healthy. 
Domestic air.
3. IN estimating the different degrees of heat, 
the ancients wisely confirmed their observations 
by experiments. The same air and 
the same heat appear different to diffe- 
rent people. The standard of fancy 
ever has, and ever will be a false standard. If 
we revolve Galen’s book, De Temperamentis, we 
find an ingenuous confession in proof of our pre- 
sent position, Lib. 2. cap. 2. apud Charterium, 
Tom. 3. p. 60. “ Et quid opus in tam dissimili- 
“ bus exemplum proponere? Cum ipse aer qui 
“ simili sit colore; varie tangenti occurrat, prout  
Heat imagi- 
nary. 
“ alius

295 OF REGIMEN.
“ alius veluti caliginosus, halituosus, alius fumosus, 
“ fuliginosus, interdum purus omnino eft. Igi-
“ turin pluribus, iifdemque differentibus, aequali- 
“ tas caloris consistit, quae inconsideratis quasi in- 
“ aequalis fit, imponit; propterea, sciz. quod non 
“ undequaque similis apparet. Caeterum homo 
“ qui rationes quas proposui expendat, et sensim, 
“ multa particularium experientia exercuerit, is 
“ nimirum aequalitatem caloris in pueris, florenti- 
“ busque, inveniet, nec eo falletur quod alter in 
“ humida, alter in ficca substantia repraesente- 
“ tur; quippe lapis aliquando pari cum aqua ca- 
“ lore effe potest, nullum faciente discrimeu quod
“ lapis ficcus fit, aqua vero humida. Ita igitur 
“ mihi, cum pueros, juvenes, adolescentes mil-. 
“ lies considerâffem, praeterea eundem, infan- 
“ tem, puerum, adolescentemque factum; nihi- 
“ lo calidior visus eft, nec puer quam aetate flo- 
“ rens, nec aetate florens quam puer, fed tan- 
“ tum quemadmodum dixi, in pueris magis hali- 
“ tuosus, et multus et suavis; in florentibus ex- 
“ iguus, ficcus, nec similiter suavis effe caloris
“ occursus. Itaque neuter simpliciter videtur 
“ calidior; sed alter, multitudine ejus quod di- 
“ flatur, alter acrimonia.” 
4. MODERNS taking it for granted that heat 
proceeded from attrition, rarely confirmed their 
opinions by experiments; or made 
their experiments in a vague negligent 
manner. Galileo, Drebellius, Pas- 
chal, Farenheit, Reaumur, and others have de- 
vised thermometers for determining the natural 
heat of bodies of all sorts, animate or inani- 
mate. Boerhaave, Hales, Derham, De Sauvages, 
and others inform us of the degree of heat; but 
keep us in the dark in regard to the time of the 
application of the thermometer. How far such 
Experiments 
inaccurate.  
N4 experimenta

296 OF REGIMEN.
experiments are to be depended on, we now pro- 
ceed to inquire. 
5. UNIVERSAL EXPERIMENT determines the 
heat of the human body, at middle age, and in 
a state of health, at 95, 96 degrees. 
But there have been found instances 
of men in health, whose natural heat 
has constanly raised the mercury, some to 97, 
rarely to 98, and more rarely to 99. How erro- 
neous would it be to treat such as feverish, when
this heat was only constitutional!
Heat diffe- 
rent. 
FROM an opinion that one of the principal uses, 
of external air was to cool the blood as it circu- 
lates through the pulmonary vessels. 
Hales, Boerhaave, and other great 
men were of opinion, that man could 
not long subsist in air which equals, or exceeds 
the native heat. Under the aequator the same is 
the degree of heat with the natural. Men not 
only continue healthy under the aequator, but in
many other parts whose heat exceeds that of the 
human body. Air seems not only to cool the 
blood, but to accelerate the circulation also. 
Air cools and 
accelerates. 
6. IN his Ratio Medendi, professor de Haen 
(Cap. 3. de aere, &c. cop. 19, De supputando ca- 
lore corporis humani) seems to have add- 
ed much light to the present subject. 
With thermometers prepared by Mar- 
ci, Prim, Reaumur, and Farenheit, he made ex- 
periments (to use his own words) Non autem fe- 
mel, deciefve, fed pluries ipsissma experimenta itera- 
la funt, et semper idem docuerunt. 
Accurate ex- 
periments. 
Under the arm-pit of a man in health, he put 
the thermometer for half a quarter of an hour, 
and found it rise to 95, 96. Continued for a 
quarter, it mounted to 97, 98, 99. For half an 
hour

297 OF REGIMEN.
hour 100, 101. For one hour 101, 102. For 
two hours it rose no higher. 
Applied to the arm-pit of a man in a moderate 
feverish heat, for half a quarter of an hour, it 
rose to 100. After one quarter 101, 102. After 
half an hour 102, 103. After one hour 103, 104. 
—By other trials, in continued fevers, it rose to
106, in half an hour. In one hour to 109.
Sometimes in half an hour to 103. In an hour 
to 105.—In a Semi-tertion composed of a continu- 
al fever and a quotidian intermittent, he observes 
that the patient was so very sensible of cold in 
the fit, that he could hardly bear it. In the mean 
time the thermometer rose to 104. The symp- 
toms of the cold fit were evident, shivering, 
chattering teeth, shaking, and a perfect sense of 
internal chill, with a quick, smal], contracted
pulse. During the hot fit, the pulse was full, 
free and quick. In states so opposite, one would 
have hardly expected the same degree of heat. 
Experiment shewed the same exactly. Hippo- 
crates Aph. 4. 48. 7.—72, fays, In febribus non 
remittentibus, si externa frigeant, et interna urantur, 
et sitiant, lethale. This aphorism has generally 
been depended on; but this cannot be said to be 
the case of our patient; he complained of cold 
internal and external. In the cold fit, had not 
the thermometer been applied, no man, would 
have believed that the heat exceeded the natural,
by 7 or 8 degrees.—He gives the history of a 
man, who in a marble chill, which lasted twenty- 
four hours before death, without any sensible 
pulse, raised the mercury in the thermometer to 
97. Here was heat exceeding the natural with- 
out pretence of attrition. The difference of heat 
between thermometers differently placed, he 
found 30.—From these experiments, our author 
N5 in-

298 OF REGIMEN.
ingenuously concludes, that the degree of heat in 
persons found and sick is rarely determined with 
that precision which such subjects require. The 
real degree of heat cannot be fixed in less than 
an hour. Patientia igitur in experimentis, libera 
ab hypothesibus animo capiendis, multa dediscimus quae
humana arrogantia perperam addidisceramus, says De 
Haen, pag. 124. 
IN this inconstant climate, winter and summer 
succeed one another, more than once, in the space 
of twenty-four hours. Our good and 
bad weather may truly be said to de- 
pend on the point of the compass. 
South winds relax and open the pores. North 
winds brace and stop perspiration. Nothing can 
be more pernicious to invalids than air too cold, 
too hot, too moist, or too dry.
Climate in- 
constant.  
1. IF Hippocrates advised his patients to guard 
against the approaching cold of the autumn, in 
the serene climate of Greece, by thick 
cloathing, εδθΤl παXεlη, how much 
more reason have we to be careful? 
Mortalibus turn vitae, turn morborum 
causa est aer, he adds De flatibus, pag. 296. Sy- 
denham condemns the giddy practice of laying a- 
side winter garments too early in the spring, and 
of exposing bodies over-heated to sudden chills. 
This practice, he affirms, has destroyed more 
than famine, pestilence, or the sword. De humor, 
pag. 50, lin. 53. 
Cloaths not 
rashly to be 
changed. 
2. RARELY have we opportunities of contend- 
ing on the subject of cold air; oftener on that of 
heat. From cold, invalids sometimes 
suffer. To avoid this evil, some 
plunge into a greater. In acute dis- 
eases, patients are not only shut up within bed- 
curtains, but buried underloads of blankets. In- 
Heat danger- 
ous. 
valids


299 OF REGIMEN.
valids and people in health lift up every chink. 
Damned to hot bed-chambers, and self-perspira- 
tion, sick people are often broiled to death. Self- 
perspiration not only hurts by heat, but by putre- 
scence also. Hence difficulty of breathing, anxiety, 
dreams, delirium, miliary eruptions, and death. 
This practice was condemned by Forestus in Ger- 
many, 200 years ago; by Sydenham in England, 
and by every rational practitioner, all the world over. 
To tender lungs, heat and cold are both un- 
friendly. That cold which chills the air about 
the morning’s dawn, ought to be awarded by co- 
vering the head, neck, and breast as well as by 
shutting the curtains. The air ought to be satu- 
rated with balsamic vulnerary effluvia. Powder- 
ed gums ought to be sprinkled on the embers. 
Fire ought to be kept up night and day, at an 
equal warmth, from 60 to 65, by a thermometer. 
Those who are able to get put of bed ought to 
walk into another room; the sheets ought to be 
aired, the windows and doors ought to be thrown 
open. Those who cannot get out of bed ought 
to be bolstered up thro’ the day.
Consumptives ought to sleep in spacious upper 
rooms, and alone. If they require not constant 
attendance, nurses ought to wait in the adjoining
room. From statical experiments, we learn, that 
(by absorption) the sick communicate their dis- 
tempers to those who sleep under the same bed- 
cloaths. Heat and contact are, unexceptionably, 
pernicious to consumptives. Dr. Tronchin gives 
instances of wives being infected by sleeping 
with their husbands, in the Dry Belly-Ach. The 
summer effluvia of animal bodies taint the air to- 
a degree sufficient to defeat every intention. 
While the ventilator played at Simson’s room, on 
an assembly night, I tried to make an experiment 
N6 on

300 OF REGIMEN.
on the foul exhausted air. The smell was incon- 
ceivably loathsome, I could not bear it for a mo- 
ment; nor can any man without danger of be- 
ing poisoned. Foul air was the cause of the fa- 
tal catastrophe at Calcutta. Bed-chamber visits 
ought, for this reason, to be rare, and short. 
The windows and doors ought to be laid open in 
the day-time for a thorough perflation of air. 
By covering a patient too warm, and by lec- 
turing too long to seventy students, Professor De
Haen ingenuously confesses that he 
was the cause of miliary eruptions in 
a pulmonary case, idque meo palam fateor neglectu. 
From this error gaining experience, he gradu- 
ally relieved the patient’s body of part of the bed- 
cloaths; he passed him over slightly, in his 
rounds, referring his clinical lecture till he came 
into the hall. Remembering Sydenham’s pre- 
cepts and example, viz. That eruptions caused by 
hot air, ought to be cured by taking the patient out of
bed, and by medicines diluent and cooling, all these 
he strictly followed; so that, by degrees, the 
man’s anxieties decreased, his sweats abated; in 
four days time the miliary eruptions began to 
scale off, his strength increased, while the perip- 
neumony began to throw itself off by expectora- 
tion. On purpose, he owns, he kept the patient 
longer than was necessary, in the Infirmary, that 
the Doctors and Students, confirmatae ejus pancra- 
ticae sanitatis testes existerent. Quantine faciendus, 
in Medicine Sydenhamus! 
Examples. 
He says, he saw cases of the Miliara vera, 
which begin with a rheumatic fever, on the 4, 
5, 6, 7, and 8th day. Some had eruptions on 
the chin, neck, breast, arms, and thighs. These 
lay in the common ward with patients of all dis- 
eases, breathing the same air, and laying under 
the

301 OF REGIMEN.
the same number of blankets. After three or 
four weeks, omnes adepti sunt sanitatem.—Bolder 
by experience, he treated a patient labouring of 
a putrid fever, and covered over with petechiae, 
just as he did patients in common; he took him 
out of bed every day, he drenched him with di- 
luents acidulated with spirit of sulphur. In the 
space of eight days he was free from eruptions 
and fever. “ Sic sensim jugum quod humeris 
“ meis publicus clamor imposuerat excutere vo- 
“ lui, debui. Videram in Belgio foederate prac- 
“ ticos annosiores, qui monita Sydenhami ac Boer- 
“ haavii, in Variolis, Morbillis, Miliaribus, Pe- 
“ techiis, Scarlatinis aspernati, horum morborum 
“ in curatione admodum infortunati effent: vi- 
“ deram alios qui Boerhaaviana scholo enutriti, 
“ Magistrique vestigiis presse inherentes, horam
“ curam feliciter ederent. Recordabar et me Sy- 
“ denhami ac Boerhaavii vestigia prementem, hos 
“ eosdem morbos fummo cum famae ac honoris 
“ incremento, caeteris, qui alias longa semitas 
“ calcarent reclamantibus, felicius curasse. Hinc
“ audacter varios clamores flocci faciens, con- 
“ cludere debui, tarn felicem effe horum mor- 
“ borum curam in aere Austriaco, quam suadente 
“ Sydenhamo in Britannico, quam suadente Boer- 
“ haavo in Belgico fuisse constat.” De Haen Caput 
3. De Aere Decubitu, Sessione, aliisque circa aegros 
moderandis. 
—“ Our fathers talk 
“ Of summers, balmy airs, and skies serene. 
“ Good heaven! for what unexpiated crimes 
“ This dismal change! The brooding elements 
“ Do they, your powerful ministers of wrath, 
“ Prepare some fierce exterminating plague. 
“ Or, is it fix’d in the decrees above 
“ That

302 OF REGIMEN.
“ That lofty Albion melt into the main? 
“ Indulgent nature! O dissolve the gloom! 
“ Bind in eternal adamant the winds 
“ That drown or wither: give the genial west 
“ To breathe, and in its turn the sprightly north; 
“ And may once more the circling seasons rule 
“ The year, nor mix in every monstrous day.” 
§. III. OF EXERCISE.
THE body of man is made up of tubes and 
glands fitted to one another in so wonderful a
manner, that there must be frequent 
motions, conditions, and agitations 
to mix, digest, and separate the juices, 
to cleanse the infinitude of pipes and strainers, 
and to give the solids a firm and lasting tone. 
Exercise ferments the humours, forces them into 
their proper channels, throws off redundancies, 
and helps nature in those distributions which are
necessary for life. 
Exercise ne- 
cessary. 
1. IN, genera], that sort of exercise 
is best to which one has been accus- 
tomed, which best agrees, and in which 
people take delight. 
That which 
agrees best. 
2. EXERCISE is best when the stomach is most
empty. It is to be estimated by the constitution. 
When the patient begins to sweat, 
grow weary, or short breathed, he 
should forbear, till he recovers. For 
the delicate and infirm, that sort of exercise is 
most proper which is performed by external help, 
gestation in wheel carriages, horse-litters, sedan- 
chairs, failing, &c. Julius Caesar was of a weak 
delicate constitution by nature, which he harden- 
ed by exercise. Plutarch says, he turned his 
very repose into action.
On an empty 
stomach. 
3. FOR

303 OF REGIMEN.
3. FOR such as are neither robust nor very
tender, that sort of exercise is best which is per- 
formed partly by ourselves, partly by 
foreign assistance. Of this sort, riding 
on horseback is the foremost, for the be- 
nefits of which I beg leave to refer the reader to
the judicious Sydenham and to Fuller. 
Riding on 
horseback.
By riding the pendulous viscera are shaken, 
and gently rubbed against the surfaces of each o- 
ther; mean while the external air rushes forcibly
into the lungs. These conspiring produce sur- 
prising changes. Sydenham had such an opinion 
of Riding, that he believed not only lesser evils 
could be cured by it, but even th e Consumption in 
its last stage. In this disease, he says, Riding is 
a specific as certain as mercury in the Lues, or 
bark in an Ague, but he cautions phthisics never 
to fatigue themselves by it. On this head he pro- 
duces many instances of recovery. In long jour- 
nies, concussions often repeated have expelled ob- 
structions which the waters had begun to dislodge, 
—Those invalids who ride out in the 
summer, in the heat of the day, act 
irrationally. I would advise them to 
go to bed early, so that they may get 
up early, and ride before breakfast, 
and in the evening. In Italy, it is a common ob- 
servation, that none but Englishmen and dogs are 
to be seen in the streets, in the forenoon. Cane et
Inglesi.  
Riding in the 
heat of the 
day irra- 
tional. 
4. AFTER exercise, the body should 
be well rubbed, then dry linen should 
be put on well aired. 
Linen to be 
changed.
5. AFTER exercise, every man 
oupht to rest before he sits down to 
dinner. Cold small liquors after exer- 
cite are pernicious. 
Cold liquors 
dangerous.  
6. EVERY

304 OF REGIMEN.
6. VERY author who has wrote well on the 
Non-Naturals in general, has copied from the di- 
vine old man. To Hippocrates are we 
indebted for most of the foregoing. 
We now proceed to enumerate some 
of his particular observations, to which 
we may add those of others, who have not copied 
from him. 
Hippocrates 
the best wri- 
ter.
7. Complaints which arise from immoderate 
labour are cured by rest, and e. c. 
In those who loiter away their lives in sloth,
muscular motion languishes, the chyle is neither 
assimilated quickly, nor perfectly. Cachexy ne- 
cessarily becomes the consequence. Let the best
hunter stand still, he may soon plump up; but 
he will every day, become more and more unfit 
for the field. Of twins, let one apply himself to
study; let the other inure himself to hunting. 
The former enjoys the health of a green-sick 
girl; the latter strings his nerves. The lazy 
rich envy the healthy poor; they would enjoy 
health, while they do nothing to preserve it. 
“ Illi vero qui divitiis affluentes, largis quotidie 
“ fruuntur epulis, nec fe ad labores credunt na- 
“ tos, perpetuis querelis medicorum aures fati- 
“ gant, dum volunt vivere fani, ct nihil agere.” 
Boerhaavii Praelect. Academ. From no cause what- 
somever, can health suffer more surely, than by 
exchanging a life of action for a life of indolences 
Well, therefore, might Aretaeus (among the 
causes of cachexy) rank, ab exercitationibus, quies;
a laboribus, otium. Well might Hippocrates say, 
Labor ficcat, et corpus reddit cjjicit; otium hu- 
meddat, et corpus reddit debile. Baccius draws a 
parallel between the active lives of the antients; 
and the flothful lives of the moderns. “ Illorum 
“ vita assiduis dedita exercitiis, sanitatem conser- 
“ vabat,

305 OF REGIMEN.
“ vabat, et promptiores reddebat vires ad singula 
“ tam animi quam corporis munera. Hodie, e. c. 
“ in continuo otio degitur. Principes aut curis 
“ animi jugicer tenentur; aut, fi ad ludicra tran- 
“ fire soleant, ea inertia funt Tabellae, aleae, tro-
“ chi novus modus super mensam agitati. Unde, 
“ non mirum, qui praeproperam accelerant se- 
“ nectutem, incurrantque facile in morbos renales, 
“aut in podagrain, haemicraniam, aliosque id ge- 
nus affectus, medioque veluti curfu deficiant.” 
8. If the body, or any of its mem- 
bers rest longer than usual, it will not 
become the stronger. If, e. c. after a 
long habit of idleness, one enters immediately on
hard labour, he will surely do himself hurt.
Laziness 
hurtful.
9. A soft bed is as irksome to him 
who is accustomed to a hard one, as a 
hard bed is to him who lies at home, 
upon down.  
Custom to be 
studied.
10. Those who seldom use motion, are wearied 
with the smallest exercise, and e. c. 
11. Friction is a sort of succedane- 
um to exercise. Experience dictates
this to Jockies.
Friction.
Friction is an alternate pressure and relaxation 
of the vessels. Gentle friction presses the veins 
only, harder the arteries. By pressing the veins 
the motion of the blood is accelerated towards 
the heart; thus the actions of the heart are ex- 
cited, the blood moves through the vessels. Vital 
power may be increased by friction alone to any 
degree. In the coldest hydropic, a fever may be 
thus raised. In bodies where none of the chylo- 
poetic viscera perform their offices, wonderful ef- 
fects may be produced by rubbing the belly with 
coarse woollen clothes. Thus have dropsies been 
cured. For prevention and cure the antients 
used

306 OF REGIMEN.
used frictions. Let a horse stand unrubbed for a 
few days, he becomes useless. Let him be well 
curry-combed, he may continue nimble for years. 
Columella strongly recommends this practice of 
currying in his Re Rustica. He says, sæpe plus pro- 
dest pressa manu subegisse terga, quam si largissime ci- 
bos praebeas. 
Frictions may be used for different purposes. 
Hence it was that Hippocrates (De Medici offi- 
cio) says, Frictio potest solvere, ligare carne implere,
minuere , dura ligare, mollia solvere, moderata, den- 
fare. The fibres may be relaxed by rubbing with
oils. They may be braced by the use of gums,
spirits, &c. 
12. Reading aloud and singing warms the bo- 
dy, Hence it is, that Dr. Andry 
thinks the reason why women stand 
not so much in need of exercise, be-  
cause they are more talkative than the men. 
Reading and 
singing.
13. THE foundation of chronical ailments are 
generally laid in that time of life which passes 
between puberty and manhood. Moderate exer- 
cise promotes secretions. Violent exercise is more 
injurious than none. Young men who follow 
shooting, hunting, and other rural exercises im- 
moderately commit violence on nature, and anti- 
cipate old age. The animal functions are weak- 
ened, perspiration is interrupted, the fibres are 
rendered rigid, and the radical moisture is dried
up. Those humours which ought to have passed 
by the skin, take possession of the glands, under 
the appearances of head-ach, heart burn, cholic, 
gripes, purging, belching, with all those evils 
which affect the hypochondriac. From rigidity 
of fibres, the morbific matter lodges in the joints 
in the form of rheumatism, ischiatica, nodes, tu- 
mours,


307 OF REGIMEN.
mours, chalk-stones, &c. The lymphatics pour 
their contents into the cavities of the body; 
hence, dropsy, asthma, with all the symptoms of 
cachexy.—Nature has supplied the fair sex with 
evacuations which supply the place of exercise. 
While nature maintains these discharges in a re- 
gular manner, their fibres continue lax, soft and 
delicate. When these discharges come to be sup- 
pressed, and women, notwithstanding, continue 
in health, they become viragos, their fibres par- 
take of the masculine rigidity, they are subject 
to gout, rheumatism, and other diseases, conse- 
quences of immoderate exercise.—The fibres 
of children and eunuchs are also lax; these are
therefore rarely subject to such disorders. 
Galen condemns those who recommend exer- 
cise promiscuously. I have known some men 
(says he) who, if they abstained three days from
exercise, were sure to be ill. Others I knew 
who enjoyed a good state of health though they 
used little or none. 
1. “ Primigines of Mitylens, was obliged to go 
“ into a warm bath every day, otherwise he was 
“ seized with a fever. Effects we 
“ learn from experience, but the causes 
“ of those effects we learn from reason or reflec- 
“ tion. Why did Primigenes require such fre- 
“ quent bathing? By the burning heat of his 
“ skin, I found that he wanted a free perspira- 
“ tion: I therefore ordered him a warm bath to
“ soften his skin and open his pores.” 
Cases.
2. “ I knew another man whose temperament 
“ was equally hot, but he did not require such 
“ frequent bathing, because his calling obliged 
“ him to walk much about the city; he was 
“ moreover of a quarrelsome disposition; by
“ fighting

308 OF REGIMEN.
“ fighting he keeped himself almost in a constant 
“ sweat.” 
3. “ A third I used to restrain from exercise, 
“ because he used it to excess.—I have, e. c. 
“ cured several cold temperaments by rousing 
“ them from lazy lives, and persuading them to
“ labour.” 
Exercise is not to be injoined to patients when 
they are very ill. It were dangerous thus to 
jumble stagnating corrupted humours. 
Such mixtures stuff the lungs, not 
without danger of suffocation. Thus- 
we see cachectics, or leucophlegma- 
tics pant for breath in mounting one 
flight of stairs. In such cases gentle frictions are 
only rational at first, then airing in a chair, rid- 
ing, walking, and at last running. 
Exercise 
dangerous in 
cachectic
cases.
Medical justice obliges me to mention one fla- 
grant proof consistent with my own knowledge. 
Not many summers past, a gentleman 
put himself under my care at Bristol
Hot-wells. By jollity, good fellowship, and elec- 
tioneering, he had almost got the better of one 
of the best constitutions. His case, however, 
was far from being desperate. My principal in- 
junctions were Bristol-water, sobriety, and re- 
pose. For some weeks he seemed to gain ground. 
By riding in the heat of the day, and by living 
too freely, he was taken with a cough and loss 
of appetite. He was bled, and slept soundly- 
through the night; Next day I called with an 
intention to repeat the bleeding; my patient was 
officiously advised to Bath. By procrastinations, 
and unseasonable journies, the inflammation of 
his lungs waxed worse; the season for evacuation 
was lost. He became cachectic, and short- 
breathed; his legs swelled. He had before been  
Case. 
subject

309 OF REGIMEN.
subject to the gout; these symptoms were there- 
fore deemed gouty. Bath-water and exercise 
were unmercifully pursued. After every airing, 
he panted for breath, and seemed ready to expire. 
Nor was it any wonder; for, at that very time, 
haerebat lateri lethalis arundo. A vomica pulmonum
soon burst, and suffocated the gouty man. 
13. LET us now fee what Statical 
Experiments have discovered. 
Statical ex- 
periments.
By moderate exercise the body becomes lighter 
and more lively.—The body perspires more 
when it lies quiet in bed, than when it tosses 
and tumbles. If, after supper, one lies ten hours
in bed, he will perspire freely all the time; but 
if he lies longer, both the sensible evacuations, 
and the insensible perspiration will be diminished. 
—Violent exercise of body or mind brings on 
early age and premature death—Riding on horse- 
back increases the perspiration of the parts above
the waste.—An easy pace is much more whole- 
some than a hard one. But to the infirm who 
are fatigued by it, an easy carriage is preferable, 
because their strength should be recruited not ex- 
hausted.—Moderate dancing promotes perspira- 
tion, and is a wholesome exercise. When the 
perspiration is defective, the remedy is exercise. 
Dr. Arbuthnot recommends exercise from the  
common observation that the parts of the body 
which labour most are larger and stronger. Thus, 
the legs and feet of chairmen, the arms and 
hands of watermen and sailors, the backs and 
shoulders of porters, the limbs of running-foot- 
men, by long use, grow strong, thick, and ac- 
tive. 
“ By toil subdu’d, the warrior and the hind 
“ Sleep fast and deep; their active functions soon
“ With

310 OF REGIMEN.
“ With generous streams the subtle tubes supply, 
“ The sons of indolence, with long repose 
“ Grow torpid; and with slowest Lethe drunk, 
“ Feebly and lingringly return to life, 
“ Blunt ev’ry sense, and pow’rless ev’ry limb.” 
§. IV. OF SLEEP.
SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS bear a great affi- 
nity to exercise and rest. Different 
constitutions require different mea- 
sures of sleep.
Sleep.
1. Moderate sleep increases perspiration, pro- 
motes digestion, cherishes the body, 
and exhilarates the mind. 
Moderate. 
2. Wakeful people should, nevertheless, keep
in bed, quiet and warm, which will, 
in some measure, answer the purpose 
of sleep. 
Quiet.
3. Excessive sleep renders the body
heavy and inactive, impairs the me- 
mory, and stupifies the senses. 
Excessive 
sleep.
4. Excessive wakefulness dissipates
the strength, produces fevers, and 
wastes the body.
Wakefulness.
5. He who sleeps through the day, 
and wakes through the night, inverts 
the order of nature, and anticipates 
old age. 
Unseasonable 
sleep.
6. Sleep after dinner is, in general, a bad cus- 
tom. A late heavy supper is an enemy to sleep. 
Going to bed without any supper, prevents 
sleep. 
7. By Statical Experiments we know 
that found sleep is refreshing.—That 
nocturnal perspiration arises in this 
climate to about sixteen ounces.—That after a 
Statical 
proofs. 
good

311 OF REGIMEN.
good night’s sleep, the body feels lighter from the 
increase of strength, as well as from the quantity 
of matter which it has thrown off by perspira- 
tion.—That restless nights diminish perspiration. 
—That perspiration is more obstructed by a cool 
foutherly air when asleep, than by intense cold 
when awake.—That change of bed diminishes 
perspiration; for things to which we are not ac- 
customed, though better in their nature, seldom 
agree with us.—That stretching and yawning 
promote perspiration.—That perspiration is more 
obstructed by throwing off the blankets when we 
sleep, than by throwing off the cloaths when a- 
wake.—That wine moderately drank induces 
sleep, and increases perspiration.—That drank to
excess it lessens both. 
“ IN study some protract the silent hour, 
“ Which others consecrate to mirth and wine; 
“ And sleep till noon, and hardly live till night.
“ But surely this redeems not from the shades 
“ One hour of life. 
§. V. OF EVACUATION.
DIODORUS SICULUS informs us that the Ae- 
gyptian physicians were maintained at the public 
expence, and obliged, by the laws, 
to conform their practice to rules re- 
corded by authority. To prevent dis- 
tempers (says he) they prescribed glysters, purges, 
vomits, or fasting, every second, third, or fourth 
day. Herodotus informs us, that the Aegyptians 
vomit and purge thrice every month, with a view 
to preserve health, which, in their opinion is 
chiefly injured by superfluity of aliment. Euterpe 
sect. 77. 
Evacuation 
in general. 
At

312 OF REGIMEN.
At water-drinking-places the word preparation 
fills the mouth of every nurse. Some are over- 
prepared before they come. Others prepare them- 
selves. Bleeding, purging, and vomiting, are 
edge-tools. I therefore proceed to point out the 
uses and abuses of Evacuation. 
I. Of Bleeding. 
1. GREAT are the advantages produced by a 
seasonable use of the Lancet. Unseasonable bleed- 
ing is productive of irreparable cala- 
mities. One may venture to affirm 
that full as many of His most Christian 
Majesty's subjects fall by the lancet, as by the
sword. The soberest people in the world are 
doctored in the antiphlogistic regimen, a regimen 
calculated for the carnivorous, lazy, and drunken. 
Following the physician of the Hotel-Dieu, one 
day in his rounds, he met a patient just carried 
in. The doctor demanded of the porters, Qua- 
t-il? one of them answered. La fievre. A-t-il 
été saignée? Oui, Monsicur, dix fois. Diable! Dix 
fois, et pas encore guerit. Saigne le encore. All this 
without touching his pulse, or asking one other 
question. The wretch was bled, and expired 
before his arm could be tied up.
Bleeding its 
daggers.  
2. Of all nations, French surgeons 
are, in general, the most dexterous o- 
perators, dressers, and diffecters, and 
the worst practitioners. 
French igno- 
rant of theo- 
ry.
Mr. Thomas, Surgeon of the naval hospital in 
India, assured me that (in Admiral Pocock’s first
engagement with the French) the British wound- 
ed who were brought ashore, recovered to a man, 
while the French wounded who wrere carried into 
Pondicherry almost all died. The surgeon of the  
Bridgewater

313 OF REGIMEN.
Bridgewater ship of war was then a prisoner in 
that sort, and was witness to the fact, nay the 
French own the secret, and still continue to be 
surprised at the consequences of their own mal- 
practice.—Mr. Morgan, Surgeon of a regiment 
at Guadaloupe, assures me that bleeding is the uni- 
versal remedy among the French practitioners in 
that island. In intermittent fevers particularly, 
they bleed five or six times, and always in the 
cold fit. Many of our officers and private men 
thus expired, before their arms could be bound 
up. Moliere’s raillery has improved the French
practice not a little. 
3. Our best surgeons surpass the 
French in learning. We have philo- 
sophers as well as operators. I know 
not a few whose medical visits I would 
accept in cades the most dangerous. 
Common 
bleeders igno- 
rant.
“ Sydenham attended a lady of a delicate con- 
“ stitution, who (by violent floodings 
“ after child-birth) fell into convul- 
“ sions. He prescribed food of easy 
“ digestion, and trusted to time for a cure. He 
“ visited her daily, and saw his prognostic veri- 
“ fled by the mitigations of the symptoms. Her 
“ nurse mistaking honesty for ignorance, and 
“ wondering that he never wrote, privily in- 
“ troduced a surgeon, who made use of the com- 
“ mon instrument for promoting the Lochia, the 
“ lancet. Her convulsions returned, she died. 
“ The Doctor, calling at his usual hour, found 
“ her husband in tears. Surprized, he demand- 
“ ed the reason. The maid answered, Sir, 
“ my lady is dead. Then she must have been 
“ bled, replied the Doctor, rushing into the bed- 
“ chamber. He examined both arms; no print 
“ of a lancet. He then examined her ankle. 
Example fa- 
tal.  
O “ There

314 OF REGIMEN.
“ There he found the fatal mark. Provoked at 
“ the disappointment, he bluntly told the hus- 
“ band, whom he met on the stairs; Sir, they 
“ have killed your wife.”—From the untimely 
fate of this lady, he warns physicians to order 
innocent nothings to amuse meddling gossips, 
and divert them from quacking under hand.
Public rooms are crowded with hundreds, some 
well, others labouring of inveterate ailments. A- 
nimal effluvia are exalted by the addition of 
smoke, sulphur, wax, and tallow. The external 
air is lifted out at every chink. Is it any wonder 
that weak enervated people should be overcome 
by such air? 
Many may remember the fate of Mrs. Shifner.
Playing at Quadrille, she had the good fortune to
win a sans prendre. Transported with 
joy, she fell into a laughing fit, and 
then into an hysteric. She was bled; convul- 
sions ensued, and she expired. Nor was the con- 
sequence wonderful; she was a woman of a 
weakly constitution, pale complexion, and subject 
to an habitual lax. 
Examples. 
Captain Roper was one night hauled into an 
outer-room in a fainting fit; a surgeon was sent 
for. I ordered the waiter to call his physician, 
who saved his patient with hartshorn, and thanked
me. The gentleman then laboured of an incur- 
able jaundice, dropsy, and cachexy. 
Many may remember the case of Mr. S—n. 
While he held die cards in his hands, he was al- 
most every night, taken with a slight epileptic fit. 
I almost affronted a Right Reverend by opposing 
his being bled. He had a glass of cold water 
with spirit of hartshorn. In an instant he reco- 
vered, begged of the company, that they would 
not

315 OF REGIMEN.
not be alarmed on his account, took up his cards, 
and played on. 
The Surgeons were so often summoned on old 
Nash’s account, that at length they made no 
haste. Was it any wonder that the blood should 
now and then be interrupted in vessels which had 
lasted for fourscore years and upwards? To drive 
away care he latterly indulged himself in drams, 
which alarmed people by bringing on drunken- 
ness, or a temporary apoplexy. 
4. Surgeons may boldly venture on 
the sanguine, robust, and plethoric. 
Cautions.
The patients who resort to Bath-waters labour 
generally of stomach disorders, gout, rheumatism, 
or palsy; these are seldom attended with fever. 
In other respects they are what they call hearty. 
Such generally admit of evacuations. 
Those who resort to Bristol-waters are, for the
most part, emaciated, phlegmatic, hectic, pale, 
lax, and weak. Bleeding, in general, increases
such disorders. 
Suffice here in general to observe, that in Con- 
sumptions attended with inflammation, bleeding 
not only abates that, but, by drawing off the dis- 
eased juices, makes room for founder. But, in 
consumptions glandular, or pituitous, every lan- 
cet is a dagger. If, on trial, the pulse grows 
quicker, more contracted or thready; if the 
blood appears looser in texture, no benefit is to be 
expected from bleeding. If, in such circumstan- 
ces, a vein is opened, colliquation, coldness, de- 
pression, and irrecoverable weakness ensue. The 
assimilating powers are low; there often remains 
no more than what is barely sufficient to main- 
tain the vital flame. When the circulation comes
to be confined within a narrow compass, patients 
feel themselves as it were smothered. Bed-cur- 
O2 tains


316 OF REGIMEN.
tains and windows are thrown open for air. Air 
aggravates, while it seems to relieve. In such 
cases it is hard to resist the importunities of the 
sick; I have ordered little bleedings which gave 
case, and, as I fancied, hasted the poor creatures
to their journey’s end. Anxious to relieve, I 
have taken away blood which vainly I wished to
restore. The symptoms which, in consumptions 
call for bleeding, require the nicest judgment. 
How precarious then must be the fate of those 
who come to St. Vincent’s Well armed with gene- 
ral directions? 
Of Regimes. 
5. To enumerate every circumstance in which
Bleeding were hurtful, would swell my work to 
too great a size. In acute diseases, it is com- 
monly believed that the blood loses its phlogistic
nature the fourth day; in malignant putrid dis- 
eases, it is taken for granted that the blood is al- 
ways dissolved. To convince the reader that 
bleeding is not so well understood as is commonly 
imagined, I refer to some experiments made by 
De Haen on the human blood, page 193, 342, 
&c. 
The vulgar method of judging of blood is by 
its crust. The crust depends on the nature of
the vessel in which it is received. Let 
blood be received into a flat broad ves- 
sel, it forms little or no crust. Let it
be received into a narrow deep vessel, 
the crust appears thick, sizy, and in- 
flammatory. Let blood fall directly into a bason, 
it generally puts on a white inflammatory crust. 
Let the most inflammatory blood be squeezed out 
of the orifice, or trickle down the arm, it puts 
on no white inflammatory crust.—In acute dis- 
eases he found a deep inflammatory crust, in many 
instances, long after the fourth day. In a young 
Judging 
blood by the 
crust fallaci- 
ous. 
7 woman


317 OF REGIMEN.
woman labouring of a continual putrid fever, full 
of spots, where nothing had been done, our au- 
thor found the blood drawn on the eleventh day, 
covered with a phlogistic crust, and compact in 
the red part. The blood that was drawn on the 
twelfth day was still more compact, and more in- 
crusted. Crudity of humours is not to be esti- 
mated by time, but by the condition of the blood. 
Boerhaave’s texts are therefore to be considered, 
cum grano salis. Siziness and dissolution of blood 
depend on causes which puzzle the most intelli- 
gent. 
Of Purging.
MEDICINES, if they do not good, certainly do 
harm. Hippocrates observes, “ That it is dan- 
“ gerous suddenly to alter settled ha- 
“ bits; or to fly from one extreme to 
“ another.” Semel multum aut repents 
vel evacuare, vel calefacere, vel refrigerare, aut alio
quovis modo movere periculosum. Celsus damns the 
custom of frequent purgation. Sed purgationes 
quoque, ut interdim necessariae, fic ubi frequentury
periculum afferunt. Assuescit enim non ali corpus, 
ob hoc infirmum erit. Lib.i. cap. 3. p. 31. This 
we see every day verified in those who, solicitous 
about the prevention of diseases, consume their 
present stock of health in quacking, as Celsus ele- 
gantly expresses it, In secunda valetudine, adversae 
praesidia consumun. Certain it is, that nature may 
be so far misled, that the body may forget the 
calls of nature. Evacuations give rise to cachex- 
ies, or bring the best constitutions to be suscepti- 
ble of every trifling liberty. 
Purging leads 
nature astray.
O3 PURGING

318 OF REGIMEN.
PURGING withdraws that matter which nature 
endeavours to fix on the extremities, and fixes it 
on the viscera. The patient exchanges 
pain, that necessary instrument of na- 
ture, for sickness, nausea, gripings, faint- 
ings, and a numerous train of irregu- 
lar symptoms. Sydenham assures us, that he 
learned, at his own peril, as well as that of o- 
thers, that Purgatives exhibited in the fit, in the 
declension, or in the interval of the gout, have 
hastened those evils which they were intended to 
prevent. Purges, as they rob the blood of its 
spirituous part, so they weaken concoction, de- 
ceive the sick with fruitless hopes, and bring on 
lasting mischiefs which nature undisturbed would 
have subdued. Gouty people are easily disturbed 
by any cause that agitates the body, or mind. 
For this reason the gout follows the slightest eva- 
cuation. 
Purging 
weakens na- 
ture. 
α. I knew a practitioner, who scorning Sy- 
denham and all his cautions, had no notion 
of being confined by the gout, or 
any disease which purges could car- 
ry off. This man was a true believer, he 
took the same measure to himself that he gave 
to others. Whenever he was attacked with 
the gout he took his purges, and was about a- 
gain in a few days. Nature thus debilitated, 
the gouty matter fell at last on his lungs, and
killed him. 
Examples. 
ß. “ A gentleman of Essex bad for many years 
been subject to violent fits of the gout. In 
one of these, wishing for relief or death, he 
applied to the former, who purged him every 
four hours with Gum Guajac draughts, to the 
amount of two hundred stools in ten days. He 
hobbled into the coffee-house, and founded 
this

319 OF REGIMEN.
this doctor’s praise. The consequence was, 
his fits return oftener, and with greater reve- 
rity. He now curses his own imprudence, and 
the doctor’s memory. 
γ. Peregrine Palmer, Esquire, Representative 
in Parliament for the University of Oxford, was 
known for an obstinate lameness, as well as 
for that integrity of heart, and politeness of
manners which distinguished his character. 
From his parents he inherited the gout, and 
had his fits early in life. When he seemed to 
be threatened with a fit, and wanted to in- 
dulge any youthful pursuit, he told me, he 
used to avert it by purging, a folly to which, 
he imputed his lameness, and which he request- 
ed me to publish, as memento to his gouty 
brethren. 
DIFFERENT DISEASES, ages, con- 
stitutions and sexes require different 
purges. 
Different 
purges neces- 
sary.
Resinous, mercurial or rough purges, cause 
heat, and hinder the passing of the waters by 
reason of that stricture which purgatives of all 
sorts leave behind. They destroy the tone also of 
the stomach and intestines.  
Where the guts are clogged with viscid phlegm, 
mineral waters purge at first, even those which 
are astringent, particularly if they are drank in 
large quantities and quick. 
For the purposes of opening the mouths of the 
bibulous vessels, and thereby giving access to me- 
dicated fluids, what can be so natural as salts ex- 
tracted from waters themselves? 
Epsom-salt, or Sal Catharicum amarum is pre- 
pared from bittern, and is now common. Dr. 
Hoy was the first who discovered the way of pre- 
paring it, (vide Philos. Transact. No. 378, &c.) 
O4 For

320 OF REGIMEN.
For purifying and imitating it, see Histoire de l' A- 
cadem. Ann. 1718. p. 38, &c. 
Glauber’s Salt is an artificial composition, an 
union of the vitriolic acid with the mineral alka- 
li, or basis of sea-salt. It has some resemblance 
with that of Epsom, and proves, when the point 
of saturation is exactly hit, a salt of a neutral na- 
ture, of a bitter taste, and a purgative virtue. Ar- 
tificial salts require four times their weight of wa- 
ter to dissolve them. Natural salts dissolve in a- 
bout an equal quantity of water.  
Rochelle salt, or Regenerated Tartar, has a 
more agreeable taste, and a gentler purgative vir- 
tue than either of the former. 
Magnesia Alba, or white Manganese, is that 
alkaline matter obtained by evaporating and cal- 
cining the remains of the mother liquor left in 
refining Salt Petre, which will not shoot into salt. 
This white Manganese is an agreeable gentle pur- 
gative, particularly proper in habits naturally cos- 
tive, and hypochondriac disorders. Its purgative 
quality seems to proceed from its alkaline earthy 
matter dissolved by the sharpness of the juices in
the first passages. The universal acid of the wa- 
ters converts this medicine into a neutral salt, 
which exerts its purging quality on the same prin- 
ciples by which the Epsom salts are known to act.
Hoffman, Stahl, and all the best foreign mineral 
water doctors recommend the four for quickening 
the effects of the waters, so as to render them 
more deobstruent, detersive, and purgative. 
Of Vomiting. 
IN the action of Vomitings the dia- 
phragm is suddenly and violently 
drawn downwards, while the abdominal muscles 
Vomiting, its 
operations. 
con-

321 OF REGIMEN.
contracted also, press the contents of the lower 
belly. Thus the stomach is squeezed, as it were, 
between two presses. As the nerves distributed to 
the stomach, intestines and mesentery, have such 
power over the rest of the nerves of the body, 
we need not wonder that convulsions should be 
excited in the muscles of the face, oesophagus, 
intestines, &c. In the action of vomiting, the 
venous blood is driven violently towards the right 
side of the heart, while those arteries which are 
dispersed over the abdominal viscera are compres- 
sed. Thus, the impetus of the arterial blood is 
forced upwards, while the right side of the heart 
is hindered from emptying itself into the vessels 
of the lungs, respiration being stopped in the act
of vomiting; hence the return of the venous 
blood from the head is prevented. The vessels of 
the head are in danger from turgescency, or ex- 
travasation; for, in violent straining, the face 
reddens, the jugular veins swell, the eyes sparkle 
with fire, the ears tingle, and the head becomes 
giddy. 
In the action of vomiting, the venous blood 
rushes through the Vena portarum in- 
to the liver. If the liver or lungs 
happen to be vitiated, ruptures, and other fatal 
consequences may insue. “ Boer- 
“ haave (in his academical prelec- 
“ tions) says, he saw a woman labouring under 
“ an inveterate jaundice, by taking a vomit, fell 
“ into a superpurgation of putrid matter first, 
“ and then of pure blood, which carried her off. 
“ —Had I not, with my own eyes, have seen 
“ it in the body of the Republic’s President of 
“ the Marine, who could have thought that the 
“ tube of the oesophagus was burst by violent 
“ strainings?”—Hernias have often been pro- 
Dangers. 
Example. 
duced

322 OF REGIMEN.
duced by vomiting.—After violent vomiting, the 
site of the stomach, and other abdominal viscera 
was found strangely changed in the carcass of a 
woman, as we find pag. 238, Memoirs de l'Acad. 
des Sciences l'an. 1716—With justice does Cel- 
sus (lib. i. cap. 3. p. 29) condemn those glut- 
tons who prepare their stomachs for feasts by vo- 
mits. Itaque ijlud luxuriae caufa fieri non oportere 
fateor, interdum valetudinis caufa redie fieri, experi- 
ment is credo. Cornmoveo tamen ne quis, qui valere 
& senescere volet, hoc quotidianum habeat. 
Hence we may see the danger of vomiting to 
plethorics, or to those of bad habits. In spasmo- 
dic reachings, artificial irritations teem with de- 
struction. How judiciously does Sydenham ad- 
vise vaenesection to precede vomiting, in cases 
which require both; left (by violent strainings) 
the pulmonic vessels should be burst, or the brain
hurt; examples of which he says he has seen, 
Sect. i. cap. 4. p. 65. 
While I was studying at Paris. I well remem- 
ber the untimely fate of a fellow-student. Dr. 
Hugh Graham. In very hot weather 
(by posting) we were both heated. By 
fasting and diluting, my complaints vanished in a 
few days. He was feverish, with a nausea, for 
which he proposed a puke, which I opposed, 
begging he would rather bleed. Laughing at my 
fears, he took only only one scruple of Ipecacua- 
na, which vomited not immoderately. Next day 
he complained of a dull pain in the right hyp- 
pochondre, for which I bled him, and would 
have repeated it, as my mind laboured with a 
presentiment of danger. Some few days were 
trifled away in doing nothing. My anxiety 
forced the Doctors Du Moulin and Astruc on my 
friend. I related my fears to them; I dreaded an
Example. 
abscess


323 OF REGIMEN.
abscess in the liver. I told them I feared the sea- 
son was lost. Their answer was, C'est impossible, 
Monsieur, vous craignez trop pour Monsieur votre 
ami, tout va bien. In spite of saignees, purges, 
lavement, &c. the patient shut his eyes. Insist- 
ing still on my prognostic, I begged their pre- 
sence next day. Before I touched the body, I 
prognosticated an abscess in the concave part of
the liver. When I had laid the abdominal visce- 
ra in view, the gibbous part was found. Putting 
my hand under the liver to turn it, I felt it un- 
commonly moist. From my wrist to my fingers 
ends, it was covered with bland well concocted 
pus. Old Du Moulin hobbled across the room, 
and clasping me in his arms, called out, Ma foi, 
Monsieur, vous avez faites un tres bon prognostic. 
The truth was, I watched every groan, 1 at- 
tended him night and day, I read for him, I 
thought for him, I loved him, and, though I 
could not save him, by his untimely fate, I was 
taught three useful lessons, 1. That vomits are 
to be administered only where they are necessary. 
2. That inflammations of the liver run speedily 
to pus; and, 3. That bleeding avails not where 
abscesses are once formed. These three lessons
have enabled me to save others. 
VOMITS warm and strengthen particular mem- 
bers, by deriving a greater supply of blood and
spirits to the part. By repeated suc- 
custions vomits, resolve impacted mat-
ter. On this principle it is that sea- 
voyages remove tumors, and topical inflamma- 
tions; thus it is that rebellious ulcers are render- 
ed tractable, haemorhages and fluxes stopped, as 
have been dropsies. Of the last there are two me- 
morable instances. 
Vomits, their
effects.
Dr.

324 OF REGIMEN.
Doctor Ross, late physician of London, was 
once tapped for a dropsy, His abdomen filled a- 
gain. The day was fixed for the se- 
cond tapping, A vomiting of coffee- 
like water came on spontaneously, and continued, 
at different times, he was emptied. Nor did 
he fill again. This relation I had from his own 
mouth. 
Examples. 
The second volume of the London Medical 
Essays contains a more memorable instance, com- 
municated by Doctor Alexander Mackenzie. 
Where the viscera are found, where the blood 
vessels have been duly emptied, where pains 
and reachings arise from viscid phlegm, 
bilious putrid, or acrid juices, vomits 
seem to be preparatives more natural than purga- 
tives. Lord Palmerston’s case, related by Dr. O- 
liver, proves the text. 
Vomits safe. 
Dr. Woodward, of Gresham-College, seems to 
have been an enthusiast in the doctrine of vo- 
mits. He has furnished the public with many 
successful proofs. Of his unsuccessful he says 
nothing. 
Preparation seems still more necessary, in re- 
gard to bathing, sweating, and pumping. Of these 
I treat particularly, in my Attempt to revive the
Doctrine of Bathing. 
Of Sweating. 
SWEATING is practised in all stages of dis- 
eases. Sweating is as dangerous as any one 
evacuation. In those diseases which 
frequent Bath, sweating is commonly 
practised in bathing; and, where it is easily pro- 
duced, seldom does mischief. Excepting Dia- 
betes, sweating is hardly compatible with those 
Sweating. 
diseases

325 OF REGIMEN.
diseases which frequent Bristol. Cocta non cruda 
funt evacuanda is an aphorism founded in truth. 
He who knows the difference between humours 
crude and concocted, is alone a judge when sweats
are to be prescribed. 
§. VI. OF THE PASSIONS. 
1. To maintain health, the Passions 
must be kept under subjection. Let a 
man be never so temperate, and regu- 
lar in his exercise; yet if he is led away 
by passion, all his irregularity will avail but little.
Passions to be 
kept under 
subjection. 
2. Fear, grief, envy, hatred, malice, revenge 
and despair weaken the nerves, retard the circu- 
lation, hinder perspiration, impair di- 
gestion, and produce spasms, obstruc- 
tions, and hypochondriacal disorders. Valeri- 
us Maximus gives fatal instances of terror. 
Violent anger creates bilious, inflammatory, 
convulsive, and apoplectic disorders, especial- 
ly in hot temperaments. Pliny and Aulus 
Gellius give us fatal instances of extreme joy. 
Sylla having freed Italy from civil wars, return- 
ed to Rome. He said, he could not sleep the 
first night, his foul being transported with ex- 
cessive joy and content, as with a strong and
mighty wind. 
Their effects. 
3. In that journal of Mr. Ives, Surgeon of 
the Dragon ship of war, recorded in Dr. Lind’s 
book of the scurvy, we find a memo- 
rable instance of the effects of oppo- 
site passions. On the thirtieth day of January
1743, this gentleman had ninety men on his sick 
lift, almost all scorbutics, fifty-five of which
seemed, to him, out of the power of medicine. 
News came on board, that the Spaniards were to 
Examples. 
push

326 OF REGIMEN.
push out of Toulon Harbour to join the French, in 
order to give battle to the fleet. Every eye spark- 
led with joy. So fast did the hopeless sick reco- 
ver, that, on the eleventh of February, the day 
of action, there were only four or five of the 
ninety who could be with-held from their fight- 
ing quarters. From the eleventh to the fifteenth,
the effects of joy continued; the Dragon's had 
all done their duty that day; few or none took 
notice of their illness. Every day brought on 
board fresh tidings of the scandalous behaviour 
of some ship or other. Those whom glory and 
the hopes of conquest had almost cured, relapsed. 
Before the end of the month, the sick-lift was as 
deep as ever. 
It is remarkable, in battle, the wounded horses 
follow their regiments, after having lost their ri- 
ders; on three legs they neigh for joy at the 
found of the clarrion. 
In weathering Cape-Horn, the Centurions crew 
was so dispirited by distress, that one half of the
men died. While the same ship cruized for the 
Aquapulco ship, golden dreams supported the men’s 
spirits, for full four months she was remarkably
healthy. 
In that long storm in which the Ipswich ship of
war lost her rudder, &c. fear and despondency 
seized the sailors to such a degree, that they 
rather chose to perish by inches below, than to
get upon deck to extricate themselves from 
danger. 
Those who brood over cares are the first at- 
tacked by putrid diseases, and the hardest to cure. 
Nor do wounds suppurate kindly. The hopes of 
ending their days among their native barren rocks 
make the Switzers fight under any banner.—The 
Royal Highlanders have, from their institution.
been

327 OF REGIMEN.
been real volunteers; many of them have fallen 
by the sword; in other respects, they are remark- 
ably healthy. New corps of Highlanders have 
since been raised; old men have been cozened 
from their families, and boys from their mothers 
laps. No sooner were they wasted to distant 
shores, than they began to pine away. Men ac- 
customed to cold, hunger and fatigue, fell mar- 
tyrs to the maladie de pais,—Africans transported 
to the colonies, no sooner cast their eyes on the 
hated shores, than they refuse sustenance, and 
often plunge into the main from a notion that 
their departed spirits regain their liberty.—Can 
drugs reach the seats of such diseases? What can 
medicines avail to love-sick minds? Wounded 
spirits who can bear? 
4. Moderate joy, virtue, contentment, hope, 
and courage invigorate the nerves, accelerate the 
fluids, promote perspiration, and assist 
digestion. Lord Verulam observes that 
chearfulness of spirit is particularly 
useful when we sit down to meals, or 
go to rest. “ If any violent passion should sur- 
prize us at these seasons, it would be prudent 
“ to defer eating, or going to bed until the mind 
“ recovers its wonted tranquility.”
Moderate 
passions 
healthy.  
5. It is observable that the perspiration is 
larger from any vehement passion of the mind 
when the body is quiet, than from 
the strongest bodily exercise when the 
mind is composed. Hence we infer, 
that those who are prone to anger, 
cannot bear much exercise, because the exube- 
rant perspiration of both might waste too fast. It 
is also remarkable that disorders which arise from 
vehement agitations of the mind, are more stub- 
born than those which arise from violent exercise;
The passion-
ate ougth to 
be quiet. 
because 











328 OF REGIMEN. 
because the latter are cured by rest and sleep,
which have no influence on the former. People 
who cannot bear losing, should never play. 
“ THERE is, they say, (and I believe there is) 
“ A spark within us of immortal fire, 
“ That animates and moulds the grosser frame;
“ And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven, 
“ Its native seat, and mixes with the Gods. 
“ Meanwhile this heavenly particle pervades: 
“ The mortal elements in every nerve 
“ It thrills with pleasure, or grows mad with pain, 
“ And, in its secret conclave, as it feels 
“ The body’s woes and joys, this ruling power 
“ Wields at its will the dull material world, 
“ And is the body’s health or malady.” 
FINIS.





























EXPERIMENTAL 
ESSAYS 
On the VIRTUES of the 
Bath and Bristol WATERS. 
By ALEX. SUTHERLAND, 
OF BATH, M. D. 
THE THIRD EDITION. 
IMPROVED AND CORRECTED. 
Multa enim in modo rei & circumstantiis nova sunt, quœ, 
in genere, nova non sunt. Qui autem ad observandum
adjicit animum, ei etiam, in rebus quœ vulgares videntur, 
multa observatu digna occurrunt. 
BACON De Augmentis Scientiarum. 
LONDON: 
Printed for A. TENNENT, Bookseller, in BATH; and
sold by S. CROWDER, in Pater-noster Row.
MDCCLXXII.



THE INTRODUCTION 
HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
Hugh, Earl of Northumberland, 
Baron Warkworth, and Baronet, Knight of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter, Lord-Lieutenant, and 
Governor-General of Ireland, Lord of the Bed- 
chamber to His Majesty, Lord-Lieutenant of the 
County of Middlesex, &c. &c. &c. 
My LORD, 
FROM a survey of that harmony which sub- 
sists between the parts of the creation, we 
may reasonably suppose that every man is ac- 
countable for those talents with which God has
a2 intrusted

70 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
universally agreed to be a native mineral salt ex- 
tracted from its proper ore, brought hither in 
pieces of a greyish colour, clammy or greasy to 
the touch, found in the mountains of White Tar- 
tary, and in some places of Persia. 
As far as its virtues have been discovered, it 
may be said to be aperient, stimulant, and at- 
tendant, particularly useful in promoting the lo- 
chia, menses; and urine. Mixed with blood it 
dilutes it, and seems to volatize the fluids. Its 
spirit discovers neither acidity nor alkalescency, 
nor can an acid be got from it by distillation, 
according to Lemery, Memoirs de l’Acad. 1728 
and 29. 
4. VITRIOL is a saline metallic substance com- 
posed of an acid and a metal. This acid, when 
it meets with an earth, makes an alum;
when it meets with a metal, it corrodes
it, and forms vitriol. 
Vitriol. 
Their virtues are styptic and astringent. By 
strengthening the fibres, they prove diuretic, 
are very nauseous, and so emetic. Too rigid 
to circulate through the vessels of worms, they
destroy them. They cicatrize more powerful- 
ly than alum. Quercetanus was so bewitched 
with vitriol, that he believed it contained the
virtues of the whole pharmacopoeia. Our sub- 
ject leads us only so far as it claims in natural di- 
lution. 
GTREEN VITRIOL is produced by the mixture 
of an acid sulphureous spirit with an irony sub- 
stance, Most mineral waters contain a quantity 
of irony matter; when therefore the subtile uni- 
versal acid sulphureous exhalations, in rising up, 
meet with irony particles, they unite themselves 
thereto, and thus produce a vitriolic principle, of 
a texture proportionable to the union; the Vitri- 
olum


INTRODUCTION. 
intrusted him. Of our imperfect endeavours, di- 
vine happiness stands in no need. By administer- 
ing to the wants of society, every man has it in 
his power to please the Almighty; in this, inte- 
rest and duty coincide. 
To your Lordship, the sovereign director of 
the general drama has assigned a part truly con- 
spicuous. Your actions uniformly proclaim you 
the patron of arts, as well as the friend of hu- 
man nature. By singular munificence, Ormond 
won the affections of the Irish. By faith invio- 
late, Dorset gained their confidence. By gentle 
rule, Chesterfield maintained tranquillity. To 
singular munificence, faith inviolate, and gentle 
rule, you joined disinterestedness, humanity and
affability. Scorning ignoble precedents, to the 
emoluments of office, you added princely re- 
venues; you enriched the province which you 
protected. In your Vice-royalty you may truly 
be said to have reflected honour on the Prince 
whom you so worthily represent. While Hi- 
bernia boasts of freedom, your government will 
stand as a model worthy of imitation. 
To me the almighty disposer has assigned a 
part which has the good of mankind for its ob- 
ject; and therefore intituled to your Lordship’s 
protection. Health is a subject philosophical, as 
well as medical. Plutarch, Cornaro, Lessius, 
Bacon, Boyle and Addison, have all treated of 
the subject of health. In no branch of the heal- 
ing art, is the subject of health more perhaps con- 
cerned than in that of Thermology. In diseases a- 
cute and chronical, water bids fair to answer every
indication. By temperance, exercise, and bath- 
ing, the very seeds of diseases are eliminated. 
Caeterum rari sunt morbi, sive communes tato corpori, 
sive particulas ipsas privatim occupantes, quos oppor- 
tuna Balneorum administratio on persanet, says the 
great

INTRODUCTION. 
great Baccius. With Fred. Hoffman, the mo- 
dern prince of mineral-water writers, we may 
venture to affirm, “ Mineral waters come the 
“ nearest in nature to what has vainly been 
“ searched after, an Universal Medicine.” 
IN fruitless speculations we advance. In solid 
doctrines we rather degenerate. Among the an- 
tients, the doctrine of waters was one ot the car- 
dinal branches of medicine. In this kingdom, wa- 
ters are used only as extreme unction. Baths are 
rude, uncultivated, and neglected. Our prede- 
cessors in practice have left us historical facts
faithfully, and accurately related. Scorning the 
bright example, we seem to content ourselves, 
with implicit belief; we neither improve ourselves, 
nor inform posterity. The sphere of Bath and 
Bristol waters seem rather circumscribed. Among 
the antients, Sailing was another cardinal branch
of medicine. In an island, we rarely try the ex- 
periment. In the practice of physic, as in other 
professions, there are fashionable arts, prejudices, 
and ignorances, in their consequences, equally 
fatal with errors experimental or practical. In 
discrediting waters, patients and practitioners 
mutually conspire. From theoretical notions, 
waters are damned in the very diseases which they
specifically cure. To pass over numberless proofs, 
Doctor Mead was the patron as well as ornament 
of that art which he professed. Stranger to the 
principles which compose Bath waters, or argu- 
ing from the relaxing property of simple warm 
water, (in his Manila & Praecepta Medica) he 
dogmatically lays down an assertion, which prac- 
tice daily confutes, Immersiones callidae paraliticis
omnibus nocent. 
PATIENTS, headstrong follow the dictates of 
their own imaginations, or the unseasonable sug- 
a3 gestions

INTRODUCTION.
gestions of designing meddlers; for the saving of 
paultry fees, they too often throw away the ex- 
pences of long journies, and their lives sometimes 
to the bargain. 
ALARMED by deaths unexpected, or uninform- 
ed by histories of cures, distant practitioners na- 
turally suspect mineral waters, condemning phy- 
sicians who had only the nominal care of patients 
peevish and refractory. In similar cases they arm
others with general directions; or cure them by 
epistolary correspondence. In symptoms variable 
and dangerous, they boldly counsel draughts of 
waters fraught with daggers; or, timidly order 
quantities so unavailing, that death often anti- 
cipates the cure. 
PERSUADED that it was my duty to investi- 
gate those instruments of health which provi- 
dence had put into my hands (in the first edition 
of my Attempts to revive Antient Medical Doctrines) 
I employed the leisure hours of years, in ascer- 
taining the nature and qualities of those foun- 
tains at which it was my lot to practise. Your 
Lordship did me the honour of accompanying me 
through the ruins of our Roman Baths; as relicts
truly Sacred, you deigned to preserve samples of 
Roman flues, bricks, and mortar. Towards the 
restoration of ruins truly venerable, (remember, 
My Lord) you was pleased to promise your par- 
liamentary interest. Honoured with such patron- 
age, from an analytical Essay, my little volume 
swelled to a size which far exceeded my first in- 
tention. Taught by experience, that where mi- 
neral waters failed, sea voyages succeeded, I ap- 
plied myself to the study of Sea-Voyages. Taught 
by the same experience, that where sea voyages 
proved ineffectual, many were restored by local 
remedies, I pursued the study of Local Remedies.
On

INTRODUCTION. 
On the subject of these my favourite pursuits,
little assisted by the moderns, I sedulously revolved 
the records of the antients. Forgetful of my in- 
terest, at no small expence, I printed, altered, 
and printed again. Attached to truth, I frankly 
exposed the laedentia as well as the juvantia; on 
every occasion, I was more free with my own 
failures, than with those of others. With the 
ingenuous De Haen, truly may I say rite, casteque, 
nostra notavi, fausta quam infausta, tam inutilia
quam perfecta; coaevis scribimus et posteris. 
Books may be compared to pictures. To their 
first sketches, painters are naturally partial; so
are authors to their manuscripts. When pictures 
come to receive the last touch, painters are sur- 
prised that they could not discover their blemishes 
before. While my labours were my own, I was 
loth to part with proofs which I had gathered 
with labour. Warmed with my subject, I was 
more attentive to matter than to manner. By 
ascertaining the nature and qualities of subjects 
so interesting, I hoped to lay some claim to the 
approbation of men concerned for the improve- 
ment of the healing art. Secure in the rectitude 
of my intentions, for the sake of my intentions, 
I flattered myself that my indiscretions might 
have been overlooked. Nor was I altogether dis- 
appointed. Partial to my failures, the Doctors 
Glass, Gilchrist, Lind, and Huxham were po- 
litely pleased to own that I had carried my re- 
searches on the same subjects, far beyond theirs; 
almost in the same words, they frankly acknow- 
ledged my Attempts to have been laborious, learn- 
ed, useful, and candid. Pleased with that simpli- 
city of practice which I laboured to restore, too 
truly, they foresaw my provoking the resentment 
of those who traffic with the art. For presuming 
a4 to

INTRODUCTION. 
to think for himself, in former days, Doctor Gui- 
dot called his brother Mayow a Novel-writer, 
judging him the wisest who takes things for granted, 
and who does not pragmatically contradict the unani- 
mous consent of judicious writers.—When Doctor 
J. Hen. Schutte was employed in the discovery 
of the mineral waters of Cleves, he loudly com- 
plains of the impertinence, and malevolence of 
men who did their utmost to disappoint a disco- 
very unexceptionably beneficial. For presuming
to reform, with my predecessor Mayow, I was 
deemed a novel-writer. By honestly endeavouring 
to found the virtues of Bath and Bristol waters 
on the rock of Observation, can it be credited, to
my astonishment, I found I had provoked the 
whispers of men whose bread depended on the 
promulgation of Bath and Bristol waters? Doc- 
tor Schutte laboured under the protection of his
Prussian Majesty. Truth triumphed, the virtues 
of the waters of Cleves are now universally ac- 
knowledged. 
FLATTERED on one side, was I obstinately to 
continue blind to my imperfections? Censured 
on the other, was I, for fear of censure, to drop
the cultivation of doctrines so interesting? Under 
your Lordship’s banner, what has truth to fear? 
Preferring truth to opinion, I resolved on a mid- 
dle course. From slander, and friendship, I ex- 
tracted truth. By narrowly prying into my own 
faults, I discovered faults which escaped criticism. 
On mature reflection, I blush not to acknow- 
ledge that, with more zeal than prudence, I in- 
veighed against Vulgar errors. My first Attempts 
were complex, crude, and unpolished. To men 
of eminence I relinquish the Herculean labour of
reforming the practice of physic. On the uncul- 
tivated fields of Antient Baths, Bath and Bristol
Waters,


INTRODUCTION. 
Waters, Sea Voyages, and Local Remedies, be mine  
the humbler talk still to labour. In separate es- 
says it may not perhaps be so difficult to do justice 
to particular subjects. The ruins of my first edi- 
tion I resolve to employ as materials for neater
edifices. 
DISAPPOINTED in foreign materials, I, for the
present, pass over the first part of my general 
work, beginning with the second. In your own 
person, you have, more than once, experienced 
the good effects of Bath waters. In the case of
your most exemplary son Lord Warkworth, with 
equal surprize and joy, your Lordship once con- 
fessed the power of Bristol waters. To the power 
of Bristol waters (with leave I proclaim it) the 
public stands indebted for the preservation of a
life which already begins to be an ornament to 
the public. Your Lordship did me the honour 
to peruse my manuscript; with the appearances 
of the residua of my experiments, you was pleased
to express your satisfaction. In your Lordship’s 
conversation, I always found pleasure mixed with 
instruction. In the gentleman, you cultivated those 
arts which adorn the nobleman. Uncommon  
with the generality of patrons, in researches phi- 
losophical and chymical, your judgment is second 
to none. 
MEDICATED WATERS are the workmanship 
of wise nature; in their principles, they differ so
much, that, even in the genus of those vulgarly 
called Chalybeates, it is hardly possible to discover 
two springs similar in taste, weight, salts, spirits,
or quantity. There are chalybeates which bear 
exportation, such as the Pyrmont, and Pohoun. 
There are chalybeates which become seculent, 
such as those of Cleve, or Geronster. There are 
chalybeates highly saturated with iron earth, and 
a5 ill

INTRODUCTION. 
ill provided with purging salts, such as those of 
Tunbridge, or Islington. These are chalybeates which 
contain a bitter purging salt, such as those of Scar- 
borough, Epsom, and Cheltenham. As are their in- 
gredients, so are their virtues. Those which plen- 
tifully suspend iron earth, have the virtues of crocus 
martis astringens; in relaxed bowels they are highly 
beneficial. Those which imbibe plenty of bitter 
purging salts are adapted to cachexies, jaundice, 
dropsy &c. Hot waters differ also from one ano- 
ther. These differences arise from the different 
quantity of that inflammable principle, with which
they happen to be impregnated. 
CHYMICAL EXPERIMENTS discover those dif- 
ferences. But, as the processes of nature surpass 
our imperfect endeavours, so do the principles of 
waters escape our nicest inquiries. With Baccius 
we may truly say “ Sedulo ergo fatebimur humani 
“ ingenii conjecturam non pertingere in certas rerum
“ proprietates, quae sunt occultae, et multae in a- 
“ quis.” To supply the deficiencies of chymical 
experiments, it is my purpose to reconcile the 
principles of the waters to reason; or, in other 
words, to confirm their virtues by memorable 
histories of diseases, or Cases. 
FACTS are evidences which neither craft nor 
malice can invalidate. In the ages of simplicity, 
external and accidental diseases were only regarded. 
Internal and spontaneous were rare; when they 
appeared, they were looked upon as the judg- 
ments of heaven. At the time of the Trojan 
war, ulcers and wounds were the employments 
of Apollo, Chiron, and Æsculapius. So little 
was the practice of physic known, that the father 
Æsculapius is said to have died of a pleuropneu- 
mony; his carcase was avoided because it looked 
black. 
In

INTRODUCTION. 
In after ages, the descendants of this same fa- 
ther of physic extended their views. They dis- 
persed, and erected themselves into societies and
schools. There they kept Registers of Diseases, 
of their antecedent causes, symptoms, periods, 
and consequences, of what had been hurtful, and 
what had been useful. They collated their ob- 
servations, and, from various experiments, deter- 
mined those things and methods which had been 
found useful in practice. Thus it was that phy- 
sic became a regular art. To Tables of health 
hung up in the Temple of Æsculapius, Hippocrates 
is said to have owed that amazing skill which 
moderns, with all their improvements, can hard- 
ly comprehend. In his books of Epidemics, he 
has set down every observation that occurred in 
his practice, with this view perhaps, that suc- 
ceeding physicians, imitating his example in par- 
ticular diseases, might bring the medical art to
some degree of perfection. 
To this collection of Epidemics, Galen added 
much.—Of the Arabians we find Rhasis a religi- 
ous admirer of the Greeks. With him we may 
join Avenzoar. The rest, contenting themselves 
with the invention of the antients, added nothing 
to the improvement of the art, if we except a 
few Nostrums. By their religion, they were for- 
bidden to dissect human bodies. Thus they were 
prevented from investigating the latent causes of
diseases. 
After these, the study of Observation was bu- 
ried in an age of barbarism. Gentilis, Gradius,
Placentinus, Valescus, and Gattinaria, have trans- 
mitted a few rare examples, smothered under the 
rubbish of obscure commentary. 
In this third and last age, we have seen the art 
of physic restored to its primitive simplicity and 
splendour. In his Observationn Medicae Rariores,
a6 Schenkius


INTRODUCTION. 
Schenkius has collected the works of some who 
pursued the road of observation. 
Albacus (in his second hook) says, Plurimum arbi- 
tror prudenti medico prodesse, si quamplurima notet 
exempla quœ sequatur. Tulpius, Aretaeus, Heister, 
Sydenham and Hoffman have improved the art. 
By sweeping away scholastic rubbish, Boerhaave 
has reconciled reason and experience., Stahl (in 
his Chemical Lectures) used to charge his pupils 
not to suffer their fancies to be led away by the 
subtle reasonings of the Cartesian philosophy. He
demonstrated that physic could not be rendered 
demonstrative, scientific, or beneficial, unless the- 
ory was confirmed by observation, or experiment. 
Royal Societies are noble institutions. Such 
was the Edinburgh Medical-Society. Such is that 
of London, such our present Medical Musaeum; 
and such are all the rest. In medical observations, 
the physicians of Vienna seem, at present, to ex- 
cell. Every practitioner has it in his power to
add a mite to medical knowledge; every practi- 
tioner has not matter for a book. 
OBSERVATIONS are, in no branch of medi- 
cine, so necessary as in that of mineral waters.
Some diseases yield to bathing, some to drinking; 
some require their united efforts. On the subject 
of mineral waters, hypothetic reasonings are, at 
best, precarious. Experience is the touch-stone.
In no branch of medicine are observations so 
much wanted; this has been the complaint of
past times, and is of the present. 
Doctor Jones published his Baths Ayde in the 
year 1572. “ I wish (says he) that patients 
“ would leave a note of the commodity received, 
“ with an account of their calling and condition, 
“ remembering the day of their entering the 
“ Bath, and the day of their departure, with the 
“ name


INTRODUCTION. 
“ name of the infirmity, paying four-pence to 
“ the poors box for registering the benefit received, 
“ until a physician be appointed.”—Dr. Jorden 
(in his book of Hot-Bathing) expresses himself 
thus. “ I will not pretend to reckon up all the 
“ benefits which our baths produce; but if we 
“ had a Register kept of the manifold cures which
“ have been wrought by the use of our baths, it 
“ would appear of what great use they are.”—
Dr. Pierce (in his preface) speaks thus. “ It
“ hath been very often desired (and, by many 
“ wondered that it was not done, if for no other 
“ benefit than that of the city) that a catalogue 
“ of eminent cures should every year be printed.” 
After assigning reasons for this omission, he pro- 
ceeds thus. “ Now, if instead of that, there be 
“ a Manuel of every one’s price and pocket 
“ (which is the chief end of this undertaking) 
“ that shall, under the head of every disease, give
“ examples of remarkable cures, it may attain 
“ all the ends proposed. Success good or bad, 
“ let it honestly be declared; that as the one 
“ may supply the place of a Landmark, the other 
“ may do the office of a Buoy.”—In Doctor Sum- 
mers’s Vindication of Warm-Bathing in Palsies, he
roundly tells the President and Governors of the 
Bath Infirmary to whom he addresses his Essay, 
“ The public has a right to be informed how far 
“ their benefactions have answered, that they
“ may thereby be encouraged to partake of a 
“ blessing, the streams of which may flow on 
“ themselves.” 
In Dr. Swinhow’s most ingenious Inaugural Disser- 
tation, De Thermarum Antiquitate, Contentis, & Usu, 
we find one caution highly apposite to our subject. 
“ Cæterum optime arti medicæ consultum foret, si 
“ historiæ quædam ægrorum, qui sontibus medi- 
“ catis

INTRODUCTION. 
“ catis usi sunt, fideli calamo conscriptæ suernit, 
“ in quibus notentur turn singulares horum casus, 
“ turn methodus bibendi unicuique magis accom- 
“ moda, cæteraque omnia que ad pleniorem hu- 
“ jus præstantissimi medicinæ generis cognitio- 
“ nem utcunque facere possint.” 
Bath-waters are neither saponaceous nor nitrous. 
Remarkable cures have, nevertheless, been per- 
formed by the concurrence of Soap and Nitre, 
Who would be so hardy as to prescribe mineral 
waters in Asthma’s, or Dropsies? In Asthma’s and
Dropsies, the reader will soon be convinced of 
the utility of Bath-waters. 
When wonderful cures are duly ascertained, 
we are bound to pursue the road of observation 
even in contradiction to hypothesis. Truth is not 
the less truth because our dull senses cannot com- 
prehend the modus operandi. Obstinancy proceeds 
from a vain opinion that the chymistry of nature 
ought to bend to our imperfect discoveries. The 
acid of Bath-water may be assisted by the natural 
acidity of the stomach, so as to neutralize alka- 
line medicines. This water manifestly decom- 
poses soap, yet (in Mrs. Elliot’s case) soap was ad- 
ministered to two or three ounces a day. The 
cure proceeded much better with soap than with- 
out.—In Mr. Lyon’s case, Nitre was administered
to six drachms a day, together with soap, 
Bath-water, drank at a distance, has perform- 
ed cures. Thus encouraged, patients have leap- 
ed to the fountain-head with joy. There they 
have produced untoward symptoms. The same- 
patients have again drank them cold, and have 
found their cure. 
Dr. Nugent communicated a case which un- 
questionably proves the position. This gentle- 
man practised many years at Bath, now in Lon- 
don.


INTRODUCTION. 
don. Of the propriety, or impropriety of Bath 
Waters, there lives not perhaps a better judge. 
“ MRS. COLBORNE, aged 53, of a scorbutic 
“ gross habit, was subject to erysepelatous erup- 
“ tions, with a periodical hæmorrhoidal flux, on 
“ the cessation of which, she gradually lost her 
“ appetite, complained of rheumatic complaints,
“ with an indolent tumour on the right side of 
“ the belly, by the gradual increase of which, 
“ the was reduced to a great degree of weakness;
“ the threw up every thing. 
“ She had tried variety of medicines. Bath-
“ water was at last proposed. She drank it in 
“ London, and with considerable benefit. This 
“ induced her to try it at the fountain, which the
“ did. She was soon convinced of her error. 
“ Bath water aggravated every complaint, the 
“ was obliged to desist. Little discouraged by 
“ this first attempt, the waited till the Bath-water 
“ symptoms had abated. She made a second at- 
“ tempt, with the same success. She contented 
“ herself with cold Bath water. She was cured.” 
The volatile principle, which, in pulmonic 
cases, may be prejudicial, flies off, or precipitates. 
The fixed parts retain their strengthening quali- 
ties, may, and are used with great benefit. There 
is no medicine that is capable of doing mischief,
but what may be made to do good, prudently ad- 
ministered. 
Dr. Underhill’s Short account of Hot-well-water 
Cures is the only collection that ever was pub- 
lished on that subject. It was printed in the year 
1703. In his time, patients who reaped benefit 
at the Wells were wont to leave certificates of the
benefit received, signed by their own hands. From 
this Autography, and from the testimonies of resi- 
denters in Bristol, then cured and alive, has this
facetious


INTRODUCTION. 
facetious author compiled his short account. On 
our present subject he expresses himfself thus. 
“ The great and good God, who formed man- 
“ kind all of the same clay, afflicts all with like 
“ diseases. To show forth his mercy, he freely 
“ bestows medicated waters, and puts it in the 
“ hearts of Princes, and many of the first  Quali- 
“ ty, to order their names and diseases, for the 
“ sake of the public, to be exposed in print, as
“ we see in Guidot’s System De Thermis Britanni- 
“ cis, and Pierce’s Bath Memoirs. The like is 
“ performed by other Mineral-Water-Writers. 
“ There are some notwithstanding who are scru- 
“ pulous in having their Cases published, mistak- 
“ ing their honour for their humour. The good 
“ man, quantum in se, will not let his fellow- 
“ creatures languish for want of putting to his 
“ helpful hand, he will rather benefit all, he 
“ loves his neighbour as himself. 
“ Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcer a celat.” 
IN the opinion of the great Boyle, The 
knowledge of mineral waters can never be ac- 
quired by any other method than that of analy- 
sis confirmed by experience. On the rocks of a- 
nalysis and experience, I have founded this first 
specimen of my second edition. By your attach- 
ment to the liberal arts, I would have the world 
to know, that I am not more ambitious of your 
countenance as a patron, than of your approba- 
tion as a judge. You have already been pleased 
to patronize my first Attempts. As a part of the 
general work, this naturally claims your second 
protection. Numberless are the authorities to 
which I own myself indebted. To hold these au- 
thorities up in the best light; by my own expe-
rience,

INTRODUCTION. 
rience, to confirm the observations of others be 
all my ambition. From your Lordship’s candour, 
well-meaning writers have nothing to dread. 
What pleasure to revolve histories of cure which 
had eluded the most judicious art! What satisfac- 
tion to be convinced that nature’s compositions 
surpass those of art! With what rapture must 
the ingenuous distant physician welcome patients 
whom before he had deliberately doomed to death! 
How gladly will he, in similar cases, fly to the 
same cities of refuge! From such, well-meaning
writers fear no censure. 
To the public, I beg leave to conclude with 
that apology which the Marquis De Santa Cruz 
makes for his Maximes Militaires et Politiques. 
Je suis un architecte qui ai ramasse des materiaux 
de divers endroits; d’autrui j’ai pris la pierre, 
et le bois; mais la forme de l’ édifice est toute de moi.
L’ouvrage des araignées to n’est pas plus estimable parce 
qu’elles produissent leur toils d’elles memes, ni le mien 
n’est pas plus meprisable, parce qu’a l’example des 
Abeilles, je tire le suc de fleurs étrangers. 
THE



THE 
CONTENTS. 
THE INRODUCTION contains a plan of the 
work. 
CHAP. I. Principles common to Bath and Bristol 
waters—Page 1 
Of Air—4 
—Spirit—6 
II. Principles peculiar to Bath water—22 
Of Iron—23 
—Salts and Earths—25 
—Sulphur—28
III. Principles peculiar to Bristol water—38 
Of Salts—40 
—Eart—42
IV. A rational account of the virtues of the 
several principles applied to Disease in 
general—44
Human body, its principles—59 
Virtues of Air—63 
—Spirit—65 
—Iron—66 
—Salts—68 
—Earths—72 
—Sulphur—73 
—Water—74 
DISEASES CURED BY BATH WATER—80 
V. Disorders of the First Passages—82 
Of Deglutition—85 
Of

CONTENTS 
—Depraved Appetite—89 
—Pains of the Stomach—92 
—Bilious Cholic—97 
—Hysteric Cholic—103 
—Dry-belly-ach—104 
VI. Disorders of the Urinary Passages—123 
Of Diabetes cured by Bath water—127 
VII. Diseases of the breast cured by Bath
water, particularly Asthma—131 
VIII. Of the Gout—140 
IX. Of the Rheumatism—162 
—Lumbago—165 
—Sciatica—166
X. Of cutaneous Diseases—169 
—Leprosy 
—Scrophula—172
—Scurvy —175
XI. Of Palsy—184
—Lameness after Fevers—196 
—Sprains—197
—from the Tendo Achillis—198
—from white Swelling—199
—from Wounds—200
—from Falls—201 
XII. Of the Jaundice—203 
XIII. Of the Dropsy—213 
XIV. Of Female Diseases—219 
—Obstruction  
—Immoderate Discharges—222 
—Barrenness—223 
—Abortion—226 
—Pregnancy—227 
DISEASES CURED BY BRISTOL WATER—230 
XV. Of Diseases of the Breast  
—Cough 
—Consumption—232
—Hectic Fever—234
Of

CONTENTS. 
Of Haemoptoe—235 
—Asthma  
XVI. Of Diseases of
the Urinary Passages—251 
—Diabetes 
—Gravel and Stone—261 
—Bloody Urine—266 
XVII. Of Diseases of the Stomach and Guts—269 
XVIII. Of external Disorders—272
XIX. Of REGIMEN, in general—275 
—DIET—277 
—Drinks—286 
—Tea and Coffee—288 
—AIR—293 
—EXERCISE—302 
—SLEEP—310 
—EVACUATIONS—311
—Bleeding—312
—Purging—317 
—Vomiting—320
—Sweating—324
—THE PASSIONS—325 



ERRORS of the PRESS.
Page 12, (marginal note) for Air volatile, read Acid volatile. 
12, (marginal note) for deprived of Air, read deprived or 
Acid. 
For the second marked page 11, read 13. 
13, line 17, for twelve more months, read twelve months
more. 
23, line 1, for 4, read 3. 
27, line 1, for passes, read pass. 
30, line 29, for well to, read well as to, 
46, line 33, for Parents, read Patients. 
51, line 7, for causts, read causis. 
72, line 17, for earth, read earths. 
77, line 7, for hebitate, read hebetate, 
88, line the last, leave out dem. 
110, line 3, leave out will. 
line 30, for lubricating, read lubricated, 
114, margin, for Causes, read Cases, 
128, line 24, for gout whey, read goat whey.
134, line 26, leave out not. 
139, line 5, for occular, read ocular. 
154, line 36, for whe, read when. 
169, line 14, for momentory, read momentary. 
174, line 15, for hot bath, read the hot bath. 
230, line 19, for now my purpose, read it is now my purpose. 
240, line 31, for timeously, read timely. 
283, line 33, for roasted, read broiled. 
284, line 8, for proven, read proved. 
289, line 3, leave out separately. 
line 32, for iomatous, read comatous. 




[1]
CHAP. I. 
OF PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
BATH and BRISTOL WATERS.
FOR health, or amusement, Bath and Bristol 
Hot-Wells have, time immemorial, been
frequented by chymists, natu- 
Generalindo-lence.
ralists, and philosophers. The num- 
ber of physicians has kept pace with 
the increase of patients. Without evidence, Bath
and Bristol waters have been accounted sulphure- 
ous, alkaline, saponaceous, ferrugineous, alumi- 
nous, and every thing but what they really are. 
The waters have now and then performed sur- 
prising cures. Had they been rationally investi- 
gated, their sphere must have been farther ex- 
tended. Critically to examine every author who
has attempted to analise Bath and Bristol waters, 
were labour lost. In disproving imaginary prin- 
ciples, opinions fall to the ground. What avail 
disquisitions about nitrous salts, while we know 
that nitre never yet existed in waters? What a- 
vail argumentations about salt of vitriol, while 
we know that the acid of vitriol is only to be 
found? 
A There

2 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
There are certain tribes of substances calcu- 
lated for discovering the principles of waters, 
which are the surer for having been tri- 
ed, which have held, and will hold, 
when we and our works come to be 
forgotten. By analogy and experiment, 
it is my purpose cooly and candidly to elucidate 
the truth. 
Chemical ex- 
periments, 
their use. 
Lord Chancellor Bacon’s Novum Organum Sci- 
entiarum contains a rational scientific method of
investigating the natures of things. Chymical ex- 
periments are not to be rejected because they 
cannot amount to mathematical demonstration. 
This objection bears equally hard on every art 
whose principles are employed in medicine. 
Every hypothesis is liable to errour; for this rea- 
son, man is fallible. The most active principles 
of waters can never perhaps be subjected to our 
senses. Antimonial cups communicate an eme- 
tic quality to liquors contained, while the con- 
taining vessels seem to have parted with no part 
of their weight; or, at least, none that analysis
can discover. Waters, doubtless, are impreg- 
nated with the effluvia of mineral substances yet 
unknown. How can we otherwise account for 
the wonderful effects of springs, in which no- 
thing but the pure element can be discovered;
such as the Piperine, or the Malvern? “ Variae 
“ dantur aquae heterogeneis qualitatibus imbu- 
“ tae, quae vulgarem explorandi methodum, a- 
“ deoque cognitionem nostram fallunt. Referen- 
“ di huc sunt quidam fontes salutares Slangen- 
“ badenses, Piperinae, Toplicenses, in quibus, prae- 
“ ter eximiam levitatem, vulgaria examina ni- 
“ hil fere peregrini et solidi deprehendere pos- 
“ sunt. Huc pertinet insignis Becheri observatio 
“ de spiritu luti caerulei in scaturiginibus obvij, 
magnarum

3 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ magnarum plane virium licet insipidus fit.” 
Jumckerij Consp. Chem. Tab. de Aq. & Becher. Physi 
subterran. passim. Chymistry promises verisimili- 
tude, which, if we modestly pursue, we may 
avoid the paths of ignorance, rashness, and ar- 
rogance. The very pillars of phisiology are 
Founded on chymistry. Digestion, chylification, 
sanguification, and the secretions, are all nature’s 
chymical processes. By the help of chymistry, 
we are enabled to separate mixtures the most 
compound, to exhibit principles, or contents, to
the cognizance of sense. Experiments demon- 
strate what our dull senses can never discover, 
viz. That water is capable of dissolving and sus- 
pending the hardest bodies, and the heaviest me- 
tals. Nor is the art of chymistry, particularly 
that branch of examining waters, so difficult as 
is commonly imagined. Those who have a 
mind to catch the weak by their weak sides, may
consult Boyle on Colours, Boerhaave’s Chymis- 
try, with Hierne’s Appendix to his Acta & Ten- 
tamina Medica. In examining waters, judgement 
is more requisite than genius. The means of 
discovering their contents, virtues, and uses, are 
already in the hands of man; nothing more is 
wanting to compleat the work, than a prudent 
scientific manner of using the means; or, to 
speak more plainly, the art of Induction. The 
bodies which dissolve in waters without altering 
their transparency, seem reducible to Air, Spirit, 
Salts, Earths, Iron, and Sulphur, Whether (by 
the help of chymistry) these are to be discovered 
in Bath and Bristol Waters, is the subject of 
this and the two following chapters. 
A2 I. Of

4 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
I. OF AIR.
To demonstrate the existence of water in water 
were labour lost. The first principle 
that presents itself in water is Air. Air 
seems to be, more or less, contained in every
water. 
Air.
1. SUBJECTED to the air-pump, Bath and 
Bristol waters dart air-bubbles from 
the bottom of the vessel to the surface. 
Experiments. 
2. BRISTOL WATER just pumped appears of 
a whitish colour, owing, doubtless, to the great
quantity of bubbles which it contains. As it 
cools, these bubbles disappear; nor can this whi- 
tish colour, ever after, be restored; a manifest 
proof of their having lost something very subtile. 
3. SET over a fire, in an open vessel, Bristol 
Water covers its sides with small air-bubbles. 
As it increases in heat, these bubbles increase in
number and bulk. They mount up to the top 
with such rapidity, that they put on the appear- 
ance of boiling, before the water comes thorough- 
ly to be heated. 
4. I filled a quart bottle with Bath water at the
hot-bath-pump. Over the neck of the bottle I 
bound a large bladder, well oiled on the outside. 
The bladder immediately began to swell, and, 
pressed upwards filled two-thirds with elastic air, 
hard as it so much of the bladder had been blown 
up by the mouth. 
5. I, in like manner, bound a bladder over 
the neck of a large quart bottle of Bristol wa- 
ter brought over to Bath. I placed the bottle 
before the fire. The air gradually began to 
distend the bladder, before the neck of the 
bottle, which was left empty, felt hot; com- 
pressed

5 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
pressed upwards, it exhibited an elastic ball, one 
third of its capacity.—This experiment may al- 
ways be produced by heat, often without. My 
authorities are Chrouet’s Connaissance des Eaux mine- 
rales d’Aix de chaud Fontaine, et de Spa, p. 68, &
Shaw’s Enquiry into the contents of Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 137—139. 
6. Statical Essays, vol. i. p. 181, and vol. ii. p. 
267, the ingenious Hales has extracted and deter- 
mined the different quantities of air contained in
different waters. 
7. To know whether this was air or spirit. Dr. 
Shaw made the following experiment. He filled
an open cylindrical glass with the fresh 
purgative Scarborough water, and put 
it under the receiver of an air-pump, 
then exhausting the air, till it ceased 
to emit any more, he took the water out, and put
a little powder of galls thereto. The water 
changed its colour, and turned purple, as strong- 
ly as before it was set under the receiver. Whence 
he infers that the mineral spirit did not escape a- 
long with the air-bubbles, and consequently 
that these air-bubbles and the mineral spirit are 
different principles. This conclusion he con- 
firms. 
Air and spi-
rit different
principles.
By the common experiment with galls he 
found that the chalybeate Scarborough spring 
contained more of the mineral spirit than the 
purging. By the experiment of the air-pump, he
found that the purging water discharged more 
air-bubbles than the chalybeate. He filled a 
quart bottle with the last, to which he fitted a 
bladder, as before described. The ball of subtle 
matter was not above one fourth-part so large as 
in the other. “ This experiment (he infers) 
“ therefore, if found constant, intimates, that air 
A3 “ and

6 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
“ and mineral spirit are two things; and that 
“ where the one is largely contained, the other 
“ may be less. It is chiefly on account of 
“ this large portion of air naturally contained
“ in the purging water, that we rather incline 
“ to make it a principle; for, if no more air 
“ could be discovered here than in common wa- 
“ water, or the ordinary sorts of purging waters, 
“ such as Epsom, Dulwich, Acton, &c. there 
“ could be no just foundation for making air a 
“ principle.” Vide Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, part ii. sect. 6. p. 140, 141. 
II. OF SPIRIT. 
1. BATH and Bristol waters fresh drawn from
the pump, manifestly sparkle, and throw 
off a mist, or vapor. After standing in 
the open air, they put off this appearance.
Spirit. 
2. BATH and Bristol Waters fresh drawn from 
the pump, seem grateful to the stomach, and 
cheer the spirits. By standing in the open air, 
they lose these properties. 
3. BATH and Bristol Waters drank at the 
pump have a sort of intoxicating quality, give an
alacrity, or occasion a head-ach, drowsiness, or 
ebriety. Drank at a distance, warmed or cold, 
they have no such effects. Hence may we infer 
that both these waters contain a spirit. Nor 
were the ancients unacquainted with this proper- 
ty. In his book De Architectura, lib. viii. cap. 3, 
Vitruvius expresses himself thus; Sunt etiam fon- 
tes uti vino mixti, quemadmodum est unus Paphlago- 
niae, ex quo etiam sine vino potantes fiunt temulenti. 
—Such are mentioned by Ovid, in his Meta- 
morphosis:
—Lyncestius

7 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS:
—Lyncestius amnis
Quem quicunque parum moderato gutture traxit, 
Haud aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset. 
Quodque magis mirum est, sunt qui non corpora 
tantum
Verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores. 
Cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae, 
Æthiopesque lacus? quos si quis faucibus hausit, 
Aut furit, aud mirum patitur gravitate soporem. 
tantum 
Lib. i. cap. viii, Valerius Maximus mentions 
ont, spring in Macedonia, and another in Agro Ca- 
lena, quo homines inebriantur.—In his Quœst, Na- 
tural. lib. iii. cap. 20, Seneca assigns this spirit as 
one of the causes of taste in waters; quotes O- 
vid, to confirm his opinion in assigning this spirit 
as the cause of ebriety.—In his Hist. Natural, 
lib. ii. cap. 103, and lib. xxi. cap. 2, Pliny makes
mention of the Lyncestian water causing drun- 
kenness.—In his Experiments, and Observations on 
Malvern Waters. Dr. Wall makes the like re- 
mark; page 154. 
4. AFTER the departure of air and spirit, one 
would naturally expect some sensible 
change; and indeed it seems reasona- 
ble to think that the specific gravity of
waters were thus increased, as their absolute comes 
to be diminished. Hoffman used a gra- 
duated instrument for ascertaining the 
weight of different waters. He sus- 
pected that the elastic spirit buoyed up the instru- 
ment; that therefore the experiment was less to 
be depended on, the specific gravity increasing as 
the spirit evaporated.—Dr. Short (in his History of
Mineral Waters, p. 56. 45. 164. 170. Edit. 1734.) 
subjected certain medicated waters to the air-
Gravity of 
waters.
Proved from
experment. 
A4 pump,

8 PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
pump, or exposed them in an open vessel. He 
found their specific gravity thus increased; he
assigns the reason. “ Exinde liquet aquam ali— 
“ quas particulas amisisse, quae quoniam neque 
“ vehiculum ipsum, neque fixa ejus contenta sunt, 
“ aër aut spiritus prorsus sunt censendae.” 
Dr. Home (in his Essay on Dunse Spaw, p. 160. 
163.) bottled up some of the water, corked it 
dole, and, after some time, found it lighter by 
some grains. He sagaciously assigns the reason; 
the escape of the Spirit. 
5. NOR is this opinion of the spirit of waters 
inconsistent either with reason or, ana-
logy. Water becomes insipid after 
having been exposed to the air. The 
same happens to oils and wines; they lose their 
strength, virtues, smell, and taste; they become 
vapid. The same happens to aromatic plants. 
Nothing proves the text so much as liquor in the 
state of fermentation, which continually throws 
up air, together with spirit, manisest to the senses. 
See Boerhaave’s Elements Chetn. Part iii. Process xii. 
& xiii. 
From ana-
logy.
6. WHAT laws this spirit is subjected to, seems
still to remain a secret. Hoffman thinks 
the Thermae are sooner deprived of their 
spirit than the Acidulae. The author 
seems not to have sufficiently distinguished be- 
tween air and spirit; nay, he seems to have con- 
founded the one with the other, under the com- 
mon name of spirit. Heat certainly rarifies and 
dissipates air; air escapes without spirit, and spirit 
escapes without air, as we have seen. 
Spirit its
laws.
7. WHAT sort of spirit this may be, or in what
form it exists in waters, we are now to 
inquire. Naturalists in general, main- 
tain that the spirit pf waters consists of 
Spirit its na-
ture
iron

9 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
iron or oker, minutely subtilized. When they 
come to explain its manner of existence, they 
differ. As (under the head of Air) we 
have fully explained, some are of opi- 
nion that this metal is divided into mi-
nute particles, and suspended by the     
means of a certain Acid, which, as they say, is 
the proper menstruum of metals. This seems to 
be Hoffman’s opinion; nor is he clear on the 
head; he speaks of an “ aethereo quodam valde 
“ mobili, ac subtili fluido, spiritu universali, 
“ fonte & causa omnis spirituascentiae, sedem su- 
“ am, vim, atque virtutem maxime collocatam 
“ habente in sulphure, substantia valde tenui, 
“ fluida, admodumque elaslica, et volatili, cum
“ universali mineralium sulphureo ente combina-
“ ta, omnesque terrarum tractus pervagante, a- 
“ nima quasi mineralium, variarumque mutatio- 
“ num, & effectuum qui in promptuario subter- 
“ raneo contingunt, causa.” Hoffman. Element. 
Aquar. Mineral. recte dijudicand & examinand. 
§. 8. 16. 18. alibique passim. According to 
this opinion, the spirit of water is no more nor 
less than a volatile vitriol. Those who contend for 
this doctrine, maintain that as this subtile acid 
flies off, it carries along with it some particles
of iron, which it suspends in solution, that it 
precipitates, or leaves others behind in form of 
an ochraceous martial-like matter, as in the ex- 
periment mentioned with the powder of galls. 
Astringents are said to absorb or blunt the acidum
solvens, by which the particles of iron once dis- 
solved now precipitate; hence change of colour. 
Nor can this be supposed to be owing to any vo- 
latility of dissolved metal; for, let but a vitriolic 
acid be added to any ferrugineous water, that (by  
Consists of
metal dissolv-
ed by an acid.
A5 the


10
PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
the escape of the acids) has become effete, the 
gall-tinging quality is forthwith restored. 
That there exists a certain Universal Vitriolico- 
sulphureous Acid, which pervades every thing, and 
which (by dissolving iron) constitutes 
the spirit of mineral waters, from posi- 
tive proofs we learn.—“ Take an al- 
“ kaline salt, expose it to the air in a 
“ place where neither damps, vapors, nor sun can
“ approach, it will be converted into a Tartarus 
“ Vitriolatus”—Mineral fumes are inflammable. 
Collected into bladders, they may be carried to 
any distance. Opened near a candle, they catch 
fire. When ore is poor, miners shut up this va- 
por, that (by being imbibed by the phlogiston) it 
may enrich the metals, heighten their splendour, 
and make them malleable. Mineral fumes con- 
tain a portion of the phlogiston; the more they
are impregnated with this inflammable principle, 
the more volatile, powerful, and penetrating they
are. Dr. Teichmeyer, professor of physic in the 
university of Jena, relates a memorable instance 
of a chalybeate spaw, in the Lordship of Cracow,
a manifest proof of our text. This spaw was, 
not long ago, set on fire by lightning, which oc- 
casioned no small damage to the adjoining forests, 
and was with great difficulty extinguished. It is 
remarkable, that this fountain may be kindled at 
any time by the means of a candle. But, it is 
as remarkable, that this water, removed from the 
well, cannot be set on fire. This author adds, 
that he could relate several methods by which the 
inflammable principle of mineral waters might be 
made patent to the senses. “ When (continues 
“ he) in the manner aforesaid, medicinal waters 
“ exist, then the acid becomes invigorated by 
“ the phlogiston contained in the mineral fumes. 
Universal 
Vitriolic
acid.
“ it


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ it dissolve the finest parts of the Iron Earth, 
“ which solution is, at the same time, attracted 
“ by this principium infammabile, and incorporat- 
“ ed with the water concrete.”
8. These fumes cannot be said to be the products- 
fire, because, when they meet with fire, they 
burn. Air is the agent that constitutes, moves,  
and disperses these fumes thro’ the bowels of the 
earth. This appears by that affection, or readi- 
ness with which it unites with the external air. 
9. THAT vapors, air, or fumes are necessary 
adjuncts in the composition of mineral waters, we
cannot doubt. Hoffman quotes a mo- 
dern instance from Lic. Andrea. A
chalybeate well in the Dukedom of Wirtenberg all 
of a sudden lost its virtue and efficacy. The rea- 
son of this change was found to be owing to the 
digging of stone-cutters, which accidentally broke 
through a cavity of the rock, out of which issued
a strong mineral fume. The cavity was immedi- 
ately ordered to be carefully closed up, the well 
recovered its pristine qualities. See Dr. Turner’s
Appendix to his Herbal, printed at Coin, page 4. Dr. 
Seippius has recorded a similar account in his His- 
tory of the Pyrmont Waters, page 48. 
Air vitriolic. 
This vapor is of an acid nature, none other 
than that Acidum universale, or Vitrioline acid,
which has its birth in the bowels of the earth,
and not in the ocean, as Stahl and Newman have 
proved by experiments too long to be here re- 
cited. 
THAT the acid of sea salt owes its production
to the vitrioline add, we know by the trite expe- 
riment. “ Smelt common salt with the 
“ simplest phlogiston, destitute of salt 
“ or acid, then may some brimstone, 
“ and even a little vitriol, be produced.”
Acid of sea
salt what.
A6 10. THAT

12 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
10. THAT this acid is of a subtile volatile na- 
ture we cannot doubt, if we allow ourselves to be 
guided only by our senses. It impreg- 
nates the air, so that it proves offen-
sive to some asthmatics. It corrodes the iron- 
works in and about the baths. Copper rings have, 
for this reason, been bequeathed for the use of the 
bathers to hold by, as may be seen by the inscrip- 
tions therereon recorded. 
Air volatile.
11. As this acid vapor flies off, the water be- 
comes turbid, so that the bottom of the baths can 
hardly be discovered, at the depth of 
two or three feet. The earthy parts 
which were before suspended by means 
of this mineral acid spirit joined to the 
natural heat, now preponderate, and adhere to 
the sides of the glasses, and to the walls of the 
baths, in the form of a pale ochrous earth. In 
the closest and quickest corking, this, vapour so
far escapes, that some precipitation is formed by
the time that the water cools. 
Deprived of
air waters 
become secu- 
lent. 
Such chalybeate waters lose their texture as 
soon as they come to be exposed to the air. They 
are unfit for exportation; at a distance they are 
nevertheless friendly to many constitutions. The 
iron earth is the matrix in which the vitrioline a- 
cid is generated; yet it is well known that neither 
all iron minerals, nor the same, at all times, are 
provided with this acid; for so, all common wa- 
ters would be chalybeates, because there are hard- 
ly any which have not, in some part of their pas- 
sage, a communication with iron ore. When a 
water meets with an iron ore vein that contains a 
portion of the acid vapour, this vapour is concen- 
trated with the water; the chalybeate spaw be- 
comes complete. When it meets with too great 
a quantity of the acid, it is useless or noxious- 
When


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
When the air meets with that Sublimate which 
Basil Valentine calls the seed of metal, and which 
Linden calls the metallic nutriment, which exists 
in a soft state like the Butter of Antimony, and 
that subsists in quantity, then this matter is 
brought by the acid in the air into agitation, by
which it receives additional substances. These 
fumes arise, in some places, more abundantly than
in others. 
12. Dr. Teichmeyer relates an experiment that 
proves the great power of the Air and the Acid
therein contained. “ He exposed fil- 
“ ings of Iron to the open air, rain, 
“ snow, sun, and moon-shine. In a 
“ year’s time, these filings were redu- 
“ ced to a Crocus, which he washed and laeviga- 
“ ted. This he exposed for twelve more months. 
“ Then he put it into a Retort, and distilled it
“ gradually through all the degrees of fire. In 
“ the neck of the retort, he discovered a black 
“ greasy stinking materies viscosa, et quosi butyrosa, 
“ in which was contained a good portion of 
“ Quicksilver.” “ This experiment (says Lin- 
“ den) which I could corroborate with many in- 
“ stances, evidently proves that the Air has pow- 
“ er with the primogenial Acid therein contain- 
“ ed, without any other addition, to open the 
“ iron, so that it may yield its mercurial con- 
“ tents.” 
Air and acid 
their joint
powers.
13. THIS acid proceeds from the Pyrite, which
disunited composes the Bath-sand; the phlogiston 
or inflammable principle having escap-
ed. The phlogiston thus fled, the a- 
cid of the sulphur forms an union with 
the metallic parts of the pyrite. This constitutes 
the chalybeate principle.  
The acid pro-
cedes from the
Pyrite.
IT


14 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
14. IT is well known that acids dissolve iron. 
Alkalis and absorbents precipitate iron. Chalybe- 
ate waters consist of iron dissolved in 
some kind of acid. Galls and astrin- 
gent vegetables act as absorbents, and 
cause a precipitation, in colour, from 
different shades of purple or blue to 
black, according to the nature of the acid in 
which the iron is dissolved, and the proportion of
the saturation, or strength of the solution. The 
stronger the solution of the metal, the more of 
the astringent will be required, and the deeper the 
colour will be struck, and e. c. This knowlege 
accounts for the mystery of dying. 
Chalybeate 
waters consist 
of iron dis- 
solved in an 
acid. 
15. EXPERIENCE tells us that volatile and fixed 
alkalis attract acids which before kept earths or 
metals in solution. The metallic or 
earthly parts are precipitated, and a 
neutral salt is produced which determines the na- 
ture of the acid. 
Experiments.
SPIRIT of hartshorn, or Sal-ammoniac, drop- 
ped into a glass of Bath-water hot, causes an 
ebullition and a milkiness with a yellowish hue 
which gives a light precipitate of the same cast, 
and throws up an earthy pellicle. The like ef- 
fect is wrought in the water cold and well corked, 
though more slowly, less sensibly, and more 
whitish. 
THE acid saturated with the volatile, or fixed 
alkali, gives Glauber’s secret Sal-ammoniac in the 
one, and Vitriolated-tartar by the other, which 
proves the acid to be vitriolic. 
HENCE the absurdity of prescribing volatile-al- 
kaline salts, spirits, soap, milk, &c. with waters 
hard, in the strictest sense. Bath-wa- 
ters are utterly unfit for domestic pur- 
poses. They thicken, strengthen and harden, in- 
Inference.
stead


15 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
stead of resolving or relaxing, as theorists ignorant- 
ly suppose. 
ALL the simple as well as fermented vegetable 
acids mix naturally and easily with Bath-waters. 
Distilled vinegar causes no change of colour, or 
other alteration. The mineral acids, except in 
a concentrated state, or when the vitriolic is add- 
ed in such a quantity as to excite more heat, mix 
kindly. 
16. To this doctrine of Acids, the trite expe- 
riment with Syrup of violets generally used to prove
the existence of an alkali may seem 
repugnant. It must be confessed that 
this syrup turns the waters to a sea-green, and in
eight hours after to a bright grass-green. 
Objection. 
17. THIS is an appearance that overbears those 
who deny the existence of an alkali in chalybeate 
waters. And, to say the truth, this has perplexed 
learned and ingenious men, who, by not consi- 
dering the matter deeply, yielded up the point to
those who maintained an alkali. Let us harken 
to Linden, Page 114, he says, “ This 
“ mistake arises from not properly dis-
“ tinguishing the differences in matter. Iron Vi- 
“ triol has such a green colour as the syrup of 
“ violets assumes when mixed with chalybeate 
“ waters, yet there can be no man so ignorant as
“ to imagine that this proceeds from an alkali, 
“ as the acid predominates so much in the com- 
“ pound. 
Answered.
“ Verdigrease is perfectly green, manufac- 
“ tured with vinegar and copper. I know no 
“ alkali that is accessary to this; the copper ap- 
“ pears in blue crystals when dissolved and cry- 
“ stallized. 
“ Pour Aqua fortis on Iron ore, it becomes in- 
“ stantly green. Supposing even an alkali in the  
“ iron

16 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
“ iron ore, the green colour cannot be owing to 
“ that; because the acid is predominant, and 
“ were there alkali enough in the ore to occasion
“ this green colour, it would discover itself by 
“ an effervescence. 
“ The solution of perfect iron yields a green 
“ colour as soon as it is dissolved by acids. Thus, 
“ we see by how many various ways green co- 
“ lours may be produced; therefore may we con- 
“ clude that the green colour in these aquatic 
“ mixtures is essentially inherent in the Iron ore, 
“ without assistance of alkalies, syrup of violets, 
“ or any thing of the like nature. 
“ Whence is it then that this green colour is 
“ produced? 
“ Syrup of violets contains an iron earth; from
“ it may be produced an iron earth by art. 
“ The acid in the chalybeate water is checked 
“ by the mucilage of the iron ore, which is pro- 
“ bably the true reason why the water preserves 
“ its crystalline purity unmixed. 
“ Syrup of violets sets acids and alkalies at li- 
“ berty. It acts only naturally when it sets the 
“ acid free from the mucilagium ferri; the more 
“ it subsides, the stronger the green colour ap- 
“ pears; the acid works naturally on the iron 
“ earth dissolved into atoms most minute. This 
“ is the real cause. Tor if this green colour of 
“ the syrup was owing to an alkaline quality of 
“ the waters, that share of alkali requisite to 
“ produce it would constitute such a dispropor- 
“ tioned ingredient that they would be as caustic 
“ as Soap-lees, which is by no means the case.” 
BATH WATER curdles milk, as every nurse 
knows. Powerful, nevertheless, as this 
Acid appears to be, it does not alter the 
colour of the juice of Turnsol, the Heliotropon tri- 
Bath water 
curdles milk. 
coccum

17 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
coccum of C. Bauhinus.—Aken Waters recover 
spots made in paper by Acids. So must Bath Wa- 
ter, had it (like the former) contained an Alkali. 
BRISTOL WATERS, as it boils, loses its pellu- 
cidity, and deposits an earthy chalky-like matter 
on the bottom and sides of the vessel. 
Thus it comes to be robbed of its mi- 
neral acid. It now becomes soft, fit
for domestic purposes, of mixing with 
soap, washing, brewing, &c. That Bristol Wa- 
ter contains an acid, and that this acid is of a vo- 
latile nature, the following experiments evince. 
Bristol Wa- 
ter acid and
volatile.
1. A glass of Bristol Water poured on a few 
grains of Sal Armoniac, dissolved it im- 
mediately with a sensible effervescence. 
Experiments. 
2. Spir. Sal Armoniac with a fixed alkali pro- 
duced the same effect. 
3. Solution of Sal Tartar produces the same 
effervecence; but gives the liquor a milkiness 
which precipitates a whitish light earthy sub- 
stance. 
4. Solution of Soap curdles and makes the wa- 
ter turbid. 
5. The same substances poured into common 
water distilled, produced no sensible change. 
6. In different glasses of common water distil- 
led, were dropped Spir. Vitrioli; in others other 
mineral acids. To these were added volatile alka- 
line salt, volatile alkaline spirit, fixed alkaline
salt and solution of soap. The same appearances 
arose as when these were first added to the Bristol 
Water. 
HENCE may we conclude, That these waters 
do contain an Acid. By means of this acid it is
that (in the two first experiments) the  
effervescence is produced. In the third 
the additional circumstance of the milkiness arises
Corollaries.
from

18 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
from the fixed alkaline solution attacking the acid 
of the waters more strongly than did the calcari- 
ous earth, by means of which it is no longer 
soluble, but becomes cognizible in form of a 
white precipitate, which was in a saline state 
while united with the acid, and so soluble in 
water. 
In the fourth, the Soap becomes decomposed, 
the Oil swims on the top, while the Acid and Al- 
kali lay hold of one another. 
If these waters are kept but a day, corked ne- 
ver so close; or, if they are boiled, and then 
these experiments made, neither the effervescence 
nor the decomposition will appear. The milki- 
ness and the precipitate will insue, because the 
waters are robbed of their power of dissolving
earthy substances. 
HENCE it is also manifest, That the Acid of
these waters is of a volatile nature. 
7. To determine the nature of this acid, let us
drop a solution of Silver in spirit of ni- 
tre. The mixture puts on the appear- 
ance of milky, and deposits a white 
precipitate. 
Bristol water 
neutral and 
vitriolic. 
8. In a glass of water pour a solution of Lead 
in the same spirit, the same phoenomena appear. 
FROM these trials it is demonstrable that the 
alkaline basis of Sea-salt is contained in these wa- 
ters; for (by the union thereof with 
the nitrous acid) an Aqua-regia is form- 
ed which dissolves gold, but touches not silver, 
nor lead. In consequence of which the precipi- 
tation insues. 
Corollary. 
9. Pour a solution of Quicksilver in spirit of ni- 
tre into a glass of water, it grows turbid and de- 
posits a yellow precipitate, which confirms the 
foregoing experiment. 
10. To


19 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
10. To solutions of Bristol Water turbid or 
precipitated by Spir. Sal. Armon. Sal. Tartar, Calx 
viv. &c. pour Oil of Vitriol, the transparency is 
immediately restored. 
11. Ol. Tartar per deliq. added to that which 
contains oil of vitriol, a great effervescence in- 
sues, and the heat goes off but slowly. 
12. Solution of silver was added to the water. 
To this was added Soap-lee, which caused a black 
precipitate by standing, which could not be dis- 
turbed by Spir. Sal. Armoniac. 
HENCE we may infer that this water contains 
a great share of phlogiston, with vitrio- 
lic spirit medicated and absorbed by a 
calcarious earth. 
Corollary.
13. To a glass of water, Scarlet dye was added. 
A small precipitate insued, the upper part remain- 
ed of a fine scarlet colour. As soon as Spir. Sal. 
Armoniac was added, it struck an opaque purple 
colour. 
HENCE may we conclude that this water is (in 
its natural state) neutral in all respects, rather 
inclinable to the vitriolic acid; which 
is the reason that it continues its scar-
let colour; but, as soon as an urinous spirit is 
added, then the Cochineal loses its scarlet colour, 
and turns to purple. 
Corollary.
14. The water was also tried with blue dye, and 
pompadore, without any alteration. This con- 
firms the last experiment. 
FROM the sum and substance of the foregoing 
experiments, we conclude, that the whole nature 
and texture of Bristol water (not even its warmth 
excepted) depends on the vitriolic acid. 
THESE are others who maintain. 
That the spirit of waters consists of fer- 
reous particles dissolved without the in- 
Spirit said to 
consist of iron 
without the 
acid. 
terposition



20 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
terposition of an acid. In support of this opinion 
these urge, That a sort of ink may be prepared, 
by infusing pure iron in simple water, saturated 
with the powder of galls. Nor does Shaw dis- 
own the fact, See his Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 151—158.—In infusions of filings of iron 
with water distilled, there appear certain phoeno- 
mena, not dissimilar to those which may be seen 
in mineral waters. See Home’s Essay on Dunse- 
spaw, p. 157, 158. The subtile particles escape 
in form of spirit, the heavier precipitate as in so- 
lutions of iron by acids. If so, why (say they) 
may not iron in like manner, be supposed to be 
dissolved in mineral springs? 
In his Essay on Dunse-spaw, p. 60. 62. 157. 160. 
Dr. Home observes, that some of the ferreous 
particles settle on the surface, in the form of a 
thin pellicle, not unlike to that which is com- 
monly observed on the surface of lime water.— 
In Dr. Whytt’s ingenious Essay on Lione water, 
p. 62, 63, & 74, 75. he has experimentally dis- 
proved the existence of an acid in Lime-water.— 
Shaw’s Experiment with astringents seems no less 
to favour this opinion than the other. If the 
powder of galls, tea-leaves, or any other astrin- 
gent precipitate iron, by absorbing the acid, may 
not the same phoenomena be expected from al- 
kaline substances? From such mixtures, such ap- 
pearances never happen. They therefore con- 
clude, that this effect of galls ought rather to be 
attributed to that astringent property common to 
such substances, by which they attract the parti- 
cles of iron, and thus tinge water blue, purple, 
or black, by which the heavier particles also fall 
to the bottom. This opinion they think confirm- 
ed by the following experiment. “ In his Expe- 
“ riments and Observations on Chalybeate Waters,
“ Dr.



21 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ Dr. Hales observes, That many natural wa- 
“ ters, after they had deposited their oker, and 
“ afterwards suffered such a degree of corruption 
“ as to be there by resolved (by the help of pow- 
“ der of Galls) put on as intense a colour, as if 
“ they had been just taken up at the fountain- 
“ head.” Hence they infer, that the spirit of 
water is iron per se, or incorporated with sulphur, 
or some other principle, divided into particles most 
minute by the chymistry of nature, without the 
interposition of an acid. Nor does this opinion 
differ from the former, otherwise than in the 
manner of the solvent. In both, the spirit of 
waters is allowed to consist of iron, or oker mi- 
nutely subtilized, one by the help of a volatile 
vitriolic acid, the other without. In his elabo- 
rate inaugural dissertation De Thermarum antiqui- 
tate, contentis, et usu, Swinhow seems inclined to 
the latter. His words are these; “ Tamen hanc 
“ sententiam pertinacius profiteri nolim, dico ta- 
“ men, in praesenti, mihi visum probabiliorem.” 
From analogy, as well as from arguments and 
experiments stated and compared, I am inclined 
to believe, that Bath and Bristol Wa- 
ters contain a Spirit; that this spirit 
consists of Iron subtilized and suspended by the 
means of an Acid, and that this acid is none 
other than that Universal Vitriolico-sulphureous prin- 
ciple which pervades the bowels of the earth, and 
which constitutes the life, soul, and spirit of me- 
dicated waters. So much for principles common 
to Bath and Bristol Waters; we now proceed to 
those which are peculiar to Bath Water. 
Corollary. 
CHAP.



22 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR 
CHAP. II. 
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BATH WATERS.
Particular
experiments. 
1. DURING the spring and sum- 
mer months, there are black 
slimy cakes which float on the surface of the baths. 
These were supposed to be cakes of floating sul- 
phur. Mr. Haviland apothecary, first discovered 
them to be aquatic plants conveyed thro’ the cran- 
nies of the rocks to the fountain head, the Jelly 
moss, or Conferva gelatinosa, omnium tenerrima et 
minima, aquarum limo innascens, of Ray.
Oker.  
2. THE baths, as far as high-water- 
mark, are lined with a pale yellow sub- 
stance; as are the conduits which carry off the re- 
dundant water. 
To discover the different degrees of heat, the 
following trials were made. By Farenheit’s ther- 
mometer, the hottest spring in the 
King’s Bath raised the quicksilver to 
103.—In the coolest part of the same 
bath to 100.—In the hot bath it stands at 100 or 
101.—In the Cross Bath 93, 94 —The Queen’s 
Bath is only a reservoir from the King’s, it raises 
the mercury to 93, 94. The heat at the pumps 
varied by every trial. At the Cross Bath, the 
mercury sunk from 110 to 105.—The Hoth Bath 
from 116 to 112.—The King’s from 116 to 
114. 
Heat of the 
springs. 
The lowest trials equal the heat of the human 
blood in a healthy state, and (according to Hip- 
pocrates} are therefore friendly to the constitu- 
tion. 
4. WEIGHED



23 TO BATH WATER.
4. WEIGHED, Hot Bath water ap-
pears to bear the ratio of oz. 4:6:0:12 
to oz. 4:6:0:16 cold. 
Gravity.
By these experiments we learn. That the dif- 
ferent springs are differently impregnated, and 
differently heated; their produce also 
is different.—We learn also that they
spring not from the same source; for if one of the 
cisterns is kept empty, this prevents not the cistern 
at the head of any other spring from filling in its 
usual time, notwithstanding all the springs break 
out within the compass of half an acre, in the 
form of a triangle, whose base measures 415 feet, 
its longer side 380, and its shorter about 110. 
Generals premised, we now proceed to investi- 
gate particular principles.
Corollaries. 
I. Of IRON. 
UNDER the heads of Air and Spirit, it fully ap- 
pears, That (by the interposition of the Univer- 
sal Vitriolic Acid) Iron is not only dis- 
solved, but suspended also in waters;
that, as this acid escapes, the walls of 
the baths and the conduits become incrusted with 
a pale or yellow oker; that waters, vulgarly and 
improperly termed chalybeate, lose their texture, 
by being exposed to air, and become unfit for 
exportation; that the iron-earth is the matrix in 
which the vitriolic acid is generated; that when a 
water meets with an iron-ore vein which con- 
tains a portion of the universal acid, the acid va- 
pour comes to be concentrated with the water, 
the chalybeate spaw becomes complete; that 
when it meets with too great a quantity of the 
acid, it becomes noxious, and that this acid pro- 
ceeds from the pyrite, which disunited, composes 
Bath water
feruginous.
the


24 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath-sand. Thus, the acid of sulphur forms 
an union with the metallic parts of the pyrite. 
This constitutes the ferrugineous principle of 
Bath waters, as by the following tells will ap- 
pear. 
Experiments 
on the Bath 
sand. 
THE first mineral substance that pre- 
sents itself to our view, is that Sand- 
like substance, thrown up at the sources 
of the springs, especially when the in- 
verted cisterns are taken up to be cleaned. 
1. To the taste, this substance is ferrugineous, 
and manifestly styptic. 
2. THE water in which it is washed, strikes a 
blue with an infusion of logwood, and a purple 
with galls. 
3. THE residuum, calcined till it ceases to 
fume, moved to the magnet, some particles are 
attracted. 
4. THE Baths and drains are lined with a yel- 
low oker. 
5. WITH infusions of logwood, galls, tea, 
pomegranate-bark, balaustine, &c. the waters 
fresh pumped, change to purple. Thus the fer- 
rugineous principle seems incontestibly to exist. 
We now proceed to determine the portion of iron 
contained in a given quantity of water. 
6. IN the third volume of the Edinburgh Me- 
dical Essays, we find an experiment recorded by 
Professor Monro, which enables us 
(with some sort of certainty) to deter- 
mine the quantity of iron contained in 
waters. He observes that the propor- 
tion of iron in its salt, or vitriol, is little more 
than one third. If one ounce of this salt of steel 
be dissolved in 20 ounces of water Troy-weight, 
142 drops of which solution weigh two drachms, 
every such drop will contain 1/75 of a grain of iron. 
Quantity of 
iron contain- 
ed. 
By



25 TO BATH WATER.
By this standard, the Doctors Charleton and 
Lucas have investigated the quantity of iron con- 
tained in Bath waters. According to the former 
(Essay on Bath Waters, p. 9.) the chalybeate prin- 
ciple in a pint of King’s Bath pump water 
comes out to be 1/70 of a grain nearly; in the Hot 
and Cross Bath pump water 1/140. According to the 
latter (Essay on Mineral waters, p. 293.) every pint 
of the King’s Bath pump water may be supposed 
to contain 1/37 of a grain of iron. 
In an inconclusive experiment of this sort, it 
signifies little on which side the quantity scrupu- 
lously lies. The experiments of both tend to 
corroborate the existence of iron. This extreme 
divisibility and tenuity of metal is the work man- 
ship of wise Nature, who deals out her sanative 
compositions in quantities which heal safer and 
surer than waters deeply saturated. 
II. Of SALTS and EARTHS.
WHEN I had prepared my materials for the 
press, I happily met with Dr. Linden, a German, 
trained up (as is common in that country) to 
Metallurgy and Mineralurgy, from his infancy. 
Assisted by Mr. Morgan, an expert practical chy- 
mist of the city of Bristol, in his elaboratory, we 
proceeded to experiments more demonstrative and 
more satisfactory far than those which I had la- 
boured. 
EXP. I. 
TWENTY-NINE pints of King’s Bath water 
were filled at the cock in a wickered 
bottle, and carried to Bristol, where it 
was put into a glass retort in B. A. The water 
Experiments.
B steamed



26 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
steamed away gently, without coming to a boil- 
ing heat. 
There appeared no pellicles, no change of co- 
lour in the liquor. To the upper part of the re- 
tort there adhered clear pellucid salts. The par- 
ticles which fell to the bottom were also salts, ra- 
ther insipid to the taste. 
There were no earthy parts perceptible to the 
naked eye, excepting some few yellow specks. 
Principles peculiar 
EXP. II. 
A PINT and a half of the evaporated water was 
caught in a vessel which received it as it dropped 
from the mouth of the retort. This had the ap- 
pearance of a bittern of common salt. This was 
put into a Florence flask, which was again com- 
mitted to the sand. The liquor continued transpa- 
rent. There precipitated a calcarious earth, in 
appearance, of the mature of Magnesia Alba. The
same magnesia, or earth, if it is to be so called, 
may at any time, be obtained from common bit- 
tern. 
I have preserved the lixivium still to be seen, 
of the very taste and consistence of brine, and co- 
lourless. 
How different these appearances of ours from 
those mentioned by former inquirers, Liquors 
terrestrious, unctuous, brown, Madeira, successions of 
pellicles, calcarious earths, nitres, alkaline and ni- 
trous salts, &c! When waters are evaporated 
in large, flat, open vessels, may not external 
dust intermix with the process? May not precipi- 
tant boiling, in some measure, account for such facti- 
tious principles? Alkaline salts are artificial earthy 
productions. The volatile acid of the salt is de- 
tained by the alkaline earth, and mixes so closely 
that



27 TO BATH WATER.
that both passes together thro’ the filtre. When these 
cause an effervescence with acids, the phoenome- 
non is owing to the alkaline earth which consti- 
tutes the basis of the neutral salt, which gives the 
purging quality to the waters. The powder which 
puts on the appearance of calcarious earth, is none 
other than Bath-quarry stone dissolved by the 
vitriolic acid. To confirm this assertion, Let 
this same stone be dissolved in spirit of vitriol, 
then mixed with water; let the water be poured 
off after settling, you have the calcarious earth. 
If it is precipitated with water distilled from lime 
and soap-lees, the earth will appear to be Bath- 
quarry stone. 
EXP. III.
EXAMINED in a microscope, the salts put on 
the forms of six or seven crystals of different sorts. 
On the different forms into which cry-
stals shoot, little stress is to be laid. 
Our senses are too gross to dive into the elemental 
structure of bodies; so that, for aught we know, 
there may be as many elemental differences, as 
there are species of salts; or perhaps all salts, in
their ultimate elements, may be the same. This 
we know, that no two salts of the same denomi- 
nation will, upon trial, answer the same proofs in 
every respect. We beg leave only to observe, 
that the Bath-water-salts crystallized in B. A. so 
does Borax, in opposition to the common nature 
of simple salts. Hence we infer, That out of 
Bath-water-salt a perfect Borax might be manu- 
factured.—The Salt of the first evaporation seem- 
ed to have a vitriolic taste.—That of the lixivium 
evaporated, had a large share of the marine. 
Salts.
B2 III.




28 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
III. OF SULPHUR.
1. In waters hot and cold, Sulphur seems to 
dwell, though it is often difficult, sometimes im- 
possible, corporeally to exhibit it. In 
the baths of Austria and Hungary, Dr. 
Browne not only observed true flowers of sulphur 
sticking to the conduits; but also declares that 
the waters, in a few minutes, turned silver black, 
and heightened the natural colour of gold, Phi- 
losoph. Trans. N°. 59.—In the Caesarean baths at 
Aix la Chapelle, flowers of brimstone are sublima- 
ted by natural heat, and collected in pound- 
weights.—Harrigate Spaw (according to Dr. Shaw) 
contains actual brimstone floating like feathers, 
separable by simple straining.—In Acidulae as well 
as Thermae, he has discovered signs of sulpbur, 
History of Mineral Waters, p. 54, 55, 88. and 
through the whole latter part. See Migniot’s Traité  
des Eaux Minerales de St. Amand, p. 13. 20. 23.—
In Moffat Waters, Plummer, a late learned profes- 
sor of chymistry, discovered many signs of sul- 
phur; Edinb. Med. Essays, Vol. i. Essay viii.—
In Scarborough Waters putrified, Dr. Shaw has 
discovered sulphur, though he could not in the 
water fresh, Enquiry, p. 136.—Of Dunse Spaw 
we have a similar instance, by the ingenious Dr. 
Home, p. 78, 90, 91.
Sulphur. 
2. MIGNIOT and Blondel (treating of the wa- 
ters of Aix) record a very singular remark, viz. 
Not one grain of fixed sulphur can be obtain- 
ed from even those waters, which not only 
smell strong of sulphur, but throw up hand- 
fuls of flowers of brimstone. The former 
expresses himself thus, “ Si on vouloit nier que 
“ les caux d’ Aix la Chapelle soient sulfureuses.
“ on




29 TO BATH WATER.
“ on n’auroit qu’a lever une des pierres de mal- 
“ sonerie de leurs bassins, & on trouveroit des 
“ fleurs à poignées; cependant on a eu beau 
“ tourner le corps des eaux en tout sens, on n’a
“ pû encore reussir d’en tirer ur seul grain, non 
“ plus que des notres. Traité des Eaux Minerales 
“ de S. Amand, p. 22, 23.”—The latter thus; 
“ Omnes hi fontes Corneliani, &c. sulphur maxi- 
“ me olent, habentque oleose dissolutum, ac bal- 
“ samicis mixtum. Illud, in aquis his & Cae- 
“ saeranis ita subtile est, ut in aquarum examine, 
“ qualiacunque vasa, etiam vitrea pertranseat, et 
“ ne granum illius colligi aut videri possit.” 
Therm. Aquisgranensium, & Porcetanarum descrip- 
tio, cap. v. p. 80. 
The celebrated Fred. Hoffman seems to have 
been mistaken, when he rashly pronounces his o- 
pinion, That there are very few springs which 
contain sulphur in any shape. By what, from a- 
nalogy, has already appeared, his experiments seem 
to be too general, and too much confined. There 
are waters which run hot with an abominable 
stench, and which tarnish not silver, yet exhibit
manifest signs of a volatile subtile sulphur, suffi- 
cient to convince us that they are impregnated 
with that principle; nor are they the less salutary 
for being slightly saturated. 
Gaping at clouds of smoke towering up from 
the surfaces of natural hot baths, ignorants 
naturally dream of volcano’s, abysses, subter- 
ranean fires, &c. Without evidence, physicians 
have traditionally supposed, Bath waters sul- 
phureous; as they supposed so they practised
On the existence, or non-existence of mineral 
contents depends the rationality of practice. The 
question of sulphur cannot therefore be indiffe-  
B3 rent.



30 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
rent. With that same indulgence which we 
crave, it is our purpose candidly and coolly to 
wade through this important question. 
Mayow
THE first who had the courage to 
deny the existence of sulphur in Bath 
waters, was Mayow, and that so faintly, that he 
hardly challenges attention. 
DOCTOR CHARLETON seems neither to have 
proved, nor denied the existence of sulphur. Dis- 
appointed in his hopes of exhibiting 
real sulphur, he extends the meaning of 
the word so as to comprehend unctuous, or oily 
bodies. To produce this supposed principle, he 
proceeds to analogous experiments with infusions 
of brimstone in spring water; he extracts a sulphu- 
reous tincture from the residuum of Bath water with 
Salt of Tartar. To sulphur he imputes changes 
which naturally result from the agents which he 
employs. He says, “It is a controverted point, 
“ whether or no Bath waters be impregnated with 
“ sulphur.” 
Charleton.
WHITE he was preparing his materials for the 
press, Doctor Lucas came to Bath, fully possessed 
with the current notion of sulphur. 
Sulphur was the first principle which he 
proceeded to investigate. Disappointed in certain 
leading experiments, and piqued at Dr. Charle- 
ton’s pretensions to the discovery of that vegeta- 
ble which swims on the surface of the baths; as 
well to sulphur’s being a matter of controversy, 
he changed his battery, and publicly made expe- 
riments in proof of the non-existence of sulphur. 
His arguments seemed then to me conclusive. 
Subsequent experiments have induced me to alter 
my opinion, Dies diem docet. Instructed by my 
fellow-labourer, I am not without hopes of con- 
Lucas. 
vincing



31 TO BATH WATER. 
vincing the reader, that Bath waters are really 
and truly sulphureous. 
MUD taken up fresh from the bottoms of the 
baths, smell manifestly of sulphur. 
BATH-SAND, sprinkled on a red-hot iron, emits 
a blue flame, with a suffocating vapor. 
To Dr. Lucas the public is indebted for the 
discovery of a fraud, which had blinded the un- 
derstandings of learned and unlearned; and which 
was, on all occasions, adduced as an irrefragable 
proof of sulphur, I mean the trick of transmuting 
shillings into guineas. He bribed one of the wo- 
men-guides; the divulged the mysterious men- 
struum, Stale Urine. Had this gentleman bestow- 
ed as much of his labour in proof of the exis- 
tence, as he has done on the non-existence of 
sulphur, I humbly think he might have succced- 
ed better. Let the public judge. 
α. He dropped a solution of silver in an alka- 
line ley into Bath water. He observes (page 299) 
that it grew milky, and put on a putrid 
smell; a double decomposition insued, 
of sulphur and of earth. He asks, 
“ How then can Bath water be a solution of sul- 
“ phur, or sulphureous, when it gives no indi- 
“ cation of that mineral, and is not even capable 
“ of suspending it in a solution?” 
Lucas’s pro-
cess.
His own assertion proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, by the same parity of reason that acids 
precipitate the sulphur out of the alka- 
line solution, the sulphur contained in
the water mingles with the sulphur in the solu- 
tion, while both come to be precipitated by the 
acid contained in the water. Were there no sul- 
phur in the water, this separation could not insue, 
the whole would unite into one neutral concrete. 
Answered.
In sulphureous waters, there is no such thing 
B4 to



32 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
to be expected as a solution of sulphur, such as 
is produced by art. In nature’s elaboratory, the 
particles of sulphur are not dissolved, but sus- 
pended. 
β. “ He mixed a solution of Corrosive Sublimate 
(page 303), and observed that the mixture put on 
a slight milkiness only, without precipitation. 
From this appearance he says, Had there been sul- 
phur in the water of any sort, a milkiness, and a pre- 
cipitation must have insued. 
γ. “ He mixed a solution of Quicksilver (page 
304) with Bath water. This raised a bright milky 
cloud, growing suddenly opaque, and then chang- 
ing or precipitating to yellow, which, upon stir- 
ting, grows white again. Instead of this yellow 
being produced by the imaginary sulphur of the 
waters, he affirms that this colour and precipita- 
tion are produced by the union of the absorbent 
earth, and the universal acid.” 
To the two last, and all his other mercurial 
experiments, we beg leave to offer one general 
answer. Metallic solutions are, at best, 
but impotent proofs. Had the Bath 
waters been sublimated, as they ought to have 
been, and then been found not to change colour, 
they might then have justly been pronounced void 
of sulphur. The production of the union of the 
absorbent earth and universal acid is merely hy- 
pothetical, or rather proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, if common brimstone is dissolved in 
order to make Lac Sulphuris the precipitate is 
white. But, if the sulphur is separated from An- 
timony, or any other mineral, then indeed an o- 
range-coloured precipitate insues. The springs 
must be supposed to rise through a brimstone quar- 
ry to produce this yellow colour. In the Bath 
Answered.
waters


33 TO BATH WATER.
waters the sulphur is only suspended in small 
atoms. 
δ. “ He mixed a solution of Silver, page 305. 
This (he says) caused bright bluish white clouds, 
which soon coagulated, appeared opaque, and pre- 
cipitated suddenly in grumes.—These bluish
white clouds, &c. are evidences of the existence 
of sulphur; for, from experience we know, that 
(in the bowels of the earth, as well as in Smelting 
houses) brimstone coagulates all metals and mine- 
rals that are in a dissolved state. Hence it is, 
that the sulphur contained in the Bath water act 
its natural part, by reducing the silver dissolved in 
the Aqua fortis into a solid state, a manifest proof 
of sulphur.” 
ε. “ He supposes the dissolvent acids either pure, 
or mixed with martial, or other earths, or inflam- 
mable principles. As they happen to be colour- 
less or coloured, so they form different Luna cor- 
nua’s with the metals which they attract.” 
THESE are hypothetic notions; for, if sol- 
vents contained coloured, or colourless earths, or in- 
flammable principles, they could not 
dissolve metals, while they were in pos-
session of such contents. Hence, may we ven- 
ture to affirm. That the colour which this ingeni- 
ous artist places in his solvent, was the produc- 
tion of sulphur contained in the Bath-water. 
Answered. 
δ. “ Solutions of Sea-salt (he says) produce the 
same effects with solutions of sulphur, and from 
the same causes.” 
THESE experiments plead neither for or against 
sulphur. The phlogiston never evaporates; nor is 
it in the power of chymistry to separate it. 
from water, be it ever so vapid; as may be 
demonstrated from common electrical experiments. 
The waters of Aken may be deprived- of their  
Answered.
B5 “ volatile



34 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
volatile spirit, which has a share in the production 
of colours; but this has no connection with sul- 
phur. 
η. “ He then proceeded to evaporate the wa- 
ter (page 310) without any sensible smell. The 
residuum, thrown upon an ignited iron, fumed 
slightly without visible flame, or acid vapor, 
without scintillating, fulgurating, or crepita- 
ting. Had sulphur and nitre entered the com- 
position, the effects of gun-powder must have 
insued.” 
THESE experiments are inconclusive; for cathar- 
tic salts, and many other things will 
fulminate without sulphur, while others 
again will not fulminate with sulphur. 
Answered.
θ. He concludes thus, “ Let the inordinate 
“ lovers of brimstone know, that sulphur actually 
“ dissolved, is decomposed in the evaporation, 
“ the phlogiston flying off, while the acid satu- 
“ rates the alkaline salt; that digestions of the 
“ residuum with Salt of Tartar may heighten the 
“ colour, but this proceeds from that oily sub- 
“ stance which is inherent in water in general; 
“ that this is no solution of sulphur appears from 
“ this, that acids cause neither stench nor preci- 
“ pitation in the tincture, which must have hap- 
“ pened had they contained sulphur.” 
WE have just observed, That this same phlo-
giston is far from being volatile. It is of an unc- 
tuous nature, the cause of colour, and 
splendour in metals. Was the phlo- 
giston to evaporate in boiling, how could the 
smelter produce metal out of his furnace? Sul- 
phureous smells cannot be produced from waters 
so slightly impregnated with sulphur as ours are. 
To discover the existence of sulphur therefore in 
Bath water, mixtures of metallic solutions (as we
Answered.
observed



35 TO BATH WATER.
observed before) are unavailing and exceptionable 
experiments. Sublimation is the ordeal trial. By
Sublimation we hope to demonstrate, that Bath 
water changes its colour, and answers all the 
characteristics of real brimstone. 
EXP. I. 
ONE ounce of Bath water mud, or rather pre- 
cipitate, taken up at the bottom of the King’s 
Bath, smelled most sensibly of sulphur. 
We mixed one ounce of this mud, 
with half an ounce of white Arsenic.
The mixture was put into a Florence flask, and
sublimated in B. A. In the neck of the flask
there was produced a deep orange colour, or red- 
dish arsenic, of the nature of Auri-pigmentum. 
Author's
process.
EXP. II. 
WITH the same materials, and, in the same- 
manner, the same experiment was-repeated. The 
same exactly were the appearances. 
EXP. III, 
THE residuum of the evaporation of twenty- 
nine pints, mentioned under the Section of Salts, 
and Earths, about two drachms (for it was not 
weighed) was, with equal quantities of white Arse- 
nic, put into a Florence flask, and sublimated as in 
Exp.: first and second. In the neck of the flask a
sublimate appears inclining to yellow. For, as 
yellow, or red inclining arsenic cannot exist, or 
naturally be produced, nor artificially imitated 
without the help of real common brimstone, it is 
therefore plain from experiments 1, 2, 3, that
B6 the

36 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath mud, or precipitate, contains a perfect 
sulphur. These experiments are so much the 
more to be depended on, as it is well known that 
arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the quan- 
tity ever so small, or entangled. The deeper the 
orange yellow, or ruby-like colour the arsenic 
is tinged with, the greater the quantity of sul- 
phur. Newman, Stahl, Henckel, Potter, and 
other naturalists, maintain that there are no me- 
talline or mineral ores without arsenic, nor, con- 
sequently, mineral waters. Those waters in which 
arsenic predominates, purge and vomit. As Bath 
waters neither (in general) purge nor vomit; and 
as they, in part, owe their heat to mondic, ox py- 
rites, we may hence infer, that they contain sul- 
phur; enough, at least, to subdue the poisonous 
quality of the arsenic, without defeating its salu- 
tary purposes. 
THESE are blood-warm waters, such as Bux- 
ton, and Taffy’s-well, which are warm without 
sulphur, These contain no sulphur, nor any mi- 
neral whatever. Their warmth proceeds from a 
steam, which arises from marle, or rotten lime- 
stone. But there are no waters which contain 
salts, destitute of sulphur; for salts cannot be
generated without sulphur. 
THAT experiment of Boerhaave’s adduced to 
discover the fraud of sulphur suspended in al- 
kaline salts, or Golden tincture, bears no analogy
with Bath, or any other sulphureous water. For, 
in waters truly sulphureous, the sulphur is mixed
with the aqueous fluid, by the help of the mine- 
ral ferment, such as is caused by a bituminous 
substance. If we drop this alkaline solution in- 
to a glass of Bath water, it soon grows milky. 
The oily, or inflammable principle thus set at li- 
berty by the acid, regales the nostrils with a rot-
ten

37 TO BATH WATER. 
ten sulphureous smell. This experiment serves
to prove the existence of an acid in the water. It 
serves also to prove, That Bath water contains 
brimstone; for brimstone is nothing but the in- 
flammable principle united with the vitriolic acid. 
FROM the sum total, we may ven- 
ture to pronounce, That Bath water 
contains. 
Conclusion.
1. THE HOT ELEMENTARY FLUID. 
2. AIR. 
3. SPRIT. 
4. IRON.
5. SALTS.
6. SULPHUR.
CHAP.

38 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
CHAP. III.
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BRISTOL
WATER	
OF the volatile vitriolic acid of Bristol water 
we have treated in that chapter which speaks 
of principles common to Bath and Bristol waters. 
To particular experiments we now proceed; and 
first to such as fall under the cognizance of 
sense. 
Taste.
1. To the Taste, Bristol water is par- 
ticularly grateful, leaving a sense of 
stipticity on the palate. 
Smell.
2. To the Smell, it is inodorous. 
3. To the Touch, it is luke-warm. “ In sum- 
mer 1744, the Earl of Macclesfield made experi- 
ments forty days successively morn- 
ing and evening. The scale of his 
Thermometer divided the distance from 
the freezing point to the boiling, into 
100 parts. The degrees were divided into parts 
of degrees. During the whole, the difference 
never rose or fell a full degree. So that 24 5/8 of
his Lordship’s scale (the medium of his observa- 
tions) corresponds to 76 degrees of Fahrenheit’s. 
Experiments 
to prove the 
degree of heat.
In July 1751, Dr. Davis, late of Bath, made 
repeated experiments with Fahrenheit’s, and found
the mercury rise between 76 and 77 degrees. The 
season was remarkably cold and rainy, and yet 
the heat was not sensibly less the day after the 
water was fouled by excessive showers and land- 
floods.  
These trials stand recorded, and may be seen 
in a book now in the possession of the pumpers.” 
June

39 TO BRISTOL WATER.
June 24, 1761, the heat of the water raised 
Fahrenheit’s Thermometer, at the cock, to 76 1/2,
then 3 degrees higher than the external air. That 
very day, the Thermometer was immersed in wa- 
ter as it issued from the pump of a well of com- 
mon spring water belonging to the neighbouring 
Rock-house. The quicksilver rose to 56 1/2 only. 
On December the first, the coldest day of this 
winter, Mr. Renaudet, an ingenious surgeon, re- 
sident at the Hot Wells, made a trial of the heat. 
In his own bed-chamber, without fire, the mer- 
cury sunk, at 9 A.M. to 35 1/2. At 3 P.M. it 
rose to 38. He then immerged the instrument in- 
to one of the drinking glasses at the Hot Well 
pump. It raised the quicksilver to 76 1/8. So that 
Bristol water appears to be only 3/8 of a degree less 
warm on the coldest day in winter, than on the 
hottest day of summer. This trifling difference 
may perhaps be owing to the action of the cold 
external air on that part of the plate which is not
immerged in the water. Hence we learn, that 
Bristol water is warmer than common spring wa- 
ter by 20 degrees; and 20 degrees below the heat 
of the human blood in a healthy state. 
4. WEIGHED, it is of the same spe- 
cific gravity with distilled water. 
Weight.
It loses only a portion of that elastic air which
evaporates before the bottles can be corked. It 
contains neither animal, vegetable, nor sulphure- 
ous particles; so that it may truly be said to be 
void of the seeds of corruption. Hence may we 
account for its singular quality of bearing expor- 
tation. With a bottle kept twenty-five years, I 
made the common experiments, to which it an- 
swered as well as with water pumped one day. 
5. WITH


40 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR5. 
No iron.
5. WITH Vegetable Astringents, Bristol 
water produces no other change of co- 
lour than with distilled water. 
6. To distilled water in which Salt of Iron had 
been dissolved, I added Tincture of galls the 
purple colour was immediately produced. 
These waters stain not linen with what we call 
iron moulds; nor is there the least appearance of 
that yellow oker that lines tire reservoirs of iron
waters.—Hence may we pronounce that Bristol 
water contains no principle of Iron fixed or vola- 
tile.—To its fixed principles we now proceed. 
Salts.
7. THIRTY pints of Bristol water 
were poured into a glass retort, placed 
in a sand-heat in Mr. Morgan’s Elaborately. 
Common spring water was poured into another 
glass retort placed in the same sand. Neither 
were brought to the degree of boiling; they eva- 
porated by gentle steaming. In the retort filled
with Bristol water there arose a pellicle, which 
did not appear in the other. The water continued 
white or transparent, till the whole was evapo- 
rated. The residuum weighed ninety grains. 
The salts being dissolved, there remained one 
half of an earthy matter, 
8. The Salt slightly confined in a Florence 
flask attracted moisture, a proof of its being of
the alkaline nature of common esculent sea-salt. 
Exposed to the air, it increases in weight, and 
grows white, or mealy. 
9. VIEWED in a microscope, this salt exhibited 
the form of sea-salt, and calcarious, or muratic, 
the alkaline nitre of Egypt, the Natrum Egyptia- 
cum, or Sal Murale, of the antients. This salt 
is not purgative, as the salt of most mineral waters 
are. It is of a strengthening nature. Was it 
therefor extracted, and administred together with
the

41 TO BRISTOL WATER.
the waters, their virtues might be much im- 
proved. 
DR. KEIR (in his ingenious Essay on Bristol wa- 
ters) pronounces it nitrous chiefly. His principal 
arguments are drawn from the forms in which 
the crystals shoot. But, this test is fallacious, as 
he candidly owns (page 26) He confesses that, 
on a red-hot iron, it neither flamed nor smok- 
ed; nay, it continued fixed in the fire without 
any other alteration, but the total loss of its pel- 
lucidity, page 81. 
10. PUT on charcoal, and melted with a fol- 
dering pipe, it crepitated very little, and, after 
the crepitation was over, melted like a fixed al- 
kali. It blistered in a small degree, and continu- 
ed in a soft state while in the fire, in a manner 
like Borax; with this difference, that it stained
the poker like wax, which Borax does not. As 
the muriatic salt, or Natrum, is a basis to that of
Borax, no wonder that these appearances corres- 
pond. It does not swell into bubbles like Alum, 
nor does it emit a white flame like Nitre. Cal- 
cined with Charcoal, it imbibes the inflammable 
principle, and forms a hepar sulphuris. 
11. INTO a solution of this salt, pour a few 
drops of the folution of Silver in Spirit of Nitre. 
It instantly throws up light clouds, which fall in 
the form of white precipitate. 
12. THE Lixivium of Bristol Salts causes no 
manner of alteration, or effervescence with Spirit 
of Vitriol. 
13. DROPPED into Oleum Tartari per deliquium, 
it caused a congelation, or a kind of petre- 
faction. 
14. THE same lixivium changes the syrup of 
Violets into purple, A solution of Borax did the 
same.  
15.  The

42 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
15. The Earth of Bristol Water (by calcina- 
tion) gives lime; whence it has gene- 
rally been taken for a calcarious earth, 
but that conclusion is vague. Soap-lees cause, it
is true, no alteration. This indeed is a proof of 
lime, which makes it a neutral, as lime renders 
the alkali a neutral to constitute the soap-lee. 
Dr. Keir supposes part of the lime-stone re- 
duced into powder by the native acid spirit 
which pervades the caverns of the earth, and 
which corrodes it to a point of saturation. 
This he offers only as a conjecture, for (page 
87) he says, “ It is not hence to be inferred 
that this water can be of the same nature with 
common lime-water; that it owes its heat to 
actual fire; or the igneous parts contained in 
lime-stone. Page 91, he gives up his corroded 
powder, and allows the fixed contents to be Nitres,
Marine-salt and Calcarious Earth.”
Earth. 
16. THIS earth did not dissolve in fresh di- 
stilled water, or even in the acid of sea-salt. It 
caused an ebullition with acids, which seemed to 
confirm the opinion of lime. But there dis- 
solved only one half in the aforesaid acid. The 
remainder put on the appearance of an indissolu- 
ble selenite. 
THE earthy part of Bristol water may be 
said to be a Magnesia Alba, fabricated in nature’s 
elaboratory, by the help of the universal vitriolic
acid. 
Conclusion.
FROM the sum total of these 
Experiments, we may rationally con- 
clude, 
1. THAT those who account Bristol water to 
be a mere elementary fluid, found their ipse dixits
on ignorance, the parent of prejudice.  
2. THAT

43 TO BRISTOL WATER:
2. THAT those who have charged It with Iron, 
Nitre, Alum, Sulphur, Chalk, or Lime, have ei- 
ther ventured their opinions without experiments, 
or have erred in their analysis. 
The component parts of Bristol water are,
1. THE TEPID AQUEOUS FLUID.
2. AIR.
3. SPIRIT.
4. NEUTRAL SALT.
5. ABSORBENT EARTH.
CHAP.

44 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
CHAP. IV.
OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF BATH AND
BRISTOL WATERS, APPLIED TO THE HU-
MAN BODY.	
FROM the experience of twenty years, 
Frederick Hoffman has declared, “ That 
“ certain springs, at certain seasons, 
“ are frequented by men who have 
“ written in an inelegant manner; that their 
“ manner of prescribing has been no less pre- 
“ posterous; that theory is, at best, fallacious; 
“ and, that the practice of mineral waters can 
“ never be ascertained without experience.” 
Bath and Bristol waters have been analysed by 
numbers; various, discordant, and inconsistent 
virtues have been assigned; never yet have their 
principles been reconciled to practice. In the 
three preceding chapters, I have attempted to ascer- 
tain their principles; my present purpose is to recon- 
cile those principles to the symptoms to which they 
naturally or rationally are adapted. Nor am I (in 
this my attempt) unapprised of those difficulties 
which attend researches which admit not of de- 
monstration. By pursuing those tracks which ex- 
perience has pointed out, we may however be 
enabled to throw in our aid at those critical sea- 
sons when nature seems to lead the way; instead 
of counteracting her intentions, we may mitigate 
symptoms, where we cannot cure diseases. 
IN my first chapter, I made mention of the only
rational scientific method of extending 
the sphere of mineral waters, I mean, 
the Art of Induction; by this we are en- 
abled to discover those laws, means, or actions 
Art of in- 
duction.
by

45 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS: 
by which they produce their effects. To bring 
this art to some sort of precision, it may be first
necessary to be acquainted with the seats, causes, 
diagnostics, and prognostics of diseases. 
To adapt the virtues of mineral waters to par- 
ticular diseases, it may be previously necessary to
comprehend general doctrines; this is Boerhaave’s 
aphoristical doctrine. On the subjects of inflam- 
mation, pain, and obstruction, he has so fully en- 
larged, that, generals once understood, particu- 
lar disorders seem self-evident. Acute diseases na- 
turally fall under the province of simple soft wa- 
ter artificially heated; such may be had here, 
there, or any where, and, therefore, fall not im- 
mediately under my subject. 
In chronic diseases, there is room for deliberation; 
Chronic diseases generally take root before the pa- 
tient complains. Sick people are rarely tractable; 
when danger seems to cease, they generally forget 
the Doctor. For these, and similar reasons, Cel- 
sus thinks chronic diseases more difficult of cure 
than acute; physicians have much better hopes of 
a peripneumony than a phthisis. The same Celsus 
calls Cachexy, malus corporis habitus. From a survey
of the causes of Cachexy, we hope to prove that 
the solids are restored by the fluids. If the fluids 
posses not qualities necessary for nutrition, the 
solids cannot be restored. When the humours 
come to be drained off by evacuations sensible or 
insensible, the body continues not to be nou- 
rished. 
GUTTA cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe caden- 
do. Just so it fares with the human frame; the 
fluids strike four thousand times in the space of
one hour, against the sides of converging canals. 
The epidermis peels off, and grows again; we 
cut our nails, they grow again; so fares it with
our

46 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
our hair. Parts of our solids pass off by spit- 
tie, urine, bile, and excrements; the solids daily 
perish. 
IN health, the urine is rather high-coloured, 
with a proper sediment. In cachectics, the urine 
is crude, and colourless. In weak circulations, 
insensible perspiration ceases; the skin becomes 
parched, nasty, and dry. What used to pass by 
the skin, now takes the road of the ureters; Hip- 
pocrates observes, that the body cannot be nou- 
rished, while the urine continues to be crude, 
thin, and watry. If it passes in quantity, the 
body wastes; if it stagnates, it produces a λευΧον
φλεγμα, or dropsy. In cachectics, muscular mo- 
tion languishes, so does the force of the heart and 
arteries. The great veins have hardly strength to 
empty themselves; the third order of vessels can 
no longer resorb that lymph which the exhalant 
arteries pour forth. The Tunica cellulosa swells, 
oedema’s arise, particularly in places most remote 
from the heart. Hence languor, and debility of 
pulse; hence palpitation and difficulty of breath- 
ing, as Aretaeus well observes, in his Caus. et 
Sign. morb. diuturnor. Such patients ought not to 
be purged, but strengthened. 
THE Origins of diseases are not so complex as 
commonly believed, neither is the method of cure. 
Boerhaave (in his Academical Praelec- 
tions) was wont to observe, That there 
were many who despised the practice of 
the antients, because (in diseases differing in their 
symptoms) they applied the same, or similar reme- 
dies. Parents are affronted if they are confined to
the same simple regimen. They think themselves 
well used if they meet with Doctors who ransack 
dispensatories, changing, compounding, and re- 
compounding every hour, while far more surely 
Origins of di- 
seases simples.
and

47 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
and sooner they empty the pocket than the dis- 
ease; dum longe certius crumenam exhauriunt quam 
morbum. Let those who despise simplicity of 
practice, consider how many, and how different 
diseases have, for ages, been cured by the use 
of Baths and Mineral waters. To these invalids 
are obliged to fly after having, to no purpose, 
tried nostrums the most extolled. Considerent ili 
qui simplicitatem artis, in morhis chronicis, elato su-
percilio, contemnunt, quot et quam diversi morbi cu- 
rentur Thermarum et Aquarum mineralium usu, per 
tot saecula, prohato. Ad haec coguntur confugere ae-
gri, decantatissima alia remedia experti, absque ullo 
fructu. 
FROM a consideration of the difference of 
causes which produce cachexy, we hope to make 
it appear that different and opposite remedies are 
sometimes required. When the body is puffed up 
with viscid humors occasioned by the debility of
the solids, strengthening medicines are the in- 
struments. When attenuated humors pass off 
and cannot be replaced by nourishment, when 
the vessels thus contract, and the sick waste, 
moistening and incrassating remedies are indi- 
cated. 
Different diseases require different preparations. 
Girls bloated with pale inert mucous cacochymy 
require Iron dissolved in vegetable acids, rather 
than Iron in substance; because filings inviscate 
themselves in the mucus of the first passage, and 
thus avail but little. But, if there are signs of a 
predominant acid, then let Iron be given in sub- 
stance, because it not only blunts the acid acri- 
mony; but, dissolved in this acid, produces its 
effecs. 
Those


48 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Those disorders which arise from inflammatory 
lentor are increased by Bristol water, and exaspe- 
rated by Bath. Pituitous lentor falls 
under the power of both. Humors 
transgress by excessive dilution, or by 
putrescency. For that flaccidity of fo- 
lids induced by excessive dilution, we find filings 
of Iron successfully recommended. In dilution 
caused by putrescency, we find Acids successfully 
also recommended. When the body comes to 
be bloated with humors inert and phlegmatic, 
Chalybeates are indicated. Thus, in a word, chro- 
nical disorders, in general, fall under the power 
of some or other of those principles which consti- 
tute mineral waters. For, filings of Iron, and 
Oil of Vitriol are only succedaneums to mineral 
Waters. 
Mineral wa- 
ters differ in 
their princi- 
ples.
Some waters contain the elementary fluid only. 
Such have we named. If simple dilution is only 
required, these are the waters. If acids predo- 
minate, Seltzer waters are indicated. If the ac- 
tion of the solids is to be increased, Spaw and 
Bath waters inspire the very foul of Iron into pale 
languid carcasses, so does Tunbridge. If foul 
Scurvy predominates, Scarborough and Cheltenham 
conduce. In Worms, and Itch, Harrigate has 
done wonders. If Scrophula taints the blood, 
Mossat Wells promise a cure.—In Consumptions 
arising from tubercles, or in cases where the 
aerial vessels are choaked, Bristol’s penetrating
salts have cleared the passages. Its Absorbent 
Earth has corrected that acrid humour which vel- 
licates the nervous coat of the intestines. Thus 
has it stopped fluxes in which Opiates and Astrin- 
gents have done mischief, by stopping expectora- 
tion. Its native Acid has banished colliquative 
sweats, and quenched that thirst which is the 
constant

49 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
constant attendant of the diabetes particularly, 
and of fevers. The blood has thus again ac- 
quired its natural balsamic quality. Fresh lustre 
has sparkled in the eyes of patients doomed to 
death. 
CACHEXY thus naturally falls under the province 
of mineral waters; cachexy thus naturally 
becomes my theme. This imperfect work 
may fall into the hands of men, in whose more pene- 
trating sight, physiological disquisitions may ap- 
pear superfluous. In the eyes of such, I hope 
for pardon, if, for the sake of the many, I tres- 
pass on the patience of the few. The subject of mi- 
neral waters is still rude and uncultivated. Pursu- 
ing the footsteps of Boerhaave, that great restorer of
physic, it is my purpose to inquire into the causes, 
seats, diagnostics, prognostics, and cure of cachexy. 
By adapting the virtues of the several principles 
which constitute Bath and Bristol waters, distant 
practitioners may no longer wonder why patients 
labouring under inveterate ailments, receive cures 
at these fountains.
Cachexy. 
§. I. THE antients reckoned three 
causes of disease, Remote, Predisponent, 
and Proximate.
Causes of 
Cachexy. 
1. THE Passions claim the first place. Of these 
I purpose to treat expressly in the last 
part of this work. Suffice it here in 
general to say, that nothing so sensibly disturbs
the actions of the solids and fluids. 
Passions.
2. DEEP EXERCISES of mind debilitate the 
nerves, consume the strength, destroy 
concoction, and hinder the secretions. 
Hence it is that the studious are subject to flatu- 
lence, hypochondriac disorders, palsy, and lean- 
ness. 
Study.
C 3. POISONS


50 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
3. POISONS, by reason of the celerity of their 
operation, claim the next place. These are ve- 
getable, animal, and mineral. The
first; act immediately on the nerves of
the stomach and intestines. The nature of ani- 
mal poison is still unknown. The last operate 
also on the first passages. To this class we refer 
various sorts of medicines, which produce like 
symptoms, anxiety, sighing, convulsions, inflam- 
mations, and gangrene. 
Poisons. 
4. OF the different qualities and effects of
Air, I have treated in my Essay on the 
Use of Sea Voyages, as well as in that 
chapter which treats of Consumptions. 
Air. 
5. BESIDES the evident qualities of air, there 
are others not discoverable by the senses, morbi- 
fic particles floating in the air. There 
are effluvia which arise from excrements, 
rotten vegetables, insects, and marshy grounds. 
There are subterranean salts, oils, and metals. 
There are morbific miasmata arising from small- 
pox, measles, and other infectious disorders, 
wasted through the air, and again multiplied in 
the human body. These morbific particles act 
on the surface of the body, in the ratio of the 
subtilty, celerity, motion, and figure of their 
particles. They enter the blood; By the first 
passages, together with the saliva; By the in- 
halant vessels of the skin; but, chiefly, By the 
bibulous vessels of the lungs. 
Effluvia.
6. SUPPRESSIONS of natural evacuations pro- 
duce chronical disorders. Retention of excre- 
ment produces wind, crudity, pains of 
the stomach and head; of urine, drop- 
sy, anasarca, and fever; of perspiration, liftless- 
ness, cough, rheumatism, fever, and almost eve- 
ry disease; of the menses, consumption, vomit- 
Suppressions.
5 ing,

 

51 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
ing, or spitting of blood, green sickness, hyste- 
rics, cachexy, hectic, &c. of the haemorhoids, 
asthma, hypo, pleurisy, and peripneumony. 
Quanda enim singula quae aderant, non revertantur, 
binc sequitur corporis gravitas, pallor subinde repe-
tens, venter flatibus referus, oculi concavi, &c. 
Aretaeus De causts & signis morbor. diuturnor. Lib. i, 
Cap. l6. p. 47. 
7.INTROPULSIONS of skin disorders 
produce symptoins more terrible. 
Intropulsions.
8. OF Aliment I purpose to speak in the last
part. Suffice it here in general to ob- 
serve, That excessive satiety and absti- 
nence are both productive of chronical dis- 
orders. 
Diet.
9. WATCHING hurts the nerves, 
hinders perspiration, relaxes the fibres, 
and corrodes the juices. 
Watching.
§. II. THE Effects of remote causes 
are diminished or increased according to 
the nature of the body which they oc- 
cupy. 
Causes predis-
ponent. 
1. WEAKLY PEOPLE are,in gene- 
ral, predidposed to disease, and e.c. 
Infirm.
2. THE frame of the body disposes
certain bodies to certain diseases, e.g. 
Long necked narrow chested people are 
liable to consumption.—Short necked to apo- 
plexy.—Fat to asthma.
Make of the
body.
Rigidity.
3. RIGID FIBRES quicken the circulation, in- 
crease heat, and thicken the blood. The body 
comes thus to be disposed to pleurisy, 
rheumatism, and inflammatory fevers. 
—Where, e.c. the serous part of the blood pre- 
ponderates, and the secretions are deficient, ca- 
chexy, dropsy, oedematous swellings, intermit- 
Rigidity.
C2 tents,

52 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
tents, remittents, and nervous fevers, are the 
consequences. 
Delicacy.
4. DELICATE FRAMES are subject
to haemoptoes and consumptions. 
Blood dis- 
solved. 
5. THIN watry blood produces scur- 
vy, haemorrhages, dysenteries, and pu- 
trid diseases. 
6. As men succeed to their fathers fortunes, so
do they inherit their diseases. From a certain he- 
reditary structure of the solids and flu- 
ids, the body is disposed to hysterics, 
stone, consumption, epilepsy, scrophula, rheuma- 
tism, gout, &c. 
Inheritance. 
7. SOME diseases pave the way for others, as 
asthma for dropsy, cholic for palsy, measles for 
consumption, &c. Particular parts once 
injured, are affected from the slightest 
cause. Neque enim morbi derepente ho- 
minibus accidunt, sed paulatim collecti confertim se 
produnt, says Hippocrates. 
Diseases pro- 
ductive of 
diseases. 
8. DIFFERENT AGES are subject to different 
diseases. Infancy has its teething, red- 
gum, worms, rickets; youth its inflam- 
mations; old-age dropsy, asthma, obstructions, 
&c. 
Age.
Women.
9. WOMEN are predisposed to green- 
sickness, hysterics, nervous disorders, 
and violent affections of the mind. 
Proximate 
Causes.
§. III. THE Proximate Causes of di- 
seases are, it must be confessed, often
past finding out. Experience has, how- 
ever, established some general causes. 
1. STAGNATIONS of Blood produce inflamma- 
tory fevers of Serum, spasms, drop- 
sies, anasarcas, &c. of Lymph, glandu- 
lar swellings; of the Nervous juice, apoplexies 
and palsies.  
Stagnations. 
2. PLETHORY

53 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. PLETHORY distends the vascular system. 
Hence debility, heaviness, head-ach, 
dreams, difficulty of breathing, hyste- 
rics, hypochondriacs, polypous concretions, in- 
flammatory fevers, &c. 
Plethory.
3. HIGH SAUCES, and fermented liquors give, 
rise to cutaneous eruptions, rheumatism, gout, 
defluxions, cholics, wasting, and hec- 
tic.—Acidities of the first passages give 
rise to belchings, anxiety, gripes, green stools, 
looseness, and constipation. 
Intemperance.
4. INTERNAL HARDNESSES, (by pressing on 
other parts) produce dropsies, asthmas, 
flatus’s, and various other disorders, ac- 
cording to the part affected. 
Schirri.
5. INTERNAL SUPPURATIONS produce diseases
inconquerable. Reabsorbed they infect
the blood with putrid cacochymy. 
Hence hectic, night sweats, wasting, &c. 
Suppurations. 
6. ACUTE DISEASES terminate in 
death, health, or other diseases; in 
which last case they may be said to be 
ill-cured; though, in many instances, it 
is not in the power of the most expert to pre-
vent it. 
Acute termi-
nate in chro-
nic.
7. CONCRETIONS of all sorts produce chroni- 
cal disorders. If the bile is stopped in its passage 
from the gall-bladder into the duode- 
num, it necessarily stagnates; while 
the thinner part is absorbed, the thicker inspis-
sates, and produces chronical obstructions, jaun- 
dice, pain in the right hypochondre, difficulty of 
breathing, &c. Concretions in the kidneys, 
produce pains, inflammation, vomiting, ul- 
cers, bloody waters, suppression of urine, &c. 
That unctuous smegma which oozes through the
Concretions.
C3 cuticular







54 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
cuticular vessels, if it stagnates, inspissates, and 
produces steatomatous swellings. 
8. THERE are spontaneous changes which nei- 
ther can be seen, nor prevented; hence chro- 
nical disorders. Blood drawn from the 
arm of a healthy man separates into glo- 
bules red and serous. If a man lies in 
a syncope for even a few minutes, his blood stag- 
nates in the ventricles, sinus’s, and auricles of 
the heart, pulmonary artery, sinus’s of the brain 
and uterine vessels: hence palpitations, fixed pain, 
intermitting pulse, anxiety, difficulty of breath- 
ing, fainting, and death. 
Spontaneous 
changes. 
This was the unhappy fate of my patient, Cap- 
tain Dorrel of the navy. Five years before, 
he fell into a syncope produced by 
watching and hard duty. From that 
instant he laboured under the complaints above 
recited. His days were shortened by injudicious 
bleedings, which destroyed the vis vitae; he died
cachectic.
Case.
Worms.
9. FROM Worms nestling in the 
first passages, arise cholic-pains, erra- 
tic-fevers, convulsions, false appetite, perforations, 
and death. 
This was the fate of Master Tyrrel, a pro- 
mising young scholar at Claverton school, near 
Bath. Called for in a hurry, I found 
him feverish, with a fixed pain in his 
side. Having no reason to suspect worms, he 
was, according to custom, bled and blistered
on the part. Next day, I found the fever un- 
commonly abated, the pain was equally in- 
tense, and fixed in the opposite side. From 
that hour, I treated the disorder as from worms,
nor was I mistake; for in a very short 
time, he voided two round worms five or six 
Case. 
inches

55 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
inches long. By pursuing the same regimen, 
I flattered myself with the hopes of a complete 
cure. My hopes were vain; for, one morn- 
ing, as I thought I had left him in a fair way, 
a servant came galloping over the Downs, with
news that Master was dying. Hastening 
back, I found him in a cold sweat, faint- 
ings, pulse scarcely distinguishable. By the 
help of cordials incessantly repeated, he was
kept alive for some hours only. Surprised at
such uncommon appearances, I examined the 
body, and found the abdomen greatly distend- 
ed. On laying it open, there issued forth an 
ash-coloured liquor, of the consistence of wa- 
ter-gruel, some quarts in quantity. Intense 
cold, intolerable stench, and precipitance pre- 
vented my searching for the perforation thro’ 
which this liquor must have passed. In the 
abdomen there were no worms; but in the 
small guts there were fix, as large as the for- 
mer, and dead. 
10. ACCIDENTS give rise to chronical diseases. 
By bruises never divulged, children 
have been subject, all their lives, to 
convulsions and idiotism.—From vertebral distor- 
tions, incurable asthmas and palsies have been pro- 
duced. 
Accidents.
§. IV. FEVERISH DISORDERS, which terminate 
soon, and which proceed from contagion, have 
their seats in the fluids.—1. Fevers 
inflammatory and putrid have their seats 
in the red globules; in the serum, slow 
fevers, rheumatism, and gout; in the lymph, ve- 
nereal and other pestilential disorders; in the
nervous fluid, nervous fevers, effects of smells,
and many poisons, such as opium, nightshade.
Seat of Ca-
chexy.
C4 &c.

56 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
&c. This last is the most dangerous, because on 
this spirituous fluid bodily strength depends. 
2. NERVOUS and membraneous parts of the 
body appropriated to motion and sensation, are 
the seats of many diseases; the brain 
to epilepsy, madness, lethargy, apo- 
plexy; the nerves to spasms, convul- 
sions, tetanus, palpitations, convulsive asthmas, 
vomiting, hysterics, hypochondriacs, and palsy. 
Nerves and
Membranes.
3. THE intestinal tube is more liable to disease 
than any other part of the body. This is com- 
posed of folds and windings; the cir- 
culation is slow; this way goes air 
replete with morbific particles, as also meats
of different and opposite natures; this is the pas- 
sage for the saliva, pancreatic juice, both biles, 
with other humours and liquors fermentable. 
Here the fibrous part of the food sufFers corrup- 
tion. The intestinal tube is the seat of heart- 
burn, anxiety, wind, spasms, cholics, ilium, ili- 
ac passion, diarrhaea, dysentery, head-ach, and
vertigo. 
Guts.
§. V. THE knowlege of Diagnostics is that 
branch of pathology which treats of the specific 
nature and difference of diseases re- 
sembling one another. Without this 
physicians cannot form prognostics; they become 
the sport of apothecaries apprentices and nurses. 
As are the different colour, tenacity, acrimony, 
and fluidity of infarcted liquors, so are the diffe- 
rent effects of cachexy, viz. whiteness of the skin, 
yellowish, paleness, lividness, redness; heaviness, 
palpitations, crude pale urine, and wasting. The 
change of the humours is best perceived where the 
vessels are most naked, as in the white of the 
eye, lips, inside of the mouth. To sum up the 
whole, the physician need only recollect what the 
Diagnostics.
patient


57 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
patient was, and compare that picture with the 
present. 
§. VI. PROGNOSTICS vary with the causes.
Suppose, e.g. upon inquiry, I find that the pre- 
sent depraved habit of body arises from 
improper diet, I prognosticate a cure, 
because I reasonably expect from a better.—
Suppose cachexy arise from defect of animal mo- 
tion, I promise a cure, provided I can depend 
upon the patient’s exchanging a life of sloth for 
activity.—Green-sick girls may easily be cured by
drinking waters impregnated with Iron-ore and
Exercise, provided they abstain from tea.—
Suppose cachexy arise from the vice of some pu- 
rulent or schirrous viscus, the physician who sees 
farthest promises least.—Laesions of some viscera
are more dangerous than those of others. Sup- 
pose, for example, vertigo, trembling, weakness
of memory, or sleepiness joined to cachexy, the 
prognostic is apoplexy.—Suppose the patient 
breathes hard on the least motion, we have reason
to suspect a collection of watery colluvies in the 
thorax, inde passim prognosis. 
Prognostics.
1. PROGNOSTICS vary according to the durations
of the disease. Diseases, at first, affect 
one viscus only; in time they contami- 
nate all. Quocirca (says Aretaeus) ab hac enascen- 
tes morbi inevitabiles sunt Hydrops, Phthisis, Colli- 
quationes. 
Durations.
2. IN forming prognostics, attention is to be paid
to age.—Boys grow cachectic from devouring 
fruit; a purge, and a few astringents, 
set them, agaim on their legs. Cachex- 
ies are not common to young people. Old peo-
ple, be they never so found, are daily bending to- 
ward some incurable ailment. Senes juvenibus ple-
Age.
C5 rumque


58 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
rumque minus aegrotant; quicunque vero morhls diu- 
turnis oboriuntur, eum frequentius intereunt, says the 
divine old man, Aphor. 39.
§. VII. WHEN we take a survey of the human 
frame, we may well cry out with the Royal 
Psalmist, Fearfully and wonderfully are 
we made! From a variety of causes, 
the nerves are irritated. By this irrita- 
tion, the nervous juice rushes in upon 
the fibres; thus the motion of solids and fluids
comes to be accelerated; thus is their action in- 
creased. Hence superfluous humours evacuated; 
hence vicious quality corrected; hence stagna- 
tions dissolved; hence obstructions opened; hence 
diseases vanquished.—Ignorant of the 
circulation, and its mechanical powers, 
the antients ascribed the whole business of me- 
dicine to nature. By nature, we understand those 
powers which are exerted without the help of 
man. In this sense, the common saying is truly 
verified. Medicus minister, natura medicatrix. But
nature is not always all-sufficient. In many chro- 
nical diseases, e. g. rickets, hysteric, p—x, &c. nature 
makes no attempt; no cure is to be expected. In 
extravasations, e.g. stone, worms, collections of 
matter; nature’s endeavours are not only insalu- 
tary, but destructive. Nature sometimes does 
good, sometimes harm. Diseases are not, there- 
fore, blindly to be trusted to nature. 
Cure of Ca-
chexy in ge-
eral.
Nature.
To supply the defects of nature, art is to be 
called. Weak attempts are to be assisted, tumul- 
tuous bridled, straying directed. This 
is the business of art. When, for the 
preservation of health, or the conquering of di- 
sease, nature points out something to be done, 
this we call Indication. Indication arises, From 
Art.
a


59 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
a knowlege of proximate causes; From ex- 
perience; and, From knowlege and experi- 
ence united. Happy the patient, when these twin
sisters travel hand in hand to the same goal! 
Art can effect nothing without instruments. 
The instruments of art are called Remedies. Me- 
dical instruments are three-fold. Diet, Surgery,
and Pharmacy. Of the first I purpose to treat at 
large in the last part. The second falls not im- 
mediately under my subject. Medicines may be 
divided into Alteratives, Strengtheners, Anodynes, 
and Specifics. Such, in all respects, are Mineral 
Waters in general. Such are Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters in particular. The powers of these waters
continue to be obscured, 1. Because the particu- 
lar circumstances of diseases are seldom investi- 
gated. 2. Because the causes of diseases are of- 
ten hid from our eyes. 3. Because the principles, 
on which the powers of the waters depend are sel- 
dom subjected to mechanical laws. 4. Because 
the administration of waters is so confounded 
with shop compositions, that physicians themselves 
are often at a loss to know to what the effects are
to be ascribed. 
§. VIII. RATIONALLY to proceed, it may not 
only be necessary to comprehend general doctrines, 
but also to compare the principles of the 
human frame, with those which con- 
stitute Mineral waters. Their affinity 
will not, perhaps, be found so distant, 
as we may commonly think. Pursuing the ge- 
neral philosophic opinion, those principles or ele- 
ments which compose the human mechanism, 
may be reduced to Water, earth, the inflammable 
principle, acid, alkali, spirit, fire, air, and the prin- 
ciple peculiar to iron. Professor Gaubius calculates
Principles of 
the human
body.
C6 that

60 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
that principle of water which enters the com-
position, at about nine-tenths of the whole. 
The proportions of the other principles cannot 
so exactly be computed; it seems not improbable,
that the principle earth makes the greatest part of 
the weight of the remaining tenth. According
to Menghini’s most ingenious experiments, (Jour- 
nal de Scavans d’ Ital. Tom. 3. page 645.) the prin-
ciple of iron enters the blood in the ratio of one
scruple to two ounces; so that (in a body con- 
taining eighteen pounds of blood) iron makes, 
three ounces of the composition. These princi- 
ples intimately blended compose our solids and
fluids.
1. OUR SOLIDS have properties common to solid 
bodies in general; they have others particular 
to animals. They are, in general, des- 
tined to make certain efforts, by a co- 
hesion proportioned to resistance, attended with 
rigidity of the bones, and flexility of the other
parts. Besides those properties which are com- 
mon to solid bodies in general, the members of 
the human body have particular, such as sensibili- 
ty, and muscular motion, as Haller has most 
ingeniously demonstrated. There are certain fi- 
bres destined to transmit those impressions which
are made on the body, to the foul. These are 
the organs of sense; these communicate our sen- 
sations of pleasure, pain, and danger.—There 
are other fibres endowed with the faculty of con- 
tracting themselves. This faculty gathers strength 
by anger; and loses by grief, or fear. The parts 
of the body are destined to different offices; le-
vers, pumps, cords, pullies, strainers, pipes, reser- 
voirs, presses, &c.
Solids.
2. ELAS


61 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. ELASTICITY is not only the cause of many 
effects, but it has a singular influence on the func- 
tions of the human body. There are 
certain fundamental rules relative to 
these effects, which lead us to a certain exacti- 
tude in our conceptions of life, health, diseases, 
together with the operations of medicines; those 
of mineral waters in particular, 1. Suppose a fi- 
bre stretched, its elasticity diminishes of course. 
This we know from the common experiment of 
tuning a fiddle. Hence we learn, that (by wake- 
fulness, or excess of exercise) the organs are all 
on the stretch, the tone of the fibres diminishes, 
the spirits flag, strength decays. 2. Fibres gra- 
dually relaxed, acquire a certain degree of ten- 
sion. 3 Suppose two strings unbent, one all 
at once, the other, by degrees; the first becomes
the weakest; between every tension, the other 
acquires a degree of strength. Thus it is that 
large bleedings debilitate much more sensibly than
the same quantity drawn at different times. The 
same may be affirmed of evacuation in general.
Elasticity.
In many cases elasticity determines the de- 
gree of sensibility; for sensibility is proportioned
to vibratility. Sensibility and vibratility depend 
on three conditions; elasticity of the part, its de- 
gree of tension, and tenuity. This is verified in 
instruments whose strings are elastic and small; 
their tones are shriller.—As it is with musical in- 
struments, so is it with the human machine; the 
degree of sensibility is proportioned to the quan- 
tity and subtility of the nerves, joined to their 
degree of tension, with the elasticity of their last 
expansion. Thus, in delicate persons, the fibres 
being smaller, have the greater degree of vibrati- 
lity; these are more sensible, tho’ sometimes 
less

62 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
less elastic; as a small fiddle-string is more vibra- 
tile than a thick, made of stuff less elastic. Ad- 
dition of tension quickens the sensations. Put 
any thing favoury into your lips, the nervous 
papillae raise themselves; this erection adds to
the exquisiteness of taste. Whatever encreases 
the tension of the skin increases the sensibili- 
ty of the touch. This is verified in local in- 
flammations; the nerves which are spred on the- 
skin are in a degree of laceration; hence pain; 
this, particularly, is the case in the gout. What- 
ever diminishes tension, diminishes sensibility. 
Those who are relaxed are, of course, insensible, 
dull, and phlegmatic. This is verified in people 
who oversleep, or fatigue themselves, and in pa- 
ralytics. On this, the doctrine of bleeding, purg- 
ing, fomentations, cataplasms, pumping, and bathing
is founded. 
3. EVERY one knows blood when he sees 
it. This blood is formed out of chyle, a liquor 
which resembles milk, produced from 
food, partly by the action of the sto- 
mach intestines, partly by the mix- 
ture of the bile, spittle, and other 
dissolvents, assisted, not a little, by the genial 
heat of the bowels. This chyle is absorbed by 
pipes which carry it into the common mass; 
in which it is changed by the action of 
the solids, particularly the lungs. The blood 
is contained in vessels of different bores, of which
the heart is the base. The contraction of the 
heart forces the blood into the arteries. These 
contracting, push it into the veins, thro’ which 
it is forced back again to the heart. The arte- 
ries terminate different ways. Some are continu- 
ed to the veins. Others become so small, that 
The fluids, 
their circula- 
tion. 
the

63 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
the blood cannot pass without being divided. One 
red globule divides itself into six yellow. There 
are other vessels which circulate fluids still more 
subtile. Every pipe has its particular appropria- 
tion; some accompany, and nourish the muscular 
fibres; others empty themselves into cavities des- 
tined for their reception; others absorb superabun- 
dant liquors; others filtrate, others evacuate. 
The skin is pierced every where.
4. THIS short sketch of the human mechanism 
naturally leads us to the Soul. That connection
which subsists between the soul and bo- 
dy, is more certain than clear; they 
cordially communicate their impressions to each- 
other. The nerves are the organs by which these 
impresions are communicated; the manner is still 
undetermined. Of the nature of the soul we are 
ignorant; the little that we do know, proclaims a 
God. 
The soul.
WE now proceed to inquire into the Virtues of 
the Principles demonstrated; or, in other words, 
to apply them to the human body. 
I. Air. 
FROM experiments, we learn that air appears 
to be in a state of compressure while it is immersed
in water; so as readily to escape on the 
first opportunity. It seems to exert a 
kind ot struggling motion, so as to keep 
the watry particles at a greater distance, or render 
the whole specifically lighter. Certain it is, the 
specific gravity of water appears to be considerably 
increased on the avolation of the air, tho’ the 
mineral spirit may still be left behind. Hence 
Air, its
virtues.
may

64 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
may we infer that the use of air is to rarify the
water, to render it more light and subtile, while 
it continues in its native form. This seems to 
be confirmed by experience. Water drank at the 
pump is lighter, flies up to the head, and distends 
the vessels. 
The natural heat of the body, by ratifying this 
air, widens the passages, and renders it more sub- 
tile and penetrating; thus, by entering the small- 
est vessels, it opens obstructions, and cleanses the 
smallest canals. 
The elastic quality of air may be the cause of 
that quickness, briskness, and taste, commonly 
observed in waters drank at the pump. 
Lord Bacon judges that the best water, for 
domestic uses, which evaporates fastest over the 
fire. Hippocrates supposes that to be the best, for 
the same purposes, which soonest heats and cools. 
Pyrmont waters break the bottles, especially 
when they are set near the fire, or filled up 
to the top. For this reason, it is usual to let the 
bottles stand a little before corking, that a portion
of the air may escape. A little space ought also 
to be left for the air, at the top; for nothing 
spoils liquors so much as common air. Wines, 
in casks half empty, grow vapid. Mineral wa- 
ters become sluggish and indolent. 
Mineral waters ought to be drank early in 
the morning; because the external heat, by in- 
creasing the internal motion, dissipates their elas- 
tic parts. “ Dr. Shaw remarks (of Scarborough 
“ water, p. 143 ) that, though it retains its purga- 
“ tive quality after the air is gone; yet, it seems 
“ not to pass so far into the habit of the body, 
“ nor does it produce all its effects, as when 
“ drank fresh.” In some cases, it is however 
more

65 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
more adviseable to drink it at a distance, espe- 
cially where the viscera are unfound. This cau- 
tion is particularly necessary in respect of Bath 
waters. 
II. SPIRIT. 
THE SPIRIT of waters (by experiments ad- 
duced) is allowed to consist of iron subtilized. 
By mineral spirit, we understand an elas- 
tic fluid blended with the sulphureous 
parts of minerals, and which pervades 
the bowels of the earth, so as to become the ani- 
mating principle of mineral waters. This is 
the doctrine of Boyle, Hoffman, Becher, Lis- 
ter, &c. 
Spirit, its 
Virtues.
As for the virtues of principles, we can 
account no otherwise than by examining the 
substances of which they are found to con-
sist; so, for the virtues of the Spirit, we con- 
sequently have recourse to the known properties 
of iron. The irony particles found in Bath 
waters, bear, it is true, but a small proportion, 
win point of saturation, to the common shop- 
compositions. Natural ferrugineous waters are, 
for this very reason, preferable to shop tinctures. 
or solutions, just as far as the works of almigh- 
ty chymistry exceed imperfect artificial disco- 
veries. 
The medicinal virtues of Spirit, or, in other 
words, iron subtilised, are allowed to be de- 
obstruent, and strengthening, To this spirit it
is owing, that the waters do not cool or weaken 
the body, but rather heat, and invigorate; so as 
to increase the appetite, raise the pulse, and give 
a

66 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
a rosy colour to the cheeks. This is the princi- 
ple that causes them to pass so nimbly, open ob- 
structions, and throw off peccant humours. When 
this principle comes to be lost, (as has indeed 
happened to many springs,) the most celebrated 
mineral waters lose their credit, and sink to the 
condition of common water. Thus far Spirit; 
we now proceed to the virtues of iron substantial- 
ly found in Bath waters. 
III. IRON
IRON is absorbent, it ferments with acids, and 
blunts them to such a degree as to render them
imperceptible. This fermentation in- 
creases according to the quantity of 
ore, and degree of acidity. Filings of 
iron occasion belchings, like those caused by sul- 
phureous waters. When the stomach does not 
abound with acidity, they dissolve not easily, but 
clog the stomach. They ought therefore to be 
mixed with Rhenish wine. Solutions of iron are 
strongly styptic. With infusions of most astrin- 
gents, it turns black as ink. 
Iron, its Vir- 
tues.
Salt of iron coagulates the serum of new drawn 
blood. This is not to be used as an argument a- 
gainst its use; for, in persons who have taken 
chalybeates for some time, we observe their excre- 
ments black; and, on dissection, we have observ- 
ed the Tunica villosa, in the same manner, chang- 
ed to black, but no alteration in the Lacteals, 
or any way beyond the Primae Viae. Hence may 
we infer, that it does not enter the blood, but 
seems to undergo a precipitation in the first pas- 
sages, by which it is considerably deprived of its 
stringency. This change is not proper to iron 
alone,

67 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
alone, it is common also to most astringents. 
Its astringency is distinguishable by its taste;
it occasions a nausea, sometimes vomiting.
Hence we learn its stimulus, which is greatly in- 
creased by its weight. Its corroborating quality 
is, not a little, increased by the belchings which 
it occasions; for, thereby it either generates, or 
rarefies the air, which communicates an elastic 
force to our solids, whereby they are assisted in
their functions. 
In practice, iron is preferable to steel, as it is
to all other metals. Its absorbency, astringency, 
and stimulancy, are easily demonstrated. It is al- 
so attenuant, and aperient. It is therefore useful 
in all disorders which take their rise from acidity in 
the first passages, such as Hypochondriac and Hyste-
ric Cachexy, Quartan Agues, Dropsies, Worms, Ob- 
structions of the Menses, and Immoderate discharges, 
Jaundice, Fluor Albus, Diarrhaeas, and Haermorr- 
hages. In chronical disorders, it is the sheet- 
anchor. 
Every corner of the island abounds with 
chalybeate-waters vulgarly and improperly so 
called; for, on examination, we find that they 
contain a very fine crocus of iron-ore suspended
in the watry fluid. This is hone other than that 
yellow oker which paints the sides of our baths of
a yellowish hue, and which dyes the rills which 
flow from such springs. Ferrugineous waters are 
nature’s productions, more subtile, homogeneous, 
and safe, than artificial productions tortured thro’ 
fire, or altered by the interposition of corrosive 
menstruums. Hence there arises a question, Whe- 
ther the softest Oker, or Minera ferri, found 
in the course of mineral springs, may not be 
capable of affording better chalybeate medicines 
than those usually ordered in Dispensatories? Be  
this

68 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
this as it will, we may venture to affirm, That 
where chalybeates are indicated, next to mineral 
waters, iron, in substance, is preferable to every 
human preparation. 
IV. SALTS.
SALTS comprehend that class of minerals 
which melts with heat, turns solid, hard, and
friable with cold, is soluble in water; 
by evaporation, may again be reduced 
to their original form; and are gene- 
rally pellucid and pungent to the taste. Water 
frozen puts on the form of salt. Boerhaave, in 
his chymical lectures, was wont to say, that it 
differed only from salt in its insipid property, and 
its facility in dissolving. 
Salts, their 
Virtues.
There are various salts, Marin, Gemm, Com- 
mun, Glauber. Ammon. Nitr. Alumen. Borax, Vi- 
triolic, &c. In that chapter which treats Of the 
Principles of Bath Water, we have discovered a 
salt of the nature of Borax, and a Marine. In 
that chapter which treats Of the Principles of Bris- 
tol Water, we have discovered the alkaline basis of 
sea salt. Both waters, partake of the Universal Vi- 
triolic Acid. To the virtues of these my present 
researches are chiefly confined. 
Most Salts are comprehended under the two 
general heads of Sal Marin, Gemm, or Fossile.
The first comprehends all sorts of sea salt, how- 
ever extracted, the second all those dug out of 
the earth; and, because some imagine that the 
sea derives its taste from the latter, we begin with 
that. 
1. SAL GEMMAE is a white hard pellucid crys- 
talline substance, of a more acrid pene- 
trating taste than common salt pro- 
Sal-Gem.
duced

69 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
duced from mines, the most noted of which are 
those in Poland and Catalonia. The former have 
been open ever since the year 1252; some say 
they are 180 fathoms deep. Such quantities have 
been dug; up as to leave a cavern which admits of 
spacious streets, and regular buildings, sufficient 
to contain a little commonwealth which never 
sees the fun. 
2. SAL COMMUNE MARIS consists of white cu- 
bical crystals not so solid as the former, tho’ resem- 
bling it greatly in taste, not quite so pe- 
netrating, rather a little bituminous. 
This salt is extracted from sea water by evapora- 
tion, with a mixture of animal substance. There 
are salt lakes which yield salt in the same manner. 
Sal Marin and Sal Gemmae dissolve in the same 
quantity of water; in distillation, they afford the 
same acid; either makes a menstruum for gold. 
They effervesce neither with acids nor alkalies. 
Warm water dissolves no more sea salt than 
cold. 
Sea salt. 
Their virtues are the same. They heat, dry, 
cause thirst, increase the circulation, strengthen
the solids, attenuate the fluids, quicken the ap- 
petite, promote urine and perspiration, prevent 
putrefaction, and, if given in quantity, open the 
belly. They enter the lacteals, and take the 
whole round of circulation. Mixed with the 
blood, they prevent its coagulation, nor are 
they to be altered by any of its functions; but 
pass off plentifully by urine, as the taste may
discover. 
3. BORAX is a white crystalline salt, in colour 
much resembling alum, in smaller oblong pieces,
of a penetrating nitro-saline urinous 
taste, without stipticity or smell. It is 
easily dissolved by fire, hardly by air. It is now 
Borax. 
universally

71 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
olum martis blandum, not the Vitriolum vulgare, aut 
cupri sui generis. Simple as well as fermented ve- 
gitable acids mix naturally and kindly with Bath 
and Bristol waters. This vitriolic principle is the 
medium which keeps the other principles united, 
that powerful instrument, without which all the 
rest were effete. This acid it is that subdues that 
hydra of a fever which, in many diseases, ex- 
pends the natural nourishment in unnatural secre- 
tions. Acids have, in all ages, been used as An- 
liseptics. Late experiments have only corrobora- 
ted what antient experience had discovered. 
Oxycrate was the Panacaea of Hippocrates. 
In his Commentaries on this divine author, Dr. 
Glass inculcates the use of Vinegar. Boerhaave 
(De morbis ex alcalino spontaneo) says, Curatio per- 
ficitur alimentis potibusve acescentibus, vel jam aci-
dis, sapis acetosis.—In the Confluent Small-Pox, Sy-
denham acidulated the drink with Spirit of Vi- 
triol—Mead (in the Confluent Small-Pox) says, 
Ex hoc genere praestantissima sunt Cortex Peruvianus, 
Alumen, et Spiritus, qui Oleum dicitur Vitrioli.— 
At one time, the Malignant putrid Fever employ- 
ed the pens of Huxham and Pringle. Without 
personal knowlege, or correspondence, they hard- 
ly differ in history, cause, or cure; a manifest 
proof that nature appears the same, in every age, 
to those who rationally trace her paths. In the 
eyes of both, Acids are the true Antiseptics. 
To ascertain the antiseptic quality of Salts, 
Doctor Pringle made experiments. After having
shown that alkaline salts do not promote putre- 
faction, he proceeds (page 376, Edit. I.) to exa- 
mine other salts, and, by comparing them with 
the standard Sea-salt, of all, the weakest antisep- 
tic, he found the ratio as follows;
Sea-

72 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Sea-salt—1
Sal Gemmae—1 +
Tartar vitriolated—2
Crude Sal Ammon.—3
Nitre—4 +
Borax—12 +
Alum—30 +
V. EARTHS.
In different arts, Earth has different accepta- 
tions. Earth, in the chymical language, denotes 
a substance which every simple affords, 
soluble neither by fire nor water. Earth’s 
mixed with water, separate, turn soft, 
are sometimes suspended in it, then again fall 
down like mud, leaving the water clear, without 
communicating any tincture. These are called 
Argillae. There is another species of earth, which, 
put into water, neither crumbles nor precipitates; 
and, tho’ they imbibe a considerable quantity of 
it, yet they still retain their former figure and
consistence, These are the Cretaceae. 
Earths, their
virtues.
The former are moderately astringent and dry- 
ing; blunt acrimony, absorb humidity; with a- 
cids, acquire a sort of vitriolic quality; hence 
they strengthen lax intestines, restore the tone of
the fibres, and thus avail in many diseases of the 
first passages. Their alexipharmic quality is a 
mere creature of fancy; nor are they of any other 
use in malignant fevers than by inviscating, or 
sheathing acrid particles, not even the boasted
Boles of the shops; for they enter not the lacteals. 
The Terrae Lemniae, Silesiacae, Melitae, Lignicen- 
ses, &c. are much commended by Dioscorides for 
virtues which we have great reason to suspect. 
Common clay, or Fullers earth, freed from sand,
afford 


73 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
afford an acid spirit, and may claim the same 
virtues. 
The Cretaceae are all antacid and absorbent. 
This explains their effects. They are useful in all 
diseases arising from the corroding acrimony of 
humours in the first passages, or laxity of fibres. 
By their absorbent quality, they destroy acids; 
and, with them, turn either to a vitriolic or alu- 
minous nature; hence commended in Heart-burns, 
Diarrhaeas, &c. Experiments demonstrate this; 
for we see them effervesce with acids. Mixed 
with stale beer, it becomes sweet. If the hops 
are overcome by acids, chalk restores the bitter- 
ness, but turns vapid if not soon used. Chalk
calcined affords a calx viva, that of the Dispensa- 
tory. Tournefort affirms that chalk heats water, 
I never made the experiment. 
VI. SULPHUR.
SULPHUR is a mineral susible in a small de- 
gree of heat, volatile in a stronger, inflammable, 
emits a blue flame, and a suffocating
vapour. Sulphur opens the belly, and 
promotes insensible perspiration; it 
passes thro’ the whole habit, and manifestly tran- 
spires through the pores, as appears from the sul- 
phureous smell of patients who use it, as also from 
tinging silver, in their pockets. It is a celebrated
remedy in cutaneous disorders, internally and ex- 
ternally applied. It prevents the purulent dia- 
thesis of the blood. It is antiseptic, it prevents 
the intestinal motion of animal fluids, and fer- 
mentation of vegetables. It corrects saline acri- 
mony, preserves the tone of the solids, and in- 
creases sweat, as well as perspiration. It con- 
tains most of the virtues of the Balm of Gilead, 
Sulphur, its 
virtues. 
D it

74 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
it preserves the tone of the vessels without mak- 
ing them rigid or flexible. It promotes expectora- 
tion, and heals ulcers of the lungs. It is also an- 
thelmintic. By the mixture of sulphur, mercury
becomes inactive; when antimonial or mercurial 
medicines exceed in operation, sulphur abates 
their violence; it checks the highest salivation, 
but never ought to be administered in cases at- 
tended with inflammation. Arsenic is rendered 
almost innocent by mixture with sulphur. This 
we have seen confirmed by that experiment made 
to discover the existence of sulphur in Bath wa- 
ters; for, as we there observed, it is well known, 
that arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the 
quantity never so small. 
Hence we infer, That should a small propor- 
tion of arsenic adhere to the sulphur, it, pos- 
sibly, may not, hence, receive any poisonous
quality. 
VII. WATER. 
NOR Is the simplest water destitute of medici- 
nal virtues. By its moisture, thinness, or rare- 
faction, it is wondrously serviceable in 
preserving and restoring health. It dis- 
solves thick viscid humours, dilutes mor- 
bific salts, and discharges coagulations. 
Water, its 
virtues. 
The fountains at Schlensingen, Bebra and Oste- 
rode, contain no other principle than the simple
fluid. They have nevertheless signalized their 
virtues in the Stone, Gravel, Scurvy, Rheumatism, 
&c.—St. Winifred’s Well in Flint- 
shire, of itself, a natural curiosity: 
without intermission, or variation, it 
raises above a hundred tons of water in a minute. 
This water is void of every mineral particle, tho’ 
St. Wini- 
fred’s Well. 
it

75 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
it rises in the midst of hills abounding with mine- 
rals. It possesses an uncommon portion of the 
Spiritus Rector, by some called Spiritus Mundi, or 
Universalis. Was this water applied to practice, 
doubtless it would perform, cures in many dis- 
orders. 
THE Holy-well at Malvern is a spring of un- 
common purity. Two quarts evaporated in an 
open silver vessel, left only half a grain 
of earth, with a quantity of saline mat- 
ter, so inconsiderable, that it could not 
be estimated. From experience, confirmed by 
Cases incontrovertible, we learn, That it has prov- 
ed eminently serviceabls in scrophulous cases, old 
ulcers and fistulas, obstructed glands, schirrous and 
cancerous cases, disorders of the eyes and eye-lids, dis- 
orders of the urinary passages, cutaneous diseases,
coughs scorbutic and scrophulous, loss of appetite, and
profuse female discharges; for the truth of which 
we appeal to Doctor Wall’s judicious Experiments 
and Observations on Malvern Waters. 
Malvern
water. 
THE Circulation preserves the body from cor- 
ruption. Animal juices prove corruptible in a 
state of warmth, rest, and moisture. To preserve 
the circulation of balmy juices, it is necessary 
that the blood should be continually refreshed by 
an aereal, elastic, similar fluid. Water is agree- 
able to the animal juices. The blood contains 
two parts of serum to one of red globules. It 
contains besides an aereal, aethereal, subtile prin- 
ciple, manifestly appearing by its bubbling in va- 
cuo. Nothing therefore can be so natural to the 
human frame; nothing can so well preserve life. 
Water divides viscous sizy humours. It dilutes 
saline earthy scorbutic salts. These it discharges 
by the proper emunctories or outlets of the 
body. 
D2 There

76 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ There are springs hot and cold, says Hoffman, 
which (by the strictest examination) manifest not 
the leaft sign of mineral, and yet are highly valu- 
able. The waters of Toplitz nearly resemble the 
Piperine springs in Rhetia; they are extremely 
hot. Though they preserve their native purity 
mixed with acids, or alkali’s; tho’, on evapora- 
tion, they leave no solid substance behind, yet 
they have considerable virtues in disorders exter- 
nal, and internal. The Schlangenbad springs of 
Hesse contain no saline, earthy, irony, or o- 
ther mineral principle that art can extract. By
drinking and bathing, they nevertheless perform
surprising cures. The waters of Wilhelms-brun 
throw up abundance of bubbles in vacuo; they 
neither grow thick, nor precipitate any thing on 
the addition of oil of Tartar, a solution of silver, or 
sugar of lead. They suffer no change from the 
common experiments of galls, acids, alkali’s, &c.” 
Most of the cold springs at Bath are hard. Dr. 
Lucas examined the water of the Mill-spring op- 
posite to the Hot-well; he found it sparkle like 
the Poubon. It loses none of its pellucidity on 
standing open for hours. It weighed one grain 
less than distilled water. With acids or alkali’s, 
it gave very slight appearances, &c. On evapo- 
ration it only gave five grains of residuum to a 
pint. The virtues of such waters probably de- 
pend on their levity and subtilty. The purer 
perhaps the more powerful. 
Water-drinkers are the most healthy, and long
lived. Water is the best menstruum for dissolv- 
ing aliment, extracting chyle, and carrying them 
through their proper canals. Water dissolves that 
viscous slime which lines the glandular coats of 
the stomach and duodenum. Nor is water incon- 
sistent with fruit; for in Spain, Portugal, and 
France,


77
BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
France, water is the common beverage, and fruit 
the greatest part of diet. Water-drinkers are re- 
markable for white teeth for rottenness of the 
teeth is caused by scurvy, a disease prevented 
by the use of water. Water-drinkers are much 
brisker chan those who indulge in ale. Malt- 
liquors blunt the appetite, and hebitate the senses, 
they are fit only for men accustomed to labour, or 
exercise. Persons of delicate constitutions and se- 
dentary lives ought to accustom themselves to cold 
water, and wine. 
Water not only prevents, but cures diseases. 
Fevers are occasioned by an increased velocity of
the fluids, and a rigidity of the solids. These 
create heat. Heat dissipates the thinnest part of 
the fluids. The remainder forms obstructions. 
The blood must be diluted, heat and inflamma- 
tion allayed, stagnating juices propelled, and mor- 
bific matter discharged. No medicine bids so 
fair for these purposes as water. By ptisans alone, 
Hippocrates cured fevers in his days more judi- 
ciously and more certainly far than we with all 
our modern specifics. He was truly the minister 
of nature. We commit violence on nature every 
day. 
Chronical diseases take their rise from obstruc- 
tions, or foulness of the juices. By mineral wa- 
ters, surprisig cures are daily performed. Those 
cures are principally owing to the pure element. 
Numberless are the instances of waters perform- 
ing cures when no vestige of mineral could be 
discovered. 
1. Dr. Baynard says, “ I once knew a gen- 
“ tleman of plentiful fortune who fell into de- 
“ cay: while he was in the King’s 
“ Bench, his wife and children lived 
“ on bread and water. Never did I see such a 
Cases.
D3 change.

78 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ change. The children, who were always ail- 
“ ing and valetudinary, in coughs, green sick- 
“ ness. King’s-evil, &c. now looked fresh, well- 
“ coloured, and plump.” 
2. “ He tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, 
“ who, from a leaky ship, was set on shore on- 
“ the desolate island Juan Fernandes, where he 
“ lived four years, and four months; during 
“ which time he eat nothing but goats flesh, 
“ without bread or salt, and drank nothing but
“ fair water. He told me, at the Bath, where 
“ I met him, that he was three times stronger 
“ than ever he had been. But, being taken up 
“ by the Duke and Dutchess Privaters of Bristol,
“ and living on ship’s provisions, his strength 
“ left him crinitim, like Sampson’s hair; in one 
“ month’s time, he had no more strength than
“ another man.” 
To recount the virtues of the compound were 
to anticipate particular disquisitions with cases, 
or cures incontrovertible. From reason 
and experience I may venture, in gene- 
ral, to affirm, that where the disease is curable, 
where the director knows his tools, and where 
the patient co-operates, Bath and Bristol waters 
are inferior to none. And that where they have 
hurt, they have been injudiciously administered.
Conclusion.  
How inelegant our preparations of iron com- 
pared to nature’s solution in its own universal 
acid! Who can suspend 1/35 part of a grain of iron
in a pint of water? How harsh our preparations 
of oil, or elixir of vitriol, compared to nature’s 
Vitriolic Acid? If we may thus expatiate on the 
particular virtues of separate ingredients, what 
may we not expect from the united efforts of 
The ONE GREAT WHOLE! How light in the 
balance are the labours of a Helmont, to the pro- 
cesses

79 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
cesses of Almighty Chymistry! When mineral wa- 
ters purge, they occasion no loss of strength. 
When they pass by urine, they cause no stran- 
gury. When they promote perspiration, they oc- 
casion no fainting. Persons of all ages, sexes, 
and constitutions, drink mineral waters success- 
fully. With the celebrated F. Hoffman we 
may venture to pronounce, “ Mineral Waters
“ come, the nearest, in nature, to what has
“ vainly been searched after, an Universal Medi- 
“ cine; nor can this be disputed, but by such
“ as derive their arguments from ignorance, or 
“ indolence.”
D4 OF

80 DISEASES CURED 
OF
DISEASES 
CURED BY
BATH WATER.
FROM the days of Hippocrates, to the be- 
ginning of the present century, the study of 
physic may be said to have continued 
vague, indefinite, and uncertain. There 
were heresies in divinity, so there were in physic. 
Every age produced men eminent in the profes- 
sion, Bellini’s, Baglivis, Pitcairns, and Friends. 
Every student was prepossessed in favour of some 
particular system. As was the theory, such was 
the practice. By sweeping away scholastic jargon, 
Boerhaave happily reduced the healing art to rea- 
son and simplicity. In his Treatise De Cognoscen- 
dis & Curandis Morbis, he has selected, and classes 
the several doctrines, under particular heads. In 
his Principia Medicinae, Doctor Home may truly 
be said to have surpassed his great master. In 
point of mineral science, this nation may be said
to be yet at the threshold only. Indolence has 
circumscribed the powers of Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters to the same diseases in which they were ad- 
ministred in the days of our forefathers. Bath 
waters are condemned in the very disorders in 
which they act as specifics. Treading in the steps 
Preamble. 
of

81 BY BATH WATER.
of the celebrated Boerhaave, and the ingenious 
Home; and shaking off prejudices of all sorts, it 
is my purpose, 1. To lay down rational deduc- 
tions of those diseases in which they are said to 
have been useful. 2. To extend their practice to
new diseases; and 3. To confirm these deduc- 
tions by memorable cures, or Cases. This is the 
plan pursued by the Doctors Cocci and Lim- 
bourg, in their elaborate Treatises on the wa- 
ters of Pisa, and Spa. In this mirrour, distant 
practitioners may be satisfied in what cases Bath
and Bristol waters are indicated. By perusing 
similar cases, patients may be encouraged to fly 
to the same cities of refuge. Bath and Bristol 
waters are not to be recommended as panacaeas; 
like other active medicines, they may, and do
often exceed their bounds. 
D5 CHAP.

82 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. V.
OF 
DISORDERS
OF THE
FIRST PASSAGES.
DISORDERS of the first passages are, of 
all others, the most difficult to cure, and
the most apt to recur. Yet, what is as true as 
surprising; there are hardly any less handled, or 
less uhderstood. 
To form an adequate idea of status, ructation,
belching, or wind, it may be necessary to take a
slight survey of the doctrine of Diges- 
tion. Chymists, when they would 
digest any substance, first pound it in a mor- 
tar, then pour a liquor on it; next set it in a 
warm place, shaking the containing vessel from
time to time. Art is only nature’s ape. Before the
art of chymistry was known, nature performed 
this process in the stomach of animals every day. 
By the most curious configuration of parts, and
action of muscles, our food is ground down by 
the teeth, then moistened by the spittle. It is 
then protruded down the gullet, where it is sof- 
tened by an unctuous humour distilled from the 
glands of that canal. Thence it slips into the 
stomach, where it is farther diluted. There it is
subtilised by internal air, macerated by the heat 
of the circumabient viscera, agitated by the per- 
petual friction of the muscular coat of the sto- 
mach, by the pulsation of the arteries, by the al- 
Digestion.
ternate.

83 BY BATH WATER.
ternate elevation and depression of the midriff, as 
also by the compression of the muscles of the 
lower belly. From the stomach it is propelled 
into the small guts, in the form of a thick uni- 
form ash-coloured fluid. There it receives a 
thick yellow bitter bile from the gall bladder, 
another scarce yellow or bitter, from the liver, 
with a limpid mild fluid from the sweet-bread. 
These liquors resolve viscid substances, incorpo- 
rate oily and watry; and, thus prepare the food 
for entering into those vessels which convey the 
chyle to the circulation. This constitutes diges- 
tion, or concoction, a process worthy of the con- 
sideration of those who undertake the cure of 
disorders of the stomach and guts. 
While digestion is perfect, wind passes freely
upwards, or downwards; the stomach is never 
swelled, pained, or inflated. The aliment under- 
goes no considerable change. When digestion is 
imperfect, the patient complains of pain, belch- 
ing, inflation, cholic, sourness, heart-burn, vo- 
miting, looseness, &c. There is an elastic air 
carried down with whatever we eat, or drink. 
The spittle abounds with froth. Air is even car- 
ried with the chyle into the blood. There is a 
perpetual fund for wind or flatus, pain; &c. 
That the stomachs of animals who follow the 
dictates of nature should continue found, we 
need not be surprised. But, that the stomachs of
animals who offer violence to nature every hour, 
should continue found, can only be imputed to 
the wisdom of him who fashioned our clay. High 
fauces, discordant mixtures, immoderate cram- 
ming, heats and colds generate air, distend the 
stomach, and shut up both orifices. By continu- 
ing in the stomach, the food ferments and petri- 
fies; fermentation, putrefaction and rarifaction
D6 distend


84 DISEASES CURED
distend the fibres to their full stretch; thus they 
produce pain. When the upper orifice comes to 
be relaxed, part of the air rushes up into the 
gullet where it is again confined by fresh spasm; 
there it produces the sense of a ball, which pres- 
sing on the membranous back part of the wind- 
pipe, brings on difficulty of breathing. When 
the lower orifice comes, to be relaxed, the pent- 
up air rushes along the course of the guts, pro- 
ducing spasms, pains, cholics, &c. Animal hu- 
mours naturally putrify, and produce an acid sui 
generis. This acid passing along with air velli- 
cates and distends the intestinal fibres, producing
pains, belchings, vomitings, stools, &c. Re- 
pulsions of cuticular eruptions give rise also to
disorders of the stomach. There is a particular 
sympathy between the nerves of the stomach and 
those of the extremities. Those who are subject
to chilliness of the feet are very liable to cholics. 
THE INDICATIONS which naturally arise, are 
to cleanse and strengthen. Vomits and purges 
clear the intestinal tube of that filth 
which vellicates the fibres. In order 
to cure those who have been long, in a man- 
ner starved, it is necessary to fill the vessels with 
good blood; good blood cannot be obtained with- 
out good digestion. To mend the digestion, sto- 
machics are indicated; the best stomachics are
bitters and steel. In disorders of the first passages, 
patients are generally languid, emaciated, dispi- 
rited and desponding; they hardly can be prevail- 
ed on to submit to evacuants, strengthners, anti- 
spasmodics, emenagogues, nervous, and other me- 
dical intentions. 
Indications.
MINERAL WATERS answer every intention; 
mineral waters fill the vessels with good blood; 
mineral waters are the only remedies which (in 
these

85 BY BATH WATER.
these cases) operate cito, tute, et jucunde. To au- 
thorities antient and modern I appeal. 
I. OF DEGLUTITION.
THE finger of the Almighty is fairly to be 
traced in every member of the human frame, in 
none more stupendously perhaps than in those or- 
gans which serve the purposes of Deglutition. 
Those operations which conspire to this great 
purpose are so various, manifold, and delicate, 
that nothing but almighty providence can account
for the duration of so exquisite a machine during
the period of life. If deglutition is hurt, diges- 
tion, chylification, and all the other animal func- 
tions cease. For want of sustenance, man starves 
and dies. “ Jam operosa fit arte deglutitio, tot 
“ conspirantes organorum adeo multiplicium & 
“ concurrentium actiones huc requiruntur; unde 
“ laeditur frequenter, varie; & scitur cur a cibo
“ sicco areant, rigescant, nec deglutire plus va- 
“ lent fauces; Cur, perdita uvula, deglutienti 
“ tussis, et suffocationis minae? Cur, sisso velo 
“ palatino, deglutienda per nares exitum molian- 
“ tur? Velum mobile palati valvulae officio sun- 
“ gi narium respectu; & musculi deprimentis, 
“ ratione pharyngis, inde quoque constat.” 
Boerhaav. Institut. Med. pag. 49. 
When the action of swallowing has defied the 
utmost researches of art, Bath water has perform- 
ed wonders. 
1. From Dr. Pierce we have the two following
facts. “ Mr. Yarburgh a gentleman of 56, hav- 
“ ing (for many years) been subject to 
“ a difficulty in swallowing, liquids es-
“ pecially, came to Bath. He had con- 
“ sulted a variety of physicians, who, accord- 
Pierce's
Cases.
3 “ ing

86 DESEASES CURED
“ ing to their idea of the disease, treated him all 
“ differently. 
“ He swallowed the waters with no small diffi- 
“ culty at first; but, by degrees, that obstacle 
“ was removed. He had his neck and stomach 
“ pumped in the Bath. He went away very much 
“ advantaged.” 
2. “ Mrs. Kirby of Bishops-Waltham, aged 40, 
“ had (some years past) a scarlet fever; and, be- 
“ ing put into a sweat, took cold, which brought 
“ on a defluxion of cold rheum, which had like 
“ to have suffocated her. From that time, she 
“ had a more than ordinary streightness, with 
“ some difficulty of swallowing. Two or three 
“ years after, having a violent haemorrhage from
“ both nostrils, which, by cold applications, was 
“ as often stopped; but in March 1693, falling 
“ a bleeding in the night, she was blooded to a
“ great quantity, which brought on a thorough 
“ inability of deglutition. She could chew, and, 
“ with her tongue, thrust it back to the top of 
“ the gullet, but down it would not go without 
“ the help of her finger, which often she was 
“ obliged to do, for fear of starving. 
“ At first, she hardly could swallow the water 
“ by spoonfuls. Soon afterwards she drank half 
“ a pint at a draught, and three pints in the 
“ morning, and more. After a month’s drink- 
“ ing, I advised pumping her neck and throat. 
“ After six months she went home so much re- 
“ covered, that fine continued well all the winter. 
“ She returned in summer, drank and pumped, 
“ as before, with no small addition to her former 
“ benefit.” 
3. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ Madam Philips (in a palsy of the muscles 
“ of

87 BY BATH WATER. 
“ of the throat) by bathing and drinking received 
“ great benefit.” 
“ OF those who drink waters on account of 
“ the weakness of the organs serving for nutri- 
“ tion, Baccius (De Thermis, page III) 
“ says, There are not a few who want 
“ corroborant baths. Of corroborant, 
“ or comforting waters, the common ratio is that, 
“ by a peculiar virtue, or, by equality of tempe- 
“ rament, they may so confirm the nature of par- 
“ ticular viscera that they may be enabled to re- 
“ ject superfluous humours; of this virtue are 
“ the waters of Grotta, Villa sub Luca, &c. Such
“ we may pronounce the Bath waters. 
Antient ana-
logical gene- 
ral proofs.
“ There are waters which have the property 
“ of exsuding phlegm, viscidities, and crudities 
“ of all sorts, such as the Porretanae, which con- 
“ tain alum, and a little iron. The Albulae are 
“ noted Diuretics. Salt waters generally act by 
“ vomit. Those waters called Atramentosa vomit 
“ violently, such as that of the Styx in Arcadia, 
“ by which, it is said, that Alexander the con- 
“ queror of the world was killed. There are o- 
“ ther waters which stop vomiting and nausea, 
“ iron wraters especially.” 
In hot affections of the stomach the antients 
prescribed baths gently cooling, of the iron kind. 
Acid waters were also recommended internally, 
and externally. In dry, desperate debilities of
the stomach, they used tepid baths of common 
soft water. In sighings, they ordered cold water 
at meals. In Cholera’s Galen ordered glysters of 
salt water, drinking warm water. In the Passio 
Caeliaca, and lienteric crude fluxes, Celsus success- 
fully recommended refrigerant iron opening wa- 
ters. The same were ordered in redundancies of 
black bile, with saburration, and arenation. 
For

88 DISEASES CURED
For creating appetite the nitrous, salt, and wa- 
ters, such as the Grotta, were recommended. 
These, convalescents and women with child ap- 
proached safely. 
“ Per haec itaque quae communiter nutrito- 
“ riis accommodata sunt remedia, facile Balnea 
“ quae ventriculum juvant, inferemus, says Bac- 
“ cius De Thermis, page 112. Corroborant enim, 
“ ac frigida simul et sub callidae faciunt tem- 
“ periei eadem balnea tam epotae, quam, in bal- 
“ neis ebibitae, et quae ex ea ortum habent af- 
“ fectiones, debilitatem, ac dolorem tollunt ven- 
“ triculi. Calidis vero harum partium intempe- 
“ ramentis succurrendum per balnea quae modice 
“ refrigerant, reprimantque, astrictoria facultate, 
“ ut, ex Ferratis, appositiffima eft Ficuncella aqua 
“ in potibus, Villa Lucae, Sanctae Crucis ad 
“ Baias. 
“ Acidae vero aquae omni, id genus, calidae 
“ intemperiae propriae, quales ad Anticolum in
“ Campania, &c. 
“ Ubi enim confirmata intemperies vicit hu- 
“ midum, sicca ac desperanda introducitur ven- 
“ triculi tabes, aquis dulcibus temperatis con- 
“ sulendum, ac per Hydrolaei fotus. Singultui 
“ vero per frigidam cibis superbibitam, ac te- 
“ pidam. 
“ Choleram vero sedant, in fine, Ficuncellae, 
“ Porretanae, Villa Lucae, &c. nec minus Clyste- 
“ res ex salsa, auctore Galeno. 
“ Subcutiles aquas videtur probasse Celsus in 
“ Caeliaca passione, ac Lienteriae fluxibus quibus
“ Grottae potiones egregie medentur, et aliae ex 
“ serri natura, refrigerantes, astringentesque, va- 
“ cuando, ut Porretanae. 
“ Atra vero bile, in ventriculo vexatis, eaedem 
“ dem consuluntur, cum Arenatione. 
“ Ad

89 BY BATH WATER.
“ Ad excitandam vero appetentiam nitratae fa- 
“ ciunt et salsae, et acida privata facultate, qua- 
“ les Grottae, quae reconvalescentes etiam et praeg- 
“ nantes circa noxam appetere promittunt. Nox- 
“ am vero e diverso Caninae famis voracitatem co- 
“ hibent Cellenses ebibitae in Helvetiis.” 
FOR the operation, and effects of Bathing in 
these, and other diseases, I beg leave to refer the 
reader to my Attempt to revive that practice. Suffice 
it here, in general to affirm, That, in cholics, 
gripes, atrophy, cramps, and other internal mala- 
dies, bathing cures where drinking fails. 
II. OF DEPRAVED APPETITE.
1. “ Dr. Pierce mentions the case of Sir Wil- 
“ liam Clark, Captain of Horse, who, (by colds
“ and other irregularities attending 
“ winter campaigns) had wholly lost his
“ appetite. He supplied in drink what
“ he was deficient in eating. These brought on 
“ a Cachexy, he looked yellow in the face, reach- 
“ ed in the morning, was tired, fainty, and sub- 
“ ject to a diarrhaea. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ In this state he came to Bath April 1693. 
“ Willing to be well, but hating to take phy- 
“ sic, or even to drink the waters regularly, he
“ bathed sometimes, and drank sometimes, by 
“ which he recovered wonderfully. His vomit- 
“ ing ceased, his looseness stopped, he eat mut- 
“ ton and drank sack. His complexion cleared, 
“ he returned to Flanders to his duty.” 
2. “ Mr. Ellesby Minister of Chiswick came 
“ down very faint, weak and stomachless about 
“ the middle of April 1690. Every thing that he 
“ eat he threw up. He was withal in great pain.
“ he

90 DISEASES CURED
“ he could neither sleep at night, nor sit easy by 
“ day. He had the jaundice also. 
“ He drank the waters for ten days, and found 
“ no benefit. But, at length, the waters opened 
“ his body, which was always costive, cleared 
“ the first passages, restore his appetite, and a- 
“ bated his pains. He returned in August, and, 
“ by that trial, was so much mended, that he 
“ whose voice could not be heard across a bed- 
“ chamber, preached in our large church with 
“ great applause.” 
Baynard's
Cases.
Dr. Baynard (speaking of Bath wa- 
ters) says, “ In decayed stomachs, and 
“ scorbutic atrophies, and most diseases of the 
“ liver and spleen, I hardly ever knew them 
« fail.” 
3. “ Madam B. a Lady of quality, loathed 
“ every thing she smelt or saw; she was so weak 
“ that she hardly could stand; she vomited up 
“ every thing, she took little or no rest, her 
“ pulse was hardly perceptible, her eyes sunk, 
“ with ructations, cholic pains, hysteric fits, and
“ clammy sweats. 
“ When I first saw her, I considered her in 
“ Lady Loyd’s case exactly, when the vital flame 
“ was blinking in the socket (by the cautious use 
“ of Bath waters, and Bitters) she had a new life 
“ put to lease. 
“ This lady was so very weak that at first I 
“ gave her only two or three spoonfuls of wa- 
“ ter, and about an hour after, a little more 
“ water, then bitters, and so by degrees, I 
“ brought her to bear half a pint hot from the 
“ pump, which staid without loathing, or vo- 
“ miting. 
“ She now began to bear the smell of meats, 
“ she took a little chicken broth, then eat a little 
“ meat;

91 BY BATH WATER.
meat; and in the space of nine or ten weeks, 
“ recovered so, that when she walked in the Grove,
“ she was pointed at, saying, There’s the Lady 
“ who was so weak.” 
4. “ A gentleman with a decayed stomach, 
“ wan and pale look, staggering under a load 
“ of nothing but skin and bone. From a strong
“ young man, wine, women and watching had 
“ reduced him to a mere skeleton, he could not
“ swallovv the least sustenance without vomit- 
“ ing.
“ By the use of the water, and temperance, he 
“ came to his stomach; his flesh plumped, his 
“ colour returned. In ten weeks he was as well 
“ as ever.” 
5. From Dr. Guidot’s Register wc have the fol- 
lowing. “ Henry Owen of Threadneedle-street, 
“ troubled with an indigestion, wind, 
“ obstruction of urine, and tormenting 
“ pains of the bowels, came to Bath 
“ the second time, the first having proved ineffec- 
“ tual, where he drank only three pints for a 
“ week, and bathed fifteen, times in the Cross- 
“ bath, in which he drank three pints of water, 
“ and received a cure. After leaving off, he 
“ voided a great quantity of fabulous matter for 
“ three months time by urine; and now, from a 
“ thin consumptive, and deplored spectacle, he
“ is become fleshy, of a good countenance, 
“ and laudable healthy temper. This account 
“ I had from his own mouth, February 1686.” 
Guidot's
Cases.
IN restoring the tone of stomachs 
destroyed by hard drinking, Bath water 
may truly be said to be specific. It 
were superfluous to produce examples, the fact is 
notorious.
Hard drink-
ing. 
III.

92 DISEASES CURED
III. OF PAINS OF THE STOMACH.
STOMACH PAINS have obtained various names, 
Cardialgia, Attritio Ventriculi, Heart-burn, &c. 
These are supposed to be caused by the 
action of corrosive humours on that 
plexus nervorum which covers the orifice 
of the stomach, and which takes its rise from the 
Par vagum, or eight pair of Willis. 
Stomach 
aches.
1. “ Juvenis quidam stomachum debilem ha- 
“ bebat, et per ingestionem, saepe lien- 
“ terias passus est, corpore macilento
“ haemorhoidibus afflicto. Bene pur- 
“ gaturn ad balneum Villae Luccae ac- 
“ cedere juffi, et convaluit.” 
Proofs anti- 
ent and ana- 
logical. Ugu- 
linus De Bal- 
neisa Pisanis.
2. “ Dominus Maltesta pessime dispositus erat 
“ in putritivis; per annos tredecem, vexatus e- 
“ rat fluxu stomachico & hepatico, corpore ex- 
“ tenuato, haemorhoidas patiente, cum ardore u- 
“ rinae; erat etiam podagricus. Caepi ab aped- 
“ tivis quae statim prosuerunt; postremo balne- 
“ um consului, medicis aliis reclamantibus. Ivit
“ et mire convaluit.” 
 3. From Dr. Pierce we have the following Cases, 
and first of his own wife. “ She had long been
“ subject to pains in her stomach, she 
“ had the advice of all the physicians 
“ who attended the court hither, and 
“ all to no purpose. She had been naturally sub- 
“ ject to a consumption, and was worn out by 
“ pain. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ She began these waters at last, and went on 
“ with that success, that, in a little time, she 
“ began to be at ease, and was at length freed 
“ from her pains; she recovered her lost appe- 
“ tite, gathered flesh and strength, and continued 
“ free 


93 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from her returns of pain longer than after 
“ any course of physic she had taken before. 
“ Whenever she found any bodings of pain, she 
“ applied to the waters at any season, and found 
“ her cure.” 
4. “ Sir Willoughby Aston was violently seized 
“ with this Cardialgia, and finding no relief in 
“ the country, he was hackneyed away to Tun- 
“ bridge-wells by an eminent physician of London. 
“ These increased his pain so that he seemed to be 
“ inwardly convulsed. 
“ He came into my house on the twelfth of 
“ September 1693, his torture was so great that 
“ he was forced to take anodynes, and that fre- 
“ quently. Without any other preparation than 
“ an anodyne the first night, he drank three pints
“ next morning, which, after a while, was in- 
“ creased to two quarts, or more. In one week 
“ he had manifest abatement of his pain, and, in
“ a month, was perfectly well.” 
5. “ Sir James Rushout came to Bath in No- 
“ vember 1760. Besides violent pains he com- 
“ plained of four corroding eructations, which
“ he compared to vinegar, oil of vitriol, and aqua 
“ fortis. Long had he been troubled with it, and 
“ much had been done for it, all to no purpose. 
“ He brought down directions and medicines 
“ with him from town. The waters passed well 
“ enough, he had some degree of abatement of 
“ pain. After about three weeks, they began to 
“ discharge quantities of adust choler by stool, 
“ which alarming his family, they applied to 
“ me. I encouraged the flux, as by it, I 
“ found his complaints abated. Thus he reco- 
vered.
6. From

94 DISEASES CURED
6. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ George Kelly of Covent–  
“ Garden, Barber, aged 23, had been 
“ long afflicted, and almost worn out 
“ by tormenting pains in his stomach and guts, 
“ with a hectic fever. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters fourteen days, from 
three pints to eight, and, at a fortnight's end, 
“ received considerable benefit. He bathed four 
“ times; and, in one month’s time, was perfect- 
“ ly restored.”
7. Ten years ago, Mr. Hone of London, 
Painter, came down for belching, flatulency, indi- 
gestion, and total loss of appetite. By 
drinking the waters, his complaints va- 
nished almost the very first week. He 
continued however to play with the waters five 
weeks longer, returned well, and continues to
this day. 
Author’s 
Cases.
8. Mr. Jackson of London, Irish Linen-Mer- 
chant, came down about the same lime, and 
with the same complaints, he found a cure al- 
most as soon. 
9. At the request of my worthy friend Dr. 
Campbell of Hereford, I visited his father, Mr. 
John Campbell, man-midwife at Sutton near Chip-
penham, aged seventy, of an excellent constitu- 
tion and regular life. 
His Tunica albuginea, nails, and skin were 
yellow, so was his urine. He bad been subject
to Agues. His Stomach had lost; its digestive and
expulsive faculties. For a week or two his food 
lay quiet, and yet he had a stool almost regularly 
once a day. When his stomach was quite dis- 
tended, he felt a sense of weight, pressure, and 
uneasiness for some days. These were succeeded 
by racking pain, violent reachings, and excessive 
shakings,


95 BY BATH WATER.
shakings, or rather shiverings, which terminated 
in profound sleep. After the paroxysm, the yel- 
lowness, and itching was universal. The last 
continued, the first disappeared in a few days. 
I recommended the Bath waters. His hopes, 
and wishes were for death. Much against his in- 
clination, I forced him into my chaise, and con- 
ducted him to Bath. Without preparation, I put 
him on drinking the waters, first, in small quan- 
tities, gradually increased. His intermissions were 
longer, his appetite, spirits, and hopes increased. 
His paroxysms however returned. 
Despairing of cure, and tired of life, he would
go home at the end of six weeks. He drank the 
waters at home, a pint twice a day, with forty 
drops of Elix. Vitriol, acid, always once, some- 
times twice a day. The effects are extracted 
from his Letter of date Nov. 4, 1761, now be- 
fore me, “ For the first month two or three se- 
“ vere attacks. My fits then abated until they 
“ quite ceased. The universal itching continued
“ for months. Now I am well; my urine has 
“ been natural a great while. I have a very 
“ good appetite, which I check, as you desired, 
“ I now and then venture on a wing or breast 
“ of a fowl; I long for meat. My waters, and 
“ my drops I continue, and resolve so to do 
“ (God willing) through the winter. I have 
“ changed your opening tincture for Sal Absynth. 
“ and Mercur. dulcis, which are more agreeable. 
“ I have had two severe bouts of purging. In 
“ other respect I am as well as a man of my 
“ time of life can be, for which, though you 
“ forced me to my cure, be pleased (Worthiest 
“ Sir) to accept of the thanks of 
“ Your most obliged humble Servant, 
“ John Campbell. ”
10. Miss

96 DISEASES CURED
10. Miss Davies was sent down from London 
for an acidity and pain in her stomach. She 
found relief the very first week.—The last four 
took not ten shillings worth of medicine among 
them. 
11. The Reverend Mr. Simons of Kent deli- 
vered the following history into my hands, which 
he desired should be published. “ About the mid- 
“ dle of September 1760, I was first taken ill 
“ with a pain of my bowels, and, in a day or two, 
“ it became most excruciating. Nothing past 
“ through me; but, in few days, these symp- 
“ toms were removed, by the aid of medicine. 
“ I remained however totally without appetite, 
“ my digestion was extremely weak, and I had, 
“ at times, great pain in my stomach. By change 
“ of air, exercise, and medicine, I got rid of 
“ my pain, but the want of appetite, and diges- 
“ tion still remained, so that I became much e- 
“ maciated, and so weak that, at times, I was like 
“ to faint away. 
“ In December I came to Bath, and began to 
“ drink the waters. The pain of my stomach 
“ returned; I continued nevertheless to drink 
“ them, and was taken with a violent vomiting, 
“ which was relieved by medicine. I continued 
“ the waters, and rode out in a chaise, in which
“ I was very ill. 
“ In a few days my appetite returned, and my 
“ pains left me, and returned no more. I con- 
“ tinued nevertheless to drink the waters for six 
“ weeks at that time, and returned next Novem- 
“ ber to confirm my cure. I drink them now, 
“ and (thanks to God, and the waters) am in very
“ good health.” 
IV.


97 BY BATH WATERS.
IV. OF THE BILIOUS CHOLIC. 
THE BILIOUS CHOLIC is a violent pain which 
begins with a fever that lasts a few hours. The 
bowels seem to be tied together, or 
pursed up and perforated as it were with 
a sharp-pointed instrument. The pain abates 
and comes on again. In the beginning, the pain
is not so certainly fixed in one place, nor the vo- 
miting so frequent, the belly yields with less diffi- 
culty to purgatives. But, the more the pain in- 
creases, the more obstinately it fixes in one place, 
the vomiting returns the oftener, and the belly is 
more costive, till it generates at length into an 
Iliac Passion. 
Description.
This disorder is distinguished from a fit of the
Stone by the following signs. 
In the stone, the pain is fixed in the 
kidney, and extends from thence along 
the ureter to the testicle. 
Difference 
between a fit 
of the cholic, 
and that of 
the Stone. 
In the cholic, it shifts and straitens the 
belly, as if it was bound with a girdle. 
In the cholic, the pain increases after eating. In 
the stone, it rather abates. 
The cholic is more relieved by purging and vo- 
miting than the stone. 
In the stone, the urine is at first clear and thin, 
but afterwards lets fall a sediment, and afterwards
gravel and small pieces of stone. 
In the cholic, the urine is turbid from the be- 
ginning. 
In Disorders of the Intestines Baccius declares the 
power ot mineral waters, pag. 114. “ Pertinent 
“ autem ad Intestinorum affectiones 
“ tam jure potus quam balnei omnia 
“ quae paulo ante ad nutritionis instru- 
Proofs ana- 
logical.  
E mentorum

98 DISEASES CURED
“ mentorum tutelam citavimus. Galenus (De 
“ san. tuenda) inter delectoria medicamenta, enu- 
“ merat usum aquarum sponte manantium, leni- 
“ ter evacuantium, ad mesaraicarum obstructiones, 
“ simulacque corroborandum. Talis Plaga, et 
“ Juncaria ad Baias quae excrementa abstergunt, 
“ aperiunt obstructa, et refrigerant. Efficaciores
“ aeneae, Grottae imprimis, et Porretanae ex alu- 
“ mine, et ferro nobiles Albulae. 
“ In Dysentericis cruciatibus revocant hodie sere 
“ omnes de morte ad vitam Aquae Salmacidae, ser- 
“ vanturque in longinquas regiones adlatae toto
“ anno, incorruptae. Harum antiqua laus est 
“ a salis natura, attestante Cor. Celso. In Dy- 
“ sentericis muriam quam asperrimam suadet Te- 
“ mison. Muria (inquit Dioscorides) Dysente-
“ ricis infunditur, etiam si nomae intestina corri- 
“ piant. Eadem testatur Plinius, et etiam Paulas 
“ dicens Muria et portulacae succus dysentericis con- 
“ venit. Notum in Dysentericis curari nonnul- 
“ los harum potu in principiis, affectu sciz. non
“ admodum acri, nec cruento. Porro, ubi no- 
“ mae apparuerint, i. e. cum manifesta erosione, 
“ et purulentis excrementis, naturam signfincat 
“ tunc pus movere, ac concoctionem moliri, ju- 
“ vandamque abstersione, et exsiccatione per has
“ aquas. Memini hic Romae Alex. Fortunatum 
“ medicum, pro harum aquarum penuria, Dios- 
“ coridis exemplo donasse urinam humanam quam 
“ recentem, et in clysteriis, et in potibus, i- 
“ doneo successu, quod, ea ratione non damna- 
“ verim. 
“ Caeterum plurimae, id genus, aquae vermes 
“ ingeneratos enecant, extruduntque, maxime a- 
“ marae omnes, acres, ac fortes, quales ex atra- 
“ menti materia in Volaterrano, &c. 
“ Flatibus

99 BY THE WATER.
“ Flatibus vero ex intimis intestinorum discu- 
“ tiendis, ut in Colica usu venit, ac in Ilei crucia- 
“ tibus, praedictarum potus non medice operan- 
“ tur, item clysteribus, torsione praesertim infes-
“ tante. Efficacissima Aqua Aponi, Asculanae, Lu- 
“ canae, Caiae, Aquisgrani, Cellenses, &c. bitumi- 
“ nosae, salsa, omnes ubicunque terrarum, pro 
“ calido fomite actuali, digerentes, de discuffo- 
“ riae. Colicae Alexander Trallianus exhibet 
“ Thermales aquas quae evacuant, et calfaciunt
“ et item Avicenna xvi. tertii. 
“ Siccae vero intemperiei, ut siccantia et cali- 
“ da balnea improbantur, ita balneis dulcibus u- 
“ tendum, et ex herbis emollientibus, hydrolae- 
“ um, et oleum. Porro discufforii balnei vice ar- 
“ tificialia aliquando sufficimus ut Vaporarii usus,
“ atque olei, vel hydrolei, folio tepbnte, si faeces 
“ indurentur, vel sicca alvi intemperie pendeant 
“ dolor. 
“ Frigidis vero intemperiebus satis calorifica sa- 
“ ciunt, competenti usu.” 
1. From Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we have the
following Cases. “ Mr. Collins Woolrich apothe- 
“ cary of Shrewsbury, was seized with 
“ torturing pains in the stomach, bow- 
“ els, and back, successively, for the 
“ space of ten hours, and then ceased of a sud- 
“ den. The next night it began and ended as 
“ before, and so day after day, from six at night
“ till four in the morning, from the ninth of 
“ September 1683, till May, when the warmth 
“ of the season kept off the disorder till Septem- 
“ ber following, when it began as before, and 
“ so year after year (excepting 1686) for seven or 
“ eight months together, during which time he 
“ was necessitated to vomit about an hour and a 
“ half after eating constantly, his paroxysm con- 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
E2 “ tinuing

100 DISEASES CURED
“ tinuing ten hours, all which reduced him to 
“ great weakness, languor and dispiritedness. 
“ By Dr. Baynard’s advice and mine, he im- 
“ mediately began the waters, for he had been 
“ sufficiently prepared at home. After the sixth 
“ morning, he perceived a sudden and manifest 
“ removal of a load from his stomach into his 
“ lower bowels, and presently had a large dis- 
“ charge by stool. From that day he had neither 
“ pains nor vomitings, yet he kept on drinking
“ the waters for a month at least. 
“ He kept free from any return till 1691, when
“ finding some disposition to it, he returned in 
“ August, and drank them with the same success; 
“ for it returned not again till September 1693, 
“ when he came hither again, and was relieved 
“ the third time. 
“ He hath been here the two past seasons for 
“ prevention, and is resolved so to continue to do
“ as long as it pleases God to grant him strength. 
“ This is the patient’s own account delivered 
“ verbatim, this last season 1695.” 
2. Captain Wilkinson of Brewer-street, Agents 
had, for many years, been a martyr to the stone
and bilious cholic. After thorough trials 
of all pretended Solvents, and emaciated 
by incessant pain, he chearfully submit- 
ted to the operation of lithotomy. When the 
stone was extracted, he told the surgeon that he 
would willingly submit to a second cutting, if, 
by that, he could be cured of his cholic. His 
vomitings were then so incessant, that his sto- 
mach could keep nothing. In this condition he 
was transported to Bath; where, for some time, 
he threw up Bath water, and every thing else. 
By degrees the water prevailed. His stomach 
bore a little food, he gathered strength. His pa- 
Author’s 
Cases. 
roxysms

101 BY BATH WATER.
roxysms continued however to return now and 
then as usual. The harbingers of the fit were 
tingling and involuntary motions of the knees. 
To these succeeded violent reachings and racking 
pains. Pills of opium he threw up as fast as he 
swallowed them. Visiting him one day in the fit, 
I enquired whether opiate glysters had ever been 
prescribed. To which he answered, no. A glys- 
ter of the common decoction with one ounce of 
the Tincture of Assa fetida, and forty drops of
Laudanum, was immediately injected. In a quar- 
ter of an hour afterwards he threw himself down 
on the bed, and slept eight hours, awaking in
heaven, as he called it. Twenty four hours af- 
ter, the paroxysm returned with equal violence. 
The same glyster was injected, with the addition
of twenty drops of laudanum. The same sleep 
and ease insued. Twenty four hours after, the 
same symptoms returned; he begged for the same 
glyster, which procured not only the same cessa- 
tion from pain, but a total cure. By perseverance 
in the waters, he recovered complexion, appetite, 
strength, and spirits, so that he lived for years a 
comfort to all who knew him. 
3. Lieutenant Matthews, of the ship of war 
Duke, delivered into my hands the following state
of his case, drawn by Dr. Huxham of Plymouth, 
the physician who had attended him for twelve 
months and upwards.—“ He hath long been sub- 
“ ject to a variety of nervous disorders, great fla- 
“ tulence, costiveness, frequent pain, and very 
“ great acidity in the stomach. He hath lately 
“ had several very severe attacks of a bilious cholic, 
“ with continual vomiting of sour phlegm, and 
“ vast quantity of yellow and very green bile, 
“ great distension of the belly, pain in his loins, 
“ and difficulty of urine commonly high colour- 
E3 “ ed.

102 DISEASES CURED
“ ed. He sleeps badly, hath very little appetite, 
“ and worse digestion.”—To which let me add, 
that he was so weak, when he set out, that he was 
obliged to be lifted into his chaise. 
By easy journeys he arrived much recruited. 
Without preparation I prescribed the water in very 
small quantities. His sickness abated, his trem- 
blings declined, his appetite increased, his sleep 
returned, his skin changed its yellow hue, he gal- 
loped on the Downs every day. During his two 
months course of drinking and bathing, he had 
but few returns of his reachings or sickness, and
these very tolerable. He now and then complain- 
ed of heat, and restless nights, for which I or- 
dered some doses of nitre and testaceous powders, 
which bringing on a gentle diaphoresis, relieved 
him. He had been used to an opening pill, in- 
stead of which I advised him to eat half a dozen 
china oranges every day, and to drink punch 
made of Seville, by which his body was kept solu- 
ble. Without the help of medicine he grew 
plump and jolly, complaining now and then of 
flying pains in his joints. Finding that he had 
formerly been subject to the gout, I advised him 
to make haste home. Hardly had he rested from 
his journey, before he was attacked with a smart 
fit, which completed his cure. 
4. FROM the coast of Guinea, Captain John 
Clarke of the frigate Melampe, came to Bath e- 
maciated and tormented with the relicts of a bi- 
lious disorder, in which his life was often despair- 
ed of, and which obliged him to quit. By bath- 
ing and drinking, he perfectly recovered. 
5. THE Honourable F. Cary, Governor of 
Goree, left that island in a state of health the 
most hopeless. By a bloody flux and bilious fe- 
ver, he was reduced to the greatest degree of 
weakness,

103 BY BATH WATER.
weakness, attended with swelled legs, wasting, 
and cachexy. His bloody flux degenerated into 
a lientery; his food passed through indigested; 
he was frequently tormented with griping pains, 
nausea and sickness.—By easy journies, he first 
arrived at Bristol-Hot-Wells, where every glass 
aggravated his pains and produced vomitings. 
Bristol he exchanged for Bath, where he reco- 
vered completely in the space of three months, 
by the internal use of the waters, little assisted by
medicine. 
V. OF THE HYSTERIC CHOLIC.
THE Hysteric Cholic is rather a symptom of the 
hysteric passion, than a particular disease. It is
accompanied with violent pain about 
the scrobiculum cordis, and a discharge of 
green humours upwards, quick weak pulse, diffi- 
cult respiration, great dejection, and sometimes 
delirium. This sort of cholic is peculiar to hy- 
pochondriac men, as well as to hysteric women. 
It often terminates in a jaundice, which goes off 
spontaneously. 
Description.
From Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we have the follow- 
ing Cases, 1. “ Mrs. Farier of Norwich, aged 
“ thirty, was sorely afflicted with this 
“ sort of cholic. She had tried va- 
“ riety of regimens, to very little pur- 
“ pose. She had been sufficiently vomited and
“ purged. 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
“ I ordered her three pints of water at the 
“ King's pump next morning. She enlarged the 
“ quantity to four or five. When she was cos- 
“ tive, she had opening stomachic pills. After 
“ drinking some time, she bathed, had her sto- 
“  mach pumped, and was at length sent away so 
E4 “ well,

104 DISEASES CURED
“ well, that she continued free from violent pains 
“ all the following winter and spring. She re- 
“ returned next summer, nevertheless, to confirm 
“ the health which she had got.”—“ Many more 
“ instances of Histeric Cholics cured by water- 
“ drinking and pumping might be produced, but, 
“ for brevity’s sake, are omitted.” 
2. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Edward Wyke of Westminster, a gentleman 
“ much troubled with the spleen and 
“ cholic, came to Bath July 1688, so 
“ full of pain, and so weak, that he 
“ went crooked. He was scorched with continu- 
“ al fever and thirst. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters as much as he could 
“ bear for many days. After one month he en- 
“ creased the quantity, and thus recovered, for 
“ which he gave public thanks in the church of
“ St. Peter and Paul.” 
VI. OF THE DRY BELLY-ACH.
PAULUS ÆGINETA who flourished about the 
fourth century, seems to be the first who describ- 
ed this cholic. Lib. iii. cap. xviii. pag. 
31. From his days to those of Francis 
Citesius, physician to Henry the fourth 
of France, this disease was partially described by
various authors. Citesius was a Poictovien by 
birth. This disease then raging in that province, 
he applied himself to the study of it with un- 
common assiduity, treating accurately of its ori- 
gin, symptoms, cause and cure; he gave it the 
name, by which it since has been commonly 
known, Cholica Pictonum; tho’, with equal pro- 
priety, it may be called Cholica universalis; for 
there is hardly a corner of the globe but what 
History of the 
disease.
has

105 BY BATH WATER.
has felt its direful effects, with this distinction, 
that in warm countries it seems rather epidemic, 
in cold accidental. From the days of Citesius to 
those of Boerhaave, we meet with hardly any 
thing equal to what Citesius wrote. Boerhaave 
lectured on it in his annual course with great ac- 
curacy and judgment, In the year 1724, an epi- 
demic cholic raged in the west of England. In 
the year 1738, Dr. Huxham published his most 
valuable Opusculum de Morbo Cholico Damnoniorum. 
Since that time, many others have written on the 
same subject. In his Ratio Medendi, published
1761, De Haen bestows a chapter on this disease, 
by the common title, Colica Pictonum. 
For an accurate catalogue of symptoms, I re- 
fer my reader to Boerhaave’s Aphorisms, Huxham’s 
Opusculum, and De Haen’s chap. xxiv. 
Sufficient it may be for me to observe, 
that men in health are attacked with most excru- 
ciating pains about the region of the navel. The
deltoid muscles seem to vanish; the joint of the 
shoulder seems only to be covered with a skin. 
The fleshy part of the hand which covers the first
phalanx of the thumb, wastes away. The whole 
muscular fabric decays; the arms hang useless, 
like flails; respiration labours; the eyes lose their 
lustre; the complexion grows wan; nausea, vo- 
mitings, costiveness, constipation, melancholy,
and despondency succeed. 
Symptoms.
THAT this cholic proceeds from poisons, we 
cannot doubt; miners, plummers, founders, pain- 
ters and potters are subject to this disease. 
In his Academical Praelections, Boer- 
haave was of this opinion. “ Frequentes habui 
“  occasiones mirabilem hunc morhum videndi; 
“  et licet non negem illum ab aliis causis nasei
“  posce, tamen frequenter observavi in illis qui
Causes.  
E5 “ plumbo

106 DISEASES CURED
“ plumbo fundendo, cerussam preparando, &c. ope- 
“ ram debent.”—Hoffman describcs those cholics 
which afflict the German miners in calcining and 
separating the lead from the ore. Wines sophis- 
ticated with sacharum saturni bring on the dry 
belly-ach. To give their wines a better flavour 
and higher colour, wine merchants mix them 
with sugar of lead. This was the common 
custom of wine merchants in Germany. Boer- 
haave tells us that some of them were hang- 
ed for the offence. In his Praelections, he 
says, “ Observavi hunc morbum frequentem 
“ in opulentis, qui exquisitissima vina magno 
“ fatis pretio redemerant, forte plumbo edulco- 
“ rata, uti novimus olim a fraudulentis oenopo- 
“ lis in Germania factum effe.” Universal con- 
“ sent allows this paralysis, paresis, remissio, or 
lameness to proceed from a translation of morbific 
matter derived from the intestines, or rather me- 
sentery, by the interposition of the nerves. Ægi- 
neta’s authority confirms this, “ Nostris tempo- 
“ ribus, colicus quidam dolor molestus suit, ex 
“ quo imprimis superstites futures artuum motus 
“ omni modo privatio sequebatur, critica quadam 
“ metastasi factae.” This seems to countenance 
the opinion of those who maintain the convey- 
ance of nourishment by the nerves, allowing the 
blood vessels to serve only for containing the stream 
that keeps the AvΤoμαΤov in motion. Whether 
this paralysis proceeds from transposition of mor- 
bid matter, or from that wonderful susceptibility 
or sympathy of parts, seems yet undecided, nor 
can it well be determined. Sufficient it is for us 
to be instructed, that there are five pair of nerves 
arising from different places, and (after wonderful 
complications) distributed among the muscles 
which belong to the humerus, arms, wrist, and
fingers.



107 BY BATH WATER.
fingers. Sufficient it is for us to know, that there 
is a nerve which communicates with these five, 
together with the nerves of the small guts and me- 
sentery. Our bodies are, as it were, one sheet of 
nerves. Nerves form the very papillae which 
serve the purposes of taste at the point ot our 
tongue, and of feeling to our fingers ends. Ig- 
norants vainly place their hopes in local applica- 
tions, while those who are versed in anatomy 
strike at the root. How beautiful that candid 
confession of that illustrious follower of nature 
Boerhaave! “ Well do I remember where the 
“ opinions of the antients stood me in stead, and 
“ (with joy) do I confess, that sometimes have I 
“ cured palsies of the extremities, the consequen- 
“ ces of that disorder called the Colica Pictonum, 
“ while I applied frictions, aromatic plaisters, &c. 
to the abdomen alone.” 
THAT Dry belly-achs proceed from apples and 
cyder, Huxham has evinced. “ Diuturnum ci- 
“ bi potusque pomofi usum an abusum dicam, 
“ causam fuisse hujus morbi nullus dubito; quia 
“ neminem vidi eo correptum qui his abstinue- 
“ rat.” This disease (he says) raged chiefly a- 
mong the poor, who almost lived that year on 
apples, of which there was such a harvest, that 
the hogs fed on apples, and were infected with 
the same cholic. “ Sed et hoc etiam porcorum 
“ genus male tulit pomorum ingluviem: conta- 
“ buerunt omnes, perierunt plurimi.” About the 
harvest, he observes that cholics are endemic and 
epidemic in the west; as Horace, of old, observ- 
ed. “ In his oris, morbi torminosi sunt quasi 
“ endemici et epidemici, omni fere autumno, ut 
“ olim cecinit Horatius 
“ Pomifero, grave tempus, anno.”
E6 DRY 



108 DISEASES CURED
DRY BELLY-ACHS proceed also from severs im- 
perfectly cured. Dr. Tronchin quotes several ex- 
amples from Fernelius, Ballonius, Spigellius, 
Charles Piso, Citesius, Riverius, Willis, and his 
own experience in an epidemic fever which raged 
at Amsterdam, in the year 1727, and some years
after.—He mentions instances of dry belly achs 
and cholics consequences of gout and rheurnatism, 
from the authorities of Constantius Africanus, 
Gaddesden, Duretus, Fonseca, Mercurialis, Mus- 
grave, and his own experience.—Obstructed 
Perspiration has also produced the dry belly-ach, 
as we learn from Sanctorian experiments, as well 
as from the experience of the same Tronchin. 
This ingenious author gives instances of dry 
belly-achs proceeding also from scurvy melancholy, 
and passions of the mind. 
IN a letter from Senac to this author, we find 
an ingenuous confession, that after dissecting a- 
bout fifty persons who died of this distemper, he 
could find nothing that afforded any light. When 
the disorder takes its seat in the nerves, or ani- 
mal spirits, what light can we expect from ana- 
tomical dissecting? Finding the nature of the di- 
sease abstruse, and the method of cure contradic- 
tory and temporary, De Haen applied himself 
to the investigation of that cardinal symptom,
which produces the paroxysm, Constipation: to 
this he rationally directs the cure. “ Morbum- 
“ vidi, tractavi, recentem, provectum, diutur- 
“ num, annosum, cum omnibus suis variantibus 
“ symptomatibus, concomitantibus, aut sequen- 
“ tibus. Hinc didici ab inimica causa intestina 
“ vehementer constringi, faeces in iisdem con- 
“ tentas, exsuccas durasque reddi, tum etiam a 
“ cellulis vehementer contractis, Colo potissimum 
“ in intestino; in parvos eofdemque oblongos.
“ globos



109 BY BATH WATER.
“ globos formari; demum vero, turn colon maxi- 
“ me, tum et Ileum cum suis exsuccis duris-
“ simisque contentis, in solidam veluti massam 
“ coire, omniaque vasa nervos comprimendo, 
“ ferocia illa tormenta producere. Haec morbi, 
“ fi demum vera Pictonum colica dici debeat, justa 
“ idea, vera imago.” 
SOUR PUNCH has been numbered among the 
causes of the dry belly ach; and perhaps, some- 
times not unjustly. On different con- 
stitutions, the same aliments and the 
same medicines act differently. I can 
eat half a pound of honey without 
being griped. I know others who would un- 
doubtedly be thrown into severe cholics, by a 
single tea-spoonful. One man’s meat, we say, 
is another man’s poison. About thirty years a- 
go, strong sweet punch was the beverage of the 
West-Indies. Dry belly-achs were then very fre- 
quent. Weak four punih fucceeded; dry belly- 
achs have not been near so common. In spite of 
experience, West Indians, now begin to dread the 
acid. In the garrisons of Minorca, Gibraltar, 
and on board our ships of war, oceans of punch 
have been drank. Dry belly-achs were no more 
frequent in these garrisons, and on board these 
ships, than in other places. In hot countries the 
mass of blood is melted down; those who are 
not actually attacked with putrid bilious fevers, 
are in an incipient state of putrescency. What 
can resist putrescency so effectually as that rich 
flavoured vegetable juice of ripe limes, assisted by 
the finest sugar, and the choicest spirit! What so 
grateful to the parched throat! In the Caribbee
Islands, the ladies, remarkable for temperance, 
drink this beverage all the day long. Women 
seldom are infected with this disease; never, I 
Sour punch 
no cause of 
the dry belly- 
ach.  
verily



110 DISEASES CURED
verily believe from this cause; and men rarely, if 
ever. This is not altogether my own sentiment; 
there are many who will bear me witness. I 
have leave to mention the name of one man of 
good sense, strict probity, and well versed in the 
study of physic, I mean Governor Bell, who re- 
sided many years in Africa. From the whole of 
his conversation, and experience, he declared that 
while he last commanded at Cape Coast, he was, 
for three long years, parched up with a consuming 
slow fever; nothing was so grateful to his sto- 
mach as four weak punch. In this he indulged to 
the surprize of those who were about him; nay, he 
often drank off whole goblets of fresh lime juice; so 
far from suffering, he verily believes that this, 
more than any thing else, contributed to save 
him from total putrescency. I could name one 
who has drank as much hot four punch as would 
fill our greatest bath, and now enjoys good health, 
I could name scores who have been afflicted with 
the dry belly-ach, and no man can guess at the 
cause. Sour punch may therefore be added to 
the long list of vulgar errors. 
HAVING pointed out the disease, we now pro- 
ceed to the cure. As the causes are various, so 
must the indications. If bile vellicates 
the nerves, the morbid matter is to be 
evacuated by vomits and purges. The belly must 
be fomented without, and lubricating within. 
Semicupia are of great use. The parts are to be 
dipped in medicated springs. Chalybeate waters, 
riding, and change of air complete the cure. 
Cure. 
HUXHAM (in his method of cure) condemns 
bleeding, from experience. How beau- 
tiful his confession! “ Fateor equidem 
“ me cum antequam morbi naturam 
“ perspexeram, quibusdam sanguinis missionem 
Huxham's 
method. 
“ im-



111 BY BATH WATER.
“ imperasse: omnes enim hi in grave animi deli-
“ quium inciderunt.”—In pains of the back and 
joints he tried it: “ Infausto ut plurimum eventu; 
“ omnes fere paralitico effectu correpti vim pror- 
“ fus motumque manuum perdiderunt.” What 
makes particularly to my purpose is his opinion of 
Water external and internal. “ At ne fic quidem
“ alvus respondet, totum abdomen foveri jubeo 
“ fomento emolliente. Hoc blando vapore abdominis 
“ integumenta penetrat, ac intestina ipfa demul- 
“ cet, rigidas emollit fibras, easque nimis tensas 
“ relaxat. Mirandum plane successum saepe no- 
“ tavi ex applicatione hujusmodi R. Rad Alth.
“ Sen. Lin. &c. Affectus longe feliciores expec- 
“ tandi sunt, si aeger in semicupium demittatur ex 
“ iisdem paratum. Haud raro profecto vidi sae-
“ vissimum paroxysmum nephriticum solo balnei ufu 
“ derepente solutum, cum nec praelarga sangui- 
“ nis missio, nec laudani doses veto profecissent
“ hilum. 
“ Ad hunc morbum profligandum non solum 
“ primas vias purgare necesse eft, diluenda eft in- 
“ super sanguinis acrimonia salina. Inter diluen- 
“ αρlsοv μεv γswρ. Ex omnibus Aquis laudo
“ Pyrmontensum aut Spadanam; haec siquidem 
“ principio praedita chalybeate, non tantum sales 
“ optime dissolvi, fed et crasin sanguinis firmat, 
“ ac fibrarum tonum roborat. Qui consensum 
“ intestina inter et cutim observaverat, haud ita 
“ multum obstuperet videndo turn colicos dolo- 
“ res, tum rheumatismos, post sudationem peni- 
“ tus fere sublatos, pro tempore faltem; frequeti- 
“ ter enim sudores sponte erumpentes hanc aegri- 
“ tudinem allevabant admodum.” In confirma- 
tion of which Baglivi (Cap. De Colica) says, 
“ Colica habitualis et endemica, a vino acido praeser-  
“ tim




112 DISEASES CURED
“ tim oriunda, solis sanatur sudoriferis, vespere ta- 
“ men interposito anodyno. 
“ Post sudationem diluentia, prae ceteris au- 
“ tem Aqua ferruglnea purissima diu potanda, ut 
“ corruptae nimirum nova puraque materia ad- 
“ misceatur, ut debitus servetur sanguinis fluor, 
“ et ejus corrigatur acrimonia.” 
AFTER running over the different methods of 
cure laid down by almost all the authors who 
wrote on the subject, De Haen commu- 
nicates one process of cure spirited, 
sagacious, rational, and judicious. 
“ Mense April 1757, homo viginti et aliquot an- 
“ norum in nosocomium nostrum ferebatur. Pa- 
“ roxvsmum presentem horruimus omnes, vomi- 
“ tus, dolores intolerabiles, ejulatus, convulfio- 
“ nes toto corpora violentissimas, epilepsiae in- 
“ star, et spasmum maxillae. Nudato abdomine 
“ quid veluti convelli, convolvique in abdomine 
“ cernebamus, quod ipfo tactu durum.—Mede- 
“ lam fic institui, Emplastrum paregoricum ven- 
“ triculi region! admovi; oleum lini tepidum fre- 
“ quenter injici curavi; emulsa camphorata & 
“ paregorica, subin ipsum oleum ore fumenda de- 
“ di. Cataplasma emolientissimum toti circum- 
“ volvi abdomini; et quia abdominis compressio
“ manu facta videbatur lenire dolorem, cataplas- 
“ ma hoc fasciis abdomen comprimentibus firma- 
“ ri curavi.—Horum usu alvo prodiere (ut in per- 
“ fectissima Colica Pictonum.) rotunda, dura, parva, 
“ Scyhala, eaque copiosissima; quibus tandem tna- 
“ teries pultacea successit. His demum paroxys- 
“ mus filuit, neque rediit; ita ut miser, a bien- 
“ nio, non meminisset tantae doloris absentiae. 
“ Durities in abdomine percepta mole decrevit, 
“ vires rediere, appetitus, somnus. Legit vel 
“ ambulat, tota die hilaris. Alvo autem quo- 
De Haen’s 
method. 
“ dam



113 BY BATH WATER.
“ dam die carens, initia deprehendit repetituri do- 
“ loris; enema oleosum dolorem quidem solvit, 
“ fed denuo parva, rotunda, dura Scybala prodi- 
“ ere. Non ablata ergo causa, diaeta lactea vi- 
“ debatur curam absolutura; cujus experiundi 
“ gratia, hominem diu in nosocomio servassem, ni 
“ prae morum intolerabilitate, ejiciendum fuisset. 
“ —Tribus aliis eadem cura successit; expurga- 
“ tis quippe fordibus, lac copiosum, assiduum- 
“ que, nervos et sufficienter molles, et debite for- 
“ tes facit. Ter quater in anno relapsos lac de- 
“ mum incolumes servavit.”—To this pattern 
of practice, let us add his generous confession and 
opinion. How often are we ignorant of the na- 
ture and seat of poisons? How often have the 
poisoned died after the whole artillery of purges, 
vomits, diaphoretics, and alteratives has been ex- 
pended? “ Catholica methodus utendi aqua cali- 
“ day lacte multo, aqua mellita, oleoque, copio- 
“ sissimis omni modo applicatis, interne, externe, 
“ ore, ano; haec inquam noto et ignoto veneno 
“ ex aequo prodest. Scatent exemplis volu- 
“ mina.” 
FROM the testimonies of almost every author 
who has treated disorders of the intestinal tube, 
we find waters internally and externally 
recommended. In my first edition, 
(speaking of Dr, Huxham’s most valuable trea- 
tise) I expressed myself thus, “ Had this judicious 
“ author been but as well acquainted with the 
“ principles and virtues of Bath waters, as he 
“ seems to be with reason, sagacity and books, 
“ he would have found the thread of his labour 
“ often cut short; he would have been convinc- 
“ ed that Bath waters surpass all the hopes which 
“ he judiciously places in their succedaneums.” 
In a letter of that gentleman’s now before me, 
Conclusion.
(after



114 DISEASES CURED
(after acknowledging great benefit received by the 
Master Plummer and Brasier of Plymouth-Dock, in 
a severe cholic, attended with a paralysis of-hands 
and legs) he expresses himself, to the credit of 
our waters, thus: “ More than thirty years a- 
“ ago, I very well knew the use of your Bath 
“ water, in a paresis, or weakness of the limbs 
“ brought on by cholical disorders, especially 
“ that from the Cyder-cholic, and have, I believe, 
“ first and last, recommended thirty or forty pa- 
“ tients to the use of the waters on that account; 
“ many of whom received very great advantages; 
“ some were more relieved by bathing in the sea; 
“ probably, I may soon have it in my power to 
“ recommend more.”—Most of the treatises 
which have been written on the dry belly-ach, 
have been published many years. Boerhaave’s
Aphorisms and Commentaries are in every body’s 
hands. This disorder commonly passing by the 
name of the West India cholic, seems still but little 
known in this country. Cases mistaken for gout 
and rheumatism, have been treated in the anti- 
phlogistic regimen; after the regular torture of 
months, miserable cripples have been abandoned as 
bewitched. To obviate mistakes, I have taken 
some pains, not only to give the reader a general 
idea of the disease, but to point out those authors 
who have treated it in a masterly convincing man- 
ner. When the dry belly-ach has baffled the 
most judicious, and most experienced, our baths 
have been loaded with crutches. To facts I appeal. 
1. “ The Rev. Mr. Pilkington of Lincolnshire,
“ aged thirty-three, lived near the fens. 
“ After a fit of the cholic, he was 
“ crippled, and emaciated all over, his 
“ hands hung like flails. 
Pierce’s 
Causes.
“ I put him on a course of drinking. He 
“ staid six or seven weeks, went away much 
“ mended,



115 BY BATH WATER.
“ mended, returned next year, and compleated 
“ his cure.” 
2. “ Miss Kiblewhite, afterwards Lady Ken- 
“ rick, was violently pained in the bowels and 
“ limbs, joints and musculous parts, so tender 
“ that she could not bear to be touched. She 
“ had convulsions and hysteric fits. She was 
“ withal emaciated to a skeleton. She had gone 
“ through the materia medica, by the direction of 
“ the celebrated Willis. With no little labour 
“ she was conveyed hither in a litter, positively 
“ against the Doctor’s opinion. 
“ She was dropped down into the bath in a 
“ kind of cradle. By the bath she found some 
“ ease, but no strength or stomach. She was 
“ therefore put upon drinking. She used choly- 
“ beates, antiscorbutics, cephalics, anodynes, cordials, 
“ and hysterics. She had ease by bathing in the Cross- 
“ Bath, and drinking at the King’s-bathing-pump,
“ but no stength till she bathed in the Queen’s, 
“ and King’s. She came three or four years fol- 
“ lowing at first, then at four years distance, and 
“ at six, bearing children mean while. In her 
“ total enervation the optic nerves suffered with 
“ the rest; but as her limbs came to be restored, 
“ so was her fight strengthened.” 
3. “ The Lady Marchioness Normanby was sent 
“ hither in May 1688. From a bilious cholic, 
“ her hips, knees, ancles, feet, arms, and fin- 
“ gers were contracted. When her joints at- 
“ tempted to be stretched out, she roared out with 
“ pain. Her ancles were drawn inwards. 
“ She began with drinking. After a fortnight 
“ she was put into the Cross-Bath. She had been 
“ used, to opiates, which when we dared to leave 
“ off, she began to get ground. She suffered her 
“ legs to be laid streight, and to be set upon her  
“ feet,




116 DISEASES CURED
“ feet, her ancles turned not out so much; she
“ began to feed herself. There little alterations 
“ were all we dared to boast of after three months 
“ trial, at which time (the season being hot, and 
“ therefore unfit for bathing) her ladyship return- 
“ ed, lying on a bed in the coach. 
“ After her return, she arrived to a consi- 
“ derable pitch of health, strength, and active- 
“ ness, to which I was an eye-witness the spring 
“ following.”
“ It were tedious (adds the Doctor) to give 
“ every case that I could instance on this head 
“ Let it suffice to name the persons, who found 
“ cure in the same disorder, since there was but 
“ little difference in their symptoms, and method 
“ of cure.” 
4. “ Mrs. Beare of Devonshire, received great 
“ benefit, after four seasons.—Lord Thanet 
“ cured in three months.—Mr. Petit of Reading 
“ cured.—From Ireland, Sir William Davis, 
“ Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, recovered. Sir 
“ William Tichborn recovered after several trials. 
“ Sir John Cole recovered after several trials. 
“ Alderman Best of Dublin. Captain Harrison.
“ —From the isles of Guernsey and Jersey, Ma- 
“ dam Patriarch, after several seasons, cured. Mrs. 
“ Martin had a remarkable speedy cure. Peters, 
“ a Surgeon, cum multis aliis.—From the Carib- 
“ bee Islands, Colonel Hallet, Richard his bro- 
“ ther, Mr. Bond, and many others for the same 
“ loss of limbs from the dry belly-ach (as they call 
“ it) were here relieved, if not perfectly re- 
“ stored.” 
“ Let us hearken to Baynard. “ I have visited 
“ Bath for thirty-six years, and have 
“ seen wonderful and most deplorable 
“ cases there cured, and some in a very little 
Baynard. 
“ time



117 BY BATH WATER.
“ time (where care and caution has been observ- 
“ ed) especially in the West India Gripes and Cho- 
“ lics, where a paralysis has been general, and o- 
“ thers with arms, hands and legs strangely con- 
“ tracted.” 
1. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Peter Bonamy, Sub-dean of Guernsey, 
“ three years troubled with the cholic, 
“ and loss of limbs. There was scor- 
“ butic taint also, by which the skin 
“ was infested with pustulous eruptions, the fin- 
“ gers contracted, the internal muscular flesh of 
“ of the thumb wasted, with paleness and lan- 
“ guor. 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
“ He used the temperate Baths for a month at 
“ first with considerable relief, the second season 
“ more, and, after four years absence, he return- 
“ ed with an athletic habit of body.” 
2. “ Moses Levermore, Surgeon, of Nevis, 
“ afflicted with the belly-ach and palsey, by the use 
“ of the King’s and Cross-Baths received cure. I 
“ saw him well in London 1688.—Elias Pome- 
“ roy of Devon, had the same disease, and same 
“ cure.” 
1. The case of Miss Menzies of Dumfries, was 
as bad almost as any of the preceding, with this 
singular particular. Every three weeks 
she was taken with a cholic fit which 
lasted ten or eleven days and nights, 
with racking pain. During this paroxysm she 
could neither eat nor drink, she lulled her misery 
with laudanum. Under Dr. Gilchrist’s judicious 
care she had tried every regimen. 
Author’s
Cases.
Two or three days after she arrived at Bath, her 
cholic paroxysm came on. I advised her the free 
use of laudanum, and nothing else. Immediately 
after her fit she began the water, which prevent- 
ed



118 DISEASES CURED
ed the return of the cholic. She bathed also. 
This regimen she continued for five or six months 
with great advantage. Going out to the ball one 
night, and taking off the flannel rollers which 
swaithed her swelled legs, she catched cold, and 
had the first return of her pain. She continued 
eight months in all; the muscles of her thumbs 
plumped up, she wound up her watch, wrote 
half a dozen letters a day, and returned almost 
well. she took no other medicine but an open- 
ing pill.
2. Mr. Fletcher of Kent, was often here for 
the same disorder. His cholic pain yielded almost 
instantaneously to the waters, though his hands 
did him little service. 
3. Mr. Bennet, son to a schoolmaster near 
Ware came to Bath in this disorder. During his 
stay he had a severe fit with racking pain, con- 
stant vomiting, costiveness, &c. Sharp glysters 
purges, fomentations, semi-cupiums, and all o- 
ther common aids were administered; to no 
purpose. Deliberating on some medicine that 
might remove the spasm, and operate briskly, with- 
out loading the stomach, or provoking vomiting, 
I happily fixed on the following, Resin Jallap 
gran X. Merc. dulc. l. crass. gran. vii. Extract.
Theb. gran. i. m. f. pilulae statim sumend. Soon he 
voided one plug of excrement which was black as 
a cinder, and so hard that it rebounded like a ball 
from the floor, with an immediate relief from 
pain, vomiting, and every other dangerous symp- 
toms. By the use of gentle soft purges, the pas- 
sage was kept open, till he recovered strength. 
By the internal and external use of the waters, 
he recovered of this disorder, together with the 
supervening small-pox; and is, as I am told, 
now alive, and in good health,
4. Captain





119 BY BATH WATER.
4. Captain Arch. Millar of the navy, came 
from the conquest of Senegal afflicted with the 
loss of limbs, and other symptoms common to 
this disorder. In a very severe fit attended with 
costiveness, pain, vomiting. &c. I was called to 
consult with Doctor Gusthart, his first physician. 
Purges, glysters, baths, and other methods had 
judiciously been tried. Calling to mind my suc- 
cess with the last patient, I proposed the same, 
which was immediately agreed to, and administer- 
ed with the same success. In about six weeks, by 
the use of Bath waters internal and external, he 
recovered flesh, strength, appetite, and sleep. Rid- 
ing out one day in an open chaise, and caught in 
a shower, he relapsed, and was attacked with a 
fit, not quite so threatning as the former. Dr. 
Barry and I were both called in. Various reme- 
dies were tried, the constipation, pain, fever, vo- 
miting, and every symptom waxed worse. The 
patient requested the pills which had formerly 
relieved him; they were administered, and with 
the same success. The Bath waters after- 
wards completed the cure. For several years 
after he served with credit, and now enjoys perfect 
health.
5. Captain Scroop of the navy, came to Bath 
for the same cholic. While I attended him, he 
was taken with a fit as severe as the former, with 
this addition, that by straining, he had a falling 
down of the great gut, which, constricted
by the sphincter, could not be totally re- 
duced. The same pills were administered, and 
with the same success; but before the passage 
was obtained, a portion of the great gut was 
actually mortified, and cut off by Mr. Wright, 
surgeon of this city. What was singular in this gen- 
tleman’s case, he voided thin large bilious stools,
without



120 DISEASES CURED
without one bit of hard excrement; this obstruc- 
tion was the real effect of spasm relieved by the 
opiate. By the use of the Bath waters he had a 
complete cure, and, to the end of the war, did 
honour to his station. 
6. From the hand-writing of Mr. Anthony 
Jones, student of Oxford, the following case is 
printed. “ For some years past I have been af- 
“ flicted with a pain in my heels, which fre- 
“ quendy shifted to my stomach; for these two 
“ years last, my stomach could never be said to
“ be free. My last fit began in February, and 
“ continued till May, with perpetual reachings 
“ of green and yellow bile. At Oxford, my dis- 
“ order was unhappily treated as gout. I swal- 
“ lowed the hottest medicines; rum was to me 
“ no warmer than pump water. Violent pain at- 
“ tacked the muscles of my shoulders, gradually
“ descending till it deprived me of the use of 
“ both arms. My skin became so tender that 
“ the softest touch was insupportable; my voice 
“ was small and feeble; my eyes dim, with total 
“ relaxation. In the most deplorable condition 
“ I was carried to Bath, where (by six months 
“ perseverance in the use of drinking, pumping, 
“ and bathing) I have recovered so well that I 
“ daily ride out, eat, and sleep; and though I 
“ have not yet recovered the perfect use of my 
“ limbs, yet, by the divine permission, and effi- 
“ cacy of the waters, I doubt not of enjoying a 
“ complete cure. October 22, 1761.” 
7. George Cruikshanks, Esq. while he lived 
at Amsterdam, was more than once afflicted with 
this cholic, for which he was bled, purged, and 
otherwise injudiciously treated, the disease then
being new in that country. His fits were of long
duration; with great danger he escapcd. For
5 remain-

121 BY BATH WATER.
remaining pain, relaxation, and lameness, he 
made use of the Bath waters, and with great 
benefit. 
8. Mr. Edward Gregory, Captain of a Guiney 
ship, lived on that coast fourteen years, during 
which he was often attacked with this disease, and
never completely cured. Last year he came to 
Bath, emaciated, and deprived of the use of his 
hands, and frequently attacked with pains of his
bowels. By four months bathing and drinking, 
he recovered, and is now on a voyage to the 
same coast. One circumstance he communicated 
to me, which I think it my duty to communi- 
cate. On a voyage to Rhode Island, at the time 
of his landing he had been fourteen days without 
a stool, racked with pain, helpless, and hopeless, 
Mr. Forbes, a practitioner of that island, coming 
on board, asked the Captain, if he had any good 
Castile soap, which being produced, he said, ne- 
ver fear Captain, I will cure you in a crack. 
Shaving some of the bluest part of the soap down, 
he dissolved it in fresh milk, gave his patient two 
tea spoonfuls, with orders to repeat it in an hour; 
which he did, and was immediately rid of his 
constipation, and every complaint, excepting the 
lameness of his hands. He assured me that this 
he often experienced on himself, and many others 
afterwards, and hardly ever without success. Mr. 
Forbes assured him that it was his common prac- 
tice, and as successful as common. 
In the annual publication of the Bath Infirmary, 
relative to disorders of the nerves, the general 
article stands thus, Lamenesses and weak- 
nesses from tumors, contusions, colics, 
colds, falls, &c. From this complex 
account, little light can be drawn in relation to 
dry belly-achs, or any other particular disease; 
Proofs from 
the Infirma- 
ry. 
F yet,

122 DISEASES CURED
yet, from Dr. Summers’s industry, as well as 
from proper knowlege, we can affirm that there 
are numbers who annually receive cures in that 
hospital, particularly miners, or mechanics in- 
fected from working in metals. In the years 1763, 
and 1764, there were twenty-nine dry belly-achs 
cured, and eighteen much better. In Summers’s 
short Essay, we find one pattern truly worthy of
imitation; with this we close this chapter.—
“ In the Infirmary, there is now to be seen 
“ a young man of about nineteen years of age, 
“  who (after a voyage to these parts) was, two 
“ years ago, seized with a West-India cholic. 
“ When he was admitted, his arms hung useless 
“ by his sides, his hands dropped inwards, his 
“ fingers were so contracted, that it was in no 
“ man’s power to move them; his legs were con- 
“ tracted up to his buttocks, he stood on his 
“ knees, and was wasted to a skeleton. By the 
“ use of bathing he now walks without crutches; 
“ his hands, legs and arms have regained their 
“ wonted plumpness.”
CHAP.

123 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VI. 
OF DISORDERS OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
IN compliance with fashion, I refer rational 
deductions of diseases of the urinary passages,
to that part which treats of Bristol wa- 
ters. Suffice it here, in general to ob- 
serve, that as the same diseases differ in different
constitutions, so are the same diseases cured by 
different waters. “ That water should be ex- 
“ pelled by water, that drowned men should be 
“ brought to life by being drowned, is a miracle
“ (says Doctor Baynard) that surpasses St. Wine- 
“ fred’s. There are not however wanting in- 
“ stances of hydropics cured by drinking; a 
“ proof how little we know either of nature or 
“ art.” With other arts, physic has its fashions; 
so have wells. In diseases of the urinary passages, 
Bath waters have answered where Bristol waters 
have failed. Such, nevertheless, is the force of 
fashion, that diabetes, dysury, gravel, stone, ne- 
phritic pains, gleets, and other diseases of the u- 
rinary passages are (by universal consent) con- 
signed to Bristol. If Bristol waters fail, patients
are given up as incurable. Mankind, in general, 
stare at the surface of things. Reformers are 
upbraided for departing from common practice. 
In justice to Bath water, I take the liberty, ne- 
vertheless, to produce cures of diseases of the u- 
rinary passages, some of diseases never before at- 
tempted. 
Preamble.
1. In Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, p. 
364, we find the following Cases. 
“ Sir Thomas Ogle, aged forty, was
Pierce’s
Cases.
F2 “ so

124 DISEASES CURED
“ so frequently pressed to make water, and al- 
“ ways with sharpness and pain, that he could 
“ hardly be long together quiet, without emul- 
“ sions, and strong anodynes. He had taken 
“ loads of medicines. 
“ I ordered him Diacassia or Manna, half an 
“ ounce over night, or early in the morning; 
“ and, about seven in the morning, to drink 
“ three pints of King’s Bath water. When he 
“ took not of the Electuary, he drank two quarts; 
“ and, after a while five pints. They gave him 
“ usually two or three stools, but past mostly by
“ urine, and did not bring off a great deal of 
“ gravel neither; but manifestly abated the acri- 
“ mony of urine, so that he retained his water, 
“ and made it in large quantities.”
2. “ Mr. Belke, aged thirty, of the Six 
“ Clerks Office, had been afflicted with the 
“ same distemper. He drank the waters for five 
“ weeks. They passed by stool and urine; he 
“ was cured.”
3. “ Sir John Cotton, of Botrux-costle, had for 
“ many years been afflicted with severe fits of the
“ gravel and stone. He made dark turbid urine, 
“ he voided much gravel and stones of consider- 
“ able bigness and craggedness, which, by lace- 
“ rating the vessels, occasioned bloody water. 
“ I began with a purging nephritic bolus. He 
“ drank three pints of water, which, by degrees, 
“ he increased to two quarts. Never did wa- 
“ ters agree sooner, pass easier, and better. He 
“ brought off great quantities of sabulum, and 
“ small stones rough and scabrous, bigger than 
“ barley corns, but friable. He held so well all 
“ the winter, that this encouraged him to return
“ next summer, and drank them till the fabulous 
“ matter ceased, and he was free from fits.”
4. “ Mrs.

125 BY BATH WATER.
4. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Carne, aged seventy-two, 
“ hath been subject to nephritic pains almost fif- 
“ ty years, with frequent fits, and voiding of 
“ large rough stones. Every time she finds the 
“ least pain or disorder in the region of the kid- 
“ neys, she drinks three pints or two quarts of 
“ the King’s pump-water, in a morning, be the 
“ season what it will, and continues till she voids 
“ gravel or stones of a greyish colour, one of the 
“ worst colours, which gives her ease.” 
5. “ The second wife of Captain Henry Chap- 
“ man of this city, was used, of her own head, 
“ to go and fit three or four hours in the hottest
“ part of the King’s Bath, and drink largely of 
“ the water. To this she imputed the bringing off 
“ the stone easier. She is now living in the 80th 
“ year of her age.” 
6. “ Mr. Smith, steward to Lord Digby, was 
“ horribly decrepid with gout and stone. He had 
“ a perpetual desire of making water, with great 
“ sharpness, pain, and stoppage for days toge- 
“ ther. His joints were knotted with the gout. 
“ By drinking, he daily discharged vast quan- 
“ tities of gravel, stones, and mucous matter. 
“ He bathed, not by my consent. The nodes 
“ of his toes, fingers, and knees began to look
“ red and soft. Some of these tumors opened of 
“ themselves, others were laid open. The con- 
“ creted chalk was picked out little by little. He 
“ began to set his feet to the ground, bend his 
“ knees, support his body, handle his crutches, 
“ and at last walked with a stick.” 
7. “ Mr. Edward Bushed, senior, Alderman of 
“ Bath, aged seventy-three, laboured for eleven
“ months under torturing nephritic pains. At 
“ last he made bloody water, which encouraged 
“ him to try the water. His common dose is a  
F3 quart

126 DISEASES CURED
“ quart every morning with a spoonful of syrup 
“ of marshmallows. This doing for nineteen 
“ months together, he had perfect ease. By 
“ drinking stale beer, he now and then relapses, 
“ but his pains are not so violent. I have often
“ heard him say, how miserable a man had I 
“ been, had I lived any where but at Bath.” 
8. “ Mrs. Studley, of All Cannings, had long
“ been afflicted with continual urgings to make 
“ water, smartings, and violent pains, with small 
“ streaks of blood, with a heavy ropy sediment, 
“ which stuck to the bottom of the pot like bird- 
“ lime, and stunk abominably. By drinking she 
“ found ease. She bathed also, and found bene- 
“ fit. Business called her away too soon.” 
“ Not a few (says the good old doctor) have 
“ been cured, by regularly drinking the waters, 
“ of inveterate virulent gonorrhoeas, and of those
“ weaknesses which they usually leave behind 
“ them; for Bath waters cleanse, heal, and 
“ strengthen the parts concerned, and (as in all 
“ other acidities, acrimony, and sharpness of the 
“ blood and nervous juice) they correct that cor- 
“ rosiveness, and dilute that acrimony, and con- 
“ sequently alter the temper of that matter that 
“ is discharged, and, by its balsamic virtue, heals
“ the parts excoriated. 
“ This remedy will indifferently serve for the 
“ softer sex also, who (though they call it by 
“ another name) are too much liable to the same 
“ distemper. I dare not give instances, though 
“ I have them by me.” 
Guidot’s
Cases. 
Guidot (in his Bath-Register) gives 
the following cases. 
9. “ Mr. Thomas Brookes, minister, sixty 
“ years old, having for sixteen years a gravative 
“ pain in the back and kidneys, came to Bath, 
“ where

127 BY BATH WATER.
“ where he drank the waters, and voided fine pow- 
“ der, which subsiding in the urinal, and evaporated 
“ ad siccitatem, made eight pills as big as pistol bul- 
“ lets, of the colour and consistence of stone. 
“ At his return home he evacuated as much as 
“ made forty-four more. All the matter voided, 
“ in no long time, was enough to make a ball 
“ of stone six ounces weight, which coming a- 
“ way, the heavy pain in the kidneys and back 
“ ceased. Seven years after, I saw these balls not 
“ at all relented, so hard that they rebounded 
“ like marbles.” 
10. “ A certain person unknown, for benefit 
“ received in distempers relating to the passages of
“ urine, gave public thanks in the church of St.  
“ Peter and Paul, 14th of October, 1688.” 
DIABETES.
OF this disorder, I purpose to treat particu- 
larly, under the head Of Diseases cured by Bristol 
Waters. The following history is printed from 
the hand-writing of Captain Chaplin, of the 
Navy, the very first proof of its kind.
11. “ To the honour of Bath waters, 
as well as testimony of the prescriber’s 
judgment, I desire the following case 
may be published. 
“ About the latter end of the year 
1761, the time of our equipping for 
the expedition to Belleisle, I began to find myself
troubled with an unusual heat in the palms of my 
hands and soles of my feet, with great thirst and 
restlessness at nights, attended with a surprising 
loss of flesh; though my appetite and digestion 
continued very good. 
Author’s 
Cases. 
Proofs of 
Diabetes cur- 
ed by Bath 
Water. 
F4 “ Things

128 DISEASES CURED
“ Things continued thus all that winter—In 
the ensuing summer I was employed on a service, 
that obliged me to be a good deal exposed in the 
sun, at the demolition of the fortifications at Aix;
by way of cooling, I used to indulge in drinking 
Cream of Tartar and water, or a thin sharp French 
white wine and water. Neither of which, tho’
pleasing whilst they went down, allayed either 
my drought or heat: but I am afraid rather serv- 
ed to encrease the whole of my complaints.—
In the latter end of that year my sloop was ordered
to the Mediterranean, where I remained twelve 
months;—there I found my heat and drought 
greatly abated. I perspired more freely than I 
had used to do for some time; began to rest bet- 
ter at nights, and to recover my flesh. But on 
my coming to England this time twelve month, 
all my former complaints returned with more vio- 
lence than ever, with the addition of an hectic 
fever. It was then the opinion of every body 
that I was in a deep consumption, though I had 
very little cough, unless now and then, when I 
caught a fresh cold. I was advised riding and the 
gout-whey, when the season should come, both 
of which I followed to very little purpose, and 
was at last forbid riding intirely, as it was found
to fatigue me too much. 
“ In the month of last August, it was first ob- 
served, that my urine was of a very pale colour, 
of a sweet taste and smell, and that I voided more 
of it in the space of twenty-four hours, by two 
pounds, than I took of liquids; in short, my dis- 
order was found to be a confirmed Diabetes.—I 
was then advised to hurry to Bristol to drink the 
Hot-well waters. I accordingly got there about 
the middle of September last, and continued, with- 
out intermission, daily to drink them, and take 
medicine

129 BY BATH WATER.
medicine, for twelve weeks, without much bene- 
fit, unless, that in the first week I found the 
parchedness of my mouth, and great drought 
somewhat abated, as also the quantity of my u- 
rine, but my flesh and strength continued to 
waste.—At the end of that time, that is, about 
eight weeks ago, I came here to see you, with- 
out any thoughts or intention of using the Bath 
waters, when you, advised me to come over and 
try them, which I accordingly did, and have 
(thank God) benefited by them so much, as to 
have intirely got the better of all my complaints, 
as also to have recovered my flesh and strength to 
a surprising degree; for which great blessing I 
shall always remain, with the utmost gratitude and
respect,
Dear Sir, 
Your most obliged, 
And most Humble Servant, 
Feb. 7, 1764. 
James Chaplin ” 
To Doctor Sutherland.
12. Mrs. Fleming’s Case will be particularly 
described in that chapter which treats of Diabetes. 
This winter all her diabetic symptoms returned 
with violence, her appetite, flesh, and strength
failed; she hardly could stand on her legs; in a 
word, no body expected that she could live one 
month. I pressed her return to Bristol Hot-wells, 
went so far as to assure her that her life was at 
stake. My arguments were vain; she positively 
told me, she could not go at that time of 
the year, if she died; she begged that I would  
F5 prescribe


130 DISEASES CURED 
prescribe something that might keep her alive till 
the spring. Instructed by Chaplin’s success, I ad- 
vised Bath waters with Elixir Vitriol. Every 
day produced visible amendment; she is now 
strong and active, without one symptom of her 
disease, excepting a little of the sweet taste of
the urine, and that at an age far advanced. 
BESIDE these express cases, the curious reader 
may find not a few proofs interspersed with the 
histories of other diseases cured by Bath water, 
particularly in that memorable gouty case of Mr. 
Long’s. 
CHAP.

131 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
IN Compliance with fashion, I refer particular
deductions of pectoral diseases to that part of 
this book, which expresly treats Of Diseases cured
by Bristol Water. Suffice it here, in general, to 
observe, that those who, without evidence, fancy 
heat, fire and brimstone, synonimous ideas are 
incapable of conceiving how smoking waters 
should be safe in the disorders of the lungs. Those 
who confine the causes of cough, catarrh, and 
asthma to inflammation only, hurry away patients 
to Bristol. If they answer not, the wretched sick 
is given up to death. In asthmas, the very air of 
Bath is doomed pestilential. In consultation with 
able Bath physicians, I have more than once pres- 
sed asthmatics, not to tarry twenty-four hours 
within these walls. Instructed by experience, I 
now abjure these ignorances. In this very city 
there lives an upholsterer, Richard Evat by name, 
who chuses his residence at Bath, as the only air 
in which he could freely breathe, ever since the 
hard frost 1739. At the age of threescore, he 
now breathes freely, and enjoys perfect health. 
Doctor Smollet’s Case is an irrefragable proof of 
the doctrine. There are pectoral disorders which 
yield to Bristol waters only; there are others
which require a mineral more active, invigorat- 
ing and powerful. There are thin, acrid ca- 
tarrhs; so are there viscous, cold, and inert. 
There are hot consuming hectics, so there are
putrid. There are consumptions from putrid; so 
there are consumptions from obstructed lungs. 
F6 There

132 DISEASES CURED
There are genuine, dry, nervous asthmas; so 
there are spurious, moist, and catarrhous. Some 
proceed from irritation; others from obstruction. 
In some cases demulcents are indicated, in others 
attenuants. To conclude, Bath waters have 
cured coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, and asth- 
mas, when all other aids have failed. Let facts
speak for themselves. 
1. To Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we are obliged. 
“ The Lady Duchess of Ormond, aged 
“ sixty, came to Bath in September 
“ 1673. Her disorder was an invete- 
“ rate cough and asthma; she was forced to sit
“ upright in bed. 
Pierce’s
Cases. 
“ She drank the waters first in small quanti- 
“ ties. Bearing them well, the dose was increas- 
“ ed. She drank them on for a month, with lit- 
“ tie intermission, and so much relief that she 
“ expectorated more freely, and lay down in bed, 
“ her appetite increased, she rested better, she
“ bore her journey back better. 
“ Passing the following winter (the season in 
“ which such distempers usually increase) much 
“ better, she came again four different seasons. 
“ Every time she improved the first advantage.”
2. “ Lady Mary Kirk, aged forty, subject to 
“ an asthma, so that she was obliged to be bol- 
“ stered up for nights together, came hither and 
“ drank the waters several seasons following, with
“ great advantage, insomuch that in the year 
“ 1693, she had few or no returns of those fits 
“ which usually attacked her in cold and wet sea-
“ sons. In a letter of hers, now in my posses- 
“ sion, she says that for the whole winter past, 
“ (which to every body else hath been very se- 
“ vere) she has not so much as felt an oppression 
“ at her breast, much less a cough, that kept her 
“ from

133 BY BATH WATER.
“ from sleeping or eating a meal’s meat; that she 
“ goes abroad in all weathers, stays out till nine, 
“ and rests not a bit the worse. She returned last 
“ summer, and staid till the latter end of Octo- 
“ ber, and bathed even in the Hot-Bath as well 
“ as drank the waters, and did very well.” 
3. “A very worthy Lady, whose name I con- 
“ ceal, because I have not her leave, between 
“ 30 and 40 came hither in August, 1693. From 
“ inheritance she was hydropical, scorbutical, and 
“ asthmatical. She had gone through the col- 
“ lege. 
“ After a fortnight’s drinking, I permitted her 
“ to use the Cross-Bath, which had a different 
“ operation on her than it commonly has. It pro- 
“ moted the passing of the waters by urine; she 
“ was more lightsome, and breathed more freely. 
“ She drank and bathed for a month. Next year 
“ she used the same course for three months. She
“ found great advantage.” 
4. “ Mrs. Mary Whitaker, a virgin of thirty— 
“ nine, from Pottern, Wiltshire, came hither in 
“ May, 1681. The winter before, her cough was 
“ so violent that she spate blood. In January she 
“ was seized with a palpitation of the heart, the 
“ most troublesome symptom of all, and what she
“ took to be the cause of her difficulty of breath- 
“ ing, whereas it seemed to me that the nervous 
“ asthma (for such I took hers to be) caused the 
“ palpitation. The cough was violent without 
“ expectoration. She wheezed greatly. Upon 
“ the least motion she looked black in the face. 
“ Her heart beat as if it would come out of her 
“ body. She was always hot and feverish, had a 
“ quick labouring pulse. Her symptoms were 
“ greatly aggravated by her short journey of 14 
“ miles, 
“ I

134 DISEASES CURED
“ I ordered the waters with Sal-Prunel, Pecto- 
“ rals, and Paregorics. This method she con- 
“ tinued for a month or five weeks, and was by 
“ it perfectly restored, and is alive and well this
“ day.” 
5. “ Sir Henry Andrews, of Loftsbury, aged 
“ seventy-one, came hither for a Scorbutic Asthma, 
“ with the morphew on his back, breast, and shoul- 
“ ders, and weakness in his limbs. 
“ He bathed and drank with such success, that 
“ he came year after year, till other illnesses ren- 
“ dered him incapable to bear the journey.” 
6. “ The Marchioness of Antrim, aged sixty- 
“ two, had been many years troubled with a cough 
“ and shortness of breath. 
“ She drank the waters mostly, bathed but sel- 
“ dom, continued five or six weeks, was so well 
“ the following winter that she was encouraged to
“ come a second time, she prosecuted the same 
“ course with better success.” 
7. “ Mr. Harrison, of St. Crosses, aged eigh- 
“ teen, had, from his infancy, been subject to
“ coughs and asthmatic distempers, occasioned 
“ (as was said) by a Quicksilver Girdle. He had 
“ a great palpitation, and difficulty of breathing
“ on the least motion, not even the ambling of a 
“ horse. 
“ He drank the waters for a month or more. 
“ His breath was freer, the palpitation well- 
“ nigh ceased, he rode from near Winchester to 
“ Oxford in a day. He returned a second, and 
“ a third time, to confirm the advantage re- 
“ ceived. 
8. “ Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, came hi-
“ ther in April, 1686. He had been a long time 
“ hypochondriac and scorbutic, but, for some months 
“ past, especially in the winter, was seldom
“ free

135 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from a palpitation of the heart, an inter- 
“ mittent pulse, a decayed appetite, and a bad 
“ digestion. 
“ After various trials, particularly a long cha- 
“ lybeate course, he was sent to Bath. I order- 
“ ed him Quercetan’s Tartar Pill over night, and
“ to drink two quarts of King’s Bath pump next 
“ morning. He increased the quantity by de- 
“ grees to five pints, and at last to three quarts, 
“ interposing a gentle purge now and then, and 
“ two or three bathings. At the end of five or 
“ six weeks, he set out chearful and well, with 
“ a good appetite, the palpitation almost abated, 
“ and the intermission of his pulse scarcely dis- 
“ cernible.” 
9. Summer 1761, the honourable Edward 
Finch came to Bristol Hot Wells, after an in- 
flammatory fever, for which he had 
been bled nine times, and blistered five. 
When I first saw him, he had an habitual 
cough, with a difficult expectoration of tough
viscid phlegm, without fever; he was languid, 
low-spirited, and feeble, fifty years old, and up- 
wards. 
Author’s
Cases.
I pressed him to go immediately to Bath; I gave 
him my reasons and opinion in writing, which 
were transmitted to his physician in town, and by
him disapproved. This being the case, I added 
Bitters to the Bristol waters, with a restorative 
diet. Thus he recovered strength and spirits; 
but his asthmatic disorder still continued. At last
he took my advice and came to Bath, where he 
drank the waters six weeks. Every glass proved 
an expectorant, he went away perfectly re- 
stored. 
10. Mr. Partridge of the Packhorse, Turnham- 
Green, was subject to gouty complaints from his 
fourteenth


136 DISEASES CURED
fourteenth year. Last January, having caught 
cold, he was seized with an asthma; he could 
not lie in bed, his perspiration was stopped, his
legs were benumbed and swelled, without appe- 
tite. Naturally high spirited, he became so de- 
jected, that he burst often into tears on the sight 
of an old acquaintance. He came to Bath, drank 
the waters moderately, and, in six weeks time, 
was completely cured. He came down this win- 
ter by way of prevention, and is very well. 
11. Dr. Smollett, author of the History of Eng- 
land, laboured under a scorbutic humoral Asthma, 
for three years and upwards. To breathe he has 
been obliged to shift different airs, and never con- 
tinued long well in any. From a constitution 
healthy, vigorous and active, he became emaci- 
ate, low-spirited, and feeble, obliged often to 
rise out of bed, and fit up for hours; his perspi- 
ration was quite stopped, his appetite much im- 
paired, He tried variety of regimens, to very 
little purpose, was always the worse for bleeding. 
Caught in one of his fits, he put into the fore- 
said Packhorse, where he met with a director who 
counselled Bath water, from experience. Here 
he slept the very first night, and every other, for 
six weeks, drank the waters, and gained appetite, 
flesh, strength, and spirits. 
12. Mrs. Collins of this city, widow, aged 
sixty and upwards, has laboured under an Asthma
for many years. On the least motion she panted 
for breath, and was taken with violent fits of 
coughing. Her flesh wasted, her strength failed; 
by all appearances, she seemed bending fast to- 
ward the grave. By the advice of an emperic, 
she was, at last, pressed to try that healing foun- 
tain, which springs up within a few yards of her 
own house, which she did, to the quantity of a 
glass

137 BY BATH WATER.
glass, or two, a day only. She now lies flat in 
bed, sleeps well, eats heartily, her cough is va- 
nished, she walks a dozen of turns on the parade 
without being fatigued; whenever she finds a 
difficulty of breathing, she flies to the pump, and
forgets all her sorrow. She has, at different 
times, had the opinion of sundry physicians. To 
our common reproach be it confessed, Bristol wa- 
ter, bleeding, issues, pectorals, and every thing 
was counselled and tried, excepting the one thing 
needful; such strangers are we, even at this day, 
to the very tools by which we earn our daily 
bread. 
Since my last publication, I received the fol- 
lowing proof from an eminent merchant in 
Bristol. 
“ Some time since I had the pleasure of din- 
ing with you at my friend Rothley’s, who shewed
me a letter, dated the 10th instant, reminding 
me of the promise I made you, touching the pro- 
gress of a disorder I laboured with for a great 
many years. To be as good as my word, the fol- 
lowing is a description of my case, perfectly true, 
and too well known in this city to admit of the 
least doubt. 
“ From my infancy, I discovered, upon any 
Extraordinary exercise, some difficulty of breath- 
ing, but nothing remarkable ensued, till I arrived 
to twenty or thirty years of age; about which 
time shooting was a favourite diversion with me; 
and many times, being too eager in the pursuit 
of my game, I have been seized with such a short- 
ness of breath, seemingly occasioned by a blow- 
ing up of the lungs, that I have been obliged to 
sit down, sometimes for near an hour, before I 
have recovered; after that, had seldom a second 
attack the sameday.—About ten years ago, this 
long

138 DISEASES CURED
long growing complaint became a confirmed asth- 
ma, and during the course of seven or eight 
years, I endured as much misery from the disor- 
der, as I believe human nature is able to support; 
the beginning of these seizures were constantly in 
my first sleep, about an hour after I went to bed, 
and the fit generally lasted from twenty to thirty 
hours, and sometimes longer; during which time 
I was obliged to lie in one continued posture, and
my lungs so adhered, that they only supplied just 
motion enough to give life. Upon the first of 
these violent attacks I applied to an apothecary
of very considerable practice, and of whom I 
had a great opinion; he recommended me to a 
physician, and, after a due obedience to their me- 
dicines, I found no benefit. I then went to Lon- 
don to the famous Ward, he gave me some drops, 
which for a time lessened the violence and length 
of the fits, but his nostrum failed of the desired
effect; I then laid myself under another course 
of an eminent physician, who offered me his as- 
sistance out of friendship, he being big with the 
thoughts of success; and after a trial of his skill for 
5 or 6 weeks, the disorder had taken too deep root 
to be eradicated. I then had recourse to Bath, 
and the night I got there, had a fit of the asth- 
ma, as customary, which lasted till the middle of
the next day. In the evening I began with a 
common sized glass of water, and drank three 
glasses, morn, noon, and evening, the ensuing 
day; the next attack I had was faint and more 
favourable than before. I continued this course 
of drinking the waters three times a day for near 
a month, and found such amazing relief, that I 
pronounced myself cured, tho’ the next winter 
I was sensible of the disorder returning again; 
having several of the old accustomed fits. I went
again

139 BY BATH WATER.
again to Bath, drank the waters as before, and, 
thank God, found the same virtue in them, and
have now for two years continued as well as 
when you saw me, and may possibly give you
occular proof of it very soon, as I have some
thoughts of going to Bath for a few days.— 
I have given you the rise, progress, and (I hope) 
downfal of my case; and I shall be very happy,
if this narrative, thro’ your channel, can be use- 
ful to any of your patients. 
I am, Sir, 
Your very humble Servant, 
Bristol, Nov. 18, 1763
Cranfield Beecher.” 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
CHAP.

140 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. VIII. 
OF THE GOUT.
1. SYDENHAM’s description of the gout, 
regular and irregular, seems to be copied 
from nature. Boerhaave’s chapter of 
the gout (in his Aphorisms) is nothing 
else but an abstract of this. Hoffman has insert- 
ed his history in his discourse on this disease. Suc- 
ceeding writers have mangled a model worthy of 
imitation. Sydenham seems to be one of those, 
whom nature has endowed with that sagacity 
which constitutes the practical physician. Copy- 
ing the divine old pattern, this second Hippo- 
crates had the courage honestly to break through 
the clouds of ignorance, error, and prejudice; he 
gently led the art of physic into that natural path
of Observation from which she had so long stray- 
ed. Those racking pains which he felt for the 
greatest part of his own life, enabled him to, 
paint what he felt, and thereby relieve fellow-suf- 
ferers, by improving the diagnostic and curative 
parts of medicine. 
Gout. 
2. For a work of this kind, the spirit of his
descriptive part may suffice. The gout generally
makes its appearance at that period of 
life, when the circulation comes to be 
confined to a narrower sphere, when 
manly vigour declines, when the vessels begin to 
be rigid and impervious The harbingers of the 
Regular Gout are bad digestion, crudities, flatu- 
lencies, belching, heaviness, head-achs, nausea, 
loss of appetite, heart-burns, and wandering pains. 
The day preceding the fit, the appetite is sharp, 
and preternatural. 
Regular, its
history. 
The

141 BY BATH WATER.
The patient goes to bed, and sleeps quietly till 
about two in the morning, when he is awakened 
by a pain which usually seizes the great toe, heel, 
calf of the leg, or ankle. This pain resembles 
that of a dislocated bone, and is attended with a 
sensation as if warm water was poured on the 
membranes. These pains are immediately suc- 
ceeded by chilliness, shivering, and a slight fever. 
These last abate in proportion as the pain in- 
creases, which grows more violent every hour, 
till it comes to its height towards evening, re- 
sembling tension or laceration, sometimes the 
gnawing of a dog; and, at other times, a weight 
and constriction of the membranes, till it be- 
comes at last so exquisitely painful, that the pa- 
tient cannot abide the weight of the cloaths, nor 
the shaking of the floor. 
The night is not only passed in pain, but with 
a restless removal of the part affected also. This 
restlessness does not abate till about two or three 
of the clock in the morning; namely, twenty- 
four hours from the first attack. Breathing sweat 
succeeds, he falls asleep, and, upon waking, finds 
the pain much abated; the part affected, which 
before exhibited remarkable turgidness of the 
veins only, now swells. 
Next day, and perhaps two or three days after, 
if the gouty matter be copious, the part affected
comes again to be pained; the pain increases to- 
wards evening, and remits about break of day. 
In a few days, it seizes the other foot in the 
same manner; and, if the pain be violent in this, 
and that which was first seized be quite easy, the 
weakness thereof soon vanishes, it becomes strong
and healthy. The gout nevertheless affects the 
foot just seized as it did the former both in respect
to the vehemence and duration of pain. 
When

142 DISEASES CURED
When there is a copious somes of peccant mat- 
ter in the beginning, it affects both with equal 
violence; but, in general, it attacks the feet suc- 
cessively, as above. When it has seized both 
feet, the fits are irregular with respect to time 
of seizure, and continuance; but the pain al- 
ways increases in the evening, and remits in the 
morning. 
What we call a fit of the gout, is made up of 
a number of such small fits, the last of which 
prove milder, and shorter, till the peccant matter 
is expelled, and the patient recovers; which, in 
strong constitutions, and such as seldom have the 
gout, often happens in the space of fourteen days; 
in the aged, and those who have frequent returns, 
in two months; but in such as are debilitated, ei- 
ther by age, or the duration of the distemper, it
does not go off till the summer advances. 
During the first fourteen days, the urine is high- 
coloured; and, after separation, or standing, lets
fall a gravelly red sediment. Not above a third 
of the liquids taken in, is voided by urine. The 
body is generally costive. The fit is accompani- 
ed throughout with loss of appetite, chilliness to- 
wards the evening, and a heaviness, or uneasi- 
ness, even of those parts which are not affected. 
When the fit is going off, a violent itching 
seizes the foot, especially between the toes, the 
skin peels off, appetite and strength return; the 
juices come to be depurated, the patient finds him- 
self clearer in his understanding, chearful and ac- 
tive. Nature has performed her work. 
3. WHEN the body has long been habituated 
to the disease, when it has been exas- 
perated by quacking, the juices ac- 
quire a quality which supplies constant 
fuel to the flame. Debilitated nature can no 
Irregular. 
Its history. 
5 longer

143 BY BATH WATER.
longer unload her burden by the feet, the genu-
ine outlet of the morbific matter; it corrodes the 
capillary vessels, stagnates and curdles that liquor 
designed for lubricating the joints. This hardens 
into chalky matter, distends the skin, inflames, 
breaks through, and discharges itself in a fluid or 
solid form. It not only stiffens the joints, but it 
fixes on the tendons, and forms lodgments in the 
interstices of the muscles. Hence excruciating 
pains and lameness. This we call the Irregular 
Gout. 
Those particular fits which compose the gene- 
ral, sometimes continue fourteen days without 
intermission. The patient is besides afflicted with 
sickness, and a total loss of appetite. The cardi- 
nal fit continues till the summer heat comes on. 
During the intermission, the limbs are so con- 
tracted and disabled, that the patient can hardly
walk. The relicts of the morbific matter fly to 
the bowels; the haemorrhoidal vessels grow pain- 
ful; the stomach is oppressed with nauseous eruc- 
tations; the urine resembles that of a Diabetes; 
the whole man is debilitated. Hence low spirits, 
melancholy, &c. 
When the disease becomes inveterate, after 
yawning, especially in the morning, the liga- 
ments of the metatarsus are violently stretched; 
they seem as if they were squeezed with great 
force. Sometimes, though no yawning has pre- 
ceded, when the patient seems disposed to sleep, 
he feels a blow of a sudden, as if the metatarsus 
was breaking in pieces, so that he starts, roaring
out with pain. The tendons of the muscles of 
the shin-bone are seized with so violent a cramp, 
that the pain is insupportable. 
After many such racking pains, the following 
paroxysms become less painful, an earnest of ap- 
proaching

144 DISEASES CURED
proaching deliveries, by death. Nature, oppressed 
by disease and old-age, can no longer drive the 
morbific matter to the extremities. Sickness, las- 
situde, looseness, &c. usurp the place of pains. 
These ease the pains, which return as those go 
off. Thus, by a succession of pains and sickness, 
the fits are prolonged to an uncommon length. 
Pain diminishes, the patient sinks at length thro’
sickness rather than pain. In a word, pain is na- 
ture’s harsh remedy, by which she endeavours to 
relieve herself; the more violent it is, the sooner 
the fit terminates, the longer, and more perfect 
is the intermission, and e.c. 
Gout also produces stone and gravel. The 
mind sympathises also with the body. Every pa- 
roxysm may as justly be denominated a fit of an- 
ger, as a fit of gout. The rational faculties are 
so enervated, as to be disordered, on every trifling
occasion; the patient comes to be troublesome to 
others, as well as to himfelf. Fear, anxiety, and
other passions torment also, sometimes he swears, 
then prays, and anon cries. 
The organs of secretion no longer perform 
their functions; the blood, overchaged with vi- 
tiated humours, stagnates; the gouty matter ceases 
to be thrown on the extremities. Death puts an 
end to misery. This is the history of the gout, 
regular and irregular. We now proceed to enu- 
merate the causes which produce the paroxysms. 
4. PRINCES, Generals, Statesmen, Philosophers, 
the rich and opulent are the people who are ge- 
nerally subject to the gout. Provi- 
dence bestows her gifts more equally 
than we are apt to allow. The gout 
destroys more rich than poor, more wise men 
than fools; she tempers her profusion of good 
things with mixtures of evil; so that it appears
Persons at- 
tacked. 
to

145 BY BATH WATER.
to be decreed that no man shall enjoy unmixed 
happiness, or misery. The poor man’s children 
are plump and rosy, while his Lord’s look wan 
and puny. 
5. VIOLENT EXERCISE, sudden heats and colds, 
hard study, luxurious meals, night-revels, early 
venery, and the sudden interruption of 
wonted exercises, all contribute to an- 
ticipate the gout. It not only lays hold of the 
gross, intemperate, and indolent; but it attacks 
the lean, sober, and active, if they have received
the taint from gouty parents. Thus it comes to 
be interwoven with their very constitutions. Wo- 
men and children are martyrs to a disease natu- 
rally peculiar to man. The valetudinary sons of 
gouty parents feel the curses of old-age before 
they reach the years of puberty. 
Causes. 
6. THE reader will hardly expect to meet 
rules sufficient for directing him in the cure of a 
disease which baffles art. There are 
certain rocks on which gouty patients 
have suffered shipwreck; there are duties which 
they owe to themselves; these are both necessary 
to be known. In the regular gout, patience and 
flannel seem to be the requisites. The irregular 
puzzles the College.
Rules. 
Nature uninterrupted throws the morbific mat- 
ter of the gout on the extremities. Whatever 
weakens, hurries, or disturbs nature, injures the 
constitution. Evacuations of all sorts, topical 
applications, and bitters are, at best, necessary 
evils. In the last chapter, the gouty reader may 
find cautions worthy of his notice, particularly
under the section of Preparation.
7. IF Evacuants and Topics are rather hurtful 
than beneficial, whence are we to ex- 
pect a cure? Sydenham says, he can-
Bitters.
G not 


146 DISEASES CURED
not help thinking but that a radical cure may be 
found out. Till then, he supposes the primary 
cause of the gout to proceed from indigestion, to- 
gether with a consequential acrimony of the hu- 
mours. Such medicines as are moderately heat- 
ing, bitter, or pungent, purify the blood, and 
strengthen the first passages. For this purpose, 
he recommends Angelica, Elecampane, Wormwood, 
Centaury, Germander, Ground-pine, and the like, 
in a compound mixture, continued for a long 
time. Such medicines increase the circulation, 
and thus strengthen.—Of all the strengtheners of 
digestion. Dr. Cheyne prefers a strong infusion of
the bark in generous claret joined with chalybe- 
ates.—Boerhaave, Sydenham’s implicit admirer, 
says, Curatio quam contemplatio moli, et experientia 
commendavit, absolvitur restitutione vigoris in visceri- 
bus perditi. From the writings of the antients, 
as well as from experience, these gentlemen join- 
ed in the same opinion.—Caelius Aurelianus’s 
Diacentaureon, and Aetius’s Antidotes ex duobus 
Centaureae generibus, are old names for Portland’s 
powder.—Tournefort (in his Histoire des plantes 
qui naissent aux environs de Paris) gives an exact
description of it with the addition of the Centau- 
rium majus. The Faculty of Paris has adopted it 
into the Codex Medicamentorum, substituting the 
Rhaponticum in the room of the Centaurium ma- 
jus.—By the persuasion of a friend, the Duke of 
Portland took it for a hereditary gout, and found 
such relief, that humanity induced him to pub- 
lish the prescription, which differs not essentially
from Sydenham’s. Its indiscriminate use has a- 
verted fits of the gout, substituting mortal ail- 
ments in their room. 
1. “ Mr.

147 BY BATH WATER.
1. “ Mr. Fraigneau, Confectioner to the late 
“ King, was about forty years old. By a here- 
“ ditary gout, he had for many years 
“ been so much a cripple that he hob- 
“ bled only by the help of two sticks. 
“ Every year he had regular fits; in 
“ the interval was chearful, lively, and sensible. 
“ Importuned by the Great, he took Portland’s 
“ powders strictly. He lost his regular salutary 
“ fits. His stomach was at last so tanned with a 
“ farrago of astringent bitters, that it lost its re- 
“ tentive quality; he threw up every thing, even 
“ the bitters themselves. After various regimens, 
“ he came at last to Bath, where, by drinking 
“ the water, his vomiting stopped, but soon re- 
“ turned. By Dr. Nugent’s advice and mine, 
“ he took various antiemetics, all at last to no
“ purpose.”—In his case it may be worthy of 
remark, that when, by warm medicines, we could 
obtain inflammation and pain on any joint, his 
vomiting ceased, but the warmest at last proved 
ineffectual. With his last breath he cursed the 
powders. 
Portland’s 
powder fa- 
tal. 
2. “ Thomas Boucher, Esq. was also freed 
“ from his gouty fits by the powder. Sometime 
“ after he was afflicted with a violent fever, which
“ bequeathed him an inveterate rheumatism, and 
“ distortion of the joints of the fingers.” 
8. As Evacuants, Topics, and Bitters, 
all disturb nature, by taking a nearer 
view of nature, we may perhaps be led to a more 
powerful and safe specific. 
Cure.
When the stamina vitae come to be debilitated 
by intemperance, or old age; when the secretory
organs can no longer perform their office, hu- 
mours are collected in greater quantities than can 
be discharged. These undergo various alterations; 
G2 thus

148 DISEASES CURED
thus they occasion various diseases according to 
their degree of fermentation, or putrefaction. 
Hence it is that the aged are more subject to these 
diseases which proceed from indigestion than the 
young, whose vital warmth subdues, or expels 
noxious humours. Hence it is that invalids en- 
joy a better state of health in summer than in 
winter. Hence also it is that travelling into sou- 
thern climates, cures diseases incurable in nor- 
thern. Heat not only creates that juvenile fever 
which depurates gross humours, but it prevents 
their accumulation. 
This doctrine is evidently confirmed by that 
incredible relief which riding procures to people
labouring under chronical disorders. While it 
strengthens the digestive powers, it rouses that vi- 
tal heat which enables the secretory organs to pu- 
rify the blood. 
Proinde curatio absolvitur (1) restitutione vigoris 
in visceribus perditi, (2) Ablutione liquidi jam cor- 
rupti stuenils in vasis, vel stagnantis. 
HAD Sydenham been acquainted with the in- 
ternal virtues of Mineral Waters, or had he weigh- 
ed the effects of Warm Bathing in his 
judicious mind, he would have found 
a medicine endowed with virtues far su- 
periour to his admired Bitters, a medi- 
cine which (in the course of days, or weeks) not
only restores the lost vigour of the bowels, but 
depurates and carries off corrupted juices, a me- 
dicine which cures cito, tute, et jucunde. 
Mineral
waters spe-
cific.
In all ages, waters have been used internally 
and externally. The practice of drinking and bath- 
ing is rationally and succinctly laid down 
by Baccius, in his book De Thermis, 
pag. 119, and 120, under the article, 
Juncturarum et Articulorum morbis. Having laid
Baccius’s
doctrine. 
down

149 BY BATH WATER.
down rules for treating other affections proceeding 
from cold temperament, he observes that, in the 
gout, the joints are inflated, pained, and con- 
tracted from cold temperament also; these there- 
fore he proceeds to cure in the same manner, per 
calida balnea, concedenti usu. According to the 
different indications, he lays down different me- 
thods of cure; for slight affections, he proposes 
drinking; for more stubborn, bathing, nam irve-
teratom arthritim, seu chiragra fit, feu podagra, sive 
Ischias, parcius sanabit potatio; lavacra majorem ha- 
behunt efficaciam. 
By way of preparation, he advises the patient 
to drink a cup of purging waters for some morn- 
ings, to absterge those viscidities which give rise 
to the gout, quae crassas a latis meatibus visciditates, 
—In an universal gout, he orders the patient to 
bathe in warm discussory water. If there happens 
suspicion of distillation from the head, he refers 
him to the pump, as in nervous affections, quas 
etiam fi distillatio imputetur (ut plerumque fit) ad
usum Ducciae, qualiter in nervosis, usurpare licebit. 
He orders conspersions not only on the occiput, 
for the prevention of distillation, but on the mem- 
ber swelled or afflicted; by way of discussion, he 
advises lutations also, et itidem illutamenta. In in- 
cipient cases, where there are many parts at once 
affected, he orders sweatings. At si plures, ex 
dissipata fluxione, articuli consictentur, sudationibus
etiarn utendum, quales in Baianis fudaioriis, et mul- 
tis aliis. After the flux of humours has abated, 
he advises arenation, insolation, &c. Arenatio effica- 
ciffimum remedium est universae arthritidi, tumenti- 
bus praesertim lento ac frigido humnore articulis.-
In gout arising from hot temperament, he lays 
down one admonition well worthy of notice, viz. 
G3 To

150 DISEASES CURED
To purge off those humours which, by bathing
and sweating, might be exasperated. Medicata- 
rum potiones, degerendo, vacuando, ac fluctiones in- 
hibendo, quam lavacra calidarum, ant exudatio, quae
liquatis viscidis, ac prius sopitis humoribus excitatis, 
fluxioni ne adaugeant materiam timendum. 
He recommends drinking in gouts which attack 
people in the bloom of life, or heat of summer, 
which may be by following temperate strengthen- 
ing baths. Maxime vero commoda potatio, si (ut in 
pluribus accidit) a causa calida incipiat fluxio, vigen- 
te praesertim aelate ac destate ineunte; cui ministerio 
fi lavacra commoda subsequantur, haecque temperata 
funto, et quae, ex ferri qualitate, egregie valent con- 
firmare. Such are the Balnea Villae Lucae, Caiae, 
Porretanae, Albulae, &c. and such are our Cross
and Queen’s. These strengthen weak joints, and 
alleviate pains. On this principle, Dioscorides 
bathed Ischiatics in brine. Cornelius Celsus (Lib. 
iv. cap. 24.) heated brine, with which he foment- 
ed the feet, covering the patient with a cloak. 
Baccius recommends a fomentation of the mother 
of wine in disorders, from experience. In tubs 
of fermenting wines, he orders the part affected, 
or even the whole body, if it happens to be weak, 
to be immerged. 
Solvere nodosam nescit medicina podagram was the 
opprobrium of his days, as well as ours. He, ne- 
vertheless, advises a trial of unguents and bathings
in gouty concretions. Tentandum tamen non odea 
confirmatos callos per olei, aut assiduum hydrolaei fo- 
tum emollere, exudationibus aperire, dispositos per bal- 
nea calidior a, iisdem ex alto dispersis discutere. In 
chalk-stones, gibbous and contracted joints, Bac- 
cius recommends a leaden bath in Lothoringiis, the 
Tritoli, and many more. He recommends salt 
baths, lutatiom, saburrations, vaporaries, insola- 
tions,

151 BY BATH WATER.
tions, &c. all which were rationally, and success-
fully practised at Baiae, Puteoli, Cumae, Vesuvius, 
and other places. To the doctrine of this most
sagacious practitioner, I not only think myself 
obliged to assent; but, from reason and experi- 
ence, I dare affirm, that when the waters of Bath 
come to be rationally applied, they will be found 
second to none. Bath water restores the appetite, 
promotes the lesser secretions, and paves the way 
for medicines. When the vis vitae is not, of it- 
self, sufficient for protruding the gouty somes to 
the extremities, Bath water is preferable to all the 
panacaeas of the shops. The effects of the lat- 
ter are momentory only, Bath water invigorates 
the blood, and regenerates the constitution. Ba- 
thing opens obstructions, and strengthens. In 
Dr. Home’s Principia Medicinae, page 163, this 
opinion seems to be confirmed; his words are 
these, “ Vires concoctrices roborantur chalybe, 
“ vel aquis chalybeatis, Thermis Bathoniensibus 
“ praecipue.” 
9. IN indigestion, flatulency, belching, nausea, loss 
of appetite, heart-burns, lowness of spirits, 
wandering pains, and other symptoms, 
harbingers of the gout, there are votaries who
daily own their obligations to Bath. 
Cases.
1. Sir William Yonge, every time that he came 
down, got rid of the pain of his stomach, almost 
by the first glass. The truth is notorious. 
2. Mr Greenfield, Apothecary of Marlborough, 
had, for many years, been used to regular fits of
the gout. As age advanced, the paroxysms left a 
debility of the stomach, with belchings, indiges- 
tion, and low spirits. For these complaints, he 
came down every year pale, wan, and enervated; 
Every trial converts his symptoms into a regular 
fit? which he nursed at home with patience and 
G4 flannel.


152 DISEASES CURED
flannel. He left off coming to Bath at last, and 
thus shortened his days. 
3. For the benefit of fellow-sufferers, I am re- 
quested to publish the case of John Eaton, Esq. 
of this city, an unquestionable proof of my pre- 
sent position. 
“ By frequent courses of drinking Bath-water, 
I procured regular fits of the gout, which before 
afflicted me much. In July, 1759, I was seized 
with a pain in my stomach and bowels, which, 
(though not acute) continued for near a month; 
when it left a great trembling in my hands, with
loss of appetite, and lowness of spirits. These 
symptoms continued some weeks, and ended at 
last in a weakness of my limbs, so that I could 
neither stand, turn in my bed, nor lift my hands
to my mouth. 
“ These complaints induced me to come to 
Bath. I was carried to the Pump, where I drank 
a pint of water a day, at three different draughts, 
all in the morning. 1 drank the Bath-water 
mixed with wine also at my meals. This course 
I have pursued till now, interrupting them now 
and then for a fortnight; about December I left 
them off for ten weeks. 
“ My strength increased gradually, I am now 
able to walk, and to assist myself as well as can 
be expected from a man who has been so much 
troubled with the gout, of which I had several 
slight fits since my residence at Bath. 
Bladud-Buildings, 
11th April, 1761. 
John Eaton.” 
4. Mr. Fleming, a Swiss by birth, once a mil- 
lener in Bond-street, nine years ago, was taken, 
as he played at cards, suddenly with a sickness 
and

153 BY BATH WATER.
and giddiness in his head. Getting up, he reel-
ed, and ran against the wall with such force, that 
he broke his head. By art he was so much re- 
lieved that he came to Bath, where (ignorant or 
the cause) he drank the waters, and at the end of 
fourteen days had a smart fit of the gout in both 
feet, which lasted twenty-one days. After this 
he continued well for years. In the year 1758, 
he was again attacked with violent pain of the 
stomach and head, with cough, chills, shiverings, 
&c. Doctor Shaw advised him to come to Bath. 
His affairs not permitting, he continued eleven 
weeks under his and Doctor Taylor’s hands. In 
a weakly emaciated condition, without appetite, 
or digestion, he was transported at last to Bath, 
where, by drinking the water for one week only, 
both legs swelled and inflamed. This fit lasted 
three weeks, and kept him in health for a year. 
Whenever his head or stomach complaints begin, 
he immediately sets out to the healing spring, and
finds a certain painful cure. 
WHEN the patient has gone through a regu- 
lar fit, when the paroxysms have purified the. 
habit, when he finds his spirits lively, 
and his senses clear, he ought then to 
bathe in water rather cooler than the heat of the 
human blood. Tepid bathing is a rational reme- 
dy for clearing the vessels of the dregs of the dis- 
ease. The Cold-Bath completes the cure. 
Caution.
The patient then ought to hid adieu to Bath- 
water. This caution may not perhaps be im- 
pertinent, when we consider that there are num- 
bers who blindly jog on in the circle of curing 
and procuring gouts by the same specific, till by 
indolence, waters, and drugs, constitutions come 
to be worn out. 
G5 BATH-

154 DISEASES CURED
BATH-WATER has performed wonders extern- 
ally, as well as internally. When the chalky mat- 
ter breaks through the small vessels, it 
forms lodgments in the interstices of the 
muscles, it deposites itself on the tendons, which 
it thickens, stiffens, and renders unfit for muscu- 
lar motion, it dries up that liquor which serves 
lor lubricating the joints, it forms stiff joints. 
Persons thus affected have been recovered by warm 
bathing; not on the principle of softening, or re- 
laxing, as imagined by Doctor Oliver, in his Es- 
say on the use, and abuse of warm bathing hi gouty 
cases; for I have already proved Bath-waters to 
be hard, bracing, and astringent. Nor do they 
contain particles saponaceous; for they are not 
such powerful solvents as common water. His 
little performance is nevertheless fraught with 
practical reflections, and cautions well-worthy of
the perusal of the gouty reader; a convincing 
proof that tho’ in theory we may differ, observa- 
tion and experience will direct all to the truth.
Bathing. 
OF the doctrine of Rarefaction and the effects 
of fevers artificially raised, I have treated at large, 
in my Attempt to revive the doctrine of Bathing. 
Suffice it here to say, that the diameters of the 
vessels thus enlarged, the moleculae, which were 
too large to pass in their contracted state, are 
ground down by repeated circulation and depu- 
ration. 
1. “ Dr, Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) men- 
“ tions the following case of his own father-in- 
“ law, Mr. David Tryme. From be- 
“ tween fifty and sixty, he had been 
“ subject to fits of the gout at great in- 
“ tervals, tho’ he drank freely, and rode hard. 
“ Whe he bad a fit, he used plaisters and oint- 
“ ments of all sorts. At the age of eighty-three. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ he


155 BY BATH WATER.
“ he was attacked with a severe fit, which first
“ seized his toes and fingers, to which he used to 
“ apply whatever was proposed; by which he 
“ fell into fainting fits, out of which he was 
“ with great difficulty got by the use of strong
“ waters and cordials. 
“ These threw the gout a centro in circumferen- 
“ tiam, into his hips, knees, and feet, so that he 
“ was, for some days, in excessive pain, which 
“ he chose to bear rather than again to apply his 
“ plaisters. Patience and posset-drink eased the 
“ pain, but left so great a weakness, and stiff- 
“ ness, that he could neither walk, stand, nor 
“ extend his legs. From July to April he re- 
“ mained a cripple. 
“ He was lifted in and out of the Queen’s and 
“ King’s-Baths. After three weeks bathing, he 
“ not only walked between his guides, but he 
“ swam twice round the King’s-Bath, He re- 
“ covered, and lived five years longer without 
“ any severe fit of the gout.” 
2. “ Robert Long, Esq. of Prior-Stanton, in 
“ the 89th year of his age, was much enfeebled 
“ with severe fits of the gouty was weak in his 
“ limbs, and tender in his feet. He bathed in 
“ the Cross-Bath fourteen or fifteen times. He 
“ walked more erect and nimble, has a smooth 
“ fresh florid countenance, and is likely to pass 
“ another seven years.” 
3. “ George Long, Esq. of Downside, near 
“ Wells, was, upwards of twenty years past, at-
“ tacked by the Gout and Stone. He 
“ was pained in every joint; his fing- 
“ ers became crooked, his right knee, 
“ hips, and back motionless by calculous matter, 
“ which crammed itself into every joint. He 
“ was bed-ridden. His thirst was importunate. 
Surprising
Case. 
G6 “ his

156 DISEASES CURED
“ his appetite lost, his skin shrivelled, his face 
“ meagre, his hair grey, his flesh wasted, so that 
“ he could throw the calf of his leg over his 
“ shin-bone. With all this, he had a perpetual 
“ sharpness of urine; nay, all the juices of his 
“ body had such a propensity to lapidescency, 
“ that his water being left, but a few days, in a 
“ urinal, was crusted at the side and top as thick 
“ as half a crown, with a porous kind of stone 
“ like that of a pumex. 
“ In this condition, he was, with difficulty, 
“ transported to Bath. He began with drinking 
“ the waters hot from the Pump in the morning; 
“ at meals cold, for he drank not then, nor 
“ hath he since drank any malt liquor. In a 
“ week’s time his thirst abated, and the sharp- 
“ ness of his urine lessened; his stomach began 
“ to return. After a month’s drinking, he bathed 
“ between whiles, which eased his pains much. 
“ In the Bath, he could suffer his legs to be ex- 
“ tended a little.
“ He returned home in about six weeks, and 
“ drank the waters there. In three months af- 
“ ter, he returned, bathed, and drank six weeks 
“ as before. In the mean time he gathered some 
“ flesh and strength, with some small ability to 
“ go, though criplishly. 
“ In November following his grey hairs began 
“ to fall off; new ones succeeded; nay, he says, 
“ his grey hairs turned to a soft brown, which 
“ grew so fast, that he cut more than an inch 
“ every four or five weeks. By Candlemas he 
“ hardly had a grey hair left. Even now, bate- 
“ ing a little baldness on the crown, (for he is 
“ on the wrong side of fifty) it looks like a bor- 
“ der of hair, which I have seen before whole 
“ heads were so much in use.
“ To



157 BY BATH WATER.
“ To perfect his recovery, he took a house and 
“ lived here for the most part of the next year, 
“ 1692, about which time his toe-nails, which were 
“ hard, ragged, and scaly, began to be thrust off 
“ by new and smooth ones. His arms and hands 
“ recovered strength, he had much freer motion 
“ of his joints, his muscles plumped. He was 
“ daily more and more erect; every bathing 
“ stretched him half an inch. He had now a 
“ fleshy hale habit of body, a vigorous eye, and 
“ a ruddy, plump, youthful face, especially when 
“ he mixes Sherry with his water, which he will 
“ sometimes do. In fine, he hath no fit of the 
“ Gout to lay him up long together, nor the least 
“ touch of stone, or sharpness of urine. He 
“ rode from Bath to Oxford in a day, which is 
“ forty-eight computed miles; and, but a few 
“ days before that, went from hence to his own 
“ house, which is twelve or fourteen long miles, 
“ after twelve o’clock at night; went to bed for 
“ two or three hours, rose again, and dispatched 
“ a great deal of business before dinner. His 
“ wife being asked a question about his rejuve- 
“ nescency, answered, I verily believe, if I was 
“ dead, he would marry again.” 
4. “ Dr. Guidot (in his Register of Bath) men- 
“ tions the Case of a merchant of London of se- 
“ venty years of age, so afflicted with 
“ the gout, that, for six weeks time, 
“ he could not go to bed, or rise with- 
“ out help, having also used crutches for many 
“ months. By the use of the Cross Bath, and 
“ rubbing well with the guides hands, at three 
“ seasons of Bathing, so far recovered, that using 
“ only a stick, which he usually wore, he now 
“ walks strongly, both hands and feet being flexi- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
“ ble,



158 DISEASES CURED
“ ble, and free from pain. He subscribed the be- 
“ nefit received, 5 August, 1676. R. P.” 
5. “ Sir Francis Stonor, Knt. received great 
“ benefit in great weakness from the gout, by the 
“ use of the Queen’s and King’s Bath, in grati- 
“ tude for which he gave a considerable sum of 
“ money, by which the stone rails and pavement 
“ were built about the King’s Bath.” 
In Dr. Olivers Essay before-mentioned, we find 
two Cases to our purpose. The first is contained 
in a letter from Charles Edwin, Esq. the patient, 
to the Doctor. The second relates the Case of a 
patient of Dr. Woodford’s, Reg. Prof. Med. 
Oxon. in the Bath Infirmary. 
6. “ Mr. Edwin’s second fit of the gout left a 
“ weakness in the joints of one foot. In a suc- 
“ ceeding fit, it attacked the other foot and an- 
“ kle, afterwards one of his hands, and both 
“ knees, so that he could not bend or move his 
“ ankles; he could not walk. After his third 
“ bathing, he was able to walk in his room 
“ without the help of cruches, and gained 
“ strength so as to walk about the town with a 
“ cane. 
“ He bathed sixty-five times, and pumped thir- 
“ ty-eight. It is remarkable (says the Doctor) 
“ that, during this course, he never had one 
“ symptom of the humour’s being thrown upon 
“ any vital part, neither has he had any violent 
“ fit of the gout since.” 
7. “ Philip Tuckey, aged about fifty, was 
“ born of gouty parents, and improved his woe- 
“ ful inheritance by a very free way of life. 
“ When he was about twenty-seven years old, he 
“ was attacked in the great toe. For some years 
“ he had fits at uncertain periods. About twelve 
“ years ago he got a violent cold by painting 
“ (which




159 BY BATH WATER.
“ (which was his profession) a new built house. 
“ This threw the gout all over his head, stomach, 
“ bowels and limbs. The pains continued to 
“ torment one part or other for five months, and 
“ left him so weak and lame, that he could never 
“ after walk without crutches. 
“ His knees were almost immoveable, the 
“ membranes which surround the joint being 
“ much thickened, and the tendons which draw 
“ the legs towards the thigh being hard and con- 
“ tracted. His legs, ankles and feet, were much 
“ swollen and oedematous. He had little appe- 
“ tite, and a bad digestion. His spirits were low, 
“ to which despair of recovery contributed not a 
“ little. 
“ After his first passages had been cleansed by 
“ warm purges, he began to drink the waters in 
“ moderate quantities. He soon found his appe- 
“ tite and digestion mend, his spirits were re- 
“ lieved. Having persisted in this course some 
“ days, he was ordered to bathe three times a 
“ week. He had not bathed thrice before the 
“ tendons began to supple, and to give way to 
“ the extension of his legs. By a few more 
“ bathings, the swellings of his joints gradually 
“ decreased, but without any symptom of the 
“ stagnant humour’s being translated to the head, 
“ stomach, lungs, or bowels. He took a warm 
“ purge now and then, to clean the passages, as 
“ well as to discharge the gouty matter which 
“ had been moved by bathing. Thus, he went 
“ on, gaining strength daily, so that in a month’s 
“ time, he walked two miles with only a single 
“ stick, without being tired. In this happy con- 
“ dition he was discharged in two months.” 
8. Sir Cordel Firebrace came to Bath a very 
cripple by the gout. Against the opinion of his
physicians,




160 DISEASES CURED
physician, he was carried into the Bath. He tar- 
ried, for hours together, in the very hottest parts, 
and was cured. 
The following is the Case of Doctor Sarsfield, 
Physician, of Cork. 
Dear Sir, 
Bath, April the 7th, 1764. 
9. IN approbation of your most laudable un- 
dertaking, in gratitude to Bath Waters, as well as 
for the benefit of my fellow-sufferers, I freely 
communicate the heads of my case to you, mean- 
ing only to point out, in general, the remedies I 
have reason to lay the greatest stress upon, in- 
tending to publish the case at length, with all its 
particular changes and circumstances. Naturally 
gouty, about twelve months ago I was brought 
to Bath, entirely deprived of the use of my limbs, 
not having one articulation in my body capable of 
motion, except that of my under jaw; I was in 
pretty much the same situation for fifteen months 
before, wasted to a skeleton, with universal and 
constant acute pain, restlessness, total want of 
appetite, stoppage of water, costiveness, and full 
appearance of a jaundice. I drank the waters 
with caution, increasing gradually; bathed in 
the different baths about seventy times, took gen- 
tle laxatives generally once in ten days, took 
Huxham’s Essence of Antimony, of which I believe 
I made the greatest trial that ever has been made, 
having taken to the quantity of five tea-spoonfuls 
at a time, very often without its making me sick 
at stomach. 
I cannot omit observing, that about four months 
ago I perceived a pain, with a swelling in the 
back near the right hip, which part seemed most
affected from the beginning; this gradually in- 
creased until it was thought proper to open it 
by



161 BY BATH WATER.
by a caustic; the discharge was very considerable, 
and continued till the other day, when a large 
pea was put in, and the fore is now turned into 
an issue, by which I already find great benefit, 
now that I write this for your satisfaction and 
the public good. I am free from pain, walk as 
well as ever, and enjoy, in every respect, better 
health than I did these ten years part. 
I am, 
Dear Sir, 
Your most assured friend, 
And very humble servant, 
To Dr. Alex, Sutherland. 
Dom. Sarsfield.
CHAP.




162 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. IX. 
OF THE RHEUMATISM.
1. RHEUMATISM and GOUT are so 
often mistaken for one another, and con- 
sequently mal-treated, that it may therefore be 
useful to lay down some general rules 
whereby they may be distinguished.—
Gouty matter tears the small vessels, 
and, thus, produces fevers, pain, swell- 
ings, and redness of long duration.—The pain of 
the rheumatism is tensive, heavy, gnawing; and 
continues after the fever is gone, without remark- 
able tumor, or redness.—The rheumatism often 
attacks but once or twice in life.—Paroxysms of 
the gout are rather temporary depurations than 
complete cures.—The rheumatism has been cured. 
—The gout never ought to be attempted. 
Rheumatism
and gout di-
stinguished.
2. The rheumatism is distinguished 
into febrile, and not febrile.
Division.
3. Its remote causes are sudden chills, changes 
of winds, excessive loss of blood, super- 
purgation, plethora, surfeits, drinking, 
nimia venus, intermittents, scurvy, and p—x. 
Causes.
4. Its proximate causes seem to be obstruction 
of the serous and lymphatic vessels, especially of 
the membranes and ligaments, occasioned by 
viscid acrid serum. 
5. The febrile symptoms are lassitude, rigour, chil- 
liness and heaviness of the extremities, quick hard 
pulse, thirst, restlessness, costiveness. 
After a day or two, sharp shifting pains 
occupy the joints, with swelling and inflamma- 
tion; these are increased by motion, and often 
Symptoms.
shift 




163 BY BATH WATER.
shift their seat. The blood puts on the pleuritic 
hue. Sometimes it seizes the head or bowels. 
The pains continue after the fever. Tubercles,
and stiff joints often follow. 
The non-febrile symptoms are wandering pains, 
with stiffness in the muscles, or ligaments, with- 
out swelling, chiefly. 
6. While the rheumatism occupies the extre- 
mities only, the prognostic is fair, and 
e. c. Chronic disorders or gout are 
often consequences. 
Prognostics.
7. BORN in a happier climate, our instructors, 
the antients, have left little on record on the sub- 
ject of rheumatism. They were exempted from 
diseases arising from obstructed perspiration. From 
Sydenham, the moderns seem to have borrowed 
the present practice. He was so free with the 
lancet, that, in his early practice, he destroyed 
the vis vitae, and thereby entailed tedious chroni- 
cal ailments. In pain, patients as well as physi- 
cians grasp at every thing that gives present re- 
lief; premature opiates call for bleedings. In 
their own cases, physicians ought not to trust 
themselves. When the body is in pain, the 
mind sympathises. Of this I could recount fatal 
examples.—Bath and Bristol waters increase 
the circulation and enrich the blood; and are, 
therefore, improper in rheumatisms of the febrile 
sort.—In chronic rheumatisms, or in febrile, after 
the inflammation is subdued and the first passages 
cleansed, attenuants, resolvents, diaphoretics and 
demulcents are indicated. Bath waters internal 
or external answer every intention. To facts I
appeal. 
8. In his Bath Memoirs, Dr. Pierce 
relates the following cures. 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
1.



164 DISEASES CURED
1. “ Dr. Floyde, bishop of Litchfield, had 
“ such pain and weakness in the right shoulder 
“ and arm; that it interrupted his rest; he came 
“ to Bath, and, by bathing and pumping, re- 
“ ceived such benefit, that he continued well for 
“ ten or twelve years after. It then returned 
“ with greater violence, so that his body yielded 
“ to that side. By bathing and pumping he re- 
“ covered.” 
2. “ Major Arnold complained of a very great 
“ pain and weakness from his left shoulder down- 
“ wards to his fingers end. He had pain also in 
“ his right hip, thigh and leg. He had withal 
“ a violent cough, he discharged much and foul 
“ spittle; he had little or no stomach, and some- 
“ times cast up what he had eaten. He was 
“ subject to the Stone, and formerly voided much 
“ gravel and small stones. 
“ Making too much haste to be well, he went 
“ into the Bath presently, and suffered by it. 
“ After due preparation, I put him first upon 
“ drinking the waters, because of his nephritic 
“ disorder, and then permitted him to bathe. 
“ At two months end, he returned perfectly 
“ cured as to cough, stomach, and rheuma- 
“ tism.” 
3. Dr. Guidot (in his Register) records the 
following. “ Mr. Arthur Sherstone of Brem- 
“ ham, aged fifty, after a short journey was 
“ taken with a rheumatism, which, after violent 
“ pains universal, seized on his hand, knee, and 
“ foot. He also lost the motion of his lower 
“ limbs. By bleeding, and other evacuations, 
“ the inflammation and swelling abated consider- 
“ ably, but the running pains remained so as 
“ to take away the use of both arms, by turns. 
“ By






165 BY BATH WATER.
“ By the moderate life of the Queen’s-Bath, he 
“ recovered.” 
4. “ John Binmore of Exeter, for benefit re- 
“ ceived in the rheumatism, which had superin- 
“ duced both palsy and dropsy, by drinking the 
“ waters, and the use of the mud, he gave pub- 
“ lie thanks to God.” 
5. When the army was preparing to embark 
for Belleisle, Captain Buchannan, of the Royal 
Scotch Fuzileers, was then under a sweating an- 
timonial regimen for the rheumatism. Half cur- 
ed and crippled, he would embark. Marching 
up to the attack, he fell down. Ordering his 
men to jump over him, by the assistance of a 
drummer, he gathered himself up and hobbled 
after them. By a long and cold winter’s cam- 
paign his disorder was increased. When he came 
to Bath he was crippled, hands and feet. By 
bathing and drinking he recovered. 
6. FROM May 1742, to 1760, there were 
five hundred seventy-five rheumatics admitted into 
the Bath Infirmary. Of these one hundred eighty- 
three were cured, two hundred and eighty much 
better, the rest better, or incurable. 
OF THE LUMBAGO.
THE Rheumatism, Lumbago, and Sciatica, are 
species of the same same genus. They 
differ only in the names of the parts of 
the body which they attack. 
Lumbago. 
The Lumbago is often mistaken for the Nephri- 
tis: the distinguishing sign is, the latter is attend- 
ed with vomiting, the former not. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath-Memoirs) has 
recorded the following Cases. 1. “ Wil- 
“ liam Lord Stafford was affected in 
Pierce’s 
Cases.  
“ both



166 DISEASES CURED
“ both hips, and in the lumbal muscles also. 
“ He bathed in the Cross Bath for five or six 
“ weeks, for it was summer, and went away 
“ better. In October he returned, finding his 
“ pains renewed so as to make him roar. When 
“ the weather was moderate, he bathed in the 
“ King’s Bath; when it was foul, in a tub. A- 
“ bout the middle of February he went to Lon- 
“ don recovered.” 
2. “ Lady Dowager Brooke was seized with 
“ a Lumbago, or Double Sciatica, with violent 
“ pains which bended her double. By the advice 
“ of three of the most eminent physicians of 
“ London, she had gone through several courses 
“ of physic, with hardly any amendment. A 
“ salivation was at length proposed, which she 
“ positively refused, proposing Bath of her own 
“ accord. This resolution was vehemently op- 
“ posed by three out of the four. Willis took a 
“ formal leave of her, washing his hands, and 
“ prognosticating certain death. She set out ne- 
“ vertheless in September, and entered presently 
“ on bathing in the Cross-Bath, drinking some- 
“ times of the water, in the first week she 
“ found ease, could stand upright in the Bath; 
“ in a month’s time could walk in her chamber, 
“ and was perfectly recovered. Her Doctors, 
“ when they took their leave, packed her up a 
“ peck of medicines, which she never tasted, nor 
“ indeed hardly any while she staid here.” 
OF THE SCIATICA.
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
1. Dr. Pierce’s first observation is that 
of Duke Hamilton. “ His Grace came 
“ hither very unweel, as he himself term- 
“ ed it, by reason of a pain in his hips, which 
“ caused



167 BY BATH WATER.
“ Caused him to go very lame, and disturbed his 
“ rest at night, and had done so for many months 
“ before. 
“ After due preparation, he entered the Bath, 
“ and sometimes drank the waters in the Bath 
“ only, to prevent thirst. After a week or ten 
“ days bathing, he was pumped on the affected 
“ hip. This course was continued for a month, 
“ or five weeks, by which His Grace obtained so 
“ much advantage, that he walked about with a 
“ cane, favouring that leg. On catching cold, 
“ he had afterwards minding of his illness again; 
“ but by visiting this place once or twice more, 
“ he recovered perfectly.”
2. “ Col. Mildmay’s case was more painful and 
“ more inveterate. By bathing he recovered.”
3. “ Sir John Clobery had been a colonel in 
“ Scotland, under Monk. By great fatigues, and 
“ being frequently obliged to sleep on the ground, 
“ he was seized with aches and pains in his limbs, 
“ of which he recovered. By laying in damp 
“ sheets, he was seized with a tormenting fit of 
“ a Sciatica, which held him two years, and crip- 
“ pled him.
“ He went through various regimens in Lon- 
“ don, all to no purpose. After being bled and 
“ purged, he bathed, and pumped for six or eight 
“ weeks, at the end of which he went away, 
“ not much advantaged for the present; but, 
“ after two or three months, was well at ease, 
“ upright, and streight.”
4. “ Mrs. Boswel, newly married, aged about 
“ twenty, was contracted and crippled by a sci- 
“ atica, so that she could neither stand upright, 
“ nor lay streight. She was carried in arms, 
“ not without frequent complaints of twinging  
pain.
“ She



168 DISEASES CURED
“ She had tried all forts of remedies, internal 
“ and external, without benefit. By two months 
“ bathing and pumping she mended considerably, 
“ insomuch that she could leave off her opiate, 
“ which she took twice or thrice a day to the 
“ quantity of thirty or forty drops at a time. 
“ Whether it was by the violence of her pain, 
“ or the too frequent use of these stupefactive 
“ medicines, or former inclination to hysterics, 
“ she had often very violent ones, not much 
“ short of epileptic fits. 
“ She bathed, and pumped, and thus recover- 
“ ed considerably the first season. Next year she 
“ returned and completed her cure.” 
AMONG Guidot’s two hundred Cases there are 
fourteen Sciatics, a specimen of which are the 
following. 
5. “ Benjamin Barber, Alderman of Bath, was 
“ cured by bathing and pumping.” 
6. “ Robert Sheyler was cured by three bath- 
« ings ” 
7. “ Mr. Thomas Wilkins was cured by bath- 
“ ing four times, and pumping twice.” 
CHAP.


169 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. X. 
OF CUTANEOUS DISEASES.
IN Skin Diseases Baths natural and artificial 
have been used in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. In his book (De Thermis, pag. 122.) Bac- 
cius expresses himself, Maculas autem, pruritus,
ulcuscula, scabies, lepras, papulas, el id genus alia 
per cutim vulgo manantia vitia, tum crebrae medica-
tarum potiones exterminant, tum abluunt, abolentque 
in totum abstergentium et calidarum quarumcunque lo- 
tiones. In universum, minerales aquae omnes, omnes 
salsae ac marinae ad omnigena cutis faciunt vitia. 
I. OF THE LEPROSY.
1. LEPROSY, or Elephantiasis, is a 
cuticular disease appearing in the form 
of dry, white, thin, scurfy scales.
Definition. 
2. Its diagnostic signs are itching 
with scales generally confined to the 
cuticle. Sometimes it goes deeper, and appears 
in the form of deep ulcers. 
Diagnostics,
3. This disease is generally hard to 
cure, especially if it is hereditary.
Prognostic.  
In this and other inveterate diseases of the skin, 
bathing has successfully been used in 
all ages. Baccius (pag. 122) expres- 
ses himself thus, Elephantiasi autem et quam dicunt
Lepram, nec minus omni intemperatne, ac veteri sca- 
biei. fortiora in cunctis conveniunt balnea, omnes ter- 
rae minerales, sulphursae praesertim, quales in Lu- 
tationibus commemorantur multae. The Well Cal- 
lirhoe, and the River Jordan, are said, in sacred
Cure. 
H writ,



170 DISEASES CURED
writ, to have cured Leprosies. Paulus Aegineta 
commends natural baths in the cure of Leprosies, 
praesertim aluminosarum, et quae ferrum sapiunt. Con- 
fert ipsarum potio, tum marinae harenae usus, et 
quaecunque tandem sudationibus ciendis efficaciam ha- 
bent, Vaporaria, ac Discussoria. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) expresses 
himself thus. “ For more than forty 
“ years that I have lived here, there 
“ hath not one past wherein there 
“ hath not been more than a few instances of 
“ very great cures done upon leprous, scurvy, and 
“ scabby persons. The virtue of the waters is so 
“ well known in leprous cases, that it seems al- 
“ most superfluous to bring examples. However, 
“ that this head may not be without its particular 
“ instances, I shall give some few eminent ones. 
General 
proofs.
1. “ Thomas St. Lawrence, Esq. of Ireland, 
“ aged fifteen or sixteen, was sent 
“ hither in May, 1679. For seven 
“ years past he had been afflicted with 
“ a perverse scab tending to a leprosy, which had 
“ yielded to no medicine. By my advice he was 
“ bled and purged four times, took alteratives, 
“ drank the waters, bathed and recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A poor fellow from Warwickshire came 
“ hither in the year 1684. I never saw any onc 
“ come nearer to the description of a leper in the 
“ Leviticus than this man. By drinking, and 
“ bathing in the Lepers-Bath, he was perfectly re- 
“ covered.” 
3. “ A Woodmonger of Staines brought his 
“ son hither aged about twelve or thirteen, who, 
“ from his infancy, was subject to the Vitelligo. 
“ Sometimes it was more, then less, in greater or 
“ lesser blotches on his neck, elbow, knees, face, 
“ head, arms, and thighs, with a brawny white
“ scurf,



171 BY BATH WATER.
“ scurf, which fell off and grew again. After 
“ a month’s bathing and drinking, the spots rose 
“ not so much. But, as the disease had been 
“ born with him, I advised his father to put him 
“ to school here. I could not get him to drink 
“ regularly, but he bathed every night, and some- 
“ times took physic. In a twelve month’s time 
“ he returned as found as a trout, and had been 
“ so for some months before he fet out.” 
4. FROM Dr. Guidot’s Bath Register we have 
copied the following Cases. “ Ema- 
“ nuel Weston, of Elsemore, in the 
“ county of Salop, had a scurfy head 
“ with many scales for five years. By bathing
“ and washing the head in the Lepers-Bath he 
“ was cured, June 14th, 1682.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
5. “ E. G. daughter of a musician of Bath, 
“ from her birth was troubled with a scurvy and 
“ scaly head like an elephantiasy, or leprosy. By 
“ the use of the King’s Bath, and application of 
“ the mud, with some externals, she had a found 
“ head, and thick hair. This I saw November 5, 
“ 1685.” 
6. “ Dorothy Rossington having scales falling 
“ from all her body, especially in the morning, 
“ by using the King’s and Queen’s Baths six 
“ months received cure.”  
7. “ Richard Vernon, aged fourteen, was for 
“ ten years troubled with a milder sort of leprosy, 
“ called an elephantiasy, with tawny spots, and 
“ white scales. He drank the water seven days, 
“ and bathed three weeks, by which he recover- 
“ ed. The winter following the disease broke 
“ forth. After eight weeks pursuit of the same 
“ method, he went away well. Father and son 
“ gave testimony, June 6, 1689.” 
H2 8. “ Henry 


172 DISEASES CURED 
8. “ Henry Clempson, shoemaker, came to 
“ Bath Whit-Monday, 1687, used the hot bath 
“ three months. The year following, two months, 
“ gave public thanks to Almighty God, who 
“ cured him of a white dry leprosy, called elephan- 
“ tiasy confirmed, which had miserably afflicted 
“ him for six years.” 
9. “ I John Burch, of the county of Kent, 
“ came to Bath, April 30, 1691, troubled three 
“ years with a white scurfy skin and head. Un- 
“ der the scales were reddish spots most common- 
“ ly round. I used the Bath nine weeks, and 
“ acknowledged my cure.” 
10. “ Horthy Harper, a Leper, received great 
“ benefit by the Lepers-Bath, 1693.” 
11. “ Elizabeth Smith, a Leper, whose skin 
“ was covered over with white scales, went away 
“ clean, 1693.” 
12. “ Sarah Meredith of Carleen, received 
“ benefit in an Elephantiasy by the Hot-Bath, 
“ 1693.” 
13. “ Howel Morgan, Efq. of Merioneth, re- 
“ ceived great benefit in a foul skin resembling 
“ an elephantiasy, by drinking and bathing, 
“ 1693.” 
II. OF THE SCROPHULA.
1. SCROPHULA is an indolent schir- 
rous tumour, seated chiefly in the glands 
of the neck, and degenerating into ulcers of the 
word sort. 
Definition.
2. Its chief seat is the glandular sys- 
tem in general, not the only, for it oc- 
cupies the adipose membrane, muscles, tendons, 
joints, and bones. 
Seat.
3. Par-



173 BY BATH WATER.
3. Particular nations are infested with it, viz. 
the Bavarians, Dutch, and the Tyroleze. Of these
children, persons grown up rarely. 
4. Its remote causes are crude, viscid, acid diet, 
foggy air, preceding diseases, pox, snow water, 
but, above all, hereditary taint, sometimes from 
the nurse. It is very difficult to be cured. Scro- 
phulas subnascentes abolere balneum item in Baiams et 
digerentia, et callida alia diutissime fata, ut nitrata 
calentia, ac item ebibita, quales placuit Vitruvio cele- 
brare Subcutilas aquas in Sabinis, pariterque fomenta 
ex bituminosis, ferreis, plumbeis, et ex brassica para- 
tum in Discussoriis artificialibus, says Baccius, pag. 
122. 
1. FROM Pierce’s Memoirs, we have these 
Cases. “ Lord James Butler came to Bath, June, 
“ 1677, with a chirurgeon to dress his 
“ wound, which was upon the last 
“ joint of one of his thumbs. It was 
“ judged to be scrophulous. He drank the water 
“ mostly, sometimes bathed. That hand he bath- 
“ ed morning and evening at home. After five 
“ or six weeks, the wound afforded a more laud- 
“ able quitture, which gave him encouragement 
“ to return another season, which he did, and 
“ was cured.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A son of Monsieur Du Puys, servant to 
“ James Duke of York, had a running sore on 
“ his hand, which yielded to no surgery. It was 
“ therefore deemed scrophulous. He had been 
“ touched more than once to no purpose. He 
“ drank the waters, and bathed, took vulneraries 
“ and other alteratives. In two seasons he was 
“ cured.” 
3. FROM Guidot’s Register we have 
the following. “ Francis Loughton, 
“ of the parish of St. Mark, Notting- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
H3 “ ham,



174 DISEASES CURED
“ ham, came to Bath, May 5, 1684, with two 
“ running sores, one in the leg, another in the 
“ thigh. On the use of the Lepers-Bath for two 
“ months, the ulcers healed, there remained on- 
“ ly some crookedness.” 
4. “ Edward Huddle, of Chesham, came to 
“ Bath with running ulcers all over his body. 
“ After great expences, and despair of cure, he 
“ used the Bath six weeks, and drank sparingly. 
“ His ulcers healed, he went away well, Septem- 
“ ber, 1688.” 
5. “ Margaret Geary, of the county of Aber-
“ deen troubled with lameness and running ul- 
“ cers in both knees and left shoulder for three 
“ years, by the use of hot bath received cure, 
“ August 17, 1682.” 
The only publication of Hospital Cases is one 
six-penny number, by Dr. Oliver, containing 
fourteen. Had this gentleman’s prac- 
tice been as distinctly related in the 
books from the beginning, they would 
have contained clearer proofs of the power of the 
waters. His first begins only in the year 1757. 
Among the fourteen, we find no less than six ma- 
nifest proofs of the power of the waters, in one 
of the most loathsome disorders, Leprosy. 
Infirmary 
practices. 
In that gross publication of eighteen years hos- 
pital practice, we find one article stand thus, Le- 
prosies, and foul eruptions of the skin. Under this 
general head, there were 659 admitted; of this 
number two hundred sixty-eight were cured, and 
315 much better, an unquestionable proof of the 
power of the waters.—“ From this account, 
“ indistinct as it is, and from the relations of o- 
“ ther writers, we may venture to conclude that, 
“ in this article, there is great matter of comfort 
“ to





175 BY BATH WATER:
“ to those who languish under leprosies, scrophulas,
“ scurvies, running-sores, &c.” 
In his Principia Medicinae, pag. 201. Dr. Home 
recommends serrum et aquae chalybeatae, sulphur, 
aquae sulphuratae, imprimis Moffatenses nostrae. The 
virtues of Mossat Wells, (in scrophulous cases) 
are confirmed in the Edin. Med. Essays, as well 
as by daily experience. 
III. OF THE SCURVY.
1. VARIOUS, numerous, and discordant are the 
symptoms of the scurvy; hardly can it be defined; 
it nevertheless appears to be a disease.
specific and distinct from all others.
Its distinctions seem rather to arise from different 
constitutions than from different causes. It seems 
to have been known to the antients; though, by 
reason of their short winters, and coasting 
voyages, it raged not so fiercely as with us. For 
more than a century past, the scurvy seems to 
have been the bane of our armies and fleets.
Definition. 
2. PREJUDICE has established a distinction be- 
tween sea-scurvies and land-scurvies. If we com- 
pare the pathognomonic signs of Ech- 
thius, Wierus, and others, we shall 
find them quadrate exactly with the 
narrative of Anson’s voyage. Putrid 
gums, swelled legs, rigid tendons, haemorrhages, 
sudden deaths, &c. are symptoms described by 
seamen and landmen. Its symptoms are uni- 
formly the same at sea, in Holland, Greenland,
Hungary, Cronstadt, Wiburg, in the Orkneys, and 
at Penzance. 
Sea and land 
scurvies the
same. 
3. VARIOUS have been the opinions 
concerning the causes and propagation 
of this distemper. Some believed it connate, o- 
Causes.
H4 thers



176 DISEASES CURED
thers infectious. E. c. wherever this calamity 
has been general, it may be deduced from natural 
causes. 
Of all the causes, moisture is the chief. On the 
subject of the scurvy, I have treated at large, in 
my Attempt to revive the medical use of Sea air and 
exercise. For farther satisfaction, I beg leave to 
refer the curious reader to Doctor Lind’s book on 
the subject, a master-piece of the kind. My pre- 
sent subject naturally leads me to scurvies, as they 
fall under the power of Mineral Waters. 
THERE are wandering pains which 
usurp the mask of gout, rheumatism, 
and scurvy, and which are often com- 
plications of the three. 
Pains gouty,
scorbutic and
rheumatic.
The matter is of a volatile phlogistic nature, 
it passes sometimes like electricity through the 
whole body, darting pains, convulsions, twitch- 
ings and cramps; especially when the patient is 
falling asleep, sometimes fixing with redness, in- 
flammation and pain; but, in a few minutes the 
joints grow pale and easy, the spirits flag, he be- 
comes hypochondriac, the appetite fails, diges- 
tion is imperfect, status’s prevail, the flesh wastes,
nervous atrophy succeeds. 
Sydenham says, “ Though there is remarka- 
ble difference between the true rheumatism and 
the scurvy, as intimated above, it must neverthe- 
less be owned, that there is another species of 
rheumatism which is near a-kin to the scurvy; for 
it resembles it in its capital symptoms, and re- 
quires the same method of cure nearly. The 
pain affects sometimes one part, sometimes ano- 
ther; rarely occasions swelling, nor is it attended 
with fever. It is also less fixed, sometimes it at- 
tacks the internal parts with sickness. It is of 
long duration. It chiefly attacks the female sex. 
or



177 BY BATH WATER.
or the effeminate, so that I should have referred 
it to the hysteric class, had not repeated experi- 
ence taught me that it will not yield to hysteric 
remedies.” 
Boerhaave, who has extracted his chapter of 
rheumatic aphorisms from the former, says, (Aph. 
1490) Arthritidi, podagrae, scorbutoque agnatus mor- 
bas frequentissimus, qui rheumatismus appellatur. 
Hoffman also observes, “ That there is a scor- 
butic rheumatism, in which the whole mass of
lymph and serum is vitiated with foul particles
which manifest themselves by different kinds of 
eruptions. 
“ Diluent and demulcent remedies taken free- 
ly, and continued long, are chiefly proper here. 
Mineral waters, and milk with a proper regimen, 
are likewise of great efficacy in curing this species 
of the disease.” 
Paulus Paravicinus (De Balneis Masidi) says, 
Quantum vero arthriticis, ischiadicis, convulsis, di- 
stentis, resolutis, tremulis, nerviceisque 
omnibus subveniant, exprimero non facile 
possim. Ob haec autem corporis villa po-
tissime celebres sunt, et omnium ore versantur—“ An 
“ dreas Calvus municeps meus hujus rei testis est locu- 
“ pletissimus, cui post molestissimos coxendicis dolores, 
“ femur adeo riguerat, cancretis cum gelu musculis, ut 
“ nullum medicamenti genus praeter balnea haec sensim
“ excitare potuerit.”—Doctor Lind recommends 
Warm Baths medicated with aromatic plants.
Proofs ana- 
logical. 
1. The first case of Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, 
and of his own practice, that falls under this 
head, happens to be his own.—“ I  
“ had sometimes a pain in my right
“ hip, thigh, knee and ankle, which 
“ soon moved to my shoulder and arm, in both so 
“ acute, as to render them for some time useless.
Pierce’s
Cases.
H5 “ I



178 DISEASES CURED
“ I had also a dull heavy pain in my legs, with a 
“ little swelling and small spots. 
“ After due preparation, I bathed spring and 
“ fall. I used a decoction of China, Sarsa, with 
“ Cephalics, Neurotics, Antiscorbutics, &c. I used 
“ the waters only in, and after bathing, so as to 
“ quench thirst, because I was subject to rheums, 
“ and catarrhs. By God’s blessing, Bath waters, 
“ regimen, and exercise, I now continue so well 
« seventy-fourth year of my age, that I 
“ have neither gout, stone, dropsy, cough, asth- 
« ma, nor any remainder of the scurvy, but want
“ of teeth.” 
2. “ Mrs. Jane Chase, a maiden gentlewoman, 
“ aged about twenty-four years, was taken with 
“ sharp pains in her joints only, which ran from 
« place to place by quick removes, sometimes 
« inflaming, then swelling, always painful. She 
“ was so weak that she could not stand. She had 
“ a spontaneous lassitude, want of appetite, di- 
“ gestion, palpitation, &c. 
“ After convenient preparation she bathed; 
« and, in bathing, we were obliged to support 
« her with cordials, for, at first, she could not 
“ hear a temperate bath more than twice a week, 
“ for she was brought hither in a litter. 
“ In two months time she recovered strength 
« and digestion, the tumors of her joints began 
“ to subside, the palpitation remitted. She went 
“ home on horseback, and continued the autumn 
“ and winter following, free from a relapse. She 
“ drank the waters no otherwise than to quench 
“ her thirst in the bath, and sometimes to keep 
“ her soluble. She continued many years free 
“ from this painful distemper.” 
3. “ Mrs. Green, of Stratford upon Avon, aged 
“ forty years, had a wandering scorbutic gout 
“ and



179 BY BATH WATER.
“ and rheumatism twenty years before, of which 
“ she recovered and married. It now returned, 
“ and tortured her at first between the shoulders, 
“ so that, on the least motion, she was ready to 
“ faint away. By outward applications, it moved 
“ to her limbs, hips, knees, and soles of her feet, 
“ which crippled her. 
“ After various regimens, she was brought to 
“ Bath. After slight preparation, she was put 
“ in the Cross-Bath, the most temperate. Thus, 
“ continuing to drink and bathe by turns, for five 
“ or six weeks, she returned well.” 
4. “ Mrs. Martha Greswold of Soly-bill in 
“ Warwickshire, at thirteen years of age, by ly- 
“ ing on the ground, in, or soon after a scarlet fe- 
“ ver, was taken with a rheumatism, a which left a 
“ stiffness in her joints, and other symptoms. 
“ When she came to Bath, she was twenty-three 
“ years old, so weak, as not able to use hand, or 
“ foot. Her head was also affected, so that she 
“ could hardly remember what was faid to her. 
“ After a week’s gentle preparation, she bath- 
“ ed, and pumped for seven weeks, at the end of 
“ which, she rode forty miles homeward the first
“ day. She kept well for ten years. Since that 
“ she has had severe fits of the gout, with distor- 
“ tions and nodes, for which she has often come 
“ hither; and, by drinking and bathing, has al- 
“ ways received benefit.” 
5. “ Mrs. Mary Huntly unmarried, aged a- 
“ bout thirty, in much the same case with Mrs. 
“ Chase, she had besides heats, and pimples in her 
“ face, cough, and shortness of breathing, she was 
“ also greatly obstructed. 
“ She required more preparation, but by shorter 
“ space of bathing she recovered.”  
H6 Dr.



180 DISEASES CURED
Dr. Pierce concludes his section of wandering 
pains in these words. “ Many more instances 
“ might be given. Of late, these kind of ill-
“ nesses have gone under the name of rheuma- 
“ tisms; but call them what they will, all pains 
“ and weakness remaining after this, or the gout, 
“ have certainly been recovered by moderate and 
“ regular bathing, and relapses have been prevent- 
“ ed by drinking.” 
6. Dr. Guidot (in his Bath Register) gives the 
following Cases. “ Joseph Pleydal, Archdea- 
“ con of Chichester, drank the waters 
“ in the morning, and bathed at night 
“ for rheumatic affections, and full ha- 
“ bit of body. By the use of the Cross-Bath, be 
“ received great benefit.”
Guidot’s 
Cases.
7. “ A matron of Devonshire, in an inveterate 
“ rheumatism, using the Cross-Bath, received be- 
“ nefit.” 
8. “ William Dixie, Esq. of the county of 
“ Leicester, was sadly afflicted with a rheumatism,
“ which reduced him to that degree of weakness, 
“ that, at twenty-two years of age, he seemed 
“ an old decrepid man on crutches. After the 
“ best advice that London afforded, he came to 
“ Bath rather in despair. After using the Cross- 
“ Bath two months, and the pump about one, he 
“ recovered, and gave public thanks to God in 
“ the Abbey Church.”
9. “ Mr. Edward Pierce (from hard lying dur- 
“ ing the late troubles of Ireland) was afflicted
“ with the rheumatism all over, which, at last, 
“ deprived him of the use of his right arm. By 
“ drinking and bathing in the King’s and Qeen’s
“ Baths, he received great benefit.
10. “ Mr.



181 BY BATH WATER.
10. “ Mr. Yorath, chaplain to Morgan of Tre- 
“ degar, received great benefit in a scorbutic atro- 
“ phy by drinking and bathing.” 
11. “ Mr. Abram Corea of London received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic rheumatism by drink- 
“ ing and bathing.” 
12. “ Sir Ambrose Phillips, Knight, received 
“ cure of a rheumatism, by drinking, and bath- 
“ ing.”
13. “ Edward Washbeare, of London, sixty- 
“ two years of age, came to Bath creeping on his 
“ hands and knees, and having the benefit of Bel- 
“ lot’s Hospital, used the Hot Bath six weeks, 
“ pumped in the Bath, and drank the waters. 
“ In seven weeks he walked on crutches, and 
“ perfectly recovered. I saw him, strong, erect, 
“ and found in London on the third of March, 
“ 1694, when he gave this testimony of his cure.” 
14. “ Mrs. E. Y. of London, troubled with 
“ pustulous eruptions all over her body, by bath- 
“ ing and drinking received cure.” 
15. “ Another gentlewoman having a sore 
“ running head with a briny matter, in five 
“ weeks time received a cure by drinking and 
“ pumping.” 
16. “ Charles Child, Apothecary of Bath, hav- 
“ ing salt and acrid humours, defluxing with pain 
“ in the leg and foot, received cure by bathing 
“ ten or twelve times.” 
17. “ John Worley, Vintner in Clare Market, 
“ troubled with the scurvy, and ill disposition of 
“ blood, whence eruptions of the skin, and hard 
“ bumps like the stinging of nettles, drank the 
“ waters three weeks, from seven to nine pints a 
“ day, after seven baths he was freed from his 
“ distemper.” 
18. “ Henry



182 DISEASES CURED
18. “ Henry Johnson, a Dane, with old sores, 
“ and running ulcers in the legs, hands and face, 
“ received cure by the Bath in two seasons.” 
19. “ Samuel Bret of Cornwall, came to Bath 
“ with a foul skin, used the Baths fourteen days 
“ and received cure.” 
20. “ Mr. Richard Yorath, Clerk, received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic atrophy by drinking 
“ the waters. 
21. “ Mrs. Woodcock, in a high scorbutic 
“ distemper much discolouring the skin, by drink- 
“ ing and bathing for several seasons received 
“ much benefit.” 
22. “ Mrs. Cole of Barnstaple, (in the spleen 
and scurvy) received great benefit by drinking 
“ and bathing for several seasons.” 
In his Use and Abuse of warm bathing, Dr. Oli- 
ver presents us with a memorable proof. 
23. “ Mrs. Reynolds, wife to the bishop of 
“ Londonderry, was naturally of a very thin habit 
“ of body, and very subject to gouty- 
“ rheumatic complaints, she was about 
“ thirty. When I saw her she was reduced to 
“ a skeleton, by most excruciating pains. She 
“ had been bled largely, her blood nevertheless 
« continued to be very sizy. The muscles of her 
“ throat were so affected, that she could not swal- 
“ low, or breathe without difficulty. The scarf- 
“ skin was dry, hard, and drawn tight over her 
“ whole body. I put her in the Queen’s Bath, 
“ where she staid only a few minutes, apprehend- 
“ ing danger from her extreme weakness. Soon 
“ after she got into the water, she felt her pains 
“ so much abated, and her throat so much re- 
“ lieved, that she begged leave to stay half an 
“ hour. On changing the flannel, the old scarf- 
“ skin was found cracked in many places. After 
Oliver.
“ a





183 BY BATH WATER.
“ a few bathings it peeled oft in large flakes, 
“ thicker than the true skin in its natural state. 
“ The fluids passed freely, the body plumped, 
“ the skin became soft and moist. Universal ease 
“ ensued.” 
24. Mrs. Phelps of Cote, near Bristol, for a 
year and a half and upwards, laboured under a 
complication of ailments scorbutic, 
rheumatic, and gouty. She had wan- 
dering pains, bilious vomitings, diarrhaeas, legs 
swelled and hard, with fores unconquerable 
by chirurgical art; she was bloated, unwieldy, 
breathless, without appetite, sleep, or digestion. 
In a word she was thoroughly cachectic. 
Author
In the beginning of winter, she was, with dif- 
ficulty, transported to Bath. After drinking the 
waters five months, her complaints, in general, 
began to yield. She then began to bathe, which 
she did but seldom. Her pains are now rare, so 
are her vomitings and loosenesses; the swelling 
and hardness of her legs are gone, the running 
sores have long been cicatrized, she eats, sleeps, 
and digests. To Bath-water, little assisted by 
medicine, she owes a cure which distant art in 
vain attempted. 
CHAP.




184 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. XI.
OF THE PALSY.
1. PALSY may be said to be an abolition, or 
diminution of motion, or sense, or both, 
in one or more parts of the body. 
The very word Λαραλυσls imports a 
solution of that which was before firm. So is it 
understood, in the Gospel according to St. Luke, 
Nunc solvas famulun tuum Domine. 
Definition.
Many are the diseases which proceed from lae- 
sion of the nerves; if ever there was a disease hid 
from mortal research, it may truly be said to be 
this. The nature of my present work forbids 
particular dissertations. I beg leave to recom- 
mend the curious reader to Van Eems’s book De 
Morbis Nervorum, a treasure in miniature. Suf- 
ficient it is for my purpose to reconcile the use of 
mineral waters to palsies, pointing out general 
practical hints as they occur. 
2. The remote causes of palsy are drunkenness, 
scurvy, dry belly-ach, air, wounds, compression, 
or solution of the nerves; suppression 
of usual evacuations, apoplexy, con- 
vulsion, fear, metallic fumes, pain, dislocation, 
abscess, opiates, and old age.—The proximate 
cause is interception of the nervous fluid. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are evident. 
4. The diagnostics and prognostics
are to be taken from a knowledge of 
the causes, and general distribution of 
the nerves. These differ according to the place, 
cause, degree, &c. Inde lethalis, minus lethalis, 
sanabilis, incurabilis, Boerhaav. Aphor. 1061. 
Symptoms. 
Diagnostics, 
and Prognos- 
tics. 
THE



185 BY BATH WATER. 
THE cause may exist in the substance of the 
nerve, or in the sheath. The latter may easily 
be cured, the former hardly ever.— 
Palsy, from fullness of blood, may 
easier be cured than that which pro- 
ceeds from serous colluvies accumu- 
lated within the encephalon.—Palsy in the arm 
may be borne much longer than one in the intes- 
tines; because, while the latter continues, the 
chyle cannot enter the lacteals.—The higher the 
seat the worse. The brain is the citadel, from 
which the foul detaches its commands: palsies 
which succeed violent head-achs, impede the very 
origin of the spinal marrow in its continuation 
with the medulla oblongata; if these increase, 
they produce apoplexy. If the muscles which 
dilate the chest become paralytic, life soon ceases. 
—The muscles of the throat are so numerous and 
so slender, that, when they are affected, Boer- 
haave pronounces the casealis.—The heart is a 
muscle, and may suffer a paralysis. From sud- 
den affections, mortal syncopies have followed. 
Van Swieten gives an instance, “ A nobleman 
“ beholding a young man stripped of his armour, 
“ just after he had gloriously fallen in battle, had 
“ the fatal curiosity to look at his face; discover- 
“ ing it to be his own son’s, he dropped down 
“ dead in an instant.”—“ When the small pox 
“ raged among the French Neutrals at Bristol, one 
“ of the women being informed that her husband 
“ lay just then expiring, walked up to the foot of 
“ the bed, and gazing earnestly till he fetched 
“ his last breath, dropped down for ever.”—The 
stomach receives its nerves from the two trunks 
of the eighth pair; if a paralysis happens from an 
internal cause, it is to be feared, that it lies with- 
in the encephalon. If the muscular fibres of the 
Unfavoura- 
able prognos- 
tics.  
stomach





186 DISEASES CURED
stomach come to be paralysed, the food lies an 
useless lump, the animal dies of hunger. In 
gluttons, the muscular fibres, by constant disten- 
sion, lose their contractile power, the food passes 
off crude. Hence pains, lienteries, &c.—The 
nerves of the intestines have a singular connec- 
tion with the vital functions. If these are wound- 
ed, life ceases. Iliac pains sink the stoutest into 
fits.—The bladder receives branches from the in- 
tercostals, and from the lower complexes mesentericus, 
as also from the crural; hence a paralysis, from an 
internal cause, comes to be perilous. Involuntary 
emission of urine denotes an affection of the brain. 
—A paralysis complicated with coldness, stupor, 
or insensibility is very bad. The blood no longer 
circulates, the muscles are robbed of the nervous 
juice. In his Academical Experiments on Opium, 
Dr. Alston, professor of Mat. Med. in the uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, “ showed his pupils a frog, 
“ whose hinder leg was deprived of sense and 
“ motion. Viewing the paralysed member, we 
“ plainly discovered the red globules dissolved, 
“ and the vessels distended with a homogeneous 
“ red fluid. This stagnation was the effect of 
“ the opium, which prevented the depletion of 
“ the muscular arteries.”Edin. Med. Essays, Vol. V. 
p. 155.
5. PAIN, sensation, heat, formication, and 
trembling, promise security.—Supervening fe- 
vers, and diarrhaeas, sometimes cure 
palsies.—Palsies from plethora are easi- 
ly cured.-Palsies which descend are 
less dangerous.—While the muscles continue 
plump, the prognostic is favourable. The arte- 
rious, nervous, and adipous vessels perform their 
offices.—Spontaneous sweats either cure, or in- 
crease the disease.—Where a paraplegy, or hae- 
Favourable 
prognostics.
miplegy



187 BY BATH WATER.
miplegy succeeds an apoplexy, there is room to 
hope; because the cause of the disease decreases, 
the brain begins to be relieved.—When paraly- 
tics see, hear, and taste, with the back and point 
of their tongues, if they distinguish objects by 
the parts paralysed, there are great hopes of cure. 
Palsies are easily cured, while the fabric of the 
brain, medulla oblongata, spinalis, and nerves re- 
main found.—Whatever can attenuate the morbi- 
fic matter, so as it may be dissipated and eliminat- 
ed out of the body cures the disease.—Whatever 
changes the morbific matter from a part of the 
body on which the vital functions depend to one 
less dangerous cures the disease.—Two ounces of 
glutinous serum lodged in the ventricles of the 
brain, produce terrible symptoms.—The same, or 
a larger quantity of the same matter deposited in 
the panniculus adiposus of the leg, is borne without 
molestation.—Van Swieten says, he has seen the 
drowsy, stupid, and lethargic miraculously reliev- 
ed by the swelling of their legs. Asthmatics 
have wonderfully been relieved by the swelling of 
the joints.—Palsies have been cured by a metasta- 
sis of the morbific matter. 
Fevers naturally attenuate, dissipate, and eli- 
minate obstructions. They sometimes deposite 
them on other parts. Unde febris saepe medicamenti 
virtutem exercet rations aliorum morborum. Aph. 
589.—Aph. 1017. 
6. HENCE are we enabled to draw practical les- 
sons. If we consider the wonderful fabric of the 
larynx the numerous muscles which modulate 
the aperture of the rima glottidis; if we consider 
that the pharynx, velum pendulum palati, uvula, 
tongue, and lips concur in forming the voice, all 
which are moved by muscles; if we consider how 
many muscles are destined for the pronunciation 
of




188 DISEASES CURED
of one single letter, we may cease to wonder 
why, after the cure of an apoplexy, one little 
pronunciation should remain uncured, while the 
patient distinctly pronounces other words, or let- 
ters. In differing living animals, I have often 
tied the recurrent nerves, that I might not be dis- 
turbed by their plaintive cries. What was the 
consequence? the animal became instantly dumb. 
Untying the ligature, they cry as before.—Wep- 
ferus tells us a memorable story of a woman, who 
lost her speech by the brain’s being oppressed with
serum. By coughing the expectorated a copious 
spittle, and thus recovered her speech.—De Haen 
(Ratio Medendi, pag. 224.) relates a singular in- 
stance which he cured by the powder, and de- 
coction of the leaves of the orange tree. After an
apoplectic stroke, the patient was subject to the 
following symptoms. He knew every body, and 
every thing, yet could not assign the name of one 
thing. Master of the French, Italian, and Ger- 
man languages, ask him questions in either, or 
all, he answered in the German, which before 
his illness he never used to do.—At this very time I 
attend a similar case. A gentleman who had 
spent the earlier part of his days in Holland, resi- 
ded afterwards in England, where he was trou- 
bled with a scorbutic rheumatism, which (by 
warm bathing, blisters, and alteratives) seemed
to be cured. From the time of the cure of the 
rheumatism, he seemed more or less to be affected 
with an asthma and cough. For this cough he 
drank the Bristol waters, during the two last sum- 
mers with little alleviation. In August last, I ad- 
vised him to drink the goat whey in Wales, and 
thence to repair to Italy, by sea, for the winter. 
Far beyond my expectations, (in three weeks 
time) his asthma vanished; he found himself so 
completely

189 BY BATH WATER. 
completely recovered, that he gave over the 
thoughts of his southern voyage. In his journey 
from London to Bath, he found a numbness 
which affected one side, from the crown of the 
head to the sole of the foot; he dropped his whip
frequently, and broke three chamber-pots on the 
road. Ignorant of danger, he talked of these ap- 
pearances with indifference. By my advice he 
was bled; exceeding my advice, he took salts, 
which purged him four or five times a-day, and 
that for a whole month. Calling in one sore- 
noon, I found him laid down, to sleep off a 
head-ach. His pulse seemed to be choaked, hard- 
ly to be felt. The pain occupied one haemi- 
sphere of the brain exactly, that opposite to the 
side first affected; this was the first head-ach he 
ever had felt in sixty years; his tongue faultered; 
in a word, he seemed to be on the very threshold 
of an apoplexy. I advised him to avoid sleep, to 
get up, and be bled, which was instantly per- 
formed. Returning in two or three hours, I 
found him, most imprudently, taking a vomit; 
tying up his arm, and pressing the orifice with
my finger, I took a pound more of blood away; 
then proceeded with the vomit. Desiring assist- 
ance. Dr. Canvane met me in the evening. By 
bleeding, cupping, blistering, sinapisms, purges, 
&c. we seemed to gain ground; every prescrip- 
tion answered the intention; in about a month, 
his speech and understanding returned, but he 
could neither read, nor write his name. Unable 
to bear further evacuation, we ordered an issue on 
the top of the head, about the size of half a 
crown. By degrees he came to read, write, and 
converse rationally enough, with this particular 
default; the nerves appropriated to certain func- 
tions still continued to be oppressed; though he 
had


190 DISEASES CURED
had clear ideas of things, he could not assign 
their names; when he wanted to mention the 
word pulse, putting his finger on his wrist, he 
commonly said. This is fast, or slow; he wrote 
sensibly enough, but his d’s, he made g’s, and his 
g’s, d’s. By my advice, he took the Orange leaves 
in powder and decoction for some weeks; but, 
finding no sensible relief, or grudging the expence, 
he discontinued the prescription. Soon after, his 
belly began to swell with scarcity of lateritious 
urine. At present he can bear no evacuations, 
and seems to be in great danger.—From this nar- 
rative, may we not infer that physicians may 
sometimes be over solicitous about curing diseases? 
Might not the cure of the scurvy have translated 
the morbific matter to the lungs? Might not the 
speedy cure of the asthma have given rise to the 
apoplexy? Might not the cure of the apoplexy 
have produced the dropsy? 
7. The general causes of palsies have been ex- 
plained, so have the particular. From these it ap- 
pears that nothing general can be laid 
down towards the cure; for as the 
cases are various, so must the methods of cure. 
The curatory indication is to be taken from signs
antecedent and concomitant. Suppose the verte- 
brae thrust out of their place, vain were boasted
antiparalytic remedies. The ulcer must be healed, 
the bones must be replaced. The cause must not 
only be removed, but a free flux of humours 
must be maintained through the arteries and 
nerves. This last is a task not so easy. The sub- 
stance of the nerves is so delicate, that it is too 
often destroyed by compression. The small ves- 
sels long deprived of their juices, collapse, and 
become impervious. Experiments teach us, that, 
by tying the par-vagum and intercostal nerves in 
Cure. 
live

191 BY BATH WATER.
live dogs too tightly, when the ligatures have 
been taken off, these animals languish, and in a 
few days die. Rational practitioners will there- 
fore be cautious how they promise cures in dis- 
eases which have lasted for years. Such cripples 
are happy if they find amendment; rarely are 
they cured. Practice confirms the truth, Palsies 
arsing from retention of natural evacuations are 
cured by provoking these discharges. Those from 
plethora have their proper cure. My business is
with that common chronical palsy which arises 
from inert lentor. Let art, in this case, imitate 
nature. If we run over all the remedies which 
have been commended by the most celebrated 
practitioners, it will appear that they are all cal- 
culated for answering nature’s purposes of raising
fever, dissolving, and purging. Boerhaave gives 
an instance of a Taylor’s being thrice cured of a 
palsy by a fever.—Hippocrates gives many such 
instances, so does Aretaeus.—Sydenham wish- 
ed for a remedy that could create a fever.—Ting- 
ling, itching, and convulsions are nature’s efforts. 
—Profuse diarrhaeas have cured palsies. 
Hence, again, we learn that the art of physic 
never is so beneficial as when it pursues nature’s 
steps. 
Aphor. 1068, “ Curatio ergo tentatur α, at- 
“ tenuantibus, dissipantibus, aromaticis, cepha- 
“ licis, nervinis, uterinis dictis, vegetabilibus 
“ specie fucci expressi, insusi, decocti, extracti, 
“ spiritus, conditi. β. Salibus sixis ustione, vo- 
“ latilibus distillatione, aut putrefactione hinc 
“ electis. γ. Oleis expressione, coctione, infu- 
“ sione, distillatione. δ Saponaceis ex horum 
“ combinatione per artem productis. ε. Virosis 
“ animalium partibus, insectorum succis, spiriti- 
“ bus, oleis, selibus, tincturis. ζ Salibus fos-  
“ silibus,


192
DISEASES CURED
“ silibus, crystallis metallicis, et iis ex his maxi- 
“ me compositis. η. His omnibus ut fe mutuo 
“ juvent, cum prudentia permistis; atque ho- 
“ rum quidem ufu attenuatio, dissipatio, calor 
“ febrilis obtinetur. 2. Validis stimulantibus, 
“ et impacta quaecunque fortiter, motu nervoso 
“ tremente et convulsivo excitato, excutientibus: 
“ eo imprimis sternutatoria, et vomitoria fortiora 
“ pertinent: fi aliquoties imprimis repetuntur, 
“ 3. Purgantibus per alvum calidis, solventibus, 
“ aromaticis, vegetabilibus, vel et fossilibus acri- 
“ bus, metallicisque mercurialibus, antimoniis a- 
“ deoque fortibus hydragogis, larga clofi, pluri- 
“ bus diebus successive repetita, datis: quorum 
“ ope copiosa, et aliquamdiu perdurans diarrhaea, 
“ excitetur. 4. Implendo primo vasa largo potu 
“ attenuantium praemissorum, dein excitatione 
“ majoris motus et sudoris ope spirituum accen- 
“ forum.” 
To expatiate on every particular contained in
this text, were to repeat Boerhaave’s academical 
prelections on the diseases of the nerves. Patients
generally undergo medical courses before they 
come to Bath. The power of Bath-water is my 
subject only. From reason and experience I 
hope to prove that Bath-water answers the pur- 
poses of nature, and cures palsies incurable by dis- 
tant art. 
Sanavit natura hum morbum attenuando, dissipan- 
do materiem morbosam; solvendo impacta per magnam 
febrem supervenientem, movendo per tremorem convul- 
sivum partis, educendo. Reason directs us to those 
remedies which produce nature’s effects. Si causa 
intus haerens crassa stagnansque erit, utendum tis re- 
mediis quae producere possunt illa quibus natura hunc 
morbum saepe sanavit. 
After


193 
BY BATH WATER.
After this great imitator of nature had extract- 
ed honey from almost every flower, he proposes 
at last vapor-baths, immersion, frictions, plaisters,
cupping, scarification, vesicatories, and fustigations. 
“ Frictiones externae ficcae, calidae, ad ruborem 
“ usque, vel cum spiritibus penetrante et stimu- 
“ lante virtute praeditis ex animalibus, vegetabi- 
“ libusque, aut cum oleis, linamentis, balsamis, 
“ unguentis, nervinis profunt. Balnea vaporum, 
“ immersiva; emplastra acria, aromatica, attra- 
“ hentia; cucurbitae, scarificationes; vesicato- 
“ ria; fustigationes; dolorem et levem inflam- 
“ mationem excitantia, ut urticae et similia pa- 
“ tent.” 
Of vapor-baths, and warm-bathing, we have 
treated at lage, in our Attempt to revive the Doc- 
trine of Bathing. Of frictions, oils, liniments, cup- 
ping, scarification, vesicatories, fustigation, &c, we
have also spoken under the same heads. 
Suffice it here in general to recapitulate, That 
warm water enters by the absorbent veins, mixes 
with, dilutes, and attemperates the blood; that 
active volatile mineral principles stimulate those 
nerves which are spread on the surface of the 
skin; that heat ratifies the fluids, and enlarges 
the diameters of the vessels; and that this same 
heat raises a temporary fever, which dislodges, 
subdues, and concocts obstructing matter so as to 
tender it fit to be excreted by the proper emunc- 
tories. The muscles thus relieved perform their 
respective offices; health, vigour and agility suc- 
ceed. To facts we proceed. 
1. Savonarolla (De Balneis Carpen- 
sibus, rubrica, xxiii.) says, “ Comites 
“ Carmignola et Gattamaleta Duces 
“ exercitus Venetiarum, ambo Paralysi affecti sa- 
“ ere, pro quo morbo balnea mense Januario sunt 
Proofs analo-
gical. 
I “ prosecti,


194 
DISEASES CURED
« prosecti, et ego cum eis, et hi mirabiliter con- 
“ valuerunt.” 
2. Guainerus (De Balneis Aquensibus) says, “ qui- 
“ dam, velut Stephanus lapidatus, tam brachium 
“ quam manum paralyticam habebat. Is, ut 
“ praecepi, nucham sibi embrocavit, et intra octo
“ dies liberatus est.” 
3. Bartholomoeus Taurinensis (speaking of the 
same Baths of Aix) says, “ Paralyticos duos 
“ vidi fanitati restitutos hujus solius remedii 
“ auxilio.” 
In Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we find 
the following histories.
Pierce’s 
Cases.
4. “ Colonel Sayer, aged forty, 
“ once a commander in the army of Charles I. 
“ made his composition, and retired to his estate, 
“ from whence he was dragged, in one of Oli- 
“ ver’s pretended plots, by a party of horse, and 
“ carried prisoner to London, in very bad wea- 
“ ther, and worse usage. He was confined in 
“ a damp dirty jail, where the very first night 
“ he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which de- 
“ termined in a palsy on the right side. He was 
“ soon allowed to retire to his home, where he 
“ underwent the common prescriptions in vain. 
“ When he came to Bath, he had lost the 
“ sight of one eye, his speech faultered, his me- 
“ mory was imperfect, with a giddiness. After 
“ due preparation, he drank the waters only to 
“ quench his thirst; he bathed and pumped. 
“ Finding advantage, he continued to come six 
“ weeks for ten years. He recovered so as to live 
“ to a considerable old age.” 
5. “ Mrs. Langton of Newton Park, aged 
“ twenty-three, and with child, lost her speech 
“ of a sudden, so that she uttered one word for 
“ another. Thus she continued to the time of 
“ her

195 BY BATH WATER.
“ her delivery, when it seized her so that she 
“ could not speak at all, nor apprehend what 
“ was laid to her, with the loss of the use of her 
“ limbs. 
“ By bleeding under the tongue, and some 
“ physic, she was restored somewhat to her 
“ speech, she came to Bath, by the use of which
“ she recovered so much as to throw aside her 
“ crutches. About the periods of the moon her 
“ speech was altered a little. Thus she held for 
“ five years, bearing children, or miscarrying, 
“ till within six weeks of her time, she was seiz- 
“ ed with a haemiplegia. After her delivery she 
“ came again to Bath and recovered. She re- 
“ turned several seasons, bore several children, 
“ and died at last of the Chorea Sancti Viti.” 
6. “ Master Powel, a child of six years old, 
“ had an exquisite palsy after convulsion-fits. He 
“ bathed three or four times a week, for two 
“ months, getting ground apparently after the 
“ first month, which advantage improved so after 
“ his return, that it encouraged his friends to
“ send him again and again, till he was cured, 
“ and afterwards came to be a lusty man.” 
7. “ Mrs. Duffewait, an attorney’s wife of 
“ Wells, was not only cured of a palsy, but, 
“ after twelve years barrenness, conceived by 
“ bathing.” 
8. “ The Bath-waters have not only cured 
“ palsies, but there are numerous instances also 
“ of their acting as preventatives. Sir John 
“ Gell, of Hopton, had a stupor and dullness of
“ the head, a seeming clout about the tongue, 
“ with a kind of creeping and sleepiness (as they 
“ vulgarly call it) in his arms and legs. Year 
“ after year he bathed and pumped. He died 
I2 “ without

196 DISEASES CURED
“ without any symptom of a palsy, of a Dropsy, 
“ in the eighty-second year of his age.” 
Of Dr. Guidot's 200 Observations, 
there are no less than 88 remarkable 
proofs of the power of Bath-waters in 
paralytic cases.
Guidot’s 
Cases.  
9. Mr. Crompton’s Faith and Hope, now hang 
up as Tabulae-votivae in the King’s Bath. By over- 
heating himself, and eating fruit, he 
was seized with a cholic, which de- 
prived him of the use of his limbs. 
After exhausting the pharmacopoeia, he came to
Bath, where he bathed and drank long without 
amendment. His disorder yielded at last. His 
cholicy pains were removed, he hung up his 
crutches. He often relapsed, and as often was 
restored. 
Author’s 
Cases.
10. Mrs. Dallas lost the use of her lower limbs, 
after child-bearing. By bathing she had a com- 
plete cure. 
IN my Attempt to revive the antient practice of 
bathing, (under the general head of Pumping) the 
reader will find particular cures of lamenesses from
gout, sciatica, rheumatism, palsy, scurvy, head-ach, 
deafness, falls, &c. Under the title of this chap- 
ter of Palsy, I proceed to rank lamenesses from 
other causes. 
I. LAMENESS AFTER FEVERS.
1. “ Sir John Austin, aged forty, had a trans- 
“ lation of a febrile matter on one of his legs, 
“ which suppurated, and afterwards 
“ gangrened. By the help of surgery, 
“ the wound came to be cicatrized, 
“ but there remained great weakness and pain. 
“ The limb was considerably wasted from the 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ hip


197 BY BATH WATER.
“ hip downwards. He could scarcely walk in his 
“ chamber without crutches, nor be at ease when 
“ his leg was suspended. He was therefore 
“ forced to spend the greatest part of his time in 
“ bed. 
“ After due preparation, and drinking, he 
“ bathed. In a week’s time he had ease. In 
“ one month’s time he changed his crutches for a 
“ staff. I saw him run smartly to get shelter from
“ a shower. At two month’s end he went away 
“ perfectly easy and trig. By degrees the limb 
“ recovered flesh and strength.” 
2. “ Sir Herbert Crosts was so much in the 
“ same circumstances that it would waste time 
“ to give a particular description. He left his 
“ crutches as a testimony of his cure.” 
3. “ Mrs. Hales of Coventry, aged fifty, was 
“ in 1687, seized with a malignant fever, in 
“ which she was delirious near a month. A mor- 
“ tification appeared on the lower part of the Os 
“ Sacrum, near sixteen inches round, from which 
“ (as in the two former) quantities of dead flesh
“ were cut out. The ulcer was three months 
“ before it could be cicatrized. She lost the use 
“ of her right leg and foot, both which were 
“ cold, dead, and senseless. 
“ By moderate bathing, she recovered warmth 
“ and strength in five or six weeks. Next year 
“ she bathed as long. Thus she recovered the 
“ perfect use of her leg.” 
II. LAMENESS AFTER SPRAINS. 
1. “ Lady Strode’s daughter had 
“ gone through the hands of surgeons, 
“ bone setters, and others, she was 
“ lame from a sprain. By partial and total im-
Pierce’s
Cases. 
I3 “ mersion,

198 DISEASES CURED
“ mersion, together with pumping, she had, in 
“ a little time, abatement of swelling, then a 
“ beginning of strength, she left off crutches and 
“ walked with a stick. She went through the 
“ same process for two or three years, and was, 
“ at length, perfectly recovered.” 
2. “ Mr. Pruseau, of Essex, and a neighbouring 
“ lady, Mrs. Bonham, had both weakness, pain, 
“ and swelling in the ankle-joint, with wasting
“ of the limb from the hip downwards, occasion- 
“ ed by sprains. The young gentleman’s case 
“ was much the worst. They had undergone 
“ every thing that could be used by the most emi- 
“ nent hospital surgeons and doctors, who, in 
“ consultation, recommended them to Bath. 
“ She came twice, and found a perfect cure. 
“ He came for many seasons, finding sensible re- 
“ lief every year. He walks much, and limps 
“ very little.” 
3. Miss Alexander of Edinburgh, fell from her 
horse and contused her knee. She 
was lame more than a year. She came 
to Bath, where (by pumping) she was 
restored to the use of her limbs. 
Author’s
Cases.
4. Mr. Agnew came to Bath for the same dis- 
order. Sometimes he uses the hot pump, some- 
times the cold. After three months use, he 
walks without pain, and without the help of a 
staff. 
III. LAMENESS FROM A RUPTURE OF THE
TENDO ACHILLIS.
“ The Rev. Mr. Parsons was very healthful 
“ and strong. Walking up a hill, an 
“ intolerable pain seized the calf of 
“ his leg all of a sudden, insomuch that hearing 
Pierce’s. 
“ no

199 BY BATH WATER.
“ no musket go off, he thought that somebody 
“ had shot him with a cross-bow; but being 
“ convinced of his mistake by a friend, he said 
“ he had broken something by overstraining. He 
“ fell immediately to the ground, the pain made 
“ him sweat, faint and sick, he could not stand. 
“ He was carried home, and continued lame for 
“ a long time with his limb emaciated. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which brought heat 
“ into the part, it took off the convulsions, his leg
“ and thigh began to plump. He walked five or 
“ six miles on end with a staff.” 
IV. LAMENESS FROM A WHITE-SWELLING.
1. “ Mr. Bony, aged forty, was very lame, 
“ and much pained in his right knee, with great
“ swelling, not discoloured, with the 
“ joint contracted. The whole seem- 
“ ed to be puffed up with wind or 
“ uliginous matter, which, upon pressing, mani- 
“ festly moved from one side of the joint to the 
“ other. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ The Bath gave him some ease, but lessened 
“ not the swelling, then it was pumped, after 
“ which the mud of the Bath was applied, by 
“ which he was much better; he came a second 
“ and a third time, so that there was no remainder 
“ of tumor, pain or lameness. 
2. “ Francis Hechington, of Northallerton, 
“ aged 31, came to Bath, June, 1689, with a 
“ great white swelling on his knee for six months 
“ before. He used the hot-bath and pump but 
“ five days, till the tumour was discussed.” This
humour (Dr. Guidot says) was more flatulent 
than pituitose. 
I4 V.

200 DISEASES CURED
V. LAMENESS FROM WOUNDS. 
1. “ Colonel Tuston, in a sea-fight, received 
“ a wound with contusion and fracture in his 
“ right hand by a splinter, which 
“ broke the bones of the thumb and 
“ sore-finger, and lacerated the mus- 
“ cles and tendons; a conflux of humours fall- 
“ ing on the part, it was forced to be laid open 
“ more than once, bones and splinters were ex- 
“ tracted, it was healed at last, but his hand was
“ useless, and he was pained by fits. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which quickly eased 
“ the pain, and recovered the use of some of the 
“ other three fingers. This he repeated several 
“ seasons after. The sore-finger and thumb be- 
“ came in some measure useful, tho’ a whole joint
“ of the latter was lost. The whole hand is as 
“ useful as such a hand can be.” 
2. “ The earl of Peterborough, from a wound 
“ In his right hand, came hither twice, used the 
“ same method, and got much benefit.” 
3. Captain Robertson of Bocland’s, received a 
gun-shot wound about the joint of the elbow, 
which was attended with pain, in- 
flammation, swelling, &c. By pump- 
ing he recovered so as to be able to pull off his 
hat. He has now joined his regiment in Ger- 
many.
Author’s.
VI.

201 BY BATH WATER.
VI. LAMENESS FROM FALLS.
1. “ Thomas Andrews, of Halson, 
“ came hither in June, 1682, batter- 
“ ed and bruised from head to foot by 
“ a fall; his horse laying upon him some time.
“ He had some bones dislocated, which were set. 
“ He complained of weakness, and pains in his 
“ back, hips, and his breast, so that he could 
“ not breathe freely. By six weeks bathing and 
“ pumping he returned much better, and, after 
“ some trials, he quite recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ Mr. Hollworthy, over and above the for- 
“ mer complaints, had a paralysis of one side 
“ from concussion of the brain. He was very 
“ lame, and weakly. By the same methods re- 
“ peated, he recovered with a stiffness that makes
“ him limp a little.” 
3. “ Guidot’s register contains the following, 
“ Lord Hereford, in hunting a fox, re- 
“ ceived a fall which deprived him of 
“ the motion of his right arm. By 
“ pumping and bathing, he recovered its use.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
4. “ Major Hawley had the patella-bone of 
“ his knee thrice injured by falls, which obliged
“ him to use crutches. By using the Cross-Bath, 
“ and pumping only seven times, he recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
5. “ Lord Eglington, by hunting the fox, had 
“ a fall, by which he bruised the muscles and 
“ tendons of both hands; he received hurt on 
“ his head, right shoulder, and elbow, the fing- 
“ ers losing their motion inwards, numbed, and 
“ senseless. By bathing and pumping, he was 
“ cured.” 
I5 6. “ Sir

202 DISEASES CURED
6. “ Sir Robert Holmes (in aches and bruises 
“ received at sea) received benefit by the Hot- 
“ Bath, in testimony whereof he left three brass 
“ rings.” 
FROM the opening of the Bath Infirmary, till 
May, 1760, a space of eighteen years, out of 
seven hundred fifty one paralytics, from various
causes admitted, there were one hundred eighty 
five cured, three hundred ninety-five much better; 
the rest were dismissed incurable, or refractory; 
during the first nine years, there died in the hos- 
pital twelve only.
CHAP.

23 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XII. 
OF THE JAUNDICE.
VARIOUS are the symptoms of the jaun- 
dice, various its appearances, causes and 
effects. We commonly reckon only 
two sorts, yellow and black; there are 
diversities of shades between the lightest yellow 
and the black, as Aretaeus has remarked in his 
book De causis et signis morb. diuturnor. p. 45. 
There are some jaundices which any body may 
cure; there are others which no body can. As 
jaundices of all sorts come to Bath, it may not 
be unnecessary to take a survey of this disease, so
that we may be able better to form a conjecture 
in what sorts Bath waters may cure, and in what 
they may hurt. 
History. 
1. THE YOUNG are rarely troubled with this 
disease. It commonly attacks those who brood 
over griefs, or who retain grudges or 
passions. Sadness and thought con- 
stringe the vessels so as to produce a sense of
weight and anxiety about the praecordia. Hu- 
mours thus obstructed produce polypous concre- 
tions, putrefactions, &c. 
Subjects. 
The studious and sedentary are naturally sub- 
ject to this disease, those who bend their bodies 
forward, and fit too long at meals. The bile, by 
remaining in the gall-bladder, inspissates, so that
it cannot easily pass. Galen (in his book De 
locis affectis) remarks, that the very same thing
happens to the gall-bladder as happens to the 
urinary; by retention it becomes paralytic.  
I6 2. The

204 DISEASES CURED
2. The first symptoms are, troublesome sort of 
tension about the praecordia, with a sense of 
weight. Some hours after meals, a 
sort of heart-burn, the fore-runner of 
jaundice. A slight yellow is to be discovered in 
the greater canthus of the eye, the urine begins 
to be coloured, the excrements are bilious. Of 
a sudden, anxiety, with intolerable pain at the 
pit of the stomach, sometimes over the whole 
belly, often mistaken for the cholic. Fever and 
vomiting supervene. After these symptoms have 
lasted for some hours, they remit, the whole bo- 
dy puts on the yellow hue, with an universal 
itching, the urine is tinged, the patient finds him- 
self very easy, the colour of the urine abates, so
does that of the skin; in a few days the disease 
seems to vanish. The excrements, some days 
before the paroxysm, begin to be white, clayish, 
or greasy. 
Symptoms. 
After some weeks, sometimes months, this 
round of evils returns. When the sick has suf- 
fered frequent attacks of this sort, there remains
at last a confirmed jaundice. The colour grows 
deeper, the spittle sometimes tastes bitten The 
skin changes from yellow to black, the feet swell;
so does the belly, the patient dies hydropic. 
Sometimes it is accompanied with fever so in- 
tense, that the liver inflames and suppurates, a me- 
morable instance of which stands recorded by the 
benevolent Dundas, in the Edinb. Med. Essays.
Vol. II. p. 345, &c. 
3. This inflammation has its seat in the capil- 
lary vessels of the Hepatic Artery, and the Vera 
Portarum. Injections discover the 
windings and anastomosis’s of these 
vessels over the whole substance of the liver. The 
branches of the Vena Portarum are filled with 
Seat. 
blood

205 BY BATH WATER.
blood which moves more slowly than the arterial; 
this is the reason why the signs of inflammation 
are not so manifest in this as in the other viscera; 
this may be the reason why physicians have so 
often been mistaken in their Diagnostics. 
4. THE remote causes of jaundice are cholics, 
hysteric and bilious; poisons; drastic purges; 
grief and anger; ossification or com- 
pression of the biliary ducts; pregnan- 
cy; obstruction, schirrus, or abscess of the liver; 
incermittents prematurely stopped; stones ob- 
structing the cystic duct; over-grown omenta; 
inflammation; worms; sudden chills, &c.—
The proximate causes are, 1. Regurgitation 
and absorption of bile already separated. 2. Ex- 
cess, viscidity, and acrimony of bile unsecreted. 
Causes.
5. THE diagnostic signs are yel- 
lowness of the skin, tunica albuginea, 
urine, and white excrements. 
Diagnostics.
6. THE prognostics are more favourable in 
youth than in old age, in the strong than in the
weak, in the yellow than in the black, 
in the jaundice single, than compli- 
cated with other disorders. In the last days of a
fever, supervening jaundice performs the part of 
a crisis. Jaundice supervening inflammation of 
the liver, stomach, or duodenum, portends great 
danger. Natural sweat is an excellent sign. Jaun- 
dice complicated with dropsy, may be said to be 
incurable.
Prognostics. 
7. FROM a survey of the preceding causes, we 
may conclude, that most of them are merely ac- 
cidental. Concretion may be assigned 
for the general. He who best knows 
how to dissolve and expel this obstructing matter, 
may truly be said to cure the jaundice. 
Cure. 
In

206 DISEASES CURED
In critical febrile discharges the benefit of sweat- 
ing needs no explanation. Galen (De Sanitate 
tuenda) relates the following case. Ipsum bilem, 
infarcto hepate, in sanguinem regurgitantem, per su- 
dores, amaros exivisse de corpore in ictericis osbervavi. 
Chamel (Acad, des Sciences l’an 1737, Hist. p. 69.) 
says, “ I saw a thick sweat which tinged the li- 
“ nen with a saffron colour, issue from the pores 
“ of an icteric woman, the jaundice vanishing 
“ after the sweat.” 
From theory as well as practice, we know that 
the rational cure of Jaundice depends on medi- 
cines diluent, detersive, and antiseptic, inwardly
and outwardly administered. In disorders of the 
liver arising from hot, or cold temperament, 
Galen (Method. med.) advises internals, and ex- 
ternals of a strengthening quality, such are all 
styptic mineral waters. In jaundice, and for dis- 
cussing inflations, Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) 
recommends temperate sulphureous baths, he 
mentions Bath waters in particular. Ad morbum 
regium, & ad inflationes excutiendas, nec secus sul- 
phuratarum balnea temperata Aponus, Aquisgranam, 
Bathoniae in Anglia, ne vulgares, in Italia, reite- 
rem. In frigidis vero hepaticis, seu qui obstructo aut 
indurato viscere infiantur, & cachexiam illapsi, effi- 
caciora tam intus quam foris calorifica digerentiaque 
desiderantur. 
Bath-waters are diluent, detersive and antisep- 
tic. If fomentations have availed, what better 
fomentation than warm bathing! If diuretics and 
sudorifics, what better diuretic or sudorific! 
Distant patients have gone thro’ regimens sa- 
gacious and ingenious. Bath-water improperly 
drank has converted slight jaundices into deadly 
ailments. Bath-water has cured inveterate jaun- 
dices, Van Swieten’s testimony confirms the doc-
trine.


207 BY BATH WATER.
trine. In his Commentaries on Boerhaave’s A- 
phorisms, Vol. III. p. 346, he delivers his sen- 
timents thus, “ Si jam simul consideretur mag- 
“ num numerum morborum chronicorum, in vi- 
“ sceribus abdominalibus, sedem suam habere, & 
“ imprimis in Hepate, in quod omnis sanguis ve- 
“ nosus viscerum chylopoieticorum confluit, pa- 
“ tebit ratio quare adeo efficax fit in morborum
“ chronicorum cura Aquarum Medicatarum ufus. 
“ Magna enim copia potatae hae aquae, venis bi- 
“ bulis intestinorum cito resorptae, integris fuis 
“ viribus, pro magna parte, in venam portarum 
“ veniunt, & fic, per omnia Hepatis loca distri- 
“ butae, solvunt impacta, & vafa obstructa refe- 
“ rant.” Facts are sturdy evidences. 
1. Dr. Baynard (in his book of Cold-Bathing) 
records the following Cases. “ Mr. Hadly, of an 
“ ill habit from an irregular life, had 
“ been wrong treated. He came at 
“ last to Bath. He complained in the 
“ right hypochondria, and had a great induration 
“ in the region of the liver. By purging, drink- 
“ ing, and bathing, he got a perfect cure.” 
Baynard’s
Cases.
2. “ I knew a physician who had a severe jaun- 
“ dice with a schirrous liver. He was cured by 
“ drinking Bath-water, and by eating the herb 
“ Taraxicon sallad-wife.” 
3. “ Madam Thistlewaite, of Wintersloe, re- 
“ ceived a great cure by the Bath-waters, joined
“ with other aperitives in as high a jaundice as 
“ ever was seen, which had long seized her, and 
“ she a very lean emaciated worn out weak wo- 
“ man.—In this case, and also in most diseases 
“ of the liver, I think the Bath-waters the best 
“ specific in the world, if taken seasonably with 
“ due preparatives and advice.”  
4. From

208 DISEASDES CURED
4. From Dr. Pierce we have these. “ Justice 
“ Dewy of Fordenbridge, Hants, came hither in 
“ February, 1693, in the sixtieth year 
“ of his age. His complaints were 
“ (besides the yellowness of his skin) 
“ weakness, faintness, decay of spirits, shaking 
“ in his hands, pain in his limbs, doughy swellings 
“ of the legs, clamminess of his mouth, drought, 
“ and foulness of tongue. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He had but lately undergone purging, and 
“ therefore had the less need of preparation. He 
“ took at first but two pints, then three, then two
“ quarts, seldom exceeding. They passed freely 
“ by stool and urine. 
“ Between whiles he was however purged with 
“ Rheubarb and Calomelanos, he took alteratives, 
“ and now and then intermitted the waters. A- 
“ bout the middle of his course he was let bloody 
“ which had a quantity of serum tinctured yel- 
“ low. About the latter end of his course he 
“ bathed three or four times. He had before bath- 
“ ed his legs and feet to get down, the swelling
“ which answered. 
“ He apparently got vigour and strength, a 
“ clearer countenance, and a better habit of 
“ body. Thus he returned after two months 
“ stay. He returned in May, stayed about the 
“ same time, with manifest advantage, which I 
“ suppose he yet continues to have, because he 
“ returns not to the same means by which he 
“ found so much good.” 
5. “ Michael Harvey, of Clifton, Dorset, aged 
“ sixty-six, many years subject to the Gout. Fif- 
“ teen years ago, in one of his fits, he turned 
“ yellow, took medicines for the Jaundice. In 
“ April last, he was seized with a violent pain in 
“ his stomach, which pain he was subject to by 
3 “ fits,

209 BY BATH WATER.
“ fits, but was now more than ordinary fainty, 
“ the jaundice appearing presently in his water, 
“ but not in his eyes, face and skin, till about a 
“ month after. By the advice of Radcliff and 
“ others, he took medicines to little purpose. 
“ He came to Bath the last day of August, 
“ 1696, so weak and ill that he could hardly 
“ keep life in him. The night after he had a 
“ most violent cholic fit, in which he strained 
“ very much to vomit. He was yellow all 
“ over. 
“ He set presently about drinking the waters, 
“ (being in continual pain, and stomachless) but 
“ at first in small quantities. The third time of
“ taking them, he voided a gall-stone about the 
“ bigness of a pigeon’s egg, with several lesser 
“ pieces of the same colour and consistence, a sa- 
“ bulum to the quantity of a spoonful and more. 
“ It is observable that this gentleman had a 
“ stool before the stone came off, as white, and
“ like to tobacco-pipe clay; but the stool that 
“ came with and after the stone, was as yellow 
“ as saffron. He was immediately more at case, 
“ he recovered by degrees; he goes on drinking 
“ the waters, this being the one and twentieth 
“ day of his cure, walks abroad, gives visits, eats 
“ heartily, and is very likely to recover perfectly.” 
6. Dr. Guidot records this Case. “ A worthy 
“ Knight of Devonshire, (in obstruc- 
“ tions of the Liver and Bladder of 
“ Gall) by drinking the waters twenty-one days 
“ at the pump received great benefit.”
Guidot.  
7. The Reverend Mr. Lyon, aged sixty and 
Upwards, of a gross habit, swarthy 
complexion, and choleric disposition, 
had laboured long under an inveterate 
scurvy. His legs swelled, were hard, and disco- 
Author's 
Cases. 
loured

210 DISEASES CURED
loured with large deep foul ulcers. For this dis- 
order he came to Bath. 
He drank the waters in too great a quantity. 
He carried in the hottest part of the kitchen of 
King’s Bath, sweating, scrubbing, and broiling, 
for one hour and a half at a time. 
I often gave him warning that there was dan- 
ger of throwing inflammation on the liver, al- 
ready vitiated and obstructed, as is the case in
Scorbutics. He laughed at my prognostic, scorn- 
ing the dull beaten track, as he called it. In ex- 
cessive drinking and bathing he persisted. 
My prognostics were at last verified. I found 
him one day very ill indeed. He had every symp- 
tom of the jaundice, rather black than yellow, a 
high fever with fixed pain in the region of the 
liver. 
I ordered him immediately to be bled. Next 
day, he took a gentle purge of Senna, Rad. Cur- 
cum. Rub. Tinctor. &c. which (as is common in 
cases of unfound livers) operated so immoderate- 
ly, that his pulse intermitted. His spirits flagged. 
Nature was on the point of yielding. He then 
wished he had followed the dull beaten track. 
By some little helps the symptoms abated, he 
recovered strength. During this reprieve, I or- 
dered him to take two drachms of nitre thrice a 
day, in a large glass of Bath-water, a medicine 
highly commended by Heister. He swallowed as 
much soap as he pleased. I indulged him in the 
free use of Rum-punch, enriched with sugar and
the juice of Seville-oranges. I advised him to
eat freely of China oranges.—Never was a pa- 
tient more tractable. 
His Jaundice gradually went off. His foul 
scorbutic ulcers cicatrized. The cure of his jaun- 
dice proved the cure of all his ailments. By the 
help

211 BY BATH WATER:
help of soap and lime-water, he continued (ten 
years) as well as a man of his age and habit of 
body could be. 
8. Mrs. Elliot, of Golden Square, London, la- 
boured under a constant vomiting, with racking 
pain about the orifice of the stomach. She had 
neither retained food nor medicine for a month. 
This was the case described to me by her brother- 
in-law, my late worthy friend Capt. Wilkinson, 
Agent. Supposing her complaints owing to bili- 
ary concretions then passing the Duct, I told him
that hers was truly a Bath-case. My opinion 
was related to an eminent physician then attend- 
ing. He roundly pronounced Bath-water perni- 
cious in all respects. Dr. Girningham was called
in. He adhered to my opinion. 
With great difficulty she was transported to 
Bath. When I first saw her, her pains were ex- 
quisite, she threw up laudanum and every other 
thing. She was lodged in one of those houses 
from whence there is a Slip, or communication 
into the Bath. I advised her to drink a glass of
water at any time in bed; and, as fast as she 
threw that up, another, and so continue till she 
was sure that the water began to stay on her sto- 
mach. She was also carried into the bath, some- 
times twice in a morning, and there supported 
till she began to vomit. While she was in the 
bath her pains ceased. In a few days the water 
began to stay. At once she passed twenty-two 
gall-stones, as big as beans and pease, by stool. 
At different times more. 
Her pain vanished. From a skeleton (in less 
than three weeks) she grew plump, and walked 
on the parade. The only medicine that she used 
was a deobstruent gentle purge of Rhubarb Rad. 
Curcum. Rub, Tinctor, &c. with Castile soap. 
She

212 DISEASES CURED
She went home. Her complaints returned She 
came again to Bath, where she pursued the same 
regimen, and found her cure. Profiting by ex- 
perience, she staid six months; during which 
time she drank about a quart of water a day, 
and swallowed two pounds and upwards of soap 
every week. For these eight years past she has 
enjoyed perfect health, excepting grumbling re- 
membrances of her pain, which she continues to
lull by the constant use of soap and Bath-water, 
warmed at home.” 
9. Every inhabitant of Bath knows how deep- 
ly Mr. Levellyn, builder of this city, was tinged 
with the jaundice. Every body saw him restored 
to his usual tint. He tried various Doctors, and 
various nostrums. He, mean while, drank the 
Bath-waters, and, without them, it is more than 
probable, he never could have recovered. 
CHAP.

213 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIII. 
OF THE DROPSY.
1. WHEN the serum comes to be extra- 
vasated, and stagnates in 
any of the cavities of the body, that
disease ss called Dropsy. 
Definition.
2. It may arise from many causes. 
My business is with those only which 
countenance the rationale of Bath-waters. 
Causes.
3. Its symptoms are too apparent to 
want to be enumerated. 
Symptoms. 
4. The curative indications are, to procure a
free circulation of the juices. To car- 
ry off the liquor deposited in the cavi- 
ties. To correct that fault or indisposition of the
parts, whether it he the cause or effect of the 
disease. 
Cure.
Strengthening, stimulating cordial medicines 
answer the first, especially those which are grate- 
fully acid, and gently aromatic. 
To obtain the second, the cause of the obstruc- 
tion must be found out. This must be removed 
or corrected, which is often done by Mineral 
waters. 
Steel medicines, and strengtheners gently astrin- 
gent answer the third intention, given in a proper 
dose, and seasonably administered. 
Friction, motion, and heat greatly conduce. If 
the pressure of water be 800 times greater than 
that of the atmosphere, how can we wonder that 
(in Anasarca’s especially) this pressure should thus
drive the humours into their proper channels! 
There are many examples of dropsies cured by 
Diuretics,


214 DISEASES CURED
Diuretics, vitriolate metallic medicines dissolved 
in water; such have been specifics- 
In the writings of the antients we 
find well authenticated cures of Drop- 
sies. 
Analogical 
Proofs. 
Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) says, Occurrit 
aqua Grottae omni incipienti hydropisi. Tungri aquam
in Burgundia mirificam tradunt in hydropicis, ut quae 
aquas evacuat ebihita jure balnei, flatum discutit, & 
tamen fitim extinguens. Bergomenses Trascherii a- 
quam experimentis commendant. Quae uteri vitio, 
vellienis, coacervati folent humiditates, in Ascitis spe- 
cie principle, vidimus nitratas, & falfulas quosdam 
modice purgatorias fanasse in totum. Salfarum balneo 
in Lesbo curari hydropem meminit Galenas. In Tym-
panite difcufforiae omnino facultatis effe oportet aquas, 
five in potibus principio, five in balneis in fine; idonea
quoque eft e vaporibus ipsarum calidarum evacuation 
nec minus super faxa, harenasque calentes, sub fole re- 
cubitus insolatusque. In Hyposarca assiduo praeter ce- 
tera profunt illutamenta, & in marinis, salsis lacunis, 
atramentosis paludihus, sulphurosts callidissimis, 
quantum vires sufficiunt, lavari. His (inquit Cel- 
sus) sudor evocandus in arena calida, Laconico, cli- 
bano, similibusque, Maxime utiles naturales IA sic- 
cae fudationes. Arena e littore maris sole fervefacta 
capite tenus hydropicis obruta, vulgaris praesidii est. 
Incomparable remedium ad omnem hydropem in pul- 
vere ad aquas calidas in Ischia voluntari, atque info- 
lari. Ex plumho balnea in Lothoringis omni hydropi- 
co permira hakentur cum lutamentis. Aridum &
valde potens Stygianum ex nostris, non longe ab urbe, 
& Sabatinum, Bullicanum, Thermae in Sicilia, 
omnes calidae ad hydropem valere, ab auctoribus pro- 
mittuntur. Omni autem hydropi ex falsis clysteria uti- 
lia funt, Nec minus Stuphae, hypocausta, pyrateria. 
Guianerus

215 BY BATH WATER.
Guianerus (De Balneis Aquensibus, cap. 3 ) says, 
“ Asciticam his aquis balneari jussi. Haec etiam
“ mane pintam unam illius aquae bibebat, & die 
“ alia in vesperis solum balneum intrabat; ali- 
“ quando tres pintas mane bibebat, & per dies 
“ XL hoc continuans liberata est.” 
Ugulinus (Des Balneis Comitatus Pisarum) says, 
“ Vidi ego multos in usu Balnei hujus hydropicos, 
“ & ictericos curatos.” 
1. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) gives the fol- 
lowing. “ George Russel, a tippling butcher of 
“ this city, (by going too often to 
“ the ale-house) rendered himself un- 
“ able longer to go to market, he 
“ turned sheriff’s bailiff, &c. and then drank on, 
“ till he had distended his carcass as much as he
“ had extenuated his stock. He was swollen 
“ from head to foot by an exquisite Ascites and 
“ Anasarca, and, as is usual in that distemper, 
“ was excessive thirsty; the more he drank, the 
“ more he craved for drink, and the less he dis- 
“ charged by urine. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ I first prescribed drastic purges, then Bath- 
“ water, which quenched his exorbitant thirst, 
“ as indeed it infallibly does beyond any other li- 
“ quor. They passed also so well by urine that, 
“ by repeating his purge once a week, and drink- 
“ ing the waters, he was reduced to his pristine 
“ shape. Ordering then some strengthening bit— 
“ ters, I dismissed him perfectly cured. So he 
“ held two or three years, but he returned to his 
“ beloved tipple, till he brought himself to the 
“ same pass; and, without consulting me, by 
“ the apothecary’s advice, he repeated the same 
“ regimen with the same success; and so for a 
“ third, if not for a fourth time, till at last, 
“ with continued drinking, bangs, and bruises 
“ to

216 DISEASES CURED
“ to which Bailiff’s are subject, he so corrupted 
“ his entrails, that he died of an inward impo- 
“ stumation.” 
2. “ Mr. Treagle, of Taunton, grocer, aged 
“ forty-fix, had long been scorbutic, nephritic, ca- 
“ chectic and hydropic. Finding no relief from any 
“ medicine, he came hither with his legs and 
“ thighs greatly swollen, and so weak that he 
“ was hardly able to stand; he had large red livid
“ spots in both; he made very little water, and 
“ that jaundiced; his eyes and face were of the 
“ same complexion, withal horribly desponding 
“ and melancholy. 
“ For the first wreek I purged him, made him 
“ take chalybeates, hepatics, and antiscorbutics, in- 
“ termixing the waters now and then. By these 
“ his countenance, and the colour of his water 
“ was somewhat changed. By drinking, mode- 
“ rate bathing, and purging, the shape and co- 
“ lour of his legs were also altered. At the end 
“ of six weeks, he returned very much advan-
“ taged in every respect. He carried home di- 
“ rections for a diet-drink, for which I had his 
“ thanks some years after.” 
3. “ Much in the like, if not worse circum- 
“ stances, was one Appletree, an inn-keeper, in 
“ Crookhorn, a man aged about sixty; besides the 
“ foregoing symptoms, he had a cough also, he 
“ neither could walk nor stand. 
“ He bathed and drank the waters, took pecto- 
“ rals, antiscorbutics, and hepatics. He returned
“ well, and came back next year to confirm his 
“ cure. Again he returned, goes about his busi- 
“ ness, and probably drinks with his guests, in 
“ which he never was backward, and which was 
“ supposed to be the cause of his distemper
4. “ Sir

217 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Sir Robert Holmes, whom we have al- 
“ ready recorded, cured of batters and bruises in
“ sea-fights, came here for a colica pictonum, a- 
“ trophy, and dropsy, of all which he was cured, 
“ recommended his friend Mr. Warner, Mayor of 
“ Winchester, who, after a fit of the gout, had his 
“ legs and thighs very much swollen and disco- 
“ loured with large scorbutic spots; ha made a 
“ lixiviate water in small quantities, had little or 
“ no appetite, with great thirst. 
“ I began with gentle purgatives, then put him 
“ upon drinking the waters; and, after conveni- 
“ ent time, permitted him to go into the Queen’s- 
“ Bath. His swelling abated, his pains asswaged, 
“ his strength returned, so that in less than two 
“ months he went back greatly advantaged in eve- 
“ ry respect.”—“ I might add several other instan- 
“ces of this kind, but I forbear for fear of enlarg- 
“ ing my book beyond its intended bulk.” 
OF the external and internal effects of cold wa- 
ter, Baynard (in his book of Cold baths) gives us 
the following. “ A wine-cooper, who 
“ had been a free liver, fell into a 
“ jaundice, thence a dropsy, the ascites.
“ He applied to Sir Thomas Witherly, president 
“ of the college of physicians, who treated him
“ in the usual methods, but nothing would do. 
“ He prodigiously swelled all over. Forsaken by 
“ friends and physician, he begged his wife to carry
“ him to Islington-wells, there for once to quench 
“ his thirst insatiable, and die in peace. 
Baynard’s
Cases. 
“ From between 4 in the afternoon to 9 or 10 
“ at night, he drank 14 quarts, without making 
“ one drop of water. He sunk down in the chair 
“ in a clammy sweat. Thence being laid on the 
“ bed for dead, in half an hour’s time, the people 
“ heard something make a small rattling noise like 
K “ a

218 DISEASES CURED
“ a coach in a distant gravel-way. Soon after he 
“ began to piss, and pissed in an hour’s time about 
“ 7 or 8 quarts; from the weight of the waters, 
“ he also had two or three stools. He began to 
“ speak, and desired a little warm sack, after 
“ which he fell into a profound sleep, in which 
“ he both sweat, and dribbled his urine all that
“ night. Next day, he drank 4 or 5 quarts more 
“ of water, had two stools thin and waterish, still 
“ pissed on. For five or six days he drank on, 
“ taking mutton-broth, and so recovered. The 
“ relation of this unaccountable cure had for ever 
“ been lost, had not Sir Thomas accidentally met 
“ with the good woman his wife, about two 
“ years after, and asking her, how long her hus- 
“ band had lived after he had left him? She re- 
“ plied, pointing to a little slender man standing 
“ by her, there he is, this is the husband who was 
“ your patient, and who recovered by turning his own 
“ physician.”
Of the external use of cold water, the Doctor 
gives two remarkable instances. 
1. “ James Crook of Long Acre, had dropsy, 
“ jaundice, palsy, rheumatism, and an inveterate 
“ pain in his back. 
“ In three immersions, the swellings of his legs 
“ sunk, so did the pain of his back, as did the 
“ jaundice, blowing from his nose a great quan- 
“ city of a bilious yellow matter. From the frigi- 
“ dity and pressure of the fluid we may account for 
“ his pissing more than he drank; but, how the 
“ icteric matter should be thrown off by the nose, 
“ he who can tell, erit mihi magnus Apollo.” 
2. “ A Scotchman, in an ascites, was cured. 
“ By his is girdle which I saw, he fell six inches, in 
“ five days, pissing freely all the time.” 
CHAP.

219 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIV. 
OF FEMALE DISEASES.
HIPPOCRATES (De locis in homine) may 
well be said to have spoken from experi- 
ence, when he said, αl υsεραl λανΤων
Των νοδημαΤων αlΤαl εlδlv Omnium
morhorum causae sunt uteri. Besides those diseases
which equally affect men and women, there are 
some peculiar to the fair sex. Humanity obliges 
me to point out those aids which may be had 
from the waters. Respect obliges me to mention
but few names, and those of persons long for- 
gotten. 
In general.
I. OF OBSTRUCTION.
1. OBSTRUCTION, chlorosis. febris al- 
ba, amatoria, morbus virgineus, icterus 
albus, and green sickness, are different names only
for one and the same disease. 
Definition.
2. The remote causes of obstruction are sudden 
chills, viscid food, fear, grief, ex- 
cessive evacuations, astringents, other 
diseases, &c.—Its proximate are, Rigidity of the 
uterine vessels, Cachexy, Compression, and Len- 
tor of the humours. 
Caueses.
3. The symptoms are, pain and heat of the 
loins, pulsation of the arteries, head- 
ach, want of appetite, languor, shi- 
vering, slow fever, thick red urine, inflamma- 
tion, suppuration, gangrene, varicous swellings 
of the veins of the legs, vomiting, anxiety, 
cough, palpitation, fainting, vertigo, apoplexy.  
Symptoms.
K2 madness,

220 DISEASES CURED
madness, green sickness, longings, fluor albus, 
and various haemorrhages. 
4. The prognostics vary according 
to the symptorns, time of suppression, 
age, and causes. 
Prognostics.
5. In rigidity of the vessels, relaxing fomenta- 
tions with tepid baths avail. In len- 
tor, or sluggish circulation, warm 
baths are also indicated. In poverty of juices, Bath
waters are internally indicated. From melancho- 
ly or despair, a fiddle and company are specifics. 
Cure. 
From Pierce's memoirs we have the following. 
1. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Eyles, of the Devizes, aged
“ sixteen, was very far gone in this
“ disease with hysteric fits, she was 
“ pale, thin, stomachless, faint and 
“ tired upon the least motion. She had tried me- 
“ dicines at home to no purpose. The same me- 
“ dicines with bathing, and a little water inter- 
“ nally, restored her (in six weeks time) to her 
“ appetite, complexion, and customary benefits 
“ of nature. ”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
2. “ A daughter of lady Berifford's, aged nine- 
“ teen, was brought hither June, 1693. She 
“ was, in all respects, rather worse than the for- 
“ mer. She bathed and drank. At the end of 
“ seven weeks she went off so well, that she want- 
“ ed no help of the physician. 
3. Mrs. Eliz. Wayte, aged 20, besides the 
“ symptoms of the first, had the jaundice, scur- 
“ vy and dropsy in her legs and feet. She was 
“ short-breathed to a degree, hot, and inclining 
“ to a hectic, with palpitations. She drank and 
“ bathed. n five or six weeks she walked in 
“ the meadows, recovered her appetite, com- 
“ plexion, flesh, and spirits.” 
4. “ Miss

221 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Miss La Chambre, aged thirteen, of the 
“ very complexion of the chalk, mortar, and o- 
“ ther trash which she used to devour, was faint, 
“ tired, heavy-headed. &c. I began with a vo- 
“ mit and purge. She then drank and bathed. 
“ in a few weeks she rejoiced more at the fight 
“ of a shoulder of mutton than a handful of clay. 
“ The waters gave her new life and vigour, she 
“ became a healthy young woman.”
It is not the eating of chalk, charcoal, salt, or 
such trash that brings on the green-sickness. The 
disease depraves the appetite, and thus creates a
longing after things unaccountable. The fore- 
going observation proves the fact. 
From Guidot we have drawn the following.
5. “ Mrs. Manwaring of Cheshire, 
“ (in full habit and obstructions) re- 
“ ceived benefit by bathings in the 
“ King's and Queen's. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
When the catamenia are obstructed through 
poverty of blood, or its bad disposition, the symp- 
toms enumerated in the foregoing section appear. 
The same method of cure will enable nature to- 
perform her work. 
6. “ Madam Constance Harvey in a cachexy. 
“ or ill habit of body, joined to inveterate ob- 
“ structions, received cure by bathing and drink- 
“ ing, August, 1673. 
7. “ Mrs. Margaret Hall, of Ross, received 
“ cure of a cachexy, and great obstructions by 
“ drinking and bathing for a month, June, 
“ 1673.”
8. “ Miss Finch, of Reading, in the same case,
“ received great benefit, 1693.” 
9. “ Madam Barber, in the spleen and obstruc- 
“ tions, received great benefit, 1693.”
K3 II.

222 DISEASES CURED
II. OF IMMODERATE DISCHARGES.
UNDER the head of diseases specifically cured 
by Bristol waters, I propose to treat on the sub- 
ject of female discharges. Let it suffice, in this 
place, in general, to observe, that in sanguine 
plethoric habits, Bath water aggravates every 
symptom. 
If the discharge is white, if the blood is im- 
poverished, if the disorder arises from a general 
cachexy, or bad disposition of the 
juices, Bath-water is an excellent in- 
ternal medicine. By correcting the bad disposi- 
tion, it performs the cure. If to these are joined
internal ulcers, strains, or violences of any sort, 
warm-bathing will facilitate the cure. 
Fluor albus.
Dr. Pierce gives the following cases. “ A 
“ gentlewoman of forty-three, of a sanguine com- 
“ plexion, of a scorbutic habit, had a- 
“ bout midsummer, 1679, a violent 
“ eruption of the fluor albus, which 
“ continued for a year. She took all that farra- 
“ go of astringents which is commonly prescrib- 
“ ed by apothecaries, midwives and nurses, to 
“ very little purpose. She had pains, weakness 
“ and stiffness in her joints, for which she came 
“ to Bath in May, 1680. 
“ I put her first on drinking the waters, which
“ took off the sharpness of the flux; and cased 
“ her pain, though the abatement in quantity was
“ but small. For her external pains she bathed, 
“ and drank the water between whiles. The 
“ bathing was so far from increasing the quan- 
“ tity of the fluor albus (as idle theorists imagine) 
“ that it lessened it considerably. After six weeks, 
“ she went home, where (by a decoction of the 
Pierce's 
Cases.
“ woods,

223 BY BATH WATER.
“ woods, ivory, hartshorn, &c.) shee recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
2. “ A citizen’s wife of Bristol, aged thirty- 
“ six, had a discharge of such variety of colours 
“ as easily demonstrated excoriation or ulcer. 
“ I ordered her to drink, bathe, and inject 
“ the water. By these and the help of balsam- 
“ ics and astringents, she returned well in two 
“ months.” 
3. “ A tradesman’s wife of Cirencester, about 
“ a fortnight after her delivery, was taken with a 
“ violent pain in her flank, with some swelling, 
“ which came (in two months) to be large, hard, 
“ and tender to the touch. A green fetid matter 
“ was discharged. I ordered her to drink the 
“ water, bathe, and inject. The hardness abated, 
“ the gleet ceased, she brought forth many chil- 
“ dren, and is now a buxsome widow.” 
4. “ Guidot’s Register informs us of the case 
“ of a noble lady, who the very first 
“ day that she entered the Cross-Bath, 
“ found herself cured of a prolapsus uteri, which
“ had been down for eighteen years. 
Guidot. 
III. OF BARRENNESS.
In his book De Thermis, Baccius has rationally- 
accounted for the causes of sterility; 
he has rationally also pointed out the 
cure. According to him sterility pro- 
ceeds from diverse causes, and, therefore, requires 
diverse methods of treatment. In hardness of the 
uterus, emollients and humectants are indicated,
in dry hot temperaments especially. Virago’s are 
born with a natural hardness of the uterus; they 
labour under three causes of sterility, heat, dry— 
ness, and hardness. These can be corrected only
Barrenness.
Causes. 
K4 by

224 DISEASES CURED
by assiduous use of tepid emollient baths. For 
the purpose of conception, Baccius 
declares that there is no other sort of 
remedy so certain or salutary as natural baths, 
provided they are duly and rationally administer- 
ed. Ad spem sobolis non reperirt aliud remedii genus 
nea salubrius, neque experientia certius, quam bal- 
nea ipsa nturalia, si debite, ac ex ratione ministrata 
sit, page 117. If sterility proceeds from humi- 
dity, or superfluity of humours, or weaknesses, 
it requires baths drying, and not much heating, 
ferreous, or aluminous. These may be used ex- 
ternally and internally. The Balneum Caiae, at 
Viterbo, got the name of the Lady's Bath, from its 
particular virtue; so did the Aponum, The aquae 
caldanellae were said fluores cohibere albos mulieribus, 
et gonorrhaeam viris vimque illis generativam ad- 
augere.
Cure.  
IN schirrous hardness, and swellings of the 
womb, warm mineral waters injected, or receiv- 
ed by vapour conduce, while total immersions, ra- 
ther exasperate, Fourteen years ago I met with 
a case which proves the position. 
1. A married lady came down, to Bath, with a 
hardness, and swelling of the uterus. By the 
advice of an eminent physician, since
dead, she bathed upwards of twenty 
times in the Queen and King’s baths. By constant 
bathing her flesh wasted, she became hectic. Her 
original complaint continued hard, and became 
painful. Despairing of cure, the Doctor told 
her at last, that her disorder was chirurgical, and
out of his way. When I met her she was pre- 
paring for her journey, and had sent away her 
cloaths. She told me what had been done, and 
begged my opinion. I told her, that the worst of
her complaints were the effects of improper bath-
Case.
ing.

225 BY BATH WATER.
ing. I advised her to go to the country, and drink 
asses milk for a fortnight, and return, which she 
did, I then directed her to let her maid throw uo 
a pail of warm Bath-water by the help of a flexi- 
ble syringe, every night at home, which she did. 
By degrees the pain abated, the swelling dimi- 
nished, and grew softer, she recovered flesh daily. 
I then recommended her to Dr. Smellie, who 
completed her cure with emollients, so that in a- 
bout eleven months he delivered her of a child. 
From Dr. Pierce's Memoirs. I have extracted the
following cases.
2. “ Mrs. DufFwaite was twelve 
“ years married without conceiving 
“ once. She came to Bath for a palsy. After 
“ bathing the second season, she returned home- 
“ well, and, in a month after, conceived, and 
“ had five lusty children at different births.”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “  Mrs. Hawkins, of Marlborough, forty 
“ years old, had been married thirteen or four- 
“ teen years without a child. She came hither 
“ for lameness. By long bathing, she not only 
“ got her legs, but her belly up also five different 
“ times.” 
4. “ Lady Blissington, a weak sickly person, 
“ married for years, and childless, bathed and
“ drank. By God's blessing, she not only got 
“ her health, but became a mother also.”
“ This is an effect (says the Doctor) so very 
“ well known, and so generally believed, that 
“ when any woman comes hither that is child- 
“ less, they presently say, she comes for the com- 
“ mon cause. To instance all who have sped in 
“ this errand since my living here, were to fill a 
“ volume.”  
5. “ Mrs. Clement, of Bristol, aged forty, had 
“ several children, but buried them all. She had 
K5 “ not 

226 DISEASES CURED
“ not conceived in nine years. She came and 
“ bathed for rheumatic pains. Soon after she con- 
“ ceived, and brought forth twins.” 
6. “ The very same happened to a worthy 
“ gentlewoman, Mrs. Horton, of Comend.” 
7. “ Mrs. Davers, of Monks, had eight chil- 
“ dren, but being ill of a scorbutic habit, with
“ weakness of her limbs, she bred not for six 
“ years. I ordered her the bath, which, with 
“ other helps, restored her health. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a son. 
“ She came to Bath again, fearing a relapse. By 
“ drinking the waters only, she soon conceived. 
“ She had afterwards two miscarriages, and a
“ lusty boy at forty-four.” 
IV. OF ABORTION.
THERE are not wanting instances 
of women apt to miscarry, who, by the 
use of mineral waters, have been en- 
abled to go through with their burdens. 
Prevent mis- 
carriage. 
In such cases Baccius gives numerous instances
of the power of the Porretanae, Albulae, and 
many other detergent strengthening waters, in- 
ternally and externally applied. 
Savonarola (De balneis vallis Chaim vulgo dict- 
balnea dominarum) expresses himself thus. “ This 
“ bath has received great commenda- 
“ tion in disorders of the womb, in 
“ passionibus matricis, by preparing it 
“ for conception, cleansing, absterging, and 
“ strengthening all those faults which proceed 
“ from causes cold and moist. It provokes the 
“ meness. For such purposes, the ladies frequent 
“ it daily, pro hisque passionibus mulieres indies id 
“ in vadunt. 
Collateral
proofs.
1. Guia-

227 BY BATH WATER.
1. Guianerus (De balneis aquensibus, cap. 3.) 
relates the following memorable case. “ A cer- 
“ tain lady (by reason of an obstinate white flux) 
“ could not conceive. The matter was some- 
“ times so fetid, that she loathed herself. After 
“ due preparation, she used the warm bath, and 
“ drank the water. Thus, cured of the whites, 
“ she went home, conceived, and in due time, 
“ brought forth a boy, menstruis albis purgatis, 
“ domi praegnans facta, puellum enixa est.” 
2. “ Mrs. Sherrington, after many 
“ miscarriages, came, bathed, and 
“ drank the waters for five or six 
“ weeks, in three years, she brought forth three 
“ children at different births.” 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “ Mrs. Howard, formerly maid of honour 
“ to the Dutchess of York, conceived ten times, 
“ but never carried any to the full time. She 
“ came and bathed five weeks. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a 
“ daughter in due time, as she did afterwards a 
“ son.” 
4. “ Lady Kilmurry miscarried thrice. She used 
“ the bath only five weeks, returned, conceived, 
“ and carried her burden to maturity. She miscar- 
“ ried twice or thrice again, came back, bathed
“ again. In due time, she had a daughter.” 
V. OF PREGNANCY.
INSTANCES of women who have drank and 
bathed during their pregnancy with- 
cut miscarriage. 
1. “ Mrs. Howard, of Yorkshire, 
“ came hither May, 1690, for a weak- 
“ ness in her lower limbs, for which she bathed
“ six or seven weeks till she was cured. She was 
Water safe, 
during preg- 
nancy. 
K6 “ young

228 DISEASES CURED
“ young with child just before she set cut for this
“ place, as appeared afterwards by her reckon- 
“ ing, when she was brought to bed of a lusty 
“ girl.” 
2. “ Mrs. Floyer had often miscarried, she 
“ was very hysterical. She was with child all 
“ the time while she bathed and drank, as ap- 
“ peared by the time of her delivery of a son, 
“ the strongest she ever had. She passed her 
“ month better than ever, which was imputed to 
“ the bathing.” 
3. “ Lady Cooke, the wife of a city knight, 
“ came down with some relations for pleasure. As 
“ she was here, she was willing to bathe for 
“ some pains which she was subject to in her limbs, 
“ but was doubtful, knowing herself to be young 
“ with child. She consulted me. I advised the 
“ Cross Bath with moderation. She bathed fif- 
“ teen times, and was then two months gone, as 
“ afterwards appeared by her being delivered of
“ a full-ripe child.” 
4. “ Lady Scarborough came to the Bath for 
“ lameness after rheumatism, gout, &c. She 
“ bathed even to excess after she found the child
“ quick, imputing the motion only to wind. She 
“ miscarried not, for she was, at due time, de- 
“ livered of a daughter which they called by the 
“ nick-name of the Bath-girl.” 
5. I remember an instance of a lady’s maid, 
who (to create miscarriage) bathed often in the 
hottest baths, and to no purpose. 
WHEN night-baths were more in 
fashion, our women-guides were in the 
water sometimes eight or nine hours a 
day; many of them have been with child, with- 
out miscarriage. 
Women 
guides. 
Pudendorum

229 BY BATH WATER.
Pudendorum vitiis minerales aquae valde conveni- 
unt, says Baccius, p. 118. Sunt enim bae natura- 
liter ficcae, ac ficcis ex aequo medicamen- 
tis haec Loca indigent. Humida saniosa, 
ac fistulosa fedis ulcer et quae uteri cer- 
vicem obfiderint, non possunt ullis aquae 
preusidiis percurari, quam naturallbus balneis; turn
aquis, de more, bibitis, turn iisdem per catheterem in 
loculos ipsos infusis, et calefactis biemo, quibus nos fe- 
liciter usi sunius, etiam in saevo ulcere intestini caeci, 
quod penetrans, tractu temporis, foras in inguen, ex 
ipso ulcere (mirum) ebibitas reddebat aquas.—Percu- 
ratam similiter per ejusmodi balnea in Aenaria scimus
illustrem Dominant Neapoli, quae cancrum occultum 
medicorum judicio, aut schirrum alioquin incurabilem, 
inter abdomen et uterum erat diu perpessa. 
Bathing use- 
ful in ulcers
and cancers.
WEAK ricketty children find constant relief by 
bathing. In my Attempt to revive the practice of
bathing I have quoted examples.
OF

[230]
OF 
DISEASES 
CURED BY 
BRISTOL WATER. 
CHAP. XV. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
UNDER the general head of Diseases cured hy 
Bath Water, I have given convincing proofs of 
the power of Bath water in disorders of the breast. 
Custom has appropriated disorders of the breast to 
Bristol Water only, in compliance with custom, 
I have reserved the particular disquisition of such
disorders to this chapter. To the study of Con- 
sumptions, I have given particular attention. I 
have pried into almost all the boasted nostrums. 
With the sagacious GILCHRIST, I ingenuously 
confess that, in proportion to my experience, my 
faith abates. Rationally to account for the ope- 
ration of the waters, now my purpose briefly to 
distinguish the different diseases of the breast, 
with their subject, causes, symptoms, stages, diag- 
nostics, prognostics, regimens, and method of cure.
I. OF COUGH, OR CATARRH.
1. Cough, or Catarrh is a convul- 
sive endeavour to expel whatever proves 
offensive to the lungs.
Definition.
2. IT
 

231 BY BRISTOL WATER.
2. IT is divided, into thin and sharp, 
or into viscid and inert. 
Division. 
3. The first is occasioned by sudden chills, 
winds cold and moist, east and north 
particularly, sudden changes, thaws, 
wet cloaths, relicts of former diseases, measles, 
small-pox, &c. 
Causes.
4. The second takes its rise from laxity of the 
solids, indolence, moisture, night studies, crude 
cold and watery diet, &c. 
5. The symptoms of the first are shivering, las- 
situde, watery inflamed eyes, flushed counte- 
nance, shortness of breathing, tickling 
and inclination to cough, especially 
towards night, plentiful secretion of urine, quick
hard pulse, itching and running of the nostrils, 
sneezing, inflammation, and excoriation of the 
membrana sneideriana, hoarseness, spitting of blood, 
and pulmonary phthisis. 
Symptoms. 
6. In the viscid catarrh, respiration labours, the 
lungs are oppressed with frothy mucus, the cough 
is chiefly troublesome in the morning; the mat- 
ter expectorated is whitish, bluish, and globular. 
These are succceded by tubercles, suppurations, 
and pulmonary consumptions. 
These symptoms are easily accounted for. Of 
all causes, the most common is cold. Causae ex- 
ternae quae prohibere solent perspirationem sunt aer 
frigidus, caenosus, humidus, &c. says Sanctorius.
The membrana sneideriana suffers by its com- 
munication with that membrane which covers 
the inside of the lungs. The internal and exter- 
nal parts of the thorax and abdomen become 
convulsed, because they are covered with the 
same nerves with the lungs, the eighth pair, and 
intercostals. 
7. The

232 DISEASES CURED
7. The convulsive cough is more inveterate, 
and attacks children, commonly called Chincough. 
In this, inspiration continues for some 
minutes; when it begins, it is per- 
formed by a sort of hissing, snoring, 
and clangor, occasioned by the coarctation of the 
glottis. Little or nothing is thrown up. The sto- 
mach is often provoked to vomiting. Fever super- 
venes; ulcer, haemoptoe, and phtisis follow. 
Convulsive
cough.
8. The cause of this species seems 
not yet ascertained. 
Causes.
II. OF CONSUMPTION.
1. EVERY disease that wastes the body may, 
strictly speaking, be termed consumption. This
is a wasting of the body accompanied 
with hectic fever, cough, and puru- 
lent spitting. In this country consumptions may
truly be said to be endemic. The general con- 
stitution of our air is cold, moist, and variable. 
Laxity of solids, languid circulation,, and reten- 
tion of humours are natural consequences. Dis- 
eases arising from such solids and fluids, are 
coughs, catarrhs, hectic fevers, empyema, hae- 
moptoe, sweating, asthma, &c. It is called a 
pulmonary phthisis, because it has its seat parti- 
cularly in the lungs. 
Definition.
2. It is distinguished, 1. Into or- 
dinary and symptomatic. 2. Into 
phthisis, with an abscess. 3. Into acute and
chronic. 
Division.
3. Persons subject to this disease are 
the young, long-necked, tall, narrow 
chested, and lax. 
Subjects.
4. The procatarctic causes are a- 
crid matter, metallic fumes, moist air, 
tubercles, haemoptoe, suppressions of usual eva-  
Causes. 
cuations,

233 BY BRISTOL WATER.
cuatations, inordinate passions, gluttony, drinking, 
indolence, wounds, and dregs of other diseases; 
infection, and hereditary taint. Obstruction of 
the glands of the lungs or arteries produce this, 
disease, as well as ulcers. 
5. It is divided into two stages, in- 
flammatory and suppuratory. 
Stages.
6. It begins with a dry cough, clangorous 
voice, heat, pain, oppression after motion, spit- 
ting of blood, saltish taste of the 
mouth, loss of appetite, thirst, vomit- 
ing, sadness, sense of weight in the lobe affected, 
pulse quick, soft, and small; sometimes full and 
hardish. This we call the inflammatory state. 
Symptoms.
7. Soon after the patient expectorates matter 
white, green, streaked, insipid, and fetid. The
body wastes, and seems chilly in hot weather,
with night heats, and morning sweats, diarhaea, 
dysentery, lientery, or diabetes; the palms of 
the hands burn; the tongue becomes covered 
with little ulcers; after meals the cheeks flush;
the nails grow crooked; the hair falls off; the 
feet swell; the belly shrinks upwards; parts of 
the air-vessels are thrown up by spitting; all the 
functions languish; the body grows dry; the 
eyes sink into their sockets. Laesion of degluti- 
tion, drying up of the ulcers, chills, and loss of 
strength, carry off the sick in the midst of flat- 
tering hopes. This we call the suppuratory state. 
In a Vomica pulmonum all these symptoms ap- 
pear, excepting spitting of pus. 
8. The inflammatory state is thus distinguish- 
ed from the catarrh. In the former, the cough 
is dry, a sense of weight is perceived 
in one of the lobes of the lungs. In 
the latter, defluxion only.—Putrid remittent 
fever, expectoration of pus, wasting, night sweats,
Distinction.
and

234 DISEASES CURED
and colliquative looseness, distinguish the suppu- 
ratory state from other diseases. 
AN EMPYEMA is a collection of pus between 
the lungs and the pleura. It is distin- 
guishable by the hectic fever, difficul- 
ty of breathing, cough, spitting, fluctuation of 
matter, weight and sense of pain on shifting pos- 
ture; with other signs of inflammation and sup- 
puration. 
Empyema. 
A consumption is distinguished from a Vomica 
of the Liver, by that pathognomonic 
pain which attends the latter, and 
which reaches upwards to the shoul- 
der; by tumor and pain in the part affected, nau- 
sea, vomiting, and diarhaea. 
Vomica of 
the Liver. 
A consumption is distinguished from an ab- 
scess of the stomach by symptoms pe- 
culiar to the latter, viz. Fetid eructa- 
tions, cough without expectoration, 
purulent vomiting, faintings, sweats, pain in de- 
glutition, or after; pain of the intestines, occa- 
sioned by the passing of pus; of the omentum, 
or mesentery of the kidneys; desire of lying on
the belly; purulent urine, or dysury, &c. 
Abscess of
the Stomach. 
III. OF HECTIC FEVER.
1. FEVERS which proceed slowly, 
debilitate and waste, are called Hectic. 
Definition.
2. Hectic fevers are divided into idiopathic and
symptomatic. Symptomatic hectics proceed from 
schirrous infarctions, and ulcers of the 
viscera, particularly the lungs and me- 
sentery. There are hectic fevers which proceed 
from mere acrimony. This opinion gathers 
strength from a survey of the remote causes of 
hectics, viz. Inordinate passions, grief, anger,
Division. 
care,

235 BY BRISTOL WATER. 
care, watching, excessive evacuations of all sorts;
corrosive medicines; debility of the first passages; 
past diseases; suppressions of usual evacuations; 
drunkenness. 
3. The symptoms of hectics are the 
same almost as in consumptions. 
Symptoms. 
IV. OF HAEMOPTOE. 
1. FLORID frothy blood thrown up 
from the lungs, we call Haemoptoe. 
Definition.
2. Persons are subject to this from 
the same dispositions mentioned under 
the section of consumption.
Subjects. 
3. The remote causes are violent orgasms, or 
expansion of the blood; spastic contractions of
the viscera; schirrous obstructions; 
polypus’s in the pulmonary vessels; 
plethora’s after intermissions of usual evacuations; 
anger; violent exercise; high fauces; spirituous 
liquors; violent fits of coughing; strainings; 
hard frost; inelastic air.
Causes. 
4. The preceding symptoms are shivering, las- 
situde, coldness of the extremities, anxiety, diffi-
culty of breathing, heavy undulatory 
pain about the region of the dia- 
phragm, flatus, and pain of the back. These 
symptoms are peculiar to this species of hae- 
moptoe. 
Symptoms.
V. OF ASTHMA.
1. ASTHMA is a laborious respira- 
tion, threatening suffocation.
Definition.
2. It is 1. Periodic, or continual. 
2. Moist, or dry. 3. Genuine, or 
spurious. Of the first we treat only. 
Division.
3. It

236 DISEASES CURED
3. It chiefly attacks fat people, and
after the bloom of youth. It is more 
frequent in summer than in autumn. 
Subjects.
4. Its remote causes are gross foggy air, thun- 
der, inordinate passions, small-pox, scurvy, in- 
termittents, catarrh, old ulcers cica- 
trized, suppression of wonted evacua- 
tions, repercussions of critical evacuations, gout, 
erysepilas, oedematous tumors of the feet, wounds 
of the diaphragm, hereditary taint. 
Causes.
5. Its proximate causes are, 1. Obstructions of 
the bronchia and air vessels. 2. Irritation of the
respiratory nerves; thence spasmodic contraction 
of those fibres which correct the cartilaginous- 
rings of the bronchia. 
6. The paroxysm manifests itself thus. First, 
the stomach is distended, and throws up belch- 
ings, with a sense of coarctation. 
Heat, fever, stupor, head-ach, nausea, 
and pale urine follow. The lungs feel stiff, the 
spirits are ruffled, the extremities seem benumb- 
ed, the breast feels as it were squeezed between 
two presses, the patient breathes with difficulty, 
and speaks hoarse. During the night every symp- 
tom increases. Breathing is slow, nor can it be 
performed but in an erect posture, nor without 
the assistance of the scapulae. Worse in bed than
in the cold air. Tears flow involuntary, the 
pulse feels weak, small and intermitting; the 
heart trembles, the face grows black, with a 
sense of suffocation. As the straightness remits, 
a viscid, sweet, saltish phlegm is thrown up, 
streaked with black filaments. The urine then 
is coloured, and lets fall a sediment. When the 
fit is over, the spitting ceases. As the disorder 
grow inveterate, the hands and feet swell, espe- 
cially towards night, the countenance acquires a 
Symptoms. 
livid

237 BY BRISTOL WATER.
livid cast, the patient falls into dropsy, consump- 
tion, inflammation of the lungs, lethargy, palsy, 
death. 
Prognostics.
THUS, having accounted for the causes, seats, 
symptoms, and effects of pectoral diseases in 
general, we now proceed to their several prog- 
nostics. 
1. Dry Coughs generally change into moist. 
The former are more dangerous than the latter, 
because of those inflammations, and 
ruptures of vessels which accompany
them. Better that dry coughs should turn moist, 
than moist into dry; because tubercles, putrid 
and hectic fevers generally attend the latter. 
Moist coughs hinder digestion, and bring on ca- 
chexy. To weak lungs, both sorts are bad. 
Coughs.
2. Convulsive Coughs are rarely 
dangerous. 
Convulsive. 
3. In consumptions, the following symptoms 
promise fair. Pus white, even, easily thrown
up, little or no fever, respiration free, 
cough moderate, appetite not impair-  
ed, chest wide, belly lax, youth, and the disease
yet recent.—If the disease happens to be heredita- 
ry, if the cough is severe, if the hectic heat lasts
till morning, if sleep refreshes not, if the wast- 
ing be great, if there is danger of suffocation, 
looseness, colliquative sweat, and swelling of the 
feet, the case is, at best, desperate. Acute phthi- 
sis is more dangerous than chronic, originary 
than symptomatic. The autumn promises little 
to consumptives. 
Consumptton.
4. In

238 DISEASES CURED
4. In hectic fevers, if the strength 
fails, if the hair falls off, with colli- 
quative diarhaea’s, night sweats, swell- 
ing of the feet, urine oily, and the face hippocra- 
tic, the patient has little to hope for. 
Hectic fe- 
vers. 
5. Of all haemorhages, that of eructation of 
pure blood from the lungs is the most 
dangerous. According to the habit, 
age, and vessels ruptured, the danger 
varies. It is more perilous when it arises from
weak vessels, schirrous, or polypus, than when 
it proceeds from the fluids themselves, or the in- 
termission of usual evacuations, in weak lax ha- 
bits than in strong, in old than in young, from 
ruptures of large vessels than from small. From
obstructions, women are subject to haemoptoes. 
In them it is more alarming than dangerous. 
Emenagogues, about the next time of eruption, 
bring nature to its own channel, the haemoptoe 
ceases. If part of the blood stagnates in the ae- 
real vessels, it putrifies, corrupts the found parts, 
and brings on consumption. If it happens to be 
complicated with ulcer, the patient would do 
well to think of another world.—If it returns 
often, the blood acquires acrimony from inani- 
tion. Hence it is, that (in Monasteries) those 
devotees who really fast, die all of putrid hectic 
fevers. The same juices, bv constant circular 
tion, naturally acquire putrescency; their breath 
is offensive; such generally die raving mad. 
Thus it fares with nurses who fast too long; 
their milk tastes strong of urine. Hence also it 
is that the best natured people grow peevish 
through sickness. This explains that axiom, 
Qui same moriuntur, febre moriuntur. 
Haemor- 
hages. 
6. In asthmas, the prognostics are 
more promising in youth than in old 
Asthmas.
age,

239 BY BRISTOL WATER.
age, from evacuations suppressed than from other 
causes. The more frequent and severe the pa- 
roxysms, the worse. An asthma changing into a 
peripneumony is deadly. Difficulty of breathing 
may be long borne; orthopnaea strangles old 
men suddenly. Blackness of the face, and suffo- 
cation happen from a stoppage of the blood thro' 
the lungs. Dangerous are trembling respiration, 
pulse intermittent or deficient, palsy of the upper 
extremities, faintings, palpitation, and scarcity 
of urine. When the breathing comes to be 
small and slow, when the limbs feel cold, when 
the pulse changes from slow to quick and weak, 
matters are at the worst. Thus having accounted 
for particular prognostics, we next proceed to the
several methods of cure. 
Cure. 
1. THIN, sharp catarrh calls 1. For vaenesec- 
tion, gentle purging, and mild dia- 
phoretics. 2. Acrimony is to be cor- 
rected, thinness inspissated, and the pulmonary 
vessels to be relaxed by vegetable expressed oils; 
mucilaginous decoctions; pectoral syrups and 
balsams. 3. Convulsive spasms are to be quieted 
by opiates. 4. The diet ought to be light, bland, 
milky. The skin ought to be defended from the 
air; rest is first to be indulged, then gentle ex- 
ercise. 
Thin catarrh. 
2. In viscid catarrh, 1. The peccant matter is 
to be diverted, by keeping the belly 
open, blisters and issues. 2. It is to
be attenuated by vomits, blisters, and 
medicines inciding and deterging, viz. soap, 
squills, garlick, gum-ammoniac, and vegetable 
acids. 3. The lungs are to be strengthened by
Thick ca-
tarrh. 
fumiga-

240 DISEASES CURED
fumigations, riding, friction, corroborating diet, 
and ferrugineous waters. 
3. In convulsive Coughs, medicines avail but 
little, till the disease has almost ex- 
pended its fury. These chiefly con- 
duce, 1. Bleeding. 2. Vomits, 3. 
Purges. 4. Pectorals. 5. Blisters. 6. Specifics; 
and, 7. Bitters. 
Convulsive 
cough. 
4. In the inflammatory state of consumptions, 
1. Small bleedings seasonably repeated conduce. 
2. Blisters ought frequently to be ap- 
plied. 3. Thin sharp humours are 
to be inviscated by oily incrassating 
medicines. 4. Vomits, provided the disease takes 
its rise from thin catarrh. 5. Medicines and diet 
are specifically to be directed to the causes; hae- 
morhage, scurvy, scrophula, asthma, evacua- 
tions, &c.—Crude tubercles are to be attempted 
by the most gentle deobstruents, and with the 
greatest caution. 
Consumptions 
inflammatory. 
4. The second, or suppuratory state, may be 
attempted, 1. By astringents, increasing and ag- 
glutinate. 2. Pus is to be drawn off 
by those ways which nature affects.
3. The effects of pus are to be prevented by an- 
tiseptics, incrassants, and acids. 4. The body 
is to be refreshed with light nourishing diet, air, 
sleep, avoiding venery, and passions of the mind. 
—The preservatory cure depends on little bleed- 
ings, diet, exercise, and avoiding night air.
Suppuratory.  
5. Hectics admit of no cure, unless they are 
timeously attacked. The acrimony of the blood 
is, 1. To be corrected by medicines 
demulcent and inviscating, such as al- 
mond emulsions, vegetable mucilaginous decoc- 
tions, barley, marsh-mallows, colts-foot, chicken 
broth, &c. 2. Asses milk, or breast milk, goat- 
Hectics. 
whey,



241 BY BRISTOL WATER.
whey, &c. 3. Gentle astringents, conserve of 
roses, tincture of roses, elixir vitriol, bark, fer- 
rugineous waters, &c. 4. Riding, and constant 
travelling. 5. Cleansing the first passages, by 
gentle pukes, and rhubarb. 6. Paying attention 
always to original causes. 
6. In Haemoptoes, 1. The blood is to be 
diverted from the lungs. 2. Its orgasm is to be 
tempered. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed; and, 4. Ruptured vessels are to 
be foldered.—1. The blood is to be 
diverted by vaenesection, gentle purging, glys- 
ters, and ligatures. 2. Its orgasm is to be tem- 
pered by water and nitre, acids mineral and ve- 
getable, and opiates. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed by opiates. 4. The vessels are to be consoli- 
dated by medicines oily, incrassating, and agglu- 
tinant diet, tranquility, abstinence of all sorts. 
Spitting of 
blood. 
7. In moist asthmas, the intention is to at- 
tenuate, and evacuate viscid matter, and to pre- 
vent its regeneration. Attenuation is 
performed by medicines, attenuating 
and diluting liquors. Evacuation by 
pukes. Generation of new matter, by gentle 
purges and diuretics, fontanells, blisters, and the 
bark. 
Moist asth- 
mas. 
8. In convulsive asthmas, the business is to 
quiet the orgasm of the spirits. This is accom- 
plished, 1. By diminishing the stric- 
ture by glysters, and fomentation ap- 
plied to the breast. 2. By diverting the humours 
to other places, by friction and warm pediluvia. 
3. By allaying the spasm with opiates and anti- 
spasmodics.—In the plethoric, bleeding gives im- 
mediate relief. In flatulencies, carminative glys- 
ters. After the paroxysm, the bark bids fair for 
preventing irritability. In both kinds, erect pos- 
Convulsive.
L ture, 




242 DISEASES CURED
ture, slender diet, and air serene conduce. If 
the disorder proceeds from suppression of usual 
evacuations, it is to be attempted by diaphoretics 
and restoration of such evacuations. 
FROM the preceding deduction, we naturally 
draw the following practical reflections. 
1. IN constitutions naturally good, 
when fever, sickness, cough, and wast- 
ing, give early warning when the dis- 
order happens to be endemic, and the habit not 
much impaired, common evacuations generally 
succeed. 
Evacuations 
indicated.
2. ULCERS from incysted tumours 
yield to common methods, provided 
the disorder proceeds from external in- 
juries, and the constitution be found. 
Pus, confined within its cystis, affects the 
lungs no otherwise than by pressure. When the 
cystis comes once to be expectorated, the disease
is cured.  
Incysted tu- 
mours. 
From page 99 to 105 inclusive, Gilchrist (in 
his Use of Sea Voyages in Medicine) gives histories 
of cures from incysted tumours, with the help of 
hardly any one medicine; nay, he hardly allows 
such to be called consumptions. 
3. CONSUMPTIONS from glandular obstruc- 
tions are very frequent, and very obstinate. Be- 
tween such, and scrophulas, there 
seems to be great analogy. Scrophu- 
las prevail often without visible tu- 
mour. The seat of the distemper lies often in 
the mesentery and lungs, which are covered with 
an infinitude of glands. Such obstructions fre- 
quently end in hectic and pulmonary consump- 
tion. Scurvy, vapours, and scrophula often have 
the same common cause; therefore it is that they 
are often common to the same patient, and 
Glandular 
obstructions. 
change

243 BY BRISTOL WATR:
change so often into one another. Sickly tender 
habits have often been relieved by scorbutic erup- 
tions. Eruption imprudently repelled has brought 
on tubercles, glandular swellings, topical inflam- 
mations, languor, and vapours. Some scrophu- 
las are mild, and easily admit of resolution, or 
suppuration. Others are intractable. So, in 
some consumptions, we observe mild suppura- 
tions. In true glandular consumptions, there are 
not wanting instances of cures. But, if the ha- 
bit degenerates, if new causes concur, other 
glands come to be affected, those which have 
been healed turn callous, the disease comes to be 
fatal. 
4. WHEN obstructions resolve not, when the 
lungs really come to be ulcerated, cures are very 
rare. By malignity of ulcers added to 
necessary motion of expiration and in- 
spiration, consolidation is prevented. In pectoral
diseases, various and perplexed are the contra-in- 
dications. Like fruits on the same tree, some 
are green, some coloured, some mellow, just so 
it fares with the pulmonary glands; some are 
crude, others inflamed, others suppurated, others 
broken. In fevers complicated of the inflamma- 
tory, hectic, and putrid, what hopes can we ad- 
minister? In coughs dependent on erosion, on 
catarrh, opiates, doubtless, have their use. By 
retaining acrid pus, they add to infarction; 
they debilitate, pall the appetite, and bind the 
belly; they are, at best, but temporary reliefs. 
Fever indicates the bark. Bark adds to obstruc- 
tion; and so may we say of pectorals in ge- 
neral. 
Suppuration.
5. THERE is hardly a disease in 
which common practice is more absurd 
than in this of which we treat. Coughs, 
Pectorals, 
their opera- 
tion.
L2 catarrhs,



244 DISEASES CURED
catarrhs, hectics, consumptions, asthmas and hae- 
moptoes differ from one another, and there- 
fore require different cures. Sharp catarrhs 
indicate diaphoretics, thick attenuants. Scor- 
butic consumptions yield to antiscorbutics; vene- 
real to mercurials Medicines certainly have 
their use; by restoring faultering nature, they 
often procure a truce; and, at length, a cure. 
But, from a comparative view of the delicate 
structure of the lungs, and the qualities of medi- 
cines promiscuously employed, we may venture 
to say, that consumptives are too often hurried to 
their long homes. Cloying linctus’s pall the ap- 
petite; astringents cork up, choak, and increase 
the fever. When we endeavour to cure consump- 
tions by remedies which respect the habit, we 
satisfy one indication only. Surgeons rely not 
altogether on local applications. Ulcers are the 
same, external or internal. To correct the vice 
of the fluids, to consolidate the ruptured vessels, 
are equally the intentions of the rational practi- 
tioner. By the common method of practice, one 
would think that practitioners had discovered a 
shorter passage to the lungs than by the round of 
circulation. 
6. IN cases where art has exhausted its skill, 
where nostrums have proved of none effect, where 
the mass of blood has been fused into ichorous 
corroding serum, where this same serum has run 
off in colliquative discharges, where these dis- 
charges have been increased by consuming hectic, 
where the tenement of the lungs has been broken, 
where the bronchia as well as cavity of the tho- 
rax have been filled with pus, where the body 
has not only been emaciated, but could not be 
nourished, Bristol hot-well waters have perform- 
ed wonders. The only collection of cures per- 
formed



245 BY BRISTOL WATER:
formed by those waters, is that very short treatise 
by Dr. John Underhill, of Bristol, printed in the 
year 1703. By the author’s facetious stile, it 
bears the marks of genuine simplicity. From 
this simple fountain, added to my own observa- 
tions, I hope to be able to produce proofs suffi- 
cient of my text. To facts I appeal. 
“ The Hot-well water mixeth (as he says) per 
“ minima, with wine, and other potables, so na- 
“ turally suited to all stomachs, and of such a- 
“ greeable warmth, that it never regurgitates, 
“ though common water of the same heat is an 
“ emetick, and so wonderfully fortifies the ven- 
“ tricle, that it never fails to excite an eager ap- 
“ petite. This is so well known, that instances 
“ were endless and coincident. It is of true me- 
“ rit in all Cachocyhmy, Cholic, Bilious Vomiting, 
“ Cardialgias, Dysenteries, and Fluxes of all kinds, 
“ Fevers, and all hectic Cases, all lavish Sweatings, 
“ Rheumatic Pains, Herpetes, Pustules, Itch, Scor- 
“ bute, all sorts of Ulcers inward or outward, 
“ Asthmas, King’s Evil, Dysuries. Diabetes, Kid- 
“ ney-gravel. Bladder, and other excoriations. It 
“ extinguishes all thirst. It is more binding than 
“ laxative. To diffuse the curative uses of this 
“ helpful water, I have carefully collected the 
“ following histories, attested either by the per- 
“ sons themselves, or other credible eye-witnes- 
“ ses, to obviate all suspicion of falsehood, and 
“ frivolous objection to the prejudice of the pub- 
“ lic against plain matters of fact. Res ipsa lo- 
“ quitur.” 
1. “ The Reverend Dr. Hammond, of Christ
Church, Oxon, about four years since, 
“ spared neither care nor cost for the 
“ recovery of Christopher Pyman, his 
then servitor, and now of the same college.
Underhill's 
Cases, 
L3 “ After




246 DISEASES CURED
“ After the Doctor had left him past hopes of 
“ recovery, with his funeral directions, a dismal 
“ spectacle, wasted to the last degree, in a con- 
“ sumption, at the prime of life, forsaken by his 
“ physicians, and left to the merciless hand of 
“ death by his friends, was perfectly cured by 
“ drinking the Hot-well water, and now remains- 
“ a living healthful testimony of this truth,” 
2. “ William Darvise, of West-street, Law- 
“ ford's Gate, Bristol, aged fifty-three, at the last 
“ extremity consumptive, a frightful skeleton, 
“ continually coughing, straining, and spitting 
“ day and night, appetite gone, sleep with his 
“ physicians vanished, and his friends hourly ex- 
“ pecting his death; by drinking the Hot-well 
“ water this present summer, is, to astonishment, 
“ restored to appetite and sleep, hale and active, 
“ without cough, or any remaining symptom. 
“ This, in gratitude, he desires to be published, 
“ for the sake of others in such tabid languishing 
“ circumstances. 
“ William Darvise.” 
3. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol College-green, 
“ certifies, That Capt. Richard Clark, of Horse
“ path, aged forty-six, lodged at her house for 
“ about seven weeks, in the year 1701, in which 
“ time the Hot-well checked his melting 
“ sweats, which had been long lavish, and did 
“ take off his insatiable thirst. I am since assured 
“ by his niece that he enjoys perfect health.” 
“ It seems useless (continues our author) to 
“ insert parallel, or lesser cures, which lie by, 
“ for room-sake, to manifest the effective virtues 
“ of Hot-well water in the most miserable phthisic 
“ cases; for it is, instar omnium, the last and 
“ only known subterfuge in Hectics and dyscrasy
“ of



247 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ of humours. It is a true and faithful febri- 
“ fuge at all essays ” 
1. By easy journies, Miss Lee or Birmingham, 
was conveyed to the Wells. To the dregs of the 
measles she owed her consumption. 
By profuse sweats, and colliquative 
discharges of all sorts, she was reduced 
to skin and bone. Every morning the chamber- 
maid emptied a bason, almost half full of matter, 
of an intolerable stench. 
Author's 
Cases. 
She was so weak that she could not walk up to 
the pump. She drank the water in her chair for 
the first six weeks, without the least visible a- 
mendment. After this, it began to have a sensi- 
ble effect. It threw out large boils on her back. 
At the end of three months her blood vessels seem- 
ed to be filled with fresh juices. She eat heartily, 
walked firmly, and rode on the Downs. The 
only remaining symptom was a dry teazing cough, 
which (as I have often observed) seemed now 
to be exasperated by the continuance of the 
waters. 
I advised her to go home, to drink spring-water 
acidulated with Elixir Vitriol Acid, and butter- 
milk, with riding. After six years she now con- 
tinues well.” 
2. Lord Stavordale, of a delicate frame and 
fair complexion, aged about ten or eleven, came 
down to the Wells. By the advice of the most
eminent, he had gone through the pharmaco- 
paea, he was escorted by an eminent apothecary, 
armed with baskets of antidotes for every symp- 
tom. By cough, hectic, flying pains,, and sweat- 
ing, he was so reduced, that he could hardly bear 
the motion of a post-chaise; he had thrown 
up pus. He was, at first, carried in arms, to 
drink the water at the pump. In the space of six 
L4 weeks




248 DISEASES CURED
weeks his symptoms vanished, he grew plump 
and active, galloped his little horse up and down, 
and continues well.” 
3. Master Townley, of Lancashire, of the same 
age and complexion, came hither emaciated by a 
hectic fever, attended with a cough. By the wa- 
ters acidulated with Elixir Vitriol alone, he went 
away recovered. 
4. Mr. Redpath of London, Merchant, after 
a pleuritic fever, laboured under a cough, hectic, 
sweatings, and rheumatic pains, which reduced 
him very low. He drank the waters for two 
months, summer, 1761, and went away well; 
he returned last summer and confirmed his cure. 
5. Mr. Evetts, of Birmingham, Merchant, 
came to the Wells, labouring under cough, hec- 
tic fever, cold night sweats, loss of appetite, and 
wasting. By drinking the waters but fourteen 
days, he returned almost as well as ever. He re- 
lapsed three times, found relief, but is since dead. 
6. Archibald Menzies, Esq. of Perthshire, a 
young gentleman of an athletic constitution, af- 
ter some days and nights of hard drinking, and 
steeping in wet cloaths, was taken with pleuritic 
pains, which yielded to repeated bleedings, blis- 
terings, &c. Now and then he felt a sensible 
weight in one of the lobes of the lungs, which as 
often was relieved by expectoration of fetid mat- 
ter, striated with blood. After an eruption of 
one of these vomica's, observing a clergyman car- 
ried down the stream of a rapid river, he jumped 
in, and brought him out, in a cold frosty day. 
Anxious about restoring the unfortunate, he neg- 
lected to shift his cloaths. His symptoms returned 
with violence, and yielded to the same regimen. 
Improperly treated with steel medicines, his 
symptoms returned with violence, these were re-
lieved



249 BY BRISTOL WATER.
lieved as before. By blisters and riding, his sweats 
abated last summer. But, his pleuritic pain con- 
tinued to return every fortnight, or week, unless 
prevented by copious bleeding. He was only 
troubled with the cough when nature wanted to 
ease the lungs of congested pus. As soon as that 
was thrown up, he was easy till the next attack. 
By the joint advice of the Professors Ruther- 
ford and Whytt, he rode to Bristol, a journey of 
six hundred miles. He found himself better on 
the road. Drowsiness and head-ach, the usual 
harbingers of his pleuritic paroxysm, seemed to 
indicate bleeding in London. He was also bled at 
Bath. His blood was always inflamed. He ar- 
rived at the Hot Wells early in summer, 1761; he 
drank the waters for three months, during which 
time he felt no indications for bleeding, a re- 
prieve unknown for eighteen months. By way 
of prevention, I advised him however to be bled. 
His blood was pure as a lamb’s, I repented the 
prescription. He left the wells strong, active, 
and hardy. Dreading the effects of northern 
winter air, I advised him to go to Italy by sea, 
where he staid two years, rather for pleasure; he 
now enjoys perfect health. 
7. Master Dampier, aged about fourteen, came
to the Wells emaciated, so that he was carried in 
arms to and from the pump. In one day he 
threw up matter to the quantity of a quart. To 
the waters, little assisted by medicine, he owes 
the complete recovery of his pristine vigour, 
spirits, and activity. 
8. Miss Serjant, aged twelve, came to the 
Wells in still a more unpromising condition. By 
the prognostic of a physician well acquainted with 
consumptions, she was pronounced incurable. By 
the use of the waters, little assisted by medicine,
L5 she



250 DISEASES CURED
she sleeps nine hours on a stretch, eats heartily, 
walks up and down to the Wells, and gallops on 
the Downs. 
9. Master Holiday, aged fourteen, at Eton 
School, was taken ill of a fever, which intermit- 
ted at last, and terminated in a cough, difficulty 
of breathing, loss of appetite, looseness, sweat- 
ing and hectic. By the use of the waters, asses- 
milk, and riding, he recovered in the space of 
one month. 
10. Corporal Shaw, aged twenty-three, of a 
consumptive family, came to the Wells, with a 
violent cough, spitting, sweating, languor, &c. 
By the help of one blister and the waters, he re- 
covered so perfectly, in the space of three weeks, 
that he proceeded with his regiment to Belleisle. 
11. William Sprole, Esq. caught a violent cold
for which he took variety of medicines during the 
winter. By the help of a blister his complaints 
seemed to vanish, till in the beginning of sum- 
mer, he was taken with the Influenza del aere, at 
that time epidemic. He came to the Hot Wells, 
with a cough and spitting almost constant, want 
of appetite, languor, sweating, and hectic. By 
Bristol Water, Asses-milk, and Ridings he found a
cure. 
N. B. The last five cures happened in summer,
1762 
CHAP.

251 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVI. 
OF DISEASES OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
I. OF THE DIABETES.
1. ARETAEUS was the first who gave 
any tolerable description of this disease; 
he calls it “ A flux of humours, a colliquation of 
“ blood, and a continual effusion by the kidnies 
“ and bladder.” More properly it 
may be defined, an unnatural effusion 
of urine, most commonly sweet, attended with
thirst. 
Definition. 
2. Its causes are feverish disorders cured by ex- 
cessive evacuations; bite of the serpent Situla; 
laxity of the renal glands; acrid se- 
rum; immoderate use of small liquors; 
excess of venery; stoppage of other secretions, 
&c.—Willis mentions one from indulgence in 
Rhenish wine, Lister one from Knaresborough 
water, and another from Bals. Capivi. The mass 
of blood is compounded of various globules. 
When particular globules take the road which na- 
ture affects not, there arise diseases said to pro- 
ceed ab errore loci. If the emulgent arteries, e.g. 
come to be vitiated, they receive and convey glo- 
bules designed for nutrition to the kidnies. The 
renal vessels and glands become more and more 
disposed to this unnatural discharge. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are, hunger and thirst insa- 
tiable; parched mouth; frothy spit- 
tle; varicous swellings of the abdomi- 
nal veins, with a sense of constriction; heat; 
anxiety; restlessness; hectic; swelling of the  
Symptoms.
L6 loins, 



252 DISEASES CURED
loins, testicles, and feet; constant inclination to 
void urine limpid and sweetish; wasting and 
death.—The symptoms may easily
be accounted for. The liquor dis- 
charged differs from urine in taste, co- 
lour, and smell. It is really and truly an efflux 
of chyle, little altered by circulation; hence 
taste, wasting, &c. Urine is an excrementitious 
liquor. Dr. Keir made an experiment which de- 
termines the point. “ He put a portion of dia- 
“ betic urine into a vessel over a gentle fire. Be- 
“ fore one half had evaporated, it deposited a 
“ considerable sediment. The whole mass was,
“ at last, coagulated.—The same quantity of 
“ healthy urine, treated in the same manner, eva- 
“ porated almost entirely, leaving only a little fe- 
“ tid sediment behind.” 
Cause of the 
Symptoms. 
A recent Diabetes easily yields to common 
helps, inveterate rarely. The curative indications 
are, 1. To strengthen the organs of 
digestion and the renal vessels. 2. To 
remove those obstructions which cause a diminu- 
tion of other secretions. The first intention may 
be obtained from strengtheners and astringents; 
incrassants and restoratives. The second from 
whatever restores perspiration. As it requires 
singular sagacity to distinguish between different 
and opposite causes, our wonder may cease, when 
we hear of diabetics swallowing baskets of drugs 
to little or no purpose. Under the direction of 
the most sagacious, there are but few diabetics 
who recover. The disorder has generally taken 
deep root before the patient submits. There are 
but few patients who do justice to their physici- 
ans or to themselves. If ever there was a dis- 
order adapted to mineral waters, it may be said to 
be this. In that chapter which treats of general 
Cure. 
virtues,



253 BY BRISTOL WATER:
virtues, the reader will find the specific qualities 
of the several ingredients rationally accounted for. 
Theoretical notions gather strength from the ex- 
perience of Baccius, the prince of mineral water 
writers. In treating of disorders of the urinary 
passages, he has blended them so together, that it 
is not so easy to separate his diabetic practice 
from the rest. In his book De Thermis, pag. 115, 
he expresses himself thus, “ Renum vero effec- 
“ tus, viscerum, et maxime hepatis, cui viden- 
“ tur ministerio subesse, rationem in balneis con- 
“ sequuntur, ac vesica renum. Vexantur autem 
“ renes callidae intemperiei affectu ut plurimum, 
“ tum quia renum ipforum substantia laxa pin- 
“ guitudine admodum inflammabili, participate.”
Hence, from the slightest cause, they are apt to 
heat and turn crude obstructions into stony con- 
cretions; hence also white fluxes. Diabetes, in- 
flammations, ulcers, and diseases incurable. In 
all the affections of the urinary passages, every 
water conduces that has the property of absterg- 
ing these parts, and so removing the cause. Po-
tulentae. omnes aquae quae proprietatem habent per 
urinarios meatus abstergendi, et quae immediate veluti 
causam tollunt. Nor are they less effectual, for be- 
ing of that kind, which divert the fabulous mat- 
ter by stool, quae communis est praxis in hac alma 
urbe Rama.
He directs his first intention to that hot tempe- 
rament which constitutes the basis of the disease. 
For this purpose he proposes purging waters, sub- 
tiles et mediocriter calidae effentiae aperientes, digeren- 
tas, vel non indecores, ft ad robur conferendum ferro 
quadatenus participent. Such, in a word, as de- 
terge and comfort at the same time. 
These, and all such waters cure heat of urine, 
strangury, and dysury, nocturnal polutions, in- 
voluntary



254 DISEASES CURED
voluntary seminal flux, bed-pissing, the Diabetic 
Flux, with its concomitant, thirst inextinguish- 
able. Ex eadem involuntariam ficcant seminis efflu- 
entiam, nocturnas pollutiones, improvisam per fom- 
mun emictionem, diabeticum fluxum, sitimque exinde 
natam inextingulbilem. 
Galen (in his bookie Ren. affectuum dignotione, 
ac medications) after speaking of unguents and sy- 
napisms for strengthening the reins, adds, Aqua- 
rum etiam sponte manantium usus, si nihil prohibeat. 
Maxims vero laudantur quae in potibus medicatis ex- 
purgando, pro ferri qualicunque impressione, vim quo- 
que insignem obtinent roborandi, oeneae, ferreac, sal- 
sae. Extrinsecus balnea etiam ex ferro, plumbo, vel 
aliis mineralibus roborantibus.
OF the power of Brislol Water, Doctor Harris 
(in his maister-piece, De Morbis Acutis Infantum) 
speaks thus, “ De aquis mineralibus Bristoliensi- 
“ bus, quantum in hoc morbo profint, et quan- 
“ tam existimationem merito sint affecutae, jam 
“ vulgo et idlotis innotescit. Sed et aquae illae 
“ celiberrimae in plurlbus aliis languoribus, ac 
“ debilitatibus praeterquam renum, famam et 
“ existimationem optime merentur, valetudinem 
“ infirmam insigniter roborant, et fitim in Dia- 
“ bete exortam, prae aliis omnibus, celeberrime 
“ extinguunt.” 
OF the power of Bath Water (In disorders of 
the urinary passages) I have given proofs unques- 
tionable, Of Bristol Waters we now proceed to 
treat. “ The Hot-well-water (says Underhill) 
is the true medela in that fatal dejection and dis- 
piriting by urine, the Diabetes, as appears by the 
autography of the wells.” 
1. “ Mr. William Gagg, of Bris- 
“ tol, Castle Green, a very fat man, at 
“ his prime, was seized with so violent a Dia- 
Cases.
“ beth,



255 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ beth, that he made at least three gallons of very 
“ sweet urine, with a large quantity of oil swim- 
“ ming a-top; he could not sleep for either drink- 
“ ing or pissing, when, in six days (appetite 
“ gone) so run off his fat and flesh, that he was 
“ reduced to helpless skin and bones, deferred by 
“ his physicians (not sparing money) and given 
“ over by his friends (several of his neighbours 
“ then dying of the same disease, not knowing 
“ the waters use) resolutely cast himself on God's 
“ mercy, and the Hot-well-water (though igno- 
“ rant of its use) imploring his friends to support 
“ him to the Hot well, as their last cast of kind- 
“ ness; which, with difficulty, they performed; 
“ be fainting away every step, and even in drink- 
“ ing the water. Yet, to God’s glory, and their 
“ astonishment, his strength was so sensibly re- 
“ cruited with every glass, that he made them 
“ loosen him, pretending to walk, which his 
“ friends despaired of. He walked back, never- 
“ theless, aided, now and then, by a sip of his 
“ holy-water-bottle, which, on the first trial,
“ vanquished his insatiable thirst, and stopped his 
“ pissing, and so restored his depraved appetite, 
“ that, at his return home, he eat a large favou- 
“ ry meal; and, by drinking tire water for some 
“ time, attained his perfect, state of health, living 
“ many years after. 
“ Signed, Mary Gagg, his widow.” 
2. “ Mr. William Molyneux, of Warrington, 
“ certifies, that he was excessive thirsty, and 
“ made such lavish quantity of sweet urine, of 
“ diverse colours, a thick oil swimming a-top, 
“ that, in three weeks time, he was reduced to 
“ such weakness (his Physicians diredions inef- 
“ fectual) that it was with very great difficulty
“ he



256 DISEASES CURED
“ he got to Bristol, in September, 1695, and that 
“ the very first day, by drinking, his thirst a- 
“ bated, urine checked, and became brackish, 
“ he recovered his appetite that before nauseated 
“ all flesh meat, and that, in eight days, by 
“ God’s mercy, he was perfectly cured, follow- 
“ ing the directions only of Mr. Gagg, a Baker, 
“ of this city, who, seven years before had been 
“ cured of the same disease, by drinking the 
“ same water. 
“ William Molyneux” 
3. “ Among the Hot Well Votiva, we find 
“ Mr. Rogers of Birmingham (all medicines fail- 
“ ing) signing his perfect cure at the age of 
“ threescore. 
“ Thomas Rogers.” 
4. “ Mr. Ralph Millard, Inn-keeper, at the 
“ Swan, Coleman-street, London, aged fifty, in 
“ the spring, 1699, after great medick expence, 
“ and given over by his physicians, in a Dia- 
“ betes, was directed to the Hot Wells, to which 
“ place he got with great difficulty not being 
“ able to scramble to his bed without help. By 
“ drinking the waters three weeks, he was so 
“ invigorated, that Mr. Eaglestone of College- 
“ green, Bristol, saw him lift a barrel of ale 
“ up several steps, which three other men failed 
“ to perform. In three weeks more, he re- 
“ turned to London, riding the hundred miles in 
“ two days. 
“ Joseph Eaglestone.” 
5. “ Mr. Cale, of Bristol, College-green, aged 
“ about forty, two years last past, was afflicted 
“ with a violent Diabetes, which the Hot Well 
“ water



257 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ water immediately stopped, and he hath re- 
“ mained well ever since. 
“ Gilbert Cale.”
6. “ Elizabeth Gettes, who keeps the Boar 
“ Inn, at Bristol, certifies, that Mr. James Darl- 
“ ing, of Oxon, aged about fifty, was perfectly 
“ cured last summer of a Diabeth in two months, 
“ by drinking the Hot-well-water, then lodg- 
“ ing at her house, and now remains in perfect 
“ health. 
“ Elizabeth Gettes.” 
7. John Blandy, of Inglewood-house, Esq. aged 
“ sixty-three, in less than six weeks, this sum- 
“ mer, was perfectly cured of a Diabeth by drink- 
“ ing the water, then lodging at my house. 
“ Elizabeth Browne.” 
8. “ William Beckford, of London, her Ma- 
“ jesty’s flopster, aged about forty, lodging at 
“ my house, was cured in thirteen weeks of 
“ great weakness, depraved appetite, decayed 
“ strength, and Diabetes, after other means had 
“ failed. 
“ Anne Green.” 
His list of Diabetics concludes thus. 
9. “ There is also a certificate of Capt. Ro- 
“ bert Ham’s cure, at the age of seventy-seven, 
“ by constant drinking for eight months.”—He 
adds, “ Instances seem needless, the use of the 
“ water being now so effectually known for a 
“ most sovereign remedy, even at the acme, and 
“ last extremity of a Diabetes.” 
To



258 DISEASES CURED
To Underhill’s catalogue I beg leave to add
the following, partly from undoubted authority,
partly from my own knowledge. 
10. John Strachan, Esq of Dorsetshire came 
to the Wells twelve years ago, labouring under a 
Diabetes. Finding but two chamber-pots under 
his bed, he ordered more. The chamber-maid 
brought up half a dozen; at the sight of which 
he said, These, my girl, are no more than six 
thimbles; did not modesty forbid, I could fill 
them all before your face: bring me a small wast- 
ing-tub. She brought him one that held two 
pails; this he filled every night. Before he rode 
out, he used to fill a common chamber-pot two 
or three times. 
His appetite was ravenous; of bread he 
used to eat sixteen French penny rolls a day. 
When he returned from airing, he used to eat up 
a whole fowl, and dine as if he had not eaten a 
morsel. 
For the first five weeks he drank two, three, 
four gallons a day. Reproved, he used to answer, 
I came hither to be cured, and am determined 
either to be killed or cured. About this time he 
began to mend, and was called away. Two or 
three months after he returned, drank the waters 
as before; and, in five weeks more, went away 
in perfect health, eating, drinking, and pissing 
no more than any other man. N. B. He lodged 
at Mr. Bishop's, in the Well-house. 
11. Mrs. Sugden, aged about fifty, (from cold 
and watching) fell into a Diabetes. After drink- 
ing the waters but a fortnight, she mended so 
much, that she could fit three hours without 
making water. By five weeks drinking she re- 
covered 
13. Mr.



259 BY BRISTOL WATER.
12. Mr. Biss, of Tower-hill, by frequenting 
this Well, was cured of a Diabetes.” 
13. Dr. Maddox, late Bishop of Worcester, 
came to the Wells season after season, for a Dia- 
betes, and always found relief. 
14. Nine or ten years ago, Mr. Sewen, from 
Swansea, in Wales, aged about fifty, was brought 
to the Rock-house in a horse-litter, so weak that 
he could not fit up in bed, almost a skeleton. 
The water was carried to him for the first three 
weeks; he made thrice as much water as he 
drank. In about six weeks time he walked over to 
the pump, where he drank the waters for about 
four months; at the end of which he left the 
Wells in perfect health. 
15. Mrs. Piper, of Broughton-street, London, 
came hither once or twice, almost dead, of a 
Diabetes, and is now recovered. 
16. About eight years ago, a farmer from 
Worcestershire got so well in three weeks, as to 
continue so ever since. 
17. J. Browne, a butcher of Norwich, was 
afflicted with a Diabetes for seven years, he had 
tried variety of prescriptions. After he had drank 
the Bristol waters fourteen days only, playing at 
Bishop’s billiard-table one day, he found himself 
perspire. He went to bed, drank half a pint of 
Port-wine hot, and sweated for the first time in 
seven years. After this, he continued to sweat 
on using exercise. After a stay of three months, 
he went home, and drank the waters there dur- 
ing the winter. He returned in the summer, 
tarried four months, and went off perfectly reco- 
vered, and continues well, notwithstanding hard 
drinking. 
18. Mr. Robertson, near Cork, came to the 
Hot Wells last summer, 1761. His symptoms 
were



260 DISEASES CURED
were thirst inextinguishable, ravenous appetite,
parchedness of the mouth and throat, heat of the 
stomach and bowels, varicose swellings of the 
abdomen, with a sense of constriction, as by a 
cord, anxiety, restlessness, wasting, with a con- 
stant desire of-making water, which tasted sweet- 
ish. He received great benefit, but never was 
completely cured, owing, in a great measure, to 
obstinacy, and irregularity. 
19. James Gladshall, of Yorkshire, came to 
the Hot Wells, summer, 1761, in a confirmed 
Diabetes, and was cured in, the space of two 
months. 
20. Winter, 1762, an old farmer, came to 
the Wells in a Diabetes, and went away so much 
benefited, that he declared he would return every 
year until he was cured. 
21. Mrs. Fleming, of Bath, at an advanced 
age, laboured under great thirst, parched tongue, 
fever, and flux of urine, so that her strength was 
greatly impaired, and her flesh much wasted. Un- 
der these circumstances, I persuaded her to go to 
Bristol, where (by drinking the water but one 
fortnight) her tongue became moist, her urine 
lost its sweet taste and was reduced almost to its 
natural quantity. Contrary to my advice, she 
left the salutary spring. Her symptoms returned. 
Three months after she had again recourse to the 
waters, staid one month, and was almost com- 
pletely cured. Contrary to my advice, she re- 
turned before her cure could be confirmed. Next 
winter every bad symptom returned. As I could 
not persuade her to return to Bristol, I made a 
trial of the Bath waters, which restored her sur- 
prisingly.
II.



261 BY BRISTOL WATER.
II. OF GRAVEL AND STONE. 
1. PAIN of the kidnies, ureters, and bladder, 
from impacted matter, is called Gravel 
or Stone. 
Definition.
2. The causes are luxurious as well as indi- 
gestible food; indolence; old age; 
rheumatism; gout; tartareous wines; 
hereditary taint, &c. 
Cause.  
3. The symptoms of stone in the kidnies are, 
intense or heavy pain of the loins; heat, nau- 
sea; vomiting; costiveness; exacer- 
bation of these symptoms after meals; 
sandy, bloody, and sometimes puru- 
lent matter; suppression of urine; co- 
ma; inflammation; ulceration, and consumption. 
The left kidney suffers oftener than the right.
Symptoms of 
the stone in 
the kidnies. 
When the stone falls down into the 
ureters, the pain increases; the leg 
feels benumbed; the testicles are 
drawn backwards; and the urine is, in part sup- 
pressed.  
Stone in the 
ureters. 
The stone of the bladder is attended with pain, 
difficulty, and continual desire of 
making water; tension and pain of 
the colon; titilation of the glans pe- 
nis; tenesmus; looseness; slimy water; bloody 
Water after riding, with increase of pain in the 
bladder, ureter, and nut of the yard. 
Stone in the 
bladder. 
4. The stone of the kidnies is distinguished 
from the lumbago, by vomiting, and 
sandy urine; from the cholic by the 
pain being higher, with a sense of rumbling back- 
wards; from hysterics, because this is increased 
by glysters. 
Diagnostics.
5. In 



262 DISEASES CURED
5. In the stone of the kidnies, there is great 
danger, by reason of inflammation, ulceration, 
and suppression of urine, its concomi- 
tants. It is easier dissolved in adults 
than in children. If the kidnies are ulcerated, 
the case is desperate. Suppression of urine, cold- 
ness of the extremities and convulsions, presage 
death. The stone of the bladder may be extrac- 
ted, that of the kidnies rarely. 
Prognostics. 
6. There is one cure of the fit, another out of 
the fit. The fit is allayed by subdu- 
ing the inflammation, and spasm. 1. 
By bleeding. 2. Glysters. 3. Emollient decoc- 
tions. 4. Tepid baths. 5. Opiates. 6. Rest.
Cure. 
Out of the fit, this disease is to be attacked, 
1. By Lithontriptics, rest, and keeping the belly 
rather soluble. 2. Diet. 
Gravel yields to waters ferrugineous, diuretic, 
and alkaline; such as the Seltzer.—In bloody 
urine, proceeding from laxity, debi- 
lity of the vessels, or fusion of the 
humours, Baccius (from experience) strongly re- 
commends the waters of Grotta, Porretanae, Al- 
bulae, &c. Quae et arenulas, calculumque, tom e 
vesica quam e renibus conterere ac protrudere pollicen- 
tur, et urinas provocare. On the subject of gravel 
and stone, he quotes that saying of Leonellus, a 
noble physician, founded on experience, Qui a- 
quis Thermalibus non curantur, nunquam curantur. 
Mineral waters he recommends for many pur- 
poses. From the first passages, they extrude su- 
perfluous humours; cleanse the urinary passages, 
even to the bladder; and, if they break not the 
stone, carry off the sandy particles, which add to 
its weight. They strengthen the bowels, and 
thus remove their aptitude to produce calculous 
concretions; Sola aqua Anticoli Romae assidue epota 
Gravel.
habetur





263 BY BRISTOL WATER.
habetur amuletum quoddom ac praeservativum. From 
Aetius he quotes a flagrant example of the parti- 
cular prerogative of water, which not only proves 
its abstersory power, but its moving, Lib. ii. 
cap v. Ad extrudendum impactum in vasibus urina- 
riis, vel in renibus lapillum frigidam aquam frequen- 
ter & acervatim aegro bihendarn jussi, unde, corroho- 
ratis renihus, ccclusis in illis lapis expulsus eft. What 
seems surpring, indeed, he observes that waters 
naturally petrescent possess a dissolv- 
ing quality, internally administered. 
Nam, in omni fere medicinae ufu, fatis 
quisque debet contentus effe experientia, 
unius rei non eft eadem dispositio intra ex extra, adhi-
bitae. Aqua haec super terram videnter lapidem, et ducit 
arenulas. Tales effectus contrarios manifeste vidamus 
in Albulis. The waters of the river Anio, where- 
ever they touch, turn earth, wood, and bark in- 
to stone; its streams are mixed with the turbid 
Tyber, and drank almost all the year. It is, ne- 
vertheless well known, that the people of Rome 
rarely feel the stone or gravel; rarissimi tamen la- 
pidum vitia sentiunt, nec harenulas. Page 116, he 
mentions many waters called Petrae, or petre 
scent, which were daily and successfully admini 
stered in disorders of the urinary passages, in hisce 
effectibus, antiquissimae laudis, Acidae subinde a- 
quae, quorum inrenibus, vesicaque, & meatibus uri- 
nariis expurgandis prima eff praerogativa, qualis An- 
ticoli in Campania, aciduda in Bergamensi, aliaeque in 
Germania, quae omnibus in privatibus potibus bi-
buntur. 
Waters pe- 
trescent dis- 
solve.
Hoffman places the cause of gravelish com- 
plaints in laxity of the urinary passa- 
ges. Toni renalis nimia resolutio morbo-
rum qui renes occupant potissima causa, et origo est. 
From laxity.
Qua



264 DISEASES CURED
Qua de causa temperata astringentia, et rohorantia, in 
calculo tam praeservando, quom curando palmam caete- 
ris arripiunt.—If the testimonies of Aetius, 
Baccius, and Hoffman are to be depended on, 
alleviations and cures may be expected from Bath 
and Bristol waters. Of the former we have given 
proofs unquestionable, proceed we now to the 
latter. 
Where there is a stone actually formed, Bristol
waters allay heat, dilute acrimony, and prevent 
future accretion. In actual fits of stone and gra- 
vel, these are not the remedies. In the intervals, 
Bristol water, balsamics and other medicines do 
much good. In gravelish complaints they often 
cure. 
Underhill (page 38) speaks thus. “ The Stone 
“ seems to be produced from the salso-terrene 
“ part of the blood, by too hot a ferment boiled 
“ into hardness, as brick-makers form their clay. 
“ Though the hot-well may not be the true saxi- 
“ frage water, it certainly washes the gravel out 
“ of the kidnies, and other aqueducts; and, by 
“ checking inflammation, prevents its future in- 
“ crease; an excellent preventative, doubtless, 
“ of those racking hereditary diseases, Stone and 
“ Gout. 
1. “ Mr. Eaglestone, of Bristol, aged twenty- 
“ one, was afflicted with a most restless pain in 
“ his back, and difficulty of making 
“ urine, voiding sometimes sand; 
“ whence he concluded it to be the 
“ stone, his father being tortured by it many 
“ years. By drinking two quarts of Hot Well 
“ water, fasting, at home every morning, he 
“ was cured. Gravel came off in quantity, his 
“ appetite increased, his sleep was restored, his 
“ retentive faculties were fortified, his thirst a- 
Underhill's 
Cases. 
“ bated



265 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ bated. He was so completely cured, that he 
“ has continued now twenty years free from pa- 
“ ternal disease, and every symptom of urinary
“*disorder.”
2. “ Mr. Blanchard, of Dolphin-Lane, Bristol,
“ certifies, that his son, aged six, had a total 
“ stoppage of urine for three days and nights, 
“ almost racked to death. His physicians told 
“ him there was no cure but cutting. By drink- 
“ ing the Hot-well water for half a year he was 
“ perfectly recovered, and remains in good health, 
“ now fourteen years old. 
“ Giles Blanchard.” 
3. “ Mrs. Jochem, of Bristol-key, aged about 
“ thirty, languishing under insatiable thirst, loss 
“ of appetite, and pissing of blood, tired out 
“ with ineffectual prescriptions, applied to me 
“ in June. She drank the Hot-well water, 
“ mornings and evenings. Her thirst abated, 
“ her appetite was restored, her mictus eruentus 
“ was checked, she is now breeding, as she her- 
“ self certifies. 
“ Bridget Jochem.” 
To Underhill’s let us add the two following- 
cases, which fell under my own observation. 
4. Mr. Martin, Purser of a ship of war, was 
afflicted with a diarhaea for six years, for which
he had undergone variety of regimens. He was 
also subject to gravellish complaints, voiding great
Quantities of fabulous matter. By drinking this 
water two months only, he was completely cared 
of both ailments, without the help of one me- 
dicine. 
5. Mr. Fitch, a young gentleman of Dorset- 
shire, subject to gravellish forcing a  
M resty

266 DISEASES CURED
resty horse over a bridge four years ago, sprained 
his back. Hence racking pain, bloody urine, 
and vomiting, without sleep for three weeks. He 
was bled thrice, and was otherwise judiciously 
treated by Dr. Cumming of Dorchester, who 
succeeded so far as to check the vomiting; the 
bloody urine remained, with sickness, languor, 
pain, &c. He set out for Bristol, and was three 
days in performing a journey of sixty miles. The 
bloody urine ceased the first week; he drank the 
water last summer, and has now recovered flesh, 
strength, and complexion, with the relict only 
of a dull pain about the region of the loins, 
which seems rather to be gravellish. For this he 
drank the water again, and was cured. 
III. OF BLOODY URINE.
UNDER the section of Haemoptoe, I have treat- 
ed of the general causes, symptoms, diagnostics, 
prognosties, and cure of bleedings. When blood 
thus passes off together with the urine, it comes
away without pain, the patient commonly con- 
tinues in health, unless the evacuation continues
too long, or in too great quantity. 
For this disorder, Bristol waters are constantly
frequented, and with success. 
IV. OF IMMODERATE MONTHLY DISCHARGES.
THE remote causes are, intemperance, violent 
exercise, passion, suppression of other
secretions, disorders of the uterus, &c. 
The proximate are rarefaction, acrimony, and 
thinness of the blood, with debility of the vessels.
Causes.
In

267 BY BRISTOL WATER.
In blood too much rarified, the indication is 
(according to Home, in his Principia Medicinae) 
“ Condenfare et demulcere medica- 
“ mentis coagulantibus et demulcen-
“ tibus; inter quae eminet Spir. Vitriol, cum ad- 
“ stringentibus.”—“ In Vaforum debilitate,
“ scopus eft elasticitatem restituere adstrigentibus
“ interne et externe applicatis.” 
Indication.
V. OF WEAKNESSES.
WOMEN of lax habits are commonly subject
to this disorder. 
The seat of this disorder is in the
mucous glands and exhalant arteries. 
Seat.
The remote causes are moist air, indolence,
translation of humours, immoderate flux 
of the menses, miscarriages, &c. The
proximate are serous colluvies, and laxity of
fibres. 
Causes.
The symptoms are want of appetite, depraved 
appetite, difficulty of breathing, swell- 
ing of the eye-lids, hectic fever, pain 
of the loins, turbid urine, sadness, palpitation, 
and fainting. 
Symptoms.
To cure this disease, the same Home lays down 
two intentions. 1. “ Ut humorum 
“ vitium corrigatur, et fluxus ad ute- 
“ rum impediatur. 2. Ut tonus uteri restitua- 
“ tur.” For correcting the fault of the humors, 
he proposes diaphoretics, fontanells, &c. For 
restoring the tone of the parts strengtheners, and 
astringents. 
Cure.
M2 VI.

268 DISEASES CURED.
VI. OF GLEETS.
GLEETS proceed from simple relaxation; ve- 
nereal taint, and corrosive injections. 
IN this, and the two last diseases, the cure
must be adapted to the cause, consti- 
tution, and nature of the distemper. 
Were these waters properly assisted by medicine, 
many more might find relief. False delicacy has 
made women conceal their infirmities till loss of
appetite, indigestion and unnatural discharges 
have reduced the best constitutions to skeletons. 
In general, we may affirm that where febrifuges, 
balsamics, and astringents have resisted the whole
artillery of the shops, Bristol waters have per- 
formed cures. In subduing the fever, healing, 
and strengthening the parts, Bristol waters answer 
every intention proposed by the judicious Home. 
Where they fail of cures, they mitigate symp- 
toms. Names, and cases, I forbear to mention. 
Many are the annual visitants, proofs of my as- 
sertion.
Cure.
CHAP.

269 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND GUTS.
UNDER the head of Diseases cured by 
Bath Water, I have treated particularly, 
Of Diseases of the First Passages. Both waters 
cure the same diseases; but, in all cases; they 
are neither equally salutary, nor safe. 
I. OF THE STOMACH
THAT Bristol water creates an appetite is a 
fact notorious. That it removes heart-burns, 
squeamishness, and pains of the stomach, is equal- 
ly notorious. 
Seven years ago, Mr. Garden, of Troup, in 
Aberdeenshire, came to Bath for an obstinate pain
of his stomach. The Bath waters irritated his 
disorder. By my advice he drank these; in one 
fortnight was completely cured, and now remains
in perfect health; 
II. OF THE GUTS.
MONG Bristol water drinkers, costiveness is 
so common a complaint, that we generally guard
against it in our prescriptions. 
1. Under the section of Gravel and Stone, I 
have already mentioned Mr. Martin’s cure of an 
obstinate diarhaea. 
2. Captain Williams, of the Artillery, (by 
hard duty at Martinique, and the Havannah) was 
attacked with a bilious fever and flux that resisted
all endeavours there; The Bath waters exaspe- 
M3 rated.

270 DISEASES CURED
rated every symptom, adding a cough to his other 
train of evils. At last I prevailed on him to try 
these waters, which, in a very few weeks, re- 
stored him so much that he married before he 
left the Wells. 
3. In much the same condition, Mr. Shepherd, 
of Antigua, came to Bath, with the addition of 
a pain in the region of the liver, and constant 
cough. Against my opinion, he obstinately per- 
sisted in the use of Bath waters, which aggravated 
every symptom. In a very few weeks Bristol wa- 
ter banished every symptom. 
4. Lieutenant West, of the twenty-second re- 
giment, (by hard duty at Martinique, Dominique, 
and the Havannah) was afflicted with a flux, 
which defied the most judicious prescriptions there 
and in North America. Dr. Huxham advised the 
Bristol water, which he drank about one month, 
with great benefit. By my advice he completed 
his cure by warm bathing at Bath; and that with 
the assistance of eggs boiled up with milk, his 
constant diet only. 
SIR, London, August the 20th, 1763.
“ In gratitude to the Bristol Waters, as well 
“ as for the benefit of future sufferers, I give you
“ leave to publish the following history. 
“ Soon after the reduction of Dominique, where 
“ I had the honour to command, I was seized 
“ with the intermittent fever of that country, 
“ from which I had recovered but a short time, 
“ when the fatigues of the expedition to Marti- 
“ nique brought on a relapse. 
“ I went afterwards upon the expedition a- 
“ gainst the Havannah, where my duty as Briga- 
“ dier General was interrupted a few days be- 
“ fore the reduction of the Moro, by a third re- 
“ lapse

271 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ lapse attended with a violent flux. By the ad-
“ vice of the physicians I returned to Britain as 
“ the only chance I had, of recovering my 
“ health. 
“ I failed from the Havannah the 19th of July, 
“ and arrived at Dover the 9th of September: al- 
“ most immediately upon my landing, I had a re- 
“ turn of the fever and flux to a violent degree. 
“ Though both the disorders yielded to the medi- 
“ cines that were prescribed for me by an emi- 
“ nent Physician in London, yet during the 
“ whole winter and spring I was subject to such 
“ severe relapses (the flux generally preceding the 
“ ague) that I was reduced to a skeleton.
“ I also sufFer’d much uneasiness from an in- 
“ flammation in my mouth and tongue, which 
“ reached to the anus, and was almost perpetually
“ teized (especially in the night), with making 
“ water. 
“ I set out for Bristol about the end of March, 
“ still liable to frequent and violent returns of
“ the flux, but entirely free of the ague. 
“ The complaint of my mouth and tongue, 
“ and the frequent pissing before-mentioned, were 
“ still very troublesome, and continued so for a 
“ a considerable time after my arrival at the Hoi 
« Wells. 
“ By the use of the water for six weeks, the
“ flux almost entirely left me at this time. At 
“ this time I confined myself to a milk diet, 
“ which consisted chiefly of butter-milk, with 
“ broth. By this regimen, and the continuance of
“ the water (without the help of any medicine) 
“ I got free of all my complaints about the end 
“ of June. 
Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
Rollo. 
M4 CHAP.

272 DISEASES CURED.
CHAP. XVIII. 
OF EXTERNAL DISORDERS.
FROM what has already been advanced on, 
the subject of the powers of the particular 
principles contained in waters in ge- 
neral, we may reasonably conclude
that Bristol water has its external vir- 
tues as well as others. 
Exteral dis-
orders.
Underhill, in his page 28, expresses himself 
thus; “ The Scorbute is Proteo-mutabilior, From 
“ a salt diathesis of the blood, the acuated serum
“ espuated among the muscles is a Rheumatism, 
“ on the hip a Sciatica, on the lungs a Catarrh, 
“ in the guts a Dysentery, or Diarhœa. By all 
“ the skill that I pretend to, the Bristol water bids
“ fairer to cure external disorders than pearl pre- 
“ parations. 
1. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol from the West 
“ Indies, breaking out with fiery scor- 
“ butical eruptions all over, was per- 
“ fectly cured, in three weeks time, 
“ by drinking the Hot Well water.” 
Undehill's
Cases.
2. “ William White, of Bristol, was afflicted
“ with sores fresh arising, and constant running 
“ white blisters from both his elbows to his fin- 
“ gers ends, called St. Anthony’s fire, that he 
“ could not help himself. After various other 
“ remedies, he was at last cured by drinking, 
“ and bathing in the Hot Well water.” 
3. “ John Sanders, of Bristol, had a great 
“ weakness and lameness, his knees and body 
“ blistered, and spotted all over, and almost eaten
“ up with the Scurvy. By drinking the Hot Well 
“ water, he was perfectly cured.”  
4. “ Mr.

273 BY BRISTOL WATER.
4. “ Mr. Packer, of Bristol, wine-cooper, 
“ certifies, that his brother had an ulcer of seven 
“ years standing, in the calf of his leg, from a 
“ gun-shot-wound. After all remedies tried in 
“ vain, he was cured by drinking this water six 
“ weeks only. 
“ Thomas Packer.” 
5. “ John Belcher, of the Castle Precincts, Bris- 
“ tol, at four years old, had an ulcer in his ankle
“ four years, with a hole quite through, out of 
“ which came several bones, being all the four 
“ years under pennance, was at last perfectly 
“ cured by bathing and drinking. 
“ Jane Belcher, his mother.”  
6. “ Mary Ayliff had a tumor in her lower 
“ lip, of the bigness of a hazle-nut, and hard- 
“ ness of a stone, continually running at the 
“ mouth, as if salivated, and blind with the same
“ carcinomatous humour, for at least fourteen 
“ days, judged an incurable cancer, and so left, 
“ after four years trial, in despair; By drink- 
“ ing, and bathing the parts, she is of perfect 
“ sight, and good health, praising God, and de- 
“ firing this publication for the sake of others
“ under the like melancholy circumstances. 
“ Mary. Ayliff.” 
7. “ Mr. Lucas's son, of Bristol, at four years
“ old, had his arm miserably swelled and inflam- 
“ ed, running at eight or nine holes, deemed the 
“ King's Evil, and incurable. By gentle purg- 
“ ing, drinking, and bathing, he was perfectly 
“ restored. 
“ Eliz. Lucas, his mother.”
M5 8. “ Miss

274 DISEASES CURED
8. “ Miss Lancaster, of Castle-green, Bristol, 
“ at six years old, had the King’s-evil running at 
“ one finger, out of which came a bone, with a 
“ running in her left cheek and left hand; her 
“ foot and toes hard, and cruelly swelled. By 
“ drinking, bathing, and medicines intermixed, 
“ she was cured. 
“ Mary Lancaster.”
9. “ Mrs. Demster, of College-green, Bristol,
“ had her sight so depraved with an inflammation, 
“ supposed to be the Evil, that, for four months 
“ she could not bear the light. After all other 
“ unsuccessful trials, she drank, and bathed her 
“ eyes, and is now, after ten years, quite well. 
“ Sarah Demster.” 
19. “ Thomas Reynolds, of Bristol, Mason, 
“ had the Evil six years, running quite through
“ his thigh, scars dismal, out of which worked 
“ several bones, one an inch broad, and two 
“ inches long. After K. James’s fruitless touch, 
“ with the miserable flashing of surgeons, he 
“ was reduced to skin and bone. By drinking 
“ the water in great quantities, and constantly
“ moistening the parts with rags, dipped in the 
“ water, he is now, and has been well for 
“ years past. 
“ Thomas Reynolds.” 
CHAP.

275 OF REGIMEN.
CHAP. XIX.
OF REGIMEN.
IN the three first chapters, I have endeavoured
to ascertain the nature and qualities of Bath, 
and Bristol waters. In the fourth 
I have rationally accounted for their 
virtues. In the rest I have reconciled the obser- 
vations of former inquirers to particular diseases. 
These I have not only confirmed by my own ex- 
perience, but I have extended the virtues of both 
waters, to diseases neglected and unpractised. 
Preamble.
Physicians sometimes have it in their power to 
cure diseases. Patients have it in their power to 
prevent diseases, or to preserve health. From ig- 
norance, or contempt of necessary cautions, thou- 
sands fall short of that period which natural con- 
stitution might have reached. Such are the cau- 
tions which I have reserved for the subject of this
my last chapter. 
In Mineral-water Essays, for the expence of a
few shillings, there are patients who vainly ex- 
pect rules and prescriptions sufficient for the 
whole of their conduct. Authors who thus a- 
muse, make their readers trust to broken reeds. 
At Bath there is a General Infirmary for the recep- 
tion of cases appropriated to Bath water only.
At Bath and Bristol Hot Wells, no man with- 
holds his advice from the poor. People of straigh- 
tened circumstances of all perswasions, ranks, or 
professions are freely welcome to mine. What
safely I can I freely impart. What patients owe 
to themselves I think it my duty to point out.
1. ONE general caution there is which can 
admit of no exception. Patients never ought to
M6 come

276 OF REGIMEN.
come to water-drinking places without historical 
deductions of their cases. Family physicians are 
the only judges of constitutions. One bears eva- 
cuations of all sorts; another is ruffled by the 
mildest. To some opiates are cordials divine; 
ten drops of liquid laudanum run others mad. 
The same may be said of musk, mercurials, aloes, 
and every active medicine. At this very time I 
have a patient, to whom I now and then give 
one drachm of syrup of poppies only; for three 
days after, he can hardly keep his eyes open. The
whisper of a family nurse is worth the first
thoughts of a Frewen. Physic is at best a conjec- 
tural art; this is the opinion of the great Celsus. 
2. CHRONICAL DISEASDES fall under the pro- 
vince of natural medicated waters. 
In chronical diseases, who can promise sudden 
cures? Sydenham (De podagra, p. 576,) says, 
“ No man in his senses can expect that momen- 
“ tary alterations can perfect the cure. The 
“ whole habit must be changed, the body must
“ be hammered out anew.” Suppose a young
maid labouring under the green sickness; how 
flaccid her solids, how poor her blood! Can 
poor blood be changed into rich in the course of 
days? Can the solids so soon be braced? In cur- 
ing chronic disorders, physicians rationally change 
the whole manner of living. In his Epidemics, 
Hippocrates proposes a change of the humours 
only. In chronic diseases, new manner of living, 
new air, new faces, new amusements, and new 
objects are necessary. In chronic disorders regi- 
mens are not wantonly to be changed, even tho’ 
they give not immediate relief. This is Celsus’s  
opinion, page 112. In chronical illnesses, the 
sick ought not to be flattered with hopes of speedy 
cures. Forewarned, they chearfully bear the tae-
dium.

277 OF REGIMEN.
dium of both disease and cure; they put confi- 
dence in physicians who never deceive them. 
Suppose purulent ulcer occupies the liver, who 
can promise a cure? 
3. PATIENTS labouring under similar ailments, 
naturally compare notes. By officious acquain- 
tances, the weak, dispirited, and hectic, are per- 
swaded to follow the regimen of the strong, hear- 
ty and phlegmatic. For the saving a fee, pa- 
tients throw away the whole expence, and their 
lives into the bargain. When they find them- 
selves worse, i. e. when medicines irrationally 
continued, and waters improperly used have pro- 
duced symptoms which cannot be relieved, the 
Doctor has a fresh summons. What benefit can 
patients expect from physicians in whom they 
place so little confidence? Of general precau- 
tions, the reader will find store in my Attempt to
revive the antient doctrine of Bathing. In respect 
of Diet, Exercise, Air, Sleep, Evacuation, and
Affection of the mind, there are certain rules and
cautions, without the observance of which, nei- 
ther mineral waters, nor medicines of any sort 
can avail. Of these in their order.  
§. I. OF DIET.
PROVIDENCE seems to have furnished every 
country with a mixture of foods proper for sup- 
port. The natural productions of countries are, 
generally speaking, most friendly to the constitu- 
tion. The common food of cold climates would 
ill suit the natives of southern. A pound of roast 
beef, and a quart of porter would endanger the 
life of an Indian. A piece of sugar-cane, and a
cup of water, would soon reduce an Englishman 
to a skeleton.
1. When


278 OF REGIMEN.
1. When we take in a larger quantity of ali- 
ment than our digestive faculties are 
able to assimilate, such never can turn, 
to good nourishment.  
Excess.
2. When our food is highly satu- 
rated with pungent salts and oils, such 
sauces or mixtures corrupt the blood. 
High sauces.
3. People of gross habits and feverish disorders
should eat sparingly. For, with such,
the best food turns to disease. Impura 
corpora, quo magis nutris, eo magis laedis.
Gross habits. 
4. Unseasonable abstinence has also bad conse- 
quences. For, without a supply of 
fresh chyle, animal juices naturally 
acquire a putrescency. Inanition produces fevers 
of the worst sort, as those who fast too religious- 
ly feel to their cost. 
Fasting.
5. In chronic disorders, experience best tells
what agrees, or disagrees. Such a
quantity is to be taken in as is suffi- 
cient to support, not to overload the 
stomach, to finish the meal with a relish for more. 
The food ought to be well chewed. Flesh pound- 
ed in a mortar ferments much sooner than in one 
solid lump. Whatever corrupts slowly oppresses, 
the stomach, The weak, emaciated, hectic, or 
consumptive ought to observe the strictest regi- 
men. To such, excess in things the most inno- 
cent is perilous.
Experience 
the best guide.
6. Nature abhors discordant mixtures, fish, 
flesh, wine, beer, cyder, cream and 
fruit. These distend the bowels with 
wind, and prevent digestion. 
Mixtures.
7. BREAD, milk, and the fruits of 
the earth dresssed in a plain simple man-
ner, together with water, were the ali- 
ment of Adam’s family. 
Simple food
most natural.
The

279 OF REGIMEN.
The fisft inhabitants of Greece lived on the 
spontaneous productions of the woods and fields. 
The Golden-age seems rather to have taken its 
appellation from its simplicity of manners, than 
delicacy of food. 
Contentique suis nullo cogente creatis 
Arbuteos faetus, montanaque fraga legebant 
Hesiod, Pliny, and Ovid, ascribe 
the invention of tilling the ground and 
sowing corn to Ceres. 
Bread.
Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro, 
Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitia terris. 
Bread made of the purest flower of wheat nou- 
rishes much, and binds the belly. Mixed with 
bran it is opening, and nourishes less. The Fa- 
rinacea are all antiseptics. Wheat-bread properly
fermented, and well baked, is the most valuable 
part of diet. 
8. MILK is already elaborated, prepared and 
digested in the body of the animal. It
is an extract of animal and vegetable 
food. It is replete with nutritious juices, and
wants little else than the colour to be blood. 
Milk was strongly recommended by the antients. 
The milk of Stabiae was in great vogue. Thi- 
ther consumptives were sent, not only on account 
of the sea-vapour, and the air of Vesuvius, but 
for the excellency of the milk. The Mons Lac- 
tarius of Cassiodorus is thought to have been 
there, a place celebrated for salubrity of air, and 
sanative milk.
Milk.
One  

280 OF REGIMEN.
One Davus, who went thither in a consump- 
tion writes thus, “ Huic ferocissimae 
“ passioni beneficium mentis illius di- 
“ vina tribuerunt, ubi aeris salubritas cum pin- 
“ guis arvi fecunditate consentiens, herbas pro- 
“ ducit dulcissima qualitate conditas, quarum pas- 
“ tu vaccarum herba saginata lac tanta salubrita- 
“ te-conficit, ut quibus medicorum confilia nesci- 
“ unt prodesse, folus videatur potus ille praestare 
“ reddens pristino ordine resolutam passionibus 
“ vim naturae. Replet membra evacuata vires effe- 
“ tas restaurat, et fomento quodam reparabili aegris
“ ita subvenit, quem ad fomnus labore fatigatis 
Cassiod. Lib. xi. Variar. Epist. x. 
Cases.
Baccius (De Thermic, lib. iv.) says, Neopolitani 
Medici pro ultimo refugio aegros phthificos, et qui san- 
guinem exspuunt, vel ejusmodi thoracis ulcera, et alia 
vitia patiuntur, ad Tabeas mittunt cum successu adeo 
salubri, ut sint qui in iis totam degunt vitam. Later 
instances there are not a few of consumptives
who went to the same place with Davus’s suc- 
cess. Sir Hollis Man was so bad when he em- 
barked, that his coffin was carried with him. He 
has lived many years in Italy, and is now British
Resident at Florence.
Of equal numbers, I verily believe, there are 
as many cured of consumptions by 
goat-whey, as by Bristol water. Milk
is often drank under great disadvantages, either 
in improper air, or in moorish mountainous pla- 
ces, where fogs and moisture compose an atmo- 
sphere unfriendly to wounded lungs. Fit places
may surely be found on sea-coasts, as Stabiae was, 
where the pasture might be improved by propaga- 
ting the tribe of the vulnerary plants, agreeable- 
to a hint given by Galen. Such places are the 
Goat-whey. 
faces

281 OF REGIMEN.
faces of the hills and cliffs around the Hot- 
Wells. 
WHERE feverish heat predominates, in costive 
habits especially, butter-milk and brown bread
are specifics. Boerhaave lived on this 
very diet for many years. His pupils 
have introduced it every where. In England it 
is even now the food of hogs. When I first in- 
troduced it at the Hot-Wells, my advice was treat- 
ed with ridicule; I could hardly prevail on three 
to make use of it the first season; two of the 
three were Irishmen. The practice is now uni- 
versal. 
Butter milks.
“ Dr. Baynard (in his Appendix to Floyer’s 
“ book on cold Bathing) assures his readers, that
“ by Butter-milk, several, to his knowledge, were 
“ cured of flushings, preternatural heats, and some 
“ of confirmed hectics. He quotes the concur- 
“ rent testimonies of Sir John Hodgkins to the 
“ same purpose.—“ Toby Purcell, 
“ Governour of Duncannon-fort, hath
“ drank nothing but milk, and eat bread for more
“ than twenty years, which cured him of an in- 
“ veterate gout.—Mr. William Masters of Cork,
“ drinks nothing but milk, and has recovered 
“ his limbs to a miracle.—I have had lately 
“ sent me some remarkable Cures in both Atro- 
“ phies and Phthisies by drinking Goats-milk. The 
“ common Irish feed on potatoes, and four skim- 
“ med milk. This may be the reason why they 
“ are generally free from pulmonic coughs, and 
“ consumptions.” 
Cases.
Theophilus Garencieres (in his book De Tabe 
Anglicana) says, “ Hyberni solo lactis usu qui ipsis 
“ pro potu) et cibo est, ab hoc malo se tuentur. Lac 
“ enim parte ebutyrato optime nutrit, et sanguinem 
“ laudabilem general; parte ferofa plurimum abster-
“ git,

282 OF REGIMEN.
“ git, et caseosa astringit, quae omnia ad pulmonis 
“ robur conservandum non parvi funt moments.” 
Baynard gives a remarkable instance of the ef- 
fect of Butter-milk, and Tepid Bathing. “ Mr. 
“ Hanbury of Little Myrtle, aged twenty-three, 
“ was highly feverish, with heat, thirst, quick 
“ pulse, little urine, mouth parched, reduced to 
“ skin and bones by an old ague. I prepared a 
“ Bath with violet, strawberry leaves, cichory, 
“ plantane, &c. He was bathed twice a day for 
“ seven weeks, taking nothing but butter-milk. 
“ By degrees he rose to other food, and has since 
“ had children by two wives.—Several, to my 
“ knowledge have been cured of flushings, pre- 
“ ternatural heats, and some of confirmed hectics
“ by the sole use of butter-milk.—Sir John Hod- 
“ kins, President of the Royal Society told me, 
“ that, to his knowledge, diverse persons had 
“ been cured of hectics, and phthisies, by the sole 
“ use of butter-milk.—Mr. Heby told me two in- 
“ stances of his tenants cured of hectic fevers by
“ drinking of butter-milk.” 
B. Dempsey, Clerk to Mr. Macartney, Mer- 
chant of Bristol, laboured of a violent fever with 
nocturnal exacerbations, which brought on deli- 
riums, profuse sweatings, and constant vomitings, 
which occasioned a most putrid stench, not a lit- 
tle assisted by the air of the chamber where he 
lay, which was dark and close. By Dr. Drum- 
mond’s advice and mine, he took medicines and 
ptisans, which he constantly threw up; as he did 
anti-emetics of every sort. Despairing of means 
of relief, I proposed four butter-milk, which he 
drank and kept. When we returned next day, 
we found every symptom mended. We ordered 
butter-milk for medicine and food. He recover- 
ed.—Next year (in the same bad air) he was 
seized

283 OF REGIMEN.
seized with a fever of the same kind. The same 
medicines were tried in vain. No sooner began 
he the use of butter-milk, than he began to reco- 
ver, and now enjoys a perfect state of health. 
IN acute distempers, Hippocrates has laid down, 
rules which have rarely been mended. These 
fall not properly under my theme. 
9. WHEN the fruits of the earth had un-
dergone so great a change by the Deluge, God per- 
mitted man to eat flesh. Every moving thing that 
liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb 
have I given you all things. The clean beasts were 
taken into the Ark by sevens; the unclean by 
twos. The surplus of the first was probably in- 
tended for the provision of Noah and his family. 
Moses was the first writer who selected a particu- 
lar food for the fews, viz. Bread, wine, milk, 
honey, quadrupeds that divided the hoof, and chew the 
cud, all the feathered kind, and fishes that have fins
and scales. 
Flesh.
The flesh of animals in their prime of life, of 
such as are castrated, and not used to hard labour 
is best. 
The flesh of granivorous birds is not so oily as
that of water-fowls. Mutton is the best of all 
flesh, for the delicate and robust. Bath and Bris- 
tol Hot-well mutton are excellent. Beef and 
pork are proper only for the strong, and those 
who use hard exercise. 
10. POND-FISH, such particularly as are fat
are hard of digestion. Such as are 
caught in rivers near the sea-shore are 
lighter. Boiled fish is lighter than roasted. 
Fish.
SEA-SALT moderately used with animal food,
is wholesome. To excess, the reverse. In in- 
flammatory disorders, sea-salt stimulates too much. 
By living on animal-food where falt was not to
be

284 OF REGIMEN.
be had, there are not a few instances of garrisons
and towns being over-run with scurvy, and fe- 
vers pestilential. This particularly was the case 
at Gronningen. We read of a people of the East 
Indies prohibited the use of sea-salt. These are 
notoriously infected with putrid mortal diseases. 
In that part which treats of the virtues of the
component parts of Waters, I have proven that 
sea-salt prevents putrefaction. 
11. Bitters bind the belly. Acids 
gripe the bowels. Salted things pro- 
mote stool and urine. Sweet things breed phlegm.
Bitters. 
12. Onions, leeks, raddishes, and all the al- 
calescents are antiseptic. Mustard, 
and cresses occasion a difficulty of u- 
rine. Celery is diuretic. Aromatics heat. Col- 
worts and lettuce cool. Cucumbers are cold, 
crude and hard of digestion. Ripe fruits open 
the belly. Unripe bind. Pulses of all sorts are 
windy. Honey promotes urine and stools. Soft 
bread increases acidity in stomachs troubled with
heart-burns; biscuit less. Confections and dain- 
ties tempt people to eat too much, and are there- 
fore hard of digestion. Where the aliment fer- 
ments too violently from putrescency, or from 
debility of the stomach, acids, bitters, aromatics
and alcalescents are proper. If cold cacochymy is 
added to bad habit, the patient ought to abstain 
from farinous foods and gellies, because these in- 
crease the tenacity of the humours, and e. c. If 
the body begins to be puffed up with watry hu- 
mours, broths are sparingly to be used. Roasted 
meats, and fresh-water-fish with generous wine 
are indicated. If acid acrimony abounds, as in 
young people, eggs, broths, hartshorn jellies are 
best. If e. c. the humours tend to alkaline pu- 
trescency, barley broths, bread, and milks are  
Alcalescents.
the

285 OF REGIMEN.
the foods. Acid liquors are the drinks. If broths
are allowed, they ought to be acidulated. 
Physicians may be too churlish. Certain it is
that patients generally digest those 
things easiest which their stomachs 
crave. People in fevers abhor meat; 
offer them butter-milk, or barley wa- 
ter acidulated, they snatch them gree- 
dily. Longings ought to be lessons 
to physicians. Hence it was Hippo- 
crates (De Affectionibus) lays it down 
as a maxim, Quoscunque cibos, aut obsonia, aut po- 
tus decumbentes expetunt, ea suppetant, Ji nullum cor- 
pori nocumentum sit futurum. Aphor. 38, the same 
Hippocrates lays it down as another rule, Meats 
and drinks not so very good are sweeter, and therefore
to be preferred to better more unsavory. “ A tem- 
“ pore consueta, etiamsi deteriora, infuetis minus 
“ turbare folent.” Numerous are the examples 
of patients being cured by things which they 
longed for, and which had been with-held as 
hurtful. “ In the cure of diseases, Sydenham 
“ advises physicians to pay more attention to the 
“ appetites, and ardent desires of the sick (provi- 
“ ded the things desired do not manifestly en- 
“ danger life) than to the still more dubious and
“ fallacious rules of art.”—Suppose a cachec- 
tic labouring of alkaline acrimony longs for 
broth; broth acidulated may be allowed.—Wo- 
men sometimes labouring of acid acrimony, long 
for vinegar with their food; they may be indulg- 
ed, by giving them absorbent powders before 
dinner. By such artful condescensions, physici- 
ans win their patients hearts. Concedendum ali- 
quid et consuetudini, et tempestati, et regioni, et aeta- 
ti, fays Hipp, Aph. 1—17.
Rigorous se- 
verity the 
child of igno- 
rance. 
Longings, 
useful indi- 
cations. 
13. By

286 OF REGIMEN.
13. By statical experiments, Sanctorians have 
discovered, That the body perspires 
but little while the stomach is too 
full, or too empty,—That full diet is 
prejudicial to those who use little exercise, but 
indispensibly necessary to those who labour much, 
—That food the weight of which is not felt in 
the stomach, nourishes best, and perspires most 
freely,—That he who goes to bed without sup- 
per, being hungry, will perspire but little; and, 
if he does so often, will be apt to fall into a fe- 
ver,—That the flesh of young animals, good 
mutton, and bread well baked are the best food, 
—That the body feels heavier after four ounces 
of strong food that nourishs much, such as pork, 
eel, salt-fish, or flesh, than after six ounces of 
food that nourishes little, such as fresh fish, chick- 
en, and small birds. For, where the digestion is 
difficult, the perspiration is slow.—That unu- 
sual fasting frequently repeated brings on a bad 
state of health,—That the body is more uneasy 
and heavy after six pounds taken in at one meal, 
than after eight taken in at three,—That he de- 
stroys himself slowly who makes but one meal a 
day, let him eat much or little,—That he who 
eats more than he can digest is nourished less than
he ought to be, and so becomes emaciated,— 
That to eat immoderately after immoderate exer- 
cise of body or mind is bad; for a body fatigued 
perspires but little. 
Statical 
proofs. 
Drinks.
14. NOT long after the deluge, it is probable,
Beer was invented; for Herodotus in- 
forms us, that in the corn-provinces 
in Egypt, where no vines grew, the people drank 
Beer.
a

287 OF REGIMEN.
a sort of wine made of barley, Οlνω εΧ Χςlθεvωv
πεποlημεvω. Those who have been accustomed 
to beer ought not to be severely interdicted its 
use; beer seems to have a more durable effect
than wine. Mum, or strong beer, which is an 
extract of corn, taken in small quantities with 
biscuit, proves an excellent medicine in disorders 
proceeding from cold lentor. Its spirit is fixed in
a more tenacious bond, and therefore produces 
more durable effects. Wine, beer, cyder, perry 
and all fermented liquors are antiseptic. When 
beer neither oppresses the stomach, nor binds the
belly, but passes by urine, it may be allowed. 
Where it generates wind, passes sluggishly, or 
breeds stony concretions, it ought not. 
“ NOAH began to be a husbandman, arid he 
“ planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, 
“ and was drunken.” 
Wine drank too freely weakens the man, 
as may be seen by his actions. Sweet wines pro- 
mote stools, but they excite flatulency and thirst; 
they promote expectoration, but impede urine. 
Tawny austere wines are good when the body is 
loose, provided there be no disorder in the head, 
no impediment in spitting, or making water. 
Pure wine is best for the stomach, and bowels. 
Diluted with water, it is best for the head, breast, 
and urinary passages. Strong Spanish, or Hun- 
garian wines strengthen the stomach wonder- 
fully. 
Wine. 
15. MINERAL WATERS are possessed of a spi- 
rit which helps digestion and promotes 
sleep. Patients require but little pure 
wine while they drink water. Hec- 
tics ought to drink none. Mineral 
waters are all hard, and therefore unfit for do- 
mestic purposes, until they are robbed of their 
Mineral wa- 
ters improper 
at meals.  
acid,

288 OF REGIMEN.
acid, by boiling. Injudicious as well as com- 
mon, is the practice of drinking Bath-waters at 
meals. People of lax bowels may drink them, 
none other. Pure soft water is the best of all di- 
luents, especially to those who are naturally cos- 
tive. Those who are troubled with stomach- 
complaints, ought to drink wine, or rather rum,
or brandy. The latter are lowered with water 
only; the former are composed of we know not 
what. 
16. TEA and COFFEE are now the principal 
beverages of the kingdom; at mineral-water 
places, as much as any other. There 
have been physicians of no small note, 
of the opinion that the fluids cannot 
be too much fused. From this notion they in- 
culcate the perpetual dilution of the blood, by
tepid watry liquors. Hence those encomiums of 
Bentekoe and others on Tea, Coffee, and other 
modern flip-flops. Our hardy ancestors made use 
of infusions of indigenous plants, made-wines, 
and beer. Nervous complaints were unfashiona- 
ble in their days. From the prince to the pea- 
sant, Tea and Coffee are now in constant use. 
Never were nervous diseases so frequent as at this
day. The question of Tea and Coffee cannot 
therefore be indifferent. 
Tea and Cof- 
fee. 
Luxury and avarice seem to have conspired in 
multiplying the names of Teas. Teas of all 
sorts are, most certainly, leaves of the same shrub;
different sorts take their names from the different 
countries, or different manner of manufacture;
just as we produce different beers from malt high, 
or slack dried. 
BOHEA is the most natural, simple, 
and most salutary. In gathering the 
Bohea, the trees are never injure; the leaves 
Bohea.
advance


289 OF REGIMEN.
advance to full maturity, fall, and are pre- 
served. 
GREEN TEA is plucked separately from the 
shrub, just as the leaf, in full verdure, 
begins to expand. Injured by this 
violence, the trees rarely bud again for years. 
Green Tea.
Naturally, the leaves are so disagreeably bitter 
and astringent, that to render them palatable, the 
Chinese infuse both sorts for a certain space in 
water. After this infusion, the Bohea leaves are 
generally dried in the sun and preserved for use. 
The green is dried in caldrons, or on plates of 
copper heated. The natives who roll, mix, and 
turn the leaves, are obliged to arm their hands 
with leathern gloves to defend them from the 
metallic efflorescence. In Holland, as well as in
Britain, there are itinerants who make a trade of 
purchasing tea leaves which have been used; these 
they re-manufacture so dexterously by tinging, 
rolling, and drying, that they easily impose on 
those who are fond of bargains, or any thing that 
has the appearance of being smuggled. 
THE leaves discover a degree of bitterness con- 
joined with a gentle astringency, dis- 
coverable by taste, as well as by vitri- 
olic infusion, without any sensible heat or acri- 
mony. Simply infused in water, tea braces the 
fibres of the first passages, and thus promotes di- 
gestions; it dilutes and dissolves the fluids, re- 
laxes the solids, promotes urine, corrects acri- 
mony, cools, quenches thirst, and diverts sleep. 
Hence useful in inflammatory, lethargic, ioma- 
tous, gravellish disorders, flatulencies, and head- 
achs from hard drinking. The Asiatics chiefly 
indulge in Bohea. The higher priced green they 
reserve for European markets.  
Virtues.
N Manu-

290 OF REGIMEN.
Manufactured, sophisticated, or mixed, the vir- 
tues of Tea can only be estimated from a know- 
ledge of the several ingredients with which it 
is usualJy compounded. Mischiefs imputed to 
the plant are often due to practices foreign, as 
well as domestic. This seems to gather 
strength from a comparative view of the similar 
effects of excess in tea, and small doses of verdi- 
grease. Both excite tremblings, vomitings, sick- 
ness, languor, dimness of sight, palpitation, pa- 
ralytic affections, with all those consequences 
which accompany weak fibres and watry fluids. 
In his Academical Praelections, I remember Doctor 
Alston affirmed, that (after repeated trials) he 
found that tea drinking occasioned a glaring in 
his eyes, affecting his speech; which Kempser 
(in his Amaenitates Exoticae, pag. 605 to 608) con- 
firms, classing it among the malignants, or those 
which are unfriendly to the brain and nerves. 
COFFEE, in respect of its effects good or bad, 
may be classed with tea. It is a kernel cloathed
with a thin membrane, and a sub- 
acrid pulp of a leguminous bitterish 
taste, before it is roasted. In roasting, a volatile 
salt flies off, the oil becomes a veritable oleum am- 
bustum. In drying, the tea actually undergoes 
the very same proeess; but its quantity of oil is 
fo very inconsiderable, that it discovers nothing
of an empyreuma.
Coffee.  
The virtues of Coffee seem to depend on the 
oil; which, by burning, becomes so changed, 
as to be unfit for the purpose of nu- 
trition: It may be of use in cases 
where the weakness of the first passages can be 
assisted by a gentle stimulus. In this case it proves
cephalic, quickens the circulation, promotes per- 
spirattion, and is nervous; roasted peas and beans 
Virtues. 
yield

291 OF REGIMEN.
yield a substance near akin to it. Used in excess 
it has all the bad properties of tea. 
The best purpose that I know tea or coffee 
good for, is to clear the head, and divert sleep, 
when I have a mind to protract my studies to 
late hours. For the purpose of dilution, infu- 
sions of sage, balm, rosemary, lavender, valerian, 
and many other indigenous plants are equally 
good. In cases where tea and coffee are pernici- 
ous, these are remedies. Were they of foreign 
extraction they’d be much more valued. 
THE hardest parts of animal bodies exposed to 
the vapour of warm water, become soft; harts- 
horns thus becomes scissible. From the abuse of
warm water, Hippocrates enumerates carnium ef- 
feminationem, nervorum impotentiam, mentis stupo- 
rem, haemorrhagias, animi deliquia. In Van Eem's 
Collection of Boerhaaeve’s academical prelections 
De Nervorum morbis, we find that illustrious phy- 
sician complaining that he had seen many abused 
by such flops, so enervated that they hardly drag- 
ged their languid members after them, some af- 
flicted with apoplexy and palsy. “ Notum est 
“ toties morbum chlorofin, et summum languo- 
“ rem, uteri haemorrhagias fieri mulieribus, dum
“ potibus aquosis tepidis abutuntur.” 
Theorists forget the natural state of the blood 
in health. “ Open the vein of a dairy maid, the 
“ blood, as it flows from the orifice, concretes 
“ instantly into a solid mass.—” “ Open the 
“ vein of a valetudinarian, the red globules and 
“ the serous swim about in a slimfy ill-coloured 
homogeneous fluid.” By this observation a- 
lone, practitioners know, that by too great dilu- 
tion, fox-hunters maybe converted into fribbles. 
Without a certain degree of spissitude, the hu- 
mours cannot be kept within their proper canals.  
N2 If

292 OF REGIMEN.
If the red globules are melted down to the con- 
sistence of serous, the sanguiferous vessels become 
empty. If the serous acquire the consistence of 
lymphatics, all those evils which proceed ah erro- 
re loci must insue. The whole will, in time, 
pass through the exhalant vessels, the body must
be consumed. In found bodies, the natural heat 
is maintained while the solids and fluids preserve 
their natural disposition. But, if the humours 
come to be too much diluted, the solids naturally 
become flaccid. Hence languor and chilliness. The 
watry part of the blood accumulates in the cavi- 
ties of the body; hence Cachexy, Dropsy, &c. 
Were the custom of tea drinking confined to peo- 
ple of rigid fibres and active lives; the penetrating
quality of the fluid added, to the saponaceous anti- 
septic property of the sugar, would render the in- 
fusion miscible with the blood. Obstructions 
might be removed, acrid salts diluted, viscid 
phlegm dissolved. The astringency of the plant 
might answer the good purpose of passing off the 
liquor more quickly. The sanguinary, bilious, 
phlegmatic and melancholic might all find relief. 
Fevers might be prevented in the young, aches 
and obstructions in the old. The belly might be 
kept soluble, the urinary passages cleansed, and 
insensible perspiration, the healthiest of all secre- 
tions, might be promoted. 
But, such is the force of example; the lazy, 
indolent and effeminate, men and women of 
weak nerves, relaxed fibres, and foul juices, in- 
dulge themselves, twice or thrice a day, in the 
immoderate use of, a tipple, which enervates 
more and more. They dilute medicated waters 
with water warm and relaxing. They dread the 
effect of the plant which (by its astringency) is
calculated to brace the muscular coat of their
weak

293 OF REGIMEN.
weak stomachs. They make use of an infusion 
so weak that it relaxes more and more. Hence 
indigestion, sickness, fainting, tremours, with all 
their direful consequences. The contractile fi- 
bres lose their elasticicy, the food lies like a load. 
Hence sourness, flatulencies, vapours, &c. They 
desert the springs of health with disgust, while they
daily labour to counteract the virtues of the waters. 
THOSE poetic proofs which close the different 
sections of this last chapter, are extracted from Dr. 
Armstrong's most ingenious poem on the Art of
preserving Health.
“ PROMPTED by instinct's never erring power,
“ Each creature knows its proper aliment; 
“ But man, th’ inhabitant of ev’ry clime, 
“ With all the commoners of nature feeds. 
“ Directed, bounded by this power within, 
“ Their cravings arc well aim'd: Voluptuous man
“ Is by superior faculties misled; 
“ Misled from pleasure ev’n in quest of joy. 
“ Sated with nature’s boons, what thousands seek,
“ With dishes tortur’d from their native taste, 
“ And mad variety, to spur beyond 
“ Its wiser will the jaded appetite.” 
§. II. OF AIR.
IN my Treatise Of the use of Sea Voyages, and
in my chapter of Pectoral Diseases, I have treated of
the properties of air. In this section, for the sake 
of method, I propose only to lay down general 
cautions relative to domestic air. 
1. AIR has an inconceivable influence on the 
human frame. Man may live whole days with- 
out food; not a moment without air. 
Epidemical diseases attack persons of
all ranks, those who differ extremely in point of
Air. 
N3 diet,

294 OF REGIMEN.
diet, exercise, amusement, occupation, &c. In 
his judicious Observations on the Diseases of Minor- 
ca, Dr. Cleghorn has observed, that the diseases 
which affected the regular temperate natives, and 
the drunken irregular soldiers, were the same in 
point of violence, attack, and duration.—In such 
cases, change of diet avails but little. Those 
who dread infection must change air. No man 
in his senses would tarry in Constantinople during
the plague. 
2. PATIENTS have not always the means of 
travelling, or changing air. It is therefore the
duty of those who watch over the 
health of their fellow citizens, 1. To 
measure the heat of the human blood, in diffe- 
rent ages, constitutions, and diseases; and 2. To 
attend to those effects which different airs, winds, 
and seasons have on particular constitutions. If 
the climate cannot conveniently be changed, we 
always have it in our power to alter the nature 
and qualities of that particular atmosphere in 
which patients breathe; or, in other words, we 
may accommodate the nature of the air to the na- 
ture of that season which is known to be most
healthy. 
Domestic air.
3. IN estimating the different degrees of heat, 
the ancients wisely confirmed their observations 
by experiments. The same air and 
the same heat appear different to diffe- 
rent people. The standard of fancy 
ever has, and ever will be a false standard. If 
we revolve Galen’s book, De Temperamentis, we 
find an ingenuous confession in proof of our pre- 
sent position, Lib. 2. cap. 2. apud Charterium, 
Tom. 3. p. 60. “ Et quid opus in tam dissimili- 
“ bus exemplum proponere? Cum ipse aer qui 
“ simili sit colore; varie tangenti occurrat, prout  
Heat imagi- 
nary. 
“ alius

295 OF REGIMEN.
“ alius veluti caliginosus, halituosus, alius fumosus, 
“ fuliginosus, interdum purus omnino eft. Igi-
“ turin pluribus, iifdemque differentibus, aequali- 
“ tas caloris consistit, quae inconsideratis quasi in- 
“ aequalis fit, imponit; propterea, sciz. quod non 
“ undequaque similis apparet. Caeterum homo 
“ qui rationes quas proposui expendat, et sensim, 
“ multa particularium experientia exercuerit, is 
“ nimirum aequalitatem caloris in pueris, florenti- 
“ busque, inveniet, nec eo falletur quod alter in 
“ humida, alter in ficca substantia repraesente- 
“ tur; quippe lapis aliquando pari cum aqua ca- 
“ lore effe potest, nullum faciente discrimeu quod
“ lapis ficcus fit, aqua vero humida. Ita igitur 
“ mihi, cum pueros, juvenes, adolescentes mil-. 
“ lies considerâffem, praeterea eundem, infan- 
“ tem, puerum, adolescentemque factum; nihi- 
“ lo calidior visus eft, nec puer quam aetate flo- 
“ rens, nec aetate florens quam puer, fed tan- 
“ tum quemadmodum dixi, in pueris magis hali- 
“ tuosus, et multus et suavis; in florentibus ex- 
“ iguus, ficcus, nec similiter suavis effe caloris
“ occursus. Itaque neuter simpliciter videtur 
“ calidior; sed alter, multitudine ejus quod di- 
“ flatur, alter acrimonia.” 
4. MODERNS taking it for granted that heat 
proceeded from attrition, rarely confirmed their 
opinions by experiments; or made 
their experiments in a vague negligent 
manner. Galileo, Drebellius, Pas- 
chal, Farenheit, Reaumur, and others have de- 
vised thermometers for determining the natural 
heat of bodies of all sorts, animate or inani- 
mate. Boerhaave, Hales, Derham, De Sauvages, 
and others inform us of the degree of heat; but 
keep us in the dark in regard to the time of the 
application of the thermometer. How far such 
Experiments 
inaccurate.  
N4 experimenta

296 OF REGIMEN.
experiments are to be depended on, we now pro- 
ceed to inquire. 
5. UNIVERSAL EXPERIMENT determines the 
heat of the human body, at middle age, and in 
a state of health, at 95, 96 degrees. 
But there have been found instances 
of men in health, whose natural heat 
has constanly raised the mercury, some to 97, 
rarely to 98, and more rarely to 99. How erro- 
neous would it be to treat such as feverish, when
this heat was only constitutional!
Heat diffe- 
rent. 
FROM an opinion that one of the principal uses, 
of external air was to cool the blood as it circu- 
lates through the pulmonary vessels. 
Hales, Boerhaave, and other great 
men were of opinion, that man could 
not long subsist in air which equals, or exceeds 
the native heat. Under the aequator the same is 
the degree of heat with the natural. Men not 
only continue healthy under the aequator, but in
many other parts whose heat exceeds that of the 
human body. Air seems not only to cool the 
blood, but to accelerate the circulation also. 
Air cools and 
accelerates. 
6. IN his Ratio Medendi, professor de Haen 
(Cap. 3. de aere, &c. cop. 19, De supputando ca- 
lore corporis humani) seems to have add- 
ed much light to the present subject. 
With thermometers prepared by Mar- 
ci, Prim, Reaumur, and Farenheit, he made ex- 
periments (to use his own words) Non autem fe- 
mel, deciefve, fed pluries ipsissma experimenta itera- 
la funt, et semper idem docuerunt. 
Accurate ex- 
periments. 
Under the arm-pit of a man in health, he put 
the thermometer for half a quarter of an hour, 
and found it rise to 95, 96. Continued for a 
quarter, it mounted to 97, 98, 99. For half an 
hour

297 OF REGIMEN.
hour 100, 101. For one hour 101, 102. For 
two hours it rose no higher. 
Applied to the arm-pit of a man in a moderate 
feverish heat, for half a quarter of an hour, it 
rose to 100. After one quarter 101, 102. After 
half an hour 102, 103. After one hour 103, 104. 
—By other trials, in continued fevers, it rose to
106, in half an hour. In one hour to 109.
Sometimes in half an hour to 103. In an hour 
to 105.—In a Semi-tertion composed of a continu- 
al fever and a quotidian intermittent, he observes 
that the patient was so very sensible of cold in 
the fit, that he could hardly bear it. In the mean 
time the thermometer rose to 104. The symp- 
toms of the cold fit were evident, shivering, 
chattering teeth, shaking, and a perfect sense of 
internal chill, with a quick, smal], contracted
pulse. During the hot fit, the pulse was full, 
free and quick. In states so opposite, one would 
have hardly expected the same degree of heat. 
Experiment shewed the same exactly. Hippo- 
crates Aph. 4. 48. 7.—72, fays, In febribus non 
remittentibus, si externa frigeant, et interna urantur, 
et sitiant, lethale. This aphorism has generally 
been depended on; but this cannot be said to be 
the case of our patient; he complained of cold 
internal and external. In the cold fit, had not 
the thermometer been applied, no man, would 
have believed that the heat exceeded the natural,
by 7 or 8 degrees.—He gives the history of a 
man, who in a marble chill, which lasted twenty- 
four hours before death, without any sensible 
pulse, raised the mercury in the thermometer to 
97. Here was heat exceeding the natural with- 
out pretence of attrition. The difference of heat 
between thermometers differently placed, he 
found 30.—From these experiments, our author 
N5 in-

298 OF REGIMEN.
ingenuously concludes, that the degree of heat in 
persons found and sick is rarely determined with 
that precision which such subjects require. The 
real degree of heat cannot be fixed in less than 
an hour. Patientia igitur in experimentis, libera 
ab hypothesibus animo capiendis, multa dediscimus quae
humana arrogantia perperam addidisceramus, says De 
Haen, pag. 124. 
IN this inconstant climate, winter and summer 
succeed one another, more than once, in the space 
of twenty-four hours. Our good and 
bad weather may truly be said to de- 
pend on the point of the compass. 
South winds relax and open the pores. North 
winds brace and stop perspiration. Nothing can 
be more pernicious to invalids than air too cold, 
too hot, too moist, or too dry.
Climate in- 
constant.  
1. IF Hippocrates advised his patients to guard 
against the approaching cold of the autumn, in 
the serene climate of Greece, by thick 
cloathing, εδθΤl παXεlη, how much 
more reason have we to be careful? 
Mortalibus turn vitae, turn morborum 
causa est aer, he adds De flatibus, pag. 296. Sy- 
denham condemns the giddy practice of laying a- 
side winter garments too early in the spring, and 
of exposing bodies over-heated to sudden chills. 
This practice, he affirms, has destroyed more 
than famine, pestilence, or the sword. De humor, 
pag. 50, lin. 53. 
Cloaths not 
rashly to be 
changed. 
2. RARELY have we opportunities of contend- 
ing on the subject of cold air; oftener on that of 
heat. From cold, invalids sometimes 
suffer. To avoid this evil, some 
plunge into a greater. In acute dis- 
eases, patients are not only shut up within bed- 
curtains, but buried underloads of blankets. In- 
Heat danger- 
ous. 
valids


299 OF REGIMEN.
valids and people in health lift up every chink. 
Damned to hot bed-chambers, and self-perspira- 
tion, sick people are often broiled to death. Self- 
perspiration not only hurts by heat, but by putre- 
scence also. Hence difficulty of breathing, anxiety, 
dreams, delirium, miliary eruptions, and death. 
This practice was condemned by Forestus in Ger- 
many, 200 years ago; by Sydenham in England, 
and by every rational practitioner, all the world over. 
To tender lungs, heat and cold are both un- 
friendly. That cold which chills the air about 
the morning’s dawn, ought to be awarded by co- 
vering the head, neck, and breast as well as by 
shutting the curtains. The air ought to be satu- 
rated with balsamic vulnerary effluvia. Powder- 
ed gums ought to be sprinkled on the embers. 
Fire ought to be kept up night and day, at an 
equal warmth, from 60 to 65, by a thermometer. 
Those who are able to get put of bed ought to 
walk into another room; the sheets ought to be 
aired, the windows and doors ought to be thrown 
open. Those who cannot get out of bed ought 
to be bolstered up thro’ the day.
Consumptives ought to sleep in spacious upper 
rooms, and alone. If they require not constant 
attendance, nurses ought to wait in the adjoining
room. From statical experiments, we learn, that 
(by absorption) the sick communicate their dis- 
tempers to those who sleep under the same bed- 
cloaths. Heat and contact are, unexceptionably, 
pernicious to consumptives. Dr. Tronchin gives 
instances of wives being infected by sleeping 
with their husbands, in the Dry Belly-Ach. The 
summer effluvia of animal bodies taint the air to- 
a degree sufficient to defeat every intention. 
While the ventilator played at Simson’s room, on 
an assembly night, I tried to make an experiment 
N6 on

300 OF REGIMEN.
on the foul exhausted air. The smell was incon- 
ceivably loathsome, I could not bear it for a mo- 
ment; nor can any man without danger of be- 
ing poisoned. Foul air was the cause of the fa- 
tal catastrophe at Calcutta. Bed-chamber visits 
ought, for this reason, to be rare, and short. 
The windows and doors ought to be laid open in 
the day-time for a thorough perflation of air. 
By covering a patient too warm, and by lec- 
turing too long to seventy students, Professor De
Haen ingenuously confesses that he 
was the cause of miliary eruptions in 
a pulmonary case, idque meo palam fateor neglectu. 
From this error gaining experience, he gradu- 
ally relieved the patient’s body of part of the bed- 
cloaths; he passed him over slightly, in his 
rounds, referring his clinical lecture till he came 
into the hall. Remembering Sydenham’s pre- 
cepts and example, viz. That eruptions caused by 
hot air, ought to be cured by taking the patient out of
bed, and by medicines diluent and cooling, all these 
he strictly followed; so that, by degrees, the 
man’s anxieties decreased, his sweats abated; in 
four days time the miliary eruptions began to 
scale off, his strength increased, while the perip- 
neumony began to throw itself off by expectora- 
tion. On purpose, he owns, he kept the patient 
longer than was necessary, in the Infirmary, that 
the Doctors and Students, confirmatae ejus pancra- 
ticae sanitatis testes existerent. Quantine faciendus, 
in Medicine Sydenhamus! 
Examples. 
He says, he saw cases of the Miliara vera, 
which begin with a rheumatic fever, on the 4, 
5, 6, 7, and 8th day. Some had eruptions on 
the chin, neck, breast, arms, and thighs. These 
lay in the common ward with patients of all dis- 
eases, breathing the same air, and laying under 
the

301 OF REGIMEN.
the same number of blankets. After three or 
four weeks, omnes adepti sunt sanitatem.—Bolder 
by experience, he treated a patient labouring of 
a putrid fever, and covered over with petechiae, 
just as he did patients in common; he took him 
out of bed every day, he drenched him with di- 
luents acidulated with spirit of sulphur. In the 
space of eight days he was free from eruptions 
and fever. “ Sic sensim jugum quod humeris 
“ meis publicus clamor imposuerat excutere vo- 
“ lui, debui. Videram in Belgio foederate prac- 
“ ticos annosiores, qui monita Sydenhami ac Boer- 
“ haavii, in Variolis, Morbillis, Miliaribus, Pe- 
“ techiis, Scarlatinis aspernati, horum morborum 
“ in curatione admodum infortunati effent: vi- 
“ deram alios qui Boerhaaviana scholo enutriti, 
“ Magistrique vestigiis presse inherentes, horam
“ curam feliciter ederent. Recordabar et me Sy- 
“ denhami ac Boerhaavii vestigia prementem, hos 
“ eosdem morbos fummo cum famae ac honoris 
“ incremento, caeteris, qui alias longa semitas 
“ calcarent reclamantibus, felicius curasse. Hinc
“ audacter varios clamores flocci faciens, con- 
“ cludere debui, tarn felicem effe horum mor- 
“ borum curam in aere Austriaco, quam suadente 
“ Sydenhamo in Britannico, quam suadente Boer- 
“ haavo in Belgico fuisse constat.” De Haen Caput 
3. De Aere Decubitu, Sessione, aliisque circa aegros 
moderandis. 
—“ Our fathers talk 
“ Of summers, balmy airs, and skies serene. 
“ Good heaven! for what unexpiated crimes 
“ This dismal change! The brooding elements 
“ Do they, your powerful ministers of wrath, 
“ Prepare some fierce exterminating plague. 
“ Or, is it fix’d in the decrees above 
“ That

302 OF REGIMEN.
“ That lofty Albion melt into the main? 
“ Indulgent nature! O dissolve the gloom! 
“ Bind in eternal adamant the winds 
“ That drown or wither: give the genial west 
“ To breathe, and in its turn the sprightly north; 
“ And may once more the circling seasons rule 
“ The year, nor mix in every monstrous day.” 
§. III. OF EXERCISE.
THE body of man is made up of tubes and 
glands fitted to one another in so wonderful a
manner, that there must be frequent 
motions, conditions, and agitations 
to mix, digest, and separate the juices, 
to cleanse the infinitude of pipes and strainers, 
and to give the solids a firm and lasting tone. 
Exercise ferments the humours, forces them into 
their proper channels, throws off redundancies, 
and helps nature in those distributions which are
necessary for life. 
Exercise ne- 
cessary. 
1. IN, genera], that sort of exercise 
is best to which one has been accus- 
tomed, which best agrees, and in which 
people take delight. 
That which 
agrees best. 
2. EXERCISE is best when the stomach is most
empty. It is to be estimated by the constitution. 
When the patient begins to sweat, 
grow weary, or short breathed, he 
should forbear, till he recovers. For 
the delicate and infirm, that sort of exercise is 
most proper which is performed by external help, 
gestation in wheel carriages, horse-litters, sedan- 
chairs, failing, &c. Julius Caesar was of a weak 
delicate constitution by nature, which he harden- 
ed by exercise. Plutarch says, he turned his 
very repose into action.
On an empty 
stomach. 
3. FOR

303 OF REGIMEN.
3. FOR such as are neither robust nor very
tender, that sort of exercise is best which is per- 
formed partly by ourselves, partly by 
foreign assistance. Of this sort, riding 
on horseback is the foremost, for the be- 
nefits of which I beg leave to refer the reader to
the judicious Sydenham and to Fuller. 
Riding on 
horseback.
By riding the pendulous viscera are shaken, 
and gently rubbed against the surfaces of each o- 
ther; mean while the external air rushes forcibly
into the lungs. These conspiring produce sur- 
prising changes. Sydenham had such an opinion 
of Riding, that he believed not only lesser evils 
could be cured by it, but even th e Consumption in 
its last stage. In this disease, he says, Riding is 
a specific as certain as mercury in the Lues, or 
bark in an Ague, but he cautions phthisics never 
to fatigue themselves by it. On this head he pro- 
duces many instances of recovery. In long jour- 
nies, concussions often repeated have expelled ob- 
structions which the waters had begun to dislodge, 
—Those invalids who ride out in the 
summer, in the heat of the day, act 
irrationally. I would advise them to 
go to bed early, so that they may get 
up early, and ride before breakfast, 
and in the evening. In Italy, it is a common ob- 
servation, that none but Englishmen and dogs are 
to be seen in the streets, in the forenoon. Cane et
Inglesi.  
Riding in the 
heat of the 
day irra- 
tional. 
4. AFTER exercise, the body should 
be well rubbed, then dry linen should 
be put on well aired. 
Linen to be 
changed.
5. AFTER exercise, every man 
oupht to rest before he sits down to 
dinner. Cold small liquors after exer- 
cite are pernicious. 
Cold liquors 
dangerous.  
6. EVERY

304 OF REGIMEN.
6. VERY author who has wrote well on the 
Non-Naturals in general, has copied from the di- 
vine old man. To Hippocrates are we 
indebted for most of the foregoing. 
We now proceed to enumerate some 
of his particular observations, to which 
we may add those of others, who have not copied 
from him. 
Hippocrates 
the best wri- 
ter.
7. Complaints which arise from immoderate 
labour are cured by rest, and e. c. 
In those who loiter away their lives in sloth,
muscular motion languishes, the chyle is neither 
assimilated quickly, nor perfectly. Cachexy ne- 
cessarily becomes the consequence. Let the best
hunter stand still, he may soon plump up; but 
he will every day, become more and more unfit 
for the field. Of twins, let one apply himself to
study; let the other inure himself to hunting. 
The former enjoys the health of a green-sick 
girl; the latter strings his nerves. The lazy 
rich envy the healthy poor; they would enjoy 
health, while they do nothing to preserve it. 
“ Illi vero qui divitiis affluentes, largis quotidie 
“ fruuntur epulis, nec fe ad labores credunt na- 
“ tos, perpetuis querelis medicorum aures fati- 
“ gant, dum volunt vivere fani, ct nihil agere.” 
Boerhaavii Praelect. Academ. From no cause what- 
somever, can health suffer more surely, than by 
exchanging a life of action for a life of indolences 
Well, therefore, might Aretaeus (among the 
causes of cachexy) rank, ab exercitationibus, quies;
a laboribus, otium. Well might Hippocrates say, 
Labor ficcat, et corpus reddit cjjicit; otium hu- 
meddat, et corpus reddit debile. Baccius draws a 
parallel between the active lives of the antients; 
and the flothful lives of the moderns. “ Illorum 
“ vita assiduis dedita exercitiis, sanitatem conser- 
“ vabat,

305 OF REGIMEN.
“ vabat, et promptiores reddebat vires ad singula 
“ tam animi quam corporis munera. Hodie, e. c. 
“ in continuo otio degitur. Principes aut curis 
“ animi jugicer tenentur; aut, fi ad ludicra tran- 
“ fire soleant, ea inertia funt Tabellae, aleae, tro-
“ chi novus modus super mensam agitati. Unde, 
“ non mirum, qui praeproperam accelerant se- 
“ nectutem, incurrantque facile in morbos renales, 
“aut in podagrain, haemicraniam, aliosque id ge- 
nus affectus, medioque veluti curfu deficiant.” 
8. If the body, or any of its mem- 
bers rest longer than usual, it will not 
become the stronger. If, e. c. after a 
long habit of idleness, one enters immediately on
hard labour, he will surely do himself hurt.
Laziness 
hurtful.
9. A soft bed is as irksome to him 
who is accustomed to a hard one, as a 
hard bed is to him who lies at home, 
upon down.  
Custom to be 
studied.
10. Those who seldom use motion, are wearied 
with the smallest exercise, and e. c. 
11. Friction is a sort of succedane- 
um to exercise. Experience dictates
this to Jockies.
Friction.
Friction is an alternate pressure and relaxation 
of the vessels. Gentle friction presses the veins 
only, harder the arteries. By pressing the veins 
the motion of the blood is accelerated towards 
the heart; thus the actions of the heart are ex- 
cited, the blood moves through the vessels. Vital 
power may be increased by friction alone to any 
degree. In the coldest hydropic, a fever may be 
thus raised. In bodies where none of the chylo- 
poetic viscera perform their offices, wonderful ef- 
fects may be produced by rubbing the belly with 
coarse woollen clothes. Thus have dropsies been 
cured. For prevention and cure the antients 
used

306 OF REGIMEN.
used frictions. Let a horse stand unrubbed for a 
few days, he becomes useless. Let him be well 
curry-combed, he may continue nimble for years. 
Columella strongly recommends this practice of 
currying in his Re Rustica. He says, sæpe plus pro- 
dest pressa manu subegisse terga, quam si largissime ci- 
bos praebeas. 
Frictions may be used for different purposes. 
Hence it was that Hippocrates (De Medici offi- 
cio) says, Frictio potest solvere, ligare carne implere,
minuere , dura ligare, mollia solvere, moderata, den- 
fare. The fibres may be relaxed by rubbing with
oils. They may be braced by the use of gums,
spirits, &c. 
12. Reading aloud and singing warms the bo- 
dy, Hence it is, that Dr. Andry 
thinks the reason why women stand 
not so much in need of exercise, be-  
cause they are more talkative than the men. 
Reading and 
singing.
13. THE foundation of chronical ailments are 
generally laid in that time of life which passes 
between puberty and manhood. Moderate exer- 
cise promotes secretions. Violent exercise is more 
injurious than none. Young men who follow 
shooting, hunting, and other rural exercises im- 
moderately commit violence on nature, and anti- 
cipate old age. The animal functions are weak- 
ened, perspiration is interrupted, the fibres are 
rendered rigid, and the radical moisture is dried
up. Those humours which ought to have passed 
by the skin, take possession of the glands, under 
the appearances of head-ach, heart burn, cholic, 
gripes, purging, belching, with all those evils 
which affect the hypochondriac. From rigidity 
of fibres, the morbific matter lodges in the joints 
in the form of rheumatism, ischiatica, nodes, tu- 
mours,


307 OF REGIMEN.
mours, chalk-stones, &c. The lymphatics pour 
their contents into the cavities of the body; 
hence, dropsy, asthma, with all the symptoms of 
cachexy.—Nature has supplied the fair sex with 
evacuations which supply the place of exercise. 
While nature maintains these discharges in a re- 
gular manner, their fibres continue lax, soft and 
delicate. When these discharges come to be sup- 
pressed, and women, notwithstanding, continue 
in health, they become viragos, their fibres par- 
take of the masculine rigidity, they are subject 
to gout, rheumatism, and other diseases, conse- 
quences of immoderate exercise.—The fibres 
of children and eunuchs are also lax; these are
therefore rarely subject to such disorders. 
Galen condemns those who recommend exer- 
cise promiscuously. I have known some men 
(says he) who, if they abstained three days from
exercise, were sure to be ill. Others I knew 
who enjoyed a good state of health though they 
used little or none. 
1. “ Primigines of Mitylens, was obliged to go 
“ into a warm bath every day, otherwise he was 
“ seized with a fever. Effects we 
“ learn from experience, but the causes 
“ of those effects we learn from reason or reflec- 
“ tion. Why did Primigenes require such fre- 
“ quent bathing? By the burning heat of his 
“ skin, I found that he wanted a free perspira- 
“ tion: I therefore ordered him a warm bath to
“ soften his skin and open his pores.” 
Cases.
2. “ I knew another man whose temperament 
“ was equally hot, but he did not require such 
“ frequent bathing, because his calling obliged 
“ him to walk much about the city; he was 
“ moreover of a quarrelsome disposition; by
“ fighting

308 OF REGIMEN.
“ fighting he keeped himself almost in a constant 
“ sweat.” 
3. “ A third I used to restrain from exercise, 
“ because he used it to excess.—I have, e. c. 
“ cured several cold temperaments by rousing 
“ them from lazy lives, and persuading them to
“ labour.” 
Exercise is not to be injoined to patients when 
they are very ill. It were dangerous thus to 
jumble stagnating corrupted humours. 
Such mixtures stuff the lungs, not 
without danger of suffocation. Thus- 
we see cachectics, or leucophlegma- 
tics pant for breath in mounting one 
flight of stairs. In such cases gentle frictions are 
only rational at first, then airing in a chair, rid- 
ing, walking, and at last running. 
Exercise 
dangerous in 
cachectic
cases.
Medical justice obliges me to mention one fla- 
grant proof consistent with my own knowledge. 
Not many summers past, a gentleman 
put himself under my care at Bristol
Hot-wells. By jollity, good fellowship, and elec- 
tioneering, he had almost got the better of one 
of the best constitutions. His case, however, 
was far from being desperate. My principal in- 
junctions were Bristol-water, sobriety, and re- 
pose. For some weeks he seemed to gain ground. 
By riding in the heat of the day, and by living 
too freely, he was taken with a cough and loss 
of appetite. He was bled, and slept soundly- 
through the night; Next day I called with an 
intention to repeat the bleeding; my patient was 
officiously advised to Bath. By procrastinations, 
and unseasonable journies, the inflammation of 
his lungs waxed worse; the season for evacuation 
was lost. He became cachectic, and short- 
breathed; his legs swelled. He had before been  
Case. 
subject

309 OF REGIMEN.
subject to the gout; these symptoms were there- 
fore deemed gouty. Bath-water and exercise 
were unmercifully pursued. After every airing, 
he panted for breath, and seemed ready to expire. 
Nor was it any wonder; for, at that very time, 
haerebat lateri lethalis arundo. A vomica pulmonum
soon burst, and suffocated the gouty man. 
13. LET us now fee what Statical 
Experiments have discovered. 
Statical ex- 
periments.
By moderate exercise the body becomes lighter 
and more lively.—The body perspires more 
when it lies quiet in bed, than when it tosses 
and tumbles. If, after supper, one lies ten hours
in bed, he will perspire freely all the time; but 
if he lies longer, both the sensible evacuations, 
and the insensible perspiration will be diminished. 
—Violent exercise of body or mind brings on 
early age and premature death—Riding on horse- 
back increases the perspiration of the parts above
the waste.—An easy pace is much more whole- 
some than a hard one. But to the infirm who 
are fatigued by it, an easy carriage is preferable, 
because their strength should be recruited not ex- 
hausted.—Moderate dancing promotes perspira- 
tion, and is a wholesome exercise. When the 
perspiration is defective, the remedy is exercise. 
Dr. Arbuthnot recommends exercise from the  
common observation that the parts of the body 
which labour most are larger and stronger. Thus, 
the legs and feet of chairmen, the arms and 
hands of watermen and sailors, the backs and 
shoulders of porters, the limbs of running-foot- 
men, by long use, grow strong, thick, and ac- 
tive. 
“ By toil subdu’d, the warrior and the hind 
“ Sleep fast and deep; their active functions soon
“ With

310 OF REGIMEN.
“ With generous streams the subtle tubes supply, 
“ The sons of indolence, with long repose 
“ Grow torpid; and with slowest Lethe drunk, 
“ Feebly and lingringly return to life, 
“ Blunt ev’ry sense, and pow’rless ev’ry limb.” 
§. IV. OF SLEEP.
SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS bear a great affi- 
nity to exercise and rest. Different 
constitutions require different mea- 
sures of sleep.
Sleep.
1. Moderate sleep increases perspiration, pro- 
motes digestion, cherishes the body, 
and exhilarates the mind. 
Moderate. 
2. Wakeful people should, nevertheless, keep
in bed, quiet and warm, which will, 
in some measure, answer the purpose 
of sleep. 
Quiet.
3. Excessive sleep renders the body
heavy and inactive, impairs the me- 
mory, and stupifies the senses. 
Excessive 
sleep.
4. Excessive wakefulness dissipates
the strength, produces fevers, and 
wastes the body.
Wakefulness.
5. He who sleeps through the day, 
and wakes through the night, inverts 
the order of nature, and anticipates 
old age. 
Unseasonable 
sleep.
6. Sleep after dinner is, in general, a bad cus- 
tom. A late heavy supper is an enemy to sleep. 
Going to bed without any supper, prevents 
sleep. 
7. By Statical Experiments we know 
that found sleep is refreshing.—That 
nocturnal perspiration arises in this 
climate to about sixteen ounces.—That after a 
Statical 
proofs. 
good

311 OF REGIMEN.
good night’s sleep, the body feels lighter from the 
increase of strength, as well as from the quantity 
of matter which it has thrown off by perspira- 
tion.—That restless nights diminish perspiration. 
—That perspiration is more obstructed by a cool 
foutherly air when asleep, than by intense cold 
when awake.—That change of bed diminishes 
perspiration; for things to which we are not ac- 
customed, though better in their nature, seldom 
agree with us.—That stretching and yawning 
promote perspiration.—That perspiration is more 
obstructed by throwing off the blankets when we 
sleep, than by throwing off the cloaths when a- 
wake.—That wine moderately drank induces 
sleep, and increases perspiration.—That drank to
excess it lessens both. 
“ IN study some protract the silent hour, 
“ Which others consecrate to mirth and wine; 
“ And sleep till noon, and hardly live till night.
“ But surely this redeems not from the shades 
“ One hour of life. 
§. V. OF EVACUATION.
DIODORUS SICULUS informs us that the Ae- 
gyptian physicians were maintained at the public 
expence, and obliged, by the laws, 
to conform their practice to rules re- 
corded by authority. To prevent dis- 
tempers (says he) they prescribed glysters, purges, 
vomits, or fasting, every second, third, or fourth 
day. Herodotus informs us, that the Aegyptians 
vomit and purge thrice every month, with a view 
to preserve health, which, in their opinion is 
chiefly injured by superfluity of aliment. Euterpe 
sect. 77. 
Evacuation 
in general. 
At

312 OF REGIMEN.
At water-drinking-places the word preparation 
fills the mouth of every nurse. Some are over- 
prepared before they come. Others prepare them- 
selves. Bleeding, purging, and vomiting, are 
edge-tools. I therefore proceed to point out the 
uses and abuses of Evacuation. 
I. Of Bleeding. 
1. GREAT are the advantages produced by a 
seasonable use of the Lancet. Unseasonable bleed- 
ing is productive of irreparable cala- 
mities. One may venture to affirm 
that full as many of His most Christian 
Majesty's subjects fall by the lancet, as by the
sword. The soberest people in the world are 
doctored in the antiphlogistic regimen, a regimen 
calculated for the carnivorous, lazy, and drunken. 
Following the physician of the Hotel-Dieu, one 
day in his rounds, he met a patient just carried 
in. The doctor demanded of the porters, Qua- 
t-il? one of them answered. La fievre. A-t-il 
été saignée? Oui, Monsicur, dix fois. Diable! Dix 
fois, et pas encore guerit. Saigne le encore. All this 
without touching his pulse, or asking one other 
question. The wretch was bled, and expired 
before his arm could be tied up.
Bleeding its 
daggers.  
2. Of all nations, French surgeons 
are, in general, the most dexterous o- 
perators, dressers, and diffecters, and 
the worst practitioners. 
French igno- 
rant of theo- 
ry.
Mr. Thomas, Surgeon of the naval hospital in 
India, assured me that (in Admiral Pocock’s first
engagement with the French) the British wound- 
ed who were brought ashore, recovered to a man, 
while the French wounded who wrere carried into 
Pondicherry almost all died. The surgeon of the  
Bridgewater

313 OF REGIMEN.
Bridgewater ship of war was then a prisoner in 
that sort, and was witness to the fact, nay the 
French own the secret, and still continue to be 
surprised at the consequences of their own mal- 
practice.—Mr. Morgan, Surgeon of a regiment 
at Guadaloupe, assures me that bleeding is the uni- 
versal remedy among the French practitioners in 
that island. In intermittent fevers particularly, 
they bleed five or six times, and always in the 
cold fit. Many of our officers and private men 
thus expired, before their arms could be bound 
up. Moliere’s raillery has improved the French
practice not a little. 
3. Our best surgeons surpass the 
French in learning. We have philo- 
sophers as well as operators. I know 
not a few whose medical visits I would 
accept in cades the most dangerous. 
Common 
bleeders igno- 
rant.
“ Sydenham attended a lady of a delicate con- 
“ stitution, who (by violent floodings 
“ after child-birth) fell into convul- 
“ sions. He prescribed food of easy 
“ digestion, and trusted to time for a cure. He 
“ visited her daily, and saw his prognostic veri- 
“ fled by the mitigations of the symptoms. Her 
“ nurse mistaking honesty for ignorance, and 
“ wondering that he never wrote, privily in- 
“ troduced a surgeon, who made use of the com- 
“ mon instrument for promoting the Lochia, the 
“ lancet. Her convulsions returned, she died. 
“ The Doctor, calling at his usual hour, found 
“ her husband in tears. Surprized, he demand- 
“ ed the reason. The maid answered, Sir, 
“ my lady is dead. Then she must have been 
“ bled, replied the Doctor, rushing into the bed- 
“ chamber. He examined both arms; no print 
“ of a lancet. He then examined her ankle. 
Example fa- 
tal.  
O “ There

314 OF REGIMEN.
“ There he found the fatal mark. Provoked at 
“ the disappointment, he bluntly told the hus- 
“ band, whom he met on the stairs; Sir, they 
“ have killed your wife.”—From the untimely 
fate of this lady, he warns physicians to order 
innocent nothings to amuse meddling gossips, 
and divert them from quacking under hand.
Public rooms are crowded with hundreds, some 
well, others labouring of inveterate ailments. A- 
nimal effluvia are exalted by the addition of 
smoke, sulphur, wax, and tallow. The external 
air is lifted out at every chink. Is it any wonder 
that weak enervated people should be overcome 
by such air? 
Many may remember the fate of Mrs. Shifner.
Playing at Quadrille, she had the good fortune to
win a sans prendre. Transported with 
joy, she fell into a laughing fit, and 
then into an hysteric. She was bled; convul- 
sions ensued, and she expired. Nor was the con- 
sequence wonderful; she was a woman of a 
weakly constitution, pale complexion, and subject 
to an habitual lax. 
Examples. 
Captain Roper was one night hauled into an 
outer-room in a fainting fit; a surgeon was sent 
for. I ordered the waiter to call his physician, 
who saved his patient with hartshorn, and thanked
me. The gentleman then laboured of an incur- 
able jaundice, dropsy, and cachexy. 
Many may remember the case of Mr. S—n. 
While he held die cards in his hands, he was al- 
most every night, taken with a slight epileptic fit. 
I almost affronted a Right Reverend by opposing 
his being bled. He had a glass of cold water 
with spirit of hartshorn. In an instant he reco- 
vered, begged of the company, that they would 
not

315 OF REGIMEN.
not be alarmed on his account, took up his cards, 
and played on. 
The Surgeons were so often summoned on old 
Nash’s account, that at length they made no 
haste. Was it any wonder that the blood should 
now and then be interrupted in vessels which had 
lasted for fourscore years and upwards? To drive 
away care he latterly indulged himself in drams, 
which alarmed people by bringing on drunken- 
ness, or a temporary apoplexy. 
4. Surgeons may boldly venture on 
the sanguine, robust, and plethoric. 
Cautions.
The patients who resort to Bath-waters labour 
generally of stomach disorders, gout, rheumatism, 
or palsy; these are seldom attended with fever. 
In other respects they are what they call hearty. 
Such generally admit of evacuations. 
Those who resort to Bristol-waters are, for the
most part, emaciated, phlegmatic, hectic, pale, 
lax, and weak. Bleeding, in general, increases
such disorders. 
Suffice here in general to observe, that in Con- 
sumptions attended with inflammation, bleeding 
not only abates that, but, by drawing off the dis- 
eased juices, makes room for founder. But, in 
consumptions glandular, or pituitous, every lan- 
cet is a dagger. If, on trial, the pulse grows 
quicker, more contracted or thready; if the 
blood appears looser in texture, no benefit is to be 
expected from bleeding. If, in such circumstan- 
ces, a vein is opened, colliquation, coldness, de- 
pression, and irrecoverable weakness ensue. The 
assimilating powers are low; there often remains 
no more than what is barely sufficient to main- 
tain the vital flame. When the circulation comes
to be confined within a narrow compass, patients 
feel themselves as it were smothered. Bed-cur- 
O2 tains


316 OF REGIMEN.
tains and windows are thrown open for air. Air 
aggravates, while it seems to relieve. In such 
cases it is hard to resist the importunities of the 
sick; I have ordered little bleedings which gave 
case, and, as I fancied, hasted the poor creatures
to their journey’s end. Anxious to relieve, I 
have taken away blood which vainly I wished to
restore. The symptoms which, in consumptions 
call for bleeding, require the nicest judgment. 
How precarious then must be the fate of those 
who come to St. Vincent’s Well armed with gene- 
ral directions? 
Of Regimes. 
5. To enumerate every circumstance in which
Bleeding were hurtful, would swell my work to 
too great a size. In acute diseases, it is com- 
monly believed that the blood loses its phlogistic
nature the fourth day; in malignant putrid dis- 
eases, it is taken for granted that the blood is al- 
ways dissolved. To convince the reader that 
bleeding is not so well understood as is commonly 
imagined, I refer to some experiments made by 
De Haen on the human blood, page 193, 342, 
&c. 
The vulgar method of judging of blood is by 
its crust. The crust depends on the nature of
the vessel in which it is received. Let 
blood be received into a flat broad ves- 
sel, it forms little or no crust. Let it
be received into a narrow deep vessel, 
the crust appears thick, sizy, and in- 
flammatory. Let blood fall directly into a bason, 
it generally puts on a white inflammatory crust. 
Let the most inflammatory blood be squeezed out 
of the orifice, or trickle down the arm, it puts 
on no white inflammatory crust.—In acute dis- 
eases he found a deep inflammatory crust, in many 
instances, long after the fourth day. In a young 
Judging 
blood by the 
crust fallaci- 
ous. 
7 woman


317 OF REGIMEN.
woman labouring of a continual putrid fever, full 
of spots, where nothing had been done, our au- 
thor found the blood drawn on the eleventh day, 
covered with a phlogistic crust, and compact in 
the red part. The blood that was drawn on the 
twelfth day was still more compact, and more in- 
crusted. Crudity of humours is not to be esti- 
mated by time, but by the condition of the blood. 
Boerhaave’s texts are therefore to be considered, 
cum grano salis. Siziness and dissolution of blood 
depend on causes which puzzle the most intelli- 
gent. 
Of Purging.
MEDICINES, if they do not good, certainly do 
harm. Hippocrates observes, “ That it is dan- 
“ gerous suddenly to alter settled ha- 
“ bits; or to fly from one extreme to 
“ another.” Semel multum aut repents 
vel evacuare, vel calefacere, vel refrigerare, aut alio
quovis modo movere periculosum. Celsus damns the 
custom of frequent purgation. Sed purgationes 
quoque, ut interdim necessariae, fic ubi frequentury
periculum afferunt. Assuescit enim non ali corpus, 
ob hoc infirmum erit. Lib.i. cap. 3. p. 31. This 
we see every day verified in those who, solicitous 
about the prevention of diseases, consume their 
present stock of health in quacking, as Celsus ele- 
gantly expresses it, In secunda valetudine, adversae 
praesidia consumun. Certain it is, that nature may 
be so far misled, that the body may forget the 
calls of nature. Evacuations give rise to cachex- 
ies, or bring the best constitutions to be suscepti- 
ble of every trifling liberty. 
Purging leads 
nature astray.
O3 PURGING

318 OF REGIMEN.
PURGING withdraws that matter which nature 
endeavours to fix on the extremities, and fixes it 
on the viscera. The patient exchanges 
pain, that necessary instrument of na- 
ture, for sickness, nausea, gripings, faint- 
ings, and a numerous train of irregu- 
lar symptoms. Sydenham assures us, that he 
learned, at his own peril, as well as that of o- 
thers, that Purgatives exhibited in the fit, in the 
declension, or in the interval of the gout, have 
hastened those evils which they were intended to 
prevent. Purges, as they rob the blood of its 
spirituous part, so they weaken concoction, de- 
ceive the sick with fruitless hopes, and bring on 
lasting mischiefs which nature undisturbed would 
have subdued. Gouty people are easily disturbed 
by any cause that agitates the body, or mind. 
For this reason the gout follows the slightest eva- 
cuation. 
Purging 
weakens na- 
ture. 
α. I knew a practitioner, who scorning Sy- 
denham and all his cautions, had no notion 
of being confined by the gout, or 
any disease which purges could car- 
ry off. This man was a true believer, he 
took the same measure to himself that he gave 
to others. Whenever he was attacked with 
the gout he took his purges, and was about a- 
gain in a few days. Nature thus debilitated, 
the gouty matter fell at last on his lungs, and
killed him. 
Examples. 
ß. “ A gentleman of Essex bad for many years 
been subject to violent fits of the gout. In 
one of these, wishing for relief or death, he 
applied to the former, who purged him every 
four hours with Gum Guajac draughts, to the 
amount of two hundred stools in ten days. He 
hobbled into the coffee-house, and founded 
this

319 OF REGIMEN.
this doctor’s praise. The consequence was, 
his fits return oftener, and with greater reve- 
rity. He now curses his own imprudence, and 
the doctor’s memory. 
γ. Peregrine Palmer, Esquire, Representative 
in Parliament for the University of Oxford, was 
known for an obstinate lameness, as well as 
for that integrity of heart, and politeness of
manners which distinguished his character. 
From his parents he inherited the gout, and 
had his fits early in life. When he seemed to 
be threatened with a fit, and wanted to in- 
dulge any youthful pursuit, he told me, he 
used to avert it by purging, a folly to which, 
he imputed his lameness, and which he request- 
ed me to publish, as memento to his gouty 
brethren. 
DIFFERENT DISEASES, ages, con- 
stitutions and sexes require different 
purges. 
Different 
purges neces- 
sary.
Resinous, mercurial or rough purges, cause 
heat, and hinder the passing of the waters by 
reason of that stricture which purgatives of all 
sorts leave behind. They destroy the tone also of 
the stomach and intestines.  
Where the guts are clogged with viscid phlegm, 
mineral waters purge at first, even those which 
are astringent, particularly if they are drank in 
large quantities and quick. 
For the purposes of opening the mouths of the 
bibulous vessels, and thereby giving access to me- 
dicated fluids, what can be so natural as salts ex- 
tracted from waters themselves? 
Epsom-salt, or Sal Catharicum amarum is pre- 
pared from bittern, and is now common. Dr. 
Hoy was the first who discovered the way of pre- 
paring it, (vide Philos. Transact. No. 378, &c.) 
O4 For

320 OF REGIMEN.
For purifying and imitating it, see Histoire de l' A- 
cadem. Ann. 1718. p. 38, &c. 
Glauber’s Salt is an artificial composition, an 
union of the vitriolic acid with the mineral alka- 
li, or basis of sea-salt. It has some resemblance 
with that of Epsom, and proves, when the point 
of saturation is exactly hit, a salt of a neutral na- 
ture, of a bitter taste, and a purgative virtue. Ar- 
tificial salts require four times their weight of wa- 
ter to dissolve them. Natural salts dissolve in a- 
bout an equal quantity of water.  
Rochelle salt, or Regenerated Tartar, has a 
more agreeable taste, and a gentler purgative vir- 
tue than either of the former. 
Magnesia Alba, or white Manganese, is that 
alkaline matter obtained by evaporating and cal- 
cining the remains of the mother liquor left in 
refining Salt Petre, which will not shoot into salt. 
This white Manganese is an agreeable gentle pur- 
gative, particularly proper in habits naturally cos- 
tive, and hypochondriac disorders. Its purgative 
quality seems to proceed from its alkaline earthy 
matter dissolved by the sharpness of the juices in
the first passages. The universal acid of the wa- 
ters converts this medicine into a neutral salt, 
which exerts its purging quality on the same prin- 
ciples by which the Epsom salts are known to act.
Hoffman, Stahl, and all the best foreign mineral 
water doctors recommend the four for quickening 
the effects of the waters, so as to render them 
more deobstruent, detersive, and purgative. 
Of Vomiting. 
IN the action of Vomitings the dia- 
phragm is suddenly and violently 
drawn downwards, while the abdominal muscles 
Vomiting, its 
operations. 
con-

321 OF REGIMEN.
contracted also, press the contents of the lower 
belly. Thus the stomach is squeezed, as it were, 
between two presses. As the nerves distributed to 
the stomach, intestines and mesentery, have such 
power over the rest of the nerves of the body, 
we need not wonder that convulsions should be 
excited in the muscles of the face, oesophagus, 
intestines, &c. In the action of vomiting, the 
venous blood is driven violently towards the right 
side of the heart, while those arteries which are 
dispersed over the abdominal viscera are compres- 
sed. Thus, the impetus of the arterial blood is 
forced upwards, while the right side of the heart 
is hindered from emptying itself into the vessels 
of the lungs, respiration being stopped in the act
of vomiting; hence the return of the venous 
blood from the head is prevented. The vessels of 
the head are in danger from turgescency, or ex- 
travasation; for, in violent straining, the face 
reddens, the jugular veins swell, the eyes sparkle 
with fire, the ears tingle, and the head becomes 
giddy. 
In the action of vomiting, the venous blood 
rushes through the Vena portarum in- 
to the liver. If the liver or lungs 
happen to be vitiated, ruptures, and other fatal 
consequences may insue. “ Boer- 
“ haave (in his academical prelec- 
“ tions) says, he saw a woman labouring under 
“ an inveterate jaundice, by taking a vomit, fell 
“ into a superpurgation of putrid matter first, 
“ and then of pure blood, which carried her off. 
“ —Had I not, with my own eyes, have seen 
“ it in the body of the Republic’s President of 
“ the Marine, who could have thought that the 
“ tube of the oesophagus was burst by violent 
“ strainings?”—Hernias have often been pro- 
Dangers. 
Example. 
duced

322 OF REGIMEN.
duced by vomiting.—After violent vomiting, the 
site of the stomach, and other abdominal viscera 
was found strangely changed in the carcass of a 
woman, as we find pag. 238, Memoirs de l'Acad. 
des Sciences l'an. 1716—With justice does Cel- 
sus (lib. i. cap. 3. p. 29) condemn those glut- 
tons who prepare their stomachs for feasts by vo- 
mits. Itaque ijlud luxuriae caufa fieri non oportere 
fateor, interdum valetudinis caufa redie fieri, experi- 
ment is credo. Cornmoveo tamen ne quis, qui valere 
& senescere volet, hoc quotidianum habeat. 
Hence we may see the danger of vomiting to 
plethorics, or to those of bad habits. In spasmo- 
dic reachings, artificial irritations teem with de- 
struction. How judiciously does Sydenham ad- 
vise vaenesection to precede vomiting, in cases 
which require both; left (by violent strainings) 
the pulmonic vessels should be burst, or the brain
hurt; examples of which he says he has seen, 
Sect. i. cap. 4. p. 65. 
While I was studying at Paris. I well remem- 
ber the untimely fate of a fellow-student. Dr. 
Hugh Graham. In very hot weather 
(by posting) we were both heated. By 
fasting and diluting, my complaints vanished in a 
few days. He was feverish, with a nausea, for 
which he proposed a puke, which I opposed, 
begging he would rather bleed. Laughing at my 
fears, he took only only one scruple of Ipecacua- 
na, which vomited not immoderately. Next day 
he complained of a dull pain in the right hyp- 
pochondre, for which I bled him, and would 
have repeated it, as my mind laboured with a 
presentiment of danger. Some few days were 
trifled away in doing nothing. My anxiety 
forced the Doctors Du Moulin and Astruc on my 
friend. I related my fears to them; I dreaded an
Example. 
abscess


323 OF REGIMEN.
abscess in the liver. I told them I feared the sea- 
son was lost. Their answer was, C'est impossible, 
Monsieur, vous craignez trop pour Monsieur votre 
ami, tout va bien. In spite of saignees, purges, 
lavement, &c. the patient shut his eyes. Insist- 
ing still on my prognostic, I begged their pre- 
sence next day. Before I touched the body, I 
prognosticated an abscess in the concave part of
the liver. When I had laid the abdominal visce- 
ra in view, the gibbous part was found. Putting 
my hand under the liver to turn it, I felt it un- 
commonly moist. From my wrist to my fingers 
ends, it was covered with bland well concocted 
pus. Old Du Moulin hobbled across the room, 
and clasping me in his arms, called out, Ma foi, 
Monsieur, vous avez faites un tres bon prognostic. 
The truth was, I watched every groan, 1 at- 
tended him night and day, I read for him, I 
thought for him, I loved him, and, though I 
could not save him, by his untimely fate, I was 
taught three useful lessons, 1. That vomits are 
to be administered only where they are necessary. 
2. That inflammations of the liver run speedily 
to pus; and, 3. That bleeding avails not where 
abscesses are once formed. These three lessons
have enabled me to save others. 
VOMITS warm and strengthen particular mem- 
bers, by deriving a greater supply of blood and
spirits to the part. By repeated suc- 
custions vomits, resolve impacted mat-
ter. On this principle it is that sea- 
voyages remove tumors, and topical inflamma- 
tions; thus it is that rebellious ulcers are render- 
ed tractable, haemorhages and fluxes stopped, as 
have been dropsies. Of the last there are two me- 
morable instances. 
Vomits, their
effects.
Dr.

324 OF REGIMEN.
Doctor Ross, late physician of London, was 
once tapped for a dropsy, His abdomen filled a- 
gain. The day was fixed for the se- 
cond tapping, A vomiting of coffee- 
like water came on spontaneously, and continued, 
at different times, he was emptied. Nor did 
he fill again. This relation I had from his own 
mouth. 
Examples. 
The second volume of the London Medical 
Essays contains a more memorable instance, com- 
municated by Doctor Alexander Mackenzie. 
Where the viscera are found, where the blood 
vessels have been duly emptied, where pains 
and reachings arise from viscid phlegm, 
bilious putrid, or acrid juices, vomits 
seem to be preparatives more natural than purga- 
tives. Lord Palmerston’s case, related by Dr. O- 
liver, proves the text. 
Vomits safe. 
Dr. Woodward, of Gresham-College, seems to 
have been an enthusiast in the doctrine of vo- 
mits. He has furnished the public with many 
successful proofs. Of his unsuccessful he says 
nothing. 
Preparation seems still more necessary, in re- 
gard to bathing, sweating, and pumping. Of these 
I treat particularly, in my Attempt to revive the
Doctrine of Bathing. 
Of Sweating. 
SWEATING is practised in all stages of dis- 
eases. Sweating is as dangerous as any one 
evacuation. In those diseases which 
frequent Bath, sweating is commonly 
practised in bathing; and, where it is easily pro- 
duced, seldom does mischief. Excepting Dia- 
betes, sweating is hardly compatible with those 
Sweating. 
diseases

325 OF REGIMEN.
diseases which frequent Bristol. Cocta non cruda 
funt evacuanda is an aphorism founded in truth. 
He who knows the difference between humours 
crude and concocted, is alone a judge when sweats
are to be prescribed. 
§. VI. OF THE PASSIONS. 
1. To maintain health, the Passions 
must be kept under subjection. Let a 
man be never so temperate, and regu- 
lar in his exercise; yet if he is led away 
by passion, all his irregularity will avail but little.
Passions to be 
kept under 
subjection. 
2. Fear, grief, envy, hatred, malice, revenge 
and despair weaken the nerves, retard the circu- 
lation, hinder perspiration, impair di- 
gestion, and produce spasms, obstruc- 
tions, and hypochondriacal disorders. Valeri- 
us Maximus gives fatal instances of terror. 
Violent anger creates bilious, inflammatory, 
convulsive, and apoplectic disorders, especial- 
ly in hot temperaments. Pliny and Aulus 
Gellius give us fatal instances of extreme joy. 
Sylla having freed Italy from civil wars, return- 
ed to Rome. He said, he could not sleep the 
first night, his foul being transported with ex- 
cessive joy and content, as with a strong and
mighty wind. 
Their effects. 
3. In that journal of Mr. Ives, Surgeon of 
the Dragon ship of war, recorded in Dr. Lind’s 
book of the scurvy, we find a memo- 
rable instance of the effects of oppo- 
site passions. On the thirtieth day of January
1743, this gentleman had ninety men on his sick 
lift, almost all scorbutics, fifty-five of which
seemed, to him, out of the power of medicine. 
News came on board, that the Spaniards were to 
Examples. 
push

326 OF REGIMEN.
push out of Toulon Harbour to join the French, in 
order to give battle to the fleet. Every eye spark- 
led with joy. So fast did the hopeless sick reco- 
ver, that, on the eleventh of February, the day 
of action, there were only four or five of the 
ninety who could be with-held from their fight- 
ing quarters. From the eleventh to the fifteenth,
the effects of joy continued; the Dragon's had 
all done their duty that day; few or none took 
notice of their illness. Every day brought on 
board fresh tidings of the scandalous behaviour 
of some ship or other. Those whom glory and 
the hopes of conquest had almost cured, relapsed. 
Before the end of the month, the sick-lift was as 
deep as ever. 
It is remarkable, in battle, the wounded horses 
follow their regiments, after having lost their ri- 
ders; on three legs they neigh for joy at the 
found of the clarrion. 
In weathering Cape-Horn, the Centurions crew 
was so dispirited by distress, that one half of the
men died. While the same ship cruized for the 
Aquapulco ship, golden dreams supported the men’s 
spirits, for full four months she was remarkably
healthy. 
In that long storm in which the Ipswich ship of
war lost her rudder, &c. fear and despondency 
seized the sailors to such a degree, that they 
rather chose to perish by inches below, than to
get upon deck to extricate themselves from 
danger. 
Those who brood over cares are the first at- 
tacked by putrid diseases, and the hardest to cure. 
Nor do wounds suppurate kindly. The hopes of 
ending their days among their native barren rocks 
make the Switzers fight under any banner.—The 
Royal Highlanders have, from their institution.
been

327 OF REGIMEN.
been real volunteers; many of them have fallen 
by the sword; in other respects, they are remark- 
ably healthy. New corps of Highlanders have 
since been raised; old men have been cozened 
from their families, and boys from their mothers 
laps. No sooner were they wasted to distant 
shores, than they began to pine away. Men ac- 
customed to cold, hunger and fatigue, fell mar- 
tyrs to the maladie de pais,—Africans transported 
to the colonies, no sooner cast their eyes on the 
hated shores, than they refuse sustenance, and 
often plunge into the main from a notion that 
their departed spirits regain their liberty.—Can 
drugs reach the seats of such diseases? What can 
medicines avail to love-sick minds? Wounded 
spirits who can bear? 
4. Moderate joy, virtue, contentment, hope, 
and courage invigorate the nerves, accelerate the 
fluids, promote perspiration, and assist 
digestion. Lord Verulam observes that 
chearfulness of spirit is particularly 
useful when we sit down to meals, or 
go to rest. “ If any violent passion should sur- 
prize us at these seasons, it would be prudent 
“ to defer eating, or going to bed until the mind 
“ recovers its wonted tranquility.”
Moderate 
passions 
healthy.  
5. It is observable that the perspiration is 
larger from any vehement passion of the mind 
when the body is quiet, than from 
the strongest bodily exercise when the 
mind is composed. Hence we infer, 
that those who are prone to anger, 
cannot bear much exercise, because the exube- 
rant perspiration of both might waste too fast. It 
is also remarkable that disorders which arise from 
vehement agitations of the mind, are more stub- 
born than those which arise from violent exercise;
The passion-
ate ougth to 
be quiet. 
because 











328 OF REGIMEN. 
because the latter are cured by rest and sleep,
which have no influence on the former. People 
who cannot bear losing, should never play. 
“ THERE is, they say, (and I believe there is) 
“ A spark within us of immortal fire, 
“ That animates and moulds the grosser frame;
“ And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven, 
“ Its native seat, and mixes with the Gods. 
“ Meanwhile this heavenly particle pervades: 
“ The mortal elements in every nerve 
“ It thrills with pleasure, or grows mad with pain, 
“ And, in its secret conclave, as it feels 
“ The body’s woes and joys, this ruling power 
“ Wields at its will the dull material world, 
“ And is the body’s health or malady.” 
FINIS.





























EXPERIMENTAL 
ESSAYS 
On the VIRTUES of the 
Bath and Bristol WATERS. 
By ALEX. SUTHERLAND, 
OF BATH, M. D. 
THE THIRD EDITION. 
IMPROVED AND CORRECTED. 
Multa enim in modo rei & circumstantiis nova sunt, quœ, 
in genere, nova non sunt. Qui autem ad observandum
adjicit animum, ei etiam, in rebus quœ vulgares videntur, 
multa observatu digna occurrunt. 
BACON De Augmentis Scientiarum. 
LONDON: 
Printed for A. TENNENT, Bookseller, in BATH; and
sold by S. CROWDER, in Pater-noster Row.
MDCCLXXII.



THE INTRODUCTION 
HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
Hugh, Earl of Northumberland, 
Baron Warkworth, and Baronet, Knight of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter, Lord-Lieutenant, and 
Governor-General of Ireland, Lord of the Bed- 
chamber to His Majesty, Lord-Lieutenant of the 
County of Middlesex, &c. &c. &c. 
My LORD, 
FROM a survey of that harmony which sub- 
sists between the parts of the creation, we 
may reasonably suppose that every man is ac- 
countable for those talents with which God has
a2 intrusted

70 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
universally agreed to be a native mineral salt ex- 
tracted from its proper ore, brought hither in 
pieces of a greyish colour, clammy or greasy to 
the touch, found in the mountains of White Tar- 
tary, and in some places of Persia. 
As far as its virtues have been discovered, it 
may be said to be aperient, stimulant, and at- 
tendant, particularly useful in promoting the lo- 
chia, menses; and urine. Mixed with blood it 
dilutes it, and seems to volatize the fluids. Its 
spirit discovers neither acidity nor alkalescency, 
nor can an acid be got from it by distillation, 
according to Lemery, Memoirs de l’Acad. 1728 
and 29. 
4. VITRIOL is a saline metallic substance com- 
posed of an acid and a metal. This acid, when 
it meets with an earth, makes an alum;
when it meets with a metal, it corrodes
it, and forms vitriol. 
Vitriol. 
Their virtues are styptic and astringent. By 
strengthening the fibres, they prove diuretic, 
are very nauseous, and so emetic. Too rigid 
to circulate through the vessels of worms, they
destroy them. They cicatrize more powerful- 
ly than alum. Quercetanus was so bewitched 
with vitriol, that he believed it contained the
virtues of the whole pharmacopoeia. Our sub- 
ject leads us only so far as it claims in natural di- 
lution. 
GTREEN VITRIOL is produced by the mixture 
of an acid sulphureous spirit with an irony sub- 
stance, Most mineral waters contain a quantity 
of irony matter; when therefore the subtile uni- 
versal acid sulphureous exhalations, in rising up, 
meet with irony particles, they unite themselves 
thereto, and thus produce a vitriolic principle, of 
a texture proportionable to the union; the Vitri- 
olum


INTRODUCTION. 
intrusted him. Of our imperfect endeavours, di- 
vine happiness stands in no need. By administer- 
ing to the wants of society, every man has it in 
his power to please the Almighty; in this, inte- 
rest and duty coincide. 
To your Lordship, the sovereign director of 
the general drama has assigned a part truly con- 
spicuous. Your actions uniformly proclaim you 
the patron of arts, as well as the friend of hu- 
man nature. By singular munificence, Ormond 
won the affections of the Irish. By faith invio- 
late, Dorset gained their confidence. By gentle 
rule, Chesterfield maintained tranquillity. To 
singular munificence, faith inviolate, and gentle 
rule, you joined disinterestedness, humanity and
affability. Scorning ignoble precedents, to the 
emoluments of office, you added princely re- 
venues; you enriched the province which you 
protected. In your Vice-royalty you may truly 
be said to have reflected honour on the Prince 
whom you so worthily represent. While Hi- 
bernia boasts of freedom, your government will 
stand as a model worthy of imitation. 
To me the almighty disposer has assigned a 
part which has the good of mankind for its ob- 
ject; and therefore intituled to your Lordship’s 
protection. Health is a subject philosophical, as 
well as medical. Plutarch, Cornaro, Lessius, 
Bacon, Boyle and Addison, have all treated of 
the subject of health. In no branch of the heal- 
ing art, is the subject of health more perhaps con- 
cerned than in that of Thermology. In diseases a- 
cute and chronical, water bids fair to answer every
indication. By temperance, exercise, and bath- 
ing, the very seeds of diseases are eliminated. 
Caeterum rari sunt morbi, sive communes tato corpori, 
sive particulas ipsas privatim occupantes, quos oppor- 
tuna Balneorum administratio on persanet, says the 
great

INTRODUCTION. 
great Baccius. With Fred. Hoffman, the mo- 
dern prince of mineral-water writers, we may 
venture to affirm, “ Mineral waters come the 
“ nearest in nature to what has vainly been 
“ searched after, an Universal Medicine.” 
IN fruitless speculations we advance. In solid 
doctrines we rather degenerate. Among the an- 
tients, the doctrine of waters was one ot the car- 
dinal branches of medicine. In this kingdom, wa- 
ters are used only as extreme unction. Baths are 
rude, uncultivated, and neglected. Our prede- 
cessors in practice have left us historical facts
faithfully, and accurately related. Scorning the 
bright example, we seem to content ourselves, 
with implicit belief; we neither improve ourselves, 
nor inform posterity. The sphere of Bath and 
Bristol waters seem rather circumscribed. Among 
the antients, Sailing was another cardinal branch
of medicine. In an island, we rarely try the ex- 
periment. In the practice of physic, as in other 
professions, there are fashionable arts, prejudices, 
and ignorances, in their consequences, equally 
fatal with errors experimental or practical. In 
discrediting waters, patients and practitioners 
mutually conspire. From theoretical notions, 
waters are damned in the very diseases which they
specifically cure. To pass over numberless proofs, 
Doctor Mead was the patron as well as ornament 
of that art which he professed. Stranger to the 
principles which compose Bath waters, or argu- 
ing from the relaxing property of simple warm 
water, (in his Manila & Praecepta Medica) he 
dogmatically lays down an assertion, which prac- 
tice daily confutes, Immersiones callidae paraliticis
omnibus nocent. 
PATIENTS, headstrong follow the dictates of 
their own imaginations, or the unseasonable sug- 
a3 gestions

INTRODUCTION.
gestions of designing meddlers; for the saving of 
paultry fees, they too often throw away the ex- 
pences of long journies, and their lives sometimes 
to the bargain. 
ALARMED by deaths unexpected, or uninform- 
ed by histories of cures, distant practitioners na- 
turally suspect mineral waters, condemning phy- 
sicians who had only the nominal care of patients 
peevish and refractory. In similar cases they arm
others with general directions; or cure them by 
epistolary correspondence. In symptoms variable 
and dangerous, they boldly counsel draughts of 
waters fraught with daggers; or, timidly order 
quantities so unavailing, that death often anti- 
cipates the cure. 
PERSUADED that it was my duty to investi- 
gate those instruments of health which provi- 
dence had put into my hands (in the first edition 
of my Attempts to revive Antient Medical Doctrines) 
I employed the leisure hours of years, in ascer- 
taining the nature and qualities of those foun- 
tains at which it was my lot to practise. Your 
Lordship did me the honour of accompanying me 
through the ruins of our Roman Baths; as relicts
truly Sacred, you deigned to preserve samples of 
Roman flues, bricks, and mortar. Towards the 
restoration of ruins truly venerable, (remember, 
My Lord) you was pleased to promise your par- 
liamentary interest. Honoured with such patron- 
age, from an analytical Essay, my little volume 
swelled to a size which far exceeded my first in- 
tention. Taught by experience, that where mi- 
neral waters failed, sea voyages succeeded, I ap- 
plied myself to the study of Sea-Voyages. Taught 
by the same experience, that where sea voyages 
proved ineffectual, many were restored by local 
remedies, I pursued the study of Local Remedies.
On

INTRODUCTION. 
On the subject of these my favourite pursuits,
little assisted by the moderns, I sedulously revolved 
the records of the antients. Forgetful of my in- 
terest, at no small expence, I printed, altered, 
and printed again. Attached to truth, I frankly 
exposed the laedentia as well as the juvantia; on 
every occasion, I was more free with my own 
failures, than with those of others. With the 
ingenuous De Haen, truly may I say rite, casteque, 
nostra notavi, fausta quam infausta, tam inutilia
quam perfecta; coaevis scribimus et posteris. 
Books may be compared to pictures. To their 
first sketches, painters are naturally partial; so
are authors to their manuscripts. When pictures 
come to receive the last touch, painters are sur- 
prised that they could not discover their blemishes 
before. While my labours were my own, I was 
loth to part with proofs which I had gathered 
with labour. Warmed with my subject, I was 
more attentive to matter than to manner. By 
ascertaining the nature and qualities of subjects 
so interesting, I hoped to lay some claim to the 
approbation of men concerned for the improve- 
ment of the healing art. Secure in the rectitude 
of my intentions, for the sake of my intentions, 
I flattered myself that my indiscretions might 
have been overlooked. Nor was I altogether dis- 
appointed. Partial to my failures, the Doctors 
Glass, Gilchrist, Lind, and Huxham were po- 
litely pleased to own that I had carried my re- 
searches on the same subjects, far beyond theirs; 
almost in the same words, they frankly acknow- 
ledged my Attempts to have been laborious, learn- 
ed, useful, and candid. Pleased with that simpli- 
city of practice which I laboured to restore, too 
truly, they foresaw my provoking the resentment 
of those who traffic with the art. For presuming 
a4 to

INTRODUCTION. 
to think for himself, in former days, Doctor Gui- 
dot called his brother Mayow a Novel-writer, 
judging him the wisest who takes things for granted, 
and who does not pragmatically contradict the unani- 
mous consent of judicious writers.—When Doctor 
J. Hen. Schutte was employed in the discovery 
of the mineral waters of Cleves, he loudly com- 
plains of the impertinence, and malevolence of 
men who did their utmost to disappoint a disco- 
very unexceptionably beneficial. For presuming
to reform, with my predecessor Mayow, I was 
deemed a novel-writer. By honestly endeavouring 
to found the virtues of Bath and Bristol waters 
on the rock of Observation, can it be credited, to
my astonishment, I found I had provoked the 
whispers of men whose bread depended on the 
promulgation of Bath and Bristol waters? Doc- 
tor Schutte laboured under the protection of his
Prussian Majesty. Truth triumphed, the virtues 
of the waters of Cleves are now universally ac- 
knowledged. 
FLATTERED on one side, was I obstinately to 
continue blind to my imperfections? Censured 
on the other, was I, for fear of censure, to drop
the cultivation of doctrines so interesting? Under 
your Lordship’s banner, what has truth to fear? 
Preferring truth to opinion, I resolved on a mid- 
dle course. From slander, and friendship, I ex- 
tracted truth. By narrowly prying into my own 
faults, I discovered faults which escaped criticism. 
On mature reflection, I blush not to acknow- 
ledge that, with more zeal than prudence, I in- 
veighed against Vulgar errors. My first Attempts 
were complex, crude, and unpolished. To men 
of eminence I relinquish the Herculean labour of
reforming the practice of physic. On the uncul- 
tivated fields of Antient Baths, Bath and Bristol
Waters,


INTRODUCTION. 
Waters, Sea Voyages, and Local Remedies, be mine  
the humbler talk still to labour. In separate es- 
says it may not perhaps be so difficult to do justice 
to particular subjects. The ruins of my first edi- 
tion I resolve to employ as materials for neater
edifices. 
DISAPPOINTED in foreign materials, I, for the
present, pass over the first part of my general 
work, beginning with the second. In your own 
person, you have, more than once, experienced 
the good effects of Bath waters. In the case of
your most exemplary son Lord Warkworth, with 
equal surprize and joy, your Lordship once con- 
fessed the power of Bristol waters. To the power 
of Bristol waters (with leave I proclaim it) the 
public stands indebted for the preservation of a
life which already begins to be an ornament to 
the public. Your Lordship did me the honour 
to peruse my manuscript; with the appearances 
of the residua of my experiments, you was pleased
to express your satisfaction. In your Lordship’s 
conversation, I always found pleasure mixed with 
instruction. In the gentleman, you cultivated those 
arts which adorn the nobleman. Uncommon  
with the generality of patrons, in researches phi- 
losophical and chymical, your judgment is second 
to none. 
MEDICATED WATERS are the workmanship 
of wise nature; in their principles, they differ so
much, that, even in the genus of those vulgarly 
called Chalybeates, it is hardly possible to discover 
two springs similar in taste, weight, salts, spirits,
or quantity. There are chalybeates which bear 
exportation, such as the Pyrmont, and Pohoun. 
There are chalybeates which become seculent, 
such as those of Cleve, or Geronster. There are 
chalybeates highly saturated with iron earth, and 
a5 ill

INTRODUCTION. 
ill provided with purging salts, such as those of 
Tunbridge, or Islington. These are chalybeates which 
contain a bitter purging salt, such as those of Scar- 
borough, Epsom, and Cheltenham. As are their in- 
gredients, so are their virtues. Those which plen- 
tifully suspend iron earth, have the virtues of crocus 
martis astringens; in relaxed bowels they are highly 
beneficial. Those which imbibe plenty of bitter 
purging salts are adapted to cachexies, jaundice, 
dropsy &c. Hot waters differ also from one ano- 
ther. These differences arise from the different 
quantity of that inflammable principle, with which
they happen to be impregnated. 
CHYMICAL EXPERIMENTS discover those dif- 
ferences. But, as the processes of nature surpass 
our imperfect endeavours, so do the principles of 
waters escape our nicest inquiries. With Baccius 
we may truly say “ Sedulo ergo fatebimur humani 
“ ingenii conjecturam non pertingere in certas rerum
“ proprietates, quae sunt occultae, et multae in a- 
“ quis.” To supply the deficiencies of chymical 
experiments, it is my purpose to reconcile the 
principles of the waters to reason; or, in other 
words, to confirm their virtues by memorable 
histories of diseases, or Cases. 
FACTS are evidences which neither craft nor 
malice can invalidate. In the ages of simplicity, 
external and accidental diseases were only regarded. 
Internal and spontaneous were rare; when they 
appeared, they were looked upon as the judg- 
ments of heaven. At the time of the Trojan 
war, ulcers and wounds were the employments 
of Apollo, Chiron, and Æsculapius. So little 
was the practice of physic known, that the father 
Æsculapius is said to have died of a pleuropneu- 
mony; his carcase was avoided because it looked 
black. 
In

INTRODUCTION. 
In after ages, the descendants of this same fa- 
ther of physic extended their views. They dis- 
persed, and erected themselves into societies and
schools. There they kept Registers of Diseases, 
of their antecedent causes, symptoms, periods, 
and consequences, of what had been hurtful, and 
what had been useful. They collated their ob- 
servations, and, from various experiments, deter- 
mined those things and methods which had been 
found useful in practice. Thus it was that phy- 
sic became a regular art. To Tables of health 
hung up in the Temple of Æsculapius, Hippocrates 
is said to have owed that amazing skill which 
moderns, with all their improvements, can hard- 
ly comprehend. In his books of Epidemics, he 
has set down every observation that occurred in 
his practice, with this view perhaps, that suc- 
ceeding physicians, imitating his example in par- 
ticular diseases, might bring the medical art to
some degree of perfection. 
To this collection of Epidemics, Galen added 
much.—Of the Arabians we find Rhasis a religi- 
ous admirer of the Greeks. With him we may 
join Avenzoar. The rest, contenting themselves 
with the invention of the antients, added nothing 
to the improvement of the art, if we except a 
few Nostrums. By their religion, they were for- 
bidden to dissect human bodies. Thus they were 
prevented from investigating the latent causes of
diseases. 
After these, the study of Observation was bu- 
ried in an age of barbarism. Gentilis, Gradius,
Placentinus, Valescus, and Gattinaria, have trans- 
mitted a few rare examples, smothered under the 
rubbish of obscure commentary. 
In this third and last age, we have seen the art 
of physic restored to its primitive simplicity and 
splendour. In his Observationn Medicae Rariores,
a6 Schenkius


INTRODUCTION. 
Schenkius has collected the works of some who 
pursued the road of observation. 
Albacus (in his second hook) says, Plurimum arbi- 
tror prudenti medico prodesse, si quamplurima notet 
exempla quœ sequatur. Tulpius, Aretaeus, Heister, 
Sydenham and Hoffman have improved the art. 
By sweeping away scholastic rubbish, Boerhaave 
has reconciled reason and experience., Stahl (in 
his Chemical Lectures) used to charge his pupils 
not to suffer their fancies to be led away by the 
subtle reasonings of the Cartesian philosophy. He
demonstrated that physic could not be rendered 
demonstrative, scientific, or beneficial, unless the- 
ory was confirmed by observation, or experiment. 
Royal Societies are noble institutions. Such 
was the Edinburgh Medical-Society. Such is that 
of London, such our present Medical Musaeum; 
and such are all the rest. In medical observations, 
the physicians of Vienna seem, at present, to ex- 
cell. Every practitioner has it in his power to
add a mite to medical knowledge; every practi- 
tioner has not matter for a book. 
OBSERVATIONS are, in no branch of medi- 
cine, so necessary as in that of mineral waters.
Some diseases yield to bathing, some to drinking; 
some require their united efforts. On the subject 
of mineral waters, hypothetic reasonings are, at 
best, precarious. Experience is the touch-stone.
In no branch of medicine are observations so 
much wanted; this has been the complaint of
past times, and is of the present. 
Doctor Jones published his Baths Ayde in the 
year 1572. “ I wish (says he) that patients 
“ would leave a note of the commodity received, 
“ with an account of their calling and condition, 
“ remembering the day of their entering the 
“ Bath, and the day of their departure, with the 
“ name


INTRODUCTION. 
“ name of the infirmity, paying four-pence to 
“ the poors box for registering the benefit received, 
“ until a physician be appointed.”—Dr. Jorden 
(in his book of Hot-Bathing) expresses himself 
thus. “ I will not pretend to reckon up all the 
“ benefits which our baths produce; but if we 
“ had a Register kept of the manifold cures which
“ have been wrought by the use of our baths, it 
“ would appear of what great use they are.”—
Dr. Pierce (in his preface) speaks thus. “ It
“ hath been very often desired (and, by many 
“ wondered that it was not done, if for no other 
“ benefit than that of the city) that a catalogue 
“ of eminent cures should every year be printed.” 
After assigning reasons for this omission, he pro- 
ceeds thus. “ Now, if instead of that, there be 
“ a Manuel of every one’s price and pocket 
“ (which is the chief end of this undertaking) 
“ that shall, under the head of every disease, give
“ examples of remarkable cures, it may attain 
“ all the ends proposed. Success good or bad, 
“ let it honestly be declared; that as the one 
“ may supply the place of a Landmark, the other 
“ may do the office of a Buoy.”—In Doctor Sum- 
mers’s Vindication of Warm-Bathing in Palsies, he
roundly tells the President and Governors of the 
Bath Infirmary to whom he addresses his Essay, 
“ The public has a right to be informed how far 
“ their benefactions have answered, that they
“ may thereby be encouraged to partake of a 
“ blessing, the streams of which may flow on 
“ themselves.” 
In Dr. Swinhow’s most ingenious Inaugural Disser- 
tation, De Thermarum Antiquitate, Contentis, & Usu, 
we find one caution highly apposite to our subject. 
“ Cæterum optime arti medicæ consultum foret, si 
“ historiæ quædam ægrorum, qui sontibus medi- 
“ catis

INTRODUCTION. 
“ catis usi sunt, fideli calamo conscriptæ suernit, 
“ in quibus notentur turn singulares horum casus, 
“ turn methodus bibendi unicuique magis accom- 
“ moda, cæteraque omnia que ad pleniorem hu- 
“ jus præstantissimi medicinæ generis cognitio- 
“ nem utcunque facere possint.” 
Bath-waters are neither saponaceous nor nitrous. 
Remarkable cures have, nevertheless, been per- 
formed by the concurrence of Soap and Nitre, 
Who would be so hardy as to prescribe mineral 
waters in Asthma’s, or Dropsies? In Asthma’s and
Dropsies, the reader will soon be convinced of 
the utility of Bath-waters. 
When wonderful cures are duly ascertained, 
we are bound to pursue the road of observation 
even in contradiction to hypothesis. Truth is not 
the less truth because our dull senses cannot com- 
prehend the modus operandi. Obstinancy proceeds 
from a vain opinion that the chymistry of nature 
ought to bend to our imperfect discoveries. The 
acid of Bath-water may be assisted by the natural 
acidity of the stomach, so as to neutralize alka- 
line medicines. This water manifestly decom- 
poses soap, yet (in Mrs. Elliot’s case) soap was ad- 
ministered to two or three ounces a day. The 
cure proceeded much better with soap than with- 
out.—In Mr. Lyon’s case, Nitre was administered
to six drachms a day, together with soap, 
Bath-water, drank at a distance, has perform- 
ed cures. Thus encouraged, patients have leap- 
ed to the fountain-head with joy. There they 
have produced untoward symptoms. The same- 
patients have again drank them cold, and have 
found their cure. 
Dr. Nugent communicated a case which un- 
questionably proves the position. This gentle- 
man practised many years at Bath, now in Lon- 
don.


INTRODUCTION. 
don. Of the propriety, or impropriety of Bath 
Waters, there lives not perhaps a better judge. 
“ MRS. COLBORNE, aged 53, of a scorbutic 
“ gross habit, was subject to erysepelatous erup- 
“ tions, with a periodical hæmorrhoidal flux, on 
“ the cessation of which, she gradually lost her 
“ appetite, complained of rheumatic complaints,
“ with an indolent tumour on the right side of 
“ the belly, by the gradual increase of which, 
“ the was reduced to a great degree of weakness;
“ the threw up every thing. 
“ She had tried variety of medicines. Bath-
“ water was at last proposed. She drank it in 
“ London, and with considerable benefit. This 
“ induced her to try it at the fountain, which the
“ did. She was soon convinced of her error. 
“ Bath water aggravated every complaint, the 
“ was obliged to desist. Little discouraged by 
“ this first attempt, the waited till the Bath-water 
“ symptoms had abated. She made a second at- 
“ tempt, with the same success. She contented 
“ herself with cold Bath water. She was cured.” 
The volatile principle, which, in pulmonic 
cases, may be prejudicial, flies off, or precipitates. 
The fixed parts retain their strengthening quali- 
ties, may, and are used with great benefit. There 
is no medicine that is capable of doing mischief,
but what may be made to do good, prudently ad- 
ministered. 
Dr. Underhill’s Short account of Hot-well-water 
Cures is the only collection that ever was pub- 
lished on that subject. It was printed in the year 
1703. In his time, patients who reaped benefit 
at the Wells were wont to leave certificates of the
benefit received, signed by their own hands. From 
this Autography, and from the testimonies of resi- 
denters in Bristol, then cured and alive, has this
facetious


INTRODUCTION. 
facetious author compiled his short account. On 
our present subject he expresses himfself thus. 
“ The great and good God, who formed man- 
“ kind all of the same clay, afflicts all with like 
“ diseases. To show forth his mercy, he freely 
“ bestows medicated waters, and puts it in the 
“ hearts of Princes, and many of the first  Quali- 
“ ty, to order their names and diseases, for the 
“ sake of the public, to be exposed in print, as
“ we see in Guidot’s System De Thermis Britanni- 
“ cis, and Pierce’s Bath Memoirs. The like is 
“ performed by other Mineral-Water-Writers. 
“ There are some notwithstanding who are scru- 
“ pulous in having their Cases published, mistak- 
“ ing their honour for their humour. The good 
“ man, quantum in se, will not let his fellow- 
“ creatures languish for want of putting to his 
“ helpful hand, he will rather benefit all, he 
“ loves his neighbour as himself. 
“ Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcer a celat.” 
IN the opinion of the great Boyle, The 
knowledge of mineral waters can never be ac- 
quired by any other method than that of analy- 
sis confirmed by experience. On the rocks of a- 
nalysis and experience, I have founded this first 
specimen of my second edition. By your attach- 
ment to the liberal arts, I would have the world 
to know, that I am not more ambitious of your 
countenance as a patron, than of your approba- 
tion as a judge. You have already been pleased 
to patronize my first Attempts. As a part of the 
general work, this naturally claims your second 
protection. Numberless are the authorities to 
which I own myself indebted. To hold these au- 
thorities up in the best light; by my own expe-
rience,

INTRODUCTION. 
rience, to confirm the observations of others be 
all my ambition. From your Lordship’s candour, 
well-meaning writers have nothing to dread. 
What pleasure to revolve histories of cure which 
had eluded the most judicious art! What satisfac- 
tion to be convinced that nature’s compositions 
surpass those of art! With what rapture must 
the ingenuous distant physician welcome patients 
whom before he had deliberately doomed to death! 
How gladly will he, in similar cases, fly to the 
same cities of refuge! From such, well-meaning
writers fear no censure. 
To the public, I beg leave to conclude with 
that apology which the Marquis De Santa Cruz 
makes for his Maximes Militaires et Politiques. 
Je suis un architecte qui ai ramasse des materiaux 
de divers endroits; d’autrui j’ai pris la pierre, 
et le bois; mais la forme de l’ édifice est toute de moi.
L’ouvrage des araignées to n’est pas plus estimable parce 
qu’elles produissent leur toils d’elles memes, ni le mien 
n’est pas plus meprisable, parce qu’a l’example des 
Abeilles, je tire le suc de fleurs étrangers. 
THE



THE 
CONTENTS. 
THE INRODUCTION contains a plan of the 
work. 
CHAP. I. Principles common to Bath and Bristol 
waters—Page 1 
Of Air—4 
—Spirit—6 
II. Principles peculiar to Bath water—22 
Of Iron—23 
—Salts and Earths—25 
—Sulphur—28
III. Principles peculiar to Bristol water—38 
Of Salts—40 
—Eart—42
IV. A rational account of the virtues of the 
several principles applied to Disease in 
general—44
Human body, its principles—59 
Virtues of Air—63 
—Spirit—65 
—Iron—66 
—Salts—68 
—Earths—72 
—Sulphur—73 
—Water—74 
DISEASES CURED BY BATH WATER—80 
V. Disorders of the First Passages—82 
Of Deglutition—85 
Of

CONTENTS 
—Depraved Appetite—89 
—Pains of the Stomach—92 
—Bilious Cholic—97 
—Hysteric Cholic—103 
—Dry-belly-ach—104 
VI. Disorders of the Urinary Passages—123 
Of Diabetes cured by Bath water—127 
VII. Diseases of the breast cured by Bath
water, particularly Asthma—131 
VIII. Of the Gout—140 
IX. Of the Rheumatism—162 
—Lumbago—165 
—Sciatica—166
X. Of cutaneous Diseases—169 
—Leprosy 
—Scrophula—172
—Scurvy —175
XI. Of Palsy—184
—Lameness after Fevers—196 
—Sprains—197
—from the Tendo Achillis—198
—from white Swelling—199
—from Wounds—200
—from Falls—201 
XII. Of the Jaundice—203 
XIII. Of the Dropsy—213 
XIV. Of Female Diseases—219 
—Obstruction  
—Immoderate Discharges—222 
—Barrenness—223 
—Abortion—226 
—Pregnancy—227 
DISEASES CURED BY BRISTOL WATER—230 
XV. Of Diseases of the Breast  
—Cough 
—Consumption—232
—Hectic Fever—234
Of

CONTENTS. 
Of Haemoptoe—235 
—Asthma  
XVI. Of Diseases of
the Urinary Passages—251 
—Diabetes 
—Gravel and Stone—261 
—Bloody Urine—266 
XVII. Of Diseases of the Stomach and Guts—269 
XVIII. Of external Disorders—272
XIX. Of REGIMEN, in general—275 
—DIET—277 
—Drinks—286 
—Tea and Coffee—288 
—AIR—293 
—EXERCISE—302 
—SLEEP—310 
—EVACUATIONS—311
—Bleeding—312
—Purging—317 
—Vomiting—320
—Sweating—324
—THE PASSIONS—325 



ERRORS of the PRESS.
Page 12, (marginal note) for Air volatile, read Acid volatile. 
12, (marginal note) for deprived of Air, read deprived or 
Acid. 
For the second marked page 11, read 13. 
13, line 17, for twelve more months, read twelve months
more. 
23, line 1, for 4, read 3. 
27, line 1, for passes, read pass. 
30, line 29, for well to, read well as to, 
46, line 33, for Parents, read Patients. 
51, line 7, for causts, read causis. 
72, line 17, for earth, read earths. 
77, line 7, for hebitate, read hebetate, 
88, line the last, leave out dem. 
110, line 3, leave out will. 
line 30, for lubricating, read lubricated, 
114, margin, for Causes, read Cases, 
128, line 24, for gout whey, read goat whey.
134, line 26, leave out not. 
139, line 5, for occular, read ocular. 
154, line 36, for whe, read when. 
169, line 14, for momentory, read momentary. 
174, line 15, for hot bath, read the hot bath. 
230, line 19, for now my purpose, read it is now my purpose. 
240, line 31, for timeously, read timely. 
283, line 33, for roasted, read broiled. 
284, line 8, for proven, read proved. 
289, line 3, leave out separately. 
line 32, for iomatous, read comatous. 




[1]
CHAP. I. 
OF PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
BATH and BRISTOL WATERS.
FOR health, or amusement, Bath and Bristol 
Hot-Wells have, time immemorial, been
frequented by chymists, natu- 
Generalindo-lence.
ralists, and philosophers. The num- 
ber of physicians has kept pace with 
the increase of patients. Without evidence, Bath
and Bristol waters have been accounted sulphure- 
ous, alkaline, saponaceous, ferrugineous, alumi- 
nous, and every thing but what they really are. 
The waters have now and then performed sur- 
prising cures. Had they been rationally investi- 
gated, their sphere must have been farther ex- 
tended. Critically to examine every author who
has attempted to analise Bath and Bristol waters, 
were labour lost. In disproving imaginary prin- 
ciples, opinions fall to the ground. What avail 
disquisitions about nitrous salts, while we know 
that nitre never yet existed in waters? What a- 
vail argumentations about salt of vitriol, while 
we know that the acid of vitriol is only to be 
found? 
A There

2 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
There are certain tribes of substances calcu- 
lated for discovering the principles of waters, 
which are the surer for having been tri- 
ed, which have held, and will hold, 
when we and our works come to be 
forgotten. By analogy and experiment, 
it is my purpose cooly and candidly to elucidate 
the truth. 
Chemical ex- 
periments, 
their use. 
Lord Chancellor Bacon’s Novum Organum Sci- 
entiarum contains a rational scientific method of
investigating the natures of things. Chymical ex- 
periments are not to be rejected because they 
cannot amount to mathematical demonstration. 
This objection bears equally hard on every art 
whose principles are employed in medicine. 
Every hypothesis is liable to errour; for this rea- 
son, man is fallible. The most active principles 
of waters can never perhaps be subjected to our 
senses. Antimonial cups communicate an eme- 
tic quality to liquors contained, while the con- 
taining vessels seem to have parted with no part 
of their weight; or, at least, none that analysis
can discover. Waters, doubtless, are impreg- 
nated with the effluvia of mineral substances yet 
unknown. How can we otherwise account for 
the wonderful effects of springs, in which no- 
thing but the pure element can be discovered;
such as the Piperine, or the Malvern? “ Variae 
“ dantur aquae heterogeneis qualitatibus imbu- 
“ tae, quae vulgarem explorandi methodum, a- 
“ deoque cognitionem nostram fallunt. Referen- 
“ di huc sunt quidam fontes salutares Slangen- 
“ badenses, Piperinae, Toplicenses, in quibus, prae- 
“ ter eximiam levitatem, vulgaria examina ni- 
“ hil fere peregrini et solidi deprehendere pos- 
“ sunt. Huc pertinet insignis Becheri observatio 
“ de spiritu luti caerulei in scaturiginibus obvij, 
magnarum

3 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ magnarum plane virium licet insipidus fit.” 
Jumckerij Consp. Chem. Tab. de Aq. & Becher. Physi 
subterran. passim. Chymistry promises verisimili- 
tude, which, if we modestly pursue, we may 
avoid the paths of ignorance, rashness, and ar- 
rogance. The very pillars of phisiology are 
Founded on chymistry. Digestion, chylification, 
sanguification, and the secretions, are all nature’s 
chymical processes. By the help of chymistry, 
we are enabled to separate mixtures the most 
compound, to exhibit principles, or contents, to
the cognizance of sense. Experiments demon- 
strate what our dull senses can never discover, 
viz. That water is capable of dissolving and sus- 
pending the hardest bodies, and the heaviest me- 
tals. Nor is the art of chymistry, particularly 
that branch of examining waters, so difficult as 
is commonly imagined. Those who have a 
mind to catch the weak by their weak sides, may
consult Boyle on Colours, Boerhaave’s Chymis- 
try, with Hierne’s Appendix to his Acta & Ten- 
tamina Medica. In examining waters, judgement 
is more requisite than genius. The means of 
discovering their contents, virtues, and uses, are 
already in the hands of man; nothing more is 
wanting to compleat the work, than a prudent 
scientific manner of using the means; or, to 
speak more plainly, the art of Induction. The 
bodies which dissolve in waters without altering 
their transparency, seem reducible to Air, Spirit, 
Salts, Earths, Iron, and Sulphur, Whether (by 
the help of chymistry) these are to be discovered 
in Bath and Bristol Waters, is the subject of 
this and the two following chapters. 
A2 I. Of

4 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
I. OF AIR.
To demonstrate the existence of water in water 
were labour lost. The first principle 
that presents itself in water is Air. Air 
seems to be, more or less, contained in every
water. 
Air.
1. SUBJECTED to the air-pump, Bath and 
Bristol waters dart air-bubbles from 
the bottom of the vessel to the surface. 
Experiments. 
2. BRISTOL WATER just pumped appears of 
a whitish colour, owing, doubtless, to the great
quantity of bubbles which it contains. As it 
cools, these bubbles disappear; nor can this whi- 
tish colour, ever after, be restored; a manifest 
proof of their having lost something very subtile. 
3. SET over a fire, in an open vessel, Bristol 
Water covers its sides with small air-bubbles. 
As it increases in heat, these bubbles increase in
number and bulk. They mount up to the top 
with such rapidity, that they put on the appear- 
ance of boiling, before the water comes thorough- 
ly to be heated. 
4. I filled a quart bottle with Bath water at the
hot-bath-pump. Over the neck of the bottle I 
bound a large bladder, well oiled on the outside. 
The bladder immediately began to swell, and, 
pressed upwards filled two-thirds with elastic air, 
hard as it so much of the bladder had been blown 
up by the mouth. 
5. I, in like manner, bound a bladder over 
the neck of a large quart bottle of Bristol wa- 
ter brought over to Bath. I placed the bottle 
before the fire. The air gradually began to 
distend the bladder, before the neck of the 
bottle, which was left empty, felt hot; com- 
pressed

5 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
pressed upwards, it exhibited an elastic ball, one 
third of its capacity.—This experiment may al- 
ways be produced by heat, often without. My 
authorities are Chrouet’s Connaissance des Eaux mine- 
rales d’Aix de chaud Fontaine, et de Spa, p. 68, &
Shaw’s Enquiry into the contents of Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 137—139. 
6. Statical Essays, vol. i. p. 181, and vol. ii. p. 
267, the ingenious Hales has extracted and deter- 
mined the different quantities of air contained in
different waters. 
7. To know whether this was air or spirit. Dr. 
Shaw made the following experiment. He filled
an open cylindrical glass with the fresh 
purgative Scarborough water, and put 
it under the receiver of an air-pump, 
then exhausting the air, till it ceased 
to emit any more, he took the water out, and put
a little powder of galls thereto. The water 
changed its colour, and turned purple, as strong- 
ly as before it was set under the receiver. Whence 
he infers that the mineral spirit did not escape a- 
long with the air-bubbles, and consequently 
that these air-bubbles and the mineral spirit are 
different principles. This conclusion he con- 
firms. 
Air and spi-
rit different
principles.
By the common experiment with galls he 
found that the chalybeate Scarborough spring 
contained more of the mineral spirit than the 
purging. By the experiment of the air-pump, he
found that the purging water discharged more 
air-bubbles than the chalybeate. He filled a 
quart bottle with the last, to which he fitted a 
bladder, as before described. The ball of subtle 
matter was not above one fourth-part so large as 
in the other. “ This experiment (he infers) 
“ therefore, if found constant, intimates, that air 
A3 “ and

6 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
“ and mineral spirit are two things; and that 
“ where the one is largely contained, the other 
“ may be less. It is chiefly on account of 
“ this large portion of air naturally contained
“ in the purging water, that we rather incline 
“ to make it a principle; for, if no more air 
“ could be discovered here than in common wa- 
“ water, or the ordinary sorts of purging waters, 
“ such as Epsom, Dulwich, Acton, &c. there 
“ could be no just foundation for making air a 
“ principle.” Vide Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, part ii. sect. 6. p. 140, 141. 
II. OF SPIRIT. 
1. BATH and Bristol waters fresh drawn from
the pump, manifestly sparkle, and throw 
off a mist, or vapor. After standing in 
the open air, they put off this appearance.
Spirit. 
2. BATH and Bristol Waters fresh drawn from 
the pump, seem grateful to the stomach, and 
cheer the spirits. By standing in the open air, 
they lose these properties. 
3. BATH and Bristol Waters drank at the 
pump have a sort of intoxicating quality, give an
alacrity, or occasion a head-ach, drowsiness, or 
ebriety. Drank at a distance, warmed or cold, 
they have no such effects. Hence may we infer 
that both these waters contain a spirit. Nor 
were the ancients unacquainted with this proper- 
ty. In his book De Architectura, lib. viii. cap. 3, 
Vitruvius expresses himself thus; Sunt etiam fon- 
tes uti vino mixti, quemadmodum est unus Paphlago- 
niae, ex quo etiam sine vino potantes fiunt temulenti. 
—Such are mentioned by Ovid, in his Meta- 
morphosis:
—Lyncestius

7 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS:
—Lyncestius amnis
Quem quicunque parum moderato gutture traxit, 
Haud aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset. 
Quodque magis mirum est, sunt qui non corpora 
tantum
Verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores. 
Cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae, 
Æthiopesque lacus? quos si quis faucibus hausit, 
Aut furit, aud mirum patitur gravitate soporem. 
tantum 
Lib. i. cap. viii, Valerius Maximus mentions 
ont, spring in Macedonia, and another in Agro Ca- 
lena, quo homines inebriantur.—In his Quœst, Na- 
tural. lib. iii. cap. 20, Seneca assigns this spirit as 
one of the causes of taste in waters; quotes O- 
vid, to confirm his opinion in assigning this spirit 
as the cause of ebriety.—In his Hist. Natural, 
lib. ii. cap. 103, and lib. xxi. cap. 2, Pliny makes
mention of the Lyncestian water causing drun- 
kenness.—In his Experiments, and Observations on 
Malvern Waters. Dr. Wall makes the like re- 
mark; page 154. 
4. AFTER the departure of air and spirit, one 
would naturally expect some sensible 
change; and indeed it seems reasona- 
ble to think that the specific gravity of
waters were thus increased, as their absolute comes 
to be diminished. Hoffman used a gra- 
duated instrument for ascertaining the 
weight of different waters. He sus- 
pected that the elastic spirit buoyed up the instru- 
ment; that therefore the experiment was less to 
be depended on, the specific gravity increasing as 
the spirit evaporated.—Dr. Short (in his History of
Mineral Waters, p. 56. 45. 164. 170. Edit. 1734.) 
subjected certain medicated waters to the air-
Gravity of 
waters.
Proved from
experment. 
A4 pump,

8 PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
pump, or exposed them in an open vessel. He 
found their specific gravity thus increased; he
assigns the reason. “ Exinde liquet aquam ali— 
“ quas particulas amisisse, quae quoniam neque 
“ vehiculum ipsum, neque fixa ejus contenta sunt, 
“ aër aut spiritus prorsus sunt censendae.” 
Dr. Home (in his Essay on Dunse Spaw, p. 160. 
163.) bottled up some of the water, corked it 
dole, and, after some time, found it lighter by 
some grains. He sagaciously assigns the reason; 
the escape of the Spirit. 
5. NOR is this opinion of the spirit of waters 
inconsistent either with reason or, ana-
logy. Water becomes insipid after 
having been exposed to the air. The 
same happens to oils and wines; they lose their 
strength, virtues, smell, and taste; they become 
vapid. The same happens to aromatic plants. 
Nothing proves the text so much as liquor in the 
state of fermentation, which continually throws 
up air, together with spirit, manisest to the senses. 
See Boerhaave’s Elements Chetn. Part iii. Process xii. 
& xiii. 
From ana-
logy.
6. WHAT laws this spirit is subjected to, seems
still to remain a secret. Hoffman thinks 
the Thermae are sooner deprived of their 
spirit than the Acidulae. The author 
seems not to have sufficiently distinguished be- 
tween air and spirit; nay, he seems to have con- 
founded the one with the other, under the com- 
mon name of spirit. Heat certainly rarifies and 
dissipates air; air escapes without spirit, and spirit 
escapes without air, as we have seen. 
Spirit its
laws.
7. WHAT sort of spirit this may be, or in what
form it exists in waters, we are now to 
inquire. Naturalists in general, main- 
tain that the spirit pf waters consists of 
Spirit its na-
ture
iron

9 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
iron or oker, minutely subtilized. When they 
come to explain its manner of existence, they 
differ. As (under the head of Air) we 
have fully explained, some are of opi- 
nion that this metal is divided into mi-
nute particles, and suspended by the     
means of a certain Acid, which, as they say, is 
the proper menstruum of metals. This seems to 
be Hoffman’s opinion; nor is he clear on the 
head; he speaks of an “ aethereo quodam valde 
“ mobili, ac subtili fluido, spiritu universali, 
“ fonte & causa omnis spirituascentiae, sedem su- 
“ am, vim, atque virtutem maxime collocatam 
“ habente in sulphure, substantia valde tenui, 
“ fluida, admodumque elaslica, et volatili, cum
“ universali mineralium sulphureo ente combina-
“ ta, omnesque terrarum tractus pervagante, a- 
“ nima quasi mineralium, variarumque mutatio- 
“ num, & effectuum qui in promptuario subter- 
“ raneo contingunt, causa.” Hoffman. Element. 
Aquar. Mineral. recte dijudicand & examinand. 
§. 8. 16. 18. alibique passim. According to 
this opinion, the spirit of water is no more nor 
less than a volatile vitriol. Those who contend for 
this doctrine, maintain that as this subtile acid 
flies off, it carries along with it some particles
of iron, which it suspends in solution, that it 
precipitates, or leaves others behind in form of 
an ochraceous martial-like matter, as in the ex- 
periment mentioned with the powder of galls. 
Astringents are said to absorb or blunt the acidum
solvens, by which the particles of iron once dis- 
solved now precipitate; hence change of colour. 
Nor can this be supposed to be owing to any vo- 
latility of dissolved metal; for, let but a vitriolic 
acid be added to any ferrugineous water, that (by  
Consists of
metal dissolv-
ed by an acid.
A5 the


10
PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
the escape of the acids) has become effete, the 
gall-tinging quality is forthwith restored. 
That there exists a certain Universal Vitriolico- 
sulphureous Acid, which pervades every thing, and 
which (by dissolving iron) constitutes 
the spirit of mineral waters, from posi- 
tive proofs we learn.—“ Take an al- 
“ kaline salt, expose it to the air in a 
“ place where neither damps, vapors, nor sun can
“ approach, it will be converted into a Tartarus 
“ Vitriolatus”—Mineral fumes are inflammable. 
Collected into bladders, they may be carried to 
any distance. Opened near a candle, they catch 
fire. When ore is poor, miners shut up this va- 
por, that (by being imbibed by the phlogiston) it 
may enrich the metals, heighten their splendour, 
and make them malleable. Mineral fumes con- 
tain a portion of the phlogiston; the more they
are impregnated with this inflammable principle, 
the more volatile, powerful, and penetrating they
are. Dr. Teichmeyer, professor of physic in the 
university of Jena, relates a memorable instance 
of a chalybeate spaw, in the Lordship of Cracow,
a manifest proof of our text. This spaw was, 
not long ago, set on fire by lightning, which oc- 
casioned no small damage to the adjoining forests, 
and was with great difficulty extinguished. It is 
remarkable, that this fountain may be kindled at 
any time by the means of a candle. But, it is 
as remarkable, that this water, removed from the 
well, cannot be set on fire. This author adds, 
that he could relate several methods by which the 
inflammable principle of mineral waters might be 
made patent to the senses. “ When (continues 
“ he) in the manner aforesaid, medicinal waters 
“ exist, then the acid becomes invigorated by 
“ the phlogiston contained in the mineral fumes. 
Universal 
Vitriolic
acid.
“ it


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ it dissolve the finest parts of the Iron Earth, 
“ which solution is, at the same time, attracted 
“ by this principium infammabile, and incorporat- 
“ ed with the water concrete.”
8. These fumes cannot be said to be the products- 
fire, because, when they meet with fire, they 
burn. Air is the agent that constitutes, moves,  
and disperses these fumes thro’ the bowels of the 
earth. This appears by that affection, or readi- 
ness with which it unites with the external air. 
9. THAT vapors, air, or fumes are necessary 
adjuncts in the composition of mineral waters, we
cannot doubt. Hoffman quotes a mo- 
dern instance from Lic. Andrea. A
chalybeate well in the Dukedom of Wirtenberg all 
of a sudden lost its virtue and efficacy. The rea- 
son of this change was found to be owing to the 
digging of stone-cutters, which accidentally broke 
through a cavity of the rock, out of which issued
a strong mineral fume. The cavity was immedi- 
ately ordered to be carefully closed up, the well 
recovered its pristine qualities. See Dr. Turner’s
Appendix to his Herbal, printed at Coin, page 4. Dr. 
Seippius has recorded a similar account in his His- 
tory of the Pyrmont Waters, page 48. 
Air vitriolic. 
This vapor is of an acid nature, none other 
than that Acidum universale, or Vitrioline acid,
which has its birth in the bowels of the earth,
and not in the ocean, as Stahl and Newman have 
proved by experiments too long to be here re- 
cited. 
THAT the acid of sea salt owes its production
to the vitrioline add, we know by the trite expe- 
riment. “ Smelt common salt with the 
“ simplest phlogiston, destitute of salt 
“ or acid, then may some brimstone, 
“ and even a little vitriol, be produced.”
Acid of sea
salt what.
A6 10. THAT

12 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
10. THAT this acid is of a subtile volatile na- 
ture we cannot doubt, if we allow ourselves to be 
guided only by our senses. It impreg- 
nates the air, so that it proves offen-
sive to some asthmatics. It corrodes the iron- 
works in and about the baths. Copper rings have, 
for this reason, been bequeathed for the use of the 
bathers to hold by, as may be seen by the inscrip- 
tions therereon recorded. 
Air volatile.
11. As this acid vapor flies off, the water be- 
comes turbid, so that the bottom of the baths can 
hardly be discovered, at the depth of 
two or three feet. The earthy parts 
which were before suspended by means 
of this mineral acid spirit joined to the 
natural heat, now preponderate, and adhere to 
the sides of the glasses, and to the walls of the 
baths, in the form of a pale ochrous earth. In 
the closest and quickest corking, this, vapour so
far escapes, that some precipitation is formed by
the time that the water cools. 
Deprived of
air waters 
become secu- 
lent. 
Such chalybeate waters lose their texture as 
soon as they come to be exposed to the air. They 
are unfit for exportation; at a distance they are 
nevertheless friendly to many constitutions. The 
iron earth is the matrix in which the vitrioline a- 
cid is generated; yet it is well known that neither 
all iron minerals, nor the same, at all times, are 
provided with this acid; for so, all common wa- 
ters would be chalybeates, because there are hard- 
ly any which have not, in some part of their pas- 
sage, a communication with iron ore. When a 
water meets with an iron ore vein that contains a 
portion of the acid vapour, this vapour is concen- 
trated with the water; the chalybeate spaw be- 
comes complete. When it meets with too great 
a quantity of the acid, it is useless or noxious- 
When


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
When the air meets with that Sublimate which 
Basil Valentine calls the seed of metal, and which 
Linden calls the metallic nutriment, which exists 
in a soft state like the Butter of Antimony, and 
that subsists in quantity, then this matter is 
brought by the acid in the air into agitation, by
which it receives additional substances. These 
fumes arise, in some places, more abundantly than
in others. 
12. Dr. Teichmeyer relates an experiment that 
proves the great power of the Air and the Acid
therein contained. “ He exposed fil- 
“ ings of Iron to the open air, rain, 
“ snow, sun, and moon-shine. In a 
“ year’s time, these filings were redu- 
“ ced to a Crocus, which he washed and laeviga- 
“ ted. This he exposed for twelve more months. 
“ Then he put it into a Retort, and distilled it
“ gradually through all the degrees of fire. In 
“ the neck of the retort, he discovered a black 
“ greasy stinking materies viscosa, et quosi butyrosa, 
“ in which was contained a good portion of 
“ Quicksilver.” “ This experiment (says Lin- 
“ den) which I could corroborate with many in- 
“ stances, evidently proves that the Air has pow- 
“ er with the primogenial Acid therein contain- 
“ ed, without any other addition, to open the 
“ iron, so that it may yield its mercurial con- 
“ tents.” 
Air and acid 
their joint
powers.
13. THIS acid proceeds from the Pyrite, which
disunited composes the Bath-sand; the phlogiston 
or inflammable principle having escap-
ed. The phlogiston thus fled, the a- 
cid of the sulphur forms an union with 
the metallic parts of the pyrite. This constitutes 
the chalybeate principle.  
The acid pro-
cedes from the
Pyrite.
IT


14 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
14. IT is well known that acids dissolve iron. 
Alkalis and absorbents precipitate iron. Chalybe- 
ate waters consist of iron dissolved in 
some kind of acid. Galls and astrin- 
gent vegetables act as absorbents, and 
cause a precipitation, in colour, from 
different shades of purple or blue to 
black, according to the nature of the acid in 
which the iron is dissolved, and the proportion of
the saturation, or strength of the solution. The 
stronger the solution of the metal, the more of 
the astringent will be required, and the deeper the 
colour will be struck, and e. c. This knowlege 
accounts for the mystery of dying. 
Chalybeate 
waters consist 
of iron dis- 
solved in an 
acid. 
15. EXPERIENCE tells us that volatile and fixed 
alkalis attract acids which before kept earths or 
metals in solution. The metallic or 
earthly parts are precipitated, and a 
neutral salt is produced which determines the na- 
ture of the acid. 
Experiments.
SPIRIT of hartshorn, or Sal-ammoniac, drop- 
ped into a glass of Bath-water hot, causes an 
ebullition and a milkiness with a yellowish hue 
which gives a light precipitate of the same cast, 
and throws up an earthy pellicle. The like ef- 
fect is wrought in the water cold and well corked, 
though more slowly, less sensibly, and more 
whitish. 
THE acid saturated with the volatile, or fixed 
alkali, gives Glauber’s secret Sal-ammoniac in the 
one, and Vitriolated-tartar by the other, which 
proves the acid to be vitriolic. 
HENCE the absurdity of prescribing volatile-al- 
kaline salts, spirits, soap, milk, &c. with waters 
hard, in the strictest sense. Bath-wa- 
ters are utterly unfit for domestic pur- 
poses. They thicken, strengthen and harden, in- 
Inference.
stead


15 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
stead of resolving or relaxing, as theorists ignorant- 
ly suppose. 
ALL the simple as well as fermented vegetable 
acids mix naturally and easily with Bath-waters. 
Distilled vinegar causes no change of colour, or 
other alteration. The mineral acids, except in 
a concentrated state, or when the vitriolic is add- 
ed in such a quantity as to excite more heat, mix 
kindly. 
16. To this doctrine of Acids, the trite expe- 
riment with Syrup of violets generally used to prove
the existence of an alkali may seem 
repugnant. It must be confessed that 
this syrup turns the waters to a sea-green, and in
eight hours after to a bright grass-green. 
Objection. 
17. THIS is an appearance that overbears those 
who deny the existence of an alkali in chalybeate 
waters. And, to say the truth, this has perplexed 
learned and ingenious men, who, by not consi- 
dering the matter deeply, yielded up the point to
those who maintained an alkali. Let us harken 
to Linden, Page 114, he says, “ This 
“ mistake arises from not properly dis-
“ tinguishing the differences in matter. Iron Vi- 
“ triol has such a green colour as the syrup of 
“ violets assumes when mixed with chalybeate 
“ waters, yet there can be no man so ignorant as
“ to imagine that this proceeds from an alkali, 
“ as the acid predominates so much in the com- 
“ pound. 
Answered.
“ Verdigrease is perfectly green, manufac- 
“ tured with vinegar and copper. I know no 
“ alkali that is accessary to this; the copper ap- 
“ pears in blue crystals when dissolved and cry- 
“ stallized. 
“ Pour Aqua fortis on Iron ore, it becomes in- 
“ stantly green. Supposing even an alkali in the  
“ iron

16 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
“ iron ore, the green colour cannot be owing to 
“ that; because the acid is predominant, and 
“ were there alkali enough in the ore to occasion
“ this green colour, it would discover itself by 
“ an effervescence. 
“ The solution of perfect iron yields a green 
“ colour as soon as it is dissolved by acids. Thus, 
“ we see by how many various ways green co- 
“ lours may be produced; therefore may we con- 
“ clude that the green colour in these aquatic 
“ mixtures is essentially inherent in the Iron ore, 
“ without assistance of alkalies, syrup of violets, 
“ or any thing of the like nature. 
“ Whence is it then that this green colour is 
“ produced? 
“ Syrup of violets contains an iron earth; from
“ it may be produced an iron earth by art. 
“ The acid in the chalybeate water is checked 
“ by the mucilage of the iron ore, which is pro- 
“ bably the true reason why the water preserves 
“ its crystalline purity unmixed. 
“ Syrup of violets sets acids and alkalies at li- 
“ berty. It acts only naturally when it sets the 
“ acid free from the mucilagium ferri; the more 
“ it subsides, the stronger the green colour ap- 
“ pears; the acid works naturally on the iron 
“ earth dissolved into atoms most minute. This 
“ is the real cause. Tor if this green colour of 
“ the syrup was owing to an alkaline quality of 
“ the waters, that share of alkali requisite to 
“ produce it would constitute such a dispropor- 
“ tioned ingredient that they would be as caustic 
“ as Soap-lees, which is by no means the case.” 
BATH WATER curdles milk, as every nurse 
knows. Powerful, nevertheless, as this 
Acid appears to be, it does not alter the 
colour of the juice of Turnsol, the Heliotropon tri- 
Bath water 
curdles milk. 
coccum

17 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
coccum of C. Bauhinus.—Aken Waters recover 
spots made in paper by Acids. So must Bath Wa- 
ter, had it (like the former) contained an Alkali. 
BRISTOL WATERS, as it boils, loses its pellu- 
cidity, and deposits an earthy chalky-like matter 
on the bottom and sides of the vessel. 
Thus it comes to be robbed of its mi- 
neral acid. It now becomes soft, fit
for domestic purposes, of mixing with 
soap, washing, brewing, &c. That Bristol Wa- 
ter contains an acid, and that this acid is of a vo- 
latile nature, the following experiments evince. 
Bristol Wa- 
ter acid and
volatile.
1. A glass of Bristol Water poured on a few 
grains of Sal Armoniac, dissolved it im- 
mediately with a sensible effervescence. 
Experiments. 
2. Spir. Sal Armoniac with a fixed alkali pro- 
duced the same effect. 
3. Solution of Sal Tartar produces the same 
effervecence; but gives the liquor a milkiness 
which precipitates a whitish light earthy sub- 
stance. 
4. Solution of Soap curdles and makes the wa- 
ter turbid. 
5. The same substances poured into common 
water distilled, produced no sensible change. 
6. In different glasses of common water distil- 
led, were dropped Spir. Vitrioli; in others other 
mineral acids. To these were added volatile alka- 
line salt, volatile alkaline spirit, fixed alkaline
salt and solution of soap. The same appearances 
arose as when these were first added to the Bristol 
Water. 
HENCE may we conclude, That these waters 
do contain an Acid. By means of this acid it is
that (in the two first experiments) the  
effervescence is produced. In the third 
the additional circumstance of the milkiness arises
Corollaries.
from

18 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
from the fixed alkaline solution attacking the acid 
of the waters more strongly than did the calcari- 
ous earth, by means of which it is no longer 
soluble, but becomes cognizible in form of a 
white precipitate, which was in a saline state 
while united with the acid, and so soluble in 
water. 
In the fourth, the Soap becomes decomposed, 
the Oil swims on the top, while the Acid and Al- 
kali lay hold of one another. 
If these waters are kept but a day, corked ne- 
ver so close; or, if they are boiled, and then 
these experiments made, neither the effervescence 
nor the decomposition will appear. The milki- 
ness and the precipitate will insue, because the 
waters are robbed of their power of dissolving
earthy substances. 
HENCE it is also manifest, That the Acid of
these waters is of a volatile nature. 
7. To determine the nature of this acid, let us
drop a solution of Silver in spirit of ni- 
tre. The mixture puts on the appear- 
ance of milky, and deposits a white 
precipitate. 
Bristol water 
neutral and 
vitriolic. 
8. In a glass of water pour a solution of Lead 
in the same spirit, the same phoenomena appear. 
FROM these trials it is demonstrable that the 
alkaline basis of Sea-salt is contained in these wa- 
ters; for (by the union thereof with 
the nitrous acid) an Aqua-regia is form- 
ed which dissolves gold, but touches not silver, 
nor lead. In consequence of which the precipi- 
tation insues. 
Corollary. 
9. Pour a solution of Quicksilver in spirit of ni- 
tre into a glass of water, it grows turbid and de- 
posits a yellow precipitate, which confirms the 
foregoing experiment. 
10. To


19 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
10. To solutions of Bristol Water turbid or 
precipitated by Spir. Sal. Armon. Sal. Tartar, Calx 
viv. &c. pour Oil of Vitriol, the transparency is 
immediately restored. 
11. Ol. Tartar per deliq. added to that which 
contains oil of vitriol, a great effervescence in- 
sues, and the heat goes off but slowly. 
12. Solution of silver was added to the water. 
To this was added Soap-lee, which caused a black 
precipitate by standing, which could not be dis- 
turbed by Spir. Sal. Armoniac. 
HENCE we may infer that this water contains 
a great share of phlogiston, with vitrio- 
lic spirit medicated and absorbed by a 
calcarious earth. 
Corollary.
13. To a glass of water, Scarlet dye was added. 
A small precipitate insued, the upper part remain- 
ed of a fine scarlet colour. As soon as Spir. Sal. 
Armoniac was added, it struck an opaque purple 
colour. 
HENCE may we conclude that this water is (in 
its natural state) neutral in all respects, rather 
inclinable to the vitriolic acid; which 
is the reason that it continues its scar-
let colour; but, as soon as an urinous spirit is 
added, then the Cochineal loses its scarlet colour, 
and turns to purple. 
Corollary.
14. The water was also tried with blue dye, and 
pompadore, without any alteration. This con- 
firms the last experiment. 
FROM the sum and substance of the foregoing 
experiments, we conclude, that the whole nature 
and texture of Bristol water (not even its warmth 
excepted) depends on the vitriolic acid. 
THESE are others who maintain. 
That the spirit of waters consists of fer- 
reous particles dissolved without the in- 
Spirit said to 
consist of iron 
without the 
acid. 
terposition



20 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
terposition of an acid. In support of this opinion 
these urge, That a sort of ink may be prepared, 
by infusing pure iron in simple water, saturated 
with the powder of galls. Nor does Shaw dis- 
own the fact, See his Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 151—158.—In infusions of filings of iron 
with water distilled, there appear certain phoeno- 
mena, not dissimilar to those which may be seen 
in mineral waters. See Home’s Essay on Dunse- 
spaw, p. 157, 158. The subtile particles escape 
in form of spirit, the heavier precipitate as in so- 
lutions of iron by acids. If so, why (say they) 
may not iron in like manner, be supposed to be 
dissolved in mineral springs? 
In his Essay on Dunse-spaw, p. 60. 62. 157. 160. 
Dr. Home observes, that some of the ferreous 
particles settle on the surface, in the form of a 
thin pellicle, not unlike to that which is com- 
monly observed on the surface of lime water.— 
In Dr. Whytt’s ingenious Essay on Lione water, 
p. 62, 63, & 74, 75. he has experimentally dis- 
proved the existence of an acid in Lime-water.— 
Shaw’s Experiment with astringents seems no less 
to favour this opinion than the other. If the 
powder of galls, tea-leaves, or any other astrin- 
gent precipitate iron, by absorbing the acid, may 
not the same phoenomena be expected from al- 
kaline substances? From such mixtures, such ap- 
pearances never happen. They therefore con- 
clude, that this effect of galls ought rather to be 
attributed to that astringent property common to 
such substances, by which they attract the parti- 
cles of iron, and thus tinge water blue, purple, 
or black, by which the heavier particles also fall 
to the bottom. This opinion they think confirm- 
ed by the following experiment. “ In his Expe- 
“ riments and Observations on Chalybeate Waters,
“ Dr.



21 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ Dr. Hales observes, That many natural wa- 
“ ters, after they had deposited their oker, and 
“ afterwards suffered such a degree of corruption 
“ as to be there by resolved (by the help of pow- 
“ der of Galls) put on as intense a colour, as if 
“ they had been just taken up at the fountain- 
“ head.” Hence they infer, that the spirit of 
water is iron per se, or incorporated with sulphur, 
or some other principle, divided into particles most 
minute by the chymistry of nature, without the 
interposition of an acid. Nor does this opinion 
differ from the former, otherwise than in the 
manner of the solvent. In both, the spirit of 
waters is allowed to consist of iron, or oker mi- 
nutely subtilized, one by the help of a volatile 
vitriolic acid, the other without. In his elabo- 
rate inaugural dissertation De Thermarum antiqui- 
tate, contentis, et usu, Swinhow seems inclined to 
the latter. His words are these; “ Tamen hanc 
“ sententiam pertinacius profiteri nolim, dico ta- 
“ men, in praesenti, mihi visum probabiliorem.” 
From analogy, as well as from arguments and 
experiments stated and compared, I am inclined 
to believe, that Bath and Bristol Wa- 
ters contain a Spirit; that this spirit 
consists of Iron subtilized and suspended by the 
means of an Acid, and that this acid is none 
other than that Universal Vitriolico-sulphureous prin- 
ciple which pervades the bowels of the earth, and 
which constitutes the life, soul, and spirit of me- 
dicated waters. So much for principles common 
to Bath and Bristol Waters; we now proceed to 
those which are peculiar to Bath Water. 
Corollary. 
CHAP.



22 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR 
CHAP. II. 
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BATH WATERS.
Particular
experiments. 
1. DURING the spring and sum- 
mer months, there are black 
slimy cakes which float on the surface of the baths. 
These were supposed to be cakes of floating sul- 
phur. Mr. Haviland apothecary, first discovered 
them to be aquatic plants conveyed thro’ the cran- 
nies of the rocks to the fountain head, the Jelly 
moss, or Conferva gelatinosa, omnium tenerrima et 
minima, aquarum limo innascens, of Ray.
Oker.  
2. THE baths, as far as high-water- 
mark, are lined with a pale yellow sub- 
stance; as are the conduits which carry off the re- 
dundant water. 
To discover the different degrees of heat, the 
following trials were made. By Farenheit’s ther- 
mometer, the hottest spring in the 
King’s Bath raised the quicksilver to 
103.—In the coolest part of the same 
bath to 100.—In the hot bath it stands at 100 or 
101.—In the Cross Bath 93, 94 —The Queen’s 
Bath is only a reservoir from the King’s, it raises 
the mercury to 93, 94. The heat at the pumps 
varied by every trial. At the Cross Bath, the 
mercury sunk from 110 to 105.—The Hoth Bath 
from 116 to 112.—The King’s from 116 to 
114. 
Heat of the 
springs. 
The lowest trials equal the heat of the human 
blood in a healthy state, and (according to Hip- 
pocrates} are therefore friendly to the constitu- 
tion. 
4. WEIGHED



23 TO BATH WATER.
4. WEIGHED, Hot Bath water ap-
pears to bear the ratio of oz. 4:6:0:12 
to oz. 4:6:0:16 cold. 
Gravity.
By these experiments we learn. That the dif- 
ferent springs are differently impregnated, and 
differently heated; their produce also 
is different.—We learn also that they
spring not from the same source; for if one of the 
cisterns is kept empty, this prevents not the cistern 
at the head of any other spring from filling in its 
usual time, notwithstanding all the springs break 
out within the compass of half an acre, in the 
form of a triangle, whose base measures 415 feet, 
its longer side 380, and its shorter about 110. 
Generals premised, we now proceed to investi- 
gate particular principles.
Corollaries. 
I. Of IRON. 
UNDER the heads of Air and Spirit, it fully ap- 
pears, That (by the interposition of the Univer- 
sal Vitriolic Acid) Iron is not only dis- 
solved, but suspended also in waters;
that, as this acid escapes, the walls of 
the baths and the conduits become incrusted with 
a pale or yellow oker; that waters, vulgarly and 
improperly termed chalybeate, lose their texture, 
by being exposed to air, and become unfit for 
exportation; that the iron-earth is the matrix in 
which the vitriolic acid is generated; that when a 
water meets with an iron-ore vein which con- 
tains a portion of the universal acid, the acid va- 
pour comes to be concentrated with the water, 
the chalybeate spaw becomes complete; that 
when it meets with too great a quantity of the 
acid, it becomes noxious, and that this acid pro- 
ceeds from the pyrite, which disunited, composes 
Bath water
feruginous.
the


24 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath-sand. Thus, the acid of sulphur forms 
an union with the metallic parts of the pyrite. 
This constitutes the ferrugineous principle of 
Bath waters, as by the following tells will ap- 
pear. 
Experiments 
on the Bath 
sand. 
THE first mineral substance that pre- 
sents itself to our view, is that Sand- 
like substance, thrown up at the sources 
of the springs, especially when the in- 
verted cisterns are taken up to be cleaned. 
1. To the taste, this substance is ferrugineous, 
and manifestly styptic. 
2. THE water in which it is washed, strikes a 
blue with an infusion of logwood, and a purple 
with galls. 
3. THE residuum, calcined till it ceases to 
fume, moved to the magnet, some particles are 
attracted. 
4. THE Baths and drains are lined with a yel- 
low oker. 
5. WITH infusions of logwood, galls, tea, 
pomegranate-bark, balaustine, &c. the waters 
fresh pumped, change to purple. Thus the fer- 
rugineous principle seems incontestibly to exist. 
We now proceed to determine the portion of iron 
contained in a given quantity of water. 
6. IN the third volume of the Edinburgh Me- 
dical Essays, we find an experiment recorded by 
Professor Monro, which enables us 
(with some sort of certainty) to deter- 
mine the quantity of iron contained in 
waters. He observes that the propor- 
tion of iron in its salt, or vitriol, is little more 
than one third. If one ounce of this salt of steel 
be dissolved in 20 ounces of water Troy-weight, 
142 drops of which solution weigh two drachms, 
every such drop will contain 1/75 of a grain of iron. 
Quantity of 
iron contain- 
ed. 
By



25 TO BATH WATER.
By this standard, the Doctors Charleton and 
Lucas have investigated the quantity of iron con- 
tained in Bath waters. According to the former 
(Essay on Bath Waters, p. 9.) the chalybeate prin- 
ciple in a pint of King’s Bath pump water 
comes out to be 1/70 of a grain nearly; in the Hot 
and Cross Bath pump water 1/140. According to the 
latter (Essay on Mineral waters, p. 293.) every pint 
of the King’s Bath pump water may be supposed 
to contain 1/37 of a grain of iron. 
In an inconclusive experiment of this sort, it 
signifies little on which side the quantity scrupu- 
lously lies. The experiments of both tend to 
corroborate the existence of iron. This extreme 
divisibility and tenuity of metal is the work man- 
ship of wise Nature, who deals out her sanative 
compositions in quantities which heal safer and 
surer than waters deeply saturated. 
II. Of SALTS and EARTHS.
WHEN I had prepared my materials for the 
press, I happily met with Dr. Linden, a German, 
trained up (as is common in that country) to 
Metallurgy and Mineralurgy, from his infancy. 
Assisted by Mr. Morgan, an expert practical chy- 
mist of the city of Bristol, in his elaboratory, we 
proceeded to experiments more demonstrative and 
more satisfactory far than those which I had la- 
boured. 
EXP. I. 
TWENTY-NINE pints of King’s Bath water 
were filled at the cock in a wickered 
bottle, and carried to Bristol, where it 
was put into a glass retort in B. A. The water 
Experiments.
B steamed



26 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
steamed away gently, without coming to a boil- 
ing heat. 
There appeared no pellicles, no change of co- 
lour in the liquor. To the upper part of the re- 
tort there adhered clear pellucid salts. The par- 
ticles which fell to the bottom were also salts, ra- 
ther insipid to the taste. 
There were no earthy parts perceptible to the 
naked eye, excepting some few yellow specks. 
Principles peculiar 
EXP. II. 
A PINT and a half of the evaporated water was 
caught in a vessel which received it as it dropped 
from the mouth of the retort. This had the ap- 
pearance of a bittern of common salt. This was 
put into a Florence flask, which was again com- 
mitted to the sand. The liquor continued transpa- 
rent. There precipitated a calcarious earth, in 
appearance, of the mature of Magnesia Alba. The
same magnesia, or earth, if it is to be so called, 
may at any time, be obtained from common bit- 
tern. 
I have preserved the lixivium still to be seen, 
of the very taste and consistence of brine, and co- 
lourless. 
How different these appearances of ours from 
those mentioned by former inquirers, Liquors 
terrestrious, unctuous, brown, Madeira, successions of 
pellicles, calcarious earths, nitres, alkaline and ni- 
trous salts, &c! When waters are evaporated 
in large, flat, open vessels, may not external 
dust intermix with the process? May not precipi- 
tant boiling, in some measure, account for such facti- 
tious principles? Alkaline salts are artificial earthy 
productions. The volatile acid of the salt is de- 
tained by the alkaline earth, and mixes so closely 
that



27 TO BATH WATER.
that both passes together thro’ the filtre. When these 
cause an effervescence with acids, the phoenome- 
non is owing to the alkaline earth which consti- 
tutes the basis of the neutral salt, which gives the 
purging quality to the waters. The powder which 
puts on the appearance of calcarious earth, is none 
other than Bath-quarry stone dissolved by the 
vitriolic acid. To confirm this assertion, Let 
this same stone be dissolved in spirit of vitriol, 
then mixed with water; let the water be poured 
off after settling, you have the calcarious earth. 
If it is precipitated with water distilled from lime 
and soap-lees, the earth will appear to be Bath- 
quarry stone. 
EXP. III.
EXAMINED in a microscope, the salts put on 
the forms of six or seven crystals of different sorts. 
On the different forms into which cry-
stals shoot, little stress is to be laid. 
Our senses are too gross to dive into the elemental 
structure of bodies; so that, for aught we know, 
there may be as many elemental differences, as 
there are species of salts; or perhaps all salts, in
their ultimate elements, may be the same. This 
we know, that no two salts of the same denomi- 
nation will, upon trial, answer the same proofs in 
every respect. We beg leave only to observe, 
that the Bath-water-salts crystallized in B. A. so 
does Borax, in opposition to the common nature 
of simple salts. Hence we infer, That out of 
Bath-water-salt a perfect Borax might be manu- 
factured.—The Salt of the first evaporation seem- 
ed to have a vitriolic taste.—That of the lixivium 
evaporated, had a large share of the marine. 
Salts.
B2 III.




28 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
III. OF SULPHUR.
1. In waters hot and cold, Sulphur seems to 
dwell, though it is often difficult, sometimes im- 
possible, corporeally to exhibit it. In 
the baths of Austria and Hungary, Dr. 
Browne not only observed true flowers of sulphur 
sticking to the conduits; but also declares that 
the waters, in a few minutes, turned silver black, 
and heightened the natural colour of gold, Phi- 
losoph. Trans. N°. 59.—In the Caesarean baths at 
Aix la Chapelle, flowers of brimstone are sublima- 
ted by natural heat, and collected in pound- 
weights.—Harrigate Spaw (according to Dr. Shaw) 
contains actual brimstone floating like feathers, 
separable by simple straining.—In Acidulae as well 
as Thermae, he has discovered signs of sulpbur, 
History of Mineral Waters, p. 54, 55, 88. and 
through the whole latter part. See Migniot’s Traité  
des Eaux Minerales de St. Amand, p. 13. 20. 23.—
In Moffat Waters, Plummer, a late learned profes- 
sor of chymistry, discovered many signs of sul- 
phur; Edinb. Med. Essays, Vol. i. Essay viii.—
In Scarborough Waters putrified, Dr. Shaw has 
discovered sulphur, though he could not in the 
water fresh, Enquiry, p. 136.—Of Dunse Spaw 
we have a similar instance, by the ingenious Dr. 
Home, p. 78, 90, 91.
Sulphur. 
2. MIGNIOT and Blondel (treating of the wa- 
ters of Aix) record a very singular remark, viz. 
Not one grain of fixed sulphur can be obtain- 
ed from even those waters, which not only 
smell strong of sulphur, but throw up hand- 
fuls of flowers of brimstone. The former 
expresses himself thus, “ Si on vouloit nier que 
“ les caux d’ Aix la Chapelle soient sulfureuses.
“ on




29 TO BATH WATER.
“ on n’auroit qu’a lever une des pierres de mal- 
“ sonerie de leurs bassins, & on trouveroit des 
“ fleurs à poignées; cependant on a eu beau 
“ tourner le corps des eaux en tout sens, on n’a
“ pû encore reussir d’en tirer ur seul grain, non 
“ plus que des notres. Traité des Eaux Minerales 
“ de S. Amand, p. 22, 23.”—The latter thus; 
“ Omnes hi fontes Corneliani, &c. sulphur maxi- 
“ me olent, habentque oleose dissolutum, ac bal- 
“ samicis mixtum. Illud, in aquis his & Cae- 
“ saeranis ita subtile est, ut in aquarum examine, 
“ qualiacunque vasa, etiam vitrea pertranseat, et 
“ ne granum illius colligi aut videri possit.” 
Therm. Aquisgranensium, & Porcetanarum descrip- 
tio, cap. v. p. 80. 
The celebrated Fred. Hoffman seems to have 
been mistaken, when he rashly pronounces his o- 
pinion, That there are very few springs which 
contain sulphur in any shape. By what, from a- 
nalogy, has already appeared, his experiments seem 
to be too general, and too much confined. There 
are waters which run hot with an abominable 
stench, and which tarnish not silver, yet exhibit
manifest signs of a volatile subtile sulphur, suffi- 
cient to convince us that they are impregnated 
with that principle; nor are they the less salutary 
for being slightly saturated. 
Gaping at clouds of smoke towering up from 
the surfaces of natural hot baths, ignorants 
naturally dream of volcano’s, abysses, subter- 
ranean fires, &c. Without evidence, physicians 
have traditionally supposed, Bath waters sul- 
phureous; as they supposed so they practised
On the existence, or non-existence of mineral 
contents depends the rationality of practice. The 
question of sulphur cannot therefore be indiffe-  
B3 rent.



30 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
rent. With that same indulgence which we 
crave, it is our purpose candidly and coolly to 
wade through this important question. 
Mayow
THE first who had the courage to 
deny the existence of sulphur in Bath 
waters, was Mayow, and that so faintly, that he 
hardly challenges attention. 
DOCTOR CHARLETON seems neither to have 
proved, nor denied the existence of sulphur. Dis- 
appointed in his hopes of exhibiting 
real sulphur, he extends the meaning of 
the word so as to comprehend unctuous, or oily 
bodies. To produce this supposed principle, he 
proceeds to analogous experiments with infusions 
of brimstone in spring water; he extracts a sulphu- 
reous tincture from the residuum of Bath water with 
Salt of Tartar. To sulphur he imputes changes 
which naturally result from the agents which he 
employs. He says, “It is a controverted point, 
“ whether or no Bath waters be impregnated with 
“ sulphur.” 
Charleton.
WHITE he was preparing his materials for the 
press, Doctor Lucas came to Bath, fully possessed 
with the current notion of sulphur. 
Sulphur was the first principle which he 
proceeded to investigate. Disappointed in certain 
leading experiments, and piqued at Dr. Charle- 
ton’s pretensions to the discovery of that vegeta- 
ble which swims on the surface of the baths; as 
well to sulphur’s being a matter of controversy, 
he changed his battery, and publicly made expe- 
riments in proof of the non-existence of sulphur. 
His arguments seemed then to me conclusive. 
Subsequent experiments have induced me to alter 
my opinion, Dies diem docet. Instructed by my 
fellow-labourer, I am not without hopes of con- 
Lucas. 
vincing



31 TO BATH WATER. 
vincing the reader, that Bath waters are really 
and truly sulphureous. 
MUD taken up fresh from the bottoms of the 
baths, smell manifestly of sulphur. 
BATH-SAND, sprinkled on a red-hot iron, emits 
a blue flame, with a suffocating vapor. 
To Dr. Lucas the public is indebted for the 
discovery of a fraud, which had blinded the un- 
derstandings of learned and unlearned; and which 
was, on all occasions, adduced as an irrefragable 
proof of sulphur, I mean the trick of transmuting 
shillings into guineas. He bribed one of the wo- 
men-guides; the divulged the mysterious men- 
struum, Stale Urine. Had this gentleman bestow- 
ed as much of his labour in proof of the exis- 
tence, as he has done on the non-existence of 
sulphur, I humbly think he might have succced- 
ed better. Let the public judge. 
α. He dropped a solution of silver in an alka- 
line ley into Bath water. He observes (page 299) 
that it grew milky, and put on a putrid 
smell; a double decomposition insued, 
of sulphur and of earth. He asks, 
“ How then can Bath water be a solution of sul- 
“ phur, or sulphureous, when it gives no indi- 
“ cation of that mineral, and is not even capable 
“ of suspending it in a solution?” 
Lucas’s pro-
cess.
His own assertion proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, by the same parity of reason that acids 
precipitate the sulphur out of the alka- 
line solution, the sulphur contained in
the water mingles with the sulphur in the solu- 
tion, while both come to be precipitated by the 
acid contained in the water. Were there no sul- 
phur in the water, this separation could not insue, 
the whole would unite into one neutral concrete. 
Answered.
In sulphureous waters, there is no such thing 
B4 to



32 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
to be expected as a solution of sulphur, such as 
is produced by art. In nature’s elaboratory, the 
particles of sulphur are not dissolved, but sus- 
pended. 
β. “ He mixed a solution of Corrosive Sublimate 
(page 303), and observed that the mixture put on 
a slight milkiness only, without precipitation. 
From this appearance he says, Had there been sul- 
phur in the water of any sort, a milkiness, and a pre- 
cipitation must have insued. 
γ. “ He mixed a solution of Quicksilver (page 
304) with Bath water. This raised a bright milky 
cloud, growing suddenly opaque, and then chang- 
ing or precipitating to yellow, which, upon stir- 
ting, grows white again. Instead of this yellow 
being produced by the imaginary sulphur of the 
waters, he affirms that this colour and precipita- 
tion are produced by the union of the absorbent 
earth, and the universal acid.” 
To the two last, and all his other mercurial 
experiments, we beg leave to offer one general 
answer. Metallic solutions are, at best, 
but impotent proofs. Had the Bath 
waters been sublimated, as they ought to have 
been, and then been found not to change colour, 
they might then have justly been pronounced void 
of sulphur. The production of the union of the 
absorbent earth and universal acid is merely hy- 
pothetical, or rather proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, if common brimstone is dissolved in 
order to make Lac Sulphuris the precipitate is 
white. But, if the sulphur is separated from An- 
timony, or any other mineral, then indeed an o- 
range-coloured precipitate insues. The springs 
must be supposed to rise through a brimstone quar- 
ry to produce this yellow colour. In the Bath 
Answered.
waters


33 TO BATH WATER.
waters the sulphur is only suspended in small 
atoms. 
δ. “ He mixed a solution of Silver, page 305. 
This (he says) caused bright bluish white clouds, 
which soon coagulated, appeared opaque, and pre- 
cipitated suddenly in grumes.—These bluish
white clouds, &c. are evidences of the existence 
of sulphur; for, from experience we know, that 
(in the bowels of the earth, as well as in Smelting 
houses) brimstone coagulates all metals and mine- 
rals that are in a dissolved state. Hence it is, 
that the sulphur contained in the Bath water act 
its natural part, by reducing the silver dissolved in 
the Aqua fortis into a solid state, a manifest proof 
of sulphur.” 
ε. “ He supposes the dissolvent acids either pure, 
or mixed with martial, or other earths, or inflam- 
mable principles. As they happen to be colour- 
less or coloured, so they form different Luna cor- 
nua’s with the metals which they attract.” 
THESE are hypothetic notions; for, if sol- 
vents contained coloured, or colourless earths, or in- 
flammable principles, they could not 
dissolve metals, while they were in pos-
session of such contents. Hence, may we ven- 
ture to affirm. That the colour which this ingeni- 
ous artist places in his solvent, was the produc- 
tion of sulphur contained in the Bath-water. 
Answered. 
δ. “ Solutions of Sea-salt (he says) produce the 
same effects with solutions of sulphur, and from 
the same causes.” 
THESE experiments plead neither for or against 
sulphur. The phlogiston never evaporates; nor is 
it in the power of chymistry to separate it. 
from water, be it ever so vapid; as may be 
demonstrated from common electrical experiments. 
The waters of Aken may be deprived- of their  
Answered.
B5 “ volatile



34 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
volatile spirit, which has a share in the production 
of colours; but this has no connection with sul- 
phur. 
η. “ He then proceeded to evaporate the wa- 
ter (page 310) without any sensible smell. The 
residuum, thrown upon an ignited iron, fumed 
slightly without visible flame, or acid vapor, 
without scintillating, fulgurating, or crepita- 
ting. Had sulphur and nitre entered the com- 
position, the effects of gun-powder must have 
insued.” 
THESE experiments are inconclusive; for cathar- 
tic salts, and many other things will 
fulminate without sulphur, while others 
again will not fulminate with sulphur. 
Answered.
θ. He concludes thus, “ Let the inordinate 
“ lovers of brimstone know, that sulphur actually 
“ dissolved, is decomposed in the evaporation, 
“ the phlogiston flying off, while the acid satu- 
“ rates the alkaline salt; that digestions of the 
“ residuum with Salt of Tartar may heighten the 
“ colour, but this proceeds from that oily sub- 
“ stance which is inherent in water in general; 
“ that this is no solution of sulphur appears from 
“ this, that acids cause neither stench nor preci- 
“ pitation in the tincture, which must have hap- 
“ pened had they contained sulphur.” 
WE have just observed, That this same phlo-
giston is far from being volatile. It is of an unc- 
tuous nature, the cause of colour, and 
splendour in metals. Was the phlo- 
giston to evaporate in boiling, how could the 
smelter produce metal out of his furnace? Sul- 
phureous smells cannot be produced from waters 
so slightly impregnated with sulphur as ours are. 
To discover the existence of sulphur therefore in 
Bath water, mixtures of metallic solutions (as we
Answered.
observed



35 TO BATH WATER.
observed before) are unavailing and exceptionable 
experiments. Sublimation is the ordeal trial. By
Sublimation we hope to demonstrate, that Bath 
water changes its colour, and answers all the 
characteristics of real brimstone. 
EXP. I. 
ONE ounce of Bath water mud, or rather pre- 
cipitate, taken up at the bottom of the King’s 
Bath, smelled most sensibly of sulphur. 
We mixed one ounce of this mud, 
with half an ounce of white Arsenic.
The mixture was put into a Florence flask, and
sublimated in B. A. In the neck of the flask
there was produced a deep orange colour, or red- 
dish arsenic, of the nature of Auri-pigmentum. 
Author's
process.
EXP. II. 
WITH the same materials, and, in the same- 
manner, the same experiment was-repeated. The 
same exactly were the appearances. 
EXP. III, 
THE residuum of the evaporation of twenty- 
nine pints, mentioned under the Section of Salts, 
and Earths, about two drachms (for it was not 
weighed) was, with equal quantities of white Arse- 
nic, put into a Florence flask, and sublimated as in 
Exp.: first and second. In the neck of the flask a
sublimate appears inclining to yellow. For, as 
yellow, or red inclining arsenic cannot exist, or 
naturally be produced, nor artificially imitated 
without the help of real common brimstone, it is 
therefore plain from experiments 1, 2, 3, that
B6 the

36 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath mud, or precipitate, contains a perfect 
sulphur. These experiments are so much the 
more to be depended on, as it is well known that 
arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the quan- 
tity ever so small, or entangled. The deeper the 
orange yellow, or ruby-like colour the arsenic 
is tinged with, the greater the quantity of sul- 
phur. Newman, Stahl, Henckel, Potter, and 
other naturalists, maintain that there are no me- 
talline or mineral ores without arsenic, nor, con- 
sequently, mineral waters. Those waters in which 
arsenic predominates, purge and vomit. As Bath 
waters neither (in general) purge nor vomit; and 
as they, in part, owe their heat to mondic, ox py- 
rites, we may hence infer, that they contain sul- 
phur; enough, at least, to subdue the poisonous 
quality of the arsenic, without defeating its salu- 
tary purposes. 
THESE are blood-warm waters, such as Bux- 
ton, and Taffy’s-well, which are warm without 
sulphur, These contain no sulphur, nor any mi- 
neral whatever. Their warmth proceeds from a 
steam, which arises from marle, or rotten lime- 
stone. But there are no waters which contain 
salts, destitute of sulphur; for salts cannot be
generated without sulphur. 
THAT experiment of Boerhaave’s adduced to 
discover the fraud of sulphur suspended in al- 
kaline salts, or Golden tincture, bears no analogy
with Bath, or any other sulphureous water. For, 
in waters truly sulphureous, the sulphur is mixed
with the aqueous fluid, by the help of the mine- 
ral ferment, such as is caused by a bituminous 
substance. If we drop this alkaline solution in- 
to a glass of Bath water, it soon grows milky. 
The oily, or inflammable principle thus set at li- 
berty by the acid, regales the nostrils with a rot-
ten

37 TO BATH WATER. 
ten sulphureous smell. This experiment serves
to prove the existence of an acid in the water. It 
serves also to prove, That Bath water contains 
brimstone; for brimstone is nothing but the in- 
flammable principle united with the vitriolic acid. 
FROM the sum total, we may ven- 
ture to pronounce, That Bath water 
contains. 
Conclusion.
1. THE HOT ELEMENTARY FLUID. 
2. AIR. 
3. SPRIT. 
4. IRON.
5. SALTS.
6. SULPHUR.
CHAP.

38 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
CHAP. III.
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BRISTOL
WATER	
OF the volatile vitriolic acid of Bristol water 
we have treated in that chapter which speaks 
of principles common to Bath and Bristol waters. 
To particular experiments we now proceed; and 
first to such as fall under the cognizance of 
sense. 
Taste.
1. To the Taste, Bristol water is par- 
ticularly grateful, leaving a sense of 
stipticity on the palate. 
Smell.
2. To the Smell, it is inodorous. 
3. To the Touch, it is luke-warm. “ In sum- 
mer 1744, the Earl of Macclesfield made experi- 
ments forty days successively morn- 
ing and evening. The scale of his 
Thermometer divided the distance from 
the freezing point to the boiling, into 
100 parts. The degrees were divided into parts 
of degrees. During the whole, the difference 
never rose or fell a full degree. So that 24 5/8 of
his Lordship’s scale (the medium of his observa- 
tions) corresponds to 76 degrees of Fahrenheit’s. 
Experiments 
to prove the 
degree of heat.
In July 1751, Dr. Davis, late of Bath, made 
repeated experiments with Fahrenheit’s, and found
the mercury rise between 76 and 77 degrees. The 
season was remarkably cold and rainy, and yet 
the heat was not sensibly less the day after the 
water was fouled by excessive showers and land- 
floods.  
These trials stand recorded, and may be seen 
in a book now in the possession of the pumpers.” 
June

39 TO BRISTOL WATER.
June 24, 1761, the heat of the water raised 
Fahrenheit’s Thermometer, at the cock, to 76 1/2,
then 3 degrees higher than the external air. That 
very day, the Thermometer was immersed in wa- 
ter as it issued from the pump of a well of com- 
mon spring water belonging to the neighbouring 
Rock-house. The quicksilver rose to 56 1/2 only. 
On December the first, the coldest day of this 
winter, Mr. Renaudet, an ingenious surgeon, re- 
sident at the Hot Wells, made a trial of the heat. 
In his own bed-chamber, without fire, the mer- 
cury sunk, at 9 A.M. to 35 1/2. At 3 P.M. it 
rose to 38. He then immerged the instrument in- 
to one of the drinking glasses at the Hot Well 
pump. It raised the quicksilver to 76 1/8. So that 
Bristol water appears to be only 3/8 of a degree less 
warm on the coldest day in winter, than on the 
hottest day of summer. This trifling difference 
may perhaps be owing to the action of the cold 
external air on that part of the plate which is not
immerged in the water. Hence we learn, that 
Bristol water is warmer than common spring wa- 
ter by 20 degrees; and 20 degrees below the heat 
of the human blood in a healthy state. 
4. WEIGHED, it is of the same spe- 
cific gravity with distilled water. 
Weight.
It loses only a portion of that elastic air which
evaporates before the bottles can be corked. It 
contains neither animal, vegetable, nor sulphure- 
ous particles; so that it may truly be said to be 
void of the seeds of corruption. Hence may we 
account for its singular quality of bearing expor- 
tation. With a bottle kept twenty-five years, I 
made the common experiments, to which it an- 
swered as well as with water pumped one day. 
5. WITH


40 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR5. 
No iron.
5. WITH Vegetable Astringents, Bristol 
water produces no other change of co- 
lour than with distilled water. 
6. To distilled water in which Salt of Iron had 
been dissolved, I added Tincture of galls the 
purple colour was immediately produced. 
These waters stain not linen with what we call 
iron moulds; nor is there the least appearance of 
that yellow oker that lines tire reservoirs of iron
waters.—Hence may we pronounce that Bristol 
water contains no principle of Iron fixed or vola- 
tile.—To its fixed principles we now proceed. 
Salts.
7. THIRTY pints of Bristol water 
were poured into a glass retort, placed 
in a sand-heat in Mr. Morgan’s Elaborately. 
Common spring water was poured into another 
glass retort placed in the same sand. Neither 
were brought to the degree of boiling; they eva- 
porated by gentle steaming. In the retort filled
with Bristol water there arose a pellicle, which 
did not appear in the other. The water continued 
white or transparent, till the whole was evapo- 
rated. The residuum weighed ninety grains. 
The salts being dissolved, there remained one 
half of an earthy matter, 
8. The Salt slightly confined in a Florence 
flask attracted moisture, a proof of its being of
the alkaline nature of common esculent sea-salt. 
Exposed to the air, it increases in weight, and 
grows white, or mealy. 
9. VIEWED in a microscope, this salt exhibited 
the form of sea-salt, and calcarious, or muratic, 
the alkaline nitre of Egypt, the Natrum Egyptia- 
cum, or Sal Murale, of the antients. This salt 
is not purgative, as the salt of most mineral waters 
are. It is of a strengthening nature. Was it 
therefor extracted, and administred together with
the

41 TO BRISTOL WATER.
the waters, their virtues might be much im- 
proved. 
DR. KEIR (in his ingenious Essay on Bristol wa- 
ters) pronounces it nitrous chiefly. His principal 
arguments are drawn from the forms in which 
the crystals shoot. But, this test is fallacious, as 
he candidly owns (page 26) He confesses that, 
on a red-hot iron, it neither flamed nor smok- 
ed; nay, it continued fixed in the fire without 
any other alteration, but the total loss of its pel- 
lucidity, page 81. 
10. PUT on charcoal, and melted with a fol- 
dering pipe, it crepitated very little, and, after 
the crepitation was over, melted like a fixed al- 
kali. It blistered in a small degree, and continu- 
ed in a soft state while in the fire, in a manner 
like Borax; with this difference, that it stained
the poker like wax, which Borax does not. As 
the muriatic salt, or Natrum, is a basis to that of
Borax, no wonder that these appearances corres- 
pond. It does not swell into bubbles like Alum, 
nor does it emit a white flame like Nitre. Cal- 
cined with Charcoal, it imbibes the inflammable 
principle, and forms a hepar sulphuris. 
11. INTO a solution of this salt, pour a few 
drops of the folution of Silver in Spirit of Nitre. 
It instantly throws up light clouds, which fall in 
the form of white precipitate. 
12. THE Lixivium of Bristol Salts causes no 
manner of alteration, or effervescence with Spirit 
of Vitriol. 
13. DROPPED into Oleum Tartari per deliquium, 
it caused a congelation, or a kind of petre- 
faction. 
14. THE same lixivium changes the syrup of 
Violets into purple, A solution of Borax did the 
same.  
15.  The

42 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
15. The Earth of Bristol Water (by calcina- 
tion) gives lime; whence it has gene- 
rally been taken for a calcarious earth, 
but that conclusion is vague. Soap-lees cause, it
is true, no alteration. This indeed is a proof of 
lime, which makes it a neutral, as lime renders 
the alkali a neutral to constitute the soap-lee. 
Dr. Keir supposes part of the lime-stone re- 
duced into powder by the native acid spirit 
which pervades the caverns of the earth, and 
which corrodes it to a point of saturation. 
This he offers only as a conjecture, for (page 
87) he says, “ It is not hence to be inferred 
that this water can be of the same nature with 
common lime-water; that it owes its heat to 
actual fire; or the igneous parts contained in 
lime-stone. Page 91, he gives up his corroded 
powder, and allows the fixed contents to be Nitres,
Marine-salt and Calcarious Earth.”
Earth. 
16. THIS earth did not dissolve in fresh di- 
stilled water, or even in the acid of sea-salt. It 
caused an ebullition with acids, which seemed to 
confirm the opinion of lime. But there dis- 
solved only one half in the aforesaid acid. The 
remainder put on the appearance of an indissolu- 
ble selenite. 
THE earthy part of Bristol water may be 
said to be a Magnesia Alba, fabricated in nature’s 
elaboratory, by the help of the universal vitriolic
acid. 
Conclusion.
FROM the sum total of these 
Experiments, we may rationally con- 
clude, 
1. THAT those who account Bristol water to 
be a mere elementary fluid, found their ipse dixits
on ignorance, the parent of prejudice.  
2. THAT

43 TO BRISTOL WATER:
2. THAT those who have charged It with Iron, 
Nitre, Alum, Sulphur, Chalk, or Lime, have ei- 
ther ventured their opinions without experiments, 
or have erred in their analysis. 
The component parts of Bristol water are,
1. THE TEPID AQUEOUS FLUID.
2. AIR.
3. SPIRIT.
4. NEUTRAL SALT.
5. ABSORBENT EARTH.
CHAP.

44 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
CHAP. IV.
OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF BATH AND
BRISTOL WATERS, APPLIED TO THE HU-
MAN BODY.	
FROM the experience of twenty years, 
Frederick Hoffman has declared, “ That 
“ certain springs, at certain seasons, 
“ are frequented by men who have 
“ written in an inelegant manner; that their 
“ manner of prescribing has been no less pre- 
“ posterous; that theory is, at best, fallacious; 
“ and, that the practice of mineral waters can 
“ never be ascertained without experience.” 
Bath and Bristol waters have been analysed by 
numbers; various, discordant, and inconsistent 
virtues have been assigned; never yet have their 
principles been reconciled to practice. In the 
three preceding chapters, I have attempted to ascer- 
tain their principles; my present purpose is to recon- 
cile those principles to the symptoms to which they 
naturally or rationally are adapted. Nor am I (in 
this my attempt) unapprised of those difficulties 
which attend researches which admit not of de- 
monstration. By pursuing those tracks which ex- 
perience has pointed out, we may however be 
enabled to throw in our aid at those critical sea- 
sons when nature seems to lead the way; instead 
of counteracting her intentions, we may mitigate 
symptoms, where we cannot cure diseases. 
IN my first chapter, I made mention of the only
rational scientific method of extending 
the sphere of mineral waters, I mean, 
the Art of Induction; by this we are en- 
abled to discover those laws, means, or actions 
Art of in- 
duction.
by

45 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS: 
by which they produce their effects. To bring 
this art to some sort of precision, it may be first
necessary to be acquainted with the seats, causes, 
diagnostics, and prognostics of diseases. 
To adapt the virtues of mineral waters to par- 
ticular diseases, it may be previously necessary to
comprehend general doctrines; this is Boerhaave’s 
aphoristical doctrine. On the subjects of inflam- 
mation, pain, and obstruction, he has so fully en- 
larged, that, generals once understood, particu- 
lar disorders seem self-evident. Acute diseases na- 
turally fall under the province of simple soft wa- 
ter artificially heated; such may be had here, 
there, or any where, and, therefore, fall not im- 
mediately under my subject. 
In chronic diseases, there is room for deliberation; 
Chronic diseases generally take root before the pa- 
tient complains. Sick people are rarely tractable; 
when danger seems to cease, they generally forget 
the Doctor. For these, and similar reasons, Cel- 
sus thinks chronic diseases more difficult of cure 
than acute; physicians have much better hopes of 
a peripneumony than a phthisis. The same Celsus 
calls Cachexy, malus corporis habitus. From a survey
of the causes of Cachexy, we hope to prove that 
the solids are restored by the fluids. If the fluids 
posses not qualities necessary for nutrition, the 
solids cannot be restored. When the humours 
come to be drained off by evacuations sensible or 
insensible, the body continues not to be nou- 
rished. 
GUTTA cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe caden- 
do. Just so it fares with the human frame; the 
fluids strike four thousand times in the space of
one hour, against the sides of converging canals. 
The epidermis peels off, and grows again; we 
cut our nails, they grow again; so fares it with
our

46 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
our hair. Parts of our solids pass off by spit- 
tie, urine, bile, and excrements; the solids daily 
perish. 
IN health, the urine is rather high-coloured, 
with a proper sediment. In cachectics, the urine 
is crude, and colourless. In weak circulations, 
insensible perspiration ceases; the skin becomes 
parched, nasty, and dry. What used to pass by 
the skin, now takes the road of the ureters; Hip- 
pocrates observes, that the body cannot be nou- 
rished, while the urine continues to be crude, 
thin, and watry. If it passes in quantity, the 
body wastes; if it stagnates, it produces a λευΧον
φλεγμα, or dropsy. In cachectics, muscular mo- 
tion languishes, so does the force of the heart and 
arteries. The great veins have hardly strength to 
empty themselves; the third order of vessels can 
no longer resorb that lymph which the exhalant 
arteries pour forth. The Tunica cellulosa swells, 
oedema’s arise, particularly in places most remote 
from the heart. Hence languor, and debility of 
pulse; hence palpitation and difficulty of breath- 
ing, as Aretaeus well observes, in his Caus. et 
Sign. morb. diuturnor. Such patients ought not to 
be purged, but strengthened. 
THE Origins of diseases are not so complex as 
commonly believed, neither is the method of cure. 
Boerhaave (in his Academical Praelec- 
tions) was wont to observe, That there 
were many who despised the practice of 
the antients, because (in diseases differing in their 
symptoms) they applied the same, or similar reme- 
dies. Parents are affronted if they are confined to
the same simple regimen. They think themselves 
well used if they meet with Doctors who ransack 
dispensatories, changing, compounding, and re- 
compounding every hour, while far more surely 
Origins of di- 
seases simples.
and

47 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
and sooner they empty the pocket than the dis- 
ease; dum longe certius crumenam exhauriunt quam 
morbum. Let those who despise simplicity of 
practice, consider how many, and how different 
diseases have, for ages, been cured by the use 
of Baths and Mineral waters. To these invalids 
are obliged to fly after having, to no purpose, 
tried nostrums the most extolled. Considerent ili 
qui simplicitatem artis, in morhis chronicis, elato su-
percilio, contemnunt, quot et quam diversi morbi cu- 
rentur Thermarum et Aquarum mineralium usu, per 
tot saecula, prohato. Ad haec coguntur confugere ae-
gri, decantatissima alia remedia experti, absque ullo 
fructu. 
FROM a consideration of the difference of 
causes which produce cachexy, we hope to make 
it appear that different and opposite remedies are 
sometimes required. When the body is puffed up 
with viscid humors occasioned by the debility of
the solids, strengthening medicines are the in- 
struments. When attenuated humors pass off 
and cannot be replaced by nourishment, when 
the vessels thus contract, and the sick waste, 
moistening and incrassating remedies are indi- 
cated. 
Different diseases require different preparations. 
Girls bloated with pale inert mucous cacochymy 
require Iron dissolved in vegetable acids, rather 
than Iron in substance; because filings inviscate 
themselves in the mucus of the first passage, and 
thus avail but little. But, if there are signs of a 
predominant acid, then let Iron be given in sub- 
stance, because it not only blunts the acid acri- 
mony; but, dissolved in this acid, produces its 
effecs. 
Those


48 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Those disorders which arise from inflammatory 
lentor are increased by Bristol water, and exaspe- 
rated by Bath. Pituitous lentor falls 
under the power of both. Humors 
transgress by excessive dilution, or by 
putrescency. For that flaccidity of fo- 
lids induced by excessive dilution, we find filings 
of Iron successfully recommended. In dilution 
caused by putrescency, we find Acids successfully 
also recommended. When the body comes to 
be bloated with humors inert and phlegmatic, 
Chalybeates are indicated. Thus, in a word, chro- 
nical disorders, in general, fall under the power 
of some or other of those principles which consti- 
tute mineral waters. For, filings of Iron, and 
Oil of Vitriol are only succedaneums to mineral 
Waters. 
Mineral wa- 
ters differ in 
their princi- 
ples.
Some waters contain the elementary fluid only. 
Such have we named. If simple dilution is only 
required, these are the waters. If acids predo- 
minate, Seltzer waters are indicated. If the ac- 
tion of the solids is to be increased, Spaw and 
Bath waters inspire the very foul of Iron into pale 
languid carcasses, so does Tunbridge. If foul 
Scurvy predominates, Scarborough and Cheltenham 
conduce. In Worms, and Itch, Harrigate has 
done wonders. If Scrophula taints the blood, 
Mossat Wells promise a cure.—In Consumptions 
arising from tubercles, or in cases where the 
aerial vessels are choaked, Bristol’s penetrating
salts have cleared the passages. Its Absorbent 
Earth has corrected that acrid humour which vel- 
licates the nervous coat of the intestines. Thus 
has it stopped fluxes in which Opiates and Astrin- 
gents have done mischief, by stopping expectora- 
tion. Its native Acid has banished colliquative 
sweats, and quenched that thirst which is the 
constant

49 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
constant attendant of the diabetes particularly, 
and of fevers. The blood has thus again ac- 
quired its natural balsamic quality. Fresh lustre 
has sparkled in the eyes of patients doomed to 
death. 
CACHEXY thus naturally falls under the province 
of mineral waters; cachexy thus naturally 
becomes my theme. This imperfect work 
may fall into the hands of men, in whose more pene- 
trating sight, physiological disquisitions may ap- 
pear superfluous. In the eyes of such, I hope 
for pardon, if, for the sake of the many, I tres- 
pass on the patience of the few. The subject of mi- 
neral waters is still rude and uncultivated. Pursu- 
ing the footsteps of Boerhaave, that great restorer of
physic, it is my purpose to inquire into the causes, 
seats, diagnostics, prognostics, and cure of cachexy. 
By adapting the virtues of the several principles 
which constitute Bath and Bristol waters, distant 
practitioners may no longer wonder why patients 
labouring under inveterate ailments, receive cures 
at these fountains.
Cachexy. 
§. I. THE antients reckoned three 
causes of disease, Remote, Predisponent, 
and Proximate.
Causes of 
Cachexy. 
1. THE Passions claim the first place. Of these 
I purpose to treat expressly in the last 
part of this work. Suffice it here in 
general to say, that nothing so sensibly disturbs
the actions of the solids and fluids. 
Passions.
2. DEEP EXERCISES of mind debilitate the 
nerves, consume the strength, destroy 
concoction, and hinder the secretions. 
Hence it is that the studious are subject to flatu- 
lence, hypochondriac disorders, palsy, and lean- 
ness. 
Study.
C 3. POISONS


50 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
3. POISONS, by reason of the celerity of their 
operation, claim the next place. These are ve- 
getable, animal, and mineral. The
first; act immediately on the nerves of
the stomach and intestines. The nature of ani- 
mal poison is still unknown. The last operate 
also on the first passages. To this class we refer 
various sorts of medicines, which produce like 
symptoms, anxiety, sighing, convulsions, inflam- 
mations, and gangrene. 
Poisons. 
4. OF the different qualities and effects of
Air, I have treated in my Essay on the 
Use of Sea Voyages, as well as in that 
chapter which treats of Consumptions. 
Air. 
5. BESIDES the evident qualities of air, there 
are others not discoverable by the senses, morbi- 
fic particles floating in the air. There 
are effluvia which arise from excrements, 
rotten vegetables, insects, and marshy grounds. 
There are subterranean salts, oils, and metals. 
There are morbific miasmata arising from small- 
pox, measles, and other infectious disorders, 
wasted through the air, and again multiplied in 
the human body. These morbific particles act 
on the surface of the body, in the ratio of the 
subtilty, celerity, motion, and figure of their 
particles. They enter the blood; By the first 
passages, together with the saliva; By the in- 
halant vessels of the skin; but, chiefly, By the 
bibulous vessels of the lungs. 
Effluvia.
6. SUPPRESSIONS of natural evacuations pro- 
duce chronical disorders. Retention of excre- 
ment produces wind, crudity, pains of 
the stomach and head; of urine, drop- 
sy, anasarca, and fever; of perspiration, liftless- 
ness, cough, rheumatism, fever, and almost eve- 
ry disease; of the menses, consumption, vomit- 
Suppressions.
5 ing,

 

51 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
ing, or spitting of blood, green sickness, hyste- 
rics, cachexy, hectic, &c. of the haemorhoids, 
asthma, hypo, pleurisy, and peripneumony. 
Quanda enim singula quae aderant, non revertantur, 
binc sequitur corporis gravitas, pallor subinde repe-
tens, venter flatibus referus, oculi concavi, &c. 
Aretaeus De causts & signis morbor. diuturnor. Lib. i, 
Cap. l6. p. 47. 
7.INTROPULSIONS of skin disorders 
produce symptoins more terrible. 
Intropulsions.
8. OF Aliment I purpose to speak in the last
part. Suffice it here in general to ob- 
serve, That excessive satiety and absti- 
nence are both productive of chronical dis- 
orders. 
Diet.
9. WATCHING hurts the nerves, 
hinders perspiration, relaxes the fibres, 
and corrodes the juices. 
Watching.
§. II. THE Effects of remote causes 
are diminished or increased according to 
the nature of the body which they oc- 
cupy. 
Causes predis-
ponent. 
1. WEAKLY PEOPLE are,in gene- 
ral, predidposed to disease, and e.c. 
Infirm.
2. THE frame of the body disposes
certain bodies to certain diseases, e.g. 
Long necked narrow chested people are 
liable to consumption.—Short necked to apo- 
plexy.—Fat to asthma.
Make of the
body.
Rigidity.
3. RIGID FIBRES quicken the circulation, in- 
crease heat, and thicken the blood. The body 
comes thus to be disposed to pleurisy, 
rheumatism, and inflammatory fevers. 
—Where, e.c. the serous part of the blood pre- 
ponderates, and the secretions are deficient, ca- 
chexy, dropsy, oedematous swellings, intermit- 
Rigidity.
C2 tents,

52 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
tents, remittents, and nervous fevers, are the 
consequences. 
Delicacy.
4. DELICATE FRAMES are subject
to haemoptoes and consumptions. 
Blood dis- 
solved. 
5. THIN watry blood produces scur- 
vy, haemorrhages, dysenteries, and pu- 
trid diseases. 
6. As men succeed to their fathers fortunes, so
do they inherit their diseases. From a certain he- 
reditary structure of the solids and flu- 
ids, the body is disposed to hysterics, 
stone, consumption, epilepsy, scrophula, rheuma- 
tism, gout, &c. 
Inheritance. 
7. SOME diseases pave the way for others, as 
asthma for dropsy, cholic for palsy, measles for 
consumption, &c. Particular parts once 
injured, are affected from the slightest 
cause. Neque enim morbi derepente ho- 
minibus accidunt, sed paulatim collecti confertim se 
produnt, says Hippocrates. 
Diseases pro- 
ductive of 
diseases. 
8. DIFFERENT AGES are subject to different 
diseases. Infancy has its teething, red- 
gum, worms, rickets; youth its inflam- 
mations; old-age dropsy, asthma, obstructions, 
&c. 
Age.
Women.
9. WOMEN are predisposed to green- 
sickness, hysterics, nervous disorders, 
and violent affections of the mind. 
Proximate 
Causes.
§. III. THE Proximate Causes of di- 
seases are, it must be confessed, often
past finding out. Experience has, how- 
ever, established some general causes. 
1. STAGNATIONS of Blood produce inflamma- 
tory fevers of Serum, spasms, drop- 
sies, anasarcas, &c. of Lymph, glandu- 
lar swellings; of the Nervous juice, apoplexies 
and palsies.  
Stagnations. 
2. PLETHORY

53 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. PLETHORY distends the vascular system. 
Hence debility, heaviness, head-ach, 
dreams, difficulty of breathing, hyste- 
rics, hypochondriacs, polypous concretions, in- 
flammatory fevers, &c. 
Plethory.
3. HIGH SAUCES, and fermented liquors give, 
rise to cutaneous eruptions, rheumatism, gout, 
defluxions, cholics, wasting, and hec- 
tic.—Acidities of the first passages give 
rise to belchings, anxiety, gripes, green stools, 
looseness, and constipation. 
Intemperance.
4. INTERNAL HARDNESSES, (by pressing on 
other parts) produce dropsies, asthmas, 
flatus’s, and various other disorders, ac- 
cording to the part affected. 
Schirri.
5. INTERNAL SUPPURATIONS produce diseases
inconquerable. Reabsorbed they infect
the blood with putrid cacochymy. 
Hence hectic, night sweats, wasting, &c. 
Suppurations. 
6. ACUTE DISEASES terminate in 
death, health, or other diseases; in 
which last case they may be said to be 
ill-cured; though, in many instances, it 
is not in the power of the most expert to pre-
vent it. 
Acute termi-
nate in chro-
nic.
7. CONCRETIONS of all sorts produce chroni- 
cal disorders. If the bile is stopped in its passage 
from the gall-bladder into the duode- 
num, it necessarily stagnates; while 
the thinner part is absorbed, the thicker inspis-
sates, and produces chronical obstructions, jaun- 
dice, pain in the right hypochondre, difficulty of 
breathing, &c. Concretions in the kidneys, 
produce pains, inflammation, vomiting, ul- 
cers, bloody waters, suppression of urine, &c. 
That unctuous smegma which oozes through the
Concretions.
C3 cuticular







54 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
cuticular vessels, if it stagnates, inspissates, and 
produces steatomatous swellings. 
8. THERE are spontaneous changes which nei- 
ther can be seen, nor prevented; hence chro- 
nical disorders. Blood drawn from the 
arm of a healthy man separates into glo- 
bules red and serous. If a man lies in 
a syncope for even a few minutes, his blood stag- 
nates in the ventricles, sinus’s, and auricles of 
the heart, pulmonary artery, sinus’s of the brain 
and uterine vessels: hence palpitations, fixed pain, 
intermitting pulse, anxiety, difficulty of breath- 
ing, fainting, and death. 
Spontaneous 
changes. 
This was the unhappy fate of my patient, Cap- 
tain Dorrel of the navy. Five years before, 
he fell into a syncope produced by 
watching and hard duty. From that 
instant he laboured under the complaints above 
recited. His days were shortened by injudicious 
bleedings, which destroyed the vis vitae; he died
cachectic.
Case.
Worms.
9. FROM Worms nestling in the 
first passages, arise cholic-pains, erra- 
tic-fevers, convulsions, false appetite, perforations, 
and death. 
This was the fate of Master Tyrrel, a pro- 
mising young scholar at Claverton school, near 
Bath. Called for in a hurry, I found 
him feverish, with a fixed pain in his 
side. Having no reason to suspect worms, he 
was, according to custom, bled and blistered
on the part. Next day, I found the fever un- 
commonly abated, the pain was equally in- 
tense, and fixed in the opposite side. From 
that hour, I treated the disorder as from worms,
nor was I mistake; for in a very short 
time, he voided two round worms five or six 
Case. 
inches

55 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
inches long. By pursuing the same regimen, 
I flattered myself with the hopes of a complete 
cure. My hopes were vain; for, one morn- 
ing, as I thought I had left him in a fair way, 
a servant came galloping over the Downs, with
news that Master was dying. Hastening 
back, I found him in a cold sweat, faint- 
ings, pulse scarcely distinguishable. By the 
help of cordials incessantly repeated, he was
kept alive for some hours only. Surprised at
such uncommon appearances, I examined the 
body, and found the abdomen greatly distend- 
ed. On laying it open, there issued forth an 
ash-coloured liquor, of the consistence of wa- 
ter-gruel, some quarts in quantity. Intense 
cold, intolerable stench, and precipitance pre- 
vented my searching for the perforation thro’ 
which this liquor must have passed. In the 
abdomen there were no worms; but in the 
small guts there were fix, as large as the for- 
mer, and dead. 
10. ACCIDENTS give rise to chronical diseases. 
By bruises never divulged, children 
have been subject, all their lives, to 
convulsions and idiotism.—From vertebral distor- 
tions, incurable asthmas and palsies have been pro- 
duced. 
Accidents.
§. IV. FEVERISH DISORDERS, which terminate 
soon, and which proceed from contagion, have 
their seats in the fluids.—1. Fevers 
inflammatory and putrid have their seats 
in the red globules; in the serum, slow 
fevers, rheumatism, and gout; in the lymph, ve- 
nereal and other pestilential disorders; in the
nervous fluid, nervous fevers, effects of smells,
and many poisons, such as opium, nightshade.
Seat of Ca-
chexy.
C4 &c.

56 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
&c. This last is the most dangerous, because on 
this spirituous fluid bodily strength depends. 
2. NERVOUS and membraneous parts of the 
body appropriated to motion and sensation, are 
the seats of many diseases; the brain 
to epilepsy, madness, lethargy, apo- 
plexy; the nerves to spasms, convul- 
sions, tetanus, palpitations, convulsive asthmas, 
vomiting, hysterics, hypochondriacs, and palsy. 
Nerves and
Membranes.
3. THE intestinal tube is more liable to disease 
than any other part of the body. This is com- 
posed of folds and windings; the cir- 
culation is slow; this way goes air 
replete with morbific particles, as also meats
of different and opposite natures; this is the pas- 
sage for the saliva, pancreatic juice, both biles, 
with other humours and liquors fermentable. 
Here the fibrous part of the food sufFers corrup- 
tion. The intestinal tube is the seat of heart- 
burn, anxiety, wind, spasms, cholics, ilium, ili- 
ac passion, diarrhaea, dysentery, head-ach, and
vertigo. 
Guts.
§. V. THE knowlege of Diagnostics is that 
branch of pathology which treats of the specific 
nature and difference of diseases re- 
sembling one another. Without this 
physicians cannot form prognostics; they become 
the sport of apothecaries apprentices and nurses. 
As are the different colour, tenacity, acrimony, 
and fluidity of infarcted liquors, so are the diffe- 
rent effects of cachexy, viz. whiteness of the skin, 
yellowish, paleness, lividness, redness; heaviness, 
palpitations, crude pale urine, and wasting. The 
change of the humours is best perceived where the 
vessels are most naked, as in the white of the 
eye, lips, inside of the mouth. To sum up the 
whole, the physician need only recollect what the 
Diagnostics.
patient


57 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
patient was, and compare that picture with the 
present. 
§. VI. PROGNOSTICS vary with the causes.
Suppose, e.g. upon inquiry, I find that the pre- 
sent depraved habit of body arises from 
improper diet, I prognosticate a cure, 
because I reasonably expect from a better.—
Suppose cachexy arise from defect of animal mo- 
tion, I promise a cure, provided I can depend 
upon the patient’s exchanging a life of sloth for 
activity.—Green-sick girls may easily be cured by
drinking waters impregnated with Iron-ore and
Exercise, provided they abstain from tea.—
Suppose cachexy arise from the vice of some pu- 
rulent or schirrous viscus, the physician who sees 
farthest promises least.—Laesions of some viscera
are more dangerous than those of others. Sup- 
pose, for example, vertigo, trembling, weakness
of memory, or sleepiness joined to cachexy, the 
prognostic is apoplexy.—Suppose the patient 
breathes hard on the least motion, we have reason
to suspect a collection of watery colluvies in the 
thorax, inde passim prognosis. 
Prognostics.
1. PROGNOSTICS vary according to the durations
of the disease. Diseases, at first, affect 
one viscus only; in time they contami- 
nate all. Quocirca (says Aretaeus) ab hac enascen- 
tes morbi inevitabiles sunt Hydrops, Phthisis, Colli- 
quationes. 
Durations.
2. IN forming prognostics, attention is to be paid
to age.—Boys grow cachectic from devouring 
fruit; a purge, and a few astringents, 
set them, agaim on their legs. Cachex- 
ies are not common to young people. Old peo-
ple, be they never so found, are daily bending to- 
ward some incurable ailment. Senes juvenibus ple-
Age.
C5 rumque


58 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
rumque minus aegrotant; quicunque vero morhls diu- 
turnis oboriuntur, eum frequentius intereunt, says the 
divine old man, Aphor. 39.
§. VII. WHEN we take a survey of the human 
frame, we may well cry out with the Royal 
Psalmist, Fearfully and wonderfully are 
we made! From a variety of causes, 
the nerves are irritated. By this irrita- 
tion, the nervous juice rushes in upon 
the fibres; thus the motion of solids and fluids
comes to be accelerated; thus is their action in- 
creased. Hence superfluous humours evacuated; 
hence vicious quality corrected; hence stagna- 
tions dissolved; hence obstructions opened; hence 
diseases vanquished.—Ignorant of the 
circulation, and its mechanical powers, 
the antients ascribed the whole business of me- 
dicine to nature. By nature, we understand those 
powers which are exerted without the help of 
man. In this sense, the common saying is truly 
verified. Medicus minister, natura medicatrix. But
nature is not always all-sufficient. In many chro- 
nical diseases, e. g. rickets, hysteric, p—x, &c. nature 
makes no attempt; no cure is to be expected. In 
extravasations, e.g. stone, worms, collections of 
matter; nature’s endeavours are not only insalu- 
tary, but destructive. Nature sometimes does 
good, sometimes harm. Diseases are not, there- 
fore, blindly to be trusted to nature. 
Cure of Ca-
chexy in ge-
eral.
Nature.
To supply the defects of nature, art is to be 
called. Weak attempts are to be assisted, tumul- 
tuous bridled, straying directed. This 
is the business of art. When, for the 
preservation of health, or the conquering of di- 
sease, nature points out something to be done, 
this we call Indication. Indication arises, From 
Art.
a


59 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
a knowlege of proximate causes; From ex- 
perience; and, From knowlege and experi- 
ence united. Happy the patient, when these twin
sisters travel hand in hand to the same goal! 
Art can effect nothing without instruments. 
The instruments of art are called Remedies. Me- 
dical instruments are three-fold. Diet, Surgery,
and Pharmacy. Of the first I purpose to treat at 
large in the last part. The second falls not im- 
mediately under my subject. Medicines may be 
divided into Alteratives, Strengtheners, Anodynes, 
and Specifics. Such, in all respects, are Mineral 
Waters in general. Such are Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters in particular. The powers of these waters
continue to be obscured, 1. Because the particu- 
lar circumstances of diseases are seldom investi- 
gated. 2. Because the causes of diseases are of- 
ten hid from our eyes. 3. Because the principles, 
on which the powers of the waters depend are sel- 
dom subjected to mechanical laws. 4. Because 
the administration of waters is so confounded 
with shop compositions, that physicians themselves 
are often at a loss to know to what the effects are
to be ascribed. 
§. VIII. RATIONALLY to proceed, it may not 
only be necessary to comprehend general doctrines, 
but also to compare the principles of the 
human frame, with those which con- 
stitute Mineral waters. Their affinity 
will not, perhaps, be found so distant, 
as we may commonly think. Pursuing the ge- 
neral philosophic opinion, those principles or ele- 
ments which compose the human mechanism, 
may be reduced to Water, earth, the inflammable 
principle, acid, alkali, spirit, fire, air, and the prin- 
ciple peculiar to iron. Professor Gaubius calculates
Principles of 
the human
body.
C6 that

60 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
that principle of water which enters the com-
position, at about nine-tenths of the whole. 
The proportions of the other principles cannot 
so exactly be computed; it seems not improbable,
that the principle earth makes the greatest part of 
the weight of the remaining tenth. According
to Menghini’s most ingenious experiments, (Jour- 
nal de Scavans d’ Ital. Tom. 3. page 645.) the prin-
ciple of iron enters the blood in the ratio of one
scruple to two ounces; so that (in a body con- 
taining eighteen pounds of blood) iron makes, 
three ounces of the composition. These princi- 
ples intimately blended compose our solids and
fluids.
1. OUR SOLIDS have properties common to solid 
bodies in general; they have others particular 
to animals. They are, in general, des- 
tined to make certain efforts, by a co- 
hesion proportioned to resistance, attended with 
rigidity of the bones, and flexility of the other
parts. Besides those properties which are com- 
mon to solid bodies in general, the members of 
the human body have particular, such as sensibili- 
ty, and muscular motion, as Haller has most 
ingeniously demonstrated. There are certain fi- 
bres destined to transmit those impressions which
are made on the body, to the foul. These are 
the organs of sense; these communicate our sen- 
sations of pleasure, pain, and danger.—There 
are other fibres endowed with the faculty of con- 
tracting themselves. This faculty gathers strength 
by anger; and loses by grief, or fear. The parts 
of the body are destined to different offices; le-
vers, pumps, cords, pullies, strainers, pipes, reser- 
voirs, presses, &c.
Solids.
2. ELAS


61 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. ELASTICITY is not only the cause of many 
effects, but it has a singular influence on the func- 
tions of the human body. There are 
certain fundamental rules relative to 
these effects, which lead us to a certain exacti- 
tude in our conceptions of life, health, diseases, 
together with the operations of medicines; those 
of mineral waters in particular, 1. Suppose a fi- 
bre stretched, its elasticity diminishes of course. 
This we know from the common experiment of 
tuning a fiddle. Hence we learn, that (by wake- 
fulness, or excess of exercise) the organs are all 
on the stretch, the tone of the fibres diminishes, 
the spirits flag, strength decays. 2. Fibres gra- 
dually relaxed, acquire a certain degree of ten- 
sion. 3 Suppose two strings unbent, one all 
at once, the other, by degrees; the first becomes
the weakest; between every tension, the other 
acquires a degree of strength. Thus it is that 
large bleedings debilitate much more sensibly than
the same quantity drawn at different times. The 
same may be affirmed of evacuation in general.
Elasticity.
In many cases elasticity determines the de- 
gree of sensibility; for sensibility is proportioned
to vibratility. Sensibility and vibratility depend 
on three conditions; elasticity of the part, its de- 
gree of tension, and tenuity. This is verified in 
instruments whose strings are elastic and small; 
their tones are shriller.—As it is with musical in- 
struments, so is it with the human machine; the 
degree of sensibility is proportioned to the quan- 
tity and subtility of the nerves, joined to their 
degree of tension, with the elasticity of their last 
expansion. Thus, in delicate persons, the fibres 
being smaller, have the greater degree of vibrati- 
lity; these are more sensible, tho’ sometimes 
less

62 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
less elastic; as a small fiddle-string is more vibra- 
tile than a thick, made of stuff less elastic. Ad- 
dition of tension quickens the sensations. Put 
any thing favoury into your lips, the nervous 
papillae raise themselves; this erection adds to
the exquisiteness of taste. Whatever encreases 
the tension of the skin increases the sensibili- 
ty of the touch. This is verified in local in- 
flammations; the nerves which are spred on the- 
skin are in a degree of laceration; hence pain; 
this, particularly, is the case in the gout. What- 
ever diminishes tension, diminishes sensibility. 
Those who are relaxed are, of course, insensible, 
dull, and phlegmatic. This is verified in people 
who oversleep, or fatigue themselves, and in pa- 
ralytics. On this, the doctrine of bleeding, purg- 
ing, fomentations, cataplasms, pumping, and bathing
is founded. 
3. EVERY one knows blood when he sees 
it. This blood is formed out of chyle, a liquor 
which resembles milk, produced from 
food, partly by the action of the sto- 
mach intestines, partly by the mix- 
ture of the bile, spittle, and other 
dissolvents, assisted, not a little, by the genial 
heat of the bowels. This chyle is absorbed by 
pipes which carry it into the common mass; 
in which it is changed by the action of 
the solids, particularly the lungs. The blood 
is contained in vessels of different bores, of which
the heart is the base. The contraction of the 
heart forces the blood into the arteries. These 
contracting, push it into the veins, thro’ which 
it is forced back again to the heart. The arte- 
ries terminate different ways. Some are continu- 
ed to the veins. Others become so small, that 
The fluids, 
their circula- 
tion. 
the

63 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
the blood cannot pass without being divided. One 
red globule divides itself into six yellow. There 
are other vessels which circulate fluids still more 
subtile. Every pipe has its particular appropria- 
tion; some accompany, and nourish the muscular 
fibres; others empty themselves into cavities des- 
tined for their reception; others absorb superabun- 
dant liquors; others filtrate, others evacuate. 
The skin is pierced every where.
4. THIS short sketch of the human mechanism 
naturally leads us to the Soul. That connection
which subsists between the soul and bo- 
dy, is more certain than clear; they 
cordially communicate their impressions to each- 
other. The nerves are the organs by which these 
impresions are communicated; the manner is still 
undetermined. Of the nature of the soul we are 
ignorant; the little that we do know, proclaims a 
God. 
The soul.
WE now proceed to inquire into the Virtues of 
the Principles demonstrated; or, in other words, 
to apply them to the human body. 
I. Air. 
FROM experiments, we learn that air appears 
to be in a state of compressure while it is immersed
in water; so as readily to escape on the 
first opportunity. It seems to exert a 
kind ot struggling motion, so as to keep 
the watry particles at a greater distance, or render 
the whole specifically lighter. Certain it is, the 
specific gravity of water appears to be considerably 
increased on the avolation of the air, tho’ the 
mineral spirit may still be left behind. Hence 
Air, its
virtues.
may

64 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
may we infer that the use of air is to rarify the
water, to render it more light and subtile, while 
it continues in its native form. This seems to 
be confirmed by experience. Water drank at the 
pump is lighter, flies up to the head, and distends 
the vessels. 
The natural heat of the body, by ratifying this 
air, widens the passages, and renders it more sub- 
tile and penetrating; thus, by entering the small- 
est vessels, it opens obstructions, and cleanses the 
smallest canals. 
The elastic quality of air may be the cause of 
that quickness, briskness, and taste, commonly 
observed in waters drank at the pump. 
Lord Bacon judges that the best water, for 
domestic uses, which evaporates fastest over the 
fire. Hippocrates supposes that to be the best, for 
the same purposes, which soonest heats and cools. 
Pyrmont waters break the bottles, especially 
when they are set near the fire, or filled up 
to the top. For this reason, it is usual to let the 
bottles stand a little before corking, that a portion
of the air may escape. A little space ought also 
to be left for the air, at the top; for nothing 
spoils liquors so much as common air. Wines, 
in casks half empty, grow vapid. Mineral wa- 
ters become sluggish and indolent. 
Mineral waters ought to be drank early in 
the morning; because the external heat, by in- 
creasing the internal motion, dissipates their elas- 
tic parts. “ Dr. Shaw remarks (of Scarborough 
“ water, p. 143 ) that, though it retains its purga- 
“ tive quality after the air is gone; yet, it seems 
“ not to pass so far into the habit of the body, 
“ nor does it produce all its effects, as when 
“ drank fresh.” In some cases, it is however 
more

65 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
more adviseable to drink it at a distance, espe- 
cially where the viscera are unfound. This cau- 
tion is particularly necessary in respect of Bath 
waters. 
II. SPIRIT. 
THE SPIRIT of waters (by experiments ad- 
duced) is allowed to consist of iron subtilized. 
By mineral spirit, we understand an elas- 
tic fluid blended with the sulphureous 
parts of minerals, and which pervades 
the bowels of the earth, so as to become the ani- 
mating principle of mineral waters. This is 
the doctrine of Boyle, Hoffman, Becher, Lis- 
ter, &c. 
Spirit, its 
Virtues.
As for the virtues of principles, we can 
account no otherwise than by examining the 
substances of which they are found to con-
sist; so, for the virtues of the Spirit, we con- 
sequently have recourse to the known properties 
of iron. The irony particles found in Bath 
waters, bear, it is true, but a small proportion, 
win point of saturation, to the common shop- 
compositions. Natural ferrugineous waters are, 
for this very reason, preferable to shop tinctures. 
or solutions, just as far as the works of almigh- 
ty chymistry exceed imperfect artificial disco- 
veries. 
The medicinal virtues of Spirit, or, in other 
words, iron subtilised, are allowed to be de- 
obstruent, and strengthening, To this spirit it
is owing, that the waters do not cool or weaken 
the body, but rather heat, and invigorate; so as 
to increase the appetite, raise the pulse, and give 
a

66 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
a rosy colour to the cheeks. This is the princi- 
ple that causes them to pass so nimbly, open ob- 
structions, and throw off peccant humours. When 
this principle comes to be lost, (as has indeed 
happened to many springs,) the most celebrated 
mineral waters lose their credit, and sink to the 
condition of common water. Thus far Spirit; 
we now proceed to the virtues of iron substantial- 
ly found in Bath waters. 
III. IRON
IRON is absorbent, it ferments with acids, and 
blunts them to such a degree as to render them
imperceptible. This fermentation in- 
creases according to the quantity of 
ore, and degree of acidity. Filings of 
iron occasion belchings, like those caused by sul- 
phureous waters. When the stomach does not 
abound with acidity, they dissolve not easily, but 
clog the stomach. They ought therefore to be 
mixed with Rhenish wine. Solutions of iron are 
strongly styptic. With infusions of most astrin- 
gents, it turns black as ink. 
Iron, its Vir- 
tues.
Salt of iron coagulates the serum of new drawn 
blood. This is not to be used as an argument a- 
gainst its use; for, in persons who have taken 
chalybeates for some time, we observe their excre- 
ments black; and, on dissection, we have observ- 
ed the Tunica villosa, in the same manner, chang- 
ed to black, but no alteration in the Lacteals, 
or any way beyond the Primae Viae. Hence may 
we infer, that it does not enter the blood, but 
seems to undergo a precipitation in the first pas- 
sages, by which it is considerably deprived of its 
stringency. This change is not proper to iron 
alone,

67 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
alone, it is common also to most astringents. 
Its astringency is distinguishable by its taste;
it occasions a nausea, sometimes vomiting.
Hence we learn its stimulus, which is greatly in- 
creased by its weight. Its corroborating quality 
is, not a little, increased by the belchings which 
it occasions; for, thereby it either generates, or 
rarefies the air, which communicates an elastic 
force to our solids, whereby they are assisted in
their functions. 
In practice, iron is preferable to steel, as it is
to all other metals. Its absorbency, astringency, 
and stimulancy, are easily demonstrated. It is al- 
so attenuant, and aperient. It is therefore useful 
in all disorders which take their rise from acidity in 
the first passages, such as Hypochondriac and Hyste-
ric Cachexy, Quartan Agues, Dropsies, Worms, Ob- 
structions of the Menses, and Immoderate discharges, 
Jaundice, Fluor Albus, Diarrhaeas, and Haermorr- 
hages. In chronical disorders, it is the sheet- 
anchor. 
Every corner of the island abounds with 
chalybeate-waters vulgarly and improperly so 
called; for, on examination, we find that they 
contain a very fine crocus of iron-ore suspended
in the watry fluid. This is hone other than that 
yellow oker which paints the sides of our baths of
a yellowish hue, and which dyes the rills which 
flow from such springs. Ferrugineous waters are 
nature’s productions, more subtile, homogeneous, 
and safe, than artificial productions tortured thro’ 
fire, or altered by the interposition of corrosive 
menstruums. Hence there arises a question, Whe- 
ther the softest Oker, or Minera ferri, found 
in the course of mineral springs, may not be 
capable of affording better chalybeate medicines 
than those usually ordered in Dispensatories? Be  
this

68 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
this as it will, we may venture to affirm, That 
where chalybeates are indicated, next to mineral 
waters, iron, in substance, is preferable to every 
human preparation. 
IV. SALTS.
SALTS comprehend that class of minerals 
which melts with heat, turns solid, hard, and
friable with cold, is soluble in water; 
by evaporation, may again be reduced 
to their original form; and are gene- 
rally pellucid and pungent to the taste. Water 
frozen puts on the form of salt. Boerhaave, in 
his chymical lectures, was wont to say, that it 
differed only from salt in its insipid property, and 
its facility in dissolving. 
Salts, their 
Virtues.
There are various salts, Marin, Gemm, Com- 
mun, Glauber. Ammon. Nitr. Alumen. Borax, Vi- 
triolic, &c. In that chapter which treats Of the 
Principles of Bath Water, we have discovered a 
salt of the nature of Borax, and a Marine. In 
that chapter which treats Of the Principles of Bris- 
tol Water, we have discovered the alkaline basis of 
sea salt. Both waters, partake of the Universal Vi- 
triolic Acid. To the virtues of these my present 
researches are chiefly confined. 
Most Salts are comprehended under the two 
general heads of Sal Marin, Gemm, or Fossile.
The first comprehends all sorts of sea salt, how- 
ever extracted, the second all those dug out of 
the earth; and, because some imagine that the 
sea derives its taste from the latter, we begin with 
that. 
1. SAL GEMMAE is a white hard pellucid crys- 
talline substance, of a more acrid pene- 
trating taste than common salt pro- 
Sal-Gem.
duced

69 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
duced from mines, the most noted of which are 
those in Poland and Catalonia. The former have 
been open ever since the year 1252; some say 
they are 180 fathoms deep. Such quantities have 
been dug; up as to leave a cavern which admits of 
spacious streets, and regular buildings, sufficient 
to contain a little commonwealth which never 
sees the fun. 
2. SAL COMMUNE MARIS consists of white cu- 
bical crystals not so solid as the former, tho’ resem- 
bling it greatly in taste, not quite so pe- 
netrating, rather a little bituminous. 
This salt is extracted from sea water by evapora- 
tion, with a mixture of animal substance. There 
are salt lakes which yield salt in the same manner. 
Sal Marin and Sal Gemmae dissolve in the same 
quantity of water; in distillation, they afford the 
same acid; either makes a menstruum for gold. 
They effervesce neither with acids nor alkalies. 
Warm water dissolves no more sea salt than 
cold. 
Sea salt. 
Their virtues are the same. They heat, dry, 
cause thirst, increase the circulation, strengthen
the solids, attenuate the fluids, quicken the ap- 
petite, promote urine and perspiration, prevent 
putrefaction, and, if given in quantity, open the 
belly. They enter the lacteals, and take the 
whole round of circulation. Mixed with the 
blood, they prevent its coagulation, nor are 
they to be altered by any of its functions; but 
pass off plentifully by urine, as the taste may
discover. 
3. BORAX is a white crystalline salt, in colour 
much resembling alum, in smaller oblong pieces,
of a penetrating nitro-saline urinous 
taste, without stipticity or smell. It is 
easily dissolved by fire, hardly by air. It is now 
Borax. 
universally

71 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
olum martis blandum, not the Vitriolum vulgare, aut 
cupri sui generis. Simple as well as fermented ve- 
gitable acids mix naturally and kindly with Bath 
and Bristol waters. This vitriolic principle is the 
medium which keeps the other principles united, 
that powerful instrument, without which all the 
rest were effete. This acid it is that subdues that 
hydra of a fever which, in many diseases, ex- 
pends the natural nourishment in unnatural secre- 
tions. Acids have, in all ages, been used as An- 
liseptics. Late experiments have only corrobora- 
ted what antient experience had discovered. 
Oxycrate was the Panacaea of Hippocrates. 
In his Commentaries on this divine author, Dr. 
Glass inculcates the use of Vinegar. Boerhaave 
(De morbis ex alcalino spontaneo) says, Curatio per- 
ficitur alimentis potibusve acescentibus, vel jam aci-
dis, sapis acetosis.—In the Confluent Small-Pox, Sy-
denham acidulated the drink with Spirit of Vi- 
triol—Mead (in the Confluent Small-Pox) says, 
Ex hoc genere praestantissima sunt Cortex Peruvianus, 
Alumen, et Spiritus, qui Oleum dicitur Vitrioli.— 
At one time, the Malignant putrid Fever employ- 
ed the pens of Huxham and Pringle. Without 
personal knowlege, or correspondence, they hard- 
ly differ in history, cause, or cure; a manifest 
proof that nature appears the same, in every age, 
to those who rationally trace her paths. In the 
eyes of both, Acids are the true Antiseptics. 
To ascertain the antiseptic quality of Salts, 
Doctor Pringle made experiments. After having
shown that alkaline salts do not promote putre- 
faction, he proceeds (page 376, Edit. I.) to exa- 
mine other salts, and, by comparing them with 
the standard Sea-salt, of all, the weakest antisep- 
tic, he found the ratio as follows;
Sea-

72 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Sea-salt—1
Sal Gemmae—1 +
Tartar vitriolated—2
Crude Sal Ammon.—3
Nitre—4 +
Borax—12 +
Alum—30 +
V. EARTHS.
In different arts, Earth has different accepta- 
tions. Earth, in the chymical language, denotes 
a substance which every simple affords, 
soluble neither by fire nor water. Earth’s 
mixed with water, separate, turn soft, 
are sometimes suspended in it, then again fall 
down like mud, leaving the water clear, without 
communicating any tincture. These are called 
Argillae. There is another species of earth, which, 
put into water, neither crumbles nor precipitates; 
and, tho’ they imbibe a considerable quantity of 
it, yet they still retain their former figure and
consistence, These are the Cretaceae. 
Earths, their
virtues.
The former are moderately astringent and dry- 
ing; blunt acrimony, absorb humidity; with a- 
cids, acquire a sort of vitriolic quality; hence 
they strengthen lax intestines, restore the tone of
the fibres, and thus avail in many diseases of the 
first passages. Their alexipharmic quality is a 
mere creature of fancy; nor are they of any other 
use in malignant fevers than by inviscating, or 
sheathing acrid particles, not even the boasted
Boles of the shops; for they enter not the lacteals. 
The Terrae Lemniae, Silesiacae, Melitae, Lignicen- 
ses, &c. are much commended by Dioscorides for 
virtues which we have great reason to suspect. 
Common clay, or Fullers earth, freed from sand,
afford 


73 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
afford an acid spirit, and may claim the same 
virtues. 
The Cretaceae are all antacid and absorbent. 
This explains their effects. They are useful in all 
diseases arising from the corroding acrimony of 
humours in the first passages, or laxity of fibres. 
By their absorbent quality, they destroy acids; 
and, with them, turn either to a vitriolic or alu- 
minous nature; hence commended in Heart-burns, 
Diarrhaeas, &c. Experiments demonstrate this; 
for we see them effervesce with acids. Mixed 
with stale beer, it becomes sweet. If the hops 
are overcome by acids, chalk restores the bitter- 
ness, but turns vapid if not soon used. Chalk
calcined affords a calx viva, that of the Dispensa- 
tory. Tournefort affirms that chalk heats water, 
I never made the experiment. 
VI. SULPHUR.
SULPHUR is a mineral susible in a small de- 
gree of heat, volatile in a stronger, inflammable, 
emits a blue flame, and a suffocating
vapour. Sulphur opens the belly, and 
promotes insensible perspiration; it 
passes thro’ the whole habit, and manifestly tran- 
spires through the pores, as appears from the sul- 
phureous smell of patients who use it, as also from 
tinging silver, in their pockets. It is a celebrated
remedy in cutaneous disorders, internally and ex- 
ternally applied. It prevents the purulent dia- 
thesis of the blood. It is antiseptic, it prevents 
the intestinal motion of animal fluids, and fer- 
mentation of vegetables. It corrects saline acri- 
mony, preserves the tone of the solids, and in- 
creases sweat, as well as perspiration. It con- 
tains most of the virtues of the Balm of Gilead, 
Sulphur, its 
virtues. 
D it

74 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
it preserves the tone of the vessels without mak- 
ing them rigid or flexible. It promotes expectora- 
tion, and heals ulcers of the lungs. It is also an- 
thelmintic. By the mixture of sulphur, mercury
becomes inactive; when antimonial or mercurial 
medicines exceed in operation, sulphur abates 
their violence; it checks the highest salivation, 
but never ought to be administered in cases at- 
tended with inflammation. Arsenic is rendered 
almost innocent by mixture with sulphur. This 
we have seen confirmed by that experiment made 
to discover the existence of sulphur in Bath wa- 
ters; for, as we there observed, it is well known, 
that arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the 
quantity never so small. 
Hence we infer, That should a small propor- 
tion of arsenic adhere to the sulphur, it, pos- 
sibly, may not, hence, receive any poisonous
quality. 
VII. WATER. 
NOR Is the simplest water destitute of medici- 
nal virtues. By its moisture, thinness, or rare- 
faction, it is wondrously serviceable in 
preserving and restoring health. It dis- 
solves thick viscid humours, dilutes mor- 
bific salts, and discharges coagulations. 
Water, its 
virtues. 
The fountains at Schlensingen, Bebra and Oste- 
rode, contain no other principle than the simple
fluid. They have nevertheless signalized their 
virtues in the Stone, Gravel, Scurvy, Rheumatism, 
&c.—St. Winifred’s Well in Flint- 
shire, of itself, a natural curiosity: 
without intermission, or variation, it 
raises above a hundred tons of water in a minute. 
This water is void of every mineral particle, tho’ 
St. Wini- 
fred’s Well. 
it

75 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
it rises in the midst of hills abounding with mine- 
rals. It possesses an uncommon portion of the 
Spiritus Rector, by some called Spiritus Mundi, or 
Universalis. Was this water applied to practice, 
doubtless it would perform, cures in many dis- 
orders. 
THE Holy-well at Malvern is a spring of un- 
common purity. Two quarts evaporated in an 
open silver vessel, left only half a grain 
of earth, with a quantity of saline mat- 
ter, so inconsiderable, that it could not 
be estimated. From experience, confirmed by 
Cases incontrovertible, we learn, That it has prov- 
ed eminently serviceabls in scrophulous cases, old 
ulcers and fistulas, obstructed glands, schirrous and 
cancerous cases, disorders of the eyes and eye-lids, dis- 
orders of the urinary passages, cutaneous diseases,
coughs scorbutic and scrophulous, loss of appetite, and
profuse female discharges; for the truth of which 
we appeal to Doctor Wall’s judicious Experiments 
and Observations on Malvern Waters. 
Malvern
water. 
THE Circulation preserves the body from cor- 
ruption. Animal juices prove corruptible in a 
state of warmth, rest, and moisture. To preserve 
the circulation of balmy juices, it is necessary 
that the blood should be continually refreshed by 
an aereal, elastic, similar fluid. Water is agree- 
able to the animal juices. The blood contains 
two parts of serum to one of red globules. It 
contains besides an aereal, aethereal, subtile prin- 
ciple, manifestly appearing by its bubbling in va- 
cuo. Nothing therefore can be so natural to the 
human frame; nothing can so well preserve life. 
Water divides viscous sizy humours. It dilutes 
saline earthy scorbutic salts. These it discharges 
by the proper emunctories or outlets of the 
body. 
D2 There

76 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ There are springs hot and cold, says Hoffman, 
which (by the strictest examination) manifest not 
the leaft sign of mineral, and yet are highly valu- 
able. The waters of Toplitz nearly resemble the 
Piperine springs in Rhetia; they are extremely 
hot. Though they preserve their native purity 
mixed with acids, or alkali’s; tho’, on evapora- 
tion, they leave no solid substance behind, yet 
they have considerable virtues in disorders exter- 
nal, and internal. The Schlangenbad springs of 
Hesse contain no saline, earthy, irony, or o- 
ther mineral principle that art can extract. By
drinking and bathing, they nevertheless perform
surprising cures. The waters of Wilhelms-brun 
throw up abundance of bubbles in vacuo; they 
neither grow thick, nor precipitate any thing on 
the addition of oil of Tartar, a solution of silver, or 
sugar of lead. They suffer no change from the 
common experiments of galls, acids, alkali’s, &c.” 
Most of the cold springs at Bath are hard. Dr. 
Lucas examined the water of the Mill-spring op- 
posite to the Hot-well; he found it sparkle like 
the Poubon. It loses none of its pellucidity on 
standing open for hours. It weighed one grain 
less than distilled water. With acids or alkali’s, 
it gave very slight appearances, &c. On evapo- 
ration it only gave five grains of residuum to a 
pint. The virtues of such waters probably de- 
pend on their levity and subtilty. The purer 
perhaps the more powerful. 
Water-drinkers are the most healthy, and long
lived. Water is the best menstruum for dissolv- 
ing aliment, extracting chyle, and carrying them 
through their proper canals. Water dissolves that 
viscous slime which lines the glandular coats of 
the stomach and duodenum. Nor is water incon- 
sistent with fruit; for in Spain, Portugal, and 
France,


77
BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
France, water is the common beverage, and fruit 
the greatest part of diet. Water-drinkers are re- 
markable for white teeth for rottenness of the 
teeth is caused by scurvy, a disease prevented 
by the use of water. Water-drinkers are much 
brisker chan those who indulge in ale. Malt- 
liquors blunt the appetite, and hebitate the senses, 
they are fit only for men accustomed to labour, or 
exercise. Persons of delicate constitutions and se- 
dentary lives ought to accustom themselves to cold 
water, and wine. 
Water not only prevents, but cures diseases. 
Fevers are occasioned by an increased velocity of
the fluids, and a rigidity of the solids. These 
create heat. Heat dissipates the thinnest part of 
the fluids. The remainder forms obstructions. 
The blood must be diluted, heat and inflamma- 
tion allayed, stagnating juices propelled, and mor- 
bific matter discharged. No medicine bids so 
fair for these purposes as water. By ptisans alone, 
Hippocrates cured fevers in his days more judi- 
ciously and more certainly far than we with all 
our modern specifics. He was truly the minister 
of nature. We commit violence on nature every 
day. 
Chronical diseases take their rise from obstruc- 
tions, or foulness of the juices. By mineral wa- 
ters, surprisig cures are daily performed. Those 
cures are principally owing to the pure element. 
Numberless are the instances of waters perform- 
ing cures when no vestige of mineral could be 
discovered. 
1. Dr. Baynard says, “ I once knew a gen- 
“ tleman of plentiful fortune who fell into de- 
“ cay: while he was in the King’s 
“ Bench, his wife and children lived 
“ on bread and water. Never did I see such a 
Cases.
D3 change.

78 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ change. The children, who were always ail- 
“ ing and valetudinary, in coughs, green sick- 
“ ness. King’s-evil, &c. now looked fresh, well- 
“ coloured, and plump.” 
2. “ He tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, 
“ who, from a leaky ship, was set on shore on- 
“ the desolate island Juan Fernandes, where he 
“ lived four years, and four months; during 
“ which time he eat nothing but goats flesh, 
“ without bread or salt, and drank nothing but
“ fair water. He told me, at the Bath, where 
“ I met him, that he was three times stronger 
“ than ever he had been. But, being taken up 
“ by the Duke and Dutchess Privaters of Bristol,
“ and living on ship’s provisions, his strength 
“ left him crinitim, like Sampson’s hair; in one 
“ month’s time, he had no more strength than
“ another man.” 
To recount the virtues of the compound were 
to anticipate particular disquisitions with cases, 
or cures incontrovertible. From reason 
and experience I may venture, in gene- 
ral, to affirm, that where the disease is curable, 
where the director knows his tools, and where 
the patient co-operates, Bath and Bristol waters 
are inferior to none. And that where they have 
hurt, they have been injudiciously administered.
Conclusion.  
How inelegant our preparations of iron com- 
pared to nature’s solution in its own universal 
acid! Who can suspend 1/35 part of a grain of iron
in a pint of water? How harsh our preparations 
of oil, or elixir of vitriol, compared to nature’s 
Vitriolic Acid? If we may thus expatiate on the 
particular virtues of separate ingredients, what 
may we not expect from the united efforts of 
The ONE GREAT WHOLE! How light in the 
balance are the labours of a Helmont, to the pro- 
cesses

79 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
cesses of Almighty Chymistry! When mineral wa- 
ters purge, they occasion no loss of strength. 
When they pass by urine, they cause no stran- 
gury. When they promote perspiration, they oc- 
casion no fainting. Persons of all ages, sexes, 
and constitutions, drink mineral waters success- 
fully. With the celebrated F. Hoffman we 
may venture to pronounce, “ Mineral Waters
“ come, the nearest, in nature, to what has
“ vainly been searched after, an Universal Medi- 
“ cine; nor can this be disputed, but by such
“ as derive their arguments from ignorance, or 
“ indolence.”
D4 OF

80 DISEASES CURED 
OF
DISEASES 
CURED BY
BATH WATER.
FROM the days of Hippocrates, to the be- 
ginning of the present century, the study of 
physic may be said to have continued 
vague, indefinite, and uncertain. There 
were heresies in divinity, so there were in physic. 
Every age produced men eminent in the profes- 
sion, Bellini’s, Baglivis, Pitcairns, and Friends. 
Every student was prepossessed in favour of some 
particular system. As was the theory, such was 
the practice. By sweeping away scholastic jargon, 
Boerhaave happily reduced the healing art to rea- 
son and simplicity. In his Treatise De Cognoscen- 
dis & Curandis Morbis, he has selected, and classes 
the several doctrines, under particular heads. In 
his Principia Medicinae, Doctor Home may truly 
be said to have surpassed his great master. In 
point of mineral science, this nation may be said
to be yet at the threshold only. Indolence has 
circumscribed the powers of Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters to the same diseases in which they were ad- 
ministred in the days of our forefathers. Bath 
waters are condemned in the very disorders in 
which they act as specifics. Treading in the steps 
Preamble. 
of

81 BY BATH WATER.
of the celebrated Boerhaave, and the ingenious 
Home; and shaking off prejudices of all sorts, it 
is my purpose, 1. To lay down rational deduc- 
tions of those diseases in which they are said to 
have been useful. 2. To extend their practice to
new diseases; and 3. To confirm these deduc- 
tions by memorable cures, or Cases. This is the 
plan pursued by the Doctors Cocci and Lim- 
bourg, in their elaborate Treatises on the wa- 
ters of Pisa, and Spa. In this mirrour, distant 
practitioners may be satisfied in what cases Bath
and Bristol waters are indicated. By perusing 
similar cases, patients may be encouraged to fly 
to the same cities of refuge. Bath and Bristol 
waters are not to be recommended as panacaeas; 
like other active medicines, they may, and do
often exceed their bounds. 
D5 CHAP.

82 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. V.
OF 
DISORDERS
OF THE
FIRST PASSAGES.
DISORDERS of the first passages are, of 
all others, the most difficult to cure, and
the most apt to recur. Yet, what is as true as 
surprising; there are hardly any less handled, or 
less uhderstood. 
To form an adequate idea of status, ructation,
belching, or wind, it may be necessary to take a
slight survey of the doctrine of Diges- 
tion. Chymists, when they would 
digest any substance, first pound it in a mor- 
tar, then pour a liquor on it; next set it in a 
warm place, shaking the containing vessel from
time to time. Art is only nature’s ape. Before the
art of chymistry was known, nature performed 
this process in the stomach of animals every day. 
By the most curious configuration of parts, and
action of muscles, our food is ground down by 
the teeth, then moistened by the spittle. It is 
then protruded down the gullet, where it is sof- 
tened by an unctuous humour distilled from the 
glands of that canal. Thence it slips into the 
stomach, where it is farther diluted. There it is
subtilised by internal air, macerated by the heat 
of the circumabient viscera, agitated by the per- 
petual friction of the muscular coat of the sto- 
mach, by the pulsation of the arteries, by the al- 
Digestion.
ternate.

83 BY BATH WATER.
ternate elevation and depression of the midriff, as 
also by the compression of the muscles of the 
lower belly. From the stomach it is propelled 
into the small guts, in the form of a thick uni- 
form ash-coloured fluid. There it receives a 
thick yellow bitter bile from the gall bladder, 
another scarce yellow or bitter, from the liver, 
with a limpid mild fluid from the sweet-bread. 
These liquors resolve viscid substances, incorpo- 
rate oily and watry; and, thus prepare the food 
for entering into those vessels which convey the 
chyle to the circulation. This constitutes diges- 
tion, or concoction, a process worthy of the con- 
sideration of those who undertake the cure of 
disorders of the stomach and guts. 
While digestion is perfect, wind passes freely
upwards, or downwards; the stomach is never 
swelled, pained, or inflated. The aliment under- 
goes no considerable change. When digestion is 
imperfect, the patient complains of pain, belch- 
ing, inflation, cholic, sourness, heart-burn, vo- 
miting, looseness, &c. There is an elastic air 
carried down with whatever we eat, or drink. 
The spittle abounds with froth. Air is even car- 
ried with the chyle into the blood. There is a 
perpetual fund for wind or flatus, pain; &c. 
That the stomachs of animals who follow the 
dictates of nature should continue found, we 
need not be surprised. But, that the stomachs of
animals who offer violence to nature every hour, 
should continue found, can only be imputed to 
the wisdom of him who fashioned our clay. High 
fauces, discordant mixtures, immoderate cram- 
ming, heats and colds generate air, distend the 
stomach, and shut up both orifices. By continu- 
ing in the stomach, the food ferments and petri- 
fies; fermentation, putrefaction and rarifaction
D6 distend


84 DISEASES CURED
distend the fibres to their full stretch; thus they 
produce pain. When the upper orifice comes to 
be relaxed, part of the air rushes up into the 
gullet where it is again confined by fresh spasm; 
there it produces the sense of a ball, which pres- 
sing on the membranous back part of the wind- 
pipe, brings on difficulty of breathing. When 
the lower orifice comes, to be relaxed, the pent- 
up air rushes along the course of the guts, pro- 
ducing spasms, pains, cholics, &c. Animal hu- 
mours naturally putrify, and produce an acid sui 
generis. This acid passing along with air velli- 
cates and distends the intestinal fibres, producing
pains, belchings, vomitings, stools, &c. Re- 
pulsions of cuticular eruptions give rise also to
disorders of the stomach. There is a particular 
sympathy between the nerves of the stomach and 
those of the extremities. Those who are subject
to chilliness of the feet are very liable to cholics. 
THE INDICATIONS which naturally arise, are 
to cleanse and strengthen. Vomits and purges 
clear the intestinal tube of that filth 
which vellicates the fibres. In order 
to cure those who have been long, in a man- 
ner starved, it is necessary to fill the vessels with 
good blood; good blood cannot be obtained with- 
out good digestion. To mend the digestion, sto- 
machics are indicated; the best stomachics are
bitters and steel. In disorders of the first passages, 
patients are generally languid, emaciated, dispi- 
rited and desponding; they hardly can be prevail- 
ed on to submit to evacuants, strengthners, anti- 
spasmodics, emenagogues, nervous, and other me- 
dical intentions. 
Indications.
MINERAL WATERS answer every intention; 
mineral waters fill the vessels with good blood; 
mineral waters are the only remedies which (in 
these

85 BY BATH WATER.
these cases) operate cito, tute, et jucunde. To au- 
thorities antient and modern I appeal. 
I. OF DEGLUTITION.
THE finger of the Almighty is fairly to be 
traced in every member of the human frame, in 
none more stupendously perhaps than in those or- 
gans which serve the purposes of Deglutition. 
Those operations which conspire to this great 
purpose are so various, manifold, and delicate, 
that nothing but almighty providence can account
for the duration of so exquisite a machine during
the period of life. If deglutition is hurt, diges- 
tion, chylification, and all the other animal func- 
tions cease. For want of sustenance, man starves 
and dies. “ Jam operosa fit arte deglutitio, tot 
“ conspirantes organorum adeo multiplicium & 
“ concurrentium actiones huc requiruntur; unde 
“ laeditur frequenter, varie; & scitur cur a cibo
“ sicco areant, rigescant, nec deglutire plus va- 
“ lent fauces; Cur, perdita uvula, deglutienti 
“ tussis, et suffocationis minae? Cur, sisso velo 
“ palatino, deglutienda per nares exitum molian- 
“ tur? Velum mobile palati valvulae officio sun- 
“ gi narium respectu; & musculi deprimentis, 
“ ratione pharyngis, inde quoque constat.” 
Boerhaav. Institut. Med. pag. 49. 
When the action of swallowing has defied the 
utmost researches of art, Bath water has perform- 
ed wonders. 
1. From Dr. Pierce we have the two following
facts. “ Mr. Yarburgh a gentleman of 56, hav- 
“ ing (for many years) been subject to 
“ a difficulty in swallowing, liquids es-
“ pecially, came to Bath. He had con- 
“ sulted a variety of physicians, who, accord- 
Pierce's
Cases.
3 “ ing

86 DESEASES CURED
“ ing to their idea of the disease, treated him all 
“ differently. 
“ He swallowed the waters with no small diffi- 
“ culty at first; but, by degrees, that obstacle 
“ was removed. He had his neck and stomach 
“ pumped in the Bath. He went away very much 
“ advantaged.” 
2. “ Mrs. Kirby of Bishops-Waltham, aged 40, 
“ had (some years past) a scarlet fever; and, be- 
“ ing put into a sweat, took cold, which brought 
“ on a defluxion of cold rheum, which had like 
“ to have suffocated her. From that time, she 
“ had a more than ordinary streightness, with 
“ some difficulty of swallowing. Two or three 
“ years after, having a violent haemorrhage from
“ both nostrils, which, by cold applications, was 
“ as often stopped; but in March 1693, falling 
“ a bleeding in the night, she was blooded to a
“ great quantity, which brought on a thorough 
“ inability of deglutition. She could chew, and, 
“ with her tongue, thrust it back to the top of 
“ the gullet, but down it would not go without 
“ the help of her finger, which often she was 
“ obliged to do, for fear of starving. 
“ At first, she hardly could swallow the water 
“ by spoonfuls. Soon afterwards she drank half 
“ a pint at a draught, and three pints in the 
“ morning, and more. After a month’s drink- 
“ ing, I advised pumping her neck and throat. 
“ After six months she went home so much re- 
“ covered, that fine continued well all the winter. 
“ She returned in summer, drank and pumped, 
“ as before, with no small addition to her former 
“ benefit.” 
3. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ Madam Philips (in a palsy of the muscles 
“ of

87 BY BATH WATER. 
“ of the throat) by bathing and drinking received 
“ great benefit.” 
“ OF those who drink waters on account of 
“ the weakness of the organs serving for nutri- 
“ tion, Baccius (De Thermis, page III) 
“ says, There are not a few who want 
“ corroborant baths. Of corroborant, 
“ or comforting waters, the common ratio is that, 
“ by a peculiar virtue, or, by equality of tempe- 
“ rament, they may so confirm the nature of par- 
“ ticular viscera that they may be enabled to re- 
“ ject superfluous humours; of this virtue are 
“ the waters of Grotta, Villa sub Luca, &c. Such
“ we may pronounce the Bath waters. 
Antient ana-
logical gene- 
ral proofs.
“ There are waters which have the property 
“ of exsuding phlegm, viscidities, and crudities 
“ of all sorts, such as the Porretanae, which con- 
“ tain alum, and a little iron. The Albulae are 
“ noted Diuretics. Salt waters generally act by 
“ vomit. Those waters called Atramentosa vomit 
“ violently, such as that of the Styx in Arcadia, 
“ by which, it is said, that Alexander the con- 
“ queror of the world was killed. There are o- 
“ ther waters which stop vomiting and nausea, 
“ iron wraters especially.” 
In hot affections of the stomach the antients 
prescribed baths gently cooling, of the iron kind. 
Acid waters were also recommended internally, 
and externally. In dry, desperate debilities of
the stomach, they used tepid baths of common 
soft water. In sighings, they ordered cold water 
at meals. In Cholera’s Galen ordered glysters of 
salt water, drinking warm water. In the Passio 
Caeliaca, and lienteric crude fluxes, Celsus success- 
fully recommended refrigerant iron opening wa- 
ters. The same were ordered in redundancies of 
black bile, with saburration, and arenation. 
For

88 DISEASES CURED
For creating appetite the nitrous, salt, and wa- 
ters, such as the Grotta, were recommended. 
These, convalescents and women with child ap- 
proached safely. 
“ Per haec itaque quae communiter nutrito- 
“ riis accommodata sunt remedia, facile Balnea 
“ quae ventriculum juvant, inferemus, says Bac- 
“ cius De Thermis, page 112. Corroborant enim, 
“ ac frigida simul et sub callidae faciunt tem- 
“ periei eadem balnea tam epotae, quam, in bal- 
“ neis ebibitae, et quae ex ea ortum habent af- 
“ fectiones, debilitatem, ac dolorem tollunt ven- 
“ triculi. Calidis vero harum partium intempe- 
“ ramentis succurrendum per balnea quae modice 
“ refrigerant, reprimantque, astrictoria facultate, 
“ ut, ex Ferratis, appositiffima eft Ficuncella aqua 
“ in potibus, Villa Lucae, Sanctae Crucis ad 
“ Baias. 
“ Acidae vero aquae omni, id genus, calidae 
“ intemperiae propriae, quales ad Anticolum in
“ Campania, &c. 
“ Ubi enim confirmata intemperies vicit hu- 
“ midum, sicca ac desperanda introducitur ven- 
“ triculi tabes, aquis dulcibus temperatis con- 
“ sulendum, ac per Hydrolaei fotus. Singultui 
“ vero per frigidam cibis superbibitam, ac te- 
“ pidam. 
“ Choleram vero sedant, in fine, Ficuncellae, 
“ Porretanae, Villa Lucae, &c. nec minus Clyste- 
“ res ex salsa, auctore Galeno. 
“ Subcutiles aquas videtur probasse Celsus in 
“ Caeliaca passione, ac Lienteriae fluxibus quibus
“ Grottae potiones egregie medentur, et aliae ex 
“ serri natura, refrigerantes, astringentesque, va- 
“ cuando, ut Porretanae. 
“ Atra vero bile, in ventriculo vexatis, eaedem 
“ dem consuluntur, cum Arenatione. 
“ Ad

89 BY BATH WATER.
“ Ad excitandam vero appetentiam nitratae fa- 
“ ciunt et salsae, et acida privata facultate, qua- 
“ les Grottae, quae reconvalescentes etiam et praeg- 
“ nantes circa noxam appetere promittunt. Nox- 
“ am vero e diverso Caninae famis voracitatem co- 
“ hibent Cellenses ebibitae in Helvetiis.” 
FOR the operation, and effects of Bathing in 
these, and other diseases, I beg leave to refer the 
reader to my Attempt to revive that practice. Suffice 
it here, in general to affirm, That, in cholics, 
gripes, atrophy, cramps, and other internal mala- 
dies, bathing cures where drinking fails. 
II. OF DEPRAVED APPETITE.
1. “ Dr. Pierce mentions the case of Sir Wil- 
“ liam Clark, Captain of Horse, who, (by colds
“ and other irregularities attending 
“ winter campaigns) had wholly lost his
“ appetite. He supplied in drink what
“ he was deficient in eating. These brought on 
“ a Cachexy, he looked yellow in the face, reach- 
“ ed in the morning, was tired, fainty, and sub- 
“ ject to a diarrhaea. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ In this state he came to Bath April 1693. 
“ Willing to be well, but hating to take phy- 
“ sic, or even to drink the waters regularly, he
“ bathed sometimes, and drank sometimes, by 
“ which he recovered wonderfully. His vomit- 
“ ing ceased, his looseness stopped, he eat mut- 
“ ton and drank sack. His complexion cleared, 
“ he returned to Flanders to his duty.” 
2. “ Mr. Ellesby Minister of Chiswick came 
“ down very faint, weak and stomachless about 
“ the middle of April 1690. Every thing that he 
“ eat he threw up. He was withal in great pain.
“ he

90 DISEASES CURED
“ he could neither sleep at night, nor sit easy by 
“ day. He had the jaundice also. 
“ He drank the waters for ten days, and found 
“ no benefit. But, at length, the waters opened 
“ his body, which was always costive, cleared 
“ the first passages, restore his appetite, and a- 
“ bated his pains. He returned in August, and, 
“ by that trial, was so much mended, that he 
“ whose voice could not be heard across a bed- 
“ chamber, preached in our large church with 
“ great applause.” 
Baynard's
Cases.
Dr. Baynard (speaking of Bath wa- 
ters) says, “ In decayed stomachs, and 
“ scorbutic atrophies, and most diseases of the 
“ liver and spleen, I hardly ever knew them 
« fail.” 
3. “ Madam B. a Lady of quality, loathed 
“ every thing she smelt or saw; she was so weak 
“ that she hardly could stand; she vomited up 
“ every thing, she took little or no rest, her 
“ pulse was hardly perceptible, her eyes sunk, 
“ with ructations, cholic pains, hysteric fits, and
“ clammy sweats. 
“ When I first saw her, I considered her in 
“ Lady Loyd’s case exactly, when the vital flame 
“ was blinking in the socket (by the cautious use 
“ of Bath waters, and Bitters) she had a new life 
“ put to lease. 
“ This lady was so very weak that at first I 
“ gave her only two or three spoonfuls of wa- 
“ ter, and about an hour after, a little more 
“ water, then bitters, and so by degrees, I 
“ brought her to bear half a pint hot from the 
“ pump, which staid without loathing, or vo- 
“ miting. 
“ She now began to bear the smell of meats, 
“ she took a little chicken broth, then eat a little 
“ meat;

91 BY BATH WATER.
meat; and in the space of nine or ten weeks, 
“ recovered so, that when she walked in the Grove,
“ she was pointed at, saying, There’s the Lady 
“ who was so weak.” 
4. “ A gentleman with a decayed stomach, 
“ wan and pale look, staggering under a load 
“ of nothing but skin and bone. From a strong
“ young man, wine, women and watching had 
“ reduced him to a mere skeleton, he could not
“ swallovv the least sustenance without vomit- 
“ ing.
“ By the use of the water, and temperance, he 
“ came to his stomach; his flesh plumped, his 
“ colour returned. In ten weeks he was as well 
“ as ever.” 
5. From Dr. Guidot’s Register wc have the fol- 
lowing. “ Henry Owen of Threadneedle-street, 
“ troubled with an indigestion, wind, 
“ obstruction of urine, and tormenting 
“ pains of the bowels, came to Bath 
“ the second time, the first having proved ineffec- 
“ tual, where he drank only three pints for a 
“ week, and bathed fifteen, times in the Cross- 
“ bath, in which he drank three pints of water, 
“ and received a cure. After leaving off, he 
“ voided a great quantity of fabulous matter for 
“ three months time by urine; and now, from a 
“ thin consumptive, and deplored spectacle, he
“ is become fleshy, of a good countenance, 
“ and laudable healthy temper. This account 
“ I had from his own mouth, February 1686.” 
Guidot's
Cases.
IN restoring the tone of stomachs 
destroyed by hard drinking, Bath water 
may truly be said to be specific. It 
were superfluous to produce examples, the fact is 
notorious.
Hard drink-
ing. 
III.

92 DISEASES CURED
III. OF PAINS OF THE STOMACH.
STOMACH PAINS have obtained various names, 
Cardialgia, Attritio Ventriculi, Heart-burn, &c. 
These are supposed to be caused by the 
action of corrosive humours on that 
plexus nervorum which covers the orifice 
of the stomach, and which takes its rise from the 
Par vagum, or eight pair of Willis. 
Stomach 
aches.
1. “ Juvenis quidam stomachum debilem ha- 
“ bebat, et per ingestionem, saepe lien- 
“ terias passus est, corpore macilento
“ haemorhoidibus afflicto. Bene pur- 
“ gaturn ad balneum Villae Luccae ac- 
“ cedere juffi, et convaluit.” 
Proofs anti- 
ent and ana- 
logical. Ugu- 
linus De Bal- 
neisa Pisanis.
2. “ Dominus Maltesta pessime dispositus erat 
“ in putritivis; per annos tredecem, vexatus e- 
“ rat fluxu stomachico & hepatico, corpore ex- 
“ tenuato, haemorhoidas patiente, cum ardore u- 
“ rinae; erat etiam podagricus. Caepi ab aped- 
“ tivis quae statim prosuerunt; postremo balne- 
“ um consului, medicis aliis reclamantibus. Ivit
“ et mire convaluit.” 
 3. From Dr. Pierce we have the following Cases, 
and first of his own wife. “ She had long been
“ subject to pains in her stomach, she 
“ had the advice of all the physicians 
“ who attended the court hither, and 
“ all to no purpose. She had been naturally sub- 
“ ject to a consumption, and was worn out by 
“ pain. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ She began these waters at last, and went on 
“ with that success, that, in a little time, she 
“ began to be at ease, and was at length freed 
“ from her pains; she recovered her lost appe- 
“ tite, gathered flesh and strength, and continued 
“ free 


93 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from her returns of pain longer than after 
“ any course of physic she had taken before. 
“ Whenever she found any bodings of pain, she 
“ applied to the waters at any season, and found 
“ her cure.” 
4. “ Sir Willoughby Aston was violently seized 
“ with this Cardialgia, and finding no relief in 
“ the country, he was hackneyed away to Tun- 
“ bridge-wells by an eminent physician of London. 
“ These increased his pain so that he seemed to be 
“ inwardly convulsed. 
“ He came into my house on the twelfth of 
“ September 1693, his torture was so great that 
“ he was forced to take anodynes, and that fre- 
“ quently. Without any other preparation than 
“ an anodyne the first night, he drank three pints
“ next morning, which, after a while, was in- 
“ creased to two quarts, or more. In one week 
“ he had manifest abatement of his pain, and, in
“ a month, was perfectly well.” 
5. “ Sir James Rushout came to Bath in No- 
“ vember 1760. Besides violent pains he com- 
“ plained of four corroding eructations, which
“ he compared to vinegar, oil of vitriol, and aqua 
“ fortis. Long had he been troubled with it, and 
“ much had been done for it, all to no purpose. 
“ He brought down directions and medicines 
“ with him from town. The waters passed well 
“ enough, he had some degree of abatement of 
“ pain. After about three weeks, they began to 
“ discharge quantities of adust choler by stool, 
“ which alarming his family, they applied to 
“ me. I encouraged the flux, as by it, I 
“ found his complaints abated. Thus he reco- 
vered.
6. From

94 DISEASES CURED
6. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ George Kelly of Covent–  
“ Garden, Barber, aged 23, had been 
“ long afflicted, and almost worn out 
“ by tormenting pains in his stomach and guts, 
“ with a hectic fever. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters fourteen days, from 
three pints to eight, and, at a fortnight's end, 
“ received considerable benefit. He bathed four 
“ times; and, in one month’s time, was perfect- 
“ ly restored.”
7. Ten years ago, Mr. Hone of London, 
Painter, came down for belching, flatulency, indi- 
gestion, and total loss of appetite. By 
drinking the waters, his complaints va- 
nished almost the very first week. He 
continued however to play with the waters five 
weeks longer, returned well, and continues to
this day. 
Author’s 
Cases.
8. Mr. Jackson of London, Irish Linen-Mer- 
chant, came down about the same lime, and 
with the same complaints, he found a cure al- 
most as soon. 
9. At the request of my worthy friend Dr. 
Campbell of Hereford, I visited his father, Mr. 
John Campbell, man-midwife at Sutton near Chip-
penham, aged seventy, of an excellent constitu- 
tion and regular life. 
His Tunica albuginea, nails, and skin were 
yellow, so was his urine. He bad been subject
to Agues. His Stomach had lost; its digestive and
expulsive faculties. For a week or two his food 
lay quiet, and yet he had a stool almost regularly 
once a day. When his stomach was quite dis- 
tended, he felt a sense of weight, pressure, and 
uneasiness for some days. These were succeeded 
by racking pain, violent reachings, and excessive 
shakings,


95 BY BATH WATER.
shakings, or rather shiverings, which terminated 
in profound sleep. After the paroxysm, the yel- 
lowness, and itching was universal. The last 
continued, the first disappeared in a few days. 
I recommended the Bath waters. His hopes, 
and wishes were for death. Much against his in- 
clination, I forced him into my chaise, and con- 
ducted him to Bath. Without preparation, I put 
him on drinking the waters, first, in small quan- 
tities, gradually increased. His intermissions were 
longer, his appetite, spirits, and hopes increased. 
His paroxysms however returned. 
Despairing of cure, and tired of life, he would
go home at the end of six weeks. He drank the 
waters at home, a pint twice a day, with forty 
drops of Elix. Vitriol, acid, always once, some- 
times twice a day. The effects are extracted 
from his Letter of date Nov. 4, 1761, now be- 
fore me, “ For the first month two or three se- 
“ vere attacks. My fits then abated until they 
“ quite ceased. The universal itching continued
“ for months. Now I am well; my urine has 
“ been natural a great while. I have a very 
“ good appetite, which I check, as you desired, 
“ I now and then venture on a wing or breast 
“ of a fowl; I long for meat. My waters, and 
“ my drops I continue, and resolve so to do 
“ (God willing) through the winter. I have 
“ changed your opening tincture for Sal Absynth. 
“ and Mercur. dulcis, which are more agreeable. 
“ I have had two severe bouts of purging. In 
“ other respect I am as well as a man of my 
“ time of life can be, for which, though you 
“ forced me to my cure, be pleased (Worthiest 
“ Sir) to accept of the thanks of 
“ Your most obliged humble Servant, 
“ John Campbell. ”
10. Miss

96 DISEASES CURED
10. Miss Davies was sent down from London 
for an acidity and pain in her stomach. She 
found relief the very first week.—The last four 
took not ten shillings worth of medicine among 
them. 
11. The Reverend Mr. Simons of Kent deli- 
vered the following history into my hands, which 
he desired should be published. “ About the mid- 
“ dle of September 1760, I was first taken ill 
“ with a pain of my bowels, and, in a day or two, 
“ it became most excruciating. Nothing past 
“ through me; but, in few days, these symp- 
“ toms were removed, by the aid of medicine. 
“ I remained however totally without appetite, 
“ my digestion was extremely weak, and I had, 
“ at times, great pain in my stomach. By change 
“ of air, exercise, and medicine, I got rid of 
“ my pain, but the want of appetite, and diges- 
“ tion still remained, so that I became much e- 
“ maciated, and so weak that, at times, I was like 
“ to faint away. 
“ In December I came to Bath, and began to 
“ drink the waters. The pain of my stomach 
“ returned; I continued nevertheless to drink 
“ them, and was taken with a violent vomiting, 
“ which was relieved by medicine. I continued 
“ the waters, and rode out in a chaise, in which
“ I was very ill. 
“ In a few days my appetite returned, and my 
“ pains left me, and returned no more. I con- 
“ tinued nevertheless to drink the waters for six 
“ weeks at that time, and returned next Novem- 
“ ber to confirm my cure. I drink them now, 
“ and (thanks to God, and the waters) am in very
“ good health.” 
IV.


97 BY BATH WATERS.
IV. OF THE BILIOUS CHOLIC. 
THE BILIOUS CHOLIC is a violent pain which 
begins with a fever that lasts a few hours. The 
bowels seem to be tied together, or 
pursed up and perforated as it were with 
a sharp-pointed instrument. The pain abates 
and comes on again. In the beginning, the pain
is not so certainly fixed in one place, nor the vo- 
miting so frequent, the belly yields with less diffi- 
culty to purgatives. But, the more the pain in- 
creases, the more obstinately it fixes in one place, 
the vomiting returns the oftener, and the belly is 
more costive, till it generates at length into an 
Iliac Passion. 
Description.
This disorder is distinguished from a fit of the
Stone by the following signs. 
In the stone, the pain is fixed in the 
kidney, and extends from thence along 
the ureter to the testicle. 
Difference 
between a fit 
of the cholic, 
and that of 
the Stone. 
In the cholic, it shifts and straitens the 
belly, as if it was bound with a girdle. 
In the cholic, the pain increases after eating. In 
the stone, it rather abates. 
The cholic is more relieved by purging and vo- 
miting than the stone. 
In the stone, the urine is at first clear and thin, 
but afterwards lets fall a sediment, and afterwards
gravel and small pieces of stone. 
In the cholic, the urine is turbid from the be- 
ginning. 
In Disorders of the Intestines Baccius declares the 
power ot mineral waters, pag. 114. “ Pertinent 
“ autem ad Intestinorum affectiones 
“ tam jure potus quam balnei omnia 
“ quae paulo ante ad nutritionis instru- 
Proofs ana- 
logical.  
E mentorum

98 DISEASES CURED
“ mentorum tutelam citavimus. Galenus (De 
“ san. tuenda) inter delectoria medicamenta, enu- 
“ merat usum aquarum sponte manantium, leni- 
“ ter evacuantium, ad mesaraicarum obstructiones, 
“ simulacque corroborandum. Talis Plaga, et 
“ Juncaria ad Baias quae excrementa abstergunt, 
“ aperiunt obstructa, et refrigerant. Efficaciores
“ aeneae, Grottae imprimis, et Porretanae ex alu- 
“ mine, et ferro nobiles Albulae. 
“ In Dysentericis cruciatibus revocant hodie sere 
“ omnes de morte ad vitam Aquae Salmacidae, ser- 
“ vanturque in longinquas regiones adlatae toto
“ anno, incorruptae. Harum antiqua laus est 
“ a salis natura, attestante Cor. Celso. In Dy- 
“ sentericis muriam quam asperrimam suadet Te- 
“ mison. Muria (inquit Dioscorides) Dysente-
“ ricis infunditur, etiam si nomae intestina corri- 
“ piant. Eadem testatur Plinius, et etiam Paulas 
“ dicens Muria et portulacae succus dysentericis con- 
“ venit. Notum in Dysentericis curari nonnul- 
“ los harum potu in principiis, affectu sciz. non
“ admodum acri, nec cruento. Porro, ubi no- 
“ mae apparuerint, i. e. cum manifesta erosione, 
“ et purulentis excrementis, naturam signfincat 
“ tunc pus movere, ac concoctionem moliri, ju- 
“ vandamque abstersione, et exsiccatione per has
“ aquas. Memini hic Romae Alex. Fortunatum 
“ medicum, pro harum aquarum penuria, Dios- 
“ coridis exemplo donasse urinam humanam quam 
“ recentem, et in clysteriis, et in potibus, i- 
“ doneo successu, quod, ea ratione non damna- 
“ verim. 
“ Caeterum plurimae, id genus, aquae vermes 
“ ingeneratos enecant, extruduntque, maxime a- 
“ marae omnes, acres, ac fortes, quales ex atra- 
“ menti materia in Volaterrano, &c. 
“ Flatibus

99 BY THE WATER.
“ Flatibus vero ex intimis intestinorum discu- 
“ tiendis, ut in Colica usu venit, ac in Ilei crucia- 
“ tibus, praedictarum potus non medice operan- 
“ tur, item clysteribus, torsione praesertim infes-
“ tante. Efficacissima Aqua Aponi, Asculanae, Lu- 
“ canae, Caiae, Aquisgrani, Cellenses, &c. bitumi- 
“ nosae, salsa, omnes ubicunque terrarum, pro 
“ calido fomite actuali, digerentes, de discuffo- 
“ riae. Colicae Alexander Trallianus exhibet 
“ Thermales aquas quae evacuant, et calfaciunt
“ et item Avicenna xvi. tertii. 
“ Siccae vero intemperiei, ut siccantia et cali- 
“ da balnea improbantur, ita balneis dulcibus u- 
“ tendum, et ex herbis emollientibus, hydrolae- 
“ um, et oleum. Porro discufforii balnei vice ar- 
“ tificialia aliquando sufficimus ut Vaporarii usus,
“ atque olei, vel hydrolei, folio tepbnte, si faeces 
“ indurentur, vel sicca alvi intemperie pendeant 
“ dolor. 
“ Frigidis vero intemperiebus satis calorifica sa- 
“ ciunt, competenti usu.” 
1. From Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we have the
following Cases. “ Mr. Collins Woolrich apothe- 
“ cary of Shrewsbury, was seized with 
“ torturing pains in the stomach, bow- 
“ els, and back, successively, for the 
“ space of ten hours, and then ceased of a sud- 
“ den. The next night it began and ended as 
“ before, and so day after day, from six at night
“ till four in the morning, from the ninth of 
“ September 1683, till May, when the warmth 
“ of the season kept off the disorder till Septem- 
“ ber following, when it began as before, and 
“ so year after year (excepting 1686) for seven or 
“ eight months together, during which time he 
“ was necessitated to vomit about an hour and a 
“ half after eating constantly, his paroxysm con- 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
E2 “ tinuing

100 DISEASES CURED
“ tinuing ten hours, all which reduced him to 
“ great weakness, languor and dispiritedness. 
“ By Dr. Baynard’s advice and mine, he im- 
“ mediately began the waters, for he had been 
“ sufficiently prepared at home. After the sixth 
“ morning, he perceived a sudden and manifest 
“ removal of a load from his stomach into his 
“ lower bowels, and presently had a large dis- 
“ charge by stool. From that day he had neither 
“ pains nor vomitings, yet he kept on drinking
“ the waters for a month at least. 
“ He kept free from any return till 1691, when
“ finding some disposition to it, he returned in 
“ August, and drank them with the same success; 
“ for it returned not again till September 1693, 
“ when he came hither again, and was relieved 
“ the third time. 
“ He hath been here the two past seasons for 
“ prevention, and is resolved so to continue to do
“ as long as it pleases God to grant him strength. 
“ This is the patient’s own account delivered 
“ verbatim, this last season 1695.” 
2. Captain Wilkinson of Brewer-street, Agents 
had, for many years, been a martyr to the stone
and bilious cholic. After thorough trials 
of all pretended Solvents, and emaciated 
by incessant pain, he chearfully submit- 
ted to the operation of lithotomy. When the 
stone was extracted, he told the surgeon that he 
would willingly submit to a second cutting, if, 
by that, he could be cured of his cholic. His 
vomitings were then so incessant, that his sto- 
mach could keep nothing. In this condition he 
was transported to Bath; where, for some time, 
he threw up Bath water, and every thing else. 
By degrees the water prevailed. His stomach 
bore a little food, he gathered strength. His pa- 
Author’s 
Cases. 
roxysms

101 BY BATH WATER.
roxysms continued however to return now and 
then as usual. The harbingers of the fit were 
tingling and involuntary motions of the knees. 
To these succeeded violent reachings and racking 
pains. Pills of opium he threw up as fast as he 
swallowed them. Visiting him one day in the fit, 
I enquired whether opiate glysters had ever been 
prescribed. To which he answered, no. A glys- 
ter of the common decoction with one ounce of 
the Tincture of Assa fetida, and forty drops of
Laudanum, was immediately injected. In a quar- 
ter of an hour afterwards he threw himself down 
on the bed, and slept eight hours, awaking in
heaven, as he called it. Twenty four hours af- 
ter, the paroxysm returned with equal violence. 
The same glyster was injected, with the addition
of twenty drops of laudanum. The same sleep 
and ease insued. Twenty four hours after, the 
same symptoms returned; he begged for the same 
glyster, which procured not only the same cessa- 
tion from pain, but a total cure. By perseverance 
in the waters, he recovered complexion, appetite, 
strength, and spirits, so that he lived for years a 
comfort to all who knew him. 
3. Lieutenant Matthews, of the ship of war 
Duke, delivered into my hands the following state
of his case, drawn by Dr. Huxham of Plymouth, 
the physician who had attended him for twelve 
months and upwards.—“ He hath long been sub- 
“ ject to a variety of nervous disorders, great fla- 
“ tulence, costiveness, frequent pain, and very 
“ great acidity in the stomach. He hath lately 
“ had several very severe attacks of a bilious cholic, 
“ with continual vomiting of sour phlegm, and 
“ vast quantity of yellow and very green bile, 
“ great distension of the belly, pain in his loins, 
“ and difficulty of urine commonly high colour- 
E3 “ ed.

102 DISEASES CURED
“ ed. He sleeps badly, hath very little appetite, 
“ and worse digestion.”—To which let me add, 
that he was so weak, when he set out, that he was 
obliged to be lifted into his chaise. 
By easy journeys he arrived much recruited. 
Without preparation I prescribed the water in very 
small quantities. His sickness abated, his trem- 
blings declined, his appetite increased, his sleep 
returned, his skin changed its yellow hue, he gal- 
loped on the Downs every day. During his two 
months course of drinking and bathing, he had 
but few returns of his reachings or sickness, and
these very tolerable. He now and then complain- 
ed of heat, and restless nights, for which I or- 
dered some doses of nitre and testaceous powders, 
which bringing on a gentle diaphoresis, relieved 
him. He had been used to an opening pill, in- 
stead of which I advised him to eat half a dozen 
china oranges every day, and to drink punch 
made of Seville, by which his body was kept solu- 
ble. Without the help of medicine he grew 
plump and jolly, complaining now and then of 
flying pains in his joints. Finding that he had 
formerly been subject to the gout, I advised him 
to make haste home. Hardly had he rested from 
his journey, before he was attacked with a smart 
fit, which completed his cure. 
4. FROM the coast of Guinea, Captain John 
Clarke of the frigate Melampe, came to Bath e- 
maciated and tormented with the relicts of a bi- 
lious disorder, in which his life was often despair- 
ed of, and which obliged him to quit. By bath- 
ing and drinking, he perfectly recovered. 
5. THE Honourable F. Cary, Governor of 
Goree, left that island in a state of health the 
most hopeless. By a bloody flux and bilious fe- 
ver, he was reduced to the greatest degree of 
weakness,

103 BY BATH WATER.
weakness, attended with swelled legs, wasting, 
and cachexy. His bloody flux degenerated into 
a lientery; his food passed through indigested; 
he was frequently tormented with griping pains, 
nausea and sickness.—By easy journies, he first 
arrived at Bristol-Hot-Wells, where every glass 
aggravated his pains and produced vomitings. 
Bristol he exchanged for Bath, where he reco- 
vered completely in the space of three months, 
by the internal use of the waters, little assisted by
medicine. 
V. OF THE HYSTERIC CHOLIC.
THE Hysteric Cholic is rather a symptom of the 
hysteric passion, than a particular disease. It is
accompanied with violent pain about 
the scrobiculum cordis, and a discharge of 
green humours upwards, quick weak pulse, diffi- 
cult respiration, great dejection, and sometimes 
delirium. This sort of cholic is peculiar to hy- 
pochondriac men, as well as to hysteric women. 
It often terminates in a jaundice, which goes off 
spontaneously. 
Description.
From Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we have the follow- 
ing Cases, 1. “ Mrs. Farier of Norwich, aged 
“ thirty, was sorely afflicted with this 
“ sort of cholic. She had tried va- 
“ riety of regimens, to very little pur- 
“ pose. She had been sufficiently vomited and
“ purged. 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
“ I ordered her three pints of water at the 
“ King's pump next morning. She enlarged the 
“ quantity to four or five. When she was cos- 
“ tive, she had opening stomachic pills. After 
“ drinking some time, she bathed, had her sto- 
“  mach pumped, and was at length sent away so 
E4 “ well,

104 DISEASES CURED
“ well, that she continued free from violent pains 
“ all the following winter and spring. She re- 
“ returned next summer, nevertheless, to confirm 
“ the health which she had got.”—“ Many more 
“ instances of Histeric Cholics cured by water- 
“ drinking and pumping might be produced, but, 
“ for brevity’s sake, are omitted.” 
2. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Edward Wyke of Westminster, a gentleman 
“ much troubled with the spleen and 
“ cholic, came to Bath July 1688, so 
“ full of pain, and so weak, that he 
“ went crooked. He was scorched with continu- 
“ al fever and thirst. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters as much as he could 
“ bear for many days. After one month he en- 
“ creased the quantity, and thus recovered, for 
“ which he gave public thanks in the church of
“ St. Peter and Paul.” 
VI. OF THE DRY BELLY-ACH.
PAULUS ÆGINETA who flourished about the 
fourth century, seems to be the first who describ- 
ed this cholic. Lib. iii. cap. xviii. pag. 
31. From his days to those of Francis 
Citesius, physician to Henry the fourth 
of France, this disease was partially described by
various authors. Citesius was a Poictovien by 
birth. This disease then raging in that province, 
he applied himself to the study of it with un- 
common assiduity, treating accurately of its ori- 
gin, symptoms, cause and cure; he gave it the 
name, by which it since has been commonly 
known, Cholica Pictonum; tho’, with equal pro- 
priety, it may be called Cholica universalis; for 
there is hardly a corner of the globe but what 
History of the 
disease.
has

105 BY BATH WATER.
has felt its direful effects, with this distinction, 
that in warm countries it seems rather epidemic, 
in cold accidental. From the days of Citesius to 
those of Boerhaave, we meet with hardly any 
thing equal to what Citesius wrote. Boerhaave 
lectured on it in his annual course with great ac- 
curacy and judgment, In the year 1724, an epi- 
demic cholic raged in the west of England. In 
the year 1738, Dr. Huxham published his most 
valuable Opusculum de Morbo Cholico Damnoniorum. 
Since that time, many others have written on the 
same subject. In his Ratio Medendi, published
1761, De Haen bestows a chapter on this disease, 
by the common title, Colica Pictonum. 
For an accurate catalogue of symptoms, I re- 
fer my reader to Boerhaave’s Aphorisms, Huxham’s 
Opusculum, and De Haen’s chap. xxiv. 
Sufficient it may be for me to observe, 
that men in health are attacked with most excru- 
ciating pains about the region of the navel. The
deltoid muscles seem to vanish; the joint of the 
shoulder seems only to be covered with a skin. 
The fleshy part of the hand which covers the first
phalanx of the thumb, wastes away. The whole 
muscular fabric decays; the arms hang useless, 
like flails; respiration labours; the eyes lose their 
lustre; the complexion grows wan; nausea, vo- 
mitings, costiveness, constipation, melancholy,
and despondency succeed. 
Symptoms.
THAT this cholic proceeds from poisons, we 
cannot doubt; miners, plummers, founders, pain- 
ters and potters are subject to this disease. 
In his Academical Praelections, Boer- 
haave was of this opinion. “ Frequentes habui 
“  occasiones mirabilem hunc morhum videndi; 
“  et licet non negem illum ab aliis causis nasei
“  posce, tamen frequenter observavi in illis qui
Causes.  
E5 “ plumbo

106 DISEASES CURED
“ plumbo fundendo, cerussam preparando, &c. ope- 
“ ram debent.”—Hoffman describcs those cholics 
which afflict the German miners in calcining and 
separating the lead from the ore. Wines sophis- 
ticated with sacharum saturni bring on the dry 
belly-ach. To give their wines a better flavour 
and higher colour, wine merchants mix them 
with sugar of lead. This was the common 
custom of wine merchants in Germany. Boer- 
haave tells us that some of them were hang- 
ed for the offence. In his Praelections, he 
says, “ Observavi hunc morbum frequentem 
“ in opulentis, qui exquisitissima vina magno 
“ fatis pretio redemerant, forte plumbo edulco- 
“ rata, uti novimus olim a fraudulentis oenopo- 
“ lis in Germania factum effe.” Universal con- 
“ sent allows this paralysis, paresis, remissio, or 
lameness to proceed from a translation of morbific 
matter derived from the intestines, or rather me- 
sentery, by the interposition of the nerves. Ægi- 
neta’s authority confirms this, “ Nostris tempo- 
“ ribus, colicus quidam dolor molestus suit, ex 
“ quo imprimis superstites futures artuum motus 
“ omni modo privatio sequebatur, critica quadam 
“ metastasi factae.” This seems to countenance 
the opinion of those who maintain the convey- 
ance of nourishment by the nerves, allowing the 
blood vessels to serve only for containing the stream 
that keeps the AvΤoμαΤov in motion. Whether 
this paralysis proceeds from transposition of mor- 
bid matter, or from that wonderful susceptibility 
or sympathy of parts, seems yet undecided, nor 
can it well be determined. Sufficient it is for us 
to be instructed, that there are five pair of nerves 
arising from different places, and (after wonderful 
complications) distributed among the muscles 
which belong to the humerus, arms, wrist, and
fingers.



107 BY BATH WATER.
fingers. Sufficient it is for us to know, that there 
is a nerve which communicates with these five, 
together with the nerves of the small guts and me- 
sentery. Our bodies are, as it were, one sheet of 
nerves. Nerves form the very papillae which 
serve the purposes of taste at the point ot our 
tongue, and of feeling to our fingers ends. Ig- 
norants vainly place their hopes in local applica- 
tions, while those who are versed in anatomy 
strike at the root. How beautiful that candid 
confession of that illustrious follower of nature 
Boerhaave! “ Well do I remember where the 
“ opinions of the antients stood me in stead, and 
“ (with joy) do I confess, that sometimes have I 
“ cured palsies of the extremities, the consequen- 
“ ces of that disorder called the Colica Pictonum, 
“ while I applied frictions, aromatic plaisters, &c. 
to the abdomen alone.” 
THAT Dry belly-achs proceed from apples and 
cyder, Huxham has evinced. “ Diuturnum ci- 
“ bi potusque pomofi usum an abusum dicam, 
“ causam fuisse hujus morbi nullus dubito; quia 
“ neminem vidi eo correptum qui his abstinue- 
“ rat.” This disease (he says) raged chiefly a- 
mong the poor, who almost lived that year on 
apples, of which there was such a harvest, that 
the hogs fed on apples, and were infected with 
the same cholic. “ Sed et hoc etiam porcorum 
“ genus male tulit pomorum ingluviem: conta- 
“ buerunt omnes, perierunt plurimi.” About the 
harvest, he observes that cholics are endemic and 
epidemic in the west; as Horace, of old, observ- 
ed. “ In his oris, morbi torminosi sunt quasi 
“ endemici et epidemici, omni fere autumno, ut 
“ olim cecinit Horatius 
“ Pomifero, grave tempus, anno.”
E6 DRY 



108 DISEASES CURED
DRY BELLY-ACHS proceed also from severs im- 
perfectly cured. Dr. Tronchin quotes several ex- 
amples from Fernelius, Ballonius, Spigellius, 
Charles Piso, Citesius, Riverius, Willis, and his 
own experience in an epidemic fever which raged 
at Amsterdam, in the year 1727, and some years
after.—He mentions instances of dry belly achs 
and cholics consequences of gout and rheurnatism, 
from the authorities of Constantius Africanus, 
Gaddesden, Duretus, Fonseca, Mercurialis, Mus- 
grave, and his own experience.—Obstructed 
Perspiration has also produced the dry belly-ach, 
as we learn from Sanctorian experiments, as well 
as from the experience of the same Tronchin. 
This ingenious author gives instances of dry 
belly-achs proceeding also from scurvy melancholy, 
and passions of the mind. 
IN a letter from Senac to this author, we find 
an ingenuous confession, that after dissecting a- 
bout fifty persons who died of this distemper, he 
could find nothing that afforded any light. When 
the disorder takes its seat in the nerves, or ani- 
mal spirits, what light can we expect from ana- 
tomical dissecting? Finding the nature of the di- 
sease abstruse, and the method of cure contradic- 
tory and temporary, De Haen applied himself 
to the investigation of that cardinal symptom,
which produces the paroxysm, Constipation: to 
this he rationally directs the cure. “ Morbum- 
“ vidi, tractavi, recentem, provectum, diutur- 
“ num, annosum, cum omnibus suis variantibus 
“ symptomatibus, concomitantibus, aut sequen- 
“ tibus. Hinc didici ab inimica causa intestina 
“ vehementer constringi, faeces in iisdem con- 
“ tentas, exsuccas durasque reddi, tum etiam a 
“ cellulis vehementer contractis, Colo potissimum 
“ in intestino; in parvos eofdemque oblongos.
“ globos



109 BY BATH WATER.
“ globos formari; demum vero, turn colon maxi- 
“ me, tum et Ileum cum suis exsuccis duris-
“ simisque contentis, in solidam veluti massam 
“ coire, omniaque vasa nervos comprimendo, 
“ ferocia illa tormenta producere. Haec morbi, 
“ fi demum vera Pictonum colica dici debeat, justa 
“ idea, vera imago.” 
SOUR PUNCH has been numbered among the 
causes of the dry belly ach; and perhaps, some- 
times not unjustly. On different con- 
stitutions, the same aliments and the 
same medicines act differently. I can 
eat half a pound of honey without 
being griped. I know others who would un- 
doubtedly be thrown into severe cholics, by a 
single tea-spoonful. One man’s meat, we say, 
is another man’s poison. About thirty years a- 
go, strong sweet punch was the beverage of the 
West-Indies. Dry belly-achs were then very fre- 
quent. Weak four punih fucceeded; dry belly- 
achs have not been near so common. In spite of 
experience, West Indians, now begin to dread the 
acid. In the garrisons of Minorca, Gibraltar, 
and on board our ships of war, oceans of punch 
have been drank. Dry belly-achs were no more 
frequent in these garrisons, and on board these 
ships, than in other places. In hot countries the 
mass of blood is melted down; those who are 
not actually attacked with putrid bilious fevers, 
are in an incipient state of putrescency. What 
can resist putrescency so effectually as that rich 
flavoured vegetable juice of ripe limes, assisted by 
the finest sugar, and the choicest spirit! What so 
grateful to the parched throat! In the Caribbee
Islands, the ladies, remarkable for temperance, 
drink this beverage all the day long. Women 
seldom are infected with this disease; never, I 
Sour punch 
no cause of 
the dry belly- 
ach.  
verily



110 DISEASES CURED
verily believe from this cause; and men rarely, if 
ever. This is not altogether my own sentiment; 
there are many who will bear me witness. I 
have leave to mention the name of one man of 
good sense, strict probity, and well versed in the 
study of physic, I mean Governor Bell, who re- 
sided many years in Africa. From the whole of 
his conversation, and experience, he declared that 
while he last commanded at Cape Coast, he was, 
for three long years, parched up with a consuming 
slow fever; nothing was so grateful to his sto- 
mach as four weak punch. In this he indulged to 
the surprize of those who were about him; nay, he 
often drank off whole goblets of fresh lime juice; so 
far from suffering, he verily believes that this, 
more than any thing else, contributed to save 
him from total putrescency. I could name one 
who has drank as much hot four punch as would 
fill our greatest bath, and now enjoys good health, 
I could name scores who have been afflicted with 
the dry belly-ach, and no man can guess at the 
cause. Sour punch may therefore be added to 
the long list of vulgar errors. 
HAVING pointed out the disease, we now pro- 
ceed to the cure. As the causes are various, so 
must the indications. If bile vellicates 
the nerves, the morbid matter is to be 
evacuated by vomits and purges. The belly must 
be fomented without, and lubricating within. 
Semicupia are of great use. The parts are to be 
dipped in medicated springs. Chalybeate waters, 
riding, and change of air complete the cure. 
Cure. 
HUXHAM (in his method of cure) condemns 
bleeding, from experience. How beau- 
tiful his confession! “ Fateor equidem 
“ me cum antequam morbi naturam 
“ perspexeram, quibusdam sanguinis missionem 
Huxham's 
method. 
“ im-



111 BY BATH WATER.
“ imperasse: omnes enim hi in grave animi deli-
“ quium inciderunt.”—In pains of the back and 
joints he tried it: “ Infausto ut plurimum eventu; 
“ omnes fere paralitico effectu correpti vim pror- 
“ fus motumque manuum perdiderunt.” What 
makes particularly to my purpose is his opinion of 
Water external and internal. “ At ne fic quidem
“ alvus respondet, totum abdomen foveri jubeo 
“ fomento emolliente. Hoc blando vapore abdominis 
“ integumenta penetrat, ac intestina ipfa demul- 
“ cet, rigidas emollit fibras, easque nimis tensas 
“ relaxat. Mirandum plane successum saepe no- 
“ tavi ex applicatione hujusmodi R. Rad Alth.
“ Sen. Lin. &c. Affectus longe feliciores expec- 
“ tandi sunt, si aeger in semicupium demittatur ex 
“ iisdem paratum. Haud raro profecto vidi sae-
“ vissimum paroxysmum nephriticum solo balnei ufu 
“ derepente solutum, cum nec praelarga sangui- 
“ nis missio, nec laudani doses veto profecissent
“ hilum. 
“ Ad hunc morbum profligandum non solum 
“ primas vias purgare necesse eft, diluenda eft in- 
“ super sanguinis acrimonia salina. Inter diluen- 
“ αρlsοv μεv γswρ. Ex omnibus Aquis laudo
“ Pyrmontensum aut Spadanam; haec siquidem 
“ principio praedita chalybeate, non tantum sales 
“ optime dissolvi, fed et crasin sanguinis firmat, 
“ ac fibrarum tonum roborat. Qui consensum 
“ intestina inter et cutim observaverat, haud ita 
“ multum obstuperet videndo turn colicos dolo- 
“ res, tum rheumatismos, post sudationem peni- 
“ tus fere sublatos, pro tempore faltem; frequeti- 
“ ter enim sudores sponte erumpentes hanc aegri- 
“ tudinem allevabant admodum.” In confirma- 
tion of which Baglivi (Cap. De Colica) says, 
“ Colica habitualis et endemica, a vino acido praeser-  
“ tim




112 DISEASES CURED
“ tim oriunda, solis sanatur sudoriferis, vespere ta- 
“ men interposito anodyno. 
“ Post sudationem diluentia, prae ceteris au- 
“ tem Aqua ferruglnea purissima diu potanda, ut 
“ corruptae nimirum nova puraque materia ad- 
“ misceatur, ut debitus servetur sanguinis fluor, 
“ et ejus corrigatur acrimonia.” 
AFTER running over the different methods of 
cure laid down by almost all the authors who 
wrote on the subject, De Haen commu- 
nicates one process of cure spirited, 
sagacious, rational, and judicious. 
“ Mense April 1757, homo viginti et aliquot an- 
“ norum in nosocomium nostrum ferebatur. Pa- 
“ roxvsmum presentem horruimus omnes, vomi- 
“ tus, dolores intolerabiles, ejulatus, convulfio- 
“ nes toto corpora violentissimas, epilepsiae in- 
“ star, et spasmum maxillae. Nudato abdomine 
“ quid veluti convelli, convolvique in abdomine 
“ cernebamus, quod ipfo tactu durum.—Mede- 
“ lam fic institui, Emplastrum paregoricum ven- 
“ triculi region! admovi; oleum lini tepidum fre- 
“ quenter injici curavi; emulsa camphorata & 
“ paregorica, subin ipsum oleum ore fumenda de- 
“ di. Cataplasma emolientissimum toti circum- 
“ volvi abdomini; et quia abdominis compressio
“ manu facta videbatur lenire dolorem, cataplas- 
“ ma hoc fasciis abdomen comprimentibus firma- 
“ ri curavi.—Horum usu alvo prodiere (ut in per- 
“ fectissima Colica Pictonum.) rotunda, dura, parva, 
“ Scyhala, eaque copiosissima; quibus tandem tna- 
“ teries pultacea successit. His demum paroxys- 
“ mus filuit, neque rediit; ita ut miser, a bien- 
“ nio, non meminisset tantae doloris absentiae. 
“ Durities in abdomine percepta mole decrevit, 
“ vires rediere, appetitus, somnus. Legit vel 
“ ambulat, tota die hilaris. Alvo autem quo- 
De Haen’s 
method. 
“ dam



113 BY BATH WATER.
“ dam die carens, initia deprehendit repetituri do- 
“ loris; enema oleosum dolorem quidem solvit, 
“ fed denuo parva, rotunda, dura Scybala prodi- 
“ ere. Non ablata ergo causa, diaeta lactea vi- 
“ debatur curam absolutura; cujus experiundi 
“ gratia, hominem diu in nosocomio servassem, ni 
“ prae morum intolerabilitate, ejiciendum fuisset. 
“ —Tribus aliis eadem cura successit; expurga- 
“ tis quippe fordibus, lac copiosum, assiduum- 
“ que, nervos et sufficienter molles, et debite for- 
“ tes facit. Ter quater in anno relapsos lac de- 
“ mum incolumes servavit.”—To this pattern 
of practice, let us add his generous confession and 
opinion. How often are we ignorant of the na- 
ture and seat of poisons? How often have the 
poisoned died after the whole artillery of purges, 
vomits, diaphoretics, and alteratives has been ex- 
pended? “ Catholica methodus utendi aqua cali- 
“ day lacte multo, aqua mellita, oleoque, copio- 
“ sissimis omni modo applicatis, interne, externe, 
“ ore, ano; haec inquam noto et ignoto veneno 
“ ex aequo prodest. Scatent exemplis volu- 
“ mina.” 
FROM the testimonies of almost every author 
who has treated disorders of the intestinal tube, 
we find waters internally and externally 
recommended. In my first edition, 
(speaking of Dr, Huxham’s most valuable trea- 
tise) I expressed myself thus, “ Had this judicious 
“ author been but as well acquainted with the 
“ principles and virtues of Bath waters, as he 
“ seems to be with reason, sagacity and books, 
“ he would have found the thread of his labour 
“ often cut short; he would have been convinc- 
“ ed that Bath waters surpass all the hopes which 
“ he judiciously places in their succedaneums.” 
In a letter of that gentleman’s now before me, 
Conclusion.
(after



114 DISEASES CURED
(after acknowledging great benefit received by the 
Master Plummer and Brasier of Plymouth-Dock, in 
a severe cholic, attended with a paralysis of-hands 
and legs) he expresses himself, to the credit of 
our waters, thus: “ More than thirty years a- 
“ ago, I very well knew the use of your Bath 
“ water, in a paresis, or weakness of the limbs 
“ brought on by cholical disorders, especially 
“ that from the Cyder-cholic, and have, I believe, 
“ first and last, recommended thirty or forty pa- 
“ tients to the use of the waters on that account; 
“ many of whom received very great advantages; 
“ some were more relieved by bathing in the sea; 
“ probably, I may soon have it in my power to 
“ recommend more.”—Most of the treatises 
which have been written on the dry belly-ach, 
have been published many years. Boerhaave’s
Aphorisms and Commentaries are in every body’s 
hands. This disorder commonly passing by the 
name of the West India cholic, seems still but little 
known in this country. Cases mistaken for gout 
and rheumatism, have been treated in the anti- 
phlogistic regimen; after the regular torture of 
months, miserable cripples have been abandoned as 
bewitched. To obviate mistakes, I have taken 
some pains, not only to give the reader a general 
idea of the disease, but to point out those authors 
who have treated it in a masterly convincing man- 
ner. When the dry belly-ach has baffled the 
most judicious, and most experienced, our baths 
have been loaded with crutches. To facts I appeal. 
1. “ The Rev. Mr. Pilkington of Lincolnshire,
“ aged thirty-three, lived near the fens. 
“ After a fit of the cholic, he was 
“ crippled, and emaciated all over, his 
“ hands hung like flails. 
Pierce’s 
Causes.
“ I put him on a course of drinking. He 
“ staid six or seven weeks, went away much 
“ mended,



115 BY BATH WATER.
“ mended, returned next year, and compleated 
“ his cure.” 
2. “ Miss Kiblewhite, afterwards Lady Ken- 
“ rick, was violently pained in the bowels and 
“ limbs, joints and musculous parts, so tender 
“ that she could not bear to be touched. She 
“ had convulsions and hysteric fits. She was 
“ withal emaciated to a skeleton. She had gone 
“ through the materia medica, by the direction of 
“ the celebrated Willis. With no little labour 
“ she was conveyed hither in a litter, positively 
“ against the Doctor’s opinion. 
“ She was dropped down into the bath in a 
“ kind of cradle. By the bath she found some 
“ ease, but no strength or stomach. She was 
“ therefore put upon drinking. She used choly- 
“ beates, antiscorbutics, cephalics, anodynes, cordials, 
“ and hysterics. She had ease by bathing in the Cross- 
“ Bath, and drinking at the King’s-bathing-pump,
“ but no stength till she bathed in the Queen’s, 
“ and King’s. She came three or four years fol- 
“ lowing at first, then at four years distance, and 
“ at six, bearing children mean while. In her 
“ total enervation the optic nerves suffered with 
“ the rest; but as her limbs came to be restored, 
“ so was her fight strengthened.” 
3. “ The Lady Marchioness Normanby was sent 
“ hither in May 1688. From a bilious cholic, 
“ her hips, knees, ancles, feet, arms, and fin- 
“ gers were contracted. When her joints at- 
“ tempted to be stretched out, she roared out with 
“ pain. Her ancles were drawn inwards. 
“ She began with drinking. After a fortnight 
“ she was put into the Cross-Bath. She had been 
“ used, to opiates, which when we dared to leave 
“ off, she began to get ground. She suffered her 
“ legs to be laid streight, and to be set upon her  
“ feet,




116 DISEASES CURED
“ feet, her ancles turned not out so much; she
“ began to feed herself. There little alterations 
“ were all we dared to boast of after three months 
“ trial, at which time (the season being hot, and 
“ therefore unfit for bathing) her ladyship return- 
“ ed, lying on a bed in the coach. 
“ After her return, she arrived to a consi- 
“ derable pitch of health, strength, and active- 
“ ness, to which I was an eye-witness the spring 
“ following.”
“ It were tedious (adds the Doctor) to give 
“ every case that I could instance on this head 
“ Let it suffice to name the persons, who found 
“ cure in the same disorder, since there was but 
“ little difference in their symptoms, and method 
“ of cure.” 
4. “ Mrs. Beare of Devonshire, received great 
“ benefit, after four seasons.—Lord Thanet 
“ cured in three months.—Mr. Petit of Reading 
“ cured.—From Ireland, Sir William Davis, 
“ Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, recovered. Sir 
“ William Tichborn recovered after several trials. 
“ Sir John Cole recovered after several trials. 
“ Alderman Best of Dublin. Captain Harrison.
“ —From the isles of Guernsey and Jersey, Ma- 
“ dam Patriarch, after several seasons, cured. Mrs. 
“ Martin had a remarkable speedy cure. Peters, 
“ a Surgeon, cum multis aliis.—From the Carib- 
“ bee Islands, Colonel Hallet, Richard his bro- 
“ ther, Mr. Bond, and many others for the same 
“ loss of limbs from the dry belly-ach (as they call 
“ it) were here relieved, if not perfectly re- 
“ stored.” 
“ Let us hearken to Baynard. “ I have visited 
“ Bath for thirty-six years, and have 
“ seen wonderful and most deplorable 
“ cases there cured, and some in a very little 
Baynard. 
“ time



117 BY BATH WATER.
“ time (where care and caution has been observ- 
“ ed) especially in the West India Gripes and Cho- 
“ lics, where a paralysis has been general, and o- 
“ thers with arms, hands and legs strangely con- 
“ tracted.” 
1. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Peter Bonamy, Sub-dean of Guernsey, 
“ three years troubled with the cholic, 
“ and loss of limbs. There was scor- 
“ butic taint also, by which the skin 
“ was infested with pustulous eruptions, the fin- 
“ gers contracted, the internal muscular flesh of 
“ of the thumb wasted, with paleness and lan- 
“ guor. 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
“ He used the temperate Baths for a month at 
“ first with considerable relief, the second season 
“ more, and, after four years absence, he return- 
“ ed with an athletic habit of body.” 
2. “ Moses Levermore, Surgeon, of Nevis, 
“ afflicted with the belly-ach and palsey, by the use 
“ of the King’s and Cross-Baths received cure. I 
“ saw him well in London 1688.—Elias Pome- 
“ roy of Devon, had the same disease, and same 
“ cure.” 
1. The case of Miss Menzies of Dumfries, was 
as bad almost as any of the preceding, with this 
singular particular. Every three weeks 
she was taken with a cholic fit which 
lasted ten or eleven days and nights, 
with racking pain. During this paroxysm she 
could neither eat nor drink, she lulled her misery 
with laudanum. Under Dr. Gilchrist’s judicious 
care she had tried every regimen. 
Author’s
Cases.
Two or three days after she arrived at Bath, her 
cholic paroxysm came on. I advised her the free 
use of laudanum, and nothing else. Immediately 
after her fit she began the water, which prevent- 
ed



118 DISEASES CURED
ed the return of the cholic. She bathed also. 
This regimen she continued for five or six months 
with great advantage. Going out to the ball one 
night, and taking off the flannel rollers which 
swaithed her swelled legs, she catched cold, and 
had the first return of her pain. She continued 
eight months in all; the muscles of her thumbs 
plumped up, she wound up her watch, wrote 
half a dozen letters a day, and returned almost 
well. she took no other medicine but an open- 
ing pill.
2. Mr. Fletcher of Kent, was often here for 
the same disorder. His cholic pain yielded almost 
instantaneously to the waters, though his hands 
did him little service. 
3. Mr. Bennet, son to a schoolmaster near 
Ware came to Bath in this disorder. During his 
stay he had a severe fit with racking pain, con- 
stant vomiting, costiveness, &c. Sharp glysters 
purges, fomentations, semi-cupiums, and all o- 
ther common aids were administered; to no 
purpose. Deliberating on some medicine that 
might remove the spasm, and operate briskly, with- 
out loading the stomach, or provoking vomiting, 
I happily fixed on the following, Resin Jallap 
gran X. Merc. dulc. l. crass. gran. vii. Extract.
Theb. gran. i. m. f. pilulae statim sumend. Soon he 
voided one plug of excrement which was black as 
a cinder, and so hard that it rebounded like a ball 
from the floor, with an immediate relief from 
pain, vomiting, and every other dangerous symp- 
toms. By the use of gentle soft purges, the pas- 
sage was kept open, till he recovered strength. 
By the internal and external use of the waters, 
he recovered of this disorder, together with the 
supervening small-pox; and is, as I am told, 
now alive, and in good health,
4. Captain





119 BY BATH WATER.
4. Captain Arch. Millar of the navy, came 
from the conquest of Senegal afflicted with the 
loss of limbs, and other symptoms common to 
this disorder. In a very severe fit attended with 
costiveness, pain, vomiting. &c. I was called to 
consult with Doctor Gusthart, his first physician. 
Purges, glysters, baths, and other methods had 
judiciously been tried. Calling to mind my suc- 
cess with the last patient, I proposed the same, 
which was immediately agreed to, and administer- 
ed with the same success. In about six weeks, by 
the use of Bath waters internal and external, he 
recovered flesh, strength, appetite, and sleep. Rid- 
ing out one day in an open chaise, and caught in 
a shower, he relapsed, and was attacked with a 
fit, not quite so threatning as the former. Dr. 
Barry and I were both called in. Various reme- 
dies were tried, the constipation, pain, fever, vo- 
miting, and every symptom waxed worse. The 
patient requested the pills which had formerly 
relieved him; they were administered, and with 
the same success. The Bath waters after- 
wards completed the cure. For several years 
after he served with credit, and now enjoys perfect 
health.
5. Captain Scroop of the navy, came to Bath 
for the same cholic. While I attended him, he 
was taken with a fit as severe as the former, with 
this addition, that by straining, he had a falling 
down of the great gut, which, constricted
by the sphincter, could not be totally re- 
duced. The same pills were administered, and 
with the same success; but before the passage 
was obtained, a portion of the great gut was 
actually mortified, and cut off by Mr. Wright, 
surgeon of this city. What was singular in this gen- 
tleman’s case, he voided thin large bilious stools,
without



120 DISEASES CURED
without one bit of hard excrement; this obstruc- 
tion was the real effect of spasm relieved by the 
opiate. By the use of the Bath waters he had a 
complete cure, and, to the end of the war, did 
honour to his station. 
6. From the hand-writing of Mr. Anthony 
Jones, student of Oxford, the following case is 
printed. “ For some years past I have been af- 
“ flicted with a pain in my heels, which fre- 
“ quendy shifted to my stomach; for these two 
“ years last, my stomach could never be said to
“ be free. My last fit began in February, and 
“ continued till May, with perpetual reachings 
“ of green and yellow bile. At Oxford, my dis- 
“ order was unhappily treated as gout. I swal- 
“ lowed the hottest medicines; rum was to me 
“ no warmer than pump water. Violent pain at- 
“ tacked the muscles of my shoulders, gradually
“ descending till it deprived me of the use of 
“ both arms. My skin became so tender that 
“ the softest touch was insupportable; my voice 
“ was small and feeble; my eyes dim, with total 
“ relaxation. In the most deplorable condition 
“ I was carried to Bath, where (by six months 
“ perseverance in the use of drinking, pumping, 
“ and bathing) I have recovered so well that I 
“ daily ride out, eat, and sleep; and though I 
“ have not yet recovered the perfect use of my 
“ limbs, yet, by the divine permission, and effi- 
“ cacy of the waters, I doubt not of enjoying a 
“ complete cure. October 22, 1761.” 
7. George Cruikshanks, Esq. while he lived 
at Amsterdam, was more than once afflicted with 
this cholic, for which he was bled, purged, and 
otherwise injudiciously treated, the disease then
being new in that country. His fits were of long
duration; with great danger he escapcd. For
5 remain-

121 BY BATH WATER.
remaining pain, relaxation, and lameness, he 
made use of the Bath waters, and with great 
benefit. 
8. Mr. Edward Gregory, Captain of a Guiney 
ship, lived on that coast fourteen years, during 
which he was often attacked with this disease, and
never completely cured. Last year he came to 
Bath, emaciated, and deprived of the use of his 
hands, and frequently attacked with pains of his
bowels. By four months bathing and drinking, 
he recovered, and is now on a voyage to the 
same coast. One circumstance he communicated 
to me, which I think it my duty to communi- 
cate. On a voyage to Rhode Island, at the time 
of his landing he had been fourteen days without 
a stool, racked with pain, helpless, and hopeless, 
Mr. Forbes, a practitioner of that island, coming 
on board, asked the Captain, if he had any good 
Castile soap, which being produced, he said, ne- 
ver fear Captain, I will cure you in a crack. 
Shaving some of the bluest part of the soap down, 
he dissolved it in fresh milk, gave his patient two 
tea spoonfuls, with orders to repeat it in an hour; 
which he did, and was immediately rid of his 
constipation, and every complaint, excepting the 
lameness of his hands. He assured me that this 
he often experienced on himself, and many others 
afterwards, and hardly ever without success. Mr. 
Forbes assured him that it was his common prac- 
tice, and as successful as common. 
In the annual publication of the Bath Infirmary, 
relative to disorders of the nerves, the general 
article stands thus, Lamenesses and weak- 
nesses from tumors, contusions, colics, 
colds, falls, &c. From this complex 
account, little light can be drawn in relation to 
dry belly-achs, or any other particular disease; 
Proofs from 
the Infirma- 
ry. 
F yet,

122 DISEASES CURED
yet, from Dr. Summers’s industry, as well as 
from proper knowlege, we can affirm that there 
are numbers who annually receive cures in that 
hospital, particularly miners, or mechanics in- 
fected from working in metals. In the years 1763, 
and 1764, there were twenty-nine dry belly-achs 
cured, and eighteen much better. In Summers’s 
short Essay, we find one pattern truly worthy of
imitation; with this we close this chapter.—
“ In the Infirmary, there is now to be seen 
“ a young man of about nineteen years of age, 
“  who (after a voyage to these parts) was, two 
“ years ago, seized with a West-India cholic. 
“ When he was admitted, his arms hung useless 
“ by his sides, his hands dropped inwards, his 
“ fingers were so contracted, that it was in no 
“ man’s power to move them; his legs were con- 
“ tracted up to his buttocks, he stood on his 
“ knees, and was wasted to a skeleton. By the 
“ use of bathing he now walks without crutches; 
“ his hands, legs and arms have regained their 
“ wonted plumpness.”
CHAP.

123 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VI. 
OF DISORDERS OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
IN compliance with fashion, I refer rational 
deductions of diseases of the urinary passages,
to that part which treats of Bristol wa- 
ters. Suffice it here, in general to ob- 
serve, that as the same diseases differ in different
constitutions, so are the same diseases cured by 
different waters. “ That water should be ex- 
“ pelled by water, that drowned men should be 
“ brought to life by being drowned, is a miracle
“ (says Doctor Baynard) that surpasses St. Wine- 
“ fred’s. There are not however wanting in- 
“ stances of hydropics cured by drinking; a 
“ proof how little we know either of nature or 
“ art.” With other arts, physic has its fashions; 
so have wells. In diseases of the urinary passages, 
Bath waters have answered where Bristol waters 
have failed. Such, nevertheless, is the force of 
fashion, that diabetes, dysury, gravel, stone, ne- 
phritic pains, gleets, and other diseases of the u- 
rinary passages are (by universal consent) con- 
signed to Bristol. If Bristol waters fail, patients
are given up as incurable. Mankind, in general, 
stare at the surface of things. Reformers are 
upbraided for departing from common practice. 
In justice to Bath water, I take the liberty, ne- 
vertheless, to produce cures of diseases of the u- 
rinary passages, some of diseases never before at- 
tempted. 
Preamble.
1. In Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, p. 
364, we find the following Cases. 
“ Sir Thomas Ogle, aged forty, was
Pierce’s
Cases.
F2 “ so

124 DISEASES CURED
“ so frequently pressed to make water, and al- 
“ ways with sharpness and pain, that he could 
“ hardly be long together quiet, without emul- 
“ sions, and strong anodynes. He had taken 
“ loads of medicines. 
“ I ordered him Diacassia or Manna, half an 
“ ounce over night, or early in the morning; 
“ and, about seven in the morning, to drink 
“ three pints of King’s Bath water. When he 
“ took not of the Electuary, he drank two quarts; 
“ and, after a while five pints. They gave him 
“ usually two or three stools, but past mostly by
“ urine, and did not bring off a great deal of 
“ gravel neither; but manifestly abated the acri- 
“ mony of urine, so that he retained his water, 
“ and made it in large quantities.”
2. “ Mr. Belke, aged thirty, of the Six 
“ Clerks Office, had been afflicted with the 
“ same distemper. He drank the waters for five 
“ weeks. They passed by stool and urine; he 
“ was cured.”
3. “ Sir John Cotton, of Botrux-costle, had for 
“ many years been afflicted with severe fits of the
“ gravel and stone. He made dark turbid urine, 
“ he voided much gravel and stones of consider- 
“ able bigness and craggedness, which, by lace- 
“ rating the vessels, occasioned bloody water. 
“ I began with a purging nephritic bolus. He 
“ drank three pints of water, which, by degrees, 
“ he increased to two quarts. Never did wa- 
“ ters agree sooner, pass easier, and better. He 
“ brought off great quantities of sabulum, and 
“ small stones rough and scabrous, bigger than 
“ barley corns, but friable. He held so well all 
“ the winter, that this encouraged him to return
“ next summer, and drank them till the fabulous 
“ matter ceased, and he was free from fits.”
4. “ Mrs.

125 BY BATH WATER.
4. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Carne, aged seventy-two, 
“ hath been subject to nephritic pains almost fif- 
“ ty years, with frequent fits, and voiding of 
“ large rough stones. Every time she finds the 
“ least pain or disorder in the region of the kid- 
“ neys, she drinks three pints or two quarts of 
“ the King’s pump-water, in a morning, be the 
“ season what it will, and continues till she voids 
“ gravel or stones of a greyish colour, one of the 
“ worst colours, which gives her ease.” 
5. “ The second wife of Captain Henry Chap- 
“ man of this city, was used, of her own head, 
“ to go and fit three or four hours in the hottest
“ part of the King’s Bath, and drink largely of 
“ the water. To this she imputed the bringing off 
“ the stone easier. She is now living in the 80th 
“ year of her age.” 
6. “ Mr. Smith, steward to Lord Digby, was 
“ horribly decrepid with gout and stone. He had 
“ a perpetual desire of making water, with great 
“ sharpness, pain, and stoppage for days toge- 
“ ther. His joints were knotted with the gout. 
“ By drinking, he daily discharged vast quan- 
“ tities of gravel, stones, and mucous matter. 
“ He bathed, not by my consent. The nodes 
“ of his toes, fingers, and knees began to look
“ red and soft. Some of these tumors opened of 
“ themselves, others were laid open. The con- 
“ creted chalk was picked out little by little. He 
“ began to set his feet to the ground, bend his 
“ knees, support his body, handle his crutches, 
“ and at last walked with a stick.” 
7. “ Mr. Edward Bushed, senior, Alderman of 
“ Bath, aged seventy-three, laboured for eleven
“ months under torturing nephritic pains. At 
“ last he made bloody water, which encouraged 
“ him to try the water. His common dose is a  
F3 quart

126 DISEASES CURED
“ quart every morning with a spoonful of syrup 
“ of marshmallows. This doing for nineteen 
“ months together, he had perfect ease. By 
“ drinking stale beer, he now and then relapses, 
“ but his pains are not so violent. I have often
“ heard him say, how miserable a man had I 
“ been, had I lived any where but at Bath.” 
8. “ Mrs. Studley, of All Cannings, had long
“ been afflicted with continual urgings to make 
“ water, smartings, and violent pains, with small 
“ streaks of blood, with a heavy ropy sediment, 
“ which stuck to the bottom of the pot like bird- 
“ lime, and stunk abominably. By drinking she 
“ found ease. She bathed also, and found bene- 
“ fit. Business called her away too soon.” 
“ Not a few (says the good old doctor) have 
“ been cured, by regularly drinking the waters, 
“ of inveterate virulent gonorrhoeas, and of those
“ weaknesses which they usually leave behind 
“ them; for Bath waters cleanse, heal, and 
“ strengthen the parts concerned, and (as in all 
“ other acidities, acrimony, and sharpness of the 
“ blood and nervous juice) they correct that cor- 
“ rosiveness, and dilute that acrimony, and con- 
“ sequently alter the temper of that matter that 
“ is discharged, and, by its balsamic virtue, heals
“ the parts excoriated. 
“ This remedy will indifferently serve for the 
“ softer sex also, who (though they call it by 
“ another name) are too much liable to the same 
“ distemper. I dare not give instances, though 
“ I have them by me.” 
Guidot’s
Cases. 
Guidot (in his Bath-Register) gives 
the following cases. 
9. “ Mr. Thomas Brookes, minister, sixty 
“ years old, having for sixteen years a gravative 
“ pain in the back and kidneys, came to Bath, 
“ where

127 BY BATH WATER.
“ where he drank the waters, and voided fine pow- 
“ der, which subsiding in the urinal, and evaporated 
“ ad siccitatem, made eight pills as big as pistol bul- 
“ lets, of the colour and consistence of stone. 
“ At his return home he evacuated as much as 
“ made forty-four more. All the matter voided, 
“ in no long time, was enough to make a ball 
“ of stone six ounces weight, which coming a- 
“ way, the heavy pain in the kidneys and back 
“ ceased. Seven years after, I saw these balls not 
“ at all relented, so hard that they rebounded 
“ like marbles.” 
10. “ A certain person unknown, for benefit 
“ received in distempers relating to the passages of
“ urine, gave public thanks in the church of St.  
“ Peter and Paul, 14th of October, 1688.” 
DIABETES.
OF this disorder, I purpose to treat particu- 
larly, under the head Of Diseases cured by Bristol 
Waters. The following history is printed from 
the hand-writing of Captain Chaplin, of the 
Navy, the very first proof of its kind.
11. “ To the honour of Bath waters, 
as well as testimony of the prescriber’s 
judgment, I desire the following case 
may be published. 
“ About the latter end of the year 
1761, the time of our equipping for 
the expedition to Belleisle, I began to find myself
troubled with an unusual heat in the palms of my 
hands and soles of my feet, with great thirst and 
restlessness at nights, attended with a surprising 
loss of flesh; though my appetite and digestion 
continued very good. 
Author’s 
Cases. 
Proofs of 
Diabetes cur- 
ed by Bath 
Water. 
F4 “ Things

128 DISEASES CURED
“ Things continued thus all that winter—In 
the ensuing summer I was employed on a service, 
that obliged me to be a good deal exposed in the 
sun, at the demolition of the fortifications at Aix;
by way of cooling, I used to indulge in drinking 
Cream of Tartar and water, or a thin sharp French 
white wine and water. Neither of which, tho’
pleasing whilst they went down, allayed either 
my drought or heat: but I am afraid rather serv- 
ed to encrease the whole of my complaints.—
In the latter end of that year my sloop was ordered
to the Mediterranean, where I remained twelve 
months;—there I found my heat and drought 
greatly abated. I perspired more freely than I 
had used to do for some time; began to rest bet- 
ter at nights, and to recover my flesh. But on 
my coming to England this time twelve month, 
all my former complaints returned with more vio- 
lence than ever, with the addition of an hectic 
fever. It was then the opinion of every body 
that I was in a deep consumption, though I had 
very little cough, unless now and then, when I 
caught a fresh cold. I was advised riding and the 
gout-whey, when the season should come, both 
of which I followed to very little purpose, and 
was at last forbid riding intirely, as it was found
to fatigue me too much. 
“ In the month of last August, it was first ob- 
served, that my urine was of a very pale colour, 
of a sweet taste and smell, and that I voided more 
of it in the space of twenty-four hours, by two 
pounds, than I took of liquids; in short, my dis- 
order was found to be a confirmed Diabetes.—I 
was then advised to hurry to Bristol to drink the 
Hot-well waters. I accordingly got there about 
the middle of September last, and continued, with- 
out intermission, daily to drink them, and take 
medicine

129 BY BATH WATER.
medicine, for twelve weeks, without much bene- 
fit, unless, that in the first week I found the 
parchedness of my mouth, and great drought 
somewhat abated, as also the quantity of my u- 
rine, but my flesh and strength continued to 
waste.—At the end of that time, that is, about 
eight weeks ago, I came here to see you, with- 
out any thoughts or intention of using the Bath 
waters, when you, advised me to come over and 
try them, which I accordingly did, and have 
(thank God) benefited by them so much, as to 
have intirely got the better of all my complaints, 
as also to have recovered my flesh and strength to 
a surprising degree; for which great blessing I 
shall always remain, with the utmost gratitude and
respect,
Dear Sir, 
Your most obliged, 
And most Humble Servant, 
Feb. 7, 1764. 
James Chaplin ” 
To Doctor Sutherland.
12. Mrs. Fleming’s Case will be particularly 
described in that chapter which treats of Diabetes. 
This winter all her diabetic symptoms returned 
with violence, her appetite, flesh, and strength
failed; she hardly could stand on her legs; in a 
word, no body expected that she could live one 
month. I pressed her return to Bristol Hot-wells, 
went so far as to assure her that her life was at 
stake. My arguments were vain; she positively 
told me, she could not go at that time of 
the year, if she died; she begged that I would  
F5 prescribe


130 DISEASES CURED 
prescribe something that might keep her alive till 
the spring. Instructed by Chaplin’s success, I ad- 
vised Bath waters with Elixir Vitriol. Every 
day produced visible amendment; she is now 
strong and active, without one symptom of her 
disease, excepting a little of the sweet taste of
the urine, and that at an age far advanced. 
BESIDE these express cases, the curious reader 
may find not a few proofs interspersed with the 
histories of other diseases cured by Bath water, 
particularly in that memorable gouty case of Mr. 
Long’s. 
CHAP.

131 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
IN Compliance with fashion, I refer particular
deductions of pectoral diseases to that part of 
this book, which expresly treats Of Diseases cured
by Bristol Water. Suffice it here, in general, to 
observe, that those who, without evidence, fancy 
heat, fire and brimstone, synonimous ideas are 
incapable of conceiving how smoking waters 
should be safe in the disorders of the lungs. Those 
who confine the causes of cough, catarrh, and 
asthma to inflammation only, hurry away patients 
to Bristol. If they answer not, the wretched sick 
is given up to death. In asthmas, the very air of 
Bath is doomed pestilential. In consultation with 
able Bath physicians, I have more than once pres- 
sed asthmatics, not to tarry twenty-four hours 
within these walls. Instructed by experience, I 
now abjure these ignorances. In this very city 
there lives an upholsterer, Richard Evat by name, 
who chuses his residence at Bath, as the only air 
in which he could freely breathe, ever since the 
hard frost 1739. At the age of threescore, he 
now breathes freely, and enjoys perfect health. 
Doctor Smollet’s Case is an irrefragable proof of 
the doctrine. There are pectoral disorders which 
yield to Bristol waters only; there are others
which require a mineral more active, invigorat- 
ing and powerful. There are thin, acrid ca- 
tarrhs; so are there viscous, cold, and inert. 
There are hot consuming hectics, so there are
putrid. There are consumptions from putrid; so 
there are consumptions from obstructed lungs. 
F6 There

132 DISEASES CURED
There are genuine, dry, nervous asthmas; so 
there are spurious, moist, and catarrhous. Some 
proceed from irritation; others from obstruction. 
In some cases demulcents are indicated, in others 
attenuants. To conclude, Bath waters have 
cured coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, and asth- 
mas, when all other aids have failed. Let facts
speak for themselves. 
1. To Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we are obliged. 
“ The Lady Duchess of Ormond, aged 
“ sixty, came to Bath in September 
“ 1673. Her disorder was an invete- 
“ rate cough and asthma; she was forced to sit
“ upright in bed. 
Pierce’s
Cases. 
“ She drank the waters first in small quanti- 
“ ties. Bearing them well, the dose was increas- 
“ ed. She drank them on for a month, with lit- 
“ tie intermission, and so much relief that she 
“ expectorated more freely, and lay down in bed, 
“ her appetite increased, she rested better, she
“ bore her journey back better. 
“ Passing the following winter (the season in 
“ which such distempers usually increase) much 
“ better, she came again four different seasons. 
“ Every time she improved the first advantage.”
2. “ Lady Mary Kirk, aged forty, subject to 
“ an asthma, so that she was obliged to be bol- 
“ stered up for nights together, came hither and 
“ drank the waters several seasons following, with
“ great advantage, insomuch that in the year 
“ 1693, she had few or no returns of those fits 
“ which usually attacked her in cold and wet sea-
“ sons. In a letter of hers, now in my posses- 
“ sion, she says that for the whole winter past, 
“ (which to every body else hath been very se- 
“ vere) she has not so much as felt an oppression 
“ at her breast, much less a cough, that kept her 
“ from

133 BY BATH WATER.
“ from sleeping or eating a meal’s meat; that she 
“ goes abroad in all weathers, stays out till nine, 
“ and rests not a bit the worse. She returned last 
“ summer, and staid till the latter end of Octo- 
“ ber, and bathed even in the Hot-Bath as well 
“ as drank the waters, and did very well.” 
3. “A very worthy Lady, whose name I con- 
“ ceal, because I have not her leave, between 
“ 30 and 40 came hither in August, 1693. From 
“ inheritance she was hydropical, scorbutical, and 
“ asthmatical. She had gone through the col- 
“ lege. 
“ After a fortnight’s drinking, I permitted her 
“ to use the Cross-Bath, which had a different 
“ operation on her than it commonly has. It pro- 
“ moted the passing of the waters by urine; she 
“ was more lightsome, and breathed more freely. 
“ She drank and bathed for a month. Next year 
“ she used the same course for three months. She
“ found great advantage.” 
4. “ Mrs. Mary Whitaker, a virgin of thirty— 
“ nine, from Pottern, Wiltshire, came hither in 
“ May, 1681. The winter before, her cough was 
“ so violent that she spate blood. In January she 
“ was seized with a palpitation of the heart, the 
“ most troublesome symptom of all, and what she
“ took to be the cause of her difficulty of breath- 
“ ing, whereas it seemed to me that the nervous 
“ asthma (for such I took hers to be) caused the 
“ palpitation. The cough was violent without 
“ expectoration. She wheezed greatly. Upon 
“ the least motion she looked black in the face. 
“ Her heart beat as if it would come out of her 
“ body. She was always hot and feverish, had a 
“ quick labouring pulse. Her symptoms were 
“ greatly aggravated by her short journey of 14 
“ miles, 
“ I

134 DISEASES CURED
“ I ordered the waters with Sal-Prunel, Pecto- 
“ rals, and Paregorics. This method she con- 
“ tinued for a month or five weeks, and was by 
“ it perfectly restored, and is alive and well this
“ day.” 
5. “ Sir Henry Andrews, of Loftsbury, aged 
“ seventy-one, came hither for a Scorbutic Asthma, 
“ with the morphew on his back, breast, and shoul- 
“ ders, and weakness in his limbs. 
“ He bathed and drank with such success, that 
“ he came year after year, till other illnesses ren- 
“ dered him incapable to bear the journey.” 
6. “ The Marchioness of Antrim, aged sixty- 
“ two, had been many years troubled with a cough 
“ and shortness of breath. 
“ She drank the waters mostly, bathed but sel- 
“ dom, continued five or six weeks, was so well 
“ the following winter that she was encouraged to
“ come a second time, she prosecuted the same 
“ course with better success.” 
7. “ Mr. Harrison, of St. Crosses, aged eigh- 
“ teen, had, from his infancy, been subject to
“ coughs and asthmatic distempers, occasioned 
“ (as was said) by a Quicksilver Girdle. He had 
“ a great palpitation, and difficulty of breathing
“ on the least motion, not even the ambling of a 
“ horse. 
“ He drank the waters for a month or more. 
“ His breath was freer, the palpitation well- 
“ nigh ceased, he rode from near Winchester to 
“ Oxford in a day. He returned a second, and 
“ a third time, to confirm the advantage re- 
“ ceived. 
8. “ Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, came hi-
“ ther in April, 1686. He had been a long time 
“ hypochondriac and scorbutic, but, for some months 
“ past, especially in the winter, was seldom
“ free

135 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from a palpitation of the heart, an inter- 
“ mittent pulse, a decayed appetite, and a bad 
“ digestion. 
“ After various trials, particularly a long cha- 
“ lybeate course, he was sent to Bath. I order- 
“ ed him Quercetan’s Tartar Pill over night, and
“ to drink two quarts of King’s Bath pump next 
“ morning. He increased the quantity by de- 
“ grees to five pints, and at last to three quarts, 
“ interposing a gentle purge now and then, and 
“ two or three bathings. At the end of five or 
“ six weeks, he set out chearful and well, with 
“ a good appetite, the palpitation almost abated, 
“ and the intermission of his pulse scarcely dis- 
“ cernible.” 
9. Summer 1761, the honourable Edward 
Finch came to Bristol Hot Wells, after an in- 
flammatory fever, for which he had 
been bled nine times, and blistered five. 
When I first saw him, he had an habitual 
cough, with a difficult expectoration of tough
viscid phlegm, without fever; he was languid, 
low-spirited, and feeble, fifty years old, and up- 
wards. 
Author’s
Cases.
I pressed him to go immediately to Bath; I gave 
him my reasons and opinion in writing, which 
were transmitted to his physician in town, and by
him disapproved. This being the case, I added 
Bitters to the Bristol waters, with a restorative 
diet. Thus he recovered strength and spirits; 
but his asthmatic disorder still continued. At last
he took my advice and came to Bath, where he 
drank the waters six weeks. Every glass proved 
an expectorant, he went away perfectly re- 
stored. 
10. Mr. Partridge of the Packhorse, Turnham- 
Green, was subject to gouty complaints from his 
fourteenth


136 DISEASES CURED
fourteenth year. Last January, having caught 
cold, he was seized with an asthma; he could 
not lie in bed, his perspiration was stopped, his
legs were benumbed and swelled, without appe- 
tite. Naturally high spirited, he became so de- 
jected, that he burst often into tears on the sight 
of an old acquaintance. He came to Bath, drank 
the waters moderately, and, in six weeks time, 
was completely cured. He came down this win- 
ter by way of prevention, and is very well. 
11. Dr. Smollett, author of the History of Eng- 
land, laboured under a scorbutic humoral Asthma, 
for three years and upwards. To breathe he has 
been obliged to shift different airs, and never con- 
tinued long well in any. From a constitution 
healthy, vigorous and active, he became emaci- 
ate, low-spirited, and feeble, obliged often to 
rise out of bed, and fit up for hours; his perspi- 
ration was quite stopped, his appetite much im- 
paired, He tried variety of regimens, to very 
little purpose, was always the worse for bleeding. 
Caught in one of his fits, he put into the fore- 
said Packhorse, where he met with a director who 
counselled Bath water, from experience. Here 
he slept the very first night, and every other, for 
six weeks, drank the waters, and gained appetite, 
flesh, strength, and spirits. 
12. Mrs. Collins of this city, widow, aged 
sixty and upwards, has laboured under an Asthma
for many years. On the least motion she panted 
for breath, and was taken with violent fits of 
coughing. Her flesh wasted, her strength failed; 
by all appearances, she seemed bending fast to- 
ward the grave. By the advice of an emperic, 
she was, at last, pressed to try that healing foun- 
tain, which springs up within a few yards of her 
own house, which she did, to the quantity of a 
glass

137 BY BATH WATER.
glass, or two, a day only. She now lies flat in 
bed, sleeps well, eats heartily, her cough is va- 
nished, she walks a dozen of turns on the parade 
without being fatigued; whenever she finds a 
difficulty of breathing, she flies to the pump, and
forgets all her sorrow. She has, at different 
times, had the opinion of sundry physicians. To 
our common reproach be it confessed, Bristol wa- 
ter, bleeding, issues, pectorals, and every thing 
was counselled and tried, excepting the one thing 
needful; such strangers are we, even at this day, 
to the very tools by which we earn our daily 
bread. 
Since my last publication, I received the fol- 
lowing proof from an eminent merchant in 
Bristol. 
“ Some time since I had the pleasure of din- 
ing with you at my friend Rothley’s, who shewed
me a letter, dated the 10th instant, reminding 
me of the promise I made you, touching the pro- 
gress of a disorder I laboured with for a great 
many years. To be as good as my word, the fol- 
lowing is a description of my case, perfectly true, 
and too well known in this city to admit of the 
least doubt. 
“ From my infancy, I discovered, upon any 
Extraordinary exercise, some difficulty of breath- 
ing, but nothing remarkable ensued, till I arrived 
to twenty or thirty years of age; about which 
time shooting was a favourite diversion with me; 
and many times, being too eager in the pursuit 
of my game, I have been seized with such a short- 
ness of breath, seemingly occasioned by a blow- 
ing up of the lungs, that I have been obliged to 
sit down, sometimes for near an hour, before I 
have recovered; after that, had seldom a second 
attack the sameday.—About ten years ago, this 
long

138 DISEASES CURED
long growing complaint became a confirmed asth- 
ma, and during the course of seven or eight 
years, I endured as much misery from the disor- 
der, as I believe human nature is able to support; 
the beginning of these seizures were constantly in 
my first sleep, about an hour after I went to bed, 
and the fit generally lasted from twenty to thirty 
hours, and sometimes longer; during which time 
I was obliged to lie in one continued posture, and
my lungs so adhered, that they only supplied just 
motion enough to give life. Upon the first of 
these violent attacks I applied to an apothecary
of very considerable practice, and of whom I 
had a great opinion; he recommended me to a 
physician, and, after a due obedience to their me- 
dicines, I found no benefit. I then went to Lon- 
don to the famous Ward, he gave me some drops, 
which for a time lessened the violence and length 
of the fits, but his nostrum failed of the desired
effect; I then laid myself under another course 
of an eminent physician, who offered me his as- 
sistance out of friendship, he being big with the 
thoughts of success; and after a trial of his skill for 
5 or 6 weeks, the disorder had taken too deep root 
to be eradicated. I then had recourse to Bath, 
and the night I got there, had a fit of the asth- 
ma, as customary, which lasted till the middle of
the next day. In the evening I began with a 
common sized glass of water, and drank three 
glasses, morn, noon, and evening, the ensuing 
day; the next attack I had was faint and more 
favourable than before. I continued this course 
of drinking the waters three times a day for near 
a month, and found such amazing relief, that I 
pronounced myself cured, tho’ the next winter 
I was sensible of the disorder returning again; 
having several of the old accustomed fits. I went
again

139 BY BATH WATER.
again to Bath, drank the waters as before, and, 
thank God, found the same virtue in them, and
have now for two years continued as well as 
when you saw me, and may possibly give you
occular proof of it very soon, as I have some
thoughts of going to Bath for a few days.— 
I have given you the rise, progress, and (I hope) 
downfal of my case; and I shall be very happy,
if this narrative, thro’ your channel, can be use- 
ful to any of your patients. 
I am, Sir, 
Your very humble Servant, 
Bristol, Nov. 18, 1763
Cranfield Beecher.” 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
CHAP.

140 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. VIII. 
OF THE GOUT.
1. SYDENHAM’s description of the gout, 
regular and irregular, seems to be copied 
from nature. Boerhaave’s chapter of 
the gout (in his Aphorisms) is nothing 
else but an abstract of this. Hoffman has insert- 
ed his history in his discourse on this disease. Suc- 
ceeding writers have mangled a model worthy of 
imitation. Sydenham seems to be one of those, 
whom nature has endowed with that sagacity 
which constitutes the practical physician. Copy- 
ing the divine old pattern, this second Hippo- 
crates had the courage honestly to break through 
the clouds of ignorance, error, and prejudice; he 
gently led the art of physic into that natural path
of Observation from which she had so long stray- 
ed. Those racking pains which he felt for the 
greatest part of his own life, enabled him to, 
paint what he felt, and thereby relieve fellow-suf- 
ferers, by improving the diagnostic and curative 
parts of medicine. 
Gout. 
2. For a work of this kind, the spirit of his
descriptive part may suffice. The gout generally
makes its appearance at that period of 
life, when the circulation comes to be 
confined to a narrower sphere, when 
manly vigour declines, when the vessels begin to 
be rigid and impervious The harbingers of the 
Regular Gout are bad digestion, crudities, flatu- 
lencies, belching, heaviness, head-achs, nausea, 
loss of appetite, heart-burns, and wandering pains. 
The day preceding the fit, the appetite is sharp, 
and preternatural. 
Regular, its
history. 
The

141 BY BATH WATER.
The patient goes to bed, and sleeps quietly till 
about two in the morning, when he is awakened 
by a pain which usually seizes the great toe, heel, 
calf of the leg, or ankle. This pain resembles 
that of a dislocated bone, and is attended with a 
sensation as if warm water was poured on the 
membranes. These pains are immediately suc- 
ceeded by chilliness, shivering, and a slight fever. 
These last abate in proportion as the pain in- 
creases, which grows more violent every hour, 
till it comes to its height towards evening, re- 
sembling tension or laceration, sometimes the 
gnawing of a dog; and, at other times, a weight 
and constriction of the membranes, till it be- 
comes at last so exquisitely painful, that the pa- 
tient cannot abide the weight of the cloaths, nor 
the shaking of the floor. 
The night is not only passed in pain, but with 
a restless removal of the part affected also. This 
restlessness does not abate till about two or three 
of the clock in the morning; namely, twenty- 
four hours from the first attack. Breathing sweat 
succeeds, he falls asleep, and, upon waking, finds 
the pain much abated; the part affected, which 
before exhibited remarkable turgidness of the 
veins only, now swells. 
Next day, and perhaps two or three days after, 
if the gouty matter be copious, the part affected
comes again to be pained; the pain increases to- 
wards evening, and remits about break of day. 
In a few days, it seizes the other foot in the 
same manner; and, if the pain be violent in this, 
and that which was first seized be quite easy, the 
weakness thereof soon vanishes, it becomes strong
and healthy. The gout nevertheless affects the 
foot just seized as it did the former both in respect
to the vehemence and duration of pain. 
When

142 DISEASES CURED
When there is a copious somes of peccant mat- 
ter in the beginning, it affects both with equal 
violence; but, in general, it attacks the feet suc- 
cessively, as above. When it has seized both 
feet, the fits are irregular with respect to time 
of seizure, and continuance; but the pain al- 
ways increases in the evening, and remits in the 
morning. 
What we call a fit of the gout, is made up of 
a number of such small fits, the last of which 
prove milder, and shorter, till the peccant matter 
is expelled, and the patient recovers; which, in 
strong constitutions, and such as seldom have the 
gout, often happens in the space of fourteen days; 
in the aged, and those who have frequent returns, 
in two months; but in such as are debilitated, ei- 
ther by age, or the duration of the distemper, it
does not go off till the summer advances. 
During the first fourteen days, the urine is high- 
coloured; and, after separation, or standing, lets
fall a gravelly red sediment. Not above a third 
of the liquids taken in, is voided by urine. The 
body is generally costive. The fit is accompani- 
ed throughout with loss of appetite, chilliness to- 
wards the evening, and a heaviness, or uneasi- 
ness, even of those parts which are not affected. 
When the fit is going off, a violent itching 
seizes the foot, especially between the toes, the 
skin peels off, appetite and strength return; the 
juices come to be depurated, the patient finds him- 
self clearer in his understanding, chearful and ac- 
tive. Nature has performed her work. 
3. WHEN the body has long been habituated 
to the disease, when it has been exas- 
perated by quacking, the juices ac- 
quire a quality which supplies constant 
fuel to the flame. Debilitated nature can no 
Irregular. 
Its history. 
5 longer

143 BY BATH WATER.
longer unload her burden by the feet, the genu-
ine outlet of the morbific matter; it corrodes the 
capillary vessels, stagnates and curdles that liquor 
designed for lubricating the joints. This hardens 
into chalky matter, distends the skin, inflames, 
breaks through, and discharges itself in a fluid or 
solid form. It not only stiffens the joints, but it 
fixes on the tendons, and forms lodgments in the 
interstices of the muscles. Hence excruciating 
pains and lameness. This we call the Irregular 
Gout. 
Those particular fits which compose the gene- 
ral, sometimes continue fourteen days without 
intermission. The patient is besides afflicted with 
sickness, and a total loss of appetite. The cardi- 
nal fit continues till the summer heat comes on. 
During the intermission, the limbs are so con- 
tracted and disabled, that the patient can hardly
walk. The relicts of the morbific matter fly to 
the bowels; the haemorrhoidal vessels grow pain- 
ful; the stomach is oppressed with nauseous eruc- 
tations; the urine resembles that of a Diabetes; 
the whole man is debilitated. Hence low spirits, 
melancholy, &c. 
When the disease becomes inveterate, after 
yawning, especially in the morning, the liga- 
ments of the metatarsus are violently stretched; 
they seem as if they were squeezed with great 
force. Sometimes, though no yawning has pre- 
ceded, when the patient seems disposed to sleep, 
he feels a blow of a sudden, as if the metatarsus 
was breaking in pieces, so that he starts, roaring
out with pain. The tendons of the muscles of 
the shin-bone are seized with so violent a cramp, 
that the pain is insupportable. 
After many such racking pains, the following 
paroxysms become less painful, an earnest of ap- 
proaching

144 DISEASES CURED
proaching deliveries, by death. Nature, oppressed 
by disease and old-age, can no longer drive the 
morbific matter to the extremities. Sickness, las- 
situde, looseness, &c. usurp the place of pains. 
These ease the pains, which return as those go 
off. Thus, by a succession of pains and sickness, 
the fits are prolonged to an uncommon length. 
Pain diminishes, the patient sinks at length thro’
sickness rather than pain. In a word, pain is na- 
ture’s harsh remedy, by which she endeavours to 
relieve herself; the more violent it is, the sooner 
the fit terminates, the longer, and more perfect 
is the intermission, and e.c. 
Gout also produces stone and gravel. The 
mind sympathises also with the body. Every pa- 
roxysm may as justly be denominated a fit of an- 
ger, as a fit of gout. The rational faculties are 
so enervated, as to be disordered, on every trifling
occasion; the patient comes to be troublesome to 
others, as well as to himfelf. Fear, anxiety, and
other passions torment also, sometimes he swears, 
then prays, and anon cries. 
The organs of secretion no longer perform 
their functions; the blood, overchaged with vi- 
tiated humours, stagnates; the gouty matter ceases 
to be thrown on the extremities. Death puts an 
end to misery. This is the history of the gout, 
regular and irregular. We now proceed to enu- 
merate the causes which produce the paroxysms. 
4. PRINCES, Generals, Statesmen, Philosophers, 
the rich and opulent are the people who are ge- 
nerally subject to the gout. Provi- 
dence bestows her gifts more equally 
than we are apt to allow. The gout 
destroys more rich than poor, more wise men 
than fools; she tempers her profusion of good 
things with mixtures of evil; so that it appears
Persons at- 
tacked. 
to

145 BY BATH WATER.
to be decreed that no man shall enjoy unmixed 
happiness, or misery. The poor man’s children 
are plump and rosy, while his Lord’s look wan 
and puny. 
5. VIOLENT EXERCISE, sudden heats and colds, 
hard study, luxurious meals, night-revels, early 
venery, and the sudden interruption of 
wonted exercises, all contribute to an- 
ticipate the gout. It not only lays hold of the 
gross, intemperate, and indolent; but it attacks 
the lean, sober, and active, if they have received
the taint from gouty parents. Thus it comes to 
be interwoven with their very constitutions. Wo- 
men and children are martyrs to a disease natu- 
rally peculiar to man. The valetudinary sons of 
gouty parents feel the curses of old-age before 
they reach the years of puberty. 
Causes. 
6. THE reader will hardly expect to meet 
rules sufficient for directing him in the cure of a 
disease which baffles art. There are 
certain rocks on which gouty patients 
have suffered shipwreck; there are duties which 
they owe to themselves; these are both necessary 
to be known. In the regular gout, patience and 
flannel seem to be the requisites. The irregular 
puzzles the College.
Rules. 
Nature uninterrupted throws the morbific mat- 
ter of the gout on the extremities. Whatever 
weakens, hurries, or disturbs nature, injures the 
constitution. Evacuations of all sorts, topical 
applications, and bitters are, at best, necessary 
evils. In the last chapter, the gouty reader may 
find cautions worthy of his notice, particularly
under the section of Preparation.
7. IF Evacuants and Topics are rather hurtful 
than beneficial, whence are we to ex- 
pect a cure? Sydenham says, he can-
Bitters.
G not 


146 DISEASES CURED
not help thinking but that a radical cure may be 
found out. Till then, he supposes the primary 
cause of the gout to proceed from indigestion, to- 
gether with a consequential acrimony of the hu- 
mours. Such medicines as are moderately heat- 
ing, bitter, or pungent, purify the blood, and 
strengthen the first passages. For this purpose, 
he recommends Angelica, Elecampane, Wormwood, 
Centaury, Germander, Ground-pine, and the like, 
in a compound mixture, continued for a long 
time. Such medicines increase the circulation, 
and thus strengthen.—Of all the strengtheners of 
digestion. Dr. Cheyne prefers a strong infusion of
the bark in generous claret joined with chalybe- 
ates.—Boerhaave, Sydenham’s implicit admirer, 
says, Curatio quam contemplatio moli, et experientia 
commendavit, absolvitur restitutione vigoris in visceri- 
bus perditi. From the writings of the antients, 
as well as from experience, these gentlemen join- 
ed in the same opinion.—Caelius Aurelianus’s 
Diacentaureon, and Aetius’s Antidotes ex duobus 
Centaureae generibus, are old names for Portland’s 
powder.—Tournefort (in his Histoire des plantes 
qui naissent aux environs de Paris) gives an exact
description of it with the addition of the Centau- 
rium majus. The Faculty of Paris has adopted it 
into the Codex Medicamentorum, substituting the 
Rhaponticum in the room of the Centaurium ma- 
jus.—By the persuasion of a friend, the Duke of 
Portland took it for a hereditary gout, and found 
such relief, that humanity induced him to pub- 
lish the prescription, which differs not essentially
from Sydenham’s. Its indiscriminate use has a- 
verted fits of the gout, substituting mortal ail- 
ments in their room. 
1. “ Mr.

147 BY BATH WATER.
1. “ Mr. Fraigneau, Confectioner to the late 
“ King, was about forty years old. By a here- 
“ ditary gout, he had for many years 
“ been so much a cripple that he hob- 
“ bled only by the help of two sticks. 
“ Every year he had regular fits; in 
“ the interval was chearful, lively, and sensible. 
“ Importuned by the Great, he took Portland’s 
“ powders strictly. He lost his regular salutary 
“ fits. His stomach was at last so tanned with a 
“ farrago of astringent bitters, that it lost its re- 
“ tentive quality; he threw up every thing, even 
“ the bitters themselves. After various regimens, 
“ he came at last to Bath, where, by drinking 
“ the water, his vomiting stopped, but soon re- 
“ turned. By Dr. Nugent’s advice and mine, 
“ he took various antiemetics, all at last to no
“ purpose.”—In his case it may be worthy of 
remark, that when, by warm medicines, we could 
obtain inflammation and pain on any joint, his 
vomiting ceased, but the warmest at last proved 
ineffectual. With his last breath he cursed the 
powders. 
Portland’s 
powder fa- 
tal. 
2. “ Thomas Boucher, Esq. was also freed 
“ from his gouty fits by the powder. Sometime 
“ after he was afflicted with a violent fever, which
“ bequeathed him an inveterate rheumatism, and 
“ distortion of the joints of the fingers.” 
8. As Evacuants, Topics, and Bitters, 
all disturb nature, by taking a nearer 
view of nature, we may perhaps be led to a more 
powerful and safe specific. 
Cure.
When the stamina vitae come to be debilitated 
by intemperance, or old age; when the secretory
organs can no longer perform their office, hu- 
mours are collected in greater quantities than can 
be discharged. These undergo various alterations; 
G2 thus

148 DISEASES CURED
thus they occasion various diseases according to 
their degree of fermentation, or putrefaction. 
Hence it is that the aged are more subject to these 
diseases which proceed from indigestion than the 
young, whose vital warmth subdues, or expels 
noxious humours. Hence it is that invalids en- 
joy a better state of health in summer than in 
winter. Hence also it is that travelling into sou- 
thern climates, cures diseases incurable in nor- 
thern. Heat not only creates that juvenile fever 
which depurates gross humours, but it prevents 
their accumulation. 
This doctrine is evidently confirmed by that 
incredible relief which riding procures to people
labouring under chronical disorders. While it 
strengthens the digestive powers, it rouses that vi- 
tal heat which enables the secretory organs to pu- 
rify the blood. 
Proinde curatio absolvitur (1) restitutione vigoris 
in visceribus perditi, (2) Ablutione liquidi jam cor- 
rupti stuenils in vasis, vel stagnantis. 
HAD Sydenham been acquainted with the in- 
ternal virtues of Mineral Waters, or had he weigh- 
ed the effects of Warm Bathing in his 
judicious mind, he would have found 
a medicine endowed with virtues far su- 
periour to his admired Bitters, a medi- 
cine which (in the course of days, or weeks) not
only restores the lost vigour of the bowels, but 
depurates and carries off corrupted juices, a me- 
dicine which cures cito, tute, et jucunde. 
Mineral
waters spe-
cific.
In all ages, waters have been used internally 
and externally. The practice of drinking and bath- 
ing is rationally and succinctly laid down 
by Baccius, in his book De Thermis, 
pag. 119, and 120, under the article, 
Juncturarum et Articulorum morbis. Having laid
Baccius’s
doctrine. 
down

149 BY BATH WATER.
down rules for treating other affections proceeding 
from cold temperament, he observes that, in the 
gout, the joints are inflated, pained, and con- 
tracted from cold temperament also; these there- 
fore he proceeds to cure in the same manner, per 
calida balnea, concedenti usu. According to the 
different indications, he lays down different me- 
thods of cure; for slight affections, he proposes 
drinking; for more stubborn, bathing, nam irve-
teratom arthritim, seu chiragra fit, feu podagra, sive 
Ischias, parcius sanabit potatio; lavacra majorem ha- 
behunt efficaciam. 
By way of preparation, he advises the patient 
to drink a cup of purging waters for some morn- 
ings, to absterge those viscidities which give rise 
to the gout, quae crassas a latis meatibus visciditates, 
—In an universal gout, he orders the patient to 
bathe in warm discussory water. If there happens 
suspicion of distillation from the head, he refers 
him to the pump, as in nervous affections, quas 
etiam fi distillatio imputetur (ut plerumque fit) ad
usum Ducciae, qualiter in nervosis, usurpare licebit. 
He orders conspersions not only on the occiput, 
for the prevention of distillation, but on the mem- 
ber swelled or afflicted; by way of discussion, he 
advises lutations also, et itidem illutamenta. In in- 
cipient cases, where there are many parts at once 
affected, he orders sweatings. At si plures, ex 
dissipata fluxione, articuli consictentur, sudationibus
etiarn utendum, quales in Baianis fudaioriis, et mul- 
tis aliis. After the flux of humours has abated, 
he advises arenation, insolation, &c. Arenatio effica- 
ciffimum remedium est universae arthritidi, tumenti- 
bus praesertim lento ac frigido humnore articulis.-
In gout arising from hot temperament, he lays 
down one admonition well worthy of notice, viz. 
G3 To

150 DISEASES CURED
To purge off those humours which, by bathing
and sweating, might be exasperated. Medicata- 
rum potiones, degerendo, vacuando, ac fluctiones in- 
hibendo, quam lavacra calidarum, ant exudatio, quae
liquatis viscidis, ac prius sopitis humoribus excitatis, 
fluxioni ne adaugeant materiam timendum. 
He recommends drinking in gouts which attack 
people in the bloom of life, or heat of summer, 
which may be by following temperate strengthen- 
ing baths. Maxime vero commoda potatio, si (ut in 
pluribus accidit) a causa calida incipiat fluxio, vigen- 
te praesertim aelate ac destate ineunte; cui ministerio 
fi lavacra commoda subsequantur, haecque temperata 
funto, et quae, ex ferri qualitate, egregie valent con- 
firmare. Such are the Balnea Villae Lucae, Caiae, 
Porretanae, Albulae, &c. and such are our Cross
and Queen’s. These strengthen weak joints, and 
alleviate pains. On this principle, Dioscorides 
bathed Ischiatics in brine. Cornelius Celsus (Lib. 
iv. cap. 24.) heated brine, with which he foment- 
ed the feet, covering the patient with a cloak. 
Baccius recommends a fomentation of the mother 
of wine in disorders, from experience. In tubs 
of fermenting wines, he orders the part affected, 
or even the whole body, if it happens to be weak, 
to be immerged. 
Solvere nodosam nescit medicina podagram was the 
opprobrium of his days, as well as ours. He, ne- 
vertheless, advises a trial of unguents and bathings
in gouty concretions. Tentandum tamen non odea 
confirmatos callos per olei, aut assiduum hydrolaei fo- 
tum emollere, exudationibus aperire, dispositos per bal- 
nea calidior a, iisdem ex alto dispersis discutere. In 
chalk-stones, gibbous and contracted joints, Bac- 
cius recommends a leaden bath in Lothoringiis, the 
Tritoli, and many more. He recommends salt 
baths, lutatiom, saburrations, vaporaries, insola- 
tions,

151 BY BATH WATER.
tions, &c. all which were rationally, and success-
fully practised at Baiae, Puteoli, Cumae, Vesuvius, 
and other places. To the doctrine of this most
sagacious practitioner, I not only think myself 
obliged to assent; but, from reason and experi- 
ence, I dare affirm, that when the waters of Bath 
come to be rationally applied, they will be found 
second to none. Bath water restores the appetite, 
promotes the lesser secretions, and paves the way 
for medicines. When the vis vitae is not, of it- 
self, sufficient for protruding the gouty somes to 
the extremities, Bath water is preferable to all the 
panacaeas of the shops. The effects of the lat- 
ter are momentory only, Bath water invigorates 
the blood, and regenerates the constitution. Ba- 
thing opens obstructions, and strengthens. In 
Dr. Home’s Principia Medicinae, page 163, this 
opinion seems to be confirmed; his words are 
these, “ Vires concoctrices roborantur chalybe, 
“ vel aquis chalybeatis, Thermis Bathoniensibus 
“ praecipue.” 
9. IN indigestion, flatulency, belching, nausea, loss 
of appetite, heart-burns, lowness of spirits, 
wandering pains, and other symptoms, 
harbingers of the gout, there are votaries who
daily own their obligations to Bath. 
Cases.
1. Sir William Yonge, every time that he came 
down, got rid of the pain of his stomach, almost 
by the first glass. The truth is notorious. 
2. Mr Greenfield, Apothecary of Marlborough, 
had, for many years, been used to regular fits of
the gout. As age advanced, the paroxysms left a 
debility of the stomach, with belchings, indiges- 
tion, and low spirits. For these complaints, he 
came down every year pale, wan, and enervated; 
Every trial converts his symptoms into a regular 
fit? which he nursed at home with patience and 
G4 flannel.


152 DISEASES CURED
flannel. He left off coming to Bath at last, and 
thus shortened his days. 
3. For the benefit of fellow-sufferers, I am re- 
quested to publish the case of John Eaton, Esq. 
of this city, an unquestionable proof of my pre- 
sent position. 
“ By frequent courses of drinking Bath-water, 
I procured regular fits of the gout, which before 
afflicted me much. In July, 1759, I was seized 
with a pain in my stomach and bowels, which, 
(though not acute) continued for near a month; 
when it left a great trembling in my hands, with
loss of appetite, and lowness of spirits. These 
symptoms continued some weeks, and ended at 
last in a weakness of my limbs, so that I could 
neither stand, turn in my bed, nor lift my hands
to my mouth. 
“ These complaints induced me to come to 
Bath. I was carried to the Pump, where I drank 
a pint of water a day, at three different draughts, 
all in the morning. 1 drank the Bath-water 
mixed with wine also at my meals. This course 
I have pursued till now, interrupting them now 
and then for a fortnight; about December I left 
them off for ten weeks. 
“ My strength increased gradually, I am now 
able to walk, and to assist myself as well as can 
be expected from a man who has been so much 
troubled with the gout, of which I had several 
slight fits since my residence at Bath. 
Bladud-Buildings, 
11th April, 1761. 
John Eaton.” 
4. Mr. Fleming, a Swiss by birth, once a mil- 
lener in Bond-street, nine years ago, was taken, 
as he played at cards, suddenly with a sickness 
and

153 BY BATH WATER.
and giddiness in his head. Getting up, he reel-
ed, and ran against the wall with such force, that 
he broke his head. By art he was so much re- 
lieved that he came to Bath, where (ignorant or 
the cause) he drank the waters, and at the end of 
fourteen days had a smart fit of the gout in both 
feet, which lasted twenty-one days. After this 
he continued well for years. In the year 1758, 
he was again attacked with violent pain of the 
stomach and head, with cough, chills, shiverings, 
&c. Doctor Shaw advised him to come to Bath. 
His affairs not permitting, he continued eleven 
weeks under his and Doctor Taylor’s hands. In 
a weakly emaciated condition, without appetite, 
or digestion, he was transported at last to Bath, 
where, by drinking the water for one week only, 
both legs swelled and inflamed. This fit lasted 
three weeks, and kept him in health for a year. 
Whenever his head or stomach complaints begin, 
he immediately sets out to the healing spring, and
finds a certain painful cure. 
WHEN the patient has gone through a regu- 
lar fit, when the paroxysms have purified the. 
habit, when he finds his spirits lively, 
and his senses clear, he ought then to 
bathe in water rather cooler than the heat of the 
human blood. Tepid bathing is a rational reme- 
dy for clearing the vessels of the dregs of the dis- 
ease. The Cold-Bath completes the cure. 
Caution.
The patient then ought to hid adieu to Bath- 
water. This caution may not perhaps be im- 
pertinent, when we consider that there are num- 
bers who blindly jog on in the circle of curing 
and procuring gouts by the same specific, till by 
indolence, waters, and drugs, constitutions come 
to be worn out. 
G5 BATH-

154 DISEASES CURED
BATH-WATER has performed wonders extern- 
ally, as well as internally. When the chalky mat- 
ter breaks through the small vessels, it 
forms lodgments in the interstices of the 
muscles, it deposites itself on the tendons, which 
it thickens, stiffens, and renders unfit for muscu- 
lar motion, it dries up that liquor which serves 
lor lubricating the joints, it forms stiff joints. 
Persons thus affected have been recovered by warm 
bathing; not on the principle of softening, or re- 
laxing, as imagined by Doctor Oliver, in his Es- 
say on the use, and abuse of warm bathing hi gouty 
cases; for I have already proved Bath-waters to 
be hard, bracing, and astringent. Nor do they 
contain particles saponaceous; for they are not 
such powerful solvents as common water. His 
little performance is nevertheless fraught with 
practical reflections, and cautions well-worthy of
the perusal of the gouty reader; a convincing 
proof that tho’ in theory we may differ, observa- 
tion and experience will direct all to the truth.
Bathing. 
OF the doctrine of Rarefaction and the effects 
of fevers artificially raised, I have treated at large, 
in my Attempt to revive the doctrine of Bathing. 
Suffice it here to say, that the diameters of the 
vessels thus enlarged, the moleculae, which were 
too large to pass in their contracted state, are 
ground down by repeated circulation and depu- 
ration. 
1. “ Dr, Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) men- 
“ tions the following case of his own father-in- 
“ law, Mr. David Tryme. From be- 
“ tween fifty and sixty, he had been 
“ subject to fits of the gout at great in- 
“ tervals, tho’ he drank freely, and rode hard. 
“ Whe he bad a fit, he used plaisters and oint- 
“ ments of all sorts. At the age of eighty-three. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ he


155 BY BATH WATER.
“ he was attacked with a severe fit, which first
“ seized his toes and fingers, to which he used to 
“ apply whatever was proposed; by which he 
“ fell into fainting fits, out of which he was 
“ with great difficulty got by the use of strong
“ waters and cordials. 
“ These threw the gout a centro in circumferen- 
“ tiam, into his hips, knees, and feet, so that he 
“ was, for some days, in excessive pain, which 
“ he chose to bear rather than again to apply his 
“ plaisters. Patience and posset-drink eased the 
“ pain, but left so great a weakness, and stiff- 
“ ness, that he could neither walk, stand, nor 
“ extend his legs. From July to April he re- 
“ mained a cripple. 
“ He was lifted in and out of the Queen’s and 
“ King’s-Baths. After three weeks bathing, he 
“ not only walked between his guides, but he 
“ swam twice round the King’s-Bath, He re- 
“ covered, and lived five years longer without 
“ any severe fit of the gout.” 
2. “ Robert Long, Esq. of Prior-Stanton, in 
“ the 89th year of his age, was much enfeebled 
“ with severe fits of the gouty was weak in his 
“ limbs, and tender in his feet. He bathed in 
“ the Cross-Bath fourteen or fifteen times. He 
“ walked more erect and nimble, has a smooth 
“ fresh florid countenance, and is likely to pass 
“ another seven years.” 
3. “ George Long, Esq. of Downside, near 
“ Wells, was, upwards of twenty years past, at-
“ tacked by the Gout and Stone. He 
“ was pained in every joint; his fing- 
“ ers became crooked, his right knee, 
“ hips, and back motionless by calculous matter, 
“ which crammed itself into every joint. He 
“ was bed-ridden. His thirst was importunate. 
Surprising
Case. 
G6 “ his

156 DISEASES CURED
“ his appetite lost, his skin shrivelled, his face 
“ meagre, his hair grey, his flesh wasted, so that 
“ he could throw the calf of his leg over his 
“ shin-bone. With all this, he had a perpetual 
“ sharpness of urine; nay, all the juices of his 
“ body had such a propensity to lapidescency, 
“ that his water being left, but a few days, in a 
“ urinal, was crusted at the side and top as thick 
“ as half a crown, with a porous kind of stone 
“ like that of a pumex. 
“ In this condition, he was, with difficulty, 
“ transported to Bath. He began with drinking 
“ the waters hot from the Pump in the morning; 
“ at meals cold, for he drank not then, nor 
“ hath he since drank any malt liquor. In a 
“ week’s time his thirst abated, and the sharp- 
“ ness of his urine lessened; his stomach began 
“ to return. After a month’s drinking, he bathed 
“ between whiles, which eased his pains much. 
“ In the Bath, he could suffer his legs to be ex- 
“ tended a little.
“ He returned home in about six weeks, and 
“ drank the waters there. In three months af- 
“ ter, he returned, bathed, and drank six weeks 
“ as before. In the mean time he gathered some 
“ flesh and strength, with some small ability to 
“ go, though criplishly. 
“ In November following his grey hairs began 
“ to fall off; new ones succeeded; nay, he says, 
“ his grey hairs turned to a soft brown, which 
“ grew so fast, that he cut more than an inch 
“ every four or five weeks. By Candlemas he 
“ hardly had a grey hair left. Even now, bate- 
“ ing a little baldness on the crown, (for he is 
“ on the wrong side of fifty) it looks like a bor- 
“ der of hair, which I have seen before whole 
“ heads were so much in use.
“ To



157 BY BATH WATER.
“ To perfect his recovery, he took a house and 
“ lived here for the most part of the next year, 
“ 1692, about which time his toe-nails, which were 
“ hard, ragged, and scaly, began to be thrust off 
“ by new and smooth ones. His arms and hands 
“ recovered strength, he had much freer motion 
“ of his joints, his muscles plumped. He was 
“ daily more and more erect; every bathing 
“ stretched him half an inch. He had now a 
“ fleshy hale habit of body, a vigorous eye, and 
“ a ruddy, plump, youthful face, especially when 
“ he mixes Sherry with his water, which he will 
“ sometimes do. In fine, he hath no fit of the 
“ Gout to lay him up long together, nor the least 
“ touch of stone, or sharpness of urine. He 
“ rode from Bath to Oxford in a day, which is 
“ forty-eight computed miles; and, but a few 
“ days before that, went from hence to his own 
“ house, which is twelve or fourteen long miles, 
“ after twelve o’clock at night; went to bed for 
“ two or three hours, rose again, and dispatched 
“ a great deal of business before dinner. His 
“ wife being asked a question about his rejuve- 
“ nescency, answered, I verily believe, if I was 
“ dead, he would marry again.” 
4. “ Dr. Guidot (in his Register of Bath) men- 
“ tions the Case of a merchant of London of se- 
“ venty years of age, so afflicted with 
“ the gout, that, for six weeks time, 
“ he could not go to bed, or rise with- 
“ out help, having also used crutches for many 
“ months. By the use of the Cross Bath, and 
“ rubbing well with the guides hands, at three 
“ seasons of Bathing, so far recovered, that using 
“ only a stick, which he usually wore, he now 
“ walks strongly, both hands and feet being flexi- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
“ ble,



158 DISEASES CURED
“ ble, and free from pain. He subscribed the be- 
“ nefit received, 5 August, 1676. R. P.” 
5. “ Sir Francis Stonor, Knt. received great 
“ benefit in great weakness from the gout, by the 
“ use of the Queen’s and King’s Bath, in grati- 
“ tude for which he gave a considerable sum of 
“ money, by which the stone rails and pavement 
“ were built about the King’s Bath.” 
In Dr. Olivers Essay before-mentioned, we find 
two Cases to our purpose. The first is contained 
in a letter from Charles Edwin, Esq. the patient, 
to the Doctor. The second relates the Case of a 
patient of Dr. Woodford’s, Reg. Prof. Med. 
Oxon. in the Bath Infirmary. 
6. “ Mr. Edwin’s second fit of the gout left a 
“ weakness in the joints of one foot. In a suc- 
“ ceeding fit, it attacked the other foot and an- 
“ kle, afterwards one of his hands, and both 
“ knees, so that he could not bend or move his 
“ ankles; he could not walk. After his third 
“ bathing, he was able to walk in his room 
“ without the help of cruches, and gained 
“ strength so as to walk about the town with a 
“ cane. 
“ He bathed sixty-five times, and pumped thir- 
“ ty-eight. It is remarkable (says the Doctor) 
“ that, during this course, he never had one 
“ symptom of the humour’s being thrown upon 
“ any vital part, neither has he had any violent 
“ fit of the gout since.” 
7. “ Philip Tuckey, aged about fifty, was 
“ born of gouty parents, and improved his woe- 
“ ful inheritance by a very free way of life. 
“ When he was about twenty-seven years old, he 
“ was attacked in the great toe. For some years 
“ he had fits at uncertain periods. About twelve 
“ years ago he got a violent cold by painting 
“ (which




159 BY BATH WATER.
“ (which was his profession) a new built house. 
“ This threw the gout all over his head, stomach, 
“ bowels and limbs. The pains continued to 
“ torment one part or other for five months, and 
“ left him so weak and lame, that he could never 
“ after walk without crutches. 
“ His knees were almost immoveable, the 
“ membranes which surround the joint being 
“ much thickened, and the tendons which draw 
“ the legs towards the thigh being hard and con- 
“ tracted. His legs, ankles and feet, were much 
“ swollen and oedematous. He had little appe- 
“ tite, and a bad digestion. His spirits were low, 
“ to which despair of recovery contributed not a 
“ little. 
“ After his first passages had been cleansed by 
“ warm purges, he began to drink the waters in 
“ moderate quantities. He soon found his appe- 
“ tite and digestion mend, his spirits were re- 
“ lieved. Having persisted in this course some 
“ days, he was ordered to bathe three times a 
“ week. He had not bathed thrice before the 
“ tendons began to supple, and to give way to 
“ the extension of his legs. By a few more 
“ bathings, the swellings of his joints gradually 
“ decreased, but without any symptom of the 
“ stagnant humour’s being translated to the head, 
“ stomach, lungs, or bowels. He took a warm 
“ purge now and then, to clean the passages, as 
“ well as to discharge the gouty matter which 
“ had been moved by bathing. Thus, he went 
“ on, gaining strength daily, so that in a month’s 
“ time, he walked two miles with only a single 
“ stick, without being tired. In this happy con- 
“ dition he was discharged in two months.” 
8. Sir Cordel Firebrace came to Bath a very 
cripple by the gout. Against the opinion of his
physicians,




160 DISEASES CURED
physician, he was carried into the Bath. He tar- 
ried, for hours together, in the very hottest parts, 
and was cured. 
The following is the Case of Doctor Sarsfield, 
Physician, of Cork. 
Dear Sir, 
Bath, April the 7th, 1764. 
9. IN approbation of your most laudable un- 
dertaking, in gratitude to Bath Waters, as well as 
for the benefit of my fellow-sufferers, I freely 
communicate the heads of my case to you, mean- 
ing only to point out, in general, the remedies I 
have reason to lay the greatest stress upon, in- 
tending to publish the case at length, with all its 
particular changes and circumstances. Naturally 
gouty, about twelve months ago I was brought 
to Bath, entirely deprived of the use of my limbs, 
not having one articulation in my body capable of 
motion, except that of my under jaw; I was in 
pretty much the same situation for fifteen months 
before, wasted to a skeleton, with universal and 
constant acute pain, restlessness, total want of 
appetite, stoppage of water, costiveness, and full 
appearance of a jaundice. I drank the waters 
with caution, increasing gradually; bathed in 
the different baths about seventy times, took gen- 
tle laxatives generally once in ten days, took 
Huxham’s Essence of Antimony, of which I believe 
I made the greatest trial that ever has been made, 
having taken to the quantity of five tea-spoonfuls 
at a time, very often without its making me sick 
at stomach. 
I cannot omit observing, that about four months 
ago I perceived a pain, with a swelling in the 
back near the right hip, which part seemed most
affected from the beginning; this gradually in- 
creased until it was thought proper to open it 
by



161 BY BATH WATER.
by a caustic; the discharge was very considerable, 
and continued till the other day, when a large 
pea was put in, and the fore is now turned into 
an issue, by which I already find great benefit, 
now that I write this for your satisfaction and 
the public good. I am free from pain, walk as 
well as ever, and enjoy, in every respect, better 
health than I did these ten years part. 
I am, 
Dear Sir, 
Your most assured friend, 
And very humble servant, 
To Dr. Alex, Sutherland. 
Dom. Sarsfield.
CHAP.




162 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. IX. 
OF THE RHEUMATISM.
1. RHEUMATISM and GOUT are so 
often mistaken for one another, and con- 
sequently mal-treated, that it may therefore be 
useful to lay down some general rules 
whereby they may be distinguished.—
Gouty matter tears the small vessels, 
and, thus, produces fevers, pain, swell- 
ings, and redness of long duration.—The pain of 
the rheumatism is tensive, heavy, gnawing; and 
continues after the fever is gone, without remark- 
able tumor, or redness.—The rheumatism often 
attacks but once or twice in life.—Paroxysms of 
the gout are rather temporary depurations than 
complete cures.—The rheumatism has been cured. 
—The gout never ought to be attempted. 
Rheumatism
and gout di-
stinguished.
2. The rheumatism is distinguished 
into febrile, and not febrile.
Division.
3. Its remote causes are sudden chills, changes 
of winds, excessive loss of blood, super- 
purgation, plethora, surfeits, drinking, 
nimia venus, intermittents, scurvy, and p—x. 
Causes.
4. Its proximate causes seem to be obstruction 
of the serous and lymphatic vessels, especially of 
the membranes and ligaments, occasioned by 
viscid acrid serum. 
5. The febrile symptoms are lassitude, rigour, chil- 
liness and heaviness of the extremities, quick hard 
pulse, thirst, restlessness, costiveness. 
After a day or two, sharp shifting pains 
occupy the joints, with swelling and inflamma- 
tion; these are increased by motion, and often 
Symptoms.
shift 




163 BY BATH WATER.
shift their seat. The blood puts on the pleuritic 
hue. Sometimes it seizes the head or bowels. 
The pains continue after the fever. Tubercles,
and stiff joints often follow. 
The non-febrile symptoms are wandering pains, 
with stiffness in the muscles, or ligaments, with- 
out swelling, chiefly. 
6. While the rheumatism occupies the extre- 
mities only, the prognostic is fair, and 
e. c. Chronic disorders or gout are 
often consequences. 
Prognostics.
7. BORN in a happier climate, our instructors, 
the antients, have left little on record on the sub- 
ject of rheumatism. They were exempted from 
diseases arising from obstructed perspiration. From 
Sydenham, the moderns seem to have borrowed 
the present practice. He was so free with the 
lancet, that, in his early practice, he destroyed 
the vis vitae, and thereby entailed tedious chroni- 
cal ailments. In pain, patients as well as physi- 
cians grasp at every thing that gives present re- 
lief; premature opiates call for bleedings. In 
their own cases, physicians ought not to trust 
themselves. When the body is in pain, the 
mind sympathises. Of this I could recount fatal 
examples.—Bath and Bristol waters increase 
the circulation and enrich the blood; and are, 
therefore, improper in rheumatisms of the febrile 
sort.—In chronic rheumatisms, or in febrile, after 
the inflammation is subdued and the first passages 
cleansed, attenuants, resolvents, diaphoretics and 
demulcents are indicated. Bath waters internal 
or external answer every intention. To facts I
appeal. 
8. In his Bath Memoirs, Dr. Pierce 
relates the following cures. 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
1.



164 DISEASES CURED
1. “ Dr. Floyde, bishop of Litchfield, had 
“ such pain and weakness in the right shoulder 
“ and arm; that it interrupted his rest; he came 
“ to Bath, and, by bathing and pumping, re- 
“ ceived such benefit, that he continued well for 
“ ten or twelve years after. It then returned 
“ with greater violence, so that his body yielded 
“ to that side. By bathing and pumping he re- 
“ covered.” 
2. “ Major Arnold complained of a very great 
“ pain and weakness from his left shoulder down- 
“ wards to his fingers end. He had pain also in 
“ his right hip, thigh and leg. He had withal 
“ a violent cough, he discharged much and foul 
“ spittle; he had little or no stomach, and some- 
“ times cast up what he had eaten. He was 
“ subject to the Stone, and formerly voided much 
“ gravel and small stones. 
“ Making too much haste to be well, he went 
“ into the Bath presently, and suffered by it. 
“ After due preparation, I put him first upon 
“ drinking the waters, because of his nephritic 
“ disorder, and then permitted him to bathe. 
“ At two months end, he returned perfectly 
“ cured as to cough, stomach, and rheuma- 
“ tism.” 
3. Dr. Guidot (in his Register) records the 
following. “ Mr. Arthur Sherstone of Brem- 
“ ham, aged fifty, after a short journey was 
“ taken with a rheumatism, which, after violent 
“ pains universal, seized on his hand, knee, and 
“ foot. He also lost the motion of his lower 
“ limbs. By bleeding, and other evacuations, 
“ the inflammation and swelling abated consider- 
“ ably, but the running pains remained so as 
“ to take away the use of both arms, by turns. 
“ By






165 BY BATH WATER.
“ By the moderate life of the Queen’s-Bath, he 
“ recovered.” 
4. “ John Binmore of Exeter, for benefit re- 
“ ceived in the rheumatism, which had superin- 
“ duced both palsy and dropsy, by drinking the 
“ waters, and the use of the mud, he gave pub- 
“ lie thanks to God.” 
5. When the army was preparing to embark 
for Belleisle, Captain Buchannan, of the Royal 
Scotch Fuzileers, was then under a sweating an- 
timonial regimen for the rheumatism. Half cur- 
ed and crippled, he would embark. Marching 
up to the attack, he fell down. Ordering his 
men to jump over him, by the assistance of a 
drummer, he gathered himself up and hobbled 
after them. By a long and cold winter’s cam- 
paign his disorder was increased. When he came 
to Bath he was crippled, hands and feet. By 
bathing and drinking he recovered. 
6. FROM May 1742, to 1760, there were 
five hundred seventy-five rheumatics admitted into 
the Bath Infirmary. Of these one hundred eighty- 
three were cured, two hundred and eighty much 
better, the rest better, or incurable. 
OF THE LUMBAGO.
THE Rheumatism, Lumbago, and Sciatica, are 
species of the same same genus. They 
differ only in the names of the parts of 
the body which they attack. 
Lumbago. 
The Lumbago is often mistaken for the Nephri- 
tis: the distinguishing sign is, the latter is attend- 
ed with vomiting, the former not. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath-Memoirs) has 
recorded the following Cases. 1. “ Wil- 
“ liam Lord Stafford was affected in 
Pierce’s 
Cases.  
“ both



166 DISEASES CURED
“ both hips, and in the lumbal muscles also. 
“ He bathed in the Cross Bath for five or six 
“ weeks, for it was summer, and went away 
“ better. In October he returned, finding his 
“ pains renewed so as to make him roar. When 
“ the weather was moderate, he bathed in the 
“ King’s Bath; when it was foul, in a tub. A- 
“ bout the middle of February he went to Lon- 
“ don recovered.” 
2. “ Lady Dowager Brooke was seized with 
“ a Lumbago, or Double Sciatica, with violent 
“ pains which bended her double. By the advice 
“ of three of the most eminent physicians of 
“ London, she had gone through several courses 
“ of physic, with hardly any amendment. A 
“ salivation was at length proposed, which she 
“ positively refused, proposing Bath of her own 
“ accord. This resolution was vehemently op- 
“ posed by three out of the four. Willis took a 
“ formal leave of her, washing his hands, and 
“ prognosticating certain death. She set out ne- 
“ vertheless in September, and entered presently 
“ on bathing in the Cross-Bath, drinking some- 
“ times of the water, in the first week she 
“ found ease, could stand upright in the Bath; 
“ in a month’s time could walk in her chamber, 
“ and was perfectly recovered. Her Doctors, 
“ when they took their leave, packed her up a 
“ peck of medicines, which she never tasted, nor 
“ indeed hardly any while she staid here.” 
OF THE SCIATICA.
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
1. Dr. Pierce’s first observation is that 
of Duke Hamilton. “ His Grace came 
“ hither very unweel, as he himself term- 
“ ed it, by reason of a pain in his hips, which 
“ caused



167 BY BATH WATER.
“ Caused him to go very lame, and disturbed his 
“ rest at night, and had done so for many months 
“ before. 
“ After due preparation, he entered the Bath, 
“ and sometimes drank the waters in the Bath 
“ only, to prevent thirst. After a week or ten 
“ days bathing, he was pumped on the affected 
“ hip. This course was continued for a month, 
“ or five weeks, by which His Grace obtained so 
“ much advantage, that he walked about with a 
“ cane, favouring that leg. On catching cold, 
“ he had afterwards minding of his illness again; 
“ but by visiting this place once or twice more, 
“ he recovered perfectly.”
2. “ Col. Mildmay’s case was more painful and 
“ more inveterate. By bathing he recovered.”
3. “ Sir John Clobery had been a colonel in 
“ Scotland, under Monk. By great fatigues, and 
“ being frequently obliged to sleep on the ground, 
“ he was seized with aches and pains in his limbs, 
“ of which he recovered. By laying in damp 
“ sheets, he was seized with a tormenting fit of 
“ a Sciatica, which held him two years, and crip- 
“ pled him.
“ He went through various regimens in Lon- 
“ don, all to no purpose. After being bled and 
“ purged, he bathed, and pumped for six or eight 
“ weeks, at the end of which he went away, 
“ not much advantaged for the present; but, 
“ after two or three months, was well at ease, 
“ upright, and streight.”
4. “ Mrs. Boswel, newly married, aged about 
“ twenty, was contracted and crippled by a sci- 
“ atica, so that she could neither stand upright, 
“ nor lay streight. She was carried in arms, 
“ not without frequent complaints of twinging  
pain.
“ She



168 DISEASES CURED
“ She had tried all forts of remedies, internal 
“ and external, without benefit. By two months 
“ bathing and pumping she mended considerably, 
“ insomuch that she could leave off her opiate, 
“ which she took twice or thrice a day to the 
“ quantity of thirty or forty drops at a time. 
“ Whether it was by the violence of her pain, 
“ or the too frequent use of these stupefactive 
“ medicines, or former inclination to hysterics, 
“ she had often very violent ones, not much 
“ short of epileptic fits. 
“ She bathed, and pumped, and thus recover- 
“ ed considerably the first season. Next year she 
“ returned and completed her cure.” 
AMONG Guidot’s two hundred Cases there are 
fourteen Sciatics, a specimen of which are the 
following. 
5. “ Benjamin Barber, Alderman of Bath, was 
“ cured by bathing and pumping.” 
6. “ Robert Sheyler was cured by three bath- 
« ings ” 
7. “ Mr. Thomas Wilkins was cured by bath- 
“ ing four times, and pumping twice.” 
CHAP.


169 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. X. 
OF CUTANEOUS DISEASES.
IN Skin Diseases Baths natural and artificial 
have been used in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. In his book (De Thermis, pag. 122.) Bac- 
cius expresses himself, Maculas autem, pruritus,
ulcuscula, scabies, lepras, papulas, el id genus alia 
per cutim vulgo manantia vitia, tum crebrae medica-
tarum potiones exterminant, tum abluunt, abolentque 
in totum abstergentium et calidarum quarumcunque lo- 
tiones. In universum, minerales aquae omnes, omnes 
salsae ac marinae ad omnigena cutis faciunt vitia. 
I. OF THE LEPROSY.
1. LEPROSY, or Elephantiasis, is a 
cuticular disease appearing in the form 
of dry, white, thin, scurfy scales.
Definition. 
2. Its diagnostic signs are itching 
with scales generally confined to the 
cuticle. Sometimes it goes deeper, and appears 
in the form of deep ulcers. 
Diagnostics,
3. This disease is generally hard to 
cure, especially if it is hereditary.
Prognostic.  
In this and other inveterate diseases of the skin, 
bathing has successfully been used in 
all ages. Baccius (pag. 122) expres- 
ses himself thus, Elephantiasi autem et quam dicunt
Lepram, nec minus omni intemperatne, ac veteri sca- 
biei. fortiora in cunctis conveniunt balnea, omnes ter- 
rae minerales, sulphursae praesertim, quales in Lu- 
tationibus commemorantur multae. The Well Cal- 
lirhoe, and the River Jordan, are said, in sacred
Cure. 
H writ,



170 DISEASES CURED
writ, to have cured Leprosies. Paulus Aegineta 
commends natural baths in the cure of Leprosies, 
praesertim aluminosarum, et quae ferrum sapiunt. Con- 
fert ipsarum potio, tum marinae harenae usus, et 
quaecunque tandem sudationibus ciendis efficaciam ha- 
bent, Vaporaria, ac Discussoria. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) expresses 
himself thus. “ For more than forty 
“ years that I have lived here, there 
“ hath not one past wherein there 
“ hath not been more than a few instances of 
“ very great cures done upon leprous, scurvy, and 
“ scabby persons. The virtue of the waters is so 
“ well known in leprous cases, that it seems al- 
“ most superfluous to bring examples. However, 
“ that this head may not be without its particular 
“ instances, I shall give some few eminent ones. 
General 
proofs.
1. “ Thomas St. Lawrence, Esq. of Ireland, 
“ aged fifteen or sixteen, was sent 
“ hither in May, 1679. For seven 
“ years past he had been afflicted with 
“ a perverse scab tending to a leprosy, which had 
“ yielded to no medicine. By my advice he was 
“ bled and purged four times, took alteratives, 
“ drank the waters, bathed and recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A poor fellow from Warwickshire came 
“ hither in the year 1684. I never saw any onc 
“ come nearer to the description of a leper in the 
“ Leviticus than this man. By drinking, and 
“ bathing in the Lepers-Bath, he was perfectly re- 
“ covered.” 
3. “ A Woodmonger of Staines brought his 
“ son hither aged about twelve or thirteen, who, 
“ from his infancy, was subject to the Vitelligo. 
“ Sometimes it was more, then less, in greater or 
“ lesser blotches on his neck, elbow, knees, face, 
“ head, arms, and thighs, with a brawny white
“ scurf,



171 BY BATH WATER.
“ scurf, which fell off and grew again. After 
“ a month’s bathing and drinking, the spots rose 
“ not so much. But, as the disease had been 
“ born with him, I advised his father to put him 
“ to school here. I could not get him to drink 
“ regularly, but he bathed every night, and some- 
“ times took physic. In a twelve month’s time 
“ he returned as found as a trout, and had been 
“ so for some months before he fet out.” 
4. FROM Dr. Guidot’s Bath Register we have 
copied the following Cases. “ Ema- 
“ nuel Weston, of Elsemore, in the 
“ county of Salop, had a scurfy head 
“ with many scales for five years. By bathing
“ and washing the head in the Lepers-Bath he 
“ was cured, June 14th, 1682.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
5. “ E. G. daughter of a musician of Bath, 
“ from her birth was troubled with a scurvy and 
“ scaly head like an elephantiasy, or leprosy. By 
“ the use of the King’s Bath, and application of 
“ the mud, with some externals, she had a found 
“ head, and thick hair. This I saw November 5, 
“ 1685.” 
6. “ Dorothy Rossington having scales falling 
“ from all her body, especially in the morning, 
“ by using the King’s and Queen’s Baths six 
“ months received cure.”  
7. “ Richard Vernon, aged fourteen, was for 
“ ten years troubled with a milder sort of leprosy, 
“ called an elephantiasy, with tawny spots, and 
“ white scales. He drank the water seven days, 
“ and bathed three weeks, by which he recover- 
“ ed. The winter following the disease broke 
“ forth. After eight weeks pursuit of the same 
“ method, he went away well. Father and son 
“ gave testimony, June 6, 1689.” 
H2 8. “ Henry 


172 DISEASES CURED 
8. “ Henry Clempson, shoemaker, came to 
“ Bath Whit-Monday, 1687, used the hot bath 
“ three months. The year following, two months, 
“ gave public thanks to Almighty God, who 
“ cured him of a white dry leprosy, called elephan- 
“ tiasy confirmed, which had miserably afflicted 
“ him for six years.” 
9. “ I John Burch, of the county of Kent, 
“ came to Bath, April 30, 1691, troubled three 
“ years with a white scurfy skin and head. Un- 
“ der the scales were reddish spots most common- 
“ ly round. I used the Bath nine weeks, and 
“ acknowledged my cure.” 
10. “ Horthy Harper, a Leper, received great 
“ benefit by the Lepers-Bath, 1693.” 
11. “ Elizabeth Smith, a Leper, whose skin 
“ was covered over with white scales, went away 
“ clean, 1693.” 
12. “ Sarah Meredith of Carleen, received 
“ benefit in an Elephantiasy by the Hot-Bath, 
“ 1693.” 
13. “ Howel Morgan, Efq. of Merioneth, re- 
“ ceived great benefit in a foul skin resembling 
“ an elephantiasy, by drinking and bathing, 
“ 1693.” 
II. OF THE SCROPHULA.
1. SCROPHULA is an indolent schir- 
rous tumour, seated chiefly in the glands 
of the neck, and degenerating into ulcers of the 
word sort. 
Definition.
2. Its chief seat is the glandular sys- 
tem in general, not the only, for it oc- 
cupies the adipose membrane, muscles, tendons, 
joints, and bones. 
Seat.
3. Par-



173 BY BATH WATER.
3. Particular nations are infested with it, viz. 
the Bavarians, Dutch, and the Tyroleze. Of these
children, persons grown up rarely. 
4. Its remote causes are crude, viscid, acid diet, 
foggy air, preceding diseases, pox, snow water, 
but, above all, hereditary taint, sometimes from 
the nurse. It is very difficult to be cured. Scro- 
phulas subnascentes abolere balneum item in Baiams et 
digerentia, et callida alia diutissime fata, ut nitrata 
calentia, ac item ebibita, quales placuit Vitruvio cele- 
brare Subcutilas aquas in Sabinis, pariterque fomenta 
ex bituminosis, ferreis, plumbeis, et ex brassica para- 
tum in Discussoriis artificialibus, says Baccius, pag. 
122. 
1. FROM Pierce’s Memoirs, we have these 
Cases. “ Lord James Butler came to Bath, June, 
“ 1677, with a chirurgeon to dress his 
“ wound, which was upon the last 
“ joint of one of his thumbs. It was 
“ judged to be scrophulous. He drank the water 
“ mostly, sometimes bathed. That hand he bath- 
“ ed morning and evening at home. After five 
“ or six weeks, the wound afforded a more laud- 
“ able quitture, which gave him encouragement 
“ to return another season, which he did, and 
“ was cured.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A son of Monsieur Du Puys, servant to 
“ James Duke of York, had a running sore on 
“ his hand, which yielded to no surgery. It was 
“ therefore deemed scrophulous. He had been 
“ touched more than once to no purpose. He 
“ drank the waters, and bathed, took vulneraries 
“ and other alteratives. In two seasons he was 
“ cured.” 
3. FROM Guidot’s Register we have 
the following. “ Francis Loughton, 
“ of the parish of St. Mark, Notting- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
H3 “ ham,



174 DISEASES CURED
“ ham, came to Bath, May 5, 1684, with two 
“ running sores, one in the leg, another in the 
“ thigh. On the use of the Lepers-Bath for two 
“ months, the ulcers healed, there remained on- 
“ ly some crookedness.” 
4. “ Edward Huddle, of Chesham, came to 
“ Bath with running ulcers all over his body. 
“ After great expences, and despair of cure, he 
“ used the Bath six weeks, and drank sparingly. 
“ His ulcers healed, he went away well, Septem- 
“ ber, 1688.” 
5. “ Margaret Geary, of the county of Aber-
“ deen troubled with lameness and running ul- 
“ cers in both knees and left shoulder for three 
“ years, by the use of hot bath received cure, 
“ August 17, 1682.” 
The only publication of Hospital Cases is one 
six-penny number, by Dr. Oliver, containing 
fourteen. Had this gentleman’s prac- 
tice been as distinctly related in the 
books from the beginning, they would 
have contained clearer proofs of the power of the 
waters. His first begins only in the year 1757. 
Among the fourteen, we find no less than six ma- 
nifest proofs of the power of the waters, in one 
of the most loathsome disorders, Leprosy. 
Infirmary 
practices. 
In that gross publication of eighteen years hos- 
pital practice, we find one article stand thus, Le- 
prosies, and foul eruptions of the skin. Under this 
general head, there were 659 admitted; of this 
number two hundred sixty-eight were cured, and 
315 much better, an unquestionable proof of the 
power of the waters.—“ From this account, 
“ indistinct as it is, and from the relations of o- 
“ ther writers, we may venture to conclude that, 
“ in this article, there is great matter of comfort 
“ to





175 BY BATH WATER:
“ to those who languish under leprosies, scrophulas,
“ scurvies, running-sores, &c.” 
In his Principia Medicinae, pag. 201. Dr. Home 
recommends serrum et aquae chalybeatae, sulphur, 
aquae sulphuratae, imprimis Moffatenses nostrae. The 
virtues of Mossat Wells, (in scrophulous cases) 
are confirmed in the Edin. Med. Essays, as well 
as by daily experience. 
III. OF THE SCURVY.
1. VARIOUS, numerous, and discordant are the 
symptoms of the scurvy; hardly can it be defined; 
it nevertheless appears to be a disease.
specific and distinct from all others.
Its distinctions seem rather to arise from different 
constitutions than from different causes. It seems 
to have been known to the antients; though, by 
reason of their short winters, and coasting 
voyages, it raged not so fiercely as with us. For 
more than a century past, the scurvy seems to 
have been the bane of our armies and fleets.
Definition. 
2. PREJUDICE has established a distinction be- 
tween sea-scurvies and land-scurvies. If we com- 
pare the pathognomonic signs of Ech- 
thius, Wierus, and others, we shall 
find them quadrate exactly with the 
narrative of Anson’s voyage. Putrid 
gums, swelled legs, rigid tendons, haemorrhages, 
sudden deaths, &c. are symptoms described by 
seamen and landmen. Its symptoms are uni- 
formly the same at sea, in Holland, Greenland,
Hungary, Cronstadt, Wiburg, in the Orkneys, and 
at Penzance. 
Sea and land 
scurvies the
same. 
3. VARIOUS have been the opinions 
concerning the causes and propagation 
of this distemper. Some believed it connate, o- 
Causes.
H4 thers



176 DISEASES CURED
thers infectious. E. c. wherever this calamity 
has been general, it may be deduced from natural 
causes. 
Of all the causes, moisture is the chief. On the 
subject of the scurvy, I have treated at large, in 
my Attempt to revive the medical use of Sea air and 
exercise. For farther satisfaction, I beg leave to 
refer the curious reader to Doctor Lind’s book on 
the subject, a master-piece of the kind. My pre- 
sent subject naturally leads me to scurvies, as they 
fall under the power of Mineral Waters. 
THERE are wandering pains which 
usurp the mask of gout, rheumatism, 
and scurvy, and which are often com- 
plications of the three. 
Pains gouty,
scorbutic and
rheumatic.
The matter is of a volatile phlogistic nature, 
it passes sometimes like electricity through the 
whole body, darting pains, convulsions, twitch- 
ings and cramps; especially when the patient is 
falling asleep, sometimes fixing with redness, in- 
flammation and pain; but, in a few minutes the 
joints grow pale and easy, the spirits flag, he be- 
comes hypochondriac, the appetite fails, diges- 
tion is imperfect, status’s prevail, the flesh wastes,
nervous atrophy succeeds. 
Sydenham says, “ Though there is remarka- 
ble difference between the true rheumatism and 
the scurvy, as intimated above, it must neverthe- 
less be owned, that there is another species of 
rheumatism which is near a-kin to the scurvy; for 
it resembles it in its capital symptoms, and re- 
quires the same method of cure nearly. The 
pain affects sometimes one part, sometimes ano- 
ther; rarely occasions swelling, nor is it attended 
with fever. It is also less fixed, sometimes it at- 
tacks the internal parts with sickness. It is of 
long duration. It chiefly attacks the female sex. 
or



177 BY BATH WATER.
or the effeminate, so that I should have referred 
it to the hysteric class, had not repeated experi- 
ence taught me that it will not yield to hysteric 
remedies.” 
Boerhaave, who has extracted his chapter of 
rheumatic aphorisms from the former, says, (Aph. 
1490) Arthritidi, podagrae, scorbutoque agnatus mor- 
bas frequentissimus, qui rheumatismus appellatur. 
Hoffman also observes, “ That there is a scor- 
butic rheumatism, in which the whole mass of
lymph and serum is vitiated with foul particles
which manifest themselves by different kinds of 
eruptions. 
“ Diluent and demulcent remedies taken free- 
ly, and continued long, are chiefly proper here. 
Mineral waters, and milk with a proper regimen, 
are likewise of great efficacy in curing this species 
of the disease.” 
Paulus Paravicinus (De Balneis Masidi) says, 
Quantum vero arthriticis, ischiadicis, convulsis, di- 
stentis, resolutis, tremulis, nerviceisque 
omnibus subveniant, exprimero non facile 
possim. Ob haec autem corporis villa po-
tissime celebres sunt, et omnium ore versantur—“ An 
“ dreas Calvus municeps meus hujus rei testis est locu- 
“ pletissimus, cui post molestissimos coxendicis dolores, 
“ femur adeo riguerat, cancretis cum gelu musculis, ut 
“ nullum medicamenti genus praeter balnea haec sensim
“ excitare potuerit.”—Doctor Lind recommends 
Warm Baths medicated with aromatic plants.
Proofs ana- 
logical. 
1. The first case of Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, 
and of his own practice, that falls under this 
head, happens to be his own.—“ I  
“ had sometimes a pain in my right
“ hip, thigh, knee and ankle, which 
“ soon moved to my shoulder and arm, in both so 
“ acute, as to render them for some time useless.
Pierce’s
Cases.
H5 “ I



178 DISEASES CURED
“ I had also a dull heavy pain in my legs, with a 
“ little swelling and small spots. 
“ After due preparation, I bathed spring and 
“ fall. I used a decoction of China, Sarsa, with 
“ Cephalics, Neurotics, Antiscorbutics, &c. I used 
“ the waters only in, and after bathing, so as to 
“ quench thirst, because I was subject to rheums, 
“ and catarrhs. By God’s blessing, Bath waters, 
“ regimen, and exercise, I now continue so well 
« seventy-fourth year of my age, that I 
“ have neither gout, stone, dropsy, cough, asth- 
« ma, nor any remainder of the scurvy, but want
“ of teeth.” 
2. “ Mrs. Jane Chase, a maiden gentlewoman, 
“ aged about twenty-four years, was taken with 
“ sharp pains in her joints only, which ran from 
« place to place by quick removes, sometimes 
« inflaming, then swelling, always painful. She 
“ was so weak that she could not stand. She had 
“ a spontaneous lassitude, want of appetite, di- 
“ gestion, palpitation, &c. 
“ After convenient preparation she bathed; 
« and, in bathing, we were obliged to support 
« her with cordials, for, at first, she could not 
“ hear a temperate bath more than twice a week, 
“ for she was brought hither in a litter. 
“ In two months time she recovered strength 
« and digestion, the tumors of her joints began 
“ to subside, the palpitation remitted. She went 
“ home on horseback, and continued the autumn 
“ and winter following, free from a relapse. She 
“ drank the waters no otherwise than to quench 
“ her thirst in the bath, and sometimes to keep 
“ her soluble. She continued many years free 
“ from this painful distemper.” 
3. “ Mrs. Green, of Stratford upon Avon, aged 
“ forty years, had a wandering scorbutic gout 
“ and



179 BY BATH WATER.
“ and rheumatism twenty years before, of which 
“ she recovered and married. It now returned, 
“ and tortured her at first between the shoulders, 
“ so that, on the least motion, she was ready to 
“ faint away. By outward applications, it moved 
“ to her limbs, hips, knees, and soles of her feet, 
“ which crippled her. 
“ After various regimens, she was brought to 
“ Bath. After slight preparation, she was put 
“ in the Cross-Bath, the most temperate. Thus, 
“ continuing to drink and bathe by turns, for five 
“ or six weeks, she returned well.” 
4. “ Mrs. Martha Greswold of Soly-bill in 
“ Warwickshire, at thirteen years of age, by ly- 
“ ing on the ground, in, or soon after a scarlet fe- 
“ ver, was taken with a rheumatism, a which left a 
“ stiffness in her joints, and other symptoms. 
“ When she came to Bath, she was twenty-three 
“ years old, so weak, as not able to use hand, or 
“ foot. Her head was also affected, so that she 
“ could hardly remember what was faid to her. 
“ After a week’s gentle preparation, she bath- 
“ ed, and pumped for seven weeks, at the end of 
“ which, she rode forty miles homeward the first
“ day. She kept well for ten years. Since that 
“ she has had severe fits of the gout, with distor- 
“ tions and nodes, for which she has often come 
“ hither; and, by drinking and bathing, has al- 
“ ways received benefit.” 
5. “ Mrs. Mary Huntly unmarried, aged a- 
“ bout thirty, in much the same case with Mrs. 
“ Chase, she had besides heats, and pimples in her 
“ face, cough, and shortness of breathing, she was 
“ also greatly obstructed. 
“ She required more preparation, but by shorter 
“ space of bathing she recovered.”  
H6 Dr.



180 DISEASES CURED
Dr. Pierce concludes his section of wandering 
pains in these words. “ Many more instances 
“ might be given. Of late, these kind of ill-
“ nesses have gone under the name of rheuma- 
“ tisms; but call them what they will, all pains 
“ and weakness remaining after this, or the gout, 
“ have certainly been recovered by moderate and 
“ regular bathing, and relapses have been prevent- 
“ ed by drinking.” 
6. Dr. Guidot (in his Bath Register) gives the 
following Cases. “ Joseph Pleydal, Archdea- 
“ con of Chichester, drank the waters 
“ in the morning, and bathed at night 
“ for rheumatic affections, and full ha- 
“ bit of body. By the use of the Cross-Bath, be 
“ received great benefit.”
Guidot’s 
Cases.
7. “ A matron of Devonshire, in an inveterate 
“ rheumatism, using the Cross-Bath, received be- 
“ nefit.” 
8. “ William Dixie, Esq. of the county of 
“ Leicester, was sadly afflicted with a rheumatism,
“ which reduced him to that degree of weakness, 
“ that, at twenty-two years of age, he seemed 
“ an old decrepid man on crutches. After the 
“ best advice that London afforded, he came to 
“ Bath rather in despair. After using the Cross- 
“ Bath two months, and the pump about one, he 
“ recovered, and gave public thanks to God in 
“ the Abbey Church.”
9. “ Mr. Edward Pierce (from hard lying dur- 
“ ing the late troubles of Ireland) was afflicted
“ with the rheumatism all over, which, at last, 
“ deprived him of the use of his right arm. By 
“ drinking and bathing in the King’s and Qeen’s
“ Baths, he received great benefit.
10. “ Mr.



181 BY BATH WATER.
10. “ Mr. Yorath, chaplain to Morgan of Tre- 
“ degar, received great benefit in a scorbutic atro- 
“ phy by drinking and bathing.” 
11. “ Mr. Abram Corea of London received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic rheumatism by drink- 
“ ing and bathing.” 
12. “ Sir Ambrose Phillips, Knight, received 
“ cure of a rheumatism, by drinking, and bath- 
“ ing.”
13. “ Edward Washbeare, of London, sixty- 
“ two years of age, came to Bath creeping on his 
“ hands and knees, and having the benefit of Bel- 
“ lot’s Hospital, used the Hot Bath six weeks, 
“ pumped in the Bath, and drank the waters. 
“ In seven weeks he walked on crutches, and 
“ perfectly recovered. I saw him, strong, erect, 
“ and found in London on the third of March, 
“ 1694, when he gave this testimony of his cure.” 
14. “ Mrs. E. Y. of London, troubled with 
“ pustulous eruptions all over her body, by bath- 
“ ing and drinking received cure.” 
15. “ Another gentlewoman having a sore 
“ running head with a briny matter, in five 
“ weeks time received a cure by drinking and 
“ pumping.” 
16. “ Charles Child, Apothecary of Bath, hav- 
“ ing salt and acrid humours, defluxing with pain 
“ in the leg and foot, received cure by bathing 
“ ten or twelve times.” 
17. “ John Worley, Vintner in Clare Market, 
“ troubled with the scurvy, and ill disposition of 
“ blood, whence eruptions of the skin, and hard 
“ bumps like the stinging of nettles, drank the 
“ waters three weeks, from seven to nine pints a 
“ day, after seven baths he was freed from his 
“ distemper.” 
18. “ Henry



182 DISEASES CURED
18. “ Henry Johnson, a Dane, with old sores, 
“ and running ulcers in the legs, hands and face, 
“ received cure by the Bath in two seasons.” 
19. “ Samuel Bret of Cornwall, came to Bath 
“ with a foul skin, used the Baths fourteen days 
“ and received cure.” 
20. “ Mr. Richard Yorath, Clerk, received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic atrophy by drinking 
“ the waters. 
21. “ Mrs. Woodcock, in a high scorbutic 
“ distemper much discolouring the skin, by drink- 
“ ing and bathing for several seasons received 
“ much benefit.” 
22. “ Mrs. Cole of Barnstaple, (in the spleen 
and scurvy) received great benefit by drinking 
“ and bathing for several seasons.” 
In his Use and Abuse of warm bathing, Dr. Oli- 
ver presents us with a memorable proof. 
23. “ Mrs. Reynolds, wife to the bishop of 
“ Londonderry, was naturally of a very thin habit 
“ of body, and very subject to gouty- 
“ rheumatic complaints, she was about 
“ thirty. When I saw her she was reduced to 
“ a skeleton, by most excruciating pains. She 
“ had been bled largely, her blood nevertheless 
« continued to be very sizy. The muscles of her 
“ throat were so affected, that she could not swal- 
“ low, or breathe without difficulty. The scarf- 
“ skin was dry, hard, and drawn tight over her 
“ whole body. I put her in the Queen’s Bath, 
“ where she staid only a few minutes, apprehend- 
“ ing danger from her extreme weakness. Soon 
“ after she got into the water, she felt her pains 
“ so much abated, and her throat so much re- 
“ lieved, that she begged leave to stay half an 
“ hour. On changing the flannel, the old scarf- 
“ skin was found cracked in many places. After 
Oliver.
“ a





183 BY BATH WATER.
“ a few bathings it peeled oft in large flakes, 
“ thicker than the true skin in its natural state. 
“ The fluids passed freely, the body plumped, 
“ the skin became soft and moist. Universal ease 
“ ensued.” 
24. Mrs. Phelps of Cote, near Bristol, for a 
year and a half and upwards, laboured under a 
complication of ailments scorbutic, 
rheumatic, and gouty. She had wan- 
dering pains, bilious vomitings, diarrhaeas, legs 
swelled and hard, with fores unconquerable 
by chirurgical art; she was bloated, unwieldy, 
breathless, without appetite, sleep, or digestion. 
In a word she was thoroughly cachectic. 
Author
In the beginning of winter, she was, with dif- 
ficulty, transported to Bath. After drinking the 
waters five months, her complaints, in general, 
began to yield. She then began to bathe, which 
she did but seldom. Her pains are now rare, so 
are her vomitings and loosenesses; the swelling 
and hardness of her legs are gone, the running 
sores have long been cicatrized, she eats, sleeps, 
and digests. To Bath-water, little assisted by 
medicine, she owes a cure which distant art in 
vain attempted. 
CHAP.




184 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. XI.
OF THE PALSY.
1. PALSY may be said to be an abolition, or 
diminution of motion, or sense, or both, 
in one or more parts of the body. 
The very word Λαραλυσls imports a 
solution of that which was before firm. So is it 
understood, in the Gospel according to St. Luke, 
Nunc solvas famulun tuum Domine. 
Definition.
Many are the diseases which proceed from lae- 
sion of the nerves; if ever there was a disease hid 
from mortal research, it may truly be said to be 
this. The nature of my present work forbids 
particular dissertations. I beg leave to recom- 
mend the curious reader to Van Eems’s book De 
Morbis Nervorum, a treasure in miniature. Suf- 
ficient it is for my purpose to reconcile the use of 
mineral waters to palsies, pointing out general 
practical hints as they occur. 
2. The remote causes of palsy are drunkenness, 
scurvy, dry belly-ach, air, wounds, compression, 
or solution of the nerves; suppression 
of usual evacuations, apoplexy, con- 
vulsion, fear, metallic fumes, pain, dislocation, 
abscess, opiates, and old age.—The proximate 
cause is interception of the nervous fluid. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are evident. 
4. The diagnostics and prognostics
are to be taken from a knowledge of 
the causes, and general distribution of 
the nerves. These differ according to the place, 
cause, degree, &c. Inde lethalis, minus lethalis, 
sanabilis, incurabilis, Boerhaav. Aphor. 1061. 
Symptoms. 
Diagnostics, 
and Prognos- 
tics. 
THE



185 BY BATH WATER. 
THE cause may exist in the substance of the 
nerve, or in the sheath. The latter may easily 
be cured, the former hardly ever.— 
Palsy, from fullness of blood, may 
easier be cured than that which pro- 
ceeds from serous colluvies accumu- 
lated within the encephalon.—Palsy in the arm 
may be borne much longer than one in the intes- 
tines; because, while the latter continues, the 
chyle cannot enter the lacteals.—The higher the 
seat the worse. The brain is the citadel, from 
which the foul detaches its commands: palsies 
which succeed violent head-achs, impede the very 
origin of the spinal marrow in its continuation 
with the medulla oblongata; if these increase, 
they produce apoplexy. If the muscles which 
dilate the chest become paralytic, life soon ceases. 
—The muscles of the throat are so numerous and 
so slender, that, when they are affected, Boer- 
haave pronounces the casealis.—The heart is a 
muscle, and may suffer a paralysis. From sud- 
den affections, mortal syncopies have followed. 
Van Swieten gives an instance, “ A nobleman 
“ beholding a young man stripped of his armour, 
“ just after he had gloriously fallen in battle, had 
“ the fatal curiosity to look at his face; discover- 
“ ing it to be his own son’s, he dropped down 
“ dead in an instant.”—“ When the small pox 
“ raged among the French Neutrals at Bristol, one 
“ of the women being informed that her husband 
“ lay just then expiring, walked up to the foot of 
“ the bed, and gazing earnestly till he fetched 
“ his last breath, dropped down for ever.”—The 
stomach receives its nerves from the two trunks 
of the eighth pair; if a paralysis happens from an 
internal cause, it is to be feared, that it lies with- 
in the encephalon. If the muscular fibres of the 
Unfavoura- 
able prognos- 
tics.  
stomach





186 DISEASES CURED
stomach come to be paralysed, the food lies an 
useless lump, the animal dies of hunger. In 
gluttons, the muscular fibres, by constant disten- 
sion, lose their contractile power, the food passes 
off crude. Hence pains, lienteries, &c.—The 
nerves of the intestines have a singular connec- 
tion with the vital functions. If these are wound- 
ed, life ceases. Iliac pains sink the stoutest into 
fits.—The bladder receives branches from the in- 
tercostals, and from the lower complexes mesentericus, 
as also from the crural; hence a paralysis, from an 
internal cause, comes to be perilous. Involuntary 
emission of urine denotes an affection of the brain. 
—A paralysis complicated with coldness, stupor, 
or insensibility is very bad. The blood no longer 
circulates, the muscles are robbed of the nervous 
juice. In his Academical Experiments on Opium, 
Dr. Alston, professor of Mat. Med. in the uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, “ showed his pupils a frog, 
“ whose hinder leg was deprived of sense and 
“ motion. Viewing the paralysed member, we 
“ plainly discovered the red globules dissolved, 
“ and the vessels distended with a homogeneous 
“ red fluid. This stagnation was the effect of 
“ the opium, which prevented the depletion of 
“ the muscular arteries.”Edin. Med. Essays, Vol. V. 
p. 155.
5. PAIN, sensation, heat, formication, and 
trembling, promise security.—Supervening fe- 
vers, and diarrhaeas, sometimes cure 
palsies.—Palsies from plethora are easi- 
ly cured.-Palsies which descend are 
less dangerous.—While the muscles continue 
plump, the prognostic is favourable. The arte- 
rious, nervous, and adipous vessels perform their 
offices.—Spontaneous sweats either cure, or in- 
crease the disease.—Where a paraplegy, or hae- 
Favourable 
prognostics.
miplegy



187 BY BATH WATER.
miplegy succeeds an apoplexy, there is room to 
hope; because the cause of the disease decreases, 
the brain begins to be relieved.—When paraly- 
tics see, hear, and taste, with the back and point 
of their tongues, if they distinguish objects by 
the parts paralysed, there are great hopes of cure. 
Palsies are easily cured, while the fabric of the 
brain, medulla oblongata, spinalis, and nerves re- 
main found.—Whatever can attenuate the morbi- 
fic matter, so as it may be dissipated and eliminat- 
ed out of the body cures the disease.—Whatever 
changes the morbific matter from a part of the 
body on which the vital functions depend to one 
less dangerous cures the disease.—Two ounces of 
glutinous serum lodged in the ventricles of the 
brain, produce terrible symptoms.—The same, or 
a larger quantity of the same matter deposited in 
the panniculus adiposus of the leg, is borne without 
molestation.—Van Swieten says, he has seen the 
drowsy, stupid, and lethargic miraculously reliev- 
ed by the swelling of their legs. Asthmatics 
have wonderfully been relieved by the swelling of 
the joints.—Palsies have been cured by a metasta- 
sis of the morbific matter. 
Fevers naturally attenuate, dissipate, and eli- 
minate obstructions. They sometimes deposite 
them on other parts. Unde febris saepe medicamenti 
virtutem exercet rations aliorum morborum. Aph. 
589.—Aph. 1017. 
6. HENCE are we enabled to draw practical les- 
sons. If we consider the wonderful fabric of the 
larynx the numerous muscles which modulate 
the aperture of the rima glottidis; if we consider 
that the pharynx, velum pendulum palati, uvula, 
tongue, and lips concur in forming the voice, all 
which are moved by muscles; if we consider how 
many muscles are destined for the pronunciation 
of




188 DISEASES CURED
of one single letter, we may cease to wonder 
why, after the cure of an apoplexy, one little 
pronunciation should remain uncured, while the 
patient distinctly pronounces other words, or let- 
ters. In differing living animals, I have often 
tied the recurrent nerves, that I might not be dis- 
turbed by their plaintive cries. What was the 
consequence? the animal became instantly dumb. 
Untying the ligature, they cry as before.—Wep- 
ferus tells us a memorable story of a woman, who 
lost her speech by the brain’s being oppressed with
serum. By coughing the expectorated a copious 
spittle, and thus recovered her speech.—De Haen 
(Ratio Medendi, pag. 224.) relates a singular in- 
stance which he cured by the powder, and de- 
coction of the leaves of the orange tree. After an
apoplectic stroke, the patient was subject to the 
following symptoms. He knew every body, and 
every thing, yet could not assign the name of one 
thing. Master of the French, Italian, and Ger- 
man languages, ask him questions in either, or 
all, he answered in the German, which before 
his illness he never used to do.—At this very time I 
attend a similar case. A gentleman who had 
spent the earlier part of his days in Holland, resi- 
ded afterwards in England, where he was trou- 
bled with a scorbutic rheumatism, which (by 
warm bathing, blisters, and alteratives) seemed
to be cured. From the time of the cure of the 
rheumatism, he seemed more or less to be affected 
with an asthma and cough. For this cough he 
drank the Bristol waters, during the two last sum- 
mers with little alleviation. In August last, I ad- 
vised him to drink the goat whey in Wales, and 
thence to repair to Italy, by sea, for the winter. 
Far beyond my expectations, (in three weeks 
time) his asthma vanished; he found himself so 
completely

189 BY BATH WATER. 
completely recovered, that he gave over the 
thoughts of his southern voyage. In his journey 
from London to Bath, he found a numbness 
which affected one side, from the crown of the 
head to the sole of the foot; he dropped his whip
frequently, and broke three chamber-pots on the 
road. Ignorant of danger, he talked of these ap- 
pearances with indifference. By my advice he 
was bled; exceeding my advice, he took salts, 
which purged him four or five times a-day, and 
that for a whole month. Calling in one sore- 
noon, I found him laid down, to sleep off a 
head-ach. His pulse seemed to be choaked, hard- 
ly to be felt. The pain occupied one haemi- 
sphere of the brain exactly, that opposite to the 
side first affected; this was the first head-ach he 
ever had felt in sixty years; his tongue faultered; 
in a word, he seemed to be on the very threshold 
of an apoplexy. I advised him to avoid sleep, to 
get up, and be bled, which was instantly per- 
formed. Returning in two or three hours, I 
found him, most imprudently, taking a vomit; 
tying up his arm, and pressing the orifice with
my finger, I took a pound more of blood away; 
then proceeded with the vomit. Desiring assist- 
ance. Dr. Canvane met me in the evening. By 
bleeding, cupping, blistering, sinapisms, purges, 
&c. we seemed to gain ground; every prescrip- 
tion answered the intention; in about a month, 
his speech and understanding returned, but he 
could neither read, nor write his name. Unable 
to bear further evacuation, we ordered an issue on 
the top of the head, about the size of half a 
crown. By degrees he came to read, write, and 
converse rationally enough, with this particular 
default; the nerves appropriated to certain func- 
tions still continued to be oppressed; though he 
had


190 DISEASES CURED
had clear ideas of things, he could not assign 
their names; when he wanted to mention the 
word pulse, putting his finger on his wrist, he 
commonly said. This is fast, or slow; he wrote 
sensibly enough, but his d’s, he made g’s, and his 
g’s, d’s. By my advice, he took the Orange leaves 
in powder and decoction for some weeks; but, 
finding no sensible relief, or grudging the expence, 
he discontinued the prescription. Soon after, his 
belly began to swell with scarcity of lateritious 
urine. At present he can bear no evacuations, 
and seems to be in great danger.—From this nar- 
rative, may we not infer that physicians may 
sometimes be over solicitous about curing diseases? 
Might not the cure of the scurvy have translated 
the morbific matter to the lungs? Might not the 
speedy cure of the asthma have given rise to the 
apoplexy? Might not the cure of the apoplexy 
have produced the dropsy? 
7. The general causes of palsies have been ex- 
plained, so have the particular. From these it ap- 
pears that nothing general can be laid 
down towards the cure; for as the 
cases are various, so must the methods of cure. 
The curatory indication is to be taken from signs
antecedent and concomitant. Suppose the verte- 
brae thrust out of their place, vain were boasted
antiparalytic remedies. The ulcer must be healed, 
the bones must be replaced. The cause must not 
only be removed, but a free flux of humours 
must be maintained through the arteries and 
nerves. This last is a task not so easy. The sub- 
stance of the nerves is so delicate, that it is too 
often destroyed by compression. The small ves- 
sels long deprived of their juices, collapse, and 
become impervious. Experiments teach us, that, 
by tying the par-vagum and intercostal nerves in 
Cure. 
live

191 BY BATH WATER.
live dogs too tightly, when the ligatures have 
been taken off, these animals languish, and in a 
few days die. Rational practitioners will there- 
fore be cautious how they promise cures in dis- 
eases which have lasted for years. Such cripples 
are happy if they find amendment; rarely are 
they cured. Practice confirms the truth, Palsies 
arsing from retention of natural evacuations are 
cured by provoking these discharges. Those from 
plethora have their proper cure. My business is
with that common chronical palsy which arises 
from inert lentor. Let art, in this case, imitate 
nature. If we run over all the remedies which 
have been commended by the most celebrated 
practitioners, it will appear that they are all cal- 
culated for answering nature’s purposes of raising
fever, dissolving, and purging. Boerhaave gives 
an instance of a Taylor’s being thrice cured of a 
palsy by a fever.—Hippocrates gives many such 
instances, so does Aretaeus.—Sydenham wish- 
ed for a remedy that could create a fever.—Ting- 
ling, itching, and convulsions are nature’s efforts. 
—Profuse diarrhaeas have cured palsies. 
Hence, again, we learn that the art of physic 
never is so beneficial as when it pursues nature’s 
steps. 
Aphor. 1068, “ Curatio ergo tentatur α, at- 
“ tenuantibus, dissipantibus, aromaticis, cepha- 
“ licis, nervinis, uterinis dictis, vegetabilibus 
“ specie fucci expressi, insusi, decocti, extracti, 
“ spiritus, conditi. β. Salibus sixis ustione, vo- 
“ latilibus distillatione, aut putrefactione hinc 
“ electis. γ. Oleis expressione, coctione, infu- 
“ sione, distillatione. δ Saponaceis ex horum 
“ combinatione per artem productis. ε. Virosis 
“ animalium partibus, insectorum succis, spiriti- 
“ bus, oleis, selibus, tincturis. ζ Salibus fos-  
“ silibus,


192
DISEASES CURED
“ silibus, crystallis metallicis, et iis ex his maxi- 
“ me compositis. η. His omnibus ut fe mutuo 
“ juvent, cum prudentia permistis; atque ho- 
“ rum quidem ufu attenuatio, dissipatio, calor 
“ febrilis obtinetur. 2. Validis stimulantibus, 
“ et impacta quaecunque fortiter, motu nervoso 
“ tremente et convulsivo excitato, excutientibus: 
“ eo imprimis sternutatoria, et vomitoria fortiora 
“ pertinent: fi aliquoties imprimis repetuntur, 
“ 3. Purgantibus per alvum calidis, solventibus, 
“ aromaticis, vegetabilibus, vel et fossilibus acri- 
“ bus, metallicisque mercurialibus, antimoniis a- 
“ deoque fortibus hydragogis, larga clofi, pluri- 
“ bus diebus successive repetita, datis: quorum 
“ ope copiosa, et aliquamdiu perdurans diarrhaea, 
“ excitetur. 4. Implendo primo vasa largo potu 
“ attenuantium praemissorum, dein excitatione 
“ majoris motus et sudoris ope spirituum accen- 
“ forum.” 
To expatiate on every particular contained in
this text, were to repeat Boerhaave’s academical 
prelections on the diseases of the nerves. Patients
generally undergo medical courses before they 
come to Bath. The power of Bath-water is my 
subject only. From reason and experience I 
hope to prove that Bath-water answers the pur- 
poses of nature, and cures palsies incurable by dis- 
tant art. 
Sanavit natura hum morbum attenuando, dissipan- 
do materiem morbosam; solvendo impacta per magnam 
febrem supervenientem, movendo per tremorem convul- 
sivum partis, educendo. Reason directs us to those 
remedies which produce nature’s effects. Si causa 
intus haerens crassa stagnansque erit, utendum tis re- 
mediis quae producere possunt illa quibus natura hunc 
morbum saepe sanavit. 
After


193 
BY BATH WATER.
After this great imitator of nature had extract- 
ed honey from almost every flower, he proposes 
at last vapor-baths, immersion, frictions, plaisters,
cupping, scarification, vesicatories, and fustigations. 
“ Frictiones externae ficcae, calidae, ad ruborem 
“ usque, vel cum spiritibus penetrante et stimu- 
“ lante virtute praeditis ex animalibus, vegetabi- 
“ libusque, aut cum oleis, linamentis, balsamis, 
“ unguentis, nervinis profunt. Balnea vaporum, 
“ immersiva; emplastra acria, aromatica, attra- 
“ hentia; cucurbitae, scarificationes; vesicato- 
“ ria; fustigationes; dolorem et levem inflam- 
“ mationem excitantia, ut urticae et similia pa- 
“ tent.” 
Of vapor-baths, and warm-bathing, we have 
treated at lage, in our Attempt to revive the Doc- 
trine of Bathing. Of frictions, oils, liniments, cup- 
ping, scarification, vesicatories, fustigation, &c, we
have also spoken under the same heads. 
Suffice it here in general to recapitulate, That 
warm water enters by the absorbent veins, mixes 
with, dilutes, and attemperates the blood; that 
active volatile mineral principles stimulate those 
nerves which are spread on the surface of the 
skin; that heat ratifies the fluids, and enlarges 
the diameters of the vessels; and that this same 
heat raises a temporary fever, which dislodges, 
subdues, and concocts obstructing matter so as to 
tender it fit to be excreted by the proper emunc- 
tories. The muscles thus relieved perform their 
respective offices; health, vigour and agility suc- 
ceed. To facts we proceed. 
1. Savonarolla (De Balneis Carpen- 
sibus, rubrica, xxiii.) says, “ Comites 
“ Carmignola et Gattamaleta Duces 
“ exercitus Venetiarum, ambo Paralysi affecti sa- 
“ ere, pro quo morbo balnea mense Januario sunt 
Proofs analo-
gical. 
I “ prosecti,


194 
DISEASES CURED
« prosecti, et ego cum eis, et hi mirabiliter con- 
“ valuerunt.” 
2. Guainerus (De Balneis Aquensibus) says, “ qui- 
“ dam, velut Stephanus lapidatus, tam brachium 
“ quam manum paralyticam habebat. Is, ut 
“ praecepi, nucham sibi embrocavit, et intra octo
“ dies liberatus est.” 
3. Bartholomoeus Taurinensis (speaking of the 
same Baths of Aix) says, “ Paralyticos duos 
“ vidi fanitati restitutos hujus solius remedii 
“ auxilio.” 
In Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we find 
the following histories.
Pierce’s 
Cases.
4. “ Colonel Sayer, aged forty, 
“ once a commander in the army of Charles I. 
“ made his composition, and retired to his estate, 
“ from whence he was dragged, in one of Oli- 
“ ver’s pretended plots, by a party of horse, and 
“ carried prisoner to London, in very bad wea- 
“ ther, and worse usage. He was confined in 
“ a damp dirty jail, where the very first night 
“ he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which de- 
“ termined in a palsy on the right side. He was 
“ soon allowed to retire to his home, where he 
“ underwent the common prescriptions in vain. 
“ When he came to Bath, he had lost the 
“ sight of one eye, his speech faultered, his me- 
“ mory was imperfect, with a giddiness. After 
“ due preparation, he drank the waters only to 
“ quench his thirst; he bathed and pumped. 
“ Finding advantage, he continued to come six 
“ weeks for ten years. He recovered so as to live 
“ to a considerable old age.” 
5. “ Mrs. Langton of Newton Park, aged 
“ twenty-three, and with child, lost her speech 
“ of a sudden, so that she uttered one word for 
“ another. Thus she continued to the time of 
“ her

195 BY BATH WATER.
“ her delivery, when it seized her so that she 
“ could not speak at all, nor apprehend what 
“ was laid to her, with the loss of the use of her 
“ limbs. 
“ By bleeding under the tongue, and some 
“ physic, she was restored somewhat to her 
“ speech, she came to Bath, by the use of which
“ she recovered so much as to throw aside her 
“ crutches. About the periods of the moon her 
“ speech was altered a little. Thus she held for 
“ five years, bearing children, or miscarrying, 
“ till within six weeks of her time, she was seiz- 
“ ed with a haemiplegia. After her delivery she 
“ came again to Bath and recovered. She re- 
“ turned several seasons, bore several children, 
“ and died at last of the Chorea Sancti Viti.” 
6. “ Master Powel, a child of six years old, 
“ had an exquisite palsy after convulsion-fits. He 
“ bathed three or four times a week, for two 
“ months, getting ground apparently after the 
“ first month, which advantage improved so after 
“ his return, that it encouraged his friends to
“ send him again and again, till he was cured, 
“ and afterwards came to be a lusty man.” 
7. “ Mrs. Duffewait, an attorney’s wife of 
“ Wells, was not only cured of a palsy, but, 
“ after twelve years barrenness, conceived by 
“ bathing.” 
8. “ The Bath-waters have not only cured 
“ palsies, but there are numerous instances also 
“ of their acting as preventatives. Sir John 
“ Gell, of Hopton, had a stupor and dullness of
“ the head, a seeming clout about the tongue, 
“ with a kind of creeping and sleepiness (as they 
“ vulgarly call it) in his arms and legs. Year 
“ after year he bathed and pumped. He died 
I2 “ without

196 DISEASES CURED
“ without any symptom of a palsy, of a Dropsy, 
“ in the eighty-second year of his age.” 
Of Dr. Guidot's 200 Observations, 
there are no less than 88 remarkable 
proofs of the power of Bath-waters in 
paralytic cases.
Guidot’s 
Cases.  
9. Mr. Crompton’s Faith and Hope, now hang 
up as Tabulae-votivae in the King’s Bath. By over- 
heating himself, and eating fruit, he 
was seized with a cholic, which de- 
prived him of the use of his limbs. 
After exhausting the pharmacopoeia, he came to
Bath, where he bathed and drank long without 
amendment. His disorder yielded at last. His 
cholicy pains were removed, he hung up his 
crutches. He often relapsed, and as often was 
restored. 
Author’s 
Cases.
10. Mrs. Dallas lost the use of her lower limbs, 
after child-bearing. By bathing she had a com- 
plete cure. 
IN my Attempt to revive the antient practice of 
bathing, (under the general head of Pumping) the 
reader will find particular cures of lamenesses from
gout, sciatica, rheumatism, palsy, scurvy, head-ach, 
deafness, falls, &c. Under the title of this chap- 
ter of Palsy, I proceed to rank lamenesses from 
other causes. 
I. LAMENESS AFTER FEVERS.
1. “ Sir John Austin, aged forty, had a trans- 
“ lation of a febrile matter on one of his legs, 
“ which suppurated, and afterwards 
“ gangrened. By the help of surgery, 
“ the wound came to be cicatrized, 
“ but there remained great weakness and pain. 
“ The limb was considerably wasted from the 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ hip


197 BY BATH WATER.
“ hip downwards. He could scarcely walk in his 
“ chamber without crutches, nor be at ease when 
“ his leg was suspended. He was therefore 
“ forced to spend the greatest part of his time in 
“ bed. 
“ After due preparation, and drinking, he 
“ bathed. In a week’s time he had ease. In 
“ one month’s time he changed his crutches for a 
“ staff. I saw him run smartly to get shelter from
“ a shower. At two month’s end he went away 
“ perfectly easy and trig. By degrees the limb 
“ recovered flesh and strength.” 
2. “ Sir Herbert Crosts was so much in the 
“ same circumstances that it would waste time 
“ to give a particular description. He left his 
“ crutches as a testimony of his cure.” 
3. “ Mrs. Hales of Coventry, aged fifty, was 
“ in 1687, seized with a malignant fever, in 
“ which she was delirious near a month. A mor- 
“ tification appeared on the lower part of the Os 
“ Sacrum, near sixteen inches round, from which 
“ (as in the two former) quantities of dead flesh
“ were cut out. The ulcer was three months 
“ before it could be cicatrized. She lost the use 
“ of her right leg and foot, both which were 
“ cold, dead, and senseless. 
“ By moderate bathing, she recovered warmth 
“ and strength in five or six weeks. Next year 
“ she bathed as long. Thus she recovered the 
“ perfect use of her leg.” 
II. LAMENESS AFTER SPRAINS. 
1. “ Lady Strode’s daughter had 
“ gone through the hands of surgeons, 
“ bone setters, and others, she was 
“ lame from a sprain. By partial and total im-
Pierce’s
Cases. 
I3 “ mersion,

198 DISEASES CURED
“ mersion, together with pumping, she had, in 
“ a little time, abatement of swelling, then a 
“ beginning of strength, she left off crutches and 
“ walked with a stick. She went through the 
“ same process for two or three years, and was, 
“ at length, perfectly recovered.” 
2. “ Mr. Pruseau, of Essex, and a neighbouring 
“ lady, Mrs. Bonham, had both weakness, pain, 
“ and swelling in the ankle-joint, with wasting
“ of the limb from the hip downwards, occasion- 
“ ed by sprains. The young gentleman’s case 
“ was much the worst. They had undergone 
“ every thing that could be used by the most emi- 
“ nent hospital surgeons and doctors, who, in 
“ consultation, recommended them to Bath. 
“ She came twice, and found a perfect cure. 
“ He came for many seasons, finding sensible re- 
“ lief every year. He walks much, and limps 
“ very little.” 
3. Miss Alexander of Edinburgh, fell from her 
horse and contused her knee. She 
was lame more than a year. She came 
to Bath, where (by pumping) she was 
restored to the use of her limbs. 
Author’s
Cases.
4. Mr. Agnew came to Bath for the same dis- 
order. Sometimes he uses the hot pump, some- 
times the cold. After three months use, he 
walks without pain, and without the help of a 
staff. 
III. LAMENESS FROM A RUPTURE OF THE
TENDO ACHILLIS.
“ The Rev. Mr. Parsons was very healthful 
“ and strong. Walking up a hill, an 
“ intolerable pain seized the calf of 
“ his leg all of a sudden, insomuch that hearing 
Pierce’s. 
“ no

199 BY BATH WATER.
“ no musket go off, he thought that somebody 
“ had shot him with a cross-bow; but being 
“ convinced of his mistake by a friend, he said 
“ he had broken something by overstraining. He 
“ fell immediately to the ground, the pain made 
“ him sweat, faint and sick, he could not stand. 
“ He was carried home, and continued lame for 
“ a long time with his limb emaciated. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which brought heat 
“ into the part, it took off the convulsions, his leg
“ and thigh began to plump. He walked five or 
“ six miles on end with a staff.” 
IV. LAMENESS FROM A WHITE-SWELLING.
1. “ Mr. Bony, aged forty, was very lame, 
“ and much pained in his right knee, with great
“ swelling, not discoloured, with the 
“ joint contracted. The whole seem- 
“ ed to be puffed up with wind or 
“ uliginous matter, which, upon pressing, mani- 
“ festly moved from one side of the joint to the 
“ other. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ The Bath gave him some ease, but lessened 
“ not the swelling, then it was pumped, after 
“ which the mud of the Bath was applied, by 
“ which he was much better; he came a second 
“ and a third time, so that there was no remainder 
“ of tumor, pain or lameness. 
2. “ Francis Hechington, of Northallerton, 
“ aged 31, came to Bath, June, 1689, with a 
“ great white swelling on his knee for six months 
“ before. He used the hot-bath and pump but 
“ five days, till the tumour was discussed.” This
humour (Dr. Guidot says) was more flatulent 
than pituitose. 
I4 V.

200 DISEASES CURED
V. LAMENESS FROM WOUNDS. 
1. “ Colonel Tuston, in a sea-fight, received 
“ a wound with contusion and fracture in his 
“ right hand by a splinter, which 
“ broke the bones of the thumb and 
“ sore-finger, and lacerated the mus- 
“ cles and tendons; a conflux of humours fall- 
“ ing on the part, it was forced to be laid open 
“ more than once, bones and splinters were ex- 
“ tracted, it was healed at last, but his hand was
“ useless, and he was pained by fits. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which quickly eased 
“ the pain, and recovered the use of some of the 
“ other three fingers. This he repeated several 
“ seasons after. The sore-finger and thumb be- 
“ came in some measure useful, tho’ a whole joint
“ of the latter was lost. The whole hand is as 
“ useful as such a hand can be.” 
2. “ The earl of Peterborough, from a wound 
“ In his right hand, came hither twice, used the 
“ same method, and got much benefit.” 
3. Captain Robertson of Bocland’s, received a 
gun-shot wound about the joint of the elbow, 
which was attended with pain, in- 
flammation, swelling, &c. By pump- 
ing he recovered so as to be able to pull off his 
hat. He has now joined his regiment in Ger- 
many.
Author’s.
VI.

201 BY BATH WATER.
VI. LAMENESS FROM FALLS.
1. “ Thomas Andrews, of Halson, 
“ came hither in June, 1682, batter- 
“ ed and bruised from head to foot by 
“ a fall; his horse laying upon him some time.
“ He had some bones dislocated, which were set. 
“ He complained of weakness, and pains in his 
“ back, hips, and his breast, so that he could 
“ not breathe freely. By six weeks bathing and 
“ pumping he returned much better, and, after 
“ some trials, he quite recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ Mr. Hollworthy, over and above the for- 
“ mer complaints, had a paralysis of one side 
“ from concussion of the brain. He was very 
“ lame, and weakly. By the same methods re- 
“ peated, he recovered with a stiffness that makes
“ him limp a little.” 
3. “ Guidot’s register contains the following, 
“ Lord Hereford, in hunting a fox, re- 
“ ceived a fall which deprived him of 
“ the motion of his right arm. By 
“ pumping and bathing, he recovered its use.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
4. “ Major Hawley had the patella-bone of 
“ his knee thrice injured by falls, which obliged
“ him to use crutches. By using the Cross-Bath, 
“ and pumping only seven times, he recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
5. “ Lord Eglington, by hunting the fox, had 
“ a fall, by which he bruised the muscles and 
“ tendons of both hands; he received hurt on 
“ his head, right shoulder, and elbow, the fing- 
“ ers losing their motion inwards, numbed, and 
“ senseless. By bathing and pumping, he was 
“ cured.” 
I5 6. “ Sir

202 DISEASES CURED
6. “ Sir Robert Holmes (in aches and bruises 
“ received at sea) received benefit by the Hot- 
“ Bath, in testimony whereof he left three brass 
“ rings.” 
FROM the opening of the Bath Infirmary, till 
May, 1760, a space of eighteen years, out of 
seven hundred fifty one paralytics, from various
causes admitted, there were one hundred eighty 
five cured, three hundred ninety-five much better; 
the rest were dismissed incurable, or refractory; 
during the first nine years, there died in the hos- 
pital twelve only.
CHAP.

23 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XII. 
OF THE JAUNDICE.
VARIOUS are the symptoms of the jaun- 
dice, various its appearances, causes and 
effects. We commonly reckon only 
two sorts, yellow and black; there are 
diversities of shades between the lightest yellow 
and the black, as Aretaeus has remarked in his 
book De causis et signis morb. diuturnor. p. 45. 
There are some jaundices which any body may 
cure; there are others which no body can. As 
jaundices of all sorts come to Bath, it may not 
be unnecessary to take a survey of this disease, so
that we may be able better to form a conjecture 
in what sorts Bath waters may cure, and in what 
they may hurt. 
History. 
1. THE YOUNG are rarely troubled with this 
disease. It commonly attacks those who brood 
over griefs, or who retain grudges or 
passions. Sadness and thought con- 
stringe the vessels so as to produce a sense of
weight and anxiety about the praecordia. Hu- 
mours thus obstructed produce polypous concre- 
tions, putrefactions, &c. 
Subjects. 
The studious and sedentary are naturally sub- 
ject to this disease, those who bend their bodies 
forward, and fit too long at meals. The bile, by 
remaining in the gall-bladder, inspissates, so that
it cannot easily pass. Galen (in his book De 
locis affectis) remarks, that the very same thing
happens to the gall-bladder as happens to the 
urinary; by retention it becomes paralytic.  
I6 2. The

204 DISEASES CURED
2. The first symptoms are, troublesome sort of 
tension about the praecordia, with a sense of 
weight. Some hours after meals, a 
sort of heart-burn, the fore-runner of 
jaundice. A slight yellow is to be discovered in 
the greater canthus of the eye, the urine begins 
to be coloured, the excrements are bilious. Of 
a sudden, anxiety, with intolerable pain at the 
pit of the stomach, sometimes over the whole 
belly, often mistaken for the cholic. Fever and 
vomiting supervene. After these symptoms have 
lasted for some hours, they remit, the whole bo- 
dy puts on the yellow hue, with an universal 
itching, the urine is tinged, the patient finds him- 
self very easy, the colour of the urine abates, so
does that of the skin; in a few days the disease 
seems to vanish. The excrements, some days 
before the paroxysm, begin to be white, clayish, 
or greasy. 
Symptoms. 
After some weeks, sometimes months, this 
round of evils returns. When the sick has suf- 
fered frequent attacks of this sort, there remains
at last a confirmed jaundice. The colour grows 
deeper, the spittle sometimes tastes bitten The 
skin changes from yellow to black, the feet swell;
so does the belly, the patient dies hydropic. 
Sometimes it is accompanied with fever so in- 
tense, that the liver inflames and suppurates, a me- 
morable instance of which stands recorded by the 
benevolent Dundas, in the Edinb. Med. Essays.
Vol. II. p. 345, &c. 
3. This inflammation has its seat in the capil- 
lary vessels of the Hepatic Artery, and the Vera 
Portarum. Injections discover the 
windings and anastomosis’s of these 
vessels over the whole substance of the liver. The 
branches of the Vena Portarum are filled with 
Seat. 
blood

205 BY BATH WATER.
blood which moves more slowly than the arterial; 
this is the reason why the signs of inflammation 
are not so manifest in this as in the other viscera; 
this may be the reason why physicians have so 
often been mistaken in their Diagnostics. 
4. THE remote causes of jaundice are cholics, 
hysteric and bilious; poisons; drastic purges; 
grief and anger; ossification or com- 
pression of the biliary ducts; pregnan- 
cy; obstruction, schirrus, or abscess of the liver; 
incermittents prematurely stopped; stones ob- 
structing the cystic duct; over-grown omenta; 
inflammation; worms; sudden chills, &c.—
The proximate causes are, 1. Regurgitation 
and absorption of bile already separated. 2. Ex- 
cess, viscidity, and acrimony of bile unsecreted. 
Causes.
5. THE diagnostic signs are yel- 
lowness of the skin, tunica albuginea, 
urine, and white excrements. 
Diagnostics.
6. THE prognostics are more favourable in 
youth than in old age, in the strong than in the
weak, in the yellow than in the black, 
in the jaundice single, than compli- 
cated with other disorders. In the last days of a
fever, supervening jaundice performs the part of 
a crisis. Jaundice supervening inflammation of 
the liver, stomach, or duodenum, portends great 
danger. Natural sweat is an excellent sign. Jaun- 
dice complicated with dropsy, may be said to be 
incurable.
Prognostics. 
7. FROM a survey of the preceding causes, we 
may conclude, that most of them are merely ac- 
cidental. Concretion may be assigned 
for the general. He who best knows 
how to dissolve and expel this obstructing matter, 
may truly be said to cure the jaundice. 
Cure. 
In

206 DISEASES CURED
In critical febrile discharges the benefit of sweat- 
ing needs no explanation. Galen (De Sanitate 
tuenda) relates the following case. Ipsum bilem, 
infarcto hepate, in sanguinem regurgitantem, per su- 
dores, amaros exivisse de corpore in ictericis osbervavi. 
Chamel (Acad, des Sciences l’an 1737, Hist. p. 69.) 
says, “ I saw a thick sweat which tinged the li- 
“ nen with a saffron colour, issue from the pores 
“ of an icteric woman, the jaundice vanishing 
“ after the sweat.” 
From theory as well as practice, we know that 
the rational cure of Jaundice depends on medi- 
cines diluent, detersive, and antiseptic, inwardly
and outwardly administered. In disorders of the 
liver arising from hot, or cold temperament, 
Galen (Method. med.) advises internals, and ex- 
ternals of a strengthening quality, such are all 
styptic mineral waters. In jaundice, and for dis- 
cussing inflations, Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) 
recommends temperate sulphureous baths, he 
mentions Bath waters in particular. Ad morbum 
regium, & ad inflationes excutiendas, nec secus sul- 
phuratarum balnea temperata Aponus, Aquisgranam, 
Bathoniae in Anglia, ne vulgares, in Italia, reite- 
rem. In frigidis vero hepaticis, seu qui obstructo aut 
indurato viscere infiantur, & cachexiam illapsi, effi- 
caciora tam intus quam foris calorifica digerentiaque 
desiderantur. 
Bath-waters are diluent, detersive and antisep- 
tic. If fomentations have availed, what better 
fomentation than warm bathing! If diuretics and 
sudorifics, what better diuretic or sudorific! 
Distant patients have gone thro’ regimens sa- 
gacious and ingenious. Bath-water improperly 
drank has converted slight jaundices into deadly 
ailments. Bath-water has cured inveterate jaun- 
dices, Van Swieten’s testimony confirms the doc-
trine.


207 BY BATH WATER.
trine. In his Commentaries on Boerhaave’s A- 
phorisms, Vol. III. p. 346, he delivers his sen- 
timents thus, “ Si jam simul consideretur mag- 
“ num numerum morborum chronicorum, in vi- 
“ sceribus abdominalibus, sedem suam habere, & 
“ imprimis in Hepate, in quod omnis sanguis ve- 
“ nosus viscerum chylopoieticorum confluit, pa- 
“ tebit ratio quare adeo efficax fit in morborum
“ chronicorum cura Aquarum Medicatarum ufus. 
“ Magna enim copia potatae hae aquae, venis bi- 
“ bulis intestinorum cito resorptae, integris fuis 
“ viribus, pro magna parte, in venam portarum 
“ veniunt, & fic, per omnia Hepatis loca distri- 
“ butae, solvunt impacta, & vafa obstructa refe- 
“ rant.” Facts are sturdy evidences. 
1. Dr. Baynard (in his book of Cold-Bathing) 
records the following Cases. “ Mr. Hadly, of an 
“ ill habit from an irregular life, had 
“ been wrong treated. He came at 
“ last to Bath. He complained in the 
“ right hypochondria, and had a great induration 
“ in the region of the liver. By purging, drink- 
“ ing, and bathing, he got a perfect cure.” 
Baynard’s
Cases.
2. “ I knew a physician who had a severe jaun- 
“ dice with a schirrous liver. He was cured by 
“ drinking Bath-water, and by eating the herb 
“ Taraxicon sallad-wife.” 
3. “ Madam Thistlewaite, of Wintersloe, re- 
“ ceived a great cure by the Bath-waters, joined
“ with other aperitives in as high a jaundice as 
“ ever was seen, which had long seized her, and 
“ she a very lean emaciated worn out weak wo- 
“ man.—In this case, and also in most diseases 
“ of the liver, I think the Bath-waters the best 
“ specific in the world, if taken seasonably with 
“ due preparatives and advice.”  
4. From

208 DISEASDES CURED
4. From Dr. Pierce we have these. “ Justice 
“ Dewy of Fordenbridge, Hants, came hither in 
“ February, 1693, in the sixtieth year 
“ of his age. His complaints were 
“ (besides the yellowness of his skin) 
“ weakness, faintness, decay of spirits, shaking 
“ in his hands, pain in his limbs, doughy swellings 
“ of the legs, clamminess of his mouth, drought, 
“ and foulness of tongue. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He had but lately undergone purging, and 
“ therefore had the less need of preparation. He 
“ took at first but two pints, then three, then two
“ quarts, seldom exceeding. They passed freely 
“ by stool and urine. 
“ Between whiles he was however purged with 
“ Rheubarb and Calomelanos, he took alteratives, 
“ and now and then intermitted the waters. A- 
“ bout the middle of his course he was let bloody 
“ which had a quantity of serum tinctured yel- 
“ low. About the latter end of his course he 
“ bathed three or four times. He had before bath- 
“ ed his legs and feet to get down, the swelling
“ which answered. 
“ He apparently got vigour and strength, a 
“ clearer countenance, and a better habit of 
“ body. Thus he returned after two months 
“ stay. He returned in May, stayed about the 
“ same time, with manifest advantage, which I 
“ suppose he yet continues to have, because he 
“ returns not to the same means by which he 
“ found so much good.” 
5. “ Michael Harvey, of Clifton, Dorset, aged 
“ sixty-six, many years subject to the Gout. Fif- 
“ teen years ago, in one of his fits, he turned 
“ yellow, took medicines for the Jaundice. In 
“ April last, he was seized with a violent pain in 
“ his stomach, which pain he was subject to by 
3 “ fits,

209 BY BATH WATER.
“ fits, but was now more than ordinary fainty, 
“ the jaundice appearing presently in his water, 
“ but not in his eyes, face and skin, till about a 
“ month after. By the advice of Radcliff and 
“ others, he took medicines to little purpose. 
“ He came to Bath the last day of August, 
“ 1696, so weak and ill that he could hardly 
“ keep life in him. The night after he had a 
“ most violent cholic fit, in which he strained 
“ very much to vomit. He was yellow all 
“ over. 
“ He set presently about drinking the waters, 
“ (being in continual pain, and stomachless) but 
“ at first in small quantities. The third time of
“ taking them, he voided a gall-stone about the 
“ bigness of a pigeon’s egg, with several lesser 
“ pieces of the same colour and consistence, a sa- 
“ bulum to the quantity of a spoonful and more. 
“ It is observable that this gentleman had a 
“ stool before the stone came off, as white, and
“ like to tobacco-pipe clay; but the stool that 
“ came with and after the stone, was as yellow 
“ as saffron. He was immediately more at case, 
“ he recovered by degrees; he goes on drinking 
“ the waters, this being the one and twentieth 
“ day of his cure, walks abroad, gives visits, eats 
“ heartily, and is very likely to recover perfectly.” 
6. Dr. Guidot records this Case. “ A worthy 
“ Knight of Devonshire, (in obstruc- 
“ tions of the Liver and Bladder of 
“ Gall) by drinking the waters twenty-one days 
“ at the pump received great benefit.”
Guidot.  
7. The Reverend Mr. Lyon, aged sixty and 
Upwards, of a gross habit, swarthy 
complexion, and choleric disposition, 
had laboured long under an inveterate 
scurvy. His legs swelled, were hard, and disco- 
Author's 
Cases. 
loured

210 DISEASES CURED
loured with large deep foul ulcers. For this dis- 
order he came to Bath. 
He drank the waters in too great a quantity. 
He carried in the hottest part of the kitchen of 
King’s Bath, sweating, scrubbing, and broiling, 
for one hour and a half at a time. 
I often gave him warning that there was dan- 
ger of throwing inflammation on the liver, al- 
ready vitiated and obstructed, as is the case in
Scorbutics. He laughed at my prognostic, scorn- 
ing the dull beaten track, as he called it. In ex- 
cessive drinking and bathing he persisted. 
My prognostics were at last verified. I found 
him one day very ill indeed. He had every symp- 
tom of the jaundice, rather black than yellow, a 
high fever with fixed pain in the region of the 
liver. 
I ordered him immediately to be bled. Next 
day, he took a gentle purge of Senna, Rad. Cur- 
cum. Rub. Tinctor. &c. which (as is common in 
cases of unfound livers) operated so immoderate- 
ly, that his pulse intermitted. His spirits flagged. 
Nature was on the point of yielding. He then 
wished he had followed the dull beaten track. 
By some little helps the symptoms abated, he 
recovered strength. During this reprieve, I or- 
dered him to take two drachms of nitre thrice a 
day, in a large glass of Bath-water, a medicine 
highly commended by Heister. He swallowed as 
much soap as he pleased. I indulged him in the 
free use of Rum-punch, enriched with sugar and
the juice of Seville-oranges. I advised him to
eat freely of China oranges.—Never was a pa- 
tient more tractable. 
His Jaundice gradually went off. His foul 
scorbutic ulcers cicatrized. The cure of his jaun- 
dice proved the cure of all his ailments. By the 
help

211 BY BATH WATER:
help of soap and lime-water, he continued (ten 
years) as well as a man of his age and habit of 
body could be. 
8. Mrs. Elliot, of Golden Square, London, la- 
boured under a constant vomiting, with racking 
pain about the orifice of the stomach. She had 
neither retained food nor medicine for a month. 
This was the case described to me by her brother- 
in-law, my late worthy friend Capt. Wilkinson, 
Agent. Supposing her complaints owing to bili- 
ary concretions then passing the Duct, I told him
that hers was truly a Bath-case. My opinion 
was related to an eminent physician then attend- 
ing. He roundly pronounced Bath-water perni- 
cious in all respects. Dr. Girningham was called
in. He adhered to my opinion. 
With great difficulty she was transported to 
Bath. When I first saw her, her pains were ex- 
quisite, she threw up laudanum and every other 
thing. She was lodged in one of those houses 
from whence there is a Slip, or communication 
into the Bath. I advised her to drink a glass of
water at any time in bed; and, as fast as she 
threw that up, another, and so continue till she 
was sure that the water began to stay on her sto- 
mach. She was also carried into the bath, some- 
times twice in a morning, and there supported 
till she began to vomit. While she was in the 
bath her pains ceased. In a few days the water 
began to stay. At once she passed twenty-two 
gall-stones, as big as beans and pease, by stool. 
At different times more. 
Her pain vanished. From a skeleton (in less 
than three weeks) she grew plump, and walked 
on the parade. The only medicine that she used 
was a deobstruent gentle purge of Rhubarb Rad. 
Curcum. Rub, Tinctor, &c. with Castile soap. 
She

212 DISEASES CURED
She went home. Her complaints returned She 
came again to Bath, where she pursued the same 
regimen, and found her cure. Profiting by ex- 
perience, she staid six months; during which 
time she drank about a quart of water a day, 
and swallowed two pounds and upwards of soap 
every week. For these eight years past she has 
enjoyed perfect health, excepting grumbling re- 
membrances of her pain, which she continues to
lull by the constant use of soap and Bath-water, 
warmed at home.” 
9. Every inhabitant of Bath knows how deep- 
ly Mr. Levellyn, builder of this city, was tinged 
with the jaundice. Every body saw him restored 
to his usual tint. He tried various Doctors, and 
various nostrums. He, mean while, drank the 
Bath-waters, and, without them, it is more than 
probable, he never could have recovered. 
CHAP.

213 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIII. 
OF THE DROPSY.
1. WHEN the serum comes to be extra- 
vasated, and stagnates in 
any of the cavities of the body, that
disease ss called Dropsy. 
Definition.
2. It may arise from many causes. 
My business is with those only which 
countenance the rationale of Bath-waters. 
Causes.
3. Its symptoms are too apparent to 
want to be enumerated. 
Symptoms. 
4. The curative indications are, to procure a
free circulation of the juices. To car- 
ry off the liquor deposited in the cavi- 
ties. To correct that fault or indisposition of the
parts, whether it he the cause or effect of the 
disease. 
Cure.
Strengthening, stimulating cordial medicines 
answer the first, especially those which are grate- 
fully acid, and gently aromatic. 
To obtain the second, the cause of the obstruc- 
tion must be found out. This must be removed 
or corrected, which is often done by Mineral 
waters. 
Steel medicines, and strengtheners gently astrin- 
gent answer the third intention, given in a proper 
dose, and seasonably administered. 
Friction, motion, and heat greatly conduce. If 
the pressure of water be 800 times greater than 
that of the atmosphere, how can we wonder that 
(in Anasarca’s especially) this pressure should thus
drive the humours into their proper channels! 
There are many examples of dropsies cured by 
Diuretics,


214 DISEASES CURED
Diuretics, vitriolate metallic medicines dissolved 
in water; such have been specifics- 
In the writings of the antients we 
find well authenticated cures of Drop- 
sies. 
Analogical 
Proofs. 
Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) says, Occurrit 
aqua Grottae omni incipienti hydropisi. Tungri aquam
in Burgundia mirificam tradunt in hydropicis, ut quae 
aquas evacuat ebihita jure balnei, flatum discutit, & 
tamen fitim extinguens. Bergomenses Trascherii a- 
quam experimentis commendant. Quae uteri vitio, 
vellienis, coacervati folent humiditates, in Ascitis spe- 
cie principle, vidimus nitratas, & falfulas quosdam 
modice purgatorias fanasse in totum. Salfarum balneo 
in Lesbo curari hydropem meminit Galenas. In Tym-
panite difcufforiae omnino facultatis effe oportet aquas, 
five in potibus principio, five in balneis in fine; idonea
quoque eft e vaporibus ipsarum calidarum evacuation 
nec minus super faxa, harenasque calentes, sub fole re- 
cubitus insolatusque. In Hyposarca assiduo praeter ce- 
tera profunt illutamenta, & in marinis, salsis lacunis, 
atramentosis paludihus, sulphurosts callidissimis, 
quantum vires sufficiunt, lavari. His (inquit Cel- 
sus) sudor evocandus in arena calida, Laconico, cli- 
bano, similibusque, Maxime utiles naturales IA sic- 
cae fudationes. Arena e littore maris sole fervefacta 
capite tenus hydropicis obruta, vulgaris praesidii est. 
Incomparable remedium ad omnem hydropem in pul- 
vere ad aquas calidas in Ischia voluntari, atque info- 
lari. Ex plumho balnea in Lothoringis omni hydropi- 
co permira hakentur cum lutamentis. Aridum &
valde potens Stygianum ex nostris, non longe ab urbe, 
& Sabatinum, Bullicanum, Thermae in Sicilia, 
omnes calidae ad hydropem valere, ab auctoribus pro- 
mittuntur. Omni autem hydropi ex falsis clysteria uti- 
lia funt, Nec minus Stuphae, hypocausta, pyrateria. 
Guianerus

215 BY BATH WATER.
Guianerus (De Balneis Aquensibus, cap. 3 ) says, 
“ Asciticam his aquis balneari jussi. Haec etiam
“ mane pintam unam illius aquae bibebat, & die 
“ alia in vesperis solum balneum intrabat; ali- 
“ quando tres pintas mane bibebat, & per dies 
“ XL hoc continuans liberata est.” 
Ugulinus (Des Balneis Comitatus Pisarum) says, 
“ Vidi ego multos in usu Balnei hujus hydropicos, 
“ & ictericos curatos.” 
1. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) gives the fol- 
lowing. “ George Russel, a tippling butcher of 
“ this city, (by going too often to 
“ the ale-house) rendered himself un- 
“ able longer to go to market, he 
“ turned sheriff’s bailiff, &c. and then drank on, 
“ till he had distended his carcass as much as he
“ had extenuated his stock. He was swollen 
“ from head to foot by an exquisite Ascites and 
“ Anasarca, and, as is usual in that distemper, 
“ was excessive thirsty; the more he drank, the 
“ more he craved for drink, and the less he dis- 
“ charged by urine. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ I first prescribed drastic purges, then Bath- 
“ water, which quenched his exorbitant thirst, 
“ as indeed it infallibly does beyond any other li- 
“ quor. They passed also so well by urine that, 
“ by repeating his purge once a week, and drink- 
“ ing the waters, he was reduced to his pristine 
“ shape. Ordering then some strengthening bit— 
“ ters, I dismissed him perfectly cured. So he 
“ held two or three years, but he returned to his 
“ beloved tipple, till he brought himself to the 
“ same pass; and, without consulting me, by 
“ the apothecary’s advice, he repeated the same 
“ regimen with the same success; and so for a 
“ third, if not for a fourth time, till at last, 
“ with continued drinking, bangs, and bruises 
“ to

216 DISEASES CURED
“ to which Bailiff’s are subject, he so corrupted 
“ his entrails, that he died of an inward impo- 
“ stumation.” 
2. “ Mr. Treagle, of Taunton, grocer, aged 
“ forty-fix, had long been scorbutic, nephritic, ca- 
“ chectic and hydropic. Finding no relief from any 
“ medicine, he came hither with his legs and 
“ thighs greatly swollen, and so weak that he 
“ was hardly able to stand; he had large red livid
“ spots in both; he made very little water, and 
“ that jaundiced; his eyes and face were of the 
“ same complexion, withal horribly desponding 
“ and melancholy. 
“ For the first wreek I purged him, made him 
“ take chalybeates, hepatics, and antiscorbutics, in- 
“ termixing the waters now and then. By these 
“ his countenance, and the colour of his water 
“ was somewhat changed. By drinking, mode- 
“ rate bathing, and purging, the shape and co- 
“ lour of his legs were also altered. At the end 
“ of six weeks, he returned very much advan-
“ taged in every respect. He carried home di- 
“ rections for a diet-drink, for which I had his 
“ thanks some years after.” 
3. “ Much in the like, if not worse circum- 
“ stances, was one Appletree, an inn-keeper, in 
“ Crookhorn, a man aged about sixty; besides the 
“ foregoing symptoms, he had a cough also, he 
“ neither could walk nor stand. 
“ He bathed and drank the waters, took pecto- 
“ rals, antiscorbutics, and hepatics. He returned
“ well, and came back next year to confirm his 
“ cure. Again he returned, goes about his busi- 
“ ness, and probably drinks with his guests, in 
“ which he never was backward, and which was 
“ supposed to be the cause of his distemper
4. “ Sir

217 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Sir Robert Holmes, whom we have al- 
“ ready recorded, cured of batters and bruises in
“ sea-fights, came here for a colica pictonum, a- 
“ trophy, and dropsy, of all which he was cured, 
“ recommended his friend Mr. Warner, Mayor of 
“ Winchester, who, after a fit of the gout, had his 
“ legs and thighs very much swollen and disco- 
“ loured with large scorbutic spots; ha made a 
“ lixiviate water in small quantities, had little or 
“ no appetite, with great thirst. 
“ I began with gentle purgatives, then put him 
“ upon drinking the waters; and, after conveni- 
“ ent time, permitted him to go into the Queen’s- 
“ Bath. His swelling abated, his pains asswaged, 
“ his strength returned, so that in less than two 
“ months he went back greatly advantaged in eve- 
“ ry respect.”—“ I might add several other instan- 
“ces of this kind, but I forbear for fear of enlarg- 
“ ing my book beyond its intended bulk.” 
OF the external and internal effects of cold wa- 
ter, Baynard (in his book of Cold baths) gives us 
the following. “ A wine-cooper, who 
“ had been a free liver, fell into a 
“ jaundice, thence a dropsy, the ascites.
“ He applied to Sir Thomas Witherly, president 
“ of the college of physicians, who treated him
“ in the usual methods, but nothing would do. 
“ He prodigiously swelled all over. Forsaken by 
“ friends and physician, he begged his wife to carry
“ him to Islington-wells, there for once to quench 
“ his thirst insatiable, and die in peace. 
Baynard’s
Cases. 
“ From between 4 in the afternoon to 9 or 10 
“ at night, he drank 14 quarts, without making 
“ one drop of water. He sunk down in the chair 
“ in a clammy sweat. Thence being laid on the 
“ bed for dead, in half an hour’s time, the people 
“ heard something make a small rattling noise like 
K “ a

218 DISEASES CURED
“ a coach in a distant gravel-way. Soon after he 
“ began to piss, and pissed in an hour’s time about 
“ 7 or 8 quarts; from the weight of the waters, 
“ he also had two or three stools. He began to 
“ speak, and desired a little warm sack, after 
“ which he fell into a profound sleep, in which 
“ he both sweat, and dribbled his urine all that
“ night. Next day, he drank 4 or 5 quarts more 
“ of water, had two stools thin and waterish, still 
“ pissed on. For five or six days he drank on, 
“ taking mutton-broth, and so recovered. The 
“ relation of this unaccountable cure had for ever 
“ been lost, had not Sir Thomas accidentally met 
“ with the good woman his wife, about two 
“ years after, and asking her, how long her hus- 
“ band had lived after he had left him? She re- 
“ plied, pointing to a little slender man standing 
“ by her, there he is, this is the husband who was 
“ your patient, and who recovered by turning his own 
“ physician.”
Of the external use of cold water, the Doctor 
gives two remarkable instances. 
1. “ James Crook of Long Acre, had dropsy, 
“ jaundice, palsy, rheumatism, and an inveterate 
“ pain in his back. 
“ In three immersions, the swellings of his legs 
“ sunk, so did the pain of his back, as did the 
“ jaundice, blowing from his nose a great quan- 
“ city of a bilious yellow matter. From the frigi- 
“ dity and pressure of the fluid we may account for 
“ his pissing more than he drank; but, how the 
“ icteric matter should be thrown off by the nose, 
“ he who can tell, erit mihi magnus Apollo.” 
2. “ A Scotchman, in an ascites, was cured. 
“ By his is girdle which I saw, he fell six inches, in 
“ five days, pissing freely all the time.” 
CHAP.

219 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIV. 
OF FEMALE DISEASES.
HIPPOCRATES (De locis in homine) may 
well be said to have spoken from experi- 
ence, when he said, αl υsεραl λανΤων
Των νοδημαΤων αlΤαl εlδlv Omnium
morhorum causae sunt uteri. Besides those diseases
which equally affect men and women, there are 
some peculiar to the fair sex. Humanity obliges 
me to point out those aids which may be had 
from the waters. Respect obliges me to mention
but few names, and those of persons long for- 
gotten. 
In general.
I. OF OBSTRUCTION.
1. OBSTRUCTION, chlorosis. febris al- 
ba, amatoria, morbus virgineus, icterus 
albus, and green sickness, are different names only
for one and the same disease. 
Definition.
2. The remote causes of obstruction are sudden 
chills, viscid food, fear, grief, ex- 
cessive evacuations, astringents, other 
diseases, &c.—Its proximate are, Rigidity of the 
uterine vessels, Cachexy, Compression, and Len- 
tor of the humours. 
Caueses.
3. The symptoms are, pain and heat of the 
loins, pulsation of the arteries, head- 
ach, want of appetite, languor, shi- 
vering, slow fever, thick red urine, inflamma- 
tion, suppuration, gangrene, varicous swellings 
of the veins of the legs, vomiting, anxiety, 
cough, palpitation, fainting, vertigo, apoplexy.  
Symptoms.
K2 madness,

220 DISEASES CURED
madness, green sickness, longings, fluor albus, 
and various haemorrhages. 
4. The prognostics vary according 
to the symptorns, time of suppression, 
age, and causes. 
Prognostics.
5. In rigidity of the vessels, relaxing fomenta- 
tions with tepid baths avail. In len- 
tor, or sluggish circulation, warm 
baths are also indicated. In poverty of juices, Bath
waters are internally indicated. From melancho- 
ly or despair, a fiddle and company are specifics. 
Cure. 
From Pierce's memoirs we have the following. 
1. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Eyles, of the Devizes, aged
“ sixteen, was very far gone in this
“ disease with hysteric fits, she was 
“ pale, thin, stomachless, faint and 
“ tired upon the least motion. She had tried me- 
“ dicines at home to no purpose. The same me- 
“ dicines with bathing, and a little water inter- 
“ nally, restored her (in six weeks time) to her 
“ appetite, complexion, and customary benefits 
“ of nature. ”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
2. “ A daughter of lady Berifford's, aged nine- 
“ teen, was brought hither June, 1693. She 
“ was, in all respects, rather worse than the for- 
“ mer. She bathed and drank. At the end of 
“ seven weeks she went off so well, that she want- 
“ ed no help of the physician. 
3. Mrs. Eliz. Wayte, aged 20, besides the 
“ symptoms of the first, had the jaundice, scur- 
“ vy and dropsy in her legs and feet. She was 
“ short-breathed to a degree, hot, and inclining 
“ to a hectic, with palpitations. She drank and 
“ bathed. n five or six weeks she walked in 
“ the meadows, recovered her appetite, com- 
“ plexion, flesh, and spirits.” 
4. “ Miss

221 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Miss La Chambre, aged thirteen, of the 
“ very complexion of the chalk, mortar, and o- 
“ ther trash which she used to devour, was faint, 
“ tired, heavy-headed. &c. I began with a vo- 
“ mit and purge. She then drank and bathed. 
“ in a few weeks she rejoiced more at the fight 
“ of a shoulder of mutton than a handful of clay. 
“ The waters gave her new life and vigour, she 
“ became a healthy young woman.”
It is not the eating of chalk, charcoal, salt, or 
such trash that brings on the green-sickness. The 
disease depraves the appetite, and thus creates a
longing after things unaccountable. The fore- 
going observation proves the fact. 
From Guidot we have drawn the following.
5. “ Mrs. Manwaring of Cheshire, 
“ (in full habit and obstructions) re- 
“ ceived benefit by bathings in the 
“ King's and Queen's. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
When the catamenia are obstructed through 
poverty of blood, or its bad disposition, the symp- 
toms enumerated in the foregoing section appear. 
The same method of cure will enable nature to- 
perform her work. 
6. “ Madam Constance Harvey in a cachexy. 
“ or ill habit of body, joined to inveterate ob- 
“ structions, received cure by bathing and drink- 
“ ing, August, 1673. 
7. “ Mrs. Margaret Hall, of Ross, received 
“ cure of a cachexy, and great obstructions by 
“ drinking and bathing for a month, June, 
“ 1673.”
8. “ Miss Finch, of Reading, in the same case,
“ received great benefit, 1693.” 
9. “ Madam Barber, in the spleen and obstruc- 
“ tions, received great benefit, 1693.”
K3 II.

222 DISEASES CURED
II. OF IMMODERATE DISCHARGES.
UNDER the head of diseases specifically cured 
by Bristol waters, I propose to treat on the sub- 
ject of female discharges. Let it suffice, in this 
place, in general, to observe, that in sanguine 
plethoric habits, Bath water aggravates every 
symptom. 
If the discharge is white, if the blood is im- 
poverished, if the disorder arises from a general 
cachexy, or bad disposition of the 
juices, Bath-water is an excellent in- 
ternal medicine. By correcting the bad disposi- 
tion, it performs the cure. If to these are joined
internal ulcers, strains, or violences of any sort, 
warm-bathing will facilitate the cure. 
Fluor albus.
Dr. Pierce gives the following cases. “ A 
“ gentlewoman of forty-three, of a sanguine com- 
“ plexion, of a scorbutic habit, had a- 
“ bout midsummer, 1679, a violent 
“ eruption of the fluor albus, which 
“ continued for a year. She took all that farra- 
“ go of astringents which is commonly prescrib- 
“ ed by apothecaries, midwives and nurses, to 
“ very little purpose. She had pains, weakness 
“ and stiffness in her joints, for which she came 
“ to Bath in May, 1680. 
“ I put her first on drinking the waters, which
“ took off the sharpness of the flux; and cased 
“ her pain, though the abatement in quantity was
“ but small. For her external pains she bathed, 
“ and drank the water between whiles. The 
“ bathing was so far from increasing the quan- 
“ tity of the fluor albus (as idle theorists imagine) 
“ that it lessened it considerably. After six weeks, 
“ she went home, where (by a decoction of the 
Pierce's 
Cases.
“ woods,

223 BY BATH WATER.
“ woods, ivory, hartshorn, &c.) shee recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
2. “ A citizen’s wife of Bristol, aged thirty- 
“ six, had a discharge of such variety of colours 
“ as easily demonstrated excoriation or ulcer. 
“ I ordered her to drink, bathe, and inject 
“ the water. By these and the help of balsam- 
“ ics and astringents, she returned well in two 
“ months.” 
3. “ A tradesman’s wife of Cirencester, about 
“ a fortnight after her delivery, was taken with a 
“ violent pain in her flank, with some swelling, 
“ which came (in two months) to be large, hard, 
“ and tender to the touch. A green fetid matter 
“ was discharged. I ordered her to drink the 
“ water, bathe, and inject. The hardness abated, 
“ the gleet ceased, she brought forth many chil- 
“ dren, and is now a buxsome widow.” 
4. “ Guidot’s Register informs us of the case 
“ of a noble lady, who the very first 
“ day that she entered the Cross-Bath, 
“ found herself cured of a prolapsus uteri, which
“ had been down for eighteen years. 
Guidot. 
III. OF BARRENNESS.
In his book De Thermis, Baccius has rationally- 
accounted for the causes of sterility; 
he has rationally also pointed out the 
cure. According to him sterility pro- 
ceeds from diverse causes, and, therefore, requires 
diverse methods of treatment. In hardness of the 
uterus, emollients and humectants are indicated,
in dry hot temperaments especially. Virago’s are 
born with a natural hardness of the uterus; they 
labour under three causes of sterility, heat, dry— 
ness, and hardness. These can be corrected only
Barrenness.
Causes. 
K4 by

224 DISEASES CURED
by assiduous use of tepid emollient baths. For 
the purpose of conception, Baccius 
declares that there is no other sort of 
remedy so certain or salutary as natural baths, 
provided they are duly and rationally administer- 
ed. Ad spem sobolis non reperirt aliud remedii genus 
nea salubrius, neque experientia certius, quam bal- 
nea ipsa nturalia, si debite, ac ex ratione ministrata 
sit, page 117. If sterility proceeds from humi- 
dity, or superfluity of humours, or weaknesses, 
it requires baths drying, and not much heating, 
ferreous, or aluminous. These may be used ex- 
ternally and internally. The Balneum Caiae, at 
Viterbo, got the name of the Lady's Bath, from its 
particular virtue; so did the Aponum, The aquae 
caldanellae were said fluores cohibere albos mulieribus, 
et gonorrhaeam viris vimque illis generativam ad- 
augere.
Cure.  
IN schirrous hardness, and swellings of the 
womb, warm mineral waters injected, or receiv- 
ed by vapour conduce, while total immersions, ra- 
ther exasperate, Fourteen years ago I met with 
a case which proves the position. 
1. A married lady came down, to Bath, with a 
hardness, and swelling of the uterus. By the 
advice of an eminent physician, since
dead, she bathed upwards of twenty 
times in the Queen and King’s baths. By constant 
bathing her flesh wasted, she became hectic. Her 
original complaint continued hard, and became 
painful. Despairing of cure, the Doctor told 
her at last, that her disorder was chirurgical, and
out of his way. When I met her she was pre- 
paring for her journey, and had sent away her 
cloaths. She told me what had been done, and 
begged my opinion. I told her, that the worst of
her complaints were the effects of improper bath-
Case.
ing.

225 BY BATH WATER.
ing. I advised her to go to the country, and drink 
asses milk for a fortnight, and return, which she 
did, I then directed her to let her maid throw uo 
a pail of warm Bath-water by the help of a flexi- 
ble syringe, every night at home, which she did. 
By degrees the pain abated, the swelling dimi- 
nished, and grew softer, she recovered flesh daily. 
I then recommended her to Dr. Smellie, who 
completed her cure with emollients, so that in a- 
bout eleven months he delivered her of a child. 
From Dr. Pierce's Memoirs. I have extracted the
following cases.
2. “ Mrs. DufFwaite was twelve 
“ years married without conceiving 
“ once. She came to Bath for a palsy. After 
“ bathing the second season, she returned home- 
“ well, and, in a month after, conceived, and 
“ had five lusty children at different births.”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “  Mrs. Hawkins, of Marlborough, forty 
“ years old, had been married thirteen or four- 
“ teen years without a child. She came hither 
“ for lameness. By long bathing, she not only 
“ got her legs, but her belly up also five different 
“ times.” 
4. “ Lady Blissington, a weak sickly person, 
“ married for years, and childless, bathed and
“ drank. By God's blessing, she not only got 
“ her health, but became a mother also.”
“ This is an effect (says the Doctor) so very 
“ well known, and so generally believed, that 
“ when any woman comes hither that is child- 
“ less, they presently say, she comes for the com- 
“ mon cause. To instance all who have sped in 
“ this errand since my living here, were to fill a 
“ volume.”  
5. “ Mrs. Clement, of Bristol, aged forty, had 
“ several children, but buried them all. She had 
K5 “ not 

226 DISEASES CURED
“ not conceived in nine years. She came and 
“ bathed for rheumatic pains. Soon after she con- 
“ ceived, and brought forth twins.” 
6. “ The very same happened to a worthy 
“ gentlewoman, Mrs. Horton, of Comend.” 
7. “ Mrs. Davers, of Monks, had eight chil- 
“ dren, but being ill of a scorbutic habit, with
“ weakness of her limbs, she bred not for six 
“ years. I ordered her the bath, which, with 
“ other helps, restored her health. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a son. 
“ She came to Bath again, fearing a relapse. By 
“ drinking the waters only, she soon conceived. 
“ She had afterwards two miscarriages, and a
“ lusty boy at forty-four.” 
IV. OF ABORTION.
THERE are not wanting instances 
of women apt to miscarry, who, by the 
use of mineral waters, have been en- 
abled to go through with their burdens. 
Prevent mis- 
carriage. 
In such cases Baccius gives numerous instances
of the power of the Porretanae, Albulae, and 
many other detergent strengthening waters, in- 
ternally and externally applied. 
Savonarola (De balneis vallis Chaim vulgo dict- 
balnea dominarum) expresses himself thus. “ This 
“ bath has received great commenda- 
“ tion in disorders of the womb, in 
“ passionibus matricis, by preparing it 
“ for conception, cleansing, absterging, and 
“ strengthening all those faults which proceed 
“ from causes cold and moist. It provokes the 
“ meness. For such purposes, the ladies frequent 
“ it daily, pro hisque passionibus mulieres indies id 
“ in vadunt. 
Collateral
proofs.
1. Guia-

227 BY BATH WATER.
1. Guianerus (De balneis aquensibus, cap. 3.) 
relates the following memorable case. “ A cer- 
“ tain lady (by reason of an obstinate white flux) 
“ could not conceive. The matter was some- 
“ times so fetid, that she loathed herself. After 
“ due preparation, she used the warm bath, and 
“ drank the water. Thus, cured of the whites, 
“ she went home, conceived, and in due time, 
“ brought forth a boy, menstruis albis purgatis, 
“ domi praegnans facta, puellum enixa est.” 
2. “ Mrs. Sherrington, after many 
“ miscarriages, came, bathed, and 
“ drank the waters for five or six 
“ weeks, in three years, she brought forth three 
“ children at different births.” 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “ Mrs. Howard, formerly maid of honour 
“ to the Dutchess of York, conceived ten times, 
“ but never carried any to the full time. She 
“ came and bathed five weeks. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a 
“ daughter in due time, as she did afterwards a 
“ son.” 
4. “ Lady Kilmurry miscarried thrice. She used 
“ the bath only five weeks, returned, conceived, 
“ and carried her burden to maturity. She miscar- 
“ ried twice or thrice again, came back, bathed
“ again. In due time, she had a daughter.” 
V. OF PREGNANCY.
INSTANCES of women who have drank and 
bathed during their pregnancy with- 
cut miscarriage. 
1. “ Mrs. Howard, of Yorkshire, 
“ came hither May, 1690, for a weak- 
“ ness in her lower limbs, for which she bathed
“ six or seven weeks till she was cured. She was 
Water safe, 
during preg- 
nancy. 
K6 “ young

228 DISEASES CURED
“ young with child just before she set cut for this
“ place, as appeared afterwards by her reckon- 
“ ing, when she was brought to bed of a lusty 
“ girl.” 
2. “ Mrs. Floyer had often miscarried, she 
“ was very hysterical. She was with child all 
“ the time while she bathed and drank, as ap- 
“ peared by the time of her delivery of a son, 
“ the strongest she ever had. She passed her 
“ month better than ever, which was imputed to 
“ the bathing.” 
3. “ Lady Cooke, the wife of a city knight, 
“ came down with some relations for pleasure. As 
“ she was here, she was willing to bathe for 
“ some pains which she was subject to in her limbs, 
“ but was doubtful, knowing herself to be young 
“ with child. She consulted me. I advised the 
“ Cross Bath with moderation. She bathed fif- 
“ teen times, and was then two months gone, as 
“ afterwards appeared by her being delivered of
“ a full-ripe child.” 
4. “ Lady Scarborough came to the Bath for 
“ lameness after rheumatism, gout, &c. She 
“ bathed even to excess after she found the child
“ quick, imputing the motion only to wind. She 
“ miscarried not, for she was, at due time, de- 
“ livered of a daughter which they called by the 
“ nick-name of the Bath-girl.” 
5. I remember an instance of a lady’s maid, 
who (to create miscarriage) bathed often in the 
hottest baths, and to no purpose. 
WHEN night-baths were more in 
fashion, our women-guides were in the 
water sometimes eight or nine hours a 
day; many of them have been with child, with- 
out miscarriage. 
Women 
guides. 
Pudendorum

229 BY BATH WATER.
Pudendorum vitiis minerales aquae valde conveni- 
unt, says Baccius, p. 118. Sunt enim bae natura- 
liter ficcae, ac ficcis ex aequo medicamen- 
tis haec Loca indigent. Humida saniosa, 
ac fistulosa fedis ulcer et quae uteri cer- 
vicem obfiderint, non possunt ullis aquae 
preusidiis percurari, quam naturallbus balneis; turn
aquis, de more, bibitis, turn iisdem per catheterem in 
loculos ipsos infusis, et calefactis biemo, quibus nos fe- 
liciter usi sunius, etiam in saevo ulcere intestini caeci, 
quod penetrans, tractu temporis, foras in inguen, ex 
ipso ulcere (mirum) ebibitas reddebat aquas.—Percu- 
ratam similiter per ejusmodi balnea in Aenaria scimus
illustrem Dominant Neapoli, quae cancrum occultum 
medicorum judicio, aut schirrum alioquin incurabilem, 
inter abdomen et uterum erat diu perpessa. 
Bathing use- 
ful in ulcers
and cancers.
WEAK ricketty children find constant relief by 
bathing. In my Attempt to revive the practice of
bathing I have quoted examples.
OF

[230]
OF 
DISEASES 
CURED BY 
BRISTOL WATER. 
CHAP. XV. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
UNDER the general head of Diseases cured hy 
Bath Water, I have given convincing proofs of 
the power of Bath water in disorders of the breast. 
Custom has appropriated disorders of the breast to 
Bristol Water only, in compliance with custom, 
I have reserved the particular disquisition of such
disorders to this chapter. To the study of Con- 
sumptions, I have given particular attention. I 
have pried into almost all the boasted nostrums. 
With the sagacious GILCHRIST, I ingenuously 
confess that, in proportion to my experience, my 
faith abates. Rationally to account for the ope- 
ration of the waters, now my purpose briefly to 
distinguish the different diseases of the breast, 
with their subject, causes, symptoms, stages, diag- 
nostics, prognostics, regimens, and method of cure.
I. OF COUGH, OR CATARRH.
1. Cough, or Catarrh is a convul- 
sive endeavour to expel whatever proves 
offensive to the lungs.
Definition.
2. IT
 

231 BY BRISTOL WATER.
2. IT is divided, into thin and sharp, 
or into viscid and inert. 
Division. 
3. The first is occasioned by sudden chills, 
winds cold and moist, east and north 
particularly, sudden changes, thaws, 
wet cloaths, relicts of former diseases, measles, 
small-pox, &c. 
Causes.
4. The second takes its rise from laxity of the 
solids, indolence, moisture, night studies, crude 
cold and watery diet, &c. 
5. The symptoms of the first are shivering, las- 
situde, watery inflamed eyes, flushed counte- 
nance, shortness of breathing, tickling 
and inclination to cough, especially 
towards night, plentiful secretion of urine, quick
hard pulse, itching and running of the nostrils, 
sneezing, inflammation, and excoriation of the 
membrana sneideriana, hoarseness, spitting of blood, 
and pulmonary phthisis. 
Symptoms. 
6. In the viscid catarrh, respiration labours, the 
lungs are oppressed with frothy mucus, the cough 
is chiefly troublesome in the morning; the mat- 
ter expectorated is whitish, bluish, and globular. 
These are succceded by tubercles, suppurations, 
and pulmonary consumptions. 
These symptoms are easily accounted for. Of 
all causes, the most common is cold. Causae ex- 
ternae quae prohibere solent perspirationem sunt aer 
frigidus, caenosus, humidus, &c. says Sanctorius.
The membrana sneideriana suffers by its com- 
munication with that membrane which covers 
the inside of the lungs. The internal and exter- 
nal parts of the thorax and abdomen become 
convulsed, because they are covered with the 
same nerves with the lungs, the eighth pair, and 
intercostals. 
7. The

232 DISEASES CURED
7. The convulsive cough is more inveterate, 
and attacks children, commonly called Chincough. 
In this, inspiration continues for some 
minutes; when it begins, it is per- 
formed by a sort of hissing, snoring, 
and clangor, occasioned by the coarctation of the 
glottis. Little or nothing is thrown up. The sto- 
mach is often provoked to vomiting. Fever super- 
venes; ulcer, haemoptoe, and phtisis follow. 
Convulsive
cough.
8. The cause of this species seems 
not yet ascertained. 
Causes.
II. OF CONSUMPTION.
1. EVERY disease that wastes the body may, 
strictly speaking, be termed consumption. This
is a wasting of the body accompanied 
with hectic fever, cough, and puru- 
lent spitting. In this country consumptions may
truly be said to be endemic. The general con- 
stitution of our air is cold, moist, and variable. 
Laxity of solids, languid circulation,, and reten- 
tion of humours are natural consequences. Dis- 
eases arising from such solids and fluids, are 
coughs, catarrhs, hectic fevers, empyema, hae- 
moptoe, sweating, asthma, &c. It is called a 
pulmonary phthisis, because it has its seat parti- 
cularly in the lungs. 
Definition.
2. It is distinguished, 1. Into or- 
dinary and symptomatic. 2. Into 
phthisis, with an abscess. 3. Into acute and
chronic. 
Division.
3. Persons subject to this disease are 
the young, long-necked, tall, narrow 
chested, and lax. 
Subjects.
4. The procatarctic causes are a- 
crid matter, metallic fumes, moist air, 
tubercles, haemoptoe, suppressions of usual eva-  
Causes. 
cuations,

233 BY BRISTOL WATER.
cuatations, inordinate passions, gluttony, drinking, 
indolence, wounds, and dregs of other diseases; 
infection, and hereditary taint. Obstruction of 
the glands of the lungs or arteries produce this, 
disease, as well as ulcers. 
5. It is divided into two stages, in- 
flammatory and suppuratory. 
Stages.
6. It begins with a dry cough, clangorous 
voice, heat, pain, oppression after motion, spit- 
ting of blood, saltish taste of the 
mouth, loss of appetite, thirst, vomit- 
ing, sadness, sense of weight in the lobe affected, 
pulse quick, soft, and small; sometimes full and 
hardish. This we call the inflammatory state. 
Symptoms.
7. Soon after the patient expectorates matter 
white, green, streaked, insipid, and fetid. The
body wastes, and seems chilly in hot weather,
with night heats, and morning sweats, diarhaea, 
dysentery, lientery, or diabetes; the palms of 
the hands burn; the tongue becomes covered 
with little ulcers; after meals the cheeks flush;
the nails grow crooked; the hair falls off; the 
feet swell; the belly shrinks upwards; parts of 
the air-vessels are thrown up by spitting; all the 
functions languish; the body grows dry; the 
eyes sink into their sockets. Laesion of degluti- 
tion, drying up of the ulcers, chills, and loss of 
strength, carry off the sick in the midst of flat- 
tering hopes. This we call the suppuratory state. 
In a Vomica pulmonum all these symptoms ap- 
pear, excepting spitting of pus. 
8. The inflammatory state is thus distinguish- 
ed from the catarrh. In the former, the cough 
is dry, a sense of weight is perceived 
in one of the lobes of the lungs. In 
the latter, defluxion only.—Putrid remittent 
fever, expectoration of pus, wasting, night sweats,
Distinction.
and

234 DISEASES CURED
and colliquative looseness, distinguish the suppu- 
ratory state from other diseases. 
AN EMPYEMA is a collection of pus between 
the lungs and the pleura. It is distin- 
guishable by the hectic fever, difficul- 
ty of breathing, cough, spitting, fluctuation of 
matter, weight and sense of pain on shifting pos- 
ture; with other signs of inflammation and sup- 
puration. 
Empyema. 
A consumption is distinguished from a Vomica 
of the Liver, by that pathognomonic 
pain which attends the latter, and 
which reaches upwards to the shoul- 
der; by tumor and pain in the part affected, nau- 
sea, vomiting, and diarhaea. 
Vomica of 
the Liver. 
A consumption is distinguished from an ab- 
scess of the stomach by symptoms pe- 
culiar to the latter, viz. Fetid eructa- 
tions, cough without expectoration, 
purulent vomiting, faintings, sweats, pain in de- 
glutition, or after; pain of the intestines, occa- 
sioned by the passing of pus; of the omentum, 
or mesentery of the kidneys; desire of lying on
the belly; purulent urine, or dysury, &c. 
Abscess of
the Stomach. 
III. OF HECTIC FEVER.
1. FEVERS which proceed slowly, 
debilitate and waste, are called Hectic. 
Definition.
2. Hectic fevers are divided into idiopathic and
symptomatic. Symptomatic hectics proceed from 
schirrous infarctions, and ulcers of the 
viscera, particularly the lungs and me- 
sentery. There are hectic fevers which proceed 
from mere acrimony. This opinion gathers 
strength from a survey of the remote causes of 
hectics, viz. Inordinate passions, grief, anger,
Division. 
care,

235 BY BRISTOL WATER. 
care, watching, excessive evacuations of all sorts;
corrosive medicines; debility of the first passages; 
past diseases; suppressions of usual evacuations; 
drunkenness. 
3. The symptoms of hectics are the 
same almost as in consumptions. 
Symptoms. 
IV. OF HAEMOPTOE. 
1. FLORID frothy blood thrown up 
from the lungs, we call Haemoptoe. 
Definition.
2. Persons are subject to this from 
the same dispositions mentioned under 
the section of consumption.
Subjects. 
3. The remote causes are violent orgasms, or 
expansion of the blood; spastic contractions of
the viscera; schirrous obstructions; 
polypus’s in the pulmonary vessels; 
plethora’s after intermissions of usual evacuations; 
anger; violent exercise; high fauces; spirituous 
liquors; violent fits of coughing; strainings; 
hard frost; inelastic air.
Causes. 
4. The preceding symptoms are shivering, las- 
situde, coldness of the extremities, anxiety, diffi-
culty of breathing, heavy undulatory 
pain about the region of the dia- 
phragm, flatus, and pain of the back. These 
symptoms are peculiar to this species of hae- 
moptoe. 
Symptoms.
V. OF ASTHMA.
1. ASTHMA is a laborious respira- 
tion, threatening suffocation.
Definition.
2. It is 1. Periodic, or continual. 
2. Moist, or dry. 3. Genuine, or 
spurious. Of the first we treat only. 
Division.
3. It

236 DISEASES CURED
3. It chiefly attacks fat people, and
after the bloom of youth. It is more 
frequent in summer than in autumn. 
Subjects.
4. Its remote causes are gross foggy air, thun- 
der, inordinate passions, small-pox, scurvy, in- 
termittents, catarrh, old ulcers cica- 
trized, suppression of wonted evacua- 
tions, repercussions of critical evacuations, gout, 
erysepilas, oedematous tumors of the feet, wounds 
of the diaphragm, hereditary taint. 
Causes.
5. Its proximate causes are, 1. Obstructions of 
the bronchia and air vessels. 2. Irritation of the
respiratory nerves; thence spasmodic contraction 
of those fibres which correct the cartilaginous- 
rings of the bronchia. 
6. The paroxysm manifests itself thus. First, 
the stomach is distended, and throws up belch- 
ings, with a sense of coarctation. 
Heat, fever, stupor, head-ach, nausea, 
and pale urine follow. The lungs feel stiff, the 
spirits are ruffled, the extremities seem benumb- 
ed, the breast feels as it were squeezed between 
two presses, the patient breathes with difficulty, 
and speaks hoarse. During the night every symp- 
tom increases. Breathing is slow, nor can it be 
performed but in an erect posture, nor without 
the assistance of the scapulae. Worse in bed than
in the cold air. Tears flow involuntary, the 
pulse feels weak, small and intermitting; the 
heart trembles, the face grows black, with a 
sense of suffocation. As the straightness remits, 
a viscid, sweet, saltish phlegm is thrown up, 
streaked with black filaments. The urine then 
is coloured, and lets fall a sediment. When the 
fit is over, the spitting ceases. As the disorder 
grow inveterate, the hands and feet swell, espe- 
cially towards night, the countenance acquires a 
Symptoms. 
livid

237 BY BRISTOL WATER.
livid cast, the patient falls into dropsy, consump- 
tion, inflammation of the lungs, lethargy, palsy, 
death. 
Prognostics.
THUS, having accounted for the causes, seats, 
symptoms, and effects of pectoral diseases in 
general, we now proceed to their several prog- 
nostics. 
1. Dry Coughs generally change into moist. 
The former are more dangerous than the latter, 
because of those inflammations, and 
ruptures of vessels which accompany
them. Better that dry coughs should turn moist, 
than moist into dry; because tubercles, putrid 
and hectic fevers generally attend the latter. 
Moist coughs hinder digestion, and bring on ca- 
chexy. To weak lungs, both sorts are bad. 
Coughs.
2. Convulsive Coughs are rarely 
dangerous. 
Convulsive. 
3. In consumptions, the following symptoms 
promise fair. Pus white, even, easily thrown
up, little or no fever, respiration free, 
cough moderate, appetite not impair-  
ed, chest wide, belly lax, youth, and the disease
yet recent.—If the disease happens to be heredita- 
ry, if the cough is severe, if the hectic heat lasts
till morning, if sleep refreshes not, if the wast- 
ing be great, if there is danger of suffocation, 
looseness, colliquative sweat, and swelling of the 
feet, the case is, at best, desperate. Acute phthi- 
sis is more dangerous than chronic, originary 
than symptomatic. The autumn promises little 
to consumptives. 
Consumptton.
4. In

238 DISEASES CURED
4. In hectic fevers, if the strength 
fails, if the hair falls off, with colli- 
quative diarhaea’s, night sweats, swell- 
ing of the feet, urine oily, and the face hippocra- 
tic, the patient has little to hope for. 
Hectic fe- 
vers. 
5. Of all haemorhages, that of eructation of 
pure blood from the lungs is the most 
dangerous. According to the habit, 
age, and vessels ruptured, the danger 
varies. It is more perilous when it arises from
weak vessels, schirrous, or polypus, than when 
it proceeds from the fluids themselves, or the in- 
termission of usual evacuations, in weak lax ha- 
bits than in strong, in old than in young, from 
ruptures of large vessels than from small. From
obstructions, women are subject to haemoptoes. 
In them it is more alarming than dangerous. 
Emenagogues, about the next time of eruption, 
bring nature to its own channel, the haemoptoe 
ceases. If part of the blood stagnates in the ae- 
real vessels, it putrifies, corrupts the found parts, 
and brings on consumption. If it happens to be 
complicated with ulcer, the patient would do 
well to think of another world.—If it returns 
often, the blood acquires acrimony from inani- 
tion. Hence it is, that (in Monasteries) those 
devotees who really fast, die all of putrid hectic 
fevers. The same juices, bv constant circular 
tion, naturally acquire putrescency; their breath 
is offensive; such generally die raving mad. 
Thus it fares with nurses who fast too long; 
their milk tastes strong of urine. Hence also it 
is that the best natured people grow peevish 
through sickness. This explains that axiom, 
Qui same moriuntur, febre moriuntur. 
Haemor- 
hages. 
6. In asthmas, the prognostics are 
more promising in youth than in old 
Asthmas.
age,

239 BY BRISTOL WATER.
age, from evacuations suppressed than from other 
causes. The more frequent and severe the pa- 
roxysms, the worse. An asthma changing into a 
peripneumony is deadly. Difficulty of breathing 
may be long borne; orthopnaea strangles old 
men suddenly. Blackness of the face, and suffo- 
cation happen from a stoppage of the blood thro' 
the lungs. Dangerous are trembling respiration, 
pulse intermittent or deficient, palsy of the upper 
extremities, faintings, palpitation, and scarcity 
of urine. When the breathing comes to be 
small and slow, when the limbs feel cold, when 
the pulse changes from slow to quick and weak, 
matters are at the worst. Thus having accounted 
for particular prognostics, we next proceed to the
several methods of cure. 
Cure. 
1. THIN, sharp catarrh calls 1. For vaenesec- 
tion, gentle purging, and mild dia- 
phoretics. 2. Acrimony is to be cor- 
rected, thinness inspissated, and the pulmonary 
vessels to be relaxed by vegetable expressed oils; 
mucilaginous decoctions; pectoral syrups and 
balsams. 3. Convulsive spasms are to be quieted 
by opiates. 4. The diet ought to be light, bland, 
milky. The skin ought to be defended from the 
air; rest is first to be indulged, then gentle ex- 
ercise. 
Thin catarrh. 
2. In viscid catarrh, 1. The peccant matter is 
to be diverted, by keeping the belly 
open, blisters and issues. 2. It is to
be attenuated by vomits, blisters, and 
medicines inciding and deterging, viz. soap, 
squills, garlick, gum-ammoniac, and vegetable 
acids. 3. The lungs are to be strengthened by
Thick ca-
tarrh. 
fumiga-

240 DISEASES CURED
fumigations, riding, friction, corroborating diet, 
and ferrugineous waters. 
3. In convulsive Coughs, medicines avail but 
little, till the disease has almost ex- 
pended its fury. These chiefly con- 
duce, 1. Bleeding. 2. Vomits, 3. 
Purges. 4. Pectorals. 5. Blisters. 6. Specifics; 
and, 7. Bitters. 
Convulsive 
cough. 
4. In the inflammatory state of consumptions, 
1. Small bleedings seasonably repeated conduce. 
2. Blisters ought frequently to be ap- 
plied. 3. Thin sharp humours are 
to be inviscated by oily incrassating 
medicines. 4. Vomits, provided the disease takes 
its rise from thin catarrh. 5. Medicines and diet 
are specifically to be directed to the causes; hae- 
morhage, scurvy, scrophula, asthma, evacua- 
tions, &c.—Crude tubercles are to be attempted 
by the most gentle deobstruents, and with the 
greatest caution. 
Consumptions 
inflammatory. 
4. The second, or suppuratory state, may be 
attempted, 1. By astringents, increasing and ag- 
glutinate. 2. Pus is to be drawn off 
by those ways which nature affects.
3. The effects of pus are to be prevented by an- 
tiseptics, incrassants, and acids. 4. The body 
is to be refreshed with light nourishing diet, air, 
sleep, avoiding venery, and passions of the mind. 
—The preservatory cure depends on little bleed- 
ings, diet, exercise, and avoiding night air.
Suppuratory.  
5. Hectics admit of no cure, unless they are 
timeously attacked. The acrimony of the blood 
is, 1. To be corrected by medicines 
demulcent and inviscating, such as al- 
mond emulsions, vegetable mucilaginous decoc- 
tions, barley, marsh-mallows, colts-foot, chicken 
broth, &c. 2. Asses milk, or breast milk, goat- 
Hectics. 
whey,



241 BY BRISTOL WATER.
whey, &c. 3. Gentle astringents, conserve of 
roses, tincture of roses, elixir vitriol, bark, fer- 
rugineous waters, &c. 4. Riding, and constant 
travelling. 5. Cleansing the first passages, by 
gentle pukes, and rhubarb. 6. Paying attention 
always to original causes. 
6. In Haemoptoes, 1. The blood is to be 
diverted from the lungs. 2. Its orgasm is to be 
tempered. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed; and, 4. Ruptured vessels are to 
be foldered.—1. The blood is to be 
diverted by vaenesection, gentle purging, glys- 
ters, and ligatures. 2. Its orgasm is to be tem- 
pered by water and nitre, acids mineral and ve- 
getable, and opiates. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed by opiates. 4. The vessels are to be consoli- 
dated by medicines oily, incrassating, and agglu- 
tinant diet, tranquility, abstinence of all sorts. 
Spitting of 
blood. 
7. In moist asthmas, the intention is to at- 
tenuate, and evacuate viscid matter, and to pre- 
vent its regeneration. Attenuation is 
performed by medicines, attenuating 
and diluting liquors. Evacuation by 
pukes. Generation of new matter, by gentle 
purges and diuretics, fontanells, blisters, and the 
bark. 
Moist asth- 
mas. 
8. In convulsive asthmas, the business is to 
quiet the orgasm of the spirits. This is accom- 
plished, 1. By diminishing the stric- 
ture by glysters, and fomentation ap- 
plied to the breast. 2. By diverting the humours 
to other places, by friction and warm pediluvia. 
3. By allaying the spasm with opiates and anti- 
spasmodics.—In the plethoric, bleeding gives im- 
mediate relief. In flatulencies, carminative glys- 
ters. After the paroxysm, the bark bids fair for 
preventing irritability. In both kinds, erect pos- 
Convulsive.
L ture, 




242 DISEASES CURED
ture, slender diet, and air serene conduce. If 
the disorder proceeds from suppression of usual 
evacuations, it is to be attempted by diaphoretics 
and restoration of such evacuations. 
FROM the preceding deduction, we naturally 
draw the following practical reflections. 
1. IN constitutions naturally good, 
when fever, sickness, cough, and wast- 
ing, give early warning when the dis- 
order happens to be endemic, and the habit not 
much impaired, common evacuations generally 
succeed. 
Evacuations 
indicated.
2. ULCERS from incysted tumours 
yield to common methods, provided 
the disorder proceeds from external in- 
juries, and the constitution be found. 
Pus, confined within its cystis, affects the 
lungs no otherwise than by pressure. When the 
cystis comes once to be expectorated, the disease
is cured.  
Incysted tu- 
mours. 
From page 99 to 105 inclusive, Gilchrist (in 
his Use of Sea Voyages in Medicine) gives histories 
of cures from incysted tumours, with the help of 
hardly any one medicine; nay, he hardly allows 
such to be called consumptions. 
3. CONSUMPTIONS from glandular obstruc- 
tions are very frequent, and very obstinate. Be- 
tween such, and scrophulas, there 
seems to be great analogy. Scrophu- 
las prevail often without visible tu- 
mour. The seat of the distemper lies often in 
the mesentery and lungs, which are covered with 
an infinitude of glands. Such obstructions fre- 
quently end in hectic and pulmonary consump- 
tion. Scurvy, vapours, and scrophula often have 
the same common cause; therefore it is that they 
are often common to the same patient, and 
Glandular 
obstructions. 
change

243 BY BRISTOL WATR:
change so often into one another. Sickly tender 
habits have often been relieved by scorbutic erup- 
tions. Eruption imprudently repelled has brought 
on tubercles, glandular swellings, topical inflam- 
mations, languor, and vapours. Some scrophu- 
las are mild, and easily admit of resolution, or 
suppuration. Others are intractable. So, in 
some consumptions, we observe mild suppura- 
tions. In true glandular consumptions, there are 
not wanting instances of cures. But, if the ha- 
bit degenerates, if new causes concur, other 
glands come to be affected, those which have 
been healed turn callous, the disease comes to be 
fatal. 
4. WHEN obstructions resolve not, when the 
lungs really come to be ulcerated, cures are very 
rare. By malignity of ulcers added to 
necessary motion of expiration and in- 
spiration, consolidation is prevented. In pectoral
diseases, various and perplexed are the contra-in- 
dications. Like fruits on the same tree, some 
are green, some coloured, some mellow, just so 
it fares with the pulmonary glands; some are 
crude, others inflamed, others suppurated, others 
broken. In fevers complicated of the inflamma- 
tory, hectic, and putrid, what hopes can we ad- 
minister? In coughs dependent on erosion, on 
catarrh, opiates, doubtless, have their use. By 
retaining acrid pus, they add to infarction; 
they debilitate, pall the appetite, and bind the 
belly; they are, at best, but temporary reliefs. 
Fever indicates the bark. Bark adds to obstruc- 
tion; and so may we say of pectorals in ge- 
neral. 
Suppuration.
5. THERE is hardly a disease in 
which common practice is more absurd 
than in this of which we treat. Coughs, 
Pectorals, 
their opera- 
tion.
L2 catarrhs,



244 DISEASES CURED
catarrhs, hectics, consumptions, asthmas and hae- 
moptoes differ from one another, and there- 
fore require different cures. Sharp catarrhs 
indicate diaphoretics, thick attenuants. Scor- 
butic consumptions yield to antiscorbutics; vene- 
real to mercurials Medicines certainly have 
their use; by restoring faultering nature, they 
often procure a truce; and, at length, a cure. 
But, from a comparative view of the delicate 
structure of the lungs, and the qualities of medi- 
cines promiscuously employed, we may venture 
to say, that consumptives are too often hurried to 
their long homes. Cloying linctus’s pall the ap- 
petite; astringents cork up, choak, and increase 
the fever. When we endeavour to cure consump- 
tions by remedies which respect the habit, we 
satisfy one indication only. Surgeons rely not 
altogether on local applications. Ulcers are the 
same, external or internal. To correct the vice 
of the fluids, to consolidate the ruptured vessels, 
are equally the intentions of the rational practi- 
tioner. By the common method of practice, one 
would think that practitioners had discovered a 
shorter passage to the lungs than by the round of 
circulation. 
6. IN cases where art has exhausted its skill, 
where nostrums have proved of none effect, where 
the mass of blood has been fused into ichorous 
corroding serum, where this same serum has run 
off in colliquative discharges, where these dis- 
charges have been increased by consuming hectic, 
where the tenement of the lungs has been broken, 
where the bronchia as well as cavity of the tho- 
rax have been filled with pus, where the body 
has not only been emaciated, but could not be 
nourished, Bristol hot-well waters have perform- 
ed wonders. The only collection of cures per- 
formed



245 BY BRISTOL WATER:
formed by those waters, is that very short treatise 
by Dr. John Underhill, of Bristol, printed in the 
year 1703. By the author’s facetious stile, it 
bears the marks of genuine simplicity. From 
this simple fountain, added to my own observa- 
tions, I hope to be able to produce proofs suffi- 
cient of my text. To facts I appeal. 
“ The Hot-well water mixeth (as he says) per 
“ minima, with wine, and other potables, so na- 
“ turally suited to all stomachs, and of such a- 
“ greeable warmth, that it never regurgitates, 
“ though common water of the same heat is an 
“ emetick, and so wonderfully fortifies the ven- 
“ tricle, that it never fails to excite an eager ap- 
“ petite. This is so well known, that instances 
“ were endless and coincident. It is of true me- 
“ rit in all Cachocyhmy, Cholic, Bilious Vomiting, 
“ Cardialgias, Dysenteries, and Fluxes of all kinds, 
“ Fevers, and all hectic Cases, all lavish Sweatings, 
“ Rheumatic Pains, Herpetes, Pustules, Itch, Scor- 
“ bute, all sorts of Ulcers inward or outward, 
“ Asthmas, King’s Evil, Dysuries. Diabetes, Kid- 
“ ney-gravel. Bladder, and other excoriations. It 
“ extinguishes all thirst. It is more binding than 
“ laxative. To diffuse the curative uses of this 
“ helpful water, I have carefully collected the 
“ following histories, attested either by the per- 
“ sons themselves, or other credible eye-witnes- 
“ ses, to obviate all suspicion of falsehood, and 
“ frivolous objection to the prejudice of the pub- 
“ lic against plain matters of fact. Res ipsa lo- 
“ quitur.” 
1. “ The Reverend Dr. Hammond, of Christ
Church, Oxon, about four years since, 
“ spared neither care nor cost for the 
“ recovery of Christopher Pyman, his 
then servitor, and now of the same college.
Underhill's 
Cases, 
L3 “ After




246 DISEASES CURED
“ After the Doctor had left him past hopes of 
“ recovery, with his funeral directions, a dismal 
“ spectacle, wasted to the last degree, in a con- 
“ sumption, at the prime of life, forsaken by his 
“ physicians, and left to the merciless hand of 
“ death by his friends, was perfectly cured by 
“ drinking the Hot-well water, and now remains- 
“ a living healthful testimony of this truth,” 
2. “ William Darvise, of West-street, Law- 
“ ford's Gate, Bristol, aged fifty-three, at the last 
“ extremity consumptive, a frightful skeleton, 
“ continually coughing, straining, and spitting 
“ day and night, appetite gone, sleep with his 
“ physicians vanished, and his friends hourly ex- 
“ pecting his death; by drinking the Hot-well 
“ water this present summer, is, to astonishment, 
“ restored to appetite and sleep, hale and active, 
“ without cough, or any remaining symptom. 
“ This, in gratitude, he desires to be published, 
“ for the sake of others in such tabid languishing 
“ circumstances. 
“ William Darvise.” 
3. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol College-green, 
“ certifies, That Capt. Richard Clark, of Horse
“ path, aged forty-six, lodged at her house for 
“ about seven weeks, in the year 1701, in which 
“ time the Hot-well checked his melting 
“ sweats, which had been long lavish, and did 
“ take off his insatiable thirst. I am since assured 
“ by his niece that he enjoys perfect health.” 
“ It seems useless (continues our author) to 
“ insert parallel, or lesser cures, which lie by, 
“ for room-sake, to manifest the effective virtues 
“ of Hot-well water in the most miserable phthisic 
“ cases; for it is, instar omnium, the last and 
“ only known subterfuge in Hectics and dyscrasy
“ of



247 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ of humours. It is a true and faithful febri- 
“ fuge at all essays ” 
1. By easy journies, Miss Lee or Birmingham, 
was conveyed to the Wells. To the dregs of the 
measles she owed her consumption. 
By profuse sweats, and colliquative 
discharges of all sorts, she was reduced 
to skin and bone. Every morning the chamber- 
maid emptied a bason, almost half full of matter, 
of an intolerable stench. 
Author's 
Cases. 
She was so weak that she could not walk up to 
the pump. She drank the water in her chair for 
the first six weeks, without the least visible a- 
mendment. After this, it began to have a sensi- 
ble effect. It threw out large boils on her back. 
At the end of three months her blood vessels seem- 
ed to be filled with fresh juices. She eat heartily, 
walked firmly, and rode on the Downs. The 
only remaining symptom was a dry teazing cough, 
which (as I have often observed) seemed now 
to be exasperated by the continuance of the 
waters. 
I advised her to go home, to drink spring-water 
acidulated with Elixir Vitriol Acid, and butter- 
milk, with riding. After six years she now con- 
tinues well.” 
2. Lord Stavordale, of a delicate frame and 
fair complexion, aged about ten or eleven, came 
down to the Wells. By the advice of the most
eminent, he had gone through the pharmaco- 
paea, he was escorted by an eminent apothecary, 
armed with baskets of antidotes for every symp- 
tom. By cough, hectic, flying pains,, and sweat- 
ing, he was so reduced, that he could hardly bear 
the motion of a post-chaise; he had thrown 
up pus. He was, at first, carried in arms, to 
drink the water at the pump. In the space of six 
L4 weeks




248 DISEASES CURED
weeks his symptoms vanished, he grew plump 
and active, galloped his little horse up and down, 
and continues well.” 
3. Master Townley, of Lancashire, of the same 
age and complexion, came hither emaciated by a 
hectic fever, attended with a cough. By the wa- 
ters acidulated with Elixir Vitriol alone, he went 
away recovered. 
4. Mr. Redpath of London, Merchant, after 
a pleuritic fever, laboured under a cough, hectic, 
sweatings, and rheumatic pains, which reduced 
him very low. He drank the waters for two 
months, summer, 1761, and went away well; 
he returned last summer and confirmed his cure. 
5. Mr. Evetts, of Birmingham, Merchant, 
came to the Wells, labouring under cough, hec- 
tic fever, cold night sweats, loss of appetite, and 
wasting. By drinking the waters but fourteen 
days, he returned almost as well as ever. He re- 
lapsed three times, found relief, but is since dead. 
6. Archibald Menzies, Esq. of Perthshire, a 
young gentleman of an athletic constitution, af- 
ter some days and nights of hard drinking, and 
steeping in wet cloaths, was taken with pleuritic 
pains, which yielded to repeated bleedings, blis- 
terings, &c. Now and then he felt a sensible 
weight in one of the lobes of the lungs, which as 
often was relieved by expectoration of fetid mat- 
ter, striated with blood. After an eruption of 
one of these vomica's, observing a clergyman car- 
ried down the stream of a rapid river, he jumped 
in, and brought him out, in a cold frosty day. 
Anxious about restoring the unfortunate, he neg- 
lected to shift his cloaths. His symptoms returned 
with violence, and yielded to the same regimen. 
Improperly treated with steel medicines, his 
symptoms returned with violence, these were re-
lieved



249 BY BRISTOL WATER.
lieved as before. By blisters and riding, his sweats 
abated last summer. But, his pleuritic pain con- 
tinued to return every fortnight, or week, unless 
prevented by copious bleeding. He was only 
troubled with the cough when nature wanted to 
ease the lungs of congested pus. As soon as that 
was thrown up, he was easy till the next attack. 
By the joint advice of the Professors Ruther- 
ford and Whytt, he rode to Bristol, a journey of 
six hundred miles. He found himself better on 
the road. Drowsiness and head-ach, the usual 
harbingers of his pleuritic paroxysm, seemed to 
indicate bleeding in London. He was also bled at 
Bath. His blood was always inflamed. He ar- 
rived at the Hot Wells early in summer, 1761; he 
drank the waters for three months, during which 
time he felt no indications for bleeding, a re- 
prieve unknown for eighteen months. By way 
of prevention, I advised him however to be bled. 
His blood was pure as a lamb’s, I repented the 
prescription. He left the wells strong, active, 
and hardy. Dreading the effects of northern 
winter air, I advised him to go to Italy by sea, 
where he staid two years, rather for pleasure; he 
now enjoys perfect health. 
7. Master Dampier, aged about fourteen, came
to the Wells emaciated, so that he was carried in 
arms to and from the pump. In one day he 
threw up matter to the quantity of a quart. To 
the waters, little assisted by medicine, he owes 
the complete recovery of his pristine vigour, 
spirits, and activity. 
8. Miss Serjant, aged twelve, came to the 
Wells in still a more unpromising condition. By 
the prognostic of a physician well acquainted with 
consumptions, she was pronounced incurable. By 
the use of the waters, little assisted by medicine,
L5 she



250 DISEASES CURED
she sleeps nine hours on a stretch, eats heartily, 
walks up and down to the Wells, and gallops on 
the Downs. 
9. Master Holiday, aged fourteen, at Eton 
School, was taken ill of a fever, which intermit- 
ted at last, and terminated in a cough, difficulty 
of breathing, loss of appetite, looseness, sweat- 
ing and hectic. By the use of the waters, asses- 
milk, and riding, he recovered in the space of 
one month. 
10. Corporal Shaw, aged twenty-three, of a 
consumptive family, came to the Wells, with a 
violent cough, spitting, sweating, languor, &c. 
By the help of one blister and the waters, he re- 
covered so perfectly, in the space of three weeks, 
that he proceeded with his regiment to Belleisle. 
11. William Sprole, Esq. caught a violent cold
for which he took variety of medicines during the 
winter. By the help of a blister his complaints 
seemed to vanish, till in the beginning of sum- 
mer, he was taken with the Influenza del aere, at 
that time epidemic. He came to the Hot Wells, 
with a cough and spitting almost constant, want 
of appetite, languor, sweating, and hectic. By 
Bristol Water, Asses-milk, and Ridings he found a
cure. 
N. B. The last five cures happened in summer,
1762 
CHAP.

251 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVI. 
OF DISEASES OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
I. OF THE DIABETES.
1. ARETAEUS was the first who gave 
any tolerable description of this disease; 
he calls it “ A flux of humours, a colliquation of 
“ blood, and a continual effusion by the kidnies 
“ and bladder.” More properly it 
may be defined, an unnatural effusion 
of urine, most commonly sweet, attended with
thirst. 
Definition. 
2. Its causes are feverish disorders cured by ex- 
cessive evacuations; bite of the serpent Situla; 
laxity of the renal glands; acrid se- 
rum; immoderate use of small liquors; 
excess of venery; stoppage of other secretions, 
&c.—Willis mentions one from indulgence in 
Rhenish wine, Lister one from Knaresborough 
water, and another from Bals. Capivi. The mass 
of blood is compounded of various globules. 
When particular globules take the road which na- 
ture affects not, there arise diseases said to pro- 
ceed ab errore loci. If the emulgent arteries, e.g. 
come to be vitiated, they receive and convey glo- 
bules designed for nutrition to the kidnies. The 
renal vessels and glands become more and more 
disposed to this unnatural discharge. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are, hunger and thirst insa- 
tiable; parched mouth; frothy spit- 
tle; varicous swellings of the abdomi- 
nal veins, with a sense of constriction; heat; 
anxiety; restlessness; hectic; swelling of the  
Symptoms.
L6 loins, 



252 DISEASES CURED
loins, testicles, and feet; constant inclination to 
void urine limpid and sweetish; wasting and 
death.—The symptoms may easily
be accounted for. The liquor dis- 
charged differs from urine in taste, co- 
lour, and smell. It is really and truly an efflux 
of chyle, little altered by circulation; hence 
taste, wasting, &c. Urine is an excrementitious 
liquor. Dr. Keir made an experiment which de- 
termines the point. “ He put a portion of dia- 
“ betic urine into a vessel over a gentle fire. Be- 
“ fore one half had evaporated, it deposited a 
“ considerable sediment. The whole mass was,
“ at last, coagulated.—The same quantity of 
“ healthy urine, treated in the same manner, eva- 
“ porated almost entirely, leaving only a little fe- 
“ tid sediment behind.” 
Cause of the 
Symptoms. 
A recent Diabetes easily yields to common 
helps, inveterate rarely. The curative indications 
are, 1. To strengthen the organs of 
digestion and the renal vessels. 2. To 
remove those obstructions which cause a diminu- 
tion of other secretions. The first intention may 
be obtained from strengtheners and astringents; 
incrassants and restoratives. The second from 
whatever restores perspiration. As it requires 
singular sagacity to distinguish between different 
and opposite causes, our wonder may cease, when 
we hear of diabetics swallowing baskets of drugs 
to little or no purpose. Under the direction of 
the most sagacious, there are but few diabetics 
who recover. The disorder has generally taken 
deep root before the patient submits. There are 
but few patients who do justice to their physici- 
ans or to themselves. If ever there was a dis- 
order adapted to mineral waters, it may be said to 
be this. In that chapter which treats of general 
Cure. 
virtues,



253 BY BRISTOL WATER:
virtues, the reader will find the specific qualities 
of the several ingredients rationally accounted for. 
Theoretical notions gather strength from the ex- 
perience of Baccius, the prince of mineral water 
writers. In treating of disorders of the urinary 
passages, he has blended them so together, that it 
is not so easy to separate his diabetic practice 
from the rest. In his book De Thermis, pag. 115, 
he expresses himself thus, “ Renum vero effec- 
“ tus, viscerum, et maxime hepatis, cui viden- 
“ tur ministerio subesse, rationem in balneis con- 
“ sequuntur, ac vesica renum. Vexantur autem 
“ renes callidae intemperiei affectu ut plurimum, 
“ tum quia renum ipforum substantia laxa pin- 
“ guitudine admodum inflammabili, participate.”
Hence, from the slightest cause, they are apt to 
heat and turn crude obstructions into stony con- 
cretions; hence also white fluxes. Diabetes, in- 
flammations, ulcers, and diseases incurable. In 
all the affections of the urinary passages, every 
water conduces that has the property of absterg- 
ing these parts, and so removing the cause. Po-
tulentae. omnes aquae quae proprietatem habent per 
urinarios meatus abstergendi, et quae immediate veluti 
causam tollunt. Nor are they less effectual, for be- 
ing of that kind, which divert the fabulous mat- 
ter by stool, quae communis est praxis in hac alma 
urbe Rama.
He directs his first intention to that hot tempe- 
rament which constitutes the basis of the disease. 
For this purpose he proposes purging waters, sub- 
tiles et mediocriter calidae effentiae aperientes, digeren- 
tas, vel non indecores, ft ad robur conferendum ferro 
quadatenus participent. Such, in a word, as de- 
terge and comfort at the same time. 
These, and all such waters cure heat of urine, 
strangury, and dysury, nocturnal polutions, in- 
voluntary



254 DISEASES CURED
voluntary seminal flux, bed-pissing, the Diabetic 
Flux, with its concomitant, thirst inextinguish- 
able. Ex eadem involuntariam ficcant seminis efflu- 
entiam, nocturnas pollutiones, improvisam per fom- 
mun emictionem, diabeticum fluxum, sitimque exinde 
natam inextingulbilem. 
Galen (in his bookie Ren. affectuum dignotione, 
ac medications) after speaking of unguents and sy- 
napisms for strengthening the reins, adds, Aqua- 
rum etiam sponte manantium usus, si nihil prohibeat. 
Maxims vero laudantur quae in potibus medicatis ex- 
purgando, pro ferri qualicunque impressione, vim quo- 
que insignem obtinent roborandi, oeneae, ferreac, sal- 
sae. Extrinsecus balnea etiam ex ferro, plumbo, vel 
aliis mineralibus roborantibus.
OF the power of Brislol Water, Doctor Harris 
(in his maister-piece, De Morbis Acutis Infantum) 
speaks thus, “ De aquis mineralibus Bristoliensi- 
“ bus, quantum in hoc morbo profint, et quan- 
“ tam existimationem merito sint affecutae, jam 
“ vulgo et idlotis innotescit. Sed et aquae illae 
“ celiberrimae in plurlbus aliis languoribus, ac 
“ debilitatibus praeterquam renum, famam et 
“ existimationem optime merentur, valetudinem 
“ infirmam insigniter roborant, et fitim in Dia- 
“ bete exortam, prae aliis omnibus, celeberrime 
“ extinguunt.” 
OF the power of Bath Water (In disorders of 
the urinary passages) I have given proofs unques- 
tionable, Of Bristol Waters we now proceed to 
treat. “ The Hot-well-water (says Underhill) 
is the true medela in that fatal dejection and dis- 
piriting by urine, the Diabetes, as appears by the 
autography of the wells.” 
1. “ Mr. William Gagg, of Bris- 
“ tol, Castle Green, a very fat man, at 
“ his prime, was seized with so violent a Dia- 
Cases.
“ beth,



255 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ beth, that he made at least three gallons of very 
“ sweet urine, with a large quantity of oil swim- 
“ ming a-top; he could not sleep for either drink- 
“ ing or pissing, when, in six days (appetite 
“ gone) so run off his fat and flesh, that he was 
“ reduced to helpless skin and bones, deferred by 
“ his physicians (not sparing money) and given 
“ over by his friends (several of his neighbours 
“ then dying of the same disease, not knowing 
“ the waters use) resolutely cast himself on God's 
“ mercy, and the Hot-well-water (though igno- 
“ rant of its use) imploring his friends to support 
“ him to the Hot well, as their last cast of kind- 
“ ness; which, with difficulty, they performed; 
“ be fainting away every step, and even in drink- 
“ ing the water. Yet, to God’s glory, and their 
“ astonishment, his strength was so sensibly re- 
“ cruited with every glass, that he made them 
“ loosen him, pretending to walk, which his 
“ friends despaired of. He walked back, never- 
“ theless, aided, now and then, by a sip of his 
“ holy-water-bottle, which, on the first trial,
“ vanquished his insatiable thirst, and stopped his 
“ pissing, and so restored his depraved appetite, 
“ that, at his return home, he eat a large favou- 
“ ry meal; and, by drinking tire water for some 
“ time, attained his perfect, state of health, living 
“ many years after. 
“ Signed, Mary Gagg, his widow.” 
2. “ Mr. William Molyneux, of Warrington, 
“ certifies, that he was excessive thirsty, and 
“ made such lavish quantity of sweet urine, of 
“ diverse colours, a thick oil swimming a-top, 
“ that, in three weeks time, he was reduced to 
“ such weakness (his Physicians diredions inef- 
“ fectual) that it was with very great difficulty
“ he



256 DISEASES CURED
“ he got to Bristol, in September, 1695, and that 
“ the very first day, by drinking, his thirst a- 
“ bated, urine checked, and became brackish, 
“ he recovered his appetite that before nauseated 
“ all flesh meat, and that, in eight days, by 
“ God’s mercy, he was perfectly cured, follow- 
“ ing the directions only of Mr. Gagg, a Baker, 
“ of this city, who, seven years before had been 
“ cured of the same disease, by drinking the 
“ same water. 
“ William Molyneux” 
3. “ Among the Hot Well Votiva, we find 
“ Mr. Rogers of Birmingham (all medicines fail- 
“ ing) signing his perfect cure at the age of 
“ threescore. 
“ Thomas Rogers.” 
4. “ Mr. Ralph Millard, Inn-keeper, at the 
“ Swan, Coleman-street, London, aged fifty, in 
“ the spring, 1699, after great medick expence, 
“ and given over by his physicians, in a Dia- 
“ betes, was directed to the Hot Wells, to which 
“ place he got with great difficulty not being 
“ able to scramble to his bed without help. By 
“ drinking the waters three weeks, he was so 
“ invigorated, that Mr. Eaglestone of College- 
“ green, Bristol, saw him lift a barrel of ale 
“ up several steps, which three other men failed 
“ to perform. In three weeks more, he re- 
“ turned to London, riding the hundred miles in 
“ two days. 
“ Joseph Eaglestone.” 
5. “ Mr. Cale, of Bristol, College-green, aged 
“ about forty, two years last past, was afflicted 
“ with a violent Diabetes, which the Hot Well 
“ water



257 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ water immediately stopped, and he hath re- 
“ mained well ever since. 
“ Gilbert Cale.”
6. “ Elizabeth Gettes, who keeps the Boar 
“ Inn, at Bristol, certifies, that Mr. James Darl- 
“ ing, of Oxon, aged about fifty, was perfectly 
“ cured last summer of a Diabeth in two months, 
“ by drinking the Hot-well-water, then lodg- 
“ ing at her house, and now remains in perfect 
“ health. 
“ Elizabeth Gettes.” 
7. John Blandy, of Inglewood-house, Esq. aged 
“ sixty-three, in less than six weeks, this sum- 
“ mer, was perfectly cured of a Diabeth by drink- 
“ ing the water, then lodging at my house. 
“ Elizabeth Browne.” 
8. “ William Beckford, of London, her Ma- 
“ jesty’s flopster, aged about forty, lodging at 
“ my house, was cured in thirteen weeks of 
“ great weakness, depraved appetite, decayed 
“ strength, and Diabetes, after other means had 
“ failed. 
“ Anne Green.” 
His list of Diabetics concludes thus. 
9. “ There is also a certificate of Capt. Ro- 
“ bert Ham’s cure, at the age of seventy-seven, 
“ by constant drinking for eight months.”—He 
adds, “ Instances seem needless, the use of the 
“ water being now so effectually known for a 
“ most sovereign remedy, even at the acme, and 
“ last extremity of a Diabetes.” 
To



258 DISEASES CURED
To Underhill’s catalogue I beg leave to add
the following, partly from undoubted authority,
partly from my own knowledge. 
10. John Strachan, Esq of Dorsetshire came 
to the Wells twelve years ago, labouring under a 
Diabetes. Finding but two chamber-pots under 
his bed, he ordered more. The chamber-maid 
brought up half a dozen; at the sight of which 
he said, These, my girl, are no more than six 
thimbles; did not modesty forbid, I could fill 
them all before your face: bring me a small wast- 
ing-tub. She brought him one that held two 
pails; this he filled every night. Before he rode 
out, he used to fill a common chamber-pot two 
or three times. 
His appetite was ravenous; of bread he 
used to eat sixteen French penny rolls a day. 
When he returned from airing, he used to eat up 
a whole fowl, and dine as if he had not eaten a 
morsel. 
For the first five weeks he drank two, three, 
four gallons a day. Reproved, he used to answer, 
I came hither to be cured, and am determined 
either to be killed or cured. About this time he 
began to mend, and was called away. Two or 
three months after he returned, drank the waters 
as before; and, in five weeks more, went away 
in perfect health, eating, drinking, and pissing 
no more than any other man. N. B. He lodged 
at Mr. Bishop's, in the Well-house. 
11. Mrs. Sugden, aged about fifty, (from cold 
and watching) fell into a Diabetes. After drink- 
ing the waters but a fortnight, she mended so 
much, that she could fit three hours without 
making water. By five weeks drinking she re- 
covered 
13. Mr.



259 BY BRISTOL WATER.
12. Mr. Biss, of Tower-hill, by frequenting 
this Well, was cured of a Diabetes.” 
13. Dr. Maddox, late Bishop of Worcester, 
came to the Wells season after season, for a Dia- 
betes, and always found relief. 
14. Nine or ten years ago, Mr. Sewen, from 
Swansea, in Wales, aged about fifty, was brought 
to the Rock-house in a horse-litter, so weak that 
he could not fit up in bed, almost a skeleton. 
The water was carried to him for the first three 
weeks; he made thrice as much water as he 
drank. In about six weeks time he walked over to 
the pump, where he drank the waters for about 
four months; at the end of which he left the 
Wells in perfect health. 
15. Mrs. Piper, of Broughton-street, London, 
came hither once or twice, almost dead, of a 
Diabetes, and is now recovered. 
16. About eight years ago, a farmer from 
Worcestershire got so well in three weeks, as to 
continue so ever since. 
17. J. Browne, a butcher of Norwich, was 
afflicted with a Diabetes for seven years, he had 
tried variety of prescriptions. After he had drank 
the Bristol waters fourteen days only, playing at 
Bishop’s billiard-table one day, he found himself 
perspire. He went to bed, drank half a pint of 
Port-wine hot, and sweated for the first time in 
seven years. After this, he continued to sweat 
on using exercise. After a stay of three months, 
he went home, and drank the waters there dur- 
ing the winter. He returned in the summer, 
tarried four months, and went off perfectly reco- 
vered, and continues well, notwithstanding hard 
drinking. 
18. Mr. Robertson, near Cork, came to the 
Hot Wells last summer, 1761. His symptoms 
were



260 DISEASES CURED
were thirst inextinguishable, ravenous appetite,
parchedness of the mouth and throat, heat of the 
stomach and bowels, varicose swellings of the 
abdomen, with a sense of constriction, as by a 
cord, anxiety, restlessness, wasting, with a con- 
stant desire of-making water, which tasted sweet- 
ish. He received great benefit, but never was 
completely cured, owing, in a great measure, to 
obstinacy, and irregularity. 
19. James Gladshall, of Yorkshire, came to 
the Hot Wells, summer, 1761, in a confirmed 
Diabetes, and was cured in, the space of two 
months. 
20. Winter, 1762, an old farmer, came to 
the Wells in a Diabetes, and went away so much 
benefited, that he declared he would return every 
year until he was cured. 
21. Mrs. Fleming, of Bath, at an advanced 
age, laboured under great thirst, parched tongue, 
fever, and flux of urine, so that her strength was 
greatly impaired, and her flesh much wasted. Un- 
der these circumstances, I persuaded her to go to 
Bristol, where (by drinking the water but one 
fortnight) her tongue became moist, her urine 
lost its sweet taste and was reduced almost to its 
natural quantity. Contrary to my advice, she 
left the salutary spring. Her symptoms returned. 
Three months after she had again recourse to the 
waters, staid one month, and was almost com- 
pletely cured. Contrary to my advice, she re- 
turned before her cure could be confirmed. Next 
winter every bad symptom returned. As I could 
not persuade her to return to Bristol, I made a 
trial of the Bath waters, which restored her sur- 
prisingly.
II.



261 BY BRISTOL WATER.
II. OF GRAVEL AND STONE. 
1. PAIN of the kidnies, ureters, and bladder, 
from impacted matter, is called Gravel 
or Stone. 
Definition.
2. The causes are luxurious as well as indi- 
gestible food; indolence; old age; 
rheumatism; gout; tartareous wines; 
hereditary taint, &c. 
Cause.  
3. The symptoms of stone in the kidnies are, 
intense or heavy pain of the loins; heat, nau- 
sea; vomiting; costiveness; exacer- 
bation of these symptoms after meals; 
sandy, bloody, and sometimes puru- 
lent matter; suppression of urine; co- 
ma; inflammation; ulceration, and consumption. 
The left kidney suffers oftener than the right.
Symptoms of 
the stone in 
the kidnies. 
When the stone falls down into the 
ureters, the pain increases; the leg 
feels benumbed; the testicles are 
drawn backwards; and the urine is, in part sup- 
pressed.  
Stone in the 
ureters. 
The stone of the bladder is attended with pain, 
difficulty, and continual desire of 
making water; tension and pain of 
the colon; titilation of the glans pe- 
nis; tenesmus; looseness; slimy water; bloody 
Water after riding, with increase of pain in the 
bladder, ureter, and nut of the yard. 
Stone in the 
bladder. 
4. The stone of the kidnies is distinguished 
from the lumbago, by vomiting, and 
sandy urine; from the cholic by the 
pain being higher, with a sense of rumbling back- 
wards; from hysterics, because this is increased 
by glysters. 
Diagnostics.
5. In 



262 DISEASES CURED
5. In the stone of the kidnies, there is great 
danger, by reason of inflammation, ulceration, 
and suppression of urine, its concomi- 
tants. It is easier dissolved in adults 
than in children. If the kidnies are ulcerated, 
the case is desperate. Suppression of urine, cold- 
ness of the extremities and convulsions, presage 
death. The stone of the bladder may be extrac- 
ted, that of the kidnies rarely. 
Prognostics. 
6. There is one cure of the fit, another out of 
the fit. The fit is allayed by subdu- 
ing the inflammation, and spasm. 1. 
By bleeding. 2. Glysters. 3. Emollient decoc- 
tions. 4. Tepid baths. 5. Opiates. 6. Rest.
Cure. 
Out of the fit, this disease is to be attacked, 
1. By Lithontriptics, rest, and keeping the belly 
rather soluble. 2. Diet. 
Gravel yields to waters ferrugineous, diuretic, 
and alkaline; such as the Seltzer.—In bloody 
urine, proceeding from laxity, debi- 
lity of the vessels, or fusion of the 
humours, Baccius (from experience) strongly re- 
commends the waters of Grotta, Porretanae, Al- 
bulae, &c. Quae et arenulas, calculumque, tom e 
vesica quam e renibus conterere ac protrudere pollicen- 
tur, et urinas provocare. On the subject of gravel 
and stone, he quotes that saying of Leonellus, a 
noble physician, founded on experience, Qui a- 
quis Thermalibus non curantur, nunquam curantur. 
Mineral waters he recommends for many pur- 
poses. From the first passages, they extrude su- 
perfluous humours; cleanse the urinary passages, 
even to the bladder; and, if they break not the 
stone, carry off the sandy particles, which add to 
its weight. They strengthen the bowels, and 
thus remove their aptitude to produce calculous 
concretions; Sola aqua Anticoli Romae assidue epota 
Gravel.
habetur





263 BY BRISTOL WATER.
habetur amuletum quoddom ac praeservativum. From 
Aetius he quotes a flagrant example of the parti- 
cular prerogative of water, which not only proves 
its abstersory power, but its moving, Lib. ii. 
cap v. Ad extrudendum impactum in vasibus urina- 
riis, vel in renibus lapillum frigidam aquam frequen- 
ter & acervatim aegro bihendarn jussi, unde, corroho- 
ratis renihus, ccclusis in illis lapis expulsus eft. What 
seems surpring, indeed, he observes that waters 
naturally petrescent possess a dissolv- 
ing quality, internally administered. 
Nam, in omni fere medicinae ufu, fatis 
quisque debet contentus effe experientia, 
unius rei non eft eadem dispositio intra ex extra, adhi-
bitae. Aqua haec super terram videnter lapidem, et ducit 
arenulas. Tales effectus contrarios manifeste vidamus 
in Albulis. The waters of the river Anio, where- 
ever they touch, turn earth, wood, and bark in- 
to stone; its streams are mixed with the turbid 
Tyber, and drank almost all the year. It is, ne- 
vertheless well known, that the people of Rome 
rarely feel the stone or gravel; rarissimi tamen la- 
pidum vitia sentiunt, nec harenulas. Page 116, he 
mentions many waters called Petrae, or petre 
scent, which were daily and successfully admini 
stered in disorders of the urinary passages, in hisce 
effectibus, antiquissimae laudis, Acidae subinde a- 
quae, quorum inrenibus, vesicaque, & meatibus uri- 
nariis expurgandis prima eff praerogativa, qualis An- 
ticoli in Campania, aciduda in Bergamensi, aliaeque in 
Germania, quae omnibus in privatibus potibus bi-
buntur. 
Waters pe- 
trescent dis- 
solve.
Hoffman places the cause of gravelish com- 
plaints in laxity of the urinary passa- 
ges. Toni renalis nimia resolutio morbo-
rum qui renes occupant potissima causa, et origo est. 
From laxity.
Qua



264 DISEASES CURED
Qua de causa temperata astringentia, et rohorantia, in 
calculo tam praeservando, quom curando palmam caete- 
ris arripiunt.—If the testimonies of Aetius, 
Baccius, and Hoffman are to be depended on, 
alleviations and cures may be expected from Bath 
and Bristol waters. Of the former we have given 
proofs unquestionable, proceed we now to the 
latter. 
Where there is a stone actually formed, Bristol
waters allay heat, dilute acrimony, and prevent 
future accretion. In actual fits of stone and gra- 
vel, these are not the remedies. In the intervals, 
Bristol water, balsamics and other medicines do 
much good. In gravelish complaints they often 
cure. 
Underhill (page 38) speaks thus. “ The Stone 
“ seems to be produced from the salso-terrene 
“ part of the blood, by too hot a ferment boiled 
“ into hardness, as brick-makers form their clay. 
“ Though the hot-well may not be the true saxi- 
“ frage water, it certainly washes the gravel out 
“ of the kidnies, and other aqueducts; and, by 
“ checking inflammation, prevents its future in- 
“ crease; an excellent preventative, doubtless, 
“ of those racking hereditary diseases, Stone and 
“ Gout. 
1. “ Mr. Eaglestone, of Bristol, aged twenty- 
“ one, was afflicted with a most restless pain in 
“ his back, and difficulty of making 
“ urine, voiding sometimes sand; 
“ whence he concluded it to be the 
“ stone, his father being tortured by it many 
“ years. By drinking two quarts of Hot Well 
“ water, fasting, at home every morning, he 
“ was cured. Gravel came off in quantity, his 
“ appetite increased, his sleep was restored, his 
“ retentive faculties were fortified, his thirst a- 
Underhill's 
Cases. 
“ bated



265 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ bated. He was so completely cured, that he 
“ has continued now twenty years free from pa- 
“ ternal disease, and every symptom of urinary
“*disorder.”
2. “ Mr. Blanchard, of Dolphin-Lane, Bristol,
“ certifies, that his son, aged six, had a total 
“ stoppage of urine for three days and nights, 
“ almost racked to death. His physicians told 
“ him there was no cure but cutting. By drink- 
“ ing the Hot-well water for half a year he was 
“ perfectly recovered, and remains in good health, 
“ now fourteen years old. 
“ Giles Blanchard.” 
3. “ Mrs. Jochem, of Bristol-key, aged about 
“ thirty, languishing under insatiable thirst, loss 
“ of appetite, and pissing of blood, tired out 
“ with ineffectual prescriptions, applied to me 
“ in June. She drank the Hot-well water, 
“ mornings and evenings. Her thirst abated, 
“ her appetite was restored, her mictus eruentus 
“ was checked, she is now breeding, as she her- 
“ self certifies. 
“ Bridget Jochem.” 
To Underhill’s let us add the two following- 
cases, which fell under my own observation. 
4. Mr. Martin, Purser of a ship of war, was 
afflicted with a diarhaea for six years, for which
he had undergone variety of regimens. He was 
also subject to gravellish complaints, voiding great
Quantities of fabulous matter. By drinking this 
water two months only, he was completely cared 
of both ailments, without the help of one me- 
dicine. 
5. Mr. Fitch, a young gentleman of Dorset- 
shire, subject to gravellish forcing a  
M resty

266 DISEASES CURED
resty horse over a bridge four years ago, sprained 
his back. Hence racking pain, bloody urine, 
and vomiting, without sleep for three weeks. He 
was bled thrice, and was otherwise judiciously 
treated by Dr. Cumming of Dorchester, who 
succeeded so far as to check the vomiting; the 
bloody urine remained, with sickness, languor, 
pain, &c. He set out for Bristol, and was three 
days in performing a journey of sixty miles. The 
bloody urine ceased the first week; he drank the 
water last summer, and has now recovered flesh, 
strength, and complexion, with the relict only 
of a dull pain about the region of the loins, 
which seems rather to be gravellish. For this he 
drank the water again, and was cured. 
III. OF BLOODY URINE.
UNDER the section of Haemoptoe, I have treat- 
ed of the general causes, symptoms, diagnostics, 
prognosties, and cure of bleedings. When blood 
thus passes off together with the urine, it comes
away without pain, the patient commonly con- 
tinues in health, unless the evacuation continues
too long, or in too great quantity. 
For this disorder, Bristol waters are constantly
frequented, and with success. 
IV. OF IMMODERATE MONTHLY DISCHARGES.
THE remote causes are, intemperance, violent 
exercise, passion, suppression of other
secretions, disorders of the uterus, &c. 
The proximate are rarefaction, acrimony, and 
thinness of the blood, with debility of the vessels.
Causes.
In

267 BY BRISTOL WATER.
In blood too much rarified, the indication is 
(according to Home, in his Principia Medicinae) 
“ Condenfare et demulcere medica- 
“ mentis coagulantibus et demulcen-
“ tibus; inter quae eminet Spir. Vitriol, cum ad- 
“ stringentibus.”—“ In Vaforum debilitate,
“ scopus eft elasticitatem restituere adstrigentibus
“ interne et externe applicatis.” 
Indication.
V. OF WEAKNESSES.
WOMEN of lax habits are commonly subject
to this disorder. 
The seat of this disorder is in the
mucous glands and exhalant arteries. 
Seat.
The remote causes are moist air, indolence,
translation of humours, immoderate flux 
of the menses, miscarriages, &c. The
proximate are serous colluvies, and laxity of
fibres. 
Causes.
The symptoms are want of appetite, depraved 
appetite, difficulty of breathing, swell- 
ing of the eye-lids, hectic fever, pain 
of the loins, turbid urine, sadness, palpitation, 
and fainting. 
Symptoms.
To cure this disease, the same Home lays down 
two intentions. 1. “ Ut humorum 
“ vitium corrigatur, et fluxus ad ute- 
“ rum impediatur. 2. Ut tonus uteri restitua- 
“ tur.” For correcting the fault of the humors, 
he proposes diaphoretics, fontanells, &c. For 
restoring the tone of the parts strengtheners, and 
astringents. 
Cure.
M2 VI.

268 DISEASES CURED.
VI. OF GLEETS.
GLEETS proceed from simple relaxation; ve- 
nereal taint, and corrosive injections. 
IN this, and the two last diseases, the cure
must be adapted to the cause, consti- 
tution, and nature of the distemper. 
Were these waters properly assisted by medicine, 
many more might find relief. False delicacy has 
made women conceal their infirmities till loss of
appetite, indigestion and unnatural discharges 
have reduced the best constitutions to skeletons. 
In general, we may affirm that where febrifuges, 
balsamics, and astringents have resisted the whole
artillery of the shops, Bristol waters have per- 
formed cures. In subduing the fever, healing, 
and strengthening the parts, Bristol waters answer 
every intention proposed by the judicious Home. 
Where they fail of cures, they mitigate symp- 
toms. Names, and cases, I forbear to mention. 
Many are the annual visitants, proofs of my as- 
sertion.
Cure.
CHAP.

269 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND GUTS.
UNDER the head of Diseases cured by 
Bath Water, I have treated particularly, 
Of Diseases of the First Passages. Both waters 
cure the same diseases; but, in all cases; they 
are neither equally salutary, nor safe. 
I. OF THE STOMACH
THAT Bristol water creates an appetite is a 
fact notorious. That it removes heart-burns, 
squeamishness, and pains of the stomach, is equal- 
ly notorious. 
Seven years ago, Mr. Garden, of Troup, in 
Aberdeenshire, came to Bath for an obstinate pain
of his stomach. The Bath waters irritated his 
disorder. By my advice he drank these; in one 
fortnight was completely cured, and now remains
in perfect health; 
II. OF THE GUTS.
MONG Bristol water drinkers, costiveness is 
so common a complaint, that we generally guard
against it in our prescriptions. 
1. Under the section of Gravel and Stone, I 
have already mentioned Mr. Martin’s cure of an 
obstinate diarhaea. 
2. Captain Williams, of the Artillery, (by 
hard duty at Martinique, and the Havannah) was 
attacked with a bilious fever and flux that resisted
all endeavours there; The Bath waters exaspe- 
M3 rated.

270 DISEASES CURED
rated every symptom, adding a cough to his other 
train of evils. At last I prevailed on him to try 
these waters, which, in a very few weeks, re- 
stored him so much that he married before he 
left the Wells. 
3. In much the same condition, Mr. Shepherd, 
of Antigua, came to Bath, with the addition of 
a pain in the region of the liver, and constant 
cough. Against my opinion, he obstinately per- 
sisted in the use of Bath waters, which aggravated 
every symptom. In a very few weeks Bristol wa- 
ter banished every symptom. 
4. Lieutenant West, of the twenty-second re- 
giment, (by hard duty at Martinique, Dominique, 
and the Havannah) was afflicted with a flux, 
which defied the most judicious prescriptions there 
and in North America. Dr. Huxham advised the 
Bristol water, which he drank about one month, 
with great benefit. By my advice he completed 
his cure by warm bathing at Bath; and that with 
the assistance of eggs boiled up with milk, his 
constant diet only. 
SIR, London, August the 20th, 1763.
“ In gratitude to the Bristol Waters, as well 
“ as for the benefit of future sufferers, I give you
“ leave to publish the following history. 
“ Soon after the reduction of Dominique, where 
“ I had the honour to command, I was seized 
“ with the intermittent fever of that country, 
“ from which I had recovered but a short time, 
“ when the fatigues of the expedition to Marti- 
“ nique brought on a relapse. 
“ I went afterwards upon the expedition a- 
“ gainst the Havannah, where my duty as Briga- 
“ dier General was interrupted a few days be- 
“ fore the reduction of the Moro, by a third re- 
“ lapse

271 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ lapse attended with a violent flux. By the ad-
“ vice of the physicians I returned to Britain as 
“ the only chance I had, of recovering my 
“ health. 
“ I failed from the Havannah the 19th of July, 
“ and arrived at Dover the 9th of September: al- 
“ most immediately upon my landing, I had a re- 
“ turn of the fever and flux to a violent degree. 
“ Though both the disorders yielded to the medi- 
“ cines that were prescribed for me by an emi- 
“ nent Physician in London, yet during the 
“ whole winter and spring I was subject to such 
“ severe relapses (the flux generally preceding the 
“ ague) that I was reduced to a skeleton.
“ I also sufFer’d much uneasiness from an in- 
“ flammation in my mouth and tongue, which 
“ reached to the anus, and was almost perpetually
“ teized (especially in the night), with making 
“ water. 
“ I set out for Bristol about the end of March, 
“ still liable to frequent and violent returns of
“ the flux, but entirely free of the ague. 
“ The complaint of my mouth and tongue, 
“ and the frequent pissing before-mentioned, were 
“ still very troublesome, and continued so for a 
“ a considerable time after my arrival at the Hoi 
« Wells. 
“ By the use of the water for six weeks, the
“ flux almost entirely left me at this time. At 
“ this time I confined myself to a milk diet, 
“ which consisted chiefly of butter-milk, with 
“ broth. By this regimen, and the continuance of
“ the water (without the help of any medicine) 
“ I got free of all my complaints about the end 
“ of June. 
Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
Rollo. 
M4 CHAP.

272 DISEASES CURED.
CHAP. XVIII. 
OF EXTERNAL DISORDERS.
FROM what has already been advanced on, 
the subject of the powers of the particular 
principles contained in waters in ge- 
neral, we may reasonably conclude
that Bristol water has its external vir- 
tues as well as others. 
Exteral dis-
orders.
Underhill, in his page 28, expresses himself 
thus; “ The Scorbute is Proteo-mutabilior, From 
“ a salt diathesis of the blood, the acuated serum
“ espuated among the muscles is a Rheumatism, 
“ on the hip a Sciatica, on the lungs a Catarrh, 
“ in the guts a Dysentery, or Diarhœa. By all 
“ the skill that I pretend to, the Bristol water bids
“ fairer to cure external disorders than pearl pre- 
“ parations. 
1. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol from the West 
“ Indies, breaking out with fiery scor- 
“ butical eruptions all over, was per- 
“ fectly cured, in three weeks time, 
“ by drinking the Hot Well water.” 
Undehill's
Cases.
2. “ William White, of Bristol, was afflicted
“ with sores fresh arising, and constant running 
“ white blisters from both his elbows to his fin- 
“ gers ends, called St. Anthony’s fire, that he 
“ could not help himself. After various other 
“ remedies, he was at last cured by drinking, 
“ and bathing in the Hot Well water.” 
3. “ John Sanders, of Bristol, had a great 
“ weakness and lameness, his knees and body 
“ blistered, and spotted all over, and almost eaten
“ up with the Scurvy. By drinking the Hot Well 
“ water, he was perfectly cured.”  
4. “ Mr.

273 BY BRISTOL WATER.
4. “ Mr. Packer, of Bristol, wine-cooper, 
“ certifies, that his brother had an ulcer of seven 
“ years standing, in the calf of his leg, from a 
“ gun-shot-wound. After all remedies tried in 
“ vain, he was cured by drinking this water six 
“ weeks only. 
“ Thomas Packer.” 
5. “ John Belcher, of the Castle Precincts, Bris- 
“ tol, at four years old, had an ulcer in his ankle
“ four years, with a hole quite through, out of 
“ which came several bones, being all the four 
“ years under pennance, was at last perfectly 
“ cured by bathing and drinking. 
“ Jane Belcher, his mother.”  
6. “ Mary Ayliff had a tumor in her lower 
“ lip, of the bigness of a hazle-nut, and hard- 
“ ness of a stone, continually running at the 
“ mouth, as if salivated, and blind with the same
“ carcinomatous humour, for at least fourteen 
“ days, judged an incurable cancer, and so left, 
“ after four years trial, in despair; By drink- 
“ ing, and bathing the parts, she is of perfect 
“ sight, and good health, praising God, and de- 
“ firing this publication for the sake of others
“ under the like melancholy circumstances. 
“ Mary. Ayliff.” 
7. “ Mr. Lucas's son, of Bristol, at four years
“ old, had his arm miserably swelled and inflam- 
“ ed, running at eight or nine holes, deemed the 
“ King's Evil, and incurable. By gentle purg- 
“ ing, drinking, and bathing, he was perfectly 
“ restored. 
“ Eliz. Lucas, his mother.”
M5 8. “ Miss

274 DISEASES CURED
8. “ Miss Lancaster, of Castle-green, Bristol, 
“ at six years old, had the King’s-evil running at 
“ one finger, out of which came a bone, with a 
“ running in her left cheek and left hand; her 
“ foot and toes hard, and cruelly swelled. By 
“ drinking, bathing, and medicines intermixed, 
“ she was cured. 
“ Mary Lancaster.”
9. “ Mrs. Demster, of College-green, Bristol,
“ had her sight so depraved with an inflammation, 
“ supposed to be the Evil, that, for four months 
“ she could not bear the light. After all other 
“ unsuccessful trials, she drank, and bathed her 
“ eyes, and is now, after ten years, quite well. 
“ Sarah Demster.” 
19. “ Thomas Reynolds, of Bristol, Mason, 
“ had the Evil six years, running quite through
“ his thigh, scars dismal, out of which worked 
“ several bones, one an inch broad, and two 
“ inches long. After K. James’s fruitless touch, 
“ with the miserable flashing of surgeons, he 
“ was reduced to skin and bone. By drinking 
“ the water in great quantities, and constantly
“ moistening the parts with rags, dipped in the 
“ water, he is now, and has been well for 
“ years past. 
“ Thomas Reynolds.” 
CHAP.

275 OF REGIMEN.
CHAP. XIX.
OF REGIMEN.
IN the three first chapters, I have endeavoured
to ascertain the nature and qualities of Bath, 
and Bristol waters. In the fourth 
I have rationally accounted for their 
virtues. In the rest I have reconciled the obser- 
vations of former inquirers to particular diseases. 
These I have not only confirmed by my own ex- 
perience, but I have extended the virtues of both 
waters, to diseases neglected and unpractised. 
Preamble.
Physicians sometimes have it in their power to 
cure diseases. Patients have it in their power to 
prevent diseases, or to preserve health. From ig- 
norance, or contempt of necessary cautions, thou- 
sands fall short of that period which natural con- 
stitution might have reached. Such are the cau- 
tions which I have reserved for the subject of this
my last chapter. 
In Mineral-water Essays, for the expence of a
few shillings, there are patients who vainly ex- 
pect rules and prescriptions sufficient for the 
whole of their conduct. Authors who thus a- 
muse, make their readers trust to broken reeds. 
At Bath there is a General Infirmary for the recep- 
tion of cases appropriated to Bath water only.
At Bath and Bristol Hot Wells, no man with- 
holds his advice from the poor. People of straigh- 
tened circumstances of all perswasions, ranks, or 
professions are freely welcome to mine. What
safely I can I freely impart. What patients owe 
to themselves I think it my duty to point out.
1. ONE general caution there is which can 
admit of no exception. Patients never ought to
M6 come

276 OF REGIMEN.
come to water-drinking places without historical 
deductions of their cases. Family physicians are 
the only judges of constitutions. One bears eva- 
cuations of all sorts; another is ruffled by the 
mildest. To some opiates are cordials divine; 
ten drops of liquid laudanum run others mad. 
The same may be said of musk, mercurials, aloes, 
and every active medicine. At this very time I 
have a patient, to whom I now and then give 
one drachm of syrup of poppies only; for three 
days after, he can hardly keep his eyes open. The
whisper of a family nurse is worth the first
thoughts of a Frewen. Physic is at best a conjec- 
tural art; this is the opinion of the great Celsus. 
2. CHRONICAL DISEASDES fall under the pro- 
vince of natural medicated waters. 
In chronical diseases, who can promise sudden 
cures? Sydenham (De podagra, p. 576,) says, 
“ No man in his senses can expect that momen- 
“ tary alterations can perfect the cure. The 
“ whole habit must be changed, the body must
“ be hammered out anew.” Suppose a young
maid labouring under the green sickness; how 
flaccid her solids, how poor her blood! Can 
poor blood be changed into rich in the course of 
days? Can the solids so soon be braced? In cur- 
ing chronic disorders, physicians rationally change 
the whole manner of living. In his Epidemics, 
Hippocrates proposes a change of the humours 
only. In chronic diseases, new manner of living, 
new air, new faces, new amusements, and new 
objects are necessary. In chronic disorders regi- 
mens are not wantonly to be changed, even tho’ 
they give not immediate relief. This is Celsus’s  
opinion, page 112. In chronical illnesses, the 
sick ought not to be flattered with hopes of speedy 
cures. Forewarned, they chearfully bear the tae-
dium.

277 OF REGIMEN.
dium of both disease and cure; they put confi- 
dence in physicians who never deceive them. 
Suppose purulent ulcer occupies the liver, who 
can promise a cure? 
3. PATIENTS labouring under similar ailments, 
naturally compare notes. By officious acquain- 
tances, the weak, dispirited, and hectic, are per- 
swaded to follow the regimen of the strong, hear- 
ty and phlegmatic. For the saving a fee, pa- 
tients throw away the whole expence, and their 
lives into the bargain. When they find them- 
selves worse, i. e. when medicines irrationally 
continued, and waters improperly used have pro- 
duced symptoms which cannot be relieved, the 
Doctor has a fresh summons. What benefit can 
patients expect from physicians in whom they 
place so little confidence? Of general precau- 
tions, the reader will find store in my Attempt to
revive the antient doctrine of Bathing. In respect 
of Diet, Exercise, Air, Sleep, Evacuation, and
Affection of the mind, there are certain rules and
cautions, without the observance of which, nei- 
ther mineral waters, nor medicines of any sort 
can avail. Of these in their order.  
§. I. OF DIET.
PROVIDENCE seems to have furnished every 
country with a mixture of foods proper for sup- 
port. The natural productions of countries are, 
generally speaking, most friendly to the constitu- 
tion. The common food of cold climates would 
ill suit the natives of southern. A pound of roast 
beef, and a quart of porter would endanger the 
life of an Indian. A piece of sugar-cane, and a
cup of water, would soon reduce an Englishman 
to a skeleton.
1. When


278 OF REGIMEN.
1. When we take in a larger quantity of ali- 
ment than our digestive faculties are 
able to assimilate, such never can turn, 
to good nourishment.  
Excess.
2. When our food is highly satu- 
rated with pungent salts and oils, such 
sauces or mixtures corrupt the blood. 
High sauces.
3. People of gross habits and feverish disorders
should eat sparingly. For, with such,
the best food turns to disease. Impura 
corpora, quo magis nutris, eo magis laedis.
Gross habits. 
4. Unseasonable abstinence has also bad conse- 
quences. For, without a supply of 
fresh chyle, animal juices naturally 
acquire a putrescency. Inanition produces fevers 
of the worst sort, as those who fast too religious- 
ly feel to their cost. 
Fasting.
5. In chronic disorders, experience best tells
what agrees, or disagrees. Such a
quantity is to be taken in as is suffi- 
cient to support, not to overload the 
stomach, to finish the meal with a relish for more. 
The food ought to be well chewed. Flesh pound- 
ed in a mortar ferments much sooner than in one 
solid lump. Whatever corrupts slowly oppresses, 
the stomach, The weak, emaciated, hectic, or 
consumptive ought to observe the strictest regi- 
men. To such, excess in things the most inno- 
cent is perilous.
Experience 
the best guide.
6. Nature abhors discordant mixtures, fish, 
flesh, wine, beer, cyder, cream and 
fruit. These distend the bowels with 
wind, and prevent digestion. 
Mixtures.
7. BREAD, milk, and the fruits of 
the earth dresssed in a plain simple man-
ner, together with water, were the ali- 
ment of Adam’s family. 
Simple food
most natural.
The

279 OF REGIMEN.
The fisft inhabitants of Greece lived on the 
spontaneous productions of the woods and fields. 
The Golden-age seems rather to have taken its 
appellation from its simplicity of manners, than 
delicacy of food. 
Contentique suis nullo cogente creatis 
Arbuteos faetus, montanaque fraga legebant 
Hesiod, Pliny, and Ovid, ascribe 
the invention of tilling the ground and 
sowing corn to Ceres. 
Bread.
Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro, 
Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitia terris. 
Bread made of the purest flower of wheat nou- 
rishes much, and binds the belly. Mixed with 
bran it is opening, and nourishes less. The Fa- 
rinacea are all antiseptics. Wheat-bread properly
fermented, and well baked, is the most valuable 
part of diet. 
8. MILK is already elaborated, prepared and 
digested in the body of the animal. It
is an extract of animal and vegetable 
food. It is replete with nutritious juices, and
wants little else than the colour to be blood. 
Milk was strongly recommended by the antients. 
The milk of Stabiae was in great vogue. Thi- 
ther consumptives were sent, not only on account 
of the sea-vapour, and the air of Vesuvius, but 
for the excellency of the milk. The Mons Lac- 
tarius of Cassiodorus is thought to have been 
there, a place celebrated for salubrity of air, and 
sanative milk.
Milk.
One  

280 OF REGIMEN.
One Davus, who went thither in a consump- 
tion writes thus, “ Huic ferocissimae 
“ passioni beneficium mentis illius di- 
“ vina tribuerunt, ubi aeris salubritas cum pin- 
“ guis arvi fecunditate consentiens, herbas pro- 
“ ducit dulcissima qualitate conditas, quarum pas- 
“ tu vaccarum herba saginata lac tanta salubrita- 
“ te-conficit, ut quibus medicorum confilia nesci- 
“ unt prodesse, folus videatur potus ille praestare 
“ reddens pristino ordine resolutam passionibus 
“ vim naturae. Replet membra evacuata vires effe- 
“ tas restaurat, et fomento quodam reparabili aegris
“ ita subvenit, quem ad fomnus labore fatigatis 
Cassiod. Lib. xi. Variar. Epist. x. 
Cases.
Baccius (De Thermic, lib. iv.) says, Neopolitani 
Medici pro ultimo refugio aegros phthificos, et qui san- 
guinem exspuunt, vel ejusmodi thoracis ulcera, et alia 
vitia patiuntur, ad Tabeas mittunt cum successu adeo 
salubri, ut sint qui in iis totam degunt vitam. Later 
instances there are not a few of consumptives
who went to the same place with Davus’s suc- 
cess. Sir Hollis Man was so bad when he em- 
barked, that his coffin was carried with him. He 
has lived many years in Italy, and is now British
Resident at Florence.
Of equal numbers, I verily believe, there are 
as many cured of consumptions by 
goat-whey, as by Bristol water. Milk
is often drank under great disadvantages, either 
in improper air, or in moorish mountainous pla- 
ces, where fogs and moisture compose an atmo- 
sphere unfriendly to wounded lungs. Fit places
may surely be found on sea-coasts, as Stabiae was, 
where the pasture might be improved by propaga- 
ting the tribe of the vulnerary plants, agreeable- 
to a hint given by Galen. Such places are the 
Goat-whey. 
faces

281 OF REGIMEN.
faces of the hills and cliffs around the Hot- 
Wells. 
WHERE feverish heat predominates, in costive 
habits especially, butter-milk and brown bread
are specifics. Boerhaave lived on this 
very diet for many years. His pupils 
have introduced it every where. In England it 
is even now the food of hogs. When I first in- 
troduced it at the Hot-Wells, my advice was treat- 
ed with ridicule; I could hardly prevail on three 
to make use of it the first season; two of the 
three were Irishmen. The practice is now uni- 
versal. 
Butter milks.
“ Dr. Baynard (in his Appendix to Floyer’s 
“ book on cold Bathing) assures his readers, that
“ by Butter-milk, several, to his knowledge, were 
“ cured of flushings, preternatural heats, and some 
“ of confirmed hectics. He quotes the concur- 
“ rent testimonies of Sir John Hodgkins to the 
“ same purpose.—“ Toby Purcell, 
“ Governour of Duncannon-fort, hath
“ drank nothing but milk, and eat bread for more
“ than twenty years, which cured him of an in- 
“ veterate gout.—Mr. William Masters of Cork,
“ drinks nothing but milk, and has recovered 
“ his limbs to a miracle.—I have had lately 
“ sent me some remarkable Cures in both Atro- 
“ phies and Phthisies by drinking Goats-milk. The 
“ common Irish feed on potatoes, and four skim- 
“ med milk. This may be the reason why they 
“ are generally free from pulmonic coughs, and 
“ consumptions.” 
Cases.
Theophilus Garencieres (in his book De Tabe 
Anglicana) says, “ Hyberni solo lactis usu qui ipsis 
“ pro potu) et cibo est, ab hoc malo se tuentur. Lac 
“ enim parte ebutyrato optime nutrit, et sanguinem 
“ laudabilem general; parte ferofa plurimum abster-
“ git,

282 OF REGIMEN.
“ git, et caseosa astringit, quae omnia ad pulmonis 
“ robur conservandum non parvi funt moments.” 
Baynard gives a remarkable instance of the ef- 
fect of Butter-milk, and Tepid Bathing. “ Mr. 
“ Hanbury of Little Myrtle, aged twenty-three, 
“ was highly feverish, with heat, thirst, quick 
“ pulse, little urine, mouth parched, reduced to 
“ skin and bones by an old ague. I prepared a 
“ Bath with violet, strawberry leaves, cichory, 
“ plantane, &c. He was bathed twice a day for 
“ seven weeks, taking nothing but butter-milk. 
“ By degrees he rose to other food, and has since 
“ had children by two wives.—Several, to my 
“ knowledge have been cured of flushings, pre- 
“ ternatural heats, and some of confirmed hectics
“ by the sole use of butter-milk.—Sir John Hod- 
“ kins, President of the Royal Society told me, 
“ that, to his knowledge, diverse persons had 
“ been cured of hectics, and phthisies, by the sole 
“ use of butter-milk.—Mr. Heby told me two in- 
“ stances of his tenants cured of hectic fevers by
“ drinking of butter-milk.” 
B. Dempsey, Clerk to Mr. Macartney, Mer- 
chant of Bristol, laboured of a violent fever with 
nocturnal exacerbations, which brought on deli- 
riums, profuse sweatings, and constant vomitings, 
which occasioned a most putrid stench, not a lit- 
tle assisted by the air of the chamber where he 
lay, which was dark and close. By Dr. Drum- 
mond’s advice and mine, he took medicines and 
ptisans, which he constantly threw up; as he did 
anti-emetics of every sort. Despairing of means 
of relief, I proposed four butter-milk, which he 
drank and kept. When we returned next day, 
we found every symptom mended. We ordered 
butter-milk for medicine and food. He recover- 
ed.—Next year (in the same bad air) he was 
seized

283 OF REGIMEN.
seized with a fever of the same kind. The same 
medicines were tried in vain. No sooner began 
he the use of butter-milk, than he began to reco- 
ver, and now enjoys a perfect state of health. 
IN acute distempers, Hippocrates has laid down, 
rules which have rarely been mended. These 
fall not properly under my theme. 
9. WHEN the fruits of the earth had un-
dergone so great a change by the Deluge, God per- 
mitted man to eat flesh. Every moving thing that 
liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb 
have I given you all things. The clean beasts were 
taken into the Ark by sevens; the unclean by 
twos. The surplus of the first was probably in- 
tended for the provision of Noah and his family. 
Moses was the first writer who selected a particu- 
lar food for the fews, viz. Bread, wine, milk, 
honey, quadrupeds that divided the hoof, and chew the 
cud, all the feathered kind, and fishes that have fins
and scales. 
Flesh.
The flesh of animals in their prime of life, of 
such as are castrated, and not used to hard labour 
is best. 
The flesh of granivorous birds is not so oily as
that of water-fowls. Mutton is the best of all 
flesh, for the delicate and robust. Bath and Bris- 
tol Hot-well mutton are excellent. Beef and 
pork are proper only for the strong, and those 
who use hard exercise. 
10. POND-FISH, such particularly as are fat
are hard of digestion. Such as are 
caught in rivers near the sea-shore are 
lighter. Boiled fish is lighter than roasted. 
Fish.
SEA-SALT moderately used with animal food,
is wholesome. To excess, the reverse. In in- 
flammatory disorders, sea-salt stimulates too much. 
By living on animal-food where falt was not to
be

284 OF REGIMEN.
be had, there are not a few instances of garrisons
and towns being over-run with scurvy, and fe- 
vers pestilential. This particularly was the case 
at Gronningen. We read of a people of the East 
Indies prohibited the use of sea-salt. These are 
notoriously infected with putrid mortal diseases. 
In that part which treats of the virtues of the
component parts of Waters, I have proven that 
sea-salt prevents putrefaction. 
11. Bitters bind the belly. Acids 
gripe the bowels. Salted things pro- 
mote stool and urine. Sweet things breed phlegm.
Bitters. 
12. Onions, leeks, raddishes, and all the al- 
calescents are antiseptic. Mustard, 
and cresses occasion a difficulty of u- 
rine. Celery is diuretic. Aromatics heat. Col- 
worts and lettuce cool. Cucumbers are cold, 
crude and hard of digestion. Ripe fruits open 
the belly. Unripe bind. Pulses of all sorts are 
windy. Honey promotes urine and stools. Soft 
bread increases acidity in stomachs troubled with
heart-burns; biscuit less. Confections and dain- 
ties tempt people to eat too much, and are there- 
fore hard of digestion. Where the aliment fer- 
ments too violently from putrescency, or from 
debility of the stomach, acids, bitters, aromatics
and alcalescents are proper. If cold cacochymy is 
added to bad habit, the patient ought to abstain 
from farinous foods and gellies, because these in- 
crease the tenacity of the humours, and e. c. If 
the body begins to be puffed up with watry hu- 
mours, broths are sparingly to be used. Roasted 
meats, and fresh-water-fish with generous wine 
are indicated. If acid acrimony abounds, as in 
young people, eggs, broths, hartshorn jellies are 
best. If e. c. the humours tend to alkaline pu- 
trescency, barley broths, bread, and milks are  
Alcalescents.
the

285 OF REGIMEN.
the foods. Acid liquors are the drinks. If broths
are allowed, they ought to be acidulated. 
Physicians may be too churlish. Certain it is
that patients generally digest those 
things easiest which their stomachs 
crave. People in fevers abhor meat; 
offer them butter-milk, or barley wa- 
ter acidulated, they snatch them gree- 
dily. Longings ought to be lessons 
to physicians. Hence it was Hippo- 
crates (De Affectionibus) lays it down 
as a maxim, Quoscunque cibos, aut obsonia, aut po- 
tus decumbentes expetunt, ea suppetant, Ji nullum cor- 
pori nocumentum sit futurum. Aphor. 38, the same 
Hippocrates lays it down as another rule, Meats 
and drinks not so very good are sweeter, and therefore
to be preferred to better more unsavory. “ A tem- 
“ pore consueta, etiamsi deteriora, infuetis minus 
“ turbare folent.” Numerous are the examples 
of patients being cured by things which they 
longed for, and which had been with-held as 
hurtful. “ In the cure of diseases, Sydenham 
“ advises physicians to pay more attention to the 
“ appetites, and ardent desires of the sick (provi- 
“ ded the things desired do not manifestly en- 
“ danger life) than to the still more dubious and
“ fallacious rules of art.”—Suppose a cachec- 
tic labouring of alkaline acrimony longs for 
broth; broth acidulated may be allowed.—Wo- 
men sometimes labouring of acid acrimony, long 
for vinegar with their food; they may be indulg- 
ed, by giving them absorbent powders before 
dinner. By such artful condescensions, physici- 
ans win their patients hearts. Concedendum ali- 
quid et consuetudini, et tempestati, et regioni, et aeta- 
ti, fays Hipp, Aph. 1—17.
Rigorous se- 
verity the 
child of igno- 
rance. 
Longings, 
useful indi- 
cations. 
13. By

286 OF REGIMEN.
13. By statical experiments, Sanctorians have 
discovered, That the body perspires 
but little while the stomach is too 
full, or too empty,—That full diet is 
prejudicial to those who use little exercise, but 
indispensibly necessary to those who labour much, 
—That food the weight of which is not felt in 
the stomach, nourishes best, and perspires most 
freely,—That he who goes to bed without sup- 
per, being hungry, will perspire but little; and, 
if he does so often, will be apt to fall into a fe- 
ver,—That the flesh of young animals, good 
mutton, and bread well baked are the best food, 
—That the body feels heavier after four ounces 
of strong food that nourishs much, such as pork, 
eel, salt-fish, or flesh, than after six ounces of 
food that nourishes little, such as fresh fish, chick- 
en, and small birds. For, where the digestion is 
difficult, the perspiration is slow.—That unu- 
sual fasting frequently repeated brings on a bad 
state of health,—That the body is more uneasy 
and heavy after six pounds taken in at one meal, 
than after eight taken in at three,—That he de- 
stroys himself slowly who makes but one meal a 
day, let him eat much or little,—That he who 
eats more than he can digest is nourished less than
he ought to be, and so becomes emaciated,— 
That to eat immoderately after immoderate exer- 
cise of body or mind is bad; for a body fatigued 
perspires but little. 
Statical 
proofs. 
Drinks.
14. NOT long after the deluge, it is probable,
Beer was invented; for Herodotus in- 
forms us, that in the corn-provinces 
in Egypt, where no vines grew, the people drank 
Beer.
a

287 OF REGIMEN.
a sort of wine made of barley, Οlνω εΧ Χςlθεvωv
πεποlημεvω. Those who have been accustomed 
to beer ought not to be severely interdicted its 
use; beer seems to have a more durable effect
than wine. Mum, or strong beer, which is an 
extract of corn, taken in small quantities with 
biscuit, proves an excellent medicine in disorders 
proceeding from cold lentor. Its spirit is fixed in
a more tenacious bond, and therefore produces 
more durable effects. Wine, beer, cyder, perry 
and all fermented liquors are antiseptic. When 
beer neither oppresses the stomach, nor binds the
belly, but passes by urine, it may be allowed. 
Where it generates wind, passes sluggishly, or 
breeds stony concretions, it ought not. 
“ NOAH began to be a husbandman, arid he 
“ planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, 
“ and was drunken.” 
Wine drank too freely weakens the man, 
as may be seen by his actions. Sweet wines pro- 
mote stools, but they excite flatulency and thirst; 
they promote expectoration, but impede urine. 
Tawny austere wines are good when the body is 
loose, provided there be no disorder in the head, 
no impediment in spitting, or making water. 
Pure wine is best for the stomach, and bowels. 
Diluted with water, it is best for the head, breast, 
and urinary passages. Strong Spanish, or Hun- 
garian wines strengthen the stomach wonder- 
fully. 
Wine. 
15. MINERAL WATERS are possessed of a spi- 
rit which helps digestion and promotes 
sleep. Patients require but little pure 
wine while they drink water. Hec- 
tics ought to drink none. Mineral 
waters are all hard, and therefore unfit for do- 
mestic purposes, until they are robbed of their 
Mineral wa- 
ters improper 
at meals.  
acid,

288 OF REGIMEN.
acid, by boiling. Injudicious as well as com- 
mon, is the practice of drinking Bath-waters at 
meals. People of lax bowels may drink them, 
none other. Pure soft water is the best of all di- 
luents, especially to those who are naturally cos- 
tive. Those who are troubled with stomach- 
complaints, ought to drink wine, or rather rum,
or brandy. The latter are lowered with water 
only; the former are composed of we know not 
what. 
16. TEA and COFFEE are now the principal 
beverages of the kingdom; at mineral-water 
places, as much as any other. There 
have been physicians of no small note, 
of the opinion that the fluids cannot 
be too much fused. From this notion they in- 
culcate the perpetual dilution of the blood, by
tepid watry liquors. Hence those encomiums of 
Bentekoe and others on Tea, Coffee, and other 
modern flip-flops. Our hardy ancestors made use 
of infusions of indigenous plants, made-wines, 
and beer. Nervous complaints were unfashiona- 
ble in their days. From the prince to the pea- 
sant, Tea and Coffee are now in constant use. 
Never were nervous diseases so frequent as at this
day. The question of Tea and Coffee cannot 
therefore be indifferent. 
Tea and Cof- 
fee. 
Luxury and avarice seem to have conspired in 
multiplying the names of Teas. Teas of all 
sorts are, most certainly, leaves of the same shrub;
different sorts take their names from the different 
countries, or different manner of manufacture;
just as we produce different beers from malt high, 
or slack dried. 
BOHEA is the most natural, simple, 
and most salutary. In gathering the 
Bohea, the trees are never injure; the leaves 
Bohea.
advance


289 OF REGIMEN.
advance to full maturity, fall, and are pre- 
served. 
GREEN TEA is plucked separately from the 
shrub, just as the leaf, in full verdure, 
begins to expand. Injured by this 
violence, the trees rarely bud again for years. 
Green Tea.
Naturally, the leaves are so disagreeably bitter 
and astringent, that to render them palatable, the 
Chinese infuse both sorts for a certain space in 
water. After this infusion, the Bohea leaves are 
generally dried in the sun and preserved for use. 
The green is dried in caldrons, or on plates of 
copper heated. The natives who roll, mix, and 
turn the leaves, are obliged to arm their hands 
with leathern gloves to defend them from the 
metallic efflorescence. In Holland, as well as in
Britain, there are itinerants who make a trade of 
purchasing tea leaves which have been used; these 
they re-manufacture so dexterously by tinging, 
rolling, and drying, that they easily impose on 
those who are fond of bargains, or any thing that 
has the appearance of being smuggled. 
THE leaves discover a degree of bitterness con- 
joined with a gentle astringency, dis- 
coverable by taste, as well as by vitri- 
olic infusion, without any sensible heat or acri- 
mony. Simply infused in water, tea braces the 
fibres of the first passages, and thus promotes di- 
gestions; it dilutes and dissolves the fluids, re- 
laxes the solids, promotes urine, corrects acri- 
mony, cools, quenches thirst, and diverts sleep. 
Hence useful in inflammatory, lethargic, ioma- 
tous, gravellish disorders, flatulencies, and head- 
achs from hard drinking. The Asiatics chiefly 
indulge in Bohea. The higher priced green they 
reserve for European markets.  
Virtues.
N Manu-

290 OF REGIMEN.
Manufactured, sophisticated, or mixed, the vir- 
tues of Tea can only be estimated from a know- 
ledge of the several ingredients with which it 
is usualJy compounded. Mischiefs imputed to 
the plant are often due to practices foreign, as 
well as domestic. This seems to gather 
strength from a comparative view of the similar 
effects of excess in tea, and small doses of verdi- 
grease. Both excite tremblings, vomitings, sick- 
ness, languor, dimness of sight, palpitation, pa- 
ralytic affections, with all those consequences 
which accompany weak fibres and watry fluids. 
In his Academical Praelections, I remember Doctor 
Alston affirmed, that (after repeated trials) he 
found that tea drinking occasioned a glaring in 
his eyes, affecting his speech; which Kempser 
(in his Amaenitates Exoticae, pag. 605 to 608) con- 
firms, classing it among the malignants, or those 
which are unfriendly to the brain and nerves. 
COFFEE, in respect of its effects good or bad, 
may be classed with tea. It is a kernel cloathed
with a thin membrane, and a sub- 
acrid pulp of a leguminous bitterish 
taste, before it is roasted. In roasting, a volatile 
salt flies off, the oil becomes a veritable oleum am- 
bustum. In drying, the tea actually undergoes 
the very same proeess; but its quantity of oil is 
fo very inconsiderable, that it discovers nothing
of an empyreuma.
Coffee.  
The virtues of Coffee seem to depend on the 
oil; which, by burning, becomes so changed, 
as to be unfit for the purpose of nu- 
trition: It may be of use in cases 
where the weakness of the first passages can be 
assisted by a gentle stimulus. In this case it proves
cephalic, quickens the circulation, promotes per- 
spirattion, and is nervous; roasted peas and beans 
Virtues. 
yield

291 OF REGIMEN.
yield a substance near akin to it. Used in excess 
it has all the bad properties of tea. 
The best purpose that I know tea or coffee 
good for, is to clear the head, and divert sleep, 
when I have a mind to protract my studies to 
late hours. For the purpose of dilution, infu- 
sions of sage, balm, rosemary, lavender, valerian, 
and many other indigenous plants are equally 
good. In cases where tea and coffee are pernici- 
ous, these are remedies. Were they of foreign 
extraction they’d be much more valued. 
THE hardest parts of animal bodies exposed to 
the vapour of warm water, become soft; harts- 
horns thus becomes scissible. From the abuse of
warm water, Hippocrates enumerates carnium ef- 
feminationem, nervorum impotentiam, mentis stupo- 
rem, haemorrhagias, animi deliquia. In Van Eem's 
Collection of Boerhaaeve’s academical prelections 
De Nervorum morbis, we find that illustrious phy- 
sician complaining that he had seen many abused 
by such flops, so enervated that they hardly drag- 
ged their languid members after them, some af- 
flicted with apoplexy and palsy. “ Notum est 
“ toties morbum chlorofin, et summum languo- 
“ rem, uteri haemorrhagias fieri mulieribus, dum
“ potibus aquosis tepidis abutuntur.” 
Theorists forget the natural state of the blood 
in health. “ Open the vein of a dairy maid, the 
“ blood, as it flows from the orifice, concretes 
“ instantly into a solid mass.—” “ Open the 
“ vein of a valetudinarian, the red globules and 
“ the serous swim about in a slimfy ill-coloured 
homogeneous fluid.” By this observation a- 
lone, practitioners know, that by too great dilu- 
tion, fox-hunters maybe converted into fribbles. 
Without a certain degree of spissitude, the hu- 
mours cannot be kept within their proper canals.  
N2 If

292 OF REGIMEN.
If the red globules are melted down to the con- 
sistence of serous, the sanguiferous vessels become 
empty. If the serous acquire the consistence of 
lymphatics, all those evils which proceed ah erro- 
re loci must insue. The whole will, in time, 
pass through the exhalant vessels, the body must
be consumed. In found bodies, the natural heat 
is maintained while the solids and fluids preserve 
their natural disposition. But, if the humours 
come to be too much diluted, the solids naturally 
become flaccid. Hence languor and chilliness. The 
watry part of the blood accumulates in the cavi- 
ties of the body; hence Cachexy, Dropsy, &c. 
Were the custom of tea drinking confined to peo- 
ple of rigid fibres and active lives; the penetrating
quality of the fluid added, to the saponaceous anti- 
septic property of the sugar, would render the in- 
fusion miscible with the blood. Obstructions 
might be removed, acrid salts diluted, viscid 
phlegm dissolved. The astringency of the plant 
might answer the good purpose of passing off the 
liquor more quickly. The sanguinary, bilious, 
phlegmatic and melancholic might all find relief. 
Fevers might be prevented in the young, aches 
and obstructions in the old. The belly might be 
kept soluble, the urinary passages cleansed, and 
insensible perspiration, the healthiest of all secre- 
tions, might be promoted. 
But, such is the force of example; the lazy, 
indolent and effeminate, men and women of 
weak nerves, relaxed fibres, and foul juices, in- 
dulge themselves, twice or thrice a day, in the 
immoderate use of, a tipple, which enervates 
more and more. They dilute medicated waters 
with water warm and relaxing. They dread the 
effect of the plant which (by its astringency) is
calculated to brace the muscular coat of their
weak

293 OF REGIMEN.
weak stomachs. They make use of an infusion 
so weak that it relaxes more and more. Hence 
indigestion, sickness, fainting, tremours, with all 
their direful consequences. The contractile fi- 
bres lose their elasticicy, the food lies like a load. 
Hence sourness, flatulencies, vapours, &c. They 
desert the springs of health with disgust, while they
daily labour to counteract the virtues of the waters. 
THOSE poetic proofs which close the different 
sections of this last chapter, are extracted from Dr. 
Armstrong's most ingenious poem on the Art of
preserving Health.
“ PROMPTED by instinct's never erring power,
“ Each creature knows its proper aliment; 
“ But man, th’ inhabitant of ev’ry clime, 
“ With all the commoners of nature feeds. 
“ Directed, bounded by this power within, 
“ Their cravings arc well aim'd: Voluptuous man
“ Is by superior faculties misled; 
“ Misled from pleasure ev’n in quest of joy. 
“ Sated with nature’s boons, what thousands seek,
“ With dishes tortur’d from their native taste, 
“ And mad variety, to spur beyond 
“ Its wiser will the jaded appetite.” 
§. II. OF AIR.
IN my Treatise Of the use of Sea Voyages, and
in my chapter of Pectoral Diseases, I have treated of
the properties of air. In this section, for the sake 
of method, I propose only to lay down general 
cautions relative to domestic air. 
1. AIR has an inconceivable influence on the 
human frame. Man may live whole days with- 
out food; not a moment without air. 
Epidemical diseases attack persons of
all ranks, those who differ extremely in point of
Air. 
N3 diet,

294 OF REGIMEN.
diet, exercise, amusement, occupation, &c. In 
his judicious Observations on the Diseases of Minor- 
ca, Dr. Cleghorn has observed, that the diseases 
which affected the regular temperate natives, and 
the drunken irregular soldiers, were the same in 
point of violence, attack, and duration.—In such 
cases, change of diet avails but little. Those 
who dread infection must change air. No man 
in his senses would tarry in Constantinople during
the plague. 
2. PATIENTS have not always the means of 
travelling, or changing air. It is therefore the
duty of those who watch over the 
health of their fellow citizens, 1. To 
measure the heat of the human blood, in diffe- 
rent ages, constitutions, and diseases; and 2. To 
attend to those effects which different airs, winds, 
and seasons have on particular constitutions. If 
the climate cannot conveniently be changed, we 
always have it in our power to alter the nature 
and qualities of that particular atmosphere in 
which patients breathe; or, in other words, we 
may accommodate the nature of the air to the na- 
ture of that season which is known to be most
healthy. 
Domestic air.
3. IN estimating the different degrees of heat, 
the ancients wisely confirmed their observations 
by experiments. The same air and 
the same heat appear different to diffe- 
rent people. The standard of fancy 
ever has, and ever will be a false standard. If 
we revolve Galen’s book, De Temperamentis, we 
find an ingenuous confession in proof of our pre- 
sent position, Lib. 2. cap. 2. apud Charterium, 
Tom. 3. p. 60. “ Et quid opus in tam dissimili- 
“ bus exemplum proponere? Cum ipse aer qui 
“ simili sit colore; varie tangenti occurrat, prout  
Heat imagi- 
nary. 
“ alius

295 OF REGIMEN.
“ alius veluti caliginosus, halituosus, alius fumosus, 
“ fuliginosus, interdum purus omnino eft. Igi-
“ turin pluribus, iifdemque differentibus, aequali- 
“ tas caloris consistit, quae inconsideratis quasi in- 
“ aequalis fit, imponit; propterea, sciz. quod non 
“ undequaque similis apparet. Caeterum homo 
“ qui rationes quas proposui expendat, et sensim, 
“ multa particularium experientia exercuerit, is 
“ nimirum aequalitatem caloris in pueris, florenti- 
“ busque, inveniet, nec eo falletur quod alter in 
“ humida, alter in ficca substantia repraesente- 
“ tur; quippe lapis aliquando pari cum aqua ca- 
“ lore effe potest, nullum faciente discrimeu quod
“ lapis ficcus fit, aqua vero humida. Ita igitur 
“ mihi, cum pueros, juvenes, adolescentes mil-. 
“ lies considerâffem, praeterea eundem, infan- 
“ tem, puerum, adolescentemque factum; nihi- 
“ lo calidior visus eft, nec puer quam aetate flo- 
“ rens, nec aetate florens quam puer, fed tan- 
“ tum quemadmodum dixi, in pueris magis hali- 
“ tuosus, et multus et suavis; in florentibus ex- 
“ iguus, ficcus, nec similiter suavis effe caloris
“ occursus. Itaque neuter simpliciter videtur 
“ calidior; sed alter, multitudine ejus quod di- 
“ flatur, alter acrimonia.” 
4. MODERNS taking it for granted that heat 
proceeded from attrition, rarely confirmed their 
opinions by experiments; or made 
their experiments in a vague negligent 
manner. Galileo, Drebellius, Pas- 
chal, Farenheit, Reaumur, and others have de- 
vised thermometers for determining the natural 
heat of bodies of all sorts, animate or inani- 
mate. Boerhaave, Hales, Derham, De Sauvages, 
and others inform us of the degree of heat; but 
keep us in the dark in regard to the time of the 
application of the thermometer. How far such 
Experiments 
inaccurate.  
N4 experimenta

296 OF REGIMEN.
experiments are to be depended on, we now pro- 
ceed to inquire. 
5. UNIVERSAL EXPERIMENT determines the 
heat of the human body, at middle age, and in 
a state of health, at 95, 96 degrees. 
But there have been found instances 
of men in health, whose natural heat 
has constanly raised the mercury, some to 97, 
rarely to 98, and more rarely to 99. How erro- 
neous would it be to treat such as feverish, when
this heat was only constitutional!
Heat diffe- 
rent. 
FROM an opinion that one of the principal uses, 
of external air was to cool the blood as it circu- 
lates through the pulmonary vessels. 
Hales, Boerhaave, and other great 
men were of opinion, that man could 
not long subsist in air which equals, or exceeds 
the native heat. Under the aequator the same is 
the degree of heat with the natural. Men not 
only continue healthy under the aequator, but in
many other parts whose heat exceeds that of the 
human body. Air seems not only to cool the 
blood, but to accelerate the circulation also. 
Air cools and 
accelerates. 
6. IN his Ratio Medendi, professor de Haen 
(Cap. 3. de aere, &c. cop. 19, De supputando ca- 
lore corporis humani) seems to have add- 
ed much light to the present subject. 
With thermometers prepared by Mar- 
ci, Prim, Reaumur, and Farenheit, he made ex- 
periments (to use his own words) Non autem fe- 
mel, deciefve, fed pluries ipsissma experimenta itera- 
la funt, et semper idem docuerunt. 
Accurate ex- 
periments. 
Under the arm-pit of a man in health, he put 
the thermometer for half a quarter of an hour, 
and found it rise to 95, 96. Continued for a 
quarter, it mounted to 97, 98, 99. For half an 
hour

297 OF REGIMEN.
hour 100, 101. For one hour 101, 102. For 
two hours it rose no higher. 
Applied to the arm-pit of a man in a moderate 
feverish heat, for half a quarter of an hour, it 
rose to 100. After one quarter 101, 102. After 
half an hour 102, 103. After one hour 103, 104. 
—By other trials, in continued fevers, it rose to
106, in half an hour. In one hour to 109.
Sometimes in half an hour to 103. In an hour 
to 105.—In a Semi-tertion composed of a continu- 
al fever and a quotidian intermittent, he observes 
that the patient was so very sensible of cold in 
the fit, that he could hardly bear it. In the mean 
time the thermometer rose to 104. The symp- 
toms of the cold fit were evident, shivering, 
chattering teeth, shaking, and a perfect sense of 
internal chill, with a quick, smal], contracted
pulse. During the hot fit, the pulse was full, 
free and quick. In states so opposite, one would 
have hardly expected the same degree of heat. 
Experiment shewed the same exactly. Hippo- 
crates Aph. 4. 48. 7.—72, fays, In febribus non 
remittentibus, si externa frigeant, et interna urantur, 
et sitiant, lethale. This aphorism has generally 
been depended on; but this cannot be said to be 
the case of our patient; he complained of cold 
internal and external. In the cold fit, had not 
the thermometer been applied, no man, would 
have believed that the heat exceeded the natural,
by 7 or 8 degrees.—He gives the history of a 
man, who in a marble chill, which lasted twenty- 
four hours before death, without any sensible 
pulse, raised the mercury in the thermometer to 
97. Here was heat exceeding the natural with- 
out pretence of attrition. The difference of heat 
between thermometers differently placed, he 
found 30.—From these experiments, our author 
N5 in-

298 OF REGIMEN.
ingenuously concludes, that the degree of heat in 
persons found and sick is rarely determined with 
that precision which such subjects require. The 
real degree of heat cannot be fixed in less than 
an hour. Patientia igitur in experimentis, libera 
ab hypothesibus animo capiendis, multa dediscimus quae
humana arrogantia perperam addidisceramus, says De 
Haen, pag. 124. 
IN this inconstant climate, winter and summer 
succeed one another, more than once, in the space 
of twenty-four hours. Our good and 
bad weather may truly be said to de- 
pend on the point of the compass. 
South winds relax and open the pores. North 
winds brace and stop perspiration. Nothing can 
be more pernicious to invalids than air too cold, 
too hot, too moist, or too dry.
Climate in- 
constant.  
1. IF Hippocrates advised his patients to guard 
against the approaching cold of the autumn, in 
the serene climate of Greece, by thick 
cloathing, εδθΤl παXεlη, how much 
more reason have we to be careful? 
Mortalibus turn vitae, turn morborum 
causa est aer, he adds De flatibus, pag. 296. Sy- 
denham condemns the giddy practice of laying a- 
side winter garments too early in the spring, and 
of exposing bodies over-heated to sudden chills. 
This practice, he affirms, has destroyed more 
than famine, pestilence, or the sword. De humor, 
pag. 50, lin. 53. 
Cloaths not 
rashly to be 
changed. 
2. RARELY have we opportunities of contend- 
ing on the subject of cold air; oftener on that of 
heat. From cold, invalids sometimes 
suffer. To avoid this evil, some 
plunge into a greater. In acute dis- 
eases, patients are not only shut up within bed- 
curtains, but buried underloads of blankets. In- 
Heat danger- 
ous. 
valids


299 OF REGIMEN.
valids and people in health lift up every chink. 
Damned to hot bed-chambers, and self-perspira- 
tion, sick people are often broiled to death. Self- 
perspiration not only hurts by heat, but by putre- 
scence also. Hence difficulty of breathing, anxiety, 
dreams, delirium, miliary eruptions, and death. 
This practice was condemned by Forestus in Ger- 
many, 200 years ago; by Sydenham in England, 
and by every rational practitioner, all the world over. 
To tender lungs, heat and cold are both un- 
friendly. That cold which chills the air about 
the morning’s dawn, ought to be awarded by co- 
vering the head, neck, and breast as well as by 
shutting the curtains. The air ought to be satu- 
rated with balsamic vulnerary effluvia. Powder- 
ed gums ought to be sprinkled on the embers. 
Fire ought to be kept up night and day, at an 
equal warmth, from 60 to 65, by a thermometer. 
Those who are able to get put of bed ought to 
walk into another room; the sheets ought to be 
aired, the windows and doors ought to be thrown 
open. Those who cannot get out of bed ought 
to be bolstered up thro’ the day.
Consumptives ought to sleep in spacious upper 
rooms, and alone. If they require not constant 
attendance, nurses ought to wait in the adjoining
room. From statical experiments, we learn, that 
(by absorption) the sick communicate their dis- 
tempers to those who sleep under the same bed- 
cloaths. Heat and contact are, unexceptionably, 
pernicious to consumptives. Dr. Tronchin gives 
instances of wives being infected by sleeping 
with their husbands, in the Dry Belly-Ach. The 
summer effluvia of animal bodies taint the air to- 
a degree sufficient to defeat every intention. 
While the ventilator played at Simson’s room, on 
an assembly night, I tried to make an experiment 
N6 on

300 OF REGIMEN.
on the foul exhausted air. The smell was incon- 
ceivably loathsome, I could not bear it for a mo- 
ment; nor can any man without danger of be- 
ing poisoned. Foul air was the cause of the fa- 
tal catastrophe at Calcutta. Bed-chamber visits 
ought, for this reason, to be rare, and short. 
The windows and doors ought to be laid open in 
the day-time for a thorough perflation of air. 
By covering a patient too warm, and by lec- 
turing too long to seventy students, Professor De
Haen ingenuously confesses that he 
was the cause of miliary eruptions in 
a pulmonary case, idque meo palam fateor neglectu. 
From this error gaining experience, he gradu- 
ally relieved the patient’s body of part of the bed- 
cloaths; he passed him over slightly, in his 
rounds, referring his clinical lecture till he came 
into the hall. Remembering Sydenham’s pre- 
cepts and example, viz. That eruptions caused by 
hot air, ought to be cured by taking the patient out of
bed, and by medicines diluent and cooling, all these 
he strictly followed; so that, by degrees, the 
man’s anxieties decreased, his sweats abated; in 
four days time the miliary eruptions began to 
scale off, his strength increased, while the perip- 
neumony began to throw itself off by expectora- 
tion. On purpose, he owns, he kept the patient 
longer than was necessary, in the Infirmary, that 
the Doctors and Students, confirmatae ejus pancra- 
ticae sanitatis testes existerent. Quantine faciendus, 
in Medicine Sydenhamus! 
Examples. 
He says, he saw cases of the Miliara vera, 
which begin with a rheumatic fever, on the 4, 
5, 6, 7, and 8th day. Some had eruptions on 
the chin, neck, breast, arms, and thighs. These 
lay in the common ward with patients of all dis- 
eases, breathing the same air, and laying under 
the

301 OF REGIMEN.
the same number of blankets. After three or 
four weeks, omnes adepti sunt sanitatem.—Bolder 
by experience, he treated a patient labouring of 
a putrid fever, and covered over with petechiae, 
just as he did patients in common; he took him 
out of bed every day, he drenched him with di- 
luents acidulated with spirit of sulphur. In the 
space of eight days he was free from eruptions 
and fever. “ Sic sensim jugum quod humeris 
“ meis publicus clamor imposuerat excutere vo- 
“ lui, debui. Videram in Belgio foederate prac- 
“ ticos annosiores, qui monita Sydenhami ac Boer- 
“ haavii, in Variolis, Morbillis, Miliaribus, Pe- 
“ techiis, Scarlatinis aspernati, horum morborum 
“ in curatione admodum infortunati effent: vi- 
“ deram alios qui Boerhaaviana scholo enutriti, 
“ Magistrique vestigiis presse inherentes, horam
“ curam feliciter ederent. Recordabar et me Sy- 
“ denhami ac Boerhaavii vestigia prementem, hos 
“ eosdem morbos fummo cum famae ac honoris 
“ incremento, caeteris, qui alias longa semitas 
“ calcarent reclamantibus, felicius curasse. Hinc
“ audacter varios clamores flocci faciens, con- 
“ cludere debui, tarn felicem effe horum mor- 
“ borum curam in aere Austriaco, quam suadente 
“ Sydenhamo in Britannico, quam suadente Boer- 
“ haavo in Belgico fuisse constat.” De Haen Caput 
3. De Aere Decubitu, Sessione, aliisque circa aegros 
moderandis. 
—“ Our fathers talk 
“ Of summers, balmy airs, and skies serene. 
“ Good heaven! for what unexpiated crimes 
“ This dismal change! The brooding elements 
“ Do they, your powerful ministers of wrath, 
“ Prepare some fierce exterminating plague. 
“ Or, is it fix’d in the decrees above 
“ That

302 OF REGIMEN.
“ That lofty Albion melt into the main? 
“ Indulgent nature! O dissolve the gloom! 
“ Bind in eternal adamant the winds 
“ That drown or wither: give the genial west 
“ To breathe, and in its turn the sprightly north; 
“ And may once more the circling seasons rule 
“ The year, nor mix in every monstrous day.” 
§. III. OF EXERCISE.
THE body of man is made up of tubes and 
glands fitted to one another in so wonderful a
manner, that there must be frequent 
motions, conditions, and agitations 
to mix, digest, and separate the juices, 
to cleanse the infinitude of pipes and strainers, 
and to give the solids a firm and lasting tone. 
Exercise ferments the humours, forces them into 
their proper channels, throws off redundancies, 
and helps nature in those distributions which are
necessary for life. 
Exercise ne- 
cessary. 
1. IN, genera], that sort of exercise 
is best to which one has been accus- 
tomed, which best agrees, and in which 
people take delight. 
That which 
agrees best. 
2. EXERCISE is best when the stomach is most
empty. It is to be estimated by the constitution. 
When the patient begins to sweat, 
grow weary, or short breathed, he 
should forbear, till he recovers. For 
the delicate and infirm, that sort of exercise is 
most proper which is performed by external help, 
gestation in wheel carriages, horse-litters, sedan- 
chairs, failing, &c. Julius Caesar was of a weak 
delicate constitution by nature, which he harden- 
ed by exercise. Plutarch says, he turned his 
very repose into action.
On an empty 
stomach. 
3. FOR

303 OF REGIMEN.
3. FOR such as are neither robust nor very
tender, that sort of exercise is best which is per- 
formed partly by ourselves, partly by 
foreign assistance. Of this sort, riding 
on horseback is the foremost, for the be- 
nefits of which I beg leave to refer the reader to
the judicious Sydenham and to Fuller. 
Riding on 
horseback.
By riding the pendulous viscera are shaken, 
and gently rubbed against the surfaces of each o- 
ther; mean while the external air rushes forcibly
into the lungs. These conspiring produce sur- 
prising changes. Sydenham had such an opinion 
of Riding, that he believed not only lesser evils 
could be cured by it, but even th e Consumption in 
its last stage. In this disease, he says, Riding is 
a specific as certain as mercury in the Lues, or 
bark in an Ague, but he cautions phthisics never 
to fatigue themselves by it. On this head he pro- 
duces many instances of recovery. In long jour- 
nies, concussions often repeated have expelled ob- 
structions which the waters had begun to dislodge, 
—Those invalids who ride out in the 
summer, in the heat of the day, act 
irrationally. I would advise them to 
go to bed early, so that they may get 
up early, and ride before breakfast, 
and in the evening. In Italy, it is a common ob- 
servation, that none but Englishmen and dogs are 
to be seen in the streets, in the forenoon. Cane et
Inglesi.  
Riding in the 
heat of the 
day irra- 
tional. 
4. AFTER exercise, the body should 
be well rubbed, then dry linen should 
be put on well aired. 
Linen to be 
changed.
5. AFTER exercise, every man 
oupht to rest before he sits down to 
dinner. Cold small liquors after exer- 
cite are pernicious. 
Cold liquors 
dangerous.  
6. EVERY

304 OF REGIMEN.
6. VERY author who has wrote well on the 
Non-Naturals in general, has copied from the di- 
vine old man. To Hippocrates are we 
indebted for most of the foregoing. 
We now proceed to enumerate some 
of his particular observations, to which 
we may add those of others, who have not copied 
from him. 
Hippocrates 
the best wri- 
ter.
7. Complaints which arise from immoderate 
labour are cured by rest, and e. c. 
In those who loiter away their lives in sloth,
muscular motion languishes, the chyle is neither 
assimilated quickly, nor perfectly. Cachexy ne- 
cessarily becomes the consequence. Let the best
hunter stand still, he may soon plump up; but 
he will every day, become more and more unfit 
for the field. Of twins, let one apply himself to
study; let the other inure himself to hunting. 
The former enjoys the health of a green-sick 
girl; the latter strings his nerves. The lazy 
rich envy the healthy poor; they would enjoy 
health, while they do nothing to preserve it. 
“ Illi vero qui divitiis affluentes, largis quotidie 
“ fruuntur epulis, nec fe ad labores credunt na- 
“ tos, perpetuis querelis medicorum aures fati- 
“ gant, dum volunt vivere fani, ct nihil agere.” 
Boerhaavii Praelect. Academ. From no cause what- 
somever, can health suffer more surely, than by 
exchanging a life of action for a life of indolences 
Well, therefore, might Aretaeus (among the 
causes of cachexy) rank, ab exercitationibus, quies;
a laboribus, otium. Well might Hippocrates say, 
Labor ficcat, et corpus reddit cjjicit; otium hu- 
meddat, et corpus reddit debile. Baccius draws a 
parallel between the active lives of the antients; 
and the flothful lives of the moderns. “ Illorum 
“ vita assiduis dedita exercitiis, sanitatem conser- 
“ vabat,

305 OF REGIMEN.
“ vabat, et promptiores reddebat vires ad singula 
“ tam animi quam corporis munera. Hodie, e. c. 
“ in continuo otio degitur. Principes aut curis 
“ animi jugicer tenentur; aut, fi ad ludicra tran- 
“ fire soleant, ea inertia funt Tabellae, aleae, tro-
“ chi novus modus super mensam agitati. Unde, 
“ non mirum, qui praeproperam accelerant se- 
“ nectutem, incurrantque facile in morbos renales, 
“aut in podagrain, haemicraniam, aliosque id ge- 
nus affectus, medioque veluti curfu deficiant.” 
8. If the body, or any of its mem- 
bers rest longer than usual, it will not 
become the stronger. If, e. c. after a 
long habit of idleness, one enters immediately on
hard labour, he will surely do himself hurt.
Laziness 
hurtful.
9. A soft bed is as irksome to him 
who is accustomed to a hard one, as a 
hard bed is to him who lies at home, 
upon down.  
Custom to be 
studied.
10. Those who seldom use motion, are wearied 
with the smallest exercise, and e. c. 
11. Friction is a sort of succedane- 
um to exercise. Experience dictates
this to Jockies.
Friction.
Friction is an alternate pressure and relaxation 
of the vessels. Gentle friction presses the veins 
only, harder the arteries. By pressing the veins 
the motion of the blood is accelerated towards 
the heart; thus the actions of the heart are ex- 
cited, the blood moves through the vessels. Vital 
power may be increased by friction alone to any 
degree. In the coldest hydropic, a fever may be 
thus raised. In bodies where none of the chylo- 
poetic viscera perform their offices, wonderful ef- 
fects may be produced by rubbing the belly with 
coarse woollen clothes. Thus have dropsies been 
cured. For prevention and cure the antients 
used

306 OF REGIMEN.
used frictions. Let a horse stand unrubbed for a 
few days, he becomes useless. Let him be well 
curry-combed, he may continue nimble for years. 
Columella strongly recommends this practice of 
currying in his Re Rustica. He says, sæpe plus pro- 
dest pressa manu subegisse terga, quam si largissime ci- 
bos praebeas. 
Frictions may be used for different purposes. 
Hence it was that Hippocrates (De Medici offi- 
cio) says, Frictio potest solvere, ligare carne implere,
minuere , dura ligare, mollia solvere, moderata, den- 
fare. The fibres may be relaxed by rubbing with
oils. They may be braced by the use of gums,
spirits, &c. 
12. Reading aloud and singing warms the bo- 
dy, Hence it is, that Dr. Andry 
thinks the reason why women stand 
not so much in need of exercise, be-  
cause they are more talkative than the men. 
Reading and 
singing.
13. THE foundation of chronical ailments are 
generally laid in that time of life which passes 
between puberty and manhood. Moderate exer- 
cise promotes secretions. Violent exercise is more 
injurious than none. Young men who follow 
shooting, hunting, and other rural exercises im- 
moderately commit violence on nature, and anti- 
cipate old age. The animal functions are weak- 
ened, perspiration is interrupted, the fibres are 
rendered rigid, and the radical moisture is dried
up. Those humours which ought to have passed 
by the skin, take possession of the glands, under 
the appearances of head-ach, heart burn, cholic, 
gripes, purging, belching, with all those evils 
which affect the hypochondriac. From rigidity 
of fibres, the morbific matter lodges in the joints 
in the form of rheumatism, ischiatica, nodes, tu- 
mours,


307 OF REGIMEN.
mours, chalk-stones, &c. The lymphatics pour 
their contents into the cavities of the body; 
hence, dropsy, asthma, with all the symptoms of 
cachexy.—Nature has supplied the fair sex with 
evacuations which supply the place of exercise. 
While nature maintains these discharges in a re- 
gular manner, their fibres continue lax, soft and 
delicate. When these discharges come to be sup- 
pressed, and women, notwithstanding, continue 
in health, they become viragos, their fibres par- 
take of the masculine rigidity, they are subject 
to gout, rheumatism, and other diseases, conse- 
quences of immoderate exercise.—The fibres 
of children and eunuchs are also lax; these are
therefore rarely subject to such disorders. 
Galen condemns those who recommend exer- 
cise promiscuously. I have known some men 
(says he) who, if they abstained three days from
exercise, were sure to be ill. Others I knew 
who enjoyed a good state of health though they 
used little or none. 
1. “ Primigines of Mitylens, was obliged to go 
“ into a warm bath every day, otherwise he was 
“ seized with a fever. Effects we 
“ learn from experience, but the causes 
“ of those effects we learn from reason or reflec- 
“ tion. Why did Primigenes require such fre- 
“ quent bathing? By the burning heat of his 
“ skin, I found that he wanted a free perspira- 
“ tion: I therefore ordered him a warm bath to
“ soften his skin and open his pores.” 
Cases.
2. “ I knew another man whose temperament 
“ was equally hot, but he did not require such 
“ frequent bathing, because his calling obliged 
“ him to walk much about the city; he was 
“ moreover of a quarrelsome disposition; by
“ fighting

308 OF REGIMEN.
“ fighting he keeped himself almost in a constant 
“ sweat.” 
3. “ A third I used to restrain from exercise, 
“ because he used it to excess.—I have, e. c. 
“ cured several cold temperaments by rousing 
“ them from lazy lives, and persuading them to
“ labour.” 
Exercise is not to be injoined to patients when 
they are very ill. It were dangerous thus to 
jumble stagnating corrupted humours. 
Such mixtures stuff the lungs, not 
without danger of suffocation. Thus- 
we see cachectics, or leucophlegma- 
tics pant for breath in mounting one 
flight of stairs. In such cases gentle frictions are 
only rational at first, then airing in a chair, rid- 
ing, walking, and at last running. 
Exercise 
dangerous in 
cachectic
cases.
Medical justice obliges me to mention one fla- 
grant proof consistent with my own knowledge. 
Not many summers past, a gentleman 
put himself under my care at Bristol
Hot-wells. By jollity, good fellowship, and elec- 
tioneering, he had almost got the better of one 
of the best constitutions. His case, however, 
was far from being desperate. My principal in- 
junctions were Bristol-water, sobriety, and re- 
pose. For some weeks he seemed to gain ground. 
By riding in the heat of the day, and by living 
too freely, he was taken with a cough and loss 
of appetite. He was bled, and slept soundly- 
through the night; Next day I called with an 
intention to repeat the bleeding; my patient was 
officiously advised to Bath. By procrastinations, 
and unseasonable journies, the inflammation of 
his lungs waxed worse; the season for evacuation 
was lost. He became cachectic, and short- 
breathed; his legs swelled. He had before been  
Case. 
subject

309 OF REGIMEN.
subject to the gout; these symptoms were there- 
fore deemed gouty. Bath-water and exercise 
were unmercifully pursued. After every airing, 
he panted for breath, and seemed ready to expire. 
Nor was it any wonder; for, at that very time, 
haerebat lateri lethalis arundo. A vomica pulmonum
soon burst, and suffocated the gouty man. 
13. LET us now fee what Statical 
Experiments have discovered. 
Statical ex- 
periments.
By moderate exercise the body becomes lighter 
and more lively.—The body perspires more 
when it lies quiet in bed, than when it tosses 
and tumbles. If, after supper, one lies ten hours
in bed, he will perspire freely all the time; but 
if he lies longer, both the sensible evacuations, 
and the insensible perspiration will be diminished. 
—Violent exercise of body or mind brings on 
early age and premature death—Riding on horse- 
back increases the perspiration of the parts above
the waste.—An easy pace is much more whole- 
some than a hard one. But to the infirm who 
are fatigued by it, an easy carriage is preferable, 
because their strength should be recruited not ex- 
hausted.—Moderate dancing promotes perspira- 
tion, and is a wholesome exercise. When the 
perspiration is defective, the remedy is exercise. 
Dr. Arbuthnot recommends exercise from the  
common observation that the parts of the body 
which labour most are larger and stronger. Thus, 
the legs and feet of chairmen, the arms and 
hands of watermen and sailors, the backs and 
shoulders of porters, the limbs of running-foot- 
men, by long use, grow strong, thick, and ac- 
tive. 
“ By toil subdu’d, the warrior and the hind 
“ Sleep fast and deep; their active functions soon
“ With

310 OF REGIMEN.
“ With generous streams the subtle tubes supply, 
“ The sons of indolence, with long repose 
“ Grow torpid; and with slowest Lethe drunk, 
“ Feebly and lingringly return to life, 
“ Blunt ev’ry sense, and pow’rless ev’ry limb.” 
§. IV. OF SLEEP.
SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS bear a great affi- 
nity to exercise and rest. Different 
constitutions require different mea- 
sures of sleep.
Sleep.
1. Moderate sleep increases perspiration, pro- 
motes digestion, cherishes the body, 
and exhilarates the mind. 
Moderate. 
2. Wakeful people should, nevertheless, keep
in bed, quiet and warm, which will, 
in some measure, answer the purpose 
of sleep. 
Quiet.
3. Excessive sleep renders the body
heavy and inactive, impairs the me- 
mory, and stupifies the senses. 
Excessive 
sleep.
4. Excessive wakefulness dissipates
the strength, produces fevers, and 
wastes the body.
Wakefulness.
5. He who sleeps through the day, 
and wakes through the night, inverts 
the order of nature, and anticipates 
old age. 
Unseasonable 
sleep.
6. Sleep after dinner is, in general, a bad cus- 
tom. A late heavy supper is an enemy to sleep. 
Going to bed without any supper, prevents 
sleep. 
7. By Statical Experiments we know 
that found sleep is refreshing.—That 
nocturnal perspiration arises in this 
climate to about sixteen ounces.—That after a 
Statical 
proofs. 
good

311 OF REGIMEN.
good night’s sleep, the body feels lighter from the 
increase of strength, as well as from the quantity 
of matter which it has thrown off by perspira- 
tion.—That restless nights diminish perspiration. 
—That perspiration is more obstructed by a cool 
foutherly air when asleep, than by intense cold 
when awake.—That change of bed diminishes 
perspiration; for things to which we are not ac- 
customed, though better in their nature, seldom 
agree with us.—That stretching and yawning 
promote perspiration.—That perspiration is more 
obstructed by throwing off the blankets when we 
sleep, than by throwing off the cloaths when a- 
wake.—That wine moderately drank induces 
sleep, and increases perspiration.—That drank to
excess it lessens both. 
“ IN study some protract the silent hour, 
“ Which others consecrate to mirth and wine; 
“ And sleep till noon, and hardly live till night.
“ But surely this redeems not from the shades 
“ One hour of life. 
§. V. OF EVACUATION.
DIODORUS SICULUS informs us that the Ae- 
gyptian physicians were maintained at the public 
expence, and obliged, by the laws, 
to conform their practice to rules re- 
corded by authority. To prevent dis- 
tempers (says he) they prescribed glysters, purges, 
vomits, or fasting, every second, third, or fourth 
day. Herodotus informs us, that the Aegyptians 
vomit and purge thrice every month, with a view 
to preserve health, which, in their opinion is 
chiefly injured by superfluity of aliment. Euterpe 
sect. 77. 
Evacuation 
in general. 
At

312 OF REGIMEN.
At water-drinking-places the word preparation 
fills the mouth of every nurse. Some are over- 
prepared before they come. Others prepare them- 
selves. Bleeding, purging, and vomiting, are 
edge-tools. I therefore proceed to point out the 
uses and abuses of Evacuation. 
I. Of Bleeding. 
1. GREAT are the advantages produced by a 
seasonable use of the Lancet. Unseasonable bleed- 
ing is productive of irreparable cala- 
mities. One may venture to affirm 
that full as many of His most Christian 
Majesty's subjects fall by the lancet, as by the
sword. The soberest people in the world are 
doctored in the antiphlogistic regimen, a regimen 
calculated for the carnivorous, lazy, and drunken. 
Following the physician of the Hotel-Dieu, one 
day in his rounds, he met a patient just carried 
in. The doctor demanded of the porters, Qua- 
t-il? one of them answered. La fievre. A-t-il 
été saignée? Oui, Monsicur, dix fois. Diable! Dix 
fois, et pas encore guerit. Saigne le encore. All this 
without touching his pulse, or asking one other 
question. The wretch was bled, and expired 
before his arm could be tied up.
Bleeding its 
daggers.  
2. Of all nations, French surgeons 
are, in general, the most dexterous o- 
perators, dressers, and diffecters, and 
the worst practitioners. 
French igno- 
rant of theo- 
ry.
Mr. Thomas, Surgeon of the naval hospital in 
India, assured me that (in Admiral Pocock’s first
engagement with the French) the British wound- 
ed who were brought ashore, recovered to a man, 
while the French wounded who wrere carried into 
Pondicherry almost all died. The surgeon of the  
Bridgewater

313 OF REGIMEN.
Bridgewater ship of war was then a prisoner in 
that sort, and was witness to the fact, nay the 
French own the secret, and still continue to be 
surprised at the consequences of their own mal- 
practice.—Mr. Morgan, Surgeon of a regiment 
at Guadaloupe, assures me that bleeding is the uni- 
versal remedy among the French practitioners in 
that island. In intermittent fevers particularly, 
they bleed five or six times, and always in the 
cold fit. Many of our officers and private men 
thus expired, before their arms could be bound 
up. Moliere’s raillery has improved the French
practice not a little. 
3. Our best surgeons surpass the 
French in learning. We have philo- 
sophers as well as operators. I know 
not a few whose medical visits I would 
accept in cades the most dangerous. 
Common 
bleeders igno- 
rant.
“ Sydenham attended a lady of a delicate con- 
“ stitution, who (by violent floodings 
“ after child-birth) fell into convul- 
“ sions. He prescribed food of easy 
“ digestion, and trusted to time for a cure. He 
“ visited her daily, and saw his prognostic veri- 
“ fled by the mitigations of the symptoms. Her 
“ nurse mistaking honesty for ignorance, and 
“ wondering that he never wrote, privily in- 
“ troduced a surgeon, who made use of the com- 
“ mon instrument for promoting the Lochia, the 
“ lancet. Her convulsions returned, she died. 
“ The Doctor, calling at his usual hour, found 
“ her husband in tears. Surprized, he demand- 
“ ed the reason. The maid answered, Sir, 
“ my lady is dead. Then she must have been 
“ bled, replied the Doctor, rushing into the bed- 
“ chamber. He examined both arms; no print 
“ of a lancet. He then examined her ankle. 
Example fa- 
tal.  
O “ There

314 OF REGIMEN.
“ There he found the fatal mark. Provoked at 
“ the disappointment, he bluntly told the hus- 
“ band, whom he met on the stairs; Sir, they 
“ have killed your wife.”—From the untimely 
fate of this lady, he warns physicians to order 
innocent nothings to amuse meddling gossips, 
and divert them from quacking under hand.
Public rooms are crowded with hundreds, some 
well, others labouring of inveterate ailments. A- 
nimal effluvia are exalted by the addition of 
smoke, sulphur, wax, and tallow. The external 
air is lifted out at every chink. Is it any wonder 
that weak enervated people should be overcome 
by such air? 
Many may remember the fate of Mrs. Shifner.
Playing at Quadrille, she had the good fortune to
win a sans prendre. Transported with 
joy, she fell into a laughing fit, and 
then into an hysteric. She was bled; convul- 
sions ensued, and she expired. Nor was the con- 
sequence wonderful; she was a woman of a 
weakly constitution, pale complexion, and subject 
to an habitual lax. 
Examples. 
Captain Roper was one night hauled into an 
outer-room in a fainting fit; a surgeon was sent 
for. I ordered the waiter to call his physician, 
who saved his patient with hartshorn, and thanked
me. The gentleman then laboured of an incur- 
able jaundice, dropsy, and cachexy. 
Many may remember the case of Mr. S—n. 
While he held die cards in his hands, he was al- 
most every night, taken with a slight epileptic fit. 
I almost affronted a Right Reverend by opposing 
his being bled. He had a glass of cold water 
with spirit of hartshorn. In an instant he reco- 
vered, begged of the company, that they would 
not

315 OF REGIMEN.
not be alarmed on his account, took up his cards, 
and played on. 
The Surgeons were so often summoned on old 
Nash’s account, that at length they made no 
haste. Was it any wonder that the blood should 
now and then be interrupted in vessels which had 
lasted for fourscore years and upwards? To drive 
away care he latterly indulged himself in drams, 
which alarmed people by bringing on drunken- 
ness, or a temporary apoplexy. 
4. Surgeons may boldly venture on 
the sanguine, robust, and plethoric. 
Cautions.
The patients who resort to Bath-waters labour 
generally of stomach disorders, gout, rheumatism, 
or palsy; these are seldom attended with fever. 
In other respects they are what they call hearty. 
Such generally admit of evacuations. 
Those who resort to Bristol-waters are, for the
most part, emaciated, phlegmatic, hectic, pale, 
lax, and weak. Bleeding, in general, increases
such disorders. 
Suffice here in general to observe, that in Con- 
sumptions attended with inflammation, bleeding 
not only abates that, but, by drawing off the dis- 
eased juices, makes room for founder. But, in 
consumptions glandular, or pituitous, every lan- 
cet is a dagger. If, on trial, the pulse grows 
quicker, more contracted or thready; if the 
blood appears looser in texture, no benefit is to be 
expected from bleeding. If, in such circumstan- 
ces, a vein is opened, colliquation, coldness, de- 
pression, and irrecoverable weakness ensue. The 
assimilating powers are low; there often remains 
no more than what is barely sufficient to main- 
tain the vital flame. When the circulation comes
to be confined within a narrow compass, patients 
feel themselves as it were smothered. Bed-cur- 
O2 tains


316 OF REGIMEN.
tains and windows are thrown open for air. Air 
aggravates, while it seems to relieve. In such 
cases it is hard to resist the importunities of the 
sick; I have ordered little bleedings which gave 
case, and, as I fancied, hasted the poor creatures
to their journey’s end. Anxious to relieve, I 
have taken away blood which vainly I wished to
restore. The symptoms which, in consumptions 
call for bleeding, require the nicest judgment. 
How precarious then must be the fate of those 
who come to St. Vincent’s Well armed with gene- 
ral directions? 
Of Regimes. 
5. To enumerate every circumstance in which
Bleeding were hurtful, would swell my work to 
too great a size. In acute diseases, it is com- 
monly believed that the blood loses its phlogistic
nature the fourth day; in malignant putrid dis- 
eases, it is taken for granted that the blood is al- 
ways dissolved. To convince the reader that 
bleeding is not so well understood as is commonly 
imagined, I refer to some experiments made by 
De Haen on the human blood, page 193, 342, 
&c. 
The vulgar method of judging of blood is by 
its crust. The crust depends on the nature of
the vessel in which it is received. Let 
blood be received into a flat broad ves- 
sel, it forms little or no crust. Let it
be received into a narrow deep vessel, 
the crust appears thick, sizy, and in- 
flammatory. Let blood fall directly into a bason, 
it generally puts on a white inflammatory crust. 
Let the most inflammatory blood be squeezed out 
of the orifice, or trickle down the arm, it puts 
on no white inflammatory crust.—In acute dis- 
eases he found a deep inflammatory crust, in many 
instances, long after the fourth day. In a young 
Judging 
blood by the 
crust fallaci- 
ous. 
7 woman


317 OF REGIMEN.
woman labouring of a continual putrid fever, full 
of spots, where nothing had been done, our au- 
thor found the blood drawn on the eleventh day, 
covered with a phlogistic crust, and compact in 
the red part. The blood that was drawn on the 
twelfth day was still more compact, and more in- 
crusted. Crudity of humours is not to be esti- 
mated by time, but by the condition of the blood. 
Boerhaave’s texts are therefore to be considered, 
cum grano salis. Siziness and dissolution of blood 
depend on causes which puzzle the most intelli- 
gent. 
Of Purging.
MEDICINES, if they do not good, certainly do 
harm. Hippocrates observes, “ That it is dan- 
“ gerous suddenly to alter settled ha- 
“ bits; or to fly from one extreme to 
“ another.” Semel multum aut repents 
vel evacuare, vel calefacere, vel refrigerare, aut alio
quovis modo movere periculosum. Celsus damns the 
custom of frequent purgation. Sed purgationes 
quoque, ut interdim necessariae, fic ubi frequentury
periculum afferunt. Assuescit enim non ali corpus, 
ob hoc infirmum erit. Lib.i. cap. 3. p. 31. This 
we see every day verified in those who, solicitous 
about the prevention of diseases, consume their 
present stock of health in quacking, as Celsus ele- 
gantly expresses it, In secunda valetudine, adversae 
praesidia consumun. Certain it is, that nature may 
be so far misled, that the body may forget the 
calls of nature. Evacuations give rise to cachex- 
ies, or bring the best constitutions to be suscepti- 
ble of every trifling liberty. 
Purging leads 
nature astray.
O3 PURGING

318 OF REGIMEN.
PURGING withdraws that matter which nature 
endeavours to fix on the extremities, and fixes it 
on the viscera. The patient exchanges 
pain, that necessary instrument of na- 
ture, for sickness, nausea, gripings, faint- 
ings, and a numerous train of irregu- 
lar symptoms. Sydenham assures us, that he 
learned, at his own peril, as well as that of o- 
thers, that Purgatives exhibited in the fit, in the 
declension, or in the interval of the gout, have 
hastened those evils which they were intended to 
prevent. Purges, as they rob the blood of its 
spirituous part, so they weaken concoction, de- 
ceive the sick with fruitless hopes, and bring on 
lasting mischiefs which nature undisturbed would 
have subdued. Gouty people are easily disturbed 
by any cause that agitates the body, or mind. 
For this reason the gout follows the slightest eva- 
cuation. 
Purging 
weakens na- 
ture. 
α. I knew a practitioner, who scorning Sy- 
denham and all his cautions, had no notion 
of being confined by the gout, or 
any disease which purges could car- 
ry off. This man was a true believer, he 
took the same measure to himself that he gave 
to others. Whenever he was attacked with 
the gout he took his purges, and was about a- 
gain in a few days. Nature thus debilitated, 
the gouty matter fell at last on his lungs, and
killed him. 
Examples. 
ß. “ A gentleman of Essex bad for many years 
been subject to violent fits of the gout. In 
one of these, wishing for relief or death, he 
applied to the former, who purged him every 
four hours with Gum Guajac draughts, to the 
amount of two hundred stools in ten days. He 
hobbled into the coffee-house, and founded 
this

319 OF REGIMEN.
this doctor’s praise. The consequence was, 
his fits return oftener, and with greater reve- 
rity. He now curses his own imprudence, and 
the doctor’s memory. 
γ. Peregrine Palmer, Esquire, Representative 
in Parliament for the University of Oxford, was 
known for an obstinate lameness, as well as 
for that integrity of heart, and politeness of
manners which distinguished his character. 
From his parents he inherited the gout, and 
had his fits early in life. When he seemed to 
be threatened with a fit, and wanted to in- 
dulge any youthful pursuit, he told me, he 
used to avert it by purging, a folly to which, 
he imputed his lameness, and which he request- 
ed me to publish, as memento to his gouty 
brethren. 
DIFFERENT DISEASES, ages, con- 
stitutions and sexes require different 
purges. 
Different 
purges neces- 
sary.
Resinous, mercurial or rough purges, cause 
heat, and hinder the passing of the waters by 
reason of that stricture which purgatives of all 
sorts leave behind. They destroy the tone also of 
the stomach and intestines.  
Where the guts are clogged with viscid phlegm, 
mineral waters purge at first, even those which 
are astringent, particularly if they are drank in 
large quantities and quick. 
For the purposes of opening the mouths of the 
bibulous vessels, and thereby giving access to me- 
dicated fluids, what can be so natural as salts ex- 
tracted from waters themselves? 
Epsom-salt, or Sal Catharicum amarum is pre- 
pared from bittern, and is now common. Dr. 
Hoy was the first who discovered the way of pre- 
paring it, (vide Philos. Transact. No. 378, &c.) 
O4 For

320 OF REGIMEN.
For purifying and imitating it, see Histoire de l' A- 
cadem. Ann. 1718. p. 38, &c. 
Glauber’s Salt is an artificial composition, an 
union of the vitriolic acid with the mineral alka- 
li, or basis of sea-salt. It has some resemblance 
with that of Epsom, and proves, when the point 
of saturation is exactly hit, a salt of a neutral na- 
ture, of a bitter taste, and a purgative virtue. Ar- 
tificial salts require four times their weight of wa- 
ter to dissolve them. Natural salts dissolve in a- 
bout an equal quantity of water.  
Rochelle salt, or Regenerated Tartar, has a 
more agreeable taste, and a gentler purgative vir- 
tue than either of the former. 
Magnesia Alba, or white Manganese, is that 
alkaline matter obtained by evaporating and cal- 
cining the remains of the mother liquor left in 
refining Salt Petre, which will not shoot into salt. 
This white Manganese is an agreeable gentle pur- 
gative, particularly proper in habits naturally cos- 
tive, and hypochondriac disorders. Its purgative 
quality seems to proceed from its alkaline earthy 
matter dissolved by the sharpness of the juices in
the first passages. The universal acid of the wa- 
ters converts this medicine into a neutral salt, 
which exerts its purging quality on the same prin- 
ciples by which the Epsom salts are known to act.
Hoffman, Stahl, and all the best foreign mineral 
water doctors recommend the four for quickening 
the effects of the waters, so as to render them 
more deobstruent, detersive, and purgative. 
Of Vomiting. 
IN the action of Vomitings the dia- 
phragm is suddenly and violently 
drawn downwards, while the abdominal muscles 
Vomiting, its 
operations. 
con-

321 OF REGIMEN.
contracted also, press the contents of the lower 
belly. Thus the stomach is squeezed, as it were, 
between two presses. As the nerves distributed to 
the stomach, intestines and mesentery, have such 
power over the rest of the nerves of the body, 
we need not wonder that convulsions should be 
excited in the muscles of the face, oesophagus, 
intestines, &c. In the action of vomiting, the 
venous blood is driven violently towards the right 
side of the heart, while those arteries which are 
dispersed over the abdominal viscera are compres- 
sed. Thus, the impetus of the arterial blood is 
forced upwards, while the right side of the heart 
is hindered from emptying itself into the vessels 
of the lungs, respiration being stopped in the act
of vomiting; hence the return of the venous 
blood from the head is prevented. The vessels of 
the head are in danger from turgescency, or ex- 
travasation; for, in violent straining, the face 
reddens, the jugular veins swell, the eyes sparkle 
with fire, the ears tingle, and the head becomes 
giddy. 
In the action of vomiting, the venous blood 
rushes through the Vena portarum in- 
to the liver. If the liver or lungs 
happen to be vitiated, ruptures, and other fatal 
consequences may insue. “ Boer- 
“ haave (in his academical prelec- 
“ tions) says, he saw a woman labouring under 
“ an inveterate jaundice, by taking a vomit, fell 
“ into a superpurgation of putrid matter first, 
“ and then of pure blood, which carried her off. 
“ —Had I not, with my own eyes, have seen 
“ it in the body of the Republic’s President of 
“ the Marine, who could have thought that the 
“ tube of the oesophagus was burst by violent 
“ strainings?”—Hernias have often been pro- 
Dangers. 
Example. 
duced

322 OF REGIMEN.
duced by vomiting.—After violent vomiting, the 
site of the stomach, and other abdominal viscera 
was found strangely changed in the carcass of a 
woman, as we find pag. 238, Memoirs de l'Acad. 
des Sciences l'an. 1716—With justice does Cel- 
sus (lib. i. cap. 3. p. 29) condemn those glut- 
tons who prepare their stomachs for feasts by vo- 
mits. Itaque ijlud luxuriae caufa fieri non oportere 
fateor, interdum valetudinis caufa redie fieri, experi- 
ment is credo. Cornmoveo tamen ne quis, qui valere 
& senescere volet, hoc quotidianum habeat. 
Hence we may see the danger of vomiting to 
plethorics, or to those of bad habits. In spasmo- 
dic reachings, artificial irritations teem with de- 
struction. How judiciously does Sydenham ad- 
vise vaenesection to precede vomiting, in cases 
which require both; left (by violent strainings) 
the pulmonic vessels should be burst, or the brain
hurt; examples of which he says he has seen, 
Sect. i. cap. 4. p. 65. 
While I was studying at Paris. I well remem- 
ber the untimely fate of a fellow-student. Dr. 
Hugh Graham. In very hot weather 
(by posting) we were both heated. By 
fasting and diluting, my complaints vanished in a 
few days. He was feverish, with a nausea, for 
which he proposed a puke, which I opposed, 
begging he would rather bleed. Laughing at my 
fears, he took only only one scruple of Ipecacua- 
na, which vomited not immoderately. Next day 
he complained of a dull pain in the right hyp- 
pochondre, for which I bled him, and would 
have repeated it, as my mind laboured with a 
presentiment of danger. Some few days were 
trifled away in doing nothing. My anxiety 
forced the Doctors Du Moulin and Astruc on my 
friend. I related my fears to them; I dreaded an
Example. 
abscess


323 OF REGIMEN.
abscess in the liver. I told them I feared the sea- 
son was lost. Their answer was, C'est impossible, 
Monsieur, vous craignez trop pour Monsieur votre 
ami, tout va bien. In spite of saignees, purges, 
lavement, &c. the patient shut his eyes. Insist- 
ing still on my prognostic, I begged their pre- 
sence next day. Before I touched the body, I 
prognosticated an abscess in the concave part of
the liver. When I had laid the abdominal visce- 
ra in view, the gibbous part was found. Putting 
my hand under the liver to turn it, I felt it un- 
commonly moist. From my wrist to my fingers 
ends, it was covered with bland well concocted 
pus. Old Du Moulin hobbled across the room, 
and clasping me in his arms, called out, Ma foi, 
Monsieur, vous avez faites un tres bon prognostic. 
The truth was, I watched every groan, 1 at- 
tended him night and day, I read for him, I 
thought for him, I loved him, and, though I 
could not save him, by his untimely fate, I was 
taught three useful lessons, 1. That vomits are 
to be administered only where they are necessary. 
2. That inflammations of the liver run speedily 
to pus; and, 3. That bleeding avails not where 
abscesses are once formed. These three lessons
have enabled me to save others. 
VOMITS warm and strengthen particular mem- 
bers, by deriving a greater supply of blood and
spirits to the part. By repeated suc- 
custions vomits, resolve impacted mat-
ter. On this principle it is that sea- 
voyages remove tumors, and topical inflamma- 
tions; thus it is that rebellious ulcers are render- 
ed tractable, haemorhages and fluxes stopped, as 
have been dropsies. Of the last there are two me- 
morable instances. 
Vomits, their
effects.
Dr.

324 OF REGIMEN.
Doctor Ross, late physician of London, was 
once tapped for a dropsy, His abdomen filled a- 
gain. The day was fixed for the se- 
cond tapping, A vomiting of coffee- 
like water came on spontaneously, and continued, 
at different times, he was emptied. Nor did 
he fill again. This relation I had from his own 
mouth. 
Examples. 
The second volume of the London Medical 
Essays contains a more memorable instance, com- 
municated by Doctor Alexander Mackenzie. 
Where the viscera are found, where the blood 
vessels have been duly emptied, where pains 
and reachings arise from viscid phlegm, 
bilious putrid, or acrid juices, vomits 
seem to be preparatives more natural than purga- 
tives. Lord Palmerston’s case, related by Dr. O- 
liver, proves the text. 
Vomits safe. 
Dr. Woodward, of Gresham-College, seems to 
have been an enthusiast in the doctrine of vo- 
mits. He has furnished the public with many 
successful proofs. Of his unsuccessful he says 
nothing. 
Preparation seems still more necessary, in re- 
gard to bathing, sweating, and pumping. Of these 
I treat particularly, in my Attempt to revive the
Doctrine of Bathing. 
Of Sweating. 
SWEATING is practised in all stages of dis- 
eases. Sweating is as dangerous as any one 
evacuation. In those diseases which 
frequent Bath, sweating is commonly 
practised in bathing; and, where it is easily pro- 
duced, seldom does mischief. Excepting Dia- 
betes, sweating is hardly compatible with those 
Sweating. 
diseases

325 OF REGIMEN.
diseases which frequent Bristol. Cocta non cruda 
funt evacuanda is an aphorism founded in truth. 
He who knows the difference between humours 
crude and concocted, is alone a judge when sweats
are to be prescribed. 
§. VI. OF THE PASSIONS. 
1. To maintain health, the Passions 
must be kept under subjection. Let a 
man be never so temperate, and regu- 
lar in his exercise; yet if he is led away 
by passion, all his irregularity will avail but little.
Passions to be 
kept under 
subjection. 
2. Fear, grief, envy, hatred, malice, revenge 
and despair weaken the nerves, retard the circu- 
lation, hinder perspiration, impair di- 
gestion, and produce spasms, obstruc- 
tions, and hypochondriacal disorders. Valeri- 
us Maximus gives fatal instances of terror. 
Violent anger creates bilious, inflammatory, 
convulsive, and apoplectic disorders, especial- 
ly in hot temperaments. Pliny and Aulus 
Gellius give us fatal instances of extreme joy. 
Sylla having freed Italy from civil wars, return- 
ed to Rome. He said, he could not sleep the 
first night, his foul being transported with ex- 
cessive joy and content, as with a strong and
mighty wind. 
Their effects. 
3. In that journal of Mr. Ives, Surgeon of 
the Dragon ship of war, recorded in Dr. Lind’s 
book of the scurvy, we find a memo- 
rable instance of the effects of oppo- 
site passions. On the thirtieth day of January
1743, this gentleman had ninety men on his sick 
lift, almost all scorbutics, fifty-five of which
seemed, to him, out of the power of medicine. 
News came on board, that the Spaniards were to 
Examples. 
push

326 OF REGIMEN.
push out of Toulon Harbour to join the French, in 
order to give battle to the fleet. Every eye spark- 
led with joy. So fast did the hopeless sick reco- 
ver, that, on the eleventh of February, the day 
of action, there were only four or five of the 
ninety who could be with-held from their fight- 
ing quarters. From the eleventh to the fifteenth,
the effects of joy continued; the Dragon's had 
all done their duty that day; few or none took 
notice of their illness. Every day brought on 
board fresh tidings of the scandalous behaviour 
of some ship or other. Those whom glory and 
the hopes of conquest had almost cured, relapsed. 
Before the end of the month, the sick-lift was as 
deep as ever. 
It is remarkable, in battle, the wounded horses 
follow their regiments, after having lost their ri- 
ders; on three legs they neigh for joy at the 
found of the clarrion. 
In weathering Cape-Horn, the Centurions crew 
was so dispirited by distress, that one half of the
men died. While the same ship cruized for the 
Aquapulco ship, golden dreams supported the men’s 
spirits, for full four months she was remarkably
healthy. 
In that long storm in which the Ipswich ship of
war lost her rudder, &c. fear and despondency 
seized the sailors to such a degree, that they 
rather chose to perish by inches below, than to
get upon deck to extricate themselves from 
danger. 
Those who brood over cares are the first at- 
tacked by putrid diseases, and the hardest to cure. 
Nor do wounds suppurate kindly. The hopes of 
ending their days among their native barren rocks 
make the Switzers fight under any banner.—The 
Royal Highlanders have, from their institution.
been

327 OF REGIMEN.
been real volunteers; many of them have fallen 
by the sword; in other respects, they are remark- 
ably healthy. New corps of Highlanders have 
since been raised; old men have been cozened 
from their families, and boys from their mothers 
laps. No sooner were they wasted to distant 
shores, than they began to pine away. Men ac- 
customed to cold, hunger and fatigue, fell mar- 
tyrs to the maladie de pais,—Africans transported 
to the colonies, no sooner cast their eyes on the 
hated shores, than they refuse sustenance, and 
often plunge into the main from a notion that 
their departed spirits regain their liberty.—Can 
drugs reach the seats of such diseases? What can 
medicines avail to love-sick minds? Wounded 
spirits who can bear? 
4. Moderate joy, virtue, contentment, hope, 
and courage invigorate the nerves, accelerate the 
fluids, promote perspiration, and assist 
digestion. Lord Verulam observes that 
chearfulness of spirit is particularly 
useful when we sit down to meals, or 
go to rest. “ If any violent passion should sur- 
prize us at these seasons, it would be prudent 
“ to defer eating, or going to bed until the mind 
“ recovers its wonted tranquility.”
Moderate 
passions 
healthy.  
5. It is observable that the perspiration is 
larger from any vehement passion of the mind 
when the body is quiet, than from 
the strongest bodily exercise when the 
mind is composed. Hence we infer, 
that those who are prone to anger, 
cannot bear much exercise, because the exube- 
rant perspiration of both might waste too fast. It 
is also remarkable that disorders which arise from 
vehement agitations of the mind, are more stub- 
born than those which arise from violent exercise;
The passion-
ate ougth to 
be quiet. 
because 











328 OF REGIMEN. 
because the latter are cured by rest and sleep,
which have no influence on the former. People 
who cannot bear losing, should never play. 
“ THERE is, they say, (and I believe there is) 
“ A spark within us of immortal fire, 
“ That animates and moulds the grosser frame;
“ And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven, 
“ Its native seat, and mixes with the Gods. 
“ Meanwhile this heavenly particle pervades: 
“ The mortal elements in every nerve 
“ It thrills with pleasure, or grows mad with pain, 
“ And, in its secret conclave, as it feels 
“ The body’s woes and joys, this ruling power 
“ Wields at its will the dull material world, 
“ And is the body’s health or malady.” 
FINIS.





























EXPERIMENTAL 
ESSAYS 
On the VIRTUES of the 
Bath and Bristol WATERS. 
By ALEX. SUTHERLAND, 
OF BATH, M. D. 
THE THIRD EDITION. 
IMPROVED AND CORRECTED. 
Multa enim in modo rei & circumstantiis nova sunt, quœ, 
in genere, nova non sunt. Qui autem ad observandum
adjicit animum, ei etiam, in rebus quœ vulgares videntur, 
multa observatu digna occurrunt. 
BACON De Augmentis Scientiarum. 
LONDON: 
Printed for A. TENNENT, Bookseller, in BATH; and
sold by S. CROWDER, in Pater-noster Row.
MDCCLXXII.



THE INTRODUCTION 
HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
Hugh, Earl of Northumberland, 
Baron Warkworth, and Baronet, Knight of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter, Lord-Lieutenant, and 
Governor-General of Ireland, Lord of the Bed- 
chamber to His Majesty, Lord-Lieutenant of the 
County of Middlesex, &c. &c. &c. 
My LORD, 
FROM a survey of that harmony which sub- 
sists between the parts of the creation, we 
may reasonably suppose that every man is ac- 
countable for those talents with which God has
a2 intrusted

70 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
universally agreed to be a native mineral salt ex- 
tracted from its proper ore, brought hither in 
pieces of a greyish colour, clammy or greasy to 
the touch, found in the mountains of White Tar- 
tary, and in some places of Persia. 
As far as its virtues have been discovered, it 
may be said to be aperient, stimulant, and at- 
tendant, particularly useful in promoting the lo- 
chia, menses; and urine. Mixed with blood it 
dilutes it, and seems to volatize the fluids. Its 
spirit discovers neither acidity nor alkalescency, 
nor can an acid be got from it by distillation, 
according to Lemery, Memoirs de l’Acad. 1728 
and 29. 
4. VITRIOL is a saline metallic substance com- 
posed of an acid and a metal. This acid, when 
it meets with an earth, makes an alum;
when it meets with a metal, it corrodes
it, and forms vitriol. 
Vitriol. 
Their virtues are styptic and astringent. By 
strengthening the fibres, they prove diuretic, 
are very nauseous, and so emetic. Too rigid 
to circulate through the vessels of worms, they
destroy them. They cicatrize more powerful- 
ly than alum. Quercetanus was so bewitched 
with vitriol, that he believed it contained the
virtues of the whole pharmacopoeia. Our sub- 
ject leads us only so far as it claims in natural di- 
lution. 
GTREEN VITRIOL is produced by the mixture 
of an acid sulphureous spirit with an irony sub- 
stance, Most mineral waters contain a quantity 
of irony matter; when therefore the subtile uni- 
versal acid sulphureous exhalations, in rising up, 
meet with irony particles, they unite themselves 
thereto, and thus produce a vitriolic principle, of 
a texture proportionable to the union; the Vitri- 
olum


INTRODUCTION. 
intrusted him. Of our imperfect endeavours, di- 
vine happiness stands in no need. By administer- 
ing to the wants of society, every man has it in 
his power to please the Almighty; in this, inte- 
rest and duty coincide. 
To your Lordship, the sovereign director of 
the general drama has assigned a part truly con- 
spicuous. Your actions uniformly proclaim you 
the patron of arts, as well as the friend of hu- 
man nature. By singular munificence, Ormond 
won the affections of the Irish. By faith invio- 
late, Dorset gained their confidence. By gentle 
rule, Chesterfield maintained tranquillity. To 
singular munificence, faith inviolate, and gentle 
rule, you joined disinterestedness, humanity and
affability. Scorning ignoble precedents, to the 
emoluments of office, you added princely re- 
venues; you enriched the province which you 
protected. In your Vice-royalty you may truly 
be said to have reflected honour on the Prince 
whom you so worthily represent. While Hi- 
bernia boasts of freedom, your government will 
stand as a model worthy of imitation. 
To me the almighty disposer has assigned a 
part which has the good of mankind for its ob- 
ject; and therefore intituled to your Lordship’s 
protection. Health is a subject philosophical, as 
well as medical. Plutarch, Cornaro, Lessius, 
Bacon, Boyle and Addison, have all treated of 
the subject of health. In no branch of the heal- 
ing art, is the subject of health more perhaps con- 
cerned than in that of Thermology. In diseases a- 
cute and chronical, water bids fair to answer every
indication. By temperance, exercise, and bath- 
ing, the very seeds of diseases are eliminated. 
Caeterum rari sunt morbi, sive communes tato corpori, 
sive particulas ipsas privatim occupantes, quos oppor- 
tuna Balneorum administratio on persanet, says the 
great

INTRODUCTION. 
great Baccius. With Fred. Hoffman, the mo- 
dern prince of mineral-water writers, we may 
venture to affirm, “ Mineral waters come the 
“ nearest in nature to what has vainly been 
“ searched after, an Universal Medicine.” 
IN fruitless speculations we advance. In solid 
doctrines we rather degenerate. Among the an- 
tients, the doctrine of waters was one ot the car- 
dinal branches of medicine. In this kingdom, wa- 
ters are used only as extreme unction. Baths are 
rude, uncultivated, and neglected. Our prede- 
cessors in practice have left us historical facts
faithfully, and accurately related. Scorning the 
bright example, we seem to content ourselves, 
with implicit belief; we neither improve ourselves, 
nor inform posterity. The sphere of Bath and 
Bristol waters seem rather circumscribed. Among 
the antients, Sailing was another cardinal branch
of medicine. In an island, we rarely try the ex- 
periment. In the practice of physic, as in other 
professions, there are fashionable arts, prejudices, 
and ignorances, in their consequences, equally 
fatal with errors experimental or practical. In 
discrediting waters, patients and practitioners 
mutually conspire. From theoretical notions, 
waters are damned in the very diseases which they
specifically cure. To pass over numberless proofs, 
Doctor Mead was the patron as well as ornament 
of that art which he professed. Stranger to the 
principles which compose Bath waters, or argu- 
ing from the relaxing property of simple warm 
water, (in his Manila & Praecepta Medica) he 
dogmatically lays down an assertion, which prac- 
tice daily confutes, Immersiones callidae paraliticis
omnibus nocent. 
PATIENTS, headstrong follow the dictates of 
their own imaginations, or the unseasonable sug- 
a3 gestions

INTRODUCTION.
gestions of designing meddlers; for the saving of 
paultry fees, they too often throw away the ex- 
pences of long journies, and their lives sometimes 
to the bargain. 
ALARMED by deaths unexpected, or uninform- 
ed by histories of cures, distant practitioners na- 
turally suspect mineral waters, condemning phy- 
sicians who had only the nominal care of patients 
peevish and refractory. In similar cases they arm
others with general directions; or cure them by 
epistolary correspondence. In symptoms variable 
and dangerous, they boldly counsel draughts of 
waters fraught with daggers; or, timidly order 
quantities so unavailing, that death often anti- 
cipates the cure. 
PERSUADED that it was my duty to investi- 
gate those instruments of health which provi- 
dence had put into my hands (in the first edition 
of my Attempts to revive Antient Medical Doctrines) 
I employed the leisure hours of years, in ascer- 
taining the nature and qualities of those foun- 
tains at which it was my lot to practise. Your 
Lordship did me the honour of accompanying me 
through the ruins of our Roman Baths; as relicts
truly Sacred, you deigned to preserve samples of 
Roman flues, bricks, and mortar. Towards the 
restoration of ruins truly venerable, (remember, 
My Lord) you was pleased to promise your par- 
liamentary interest. Honoured with such patron- 
age, from an analytical Essay, my little volume 
swelled to a size which far exceeded my first in- 
tention. Taught by experience, that where mi- 
neral waters failed, sea voyages succeeded, I ap- 
plied myself to the study of Sea-Voyages. Taught 
by the same experience, that where sea voyages 
proved ineffectual, many were restored by local 
remedies, I pursued the study of Local Remedies.
On

INTRODUCTION. 
On the subject of these my favourite pursuits,
little assisted by the moderns, I sedulously revolved 
the records of the antients. Forgetful of my in- 
terest, at no small expence, I printed, altered, 
and printed again. Attached to truth, I frankly 
exposed the laedentia as well as the juvantia; on 
every occasion, I was more free with my own 
failures, than with those of others. With the 
ingenuous De Haen, truly may I say rite, casteque, 
nostra notavi, fausta quam infausta, tam inutilia
quam perfecta; coaevis scribimus et posteris. 
Books may be compared to pictures. To their 
first sketches, painters are naturally partial; so
are authors to their manuscripts. When pictures 
come to receive the last touch, painters are sur- 
prised that they could not discover their blemishes 
before. While my labours were my own, I was 
loth to part with proofs which I had gathered 
with labour. Warmed with my subject, I was 
more attentive to matter than to manner. By 
ascertaining the nature and qualities of subjects 
so interesting, I hoped to lay some claim to the 
approbation of men concerned for the improve- 
ment of the healing art. Secure in the rectitude 
of my intentions, for the sake of my intentions, 
I flattered myself that my indiscretions might 
have been overlooked. Nor was I altogether dis- 
appointed. Partial to my failures, the Doctors 
Glass, Gilchrist, Lind, and Huxham were po- 
litely pleased to own that I had carried my re- 
searches on the same subjects, far beyond theirs; 
almost in the same words, they frankly acknow- 
ledged my Attempts to have been laborious, learn- 
ed, useful, and candid. Pleased with that simpli- 
city of practice which I laboured to restore, too 
truly, they foresaw my provoking the resentment 
of those who traffic with the art. For presuming 
a4 to

INTRODUCTION. 
to think for himself, in former days, Doctor Gui- 
dot called his brother Mayow a Novel-writer, 
judging him the wisest who takes things for granted, 
and who does not pragmatically contradict the unani- 
mous consent of judicious writers.—When Doctor 
J. Hen. Schutte was employed in the discovery 
of the mineral waters of Cleves, he loudly com- 
plains of the impertinence, and malevolence of 
men who did their utmost to disappoint a disco- 
very unexceptionably beneficial. For presuming
to reform, with my predecessor Mayow, I was 
deemed a novel-writer. By honestly endeavouring 
to found the virtues of Bath and Bristol waters 
on the rock of Observation, can it be credited, to
my astonishment, I found I had provoked the 
whispers of men whose bread depended on the 
promulgation of Bath and Bristol waters? Doc- 
tor Schutte laboured under the protection of his
Prussian Majesty. Truth triumphed, the virtues 
of the waters of Cleves are now universally ac- 
knowledged. 
FLATTERED on one side, was I obstinately to 
continue blind to my imperfections? Censured 
on the other, was I, for fear of censure, to drop
the cultivation of doctrines so interesting? Under 
your Lordship’s banner, what has truth to fear? 
Preferring truth to opinion, I resolved on a mid- 
dle course. From slander, and friendship, I ex- 
tracted truth. By narrowly prying into my own 
faults, I discovered faults which escaped criticism. 
On mature reflection, I blush not to acknow- 
ledge that, with more zeal than prudence, I in- 
veighed against Vulgar errors. My first Attempts 
were complex, crude, and unpolished. To men 
of eminence I relinquish the Herculean labour of
reforming the practice of physic. On the uncul- 
tivated fields of Antient Baths, Bath and Bristol
Waters,


INTRODUCTION. 
Waters, Sea Voyages, and Local Remedies, be mine  
the humbler talk still to labour. In separate es- 
says it may not perhaps be so difficult to do justice 
to particular subjects. The ruins of my first edi- 
tion I resolve to employ as materials for neater
edifices. 
DISAPPOINTED in foreign materials, I, for the
present, pass over the first part of my general 
work, beginning with the second. In your own 
person, you have, more than once, experienced 
the good effects of Bath waters. In the case of
your most exemplary son Lord Warkworth, with 
equal surprize and joy, your Lordship once con- 
fessed the power of Bristol waters. To the power 
of Bristol waters (with leave I proclaim it) the 
public stands indebted for the preservation of a
life which already begins to be an ornament to 
the public. Your Lordship did me the honour 
to peruse my manuscript; with the appearances 
of the residua of my experiments, you was pleased
to express your satisfaction. In your Lordship’s 
conversation, I always found pleasure mixed with 
instruction. In the gentleman, you cultivated those 
arts which adorn the nobleman. Uncommon  
with the generality of patrons, in researches phi- 
losophical and chymical, your judgment is second 
to none. 
MEDICATED WATERS are the workmanship 
of wise nature; in their principles, they differ so
much, that, even in the genus of those vulgarly 
called Chalybeates, it is hardly possible to discover 
two springs similar in taste, weight, salts, spirits,
or quantity. There are chalybeates which bear 
exportation, such as the Pyrmont, and Pohoun. 
There are chalybeates which become seculent, 
such as those of Cleve, or Geronster. There are 
chalybeates highly saturated with iron earth, and 
a5 ill

INTRODUCTION. 
ill provided with purging salts, such as those of 
Tunbridge, or Islington. These are chalybeates which 
contain a bitter purging salt, such as those of Scar- 
borough, Epsom, and Cheltenham. As are their in- 
gredients, so are their virtues. Those which plen- 
tifully suspend iron earth, have the virtues of crocus 
martis astringens; in relaxed bowels they are highly 
beneficial. Those which imbibe plenty of bitter 
purging salts are adapted to cachexies, jaundice, 
dropsy &c. Hot waters differ also from one ano- 
ther. These differences arise from the different 
quantity of that inflammable principle, with which
they happen to be impregnated. 
CHYMICAL EXPERIMENTS discover those dif- 
ferences. But, as the processes of nature surpass 
our imperfect endeavours, so do the principles of 
waters escape our nicest inquiries. With Baccius 
we may truly say “ Sedulo ergo fatebimur humani 
“ ingenii conjecturam non pertingere in certas rerum
“ proprietates, quae sunt occultae, et multae in a- 
“ quis.” To supply the deficiencies of chymical 
experiments, it is my purpose to reconcile the 
principles of the waters to reason; or, in other 
words, to confirm their virtues by memorable 
histories of diseases, or Cases. 
FACTS are evidences which neither craft nor 
malice can invalidate. In the ages of simplicity, 
external and accidental diseases were only regarded. 
Internal and spontaneous were rare; when they 
appeared, they were looked upon as the judg- 
ments of heaven. At the time of the Trojan 
war, ulcers and wounds were the employments 
of Apollo, Chiron, and Æsculapius. So little 
was the practice of physic known, that the father 
Æsculapius is said to have died of a pleuropneu- 
mony; his carcase was avoided because it looked 
black. 
In

INTRODUCTION. 
In after ages, the descendants of this same fa- 
ther of physic extended their views. They dis- 
persed, and erected themselves into societies and
schools. There they kept Registers of Diseases, 
of their antecedent causes, symptoms, periods, 
and consequences, of what had been hurtful, and 
what had been useful. They collated their ob- 
servations, and, from various experiments, deter- 
mined those things and methods which had been 
found useful in practice. Thus it was that phy- 
sic became a regular art. To Tables of health 
hung up in the Temple of Æsculapius, Hippocrates 
is said to have owed that amazing skill which 
moderns, with all their improvements, can hard- 
ly comprehend. In his books of Epidemics, he 
has set down every observation that occurred in 
his practice, with this view perhaps, that suc- 
ceeding physicians, imitating his example in par- 
ticular diseases, might bring the medical art to
some degree of perfection. 
To this collection of Epidemics, Galen added 
much.—Of the Arabians we find Rhasis a religi- 
ous admirer of the Greeks. With him we may 
join Avenzoar. The rest, contenting themselves 
with the invention of the antients, added nothing 
to the improvement of the art, if we except a 
few Nostrums. By their religion, they were for- 
bidden to dissect human bodies. Thus they were 
prevented from investigating the latent causes of
diseases. 
After these, the study of Observation was bu- 
ried in an age of barbarism. Gentilis, Gradius,
Placentinus, Valescus, and Gattinaria, have trans- 
mitted a few rare examples, smothered under the 
rubbish of obscure commentary. 
In this third and last age, we have seen the art 
of physic restored to its primitive simplicity and 
splendour. In his Observationn Medicae Rariores,
a6 Schenkius


INTRODUCTION. 
Schenkius has collected the works of some who 
pursued the road of observation. 
Albacus (in his second hook) says, Plurimum arbi- 
tror prudenti medico prodesse, si quamplurima notet 
exempla quœ sequatur. Tulpius, Aretaeus, Heister, 
Sydenham and Hoffman have improved the art. 
By sweeping away scholastic rubbish, Boerhaave 
has reconciled reason and experience., Stahl (in 
his Chemical Lectures) used to charge his pupils 
not to suffer their fancies to be led away by the 
subtle reasonings of the Cartesian philosophy. He
demonstrated that physic could not be rendered 
demonstrative, scientific, or beneficial, unless the- 
ory was confirmed by observation, or experiment. 
Royal Societies are noble institutions. Such 
was the Edinburgh Medical-Society. Such is that 
of London, such our present Medical Musaeum; 
and such are all the rest. In medical observations, 
the physicians of Vienna seem, at present, to ex- 
cell. Every practitioner has it in his power to
add a mite to medical knowledge; every practi- 
tioner has not matter for a book. 
OBSERVATIONS are, in no branch of medi- 
cine, so necessary as in that of mineral waters.
Some diseases yield to bathing, some to drinking; 
some require their united efforts. On the subject 
of mineral waters, hypothetic reasonings are, at 
best, precarious. Experience is the touch-stone.
In no branch of medicine are observations so 
much wanted; this has been the complaint of
past times, and is of the present. 
Doctor Jones published his Baths Ayde in the 
year 1572. “ I wish (says he) that patients 
“ would leave a note of the commodity received, 
“ with an account of their calling and condition, 
“ remembering the day of their entering the 
“ Bath, and the day of their departure, with the 
“ name


INTRODUCTION. 
“ name of the infirmity, paying four-pence to 
“ the poors box for registering the benefit received, 
“ until a physician be appointed.”—Dr. Jorden 
(in his book of Hot-Bathing) expresses himself 
thus. “ I will not pretend to reckon up all the 
“ benefits which our baths produce; but if we 
“ had a Register kept of the manifold cures which
“ have been wrought by the use of our baths, it 
“ would appear of what great use they are.”—
Dr. Pierce (in his preface) speaks thus. “ It
“ hath been very often desired (and, by many 
“ wondered that it was not done, if for no other 
“ benefit than that of the city) that a catalogue 
“ of eminent cures should every year be printed.” 
After assigning reasons for this omission, he pro- 
ceeds thus. “ Now, if instead of that, there be 
“ a Manuel of every one’s price and pocket 
“ (which is the chief end of this undertaking) 
“ that shall, under the head of every disease, give
“ examples of remarkable cures, it may attain 
“ all the ends proposed. Success good or bad, 
“ let it honestly be declared; that as the one 
“ may supply the place of a Landmark, the other 
“ may do the office of a Buoy.”—In Doctor Sum- 
mers’s Vindication of Warm-Bathing in Palsies, he
roundly tells the President and Governors of the 
Bath Infirmary to whom he addresses his Essay, 
“ The public has a right to be informed how far 
“ their benefactions have answered, that they
“ may thereby be encouraged to partake of a 
“ blessing, the streams of which may flow on 
“ themselves.” 
In Dr. Swinhow’s most ingenious Inaugural Disser- 
tation, De Thermarum Antiquitate, Contentis, & Usu, 
we find one caution highly apposite to our subject. 
“ Cæterum optime arti medicæ consultum foret, si 
“ historiæ quædam ægrorum, qui sontibus medi- 
“ catis

INTRODUCTION. 
“ catis usi sunt, fideli calamo conscriptæ suernit, 
“ in quibus notentur turn singulares horum casus, 
“ turn methodus bibendi unicuique magis accom- 
“ moda, cæteraque omnia que ad pleniorem hu- 
“ jus præstantissimi medicinæ generis cognitio- 
“ nem utcunque facere possint.” 
Bath-waters are neither saponaceous nor nitrous. 
Remarkable cures have, nevertheless, been per- 
formed by the concurrence of Soap and Nitre, 
Who would be so hardy as to prescribe mineral 
waters in Asthma’s, or Dropsies? In Asthma’s and
Dropsies, the reader will soon be convinced of 
the utility of Bath-waters. 
When wonderful cures are duly ascertained, 
we are bound to pursue the road of observation 
even in contradiction to hypothesis. Truth is not 
the less truth because our dull senses cannot com- 
prehend the modus operandi. Obstinancy proceeds 
from a vain opinion that the chymistry of nature 
ought to bend to our imperfect discoveries. The 
acid of Bath-water may be assisted by the natural 
acidity of the stomach, so as to neutralize alka- 
line medicines. This water manifestly decom- 
poses soap, yet (in Mrs. Elliot’s case) soap was ad- 
ministered to two or three ounces a day. The 
cure proceeded much better with soap than with- 
out.—In Mr. Lyon’s case, Nitre was administered
to six drachms a day, together with soap, 
Bath-water, drank at a distance, has perform- 
ed cures. Thus encouraged, patients have leap- 
ed to the fountain-head with joy. There they 
have produced untoward symptoms. The same- 
patients have again drank them cold, and have 
found their cure. 
Dr. Nugent communicated a case which un- 
questionably proves the position. This gentle- 
man practised many years at Bath, now in Lon- 
don.


INTRODUCTION. 
don. Of the propriety, or impropriety of Bath 
Waters, there lives not perhaps a better judge. 
“ MRS. COLBORNE, aged 53, of a scorbutic 
“ gross habit, was subject to erysepelatous erup- 
“ tions, with a periodical hæmorrhoidal flux, on 
“ the cessation of which, she gradually lost her 
“ appetite, complained of rheumatic complaints,
“ with an indolent tumour on the right side of 
“ the belly, by the gradual increase of which, 
“ the was reduced to a great degree of weakness;
“ the threw up every thing. 
“ She had tried variety of medicines. Bath-
“ water was at last proposed. She drank it in 
“ London, and with considerable benefit. This 
“ induced her to try it at the fountain, which the
“ did. She was soon convinced of her error. 
“ Bath water aggravated every complaint, the 
“ was obliged to desist. Little discouraged by 
“ this first attempt, the waited till the Bath-water 
“ symptoms had abated. She made a second at- 
“ tempt, with the same success. She contented 
“ herself with cold Bath water. She was cured.” 
The volatile principle, which, in pulmonic 
cases, may be prejudicial, flies off, or precipitates. 
The fixed parts retain their strengthening quali- 
ties, may, and are used with great benefit. There 
is no medicine that is capable of doing mischief,
but what may be made to do good, prudently ad- 
ministered. 
Dr. Underhill’s Short account of Hot-well-water 
Cures is the only collection that ever was pub- 
lished on that subject. It was printed in the year 
1703. In his time, patients who reaped benefit 
at the Wells were wont to leave certificates of the
benefit received, signed by their own hands. From 
this Autography, and from the testimonies of resi- 
denters in Bristol, then cured and alive, has this
facetious


INTRODUCTION. 
facetious author compiled his short account. On 
our present subject he expresses himfself thus. 
“ The great and good God, who formed man- 
“ kind all of the same clay, afflicts all with like 
“ diseases. To show forth his mercy, he freely 
“ bestows medicated waters, and puts it in the 
“ hearts of Princes, and many of the first  Quali- 
“ ty, to order their names and diseases, for the 
“ sake of the public, to be exposed in print, as
“ we see in Guidot’s System De Thermis Britanni- 
“ cis, and Pierce’s Bath Memoirs. The like is 
“ performed by other Mineral-Water-Writers. 
“ There are some notwithstanding who are scru- 
“ pulous in having their Cases published, mistak- 
“ ing their honour for their humour. The good 
“ man, quantum in se, will not let his fellow- 
“ creatures languish for want of putting to his 
“ helpful hand, he will rather benefit all, he 
“ loves his neighbour as himself. 
“ Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcer a celat.” 
IN the opinion of the great Boyle, The 
knowledge of mineral waters can never be ac- 
quired by any other method than that of analy- 
sis confirmed by experience. On the rocks of a- 
nalysis and experience, I have founded this first 
specimen of my second edition. By your attach- 
ment to the liberal arts, I would have the world 
to know, that I am not more ambitious of your 
countenance as a patron, than of your approba- 
tion as a judge. You have already been pleased 
to patronize my first Attempts. As a part of the 
general work, this naturally claims your second 
protection. Numberless are the authorities to 
which I own myself indebted. To hold these au- 
thorities up in the best light; by my own expe-
rience,

INTRODUCTION. 
rience, to confirm the observations of others be 
all my ambition. From your Lordship’s candour, 
well-meaning writers have nothing to dread. 
What pleasure to revolve histories of cure which 
had eluded the most judicious art! What satisfac- 
tion to be convinced that nature’s compositions 
surpass those of art! With what rapture must 
the ingenuous distant physician welcome patients 
whom before he had deliberately doomed to death! 
How gladly will he, in similar cases, fly to the 
same cities of refuge! From such, well-meaning
writers fear no censure. 
To the public, I beg leave to conclude with 
that apology which the Marquis De Santa Cruz 
makes for his Maximes Militaires et Politiques. 
Je suis un architecte qui ai ramasse des materiaux 
de divers endroits; d’autrui j’ai pris la pierre, 
et le bois; mais la forme de l’ édifice est toute de moi.
L’ouvrage des araignées to n’est pas plus estimable parce 
qu’elles produissent leur toils d’elles memes, ni le mien 
n’est pas plus meprisable, parce qu’a l’example des 
Abeilles, je tire le suc de fleurs étrangers. 
THE



THE 
CONTENTS. 
THE INRODUCTION contains a plan of the 
work. 
CHAP. I. Principles common to Bath and Bristol 
waters—Page 1 
Of Air—4 
—Spirit—6 
II. Principles peculiar to Bath water—22 
Of Iron—23 
—Salts and Earths—25 
—Sulphur—28
III. Principles peculiar to Bristol water—38 
Of Salts—40 
—Eart—42
IV. A rational account of the virtues of the 
several principles applied to Disease in 
general—44
Human body, its principles—59 
Virtues of Air—63 
—Spirit—65 
—Iron—66 
—Salts—68 
—Earths—72 
—Sulphur—73 
—Water—74 
DISEASES CURED BY BATH WATER—80 
V. Disorders of the First Passages—82 
Of Deglutition—85 
Of

CONTENTS 
—Depraved Appetite—89 
—Pains of the Stomach—92 
—Bilious Cholic—97 
—Hysteric Cholic—103 
—Dry-belly-ach—104 
VI. Disorders of the Urinary Passages—123 
Of Diabetes cured by Bath water—127 
VII. Diseases of the breast cured by Bath
water, particularly Asthma—131 
VIII. Of the Gout—140 
IX. Of the Rheumatism—162 
—Lumbago—165 
—Sciatica—166
X. Of cutaneous Diseases—169 
—Leprosy 
—Scrophula—172
—Scurvy —175
XI. Of Palsy—184
—Lameness after Fevers—196 
—Sprains—197
—from the Tendo Achillis—198
—from white Swelling—199
—from Wounds—200
—from Falls—201 
XII. Of the Jaundice—203 
XIII. Of the Dropsy—213 
XIV. Of Female Diseases—219 
—Obstruction  
—Immoderate Discharges—222 
—Barrenness—223 
—Abortion—226 
—Pregnancy—227 
DISEASES CURED BY BRISTOL WATER—230 
XV. Of Diseases of the Breast  
—Cough 
—Consumption—232
—Hectic Fever—234
Of

CONTENTS. 
Of Haemoptoe—235 
—Asthma  
XVI. Of Diseases of
the Urinary Passages—251 
—Diabetes 
—Gravel and Stone—261 
—Bloody Urine—266 
XVII. Of Diseases of the Stomach and Guts—269 
XVIII. Of external Disorders—272
XIX. Of REGIMEN, in general—275 
—DIET—277 
—Drinks—286 
—Tea and Coffee—288 
—AIR—293 
—EXERCISE—302 
—SLEEP—310 
—EVACUATIONS—311
—Bleeding—312
—Purging—317 
—Vomiting—320
—Sweating—324
—THE PASSIONS—325 



ERRORS of the PRESS.
Page 12, (marginal note) for Air volatile, read Acid volatile. 
12, (marginal note) for deprived of Air, read deprived or 
Acid. 
For the second marked page 11, read 13. 
13, line 17, for twelve more months, read twelve months
more. 
23, line 1, for 4, read 3. 
27, line 1, for passes, read pass. 
30, line 29, for well to, read well as to, 
46, line 33, for Parents, read Patients. 
51, line 7, for causts, read causis. 
72, line 17, for earth, read earths. 
77, line 7, for hebitate, read hebetate, 
88, line the last, leave out dem. 
110, line 3, leave out will. 
line 30, for lubricating, read lubricated, 
114, margin, for Causes, read Cases, 
128, line 24, for gout whey, read goat whey.
134, line 26, leave out not. 
139, line 5, for occular, read ocular. 
154, line 36, for whe, read when. 
169, line 14, for momentory, read momentary. 
174, line 15, for hot bath, read the hot bath. 
230, line 19, for now my purpose, read it is now my purpose. 
240, line 31, for timeously, read timely. 
283, line 33, for roasted, read broiled. 
284, line 8, for proven, read proved. 
289, line 3, leave out separately. 
line 32, for iomatous, read comatous. 




[1]
CHAP. I. 
OF PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
BATH and BRISTOL WATERS.
FOR health, or amusement, Bath and Bristol 
Hot-Wells have, time immemorial, been
frequented by chymists, natu- 
Generalindo-lence.
ralists, and philosophers. The num- 
ber of physicians has kept pace with 
the increase of patients. Without evidence, Bath
and Bristol waters have been accounted sulphure- 
ous, alkaline, saponaceous, ferrugineous, alumi- 
nous, and every thing but what they really are. 
The waters have now and then performed sur- 
prising cures. Had they been rationally investi- 
gated, their sphere must have been farther ex- 
tended. Critically to examine every author who
has attempted to analise Bath and Bristol waters, 
were labour lost. In disproving imaginary prin- 
ciples, opinions fall to the ground. What avail 
disquisitions about nitrous salts, while we know 
that nitre never yet existed in waters? What a- 
vail argumentations about salt of vitriol, while 
we know that the acid of vitriol is only to be 
found? 
A There

2 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
There are certain tribes of substances calcu- 
lated for discovering the principles of waters, 
which are the surer for having been tri- 
ed, which have held, and will hold, 
when we and our works come to be 
forgotten. By analogy and experiment, 
it is my purpose cooly and candidly to elucidate 
the truth. 
Chemical ex- 
periments, 
their use. 
Lord Chancellor Bacon’s Novum Organum Sci- 
entiarum contains a rational scientific method of
investigating the natures of things. Chymical ex- 
periments are not to be rejected because they 
cannot amount to mathematical demonstration. 
This objection bears equally hard on every art 
whose principles are employed in medicine. 
Every hypothesis is liable to errour; for this rea- 
son, man is fallible. The most active principles 
of waters can never perhaps be subjected to our 
senses. Antimonial cups communicate an eme- 
tic quality to liquors contained, while the con- 
taining vessels seem to have parted with no part 
of their weight; or, at least, none that analysis
can discover. Waters, doubtless, are impreg- 
nated with the effluvia of mineral substances yet 
unknown. How can we otherwise account for 
the wonderful effects of springs, in which no- 
thing but the pure element can be discovered;
such as the Piperine, or the Malvern? “ Variae 
“ dantur aquae heterogeneis qualitatibus imbu- 
“ tae, quae vulgarem explorandi methodum, a- 
“ deoque cognitionem nostram fallunt. Referen- 
“ di huc sunt quidam fontes salutares Slangen- 
“ badenses, Piperinae, Toplicenses, in quibus, prae- 
“ ter eximiam levitatem, vulgaria examina ni- 
“ hil fere peregrini et solidi deprehendere pos- 
“ sunt. Huc pertinet insignis Becheri observatio 
“ de spiritu luti caerulei in scaturiginibus obvij, 
magnarum

3 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ magnarum plane virium licet insipidus fit.” 
Jumckerij Consp. Chem. Tab. de Aq. & Becher. Physi 
subterran. passim. Chymistry promises verisimili- 
tude, which, if we modestly pursue, we may 
avoid the paths of ignorance, rashness, and ar- 
rogance. The very pillars of phisiology are 
Founded on chymistry. Digestion, chylification, 
sanguification, and the secretions, are all nature’s 
chymical processes. By the help of chymistry, 
we are enabled to separate mixtures the most 
compound, to exhibit principles, or contents, to
the cognizance of sense. Experiments demon- 
strate what our dull senses can never discover, 
viz. That water is capable of dissolving and sus- 
pending the hardest bodies, and the heaviest me- 
tals. Nor is the art of chymistry, particularly 
that branch of examining waters, so difficult as 
is commonly imagined. Those who have a 
mind to catch the weak by their weak sides, may
consult Boyle on Colours, Boerhaave’s Chymis- 
try, with Hierne’s Appendix to his Acta & Ten- 
tamina Medica. In examining waters, judgement 
is more requisite than genius. The means of 
discovering their contents, virtues, and uses, are 
already in the hands of man; nothing more is 
wanting to compleat the work, than a prudent 
scientific manner of using the means; or, to 
speak more plainly, the art of Induction. The 
bodies which dissolve in waters without altering 
their transparency, seem reducible to Air, Spirit, 
Salts, Earths, Iron, and Sulphur, Whether (by 
the help of chymistry) these are to be discovered 
in Bath and Bristol Waters, is the subject of 
this and the two following chapters. 
A2 I. Of

4 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
I. OF AIR.
To demonstrate the existence of water in water 
were labour lost. The first principle 
that presents itself in water is Air. Air 
seems to be, more or less, contained in every
water. 
Air.
1. SUBJECTED to the air-pump, Bath and 
Bristol waters dart air-bubbles from 
the bottom of the vessel to the surface. 
Experiments. 
2. BRISTOL WATER just pumped appears of 
a whitish colour, owing, doubtless, to the great
quantity of bubbles which it contains. As it 
cools, these bubbles disappear; nor can this whi- 
tish colour, ever after, be restored; a manifest 
proof of their having lost something very subtile. 
3. SET over a fire, in an open vessel, Bristol 
Water covers its sides with small air-bubbles. 
As it increases in heat, these bubbles increase in
number and bulk. They mount up to the top 
with such rapidity, that they put on the appear- 
ance of boiling, before the water comes thorough- 
ly to be heated. 
4. I filled a quart bottle with Bath water at the
hot-bath-pump. Over the neck of the bottle I 
bound a large bladder, well oiled on the outside. 
The bladder immediately began to swell, and, 
pressed upwards filled two-thirds with elastic air, 
hard as it so much of the bladder had been blown 
up by the mouth. 
5. I, in like manner, bound a bladder over 
the neck of a large quart bottle of Bristol wa- 
ter brought over to Bath. I placed the bottle 
before the fire. The air gradually began to 
distend the bladder, before the neck of the 
bottle, which was left empty, felt hot; com- 
pressed

5 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
pressed upwards, it exhibited an elastic ball, one 
third of its capacity.—This experiment may al- 
ways be produced by heat, often without. My 
authorities are Chrouet’s Connaissance des Eaux mine- 
rales d’Aix de chaud Fontaine, et de Spa, p. 68, &
Shaw’s Enquiry into the contents of Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 137—139. 
6. Statical Essays, vol. i. p. 181, and vol. ii. p. 
267, the ingenious Hales has extracted and deter- 
mined the different quantities of air contained in
different waters. 
7. To know whether this was air or spirit. Dr. 
Shaw made the following experiment. He filled
an open cylindrical glass with the fresh 
purgative Scarborough water, and put 
it under the receiver of an air-pump, 
then exhausting the air, till it ceased 
to emit any more, he took the water out, and put
a little powder of galls thereto. The water 
changed its colour, and turned purple, as strong- 
ly as before it was set under the receiver. Whence 
he infers that the mineral spirit did not escape a- 
long with the air-bubbles, and consequently 
that these air-bubbles and the mineral spirit are 
different principles. This conclusion he con- 
firms. 
Air and spi-
rit different
principles.
By the common experiment with galls he 
found that the chalybeate Scarborough spring 
contained more of the mineral spirit than the 
purging. By the experiment of the air-pump, he
found that the purging water discharged more 
air-bubbles than the chalybeate. He filled a 
quart bottle with the last, to which he fitted a 
bladder, as before described. The ball of subtle 
matter was not above one fourth-part so large as 
in the other. “ This experiment (he infers) 
“ therefore, if found constant, intimates, that air 
A3 “ and

6 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
“ and mineral spirit are two things; and that 
“ where the one is largely contained, the other 
“ may be less. It is chiefly on account of 
“ this large portion of air naturally contained
“ in the purging water, that we rather incline 
“ to make it a principle; for, if no more air 
“ could be discovered here than in common wa- 
“ water, or the ordinary sorts of purging waters, 
“ such as Epsom, Dulwich, Acton, &c. there 
“ could be no just foundation for making air a 
“ principle.” Vide Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, part ii. sect. 6. p. 140, 141. 
II. OF SPIRIT. 
1. BATH and Bristol waters fresh drawn from
the pump, manifestly sparkle, and throw 
off a mist, or vapor. After standing in 
the open air, they put off this appearance.
Spirit. 
2. BATH and Bristol Waters fresh drawn from 
the pump, seem grateful to the stomach, and 
cheer the spirits. By standing in the open air, 
they lose these properties. 
3. BATH and Bristol Waters drank at the 
pump have a sort of intoxicating quality, give an
alacrity, or occasion a head-ach, drowsiness, or 
ebriety. Drank at a distance, warmed or cold, 
they have no such effects. Hence may we infer 
that both these waters contain a spirit. Nor 
were the ancients unacquainted with this proper- 
ty. In his book De Architectura, lib. viii. cap. 3, 
Vitruvius expresses himself thus; Sunt etiam fon- 
tes uti vino mixti, quemadmodum est unus Paphlago- 
niae, ex quo etiam sine vino potantes fiunt temulenti. 
—Such are mentioned by Ovid, in his Meta- 
morphosis:
—Lyncestius

7 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS:
—Lyncestius amnis
Quem quicunque parum moderato gutture traxit, 
Haud aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset. 
Quodque magis mirum est, sunt qui non corpora 
tantum
Verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores. 
Cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae, 
Æthiopesque lacus? quos si quis faucibus hausit, 
Aut furit, aud mirum patitur gravitate soporem. 
tantum 
Lib. i. cap. viii, Valerius Maximus mentions 
ont, spring in Macedonia, and another in Agro Ca- 
lena, quo homines inebriantur.—In his Quœst, Na- 
tural. lib. iii. cap. 20, Seneca assigns this spirit as 
one of the causes of taste in waters; quotes O- 
vid, to confirm his opinion in assigning this spirit 
as the cause of ebriety.—In his Hist. Natural, 
lib. ii. cap. 103, and lib. xxi. cap. 2, Pliny makes
mention of the Lyncestian water causing drun- 
kenness.—In his Experiments, and Observations on 
Malvern Waters. Dr. Wall makes the like re- 
mark; page 154. 
4. AFTER the departure of air and spirit, one 
would naturally expect some sensible 
change; and indeed it seems reasona- 
ble to think that the specific gravity of
waters were thus increased, as their absolute comes 
to be diminished. Hoffman used a gra- 
duated instrument for ascertaining the 
weight of different waters. He sus- 
pected that the elastic spirit buoyed up the instru- 
ment; that therefore the experiment was less to 
be depended on, the specific gravity increasing as 
the spirit evaporated.—Dr. Short (in his History of
Mineral Waters, p. 56. 45. 164. 170. Edit. 1734.) 
subjected certain medicated waters to the air-
Gravity of 
waters.
Proved from
experment. 
A4 pump,

8 PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
pump, or exposed them in an open vessel. He 
found their specific gravity thus increased; he
assigns the reason. “ Exinde liquet aquam ali— 
“ quas particulas amisisse, quae quoniam neque 
“ vehiculum ipsum, neque fixa ejus contenta sunt, 
“ aër aut spiritus prorsus sunt censendae.” 
Dr. Home (in his Essay on Dunse Spaw, p. 160. 
163.) bottled up some of the water, corked it 
dole, and, after some time, found it lighter by 
some grains. He sagaciously assigns the reason; 
the escape of the Spirit. 
5. NOR is this opinion of the spirit of waters 
inconsistent either with reason or, ana-
logy. Water becomes insipid after 
having been exposed to the air. The 
same happens to oils and wines; they lose their 
strength, virtues, smell, and taste; they become 
vapid. The same happens to aromatic plants. 
Nothing proves the text so much as liquor in the 
state of fermentation, which continually throws 
up air, together with spirit, manisest to the senses. 
See Boerhaave’s Elements Chetn. Part iii. Process xii. 
& xiii. 
From ana-
logy.
6. WHAT laws this spirit is subjected to, seems
still to remain a secret. Hoffman thinks 
the Thermae are sooner deprived of their 
spirit than the Acidulae. The author 
seems not to have sufficiently distinguished be- 
tween air and spirit; nay, he seems to have con- 
founded the one with the other, under the com- 
mon name of spirit. Heat certainly rarifies and 
dissipates air; air escapes without spirit, and spirit 
escapes without air, as we have seen. 
Spirit its
laws.
7. WHAT sort of spirit this may be, or in what
form it exists in waters, we are now to 
inquire. Naturalists in general, main- 
tain that the spirit pf waters consists of 
Spirit its na-
ture
iron

9 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
iron or oker, minutely subtilized. When they 
come to explain its manner of existence, they 
differ. As (under the head of Air) we 
have fully explained, some are of opi- 
nion that this metal is divided into mi-
nute particles, and suspended by the     
means of a certain Acid, which, as they say, is 
the proper menstruum of metals. This seems to 
be Hoffman’s opinion; nor is he clear on the 
head; he speaks of an “ aethereo quodam valde 
“ mobili, ac subtili fluido, spiritu universali, 
“ fonte & causa omnis spirituascentiae, sedem su- 
“ am, vim, atque virtutem maxime collocatam 
“ habente in sulphure, substantia valde tenui, 
“ fluida, admodumque elaslica, et volatili, cum
“ universali mineralium sulphureo ente combina-
“ ta, omnesque terrarum tractus pervagante, a- 
“ nima quasi mineralium, variarumque mutatio- 
“ num, & effectuum qui in promptuario subter- 
“ raneo contingunt, causa.” Hoffman. Element. 
Aquar. Mineral. recte dijudicand & examinand. 
§. 8. 16. 18. alibique passim. According to 
this opinion, the spirit of water is no more nor 
less than a volatile vitriol. Those who contend for 
this doctrine, maintain that as this subtile acid 
flies off, it carries along with it some particles
of iron, which it suspends in solution, that it 
precipitates, or leaves others behind in form of 
an ochraceous martial-like matter, as in the ex- 
periment mentioned with the powder of galls. 
Astringents are said to absorb or blunt the acidum
solvens, by which the particles of iron once dis- 
solved now precipitate; hence change of colour. 
Nor can this be supposed to be owing to any vo- 
latility of dissolved metal; for, let but a vitriolic 
acid be added to any ferrugineous water, that (by  
Consists of
metal dissolv-
ed by an acid.
A5 the


10
PRINCIPLES COMMOM TO
the escape of the acids) has become effete, the 
gall-tinging quality is forthwith restored. 
That there exists a certain Universal Vitriolico- 
sulphureous Acid, which pervades every thing, and 
which (by dissolving iron) constitutes 
the spirit of mineral waters, from posi- 
tive proofs we learn.—“ Take an al- 
“ kaline salt, expose it to the air in a 
“ place where neither damps, vapors, nor sun can
“ approach, it will be converted into a Tartarus 
“ Vitriolatus”—Mineral fumes are inflammable. 
Collected into bladders, they may be carried to 
any distance. Opened near a candle, they catch 
fire. When ore is poor, miners shut up this va- 
por, that (by being imbibed by the phlogiston) it 
may enrich the metals, heighten their splendour, 
and make them malleable. Mineral fumes con- 
tain a portion of the phlogiston; the more they
are impregnated with this inflammable principle, 
the more volatile, powerful, and penetrating they
are. Dr. Teichmeyer, professor of physic in the 
university of Jena, relates a memorable instance 
of a chalybeate spaw, in the Lordship of Cracow,
a manifest proof of our text. This spaw was, 
not long ago, set on fire by lightning, which oc- 
casioned no small damage to the adjoining forests, 
and was with great difficulty extinguished. It is 
remarkable, that this fountain may be kindled at 
any time by the means of a candle. But, it is 
as remarkable, that this water, removed from the 
well, cannot be set on fire. This author adds, 
that he could relate several methods by which the 
inflammable principle of mineral waters might be 
made patent to the senses. “ When (continues 
“ he) in the manner aforesaid, medicinal waters 
“ exist, then the acid becomes invigorated by 
“ the phlogiston contained in the mineral fumes. 
Universal 
Vitriolic
acid.
“ it


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ it dissolve the finest parts of the Iron Earth, 
“ which solution is, at the same time, attracted 
“ by this principium infammabile, and incorporat- 
“ ed with the water concrete.”
8. These fumes cannot be said to be the products- 
fire, because, when they meet with fire, they 
burn. Air is the agent that constitutes, moves,  
and disperses these fumes thro’ the bowels of the 
earth. This appears by that affection, or readi- 
ness with which it unites with the external air. 
9. THAT vapors, air, or fumes are necessary 
adjuncts in the composition of mineral waters, we
cannot doubt. Hoffman quotes a mo- 
dern instance from Lic. Andrea. A
chalybeate well in the Dukedom of Wirtenberg all 
of a sudden lost its virtue and efficacy. The rea- 
son of this change was found to be owing to the 
digging of stone-cutters, which accidentally broke 
through a cavity of the rock, out of which issued
a strong mineral fume. The cavity was immedi- 
ately ordered to be carefully closed up, the well 
recovered its pristine qualities. See Dr. Turner’s
Appendix to his Herbal, printed at Coin, page 4. Dr. 
Seippius has recorded a similar account in his His- 
tory of the Pyrmont Waters, page 48. 
Air vitriolic. 
This vapor is of an acid nature, none other 
than that Acidum universale, or Vitrioline acid,
which has its birth in the bowels of the earth,
and not in the ocean, as Stahl and Newman have 
proved by experiments too long to be here re- 
cited. 
THAT the acid of sea salt owes its production
to the vitrioline add, we know by the trite expe- 
riment. “ Smelt common salt with the 
“ simplest phlogiston, destitute of salt 
“ or acid, then may some brimstone, 
“ and even a little vitriol, be produced.”
Acid of sea
salt what.
A6 10. THAT

12 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
10. THAT this acid is of a subtile volatile na- 
ture we cannot doubt, if we allow ourselves to be 
guided only by our senses. It impreg- 
nates the air, so that it proves offen-
sive to some asthmatics. It corrodes the iron- 
works in and about the baths. Copper rings have, 
for this reason, been bequeathed for the use of the 
bathers to hold by, as may be seen by the inscrip- 
tions therereon recorded. 
Air volatile.
11. As this acid vapor flies off, the water be- 
comes turbid, so that the bottom of the baths can 
hardly be discovered, at the depth of 
two or three feet. The earthy parts 
which were before suspended by means 
of this mineral acid spirit joined to the 
natural heat, now preponderate, and adhere to 
the sides of the glasses, and to the walls of the 
baths, in the form of a pale ochrous earth. In 
the closest and quickest corking, this, vapour so
far escapes, that some precipitation is formed by
the time that the water cools. 
Deprived of
air waters 
become secu- 
lent. 
Such chalybeate waters lose their texture as 
soon as they come to be exposed to the air. They 
are unfit for exportation; at a distance they are 
nevertheless friendly to many constitutions. The 
iron earth is the matrix in which the vitrioline a- 
cid is generated; yet it is well known that neither 
all iron minerals, nor the same, at all times, are 
provided with this acid; for so, all common wa- 
ters would be chalybeates, because there are hard- 
ly any which have not, in some part of their pas- 
sage, a communication with iron ore. When a 
water meets with an iron ore vein that contains a 
portion of the acid vapour, this vapour is concen- 
trated with the water; the chalybeate spaw be- 
comes complete. When it meets with too great 
a quantity of the acid, it is useless or noxious- 
When


11 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
When the air meets with that Sublimate which 
Basil Valentine calls the seed of metal, and which 
Linden calls the metallic nutriment, which exists 
in a soft state like the Butter of Antimony, and 
that subsists in quantity, then this matter is 
brought by the acid in the air into agitation, by
which it receives additional substances. These 
fumes arise, in some places, more abundantly than
in others. 
12. Dr. Teichmeyer relates an experiment that 
proves the great power of the Air and the Acid
therein contained. “ He exposed fil- 
“ ings of Iron to the open air, rain, 
“ snow, sun, and moon-shine. In a 
“ year’s time, these filings were redu- 
“ ced to a Crocus, which he washed and laeviga- 
“ ted. This he exposed for twelve more months. 
“ Then he put it into a Retort, and distilled it
“ gradually through all the degrees of fire. In 
“ the neck of the retort, he discovered a black 
“ greasy stinking materies viscosa, et quosi butyrosa, 
“ in which was contained a good portion of 
“ Quicksilver.” “ This experiment (says Lin- 
“ den) which I could corroborate with many in- 
“ stances, evidently proves that the Air has pow- 
“ er with the primogenial Acid therein contain- 
“ ed, without any other addition, to open the 
“ iron, so that it may yield its mercurial con- 
“ tents.” 
Air and acid 
their joint
powers.
13. THIS acid proceeds from the Pyrite, which
disunited composes the Bath-sand; the phlogiston 
or inflammable principle having escap-
ed. The phlogiston thus fled, the a- 
cid of the sulphur forms an union with 
the metallic parts of the pyrite. This constitutes 
the chalybeate principle.  
The acid pro-
cedes from the
Pyrite.
IT


14 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
14. IT is well known that acids dissolve iron. 
Alkalis and absorbents precipitate iron. Chalybe- 
ate waters consist of iron dissolved in 
some kind of acid. Galls and astrin- 
gent vegetables act as absorbents, and 
cause a precipitation, in colour, from 
different shades of purple or blue to 
black, according to the nature of the acid in 
which the iron is dissolved, and the proportion of
the saturation, or strength of the solution. The 
stronger the solution of the metal, the more of 
the astringent will be required, and the deeper the 
colour will be struck, and e. c. This knowlege 
accounts for the mystery of dying. 
Chalybeate 
waters consist 
of iron dis- 
solved in an 
acid. 
15. EXPERIENCE tells us that volatile and fixed 
alkalis attract acids which before kept earths or 
metals in solution. The metallic or 
earthly parts are precipitated, and a 
neutral salt is produced which determines the na- 
ture of the acid. 
Experiments.
SPIRIT of hartshorn, or Sal-ammoniac, drop- 
ped into a glass of Bath-water hot, causes an 
ebullition and a milkiness with a yellowish hue 
which gives a light precipitate of the same cast, 
and throws up an earthy pellicle. The like ef- 
fect is wrought in the water cold and well corked, 
though more slowly, less sensibly, and more 
whitish. 
THE acid saturated with the volatile, or fixed 
alkali, gives Glauber’s secret Sal-ammoniac in the 
one, and Vitriolated-tartar by the other, which 
proves the acid to be vitriolic. 
HENCE the absurdity of prescribing volatile-al- 
kaline salts, spirits, soap, milk, &c. with waters 
hard, in the strictest sense. Bath-wa- 
ters are utterly unfit for domestic pur- 
poses. They thicken, strengthen and harden, in- 
Inference.
stead


15 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
stead of resolving or relaxing, as theorists ignorant- 
ly suppose. 
ALL the simple as well as fermented vegetable 
acids mix naturally and easily with Bath-waters. 
Distilled vinegar causes no change of colour, or 
other alteration. The mineral acids, except in 
a concentrated state, or when the vitriolic is add- 
ed in such a quantity as to excite more heat, mix 
kindly. 
16. To this doctrine of Acids, the trite expe- 
riment with Syrup of violets generally used to prove
the existence of an alkali may seem 
repugnant. It must be confessed that 
this syrup turns the waters to a sea-green, and in
eight hours after to a bright grass-green. 
Objection. 
17. THIS is an appearance that overbears those 
who deny the existence of an alkali in chalybeate 
waters. And, to say the truth, this has perplexed 
learned and ingenious men, who, by not consi- 
dering the matter deeply, yielded up the point to
those who maintained an alkali. Let us harken 
to Linden, Page 114, he says, “ This 
“ mistake arises from not properly dis-
“ tinguishing the differences in matter. Iron Vi- 
“ triol has such a green colour as the syrup of 
“ violets assumes when mixed with chalybeate 
“ waters, yet there can be no man so ignorant as
“ to imagine that this proceeds from an alkali, 
“ as the acid predominates so much in the com- 
“ pound. 
Answered.
“ Verdigrease is perfectly green, manufac- 
“ tured with vinegar and copper. I know no 
“ alkali that is accessary to this; the copper ap- 
“ pears in blue crystals when dissolved and cry- 
“ stallized. 
“ Pour Aqua fortis on Iron ore, it becomes in- 
“ stantly green. Supposing even an alkali in the  
“ iron

16 PRINCIPLE COMMON TO
“ iron ore, the green colour cannot be owing to 
“ that; because the acid is predominant, and 
“ were there alkali enough in the ore to occasion
“ this green colour, it would discover itself by 
“ an effervescence. 
“ The solution of perfect iron yields a green 
“ colour as soon as it is dissolved by acids. Thus, 
“ we see by how many various ways green co- 
“ lours may be produced; therefore may we con- 
“ clude that the green colour in these aquatic 
“ mixtures is essentially inherent in the Iron ore, 
“ without assistance of alkalies, syrup of violets, 
“ or any thing of the like nature. 
“ Whence is it then that this green colour is 
“ produced? 
“ Syrup of violets contains an iron earth; from
“ it may be produced an iron earth by art. 
“ The acid in the chalybeate water is checked 
“ by the mucilage of the iron ore, which is pro- 
“ bably the true reason why the water preserves 
“ its crystalline purity unmixed. 
“ Syrup of violets sets acids and alkalies at li- 
“ berty. It acts only naturally when it sets the 
“ acid free from the mucilagium ferri; the more 
“ it subsides, the stronger the green colour ap- 
“ pears; the acid works naturally on the iron 
“ earth dissolved into atoms most minute. This 
“ is the real cause. Tor if this green colour of 
“ the syrup was owing to an alkaline quality of 
“ the waters, that share of alkali requisite to 
“ produce it would constitute such a dispropor- 
“ tioned ingredient that they would be as caustic 
“ as Soap-lees, which is by no means the case.” 
BATH WATER curdles milk, as every nurse 
knows. Powerful, nevertheless, as this 
Acid appears to be, it does not alter the 
colour of the juice of Turnsol, the Heliotropon tri- 
Bath water 
curdles milk. 
coccum

17 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
coccum of C. Bauhinus.—Aken Waters recover 
spots made in paper by Acids. So must Bath Wa- 
ter, had it (like the former) contained an Alkali. 
BRISTOL WATERS, as it boils, loses its pellu- 
cidity, and deposits an earthy chalky-like matter 
on the bottom and sides of the vessel. 
Thus it comes to be robbed of its mi- 
neral acid. It now becomes soft, fit
for domestic purposes, of mixing with 
soap, washing, brewing, &c. That Bristol Wa- 
ter contains an acid, and that this acid is of a vo- 
latile nature, the following experiments evince. 
Bristol Wa- 
ter acid and
volatile.
1. A glass of Bristol Water poured on a few 
grains of Sal Armoniac, dissolved it im- 
mediately with a sensible effervescence. 
Experiments. 
2. Spir. Sal Armoniac with a fixed alkali pro- 
duced the same effect. 
3. Solution of Sal Tartar produces the same 
effervecence; but gives the liquor a milkiness 
which precipitates a whitish light earthy sub- 
stance. 
4. Solution of Soap curdles and makes the wa- 
ter turbid. 
5. The same substances poured into common 
water distilled, produced no sensible change. 
6. In different glasses of common water distil- 
led, were dropped Spir. Vitrioli; in others other 
mineral acids. To these were added volatile alka- 
line salt, volatile alkaline spirit, fixed alkaline
salt and solution of soap. The same appearances 
arose as when these were first added to the Bristol 
Water. 
HENCE may we conclude, That these waters 
do contain an Acid. By means of this acid it is
that (in the two first experiments) the  
effervescence is produced. In the third 
the additional circumstance of the milkiness arises
Corollaries.
from

18 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
from the fixed alkaline solution attacking the acid 
of the waters more strongly than did the calcari- 
ous earth, by means of which it is no longer 
soluble, but becomes cognizible in form of a 
white precipitate, which was in a saline state 
while united with the acid, and so soluble in 
water. 
In the fourth, the Soap becomes decomposed, 
the Oil swims on the top, while the Acid and Al- 
kali lay hold of one another. 
If these waters are kept but a day, corked ne- 
ver so close; or, if they are boiled, and then 
these experiments made, neither the effervescence 
nor the decomposition will appear. The milki- 
ness and the precipitate will insue, because the 
waters are robbed of their power of dissolving
earthy substances. 
HENCE it is also manifest, That the Acid of
these waters is of a volatile nature. 
7. To determine the nature of this acid, let us
drop a solution of Silver in spirit of ni- 
tre. The mixture puts on the appear- 
ance of milky, and deposits a white 
precipitate. 
Bristol water 
neutral and 
vitriolic. 
8. In a glass of water pour a solution of Lead 
in the same spirit, the same phoenomena appear. 
FROM these trials it is demonstrable that the 
alkaline basis of Sea-salt is contained in these wa- 
ters; for (by the union thereof with 
the nitrous acid) an Aqua-regia is form- 
ed which dissolves gold, but touches not silver, 
nor lead. In consequence of which the precipi- 
tation insues. 
Corollary. 
9. Pour a solution of Quicksilver in spirit of ni- 
tre into a glass of water, it grows turbid and de- 
posits a yellow precipitate, which confirms the 
foregoing experiment. 
10. To


19 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
10. To solutions of Bristol Water turbid or 
precipitated by Spir. Sal. Armon. Sal. Tartar, Calx 
viv. &c. pour Oil of Vitriol, the transparency is 
immediately restored. 
11. Ol. Tartar per deliq. added to that which 
contains oil of vitriol, a great effervescence in- 
sues, and the heat goes off but slowly. 
12. Solution of silver was added to the water. 
To this was added Soap-lee, which caused a black 
precipitate by standing, which could not be dis- 
turbed by Spir. Sal. Armoniac. 
HENCE we may infer that this water contains 
a great share of phlogiston, with vitrio- 
lic spirit medicated and absorbed by a 
calcarious earth. 
Corollary.
13. To a glass of water, Scarlet dye was added. 
A small precipitate insued, the upper part remain- 
ed of a fine scarlet colour. As soon as Spir. Sal. 
Armoniac was added, it struck an opaque purple 
colour. 
HENCE may we conclude that this water is (in 
its natural state) neutral in all respects, rather 
inclinable to the vitriolic acid; which 
is the reason that it continues its scar-
let colour; but, as soon as an urinous spirit is 
added, then the Cochineal loses its scarlet colour, 
and turns to purple. 
Corollary.
14. The water was also tried with blue dye, and 
pompadore, without any alteration. This con- 
firms the last experiment. 
FROM the sum and substance of the foregoing 
experiments, we conclude, that the whole nature 
and texture of Bristol water (not even its warmth 
excepted) depends on the vitriolic acid. 
THESE are others who maintain. 
That the spirit of waters consists of fer- 
reous particles dissolved without the in- 
Spirit said to 
consist of iron 
without the 
acid. 
terposition



20 PRINCIPLES COMMON TO
terposition of an acid. In support of this opinion 
these urge, That a sort of ink may be prepared, 
by infusing pure iron in simple water, saturated 
with the powder of galls. Nor does Shaw dis- 
own the fact, See his Enquiry into Scarborough Wa- 
ters, p. 151—158.—In infusions of filings of iron 
with water distilled, there appear certain phoeno- 
mena, not dissimilar to those which may be seen 
in mineral waters. See Home’s Essay on Dunse- 
spaw, p. 157, 158. The subtile particles escape 
in form of spirit, the heavier precipitate as in so- 
lutions of iron by acids. If so, why (say they) 
may not iron in like manner, be supposed to be 
dissolved in mineral springs? 
In his Essay on Dunse-spaw, p. 60. 62. 157. 160. 
Dr. Home observes, that some of the ferreous 
particles settle on the surface, in the form of a 
thin pellicle, not unlike to that which is com- 
monly observed on the surface of lime water.— 
In Dr. Whytt’s ingenious Essay on Lione water, 
p. 62, 63, & 74, 75. he has experimentally dis- 
proved the existence of an acid in Lime-water.— 
Shaw’s Experiment with astringents seems no less 
to favour this opinion than the other. If the 
powder of galls, tea-leaves, or any other astrin- 
gent precipitate iron, by absorbing the acid, may 
not the same phoenomena be expected from al- 
kaline substances? From such mixtures, such ap- 
pearances never happen. They therefore con- 
clude, that this effect of galls ought rather to be 
attributed to that astringent property common to 
such substances, by which they attract the parti- 
cles of iron, and thus tinge water blue, purple, 
or black, by which the heavier particles also fall 
to the bottom. This opinion they think confirm- 
ed by the following experiment. “ In his Expe- 
“ riments and Observations on Chalybeate Waters,
“ Dr.



21 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
“ Dr. Hales observes, That many natural wa- 
“ ters, after they had deposited their oker, and 
“ afterwards suffered such a degree of corruption 
“ as to be there by resolved (by the help of pow- 
“ der of Galls) put on as intense a colour, as if 
“ they had been just taken up at the fountain- 
“ head.” Hence they infer, that the spirit of 
water is iron per se, or incorporated with sulphur, 
or some other principle, divided into particles most 
minute by the chymistry of nature, without the 
interposition of an acid. Nor does this opinion 
differ from the former, otherwise than in the 
manner of the solvent. In both, the spirit of 
waters is allowed to consist of iron, or oker mi- 
nutely subtilized, one by the help of a volatile 
vitriolic acid, the other without. In his elabo- 
rate inaugural dissertation De Thermarum antiqui- 
tate, contentis, et usu, Swinhow seems inclined to 
the latter. His words are these; “ Tamen hanc 
“ sententiam pertinacius profiteri nolim, dico ta- 
“ men, in praesenti, mihi visum probabiliorem.” 
From analogy, as well as from arguments and 
experiments stated and compared, I am inclined 
to believe, that Bath and Bristol Wa- 
ters contain a Spirit; that this spirit 
consists of Iron subtilized and suspended by the 
means of an Acid, and that this acid is none 
other than that Universal Vitriolico-sulphureous prin- 
ciple which pervades the bowels of the earth, and 
which constitutes the life, soul, and spirit of me- 
dicated waters. So much for principles common 
to Bath and Bristol Waters; we now proceed to 
those which are peculiar to Bath Water. 
Corollary. 
CHAP.



22 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR 
CHAP. II. 
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BATH WATERS.
Particular
experiments. 
1. DURING the spring and sum- 
mer months, there are black 
slimy cakes which float on the surface of the baths. 
These were supposed to be cakes of floating sul- 
phur. Mr. Haviland apothecary, first discovered 
them to be aquatic plants conveyed thro’ the cran- 
nies of the rocks to the fountain head, the Jelly 
moss, or Conferva gelatinosa, omnium tenerrima et 
minima, aquarum limo innascens, of Ray.
Oker.  
2. THE baths, as far as high-water- 
mark, are lined with a pale yellow sub- 
stance; as are the conduits which carry off the re- 
dundant water. 
To discover the different degrees of heat, the 
following trials were made. By Farenheit’s ther- 
mometer, the hottest spring in the 
King’s Bath raised the quicksilver to 
103.—In the coolest part of the same 
bath to 100.—In the hot bath it stands at 100 or 
101.—In the Cross Bath 93, 94 —The Queen’s 
Bath is only a reservoir from the King’s, it raises 
the mercury to 93, 94. The heat at the pumps 
varied by every trial. At the Cross Bath, the 
mercury sunk from 110 to 105.—The Hoth Bath 
from 116 to 112.—The King’s from 116 to 
114. 
Heat of the 
springs. 
The lowest trials equal the heat of the human 
blood in a healthy state, and (according to Hip- 
pocrates} are therefore friendly to the constitu- 
tion. 
4. WEIGHED



23 TO BATH WATER.
4. WEIGHED, Hot Bath water ap-
pears to bear the ratio of oz. 4:6:0:12 
to oz. 4:6:0:16 cold. 
Gravity.
By these experiments we learn. That the dif- 
ferent springs are differently impregnated, and 
differently heated; their produce also 
is different.—We learn also that they
spring not from the same source; for if one of the 
cisterns is kept empty, this prevents not the cistern 
at the head of any other spring from filling in its 
usual time, notwithstanding all the springs break 
out within the compass of half an acre, in the 
form of a triangle, whose base measures 415 feet, 
its longer side 380, and its shorter about 110. 
Generals premised, we now proceed to investi- 
gate particular principles.
Corollaries. 
I. Of IRON. 
UNDER the heads of Air and Spirit, it fully ap- 
pears, That (by the interposition of the Univer- 
sal Vitriolic Acid) Iron is not only dis- 
solved, but suspended also in waters;
that, as this acid escapes, the walls of 
the baths and the conduits become incrusted with 
a pale or yellow oker; that waters, vulgarly and 
improperly termed chalybeate, lose their texture, 
by being exposed to air, and become unfit for 
exportation; that the iron-earth is the matrix in 
which the vitriolic acid is generated; that when a 
water meets with an iron-ore vein which con- 
tains a portion of the universal acid, the acid va- 
pour comes to be concentrated with the water, 
the chalybeate spaw becomes complete; that 
when it meets with too great a quantity of the 
acid, it becomes noxious, and that this acid pro- 
ceeds from the pyrite, which disunited, composes 
Bath water
feruginous.
the


24 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath-sand. Thus, the acid of sulphur forms 
an union with the metallic parts of the pyrite. 
This constitutes the ferrugineous principle of 
Bath waters, as by the following tells will ap- 
pear. 
Experiments 
on the Bath 
sand. 
THE first mineral substance that pre- 
sents itself to our view, is that Sand- 
like substance, thrown up at the sources 
of the springs, especially when the in- 
verted cisterns are taken up to be cleaned. 
1. To the taste, this substance is ferrugineous, 
and manifestly styptic. 
2. THE water in which it is washed, strikes a 
blue with an infusion of logwood, and a purple 
with galls. 
3. THE residuum, calcined till it ceases to 
fume, moved to the magnet, some particles are 
attracted. 
4. THE Baths and drains are lined with a yel- 
low oker. 
5. WITH infusions of logwood, galls, tea, 
pomegranate-bark, balaustine, &c. the waters 
fresh pumped, change to purple. Thus the fer- 
rugineous principle seems incontestibly to exist. 
We now proceed to determine the portion of iron 
contained in a given quantity of water. 
6. IN the third volume of the Edinburgh Me- 
dical Essays, we find an experiment recorded by 
Professor Monro, which enables us 
(with some sort of certainty) to deter- 
mine the quantity of iron contained in 
waters. He observes that the propor- 
tion of iron in its salt, or vitriol, is little more 
than one third. If one ounce of this salt of steel 
be dissolved in 20 ounces of water Troy-weight, 
142 drops of which solution weigh two drachms, 
every such drop will contain 1/75 of a grain of iron. 
Quantity of 
iron contain- 
ed. 
By



25 TO BATH WATER.
By this standard, the Doctors Charleton and 
Lucas have investigated the quantity of iron con- 
tained in Bath waters. According to the former 
(Essay on Bath Waters, p. 9.) the chalybeate prin- 
ciple in a pint of King’s Bath pump water 
comes out to be 1/70 of a grain nearly; in the Hot 
and Cross Bath pump water 1/140. According to the 
latter (Essay on Mineral waters, p. 293.) every pint 
of the King’s Bath pump water may be supposed 
to contain 1/37 of a grain of iron. 
In an inconclusive experiment of this sort, it 
signifies little on which side the quantity scrupu- 
lously lies. The experiments of both tend to 
corroborate the existence of iron. This extreme 
divisibility and tenuity of metal is the work man- 
ship of wise Nature, who deals out her sanative 
compositions in quantities which heal safer and 
surer than waters deeply saturated. 
II. Of SALTS and EARTHS.
WHEN I had prepared my materials for the 
press, I happily met with Dr. Linden, a German, 
trained up (as is common in that country) to 
Metallurgy and Mineralurgy, from his infancy. 
Assisted by Mr. Morgan, an expert practical chy- 
mist of the city of Bristol, in his elaboratory, we 
proceeded to experiments more demonstrative and 
more satisfactory far than those which I had la- 
boured. 
EXP. I. 
TWENTY-NINE pints of King’s Bath water 
were filled at the cock in a wickered 
bottle, and carried to Bristol, where it 
was put into a glass retort in B. A. The water 
Experiments.
B steamed



26 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
steamed away gently, without coming to a boil- 
ing heat. 
There appeared no pellicles, no change of co- 
lour in the liquor. To the upper part of the re- 
tort there adhered clear pellucid salts. The par- 
ticles which fell to the bottom were also salts, ra- 
ther insipid to the taste. 
There were no earthy parts perceptible to the 
naked eye, excepting some few yellow specks. 
Principles peculiar 
EXP. II. 
A PINT and a half of the evaporated water was 
caught in a vessel which received it as it dropped 
from the mouth of the retort. This had the ap- 
pearance of a bittern of common salt. This was 
put into a Florence flask, which was again com- 
mitted to the sand. The liquor continued transpa- 
rent. There precipitated a calcarious earth, in 
appearance, of the mature of Magnesia Alba. The
same magnesia, or earth, if it is to be so called, 
may at any time, be obtained from common bit- 
tern. 
I have preserved the lixivium still to be seen, 
of the very taste and consistence of brine, and co- 
lourless. 
How different these appearances of ours from 
those mentioned by former inquirers, Liquors 
terrestrious, unctuous, brown, Madeira, successions of 
pellicles, calcarious earths, nitres, alkaline and ni- 
trous salts, &c! When waters are evaporated 
in large, flat, open vessels, may not external 
dust intermix with the process? May not precipi- 
tant boiling, in some measure, account for such facti- 
tious principles? Alkaline salts are artificial earthy 
productions. The volatile acid of the salt is de- 
tained by the alkaline earth, and mixes so closely 
that



27 TO BATH WATER.
that both passes together thro’ the filtre. When these 
cause an effervescence with acids, the phoenome- 
non is owing to the alkaline earth which consti- 
tutes the basis of the neutral salt, which gives the 
purging quality to the waters. The powder which 
puts on the appearance of calcarious earth, is none 
other than Bath-quarry stone dissolved by the 
vitriolic acid. To confirm this assertion, Let 
this same stone be dissolved in spirit of vitriol, 
then mixed with water; let the water be poured 
off after settling, you have the calcarious earth. 
If it is precipitated with water distilled from lime 
and soap-lees, the earth will appear to be Bath- 
quarry stone. 
EXP. III.
EXAMINED in a microscope, the salts put on 
the forms of six or seven crystals of different sorts. 
On the different forms into which cry-
stals shoot, little stress is to be laid. 
Our senses are too gross to dive into the elemental 
structure of bodies; so that, for aught we know, 
there may be as many elemental differences, as 
there are species of salts; or perhaps all salts, in
their ultimate elements, may be the same. This 
we know, that no two salts of the same denomi- 
nation will, upon trial, answer the same proofs in 
every respect. We beg leave only to observe, 
that the Bath-water-salts crystallized in B. A. so 
does Borax, in opposition to the common nature 
of simple salts. Hence we infer, That out of 
Bath-water-salt a perfect Borax might be manu- 
factured.—The Salt of the first evaporation seem- 
ed to have a vitriolic taste.—That of the lixivium 
evaporated, had a large share of the marine. 
Salts.
B2 III.




28 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
III. OF SULPHUR.
1. In waters hot and cold, Sulphur seems to 
dwell, though it is often difficult, sometimes im- 
possible, corporeally to exhibit it. In 
the baths of Austria and Hungary, Dr. 
Browne not only observed true flowers of sulphur 
sticking to the conduits; but also declares that 
the waters, in a few minutes, turned silver black, 
and heightened the natural colour of gold, Phi- 
losoph. Trans. N°. 59.—In the Caesarean baths at 
Aix la Chapelle, flowers of brimstone are sublima- 
ted by natural heat, and collected in pound- 
weights.—Harrigate Spaw (according to Dr. Shaw) 
contains actual brimstone floating like feathers, 
separable by simple straining.—In Acidulae as well 
as Thermae, he has discovered signs of sulpbur, 
History of Mineral Waters, p. 54, 55, 88. and 
through the whole latter part. See Migniot’s Traité  
des Eaux Minerales de St. Amand, p. 13. 20. 23.—
In Moffat Waters, Plummer, a late learned profes- 
sor of chymistry, discovered many signs of sul- 
phur; Edinb. Med. Essays, Vol. i. Essay viii.—
In Scarborough Waters putrified, Dr. Shaw has 
discovered sulphur, though he could not in the 
water fresh, Enquiry, p. 136.—Of Dunse Spaw 
we have a similar instance, by the ingenious Dr. 
Home, p. 78, 90, 91.
Sulphur. 
2. MIGNIOT and Blondel (treating of the wa- 
ters of Aix) record a very singular remark, viz. 
Not one grain of fixed sulphur can be obtain- 
ed from even those waters, which not only 
smell strong of sulphur, but throw up hand- 
fuls of flowers of brimstone. The former 
expresses himself thus, “ Si on vouloit nier que 
“ les caux d’ Aix la Chapelle soient sulfureuses.
“ on




29 TO BATH WATER.
“ on n’auroit qu’a lever une des pierres de mal- 
“ sonerie de leurs bassins, & on trouveroit des 
“ fleurs à poignées; cependant on a eu beau 
“ tourner le corps des eaux en tout sens, on n’a
“ pû encore reussir d’en tirer ur seul grain, non 
“ plus que des notres. Traité des Eaux Minerales 
“ de S. Amand, p. 22, 23.”—The latter thus; 
“ Omnes hi fontes Corneliani, &c. sulphur maxi- 
“ me olent, habentque oleose dissolutum, ac bal- 
“ samicis mixtum. Illud, in aquis his & Cae- 
“ saeranis ita subtile est, ut in aquarum examine, 
“ qualiacunque vasa, etiam vitrea pertranseat, et 
“ ne granum illius colligi aut videri possit.” 
Therm. Aquisgranensium, & Porcetanarum descrip- 
tio, cap. v. p. 80. 
The celebrated Fred. Hoffman seems to have 
been mistaken, when he rashly pronounces his o- 
pinion, That there are very few springs which 
contain sulphur in any shape. By what, from a- 
nalogy, has already appeared, his experiments seem 
to be too general, and too much confined. There 
are waters which run hot with an abominable 
stench, and which tarnish not silver, yet exhibit
manifest signs of a volatile subtile sulphur, suffi- 
cient to convince us that they are impregnated 
with that principle; nor are they the less salutary 
for being slightly saturated. 
Gaping at clouds of smoke towering up from 
the surfaces of natural hot baths, ignorants 
naturally dream of volcano’s, abysses, subter- 
ranean fires, &c. Without evidence, physicians 
have traditionally supposed, Bath waters sul- 
phureous; as they supposed so they practised
On the existence, or non-existence of mineral 
contents depends the rationality of practice. The 
question of sulphur cannot therefore be indiffe-  
B3 rent.



30 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
rent. With that same indulgence which we 
crave, it is our purpose candidly and coolly to 
wade through this important question. 
Mayow
THE first who had the courage to 
deny the existence of sulphur in Bath 
waters, was Mayow, and that so faintly, that he 
hardly challenges attention. 
DOCTOR CHARLETON seems neither to have 
proved, nor denied the existence of sulphur. Dis- 
appointed in his hopes of exhibiting 
real sulphur, he extends the meaning of 
the word so as to comprehend unctuous, or oily 
bodies. To produce this supposed principle, he 
proceeds to analogous experiments with infusions 
of brimstone in spring water; he extracts a sulphu- 
reous tincture from the residuum of Bath water with 
Salt of Tartar. To sulphur he imputes changes 
which naturally result from the agents which he 
employs. He says, “It is a controverted point, 
“ whether or no Bath waters be impregnated with 
“ sulphur.” 
Charleton.
WHITE he was preparing his materials for the 
press, Doctor Lucas came to Bath, fully possessed 
with the current notion of sulphur. 
Sulphur was the first principle which he 
proceeded to investigate. Disappointed in certain 
leading experiments, and piqued at Dr. Charle- 
ton’s pretensions to the discovery of that vegeta- 
ble which swims on the surface of the baths; as 
well to sulphur’s being a matter of controversy, 
he changed his battery, and publicly made expe- 
riments in proof of the non-existence of sulphur. 
His arguments seemed then to me conclusive. 
Subsequent experiments have induced me to alter 
my opinion, Dies diem docet. Instructed by my 
fellow-labourer, I am not without hopes of con- 
Lucas. 
vincing



31 TO BATH WATER. 
vincing the reader, that Bath waters are really 
and truly sulphureous. 
MUD taken up fresh from the bottoms of the 
baths, smell manifestly of sulphur. 
BATH-SAND, sprinkled on a red-hot iron, emits 
a blue flame, with a suffocating vapor. 
To Dr. Lucas the public is indebted for the 
discovery of a fraud, which had blinded the un- 
derstandings of learned and unlearned; and which 
was, on all occasions, adduced as an irrefragable 
proof of sulphur, I mean the trick of transmuting 
shillings into guineas. He bribed one of the wo- 
men-guides; the divulged the mysterious men- 
struum, Stale Urine. Had this gentleman bestow- 
ed as much of his labour in proof of the exis- 
tence, as he has done on the non-existence of 
sulphur, I humbly think he might have succced- 
ed better. Let the public judge. 
α. He dropped a solution of silver in an alka- 
line ley into Bath water. He observes (page 299) 
that it grew milky, and put on a putrid 
smell; a double decomposition insued, 
of sulphur and of earth. He asks, 
“ How then can Bath water be a solution of sul- 
“ phur, or sulphureous, when it gives no indi- 
“ cation of that mineral, and is not even capable 
“ of suspending it in a solution?” 
Lucas’s pro-
cess.
His own assertion proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, by the same parity of reason that acids 
precipitate the sulphur out of the alka- 
line solution, the sulphur contained in
the water mingles with the sulphur in the solu- 
tion, while both come to be precipitated by the 
acid contained in the water. Were there no sul- 
phur in the water, this separation could not insue, 
the whole would unite into one neutral concrete. 
Answered.
In sulphureous waters, there is no such thing 
B4 to



32 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
to be expected as a solution of sulphur, such as 
is produced by art. In nature’s elaboratory, the 
particles of sulphur are not dissolved, but sus- 
pended. 
β. “ He mixed a solution of Corrosive Sublimate 
(page 303), and observed that the mixture put on 
a slight milkiness only, without precipitation. 
From this appearance he says, Had there been sul- 
phur in the water of any sort, a milkiness, and a pre- 
cipitation must have insued. 
γ. “ He mixed a solution of Quicksilver (page 
304) with Bath water. This raised a bright milky 
cloud, growing suddenly opaque, and then chang- 
ing or precipitating to yellow, which, upon stir- 
ting, grows white again. Instead of this yellow 
being produced by the imaginary sulphur of the 
waters, he affirms that this colour and precipita- 
tion are produced by the union of the absorbent 
earth, and the universal acid.” 
To the two last, and all his other mercurial 
experiments, we beg leave to offer one general 
answer. Metallic solutions are, at best, 
but impotent proofs. Had the Bath 
waters been sublimated, as they ought to have 
been, and then been found not to change colour, 
they might then have justly been pronounced void 
of sulphur. The production of the union of the 
absorbent earth and universal acid is merely hy- 
pothetical, or rather proves the existence of sul- 
phur; for, if common brimstone is dissolved in 
order to make Lac Sulphuris the precipitate is 
white. But, if the sulphur is separated from An- 
timony, or any other mineral, then indeed an o- 
range-coloured precipitate insues. The springs 
must be supposed to rise through a brimstone quar- 
ry to produce this yellow colour. In the Bath 
Answered.
waters


33 TO BATH WATER.
waters the sulphur is only suspended in small 
atoms. 
δ. “ He mixed a solution of Silver, page 305. 
This (he says) caused bright bluish white clouds, 
which soon coagulated, appeared opaque, and pre- 
cipitated suddenly in grumes.—These bluish
white clouds, &c. are evidences of the existence 
of sulphur; for, from experience we know, that 
(in the bowels of the earth, as well as in Smelting 
houses) brimstone coagulates all metals and mine- 
rals that are in a dissolved state. Hence it is, 
that the sulphur contained in the Bath water act 
its natural part, by reducing the silver dissolved in 
the Aqua fortis into a solid state, a manifest proof 
of sulphur.” 
ε. “ He supposes the dissolvent acids either pure, 
or mixed with martial, or other earths, or inflam- 
mable principles. As they happen to be colour- 
less or coloured, so they form different Luna cor- 
nua’s with the metals which they attract.” 
THESE are hypothetic notions; for, if sol- 
vents contained coloured, or colourless earths, or in- 
flammable principles, they could not 
dissolve metals, while they were in pos-
session of such contents. Hence, may we ven- 
ture to affirm. That the colour which this ingeni- 
ous artist places in his solvent, was the produc- 
tion of sulphur contained in the Bath-water. 
Answered. 
δ. “ Solutions of Sea-salt (he says) produce the 
same effects with solutions of sulphur, and from 
the same causes.” 
THESE experiments plead neither for or against 
sulphur. The phlogiston never evaporates; nor is 
it in the power of chymistry to separate it. 
from water, be it ever so vapid; as may be 
demonstrated from common electrical experiments. 
The waters of Aken may be deprived- of their  
Answered.
B5 “ volatile



34 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
volatile spirit, which has a share in the production 
of colours; but this has no connection with sul- 
phur. 
η. “ He then proceeded to evaporate the wa- 
ter (page 310) without any sensible smell. The 
residuum, thrown upon an ignited iron, fumed 
slightly without visible flame, or acid vapor, 
without scintillating, fulgurating, or crepita- 
ting. Had sulphur and nitre entered the com- 
position, the effects of gun-powder must have 
insued.” 
THESE experiments are inconclusive; for cathar- 
tic salts, and many other things will 
fulminate without sulphur, while others 
again will not fulminate with sulphur. 
Answered.
θ. He concludes thus, “ Let the inordinate 
“ lovers of brimstone know, that sulphur actually 
“ dissolved, is decomposed in the evaporation, 
“ the phlogiston flying off, while the acid satu- 
“ rates the alkaline salt; that digestions of the 
“ residuum with Salt of Tartar may heighten the 
“ colour, but this proceeds from that oily sub- 
“ stance which is inherent in water in general; 
“ that this is no solution of sulphur appears from 
“ this, that acids cause neither stench nor preci- 
“ pitation in the tincture, which must have hap- 
“ pened had they contained sulphur.” 
WE have just observed, That this same phlo-
giston is far from being volatile. It is of an unc- 
tuous nature, the cause of colour, and 
splendour in metals. Was the phlo- 
giston to evaporate in boiling, how could the 
smelter produce metal out of his furnace? Sul- 
phureous smells cannot be produced from waters 
so slightly impregnated with sulphur as ours are. 
To discover the existence of sulphur therefore in 
Bath water, mixtures of metallic solutions (as we
Answered.
observed



35 TO BATH WATER.
observed before) are unavailing and exceptionable 
experiments. Sublimation is the ordeal trial. By
Sublimation we hope to demonstrate, that Bath 
water changes its colour, and answers all the 
characteristics of real brimstone. 
EXP. I. 
ONE ounce of Bath water mud, or rather pre- 
cipitate, taken up at the bottom of the King’s 
Bath, smelled most sensibly of sulphur. 
We mixed one ounce of this mud, 
with half an ounce of white Arsenic.
The mixture was put into a Florence flask, and
sublimated in B. A. In the neck of the flask
there was produced a deep orange colour, or red- 
dish arsenic, of the nature of Auri-pigmentum. 
Author's
process.
EXP. II. 
WITH the same materials, and, in the same- 
manner, the same experiment was-repeated. The 
same exactly were the appearances. 
EXP. III, 
THE residuum of the evaporation of twenty- 
nine pints, mentioned under the Section of Salts, 
and Earths, about two drachms (for it was not 
weighed) was, with equal quantities of white Arse- 
nic, put into a Florence flask, and sublimated as in 
Exp.: first and second. In the neck of the flask a
sublimate appears inclining to yellow. For, as 
yellow, or red inclining arsenic cannot exist, or 
naturally be produced, nor artificially imitated 
without the help of real common brimstone, it is 
therefore plain from experiments 1, 2, 3, that
B6 the

36 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
the Bath mud, or precipitate, contains a perfect 
sulphur. These experiments are so much the 
more to be depended on, as it is well known that 
arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the quan- 
tity ever so small, or entangled. The deeper the 
orange yellow, or ruby-like colour the arsenic 
is tinged with, the greater the quantity of sul- 
phur. Newman, Stahl, Henckel, Potter, and 
other naturalists, maintain that there are no me- 
talline or mineral ores without arsenic, nor, con- 
sequently, mineral waters. Those waters in which 
arsenic predominates, purge and vomit. As Bath 
waters neither (in general) purge nor vomit; and 
as they, in part, owe their heat to mondic, ox py- 
rites, we may hence infer, that they contain sul- 
phur; enough, at least, to subdue the poisonous 
quality of the arsenic, without defeating its salu- 
tary purposes. 
THESE are blood-warm waters, such as Bux- 
ton, and Taffy’s-well, which are warm without 
sulphur, These contain no sulphur, nor any mi- 
neral whatever. Their warmth proceeds from a 
steam, which arises from marle, or rotten lime- 
stone. But there are no waters which contain 
salts, destitute of sulphur; for salts cannot be
generated without sulphur. 
THAT experiment of Boerhaave’s adduced to 
discover the fraud of sulphur suspended in al- 
kaline salts, or Golden tincture, bears no analogy
with Bath, or any other sulphureous water. For, 
in waters truly sulphureous, the sulphur is mixed
with the aqueous fluid, by the help of the mine- 
ral ferment, such as is caused by a bituminous 
substance. If we drop this alkaline solution in- 
to a glass of Bath water, it soon grows milky. 
The oily, or inflammable principle thus set at li- 
berty by the acid, regales the nostrils with a rot-
ten

37 TO BATH WATER. 
ten sulphureous smell. This experiment serves
to prove the existence of an acid in the water. It 
serves also to prove, That Bath water contains 
brimstone; for brimstone is nothing but the in- 
flammable principle united with the vitriolic acid. 
FROM the sum total, we may ven- 
ture to pronounce, That Bath water 
contains. 
Conclusion.
1. THE HOT ELEMENTARY FLUID. 
2. AIR. 
3. SPRIT. 
4. IRON.
5. SALTS.
6. SULPHUR.
CHAP.

38 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
CHAP. III.
OF PRINCIPLES PECULIAR TO BRISTOL
WATER	
OF the volatile vitriolic acid of Bristol water 
we have treated in that chapter which speaks 
of principles common to Bath and Bristol waters. 
To particular experiments we now proceed; and 
first to such as fall under the cognizance of 
sense. 
Taste.
1. To the Taste, Bristol water is par- 
ticularly grateful, leaving a sense of 
stipticity on the palate. 
Smell.
2. To the Smell, it is inodorous. 
3. To the Touch, it is luke-warm. “ In sum- 
mer 1744, the Earl of Macclesfield made experi- 
ments forty days successively morn- 
ing and evening. The scale of his 
Thermometer divided the distance from 
the freezing point to the boiling, into 
100 parts. The degrees were divided into parts 
of degrees. During the whole, the difference 
never rose or fell a full degree. So that 24 5/8 of
his Lordship’s scale (the medium of his observa- 
tions) corresponds to 76 degrees of Fahrenheit’s. 
Experiments 
to prove the 
degree of heat.
In July 1751, Dr. Davis, late of Bath, made 
repeated experiments with Fahrenheit’s, and found
the mercury rise between 76 and 77 degrees. The 
season was remarkably cold and rainy, and yet 
the heat was not sensibly less the day after the 
water was fouled by excessive showers and land- 
floods.  
These trials stand recorded, and may be seen 
in a book now in the possession of the pumpers.” 
June

39 TO BRISTOL WATER.
June 24, 1761, the heat of the water raised 
Fahrenheit’s Thermometer, at the cock, to 76 1/2,
then 3 degrees higher than the external air. That 
very day, the Thermometer was immersed in wa- 
ter as it issued from the pump of a well of com- 
mon spring water belonging to the neighbouring 
Rock-house. The quicksilver rose to 56 1/2 only. 
On December the first, the coldest day of this 
winter, Mr. Renaudet, an ingenious surgeon, re- 
sident at the Hot Wells, made a trial of the heat. 
In his own bed-chamber, without fire, the mer- 
cury sunk, at 9 A.M. to 35 1/2. At 3 P.M. it 
rose to 38. He then immerged the instrument in- 
to one of the drinking glasses at the Hot Well 
pump. It raised the quicksilver to 76 1/8. So that 
Bristol water appears to be only 3/8 of a degree less 
warm on the coldest day in winter, than on the 
hottest day of summer. This trifling difference 
may perhaps be owing to the action of the cold 
external air on that part of the plate which is not
immerged in the water. Hence we learn, that 
Bristol water is warmer than common spring wa- 
ter by 20 degrees; and 20 degrees below the heat 
of the human blood in a healthy state. 
4. WEIGHED, it is of the same spe- 
cific gravity with distilled water. 
Weight.
It loses only a portion of that elastic air which
evaporates before the bottles can be corked. It 
contains neither animal, vegetable, nor sulphure- 
ous particles; so that it may truly be said to be 
void of the seeds of corruption. Hence may we 
account for its singular quality of bearing expor- 
tation. With a bottle kept twenty-five years, I 
made the common experiments, to which it an- 
swered as well as with water pumped one day. 
5. WITH


40 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR5. 
No iron.
5. WITH Vegetable Astringents, Bristol 
water produces no other change of co- 
lour than with distilled water. 
6. To distilled water in which Salt of Iron had 
been dissolved, I added Tincture of galls the 
purple colour was immediately produced. 
These waters stain not linen with what we call 
iron moulds; nor is there the least appearance of 
that yellow oker that lines tire reservoirs of iron
waters.—Hence may we pronounce that Bristol 
water contains no principle of Iron fixed or vola- 
tile.—To its fixed principles we now proceed. 
Salts.
7. THIRTY pints of Bristol water 
were poured into a glass retort, placed 
in a sand-heat in Mr. Morgan’s Elaborately. 
Common spring water was poured into another 
glass retort placed in the same sand. Neither 
were brought to the degree of boiling; they eva- 
porated by gentle steaming. In the retort filled
with Bristol water there arose a pellicle, which 
did not appear in the other. The water continued 
white or transparent, till the whole was evapo- 
rated. The residuum weighed ninety grains. 
The salts being dissolved, there remained one 
half of an earthy matter, 
8. The Salt slightly confined in a Florence 
flask attracted moisture, a proof of its being of
the alkaline nature of common esculent sea-salt. 
Exposed to the air, it increases in weight, and 
grows white, or mealy. 
9. VIEWED in a microscope, this salt exhibited 
the form of sea-salt, and calcarious, or muratic, 
the alkaline nitre of Egypt, the Natrum Egyptia- 
cum, or Sal Murale, of the antients. This salt 
is not purgative, as the salt of most mineral waters 
are. It is of a strengthening nature. Was it 
therefor extracted, and administred together with
the

41 TO BRISTOL WATER.
the waters, their virtues might be much im- 
proved. 
DR. KEIR (in his ingenious Essay on Bristol wa- 
ters) pronounces it nitrous chiefly. His principal 
arguments are drawn from the forms in which 
the crystals shoot. But, this test is fallacious, as 
he candidly owns (page 26) He confesses that, 
on a red-hot iron, it neither flamed nor smok- 
ed; nay, it continued fixed in the fire without 
any other alteration, but the total loss of its pel- 
lucidity, page 81. 
10. PUT on charcoal, and melted with a fol- 
dering pipe, it crepitated very little, and, after 
the crepitation was over, melted like a fixed al- 
kali. It blistered in a small degree, and continu- 
ed in a soft state while in the fire, in a manner 
like Borax; with this difference, that it stained
the poker like wax, which Borax does not. As 
the muriatic salt, or Natrum, is a basis to that of
Borax, no wonder that these appearances corres- 
pond. It does not swell into bubbles like Alum, 
nor does it emit a white flame like Nitre. Cal- 
cined with Charcoal, it imbibes the inflammable 
principle, and forms a hepar sulphuris. 
11. INTO a solution of this salt, pour a few 
drops of the folution of Silver in Spirit of Nitre. 
It instantly throws up light clouds, which fall in 
the form of white precipitate. 
12. THE Lixivium of Bristol Salts causes no 
manner of alteration, or effervescence with Spirit 
of Vitriol. 
13. DROPPED into Oleum Tartari per deliquium, 
it caused a congelation, or a kind of petre- 
faction. 
14. THE same lixivium changes the syrup of 
Violets into purple, A solution of Borax did the 
same.  
15.  The

42 PRINCIPLES PECULIAR
15. The Earth of Bristol Water (by calcina- 
tion) gives lime; whence it has gene- 
rally been taken for a calcarious earth, 
but that conclusion is vague. Soap-lees cause, it
is true, no alteration. This indeed is a proof of 
lime, which makes it a neutral, as lime renders 
the alkali a neutral to constitute the soap-lee. 
Dr. Keir supposes part of the lime-stone re- 
duced into powder by the native acid spirit 
which pervades the caverns of the earth, and 
which corrodes it to a point of saturation. 
This he offers only as a conjecture, for (page 
87) he says, “ It is not hence to be inferred 
that this water can be of the same nature with 
common lime-water; that it owes its heat to 
actual fire; or the igneous parts contained in 
lime-stone. Page 91, he gives up his corroded 
powder, and allows the fixed contents to be Nitres,
Marine-salt and Calcarious Earth.”
Earth. 
16. THIS earth did not dissolve in fresh di- 
stilled water, or even in the acid of sea-salt. It 
caused an ebullition with acids, which seemed to 
confirm the opinion of lime. But there dis- 
solved only one half in the aforesaid acid. The 
remainder put on the appearance of an indissolu- 
ble selenite. 
THE earthy part of Bristol water may be 
said to be a Magnesia Alba, fabricated in nature’s 
elaboratory, by the help of the universal vitriolic
acid. 
Conclusion.
FROM the sum total of these 
Experiments, we may rationally con- 
clude, 
1. THAT those who account Bristol water to 
be a mere elementary fluid, found their ipse dixits
on ignorance, the parent of prejudice.  
2. THAT

43 TO BRISTOL WATER:
2. THAT those who have charged It with Iron, 
Nitre, Alum, Sulphur, Chalk, or Lime, have ei- 
ther ventured their opinions without experiments, 
or have erred in their analysis. 
The component parts of Bristol water are,
1. THE TEPID AQUEOUS FLUID.
2. AIR.
3. SPIRIT.
4. NEUTRAL SALT.
5. ABSORBENT EARTH.
CHAP.

44 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
CHAP. IV.
OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF BATH AND
BRISTOL WATERS, APPLIED TO THE HU-
MAN BODY.	
FROM the experience of twenty years, 
Frederick Hoffman has declared, “ That 
“ certain springs, at certain seasons, 
“ are frequented by men who have 
“ written in an inelegant manner; that their 
“ manner of prescribing has been no less pre- 
“ posterous; that theory is, at best, fallacious; 
“ and, that the practice of mineral waters can 
“ never be ascertained without experience.” 
Bath and Bristol waters have been analysed by 
numbers; various, discordant, and inconsistent 
virtues have been assigned; never yet have their 
principles been reconciled to practice. In the 
three preceding chapters, I have attempted to ascer- 
tain their principles; my present purpose is to recon- 
cile those principles to the symptoms to which they 
naturally or rationally are adapted. Nor am I (in 
this my attempt) unapprised of those difficulties 
which attend researches which admit not of de- 
monstration. By pursuing those tracks which ex- 
perience has pointed out, we may however be 
enabled to throw in our aid at those critical sea- 
sons when nature seems to lead the way; instead 
of counteracting her intentions, we may mitigate 
symptoms, where we cannot cure diseases. 
IN my first chapter, I made mention of the only
rational scientific method of extending 
the sphere of mineral waters, I mean, 
the Art of Induction; by this we are en- 
abled to discover those laws, means, or actions 
Art of in- 
duction.
by

45 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS: 
by which they produce their effects. To bring 
this art to some sort of precision, it may be first
necessary to be acquainted with the seats, causes, 
diagnostics, and prognostics of diseases. 
To adapt the virtues of mineral waters to par- 
ticular diseases, it may be previously necessary to
comprehend general doctrines; this is Boerhaave’s 
aphoristical doctrine. On the subjects of inflam- 
mation, pain, and obstruction, he has so fully en- 
larged, that, generals once understood, particu- 
lar disorders seem self-evident. Acute diseases na- 
turally fall under the province of simple soft wa- 
ter artificially heated; such may be had here, 
there, or any where, and, therefore, fall not im- 
mediately under my subject. 
In chronic diseases, there is room for deliberation; 
Chronic diseases generally take root before the pa- 
tient complains. Sick people are rarely tractable; 
when danger seems to cease, they generally forget 
the Doctor. For these, and similar reasons, Cel- 
sus thinks chronic diseases more difficult of cure 
than acute; physicians have much better hopes of 
a peripneumony than a phthisis. The same Celsus 
calls Cachexy, malus corporis habitus. From a survey
of the causes of Cachexy, we hope to prove that 
the solids are restored by the fluids. If the fluids 
posses not qualities necessary for nutrition, the 
solids cannot be restored. When the humours 
come to be drained off by evacuations sensible or 
insensible, the body continues not to be nou- 
rished. 
GUTTA cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe caden- 
do. Just so it fares with the human frame; the 
fluids strike four thousand times in the space of
one hour, against the sides of converging canals. 
The epidermis peels off, and grows again; we 
cut our nails, they grow again; so fares it with
our

46 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
our hair. Parts of our solids pass off by spit- 
tie, urine, bile, and excrements; the solids daily 
perish. 
IN health, the urine is rather high-coloured, 
with a proper sediment. In cachectics, the urine 
is crude, and colourless. In weak circulations, 
insensible perspiration ceases; the skin becomes 
parched, nasty, and dry. What used to pass by 
the skin, now takes the road of the ureters; Hip- 
pocrates observes, that the body cannot be nou- 
rished, while the urine continues to be crude, 
thin, and watry. If it passes in quantity, the 
body wastes; if it stagnates, it produces a λευΧον
φλεγμα, or dropsy. In cachectics, muscular mo- 
tion languishes, so does the force of the heart and 
arteries. The great veins have hardly strength to 
empty themselves; the third order of vessels can 
no longer resorb that lymph which the exhalant 
arteries pour forth. The Tunica cellulosa swells, 
oedema’s arise, particularly in places most remote 
from the heart. Hence languor, and debility of 
pulse; hence palpitation and difficulty of breath- 
ing, as Aretaeus well observes, in his Caus. et 
Sign. morb. diuturnor. Such patients ought not to 
be purged, but strengthened. 
THE Origins of diseases are not so complex as 
commonly believed, neither is the method of cure. 
Boerhaave (in his Academical Praelec- 
tions) was wont to observe, That there 
were many who despised the practice of 
the antients, because (in diseases differing in their 
symptoms) they applied the same, or similar reme- 
dies. Parents are affronted if they are confined to
the same simple regimen. They think themselves 
well used if they meet with Doctors who ransack 
dispensatories, changing, compounding, and re- 
compounding every hour, while far more surely 
Origins of di- 
seases simples.
and

47 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
and sooner they empty the pocket than the dis- 
ease; dum longe certius crumenam exhauriunt quam 
morbum. Let those who despise simplicity of 
practice, consider how many, and how different 
diseases have, for ages, been cured by the use 
of Baths and Mineral waters. To these invalids 
are obliged to fly after having, to no purpose, 
tried nostrums the most extolled. Considerent ili 
qui simplicitatem artis, in morhis chronicis, elato su-
percilio, contemnunt, quot et quam diversi morbi cu- 
rentur Thermarum et Aquarum mineralium usu, per 
tot saecula, prohato. Ad haec coguntur confugere ae-
gri, decantatissima alia remedia experti, absque ullo 
fructu. 
FROM a consideration of the difference of 
causes which produce cachexy, we hope to make 
it appear that different and opposite remedies are 
sometimes required. When the body is puffed up 
with viscid humors occasioned by the debility of
the solids, strengthening medicines are the in- 
struments. When attenuated humors pass off 
and cannot be replaced by nourishment, when 
the vessels thus contract, and the sick waste, 
moistening and incrassating remedies are indi- 
cated. 
Different diseases require different preparations. 
Girls bloated with pale inert mucous cacochymy 
require Iron dissolved in vegetable acids, rather 
than Iron in substance; because filings inviscate 
themselves in the mucus of the first passage, and 
thus avail but little. But, if there are signs of a 
predominant acid, then let Iron be given in sub- 
stance, because it not only blunts the acid acri- 
mony; but, dissolved in this acid, produces its 
effecs. 
Those


48 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Those disorders which arise from inflammatory 
lentor are increased by Bristol water, and exaspe- 
rated by Bath. Pituitous lentor falls 
under the power of both. Humors 
transgress by excessive dilution, or by 
putrescency. For that flaccidity of fo- 
lids induced by excessive dilution, we find filings 
of Iron successfully recommended. In dilution 
caused by putrescency, we find Acids successfully 
also recommended. When the body comes to 
be bloated with humors inert and phlegmatic, 
Chalybeates are indicated. Thus, in a word, chro- 
nical disorders, in general, fall under the power 
of some or other of those principles which consti- 
tute mineral waters. For, filings of Iron, and 
Oil of Vitriol are only succedaneums to mineral 
Waters. 
Mineral wa- 
ters differ in 
their princi- 
ples.
Some waters contain the elementary fluid only. 
Such have we named. If simple dilution is only 
required, these are the waters. If acids predo- 
minate, Seltzer waters are indicated. If the ac- 
tion of the solids is to be increased, Spaw and 
Bath waters inspire the very foul of Iron into pale 
languid carcasses, so does Tunbridge. If foul 
Scurvy predominates, Scarborough and Cheltenham 
conduce. In Worms, and Itch, Harrigate has 
done wonders. If Scrophula taints the blood, 
Mossat Wells promise a cure.—In Consumptions 
arising from tubercles, or in cases where the 
aerial vessels are choaked, Bristol’s penetrating
salts have cleared the passages. Its Absorbent 
Earth has corrected that acrid humour which vel- 
licates the nervous coat of the intestines. Thus 
has it stopped fluxes in which Opiates and Astrin- 
gents have done mischief, by stopping expectora- 
tion. Its native Acid has banished colliquative 
sweats, and quenched that thirst which is the 
constant

49 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
constant attendant of the diabetes particularly, 
and of fevers. The blood has thus again ac- 
quired its natural balsamic quality. Fresh lustre 
has sparkled in the eyes of patients doomed to 
death. 
CACHEXY thus naturally falls under the province 
of mineral waters; cachexy thus naturally 
becomes my theme. This imperfect work 
may fall into the hands of men, in whose more pene- 
trating sight, physiological disquisitions may ap- 
pear superfluous. In the eyes of such, I hope 
for pardon, if, for the sake of the many, I tres- 
pass on the patience of the few. The subject of mi- 
neral waters is still rude and uncultivated. Pursu- 
ing the footsteps of Boerhaave, that great restorer of
physic, it is my purpose to inquire into the causes, 
seats, diagnostics, prognostics, and cure of cachexy. 
By adapting the virtues of the several principles 
which constitute Bath and Bristol waters, distant 
practitioners may no longer wonder why patients 
labouring under inveterate ailments, receive cures 
at these fountains.
Cachexy. 
§. I. THE antients reckoned three 
causes of disease, Remote, Predisponent, 
and Proximate.
Causes of 
Cachexy. 
1. THE Passions claim the first place. Of these 
I purpose to treat expressly in the last 
part of this work. Suffice it here in 
general to say, that nothing so sensibly disturbs
the actions of the solids and fluids. 
Passions.
2. DEEP EXERCISES of mind debilitate the 
nerves, consume the strength, destroy 
concoction, and hinder the secretions. 
Hence it is that the studious are subject to flatu- 
lence, hypochondriac disorders, palsy, and lean- 
ness. 
Study.
C 3. POISONS


50 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
3. POISONS, by reason of the celerity of their 
operation, claim the next place. These are ve- 
getable, animal, and mineral. The
first; act immediately on the nerves of
the stomach and intestines. The nature of ani- 
mal poison is still unknown. The last operate 
also on the first passages. To this class we refer 
various sorts of medicines, which produce like 
symptoms, anxiety, sighing, convulsions, inflam- 
mations, and gangrene. 
Poisons. 
4. OF the different qualities and effects of
Air, I have treated in my Essay on the 
Use of Sea Voyages, as well as in that 
chapter which treats of Consumptions. 
Air. 
5. BESIDES the evident qualities of air, there 
are others not discoverable by the senses, morbi- 
fic particles floating in the air. There 
are effluvia which arise from excrements, 
rotten vegetables, insects, and marshy grounds. 
There are subterranean salts, oils, and metals. 
There are morbific miasmata arising from small- 
pox, measles, and other infectious disorders, 
wasted through the air, and again multiplied in 
the human body. These morbific particles act 
on the surface of the body, in the ratio of the 
subtilty, celerity, motion, and figure of their 
particles. They enter the blood; By the first 
passages, together with the saliva; By the in- 
halant vessels of the skin; but, chiefly, By the 
bibulous vessels of the lungs. 
Effluvia.
6. SUPPRESSIONS of natural evacuations pro- 
duce chronical disorders. Retention of excre- 
ment produces wind, crudity, pains of 
the stomach and head; of urine, drop- 
sy, anasarca, and fever; of perspiration, liftless- 
ness, cough, rheumatism, fever, and almost eve- 
ry disease; of the menses, consumption, vomit- 
Suppressions.
5 ing,

 

51 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
ing, or spitting of blood, green sickness, hyste- 
rics, cachexy, hectic, &c. of the haemorhoids, 
asthma, hypo, pleurisy, and peripneumony. 
Quanda enim singula quae aderant, non revertantur, 
binc sequitur corporis gravitas, pallor subinde repe-
tens, venter flatibus referus, oculi concavi, &c. 
Aretaeus De causts & signis morbor. diuturnor. Lib. i, 
Cap. l6. p. 47. 
7.INTROPULSIONS of skin disorders 
produce symptoins more terrible. 
Intropulsions.
8. OF Aliment I purpose to speak in the last
part. Suffice it here in general to ob- 
serve, That excessive satiety and absti- 
nence are both productive of chronical dis- 
orders. 
Diet.
9. WATCHING hurts the nerves, 
hinders perspiration, relaxes the fibres, 
and corrodes the juices. 
Watching.
§. II. THE Effects of remote causes 
are diminished or increased according to 
the nature of the body which they oc- 
cupy. 
Causes predis-
ponent. 
1. WEAKLY PEOPLE are,in gene- 
ral, predidposed to disease, and e.c. 
Infirm.
2. THE frame of the body disposes
certain bodies to certain diseases, e.g. 
Long necked narrow chested people are 
liable to consumption.—Short necked to apo- 
plexy.—Fat to asthma.
Make of the
body.
Rigidity.
3. RIGID FIBRES quicken the circulation, in- 
crease heat, and thicken the blood. The body 
comes thus to be disposed to pleurisy, 
rheumatism, and inflammatory fevers. 
—Where, e.c. the serous part of the blood pre- 
ponderates, and the secretions are deficient, ca- 
chexy, dropsy, oedematous swellings, intermit- 
Rigidity.
C2 tents,

52 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
tents, remittents, and nervous fevers, are the 
consequences. 
Delicacy.
4. DELICATE FRAMES are subject
to haemoptoes and consumptions. 
Blood dis- 
solved. 
5. THIN watry blood produces scur- 
vy, haemorrhages, dysenteries, and pu- 
trid diseases. 
6. As men succeed to their fathers fortunes, so
do they inherit their diseases. From a certain he- 
reditary structure of the solids and flu- 
ids, the body is disposed to hysterics, 
stone, consumption, epilepsy, scrophula, rheuma- 
tism, gout, &c. 
Inheritance. 
7. SOME diseases pave the way for others, as 
asthma for dropsy, cholic for palsy, measles for 
consumption, &c. Particular parts once 
injured, are affected from the slightest 
cause. Neque enim morbi derepente ho- 
minibus accidunt, sed paulatim collecti confertim se 
produnt, says Hippocrates. 
Diseases pro- 
ductive of 
diseases. 
8. DIFFERENT AGES are subject to different 
diseases. Infancy has its teething, red- 
gum, worms, rickets; youth its inflam- 
mations; old-age dropsy, asthma, obstructions, 
&c. 
Age.
Women.
9. WOMEN are predisposed to green- 
sickness, hysterics, nervous disorders, 
and violent affections of the mind. 
Proximate 
Causes.
§. III. THE Proximate Causes of di- 
seases are, it must be confessed, often
past finding out. Experience has, how- 
ever, established some general causes. 
1. STAGNATIONS of Blood produce inflamma- 
tory fevers of Serum, spasms, drop- 
sies, anasarcas, &c. of Lymph, glandu- 
lar swellings; of the Nervous juice, apoplexies 
and palsies.  
Stagnations. 
2. PLETHORY

53 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. PLETHORY distends the vascular system. 
Hence debility, heaviness, head-ach, 
dreams, difficulty of breathing, hyste- 
rics, hypochondriacs, polypous concretions, in- 
flammatory fevers, &c. 
Plethory.
3. HIGH SAUCES, and fermented liquors give, 
rise to cutaneous eruptions, rheumatism, gout, 
defluxions, cholics, wasting, and hec- 
tic.—Acidities of the first passages give 
rise to belchings, anxiety, gripes, green stools, 
looseness, and constipation. 
Intemperance.
4. INTERNAL HARDNESSES, (by pressing on 
other parts) produce dropsies, asthmas, 
flatus’s, and various other disorders, ac- 
cording to the part affected. 
Schirri.
5. INTERNAL SUPPURATIONS produce diseases
inconquerable. Reabsorbed they infect
the blood with putrid cacochymy. 
Hence hectic, night sweats, wasting, &c. 
Suppurations. 
6. ACUTE DISEASES terminate in 
death, health, or other diseases; in 
which last case they may be said to be 
ill-cured; though, in many instances, it 
is not in the power of the most expert to pre-
vent it. 
Acute termi-
nate in chro-
nic.
7. CONCRETIONS of all sorts produce chroni- 
cal disorders. If the bile is stopped in its passage 
from the gall-bladder into the duode- 
num, it necessarily stagnates; while 
the thinner part is absorbed, the thicker inspis-
sates, and produces chronical obstructions, jaun- 
dice, pain in the right hypochondre, difficulty of 
breathing, &c. Concretions in the kidneys, 
produce pains, inflammation, vomiting, ul- 
cers, bloody waters, suppression of urine, &c. 
That unctuous smegma which oozes through the
Concretions.
C3 cuticular







54 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
cuticular vessels, if it stagnates, inspissates, and 
produces steatomatous swellings. 
8. THERE are spontaneous changes which nei- 
ther can be seen, nor prevented; hence chro- 
nical disorders. Blood drawn from the 
arm of a healthy man separates into glo- 
bules red and serous. If a man lies in 
a syncope for even a few minutes, his blood stag- 
nates in the ventricles, sinus’s, and auricles of 
the heart, pulmonary artery, sinus’s of the brain 
and uterine vessels: hence palpitations, fixed pain, 
intermitting pulse, anxiety, difficulty of breath- 
ing, fainting, and death. 
Spontaneous 
changes. 
This was the unhappy fate of my patient, Cap- 
tain Dorrel of the navy. Five years before, 
he fell into a syncope produced by 
watching and hard duty. From that 
instant he laboured under the complaints above 
recited. His days were shortened by injudicious 
bleedings, which destroyed the vis vitae; he died
cachectic.
Case.
Worms.
9. FROM Worms nestling in the 
first passages, arise cholic-pains, erra- 
tic-fevers, convulsions, false appetite, perforations, 
and death. 
This was the fate of Master Tyrrel, a pro- 
mising young scholar at Claverton school, near 
Bath. Called for in a hurry, I found 
him feverish, with a fixed pain in his 
side. Having no reason to suspect worms, he 
was, according to custom, bled and blistered
on the part. Next day, I found the fever un- 
commonly abated, the pain was equally in- 
tense, and fixed in the opposite side. From 
that hour, I treated the disorder as from worms,
nor was I mistake; for in a very short 
time, he voided two round worms five or six 
Case. 
inches

55 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
inches long. By pursuing the same regimen, 
I flattered myself with the hopes of a complete 
cure. My hopes were vain; for, one morn- 
ing, as I thought I had left him in a fair way, 
a servant came galloping over the Downs, with
news that Master was dying. Hastening 
back, I found him in a cold sweat, faint- 
ings, pulse scarcely distinguishable. By the 
help of cordials incessantly repeated, he was
kept alive for some hours only. Surprised at
such uncommon appearances, I examined the 
body, and found the abdomen greatly distend- 
ed. On laying it open, there issued forth an 
ash-coloured liquor, of the consistence of wa- 
ter-gruel, some quarts in quantity. Intense 
cold, intolerable stench, and precipitance pre- 
vented my searching for the perforation thro’ 
which this liquor must have passed. In the 
abdomen there were no worms; but in the 
small guts there were fix, as large as the for- 
mer, and dead. 
10. ACCIDENTS give rise to chronical diseases. 
By bruises never divulged, children 
have been subject, all their lives, to 
convulsions and idiotism.—From vertebral distor- 
tions, incurable asthmas and palsies have been pro- 
duced. 
Accidents.
§. IV. FEVERISH DISORDERS, which terminate 
soon, and which proceed from contagion, have 
their seats in the fluids.—1. Fevers 
inflammatory and putrid have their seats 
in the red globules; in the serum, slow 
fevers, rheumatism, and gout; in the lymph, ve- 
nereal and other pestilential disorders; in the
nervous fluid, nervous fevers, effects of smells,
and many poisons, such as opium, nightshade.
Seat of Ca-
chexy.
C4 &c.

56 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
&c. This last is the most dangerous, because on 
this spirituous fluid bodily strength depends. 
2. NERVOUS and membraneous parts of the 
body appropriated to motion and sensation, are 
the seats of many diseases; the brain 
to epilepsy, madness, lethargy, apo- 
plexy; the nerves to spasms, convul- 
sions, tetanus, palpitations, convulsive asthmas, 
vomiting, hysterics, hypochondriacs, and palsy. 
Nerves and
Membranes.
3. THE intestinal tube is more liable to disease 
than any other part of the body. This is com- 
posed of folds and windings; the cir- 
culation is slow; this way goes air 
replete with morbific particles, as also meats
of different and opposite natures; this is the pas- 
sage for the saliva, pancreatic juice, both biles, 
with other humours and liquors fermentable. 
Here the fibrous part of the food sufFers corrup- 
tion. The intestinal tube is the seat of heart- 
burn, anxiety, wind, spasms, cholics, ilium, ili- 
ac passion, diarrhaea, dysentery, head-ach, and
vertigo. 
Guts.
§. V. THE knowlege of Diagnostics is that 
branch of pathology which treats of the specific 
nature and difference of diseases re- 
sembling one another. Without this 
physicians cannot form prognostics; they become 
the sport of apothecaries apprentices and nurses. 
As are the different colour, tenacity, acrimony, 
and fluidity of infarcted liquors, so are the diffe- 
rent effects of cachexy, viz. whiteness of the skin, 
yellowish, paleness, lividness, redness; heaviness, 
palpitations, crude pale urine, and wasting. The 
change of the humours is best perceived where the 
vessels are most naked, as in the white of the 
eye, lips, inside of the mouth. To sum up the 
whole, the physician need only recollect what the 
Diagnostics.
patient


57 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
patient was, and compare that picture with the 
present. 
§. VI. PROGNOSTICS vary with the causes.
Suppose, e.g. upon inquiry, I find that the pre- 
sent depraved habit of body arises from 
improper diet, I prognosticate a cure, 
because I reasonably expect from a better.—
Suppose cachexy arise from defect of animal mo- 
tion, I promise a cure, provided I can depend 
upon the patient’s exchanging a life of sloth for 
activity.—Green-sick girls may easily be cured by
drinking waters impregnated with Iron-ore and
Exercise, provided they abstain from tea.—
Suppose cachexy arise from the vice of some pu- 
rulent or schirrous viscus, the physician who sees 
farthest promises least.—Laesions of some viscera
are more dangerous than those of others. Sup- 
pose, for example, vertigo, trembling, weakness
of memory, or sleepiness joined to cachexy, the 
prognostic is apoplexy.—Suppose the patient 
breathes hard on the least motion, we have reason
to suspect a collection of watery colluvies in the 
thorax, inde passim prognosis. 
Prognostics.
1. PROGNOSTICS vary according to the durations
of the disease. Diseases, at first, affect 
one viscus only; in time they contami- 
nate all. Quocirca (says Aretaeus) ab hac enascen- 
tes morbi inevitabiles sunt Hydrops, Phthisis, Colli- 
quationes. 
Durations.
2. IN forming prognostics, attention is to be paid
to age.—Boys grow cachectic from devouring 
fruit; a purge, and a few astringents, 
set them, agaim on their legs. Cachex- 
ies are not common to young people. Old peo-
ple, be they never so found, are daily bending to- 
ward some incurable ailment. Senes juvenibus ple-
Age.
C5 rumque


58 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
rumque minus aegrotant; quicunque vero morhls diu- 
turnis oboriuntur, eum frequentius intereunt, says the 
divine old man, Aphor. 39.
§. VII. WHEN we take a survey of the human 
frame, we may well cry out with the Royal 
Psalmist, Fearfully and wonderfully are 
we made! From a variety of causes, 
the nerves are irritated. By this irrita- 
tion, the nervous juice rushes in upon 
the fibres; thus the motion of solids and fluids
comes to be accelerated; thus is their action in- 
creased. Hence superfluous humours evacuated; 
hence vicious quality corrected; hence stagna- 
tions dissolved; hence obstructions opened; hence 
diseases vanquished.—Ignorant of the 
circulation, and its mechanical powers, 
the antients ascribed the whole business of me- 
dicine to nature. By nature, we understand those 
powers which are exerted without the help of 
man. In this sense, the common saying is truly 
verified. Medicus minister, natura medicatrix. But
nature is not always all-sufficient. In many chro- 
nical diseases, e. g. rickets, hysteric, p—x, &c. nature 
makes no attempt; no cure is to be expected. In 
extravasations, e.g. stone, worms, collections of 
matter; nature’s endeavours are not only insalu- 
tary, but destructive. Nature sometimes does 
good, sometimes harm. Diseases are not, there- 
fore, blindly to be trusted to nature. 
Cure of Ca-
chexy in ge-
eral.
Nature.
To supply the defects of nature, art is to be 
called. Weak attempts are to be assisted, tumul- 
tuous bridled, straying directed. This 
is the business of art. When, for the 
preservation of health, or the conquering of di- 
sease, nature points out something to be done, 
this we call Indication. Indication arises, From 
Art.
a


59 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
a knowlege of proximate causes; From ex- 
perience; and, From knowlege and experi- 
ence united. Happy the patient, when these twin
sisters travel hand in hand to the same goal! 
Art can effect nothing without instruments. 
The instruments of art are called Remedies. Me- 
dical instruments are three-fold. Diet, Surgery,
and Pharmacy. Of the first I purpose to treat at 
large in the last part. The second falls not im- 
mediately under my subject. Medicines may be 
divided into Alteratives, Strengtheners, Anodynes, 
and Specifics. Such, in all respects, are Mineral 
Waters in general. Such are Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters in particular. The powers of these waters
continue to be obscured, 1. Because the particu- 
lar circumstances of diseases are seldom investi- 
gated. 2. Because the causes of diseases are of- 
ten hid from our eyes. 3. Because the principles, 
on which the powers of the waters depend are sel- 
dom subjected to mechanical laws. 4. Because 
the administration of waters is so confounded 
with shop compositions, that physicians themselves 
are often at a loss to know to what the effects are
to be ascribed. 
§. VIII. RATIONALLY to proceed, it may not 
only be necessary to comprehend general doctrines, 
but also to compare the principles of the 
human frame, with those which con- 
stitute Mineral waters. Their affinity 
will not, perhaps, be found so distant, 
as we may commonly think. Pursuing the ge- 
neral philosophic opinion, those principles or ele- 
ments which compose the human mechanism, 
may be reduced to Water, earth, the inflammable 
principle, acid, alkali, spirit, fire, air, and the prin- 
ciple peculiar to iron. Professor Gaubius calculates
Principles of 
the human
body.
C6 that

60 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
that principle of water which enters the com-
position, at about nine-tenths of the whole. 
The proportions of the other principles cannot 
so exactly be computed; it seems not improbable,
that the principle earth makes the greatest part of 
the weight of the remaining tenth. According
to Menghini’s most ingenious experiments, (Jour- 
nal de Scavans d’ Ital. Tom. 3. page 645.) the prin-
ciple of iron enters the blood in the ratio of one
scruple to two ounces; so that (in a body con- 
taining eighteen pounds of blood) iron makes, 
three ounces of the composition. These princi- 
ples intimately blended compose our solids and
fluids.
1. OUR SOLIDS have properties common to solid 
bodies in general; they have others particular 
to animals. They are, in general, des- 
tined to make certain efforts, by a co- 
hesion proportioned to resistance, attended with 
rigidity of the bones, and flexility of the other
parts. Besides those properties which are com- 
mon to solid bodies in general, the members of 
the human body have particular, such as sensibili- 
ty, and muscular motion, as Haller has most 
ingeniously demonstrated. There are certain fi- 
bres destined to transmit those impressions which
are made on the body, to the foul. These are 
the organs of sense; these communicate our sen- 
sations of pleasure, pain, and danger.—There 
are other fibres endowed with the faculty of con- 
tracting themselves. This faculty gathers strength 
by anger; and loses by grief, or fear. The parts 
of the body are destined to different offices; le-
vers, pumps, cords, pullies, strainers, pipes, reser- 
voirs, presses, &c.
Solids.
2. ELAS


61 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
2. ELASTICITY is not only the cause of many 
effects, but it has a singular influence on the func- 
tions of the human body. There are 
certain fundamental rules relative to 
these effects, which lead us to a certain exacti- 
tude in our conceptions of life, health, diseases, 
together with the operations of medicines; those 
of mineral waters in particular, 1. Suppose a fi- 
bre stretched, its elasticity diminishes of course. 
This we know from the common experiment of 
tuning a fiddle. Hence we learn, that (by wake- 
fulness, or excess of exercise) the organs are all 
on the stretch, the tone of the fibres diminishes, 
the spirits flag, strength decays. 2. Fibres gra- 
dually relaxed, acquire a certain degree of ten- 
sion. 3 Suppose two strings unbent, one all 
at once, the other, by degrees; the first becomes
the weakest; between every tension, the other 
acquires a degree of strength. Thus it is that 
large bleedings debilitate much more sensibly than
the same quantity drawn at different times. The 
same may be affirmed of evacuation in general.
Elasticity.
In many cases elasticity determines the de- 
gree of sensibility; for sensibility is proportioned
to vibratility. Sensibility and vibratility depend 
on three conditions; elasticity of the part, its de- 
gree of tension, and tenuity. This is verified in 
instruments whose strings are elastic and small; 
their tones are shriller.—As it is with musical in- 
struments, so is it with the human machine; the 
degree of sensibility is proportioned to the quan- 
tity and subtility of the nerves, joined to their 
degree of tension, with the elasticity of their last 
expansion. Thus, in delicate persons, the fibres 
being smaller, have the greater degree of vibrati- 
lity; these are more sensible, tho’ sometimes 
less

62 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
less elastic; as a small fiddle-string is more vibra- 
tile than a thick, made of stuff less elastic. Ad- 
dition of tension quickens the sensations. Put 
any thing favoury into your lips, the nervous 
papillae raise themselves; this erection adds to
the exquisiteness of taste. Whatever encreases 
the tension of the skin increases the sensibili- 
ty of the touch. This is verified in local in- 
flammations; the nerves which are spred on the- 
skin are in a degree of laceration; hence pain; 
this, particularly, is the case in the gout. What- 
ever diminishes tension, diminishes sensibility. 
Those who are relaxed are, of course, insensible, 
dull, and phlegmatic. This is verified in people 
who oversleep, or fatigue themselves, and in pa- 
ralytics. On this, the doctrine of bleeding, purg- 
ing, fomentations, cataplasms, pumping, and bathing
is founded. 
3. EVERY one knows blood when he sees 
it. This blood is formed out of chyle, a liquor 
which resembles milk, produced from 
food, partly by the action of the sto- 
mach intestines, partly by the mix- 
ture of the bile, spittle, and other 
dissolvents, assisted, not a little, by the genial 
heat of the bowels. This chyle is absorbed by 
pipes which carry it into the common mass; 
in which it is changed by the action of 
the solids, particularly the lungs. The blood 
is contained in vessels of different bores, of which
the heart is the base. The contraction of the 
heart forces the blood into the arteries. These 
contracting, push it into the veins, thro’ which 
it is forced back again to the heart. The arte- 
ries terminate different ways. Some are continu- 
ed to the veins. Others become so small, that 
The fluids, 
their circula- 
tion. 
the

63 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
the blood cannot pass without being divided. One 
red globule divides itself into six yellow. There 
are other vessels which circulate fluids still more 
subtile. Every pipe has its particular appropria- 
tion; some accompany, and nourish the muscular 
fibres; others empty themselves into cavities des- 
tined for their reception; others absorb superabun- 
dant liquors; others filtrate, others evacuate. 
The skin is pierced every where.
4. THIS short sketch of the human mechanism 
naturally leads us to the Soul. That connection
which subsists between the soul and bo- 
dy, is more certain than clear; they 
cordially communicate their impressions to each- 
other. The nerves are the organs by which these 
impresions are communicated; the manner is still 
undetermined. Of the nature of the soul we are 
ignorant; the little that we do know, proclaims a 
God. 
The soul.
WE now proceed to inquire into the Virtues of 
the Principles demonstrated; or, in other words, 
to apply them to the human body. 
I. Air. 
FROM experiments, we learn that air appears 
to be in a state of compressure while it is immersed
in water; so as readily to escape on the 
first opportunity. It seems to exert a 
kind ot struggling motion, so as to keep 
the watry particles at a greater distance, or render 
the whole specifically lighter. Certain it is, the 
specific gravity of water appears to be considerably 
increased on the avolation of the air, tho’ the 
mineral spirit may still be left behind. Hence 
Air, its
virtues.
may

64 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
may we infer that the use of air is to rarify the
water, to render it more light and subtile, while 
it continues in its native form. This seems to 
be confirmed by experience. Water drank at the 
pump is lighter, flies up to the head, and distends 
the vessels. 
The natural heat of the body, by ratifying this 
air, widens the passages, and renders it more sub- 
tile and penetrating; thus, by entering the small- 
est vessels, it opens obstructions, and cleanses the 
smallest canals. 
The elastic quality of air may be the cause of 
that quickness, briskness, and taste, commonly 
observed in waters drank at the pump. 
Lord Bacon judges that the best water, for 
domestic uses, which evaporates fastest over the 
fire. Hippocrates supposes that to be the best, for 
the same purposes, which soonest heats and cools. 
Pyrmont waters break the bottles, especially 
when they are set near the fire, or filled up 
to the top. For this reason, it is usual to let the 
bottles stand a little before corking, that a portion
of the air may escape. A little space ought also 
to be left for the air, at the top; for nothing 
spoils liquors so much as common air. Wines, 
in casks half empty, grow vapid. Mineral wa- 
ters become sluggish and indolent. 
Mineral waters ought to be drank early in 
the morning; because the external heat, by in- 
creasing the internal motion, dissipates their elas- 
tic parts. “ Dr. Shaw remarks (of Scarborough 
“ water, p. 143 ) that, though it retains its purga- 
“ tive quality after the air is gone; yet, it seems 
“ not to pass so far into the habit of the body, 
“ nor does it produce all its effects, as when 
“ drank fresh.” In some cases, it is however 
more

65 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
more adviseable to drink it at a distance, espe- 
cially where the viscera are unfound. This cau- 
tion is particularly necessary in respect of Bath 
waters. 
II. SPIRIT. 
THE SPIRIT of waters (by experiments ad- 
duced) is allowed to consist of iron subtilized. 
By mineral spirit, we understand an elas- 
tic fluid blended with the sulphureous 
parts of minerals, and which pervades 
the bowels of the earth, so as to become the ani- 
mating principle of mineral waters. This is 
the doctrine of Boyle, Hoffman, Becher, Lis- 
ter, &c. 
Spirit, its 
Virtues.
As for the virtues of principles, we can 
account no otherwise than by examining the 
substances of which they are found to con-
sist; so, for the virtues of the Spirit, we con- 
sequently have recourse to the known properties 
of iron. The irony particles found in Bath 
waters, bear, it is true, but a small proportion, 
win point of saturation, to the common shop- 
compositions. Natural ferrugineous waters are, 
for this very reason, preferable to shop tinctures. 
or solutions, just as far as the works of almigh- 
ty chymistry exceed imperfect artificial disco- 
veries. 
The medicinal virtues of Spirit, or, in other 
words, iron subtilised, are allowed to be de- 
obstruent, and strengthening, To this spirit it
is owing, that the waters do not cool or weaken 
the body, but rather heat, and invigorate; so as 
to increase the appetite, raise the pulse, and give 
a

66 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
a rosy colour to the cheeks. This is the princi- 
ple that causes them to pass so nimbly, open ob- 
structions, and throw off peccant humours. When 
this principle comes to be lost, (as has indeed 
happened to many springs,) the most celebrated 
mineral waters lose their credit, and sink to the 
condition of common water. Thus far Spirit; 
we now proceed to the virtues of iron substantial- 
ly found in Bath waters. 
III. IRON
IRON is absorbent, it ferments with acids, and 
blunts them to such a degree as to render them
imperceptible. This fermentation in- 
creases according to the quantity of 
ore, and degree of acidity. Filings of 
iron occasion belchings, like those caused by sul- 
phureous waters. When the stomach does not 
abound with acidity, they dissolve not easily, but 
clog the stomach. They ought therefore to be 
mixed with Rhenish wine. Solutions of iron are 
strongly styptic. With infusions of most astrin- 
gents, it turns black as ink. 
Iron, its Vir- 
tues.
Salt of iron coagulates the serum of new drawn 
blood. This is not to be used as an argument a- 
gainst its use; for, in persons who have taken 
chalybeates for some time, we observe their excre- 
ments black; and, on dissection, we have observ- 
ed the Tunica villosa, in the same manner, chang- 
ed to black, but no alteration in the Lacteals, 
or any way beyond the Primae Viae. Hence may 
we infer, that it does not enter the blood, but 
seems to undergo a precipitation in the first pas- 
sages, by which it is considerably deprived of its 
stringency. This change is not proper to iron 
alone,

67 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
alone, it is common also to most astringents. 
Its astringency is distinguishable by its taste;
it occasions a nausea, sometimes vomiting.
Hence we learn its stimulus, which is greatly in- 
creased by its weight. Its corroborating quality 
is, not a little, increased by the belchings which 
it occasions; for, thereby it either generates, or 
rarefies the air, which communicates an elastic 
force to our solids, whereby they are assisted in
their functions. 
In practice, iron is preferable to steel, as it is
to all other metals. Its absorbency, astringency, 
and stimulancy, are easily demonstrated. It is al- 
so attenuant, and aperient. It is therefore useful 
in all disorders which take their rise from acidity in 
the first passages, such as Hypochondriac and Hyste-
ric Cachexy, Quartan Agues, Dropsies, Worms, Ob- 
structions of the Menses, and Immoderate discharges, 
Jaundice, Fluor Albus, Diarrhaeas, and Haermorr- 
hages. In chronical disorders, it is the sheet- 
anchor. 
Every corner of the island abounds with 
chalybeate-waters vulgarly and improperly so 
called; for, on examination, we find that they 
contain a very fine crocus of iron-ore suspended
in the watry fluid. This is hone other than that 
yellow oker which paints the sides of our baths of
a yellowish hue, and which dyes the rills which 
flow from such springs. Ferrugineous waters are 
nature’s productions, more subtile, homogeneous, 
and safe, than artificial productions tortured thro’ 
fire, or altered by the interposition of corrosive 
menstruums. Hence there arises a question, Whe- 
ther the softest Oker, or Minera ferri, found 
in the course of mineral springs, may not be 
capable of affording better chalybeate medicines 
than those usually ordered in Dispensatories? Be  
this

68 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
this as it will, we may venture to affirm, That 
where chalybeates are indicated, next to mineral 
waters, iron, in substance, is preferable to every 
human preparation. 
IV. SALTS.
SALTS comprehend that class of minerals 
which melts with heat, turns solid, hard, and
friable with cold, is soluble in water; 
by evaporation, may again be reduced 
to their original form; and are gene- 
rally pellucid and pungent to the taste. Water 
frozen puts on the form of salt. Boerhaave, in 
his chymical lectures, was wont to say, that it 
differed only from salt in its insipid property, and 
its facility in dissolving. 
Salts, their 
Virtues.
There are various salts, Marin, Gemm, Com- 
mun, Glauber. Ammon. Nitr. Alumen. Borax, Vi- 
triolic, &c. In that chapter which treats Of the 
Principles of Bath Water, we have discovered a 
salt of the nature of Borax, and a Marine. In 
that chapter which treats Of the Principles of Bris- 
tol Water, we have discovered the alkaline basis of 
sea salt. Both waters, partake of the Universal Vi- 
triolic Acid. To the virtues of these my present 
researches are chiefly confined. 
Most Salts are comprehended under the two 
general heads of Sal Marin, Gemm, or Fossile.
The first comprehends all sorts of sea salt, how- 
ever extracted, the second all those dug out of 
the earth; and, because some imagine that the 
sea derives its taste from the latter, we begin with 
that. 
1. SAL GEMMAE is a white hard pellucid crys- 
talline substance, of a more acrid pene- 
trating taste than common salt pro- 
Sal-Gem.
duced

69 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
duced from mines, the most noted of which are 
those in Poland and Catalonia. The former have 
been open ever since the year 1252; some say 
they are 180 fathoms deep. Such quantities have 
been dug; up as to leave a cavern which admits of 
spacious streets, and regular buildings, sufficient 
to contain a little commonwealth which never 
sees the fun. 
2. SAL COMMUNE MARIS consists of white cu- 
bical crystals not so solid as the former, tho’ resem- 
bling it greatly in taste, not quite so pe- 
netrating, rather a little bituminous. 
This salt is extracted from sea water by evapora- 
tion, with a mixture of animal substance. There 
are salt lakes which yield salt in the same manner. 
Sal Marin and Sal Gemmae dissolve in the same 
quantity of water; in distillation, they afford the 
same acid; either makes a menstruum for gold. 
They effervesce neither with acids nor alkalies. 
Warm water dissolves no more sea salt than 
cold. 
Sea salt. 
Their virtues are the same. They heat, dry, 
cause thirst, increase the circulation, strengthen
the solids, attenuate the fluids, quicken the ap- 
petite, promote urine and perspiration, prevent 
putrefaction, and, if given in quantity, open the 
belly. They enter the lacteals, and take the 
whole round of circulation. Mixed with the 
blood, they prevent its coagulation, nor are 
they to be altered by any of its functions; but 
pass off plentifully by urine, as the taste may
discover. 
3. BORAX is a white crystalline salt, in colour 
much resembling alum, in smaller oblong pieces,
of a penetrating nitro-saline urinous 
taste, without stipticity or smell. It is 
easily dissolved by fire, hardly by air. It is now 
Borax. 
universally

71 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
olum martis blandum, not the Vitriolum vulgare, aut 
cupri sui generis. Simple as well as fermented ve- 
gitable acids mix naturally and kindly with Bath 
and Bristol waters. This vitriolic principle is the 
medium which keeps the other principles united, 
that powerful instrument, without which all the 
rest were effete. This acid it is that subdues that 
hydra of a fever which, in many diseases, ex- 
pends the natural nourishment in unnatural secre- 
tions. Acids have, in all ages, been used as An- 
liseptics. Late experiments have only corrobora- 
ted what antient experience had discovered. 
Oxycrate was the Panacaea of Hippocrates. 
In his Commentaries on this divine author, Dr. 
Glass inculcates the use of Vinegar. Boerhaave 
(De morbis ex alcalino spontaneo) says, Curatio per- 
ficitur alimentis potibusve acescentibus, vel jam aci-
dis, sapis acetosis.—In the Confluent Small-Pox, Sy-
denham acidulated the drink with Spirit of Vi- 
triol—Mead (in the Confluent Small-Pox) says, 
Ex hoc genere praestantissima sunt Cortex Peruvianus, 
Alumen, et Spiritus, qui Oleum dicitur Vitrioli.— 
At one time, the Malignant putrid Fever employ- 
ed the pens of Huxham and Pringle. Without 
personal knowlege, or correspondence, they hard- 
ly differ in history, cause, or cure; a manifest 
proof that nature appears the same, in every age, 
to those who rationally trace her paths. In the 
eyes of both, Acids are the true Antiseptics. 
To ascertain the antiseptic quality of Salts, 
Doctor Pringle made experiments. After having
shown that alkaline salts do not promote putre- 
faction, he proceeds (page 376, Edit. I.) to exa- 
mine other salts, and, by comparing them with 
the standard Sea-salt, of all, the weakest antisep- 
tic, he found the ratio as follows;
Sea-

72 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
Sea-salt—1
Sal Gemmae—1 +
Tartar vitriolated—2
Crude Sal Ammon.—3
Nitre—4 +
Borax—12 +
Alum—30 +
V. EARTHS.
In different arts, Earth has different accepta- 
tions. Earth, in the chymical language, denotes 
a substance which every simple affords, 
soluble neither by fire nor water. Earth’s 
mixed with water, separate, turn soft, 
are sometimes suspended in it, then again fall 
down like mud, leaving the water clear, without 
communicating any tincture. These are called 
Argillae. There is another species of earth, which, 
put into water, neither crumbles nor precipitates; 
and, tho’ they imbibe a considerable quantity of 
it, yet they still retain their former figure and
consistence, These are the Cretaceae. 
Earths, their
virtues.
The former are moderately astringent and dry- 
ing; blunt acrimony, absorb humidity; with a- 
cids, acquire a sort of vitriolic quality; hence 
they strengthen lax intestines, restore the tone of
the fibres, and thus avail in many diseases of the 
first passages. Their alexipharmic quality is a 
mere creature of fancy; nor are they of any other 
use in malignant fevers than by inviscating, or 
sheathing acrid particles, not even the boasted
Boles of the shops; for they enter not the lacteals. 
The Terrae Lemniae, Silesiacae, Melitae, Lignicen- 
ses, &c. are much commended by Dioscorides for 
virtues which we have great reason to suspect. 
Common clay, or Fullers earth, freed from sand,
afford 


73 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
afford an acid spirit, and may claim the same 
virtues. 
The Cretaceae are all antacid and absorbent. 
This explains their effects. They are useful in all 
diseases arising from the corroding acrimony of 
humours in the first passages, or laxity of fibres. 
By their absorbent quality, they destroy acids; 
and, with them, turn either to a vitriolic or alu- 
minous nature; hence commended in Heart-burns, 
Diarrhaeas, &c. Experiments demonstrate this; 
for we see them effervesce with acids. Mixed 
with stale beer, it becomes sweet. If the hops 
are overcome by acids, chalk restores the bitter- 
ness, but turns vapid if not soon used. Chalk
calcined affords a calx viva, that of the Dispensa- 
tory. Tournefort affirms that chalk heats water, 
I never made the experiment. 
VI. SULPHUR.
SULPHUR is a mineral susible in a small de- 
gree of heat, volatile in a stronger, inflammable, 
emits a blue flame, and a suffocating
vapour. Sulphur opens the belly, and 
promotes insensible perspiration; it 
passes thro’ the whole habit, and manifestly tran- 
spires through the pores, as appears from the sul- 
phureous smell of patients who use it, as also from 
tinging silver, in their pockets. It is a celebrated
remedy in cutaneous disorders, internally and ex- 
ternally applied. It prevents the purulent dia- 
thesis of the blood. It is antiseptic, it prevents 
the intestinal motion of animal fluids, and fer- 
mentation of vegetables. It corrects saline acri- 
mony, preserves the tone of the solids, and in- 
creases sweat, as well as perspiration. It con- 
tains most of the virtues of the Balm of Gilead, 
Sulphur, its 
virtues. 
D it

74 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
it preserves the tone of the vessels without mak- 
ing them rigid or flexible. It promotes expectora- 
tion, and heals ulcers of the lungs. It is also an- 
thelmintic. By the mixture of sulphur, mercury
becomes inactive; when antimonial or mercurial 
medicines exceed in operation, sulphur abates 
their violence; it checks the highest salivation, 
but never ought to be administered in cases at- 
tended with inflammation. Arsenic is rendered 
almost innocent by mixture with sulphur. This 
we have seen confirmed by that experiment made 
to discover the existence of sulphur in Bath wa- 
ters; for, as we there observed, it is well known, 
that arsenic will always attract sulphur, be the 
quantity never so small. 
Hence we infer, That should a small propor- 
tion of arsenic adhere to the sulphur, it, pos- 
sibly, may not, hence, receive any poisonous
quality. 
VII. WATER. 
NOR Is the simplest water destitute of medici- 
nal virtues. By its moisture, thinness, or rare- 
faction, it is wondrously serviceable in 
preserving and restoring health. It dis- 
solves thick viscid humours, dilutes mor- 
bific salts, and discharges coagulations. 
Water, its 
virtues. 
The fountains at Schlensingen, Bebra and Oste- 
rode, contain no other principle than the simple
fluid. They have nevertheless signalized their 
virtues in the Stone, Gravel, Scurvy, Rheumatism, 
&c.—St. Winifred’s Well in Flint- 
shire, of itself, a natural curiosity: 
without intermission, or variation, it 
raises above a hundred tons of water in a minute. 
This water is void of every mineral particle, tho’ 
St. Wini- 
fred’s Well. 
it

75 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
it rises in the midst of hills abounding with mine- 
rals. It possesses an uncommon portion of the 
Spiritus Rector, by some called Spiritus Mundi, or 
Universalis. Was this water applied to practice, 
doubtless it would perform, cures in many dis- 
orders. 
THE Holy-well at Malvern is a spring of un- 
common purity. Two quarts evaporated in an 
open silver vessel, left only half a grain 
of earth, with a quantity of saline mat- 
ter, so inconsiderable, that it could not 
be estimated. From experience, confirmed by 
Cases incontrovertible, we learn, That it has prov- 
ed eminently serviceabls in scrophulous cases, old 
ulcers and fistulas, obstructed glands, schirrous and 
cancerous cases, disorders of the eyes and eye-lids, dis- 
orders of the urinary passages, cutaneous diseases,
coughs scorbutic and scrophulous, loss of appetite, and
profuse female discharges; for the truth of which 
we appeal to Doctor Wall’s judicious Experiments 
and Observations on Malvern Waters. 
Malvern
water. 
THE Circulation preserves the body from cor- 
ruption. Animal juices prove corruptible in a 
state of warmth, rest, and moisture. To preserve 
the circulation of balmy juices, it is necessary 
that the blood should be continually refreshed by 
an aereal, elastic, similar fluid. Water is agree- 
able to the animal juices. The blood contains 
two parts of serum to one of red globules. It 
contains besides an aereal, aethereal, subtile prin- 
ciple, manifestly appearing by its bubbling in va- 
cuo. Nothing therefore can be so natural to the 
human frame; nothing can so well preserve life. 
Water divides viscous sizy humours. It dilutes 
saline earthy scorbutic salts. These it discharges 
by the proper emunctories or outlets of the 
body. 
D2 There

76 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ There are springs hot and cold, says Hoffman, 
which (by the strictest examination) manifest not 
the leaft sign of mineral, and yet are highly valu- 
able. The waters of Toplitz nearly resemble the 
Piperine springs in Rhetia; they are extremely 
hot. Though they preserve their native purity 
mixed with acids, or alkali’s; tho’, on evapora- 
tion, they leave no solid substance behind, yet 
they have considerable virtues in disorders exter- 
nal, and internal. The Schlangenbad springs of 
Hesse contain no saline, earthy, irony, or o- 
ther mineral principle that art can extract. By
drinking and bathing, they nevertheless perform
surprising cures. The waters of Wilhelms-brun 
throw up abundance of bubbles in vacuo; they 
neither grow thick, nor precipitate any thing on 
the addition of oil of Tartar, a solution of silver, or 
sugar of lead. They suffer no change from the 
common experiments of galls, acids, alkali’s, &c.” 
Most of the cold springs at Bath are hard. Dr. 
Lucas examined the water of the Mill-spring op- 
posite to the Hot-well; he found it sparkle like 
the Poubon. It loses none of its pellucidity on 
standing open for hours. It weighed one grain 
less than distilled water. With acids or alkali’s, 
it gave very slight appearances, &c. On evapo- 
ration it only gave five grains of residuum to a 
pint. The virtues of such waters probably de- 
pend on their levity and subtilty. The purer 
perhaps the more powerful. 
Water-drinkers are the most healthy, and long
lived. Water is the best menstruum for dissolv- 
ing aliment, extracting chyle, and carrying them 
through their proper canals. Water dissolves that 
viscous slime which lines the glandular coats of 
the stomach and duodenum. Nor is water incon- 
sistent with fruit; for in Spain, Portugal, and 
France,


77
BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
France, water is the common beverage, and fruit 
the greatest part of diet. Water-drinkers are re- 
markable for white teeth for rottenness of the 
teeth is caused by scurvy, a disease prevented 
by the use of water. Water-drinkers are much 
brisker chan those who indulge in ale. Malt- 
liquors blunt the appetite, and hebitate the senses, 
they are fit only for men accustomed to labour, or 
exercise. Persons of delicate constitutions and se- 
dentary lives ought to accustom themselves to cold 
water, and wine. 
Water not only prevents, but cures diseases. 
Fevers are occasioned by an increased velocity of
the fluids, and a rigidity of the solids. These 
create heat. Heat dissipates the thinnest part of 
the fluids. The remainder forms obstructions. 
The blood must be diluted, heat and inflamma- 
tion allayed, stagnating juices propelled, and mor- 
bific matter discharged. No medicine bids so 
fair for these purposes as water. By ptisans alone, 
Hippocrates cured fevers in his days more judi- 
ciously and more certainly far than we with all 
our modern specifics. He was truly the minister 
of nature. We commit violence on nature every 
day. 
Chronical diseases take their rise from obstruc- 
tions, or foulness of the juices. By mineral wa- 
ters, surprisig cures are daily performed. Those 
cures are principally owing to the pure element. 
Numberless are the instances of waters perform- 
ing cures when no vestige of mineral could be 
discovered. 
1. Dr. Baynard says, “ I once knew a gen- 
“ tleman of plentiful fortune who fell into de- 
“ cay: while he was in the King’s 
“ Bench, his wife and children lived 
“ on bread and water. Never did I see such a 
Cases.
D3 change.

78 GENERAL VIRTUES OF
“ change. The children, who were always ail- 
“ ing and valetudinary, in coughs, green sick- 
“ ness. King’s-evil, &c. now looked fresh, well- 
“ coloured, and plump.” 
2. “ He tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, 
“ who, from a leaky ship, was set on shore on- 
“ the desolate island Juan Fernandes, where he 
“ lived four years, and four months; during 
“ which time he eat nothing but goats flesh, 
“ without bread or salt, and drank nothing but
“ fair water. He told me, at the Bath, where 
“ I met him, that he was three times stronger 
“ than ever he had been. But, being taken up 
“ by the Duke and Dutchess Privaters of Bristol,
“ and living on ship’s provisions, his strength 
“ left him crinitim, like Sampson’s hair; in one 
“ month’s time, he had no more strength than
“ another man.” 
To recount the virtues of the compound were 
to anticipate particular disquisitions with cases, 
or cures incontrovertible. From reason 
and experience I may venture, in gene- 
ral, to affirm, that where the disease is curable, 
where the director knows his tools, and where 
the patient co-operates, Bath and Bristol waters 
are inferior to none. And that where they have 
hurt, they have been injudiciously administered.
Conclusion.  
How inelegant our preparations of iron com- 
pared to nature’s solution in its own universal 
acid! Who can suspend 1/35 part of a grain of iron
in a pint of water? How harsh our preparations 
of oil, or elixir of vitriol, compared to nature’s 
Vitriolic Acid? If we may thus expatiate on the 
particular virtues of separate ingredients, what 
may we not expect from the united efforts of 
The ONE GREAT WHOLE! How light in the 
balance are the labours of a Helmont, to the pro- 
cesses

79 BATH AND BRISTOL WATERS.
cesses of Almighty Chymistry! When mineral wa- 
ters purge, they occasion no loss of strength. 
When they pass by urine, they cause no stran- 
gury. When they promote perspiration, they oc- 
casion no fainting. Persons of all ages, sexes, 
and constitutions, drink mineral waters success- 
fully. With the celebrated F. Hoffman we 
may venture to pronounce, “ Mineral Waters
“ come, the nearest, in nature, to what has
“ vainly been searched after, an Universal Medi- 
“ cine; nor can this be disputed, but by such
“ as derive their arguments from ignorance, or 
“ indolence.”
D4 OF

80 DISEASES CURED 
OF
DISEASES 
CURED BY
BATH WATER.
FROM the days of Hippocrates, to the be- 
ginning of the present century, the study of 
physic may be said to have continued 
vague, indefinite, and uncertain. There 
were heresies in divinity, so there were in physic. 
Every age produced men eminent in the profes- 
sion, Bellini’s, Baglivis, Pitcairns, and Friends. 
Every student was prepossessed in favour of some 
particular system. As was the theory, such was 
the practice. By sweeping away scholastic jargon, 
Boerhaave happily reduced the healing art to rea- 
son and simplicity. In his Treatise De Cognoscen- 
dis & Curandis Morbis, he has selected, and classes 
the several doctrines, under particular heads. In 
his Principia Medicinae, Doctor Home may truly 
be said to have surpassed his great master. In 
point of mineral science, this nation may be said
to be yet at the threshold only. Indolence has 
circumscribed the powers of Bath and Bristol wa- 
ters to the same diseases in which they were ad- 
ministred in the days of our forefathers. Bath 
waters are condemned in the very disorders in 
which they act as specifics. Treading in the steps 
Preamble. 
of

81 BY BATH WATER.
of the celebrated Boerhaave, and the ingenious 
Home; and shaking off prejudices of all sorts, it 
is my purpose, 1. To lay down rational deduc- 
tions of those diseases in which they are said to 
have been useful. 2. To extend their practice to
new diseases; and 3. To confirm these deduc- 
tions by memorable cures, or Cases. This is the 
plan pursued by the Doctors Cocci and Lim- 
bourg, in their elaborate Treatises on the wa- 
ters of Pisa, and Spa. In this mirrour, distant 
practitioners may be satisfied in what cases Bath
and Bristol waters are indicated. By perusing 
similar cases, patients may be encouraged to fly 
to the same cities of refuge. Bath and Bristol 
waters are not to be recommended as panacaeas; 
like other active medicines, they may, and do
often exceed their bounds. 
D5 CHAP.

82 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. V.
OF 
DISORDERS
OF THE
FIRST PASSAGES.
DISORDERS of the first passages are, of 
all others, the most difficult to cure, and
the most apt to recur. Yet, what is as true as 
surprising; there are hardly any less handled, or 
less uhderstood. 
To form an adequate idea of status, ructation,
belching, or wind, it may be necessary to take a
slight survey of the doctrine of Diges- 
tion. Chymists, when they would 
digest any substance, first pound it in a mor- 
tar, then pour a liquor on it; next set it in a 
warm place, shaking the containing vessel from
time to time. Art is only nature’s ape. Before the
art of chymistry was known, nature performed 
this process in the stomach of animals every day. 
By the most curious configuration of parts, and
action of muscles, our food is ground down by 
the teeth, then moistened by the spittle. It is 
then protruded down the gullet, where it is sof- 
tened by an unctuous humour distilled from the 
glands of that canal. Thence it slips into the 
stomach, where it is farther diluted. There it is
subtilised by internal air, macerated by the heat 
of the circumabient viscera, agitated by the per- 
petual friction of the muscular coat of the sto- 
mach, by the pulsation of the arteries, by the al- 
Digestion.
ternate.

83 BY BATH WATER.
ternate elevation and depression of the midriff, as 
also by the compression of the muscles of the 
lower belly. From the stomach it is propelled 
into the small guts, in the form of a thick uni- 
form ash-coloured fluid. There it receives a 
thick yellow bitter bile from the gall bladder, 
another scarce yellow or bitter, from the liver, 
with a limpid mild fluid from the sweet-bread. 
These liquors resolve viscid substances, incorpo- 
rate oily and watry; and, thus prepare the food 
for entering into those vessels which convey the 
chyle to the circulation. This constitutes diges- 
tion, or concoction, a process worthy of the con- 
sideration of those who undertake the cure of 
disorders of the stomach and guts. 
While digestion is perfect, wind passes freely
upwards, or downwards; the stomach is never 
swelled, pained, or inflated. The aliment under- 
goes no considerable change. When digestion is 
imperfect, the patient complains of pain, belch- 
ing, inflation, cholic, sourness, heart-burn, vo- 
miting, looseness, &c. There is an elastic air 
carried down with whatever we eat, or drink. 
The spittle abounds with froth. Air is even car- 
ried with the chyle into the blood. There is a 
perpetual fund for wind or flatus, pain; &c. 
That the stomachs of animals who follow the 
dictates of nature should continue found, we 
need not be surprised. But, that the stomachs of
animals who offer violence to nature every hour, 
should continue found, can only be imputed to 
the wisdom of him who fashioned our clay. High 
fauces, discordant mixtures, immoderate cram- 
ming, heats and colds generate air, distend the 
stomach, and shut up both orifices. By continu- 
ing in the stomach, the food ferments and petri- 
fies; fermentation, putrefaction and rarifaction
D6 distend


84 DISEASES CURED
distend the fibres to their full stretch; thus they 
produce pain. When the upper orifice comes to 
be relaxed, part of the air rushes up into the 
gullet where it is again confined by fresh spasm; 
there it produces the sense of a ball, which pres- 
sing on the membranous back part of the wind- 
pipe, brings on difficulty of breathing. When 
the lower orifice comes, to be relaxed, the pent- 
up air rushes along the course of the guts, pro- 
ducing spasms, pains, cholics, &c. Animal hu- 
mours naturally putrify, and produce an acid sui 
generis. This acid passing along with air velli- 
cates and distends the intestinal fibres, producing
pains, belchings, vomitings, stools, &c. Re- 
pulsions of cuticular eruptions give rise also to
disorders of the stomach. There is a particular 
sympathy between the nerves of the stomach and 
those of the extremities. Those who are subject
to chilliness of the feet are very liable to cholics. 
THE INDICATIONS which naturally arise, are 
to cleanse and strengthen. Vomits and purges 
clear the intestinal tube of that filth 
which vellicates the fibres. In order 
to cure those who have been long, in a man- 
ner starved, it is necessary to fill the vessels with 
good blood; good blood cannot be obtained with- 
out good digestion. To mend the digestion, sto- 
machics are indicated; the best stomachics are
bitters and steel. In disorders of the first passages, 
patients are generally languid, emaciated, dispi- 
rited and desponding; they hardly can be prevail- 
ed on to submit to evacuants, strengthners, anti- 
spasmodics, emenagogues, nervous, and other me- 
dical intentions. 
Indications.
MINERAL WATERS answer every intention; 
mineral waters fill the vessels with good blood; 
mineral waters are the only remedies which (in 
these

85 BY BATH WATER.
these cases) operate cito, tute, et jucunde. To au- 
thorities antient and modern I appeal. 
I. OF DEGLUTITION.
THE finger of the Almighty is fairly to be 
traced in every member of the human frame, in 
none more stupendously perhaps than in those or- 
gans which serve the purposes of Deglutition. 
Those operations which conspire to this great 
purpose are so various, manifold, and delicate, 
that nothing but almighty providence can account
for the duration of so exquisite a machine during
the period of life. If deglutition is hurt, diges- 
tion, chylification, and all the other animal func- 
tions cease. For want of sustenance, man starves 
and dies. “ Jam operosa fit arte deglutitio, tot 
“ conspirantes organorum adeo multiplicium & 
“ concurrentium actiones huc requiruntur; unde 
“ laeditur frequenter, varie; & scitur cur a cibo
“ sicco areant, rigescant, nec deglutire plus va- 
“ lent fauces; Cur, perdita uvula, deglutienti 
“ tussis, et suffocationis minae? Cur, sisso velo 
“ palatino, deglutienda per nares exitum molian- 
“ tur? Velum mobile palati valvulae officio sun- 
“ gi narium respectu; & musculi deprimentis, 
“ ratione pharyngis, inde quoque constat.” 
Boerhaav. Institut. Med. pag. 49. 
When the action of swallowing has defied the 
utmost researches of art, Bath water has perform- 
ed wonders. 
1. From Dr. Pierce we have the two following
facts. “ Mr. Yarburgh a gentleman of 56, hav- 
“ ing (for many years) been subject to 
“ a difficulty in swallowing, liquids es-
“ pecially, came to Bath. He had con- 
“ sulted a variety of physicians, who, accord- 
Pierce's
Cases.
3 “ ing

86 DESEASES CURED
“ ing to their idea of the disease, treated him all 
“ differently. 
“ He swallowed the waters with no small diffi- 
“ culty at first; but, by degrees, that obstacle 
“ was removed. He had his neck and stomach 
“ pumped in the Bath. He went away very much 
“ advantaged.” 
2. “ Mrs. Kirby of Bishops-Waltham, aged 40, 
“ had (some years past) a scarlet fever; and, be- 
“ ing put into a sweat, took cold, which brought 
“ on a defluxion of cold rheum, which had like 
“ to have suffocated her. From that time, she 
“ had a more than ordinary streightness, with 
“ some difficulty of swallowing. Two or three 
“ years after, having a violent haemorrhage from
“ both nostrils, which, by cold applications, was 
“ as often stopped; but in March 1693, falling 
“ a bleeding in the night, she was blooded to a
“ great quantity, which brought on a thorough 
“ inability of deglutition. She could chew, and, 
“ with her tongue, thrust it back to the top of 
“ the gullet, but down it would not go without 
“ the help of her finger, which often she was 
“ obliged to do, for fear of starving. 
“ At first, she hardly could swallow the water 
“ by spoonfuls. Soon afterwards she drank half 
“ a pint at a draught, and three pints in the 
“ morning, and more. After a month’s drink- 
“ ing, I advised pumping her neck and throat. 
“ After six months she went home so much re- 
“ covered, that fine continued well all the winter. 
“ She returned in summer, drank and pumped, 
“ as before, with no small addition to her former 
“ benefit.” 
3. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ Madam Philips (in a palsy of the muscles 
“ of

87 BY BATH WATER. 
“ of the throat) by bathing and drinking received 
“ great benefit.” 
“ OF those who drink waters on account of 
“ the weakness of the organs serving for nutri- 
“ tion, Baccius (De Thermis, page III) 
“ says, There are not a few who want 
“ corroborant baths. Of corroborant, 
“ or comforting waters, the common ratio is that, 
“ by a peculiar virtue, or, by equality of tempe- 
“ rament, they may so confirm the nature of par- 
“ ticular viscera that they may be enabled to re- 
“ ject superfluous humours; of this virtue are 
“ the waters of Grotta, Villa sub Luca, &c. Such
“ we may pronounce the Bath waters. 
Antient ana-
logical gene- 
ral proofs.
“ There are waters which have the property 
“ of exsuding phlegm, viscidities, and crudities 
“ of all sorts, such as the Porretanae, which con- 
“ tain alum, and a little iron. The Albulae are 
“ noted Diuretics. Salt waters generally act by 
“ vomit. Those waters called Atramentosa vomit 
“ violently, such as that of the Styx in Arcadia, 
“ by which, it is said, that Alexander the con- 
“ queror of the world was killed. There are o- 
“ ther waters which stop vomiting and nausea, 
“ iron wraters especially.” 
In hot affections of the stomach the antients 
prescribed baths gently cooling, of the iron kind. 
Acid waters were also recommended internally, 
and externally. In dry, desperate debilities of
the stomach, they used tepid baths of common 
soft water. In sighings, they ordered cold water 
at meals. In Cholera’s Galen ordered glysters of 
salt water, drinking warm water. In the Passio 
Caeliaca, and lienteric crude fluxes, Celsus success- 
fully recommended refrigerant iron opening wa- 
ters. The same were ordered in redundancies of 
black bile, with saburration, and arenation. 
For

88 DISEASES CURED
For creating appetite the nitrous, salt, and wa- 
ters, such as the Grotta, were recommended. 
These, convalescents and women with child ap- 
proached safely. 
“ Per haec itaque quae communiter nutrito- 
“ riis accommodata sunt remedia, facile Balnea 
“ quae ventriculum juvant, inferemus, says Bac- 
“ cius De Thermis, page 112. Corroborant enim, 
“ ac frigida simul et sub callidae faciunt tem- 
“ periei eadem balnea tam epotae, quam, in bal- 
“ neis ebibitae, et quae ex ea ortum habent af- 
“ fectiones, debilitatem, ac dolorem tollunt ven- 
“ triculi. Calidis vero harum partium intempe- 
“ ramentis succurrendum per balnea quae modice 
“ refrigerant, reprimantque, astrictoria facultate, 
“ ut, ex Ferratis, appositiffima eft Ficuncella aqua 
“ in potibus, Villa Lucae, Sanctae Crucis ad 
“ Baias. 
“ Acidae vero aquae omni, id genus, calidae 
“ intemperiae propriae, quales ad Anticolum in
“ Campania, &c. 
“ Ubi enim confirmata intemperies vicit hu- 
“ midum, sicca ac desperanda introducitur ven- 
“ triculi tabes, aquis dulcibus temperatis con- 
“ sulendum, ac per Hydrolaei fotus. Singultui 
“ vero per frigidam cibis superbibitam, ac te- 
“ pidam. 
“ Choleram vero sedant, in fine, Ficuncellae, 
“ Porretanae, Villa Lucae, &c. nec minus Clyste- 
“ res ex salsa, auctore Galeno. 
“ Subcutiles aquas videtur probasse Celsus in 
“ Caeliaca passione, ac Lienteriae fluxibus quibus
“ Grottae potiones egregie medentur, et aliae ex 
“ serri natura, refrigerantes, astringentesque, va- 
“ cuando, ut Porretanae. 
“ Atra vero bile, in ventriculo vexatis, eaedem 
“ dem consuluntur, cum Arenatione. 
“ Ad

89 BY BATH WATER.
“ Ad excitandam vero appetentiam nitratae fa- 
“ ciunt et salsae, et acida privata facultate, qua- 
“ les Grottae, quae reconvalescentes etiam et praeg- 
“ nantes circa noxam appetere promittunt. Nox- 
“ am vero e diverso Caninae famis voracitatem co- 
“ hibent Cellenses ebibitae in Helvetiis.” 
FOR the operation, and effects of Bathing in 
these, and other diseases, I beg leave to refer the 
reader to my Attempt to revive that practice. Suffice 
it here, in general to affirm, That, in cholics, 
gripes, atrophy, cramps, and other internal mala- 
dies, bathing cures where drinking fails. 
II. OF DEPRAVED APPETITE.
1. “ Dr. Pierce mentions the case of Sir Wil- 
“ liam Clark, Captain of Horse, who, (by colds
“ and other irregularities attending 
“ winter campaigns) had wholly lost his
“ appetite. He supplied in drink what
“ he was deficient in eating. These brought on 
“ a Cachexy, he looked yellow in the face, reach- 
“ ed in the morning, was tired, fainty, and sub- 
“ ject to a diarrhaea. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ In this state he came to Bath April 1693. 
“ Willing to be well, but hating to take phy- 
“ sic, or even to drink the waters regularly, he
“ bathed sometimes, and drank sometimes, by 
“ which he recovered wonderfully. His vomit- 
“ ing ceased, his looseness stopped, he eat mut- 
“ ton and drank sack. His complexion cleared, 
“ he returned to Flanders to his duty.” 
2. “ Mr. Ellesby Minister of Chiswick came 
“ down very faint, weak and stomachless about 
“ the middle of April 1690. Every thing that he 
“ eat he threw up. He was withal in great pain.
“ he

90 DISEASES CURED
“ he could neither sleep at night, nor sit easy by 
“ day. He had the jaundice also. 
“ He drank the waters for ten days, and found 
“ no benefit. But, at length, the waters opened 
“ his body, which was always costive, cleared 
“ the first passages, restore his appetite, and a- 
“ bated his pains. He returned in August, and, 
“ by that trial, was so much mended, that he 
“ whose voice could not be heard across a bed- 
“ chamber, preached in our large church with 
“ great applause.” 
Baynard's
Cases.
Dr. Baynard (speaking of Bath wa- 
ters) says, “ In decayed stomachs, and 
“ scorbutic atrophies, and most diseases of the 
“ liver and spleen, I hardly ever knew them 
« fail.” 
3. “ Madam B. a Lady of quality, loathed 
“ every thing she smelt or saw; she was so weak 
“ that she hardly could stand; she vomited up 
“ every thing, she took little or no rest, her 
“ pulse was hardly perceptible, her eyes sunk, 
“ with ructations, cholic pains, hysteric fits, and
“ clammy sweats. 
“ When I first saw her, I considered her in 
“ Lady Loyd’s case exactly, when the vital flame 
“ was blinking in the socket (by the cautious use 
“ of Bath waters, and Bitters) she had a new life 
“ put to lease. 
“ This lady was so very weak that at first I 
“ gave her only two or three spoonfuls of wa- 
“ ter, and about an hour after, a little more 
“ water, then bitters, and so by degrees, I 
“ brought her to bear half a pint hot from the 
“ pump, which staid without loathing, or vo- 
“ miting. 
“ She now began to bear the smell of meats, 
“ she took a little chicken broth, then eat a little 
“ meat;

91 BY BATH WATER.
meat; and in the space of nine or ten weeks, 
“ recovered so, that when she walked in the Grove,
“ she was pointed at, saying, There’s the Lady 
“ who was so weak.” 
4. “ A gentleman with a decayed stomach, 
“ wan and pale look, staggering under a load 
“ of nothing but skin and bone. From a strong
“ young man, wine, women and watching had 
“ reduced him to a mere skeleton, he could not
“ swallovv the least sustenance without vomit- 
“ ing.
“ By the use of the water, and temperance, he 
“ came to his stomach; his flesh plumped, his 
“ colour returned. In ten weeks he was as well 
“ as ever.” 
5. From Dr. Guidot’s Register wc have the fol- 
lowing. “ Henry Owen of Threadneedle-street, 
“ troubled with an indigestion, wind, 
“ obstruction of urine, and tormenting 
“ pains of the bowels, came to Bath 
“ the second time, the first having proved ineffec- 
“ tual, where he drank only three pints for a 
“ week, and bathed fifteen, times in the Cross- 
“ bath, in which he drank three pints of water, 
“ and received a cure. After leaving off, he 
“ voided a great quantity of fabulous matter for 
“ three months time by urine; and now, from a 
“ thin consumptive, and deplored spectacle, he
“ is become fleshy, of a good countenance, 
“ and laudable healthy temper. This account 
“ I had from his own mouth, February 1686.” 
Guidot's
Cases.
IN restoring the tone of stomachs 
destroyed by hard drinking, Bath water 
may truly be said to be specific. It 
were superfluous to produce examples, the fact is 
notorious.
Hard drink-
ing. 
III.

92 DISEASES CURED
III. OF PAINS OF THE STOMACH.
STOMACH PAINS have obtained various names, 
Cardialgia, Attritio Ventriculi, Heart-burn, &c. 
These are supposed to be caused by the 
action of corrosive humours on that 
plexus nervorum which covers the orifice 
of the stomach, and which takes its rise from the 
Par vagum, or eight pair of Willis. 
Stomach 
aches.
1. “ Juvenis quidam stomachum debilem ha- 
“ bebat, et per ingestionem, saepe lien- 
“ terias passus est, corpore macilento
“ haemorhoidibus afflicto. Bene pur- 
“ gaturn ad balneum Villae Luccae ac- 
“ cedere juffi, et convaluit.” 
Proofs anti- 
ent and ana- 
logical. Ugu- 
linus De Bal- 
neisa Pisanis.
2. “ Dominus Maltesta pessime dispositus erat 
“ in putritivis; per annos tredecem, vexatus e- 
“ rat fluxu stomachico & hepatico, corpore ex- 
“ tenuato, haemorhoidas patiente, cum ardore u- 
“ rinae; erat etiam podagricus. Caepi ab aped- 
“ tivis quae statim prosuerunt; postremo balne- 
“ um consului, medicis aliis reclamantibus. Ivit
“ et mire convaluit.” 
 3. From Dr. Pierce we have the following Cases, 
and first of his own wife. “ She had long been
“ subject to pains in her stomach, she 
“ had the advice of all the physicians 
“ who attended the court hither, and 
“ all to no purpose. She had been naturally sub- 
“ ject to a consumption, and was worn out by 
“ pain. 
Pierce's
Cases.
“ She began these waters at last, and went on 
“ with that success, that, in a little time, she 
“ began to be at ease, and was at length freed 
“ from her pains; she recovered her lost appe- 
“ tite, gathered flesh and strength, and continued 
“ free 


93 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from her returns of pain longer than after 
“ any course of physic she had taken before. 
“ Whenever she found any bodings of pain, she 
“ applied to the waters at any season, and found 
“ her cure.” 
4. “ Sir Willoughby Aston was violently seized 
“ with this Cardialgia, and finding no relief in 
“ the country, he was hackneyed away to Tun- 
“ bridge-wells by an eminent physician of London. 
“ These increased his pain so that he seemed to be 
“ inwardly convulsed. 
“ He came into my house on the twelfth of 
“ September 1693, his torture was so great that 
“ he was forced to take anodynes, and that fre- 
“ quently. Without any other preparation than 
“ an anodyne the first night, he drank three pints
“ next morning, which, after a while, was in- 
“ creased to two quarts, or more. In one week 
“ he had manifest abatement of his pain, and, in
“ a month, was perfectly well.” 
5. “ Sir James Rushout came to Bath in No- 
“ vember 1760. Besides violent pains he com- 
“ plained of four corroding eructations, which
“ he compared to vinegar, oil of vitriol, and aqua 
“ fortis. Long had he been troubled with it, and 
“ much had been done for it, all to no purpose. 
“ He brought down directions and medicines 
“ with him from town. The waters passed well 
“ enough, he had some degree of abatement of 
“ pain. After about three weeks, they began to 
“ discharge quantities of adust choler by stool, 
“ which alarming his family, they applied to 
“ me. I encouraged the flux, as by it, I 
“ found his complaints abated. Thus he reco- 
vered.
6. From

94 DISEASES CURED
6. From Dr. Guidot’s Register we have the fol- 
lowing. “ George Kelly of Covent–  
“ Garden, Barber, aged 23, had been 
“ long afflicted, and almost worn out 
“ by tormenting pains in his stomach and guts, 
“ with a hectic fever. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters fourteen days, from 
three pints to eight, and, at a fortnight's end, 
“ received considerable benefit. He bathed four 
“ times; and, in one month’s time, was perfect- 
“ ly restored.”
7. Ten years ago, Mr. Hone of London, 
Painter, came down for belching, flatulency, indi- 
gestion, and total loss of appetite. By 
drinking the waters, his complaints va- 
nished almost the very first week. He 
continued however to play with the waters five 
weeks longer, returned well, and continues to
this day. 
Author’s 
Cases.
8. Mr. Jackson of London, Irish Linen-Mer- 
chant, came down about the same lime, and 
with the same complaints, he found a cure al- 
most as soon. 
9. At the request of my worthy friend Dr. 
Campbell of Hereford, I visited his father, Mr. 
John Campbell, man-midwife at Sutton near Chip-
penham, aged seventy, of an excellent constitu- 
tion and regular life. 
His Tunica albuginea, nails, and skin were 
yellow, so was his urine. He bad been subject
to Agues. His Stomach had lost; its digestive and
expulsive faculties. For a week or two his food 
lay quiet, and yet he had a stool almost regularly 
once a day. When his stomach was quite dis- 
tended, he felt a sense of weight, pressure, and 
uneasiness for some days. These were succeeded 
by racking pain, violent reachings, and excessive 
shakings,


95 BY BATH WATER.
shakings, or rather shiverings, which terminated 
in profound sleep. After the paroxysm, the yel- 
lowness, and itching was universal. The last 
continued, the first disappeared in a few days. 
I recommended the Bath waters. His hopes, 
and wishes were for death. Much against his in- 
clination, I forced him into my chaise, and con- 
ducted him to Bath. Without preparation, I put 
him on drinking the waters, first, in small quan- 
tities, gradually increased. His intermissions were 
longer, his appetite, spirits, and hopes increased. 
His paroxysms however returned. 
Despairing of cure, and tired of life, he would
go home at the end of six weeks. He drank the 
waters at home, a pint twice a day, with forty 
drops of Elix. Vitriol, acid, always once, some- 
times twice a day. The effects are extracted 
from his Letter of date Nov. 4, 1761, now be- 
fore me, “ For the first month two or three se- 
“ vere attacks. My fits then abated until they 
“ quite ceased. The universal itching continued
“ for months. Now I am well; my urine has 
“ been natural a great while. I have a very 
“ good appetite, which I check, as you desired, 
“ I now and then venture on a wing or breast 
“ of a fowl; I long for meat. My waters, and 
“ my drops I continue, and resolve so to do 
“ (God willing) through the winter. I have 
“ changed your opening tincture for Sal Absynth. 
“ and Mercur. dulcis, which are more agreeable. 
“ I have had two severe bouts of purging. In 
“ other respect I am as well as a man of my 
“ time of life can be, for which, though you 
“ forced me to my cure, be pleased (Worthiest 
“ Sir) to accept of the thanks of 
“ Your most obliged humble Servant, 
“ John Campbell. ”
10. Miss

96 DISEASES CURED
10. Miss Davies was sent down from London 
for an acidity and pain in her stomach. She 
found relief the very first week.—The last four 
took not ten shillings worth of medicine among 
them. 
11. The Reverend Mr. Simons of Kent deli- 
vered the following history into my hands, which 
he desired should be published. “ About the mid- 
“ dle of September 1760, I was first taken ill 
“ with a pain of my bowels, and, in a day or two, 
“ it became most excruciating. Nothing past 
“ through me; but, in few days, these symp- 
“ toms were removed, by the aid of medicine. 
“ I remained however totally without appetite, 
“ my digestion was extremely weak, and I had, 
“ at times, great pain in my stomach. By change 
“ of air, exercise, and medicine, I got rid of 
“ my pain, but the want of appetite, and diges- 
“ tion still remained, so that I became much e- 
“ maciated, and so weak that, at times, I was like 
“ to faint away. 
“ In December I came to Bath, and began to 
“ drink the waters. The pain of my stomach 
“ returned; I continued nevertheless to drink 
“ them, and was taken with a violent vomiting, 
“ which was relieved by medicine. I continued 
“ the waters, and rode out in a chaise, in which
“ I was very ill. 
“ In a few days my appetite returned, and my 
“ pains left me, and returned no more. I con- 
“ tinued nevertheless to drink the waters for six 
“ weeks at that time, and returned next Novem- 
“ ber to confirm my cure. I drink them now, 
“ and (thanks to God, and the waters) am in very
“ good health.” 
IV.


97 BY BATH WATERS.
IV. OF THE BILIOUS CHOLIC. 
THE BILIOUS CHOLIC is a violent pain which 
begins with a fever that lasts a few hours. The 
bowels seem to be tied together, or 
pursed up and perforated as it were with 
a sharp-pointed instrument. The pain abates 
and comes on again. In the beginning, the pain
is not so certainly fixed in one place, nor the vo- 
miting so frequent, the belly yields with less diffi- 
culty to purgatives. But, the more the pain in- 
creases, the more obstinately it fixes in one place, 
the vomiting returns the oftener, and the belly is 
more costive, till it generates at length into an 
Iliac Passion. 
Description.
This disorder is distinguished from a fit of the
Stone by the following signs. 
In the stone, the pain is fixed in the 
kidney, and extends from thence along 
the ureter to the testicle. 
Difference 
between a fit 
of the cholic, 
and that of 
the Stone. 
In the cholic, it shifts and straitens the 
belly, as if it was bound with a girdle. 
In the cholic, the pain increases after eating. In 
the stone, it rather abates. 
The cholic is more relieved by purging and vo- 
miting than the stone. 
In the stone, the urine is at first clear and thin, 
but afterwards lets fall a sediment, and afterwards
gravel and small pieces of stone. 
In the cholic, the urine is turbid from the be- 
ginning. 
In Disorders of the Intestines Baccius declares the 
power ot mineral waters, pag. 114. “ Pertinent 
“ autem ad Intestinorum affectiones 
“ tam jure potus quam balnei omnia 
“ quae paulo ante ad nutritionis instru- 
Proofs ana- 
logical.  
E mentorum

98 DISEASES CURED
“ mentorum tutelam citavimus. Galenus (De 
“ san. tuenda) inter delectoria medicamenta, enu- 
“ merat usum aquarum sponte manantium, leni- 
“ ter evacuantium, ad mesaraicarum obstructiones, 
“ simulacque corroborandum. Talis Plaga, et 
“ Juncaria ad Baias quae excrementa abstergunt, 
“ aperiunt obstructa, et refrigerant. Efficaciores
“ aeneae, Grottae imprimis, et Porretanae ex alu- 
“ mine, et ferro nobiles Albulae. 
“ In Dysentericis cruciatibus revocant hodie sere 
“ omnes de morte ad vitam Aquae Salmacidae, ser- 
“ vanturque in longinquas regiones adlatae toto
“ anno, incorruptae. Harum antiqua laus est 
“ a salis natura, attestante Cor. Celso. In Dy- 
“ sentericis muriam quam asperrimam suadet Te- 
“ mison. Muria (inquit Dioscorides) Dysente-
“ ricis infunditur, etiam si nomae intestina corri- 
“ piant. Eadem testatur Plinius, et etiam Paulas 
“ dicens Muria et portulacae succus dysentericis con- 
“ venit. Notum in Dysentericis curari nonnul- 
“ los harum potu in principiis, affectu sciz. non
“ admodum acri, nec cruento. Porro, ubi no- 
“ mae apparuerint, i. e. cum manifesta erosione, 
“ et purulentis excrementis, naturam signfincat 
“ tunc pus movere, ac concoctionem moliri, ju- 
“ vandamque abstersione, et exsiccatione per has
“ aquas. Memini hic Romae Alex. Fortunatum 
“ medicum, pro harum aquarum penuria, Dios- 
“ coridis exemplo donasse urinam humanam quam 
“ recentem, et in clysteriis, et in potibus, i- 
“ doneo successu, quod, ea ratione non damna- 
“ verim. 
“ Caeterum plurimae, id genus, aquae vermes 
“ ingeneratos enecant, extruduntque, maxime a- 
“ marae omnes, acres, ac fortes, quales ex atra- 
“ menti materia in Volaterrano, &c. 
“ Flatibus

99 BY THE WATER.
“ Flatibus vero ex intimis intestinorum discu- 
“ tiendis, ut in Colica usu venit, ac in Ilei crucia- 
“ tibus, praedictarum potus non medice operan- 
“ tur, item clysteribus, torsione praesertim infes-
“ tante. Efficacissima Aqua Aponi, Asculanae, Lu- 
“ canae, Caiae, Aquisgrani, Cellenses, &c. bitumi- 
“ nosae, salsa, omnes ubicunque terrarum, pro 
“ calido fomite actuali, digerentes, de discuffo- 
“ riae. Colicae Alexander Trallianus exhibet 
“ Thermales aquas quae evacuant, et calfaciunt
“ et item Avicenna xvi. tertii. 
“ Siccae vero intemperiei, ut siccantia et cali- 
“ da balnea improbantur, ita balneis dulcibus u- 
“ tendum, et ex herbis emollientibus, hydrolae- 
“ um, et oleum. Porro discufforii balnei vice ar- 
“ tificialia aliquando sufficimus ut Vaporarii usus,
“ atque olei, vel hydrolei, folio tepbnte, si faeces 
“ indurentur, vel sicca alvi intemperie pendeant 
“ dolor. 
“ Frigidis vero intemperiebus satis calorifica sa- 
“ ciunt, competenti usu.” 
1. From Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we have the
following Cases. “ Mr. Collins Woolrich apothe- 
“ cary of Shrewsbury, was seized with 
“ torturing pains in the stomach, bow- 
“ els, and back, successively, for the 
“ space of ten hours, and then ceased of a sud- 
“ den. The next night it began and ended as 
“ before, and so day after day, from six at night
“ till four in the morning, from the ninth of 
“ September 1683, till May, when the warmth 
“ of the season kept off the disorder till Septem- 
“ ber following, when it began as before, and 
“ so year after year (excepting 1686) for seven or 
“ eight months together, during which time he 
“ was necessitated to vomit about an hour and a 
“ half after eating constantly, his paroxysm con- 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
E2 “ tinuing

100 DISEASES CURED
“ tinuing ten hours, all which reduced him to 
“ great weakness, languor and dispiritedness. 
“ By Dr. Baynard’s advice and mine, he im- 
“ mediately began the waters, for he had been 
“ sufficiently prepared at home. After the sixth 
“ morning, he perceived a sudden and manifest 
“ removal of a load from his stomach into his 
“ lower bowels, and presently had a large dis- 
“ charge by stool. From that day he had neither 
“ pains nor vomitings, yet he kept on drinking
“ the waters for a month at least. 
“ He kept free from any return till 1691, when
“ finding some disposition to it, he returned in 
“ August, and drank them with the same success; 
“ for it returned not again till September 1693, 
“ when he came hither again, and was relieved 
“ the third time. 
“ He hath been here the two past seasons for 
“ prevention, and is resolved so to continue to do
“ as long as it pleases God to grant him strength. 
“ This is the patient’s own account delivered 
“ verbatim, this last season 1695.” 
2. Captain Wilkinson of Brewer-street, Agents 
had, for many years, been a martyr to the stone
and bilious cholic. After thorough trials 
of all pretended Solvents, and emaciated 
by incessant pain, he chearfully submit- 
ted to the operation of lithotomy. When the 
stone was extracted, he told the surgeon that he 
would willingly submit to a second cutting, if, 
by that, he could be cured of his cholic. His 
vomitings were then so incessant, that his sto- 
mach could keep nothing. In this condition he 
was transported to Bath; where, for some time, 
he threw up Bath water, and every thing else. 
By degrees the water prevailed. His stomach 
bore a little food, he gathered strength. His pa- 
Author’s 
Cases. 
roxysms

101 BY BATH WATER.
roxysms continued however to return now and 
then as usual. The harbingers of the fit were 
tingling and involuntary motions of the knees. 
To these succeeded violent reachings and racking 
pains. Pills of opium he threw up as fast as he 
swallowed them. Visiting him one day in the fit, 
I enquired whether opiate glysters had ever been 
prescribed. To which he answered, no. A glys- 
ter of the common decoction with one ounce of 
the Tincture of Assa fetida, and forty drops of
Laudanum, was immediately injected. In a quar- 
ter of an hour afterwards he threw himself down 
on the bed, and slept eight hours, awaking in
heaven, as he called it. Twenty four hours af- 
ter, the paroxysm returned with equal violence. 
The same glyster was injected, with the addition
of twenty drops of laudanum. The same sleep 
and ease insued. Twenty four hours after, the 
same symptoms returned; he begged for the same 
glyster, which procured not only the same cessa- 
tion from pain, but a total cure. By perseverance 
in the waters, he recovered complexion, appetite, 
strength, and spirits, so that he lived for years a 
comfort to all who knew him. 
3. Lieutenant Matthews, of the ship of war 
Duke, delivered into my hands the following state
of his case, drawn by Dr. Huxham of Plymouth, 
the physician who had attended him for twelve 
months and upwards.—“ He hath long been sub- 
“ ject to a variety of nervous disorders, great fla- 
“ tulence, costiveness, frequent pain, and very 
“ great acidity in the stomach. He hath lately 
“ had several very severe attacks of a bilious cholic, 
“ with continual vomiting of sour phlegm, and 
“ vast quantity of yellow and very green bile, 
“ great distension of the belly, pain in his loins, 
“ and difficulty of urine commonly high colour- 
E3 “ ed.

102 DISEASES CURED
“ ed. He sleeps badly, hath very little appetite, 
“ and worse digestion.”—To which let me add, 
that he was so weak, when he set out, that he was 
obliged to be lifted into his chaise. 
By easy journeys he arrived much recruited. 
Without preparation I prescribed the water in very 
small quantities. His sickness abated, his trem- 
blings declined, his appetite increased, his sleep 
returned, his skin changed its yellow hue, he gal- 
loped on the Downs every day. During his two 
months course of drinking and bathing, he had 
but few returns of his reachings or sickness, and
these very tolerable. He now and then complain- 
ed of heat, and restless nights, for which I or- 
dered some doses of nitre and testaceous powders, 
which bringing on a gentle diaphoresis, relieved 
him. He had been used to an opening pill, in- 
stead of which I advised him to eat half a dozen 
china oranges every day, and to drink punch 
made of Seville, by which his body was kept solu- 
ble. Without the help of medicine he grew 
plump and jolly, complaining now and then of 
flying pains in his joints. Finding that he had 
formerly been subject to the gout, I advised him 
to make haste home. Hardly had he rested from 
his journey, before he was attacked with a smart 
fit, which completed his cure. 
4. FROM the coast of Guinea, Captain John 
Clarke of the frigate Melampe, came to Bath e- 
maciated and tormented with the relicts of a bi- 
lious disorder, in which his life was often despair- 
ed of, and which obliged him to quit. By bath- 
ing and drinking, he perfectly recovered. 
5. THE Honourable F. Cary, Governor of 
Goree, left that island in a state of health the 
most hopeless. By a bloody flux and bilious fe- 
ver, he was reduced to the greatest degree of 
weakness,

103 BY BATH WATER.
weakness, attended with swelled legs, wasting, 
and cachexy. His bloody flux degenerated into 
a lientery; his food passed through indigested; 
he was frequently tormented with griping pains, 
nausea and sickness.—By easy journies, he first 
arrived at Bristol-Hot-Wells, where every glass 
aggravated his pains and produced vomitings. 
Bristol he exchanged for Bath, where he reco- 
vered completely in the space of three months, 
by the internal use of the waters, little assisted by
medicine. 
V. OF THE HYSTERIC CHOLIC.
THE Hysteric Cholic is rather a symptom of the 
hysteric passion, than a particular disease. It is
accompanied with violent pain about 
the scrobiculum cordis, and a discharge of 
green humours upwards, quick weak pulse, diffi- 
cult respiration, great dejection, and sometimes 
delirium. This sort of cholic is peculiar to hy- 
pochondriac men, as well as to hysteric women. 
It often terminates in a jaundice, which goes off 
spontaneously. 
Description.
From Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we have the follow- 
ing Cases, 1. “ Mrs. Farier of Norwich, aged 
“ thirty, was sorely afflicted with this 
“ sort of cholic. She had tried va- 
“ riety of regimens, to very little pur- 
“ pose. She had been sufficiently vomited and
“ purged. 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
“ I ordered her three pints of water at the 
“ King's pump next morning. She enlarged the 
“ quantity to four or five. When she was cos- 
“ tive, she had opening stomachic pills. After 
“ drinking some time, she bathed, had her sto- 
“  mach pumped, and was at length sent away so 
E4 “ well,

104 DISEASES CURED
“ well, that she continued free from violent pains 
“ all the following winter and spring. She re- 
“ returned next summer, nevertheless, to confirm 
“ the health which she had got.”—“ Many more 
“ instances of Histeric Cholics cured by water- 
“ drinking and pumping might be produced, but, 
“ for brevity’s sake, are omitted.” 
2. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Edward Wyke of Westminster, a gentleman 
“ much troubled with the spleen and 
“ cholic, came to Bath July 1688, so 
“ full of pain, and so weak, that he 
“ went crooked. He was scorched with continu- 
“ al fever and thirst. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
“ He drank the waters as much as he could 
“ bear for many days. After one month he en- 
“ creased the quantity, and thus recovered, for 
“ which he gave public thanks in the church of
“ St. Peter and Paul.” 
VI. OF THE DRY BELLY-ACH.
PAULUS ÆGINETA who flourished about the 
fourth century, seems to be the first who describ- 
ed this cholic. Lib. iii. cap. xviii. pag. 
31. From his days to those of Francis 
Citesius, physician to Henry the fourth 
of France, this disease was partially described by
various authors. Citesius was a Poictovien by 
birth. This disease then raging in that province, 
he applied himself to the study of it with un- 
common assiduity, treating accurately of its ori- 
gin, symptoms, cause and cure; he gave it the 
name, by which it since has been commonly 
known, Cholica Pictonum; tho’, with equal pro- 
priety, it may be called Cholica universalis; for 
there is hardly a corner of the globe but what 
History of the 
disease.
has

105 BY BATH WATER.
has felt its direful effects, with this distinction, 
that in warm countries it seems rather epidemic, 
in cold accidental. From the days of Citesius to 
those of Boerhaave, we meet with hardly any 
thing equal to what Citesius wrote. Boerhaave 
lectured on it in his annual course with great ac- 
curacy and judgment, In the year 1724, an epi- 
demic cholic raged in the west of England. In 
the year 1738, Dr. Huxham published his most 
valuable Opusculum de Morbo Cholico Damnoniorum. 
Since that time, many others have written on the 
same subject. In his Ratio Medendi, published
1761, De Haen bestows a chapter on this disease, 
by the common title, Colica Pictonum. 
For an accurate catalogue of symptoms, I re- 
fer my reader to Boerhaave’s Aphorisms, Huxham’s 
Opusculum, and De Haen’s chap. xxiv. 
Sufficient it may be for me to observe, 
that men in health are attacked with most excru- 
ciating pains about the region of the navel. The
deltoid muscles seem to vanish; the joint of the 
shoulder seems only to be covered with a skin. 
The fleshy part of the hand which covers the first
phalanx of the thumb, wastes away. The whole 
muscular fabric decays; the arms hang useless, 
like flails; respiration labours; the eyes lose their 
lustre; the complexion grows wan; nausea, vo- 
mitings, costiveness, constipation, melancholy,
and despondency succeed. 
Symptoms.
THAT this cholic proceeds from poisons, we 
cannot doubt; miners, plummers, founders, pain- 
ters and potters are subject to this disease. 
In his Academical Praelections, Boer- 
haave was of this opinion. “ Frequentes habui 
“  occasiones mirabilem hunc morhum videndi; 
“  et licet non negem illum ab aliis causis nasei
“  posce, tamen frequenter observavi in illis qui
Causes.  
E5 “ plumbo

106 DISEASES CURED
“ plumbo fundendo, cerussam preparando, &c. ope- 
“ ram debent.”—Hoffman describcs those cholics 
which afflict the German miners in calcining and 
separating the lead from the ore. Wines sophis- 
ticated with sacharum saturni bring on the dry 
belly-ach. To give their wines a better flavour 
and higher colour, wine merchants mix them 
with sugar of lead. This was the common 
custom of wine merchants in Germany. Boer- 
haave tells us that some of them were hang- 
ed for the offence. In his Praelections, he 
says, “ Observavi hunc morbum frequentem 
“ in opulentis, qui exquisitissima vina magno 
“ fatis pretio redemerant, forte plumbo edulco- 
“ rata, uti novimus olim a fraudulentis oenopo- 
“ lis in Germania factum effe.” Universal con- 
“ sent allows this paralysis, paresis, remissio, or 
lameness to proceed from a translation of morbific 
matter derived from the intestines, or rather me- 
sentery, by the interposition of the nerves. Ægi- 
neta’s authority confirms this, “ Nostris tempo- 
“ ribus, colicus quidam dolor molestus suit, ex 
“ quo imprimis superstites futures artuum motus 
“ omni modo privatio sequebatur, critica quadam 
“ metastasi factae.” This seems to countenance 
the opinion of those who maintain the convey- 
ance of nourishment by the nerves, allowing the 
blood vessels to serve only for containing the stream 
that keeps the AvΤoμαΤov in motion. Whether 
this paralysis proceeds from transposition of mor- 
bid matter, or from that wonderful susceptibility 
or sympathy of parts, seems yet undecided, nor 
can it well be determined. Sufficient it is for us 
to be instructed, that there are five pair of nerves 
arising from different places, and (after wonderful 
complications) distributed among the muscles 
which belong to the humerus, arms, wrist, and
fingers.



107 BY BATH WATER.
fingers. Sufficient it is for us to know, that there 
is a nerve which communicates with these five, 
together with the nerves of the small guts and me- 
sentery. Our bodies are, as it were, one sheet of 
nerves. Nerves form the very papillae which 
serve the purposes of taste at the point ot our 
tongue, and of feeling to our fingers ends. Ig- 
norants vainly place their hopes in local applica- 
tions, while those who are versed in anatomy 
strike at the root. How beautiful that candid 
confession of that illustrious follower of nature 
Boerhaave! “ Well do I remember where the 
“ opinions of the antients stood me in stead, and 
“ (with joy) do I confess, that sometimes have I 
“ cured palsies of the extremities, the consequen- 
“ ces of that disorder called the Colica Pictonum, 
“ while I applied frictions, aromatic plaisters, &c. 
to the abdomen alone.” 
THAT Dry belly-achs proceed from apples and 
cyder, Huxham has evinced. “ Diuturnum ci- 
“ bi potusque pomofi usum an abusum dicam, 
“ causam fuisse hujus morbi nullus dubito; quia 
“ neminem vidi eo correptum qui his abstinue- 
“ rat.” This disease (he says) raged chiefly a- 
mong the poor, who almost lived that year on 
apples, of which there was such a harvest, that 
the hogs fed on apples, and were infected with 
the same cholic. “ Sed et hoc etiam porcorum 
“ genus male tulit pomorum ingluviem: conta- 
“ buerunt omnes, perierunt plurimi.” About the 
harvest, he observes that cholics are endemic and 
epidemic in the west; as Horace, of old, observ- 
ed. “ In his oris, morbi torminosi sunt quasi 
“ endemici et epidemici, omni fere autumno, ut 
“ olim cecinit Horatius 
“ Pomifero, grave tempus, anno.”
E6 DRY 



108 DISEASES CURED
DRY BELLY-ACHS proceed also from severs im- 
perfectly cured. Dr. Tronchin quotes several ex- 
amples from Fernelius, Ballonius, Spigellius, 
Charles Piso, Citesius, Riverius, Willis, and his 
own experience in an epidemic fever which raged 
at Amsterdam, in the year 1727, and some years
after.—He mentions instances of dry belly achs 
and cholics consequences of gout and rheurnatism, 
from the authorities of Constantius Africanus, 
Gaddesden, Duretus, Fonseca, Mercurialis, Mus- 
grave, and his own experience.—Obstructed 
Perspiration has also produced the dry belly-ach, 
as we learn from Sanctorian experiments, as well 
as from the experience of the same Tronchin. 
This ingenious author gives instances of dry 
belly-achs proceeding also from scurvy melancholy, 
and passions of the mind. 
IN a letter from Senac to this author, we find 
an ingenuous confession, that after dissecting a- 
bout fifty persons who died of this distemper, he 
could find nothing that afforded any light. When 
the disorder takes its seat in the nerves, or ani- 
mal spirits, what light can we expect from ana- 
tomical dissecting? Finding the nature of the di- 
sease abstruse, and the method of cure contradic- 
tory and temporary, De Haen applied himself 
to the investigation of that cardinal symptom,
which produces the paroxysm, Constipation: to 
this he rationally directs the cure. “ Morbum- 
“ vidi, tractavi, recentem, provectum, diutur- 
“ num, annosum, cum omnibus suis variantibus 
“ symptomatibus, concomitantibus, aut sequen- 
“ tibus. Hinc didici ab inimica causa intestina 
“ vehementer constringi, faeces in iisdem con- 
“ tentas, exsuccas durasque reddi, tum etiam a 
“ cellulis vehementer contractis, Colo potissimum 
“ in intestino; in parvos eofdemque oblongos.
“ globos



109 BY BATH WATER.
“ globos formari; demum vero, turn colon maxi- 
“ me, tum et Ileum cum suis exsuccis duris-
“ simisque contentis, in solidam veluti massam 
“ coire, omniaque vasa nervos comprimendo, 
“ ferocia illa tormenta producere. Haec morbi, 
“ fi demum vera Pictonum colica dici debeat, justa 
“ idea, vera imago.” 
SOUR PUNCH has been numbered among the 
causes of the dry belly ach; and perhaps, some- 
times not unjustly. On different con- 
stitutions, the same aliments and the 
same medicines act differently. I can 
eat half a pound of honey without 
being griped. I know others who would un- 
doubtedly be thrown into severe cholics, by a 
single tea-spoonful. One man’s meat, we say, 
is another man’s poison. About thirty years a- 
go, strong sweet punch was the beverage of the 
West-Indies. Dry belly-achs were then very fre- 
quent. Weak four punih fucceeded; dry belly- 
achs have not been near so common. In spite of 
experience, West Indians, now begin to dread the 
acid. In the garrisons of Minorca, Gibraltar, 
and on board our ships of war, oceans of punch 
have been drank. Dry belly-achs were no more 
frequent in these garrisons, and on board these 
ships, than in other places. In hot countries the 
mass of blood is melted down; those who are 
not actually attacked with putrid bilious fevers, 
are in an incipient state of putrescency. What 
can resist putrescency so effectually as that rich 
flavoured vegetable juice of ripe limes, assisted by 
the finest sugar, and the choicest spirit! What so 
grateful to the parched throat! In the Caribbee
Islands, the ladies, remarkable for temperance, 
drink this beverage all the day long. Women 
seldom are infected with this disease; never, I 
Sour punch 
no cause of 
the dry belly- 
ach.  
verily



110 DISEASES CURED
verily believe from this cause; and men rarely, if 
ever. This is not altogether my own sentiment; 
there are many who will bear me witness. I 
have leave to mention the name of one man of 
good sense, strict probity, and well versed in the 
study of physic, I mean Governor Bell, who re- 
sided many years in Africa. From the whole of 
his conversation, and experience, he declared that 
while he last commanded at Cape Coast, he was, 
for three long years, parched up with a consuming 
slow fever; nothing was so grateful to his sto- 
mach as four weak punch. In this he indulged to 
the surprize of those who were about him; nay, he 
often drank off whole goblets of fresh lime juice; so 
far from suffering, he verily believes that this, 
more than any thing else, contributed to save 
him from total putrescency. I could name one 
who has drank as much hot four punch as would 
fill our greatest bath, and now enjoys good health, 
I could name scores who have been afflicted with 
the dry belly-ach, and no man can guess at the 
cause. Sour punch may therefore be added to 
the long list of vulgar errors. 
HAVING pointed out the disease, we now pro- 
ceed to the cure. As the causes are various, so 
must the indications. If bile vellicates 
the nerves, the morbid matter is to be 
evacuated by vomits and purges. The belly must 
be fomented without, and lubricating within. 
Semicupia are of great use. The parts are to be 
dipped in medicated springs. Chalybeate waters, 
riding, and change of air complete the cure. 
Cure. 
HUXHAM (in his method of cure) condemns 
bleeding, from experience. How beau- 
tiful his confession! “ Fateor equidem 
“ me cum antequam morbi naturam 
“ perspexeram, quibusdam sanguinis missionem 
Huxham's 
method. 
“ im-



111 BY BATH WATER.
“ imperasse: omnes enim hi in grave animi deli-
“ quium inciderunt.”—In pains of the back and 
joints he tried it: “ Infausto ut plurimum eventu; 
“ omnes fere paralitico effectu correpti vim pror- 
“ fus motumque manuum perdiderunt.” What 
makes particularly to my purpose is his opinion of 
Water external and internal. “ At ne fic quidem
“ alvus respondet, totum abdomen foveri jubeo 
“ fomento emolliente. Hoc blando vapore abdominis 
“ integumenta penetrat, ac intestina ipfa demul- 
“ cet, rigidas emollit fibras, easque nimis tensas 
“ relaxat. Mirandum plane successum saepe no- 
“ tavi ex applicatione hujusmodi R. Rad Alth.
“ Sen. Lin. &c. Affectus longe feliciores expec- 
“ tandi sunt, si aeger in semicupium demittatur ex 
“ iisdem paratum. Haud raro profecto vidi sae-
“ vissimum paroxysmum nephriticum solo balnei ufu 
“ derepente solutum, cum nec praelarga sangui- 
“ nis missio, nec laudani doses veto profecissent
“ hilum. 
“ Ad hunc morbum profligandum non solum 
“ primas vias purgare necesse eft, diluenda eft in- 
“ super sanguinis acrimonia salina. Inter diluen- 
“ αρlsοv μεv γswρ. Ex omnibus Aquis laudo
“ Pyrmontensum aut Spadanam; haec siquidem 
“ principio praedita chalybeate, non tantum sales 
“ optime dissolvi, fed et crasin sanguinis firmat, 
“ ac fibrarum tonum roborat. Qui consensum 
“ intestina inter et cutim observaverat, haud ita 
“ multum obstuperet videndo turn colicos dolo- 
“ res, tum rheumatismos, post sudationem peni- 
“ tus fere sublatos, pro tempore faltem; frequeti- 
“ ter enim sudores sponte erumpentes hanc aegri- 
“ tudinem allevabant admodum.” In confirma- 
tion of which Baglivi (Cap. De Colica) says, 
“ Colica habitualis et endemica, a vino acido praeser-  
“ tim




112 DISEASES CURED
“ tim oriunda, solis sanatur sudoriferis, vespere ta- 
“ men interposito anodyno. 
“ Post sudationem diluentia, prae ceteris au- 
“ tem Aqua ferruglnea purissima diu potanda, ut 
“ corruptae nimirum nova puraque materia ad- 
“ misceatur, ut debitus servetur sanguinis fluor, 
“ et ejus corrigatur acrimonia.” 
AFTER running over the different methods of 
cure laid down by almost all the authors who 
wrote on the subject, De Haen commu- 
nicates one process of cure spirited, 
sagacious, rational, and judicious. 
“ Mense April 1757, homo viginti et aliquot an- 
“ norum in nosocomium nostrum ferebatur. Pa- 
“ roxvsmum presentem horruimus omnes, vomi- 
“ tus, dolores intolerabiles, ejulatus, convulfio- 
“ nes toto corpora violentissimas, epilepsiae in- 
“ star, et spasmum maxillae. Nudato abdomine 
“ quid veluti convelli, convolvique in abdomine 
“ cernebamus, quod ipfo tactu durum.—Mede- 
“ lam fic institui, Emplastrum paregoricum ven- 
“ triculi region! admovi; oleum lini tepidum fre- 
“ quenter injici curavi; emulsa camphorata & 
“ paregorica, subin ipsum oleum ore fumenda de- 
“ di. Cataplasma emolientissimum toti circum- 
“ volvi abdomini; et quia abdominis compressio
“ manu facta videbatur lenire dolorem, cataplas- 
“ ma hoc fasciis abdomen comprimentibus firma- 
“ ri curavi.—Horum usu alvo prodiere (ut in per- 
“ fectissima Colica Pictonum.) rotunda, dura, parva, 
“ Scyhala, eaque copiosissima; quibus tandem tna- 
“ teries pultacea successit. His demum paroxys- 
“ mus filuit, neque rediit; ita ut miser, a bien- 
“ nio, non meminisset tantae doloris absentiae. 
“ Durities in abdomine percepta mole decrevit, 
“ vires rediere, appetitus, somnus. Legit vel 
“ ambulat, tota die hilaris. Alvo autem quo- 
De Haen’s 
method. 
“ dam



113 BY BATH WATER.
“ dam die carens, initia deprehendit repetituri do- 
“ loris; enema oleosum dolorem quidem solvit, 
“ fed denuo parva, rotunda, dura Scybala prodi- 
“ ere. Non ablata ergo causa, diaeta lactea vi- 
“ debatur curam absolutura; cujus experiundi 
“ gratia, hominem diu in nosocomio servassem, ni 
“ prae morum intolerabilitate, ejiciendum fuisset. 
“ —Tribus aliis eadem cura successit; expurga- 
“ tis quippe fordibus, lac copiosum, assiduum- 
“ que, nervos et sufficienter molles, et debite for- 
“ tes facit. Ter quater in anno relapsos lac de- 
“ mum incolumes servavit.”—To this pattern 
of practice, let us add his generous confession and 
opinion. How often are we ignorant of the na- 
ture and seat of poisons? How often have the 
poisoned died after the whole artillery of purges, 
vomits, diaphoretics, and alteratives has been ex- 
pended? “ Catholica methodus utendi aqua cali- 
“ day lacte multo, aqua mellita, oleoque, copio- 
“ sissimis omni modo applicatis, interne, externe, 
“ ore, ano; haec inquam noto et ignoto veneno 
“ ex aequo prodest. Scatent exemplis volu- 
“ mina.” 
FROM the testimonies of almost every author 
who has treated disorders of the intestinal tube, 
we find waters internally and externally 
recommended. In my first edition, 
(speaking of Dr, Huxham’s most valuable trea- 
tise) I expressed myself thus, “ Had this judicious 
“ author been but as well acquainted with the 
“ principles and virtues of Bath waters, as he 
“ seems to be with reason, sagacity and books, 
“ he would have found the thread of his labour 
“ often cut short; he would have been convinc- 
“ ed that Bath waters surpass all the hopes which 
“ he judiciously places in their succedaneums.” 
In a letter of that gentleman’s now before me, 
Conclusion.
(after



114 DISEASES CURED
(after acknowledging great benefit received by the 
Master Plummer and Brasier of Plymouth-Dock, in 
a severe cholic, attended with a paralysis of-hands 
and legs) he expresses himself, to the credit of 
our waters, thus: “ More than thirty years a- 
“ ago, I very well knew the use of your Bath 
“ water, in a paresis, or weakness of the limbs 
“ brought on by cholical disorders, especially 
“ that from the Cyder-cholic, and have, I believe, 
“ first and last, recommended thirty or forty pa- 
“ tients to the use of the waters on that account; 
“ many of whom received very great advantages; 
“ some were more relieved by bathing in the sea; 
“ probably, I may soon have it in my power to 
“ recommend more.”—Most of the treatises 
which have been written on the dry belly-ach, 
have been published many years. Boerhaave’s
Aphorisms and Commentaries are in every body’s 
hands. This disorder commonly passing by the 
name of the West India cholic, seems still but little 
known in this country. Cases mistaken for gout 
and rheumatism, have been treated in the anti- 
phlogistic regimen; after the regular torture of 
months, miserable cripples have been abandoned as 
bewitched. To obviate mistakes, I have taken 
some pains, not only to give the reader a general 
idea of the disease, but to point out those authors 
who have treated it in a masterly convincing man- 
ner. When the dry belly-ach has baffled the 
most judicious, and most experienced, our baths 
have been loaded with crutches. To facts I appeal. 
1. “ The Rev. Mr. Pilkington of Lincolnshire,
“ aged thirty-three, lived near the fens. 
“ After a fit of the cholic, he was 
“ crippled, and emaciated all over, his 
“ hands hung like flails. 
Pierce’s 
Causes.
“ I put him on a course of drinking. He 
“ staid six or seven weeks, went away much 
“ mended,



115 BY BATH WATER.
“ mended, returned next year, and compleated 
“ his cure.” 
2. “ Miss Kiblewhite, afterwards Lady Ken- 
“ rick, was violently pained in the bowels and 
“ limbs, joints and musculous parts, so tender 
“ that she could not bear to be touched. She 
“ had convulsions and hysteric fits. She was 
“ withal emaciated to a skeleton. She had gone 
“ through the materia medica, by the direction of 
“ the celebrated Willis. With no little labour 
“ she was conveyed hither in a litter, positively 
“ against the Doctor’s opinion. 
“ She was dropped down into the bath in a 
“ kind of cradle. By the bath she found some 
“ ease, but no strength or stomach. She was 
“ therefore put upon drinking. She used choly- 
“ beates, antiscorbutics, cephalics, anodynes, cordials, 
“ and hysterics. She had ease by bathing in the Cross- 
“ Bath, and drinking at the King’s-bathing-pump,
“ but no stength till she bathed in the Queen’s, 
“ and King’s. She came three or four years fol- 
“ lowing at first, then at four years distance, and 
“ at six, bearing children mean while. In her 
“ total enervation the optic nerves suffered with 
“ the rest; but as her limbs came to be restored, 
“ so was her fight strengthened.” 
3. “ The Lady Marchioness Normanby was sent 
“ hither in May 1688. From a bilious cholic, 
“ her hips, knees, ancles, feet, arms, and fin- 
“ gers were contracted. When her joints at- 
“ tempted to be stretched out, she roared out with 
“ pain. Her ancles were drawn inwards. 
“ She began with drinking. After a fortnight 
“ she was put into the Cross-Bath. She had been 
“ used, to opiates, which when we dared to leave 
“ off, she began to get ground. She suffered her 
“ legs to be laid streight, and to be set upon her  
“ feet,




116 DISEASES CURED
“ feet, her ancles turned not out so much; she
“ began to feed herself. There little alterations 
“ were all we dared to boast of after three months 
“ trial, at which time (the season being hot, and 
“ therefore unfit for bathing) her ladyship return- 
“ ed, lying on a bed in the coach. 
“ After her return, she arrived to a consi- 
“ derable pitch of health, strength, and active- 
“ ness, to which I was an eye-witness the spring 
“ following.”
“ It were tedious (adds the Doctor) to give 
“ every case that I could instance on this head 
“ Let it suffice to name the persons, who found 
“ cure in the same disorder, since there was but 
“ little difference in their symptoms, and method 
“ of cure.” 
4. “ Mrs. Beare of Devonshire, received great 
“ benefit, after four seasons.—Lord Thanet 
“ cured in three months.—Mr. Petit of Reading 
“ cured.—From Ireland, Sir William Davis, 
“ Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, recovered. Sir 
“ William Tichborn recovered after several trials. 
“ Sir John Cole recovered after several trials. 
“ Alderman Best of Dublin. Captain Harrison.
“ —From the isles of Guernsey and Jersey, Ma- 
“ dam Patriarch, after several seasons, cured. Mrs. 
“ Martin had a remarkable speedy cure. Peters, 
“ a Surgeon, cum multis aliis.—From the Carib- 
“ bee Islands, Colonel Hallet, Richard his bro- 
“ ther, Mr. Bond, and many others for the same 
“ loss of limbs from the dry belly-ach (as they call 
“ it) were here relieved, if not perfectly re- 
“ stored.” 
“ Let us hearken to Baynard. “ I have visited 
“ Bath for thirty-six years, and have 
“ seen wonderful and most deplorable 
“ cases there cured, and some in a very little 
Baynard. 
“ time



117 BY BATH WATER.
“ time (where care and caution has been observ- 
“ ed) especially in the West India Gripes and Cho- 
“ lics, where a paralysis has been general, and o- 
“ thers with arms, hands and legs strangely con- 
“ tracted.” 
1. From Guidot’s Register we have the follow- 
ing. “ Peter Bonamy, Sub-dean of Guernsey, 
“ three years troubled with the cholic, 
“ and loss of limbs. There was scor- 
“ butic taint also, by which the skin 
“ was infested with pustulous eruptions, the fin- 
“ gers contracted, the internal muscular flesh of 
“ of the thumb wasted, with paleness and lan- 
“ guor. 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
“ He used the temperate Baths for a month at 
“ first with considerable relief, the second season 
“ more, and, after four years absence, he return- 
“ ed with an athletic habit of body.” 
2. “ Moses Levermore, Surgeon, of Nevis, 
“ afflicted with the belly-ach and palsey, by the use 
“ of the King’s and Cross-Baths received cure. I 
“ saw him well in London 1688.—Elias Pome- 
“ roy of Devon, had the same disease, and same 
“ cure.” 
1. The case of Miss Menzies of Dumfries, was 
as bad almost as any of the preceding, with this 
singular particular. Every three weeks 
she was taken with a cholic fit which 
lasted ten or eleven days and nights, 
with racking pain. During this paroxysm she 
could neither eat nor drink, she lulled her misery 
with laudanum. Under Dr. Gilchrist’s judicious 
care she had tried every regimen. 
Author’s
Cases.
Two or three days after she arrived at Bath, her 
cholic paroxysm came on. I advised her the free 
use of laudanum, and nothing else. Immediately 
after her fit she began the water, which prevent- 
ed



118 DISEASES CURED
ed the return of the cholic. She bathed also. 
This regimen she continued for five or six months 
with great advantage. Going out to the ball one 
night, and taking off the flannel rollers which 
swaithed her swelled legs, she catched cold, and 
had the first return of her pain. She continued 
eight months in all; the muscles of her thumbs 
plumped up, she wound up her watch, wrote 
half a dozen letters a day, and returned almost 
well. she took no other medicine but an open- 
ing pill.
2. Mr. Fletcher of Kent, was often here for 
the same disorder. His cholic pain yielded almost 
instantaneously to the waters, though his hands 
did him little service. 
3. Mr. Bennet, son to a schoolmaster near 
Ware came to Bath in this disorder. During his 
stay he had a severe fit with racking pain, con- 
stant vomiting, costiveness, &c. Sharp glysters 
purges, fomentations, semi-cupiums, and all o- 
ther common aids were administered; to no 
purpose. Deliberating on some medicine that 
might remove the spasm, and operate briskly, with- 
out loading the stomach, or provoking vomiting, 
I happily fixed on the following, Resin Jallap 
gran X. Merc. dulc. l. crass. gran. vii. Extract.
Theb. gran. i. m. f. pilulae statim sumend. Soon he 
voided one plug of excrement which was black as 
a cinder, and so hard that it rebounded like a ball 
from the floor, with an immediate relief from 
pain, vomiting, and every other dangerous symp- 
toms. By the use of gentle soft purges, the pas- 
sage was kept open, till he recovered strength. 
By the internal and external use of the waters, 
he recovered of this disorder, together with the 
supervening small-pox; and is, as I am told, 
now alive, and in good health,
4. Captain





119 BY BATH WATER.
4. Captain Arch. Millar of the navy, came 
from the conquest of Senegal afflicted with the 
loss of limbs, and other symptoms common to 
this disorder. In a very severe fit attended with 
costiveness, pain, vomiting. &c. I was called to 
consult with Doctor Gusthart, his first physician. 
Purges, glysters, baths, and other methods had 
judiciously been tried. Calling to mind my suc- 
cess with the last patient, I proposed the same, 
which was immediately agreed to, and administer- 
ed with the same success. In about six weeks, by 
the use of Bath waters internal and external, he 
recovered flesh, strength, appetite, and sleep. Rid- 
ing out one day in an open chaise, and caught in 
a shower, he relapsed, and was attacked with a 
fit, not quite so threatning as the former. Dr. 
Barry and I were both called in. Various reme- 
dies were tried, the constipation, pain, fever, vo- 
miting, and every symptom waxed worse. The 
patient requested the pills which had formerly 
relieved him; they were administered, and with 
the same success. The Bath waters after- 
wards completed the cure. For several years 
after he served with credit, and now enjoys perfect 
health.
5. Captain Scroop of the navy, came to Bath 
for the same cholic. While I attended him, he 
was taken with a fit as severe as the former, with 
this addition, that by straining, he had a falling 
down of the great gut, which, constricted
by the sphincter, could not be totally re- 
duced. The same pills were administered, and 
with the same success; but before the passage 
was obtained, a portion of the great gut was 
actually mortified, and cut off by Mr. Wright, 
surgeon of this city. What was singular in this gen- 
tleman’s case, he voided thin large bilious stools,
without



120 DISEASES CURED
without one bit of hard excrement; this obstruc- 
tion was the real effect of spasm relieved by the 
opiate. By the use of the Bath waters he had a 
complete cure, and, to the end of the war, did 
honour to his station. 
6. From the hand-writing of Mr. Anthony 
Jones, student of Oxford, the following case is 
printed. “ For some years past I have been af- 
“ flicted with a pain in my heels, which fre- 
“ quendy shifted to my stomach; for these two 
“ years last, my stomach could never be said to
“ be free. My last fit began in February, and 
“ continued till May, with perpetual reachings 
“ of green and yellow bile. At Oxford, my dis- 
“ order was unhappily treated as gout. I swal- 
“ lowed the hottest medicines; rum was to me 
“ no warmer than pump water. Violent pain at- 
“ tacked the muscles of my shoulders, gradually
“ descending till it deprived me of the use of 
“ both arms. My skin became so tender that 
“ the softest touch was insupportable; my voice 
“ was small and feeble; my eyes dim, with total 
“ relaxation. In the most deplorable condition 
“ I was carried to Bath, where (by six months 
“ perseverance in the use of drinking, pumping, 
“ and bathing) I have recovered so well that I 
“ daily ride out, eat, and sleep; and though I 
“ have not yet recovered the perfect use of my 
“ limbs, yet, by the divine permission, and effi- 
“ cacy of the waters, I doubt not of enjoying a 
“ complete cure. October 22, 1761.” 
7. George Cruikshanks, Esq. while he lived 
at Amsterdam, was more than once afflicted with 
this cholic, for which he was bled, purged, and 
otherwise injudiciously treated, the disease then
being new in that country. His fits were of long
duration; with great danger he escapcd. For
5 remain-

121 BY BATH WATER.
remaining pain, relaxation, and lameness, he 
made use of the Bath waters, and with great 
benefit. 
8. Mr. Edward Gregory, Captain of a Guiney 
ship, lived on that coast fourteen years, during 
which he was often attacked with this disease, and
never completely cured. Last year he came to 
Bath, emaciated, and deprived of the use of his 
hands, and frequently attacked with pains of his
bowels. By four months bathing and drinking, 
he recovered, and is now on a voyage to the 
same coast. One circumstance he communicated 
to me, which I think it my duty to communi- 
cate. On a voyage to Rhode Island, at the time 
of his landing he had been fourteen days without 
a stool, racked with pain, helpless, and hopeless, 
Mr. Forbes, a practitioner of that island, coming 
on board, asked the Captain, if he had any good 
Castile soap, which being produced, he said, ne- 
ver fear Captain, I will cure you in a crack. 
Shaving some of the bluest part of the soap down, 
he dissolved it in fresh milk, gave his patient two 
tea spoonfuls, with orders to repeat it in an hour; 
which he did, and was immediately rid of his 
constipation, and every complaint, excepting the 
lameness of his hands. He assured me that this 
he often experienced on himself, and many others 
afterwards, and hardly ever without success. Mr. 
Forbes assured him that it was his common prac- 
tice, and as successful as common. 
In the annual publication of the Bath Infirmary, 
relative to disorders of the nerves, the general 
article stands thus, Lamenesses and weak- 
nesses from tumors, contusions, colics, 
colds, falls, &c. From this complex 
account, little light can be drawn in relation to 
dry belly-achs, or any other particular disease; 
Proofs from 
the Infirma- 
ry. 
F yet,

122 DISEASES CURED
yet, from Dr. Summers’s industry, as well as 
from proper knowlege, we can affirm that there 
are numbers who annually receive cures in that 
hospital, particularly miners, or mechanics in- 
fected from working in metals. In the years 1763, 
and 1764, there were twenty-nine dry belly-achs 
cured, and eighteen much better. In Summers’s 
short Essay, we find one pattern truly worthy of
imitation; with this we close this chapter.—
“ In the Infirmary, there is now to be seen 
“ a young man of about nineteen years of age, 
“  who (after a voyage to these parts) was, two 
“ years ago, seized with a West-India cholic. 
“ When he was admitted, his arms hung useless 
“ by his sides, his hands dropped inwards, his 
“ fingers were so contracted, that it was in no 
“ man’s power to move them; his legs were con- 
“ tracted up to his buttocks, he stood on his 
“ knees, and was wasted to a skeleton. By the 
“ use of bathing he now walks without crutches; 
“ his hands, legs and arms have regained their 
“ wonted plumpness.”
CHAP.

123 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VI. 
OF DISORDERS OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
IN compliance with fashion, I refer rational 
deductions of diseases of the urinary passages,
to that part which treats of Bristol wa- 
ters. Suffice it here, in general to ob- 
serve, that as the same diseases differ in different
constitutions, so are the same diseases cured by 
different waters. “ That water should be ex- 
“ pelled by water, that drowned men should be 
“ brought to life by being drowned, is a miracle
“ (says Doctor Baynard) that surpasses St. Wine- 
“ fred’s. There are not however wanting in- 
“ stances of hydropics cured by drinking; a 
“ proof how little we know either of nature or 
“ art.” With other arts, physic has its fashions; 
so have wells. In diseases of the urinary passages, 
Bath waters have answered where Bristol waters 
have failed. Such, nevertheless, is the force of 
fashion, that diabetes, dysury, gravel, stone, ne- 
phritic pains, gleets, and other diseases of the u- 
rinary passages are (by universal consent) con- 
signed to Bristol. If Bristol waters fail, patients
are given up as incurable. Mankind, in general, 
stare at the surface of things. Reformers are 
upbraided for departing from common practice. 
In justice to Bath water, I take the liberty, ne- 
vertheless, to produce cures of diseases of the u- 
rinary passages, some of diseases never before at- 
tempted. 
Preamble.
1. In Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, p. 
364, we find the following Cases. 
“ Sir Thomas Ogle, aged forty, was
Pierce’s
Cases.
F2 “ so

124 DISEASES CURED
“ so frequently pressed to make water, and al- 
“ ways with sharpness and pain, that he could 
“ hardly be long together quiet, without emul- 
“ sions, and strong anodynes. He had taken 
“ loads of medicines. 
“ I ordered him Diacassia or Manna, half an 
“ ounce over night, or early in the morning; 
“ and, about seven in the morning, to drink 
“ three pints of King’s Bath water. When he 
“ took not of the Electuary, he drank two quarts; 
“ and, after a while five pints. They gave him 
“ usually two or three stools, but past mostly by
“ urine, and did not bring off a great deal of 
“ gravel neither; but manifestly abated the acri- 
“ mony of urine, so that he retained his water, 
“ and made it in large quantities.”
2. “ Mr. Belke, aged thirty, of the Six 
“ Clerks Office, had been afflicted with the 
“ same distemper. He drank the waters for five 
“ weeks. They passed by stool and urine; he 
“ was cured.”
3. “ Sir John Cotton, of Botrux-costle, had for 
“ many years been afflicted with severe fits of the
“ gravel and stone. He made dark turbid urine, 
“ he voided much gravel and stones of consider- 
“ able bigness and craggedness, which, by lace- 
“ rating the vessels, occasioned bloody water. 
“ I began with a purging nephritic bolus. He 
“ drank three pints of water, which, by degrees, 
“ he increased to two quarts. Never did wa- 
“ ters agree sooner, pass easier, and better. He 
“ brought off great quantities of sabulum, and 
“ small stones rough and scabrous, bigger than 
“ barley corns, but friable. He held so well all 
“ the winter, that this encouraged him to return
“ next summer, and drank them till the fabulous 
“ matter ceased, and he was free from fits.”
4. “ Mrs.

125 BY BATH WATER.
4. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Carne, aged seventy-two, 
“ hath been subject to nephritic pains almost fif- 
“ ty years, with frequent fits, and voiding of 
“ large rough stones. Every time she finds the 
“ least pain or disorder in the region of the kid- 
“ neys, she drinks three pints or two quarts of 
“ the King’s pump-water, in a morning, be the 
“ season what it will, and continues till she voids 
“ gravel or stones of a greyish colour, one of the 
“ worst colours, which gives her ease.” 
5. “ The second wife of Captain Henry Chap- 
“ man of this city, was used, of her own head, 
“ to go and fit three or four hours in the hottest
“ part of the King’s Bath, and drink largely of 
“ the water. To this she imputed the bringing off 
“ the stone easier. She is now living in the 80th 
“ year of her age.” 
6. “ Mr. Smith, steward to Lord Digby, was 
“ horribly decrepid with gout and stone. He had 
“ a perpetual desire of making water, with great 
“ sharpness, pain, and stoppage for days toge- 
“ ther. His joints were knotted with the gout. 
“ By drinking, he daily discharged vast quan- 
“ tities of gravel, stones, and mucous matter. 
“ He bathed, not by my consent. The nodes 
“ of his toes, fingers, and knees began to look
“ red and soft. Some of these tumors opened of 
“ themselves, others were laid open. The con- 
“ creted chalk was picked out little by little. He 
“ began to set his feet to the ground, bend his 
“ knees, support his body, handle his crutches, 
“ and at last walked with a stick.” 
7. “ Mr. Edward Bushed, senior, Alderman of 
“ Bath, aged seventy-three, laboured for eleven
“ months under torturing nephritic pains. At 
“ last he made bloody water, which encouraged 
“ him to try the water. His common dose is a  
F3 quart

126 DISEASES CURED
“ quart every morning with a spoonful of syrup 
“ of marshmallows. This doing for nineteen 
“ months together, he had perfect ease. By 
“ drinking stale beer, he now and then relapses, 
“ but his pains are not so violent. I have often
“ heard him say, how miserable a man had I 
“ been, had I lived any where but at Bath.” 
8. “ Mrs. Studley, of All Cannings, had long
“ been afflicted with continual urgings to make 
“ water, smartings, and violent pains, with small 
“ streaks of blood, with a heavy ropy sediment, 
“ which stuck to the bottom of the pot like bird- 
“ lime, and stunk abominably. By drinking she 
“ found ease. She bathed also, and found bene- 
“ fit. Business called her away too soon.” 
“ Not a few (says the good old doctor) have 
“ been cured, by regularly drinking the waters, 
“ of inveterate virulent gonorrhoeas, and of those
“ weaknesses which they usually leave behind 
“ them; for Bath waters cleanse, heal, and 
“ strengthen the parts concerned, and (as in all 
“ other acidities, acrimony, and sharpness of the 
“ blood and nervous juice) they correct that cor- 
“ rosiveness, and dilute that acrimony, and con- 
“ sequently alter the temper of that matter that 
“ is discharged, and, by its balsamic virtue, heals
“ the parts excoriated. 
“ This remedy will indifferently serve for the 
“ softer sex also, who (though they call it by 
“ another name) are too much liable to the same 
“ distemper. I dare not give instances, though 
“ I have them by me.” 
Guidot’s
Cases. 
Guidot (in his Bath-Register) gives 
the following cases. 
9. “ Mr. Thomas Brookes, minister, sixty 
“ years old, having for sixteen years a gravative 
“ pain in the back and kidneys, came to Bath, 
“ where

127 BY BATH WATER.
“ where he drank the waters, and voided fine pow- 
“ der, which subsiding in the urinal, and evaporated 
“ ad siccitatem, made eight pills as big as pistol bul- 
“ lets, of the colour and consistence of stone. 
“ At his return home he evacuated as much as 
“ made forty-four more. All the matter voided, 
“ in no long time, was enough to make a ball 
“ of stone six ounces weight, which coming a- 
“ way, the heavy pain in the kidneys and back 
“ ceased. Seven years after, I saw these balls not 
“ at all relented, so hard that they rebounded 
“ like marbles.” 
10. “ A certain person unknown, for benefit 
“ received in distempers relating to the passages of
“ urine, gave public thanks in the church of St.  
“ Peter and Paul, 14th of October, 1688.” 
DIABETES.
OF this disorder, I purpose to treat particu- 
larly, under the head Of Diseases cured by Bristol 
Waters. The following history is printed from 
the hand-writing of Captain Chaplin, of the 
Navy, the very first proof of its kind.
11. “ To the honour of Bath waters, 
as well as testimony of the prescriber’s 
judgment, I desire the following case 
may be published. 
“ About the latter end of the year 
1761, the time of our equipping for 
the expedition to Belleisle, I began to find myself
troubled with an unusual heat in the palms of my 
hands and soles of my feet, with great thirst and 
restlessness at nights, attended with a surprising 
loss of flesh; though my appetite and digestion 
continued very good. 
Author’s 
Cases. 
Proofs of 
Diabetes cur- 
ed by Bath 
Water. 
F4 “ Things

128 DISEASES CURED
“ Things continued thus all that winter—In 
the ensuing summer I was employed on a service, 
that obliged me to be a good deal exposed in the 
sun, at the demolition of the fortifications at Aix;
by way of cooling, I used to indulge in drinking 
Cream of Tartar and water, or a thin sharp French 
white wine and water. Neither of which, tho’
pleasing whilst they went down, allayed either 
my drought or heat: but I am afraid rather serv- 
ed to encrease the whole of my complaints.—
In the latter end of that year my sloop was ordered
to the Mediterranean, where I remained twelve 
months;—there I found my heat and drought 
greatly abated. I perspired more freely than I 
had used to do for some time; began to rest bet- 
ter at nights, and to recover my flesh. But on 
my coming to England this time twelve month, 
all my former complaints returned with more vio- 
lence than ever, with the addition of an hectic 
fever. It was then the opinion of every body 
that I was in a deep consumption, though I had 
very little cough, unless now and then, when I 
caught a fresh cold. I was advised riding and the 
gout-whey, when the season should come, both 
of which I followed to very little purpose, and 
was at last forbid riding intirely, as it was found
to fatigue me too much. 
“ In the month of last August, it was first ob- 
served, that my urine was of a very pale colour, 
of a sweet taste and smell, and that I voided more 
of it in the space of twenty-four hours, by two 
pounds, than I took of liquids; in short, my dis- 
order was found to be a confirmed Diabetes.—I 
was then advised to hurry to Bristol to drink the 
Hot-well waters. I accordingly got there about 
the middle of September last, and continued, with- 
out intermission, daily to drink them, and take 
medicine

129 BY BATH WATER.
medicine, for twelve weeks, without much bene- 
fit, unless, that in the first week I found the 
parchedness of my mouth, and great drought 
somewhat abated, as also the quantity of my u- 
rine, but my flesh and strength continued to 
waste.—At the end of that time, that is, about 
eight weeks ago, I came here to see you, with- 
out any thoughts or intention of using the Bath 
waters, when you, advised me to come over and 
try them, which I accordingly did, and have 
(thank God) benefited by them so much, as to 
have intirely got the better of all my complaints, 
as also to have recovered my flesh and strength to 
a surprising degree; for which great blessing I 
shall always remain, with the utmost gratitude and
respect,
Dear Sir, 
Your most obliged, 
And most Humble Servant, 
Feb. 7, 1764. 
James Chaplin ” 
To Doctor Sutherland.
12. Mrs. Fleming’s Case will be particularly 
described in that chapter which treats of Diabetes. 
This winter all her diabetic symptoms returned 
with violence, her appetite, flesh, and strength
failed; she hardly could stand on her legs; in a 
word, no body expected that she could live one 
month. I pressed her return to Bristol Hot-wells, 
went so far as to assure her that her life was at 
stake. My arguments were vain; she positively 
told me, she could not go at that time of 
the year, if she died; she begged that I would  
F5 prescribe


130 DISEASES CURED 
prescribe something that might keep her alive till 
the spring. Instructed by Chaplin’s success, I ad- 
vised Bath waters with Elixir Vitriol. Every 
day produced visible amendment; she is now 
strong and active, without one symptom of her 
disease, excepting a little of the sweet taste of
the urine, and that at an age far advanced. 
BESIDE these express cases, the curious reader 
may find not a few proofs interspersed with the 
histories of other diseases cured by Bath water, 
particularly in that memorable gouty case of Mr. 
Long’s. 
CHAP.

131 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. VII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
IN Compliance with fashion, I refer particular
deductions of pectoral diseases to that part of 
this book, which expresly treats Of Diseases cured
by Bristol Water. Suffice it here, in general, to 
observe, that those who, without evidence, fancy 
heat, fire and brimstone, synonimous ideas are 
incapable of conceiving how smoking waters 
should be safe in the disorders of the lungs. Those 
who confine the causes of cough, catarrh, and 
asthma to inflammation only, hurry away patients 
to Bristol. If they answer not, the wretched sick 
is given up to death. In asthmas, the very air of 
Bath is doomed pestilential. In consultation with 
able Bath physicians, I have more than once pres- 
sed asthmatics, not to tarry twenty-four hours 
within these walls. Instructed by experience, I 
now abjure these ignorances. In this very city 
there lives an upholsterer, Richard Evat by name, 
who chuses his residence at Bath, as the only air 
in which he could freely breathe, ever since the 
hard frost 1739. At the age of threescore, he 
now breathes freely, and enjoys perfect health. 
Doctor Smollet’s Case is an irrefragable proof of 
the doctrine. There are pectoral disorders which 
yield to Bristol waters only; there are others
which require a mineral more active, invigorat- 
ing and powerful. There are thin, acrid ca- 
tarrhs; so are there viscous, cold, and inert. 
There are hot consuming hectics, so there are
putrid. There are consumptions from putrid; so 
there are consumptions from obstructed lungs. 
F6 There

132 DISEASES CURED
There are genuine, dry, nervous asthmas; so 
there are spurious, moist, and catarrhous. Some 
proceed from irritation; others from obstruction. 
In some cases demulcents are indicated, in others 
attenuants. To conclude, Bath waters have 
cured coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, and asth- 
mas, when all other aids have failed. Let facts
speak for themselves. 
1. To Dr. Pierce’s Memoirs we are obliged. 
“ The Lady Duchess of Ormond, aged 
“ sixty, came to Bath in September 
“ 1673. Her disorder was an invete- 
“ rate cough and asthma; she was forced to sit
“ upright in bed. 
Pierce’s
Cases. 
“ She drank the waters first in small quanti- 
“ ties. Bearing them well, the dose was increas- 
“ ed. She drank them on for a month, with lit- 
“ tie intermission, and so much relief that she 
“ expectorated more freely, and lay down in bed, 
“ her appetite increased, she rested better, she
“ bore her journey back better. 
“ Passing the following winter (the season in 
“ which such distempers usually increase) much 
“ better, she came again four different seasons. 
“ Every time she improved the first advantage.”
2. “ Lady Mary Kirk, aged forty, subject to 
“ an asthma, so that she was obliged to be bol- 
“ stered up for nights together, came hither and 
“ drank the waters several seasons following, with
“ great advantage, insomuch that in the year 
“ 1693, she had few or no returns of those fits 
“ which usually attacked her in cold and wet sea-
“ sons. In a letter of hers, now in my posses- 
“ sion, she says that for the whole winter past, 
“ (which to every body else hath been very se- 
“ vere) she has not so much as felt an oppression 
“ at her breast, much less a cough, that kept her 
“ from

133 BY BATH WATER.
“ from sleeping or eating a meal’s meat; that she 
“ goes abroad in all weathers, stays out till nine, 
“ and rests not a bit the worse. She returned last 
“ summer, and staid till the latter end of Octo- 
“ ber, and bathed even in the Hot-Bath as well 
“ as drank the waters, and did very well.” 
3. “A very worthy Lady, whose name I con- 
“ ceal, because I have not her leave, between 
“ 30 and 40 came hither in August, 1693. From 
“ inheritance she was hydropical, scorbutical, and 
“ asthmatical. She had gone through the col- 
“ lege. 
“ After a fortnight’s drinking, I permitted her 
“ to use the Cross-Bath, which had a different 
“ operation on her than it commonly has. It pro- 
“ moted the passing of the waters by urine; she 
“ was more lightsome, and breathed more freely. 
“ She drank and bathed for a month. Next year 
“ she used the same course for three months. She
“ found great advantage.” 
4. “ Mrs. Mary Whitaker, a virgin of thirty— 
“ nine, from Pottern, Wiltshire, came hither in 
“ May, 1681. The winter before, her cough was 
“ so violent that she spate blood. In January she 
“ was seized with a palpitation of the heart, the 
“ most troublesome symptom of all, and what she
“ took to be the cause of her difficulty of breath- 
“ ing, whereas it seemed to me that the nervous 
“ asthma (for such I took hers to be) caused the 
“ palpitation. The cough was violent without 
“ expectoration. She wheezed greatly. Upon 
“ the least motion she looked black in the face. 
“ Her heart beat as if it would come out of her 
“ body. She was always hot and feverish, had a 
“ quick labouring pulse. Her symptoms were 
“ greatly aggravated by her short journey of 14 
“ miles, 
“ I

134 DISEASES CURED
“ I ordered the waters with Sal-Prunel, Pecto- 
“ rals, and Paregorics. This method she con- 
“ tinued for a month or five weeks, and was by 
“ it perfectly restored, and is alive and well this
“ day.” 
5. “ Sir Henry Andrews, of Loftsbury, aged 
“ seventy-one, came hither for a Scorbutic Asthma, 
“ with the morphew on his back, breast, and shoul- 
“ ders, and weakness in his limbs. 
“ He bathed and drank with such success, that 
“ he came year after year, till other illnesses ren- 
“ dered him incapable to bear the journey.” 
6. “ The Marchioness of Antrim, aged sixty- 
“ two, had been many years troubled with a cough 
“ and shortness of breath. 
“ She drank the waters mostly, bathed but sel- 
“ dom, continued five or six weeks, was so well 
“ the following winter that she was encouraged to
“ come a second time, she prosecuted the same 
“ course with better success.” 
7. “ Mr. Harrison, of St. Crosses, aged eigh- 
“ teen, had, from his infancy, been subject to
“ coughs and asthmatic distempers, occasioned 
“ (as was said) by a Quicksilver Girdle. He had 
“ a great palpitation, and difficulty of breathing
“ on the least motion, not even the ambling of a 
“ horse. 
“ He drank the waters for a month or more. 
“ His breath was freer, the palpitation well- 
“ nigh ceased, he rode from near Winchester to 
“ Oxford in a day. He returned a second, and 
“ a third time, to confirm the advantage re- 
“ ceived. 
8. “ Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, came hi-
“ ther in April, 1686. He had been a long time 
“ hypochondriac and scorbutic, but, for some months 
“ past, especially in the winter, was seldom
“ free

135 BY BATH WATER.
“ free from a palpitation of the heart, an inter- 
“ mittent pulse, a decayed appetite, and a bad 
“ digestion. 
“ After various trials, particularly a long cha- 
“ lybeate course, he was sent to Bath. I order- 
“ ed him Quercetan’s Tartar Pill over night, and
“ to drink two quarts of King’s Bath pump next 
“ morning. He increased the quantity by de- 
“ grees to five pints, and at last to three quarts, 
“ interposing a gentle purge now and then, and 
“ two or three bathings. At the end of five or 
“ six weeks, he set out chearful and well, with 
“ a good appetite, the palpitation almost abated, 
“ and the intermission of his pulse scarcely dis- 
“ cernible.” 
9. Summer 1761, the honourable Edward 
Finch came to Bristol Hot Wells, after an in- 
flammatory fever, for which he had 
been bled nine times, and blistered five. 
When I first saw him, he had an habitual 
cough, with a difficult expectoration of tough
viscid phlegm, without fever; he was languid, 
low-spirited, and feeble, fifty years old, and up- 
wards. 
Author’s
Cases.
I pressed him to go immediately to Bath; I gave 
him my reasons and opinion in writing, which 
were transmitted to his physician in town, and by
him disapproved. This being the case, I added 
Bitters to the Bristol waters, with a restorative 
diet. Thus he recovered strength and spirits; 
but his asthmatic disorder still continued. At last
he took my advice and came to Bath, where he 
drank the waters six weeks. Every glass proved 
an expectorant, he went away perfectly re- 
stored. 
10. Mr. Partridge of the Packhorse, Turnham- 
Green, was subject to gouty complaints from his 
fourteenth


136 DISEASES CURED
fourteenth year. Last January, having caught 
cold, he was seized with an asthma; he could 
not lie in bed, his perspiration was stopped, his
legs were benumbed and swelled, without appe- 
tite. Naturally high spirited, he became so de- 
jected, that he burst often into tears on the sight 
of an old acquaintance. He came to Bath, drank 
the waters moderately, and, in six weeks time, 
was completely cured. He came down this win- 
ter by way of prevention, and is very well. 
11. Dr. Smollett, author of the History of Eng- 
land, laboured under a scorbutic humoral Asthma, 
for three years and upwards. To breathe he has 
been obliged to shift different airs, and never con- 
tinued long well in any. From a constitution 
healthy, vigorous and active, he became emaci- 
ate, low-spirited, and feeble, obliged often to 
rise out of bed, and fit up for hours; his perspi- 
ration was quite stopped, his appetite much im- 
paired, He tried variety of regimens, to very 
little purpose, was always the worse for bleeding. 
Caught in one of his fits, he put into the fore- 
said Packhorse, where he met with a director who 
counselled Bath water, from experience. Here 
he slept the very first night, and every other, for 
six weeks, drank the waters, and gained appetite, 
flesh, strength, and spirits. 
12. Mrs. Collins of this city, widow, aged 
sixty and upwards, has laboured under an Asthma
for many years. On the least motion she panted 
for breath, and was taken with violent fits of 
coughing. Her flesh wasted, her strength failed; 
by all appearances, she seemed bending fast to- 
ward the grave. By the advice of an emperic, 
she was, at last, pressed to try that healing foun- 
tain, which springs up within a few yards of her 
own house, which she did, to the quantity of a 
glass

137 BY BATH WATER.
glass, or two, a day only. She now lies flat in 
bed, sleeps well, eats heartily, her cough is va- 
nished, she walks a dozen of turns on the parade 
without being fatigued; whenever she finds a 
difficulty of breathing, she flies to the pump, and
forgets all her sorrow. She has, at different 
times, had the opinion of sundry physicians. To 
our common reproach be it confessed, Bristol wa- 
ter, bleeding, issues, pectorals, and every thing 
was counselled and tried, excepting the one thing 
needful; such strangers are we, even at this day, 
to the very tools by which we earn our daily 
bread. 
Since my last publication, I received the fol- 
lowing proof from an eminent merchant in 
Bristol. 
“ Some time since I had the pleasure of din- 
ing with you at my friend Rothley’s, who shewed
me a letter, dated the 10th instant, reminding 
me of the promise I made you, touching the pro- 
gress of a disorder I laboured with for a great 
many years. To be as good as my word, the fol- 
lowing is a description of my case, perfectly true, 
and too well known in this city to admit of the 
least doubt. 
“ From my infancy, I discovered, upon any 
Extraordinary exercise, some difficulty of breath- 
ing, but nothing remarkable ensued, till I arrived 
to twenty or thirty years of age; about which 
time shooting was a favourite diversion with me; 
and many times, being too eager in the pursuit 
of my game, I have been seized with such a short- 
ness of breath, seemingly occasioned by a blow- 
ing up of the lungs, that I have been obliged to 
sit down, sometimes for near an hour, before I 
have recovered; after that, had seldom a second 
attack the sameday.—About ten years ago, this 
long

138 DISEASES CURED
long growing complaint became a confirmed asth- 
ma, and during the course of seven or eight 
years, I endured as much misery from the disor- 
der, as I believe human nature is able to support; 
the beginning of these seizures were constantly in 
my first sleep, about an hour after I went to bed, 
and the fit generally lasted from twenty to thirty 
hours, and sometimes longer; during which time 
I was obliged to lie in one continued posture, and
my lungs so adhered, that they only supplied just 
motion enough to give life. Upon the first of 
these violent attacks I applied to an apothecary
of very considerable practice, and of whom I 
had a great opinion; he recommended me to a 
physician, and, after a due obedience to their me- 
dicines, I found no benefit. I then went to Lon- 
don to the famous Ward, he gave me some drops, 
which for a time lessened the violence and length 
of the fits, but his nostrum failed of the desired
effect; I then laid myself under another course 
of an eminent physician, who offered me his as- 
sistance out of friendship, he being big with the 
thoughts of success; and after a trial of his skill for 
5 or 6 weeks, the disorder had taken too deep root 
to be eradicated. I then had recourse to Bath, 
and the night I got there, had a fit of the asth- 
ma, as customary, which lasted till the middle of
the next day. In the evening I began with a 
common sized glass of water, and drank three 
glasses, morn, noon, and evening, the ensuing 
day; the next attack I had was faint and more 
favourable than before. I continued this course 
of drinking the waters three times a day for near 
a month, and found such amazing relief, that I 
pronounced myself cured, tho’ the next winter 
I was sensible of the disorder returning again; 
having several of the old accustomed fits. I went
again

139 BY BATH WATER.
again to Bath, drank the waters as before, and, 
thank God, found the same virtue in them, and
have now for two years continued as well as 
when you saw me, and may possibly give you
occular proof of it very soon, as I have some
thoughts of going to Bath for a few days.— 
I have given you the rise, progress, and (I hope) 
downfal of my case; and I shall be very happy,
if this narrative, thro’ your channel, can be use- 
ful to any of your patients. 
I am, Sir, 
Your very humble Servant, 
Bristol, Nov. 18, 1763
Cranfield Beecher.” 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
CHAP.

140 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. VIII. 
OF THE GOUT.
1. SYDENHAM’s description of the gout, 
regular and irregular, seems to be copied 
from nature. Boerhaave’s chapter of 
the gout (in his Aphorisms) is nothing 
else but an abstract of this. Hoffman has insert- 
ed his history in his discourse on this disease. Suc- 
ceeding writers have mangled a model worthy of 
imitation. Sydenham seems to be one of those, 
whom nature has endowed with that sagacity 
which constitutes the practical physician. Copy- 
ing the divine old pattern, this second Hippo- 
crates had the courage honestly to break through 
the clouds of ignorance, error, and prejudice; he 
gently led the art of physic into that natural path
of Observation from which she had so long stray- 
ed. Those racking pains which he felt for the 
greatest part of his own life, enabled him to, 
paint what he felt, and thereby relieve fellow-suf- 
ferers, by improving the diagnostic and curative 
parts of medicine. 
Gout. 
2. For a work of this kind, the spirit of his
descriptive part may suffice. The gout generally
makes its appearance at that period of 
life, when the circulation comes to be 
confined to a narrower sphere, when 
manly vigour declines, when the vessels begin to 
be rigid and impervious The harbingers of the 
Regular Gout are bad digestion, crudities, flatu- 
lencies, belching, heaviness, head-achs, nausea, 
loss of appetite, heart-burns, and wandering pains. 
The day preceding the fit, the appetite is sharp, 
and preternatural. 
Regular, its
history. 
The

141 BY BATH WATER.
The patient goes to bed, and sleeps quietly till 
about two in the morning, when he is awakened 
by a pain which usually seizes the great toe, heel, 
calf of the leg, or ankle. This pain resembles 
that of a dislocated bone, and is attended with a 
sensation as if warm water was poured on the 
membranes. These pains are immediately suc- 
ceeded by chilliness, shivering, and a slight fever. 
These last abate in proportion as the pain in- 
creases, which grows more violent every hour, 
till it comes to its height towards evening, re- 
sembling tension or laceration, sometimes the 
gnawing of a dog; and, at other times, a weight 
and constriction of the membranes, till it be- 
comes at last so exquisitely painful, that the pa- 
tient cannot abide the weight of the cloaths, nor 
the shaking of the floor. 
The night is not only passed in pain, but with 
a restless removal of the part affected also. This 
restlessness does not abate till about two or three 
of the clock in the morning; namely, twenty- 
four hours from the first attack. Breathing sweat 
succeeds, he falls asleep, and, upon waking, finds 
the pain much abated; the part affected, which 
before exhibited remarkable turgidness of the 
veins only, now swells. 
Next day, and perhaps two or three days after, 
if the gouty matter be copious, the part affected
comes again to be pained; the pain increases to- 
wards evening, and remits about break of day. 
In a few days, it seizes the other foot in the 
same manner; and, if the pain be violent in this, 
and that which was first seized be quite easy, the 
weakness thereof soon vanishes, it becomes strong
and healthy. The gout nevertheless affects the 
foot just seized as it did the former both in respect
to the vehemence and duration of pain. 
When

142 DISEASES CURED
When there is a copious somes of peccant mat- 
ter in the beginning, it affects both with equal 
violence; but, in general, it attacks the feet suc- 
cessively, as above. When it has seized both 
feet, the fits are irregular with respect to time 
of seizure, and continuance; but the pain al- 
ways increases in the evening, and remits in the 
morning. 
What we call a fit of the gout, is made up of 
a number of such small fits, the last of which 
prove milder, and shorter, till the peccant matter 
is expelled, and the patient recovers; which, in 
strong constitutions, and such as seldom have the 
gout, often happens in the space of fourteen days; 
in the aged, and those who have frequent returns, 
in two months; but in such as are debilitated, ei- 
ther by age, or the duration of the distemper, it
does not go off till the summer advances. 
During the first fourteen days, the urine is high- 
coloured; and, after separation, or standing, lets
fall a gravelly red sediment. Not above a third 
of the liquids taken in, is voided by urine. The 
body is generally costive. The fit is accompani- 
ed throughout with loss of appetite, chilliness to- 
wards the evening, and a heaviness, or uneasi- 
ness, even of those parts which are not affected. 
When the fit is going off, a violent itching 
seizes the foot, especially between the toes, the 
skin peels off, appetite and strength return; the 
juices come to be depurated, the patient finds him- 
self clearer in his understanding, chearful and ac- 
tive. Nature has performed her work. 
3. WHEN the body has long been habituated 
to the disease, when it has been exas- 
perated by quacking, the juices ac- 
quire a quality which supplies constant 
fuel to the flame. Debilitated nature can no 
Irregular. 
Its history. 
5 longer

143 BY BATH WATER.
longer unload her burden by the feet, the genu-
ine outlet of the morbific matter; it corrodes the 
capillary vessels, stagnates and curdles that liquor 
designed for lubricating the joints. This hardens 
into chalky matter, distends the skin, inflames, 
breaks through, and discharges itself in a fluid or 
solid form. It not only stiffens the joints, but it 
fixes on the tendons, and forms lodgments in the 
interstices of the muscles. Hence excruciating 
pains and lameness. This we call the Irregular 
Gout. 
Those particular fits which compose the gene- 
ral, sometimes continue fourteen days without 
intermission. The patient is besides afflicted with 
sickness, and a total loss of appetite. The cardi- 
nal fit continues till the summer heat comes on. 
During the intermission, the limbs are so con- 
tracted and disabled, that the patient can hardly
walk. The relicts of the morbific matter fly to 
the bowels; the haemorrhoidal vessels grow pain- 
ful; the stomach is oppressed with nauseous eruc- 
tations; the urine resembles that of a Diabetes; 
the whole man is debilitated. Hence low spirits, 
melancholy, &c. 
When the disease becomes inveterate, after 
yawning, especially in the morning, the liga- 
ments of the metatarsus are violently stretched; 
they seem as if they were squeezed with great 
force. Sometimes, though no yawning has pre- 
ceded, when the patient seems disposed to sleep, 
he feels a blow of a sudden, as if the metatarsus 
was breaking in pieces, so that he starts, roaring
out with pain. The tendons of the muscles of 
the shin-bone are seized with so violent a cramp, 
that the pain is insupportable. 
After many such racking pains, the following 
paroxysms become less painful, an earnest of ap- 
proaching

144 DISEASES CURED
proaching deliveries, by death. Nature, oppressed 
by disease and old-age, can no longer drive the 
morbific matter to the extremities. Sickness, las- 
situde, looseness, &c. usurp the place of pains. 
These ease the pains, which return as those go 
off. Thus, by a succession of pains and sickness, 
the fits are prolonged to an uncommon length. 
Pain diminishes, the patient sinks at length thro’
sickness rather than pain. In a word, pain is na- 
ture’s harsh remedy, by which she endeavours to 
relieve herself; the more violent it is, the sooner 
the fit terminates, the longer, and more perfect 
is the intermission, and e.c. 
Gout also produces stone and gravel. The 
mind sympathises also with the body. Every pa- 
roxysm may as justly be denominated a fit of an- 
ger, as a fit of gout. The rational faculties are 
so enervated, as to be disordered, on every trifling
occasion; the patient comes to be troublesome to 
others, as well as to himfelf. Fear, anxiety, and
other passions torment also, sometimes he swears, 
then prays, and anon cries. 
The organs of secretion no longer perform 
their functions; the blood, overchaged with vi- 
tiated humours, stagnates; the gouty matter ceases 
to be thrown on the extremities. Death puts an 
end to misery. This is the history of the gout, 
regular and irregular. We now proceed to enu- 
merate the causes which produce the paroxysms. 
4. PRINCES, Generals, Statesmen, Philosophers, 
the rich and opulent are the people who are ge- 
nerally subject to the gout. Provi- 
dence bestows her gifts more equally 
than we are apt to allow. The gout 
destroys more rich than poor, more wise men 
than fools; she tempers her profusion of good 
things with mixtures of evil; so that it appears
Persons at- 
tacked. 
to

145 BY BATH WATER.
to be decreed that no man shall enjoy unmixed 
happiness, or misery. The poor man’s children 
are plump and rosy, while his Lord’s look wan 
and puny. 
5. VIOLENT EXERCISE, sudden heats and colds, 
hard study, luxurious meals, night-revels, early 
venery, and the sudden interruption of 
wonted exercises, all contribute to an- 
ticipate the gout. It not only lays hold of the 
gross, intemperate, and indolent; but it attacks 
the lean, sober, and active, if they have received
the taint from gouty parents. Thus it comes to 
be interwoven with their very constitutions. Wo- 
men and children are martyrs to a disease natu- 
rally peculiar to man. The valetudinary sons of 
gouty parents feel the curses of old-age before 
they reach the years of puberty. 
Causes. 
6. THE reader will hardly expect to meet 
rules sufficient for directing him in the cure of a 
disease which baffles art. There are 
certain rocks on which gouty patients 
have suffered shipwreck; there are duties which 
they owe to themselves; these are both necessary 
to be known. In the regular gout, patience and 
flannel seem to be the requisites. The irregular 
puzzles the College.
Rules. 
Nature uninterrupted throws the morbific mat- 
ter of the gout on the extremities. Whatever 
weakens, hurries, or disturbs nature, injures the 
constitution. Evacuations of all sorts, topical 
applications, and bitters are, at best, necessary 
evils. In the last chapter, the gouty reader may 
find cautions worthy of his notice, particularly
under the section of Preparation.
7. IF Evacuants and Topics are rather hurtful 
than beneficial, whence are we to ex- 
pect a cure? Sydenham says, he can-
Bitters.
G not 


146 DISEASES CURED
not help thinking but that a radical cure may be 
found out. Till then, he supposes the primary 
cause of the gout to proceed from indigestion, to- 
gether with a consequential acrimony of the hu- 
mours. Such medicines as are moderately heat- 
ing, bitter, or pungent, purify the blood, and 
strengthen the first passages. For this purpose, 
he recommends Angelica, Elecampane, Wormwood, 
Centaury, Germander, Ground-pine, and the like, 
in a compound mixture, continued for a long 
time. Such medicines increase the circulation, 
and thus strengthen.—Of all the strengtheners of 
digestion. Dr. Cheyne prefers a strong infusion of
the bark in generous claret joined with chalybe- 
ates.—Boerhaave, Sydenham’s implicit admirer, 
says, Curatio quam contemplatio moli, et experientia 
commendavit, absolvitur restitutione vigoris in visceri- 
bus perditi. From the writings of the antients, 
as well as from experience, these gentlemen join- 
ed in the same opinion.—Caelius Aurelianus’s 
Diacentaureon, and Aetius’s Antidotes ex duobus 
Centaureae generibus, are old names for Portland’s 
powder.—Tournefort (in his Histoire des plantes 
qui naissent aux environs de Paris) gives an exact
description of it with the addition of the Centau- 
rium majus. The Faculty of Paris has adopted it 
into the Codex Medicamentorum, substituting the 
Rhaponticum in the room of the Centaurium ma- 
jus.—By the persuasion of a friend, the Duke of 
Portland took it for a hereditary gout, and found 
such relief, that humanity induced him to pub- 
lish the prescription, which differs not essentially
from Sydenham’s. Its indiscriminate use has a- 
verted fits of the gout, substituting mortal ail- 
ments in their room. 
1. “ Mr.

147 BY BATH WATER.
1. “ Mr. Fraigneau, Confectioner to the late 
“ King, was about forty years old. By a here- 
“ ditary gout, he had for many years 
“ been so much a cripple that he hob- 
“ bled only by the help of two sticks. 
“ Every year he had regular fits; in 
“ the interval was chearful, lively, and sensible. 
“ Importuned by the Great, he took Portland’s 
“ powders strictly. He lost his regular salutary 
“ fits. His stomach was at last so tanned with a 
“ farrago of astringent bitters, that it lost its re- 
“ tentive quality; he threw up every thing, even 
“ the bitters themselves. After various regimens, 
“ he came at last to Bath, where, by drinking 
“ the water, his vomiting stopped, but soon re- 
“ turned. By Dr. Nugent’s advice and mine, 
“ he took various antiemetics, all at last to no
“ purpose.”—In his case it may be worthy of 
remark, that when, by warm medicines, we could 
obtain inflammation and pain on any joint, his 
vomiting ceased, but the warmest at last proved 
ineffectual. With his last breath he cursed the 
powders. 
Portland’s 
powder fa- 
tal. 
2. “ Thomas Boucher, Esq. was also freed 
“ from his gouty fits by the powder. Sometime 
“ after he was afflicted with a violent fever, which
“ bequeathed him an inveterate rheumatism, and 
“ distortion of the joints of the fingers.” 
8. As Evacuants, Topics, and Bitters, 
all disturb nature, by taking a nearer 
view of nature, we may perhaps be led to a more 
powerful and safe specific. 
Cure.
When the stamina vitae come to be debilitated 
by intemperance, or old age; when the secretory
organs can no longer perform their office, hu- 
mours are collected in greater quantities than can 
be discharged. These undergo various alterations; 
G2 thus

148 DISEASES CURED
thus they occasion various diseases according to 
their degree of fermentation, or putrefaction. 
Hence it is that the aged are more subject to these 
diseases which proceed from indigestion than the 
young, whose vital warmth subdues, or expels 
noxious humours. Hence it is that invalids en- 
joy a better state of health in summer than in 
winter. Hence also it is that travelling into sou- 
thern climates, cures diseases incurable in nor- 
thern. Heat not only creates that juvenile fever 
which depurates gross humours, but it prevents 
their accumulation. 
This doctrine is evidently confirmed by that 
incredible relief which riding procures to people
labouring under chronical disorders. While it 
strengthens the digestive powers, it rouses that vi- 
tal heat which enables the secretory organs to pu- 
rify the blood. 
Proinde curatio absolvitur (1) restitutione vigoris 
in visceribus perditi, (2) Ablutione liquidi jam cor- 
rupti stuenils in vasis, vel stagnantis. 
HAD Sydenham been acquainted with the in- 
ternal virtues of Mineral Waters, or had he weigh- 
ed the effects of Warm Bathing in his 
judicious mind, he would have found 
a medicine endowed with virtues far su- 
periour to his admired Bitters, a medi- 
cine which (in the course of days, or weeks) not
only restores the lost vigour of the bowels, but 
depurates and carries off corrupted juices, a me- 
dicine which cures cito, tute, et jucunde. 
Mineral
waters spe-
cific.
In all ages, waters have been used internally 
and externally. The practice of drinking and bath- 
ing is rationally and succinctly laid down 
by Baccius, in his book De Thermis, 
pag. 119, and 120, under the article, 
Juncturarum et Articulorum morbis. Having laid
Baccius’s
doctrine. 
down

149 BY BATH WATER.
down rules for treating other affections proceeding 
from cold temperament, he observes that, in the 
gout, the joints are inflated, pained, and con- 
tracted from cold temperament also; these there- 
fore he proceeds to cure in the same manner, per 
calida balnea, concedenti usu. According to the 
different indications, he lays down different me- 
thods of cure; for slight affections, he proposes 
drinking; for more stubborn, bathing, nam irve-
teratom arthritim, seu chiragra fit, feu podagra, sive 
Ischias, parcius sanabit potatio; lavacra majorem ha- 
behunt efficaciam. 
By way of preparation, he advises the patient 
to drink a cup of purging waters for some morn- 
ings, to absterge those viscidities which give rise 
to the gout, quae crassas a latis meatibus visciditates, 
—In an universal gout, he orders the patient to 
bathe in warm discussory water. If there happens 
suspicion of distillation from the head, he refers 
him to the pump, as in nervous affections, quas 
etiam fi distillatio imputetur (ut plerumque fit) ad
usum Ducciae, qualiter in nervosis, usurpare licebit. 
He orders conspersions not only on the occiput, 
for the prevention of distillation, but on the mem- 
ber swelled or afflicted; by way of discussion, he 
advises lutations also, et itidem illutamenta. In in- 
cipient cases, where there are many parts at once 
affected, he orders sweatings. At si plures, ex 
dissipata fluxione, articuli consictentur, sudationibus
etiarn utendum, quales in Baianis fudaioriis, et mul- 
tis aliis. After the flux of humours has abated, 
he advises arenation, insolation, &c. Arenatio effica- 
ciffimum remedium est universae arthritidi, tumenti- 
bus praesertim lento ac frigido humnore articulis.-
In gout arising from hot temperament, he lays 
down one admonition well worthy of notice, viz. 
G3 To

150 DISEASES CURED
To purge off those humours which, by bathing
and sweating, might be exasperated. Medicata- 
rum potiones, degerendo, vacuando, ac fluctiones in- 
hibendo, quam lavacra calidarum, ant exudatio, quae
liquatis viscidis, ac prius sopitis humoribus excitatis, 
fluxioni ne adaugeant materiam timendum. 
He recommends drinking in gouts which attack 
people in the bloom of life, or heat of summer, 
which may be by following temperate strengthen- 
ing baths. Maxime vero commoda potatio, si (ut in 
pluribus accidit) a causa calida incipiat fluxio, vigen- 
te praesertim aelate ac destate ineunte; cui ministerio 
fi lavacra commoda subsequantur, haecque temperata 
funto, et quae, ex ferri qualitate, egregie valent con- 
firmare. Such are the Balnea Villae Lucae, Caiae, 
Porretanae, Albulae, &c. and such are our Cross
and Queen’s. These strengthen weak joints, and 
alleviate pains. On this principle, Dioscorides 
bathed Ischiatics in brine. Cornelius Celsus (Lib. 
iv. cap. 24.) heated brine, with which he foment- 
ed the feet, covering the patient with a cloak. 
Baccius recommends a fomentation of the mother 
of wine in disorders, from experience. In tubs 
of fermenting wines, he orders the part affected, 
or even the whole body, if it happens to be weak, 
to be immerged. 
Solvere nodosam nescit medicina podagram was the 
opprobrium of his days, as well as ours. He, ne- 
vertheless, advises a trial of unguents and bathings
in gouty concretions. Tentandum tamen non odea 
confirmatos callos per olei, aut assiduum hydrolaei fo- 
tum emollere, exudationibus aperire, dispositos per bal- 
nea calidior a, iisdem ex alto dispersis discutere. In 
chalk-stones, gibbous and contracted joints, Bac- 
cius recommends a leaden bath in Lothoringiis, the 
Tritoli, and many more. He recommends salt 
baths, lutatiom, saburrations, vaporaries, insola- 
tions,

151 BY BATH WATER.
tions, &c. all which were rationally, and success-
fully practised at Baiae, Puteoli, Cumae, Vesuvius, 
and other places. To the doctrine of this most
sagacious practitioner, I not only think myself 
obliged to assent; but, from reason and experi- 
ence, I dare affirm, that when the waters of Bath 
come to be rationally applied, they will be found 
second to none. Bath water restores the appetite, 
promotes the lesser secretions, and paves the way 
for medicines. When the vis vitae is not, of it- 
self, sufficient for protruding the gouty somes to 
the extremities, Bath water is preferable to all the 
panacaeas of the shops. The effects of the lat- 
ter are momentory only, Bath water invigorates 
the blood, and regenerates the constitution. Ba- 
thing opens obstructions, and strengthens. In 
Dr. Home’s Principia Medicinae, page 163, this 
opinion seems to be confirmed; his words are 
these, “ Vires concoctrices roborantur chalybe, 
“ vel aquis chalybeatis, Thermis Bathoniensibus 
“ praecipue.” 
9. IN indigestion, flatulency, belching, nausea, loss 
of appetite, heart-burns, lowness of spirits, 
wandering pains, and other symptoms, 
harbingers of the gout, there are votaries who
daily own their obligations to Bath. 
Cases.
1. Sir William Yonge, every time that he came 
down, got rid of the pain of his stomach, almost 
by the first glass. The truth is notorious. 
2. Mr Greenfield, Apothecary of Marlborough, 
had, for many years, been used to regular fits of
the gout. As age advanced, the paroxysms left a 
debility of the stomach, with belchings, indiges- 
tion, and low spirits. For these complaints, he 
came down every year pale, wan, and enervated; 
Every trial converts his symptoms into a regular 
fit? which he nursed at home with patience and 
G4 flannel.


152 DISEASES CURED
flannel. He left off coming to Bath at last, and 
thus shortened his days. 
3. For the benefit of fellow-sufferers, I am re- 
quested to publish the case of John Eaton, Esq. 
of this city, an unquestionable proof of my pre- 
sent position. 
“ By frequent courses of drinking Bath-water, 
I procured regular fits of the gout, which before 
afflicted me much. In July, 1759, I was seized 
with a pain in my stomach and bowels, which, 
(though not acute) continued for near a month; 
when it left a great trembling in my hands, with
loss of appetite, and lowness of spirits. These 
symptoms continued some weeks, and ended at 
last in a weakness of my limbs, so that I could 
neither stand, turn in my bed, nor lift my hands
to my mouth. 
“ These complaints induced me to come to 
Bath. I was carried to the Pump, where I drank 
a pint of water a day, at three different draughts, 
all in the morning. 1 drank the Bath-water 
mixed with wine also at my meals. This course 
I have pursued till now, interrupting them now 
and then for a fortnight; about December I left 
them off for ten weeks. 
“ My strength increased gradually, I am now 
able to walk, and to assist myself as well as can 
be expected from a man who has been so much 
troubled with the gout, of which I had several 
slight fits since my residence at Bath. 
Bladud-Buildings, 
11th April, 1761. 
John Eaton.” 
4. Mr. Fleming, a Swiss by birth, once a mil- 
lener in Bond-street, nine years ago, was taken, 
as he played at cards, suddenly with a sickness 
and

153 BY BATH WATER.
and giddiness in his head. Getting up, he reel-
ed, and ran against the wall with such force, that 
he broke his head. By art he was so much re- 
lieved that he came to Bath, where (ignorant or 
the cause) he drank the waters, and at the end of 
fourteen days had a smart fit of the gout in both 
feet, which lasted twenty-one days. After this 
he continued well for years. In the year 1758, 
he was again attacked with violent pain of the 
stomach and head, with cough, chills, shiverings, 
&c. Doctor Shaw advised him to come to Bath. 
His affairs not permitting, he continued eleven 
weeks under his and Doctor Taylor’s hands. In 
a weakly emaciated condition, without appetite, 
or digestion, he was transported at last to Bath, 
where, by drinking the water for one week only, 
both legs swelled and inflamed. This fit lasted 
three weeks, and kept him in health for a year. 
Whenever his head or stomach complaints begin, 
he immediately sets out to the healing spring, and
finds a certain painful cure. 
WHEN the patient has gone through a regu- 
lar fit, when the paroxysms have purified the. 
habit, when he finds his spirits lively, 
and his senses clear, he ought then to 
bathe in water rather cooler than the heat of the 
human blood. Tepid bathing is a rational reme- 
dy for clearing the vessels of the dregs of the dis- 
ease. The Cold-Bath completes the cure. 
Caution.
The patient then ought to hid adieu to Bath- 
water. This caution may not perhaps be im- 
pertinent, when we consider that there are num- 
bers who blindly jog on in the circle of curing 
and procuring gouts by the same specific, till by 
indolence, waters, and drugs, constitutions come 
to be worn out. 
G5 BATH-

154 DISEASES CURED
BATH-WATER has performed wonders extern- 
ally, as well as internally. When the chalky mat- 
ter breaks through the small vessels, it 
forms lodgments in the interstices of the 
muscles, it deposites itself on the tendons, which 
it thickens, stiffens, and renders unfit for muscu- 
lar motion, it dries up that liquor which serves 
lor lubricating the joints, it forms stiff joints. 
Persons thus affected have been recovered by warm 
bathing; not on the principle of softening, or re- 
laxing, as imagined by Doctor Oliver, in his Es- 
say on the use, and abuse of warm bathing hi gouty 
cases; for I have already proved Bath-waters to 
be hard, bracing, and astringent. Nor do they 
contain particles saponaceous; for they are not 
such powerful solvents as common water. His 
little performance is nevertheless fraught with 
practical reflections, and cautions well-worthy of
the perusal of the gouty reader; a convincing 
proof that tho’ in theory we may differ, observa- 
tion and experience will direct all to the truth.
Bathing. 
OF the doctrine of Rarefaction and the effects 
of fevers artificially raised, I have treated at large, 
in my Attempt to revive the doctrine of Bathing. 
Suffice it here to say, that the diameters of the 
vessels thus enlarged, the moleculae, which were 
too large to pass in their contracted state, are 
ground down by repeated circulation and depu- 
ration. 
1. “ Dr, Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) men- 
“ tions the following case of his own father-in- 
“ law, Mr. David Tryme. From be- 
“ tween fifty and sixty, he had been 
“ subject to fits of the gout at great in- 
“ tervals, tho’ he drank freely, and rode hard. 
“ Whe he bad a fit, he used plaisters and oint- 
“ ments of all sorts. At the age of eighty-three. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ he


155 BY BATH WATER.
“ he was attacked with a severe fit, which first
“ seized his toes and fingers, to which he used to 
“ apply whatever was proposed; by which he 
“ fell into fainting fits, out of which he was 
“ with great difficulty got by the use of strong
“ waters and cordials. 
“ These threw the gout a centro in circumferen- 
“ tiam, into his hips, knees, and feet, so that he 
“ was, for some days, in excessive pain, which 
“ he chose to bear rather than again to apply his 
“ plaisters. Patience and posset-drink eased the 
“ pain, but left so great a weakness, and stiff- 
“ ness, that he could neither walk, stand, nor 
“ extend his legs. From July to April he re- 
“ mained a cripple. 
“ He was lifted in and out of the Queen’s and 
“ King’s-Baths. After three weeks bathing, he 
“ not only walked between his guides, but he 
“ swam twice round the King’s-Bath, He re- 
“ covered, and lived five years longer without 
“ any severe fit of the gout.” 
2. “ Robert Long, Esq. of Prior-Stanton, in 
“ the 89th year of his age, was much enfeebled 
“ with severe fits of the gouty was weak in his 
“ limbs, and tender in his feet. He bathed in 
“ the Cross-Bath fourteen or fifteen times. He 
“ walked more erect and nimble, has a smooth 
“ fresh florid countenance, and is likely to pass 
“ another seven years.” 
3. “ George Long, Esq. of Downside, near 
“ Wells, was, upwards of twenty years past, at-
“ tacked by the Gout and Stone. He 
“ was pained in every joint; his fing- 
“ ers became crooked, his right knee, 
“ hips, and back motionless by calculous matter, 
“ which crammed itself into every joint. He 
“ was bed-ridden. His thirst was importunate. 
Surprising
Case. 
G6 “ his

156 DISEASES CURED
“ his appetite lost, his skin shrivelled, his face 
“ meagre, his hair grey, his flesh wasted, so that 
“ he could throw the calf of his leg over his 
“ shin-bone. With all this, he had a perpetual 
“ sharpness of urine; nay, all the juices of his 
“ body had such a propensity to lapidescency, 
“ that his water being left, but a few days, in a 
“ urinal, was crusted at the side and top as thick 
“ as half a crown, with a porous kind of stone 
“ like that of a pumex. 
“ In this condition, he was, with difficulty, 
“ transported to Bath. He began with drinking 
“ the waters hot from the Pump in the morning; 
“ at meals cold, for he drank not then, nor 
“ hath he since drank any malt liquor. In a 
“ week’s time his thirst abated, and the sharp- 
“ ness of his urine lessened; his stomach began 
“ to return. After a month’s drinking, he bathed 
“ between whiles, which eased his pains much. 
“ In the Bath, he could suffer his legs to be ex- 
“ tended a little.
“ He returned home in about six weeks, and 
“ drank the waters there. In three months af- 
“ ter, he returned, bathed, and drank six weeks 
“ as before. In the mean time he gathered some 
“ flesh and strength, with some small ability to 
“ go, though criplishly. 
“ In November following his grey hairs began 
“ to fall off; new ones succeeded; nay, he says, 
“ his grey hairs turned to a soft brown, which 
“ grew so fast, that he cut more than an inch 
“ every four or five weeks. By Candlemas he 
“ hardly had a grey hair left. Even now, bate- 
“ ing a little baldness on the crown, (for he is 
“ on the wrong side of fifty) it looks like a bor- 
“ der of hair, which I have seen before whole 
“ heads were so much in use.
“ To



157 BY BATH WATER.
“ To perfect his recovery, he took a house and 
“ lived here for the most part of the next year, 
“ 1692, about which time his toe-nails, which were 
“ hard, ragged, and scaly, began to be thrust off 
“ by new and smooth ones. His arms and hands 
“ recovered strength, he had much freer motion 
“ of his joints, his muscles plumped. He was 
“ daily more and more erect; every bathing 
“ stretched him half an inch. He had now a 
“ fleshy hale habit of body, a vigorous eye, and 
“ a ruddy, plump, youthful face, especially when 
“ he mixes Sherry with his water, which he will 
“ sometimes do. In fine, he hath no fit of the 
“ Gout to lay him up long together, nor the least 
“ touch of stone, or sharpness of urine. He 
“ rode from Bath to Oxford in a day, which is 
“ forty-eight computed miles; and, but a few 
“ days before that, went from hence to his own 
“ house, which is twelve or fourteen long miles, 
“ after twelve o’clock at night; went to bed for 
“ two or three hours, rose again, and dispatched 
“ a great deal of business before dinner. His 
“ wife being asked a question about his rejuve- 
“ nescency, answered, I verily believe, if I was 
“ dead, he would marry again.” 
4. “ Dr. Guidot (in his Register of Bath) men- 
“ tions the Case of a merchant of London of se- 
“ venty years of age, so afflicted with 
“ the gout, that, for six weeks time, 
“ he could not go to bed, or rise with- 
“ out help, having also used crutches for many 
“ months. By the use of the Cross Bath, and 
“ rubbing well with the guides hands, at three 
“ seasons of Bathing, so far recovered, that using 
“ only a stick, which he usually wore, he now 
“ walks strongly, both hands and feet being flexi- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
“ ble,



158 DISEASES CURED
“ ble, and free from pain. He subscribed the be- 
“ nefit received, 5 August, 1676. R. P.” 
5. “ Sir Francis Stonor, Knt. received great 
“ benefit in great weakness from the gout, by the 
“ use of the Queen’s and King’s Bath, in grati- 
“ tude for which he gave a considerable sum of 
“ money, by which the stone rails and pavement 
“ were built about the King’s Bath.” 
In Dr. Olivers Essay before-mentioned, we find 
two Cases to our purpose. The first is contained 
in a letter from Charles Edwin, Esq. the patient, 
to the Doctor. The second relates the Case of a 
patient of Dr. Woodford’s, Reg. Prof. Med. 
Oxon. in the Bath Infirmary. 
6. “ Mr. Edwin’s second fit of the gout left a 
“ weakness in the joints of one foot. In a suc- 
“ ceeding fit, it attacked the other foot and an- 
“ kle, afterwards one of his hands, and both 
“ knees, so that he could not bend or move his 
“ ankles; he could not walk. After his third 
“ bathing, he was able to walk in his room 
“ without the help of cruches, and gained 
“ strength so as to walk about the town with a 
“ cane. 
“ He bathed sixty-five times, and pumped thir- 
“ ty-eight. It is remarkable (says the Doctor) 
“ that, during this course, he never had one 
“ symptom of the humour’s being thrown upon 
“ any vital part, neither has he had any violent 
“ fit of the gout since.” 
7. “ Philip Tuckey, aged about fifty, was 
“ born of gouty parents, and improved his woe- 
“ ful inheritance by a very free way of life. 
“ When he was about twenty-seven years old, he 
“ was attacked in the great toe. For some years 
“ he had fits at uncertain periods. About twelve 
“ years ago he got a violent cold by painting 
“ (which




159 BY BATH WATER.
“ (which was his profession) a new built house. 
“ This threw the gout all over his head, stomach, 
“ bowels and limbs. The pains continued to 
“ torment one part or other for five months, and 
“ left him so weak and lame, that he could never 
“ after walk without crutches. 
“ His knees were almost immoveable, the 
“ membranes which surround the joint being 
“ much thickened, and the tendons which draw 
“ the legs towards the thigh being hard and con- 
“ tracted. His legs, ankles and feet, were much 
“ swollen and oedematous. He had little appe- 
“ tite, and a bad digestion. His spirits were low, 
“ to which despair of recovery contributed not a 
“ little. 
“ After his first passages had been cleansed by 
“ warm purges, he began to drink the waters in 
“ moderate quantities. He soon found his appe- 
“ tite and digestion mend, his spirits were re- 
“ lieved. Having persisted in this course some 
“ days, he was ordered to bathe three times a 
“ week. He had not bathed thrice before the 
“ tendons began to supple, and to give way to 
“ the extension of his legs. By a few more 
“ bathings, the swellings of his joints gradually 
“ decreased, but without any symptom of the 
“ stagnant humour’s being translated to the head, 
“ stomach, lungs, or bowels. He took a warm 
“ purge now and then, to clean the passages, as 
“ well as to discharge the gouty matter which 
“ had been moved by bathing. Thus, he went 
“ on, gaining strength daily, so that in a month’s 
“ time, he walked two miles with only a single 
“ stick, without being tired. In this happy con- 
“ dition he was discharged in two months.” 
8. Sir Cordel Firebrace came to Bath a very 
cripple by the gout. Against the opinion of his
physicians,




160 DISEASES CURED
physician, he was carried into the Bath. He tar- 
ried, for hours together, in the very hottest parts, 
and was cured. 
The following is the Case of Doctor Sarsfield, 
Physician, of Cork. 
Dear Sir, 
Bath, April the 7th, 1764. 
9. IN approbation of your most laudable un- 
dertaking, in gratitude to Bath Waters, as well as 
for the benefit of my fellow-sufferers, I freely 
communicate the heads of my case to you, mean- 
ing only to point out, in general, the remedies I 
have reason to lay the greatest stress upon, in- 
tending to publish the case at length, with all its 
particular changes and circumstances. Naturally 
gouty, about twelve months ago I was brought 
to Bath, entirely deprived of the use of my limbs, 
not having one articulation in my body capable of 
motion, except that of my under jaw; I was in 
pretty much the same situation for fifteen months 
before, wasted to a skeleton, with universal and 
constant acute pain, restlessness, total want of 
appetite, stoppage of water, costiveness, and full 
appearance of a jaundice. I drank the waters 
with caution, increasing gradually; bathed in 
the different baths about seventy times, took gen- 
tle laxatives generally once in ten days, took 
Huxham’s Essence of Antimony, of which I believe 
I made the greatest trial that ever has been made, 
having taken to the quantity of five tea-spoonfuls 
at a time, very often without its making me sick 
at stomach. 
I cannot omit observing, that about four months 
ago I perceived a pain, with a swelling in the 
back near the right hip, which part seemed most
affected from the beginning; this gradually in- 
creased until it was thought proper to open it 
by



161 BY BATH WATER.
by a caustic; the discharge was very considerable, 
and continued till the other day, when a large 
pea was put in, and the fore is now turned into 
an issue, by which I already find great benefit, 
now that I write this for your satisfaction and 
the public good. I am free from pain, walk as 
well as ever, and enjoy, in every respect, better 
health than I did these ten years part. 
I am, 
Dear Sir, 
Your most assured friend, 
And very humble servant, 
To Dr. Alex, Sutherland. 
Dom. Sarsfield.
CHAP.




162 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. IX. 
OF THE RHEUMATISM.
1. RHEUMATISM and GOUT are so 
often mistaken for one another, and con- 
sequently mal-treated, that it may therefore be 
useful to lay down some general rules 
whereby they may be distinguished.—
Gouty matter tears the small vessels, 
and, thus, produces fevers, pain, swell- 
ings, and redness of long duration.—The pain of 
the rheumatism is tensive, heavy, gnawing; and 
continues after the fever is gone, without remark- 
able tumor, or redness.—The rheumatism often 
attacks but once or twice in life.—Paroxysms of 
the gout are rather temporary depurations than 
complete cures.—The rheumatism has been cured. 
—The gout never ought to be attempted. 
Rheumatism
and gout di-
stinguished.
2. The rheumatism is distinguished 
into febrile, and not febrile.
Division.
3. Its remote causes are sudden chills, changes 
of winds, excessive loss of blood, super- 
purgation, plethora, surfeits, drinking, 
nimia venus, intermittents, scurvy, and p—x. 
Causes.
4. Its proximate causes seem to be obstruction 
of the serous and lymphatic vessels, especially of 
the membranes and ligaments, occasioned by 
viscid acrid serum. 
5. The febrile symptoms are lassitude, rigour, chil- 
liness and heaviness of the extremities, quick hard 
pulse, thirst, restlessness, costiveness. 
After a day or two, sharp shifting pains 
occupy the joints, with swelling and inflamma- 
tion; these are increased by motion, and often 
Symptoms.
shift 




163 BY BATH WATER.
shift their seat. The blood puts on the pleuritic 
hue. Sometimes it seizes the head or bowels. 
The pains continue after the fever. Tubercles,
and stiff joints often follow. 
The non-febrile symptoms are wandering pains, 
with stiffness in the muscles, or ligaments, with- 
out swelling, chiefly. 
6. While the rheumatism occupies the extre- 
mities only, the prognostic is fair, and 
e. c. Chronic disorders or gout are 
often consequences. 
Prognostics.
7. BORN in a happier climate, our instructors, 
the antients, have left little on record on the sub- 
ject of rheumatism. They were exempted from 
diseases arising from obstructed perspiration. From 
Sydenham, the moderns seem to have borrowed 
the present practice. He was so free with the 
lancet, that, in his early practice, he destroyed 
the vis vitae, and thereby entailed tedious chroni- 
cal ailments. In pain, patients as well as physi- 
cians grasp at every thing that gives present re- 
lief; premature opiates call for bleedings. In 
their own cases, physicians ought not to trust 
themselves. When the body is in pain, the 
mind sympathises. Of this I could recount fatal 
examples.—Bath and Bristol waters increase 
the circulation and enrich the blood; and are, 
therefore, improper in rheumatisms of the febrile 
sort.—In chronic rheumatisms, or in febrile, after 
the inflammation is subdued and the first passages 
cleansed, attenuants, resolvents, diaphoretics and 
demulcents are indicated. Bath waters internal 
or external answer every intention. To facts I
appeal. 
8. In his Bath Memoirs, Dr. Pierce 
relates the following cures. 
Pierce’s 
Cases.
1.



164 DISEASES CURED
1. “ Dr. Floyde, bishop of Litchfield, had 
“ such pain and weakness in the right shoulder 
“ and arm; that it interrupted his rest; he came 
“ to Bath, and, by bathing and pumping, re- 
“ ceived such benefit, that he continued well for 
“ ten or twelve years after. It then returned 
“ with greater violence, so that his body yielded 
“ to that side. By bathing and pumping he re- 
“ covered.” 
2. “ Major Arnold complained of a very great 
“ pain and weakness from his left shoulder down- 
“ wards to his fingers end. He had pain also in 
“ his right hip, thigh and leg. He had withal 
“ a violent cough, he discharged much and foul 
“ spittle; he had little or no stomach, and some- 
“ times cast up what he had eaten. He was 
“ subject to the Stone, and formerly voided much 
“ gravel and small stones. 
“ Making too much haste to be well, he went 
“ into the Bath presently, and suffered by it. 
“ After due preparation, I put him first upon 
“ drinking the waters, because of his nephritic 
“ disorder, and then permitted him to bathe. 
“ At two months end, he returned perfectly 
“ cured as to cough, stomach, and rheuma- 
“ tism.” 
3. Dr. Guidot (in his Register) records the 
following. “ Mr. Arthur Sherstone of Brem- 
“ ham, aged fifty, after a short journey was 
“ taken with a rheumatism, which, after violent 
“ pains universal, seized on his hand, knee, and 
“ foot. He also lost the motion of his lower 
“ limbs. By bleeding, and other evacuations, 
“ the inflammation and swelling abated consider- 
“ ably, but the running pains remained so as 
“ to take away the use of both arms, by turns. 
“ By






165 BY BATH WATER.
“ By the moderate life of the Queen’s-Bath, he 
“ recovered.” 
4. “ John Binmore of Exeter, for benefit re- 
“ ceived in the rheumatism, which had superin- 
“ duced both palsy and dropsy, by drinking the 
“ waters, and the use of the mud, he gave pub- 
“ lie thanks to God.” 
5. When the army was preparing to embark 
for Belleisle, Captain Buchannan, of the Royal 
Scotch Fuzileers, was then under a sweating an- 
timonial regimen for the rheumatism. Half cur- 
ed and crippled, he would embark. Marching 
up to the attack, he fell down. Ordering his 
men to jump over him, by the assistance of a 
drummer, he gathered himself up and hobbled 
after them. By a long and cold winter’s cam- 
paign his disorder was increased. When he came 
to Bath he was crippled, hands and feet. By 
bathing and drinking he recovered. 
6. FROM May 1742, to 1760, there were 
five hundred seventy-five rheumatics admitted into 
the Bath Infirmary. Of these one hundred eighty- 
three were cured, two hundred and eighty much 
better, the rest better, or incurable. 
OF THE LUMBAGO.
THE Rheumatism, Lumbago, and Sciatica, are 
species of the same same genus. They 
differ only in the names of the parts of 
the body which they attack. 
Lumbago. 
The Lumbago is often mistaken for the Nephri- 
tis: the distinguishing sign is, the latter is attend- 
ed with vomiting, the former not. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath-Memoirs) has 
recorded the following Cases. 1. “ Wil- 
“ liam Lord Stafford was affected in 
Pierce’s 
Cases.  
“ both



166 DISEASES CURED
“ both hips, and in the lumbal muscles also. 
“ He bathed in the Cross Bath for five or six 
“ weeks, for it was summer, and went away 
“ better. In October he returned, finding his 
“ pains renewed so as to make him roar. When 
“ the weather was moderate, he bathed in the 
“ King’s Bath; when it was foul, in a tub. A- 
“ bout the middle of February he went to Lon- 
“ don recovered.” 
2. “ Lady Dowager Brooke was seized with 
“ a Lumbago, or Double Sciatica, with violent 
“ pains which bended her double. By the advice 
“ of three of the most eminent physicians of 
“ London, she had gone through several courses 
“ of physic, with hardly any amendment. A 
“ salivation was at length proposed, which she 
“ positively refused, proposing Bath of her own 
“ accord. This resolution was vehemently op- 
“ posed by three out of the four. Willis took a 
“ formal leave of her, washing his hands, and 
“ prognosticating certain death. She set out ne- 
“ vertheless in September, and entered presently 
“ on bathing in the Cross-Bath, drinking some- 
“ times of the water, in the first week she 
“ found ease, could stand upright in the Bath; 
“ in a month’s time could walk in her chamber, 
“ and was perfectly recovered. Her Doctors, 
“ when they took their leave, packed her up a 
“ peck of medicines, which she never tasted, nor 
“ indeed hardly any while she staid here.” 
OF THE SCIATICA.
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
1. Dr. Pierce’s first observation is that 
of Duke Hamilton. “ His Grace came 
“ hither very unweel, as he himself term- 
“ ed it, by reason of a pain in his hips, which 
“ caused



167 BY BATH WATER.
“ Caused him to go very lame, and disturbed his 
“ rest at night, and had done so for many months 
“ before. 
“ After due preparation, he entered the Bath, 
“ and sometimes drank the waters in the Bath 
“ only, to prevent thirst. After a week or ten 
“ days bathing, he was pumped on the affected 
“ hip. This course was continued for a month, 
“ or five weeks, by which His Grace obtained so 
“ much advantage, that he walked about with a 
“ cane, favouring that leg. On catching cold, 
“ he had afterwards minding of his illness again; 
“ but by visiting this place once or twice more, 
“ he recovered perfectly.”
2. “ Col. Mildmay’s case was more painful and 
“ more inveterate. By bathing he recovered.”
3. “ Sir John Clobery had been a colonel in 
“ Scotland, under Monk. By great fatigues, and 
“ being frequently obliged to sleep on the ground, 
“ he was seized with aches and pains in his limbs, 
“ of which he recovered. By laying in damp 
“ sheets, he was seized with a tormenting fit of 
“ a Sciatica, which held him two years, and crip- 
“ pled him.
“ He went through various regimens in Lon- 
“ don, all to no purpose. After being bled and 
“ purged, he bathed, and pumped for six or eight 
“ weeks, at the end of which he went away, 
“ not much advantaged for the present; but, 
“ after two or three months, was well at ease, 
“ upright, and streight.”
4. “ Mrs. Boswel, newly married, aged about 
“ twenty, was contracted and crippled by a sci- 
“ atica, so that she could neither stand upright, 
“ nor lay streight. She was carried in arms, 
“ not without frequent complaints of twinging  
pain.
“ She



168 DISEASES CURED
“ She had tried all forts of remedies, internal 
“ and external, without benefit. By two months 
“ bathing and pumping she mended considerably, 
“ insomuch that she could leave off her opiate, 
“ which she took twice or thrice a day to the 
“ quantity of thirty or forty drops at a time. 
“ Whether it was by the violence of her pain, 
“ or the too frequent use of these stupefactive 
“ medicines, or former inclination to hysterics, 
“ she had often very violent ones, not much 
“ short of epileptic fits. 
“ She bathed, and pumped, and thus recover- 
“ ed considerably the first season. Next year she 
“ returned and completed her cure.” 
AMONG Guidot’s two hundred Cases there are 
fourteen Sciatics, a specimen of which are the 
following. 
5. “ Benjamin Barber, Alderman of Bath, was 
“ cured by bathing and pumping.” 
6. “ Robert Sheyler was cured by three bath- 
« ings ” 
7. “ Mr. Thomas Wilkins was cured by bath- 
“ ing four times, and pumping twice.” 
CHAP.


169 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. X. 
OF CUTANEOUS DISEASES.
IN Skin Diseases Baths natural and artificial 
have been used in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. In his book (De Thermis, pag. 122.) Bac- 
cius expresses himself, Maculas autem, pruritus,
ulcuscula, scabies, lepras, papulas, el id genus alia 
per cutim vulgo manantia vitia, tum crebrae medica-
tarum potiones exterminant, tum abluunt, abolentque 
in totum abstergentium et calidarum quarumcunque lo- 
tiones. In universum, minerales aquae omnes, omnes 
salsae ac marinae ad omnigena cutis faciunt vitia. 
I. OF THE LEPROSY.
1. LEPROSY, or Elephantiasis, is a 
cuticular disease appearing in the form 
of dry, white, thin, scurfy scales.
Definition. 
2. Its diagnostic signs are itching 
with scales generally confined to the 
cuticle. Sometimes it goes deeper, and appears 
in the form of deep ulcers. 
Diagnostics,
3. This disease is generally hard to 
cure, especially if it is hereditary.
Prognostic.  
In this and other inveterate diseases of the skin, 
bathing has successfully been used in 
all ages. Baccius (pag. 122) expres- 
ses himself thus, Elephantiasi autem et quam dicunt
Lepram, nec minus omni intemperatne, ac veteri sca- 
biei. fortiora in cunctis conveniunt balnea, omnes ter- 
rae minerales, sulphursae praesertim, quales in Lu- 
tationibus commemorantur multae. The Well Cal- 
lirhoe, and the River Jordan, are said, in sacred
Cure. 
H writ,



170 DISEASES CURED
writ, to have cured Leprosies. Paulus Aegineta 
commends natural baths in the cure of Leprosies, 
praesertim aluminosarum, et quae ferrum sapiunt. Con- 
fert ipsarum potio, tum marinae harenae usus, et 
quaecunque tandem sudationibus ciendis efficaciam ha- 
bent, Vaporaria, ac Discussoria. 
Dr. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) expresses 
himself thus. “ For more than forty 
“ years that I have lived here, there 
“ hath not one past wherein there 
“ hath not been more than a few instances of 
“ very great cures done upon leprous, scurvy, and 
“ scabby persons. The virtue of the waters is so 
“ well known in leprous cases, that it seems al- 
“ most superfluous to bring examples. However, 
“ that this head may not be without its particular 
“ instances, I shall give some few eminent ones. 
General 
proofs.
1. “ Thomas St. Lawrence, Esq. of Ireland, 
“ aged fifteen or sixteen, was sent 
“ hither in May, 1679. For seven 
“ years past he had been afflicted with 
“ a perverse scab tending to a leprosy, which had 
“ yielded to no medicine. By my advice he was 
“ bled and purged four times, took alteratives, 
“ drank the waters, bathed and recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A poor fellow from Warwickshire came 
“ hither in the year 1684. I never saw any onc 
“ come nearer to the description of a leper in the 
“ Leviticus than this man. By drinking, and 
“ bathing in the Lepers-Bath, he was perfectly re- 
“ covered.” 
3. “ A Woodmonger of Staines brought his 
“ son hither aged about twelve or thirteen, who, 
“ from his infancy, was subject to the Vitelligo. 
“ Sometimes it was more, then less, in greater or 
“ lesser blotches on his neck, elbow, knees, face, 
“ head, arms, and thighs, with a brawny white
“ scurf,



171 BY BATH WATER.
“ scurf, which fell off and grew again. After 
“ a month’s bathing and drinking, the spots rose 
“ not so much. But, as the disease had been 
“ born with him, I advised his father to put him 
“ to school here. I could not get him to drink 
“ regularly, but he bathed every night, and some- 
“ times took physic. In a twelve month’s time 
“ he returned as found as a trout, and had been 
“ so for some months before he fet out.” 
4. FROM Dr. Guidot’s Bath Register we have 
copied the following Cases. “ Ema- 
“ nuel Weston, of Elsemore, in the 
“ county of Salop, had a scurfy head 
“ with many scales for five years. By bathing
“ and washing the head in the Lepers-Bath he 
“ was cured, June 14th, 1682.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
5. “ E. G. daughter of a musician of Bath, 
“ from her birth was troubled with a scurvy and 
“ scaly head like an elephantiasy, or leprosy. By 
“ the use of the King’s Bath, and application of 
“ the mud, with some externals, she had a found 
“ head, and thick hair. This I saw November 5, 
“ 1685.” 
6. “ Dorothy Rossington having scales falling 
“ from all her body, especially in the morning, 
“ by using the King’s and Queen’s Baths six 
“ months received cure.”  
7. “ Richard Vernon, aged fourteen, was for 
“ ten years troubled with a milder sort of leprosy, 
“ called an elephantiasy, with tawny spots, and 
“ white scales. He drank the water seven days, 
“ and bathed three weeks, by which he recover- 
“ ed. The winter following the disease broke 
“ forth. After eight weeks pursuit of the same 
“ method, he went away well. Father and son 
“ gave testimony, June 6, 1689.” 
H2 8. “ Henry 


172 DISEASES CURED 
8. “ Henry Clempson, shoemaker, came to 
“ Bath Whit-Monday, 1687, used the hot bath 
“ three months. The year following, two months, 
“ gave public thanks to Almighty God, who 
“ cured him of a white dry leprosy, called elephan- 
“ tiasy confirmed, which had miserably afflicted 
“ him for six years.” 
9. “ I John Burch, of the county of Kent, 
“ came to Bath, April 30, 1691, troubled three 
“ years with a white scurfy skin and head. Un- 
“ der the scales were reddish spots most common- 
“ ly round. I used the Bath nine weeks, and 
“ acknowledged my cure.” 
10. “ Horthy Harper, a Leper, received great 
“ benefit by the Lepers-Bath, 1693.” 
11. “ Elizabeth Smith, a Leper, whose skin 
“ was covered over with white scales, went away 
“ clean, 1693.” 
12. “ Sarah Meredith of Carleen, received 
“ benefit in an Elephantiasy by the Hot-Bath, 
“ 1693.” 
13. “ Howel Morgan, Efq. of Merioneth, re- 
“ ceived great benefit in a foul skin resembling 
“ an elephantiasy, by drinking and bathing, 
“ 1693.” 
II. OF THE SCROPHULA.
1. SCROPHULA is an indolent schir- 
rous tumour, seated chiefly in the glands 
of the neck, and degenerating into ulcers of the 
word sort. 
Definition.
2. Its chief seat is the glandular sys- 
tem in general, not the only, for it oc- 
cupies the adipose membrane, muscles, tendons, 
joints, and bones. 
Seat.
3. Par-



173 BY BATH WATER.
3. Particular nations are infested with it, viz. 
the Bavarians, Dutch, and the Tyroleze. Of these
children, persons grown up rarely. 
4. Its remote causes are crude, viscid, acid diet, 
foggy air, preceding diseases, pox, snow water, 
but, above all, hereditary taint, sometimes from 
the nurse. It is very difficult to be cured. Scro- 
phulas subnascentes abolere balneum item in Baiams et 
digerentia, et callida alia diutissime fata, ut nitrata 
calentia, ac item ebibita, quales placuit Vitruvio cele- 
brare Subcutilas aquas in Sabinis, pariterque fomenta 
ex bituminosis, ferreis, plumbeis, et ex brassica para- 
tum in Discussoriis artificialibus, says Baccius, pag. 
122. 
1. FROM Pierce’s Memoirs, we have these 
Cases. “ Lord James Butler came to Bath, June, 
“ 1677, with a chirurgeon to dress his 
“ wound, which was upon the last 
“ joint of one of his thumbs. It was 
“ judged to be scrophulous. He drank the water 
“ mostly, sometimes bathed. That hand he bath- 
“ ed morning and evening at home. After five 
“ or six weeks, the wound afforded a more laud- 
“ able quitture, which gave him encouragement 
“ to return another season, which he did, and 
“ was cured.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ A son of Monsieur Du Puys, servant to 
“ James Duke of York, had a running sore on 
“ his hand, which yielded to no surgery. It was 
“ therefore deemed scrophulous. He had been 
“ touched more than once to no purpose. He 
“ drank the waters, and bathed, took vulneraries 
“ and other alteratives. In two seasons he was 
“ cured.” 
3. FROM Guidot’s Register we have 
the following. “ Francis Loughton, 
“ of the parish of St. Mark, Notting- 
Guidot’s 
Cases.
H3 “ ham,



174 DISEASES CURED
“ ham, came to Bath, May 5, 1684, with two 
“ running sores, one in the leg, another in the 
“ thigh. On the use of the Lepers-Bath for two 
“ months, the ulcers healed, there remained on- 
“ ly some crookedness.” 
4. “ Edward Huddle, of Chesham, came to 
“ Bath with running ulcers all over his body. 
“ After great expences, and despair of cure, he 
“ used the Bath six weeks, and drank sparingly. 
“ His ulcers healed, he went away well, Septem- 
“ ber, 1688.” 
5. “ Margaret Geary, of the county of Aber-
“ deen troubled with lameness and running ul- 
“ cers in both knees and left shoulder for three 
“ years, by the use of hot bath received cure, 
“ August 17, 1682.” 
The only publication of Hospital Cases is one 
six-penny number, by Dr. Oliver, containing 
fourteen. Had this gentleman’s prac- 
tice been as distinctly related in the 
books from the beginning, they would 
have contained clearer proofs of the power of the 
waters. His first begins only in the year 1757. 
Among the fourteen, we find no less than six ma- 
nifest proofs of the power of the waters, in one 
of the most loathsome disorders, Leprosy. 
Infirmary 
practices. 
In that gross publication of eighteen years hos- 
pital practice, we find one article stand thus, Le- 
prosies, and foul eruptions of the skin. Under this 
general head, there were 659 admitted; of this 
number two hundred sixty-eight were cured, and 
315 much better, an unquestionable proof of the 
power of the waters.—“ From this account, 
“ indistinct as it is, and from the relations of o- 
“ ther writers, we may venture to conclude that, 
“ in this article, there is great matter of comfort 
“ to





175 BY BATH WATER:
“ to those who languish under leprosies, scrophulas,
“ scurvies, running-sores, &c.” 
In his Principia Medicinae, pag. 201. Dr. Home 
recommends serrum et aquae chalybeatae, sulphur, 
aquae sulphuratae, imprimis Moffatenses nostrae. The 
virtues of Mossat Wells, (in scrophulous cases) 
are confirmed in the Edin. Med. Essays, as well 
as by daily experience. 
III. OF THE SCURVY.
1. VARIOUS, numerous, and discordant are the 
symptoms of the scurvy; hardly can it be defined; 
it nevertheless appears to be a disease.
specific and distinct from all others.
Its distinctions seem rather to arise from different 
constitutions than from different causes. It seems 
to have been known to the antients; though, by 
reason of their short winters, and coasting 
voyages, it raged not so fiercely as with us. For 
more than a century past, the scurvy seems to 
have been the bane of our armies and fleets.
Definition. 
2. PREJUDICE has established a distinction be- 
tween sea-scurvies and land-scurvies. If we com- 
pare the pathognomonic signs of Ech- 
thius, Wierus, and others, we shall 
find them quadrate exactly with the 
narrative of Anson’s voyage. Putrid 
gums, swelled legs, rigid tendons, haemorrhages, 
sudden deaths, &c. are symptoms described by 
seamen and landmen. Its symptoms are uni- 
formly the same at sea, in Holland, Greenland,
Hungary, Cronstadt, Wiburg, in the Orkneys, and 
at Penzance. 
Sea and land 
scurvies the
same. 
3. VARIOUS have been the opinions 
concerning the causes and propagation 
of this distemper. Some believed it connate, o- 
Causes.
H4 thers



176 DISEASES CURED
thers infectious. E. c. wherever this calamity 
has been general, it may be deduced from natural 
causes. 
Of all the causes, moisture is the chief. On the 
subject of the scurvy, I have treated at large, in 
my Attempt to revive the medical use of Sea air and 
exercise. For farther satisfaction, I beg leave to 
refer the curious reader to Doctor Lind’s book on 
the subject, a master-piece of the kind. My pre- 
sent subject naturally leads me to scurvies, as they 
fall under the power of Mineral Waters. 
THERE are wandering pains which 
usurp the mask of gout, rheumatism, 
and scurvy, and which are often com- 
plications of the three. 
Pains gouty,
scorbutic and
rheumatic.
The matter is of a volatile phlogistic nature, 
it passes sometimes like electricity through the 
whole body, darting pains, convulsions, twitch- 
ings and cramps; especially when the patient is 
falling asleep, sometimes fixing with redness, in- 
flammation and pain; but, in a few minutes the 
joints grow pale and easy, the spirits flag, he be- 
comes hypochondriac, the appetite fails, diges- 
tion is imperfect, status’s prevail, the flesh wastes,
nervous atrophy succeeds. 
Sydenham says, “ Though there is remarka- 
ble difference between the true rheumatism and 
the scurvy, as intimated above, it must neverthe- 
less be owned, that there is another species of 
rheumatism which is near a-kin to the scurvy; for 
it resembles it in its capital symptoms, and re- 
quires the same method of cure nearly. The 
pain affects sometimes one part, sometimes ano- 
ther; rarely occasions swelling, nor is it attended 
with fever. It is also less fixed, sometimes it at- 
tacks the internal parts with sickness. It is of 
long duration. It chiefly attacks the female sex. 
or



177 BY BATH WATER.
or the effeminate, so that I should have referred 
it to the hysteric class, had not repeated experi- 
ence taught me that it will not yield to hysteric 
remedies.” 
Boerhaave, who has extracted his chapter of 
rheumatic aphorisms from the former, says, (Aph. 
1490) Arthritidi, podagrae, scorbutoque agnatus mor- 
bas frequentissimus, qui rheumatismus appellatur. 
Hoffman also observes, “ That there is a scor- 
butic rheumatism, in which the whole mass of
lymph and serum is vitiated with foul particles
which manifest themselves by different kinds of 
eruptions. 
“ Diluent and demulcent remedies taken free- 
ly, and continued long, are chiefly proper here. 
Mineral waters, and milk with a proper regimen, 
are likewise of great efficacy in curing this species 
of the disease.” 
Paulus Paravicinus (De Balneis Masidi) says, 
Quantum vero arthriticis, ischiadicis, convulsis, di- 
stentis, resolutis, tremulis, nerviceisque 
omnibus subveniant, exprimero non facile 
possim. Ob haec autem corporis villa po-
tissime celebres sunt, et omnium ore versantur—“ An 
“ dreas Calvus municeps meus hujus rei testis est locu- 
“ pletissimus, cui post molestissimos coxendicis dolores, 
“ femur adeo riguerat, cancretis cum gelu musculis, ut 
“ nullum medicamenti genus praeter balnea haec sensim
“ excitare potuerit.”—Doctor Lind recommends 
Warm Baths medicated with aromatic plants.
Proofs ana- 
logical. 
1. The first case of Dr. Pierce’s Bath Memoirs, 
and of his own practice, that falls under this 
head, happens to be his own.—“ I  
“ had sometimes a pain in my right
“ hip, thigh, knee and ankle, which 
“ soon moved to my shoulder and arm, in both so 
“ acute, as to render them for some time useless.
Pierce’s
Cases.
H5 “ I



178 DISEASES CURED
“ I had also a dull heavy pain in my legs, with a 
“ little swelling and small spots. 
“ After due preparation, I bathed spring and 
“ fall. I used a decoction of China, Sarsa, with 
“ Cephalics, Neurotics, Antiscorbutics, &c. I used 
“ the waters only in, and after bathing, so as to 
“ quench thirst, because I was subject to rheums, 
“ and catarrhs. By God’s blessing, Bath waters, 
“ regimen, and exercise, I now continue so well 
« seventy-fourth year of my age, that I 
“ have neither gout, stone, dropsy, cough, asth- 
« ma, nor any remainder of the scurvy, but want
“ of teeth.” 
2. “ Mrs. Jane Chase, a maiden gentlewoman, 
“ aged about twenty-four years, was taken with 
“ sharp pains in her joints only, which ran from 
« place to place by quick removes, sometimes 
« inflaming, then swelling, always painful. She 
“ was so weak that she could not stand. She had 
“ a spontaneous lassitude, want of appetite, di- 
“ gestion, palpitation, &c. 
“ After convenient preparation she bathed; 
« and, in bathing, we were obliged to support 
« her with cordials, for, at first, she could not 
“ hear a temperate bath more than twice a week, 
“ for she was brought hither in a litter. 
“ In two months time she recovered strength 
« and digestion, the tumors of her joints began 
“ to subside, the palpitation remitted. She went 
“ home on horseback, and continued the autumn 
“ and winter following, free from a relapse. She 
“ drank the waters no otherwise than to quench 
“ her thirst in the bath, and sometimes to keep 
“ her soluble. She continued many years free 
“ from this painful distemper.” 
3. “ Mrs. Green, of Stratford upon Avon, aged 
“ forty years, had a wandering scorbutic gout 
“ and



179 BY BATH WATER.
“ and rheumatism twenty years before, of which 
“ she recovered and married. It now returned, 
“ and tortured her at first between the shoulders, 
“ so that, on the least motion, she was ready to 
“ faint away. By outward applications, it moved 
“ to her limbs, hips, knees, and soles of her feet, 
“ which crippled her. 
“ After various regimens, she was brought to 
“ Bath. After slight preparation, she was put 
“ in the Cross-Bath, the most temperate. Thus, 
“ continuing to drink and bathe by turns, for five 
“ or six weeks, she returned well.” 
4. “ Mrs. Martha Greswold of Soly-bill in 
“ Warwickshire, at thirteen years of age, by ly- 
“ ing on the ground, in, or soon after a scarlet fe- 
“ ver, was taken with a rheumatism, a which left a 
“ stiffness in her joints, and other symptoms. 
“ When she came to Bath, she was twenty-three 
“ years old, so weak, as not able to use hand, or 
“ foot. Her head was also affected, so that she 
“ could hardly remember what was faid to her. 
“ After a week’s gentle preparation, she bath- 
“ ed, and pumped for seven weeks, at the end of 
“ which, she rode forty miles homeward the first
“ day. She kept well for ten years. Since that 
“ she has had severe fits of the gout, with distor- 
“ tions and nodes, for which she has often come 
“ hither; and, by drinking and bathing, has al- 
“ ways received benefit.” 
5. “ Mrs. Mary Huntly unmarried, aged a- 
“ bout thirty, in much the same case with Mrs. 
“ Chase, she had besides heats, and pimples in her 
“ face, cough, and shortness of breathing, she was 
“ also greatly obstructed. 
“ She required more preparation, but by shorter 
“ space of bathing she recovered.”  
H6 Dr.



180 DISEASES CURED
Dr. Pierce concludes his section of wandering 
pains in these words. “ Many more instances 
“ might be given. Of late, these kind of ill-
“ nesses have gone under the name of rheuma- 
“ tisms; but call them what they will, all pains 
“ and weakness remaining after this, or the gout, 
“ have certainly been recovered by moderate and 
“ regular bathing, and relapses have been prevent- 
“ ed by drinking.” 
6. Dr. Guidot (in his Bath Register) gives the 
following Cases. “ Joseph Pleydal, Archdea- 
“ con of Chichester, drank the waters 
“ in the morning, and bathed at night 
“ for rheumatic affections, and full ha- 
“ bit of body. By the use of the Cross-Bath, be 
“ received great benefit.”
Guidot’s 
Cases.
7. “ A matron of Devonshire, in an inveterate 
“ rheumatism, using the Cross-Bath, received be- 
“ nefit.” 
8. “ William Dixie, Esq. of the county of 
“ Leicester, was sadly afflicted with a rheumatism,
“ which reduced him to that degree of weakness, 
“ that, at twenty-two years of age, he seemed 
“ an old decrepid man on crutches. After the 
“ best advice that London afforded, he came to 
“ Bath rather in despair. After using the Cross- 
“ Bath two months, and the pump about one, he 
“ recovered, and gave public thanks to God in 
“ the Abbey Church.”
9. “ Mr. Edward Pierce (from hard lying dur- 
“ ing the late troubles of Ireland) was afflicted
“ with the rheumatism all over, which, at last, 
“ deprived him of the use of his right arm. By 
“ drinking and bathing in the King’s and Qeen’s
“ Baths, he received great benefit.
10. “ Mr.



181 BY BATH WATER.
10. “ Mr. Yorath, chaplain to Morgan of Tre- 
“ degar, received great benefit in a scorbutic atro- 
“ phy by drinking and bathing.” 
11. “ Mr. Abram Corea of London received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic rheumatism by drink- 
“ ing and bathing.” 
12. “ Sir Ambrose Phillips, Knight, received 
“ cure of a rheumatism, by drinking, and bath- 
“ ing.”
13. “ Edward Washbeare, of London, sixty- 
“ two years of age, came to Bath creeping on his 
“ hands and knees, and having the benefit of Bel- 
“ lot’s Hospital, used the Hot Bath six weeks, 
“ pumped in the Bath, and drank the waters. 
“ In seven weeks he walked on crutches, and 
“ perfectly recovered. I saw him, strong, erect, 
“ and found in London on the third of March, 
“ 1694, when he gave this testimony of his cure.” 
14. “ Mrs. E. Y. of London, troubled with 
“ pustulous eruptions all over her body, by bath- 
“ ing and drinking received cure.” 
15. “ Another gentlewoman having a sore 
“ running head with a briny matter, in five 
“ weeks time received a cure by drinking and 
“ pumping.” 
16. “ Charles Child, Apothecary of Bath, hav- 
“ ing salt and acrid humours, defluxing with pain 
“ in the leg and foot, received cure by bathing 
“ ten or twelve times.” 
17. “ John Worley, Vintner in Clare Market, 
“ troubled with the scurvy, and ill disposition of 
“ blood, whence eruptions of the skin, and hard 
“ bumps like the stinging of nettles, drank the 
“ waters three weeks, from seven to nine pints a 
“ day, after seven baths he was freed from his 
“ distemper.” 
18. “ Henry



182 DISEASES CURED
18. “ Henry Johnson, a Dane, with old sores, 
“ and running ulcers in the legs, hands and face, 
“ received cure by the Bath in two seasons.” 
19. “ Samuel Bret of Cornwall, came to Bath 
“ with a foul skin, used the Baths fourteen days 
“ and received cure.” 
20. “ Mr. Richard Yorath, Clerk, received 
“ great benefit in a scorbutic atrophy by drinking 
“ the waters. 
21. “ Mrs. Woodcock, in a high scorbutic 
“ distemper much discolouring the skin, by drink- 
“ ing and bathing for several seasons received 
“ much benefit.” 
22. “ Mrs. Cole of Barnstaple, (in the spleen 
and scurvy) received great benefit by drinking 
“ and bathing for several seasons.” 
In his Use and Abuse of warm bathing, Dr. Oli- 
ver presents us with a memorable proof. 
23. “ Mrs. Reynolds, wife to the bishop of 
“ Londonderry, was naturally of a very thin habit 
“ of body, and very subject to gouty- 
“ rheumatic complaints, she was about 
“ thirty. When I saw her she was reduced to 
“ a skeleton, by most excruciating pains. She 
“ had been bled largely, her blood nevertheless 
« continued to be very sizy. The muscles of her 
“ throat were so affected, that she could not swal- 
“ low, or breathe without difficulty. The scarf- 
“ skin was dry, hard, and drawn tight over her 
“ whole body. I put her in the Queen’s Bath, 
“ where she staid only a few minutes, apprehend- 
“ ing danger from her extreme weakness. Soon 
“ after she got into the water, she felt her pains 
“ so much abated, and her throat so much re- 
“ lieved, that she begged leave to stay half an 
“ hour. On changing the flannel, the old scarf- 
“ skin was found cracked in many places. After 
Oliver.
“ a





183 BY BATH WATER.
“ a few bathings it peeled oft in large flakes, 
“ thicker than the true skin in its natural state. 
“ The fluids passed freely, the body plumped, 
“ the skin became soft and moist. Universal ease 
“ ensued.” 
24. Mrs. Phelps of Cote, near Bristol, for a 
year and a half and upwards, laboured under a 
complication of ailments scorbutic, 
rheumatic, and gouty. She had wan- 
dering pains, bilious vomitings, diarrhaeas, legs 
swelled and hard, with fores unconquerable 
by chirurgical art; she was bloated, unwieldy, 
breathless, without appetite, sleep, or digestion. 
In a word she was thoroughly cachectic. 
Author
In the beginning of winter, she was, with dif- 
ficulty, transported to Bath. After drinking the 
waters five months, her complaints, in general, 
began to yield. She then began to bathe, which 
she did but seldom. Her pains are now rare, so 
are her vomitings and loosenesses; the swelling 
and hardness of her legs are gone, the running 
sores have long been cicatrized, she eats, sleeps, 
and digests. To Bath-water, little assisted by 
medicine, she owes a cure which distant art in 
vain attempted. 
CHAP.




184 DISEASES CURED
CHAP. XI.
OF THE PALSY.
1. PALSY may be said to be an abolition, or 
diminution of motion, or sense, or both, 
in one or more parts of the body. 
The very word Λαραλυσls imports a 
solution of that which was before firm. So is it 
understood, in the Gospel according to St. Luke, 
Nunc solvas famulun tuum Domine. 
Definition.
Many are the diseases which proceed from lae- 
sion of the nerves; if ever there was a disease hid 
from mortal research, it may truly be said to be 
this. The nature of my present work forbids 
particular dissertations. I beg leave to recom- 
mend the curious reader to Van Eems’s book De 
Morbis Nervorum, a treasure in miniature. Suf- 
ficient it is for my purpose to reconcile the use of 
mineral waters to palsies, pointing out general 
practical hints as they occur. 
2. The remote causes of palsy are drunkenness, 
scurvy, dry belly-ach, air, wounds, compression, 
or solution of the nerves; suppression 
of usual evacuations, apoplexy, con- 
vulsion, fear, metallic fumes, pain, dislocation, 
abscess, opiates, and old age.—The proximate 
cause is interception of the nervous fluid. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are evident. 
4. The diagnostics and prognostics
are to be taken from a knowledge of 
the causes, and general distribution of 
the nerves. These differ according to the place, 
cause, degree, &c. Inde lethalis, minus lethalis, 
sanabilis, incurabilis, Boerhaav. Aphor. 1061. 
Symptoms. 
Diagnostics, 
and Prognos- 
tics. 
THE



185 BY BATH WATER. 
THE cause may exist in the substance of the 
nerve, or in the sheath. The latter may easily 
be cured, the former hardly ever.— 
Palsy, from fullness of blood, may 
easier be cured than that which pro- 
ceeds from serous colluvies accumu- 
lated within the encephalon.—Palsy in the arm 
may be borne much longer than one in the intes- 
tines; because, while the latter continues, the 
chyle cannot enter the lacteals.—The higher the 
seat the worse. The brain is the citadel, from 
which the foul detaches its commands: palsies 
which succeed violent head-achs, impede the very 
origin of the spinal marrow in its continuation 
with the medulla oblongata; if these increase, 
they produce apoplexy. If the muscles which 
dilate the chest become paralytic, life soon ceases. 
—The muscles of the throat are so numerous and 
so slender, that, when they are affected, Boer- 
haave pronounces the casealis.—The heart is a 
muscle, and may suffer a paralysis. From sud- 
den affections, mortal syncopies have followed. 
Van Swieten gives an instance, “ A nobleman 
“ beholding a young man stripped of his armour, 
“ just after he had gloriously fallen in battle, had 
“ the fatal curiosity to look at his face; discover- 
“ ing it to be his own son’s, he dropped down 
“ dead in an instant.”—“ When the small pox 
“ raged among the French Neutrals at Bristol, one 
“ of the women being informed that her husband 
“ lay just then expiring, walked up to the foot of 
“ the bed, and gazing earnestly till he fetched 
“ his last breath, dropped down for ever.”—The 
stomach receives its nerves from the two trunks 
of the eighth pair; if a paralysis happens from an 
internal cause, it is to be feared, that it lies with- 
in the encephalon. If the muscular fibres of the 
Unfavoura- 
able prognos- 
tics.  
stomach





186 DISEASES CURED
stomach come to be paralysed, the food lies an 
useless lump, the animal dies of hunger. In 
gluttons, the muscular fibres, by constant disten- 
sion, lose their contractile power, the food passes 
off crude. Hence pains, lienteries, &c.—The 
nerves of the intestines have a singular connec- 
tion with the vital functions. If these are wound- 
ed, life ceases. Iliac pains sink the stoutest into 
fits.—The bladder receives branches from the in- 
tercostals, and from the lower complexes mesentericus, 
as also from the crural; hence a paralysis, from an 
internal cause, comes to be perilous. Involuntary 
emission of urine denotes an affection of the brain. 
—A paralysis complicated with coldness, stupor, 
or insensibility is very bad. The blood no longer 
circulates, the muscles are robbed of the nervous 
juice. In his Academical Experiments on Opium, 
Dr. Alston, professor of Mat. Med. in the uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, “ showed his pupils a frog, 
“ whose hinder leg was deprived of sense and 
“ motion. Viewing the paralysed member, we 
“ plainly discovered the red globules dissolved, 
“ and the vessels distended with a homogeneous 
“ red fluid. This stagnation was the effect of 
“ the opium, which prevented the depletion of 
“ the muscular arteries.”Edin. Med. Essays, Vol. V. 
p. 155.
5. PAIN, sensation, heat, formication, and 
trembling, promise security.—Supervening fe- 
vers, and diarrhaeas, sometimes cure 
palsies.—Palsies from plethora are easi- 
ly cured.-Palsies which descend are 
less dangerous.—While the muscles continue 
plump, the prognostic is favourable. The arte- 
rious, nervous, and adipous vessels perform their 
offices.—Spontaneous sweats either cure, or in- 
crease the disease.—Where a paraplegy, or hae- 
Favourable 
prognostics.
miplegy



187 BY BATH WATER.
miplegy succeeds an apoplexy, there is room to 
hope; because the cause of the disease decreases, 
the brain begins to be relieved.—When paraly- 
tics see, hear, and taste, with the back and point 
of their tongues, if they distinguish objects by 
the parts paralysed, there are great hopes of cure. 
Palsies are easily cured, while the fabric of the 
brain, medulla oblongata, spinalis, and nerves re- 
main found.—Whatever can attenuate the morbi- 
fic matter, so as it may be dissipated and eliminat- 
ed out of the body cures the disease.—Whatever 
changes the morbific matter from a part of the 
body on which the vital functions depend to one 
less dangerous cures the disease.—Two ounces of 
glutinous serum lodged in the ventricles of the 
brain, produce terrible symptoms.—The same, or 
a larger quantity of the same matter deposited in 
the panniculus adiposus of the leg, is borne without 
molestation.—Van Swieten says, he has seen the 
drowsy, stupid, and lethargic miraculously reliev- 
ed by the swelling of their legs. Asthmatics 
have wonderfully been relieved by the swelling of 
the joints.—Palsies have been cured by a metasta- 
sis of the morbific matter. 
Fevers naturally attenuate, dissipate, and eli- 
minate obstructions. They sometimes deposite 
them on other parts. Unde febris saepe medicamenti 
virtutem exercet rations aliorum morborum. Aph. 
589.—Aph. 1017. 
6. HENCE are we enabled to draw practical les- 
sons. If we consider the wonderful fabric of the 
larynx the numerous muscles which modulate 
the aperture of the rima glottidis; if we consider 
that the pharynx, velum pendulum palati, uvula, 
tongue, and lips concur in forming the voice, all 
which are moved by muscles; if we consider how 
many muscles are destined for the pronunciation 
of




188 DISEASES CURED
of one single letter, we may cease to wonder 
why, after the cure of an apoplexy, one little 
pronunciation should remain uncured, while the 
patient distinctly pronounces other words, or let- 
ters. In differing living animals, I have often 
tied the recurrent nerves, that I might not be dis- 
turbed by their plaintive cries. What was the 
consequence? the animal became instantly dumb. 
Untying the ligature, they cry as before.—Wep- 
ferus tells us a memorable story of a woman, who 
lost her speech by the brain’s being oppressed with
serum. By coughing the expectorated a copious 
spittle, and thus recovered her speech.—De Haen 
(Ratio Medendi, pag. 224.) relates a singular in- 
stance which he cured by the powder, and de- 
coction of the leaves of the orange tree. After an
apoplectic stroke, the patient was subject to the 
following symptoms. He knew every body, and 
every thing, yet could not assign the name of one 
thing. Master of the French, Italian, and Ger- 
man languages, ask him questions in either, or 
all, he answered in the German, which before 
his illness he never used to do.—At this very time I 
attend a similar case. A gentleman who had 
spent the earlier part of his days in Holland, resi- 
ded afterwards in England, where he was trou- 
bled with a scorbutic rheumatism, which (by 
warm bathing, blisters, and alteratives) seemed
to be cured. From the time of the cure of the 
rheumatism, he seemed more or less to be affected 
with an asthma and cough. For this cough he 
drank the Bristol waters, during the two last sum- 
mers with little alleviation. In August last, I ad- 
vised him to drink the goat whey in Wales, and 
thence to repair to Italy, by sea, for the winter. 
Far beyond my expectations, (in three weeks 
time) his asthma vanished; he found himself so 
completely

189 BY BATH WATER. 
completely recovered, that he gave over the 
thoughts of his southern voyage. In his journey 
from London to Bath, he found a numbness 
which affected one side, from the crown of the 
head to the sole of the foot; he dropped his whip
frequently, and broke three chamber-pots on the 
road. Ignorant of danger, he talked of these ap- 
pearances with indifference. By my advice he 
was bled; exceeding my advice, he took salts, 
which purged him four or five times a-day, and 
that for a whole month. Calling in one sore- 
noon, I found him laid down, to sleep off a 
head-ach. His pulse seemed to be choaked, hard- 
ly to be felt. The pain occupied one haemi- 
sphere of the brain exactly, that opposite to the 
side first affected; this was the first head-ach he 
ever had felt in sixty years; his tongue faultered; 
in a word, he seemed to be on the very threshold 
of an apoplexy. I advised him to avoid sleep, to 
get up, and be bled, which was instantly per- 
formed. Returning in two or three hours, I 
found him, most imprudently, taking a vomit; 
tying up his arm, and pressing the orifice with
my finger, I took a pound more of blood away; 
then proceeded with the vomit. Desiring assist- 
ance. Dr. Canvane met me in the evening. By 
bleeding, cupping, blistering, sinapisms, purges, 
&c. we seemed to gain ground; every prescrip- 
tion answered the intention; in about a month, 
his speech and understanding returned, but he 
could neither read, nor write his name. Unable 
to bear further evacuation, we ordered an issue on 
the top of the head, about the size of half a 
crown. By degrees he came to read, write, and 
converse rationally enough, with this particular 
default; the nerves appropriated to certain func- 
tions still continued to be oppressed; though he 
had


190 DISEASES CURED
had clear ideas of things, he could not assign 
their names; when he wanted to mention the 
word pulse, putting his finger on his wrist, he 
commonly said. This is fast, or slow; he wrote 
sensibly enough, but his d’s, he made g’s, and his 
g’s, d’s. By my advice, he took the Orange leaves 
in powder and decoction for some weeks; but, 
finding no sensible relief, or grudging the expence, 
he discontinued the prescription. Soon after, his 
belly began to swell with scarcity of lateritious 
urine. At present he can bear no evacuations, 
and seems to be in great danger.—From this nar- 
rative, may we not infer that physicians may 
sometimes be over solicitous about curing diseases? 
Might not the cure of the scurvy have translated 
the morbific matter to the lungs? Might not the 
speedy cure of the asthma have given rise to the 
apoplexy? Might not the cure of the apoplexy 
have produced the dropsy? 
7. The general causes of palsies have been ex- 
plained, so have the particular. From these it ap- 
pears that nothing general can be laid 
down towards the cure; for as the 
cases are various, so must the methods of cure. 
The curatory indication is to be taken from signs
antecedent and concomitant. Suppose the verte- 
brae thrust out of their place, vain were boasted
antiparalytic remedies. The ulcer must be healed, 
the bones must be replaced. The cause must not 
only be removed, but a free flux of humours 
must be maintained through the arteries and 
nerves. This last is a task not so easy. The sub- 
stance of the nerves is so delicate, that it is too 
often destroyed by compression. The small ves- 
sels long deprived of their juices, collapse, and 
become impervious. Experiments teach us, that, 
by tying the par-vagum and intercostal nerves in 
Cure. 
live

191 BY BATH WATER.
live dogs too tightly, when the ligatures have 
been taken off, these animals languish, and in a 
few days die. Rational practitioners will there- 
fore be cautious how they promise cures in dis- 
eases which have lasted for years. Such cripples 
are happy if they find amendment; rarely are 
they cured. Practice confirms the truth, Palsies 
arsing from retention of natural evacuations are 
cured by provoking these discharges. Those from 
plethora have their proper cure. My business is
with that common chronical palsy which arises 
from inert lentor. Let art, in this case, imitate 
nature. If we run over all the remedies which 
have been commended by the most celebrated 
practitioners, it will appear that they are all cal- 
culated for answering nature’s purposes of raising
fever, dissolving, and purging. Boerhaave gives 
an instance of a Taylor’s being thrice cured of a 
palsy by a fever.—Hippocrates gives many such 
instances, so does Aretaeus.—Sydenham wish- 
ed for a remedy that could create a fever.—Ting- 
ling, itching, and convulsions are nature’s efforts. 
—Profuse diarrhaeas have cured palsies. 
Hence, again, we learn that the art of physic 
never is so beneficial as when it pursues nature’s 
steps. 
Aphor. 1068, “ Curatio ergo tentatur α, at- 
“ tenuantibus, dissipantibus, aromaticis, cepha- 
“ licis, nervinis, uterinis dictis, vegetabilibus 
“ specie fucci expressi, insusi, decocti, extracti, 
“ spiritus, conditi. β. Salibus sixis ustione, vo- 
“ latilibus distillatione, aut putrefactione hinc 
“ electis. γ. Oleis expressione, coctione, infu- 
“ sione, distillatione. δ Saponaceis ex horum 
“ combinatione per artem productis. ε. Virosis 
“ animalium partibus, insectorum succis, spiriti- 
“ bus, oleis, selibus, tincturis. ζ Salibus fos-  
“ silibus,


192
DISEASES CURED
“ silibus, crystallis metallicis, et iis ex his maxi- 
“ me compositis. η. His omnibus ut fe mutuo 
“ juvent, cum prudentia permistis; atque ho- 
“ rum quidem ufu attenuatio, dissipatio, calor 
“ febrilis obtinetur. 2. Validis stimulantibus, 
“ et impacta quaecunque fortiter, motu nervoso 
“ tremente et convulsivo excitato, excutientibus: 
“ eo imprimis sternutatoria, et vomitoria fortiora 
“ pertinent: fi aliquoties imprimis repetuntur, 
“ 3. Purgantibus per alvum calidis, solventibus, 
“ aromaticis, vegetabilibus, vel et fossilibus acri- 
“ bus, metallicisque mercurialibus, antimoniis a- 
“ deoque fortibus hydragogis, larga clofi, pluri- 
“ bus diebus successive repetita, datis: quorum 
“ ope copiosa, et aliquamdiu perdurans diarrhaea, 
“ excitetur. 4. Implendo primo vasa largo potu 
“ attenuantium praemissorum, dein excitatione 
“ majoris motus et sudoris ope spirituum accen- 
“ forum.” 
To expatiate on every particular contained in
this text, were to repeat Boerhaave’s academical 
prelections on the diseases of the nerves. Patients
generally undergo medical courses before they 
come to Bath. The power of Bath-water is my 
subject only. From reason and experience I 
hope to prove that Bath-water answers the pur- 
poses of nature, and cures palsies incurable by dis- 
tant art. 
Sanavit natura hum morbum attenuando, dissipan- 
do materiem morbosam; solvendo impacta per magnam 
febrem supervenientem, movendo per tremorem convul- 
sivum partis, educendo. Reason directs us to those 
remedies which produce nature’s effects. Si causa 
intus haerens crassa stagnansque erit, utendum tis re- 
mediis quae producere possunt illa quibus natura hunc 
morbum saepe sanavit. 
After


193 
BY BATH WATER.
After this great imitator of nature had extract- 
ed honey from almost every flower, he proposes 
at last vapor-baths, immersion, frictions, plaisters,
cupping, scarification, vesicatories, and fustigations. 
“ Frictiones externae ficcae, calidae, ad ruborem 
“ usque, vel cum spiritibus penetrante et stimu- 
“ lante virtute praeditis ex animalibus, vegetabi- 
“ libusque, aut cum oleis, linamentis, balsamis, 
“ unguentis, nervinis profunt. Balnea vaporum, 
“ immersiva; emplastra acria, aromatica, attra- 
“ hentia; cucurbitae, scarificationes; vesicato- 
“ ria; fustigationes; dolorem et levem inflam- 
“ mationem excitantia, ut urticae et similia pa- 
“ tent.” 
Of vapor-baths, and warm-bathing, we have 
treated at lage, in our Attempt to revive the Doc- 
trine of Bathing. Of frictions, oils, liniments, cup- 
ping, scarification, vesicatories, fustigation, &c, we
have also spoken under the same heads. 
Suffice it here in general to recapitulate, That 
warm water enters by the absorbent veins, mixes 
with, dilutes, and attemperates the blood; that 
active volatile mineral principles stimulate those 
nerves which are spread on the surface of the 
skin; that heat ratifies the fluids, and enlarges 
the diameters of the vessels; and that this same 
heat raises a temporary fever, which dislodges, 
subdues, and concocts obstructing matter so as to 
tender it fit to be excreted by the proper emunc- 
tories. The muscles thus relieved perform their 
respective offices; health, vigour and agility suc- 
ceed. To facts we proceed. 
1. Savonarolla (De Balneis Carpen- 
sibus, rubrica, xxiii.) says, “ Comites 
“ Carmignola et Gattamaleta Duces 
“ exercitus Venetiarum, ambo Paralysi affecti sa- 
“ ere, pro quo morbo balnea mense Januario sunt 
Proofs analo-
gical. 
I “ prosecti,


194 
DISEASES CURED
« prosecti, et ego cum eis, et hi mirabiliter con- 
“ valuerunt.” 
2. Guainerus (De Balneis Aquensibus) says, “ qui- 
“ dam, velut Stephanus lapidatus, tam brachium 
“ quam manum paralyticam habebat. Is, ut 
“ praecepi, nucham sibi embrocavit, et intra octo
“ dies liberatus est.” 
3. Bartholomoeus Taurinensis (speaking of the 
same Baths of Aix) says, “ Paralyticos duos 
“ vidi fanitati restitutos hujus solius remedii 
“ auxilio.” 
In Pierce’s Bath Memoirs we find 
the following histories.
Pierce’s 
Cases.
4. “ Colonel Sayer, aged forty, 
“ once a commander in the army of Charles I. 
“ made his composition, and retired to his estate, 
“ from whence he was dragged, in one of Oli- 
“ ver’s pretended plots, by a party of horse, and 
“ carried prisoner to London, in very bad wea- 
“ ther, and worse usage. He was confined in 
“ a damp dirty jail, where the very first night 
“ he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which de- 
“ termined in a palsy on the right side. He was 
“ soon allowed to retire to his home, where he 
“ underwent the common prescriptions in vain. 
“ When he came to Bath, he had lost the 
“ sight of one eye, his speech faultered, his me- 
“ mory was imperfect, with a giddiness. After 
“ due preparation, he drank the waters only to 
“ quench his thirst; he bathed and pumped. 
“ Finding advantage, he continued to come six 
“ weeks for ten years. He recovered so as to live 
“ to a considerable old age.” 
5. “ Mrs. Langton of Newton Park, aged 
“ twenty-three, and with child, lost her speech 
“ of a sudden, so that she uttered one word for 
“ another. Thus she continued to the time of 
“ her

195 BY BATH WATER.
“ her delivery, when it seized her so that she 
“ could not speak at all, nor apprehend what 
“ was laid to her, with the loss of the use of her 
“ limbs. 
“ By bleeding under the tongue, and some 
“ physic, she was restored somewhat to her 
“ speech, she came to Bath, by the use of which
“ she recovered so much as to throw aside her 
“ crutches. About the periods of the moon her 
“ speech was altered a little. Thus she held for 
“ five years, bearing children, or miscarrying, 
“ till within six weeks of her time, she was seiz- 
“ ed with a haemiplegia. After her delivery she 
“ came again to Bath and recovered. She re- 
“ turned several seasons, bore several children, 
“ and died at last of the Chorea Sancti Viti.” 
6. “ Master Powel, a child of six years old, 
“ had an exquisite palsy after convulsion-fits. He 
“ bathed three or four times a week, for two 
“ months, getting ground apparently after the 
“ first month, which advantage improved so after 
“ his return, that it encouraged his friends to
“ send him again and again, till he was cured, 
“ and afterwards came to be a lusty man.” 
7. “ Mrs. Duffewait, an attorney’s wife of 
“ Wells, was not only cured of a palsy, but, 
“ after twelve years barrenness, conceived by 
“ bathing.” 
8. “ The Bath-waters have not only cured 
“ palsies, but there are numerous instances also 
“ of their acting as preventatives. Sir John 
“ Gell, of Hopton, had a stupor and dullness of
“ the head, a seeming clout about the tongue, 
“ with a kind of creeping and sleepiness (as they 
“ vulgarly call it) in his arms and legs. Year 
“ after year he bathed and pumped. He died 
I2 “ without

196 DISEASES CURED
“ without any symptom of a palsy, of a Dropsy, 
“ in the eighty-second year of his age.” 
Of Dr. Guidot's 200 Observations, 
there are no less than 88 remarkable 
proofs of the power of Bath-waters in 
paralytic cases.
Guidot’s 
Cases.  
9. Mr. Crompton’s Faith and Hope, now hang 
up as Tabulae-votivae in the King’s Bath. By over- 
heating himself, and eating fruit, he 
was seized with a cholic, which de- 
prived him of the use of his limbs. 
After exhausting the pharmacopoeia, he came to
Bath, where he bathed and drank long without 
amendment. His disorder yielded at last. His 
cholicy pains were removed, he hung up his 
crutches. He often relapsed, and as often was 
restored. 
Author’s 
Cases.
10. Mrs. Dallas lost the use of her lower limbs, 
after child-bearing. By bathing she had a com- 
plete cure. 
IN my Attempt to revive the antient practice of 
bathing, (under the general head of Pumping) the 
reader will find particular cures of lamenesses from
gout, sciatica, rheumatism, palsy, scurvy, head-ach, 
deafness, falls, &c. Under the title of this chap- 
ter of Palsy, I proceed to rank lamenesses from 
other causes. 
I. LAMENESS AFTER FEVERS.
1. “ Sir John Austin, aged forty, had a trans- 
“ lation of a febrile matter on one of his legs, 
“ which suppurated, and afterwards 
“ gangrened. By the help of surgery, 
“ the wound came to be cicatrized, 
“ but there remained great weakness and pain. 
“ The limb was considerably wasted from the 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ hip


197 BY BATH WATER.
“ hip downwards. He could scarcely walk in his 
“ chamber without crutches, nor be at ease when 
“ his leg was suspended. He was therefore 
“ forced to spend the greatest part of his time in 
“ bed. 
“ After due preparation, and drinking, he 
“ bathed. In a week’s time he had ease. In 
“ one month’s time he changed his crutches for a 
“ staff. I saw him run smartly to get shelter from
“ a shower. At two month’s end he went away 
“ perfectly easy and trig. By degrees the limb 
“ recovered flesh and strength.” 
2. “ Sir Herbert Crosts was so much in the 
“ same circumstances that it would waste time 
“ to give a particular description. He left his 
“ crutches as a testimony of his cure.” 
3. “ Mrs. Hales of Coventry, aged fifty, was 
“ in 1687, seized with a malignant fever, in 
“ which she was delirious near a month. A mor- 
“ tification appeared on the lower part of the Os 
“ Sacrum, near sixteen inches round, from which 
“ (as in the two former) quantities of dead flesh
“ were cut out. The ulcer was three months 
“ before it could be cicatrized. She lost the use 
“ of her right leg and foot, both which were 
“ cold, dead, and senseless. 
“ By moderate bathing, she recovered warmth 
“ and strength in five or six weeks. Next year 
“ she bathed as long. Thus she recovered the 
“ perfect use of her leg.” 
II. LAMENESS AFTER SPRAINS. 
1. “ Lady Strode’s daughter had 
“ gone through the hands of surgeons, 
“ bone setters, and others, she was 
“ lame from a sprain. By partial and total im-
Pierce’s
Cases. 
I3 “ mersion,

198 DISEASES CURED
“ mersion, together with pumping, she had, in 
“ a little time, abatement of swelling, then a 
“ beginning of strength, she left off crutches and 
“ walked with a stick. She went through the 
“ same process for two or three years, and was, 
“ at length, perfectly recovered.” 
2. “ Mr. Pruseau, of Essex, and a neighbouring 
“ lady, Mrs. Bonham, had both weakness, pain, 
“ and swelling in the ankle-joint, with wasting
“ of the limb from the hip downwards, occasion- 
“ ed by sprains. The young gentleman’s case 
“ was much the worst. They had undergone 
“ every thing that could be used by the most emi- 
“ nent hospital surgeons and doctors, who, in 
“ consultation, recommended them to Bath. 
“ She came twice, and found a perfect cure. 
“ He came for many seasons, finding sensible re- 
“ lief every year. He walks much, and limps 
“ very little.” 
3. Miss Alexander of Edinburgh, fell from her 
horse and contused her knee. She 
was lame more than a year. She came 
to Bath, where (by pumping) she was 
restored to the use of her limbs. 
Author’s
Cases.
4. Mr. Agnew came to Bath for the same dis- 
order. Sometimes he uses the hot pump, some- 
times the cold. After three months use, he 
walks without pain, and without the help of a 
staff. 
III. LAMENESS FROM A RUPTURE OF THE
TENDO ACHILLIS.
“ The Rev. Mr. Parsons was very healthful 
“ and strong. Walking up a hill, an 
“ intolerable pain seized the calf of 
“ his leg all of a sudden, insomuch that hearing 
Pierce’s. 
“ no

199 BY BATH WATER.
“ no musket go off, he thought that somebody 
“ had shot him with a cross-bow; but being 
“ convinced of his mistake by a friend, he said 
“ he had broken something by overstraining. He 
“ fell immediately to the ground, the pain made 
“ him sweat, faint and sick, he could not stand. 
“ He was carried home, and continued lame for 
“ a long time with his limb emaciated. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which brought heat 
“ into the part, it took off the convulsions, his leg
“ and thigh began to plump. He walked five or 
“ six miles on end with a staff.” 
IV. LAMENESS FROM A WHITE-SWELLING.
1. “ Mr. Bony, aged forty, was very lame, 
“ and much pained in his right knee, with great
“ swelling, not discoloured, with the 
“ joint contracted. The whole seem- 
“ ed to be puffed up with wind or 
“ uliginous matter, which, upon pressing, mani- 
“ festly moved from one side of the joint to the 
“ other. 
Pierce’s
Cases.
“ The Bath gave him some ease, but lessened 
“ not the swelling, then it was pumped, after 
“ which the mud of the Bath was applied, by 
“ which he was much better; he came a second 
“ and a third time, so that there was no remainder 
“ of tumor, pain or lameness. 
2. “ Francis Hechington, of Northallerton, 
“ aged 31, came to Bath, June, 1689, with a 
“ great white swelling on his knee for six months 
“ before. He used the hot-bath and pump but 
“ five days, till the tumour was discussed.” This
humour (Dr. Guidot says) was more flatulent 
than pituitose. 
I4 V.

200 DISEASES CURED
V. LAMENESS FROM WOUNDS. 
1. “ Colonel Tuston, in a sea-fight, received 
“ a wound with contusion and fracture in his 
“ right hand by a splinter, which 
“ broke the bones of the thumb and 
“ sore-finger, and lacerated the mus- 
“ cles and tendons; a conflux of humours fall- 
“ ing on the part, it was forced to be laid open 
“ more than once, bones and splinters were ex- 
“ tracted, it was healed at last, but his hand was
“ useless, and he was pained by fits. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He bathed and pumped, which quickly eased 
“ the pain, and recovered the use of some of the 
“ other three fingers. This he repeated several 
“ seasons after. The sore-finger and thumb be- 
“ came in some measure useful, tho’ a whole joint
“ of the latter was lost. The whole hand is as 
“ useful as such a hand can be.” 
2. “ The earl of Peterborough, from a wound 
“ In his right hand, came hither twice, used the 
“ same method, and got much benefit.” 
3. Captain Robertson of Bocland’s, received a 
gun-shot wound about the joint of the elbow, 
which was attended with pain, in- 
flammation, swelling, &c. By pump- 
ing he recovered so as to be able to pull off his 
hat. He has now joined his regiment in Ger- 
many.
Author’s.
VI.

201 BY BATH WATER.
VI. LAMENESS FROM FALLS.
1. “ Thomas Andrews, of Halson, 
“ came hither in June, 1682, batter- 
“ ed and bruised from head to foot by 
“ a fall; his horse laying upon him some time.
“ He had some bones dislocated, which were set. 
“ He complained of weakness, and pains in his 
“ back, hips, and his breast, so that he could 
“ not breathe freely. By six weeks bathing and 
“ pumping he returned much better, and, after 
“ some trials, he quite recovered.” 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
2. “ Mr. Hollworthy, over and above the for- 
“ mer complaints, had a paralysis of one side 
“ from concussion of the brain. He was very 
“ lame, and weakly. By the same methods re- 
“ peated, he recovered with a stiffness that makes
“ him limp a little.” 
3. “ Guidot’s register contains the following, 
“ Lord Hereford, in hunting a fox, re- 
“ ceived a fall which deprived him of 
“ the motion of his right arm. By 
“ pumping and bathing, he recovered its use.” 
Guidot’s 
Cases. 
4. “ Major Hawley had the patella-bone of 
“ his knee thrice injured by falls, which obliged
“ him to use crutches. By using the Cross-Bath, 
“ and pumping only seven times, he recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
5. “ Lord Eglington, by hunting the fox, had 
“ a fall, by which he bruised the muscles and 
“ tendons of both hands; he received hurt on 
“ his head, right shoulder, and elbow, the fing- 
“ ers losing their motion inwards, numbed, and 
“ senseless. By bathing and pumping, he was 
“ cured.” 
I5 6. “ Sir

202 DISEASES CURED
6. “ Sir Robert Holmes (in aches and bruises 
“ received at sea) received benefit by the Hot- 
“ Bath, in testimony whereof he left three brass 
“ rings.” 
FROM the opening of the Bath Infirmary, till 
May, 1760, a space of eighteen years, out of 
seven hundred fifty one paralytics, from various
causes admitted, there were one hundred eighty 
five cured, three hundred ninety-five much better; 
the rest were dismissed incurable, or refractory; 
during the first nine years, there died in the hos- 
pital twelve only.
CHAP.

23 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XII. 
OF THE JAUNDICE.
VARIOUS are the symptoms of the jaun- 
dice, various its appearances, causes and 
effects. We commonly reckon only 
two sorts, yellow and black; there are 
diversities of shades between the lightest yellow 
and the black, as Aretaeus has remarked in his 
book De causis et signis morb. diuturnor. p. 45. 
There are some jaundices which any body may 
cure; there are others which no body can. As 
jaundices of all sorts come to Bath, it may not 
be unnecessary to take a survey of this disease, so
that we may be able better to form a conjecture 
in what sorts Bath waters may cure, and in what 
they may hurt. 
History. 
1. THE YOUNG are rarely troubled with this 
disease. It commonly attacks those who brood 
over griefs, or who retain grudges or 
passions. Sadness and thought con- 
stringe the vessels so as to produce a sense of
weight and anxiety about the praecordia. Hu- 
mours thus obstructed produce polypous concre- 
tions, putrefactions, &c. 
Subjects. 
The studious and sedentary are naturally sub- 
ject to this disease, those who bend their bodies 
forward, and fit too long at meals. The bile, by 
remaining in the gall-bladder, inspissates, so that
it cannot easily pass. Galen (in his book De 
locis affectis) remarks, that the very same thing
happens to the gall-bladder as happens to the 
urinary; by retention it becomes paralytic.  
I6 2. The

204 DISEASES CURED
2. The first symptoms are, troublesome sort of 
tension about the praecordia, with a sense of 
weight. Some hours after meals, a 
sort of heart-burn, the fore-runner of 
jaundice. A slight yellow is to be discovered in 
the greater canthus of the eye, the urine begins 
to be coloured, the excrements are bilious. Of 
a sudden, anxiety, with intolerable pain at the 
pit of the stomach, sometimes over the whole 
belly, often mistaken for the cholic. Fever and 
vomiting supervene. After these symptoms have 
lasted for some hours, they remit, the whole bo- 
dy puts on the yellow hue, with an universal 
itching, the urine is tinged, the patient finds him- 
self very easy, the colour of the urine abates, so
does that of the skin; in a few days the disease 
seems to vanish. The excrements, some days 
before the paroxysm, begin to be white, clayish, 
or greasy. 
Symptoms. 
After some weeks, sometimes months, this 
round of evils returns. When the sick has suf- 
fered frequent attacks of this sort, there remains
at last a confirmed jaundice. The colour grows 
deeper, the spittle sometimes tastes bitten The 
skin changes from yellow to black, the feet swell;
so does the belly, the patient dies hydropic. 
Sometimes it is accompanied with fever so in- 
tense, that the liver inflames and suppurates, a me- 
morable instance of which stands recorded by the 
benevolent Dundas, in the Edinb. Med. Essays.
Vol. II. p. 345, &c. 
3. This inflammation has its seat in the capil- 
lary vessels of the Hepatic Artery, and the Vera 
Portarum. Injections discover the 
windings and anastomosis’s of these 
vessels over the whole substance of the liver. The 
branches of the Vena Portarum are filled with 
Seat. 
blood

205 BY BATH WATER.
blood which moves more slowly than the arterial; 
this is the reason why the signs of inflammation 
are not so manifest in this as in the other viscera; 
this may be the reason why physicians have so 
often been mistaken in their Diagnostics. 
4. THE remote causes of jaundice are cholics, 
hysteric and bilious; poisons; drastic purges; 
grief and anger; ossification or com- 
pression of the biliary ducts; pregnan- 
cy; obstruction, schirrus, or abscess of the liver; 
incermittents prematurely stopped; stones ob- 
structing the cystic duct; over-grown omenta; 
inflammation; worms; sudden chills, &c.—
The proximate causes are, 1. Regurgitation 
and absorption of bile already separated. 2. Ex- 
cess, viscidity, and acrimony of bile unsecreted. 
Causes.
5. THE diagnostic signs are yel- 
lowness of the skin, tunica albuginea, 
urine, and white excrements. 
Diagnostics.
6. THE prognostics are more favourable in 
youth than in old age, in the strong than in the
weak, in the yellow than in the black, 
in the jaundice single, than compli- 
cated with other disorders. In the last days of a
fever, supervening jaundice performs the part of 
a crisis. Jaundice supervening inflammation of 
the liver, stomach, or duodenum, portends great 
danger. Natural sweat is an excellent sign. Jaun- 
dice complicated with dropsy, may be said to be 
incurable.
Prognostics. 
7. FROM a survey of the preceding causes, we 
may conclude, that most of them are merely ac- 
cidental. Concretion may be assigned 
for the general. He who best knows 
how to dissolve and expel this obstructing matter, 
may truly be said to cure the jaundice. 
Cure. 
In

206 DISEASES CURED
In critical febrile discharges the benefit of sweat- 
ing needs no explanation. Galen (De Sanitate 
tuenda) relates the following case. Ipsum bilem, 
infarcto hepate, in sanguinem regurgitantem, per su- 
dores, amaros exivisse de corpore in ictericis osbervavi. 
Chamel (Acad, des Sciences l’an 1737, Hist. p. 69.) 
says, “ I saw a thick sweat which tinged the li- 
“ nen with a saffron colour, issue from the pores 
“ of an icteric woman, the jaundice vanishing 
“ after the sweat.” 
From theory as well as practice, we know that 
the rational cure of Jaundice depends on medi- 
cines diluent, detersive, and antiseptic, inwardly
and outwardly administered. In disorders of the 
liver arising from hot, or cold temperament, 
Galen (Method. med.) advises internals, and ex- 
ternals of a strengthening quality, such are all 
styptic mineral waters. In jaundice, and for dis- 
cussing inflations, Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) 
recommends temperate sulphureous baths, he 
mentions Bath waters in particular. Ad morbum 
regium, & ad inflationes excutiendas, nec secus sul- 
phuratarum balnea temperata Aponus, Aquisgranam, 
Bathoniae in Anglia, ne vulgares, in Italia, reite- 
rem. In frigidis vero hepaticis, seu qui obstructo aut 
indurato viscere infiantur, & cachexiam illapsi, effi- 
caciora tam intus quam foris calorifica digerentiaque 
desiderantur. 
Bath-waters are diluent, detersive and antisep- 
tic. If fomentations have availed, what better 
fomentation than warm bathing! If diuretics and 
sudorifics, what better diuretic or sudorific! 
Distant patients have gone thro’ regimens sa- 
gacious and ingenious. Bath-water improperly 
drank has converted slight jaundices into deadly 
ailments. Bath-water has cured inveterate jaun- 
dices, Van Swieten’s testimony confirms the doc-
trine.


207 BY BATH WATER.
trine. In his Commentaries on Boerhaave’s A- 
phorisms, Vol. III. p. 346, he delivers his sen- 
timents thus, “ Si jam simul consideretur mag- 
“ num numerum morborum chronicorum, in vi- 
“ sceribus abdominalibus, sedem suam habere, & 
“ imprimis in Hepate, in quod omnis sanguis ve- 
“ nosus viscerum chylopoieticorum confluit, pa- 
“ tebit ratio quare adeo efficax fit in morborum
“ chronicorum cura Aquarum Medicatarum ufus. 
“ Magna enim copia potatae hae aquae, venis bi- 
“ bulis intestinorum cito resorptae, integris fuis 
“ viribus, pro magna parte, in venam portarum 
“ veniunt, & fic, per omnia Hepatis loca distri- 
“ butae, solvunt impacta, & vafa obstructa refe- 
“ rant.” Facts are sturdy evidences. 
1. Dr. Baynard (in his book of Cold-Bathing) 
records the following Cases. “ Mr. Hadly, of an 
“ ill habit from an irregular life, had 
“ been wrong treated. He came at 
“ last to Bath. He complained in the 
“ right hypochondria, and had a great induration 
“ in the region of the liver. By purging, drink- 
“ ing, and bathing, he got a perfect cure.” 
Baynard’s
Cases.
2. “ I knew a physician who had a severe jaun- 
“ dice with a schirrous liver. He was cured by 
“ drinking Bath-water, and by eating the herb 
“ Taraxicon sallad-wife.” 
3. “ Madam Thistlewaite, of Wintersloe, re- 
“ ceived a great cure by the Bath-waters, joined
“ with other aperitives in as high a jaundice as 
“ ever was seen, which had long seized her, and 
“ she a very lean emaciated worn out weak wo- 
“ man.—In this case, and also in most diseases 
“ of the liver, I think the Bath-waters the best 
“ specific in the world, if taken seasonably with 
“ due preparatives and advice.”  
4. From

208 DISEASDES CURED
4. From Dr. Pierce we have these. “ Justice 
“ Dewy of Fordenbridge, Hants, came hither in 
“ February, 1693, in the sixtieth year 
“ of his age. His complaints were 
“ (besides the yellowness of his skin) 
“ weakness, faintness, decay of spirits, shaking 
“ in his hands, pain in his limbs, doughy swellings 
“ of the legs, clamminess of his mouth, drought, 
“ and foulness of tongue. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ He had but lately undergone purging, and 
“ therefore had the less need of preparation. He 
“ took at first but two pints, then three, then two
“ quarts, seldom exceeding. They passed freely 
“ by stool and urine. 
“ Between whiles he was however purged with 
“ Rheubarb and Calomelanos, he took alteratives, 
“ and now and then intermitted the waters. A- 
“ bout the middle of his course he was let bloody 
“ which had a quantity of serum tinctured yel- 
“ low. About the latter end of his course he 
“ bathed three or four times. He had before bath- 
“ ed his legs and feet to get down, the swelling
“ which answered. 
“ He apparently got vigour and strength, a 
“ clearer countenance, and a better habit of 
“ body. Thus he returned after two months 
“ stay. He returned in May, stayed about the 
“ same time, with manifest advantage, which I 
“ suppose he yet continues to have, because he 
“ returns not to the same means by which he 
“ found so much good.” 
5. “ Michael Harvey, of Clifton, Dorset, aged 
“ sixty-six, many years subject to the Gout. Fif- 
“ teen years ago, in one of his fits, he turned 
“ yellow, took medicines for the Jaundice. In 
“ April last, he was seized with a violent pain in 
“ his stomach, which pain he was subject to by 
3 “ fits,

209 BY BATH WATER.
“ fits, but was now more than ordinary fainty, 
“ the jaundice appearing presently in his water, 
“ but not in his eyes, face and skin, till about a 
“ month after. By the advice of Radcliff and 
“ others, he took medicines to little purpose. 
“ He came to Bath the last day of August, 
“ 1696, so weak and ill that he could hardly 
“ keep life in him. The night after he had a 
“ most violent cholic fit, in which he strained 
“ very much to vomit. He was yellow all 
“ over. 
“ He set presently about drinking the waters, 
“ (being in continual pain, and stomachless) but 
“ at first in small quantities. The third time of
“ taking them, he voided a gall-stone about the 
“ bigness of a pigeon’s egg, with several lesser 
“ pieces of the same colour and consistence, a sa- 
“ bulum to the quantity of a spoonful and more. 
“ It is observable that this gentleman had a 
“ stool before the stone came off, as white, and
“ like to tobacco-pipe clay; but the stool that 
“ came with and after the stone, was as yellow 
“ as saffron. He was immediately more at case, 
“ he recovered by degrees; he goes on drinking 
“ the waters, this being the one and twentieth 
“ day of his cure, walks abroad, gives visits, eats 
“ heartily, and is very likely to recover perfectly.” 
6. Dr. Guidot records this Case. “ A worthy 
“ Knight of Devonshire, (in obstruc- 
“ tions of the Liver and Bladder of 
“ Gall) by drinking the waters twenty-one days 
“ at the pump received great benefit.”
Guidot.  
7. The Reverend Mr. Lyon, aged sixty and 
Upwards, of a gross habit, swarthy 
complexion, and choleric disposition, 
had laboured long under an inveterate 
scurvy. His legs swelled, were hard, and disco- 
Author's 
Cases. 
loured

210 DISEASES CURED
loured with large deep foul ulcers. For this dis- 
order he came to Bath. 
He drank the waters in too great a quantity. 
He carried in the hottest part of the kitchen of 
King’s Bath, sweating, scrubbing, and broiling, 
for one hour and a half at a time. 
I often gave him warning that there was dan- 
ger of throwing inflammation on the liver, al- 
ready vitiated and obstructed, as is the case in
Scorbutics. He laughed at my prognostic, scorn- 
ing the dull beaten track, as he called it. In ex- 
cessive drinking and bathing he persisted. 
My prognostics were at last verified. I found 
him one day very ill indeed. He had every symp- 
tom of the jaundice, rather black than yellow, a 
high fever with fixed pain in the region of the 
liver. 
I ordered him immediately to be bled. Next 
day, he took a gentle purge of Senna, Rad. Cur- 
cum. Rub. Tinctor. &c. which (as is common in 
cases of unfound livers) operated so immoderate- 
ly, that his pulse intermitted. His spirits flagged. 
Nature was on the point of yielding. He then 
wished he had followed the dull beaten track. 
By some little helps the symptoms abated, he 
recovered strength. During this reprieve, I or- 
dered him to take two drachms of nitre thrice a 
day, in a large glass of Bath-water, a medicine 
highly commended by Heister. He swallowed as 
much soap as he pleased. I indulged him in the 
free use of Rum-punch, enriched with sugar and
the juice of Seville-oranges. I advised him to
eat freely of China oranges.—Never was a pa- 
tient more tractable. 
His Jaundice gradually went off. His foul 
scorbutic ulcers cicatrized. The cure of his jaun- 
dice proved the cure of all his ailments. By the 
help

211 BY BATH WATER:
help of soap and lime-water, he continued (ten 
years) as well as a man of his age and habit of 
body could be. 
8. Mrs. Elliot, of Golden Square, London, la- 
boured under a constant vomiting, with racking 
pain about the orifice of the stomach. She had 
neither retained food nor medicine for a month. 
This was the case described to me by her brother- 
in-law, my late worthy friend Capt. Wilkinson, 
Agent. Supposing her complaints owing to bili- 
ary concretions then passing the Duct, I told him
that hers was truly a Bath-case. My opinion 
was related to an eminent physician then attend- 
ing. He roundly pronounced Bath-water perni- 
cious in all respects. Dr. Girningham was called
in. He adhered to my opinion. 
With great difficulty she was transported to 
Bath. When I first saw her, her pains were ex- 
quisite, she threw up laudanum and every other 
thing. She was lodged in one of those houses 
from whence there is a Slip, or communication 
into the Bath. I advised her to drink a glass of
water at any time in bed; and, as fast as she 
threw that up, another, and so continue till she 
was sure that the water began to stay on her sto- 
mach. She was also carried into the bath, some- 
times twice in a morning, and there supported 
till she began to vomit. While she was in the 
bath her pains ceased. In a few days the water 
began to stay. At once she passed twenty-two 
gall-stones, as big as beans and pease, by stool. 
At different times more. 
Her pain vanished. From a skeleton (in less 
than three weeks) she grew plump, and walked 
on the parade. The only medicine that she used 
was a deobstruent gentle purge of Rhubarb Rad. 
Curcum. Rub, Tinctor, &c. with Castile soap. 
She

212 DISEASES CURED
She went home. Her complaints returned She 
came again to Bath, where she pursued the same 
regimen, and found her cure. Profiting by ex- 
perience, she staid six months; during which 
time she drank about a quart of water a day, 
and swallowed two pounds and upwards of soap 
every week. For these eight years past she has 
enjoyed perfect health, excepting grumbling re- 
membrances of her pain, which she continues to
lull by the constant use of soap and Bath-water, 
warmed at home.” 
9. Every inhabitant of Bath knows how deep- 
ly Mr. Levellyn, builder of this city, was tinged 
with the jaundice. Every body saw him restored 
to his usual tint. He tried various Doctors, and 
various nostrums. He, mean while, drank the 
Bath-waters, and, without them, it is more than 
probable, he never could have recovered. 
CHAP.

213 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIII. 
OF THE DROPSY.
1. WHEN the serum comes to be extra- 
vasated, and stagnates in 
any of the cavities of the body, that
disease ss called Dropsy. 
Definition.
2. It may arise from many causes. 
My business is with those only which 
countenance the rationale of Bath-waters. 
Causes.
3. Its symptoms are too apparent to 
want to be enumerated. 
Symptoms. 
4. The curative indications are, to procure a
free circulation of the juices. To car- 
ry off the liquor deposited in the cavi- 
ties. To correct that fault or indisposition of the
parts, whether it he the cause or effect of the 
disease. 
Cure.
Strengthening, stimulating cordial medicines 
answer the first, especially those which are grate- 
fully acid, and gently aromatic. 
To obtain the second, the cause of the obstruc- 
tion must be found out. This must be removed 
or corrected, which is often done by Mineral 
waters. 
Steel medicines, and strengtheners gently astrin- 
gent answer the third intention, given in a proper 
dose, and seasonably administered. 
Friction, motion, and heat greatly conduce. If 
the pressure of water be 800 times greater than 
that of the atmosphere, how can we wonder that 
(in Anasarca’s especially) this pressure should thus
drive the humours into their proper channels! 
There are many examples of dropsies cured by 
Diuretics,


214 DISEASES CURED
Diuretics, vitriolate metallic medicines dissolved 
in water; such have been specifics- 
In the writings of the antients we 
find well authenticated cures of Drop- 
sies. 
Analogical 
Proofs. 
Baccius (De Thermis, pag. 112.) says, Occurrit 
aqua Grottae omni incipienti hydropisi. Tungri aquam
in Burgundia mirificam tradunt in hydropicis, ut quae 
aquas evacuat ebihita jure balnei, flatum discutit, & 
tamen fitim extinguens. Bergomenses Trascherii a- 
quam experimentis commendant. Quae uteri vitio, 
vellienis, coacervati folent humiditates, in Ascitis spe- 
cie principle, vidimus nitratas, & falfulas quosdam 
modice purgatorias fanasse in totum. Salfarum balneo 
in Lesbo curari hydropem meminit Galenas. In Tym-
panite difcufforiae omnino facultatis effe oportet aquas, 
five in potibus principio, five in balneis in fine; idonea
quoque eft e vaporibus ipsarum calidarum evacuation 
nec minus super faxa, harenasque calentes, sub fole re- 
cubitus insolatusque. In Hyposarca assiduo praeter ce- 
tera profunt illutamenta, & in marinis, salsis lacunis, 
atramentosis paludihus, sulphurosts callidissimis, 
quantum vires sufficiunt, lavari. His (inquit Cel- 
sus) sudor evocandus in arena calida, Laconico, cli- 
bano, similibusque, Maxime utiles naturales IA sic- 
cae fudationes. Arena e littore maris sole fervefacta 
capite tenus hydropicis obruta, vulgaris praesidii est. 
Incomparable remedium ad omnem hydropem in pul- 
vere ad aquas calidas in Ischia voluntari, atque info- 
lari. Ex plumho balnea in Lothoringis omni hydropi- 
co permira hakentur cum lutamentis. Aridum &
valde potens Stygianum ex nostris, non longe ab urbe, 
& Sabatinum, Bullicanum, Thermae in Sicilia, 
omnes calidae ad hydropem valere, ab auctoribus pro- 
mittuntur. Omni autem hydropi ex falsis clysteria uti- 
lia funt, Nec minus Stuphae, hypocausta, pyrateria. 
Guianerus

215 BY BATH WATER.
Guianerus (De Balneis Aquensibus, cap. 3 ) says, 
“ Asciticam his aquis balneari jussi. Haec etiam
“ mane pintam unam illius aquae bibebat, & die 
“ alia in vesperis solum balneum intrabat; ali- 
“ quando tres pintas mane bibebat, & per dies 
“ XL hoc continuans liberata est.” 
Ugulinus (Des Balneis Comitatus Pisarum) says, 
“ Vidi ego multos in usu Balnei hujus hydropicos, 
“ & ictericos curatos.” 
1. Pierce (in his Bath Memoirs) gives the fol- 
lowing. “ George Russel, a tippling butcher of 
“ this city, (by going too often to 
“ the ale-house) rendered himself un- 
“ able longer to go to market, he 
“ turned sheriff’s bailiff, &c. and then drank on, 
“ till he had distended his carcass as much as he
“ had extenuated his stock. He was swollen 
“ from head to foot by an exquisite Ascites and 
“ Anasarca, and, as is usual in that distemper, 
“ was excessive thirsty; the more he drank, the 
“ more he craved for drink, and the less he dis- 
“ charged by urine. 
Pierce’s 
Cases. 
“ I first prescribed drastic purges, then Bath- 
“ water, which quenched his exorbitant thirst, 
“ as indeed it infallibly does beyond any other li- 
“ quor. They passed also so well by urine that, 
“ by repeating his purge once a week, and drink- 
“ ing the waters, he was reduced to his pristine 
“ shape. Ordering then some strengthening bit— 
“ ters, I dismissed him perfectly cured. So he 
“ held two or three years, but he returned to his 
“ beloved tipple, till he brought himself to the 
“ same pass; and, without consulting me, by 
“ the apothecary’s advice, he repeated the same 
“ regimen with the same success; and so for a 
“ third, if not for a fourth time, till at last, 
“ with continued drinking, bangs, and bruises 
“ to

216 DISEASES CURED
“ to which Bailiff’s are subject, he so corrupted 
“ his entrails, that he died of an inward impo- 
“ stumation.” 
2. “ Mr. Treagle, of Taunton, grocer, aged 
“ forty-fix, had long been scorbutic, nephritic, ca- 
“ chectic and hydropic. Finding no relief from any 
“ medicine, he came hither with his legs and 
“ thighs greatly swollen, and so weak that he 
“ was hardly able to stand; he had large red livid
“ spots in both; he made very little water, and 
“ that jaundiced; his eyes and face were of the 
“ same complexion, withal horribly desponding 
“ and melancholy. 
“ For the first wreek I purged him, made him 
“ take chalybeates, hepatics, and antiscorbutics, in- 
“ termixing the waters now and then. By these 
“ his countenance, and the colour of his water 
“ was somewhat changed. By drinking, mode- 
“ rate bathing, and purging, the shape and co- 
“ lour of his legs were also altered. At the end 
“ of six weeks, he returned very much advan-
“ taged in every respect. He carried home di- 
“ rections for a diet-drink, for which I had his 
“ thanks some years after.” 
3. “ Much in the like, if not worse circum- 
“ stances, was one Appletree, an inn-keeper, in 
“ Crookhorn, a man aged about sixty; besides the 
“ foregoing symptoms, he had a cough also, he 
“ neither could walk nor stand. 
“ He bathed and drank the waters, took pecto- 
“ rals, antiscorbutics, and hepatics. He returned
“ well, and came back next year to confirm his 
“ cure. Again he returned, goes about his busi- 
“ ness, and probably drinks with his guests, in 
“ which he never was backward, and which was 
“ supposed to be the cause of his distemper
4. “ Sir

217 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Sir Robert Holmes, whom we have al- 
“ ready recorded, cured of batters and bruises in
“ sea-fights, came here for a colica pictonum, a- 
“ trophy, and dropsy, of all which he was cured, 
“ recommended his friend Mr. Warner, Mayor of 
“ Winchester, who, after a fit of the gout, had his 
“ legs and thighs very much swollen and disco- 
“ loured with large scorbutic spots; ha made a 
“ lixiviate water in small quantities, had little or 
“ no appetite, with great thirst. 
“ I began with gentle purgatives, then put him 
“ upon drinking the waters; and, after conveni- 
“ ent time, permitted him to go into the Queen’s- 
“ Bath. His swelling abated, his pains asswaged, 
“ his strength returned, so that in less than two 
“ months he went back greatly advantaged in eve- 
“ ry respect.”—“ I might add several other instan- 
“ces of this kind, but I forbear for fear of enlarg- 
“ ing my book beyond its intended bulk.” 
OF the external and internal effects of cold wa- 
ter, Baynard (in his book of Cold baths) gives us 
the following. “ A wine-cooper, who 
“ had been a free liver, fell into a 
“ jaundice, thence a dropsy, the ascites.
“ He applied to Sir Thomas Witherly, president 
“ of the college of physicians, who treated him
“ in the usual methods, but nothing would do. 
“ He prodigiously swelled all over. Forsaken by 
“ friends and physician, he begged his wife to carry
“ him to Islington-wells, there for once to quench 
“ his thirst insatiable, and die in peace. 
Baynard’s
Cases. 
“ From between 4 in the afternoon to 9 or 10 
“ at night, he drank 14 quarts, without making 
“ one drop of water. He sunk down in the chair 
“ in a clammy sweat. Thence being laid on the 
“ bed for dead, in half an hour’s time, the people 
“ heard something make a small rattling noise like 
K “ a

218 DISEASES CURED
“ a coach in a distant gravel-way. Soon after he 
“ began to piss, and pissed in an hour’s time about 
“ 7 or 8 quarts; from the weight of the waters, 
“ he also had two or three stools. He began to 
“ speak, and desired a little warm sack, after 
“ which he fell into a profound sleep, in which 
“ he both sweat, and dribbled his urine all that
“ night. Next day, he drank 4 or 5 quarts more 
“ of water, had two stools thin and waterish, still 
“ pissed on. For five or six days he drank on, 
“ taking mutton-broth, and so recovered. The 
“ relation of this unaccountable cure had for ever 
“ been lost, had not Sir Thomas accidentally met 
“ with the good woman his wife, about two 
“ years after, and asking her, how long her hus- 
“ band had lived after he had left him? She re- 
“ plied, pointing to a little slender man standing 
“ by her, there he is, this is the husband who was 
“ your patient, and who recovered by turning his own 
“ physician.”
Of the external use of cold water, the Doctor 
gives two remarkable instances. 
1. “ James Crook of Long Acre, had dropsy, 
“ jaundice, palsy, rheumatism, and an inveterate 
“ pain in his back. 
“ In three immersions, the swellings of his legs 
“ sunk, so did the pain of his back, as did the 
“ jaundice, blowing from his nose a great quan- 
“ city of a bilious yellow matter. From the frigi- 
“ dity and pressure of the fluid we may account for 
“ his pissing more than he drank; but, how the 
“ icteric matter should be thrown off by the nose, 
“ he who can tell, erit mihi magnus Apollo.” 
2. “ A Scotchman, in an ascites, was cured. 
“ By his is girdle which I saw, he fell six inches, in 
“ five days, pissing freely all the time.” 
CHAP.

219 BY BATH WATER.
CHAP. XIV. 
OF FEMALE DISEASES.
HIPPOCRATES (De locis in homine) may 
well be said to have spoken from experi- 
ence, when he said, αl υsεραl λανΤων
Των νοδημαΤων αlΤαl εlδlv Omnium
morhorum causae sunt uteri. Besides those diseases
which equally affect men and women, there are 
some peculiar to the fair sex. Humanity obliges 
me to point out those aids which may be had 
from the waters. Respect obliges me to mention
but few names, and those of persons long for- 
gotten. 
In general.
I. OF OBSTRUCTION.
1. OBSTRUCTION, chlorosis. febris al- 
ba, amatoria, morbus virgineus, icterus 
albus, and green sickness, are different names only
for one and the same disease. 
Definition.
2. The remote causes of obstruction are sudden 
chills, viscid food, fear, grief, ex- 
cessive evacuations, astringents, other 
diseases, &c.—Its proximate are, Rigidity of the 
uterine vessels, Cachexy, Compression, and Len- 
tor of the humours. 
Caueses.
3. The symptoms are, pain and heat of the 
loins, pulsation of the arteries, head- 
ach, want of appetite, languor, shi- 
vering, slow fever, thick red urine, inflamma- 
tion, suppuration, gangrene, varicous swellings 
of the veins of the legs, vomiting, anxiety, 
cough, palpitation, fainting, vertigo, apoplexy.  
Symptoms.
K2 madness,

220 DISEASES CURED
madness, green sickness, longings, fluor albus, 
and various haemorrhages. 
4. The prognostics vary according 
to the symptorns, time of suppression, 
age, and causes. 
Prognostics.
5. In rigidity of the vessels, relaxing fomenta- 
tions with tepid baths avail. In len- 
tor, or sluggish circulation, warm 
baths are also indicated. In poverty of juices, Bath
waters are internally indicated. From melancho- 
ly or despair, a fiddle and company are specifics. 
Cure. 
From Pierce's memoirs we have the following. 
1. “ Mrs. Elizabeth Eyles, of the Devizes, aged
“ sixteen, was very far gone in this
“ disease with hysteric fits, she was 
“ pale, thin, stomachless, faint and 
“ tired upon the least motion. She had tried me- 
“ dicines at home to no purpose. The same me- 
“ dicines with bathing, and a little water inter- 
“ nally, restored her (in six weeks time) to her 
“ appetite, complexion, and customary benefits 
“ of nature. ”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
2. “ A daughter of lady Berifford's, aged nine- 
“ teen, was brought hither June, 1693. She 
“ was, in all respects, rather worse than the for- 
“ mer. She bathed and drank. At the end of 
“ seven weeks she went off so well, that she want- 
“ ed no help of the physician. 
3. Mrs. Eliz. Wayte, aged 20, besides the 
“ symptoms of the first, had the jaundice, scur- 
“ vy and dropsy in her legs and feet. She was 
“ short-breathed to a degree, hot, and inclining 
“ to a hectic, with palpitations. She drank and 
“ bathed. n five or six weeks she walked in 
“ the meadows, recovered her appetite, com- 
“ plexion, flesh, and spirits.” 
4. “ Miss

221 BY BATH WATER. 
4. “ Miss La Chambre, aged thirteen, of the 
“ very complexion of the chalk, mortar, and o- 
“ ther trash which she used to devour, was faint, 
“ tired, heavy-headed. &c. I began with a vo- 
“ mit and purge. She then drank and bathed. 
“ in a few weeks she rejoiced more at the fight 
“ of a shoulder of mutton than a handful of clay. 
“ The waters gave her new life and vigour, she 
“ became a healthy young woman.”
It is not the eating of chalk, charcoal, salt, or 
such trash that brings on the green-sickness. The 
disease depraves the appetite, and thus creates a
longing after things unaccountable. The fore- 
going observation proves the fact. 
From Guidot we have drawn the following.
5. “ Mrs. Manwaring of Cheshire, 
“ (in full habit and obstructions) re- 
“ ceived benefit by bathings in the 
“ King's and Queen's. 
Guidot's 
Cases. 
When the catamenia are obstructed through 
poverty of blood, or its bad disposition, the symp- 
toms enumerated in the foregoing section appear. 
The same method of cure will enable nature to- 
perform her work. 
6. “ Madam Constance Harvey in a cachexy. 
“ or ill habit of body, joined to inveterate ob- 
“ structions, received cure by bathing and drink- 
“ ing, August, 1673. 
7. “ Mrs. Margaret Hall, of Ross, received 
“ cure of a cachexy, and great obstructions by 
“ drinking and bathing for a month, June, 
“ 1673.”
8. “ Miss Finch, of Reading, in the same case,
“ received great benefit, 1693.” 
9. “ Madam Barber, in the spleen and obstruc- 
“ tions, received great benefit, 1693.”
K3 II.

222 DISEASES CURED
II. OF IMMODERATE DISCHARGES.
UNDER the head of diseases specifically cured 
by Bristol waters, I propose to treat on the sub- 
ject of female discharges. Let it suffice, in this 
place, in general, to observe, that in sanguine 
plethoric habits, Bath water aggravates every 
symptom. 
If the discharge is white, if the blood is im- 
poverished, if the disorder arises from a general 
cachexy, or bad disposition of the 
juices, Bath-water is an excellent in- 
ternal medicine. By correcting the bad disposi- 
tion, it performs the cure. If to these are joined
internal ulcers, strains, or violences of any sort, 
warm-bathing will facilitate the cure. 
Fluor albus.
Dr. Pierce gives the following cases. “ A 
“ gentlewoman of forty-three, of a sanguine com- 
“ plexion, of a scorbutic habit, had a- 
“ bout midsummer, 1679, a violent 
“ eruption of the fluor albus, which 
“ continued for a year. She took all that farra- 
“ go of astringents which is commonly prescrib- 
“ ed by apothecaries, midwives and nurses, to 
“ very little purpose. She had pains, weakness 
“ and stiffness in her joints, for which she came 
“ to Bath in May, 1680. 
“ I put her first on drinking the waters, which
“ took off the sharpness of the flux; and cased 
“ her pain, though the abatement in quantity was
“ but small. For her external pains she bathed, 
“ and drank the water between whiles. The 
“ bathing was so far from increasing the quan- 
“ tity of the fluor albus (as idle theorists imagine) 
“ that it lessened it considerably. After six weeks, 
“ she went home, where (by a decoction of the 
Pierce's 
Cases.
“ woods,

223 BY BATH WATER.
“ woods, ivory, hartshorn, &c.) shee recovered 
“ perfectly.” 
2. “ A citizen’s wife of Bristol, aged thirty- 
“ six, had a discharge of such variety of colours 
“ as easily demonstrated excoriation or ulcer. 
“ I ordered her to drink, bathe, and inject 
“ the water. By these and the help of balsam- 
“ ics and astringents, she returned well in two 
“ months.” 
3. “ A tradesman’s wife of Cirencester, about 
“ a fortnight after her delivery, was taken with a 
“ violent pain in her flank, with some swelling, 
“ which came (in two months) to be large, hard, 
“ and tender to the touch. A green fetid matter 
“ was discharged. I ordered her to drink the 
“ water, bathe, and inject. The hardness abated, 
“ the gleet ceased, she brought forth many chil- 
“ dren, and is now a buxsome widow.” 
4. “ Guidot’s Register informs us of the case 
“ of a noble lady, who the very first 
“ day that she entered the Cross-Bath, 
“ found herself cured of a prolapsus uteri, which
“ had been down for eighteen years. 
Guidot. 
III. OF BARRENNESS.
In his book De Thermis, Baccius has rationally- 
accounted for the causes of sterility; 
he has rationally also pointed out the 
cure. According to him sterility pro- 
ceeds from diverse causes, and, therefore, requires 
diverse methods of treatment. In hardness of the 
uterus, emollients and humectants are indicated,
in dry hot temperaments especially. Virago’s are 
born with a natural hardness of the uterus; they 
labour under three causes of sterility, heat, dry— 
ness, and hardness. These can be corrected only
Barrenness.
Causes. 
K4 by

224 DISEASES CURED
by assiduous use of tepid emollient baths. For 
the purpose of conception, Baccius 
declares that there is no other sort of 
remedy so certain or salutary as natural baths, 
provided they are duly and rationally administer- 
ed. Ad spem sobolis non reperirt aliud remedii genus 
nea salubrius, neque experientia certius, quam bal- 
nea ipsa nturalia, si debite, ac ex ratione ministrata 
sit, page 117. If sterility proceeds from humi- 
dity, or superfluity of humours, or weaknesses, 
it requires baths drying, and not much heating, 
ferreous, or aluminous. These may be used ex- 
ternally and internally. The Balneum Caiae, at 
Viterbo, got the name of the Lady's Bath, from its 
particular virtue; so did the Aponum, The aquae 
caldanellae were said fluores cohibere albos mulieribus, 
et gonorrhaeam viris vimque illis generativam ad- 
augere.
Cure.  
IN schirrous hardness, and swellings of the 
womb, warm mineral waters injected, or receiv- 
ed by vapour conduce, while total immersions, ra- 
ther exasperate, Fourteen years ago I met with 
a case which proves the position. 
1. A married lady came down, to Bath, with a 
hardness, and swelling of the uterus. By the 
advice of an eminent physician, since
dead, she bathed upwards of twenty 
times in the Queen and King’s baths. By constant 
bathing her flesh wasted, she became hectic. Her 
original complaint continued hard, and became 
painful. Despairing of cure, the Doctor told 
her at last, that her disorder was chirurgical, and
out of his way. When I met her she was pre- 
paring for her journey, and had sent away her 
cloaths. She told me what had been done, and 
begged my opinion. I told her, that the worst of
her complaints were the effects of improper bath-
Case.
ing.

225 BY BATH WATER.
ing. I advised her to go to the country, and drink 
asses milk for a fortnight, and return, which she 
did, I then directed her to let her maid throw uo 
a pail of warm Bath-water by the help of a flexi- 
ble syringe, every night at home, which she did. 
By degrees the pain abated, the swelling dimi- 
nished, and grew softer, she recovered flesh daily. 
I then recommended her to Dr. Smellie, who 
completed her cure with emollients, so that in a- 
bout eleven months he delivered her of a child. 
From Dr. Pierce's Memoirs. I have extracted the
following cases.
2. “ Mrs. DufFwaite was twelve 
“ years married without conceiving 
“ once. She came to Bath for a palsy. After 
“ bathing the second season, she returned home- 
“ well, and, in a month after, conceived, and 
“ had five lusty children at different births.”
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “  Mrs. Hawkins, of Marlborough, forty 
“ years old, had been married thirteen or four- 
“ teen years without a child. She came hither 
“ for lameness. By long bathing, she not only 
“ got her legs, but her belly up also five different 
“ times.” 
4. “ Lady Blissington, a weak sickly person, 
“ married for years, and childless, bathed and
“ drank. By God's blessing, she not only got 
“ her health, but became a mother also.”
“ This is an effect (says the Doctor) so very 
“ well known, and so generally believed, that 
“ when any woman comes hither that is child- 
“ less, they presently say, she comes for the com- 
“ mon cause. To instance all who have sped in 
“ this errand since my living here, were to fill a 
“ volume.”  
5. “ Mrs. Clement, of Bristol, aged forty, had 
“ several children, but buried them all. She had 
K5 “ not 

226 DISEASES CURED
“ not conceived in nine years. She came and 
“ bathed for rheumatic pains. Soon after she con- 
“ ceived, and brought forth twins.” 
6. “ The very same happened to a worthy 
“ gentlewoman, Mrs. Horton, of Comend.” 
7. “ Mrs. Davers, of Monks, had eight chil- 
“ dren, but being ill of a scorbutic habit, with
“ weakness of her limbs, she bred not for six 
“ years. I ordered her the bath, which, with 
“ other helps, restored her health. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a son. 
“ She came to Bath again, fearing a relapse. By 
“ drinking the waters only, she soon conceived. 
“ She had afterwards two miscarriages, and a
“ lusty boy at forty-four.” 
IV. OF ABORTION.
THERE are not wanting instances 
of women apt to miscarry, who, by the 
use of mineral waters, have been en- 
abled to go through with their burdens. 
Prevent mis- 
carriage. 
In such cases Baccius gives numerous instances
of the power of the Porretanae, Albulae, and 
many other detergent strengthening waters, in- 
ternally and externally applied. 
Savonarola (De balneis vallis Chaim vulgo dict- 
balnea dominarum) expresses himself thus. “ This 
“ bath has received great commenda- 
“ tion in disorders of the womb, in 
“ passionibus matricis, by preparing it 
“ for conception, cleansing, absterging, and 
“ strengthening all those faults which proceed 
“ from causes cold and moist. It provokes the 
“ meness. For such purposes, the ladies frequent 
“ it daily, pro hisque passionibus mulieres indies id 
“ in vadunt. 
Collateral
proofs.
1. Guia-

227 BY BATH WATER.
1. Guianerus (De balneis aquensibus, cap. 3.) 
relates the following memorable case. “ A cer- 
“ tain lady (by reason of an obstinate white flux) 
“ could not conceive. The matter was some- 
“ times so fetid, that she loathed herself. After 
“ due preparation, she used the warm bath, and 
“ drank the water. Thus, cured of the whites, 
“ she went home, conceived, and in due time, 
“ brought forth a boy, menstruis albis purgatis, 
“ domi praegnans facta, puellum enixa est.” 
2. “ Mrs. Sherrington, after many 
“ miscarriages, came, bathed, and 
“ drank the waters for five or six 
“ weeks, in three years, she brought forth three 
“ children at different births.” 
Pierce's 
Cases. 
3. “ Mrs. Howard, formerly maid of honour 
“ to the Dutchess of York, conceived ten times, 
“ but never carried any to the full time. She 
“ came and bathed five weeks. Soon after her 
“ return she conceived, and brought forth a 
“ daughter in due time, as she did afterwards a 
“ son.” 
4. “ Lady Kilmurry miscarried thrice. She used 
“ the bath only five weeks, returned, conceived, 
“ and carried her burden to maturity. She miscar- 
“ ried twice or thrice again, came back, bathed
“ again. In due time, she had a daughter.” 
V. OF PREGNANCY.
INSTANCES of women who have drank and 
bathed during their pregnancy with- 
cut miscarriage. 
1. “ Mrs. Howard, of Yorkshire, 
“ came hither May, 1690, for a weak- 
“ ness in her lower limbs, for which she bathed
“ six or seven weeks till she was cured. She was 
Water safe, 
during preg- 
nancy. 
K6 “ young

228 DISEASES CURED
“ young with child just before she set cut for this
“ place, as appeared afterwards by her reckon- 
“ ing, when she was brought to bed of a lusty 
“ girl.” 
2. “ Mrs. Floyer had often miscarried, she 
“ was very hysterical. She was with child all 
“ the time while she bathed and drank, as ap- 
“ peared by the time of her delivery of a son, 
“ the strongest she ever had. She passed her 
“ month better than ever, which was imputed to 
“ the bathing.” 
3. “ Lady Cooke, the wife of a city knight, 
“ came down with some relations for pleasure. As 
“ she was here, she was willing to bathe for 
“ some pains which she was subject to in her limbs, 
“ but was doubtful, knowing herself to be young 
“ with child. She consulted me. I advised the 
“ Cross Bath with moderation. She bathed fif- 
“ teen times, and was then two months gone, as 
“ afterwards appeared by her being delivered of
“ a full-ripe child.” 
4. “ Lady Scarborough came to the Bath for 
“ lameness after rheumatism, gout, &c. She 
“ bathed even to excess after she found the child
“ quick, imputing the motion only to wind. She 
“ miscarried not, for she was, at due time, de- 
“ livered of a daughter which they called by the 
“ nick-name of the Bath-girl.” 
5. I remember an instance of a lady’s maid, 
who (to create miscarriage) bathed often in the 
hottest baths, and to no purpose. 
WHEN night-baths were more in 
fashion, our women-guides were in the 
water sometimes eight or nine hours a 
day; many of them have been with child, with- 
out miscarriage. 
Women 
guides. 
Pudendorum

229 BY BATH WATER.
Pudendorum vitiis minerales aquae valde conveni- 
unt, says Baccius, p. 118. Sunt enim bae natura- 
liter ficcae, ac ficcis ex aequo medicamen- 
tis haec Loca indigent. Humida saniosa, 
ac fistulosa fedis ulcer et quae uteri cer- 
vicem obfiderint, non possunt ullis aquae 
preusidiis percurari, quam naturallbus balneis; turn
aquis, de more, bibitis, turn iisdem per catheterem in 
loculos ipsos infusis, et calefactis biemo, quibus nos fe- 
liciter usi sunius, etiam in saevo ulcere intestini caeci, 
quod penetrans, tractu temporis, foras in inguen, ex 
ipso ulcere (mirum) ebibitas reddebat aquas.—Percu- 
ratam similiter per ejusmodi balnea in Aenaria scimus
illustrem Dominant Neapoli, quae cancrum occultum 
medicorum judicio, aut schirrum alioquin incurabilem, 
inter abdomen et uterum erat diu perpessa. 
Bathing use- 
ful in ulcers
and cancers.
WEAK ricketty children find constant relief by 
bathing. In my Attempt to revive the practice of
bathing I have quoted examples.
OF

[230]
OF 
DISEASES 
CURED BY 
BRISTOL WATER. 
CHAP. XV. 
OF DISEASES OF THE BREAST.
UNDER the general head of Diseases cured hy 
Bath Water, I have given convincing proofs of 
the power of Bath water in disorders of the breast. 
Custom has appropriated disorders of the breast to 
Bristol Water only, in compliance with custom, 
I have reserved the particular disquisition of such
disorders to this chapter. To the study of Con- 
sumptions, I have given particular attention. I 
have pried into almost all the boasted nostrums. 
With the sagacious GILCHRIST, I ingenuously 
confess that, in proportion to my experience, my 
faith abates. Rationally to account for the ope- 
ration of the waters, now my purpose briefly to 
distinguish the different diseases of the breast, 
with their subject, causes, symptoms, stages, diag- 
nostics, prognostics, regimens, and method of cure.
I. OF COUGH, OR CATARRH.
1. Cough, or Catarrh is a convul- 
sive endeavour to expel whatever proves 
offensive to the lungs.
Definition.
2. IT
 

231 BY BRISTOL WATER.
2. IT is divided, into thin and sharp, 
or into viscid and inert. 
Division. 
3. The first is occasioned by sudden chills, 
winds cold and moist, east and north 
particularly, sudden changes, thaws, 
wet cloaths, relicts of former diseases, measles, 
small-pox, &c. 
Causes.
4. The second takes its rise from laxity of the 
solids, indolence, moisture, night studies, crude 
cold and watery diet, &c. 
5. The symptoms of the first are shivering, las- 
situde, watery inflamed eyes, flushed counte- 
nance, shortness of breathing, tickling 
and inclination to cough, especially 
towards night, plentiful secretion of urine, quick
hard pulse, itching and running of the nostrils, 
sneezing, inflammation, and excoriation of the 
membrana sneideriana, hoarseness, spitting of blood, 
and pulmonary phthisis. 
Symptoms. 
6. In the viscid catarrh, respiration labours, the 
lungs are oppressed with frothy mucus, the cough 
is chiefly troublesome in the morning; the mat- 
ter expectorated is whitish, bluish, and globular. 
These are succceded by tubercles, suppurations, 
and pulmonary consumptions. 
These symptoms are easily accounted for. Of 
all causes, the most common is cold. Causae ex- 
ternae quae prohibere solent perspirationem sunt aer 
frigidus, caenosus, humidus, &c. says Sanctorius.
The membrana sneideriana suffers by its com- 
munication with that membrane which covers 
the inside of the lungs. The internal and exter- 
nal parts of the thorax and abdomen become 
convulsed, because they are covered with the 
same nerves with the lungs, the eighth pair, and 
intercostals. 
7. The

232 DISEASES CURED
7. The convulsive cough is more inveterate, 
and attacks children, commonly called Chincough. 
In this, inspiration continues for some 
minutes; when it begins, it is per- 
formed by a sort of hissing, snoring, 
and clangor, occasioned by the coarctation of the 
glottis. Little or nothing is thrown up. The sto- 
mach is often provoked to vomiting. Fever super- 
venes; ulcer, haemoptoe, and phtisis follow. 
Convulsive
cough.
8. The cause of this species seems 
not yet ascertained. 
Causes.
II. OF CONSUMPTION.
1. EVERY disease that wastes the body may, 
strictly speaking, be termed consumption. This
is a wasting of the body accompanied 
with hectic fever, cough, and puru- 
lent spitting. In this country consumptions may
truly be said to be endemic. The general con- 
stitution of our air is cold, moist, and variable. 
Laxity of solids, languid circulation,, and reten- 
tion of humours are natural consequences. Dis- 
eases arising from such solids and fluids, are 
coughs, catarrhs, hectic fevers, empyema, hae- 
moptoe, sweating, asthma, &c. It is called a 
pulmonary phthisis, because it has its seat parti- 
cularly in the lungs. 
Definition.
2. It is distinguished, 1. Into or- 
dinary and symptomatic. 2. Into 
phthisis, with an abscess. 3. Into acute and
chronic. 
Division.
3. Persons subject to this disease are 
the young, long-necked, tall, narrow 
chested, and lax. 
Subjects.
4. The procatarctic causes are a- 
crid matter, metallic fumes, moist air, 
tubercles, haemoptoe, suppressions of usual eva-  
Causes. 
cuations,

233 BY BRISTOL WATER.
cuatations, inordinate passions, gluttony, drinking, 
indolence, wounds, and dregs of other diseases; 
infection, and hereditary taint. Obstruction of 
the glands of the lungs or arteries produce this, 
disease, as well as ulcers. 
5. It is divided into two stages, in- 
flammatory and suppuratory. 
Stages.
6. It begins with a dry cough, clangorous 
voice, heat, pain, oppression after motion, spit- 
ting of blood, saltish taste of the 
mouth, loss of appetite, thirst, vomit- 
ing, sadness, sense of weight in the lobe affected, 
pulse quick, soft, and small; sometimes full and 
hardish. This we call the inflammatory state. 
Symptoms.
7. Soon after the patient expectorates matter 
white, green, streaked, insipid, and fetid. The
body wastes, and seems chilly in hot weather,
with night heats, and morning sweats, diarhaea, 
dysentery, lientery, or diabetes; the palms of 
the hands burn; the tongue becomes covered 
with little ulcers; after meals the cheeks flush;
the nails grow crooked; the hair falls off; the 
feet swell; the belly shrinks upwards; parts of 
the air-vessels are thrown up by spitting; all the 
functions languish; the body grows dry; the 
eyes sink into their sockets. Laesion of degluti- 
tion, drying up of the ulcers, chills, and loss of 
strength, carry off the sick in the midst of flat- 
tering hopes. This we call the suppuratory state. 
In a Vomica pulmonum all these symptoms ap- 
pear, excepting spitting of pus. 
8. The inflammatory state is thus distinguish- 
ed from the catarrh. In the former, the cough 
is dry, a sense of weight is perceived 
in one of the lobes of the lungs. In 
the latter, defluxion only.—Putrid remittent 
fever, expectoration of pus, wasting, night sweats,
Distinction.
and

234 DISEASES CURED
and colliquative looseness, distinguish the suppu- 
ratory state from other diseases. 
AN EMPYEMA is a collection of pus between 
the lungs and the pleura. It is distin- 
guishable by the hectic fever, difficul- 
ty of breathing, cough, spitting, fluctuation of 
matter, weight and sense of pain on shifting pos- 
ture; with other signs of inflammation and sup- 
puration. 
Empyema. 
A consumption is distinguished from a Vomica 
of the Liver, by that pathognomonic 
pain which attends the latter, and 
which reaches upwards to the shoul- 
der; by tumor and pain in the part affected, nau- 
sea, vomiting, and diarhaea. 
Vomica of 
the Liver. 
A consumption is distinguished from an ab- 
scess of the stomach by symptoms pe- 
culiar to the latter, viz. Fetid eructa- 
tions, cough without expectoration, 
purulent vomiting, faintings, sweats, pain in de- 
glutition, or after; pain of the intestines, occa- 
sioned by the passing of pus; of the omentum, 
or mesentery of the kidneys; desire of lying on
the belly; purulent urine, or dysury, &c. 
Abscess of
the Stomach. 
III. OF HECTIC FEVER.
1. FEVERS which proceed slowly, 
debilitate and waste, are called Hectic. 
Definition.
2. Hectic fevers are divided into idiopathic and
symptomatic. Symptomatic hectics proceed from 
schirrous infarctions, and ulcers of the 
viscera, particularly the lungs and me- 
sentery. There are hectic fevers which proceed 
from mere acrimony. This opinion gathers 
strength from a survey of the remote causes of 
hectics, viz. Inordinate passions, grief, anger,
Division. 
care,

235 BY BRISTOL WATER. 
care, watching, excessive evacuations of all sorts;
corrosive medicines; debility of the first passages; 
past diseases; suppressions of usual evacuations; 
drunkenness. 
3. The symptoms of hectics are the 
same almost as in consumptions. 
Symptoms. 
IV. OF HAEMOPTOE. 
1. FLORID frothy blood thrown up 
from the lungs, we call Haemoptoe. 
Definition.
2. Persons are subject to this from 
the same dispositions mentioned under 
the section of consumption.
Subjects. 
3. The remote causes are violent orgasms, or 
expansion of the blood; spastic contractions of
the viscera; schirrous obstructions; 
polypus’s in the pulmonary vessels; 
plethora’s after intermissions of usual evacuations; 
anger; violent exercise; high fauces; spirituous 
liquors; violent fits of coughing; strainings; 
hard frost; inelastic air.
Causes. 
4. The preceding symptoms are shivering, las- 
situde, coldness of the extremities, anxiety, diffi-
culty of breathing, heavy undulatory 
pain about the region of the dia- 
phragm, flatus, and pain of the back. These 
symptoms are peculiar to this species of hae- 
moptoe. 
Symptoms.
V. OF ASTHMA.
1. ASTHMA is a laborious respira- 
tion, threatening suffocation.
Definition.
2. It is 1. Periodic, or continual. 
2. Moist, or dry. 3. Genuine, or 
spurious. Of the first we treat only. 
Division.
3. It

236 DISEASES CURED
3. It chiefly attacks fat people, and
after the bloom of youth. It is more 
frequent in summer than in autumn. 
Subjects.
4. Its remote causes are gross foggy air, thun- 
der, inordinate passions, small-pox, scurvy, in- 
termittents, catarrh, old ulcers cica- 
trized, suppression of wonted evacua- 
tions, repercussions of critical evacuations, gout, 
erysepilas, oedematous tumors of the feet, wounds 
of the diaphragm, hereditary taint. 
Causes.
5. Its proximate causes are, 1. Obstructions of 
the bronchia and air vessels. 2. Irritation of the
respiratory nerves; thence spasmodic contraction 
of those fibres which correct the cartilaginous- 
rings of the bronchia. 
6. The paroxysm manifests itself thus. First, 
the stomach is distended, and throws up belch- 
ings, with a sense of coarctation. 
Heat, fever, stupor, head-ach, nausea, 
and pale urine follow. The lungs feel stiff, the 
spirits are ruffled, the extremities seem benumb- 
ed, the breast feels as it were squeezed between 
two presses, the patient breathes with difficulty, 
and speaks hoarse. During the night every symp- 
tom increases. Breathing is slow, nor can it be 
performed but in an erect posture, nor without 
the assistance of the scapulae. Worse in bed than
in the cold air. Tears flow involuntary, the 
pulse feels weak, small and intermitting; the 
heart trembles, the face grows black, with a 
sense of suffocation. As the straightness remits, 
a viscid, sweet, saltish phlegm is thrown up, 
streaked with black filaments. The urine then 
is coloured, and lets fall a sediment. When the 
fit is over, the spitting ceases. As the disorder 
grow inveterate, the hands and feet swell, espe- 
cially towards night, the countenance acquires a 
Symptoms. 
livid

237 BY BRISTOL WATER.
livid cast, the patient falls into dropsy, consump- 
tion, inflammation of the lungs, lethargy, palsy, 
death. 
Prognostics.
THUS, having accounted for the causes, seats, 
symptoms, and effects of pectoral diseases in 
general, we now proceed to their several prog- 
nostics. 
1. Dry Coughs generally change into moist. 
The former are more dangerous than the latter, 
because of those inflammations, and 
ruptures of vessels which accompany
them. Better that dry coughs should turn moist, 
than moist into dry; because tubercles, putrid 
and hectic fevers generally attend the latter. 
Moist coughs hinder digestion, and bring on ca- 
chexy. To weak lungs, both sorts are bad. 
Coughs.
2. Convulsive Coughs are rarely 
dangerous. 
Convulsive. 
3. In consumptions, the following symptoms 
promise fair. Pus white, even, easily thrown
up, little or no fever, respiration free, 
cough moderate, appetite not impair-  
ed, chest wide, belly lax, youth, and the disease
yet recent.—If the disease happens to be heredita- 
ry, if the cough is severe, if the hectic heat lasts
till morning, if sleep refreshes not, if the wast- 
ing be great, if there is danger of suffocation, 
looseness, colliquative sweat, and swelling of the 
feet, the case is, at best, desperate. Acute phthi- 
sis is more dangerous than chronic, originary 
than symptomatic. The autumn promises little 
to consumptives. 
Consumptton.
4. In

238 DISEASES CURED
4. In hectic fevers, if the strength 
fails, if the hair falls off, with colli- 
quative diarhaea’s, night sweats, swell- 
ing of the feet, urine oily, and the face hippocra- 
tic, the patient has little to hope for. 
Hectic fe- 
vers. 
5. Of all haemorhages, that of eructation of 
pure blood from the lungs is the most 
dangerous. According to the habit, 
age, and vessels ruptured, the danger 
varies. It is more perilous when it arises from
weak vessels, schirrous, or polypus, than when 
it proceeds from the fluids themselves, or the in- 
termission of usual evacuations, in weak lax ha- 
bits than in strong, in old than in young, from 
ruptures of large vessels than from small. From
obstructions, women are subject to haemoptoes. 
In them it is more alarming than dangerous. 
Emenagogues, about the next time of eruption, 
bring nature to its own channel, the haemoptoe 
ceases. If part of the blood stagnates in the ae- 
real vessels, it putrifies, corrupts the found parts, 
and brings on consumption. If it happens to be 
complicated with ulcer, the patient would do 
well to think of another world.—If it returns 
often, the blood acquires acrimony from inani- 
tion. Hence it is, that (in Monasteries) those 
devotees who really fast, die all of putrid hectic 
fevers. The same juices, bv constant circular 
tion, naturally acquire putrescency; their breath 
is offensive; such generally die raving mad. 
Thus it fares with nurses who fast too long; 
their milk tastes strong of urine. Hence also it 
is that the best natured people grow peevish 
through sickness. This explains that axiom, 
Qui same moriuntur, febre moriuntur. 
Haemor- 
hages. 
6. In asthmas, the prognostics are 
more promising in youth than in old 
Asthmas.
age,

239 BY BRISTOL WATER.
age, from evacuations suppressed than from other 
causes. The more frequent and severe the pa- 
roxysms, the worse. An asthma changing into a 
peripneumony is deadly. Difficulty of breathing 
may be long borne; orthopnaea strangles old 
men suddenly. Blackness of the face, and suffo- 
cation happen from a stoppage of the blood thro' 
the lungs. Dangerous are trembling respiration, 
pulse intermittent or deficient, palsy of the upper 
extremities, faintings, palpitation, and scarcity 
of urine. When the breathing comes to be 
small and slow, when the limbs feel cold, when 
the pulse changes from slow to quick and weak, 
matters are at the worst. Thus having accounted 
for particular prognostics, we next proceed to the
several methods of cure. 
Cure. 
1. THIN, sharp catarrh calls 1. For vaenesec- 
tion, gentle purging, and mild dia- 
phoretics. 2. Acrimony is to be cor- 
rected, thinness inspissated, and the pulmonary 
vessels to be relaxed by vegetable expressed oils; 
mucilaginous decoctions; pectoral syrups and 
balsams. 3. Convulsive spasms are to be quieted 
by opiates. 4. The diet ought to be light, bland, 
milky. The skin ought to be defended from the 
air; rest is first to be indulged, then gentle ex- 
ercise. 
Thin catarrh. 
2. In viscid catarrh, 1. The peccant matter is 
to be diverted, by keeping the belly 
open, blisters and issues. 2. It is to
be attenuated by vomits, blisters, and 
medicines inciding and deterging, viz. soap, 
squills, garlick, gum-ammoniac, and vegetable 
acids. 3. The lungs are to be strengthened by
Thick ca-
tarrh. 
fumiga-

240 DISEASES CURED
fumigations, riding, friction, corroborating diet, 
and ferrugineous waters. 
3. In convulsive Coughs, medicines avail but 
little, till the disease has almost ex- 
pended its fury. These chiefly con- 
duce, 1. Bleeding. 2. Vomits, 3. 
Purges. 4. Pectorals. 5. Blisters. 6. Specifics; 
and, 7. Bitters. 
Convulsive 
cough. 
4. In the inflammatory state of consumptions, 
1. Small bleedings seasonably repeated conduce. 
2. Blisters ought frequently to be ap- 
plied. 3. Thin sharp humours are 
to be inviscated by oily incrassating 
medicines. 4. Vomits, provided the disease takes 
its rise from thin catarrh. 5. Medicines and diet 
are specifically to be directed to the causes; hae- 
morhage, scurvy, scrophula, asthma, evacua- 
tions, &c.—Crude tubercles are to be attempted 
by the most gentle deobstruents, and with the 
greatest caution. 
Consumptions 
inflammatory. 
4. The second, or suppuratory state, may be 
attempted, 1. By astringents, increasing and ag- 
glutinate. 2. Pus is to be drawn off 
by those ways which nature affects.
3. The effects of pus are to be prevented by an- 
tiseptics, incrassants, and acids. 4. The body 
is to be refreshed with light nourishing diet, air, 
sleep, avoiding venery, and passions of the mind. 
—The preservatory cure depends on little bleed- 
ings, diet, exercise, and avoiding night air.
Suppuratory.  
5. Hectics admit of no cure, unless they are 
timeously attacked. The acrimony of the blood 
is, 1. To be corrected by medicines 
demulcent and inviscating, such as al- 
mond emulsions, vegetable mucilaginous decoc- 
tions, barley, marsh-mallows, colts-foot, chicken 
broth, &c. 2. Asses milk, or breast milk, goat- 
Hectics. 
whey,



241 BY BRISTOL WATER.
whey, &c. 3. Gentle astringents, conserve of 
roses, tincture of roses, elixir vitriol, bark, fer- 
rugineous waters, &c. 4. Riding, and constant 
travelling. 5. Cleansing the first passages, by 
gentle pukes, and rhubarb. 6. Paying attention 
always to original causes. 
6. In Haemoptoes, 1. The blood is to be 
diverted from the lungs. 2. Its orgasm is to be 
tempered. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed; and, 4. Ruptured vessels are to 
be foldered.—1. The blood is to be 
diverted by vaenesection, gentle purging, glys- 
ters, and ligatures. 2. Its orgasm is to be tem- 
pered by water and nitre, acids mineral and ve- 
getable, and opiates. 3. Spasms are to be allay- 
ed by opiates. 4. The vessels are to be consoli- 
dated by medicines oily, incrassating, and agglu- 
tinant diet, tranquility, abstinence of all sorts. 
Spitting of 
blood. 
7. In moist asthmas, the intention is to at- 
tenuate, and evacuate viscid matter, and to pre- 
vent its regeneration. Attenuation is 
performed by medicines, attenuating 
and diluting liquors. Evacuation by 
pukes. Generation of new matter, by gentle 
purges and diuretics, fontanells, blisters, and the 
bark. 
Moist asth- 
mas. 
8. In convulsive asthmas, the business is to 
quiet the orgasm of the spirits. This is accom- 
plished, 1. By diminishing the stric- 
ture by glysters, and fomentation ap- 
plied to the breast. 2. By diverting the humours 
to other places, by friction and warm pediluvia. 
3. By allaying the spasm with opiates and anti- 
spasmodics.—In the plethoric, bleeding gives im- 
mediate relief. In flatulencies, carminative glys- 
ters. After the paroxysm, the bark bids fair for 
preventing irritability. In both kinds, erect pos- 
Convulsive.
L ture, 




242 DISEASES CURED
ture, slender diet, and air serene conduce. If 
the disorder proceeds from suppression of usual 
evacuations, it is to be attempted by diaphoretics 
and restoration of such evacuations. 
FROM the preceding deduction, we naturally 
draw the following practical reflections. 
1. IN constitutions naturally good, 
when fever, sickness, cough, and wast- 
ing, give early warning when the dis- 
order happens to be endemic, and the habit not 
much impaired, common evacuations generally 
succeed. 
Evacuations 
indicated.
2. ULCERS from incysted tumours 
yield to common methods, provided 
the disorder proceeds from external in- 
juries, and the constitution be found. 
Pus, confined within its cystis, affects the 
lungs no otherwise than by pressure. When the 
cystis comes once to be expectorated, the disease
is cured.  
Incysted tu- 
mours. 
From page 99 to 105 inclusive, Gilchrist (in 
his Use of Sea Voyages in Medicine) gives histories 
of cures from incysted tumours, with the help of 
hardly any one medicine; nay, he hardly allows 
such to be called consumptions. 
3. CONSUMPTIONS from glandular obstruc- 
tions are very frequent, and very obstinate. Be- 
tween such, and scrophulas, there 
seems to be great analogy. Scrophu- 
las prevail often without visible tu- 
mour. The seat of the distemper lies often in 
the mesentery and lungs, which are covered with 
an infinitude of glands. Such obstructions fre- 
quently end in hectic and pulmonary consump- 
tion. Scurvy, vapours, and scrophula often have 
the same common cause; therefore it is that they 
are often common to the same patient, and 
Glandular 
obstructions. 
change

243 BY BRISTOL WATR:
change so often into one another. Sickly tender 
habits have often been relieved by scorbutic erup- 
tions. Eruption imprudently repelled has brought 
on tubercles, glandular swellings, topical inflam- 
mations, languor, and vapours. Some scrophu- 
las are mild, and easily admit of resolution, or 
suppuration. Others are intractable. So, in 
some consumptions, we observe mild suppura- 
tions. In true glandular consumptions, there are 
not wanting instances of cures. But, if the ha- 
bit degenerates, if new causes concur, other 
glands come to be affected, those which have 
been healed turn callous, the disease comes to be 
fatal. 
4. WHEN obstructions resolve not, when the 
lungs really come to be ulcerated, cures are very 
rare. By malignity of ulcers added to 
necessary motion of expiration and in- 
spiration, consolidation is prevented. In pectoral
diseases, various and perplexed are the contra-in- 
dications. Like fruits on the same tree, some 
are green, some coloured, some mellow, just so 
it fares with the pulmonary glands; some are 
crude, others inflamed, others suppurated, others 
broken. In fevers complicated of the inflamma- 
tory, hectic, and putrid, what hopes can we ad- 
minister? In coughs dependent on erosion, on 
catarrh, opiates, doubtless, have their use. By 
retaining acrid pus, they add to infarction; 
they debilitate, pall the appetite, and bind the 
belly; they are, at best, but temporary reliefs. 
Fever indicates the bark. Bark adds to obstruc- 
tion; and so may we say of pectorals in ge- 
neral. 
Suppuration.
5. THERE is hardly a disease in 
which common practice is more absurd 
than in this of which we treat. Coughs, 
Pectorals, 
their opera- 
tion.
L2 catarrhs,



244 DISEASES CURED
catarrhs, hectics, consumptions, asthmas and hae- 
moptoes differ from one another, and there- 
fore require different cures. Sharp catarrhs 
indicate diaphoretics, thick attenuants. Scor- 
butic consumptions yield to antiscorbutics; vene- 
real to mercurials Medicines certainly have 
their use; by restoring faultering nature, they 
often procure a truce; and, at length, a cure. 
But, from a comparative view of the delicate 
structure of the lungs, and the qualities of medi- 
cines promiscuously employed, we may venture 
to say, that consumptives are too often hurried to 
their long homes. Cloying linctus’s pall the ap- 
petite; astringents cork up, choak, and increase 
the fever. When we endeavour to cure consump- 
tions by remedies which respect the habit, we 
satisfy one indication only. Surgeons rely not 
altogether on local applications. Ulcers are the 
same, external or internal. To correct the vice 
of the fluids, to consolidate the ruptured vessels, 
are equally the intentions of the rational practi- 
tioner. By the common method of practice, one 
would think that practitioners had discovered a 
shorter passage to the lungs than by the round of 
circulation. 
6. IN cases where art has exhausted its skill, 
where nostrums have proved of none effect, where 
the mass of blood has been fused into ichorous 
corroding serum, where this same serum has run 
off in colliquative discharges, where these dis- 
charges have been increased by consuming hectic, 
where the tenement of the lungs has been broken, 
where the bronchia as well as cavity of the tho- 
rax have been filled with pus, where the body 
has not only been emaciated, but could not be 
nourished, Bristol hot-well waters have perform- 
ed wonders. The only collection of cures per- 
formed



245 BY BRISTOL WATER:
formed by those waters, is that very short treatise 
by Dr. John Underhill, of Bristol, printed in the 
year 1703. By the author’s facetious stile, it 
bears the marks of genuine simplicity. From 
this simple fountain, added to my own observa- 
tions, I hope to be able to produce proofs suffi- 
cient of my text. To facts I appeal. 
“ The Hot-well water mixeth (as he says) per 
“ minima, with wine, and other potables, so na- 
“ turally suited to all stomachs, and of such a- 
“ greeable warmth, that it never regurgitates, 
“ though common water of the same heat is an 
“ emetick, and so wonderfully fortifies the ven- 
“ tricle, that it never fails to excite an eager ap- 
“ petite. This is so well known, that instances 
“ were endless and coincident. It is of true me- 
“ rit in all Cachocyhmy, Cholic, Bilious Vomiting, 
“ Cardialgias, Dysenteries, and Fluxes of all kinds, 
“ Fevers, and all hectic Cases, all lavish Sweatings, 
“ Rheumatic Pains, Herpetes, Pustules, Itch, Scor- 
“ bute, all sorts of Ulcers inward or outward, 
“ Asthmas, King’s Evil, Dysuries. Diabetes, Kid- 
“ ney-gravel. Bladder, and other excoriations. It 
“ extinguishes all thirst. It is more binding than 
“ laxative. To diffuse the curative uses of this 
“ helpful water, I have carefully collected the 
“ following histories, attested either by the per- 
“ sons themselves, or other credible eye-witnes- 
“ ses, to obviate all suspicion of falsehood, and 
“ frivolous objection to the prejudice of the pub- 
“ lic against plain matters of fact. Res ipsa lo- 
“ quitur.” 
1. “ The Reverend Dr. Hammond, of Christ
Church, Oxon, about four years since, 
“ spared neither care nor cost for the 
“ recovery of Christopher Pyman, his 
then servitor, and now of the same college.
Underhill's 
Cases, 
L3 “ After




246 DISEASES CURED
“ After the Doctor had left him past hopes of 
“ recovery, with his funeral directions, a dismal 
“ spectacle, wasted to the last degree, in a con- 
“ sumption, at the prime of life, forsaken by his 
“ physicians, and left to the merciless hand of 
“ death by his friends, was perfectly cured by 
“ drinking the Hot-well water, and now remains- 
“ a living healthful testimony of this truth,” 
2. “ William Darvise, of West-street, Law- 
“ ford's Gate, Bristol, aged fifty-three, at the last 
“ extremity consumptive, a frightful skeleton, 
“ continually coughing, straining, and spitting 
“ day and night, appetite gone, sleep with his 
“ physicians vanished, and his friends hourly ex- 
“ pecting his death; by drinking the Hot-well 
“ water this present summer, is, to astonishment, 
“ restored to appetite and sleep, hale and active, 
“ without cough, or any remaining symptom. 
“ This, in gratitude, he desires to be published, 
“ for the sake of others in such tabid languishing 
“ circumstances. 
“ William Darvise.” 
3. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol College-green, 
“ certifies, That Capt. Richard Clark, of Horse
“ path, aged forty-six, lodged at her house for 
“ about seven weeks, in the year 1701, in which 
“ time the Hot-well checked his melting 
“ sweats, which had been long lavish, and did 
“ take off his insatiable thirst. I am since assured 
“ by his niece that he enjoys perfect health.” 
“ It seems useless (continues our author) to 
“ insert parallel, or lesser cures, which lie by, 
“ for room-sake, to manifest the effective virtues 
“ of Hot-well water in the most miserable phthisic 
“ cases; for it is, instar omnium, the last and 
“ only known subterfuge in Hectics and dyscrasy
“ of



247 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ of humours. It is a true and faithful febri- 
“ fuge at all essays ” 
1. By easy journies, Miss Lee or Birmingham, 
was conveyed to the Wells. To the dregs of the 
measles she owed her consumption. 
By profuse sweats, and colliquative 
discharges of all sorts, she was reduced 
to skin and bone. Every morning the chamber- 
maid emptied a bason, almost half full of matter, 
of an intolerable stench. 
Author's 
Cases. 
She was so weak that she could not walk up to 
the pump. She drank the water in her chair for 
the first six weeks, without the least visible a- 
mendment. After this, it began to have a sensi- 
ble effect. It threw out large boils on her back. 
At the end of three months her blood vessels seem- 
ed to be filled with fresh juices. She eat heartily, 
walked firmly, and rode on the Downs. The 
only remaining symptom was a dry teazing cough, 
which (as I have often observed) seemed now 
to be exasperated by the continuance of the 
waters. 
I advised her to go home, to drink spring-water 
acidulated with Elixir Vitriol Acid, and butter- 
milk, with riding. After six years she now con- 
tinues well.” 
2. Lord Stavordale, of a delicate frame and 
fair complexion, aged about ten or eleven, came 
down to the Wells. By the advice of the most
eminent, he had gone through the pharmaco- 
paea, he was escorted by an eminent apothecary, 
armed with baskets of antidotes for every symp- 
tom. By cough, hectic, flying pains,, and sweat- 
ing, he was so reduced, that he could hardly bear 
the motion of a post-chaise; he had thrown 
up pus. He was, at first, carried in arms, to 
drink the water at the pump. In the space of six 
L4 weeks




248 DISEASES CURED
weeks his symptoms vanished, he grew plump 
and active, galloped his little horse up and down, 
and continues well.” 
3. Master Townley, of Lancashire, of the same 
age and complexion, came hither emaciated by a 
hectic fever, attended with a cough. By the wa- 
ters acidulated with Elixir Vitriol alone, he went 
away recovered. 
4. Mr. Redpath of London, Merchant, after 
a pleuritic fever, laboured under a cough, hectic, 
sweatings, and rheumatic pains, which reduced 
him very low. He drank the waters for two 
months, summer, 1761, and went away well; 
he returned last summer and confirmed his cure. 
5. Mr. Evetts, of Birmingham, Merchant, 
came to the Wells, labouring under cough, hec- 
tic fever, cold night sweats, loss of appetite, and 
wasting. By drinking the waters but fourteen 
days, he returned almost as well as ever. He re- 
lapsed three times, found relief, but is since dead. 
6. Archibald Menzies, Esq. of Perthshire, a 
young gentleman of an athletic constitution, af- 
ter some days and nights of hard drinking, and 
steeping in wet cloaths, was taken with pleuritic 
pains, which yielded to repeated bleedings, blis- 
terings, &c. Now and then he felt a sensible 
weight in one of the lobes of the lungs, which as 
often was relieved by expectoration of fetid mat- 
ter, striated with blood. After an eruption of 
one of these vomica's, observing a clergyman car- 
ried down the stream of a rapid river, he jumped 
in, and brought him out, in a cold frosty day. 
Anxious about restoring the unfortunate, he neg- 
lected to shift his cloaths. His symptoms returned 
with violence, and yielded to the same regimen. 
Improperly treated with steel medicines, his 
symptoms returned with violence, these were re-
lieved



249 BY BRISTOL WATER.
lieved as before. By blisters and riding, his sweats 
abated last summer. But, his pleuritic pain con- 
tinued to return every fortnight, or week, unless 
prevented by copious bleeding. He was only 
troubled with the cough when nature wanted to 
ease the lungs of congested pus. As soon as that 
was thrown up, he was easy till the next attack. 
By the joint advice of the Professors Ruther- 
ford and Whytt, he rode to Bristol, a journey of 
six hundred miles. He found himself better on 
the road. Drowsiness and head-ach, the usual 
harbingers of his pleuritic paroxysm, seemed to 
indicate bleeding in London. He was also bled at 
Bath. His blood was always inflamed. He ar- 
rived at the Hot Wells early in summer, 1761; he 
drank the waters for three months, during which 
time he felt no indications for bleeding, a re- 
prieve unknown for eighteen months. By way 
of prevention, I advised him however to be bled. 
His blood was pure as a lamb’s, I repented the 
prescription. He left the wells strong, active, 
and hardy. Dreading the effects of northern 
winter air, I advised him to go to Italy by sea, 
where he staid two years, rather for pleasure; he 
now enjoys perfect health. 
7. Master Dampier, aged about fourteen, came
to the Wells emaciated, so that he was carried in 
arms to and from the pump. In one day he 
threw up matter to the quantity of a quart. To 
the waters, little assisted by medicine, he owes 
the complete recovery of his pristine vigour, 
spirits, and activity. 
8. Miss Serjant, aged twelve, came to the 
Wells in still a more unpromising condition. By 
the prognostic of a physician well acquainted with 
consumptions, she was pronounced incurable. By 
the use of the waters, little assisted by medicine,
L5 she



250 DISEASES CURED
she sleeps nine hours on a stretch, eats heartily, 
walks up and down to the Wells, and gallops on 
the Downs. 
9. Master Holiday, aged fourteen, at Eton 
School, was taken ill of a fever, which intermit- 
ted at last, and terminated in a cough, difficulty 
of breathing, loss of appetite, looseness, sweat- 
ing and hectic. By the use of the waters, asses- 
milk, and riding, he recovered in the space of 
one month. 
10. Corporal Shaw, aged twenty-three, of a 
consumptive family, came to the Wells, with a 
violent cough, spitting, sweating, languor, &c. 
By the help of one blister and the waters, he re- 
covered so perfectly, in the space of three weeks, 
that he proceeded with his regiment to Belleisle. 
11. William Sprole, Esq. caught a violent cold
for which he took variety of medicines during the 
winter. By the help of a blister his complaints 
seemed to vanish, till in the beginning of sum- 
mer, he was taken with the Influenza del aere, at 
that time epidemic. He came to the Hot Wells, 
with a cough and spitting almost constant, want 
of appetite, languor, sweating, and hectic. By 
Bristol Water, Asses-milk, and Ridings he found a
cure. 
N. B. The last five cures happened in summer,
1762 
CHAP.

251 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVI. 
OF DISEASES OF THE URINARY PASSAGES.
I. OF THE DIABETES.
1. ARETAEUS was the first who gave 
any tolerable description of this disease; 
he calls it “ A flux of humours, a colliquation of 
“ blood, and a continual effusion by the kidnies 
“ and bladder.” More properly it 
may be defined, an unnatural effusion 
of urine, most commonly sweet, attended with
thirst. 
Definition. 
2. Its causes are feverish disorders cured by ex- 
cessive evacuations; bite of the serpent Situla; 
laxity of the renal glands; acrid se- 
rum; immoderate use of small liquors; 
excess of venery; stoppage of other secretions, 
&c.—Willis mentions one from indulgence in 
Rhenish wine, Lister one from Knaresborough 
water, and another from Bals. Capivi. The mass 
of blood is compounded of various globules. 
When particular globules take the road which na- 
ture affects not, there arise diseases said to pro- 
ceed ab errore loci. If the emulgent arteries, e.g. 
come to be vitiated, they receive and convey glo- 
bules designed for nutrition to the kidnies. The 
renal vessels and glands become more and more 
disposed to this unnatural discharge. 
Causes.
3. The symptoms are, hunger and thirst insa- 
tiable; parched mouth; frothy spit- 
tle; varicous swellings of the abdomi- 
nal veins, with a sense of constriction; heat; 
anxiety; restlessness; hectic; swelling of the  
Symptoms.
L6 loins, 



252 DISEASES CURED
loins, testicles, and feet; constant inclination to 
void urine limpid and sweetish; wasting and 
death.—The symptoms may easily
be accounted for. The liquor dis- 
charged differs from urine in taste, co- 
lour, and smell. It is really and truly an efflux 
of chyle, little altered by circulation; hence 
taste, wasting, &c. Urine is an excrementitious 
liquor. Dr. Keir made an experiment which de- 
termines the point. “ He put a portion of dia- 
“ betic urine into a vessel over a gentle fire. Be- 
“ fore one half had evaporated, it deposited a 
“ considerable sediment. The whole mass was,
“ at last, coagulated.—The same quantity of 
“ healthy urine, treated in the same manner, eva- 
“ porated almost entirely, leaving only a little fe- 
“ tid sediment behind.” 
Cause of the 
Symptoms. 
A recent Diabetes easily yields to common 
helps, inveterate rarely. The curative indications 
are, 1. To strengthen the organs of 
digestion and the renal vessels. 2. To 
remove those obstructions which cause a diminu- 
tion of other secretions. The first intention may 
be obtained from strengtheners and astringents; 
incrassants and restoratives. The second from 
whatever restores perspiration. As it requires 
singular sagacity to distinguish between different 
and opposite causes, our wonder may cease, when 
we hear of diabetics swallowing baskets of drugs 
to little or no purpose. Under the direction of 
the most sagacious, there are but few diabetics 
who recover. The disorder has generally taken 
deep root before the patient submits. There are 
but few patients who do justice to their physici- 
ans or to themselves. If ever there was a dis- 
order adapted to mineral waters, it may be said to 
be this. In that chapter which treats of general 
Cure. 
virtues,



253 BY BRISTOL WATER:
virtues, the reader will find the specific qualities 
of the several ingredients rationally accounted for. 
Theoretical notions gather strength from the ex- 
perience of Baccius, the prince of mineral water 
writers. In treating of disorders of the urinary 
passages, he has blended them so together, that it 
is not so easy to separate his diabetic practice 
from the rest. In his book De Thermis, pag. 115, 
he expresses himself thus, “ Renum vero effec- 
“ tus, viscerum, et maxime hepatis, cui viden- 
“ tur ministerio subesse, rationem in balneis con- 
“ sequuntur, ac vesica renum. Vexantur autem 
“ renes callidae intemperiei affectu ut plurimum, 
“ tum quia renum ipforum substantia laxa pin- 
“ guitudine admodum inflammabili, participate.”
Hence, from the slightest cause, they are apt to 
heat and turn crude obstructions into stony con- 
cretions; hence also white fluxes. Diabetes, in- 
flammations, ulcers, and diseases incurable. In 
all the affections of the urinary passages, every 
water conduces that has the property of absterg- 
ing these parts, and so removing the cause. Po-
tulentae. omnes aquae quae proprietatem habent per 
urinarios meatus abstergendi, et quae immediate veluti 
causam tollunt. Nor are they less effectual, for be- 
ing of that kind, which divert the fabulous mat- 
ter by stool, quae communis est praxis in hac alma 
urbe Rama.
He directs his first intention to that hot tempe- 
rament which constitutes the basis of the disease. 
For this purpose he proposes purging waters, sub- 
tiles et mediocriter calidae effentiae aperientes, digeren- 
tas, vel non indecores, ft ad robur conferendum ferro 
quadatenus participent. Such, in a word, as de- 
terge and comfort at the same time. 
These, and all such waters cure heat of urine, 
strangury, and dysury, nocturnal polutions, in- 
voluntary



254 DISEASES CURED
voluntary seminal flux, bed-pissing, the Diabetic 
Flux, with its concomitant, thirst inextinguish- 
able. Ex eadem involuntariam ficcant seminis efflu- 
entiam, nocturnas pollutiones, improvisam per fom- 
mun emictionem, diabeticum fluxum, sitimque exinde 
natam inextingulbilem. 
Galen (in his bookie Ren. affectuum dignotione, 
ac medications) after speaking of unguents and sy- 
napisms for strengthening the reins, adds, Aqua- 
rum etiam sponte manantium usus, si nihil prohibeat. 
Maxims vero laudantur quae in potibus medicatis ex- 
purgando, pro ferri qualicunque impressione, vim quo- 
que insignem obtinent roborandi, oeneae, ferreac, sal- 
sae. Extrinsecus balnea etiam ex ferro, plumbo, vel 
aliis mineralibus roborantibus.
OF the power of Brislol Water, Doctor Harris 
(in his maister-piece, De Morbis Acutis Infantum) 
speaks thus, “ De aquis mineralibus Bristoliensi- 
“ bus, quantum in hoc morbo profint, et quan- 
“ tam existimationem merito sint affecutae, jam 
“ vulgo et idlotis innotescit. Sed et aquae illae 
“ celiberrimae in plurlbus aliis languoribus, ac 
“ debilitatibus praeterquam renum, famam et 
“ existimationem optime merentur, valetudinem 
“ infirmam insigniter roborant, et fitim in Dia- 
“ bete exortam, prae aliis omnibus, celeberrime 
“ extinguunt.” 
OF the power of Bath Water (In disorders of 
the urinary passages) I have given proofs unques- 
tionable, Of Bristol Waters we now proceed to 
treat. “ The Hot-well-water (says Underhill) 
is the true medela in that fatal dejection and dis- 
piriting by urine, the Diabetes, as appears by the 
autography of the wells.” 
1. “ Mr. William Gagg, of Bris- 
“ tol, Castle Green, a very fat man, at 
“ his prime, was seized with so violent a Dia- 
Cases.
“ beth,



255 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ beth, that he made at least three gallons of very 
“ sweet urine, with a large quantity of oil swim- 
“ ming a-top; he could not sleep for either drink- 
“ ing or pissing, when, in six days (appetite 
“ gone) so run off his fat and flesh, that he was 
“ reduced to helpless skin and bones, deferred by 
“ his physicians (not sparing money) and given 
“ over by his friends (several of his neighbours 
“ then dying of the same disease, not knowing 
“ the waters use) resolutely cast himself on God's 
“ mercy, and the Hot-well-water (though igno- 
“ rant of its use) imploring his friends to support 
“ him to the Hot well, as their last cast of kind- 
“ ness; which, with difficulty, they performed; 
“ be fainting away every step, and even in drink- 
“ ing the water. Yet, to God’s glory, and their 
“ astonishment, his strength was so sensibly re- 
“ cruited with every glass, that he made them 
“ loosen him, pretending to walk, which his 
“ friends despaired of. He walked back, never- 
“ theless, aided, now and then, by a sip of his 
“ holy-water-bottle, which, on the first trial,
“ vanquished his insatiable thirst, and stopped his 
“ pissing, and so restored his depraved appetite, 
“ that, at his return home, he eat a large favou- 
“ ry meal; and, by drinking tire water for some 
“ time, attained his perfect, state of health, living 
“ many years after. 
“ Signed, Mary Gagg, his widow.” 
2. “ Mr. William Molyneux, of Warrington, 
“ certifies, that he was excessive thirsty, and 
“ made such lavish quantity of sweet urine, of 
“ diverse colours, a thick oil swimming a-top, 
“ that, in three weeks time, he was reduced to 
“ such weakness (his Physicians diredions inef- 
“ fectual) that it was with very great difficulty
“ he



256 DISEASES CURED
“ he got to Bristol, in September, 1695, and that 
“ the very first day, by drinking, his thirst a- 
“ bated, urine checked, and became brackish, 
“ he recovered his appetite that before nauseated 
“ all flesh meat, and that, in eight days, by 
“ God’s mercy, he was perfectly cured, follow- 
“ ing the directions only of Mr. Gagg, a Baker, 
“ of this city, who, seven years before had been 
“ cured of the same disease, by drinking the 
“ same water. 
“ William Molyneux” 
3. “ Among the Hot Well Votiva, we find 
“ Mr. Rogers of Birmingham (all medicines fail- 
“ ing) signing his perfect cure at the age of 
“ threescore. 
“ Thomas Rogers.” 
4. “ Mr. Ralph Millard, Inn-keeper, at the 
“ Swan, Coleman-street, London, aged fifty, in 
“ the spring, 1699, after great medick expence, 
“ and given over by his physicians, in a Dia- 
“ betes, was directed to the Hot Wells, to which 
“ place he got with great difficulty not being 
“ able to scramble to his bed without help. By 
“ drinking the waters three weeks, he was so 
“ invigorated, that Mr. Eaglestone of College- 
“ green, Bristol, saw him lift a barrel of ale 
“ up several steps, which three other men failed 
“ to perform. In three weeks more, he re- 
“ turned to London, riding the hundred miles in 
“ two days. 
“ Joseph Eaglestone.” 
5. “ Mr. Cale, of Bristol, College-green, aged 
“ about forty, two years last past, was afflicted 
“ with a violent Diabetes, which the Hot Well 
“ water



257 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ water immediately stopped, and he hath re- 
“ mained well ever since. 
“ Gilbert Cale.”
6. “ Elizabeth Gettes, who keeps the Boar 
“ Inn, at Bristol, certifies, that Mr. James Darl- 
“ ing, of Oxon, aged about fifty, was perfectly 
“ cured last summer of a Diabeth in two months, 
“ by drinking the Hot-well-water, then lodg- 
“ ing at her house, and now remains in perfect 
“ health. 
“ Elizabeth Gettes.” 
7. John Blandy, of Inglewood-house, Esq. aged 
“ sixty-three, in less than six weeks, this sum- 
“ mer, was perfectly cured of a Diabeth by drink- 
“ ing the water, then lodging at my house. 
“ Elizabeth Browne.” 
8. “ William Beckford, of London, her Ma- 
“ jesty’s flopster, aged about forty, lodging at 
“ my house, was cured in thirteen weeks of 
“ great weakness, depraved appetite, decayed 
“ strength, and Diabetes, after other means had 
“ failed. 
“ Anne Green.” 
His list of Diabetics concludes thus. 
9. “ There is also a certificate of Capt. Ro- 
“ bert Ham’s cure, at the age of seventy-seven, 
“ by constant drinking for eight months.”—He 
adds, “ Instances seem needless, the use of the 
“ water being now so effectually known for a 
“ most sovereign remedy, even at the acme, and 
“ last extremity of a Diabetes.” 
To



258 DISEASES CURED
To Underhill’s catalogue I beg leave to add
the following, partly from undoubted authority,
partly from my own knowledge. 
10. John Strachan, Esq of Dorsetshire came 
to the Wells twelve years ago, labouring under a 
Diabetes. Finding but two chamber-pots under 
his bed, he ordered more. The chamber-maid 
brought up half a dozen; at the sight of which 
he said, These, my girl, are no more than six 
thimbles; did not modesty forbid, I could fill 
them all before your face: bring me a small wast- 
ing-tub. She brought him one that held two 
pails; this he filled every night. Before he rode 
out, he used to fill a common chamber-pot two 
or three times. 
His appetite was ravenous; of bread he 
used to eat sixteen French penny rolls a day. 
When he returned from airing, he used to eat up 
a whole fowl, and dine as if he had not eaten a 
morsel. 
For the first five weeks he drank two, three, 
four gallons a day. Reproved, he used to answer, 
I came hither to be cured, and am determined 
either to be killed or cured. About this time he 
began to mend, and was called away. Two or 
three months after he returned, drank the waters 
as before; and, in five weeks more, went away 
in perfect health, eating, drinking, and pissing 
no more than any other man. N. B. He lodged 
at Mr. Bishop's, in the Well-house. 
11. Mrs. Sugden, aged about fifty, (from cold 
and watching) fell into a Diabetes. After drink- 
ing the waters but a fortnight, she mended so 
much, that she could fit three hours without 
making water. By five weeks drinking she re- 
covered 
13. Mr.



259 BY BRISTOL WATER.
12. Mr. Biss, of Tower-hill, by frequenting 
this Well, was cured of a Diabetes.” 
13. Dr. Maddox, late Bishop of Worcester, 
came to the Wells season after season, for a Dia- 
betes, and always found relief. 
14. Nine or ten years ago, Mr. Sewen, from 
Swansea, in Wales, aged about fifty, was brought 
to the Rock-house in a horse-litter, so weak that 
he could not fit up in bed, almost a skeleton. 
The water was carried to him for the first three 
weeks; he made thrice as much water as he 
drank. In about six weeks time he walked over to 
the pump, where he drank the waters for about 
four months; at the end of which he left the 
Wells in perfect health. 
15. Mrs. Piper, of Broughton-street, London, 
came hither once or twice, almost dead, of a 
Diabetes, and is now recovered. 
16. About eight years ago, a farmer from 
Worcestershire got so well in three weeks, as to 
continue so ever since. 
17. J. Browne, a butcher of Norwich, was 
afflicted with a Diabetes for seven years, he had 
tried variety of prescriptions. After he had drank 
the Bristol waters fourteen days only, playing at 
Bishop’s billiard-table one day, he found himself 
perspire. He went to bed, drank half a pint of 
Port-wine hot, and sweated for the first time in 
seven years. After this, he continued to sweat 
on using exercise. After a stay of three months, 
he went home, and drank the waters there dur- 
ing the winter. He returned in the summer, 
tarried four months, and went off perfectly reco- 
vered, and continues well, notwithstanding hard 
drinking. 
18. Mr. Robertson, near Cork, came to the 
Hot Wells last summer, 1761. His symptoms 
were



260 DISEASES CURED
were thirst inextinguishable, ravenous appetite,
parchedness of the mouth and throat, heat of the 
stomach and bowels, varicose swellings of the 
abdomen, with a sense of constriction, as by a 
cord, anxiety, restlessness, wasting, with a con- 
stant desire of-making water, which tasted sweet- 
ish. He received great benefit, but never was 
completely cured, owing, in a great measure, to 
obstinacy, and irregularity. 
19. James Gladshall, of Yorkshire, came to 
the Hot Wells, summer, 1761, in a confirmed 
Diabetes, and was cured in, the space of two 
months. 
20. Winter, 1762, an old farmer, came to 
the Wells in a Diabetes, and went away so much 
benefited, that he declared he would return every 
year until he was cured. 
21. Mrs. Fleming, of Bath, at an advanced 
age, laboured under great thirst, parched tongue, 
fever, and flux of urine, so that her strength was 
greatly impaired, and her flesh much wasted. Un- 
der these circumstances, I persuaded her to go to 
Bristol, where (by drinking the water but one 
fortnight) her tongue became moist, her urine 
lost its sweet taste and was reduced almost to its 
natural quantity. Contrary to my advice, she 
left the salutary spring. Her symptoms returned. 
Three months after she had again recourse to the 
waters, staid one month, and was almost com- 
pletely cured. Contrary to my advice, she re- 
turned before her cure could be confirmed. Next 
winter every bad symptom returned. As I could 
not persuade her to return to Bristol, I made a 
trial of the Bath waters, which restored her sur- 
prisingly.
II.



261 BY BRISTOL WATER.
II. OF GRAVEL AND STONE. 
1. PAIN of the kidnies, ureters, and bladder, 
from impacted matter, is called Gravel 
or Stone. 
Definition.
2. The causes are luxurious as well as indi- 
gestible food; indolence; old age; 
rheumatism; gout; tartareous wines; 
hereditary taint, &c. 
Cause.  
3. The symptoms of stone in the kidnies are, 
intense or heavy pain of the loins; heat, nau- 
sea; vomiting; costiveness; exacer- 
bation of these symptoms after meals; 
sandy, bloody, and sometimes puru- 
lent matter; suppression of urine; co- 
ma; inflammation; ulceration, and consumption. 
The left kidney suffers oftener than the right.
Symptoms of 
the stone in 
the kidnies. 
When the stone falls down into the 
ureters, the pain increases; the leg 
feels benumbed; the testicles are 
drawn backwards; and the urine is, in part sup- 
pressed.  
Stone in the 
ureters. 
The stone of the bladder is attended with pain, 
difficulty, and continual desire of 
making water; tension and pain of 
the colon; titilation of the glans pe- 
nis; tenesmus; looseness; slimy water; bloody 
Water after riding, with increase of pain in the 
bladder, ureter, and nut of the yard. 
Stone in the 
bladder. 
4. The stone of the kidnies is distinguished 
from the lumbago, by vomiting, and 
sandy urine; from the cholic by the 
pain being higher, with a sense of rumbling back- 
wards; from hysterics, because this is increased 
by glysters. 
Diagnostics.
5. In 



262 DISEASES CURED
5. In the stone of the kidnies, there is great 
danger, by reason of inflammation, ulceration, 
and suppression of urine, its concomi- 
tants. It is easier dissolved in adults 
than in children. If the kidnies are ulcerated, 
the case is desperate. Suppression of urine, cold- 
ness of the extremities and convulsions, presage 
death. The stone of the bladder may be extrac- 
ted, that of the kidnies rarely. 
Prognostics. 
6. There is one cure of the fit, another out of 
the fit. The fit is allayed by subdu- 
ing the inflammation, and spasm. 1. 
By bleeding. 2. Glysters. 3. Emollient decoc- 
tions. 4. Tepid baths. 5. Opiates. 6. Rest.
Cure. 
Out of the fit, this disease is to be attacked, 
1. By Lithontriptics, rest, and keeping the belly 
rather soluble. 2. Diet. 
Gravel yields to waters ferrugineous, diuretic, 
and alkaline; such as the Seltzer.—In bloody 
urine, proceeding from laxity, debi- 
lity of the vessels, or fusion of the 
humours, Baccius (from experience) strongly re- 
commends the waters of Grotta, Porretanae, Al- 
bulae, &c. Quae et arenulas, calculumque, tom e 
vesica quam e renibus conterere ac protrudere pollicen- 
tur, et urinas provocare. On the subject of gravel 
and stone, he quotes that saying of Leonellus, a 
noble physician, founded on experience, Qui a- 
quis Thermalibus non curantur, nunquam curantur. 
Mineral waters he recommends for many pur- 
poses. From the first passages, they extrude su- 
perfluous humours; cleanse the urinary passages, 
even to the bladder; and, if they break not the 
stone, carry off the sandy particles, which add to 
its weight. They strengthen the bowels, and 
thus remove their aptitude to produce calculous 
concretions; Sola aqua Anticoli Romae assidue epota 
Gravel.
habetur





263 BY BRISTOL WATER.
habetur amuletum quoddom ac praeservativum. From 
Aetius he quotes a flagrant example of the parti- 
cular prerogative of water, which not only proves 
its abstersory power, but its moving, Lib. ii. 
cap v. Ad extrudendum impactum in vasibus urina- 
riis, vel in renibus lapillum frigidam aquam frequen- 
ter & acervatim aegro bihendarn jussi, unde, corroho- 
ratis renihus, ccclusis in illis lapis expulsus eft. What 
seems surpring, indeed, he observes that waters 
naturally petrescent possess a dissolv- 
ing quality, internally administered. 
Nam, in omni fere medicinae ufu, fatis 
quisque debet contentus effe experientia, 
unius rei non eft eadem dispositio intra ex extra, adhi-
bitae. Aqua haec super terram videnter lapidem, et ducit 
arenulas. Tales effectus contrarios manifeste vidamus 
in Albulis. The waters of the river Anio, where- 
ever they touch, turn earth, wood, and bark in- 
to stone; its streams are mixed with the turbid 
Tyber, and drank almost all the year. It is, ne- 
vertheless well known, that the people of Rome 
rarely feel the stone or gravel; rarissimi tamen la- 
pidum vitia sentiunt, nec harenulas. Page 116, he 
mentions many waters called Petrae, or petre 
scent, which were daily and successfully admini 
stered in disorders of the urinary passages, in hisce 
effectibus, antiquissimae laudis, Acidae subinde a- 
quae, quorum inrenibus, vesicaque, & meatibus uri- 
nariis expurgandis prima eff praerogativa, qualis An- 
ticoli in Campania, aciduda in Bergamensi, aliaeque in 
Germania, quae omnibus in privatibus potibus bi-
buntur. 
Waters pe- 
trescent dis- 
solve.
Hoffman places the cause of gravelish com- 
plaints in laxity of the urinary passa- 
ges. Toni renalis nimia resolutio morbo-
rum qui renes occupant potissima causa, et origo est. 
From laxity.
Qua



264 DISEASES CURED
Qua de causa temperata astringentia, et rohorantia, in 
calculo tam praeservando, quom curando palmam caete- 
ris arripiunt.—If the testimonies of Aetius, 
Baccius, and Hoffman are to be depended on, 
alleviations and cures may be expected from Bath 
and Bristol waters. Of the former we have given 
proofs unquestionable, proceed we now to the 
latter. 
Where there is a stone actually formed, Bristol
waters allay heat, dilute acrimony, and prevent 
future accretion. In actual fits of stone and gra- 
vel, these are not the remedies. In the intervals, 
Bristol water, balsamics and other medicines do 
much good. In gravelish complaints they often 
cure. 
Underhill (page 38) speaks thus. “ The Stone 
“ seems to be produced from the salso-terrene 
“ part of the blood, by too hot a ferment boiled 
“ into hardness, as brick-makers form their clay. 
“ Though the hot-well may not be the true saxi- 
“ frage water, it certainly washes the gravel out 
“ of the kidnies, and other aqueducts; and, by 
“ checking inflammation, prevents its future in- 
“ crease; an excellent preventative, doubtless, 
“ of those racking hereditary diseases, Stone and 
“ Gout. 
1. “ Mr. Eaglestone, of Bristol, aged twenty- 
“ one, was afflicted with a most restless pain in 
“ his back, and difficulty of making 
“ urine, voiding sometimes sand; 
“ whence he concluded it to be the 
“ stone, his father being tortured by it many 
“ years. By drinking two quarts of Hot Well 
“ water, fasting, at home every morning, he 
“ was cured. Gravel came off in quantity, his 
“ appetite increased, his sleep was restored, his 
“ retentive faculties were fortified, his thirst a- 
Underhill's 
Cases. 
“ bated



265 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ bated. He was so completely cured, that he 
“ has continued now twenty years free from pa- 
“ ternal disease, and every symptom of urinary
“*disorder.”
2. “ Mr. Blanchard, of Dolphin-Lane, Bristol,
“ certifies, that his son, aged six, had a total 
“ stoppage of urine for three days and nights, 
“ almost racked to death. His physicians told 
“ him there was no cure but cutting. By drink- 
“ ing the Hot-well water for half a year he was 
“ perfectly recovered, and remains in good health, 
“ now fourteen years old. 
“ Giles Blanchard.” 
3. “ Mrs. Jochem, of Bristol-key, aged about 
“ thirty, languishing under insatiable thirst, loss 
“ of appetite, and pissing of blood, tired out 
“ with ineffectual prescriptions, applied to me 
“ in June. She drank the Hot-well water, 
“ mornings and evenings. Her thirst abated, 
“ her appetite was restored, her mictus eruentus 
“ was checked, she is now breeding, as she her- 
“ self certifies. 
“ Bridget Jochem.” 
To Underhill’s let us add the two following- 
cases, which fell under my own observation. 
4. Mr. Martin, Purser of a ship of war, was 
afflicted with a diarhaea for six years, for which
he had undergone variety of regimens. He was 
also subject to gravellish complaints, voiding great
Quantities of fabulous matter. By drinking this 
water two months only, he was completely cared 
of both ailments, without the help of one me- 
dicine. 
5. Mr. Fitch, a young gentleman of Dorset- 
shire, subject to gravellish forcing a  
M resty

266 DISEASES CURED
resty horse over a bridge four years ago, sprained 
his back. Hence racking pain, bloody urine, 
and vomiting, without sleep for three weeks. He 
was bled thrice, and was otherwise judiciously 
treated by Dr. Cumming of Dorchester, who 
succeeded so far as to check the vomiting; the 
bloody urine remained, with sickness, languor, 
pain, &c. He set out for Bristol, and was three 
days in performing a journey of sixty miles. The 
bloody urine ceased the first week; he drank the 
water last summer, and has now recovered flesh, 
strength, and complexion, with the relict only 
of a dull pain about the region of the loins, 
which seems rather to be gravellish. For this he 
drank the water again, and was cured. 
III. OF BLOODY URINE.
UNDER the section of Haemoptoe, I have treat- 
ed of the general causes, symptoms, diagnostics, 
prognosties, and cure of bleedings. When blood 
thus passes off together with the urine, it comes
away without pain, the patient commonly con- 
tinues in health, unless the evacuation continues
too long, or in too great quantity. 
For this disorder, Bristol waters are constantly
frequented, and with success. 
IV. OF IMMODERATE MONTHLY DISCHARGES.
THE remote causes are, intemperance, violent 
exercise, passion, suppression of other
secretions, disorders of the uterus, &c. 
The proximate are rarefaction, acrimony, and 
thinness of the blood, with debility of the vessels.
Causes.
In

267 BY BRISTOL WATER.
In blood too much rarified, the indication is 
(according to Home, in his Principia Medicinae) 
“ Condenfare et demulcere medica- 
“ mentis coagulantibus et demulcen-
“ tibus; inter quae eminet Spir. Vitriol, cum ad- 
“ stringentibus.”—“ In Vaforum debilitate,
“ scopus eft elasticitatem restituere adstrigentibus
“ interne et externe applicatis.” 
Indication.
V. OF WEAKNESSES.
WOMEN of lax habits are commonly subject
to this disorder. 
The seat of this disorder is in the
mucous glands and exhalant arteries. 
Seat.
The remote causes are moist air, indolence,
translation of humours, immoderate flux 
of the menses, miscarriages, &c. The
proximate are serous colluvies, and laxity of
fibres. 
Causes.
The symptoms are want of appetite, depraved 
appetite, difficulty of breathing, swell- 
ing of the eye-lids, hectic fever, pain 
of the loins, turbid urine, sadness, palpitation, 
and fainting. 
Symptoms.
To cure this disease, the same Home lays down 
two intentions. 1. “ Ut humorum 
“ vitium corrigatur, et fluxus ad ute- 
“ rum impediatur. 2. Ut tonus uteri restitua- 
“ tur.” For correcting the fault of the humors, 
he proposes diaphoretics, fontanells, &c. For 
restoring the tone of the parts strengtheners, and 
astringents. 
Cure.
M2 VI.

268 DISEASES CURED.
VI. OF GLEETS.
GLEETS proceed from simple relaxation; ve- 
nereal taint, and corrosive injections. 
IN this, and the two last diseases, the cure
must be adapted to the cause, consti- 
tution, and nature of the distemper. 
Were these waters properly assisted by medicine, 
many more might find relief. False delicacy has 
made women conceal their infirmities till loss of
appetite, indigestion and unnatural discharges 
have reduced the best constitutions to skeletons. 
In general, we may affirm that where febrifuges, 
balsamics, and astringents have resisted the whole
artillery of the shops, Bristol waters have per- 
formed cures. In subduing the fever, healing, 
and strengthening the parts, Bristol waters answer 
every intention proposed by the judicious Home. 
Where they fail of cures, they mitigate symp- 
toms. Names, and cases, I forbear to mention. 
Many are the annual visitants, proofs of my as- 
sertion.
Cure.
CHAP.

269 BY BRISTOL WATER.
CHAP. XVII. 
OF DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND GUTS.
UNDER the head of Diseases cured by 
Bath Water, I have treated particularly, 
Of Diseases of the First Passages. Both waters 
cure the same diseases; but, in all cases; they 
are neither equally salutary, nor safe. 
I. OF THE STOMACH
THAT Bristol water creates an appetite is a 
fact notorious. That it removes heart-burns, 
squeamishness, and pains of the stomach, is equal- 
ly notorious. 
Seven years ago, Mr. Garden, of Troup, in 
Aberdeenshire, came to Bath for an obstinate pain
of his stomach. The Bath waters irritated his 
disorder. By my advice he drank these; in one 
fortnight was completely cured, and now remains
in perfect health; 
II. OF THE GUTS.
MONG Bristol water drinkers, costiveness is 
so common a complaint, that we generally guard
against it in our prescriptions. 
1. Under the section of Gravel and Stone, I 
have already mentioned Mr. Martin’s cure of an 
obstinate diarhaea. 
2. Captain Williams, of the Artillery, (by 
hard duty at Martinique, and the Havannah) was 
attacked with a bilious fever and flux that resisted
all endeavours there; The Bath waters exaspe- 
M3 rated.

270 DISEASES CURED
rated every symptom, adding a cough to his other 
train of evils. At last I prevailed on him to try 
these waters, which, in a very few weeks, re- 
stored him so much that he married before he 
left the Wells. 
3. In much the same condition, Mr. Shepherd, 
of Antigua, came to Bath, with the addition of 
a pain in the region of the liver, and constant 
cough. Against my opinion, he obstinately per- 
sisted in the use of Bath waters, which aggravated 
every symptom. In a very few weeks Bristol wa- 
ter banished every symptom. 
4. Lieutenant West, of the twenty-second re- 
giment, (by hard duty at Martinique, Dominique, 
and the Havannah) was afflicted with a flux, 
which defied the most judicious prescriptions there 
and in North America. Dr. Huxham advised the 
Bristol water, which he drank about one month, 
with great benefit. By my advice he completed 
his cure by warm bathing at Bath; and that with 
the assistance of eggs boiled up with milk, his 
constant diet only. 
SIR, London, August the 20th, 1763.
“ In gratitude to the Bristol Waters, as well 
“ as for the benefit of future sufferers, I give you
“ leave to publish the following history. 
“ Soon after the reduction of Dominique, where 
“ I had the honour to command, I was seized 
“ with the intermittent fever of that country, 
“ from which I had recovered but a short time, 
“ when the fatigues of the expedition to Marti- 
“ nique brought on a relapse. 
“ I went afterwards upon the expedition a- 
“ gainst the Havannah, where my duty as Briga- 
“ dier General was interrupted a few days be- 
“ fore the reduction of the Moro, by a third re- 
“ lapse

271 BY BRISTOL WATER.
“ lapse attended with a violent flux. By the ad-
“ vice of the physicians I returned to Britain as 
“ the only chance I had, of recovering my 
“ health. 
“ I failed from the Havannah the 19th of July, 
“ and arrived at Dover the 9th of September: al- 
“ most immediately upon my landing, I had a re- 
“ turn of the fever and flux to a violent degree. 
“ Though both the disorders yielded to the medi- 
“ cines that were prescribed for me by an emi- 
“ nent Physician in London, yet during the 
“ whole winter and spring I was subject to such 
“ severe relapses (the flux generally preceding the 
“ ague) that I was reduced to a skeleton.
“ I also sufFer’d much uneasiness from an in- 
“ flammation in my mouth and tongue, which 
“ reached to the anus, and was almost perpetually
“ teized (especially in the night), with making 
“ water. 
“ I set out for Bristol about the end of March, 
“ still liable to frequent and violent returns of
“ the flux, but entirely free of the ague. 
“ The complaint of my mouth and tongue, 
“ and the frequent pissing before-mentioned, were 
“ still very troublesome, and continued so for a 
“ a considerable time after my arrival at the Hoi 
« Wells. 
“ By the use of the water for six weeks, the
“ flux almost entirely left me at this time. At 
“ this time I confined myself to a milk diet, 
“ which consisted chiefly of butter-milk, with 
“ broth. By this regimen, and the continuance of
“ the water (without the help of any medicine) 
“ I got free of all my complaints about the end 
“ of June. 
Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, 
To Doctor Sutherland. 
Rollo. 
M4 CHAP.

272 DISEASES CURED.
CHAP. XVIII. 
OF EXTERNAL DISORDERS.
FROM what has already been advanced on, 
the subject of the powers of the particular 
principles contained in waters in ge- 
neral, we may reasonably conclude
that Bristol water has its external vir- 
tues as well as others. 
Exteral dis-
orders.
Underhill, in his page 28, expresses himself 
thus; “ The Scorbute is Proteo-mutabilior, From 
“ a salt diathesis of the blood, the acuated serum
“ espuated among the muscles is a Rheumatism, 
“ on the hip a Sciatica, on the lungs a Catarrh, 
“ in the guts a Dysentery, or Diarhœa. By all 
“ the skill that I pretend to, the Bristol water bids
“ fairer to cure external disorders than pearl pre- 
“ parations. 
1. “ Mrs. Watkins, of Bristol from the West 
“ Indies, breaking out with fiery scor- 
“ butical eruptions all over, was per- 
“ fectly cured, in three weeks time, 
“ by drinking the Hot Well water.” 
Undehill's
Cases.
2. “ William White, of Bristol, was afflicted
“ with sores fresh arising, and constant running 
“ white blisters from both his elbows to his fin- 
“ gers ends, called St. Anthony’s fire, that he 
“ could not help himself. After various other 
“ remedies, he was at last cured by drinking, 
“ and bathing in the Hot Well water.” 
3. “ John Sanders, of Bristol, had a great 
“ weakness and lameness, his knees and body 
“ blistered, and spotted all over, and almost eaten
“ up with the Scurvy. By drinking the Hot Well 
“ water, he was perfectly cured.”  
4. “ Mr.

273 BY BRISTOL WATER.
4. “ Mr. Packer, of Bristol, wine-cooper, 
“ certifies, that his brother had an ulcer of seven 
“ years standing, in the calf of his leg, from a 
“ gun-shot-wound. After all remedies tried in 
“ vain, he was cured by drinking this water six 
“ weeks only. 
“ Thomas Packer.” 
5. “ John Belcher, of the Castle Precincts, Bris- 
“ tol, at four years old, had an ulcer in his ankle
“ four years, with a hole quite through, out of 
“ which came several bones, being all the four 
“ years under pennance, was at last perfectly 
“ cured by bathing and drinking. 
“ Jane Belcher, his mother.”  
6. “ Mary Ayliff had a tumor in her lower 
“ lip, of the bigness of a hazle-nut, and hard- 
“ ness of a stone, continually running at the 
“ mouth, as if salivated, and blind with the same
“ carcinomatous humour, for at least fourteen 
“ days, judged an incurable cancer, and so left, 
“ after four years trial, in despair; By drink- 
“ ing, and bathing the parts, she is of perfect 
“ sight, and good health, praising God, and de- 
“ firing this publication for the sake of others
“ under the like melancholy circumstances. 
“ Mary. Ayliff.” 
7. “ Mr. Lucas's son, of Bristol, at four years
“ old, had his arm miserably swelled and inflam- 
“ ed, running at eight or nine holes, deemed the 
“ King's Evil, and incurable. By gentle purg- 
“ ing, drinking, and bathing, he was perfectly 
“ restored. 
“ Eliz. Lucas, his mother.”
M5 8. “ Miss

274 DISEASES CURED
8. “ Miss Lancaster, of Castle-green, Bristol, 
“ at six years old, had the King’s-evil running at 
“ one finger, out of which came a bone, with a 
“ running in her left cheek and left hand; her 
“ foot and toes hard, and cruelly swelled. By 
“ drinking, bathing, and medicines intermixed, 
“ she was cured. 
“ Mary Lancaster.”
9. “ Mrs. Demster, of College-green, Bristol,
“ had her sight so depraved with an inflammation, 
“ supposed to be the Evil, that, for four months 
“ she could not bear the light. After all other 
“ unsuccessful trials, she drank, and bathed her 
“ eyes, and is now, after ten years, quite well. 
“ Sarah Demster.” 
19. “ Thomas Reynolds, of Bristol, Mason, 
“ had the Evil six years, running quite through
“ his thigh, scars dismal, out of which worked 
“ several bones, one an inch broad, and two 
“ inches long. After K. James’s fruitless touch, 
“ with the miserable flashing of surgeons, he 
“ was reduced to skin and bone. By drinking 
“ the water in great quantities, and constantly
“ moistening the parts with rags, dipped in the 
“ water, he is now, and has been well for 
“ years past. 
“ Thomas Reynolds.” 
CHAP.

275 OF REGIMEN.
CHAP. XIX.
OF REGIMEN.
IN the three first chapters, I have endeavoured
to ascertain the nature and qualities of Bath, 
and Bristol waters. In the fourth 
I have rationally accounted for their 
virtues. In the rest I have reconciled the obser- 
vations of former inquirers to particular diseases. 
These I have not only confirmed by my own ex- 
perience, but I have extended the virtues of both 
waters, to diseases neglected and unpractised. 
Preamble.
Physicians sometimes have it in their power to 
cure diseases. Patients have it in their power to 
prevent diseases, or to preserve health. From ig- 
norance, or contempt of necessary cautions, thou- 
sands fall short of that period which natural con- 
stitution might have reached. Such are the cau- 
tions which I have reserved for the subject of this
my last chapter. 
In Mineral-water Essays, for the expence of a
few shillings, there are patients who vainly ex- 
pect rules and prescriptions sufficient for the 
whole of their conduct. Authors who thus a- 
muse, make their readers trust to broken reeds. 
At Bath there is a General Infirmary for the recep- 
tion of cases appropriated to Bath water only.
At Bath and Bristol Hot Wells, no man with- 
holds his advice from the poor. People of straigh- 
tened circumstances of all perswasions, ranks, or 
professions are freely welcome to mine. What
safely I can I freely impart. What patients owe 
to themselves I think it my duty to point out.
1. ONE general caution there is which can 
admit of no exception. Patients never ought to
M6 come

276 OF REGIMEN.
come to water-drinking places without historical 
deductions of their cases. Family physicians are 
the only judges of constitutions. One bears eva- 
cuations of all sorts; another is ruffled by the 
mildest. To some opiates are cordials divine; 
ten drops of liquid laudanum run others mad. 
The same may be said of musk, mercurials, aloes, 
and every active medicine. At this very time I 
have a patient, to whom I now and then give 
one drachm of syrup of poppies only; for three 
days after, he can hardly keep his eyes open. The
whisper of a family nurse is worth the first
thoughts of a Frewen. Physic is at best a conjec- 
tural art; this is the opinion of the great Celsus. 
2. CHRONICAL DISEASDES fall under the pro- 
vince of natural medicated waters. 
In chronical diseases, who can promise sudden 
cures? Sydenham (De podagra, p. 576,) says, 
“ No man in his senses can expect that momen- 
“ tary alterations can perfect the cure. The 
“ whole habit must be changed, the body must
“ be hammered out anew.” Suppose a young
maid labouring under the green sickness; how 
flaccid her solids, how poor her blood! Can 
poor blood be changed into rich in the course of 
days? Can the solids so soon be braced? In cur- 
ing chronic disorders, physicians rationally change 
the whole manner of living. In his Epidemics, 
Hippocrates proposes a change of the humours 
only. In chronic diseases, new manner of living, 
new air, new faces, new amusements, and new 
objects are necessary. In chronic disorders regi- 
mens are not wantonly to be changed, even tho’ 
they give not immediate relief. This is Celsus’s  
opinion, page 112. In chronical illnesses, the 
sick ought not to be flattered with hopes of speedy 
cures. Forewarned, they chearfully bear the tae-
dium.

277 OF REGIMEN.
dium of both disease and cure; they put confi- 
dence in physicians who never deceive them. 
Suppose purulent ulcer occupies the liver, who 
can promise a cure? 
3. PATIENTS labouring under similar ailments, 
naturally compare notes. By officious acquain- 
tances, the weak, dispirited, and hectic, are per- 
swaded to follow the regimen of the strong, hear- 
ty and phlegmatic. For the saving a fee, pa- 
tients throw away the whole expence, and their 
lives into the bargain. When they find them- 
selves worse, i. e. when medicines irrationally 
continued, and waters improperly used have pro- 
duced symptoms which cannot be relieved, the 
Doctor has a fresh summons. What benefit can 
patients expect from physicians in whom they 
place so little confidence? Of general precau- 
tions, the reader will find store in my Attempt to
revive the antient doctrine of Bathing. In respect 
of Diet, Exercise, Air, Sleep, Evacuation, and
Affection of the mind, there are certain rules and
cautions, without the observance of which, nei- 
ther mineral waters, nor medicines of any sort 
can avail. Of these in their order.  
§. I. OF DIET.
PROVIDENCE seems to have furnished every 
country with a mixture of foods proper for sup- 
port. The natural productions of countries are, 
generally speaking, most friendly to the constitu- 
tion. The common food of cold climates would 
ill suit the natives of southern. A pound of roast 
beef, and a quart of porter would endanger the 
life of an Indian. A piece of sugar-cane, and a
cup of water, would soon reduce an Englishman 
to a skeleton.
1. When


278 OF REGIMEN.
1. When we take in a larger quantity of ali- 
ment than our digestive faculties are 
able to assimilate, such never can turn, 
to good nourishment.  
Excess.
2. When our food is highly satu- 
rated with pungent salts and oils, such 
sauces or mixtures corrupt the blood. 
High sauces.
3. People of gross habits and feverish disorders
should eat sparingly. For, with such,
the best food turns to disease. Impura 
corpora, quo magis nutris, eo magis laedis.
Gross habits. 
4. Unseasonable abstinence has also bad conse- 
quences. For, without a supply of 
fresh chyle, animal juices naturally 
acquire a putrescency. Inanition produces fevers 
of the worst sort, as those who fast too religious- 
ly feel to their cost. 
Fasting.
5. In chronic disorders, experience best tells
what agrees, or disagrees. Such a
quantity is to be taken in as is suffi- 
cient to support, not to overload the 
stomach, to finish the meal with a relish for more. 
The food ought to be well chewed. Flesh pound- 
ed in a mortar ferments much sooner than in one 
solid lump. Whatever corrupts slowly oppresses, 
the stomach, The weak, emaciated, hectic, or 
consumptive ought to observe the strictest regi- 
men. To such, excess in things the most inno- 
cent is perilous.
Experience 
the best guide.
6. Nature abhors discordant mixtures, fish, 
flesh, wine, beer, cyder, cream and 
fruit. These distend the bowels with 
wind, and prevent digestion. 
Mixtures.
7. BREAD, milk, and the fruits of 
the earth dresssed in a plain simple man-
ner, together with water, were the ali- 
ment of Adam’s family. 
Simple food
most natural.
The

279 OF REGIMEN.
The fisft inhabitants of Greece lived on the 
spontaneous productions of the woods and fields. 
The Golden-age seems rather to have taken its 
appellation from its simplicity of manners, than 
delicacy of food. 
Contentique suis nullo cogente creatis 
Arbuteos faetus, montanaque fraga legebant 
Hesiod, Pliny, and Ovid, ascribe 
the invention of tilling the ground and 
sowing corn to Ceres. 
Bread.
Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro, 
Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitia terris. 
Bread made of the purest flower of wheat nou- 
rishes much, and binds the belly. Mixed with 
bran it is opening, and nourishes less. The Fa- 
rinacea are all antiseptics. Wheat-bread properly
fermented, and well baked, is the most valuable 
part of diet. 
8. MILK is already elaborated, prepared and 
digested in the body of the animal. It
is an extract of animal and vegetable 
food. It is replete with nutritious juices, and
wants little else than the colour to be blood. 
Milk was strongly recommended by the antients. 
The milk of Stabiae was in great vogue. Thi- 
ther consumptives were sent, not only on account 
of the sea-vapour, and the air of Vesuvius, but 
for the excellency of the milk. The Mons Lac- 
tarius of Cassiodorus is thought to have been 
there, a place celebrated for salubrity of air, and 
sanative milk.
Milk.
One  

280 OF REGIMEN.
One Davus, who went thither in a consump- 
tion writes thus, “ Huic ferocissimae 
“ passioni beneficium mentis illius di- 
“ vina tribuerunt, ubi aeris salubritas cum pin- 
“ guis arvi fecunditate consentiens, herbas pro- 
“ ducit dulcissima qualitate conditas, quarum pas- 
“ tu vaccarum herba saginata lac tanta salubrita- 
“ te-conficit, ut quibus medicorum confilia nesci- 
“ unt prodesse, folus videatur potus ille praestare 
“ reddens pristino ordine resolutam passionibus 
“ vim naturae. Replet membra evacuata vires effe- 
“ tas restaurat, et fomento quodam reparabili aegris
“ ita subvenit, quem ad fomnus labore fatigatis 
Cassiod. Lib. xi. Variar. Epist. x. 
Cases.
Baccius (De Thermic, lib. iv.) says, Neopolitani 
Medici pro ultimo refugio aegros phthificos, et qui san- 
guinem exspuunt, vel ejusmodi thoracis ulcera, et alia 
vitia patiuntur, ad Tabeas mittunt cum successu adeo 
salubri, ut sint qui in iis totam degunt vitam. Later 
instances there are not a few of consumptives
who went to the same place with Davus’s suc- 
cess. Sir Hollis Man was so bad when he em- 
barked, that his coffin was carried with him. He 
has lived many years in Italy, and is now British
Resident at Florence.
Of equal numbers, I verily believe, there are 
as many cured of consumptions by 
goat-whey, as by Bristol water. Milk
is often drank under great disadvantages, either 
in improper air, or in moorish mountainous pla- 
ces, where fogs and moisture compose an atmo- 
sphere unfriendly to wounded lungs. Fit places
may surely be found on sea-coasts, as Stabiae was, 
where the pasture might be improved by propaga- 
ting the tribe of the vulnerary plants, agreeable- 
to a hint given by Galen. Such places are the 
Goat-whey. 
faces

281 OF REGIMEN.
faces of the hills and cliffs around the Hot- 
Wells. 
WHERE feverish heat predominates, in costive 
habits especially, butter-milk and brown bread
are specifics. Boerhaave lived on this 
very diet for many years. His pupils 
have introduced it every where. In England it 
is even now the food of hogs. When I first in- 
troduced it at the Hot-Wells, my advice was treat- 
ed with ridicule; I could hardly prevail on three 
to make use of it the first season; two of the 
three were Irishmen. The practice is now uni- 
versal. 
Butter milks.
“ Dr. Baynard (in his Appendix to Floyer’s 
“ book on cold Bathing) assures his readers, that
“ by Butter-milk, several, to his knowledge, were 
“ cured of flushings, preternatural heats, and some 
“ of confirmed hectics. He quotes the concur- 
“ rent testimonies of Sir John Hodgkins to the 
“ same purpose.—“ Toby Purcell, 
“ Governour of Duncannon-fort, hath
“ drank nothing but milk, and eat bread for more
“ than twenty years, which cured him of an in- 
“ veterate gout.—Mr. William Masters of Cork,
“ drinks nothing but milk, and has recovered 
“ his limbs to a miracle.—I have had lately 
“ sent me some remarkable Cures in both Atro- 
“ phies and Phthisies by drinking Goats-milk. The 
“ common Irish feed on potatoes, and four skim- 
“ med milk. This may be the reason why they 
“ are generally free from pulmonic coughs, and 
“ consumptions.” 
Cases.
Theophilus Garencieres (in his book De Tabe 
Anglicana) says, “ Hyberni solo lactis usu qui ipsis 
“ pro potu) et cibo est, ab hoc malo se tuentur. Lac 
“ enim parte ebutyrato optime nutrit, et sanguinem 
“ laudabilem general; parte ferofa plurimum abster-
“ git,

282 OF REGIMEN.
“ git, et caseosa astringit, quae omnia ad pulmonis 
“ robur conservandum non parvi funt moments.” 
Baynard gives a remarkable instance of the ef- 
fect of Butter-milk, and Tepid Bathing. “ Mr. 
“ Hanbury of Little Myrtle, aged twenty-three, 
“ was highly feverish, with heat, thirst, quick 
“ pulse, little urine, mouth parched, reduced to 
“ skin and bones by an old ague. I prepared a 
“ Bath with violet, strawberry leaves, cichory, 
“ plantane, &c. He was bathed twice a day for 
“ seven weeks, taking nothing but butter-milk. 
“ By degrees he rose to other food, and has since 
“ had children by two wives.—Several, to my 
“ knowledge have been cured of flushings, pre- 
“ ternatural heats, and some of confirmed hectics
“ by the sole use of butter-milk.—Sir John Hod- 
“ kins, President of the Royal Society told me, 
“ that, to his knowledge, diverse persons had 
“ been cured of hectics, and phthisies, by the sole 
“ use of butter-milk.—Mr. Heby told me two in- 
“ stances of his tenants cured of hectic fevers by
“ drinking of butter-milk.” 
B. Dempsey, Clerk to Mr. Macartney, Mer- 
chant of Bristol, laboured of a violent fever with 
nocturnal exacerbations, which brought on deli- 
riums, profuse sweatings, and constant vomitings, 
which occasioned a most putrid stench, not a lit- 
tle assisted by the air of the chamber where he 
lay, which was dark and close. By Dr. Drum- 
mond’s advice and mine, he took medicines and 
ptisans, which he constantly threw up; as he did 
anti-emetics of every sort. Despairing of means 
of relief, I proposed four butter-milk, which he 
drank and kept. When we returned next day, 
we found every symptom mended. We ordered 
butter-milk for medicine and food. He recover- 
ed.—Next year (in the same bad air) he was 
seized

283 OF REGIMEN.
seized with a fever of the same kind. The same 
medicines were tried in vain. No sooner began 
he the use of butter-milk, than he began to reco- 
ver, and now enjoys a perfect state of health. 
IN acute distempers, Hippocrates has laid down, 
rules which have rarely been mended. These 
fall not properly under my theme. 
9. WHEN the fruits of the earth had un-
dergone so great a change by the Deluge, God per- 
mitted man to eat flesh. Every moving thing that 
liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb 
have I given you all things. The clean beasts were 
taken into the Ark by sevens; the unclean by 
twos. The surplus of the first was probably in- 
tended for the provision of Noah and his family. 
Moses was the first writer who selected a particu- 
lar food for the fews, viz. Bread, wine, milk, 
honey, quadrupeds that divided the hoof, and chew the 
cud, all the feathered kind, and fishes that have fins
and scales. 
Flesh.
The flesh of animals in their prime of life, of 
such as are castrated, and not used to hard labour 
is best. 
The flesh of granivorous birds is not so oily as
that of water-fowls. Mutton is the best of all 
flesh, for the delicate and robust. Bath and Bris- 
tol Hot-well mutton are excellent. Beef and 
pork are proper only for the strong, and those 
who use hard exercise. 
10. POND-FISH, such particularly as are fat
are hard of digestion. Such as are 
caught in rivers near the sea-shore are 
lighter. Boiled fish is lighter than roasted. 
Fish.
SEA-SALT moderately used with animal food,
is wholesome. To excess, the reverse. In in- 
flammatory disorders, sea-salt stimulates too much. 
By living on animal-food where falt was not to
be

284 OF REGIMEN.
be had, there are not a few instances of garrisons
and towns being over-run with scurvy, and fe- 
vers pestilential. This particularly was the case 
at Gronningen. We read of a people of the East 
Indies prohibited the use of sea-salt. These are 
notoriously infected with putrid mortal diseases. 
In that part which treats of the virtues of the
component parts of Waters, I have proven that 
sea-salt prevents putrefaction. 
11. Bitters bind the belly. Acids 
gripe the bowels. Salted things pro- 
mote stool and urine. Sweet things breed phlegm.
Bitters. 
12. Onions, leeks, raddishes, and all the al- 
calescents are antiseptic. Mustard, 
and cresses occasion a difficulty of u- 
rine. Celery is diuretic. Aromatics heat. Col- 
worts and lettuce cool. Cucumbers are cold, 
crude and hard of digestion. Ripe fruits open 
the belly. Unripe bind. Pulses of all sorts are 
windy. Honey promotes urine and stools. Soft 
bread increases acidity in stomachs troubled with
heart-burns; biscuit less. Confections and dain- 
ties tempt people to eat too much, and are there- 
fore hard of digestion. Where the aliment fer- 
ments too violently from putrescency, or from 
debility of the stomach, acids, bitters, aromatics
and alcalescents are proper. If cold cacochymy is 
added to bad habit, the patient ought to abstain 
from farinous foods and gellies, because these in- 
crease the tenacity of the humours, and e. c. If 
the body begins to be puffed up with watry hu- 
mours, broths are sparingly to be used. Roasted 
meats, and fresh-water-fish with generous wine 
are indicated. If acid acrimony abounds, as in 
young people, eggs, broths, hartshorn jellies are 
best. If e. c. the humours tend to alkaline pu- 
trescency, barley broths, bread, and milks are  
Alcalescents.
the

285 OF REGIMEN.
the foods. Acid liquors are the drinks. If broths
are allowed, they ought to be acidulated. 
Physicians may be too churlish. Certain it is
that patients generally digest those 
things easiest which their stomachs 
crave. People in fevers abhor meat; 
offer them butter-milk, or barley wa- 
ter acidulated, they snatch them gree- 
dily. Longings ought to be lessons 
to physicians. Hence it was Hippo- 
crates (De Affectionibus) lays it down 
as a maxim, Quoscunque cibos, aut obsonia, aut po- 
tus decumbentes expetunt, ea suppetant, Ji nullum cor- 
pori nocumentum sit futurum. Aphor. 38, the same 
Hippocrates lays it down as another rule, Meats 
and drinks not so very good are sweeter, and therefore
to be preferred to better more unsavory. “ A tem- 
“ pore consueta, etiamsi deteriora, infuetis minus 
“ turbare folent.” Numerous are the examples 
of patients being cured by things which they 
longed for, and which had been with-held as 
hurtful. “ In the cure of diseases, Sydenham 
“ advises physicians to pay more attention to the 
“ appetites, and ardent desires of the sick (provi- 
“ ded the things desired do not manifestly en- 
“ danger life) than to the still more dubious and
“ fallacious rules of art.”—Suppose a cachec- 
tic labouring of alkaline acrimony longs for 
broth; broth acidulated may be allowed.—Wo- 
men sometimes labouring of acid acrimony, long 
for vinegar with their food; they may be indulg- 
ed, by giving them absorbent powders before 
dinner. By such artful condescensions, physici- 
ans win their patients hearts. Concedendum ali- 
quid et consuetudini, et tempestati, et regioni, et aeta- 
ti, fays Hipp, Aph. 1—17.
Rigorous se- 
verity the 
child of igno- 
rance. 
Longings, 
useful indi- 
cations. 
13. By

286 OF REGIMEN.
13. By statical experiments, Sanctorians have 
discovered, That the body perspires 
but little while the stomach is too 
full, or too empty,—That full diet is 
prejudicial to those who use little exercise, but 
indispensibly necessary to those who labour much, 
—That food the weight of which is not felt in 
the stomach, nourishes best, and perspires most 
freely,—That he who goes to bed without sup- 
per, being hungry, will perspire but little; and, 
if he does so often, will be apt to fall into a fe- 
ver,—That the flesh of young animals, good 
mutton, and bread well baked are the best food, 
—That the body feels heavier after four ounces 
of strong food that nourishs much, such as pork, 
eel, salt-fish, or flesh, than after six ounces of 
food that nourishes little, such as fresh fish, chick- 
en, and small birds. For, where the digestion is 
difficult, the perspiration is slow.—That unu- 
sual fasting frequently repeated brings on a bad 
state of health,—That the body is more uneasy 
and heavy after six pounds taken in at one meal, 
than after eight taken in at three,—That he de- 
stroys himself slowly who makes but one meal a 
day, let him eat much or little,—That he who 
eats more than he can digest is nourished less than
he ought to be, and so becomes emaciated,— 
That to eat immoderately after immoderate exer- 
cise of body or mind is bad; for a body fatigued 
perspires but little. 
Statical 
proofs. 
Drinks.
14. NOT long after the deluge, it is probable,
Beer was invented; for Herodotus in- 
forms us, that in the corn-provinces 
in Egypt, where no vines grew, the people drank 
Beer.
a

287 OF REGIMEN.
a sort of wine made of barley, Οlνω εΧ Χςlθεvωv
πεποlημεvω. Those who have been accustomed 
to beer ought not to be severely interdicted its 
use; beer seems to have a more durable effect
than wine. Mum, or strong beer, which is an 
extract of corn, taken in small quantities with 
biscuit, proves an excellent medicine in disorders 
proceeding from cold lentor. Its spirit is fixed in
a more tenacious bond, and therefore produces 
more durable effects. Wine, beer, cyder, perry 
and all fermented liquors are antiseptic. When 
beer neither oppresses the stomach, nor binds the
belly, but passes by urine, it may be allowed. 
Where it generates wind, passes sluggishly, or 
breeds stony concretions, it ought not. 
“ NOAH began to be a husbandman, arid he 
“ planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, 
“ and was drunken.” 
Wine drank too freely weakens the man, 
as may be seen by his actions. Sweet wines pro- 
mote stools, but they excite flatulency and thirst; 
they promote expectoration, but impede urine. 
Tawny austere wines are good when the body is 
loose, provided there be no disorder in the head, 
no impediment in spitting, or making water. 
Pure wine is best for the stomach, and bowels. 
Diluted with water, it is best for the head, breast, 
and urinary passages. Strong Spanish, or Hun- 
garian wines strengthen the stomach wonder- 
fully. 
Wine. 
15. MINERAL WATERS are possessed of a spi- 
rit which helps digestion and promotes 
sleep. Patients require but little pure 
wine while they drink water. Hec- 
tics ought to drink none. Mineral 
waters are all hard, and therefore unfit for do- 
mestic purposes, until they are robbed of their 
Mineral wa- 
ters improper 
at meals.  
acid,

288 OF REGIMEN.
acid, by boiling. Injudicious as well as com- 
mon, is the practice of drinking Bath-waters at 
meals. People of lax bowels may drink them, 
none other. Pure soft water is the best of all di- 
luents, especially to those who are naturally cos- 
tive. Those who are troubled with stomach- 
complaints, ought to drink wine, or rather rum,
or brandy. The latter are lowered with water 
only; the former are composed of we know not 
what. 
16. TEA and COFFEE are now the principal 
beverages of the kingdom; at mineral-water 
places, as much as any other. There 
have been physicians of no small note, 
of the opinion that the fluids cannot 
be too much fused. From this notion they in- 
culcate the perpetual dilution of the blood, by
tepid watry liquors. Hence those encomiums of 
Bentekoe and others on Tea, Coffee, and other 
modern flip-flops. Our hardy ancestors made use 
of infusions of indigenous plants, made-wines, 
and beer. Nervous complaints were unfashiona- 
ble in their days. From the prince to the pea- 
sant, Tea and Coffee are now in constant use. 
Never were nervous diseases so frequent as at this
day. The question of Tea and Coffee cannot 
therefore be indifferent. 
Tea and Cof- 
fee. 
Luxury and avarice seem to have conspired in 
multiplying the names of Teas. Teas of all 
sorts are, most certainly, leaves of the same shrub;
different sorts take their names from the different 
countries, or different manner of manufacture;
just as we produce different beers from malt high, 
or slack dried. 
BOHEA is the most natural, simple, 
and most salutary. In gathering the 
Bohea, the trees are never injure; the leaves 
Bohea.
advance


289 OF REGIMEN.
advance to full maturity, fall, and are pre- 
served. 
GREEN TEA is plucked separately from the 
shrub, just as the leaf, in full verdure, 
begins to expand. Injured by this 
violence, the trees rarely bud again for years. 
Green Tea.
Naturally, the leaves are so disagreeably bitter 
and astringent, that to render them palatable, the 
Chinese infuse both sorts for a certain space in 
water. After this infusion, the Bohea leaves are 
generally dried in the sun and preserved for use. 
The green is dried in caldrons, or on plates of 
copper heated. The natives who roll, mix, and 
turn the leaves, are obliged to arm their hands 
with leathern gloves to defend them from the 
metallic efflorescence. In Holland, as well as in
Britain, there are itinerants who make a trade of 
purchasing tea leaves which have been used; these 
they re-manufacture so dexterously by tinging, 
rolling, and drying, that they easily impose on 
those who are fond of bargains, or any thing that 
has the appearance of being smuggled. 
THE leaves discover a degree of bitterness con- 
joined with a gentle astringency, dis- 
coverable by taste, as well as by vitri- 
olic infusion, without any sensible heat or acri- 
mony. Simply infused in water, tea braces the 
fibres of the first passages, and thus promotes di- 
gestions; it dilutes and dissolves the fluids, re- 
laxes the solids, promotes urine, corrects acri- 
mony, cools, quenches thirst, and diverts sleep. 
Hence useful in inflammatory, lethargic, ioma- 
tous, gravellish disorders, flatulencies, and head- 
achs from hard drinking. The Asiatics chiefly 
indulge in Bohea. The higher priced green they 
reserve for European markets.  
Virtues.
N Manu-

290 OF REGIMEN.
Manufactured, sophisticated, or mixed, the vir- 
tues of Tea can only be estimated from a know- 
ledge of the several ingredients with which it 
is usualJy compounded. Mischiefs imputed to 
the plant are often due to practices foreign, as 
well as domestic. This seems to gather 
strength from a comparative view of the similar 
effects of excess in tea, and small doses of verdi- 
grease. Both excite tremblings, vomitings, sick- 
ness, languor, dimness of sight, palpitation, pa- 
ralytic affections, with all those consequences 
which accompany weak fibres and watry fluids. 
In his Academical Praelections, I remember Doctor 
Alston affirmed, that (after repeated trials) he 
found that tea drinking occasioned a glaring in 
his eyes, affecting his speech; which Kempser 
(in his Amaenitates Exoticae, pag. 605 to 608) con- 
firms, classing it among the malignants, or those 
which are unfriendly to the brain and nerves. 
COFFEE, in respect of its effects good or bad, 
may be classed with tea. It is a kernel cloathed
with a thin membrane, and a sub- 
acrid pulp of a leguminous bitterish 
taste, before it is roasted. In roasting, a volatile 
salt flies off, the oil becomes a veritable oleum am- 
bustum. In drying, the tea actually undergoes 
the very same proeess; but its quantity of oil is 
fo very inconsiderable, that it discovers nothing
of an empyreuma.
Coffee.  
The virtues of Coffee seem to depend on the 
oil; which, by burning, becomes so changed, 
as to be unfit for the purpose of nu- 
trition: It may be of use in cases 
where the weakness of the first passages can be 
assisted by a gentle stimulus. In this case it proves
cephalic, quickens the circulation, promotes per- 
spirattion, and is nervous; roasted peas and beans 
Virtues. 
yield

291 OF REGIMEN.
yield a substance near akin to it. Used in excess 
it has all the bad properties of tea. 
The best purpose that I know tea or coffee 
good for, is to clear the head, and divert sleep, 
when I have a mind to protract my studies to 
late hours. For the purpose of dilution, infu- 
sions of sage, balm, rosemary, lavender, valerian, 
and many other indigenous plants are equally 
good. In cases where tea and coffee are pernici- 
ous, these are remedies. Were they of foreign 
extraction they’d be much more valued. 
THE hardest parts of animal bodies exposed to 
the vapour of warm water, become soft; harts- 
horns thus becomes scissible. From the abuse of
warm water, Hippocrates enumerates carnium ef- 
feminationem, nervorum impotentiam, mentis stupo- 
rem, haemorrhagias, animi deliquia. In Van Eem's 
Collection of Boerhaaeve’s academical prelections 
De Nervorum morbis, we find that illustrious phy- 
sician complaining that he had seen many abused 
by such flops, so enervated that they hardly drag- 
ged their languid members after them, some af- 
flicted with apoplexy and palsy. “ Notum est 
“ toties morbum chlorofin, et summum languo- 
“ rem, uteri haemorrhagias fieri mulieribus, dum
“ potibus aquosis tepidis abutuntur.” 
Theorists forget the natural state of the blood 
in health. “ Open the vein of a dairy maid, the 
“ blood, as it flows from the orifice, concretes 
“ instantly into a solid mass.—” “ Open the 
“ vein of a valetudinarian, the red globules and 
“ the serous swim about in a slimfy ill-coloured 
homogeneous fluid.” By this observation a- 
lone, practitioners know, that by too great dilu- 
tion, fox-hunters maybe converted into fribbles. 
Without a certain degree of spissitude, the hu- 
mours cannot be kept within their proper canals.  
N2 If

292 OF REGIMEN.
If the red globules are melted down to the con- 
sistence of serous, the sanguiferous vessels become 
empty. If the serous acquire the consistence of 
lymphatics, all those evils which proceed ah erro- 
re loci must insue. The whole will, in time, 
pass through the exhalant vessels, the body must
be consumed. In found bodies, the natural heat 
is maintained while the solids and fluids preserve 
their natural disposition. But, if the humours 
come to be too much diluted, the solids naturally 
become flaccid. Hence languor and chilliness. The 
watry part of the blood accumulates in the cavi- 
ties of the body; hence Cachexy, Dropsy, &c. 
Were the custom of tea drinking confined to peo- 
ple of rigid fibres and active lives; the penetrating
quality of the fluid added, to the saponaceous anti- 
septic property of the sugar, would render the in- 
fusion miscible with the blood. Obstructions 
might be removed, acrid salts diluted, viscid 
phlegm dissolved. The astringency of the plant 
might answer the good purpose of passing off the 
liquor more quickly. The sanguinary, bilious, 
phlegmatic and melancholic might all find relief. 
Fevers might be prevented in the young, aches 
and obstructions in the old. The belly might be 
kept soluble, the urinary passages cleansed, and 
insensible perspiration, the healthiest of all secre- 
tions, might be promoted. 
But, such is the force of example; the lazy, 
indolent and effeminate, men and women of 
weak nerves, relaxed fibres, and foul juices, in- 
dulge themselves, twice or thrice a day, in the 
immoderate use of, a tipple, which enervates 
more and more. They dilute medicated waters 
with water warm and relaxing. They dread the 
effect of the plant which (by its astringency) is
calculated to brace the muscular coat of their
weak

293 OF REGIMEN.
weak stomachs. They make use of an infusion 
so weak that it relaxes more and more. Hence 
indigestion, sickness, fainting, tremours, with all 
their direful consequences. The contractile fi- 
bres lose their elasticicy, the food lies like a load. 
Hence sourness, flatulencies, vapours, &c. They 
desert the springs of health with disgust, while they
daily labour to counteract the virtues of the waters. 
THOSE poetic proofs which close the different 
sections of this last chapter, are extracted from Dr. 
Armstrong's most ingenious poem on the Art of
preserving Health.
“ PROMPTED by instinct's never erring power,
“ Each creature knows its proper aliment; 
“ But man, th’ inhabitant of ev’ry clime, 
“ With all the commoners of nature feeds. 
“ Directed, bounded by this power within, 
“ Their cravings arc well aim'd: Voluptuous man
“ Is by superior faculties misled; 
“ Misled from pleasure ev’n in quest of joy. 
“ Sated with nature’s boons, what thousands seek,
“ With dishes tortur’d from their native taste, 
“ And mad variety, to spur beyond 
“ Its wiser will the jaded appetite.” 
§. II. OF AIR.
IN my Treatise Of the use of Sea Voyages, and
in my chapter of Pectoral Diseases, I have treated of
the properties of air. In this section, for the sake 
of method, I propose only to lay down general 
cautions relative to domestic air. 
1. AIR has an inconceivable influence on the 
human frame. Man may live whole days with- 
out food; not a moment without air. 
Epidemical diseases attack persons of
all ranks, those who differ extremely in point of
Air. 
N3 diet,

294 OF REGIMEN.
diet, exercise, amusement, occupation, &c. In 
his judicious Observations on the Diseases of Minor- 
ca, Dr. Cleghorn has observed, that the diseases 
which affected the regular temperate natives, and 
the drunken irregular soldiers, were the same in 
point of violence, attack, and duration.—In such 
cases, change of diet avails but little. Those 
who dread infection must change air. No man 
in his senses would tarry in Constantinople during
the plague. 
2. PATIENTS have not always the means of 
travelling, or changing air. It is therefore the
duty of those who watch over the 
health of their fellow citizens, 1. To 
measure the heat of the human blood, in diffe- 
rent ages, constitutions, and diseases; and 2. To 
attend to those effects which different airs, winds, 
and seasons have on particular constitutions. If 
the climate cannot conveniently be changed, we 
always have it in our power to alter the nature 
and qualities of that particular atmosphere in 
which patients breathe; or, in other words, we 
may accommodate the nature of the air to the na- 
ture of that season which is known to be most
healthy. 
Domestic air.
3. IN estimating the different degrees of heat, 
the ancients wisely confirmed their observations 
by experiments. The same air and 
the same heat appear different to diffe- 
rent people. The standard of fancy 
ever has, and ever will be a false standard. If 
we revolve Galen’s book, De Temperamentis, we 
find an ingenuous confession in proof of our pre- 
sent position, Lib. 2. cap. 2. apud Charterium, 
Tom. 3. p. 60. “ Et quid opus in tam dissimili- 
“ bus exemplum proponere? Cum ipse aer qui 
“ simili sit colore; varie tangenti occurrat, prout  
Heat imagi- 
nary. 
“ alius

295 OF REGIMEN.
“ alius veluti caliginosus, halituosus, alius fumosus, 
“ fuliginosus, interdum purus omnino eft. Igi-
“ turin pluribus, iifdemque differentibus, aequali- 
“ tas caloris consistit, quae inconsideratis quasi in- 
“ aequalis fit, imponit; propterea, sciz. quod non 
“ undequaque similis apparet. Caeterum homo 
“ qui rationes quas proposui expendat, et sensim, 
“ multa particularium experientia exercuerit, is 
“ nimirum aequalitatem caloris in pueris, florenti- 
“ busque, inveniet, nec eo falletur quod alter in 
“ humida, alter in ficca substantia repraesente- 
“ tur; quippe lapis aliquando pari cum aqua ca- 
“ lore effe potest, nullum faciente discrimeu quod
“ lapis ficcus fit, aqua vero humida. Ita igitur 
“ mihi, cum pueros, juvenes, adolescentes mil-. 
“ lies considerâffem, praeterea eundem, infan- 
“ tem, puerum, adolescentemque factum; nihi- 
“ lo calidior visus eft, nec puer quam aetate flo- 
“ rens, nec aetate florens quam puer, fed tan- 
“ tum quemadmodum dixi, in pueris magis hali- 
“ tuosus, et multus et suavis; in florentibus ex- 
“ iguus, ficcus, nec similiter suavis effe caloris
“ occursus. Itaque neuter simpliciter videtur 
“ calidior; sed alter, multitudine ejus quod di- 
“ flatur, alter acrimonia.” 
4. MODERNS taking it for granted that heat 
proceeded from attrition, rarely confirmed their 
opinions by experiments; or made 
their experiments in a vague negligent 
manner. Galileo, Drebellius, Pas- 
chal, Farenheit, Reaumur, and others have de- 
vised thermometers for determining the natural 
heat of bodies of all sorts, animate or inani- 
mate. Boerhaave, Hales, Derham, De Sauvages, 
and others inform us of the degree of heat; but 
keep us in the dark in regard to the time of the 
application of the thermometer. How far such 
Experiments 
inaccurate.  
N4 experimenta

296 OF REGIMEN.
experiments are to be depended on, we now pro- 
ceed to inquire. 
5. UNIVERSAL EXPERIMENT determines the 
heat of the human body, at middle age, and in 
a state of health, at 95, 96 degrees. 
But there have been found instances 
of men in health, whose natural heat 
has constanly raised the mercury, some to 97, 
rarely to 98, and more rarely to 99. How erro- 
neous would it be to treat such as feverish, when
this heat was only constitutional!
Heat diffe- 
rent. 
FROM an opinion that one of the principal uses, 
of external air was to cool the blood as it circu- 
lates through the pulmonary vessels. 
Hales, Boerhaave, and other great 
men were of opinion, that man could 
not long subsist in air which equals, or exceeds 
the native heat. Under the aequator the same is 
the degree of heat with the natural. Men not 
only continue healthy under the aequator, but in
many other parts whose heat exceeds that of the 
human body. Air seems not only to cool the 
blood, but to accelerate the circulation also. 
Air cools and 
accelerates. 
6. IN his Ratio Medendi, professor de Haen 
(Cap. 3. de aere, &c. cop. 19, De supputando ca- 
lore corporis humani) seems to have add- 
ed much light to the present subject. 
With thermometers prepared by Mar- 
ci, Prim, Reaumur, and Farenheit, he made ex- 
periments (to use his own words) Non autem fe- 
mel, deciefve, fed pluries ipsissma experimenta itera- 
la funt, et semper idem docuerunt. 
Accurate ex- 
periments. 
Under the arm-pit of a man in health, he put 
the thermometer for half a quarter of an hour, 
and found it rise to 95, 96. Continued for a 
quarter, it mounted to 97, 98, 99. For half an 
hour

297 OF REGIMEN.
hour 100, 101. For one hour 101, 102. For 
two hours it rose no higher. 
Applied to the arm-pit of a man in a moderate 
feverish heat, for half a quarter of an hour, it 
rose to 100. After one quarter 101, 102. After 
half an hour 102, 103. After one hour 103, 104. 
—By other trials, in continued fevers, it rose to
106, in half an hour. In one hour to 109.
Sometimes in half an hour to 103. In an hour 
to 105.—In a Semi-tertion composed of a continu- 
al fever and a quotidian intermittent, he observes 
that the patient was so very sensible of cold in 
the fit, that he could hardly bear it. In the mean 
time the thermometer rose to 104. The symp- 
toms of the cold fit were evident, shivering, 
chattering teeth, shaking, and a perfect sense of 
internal chill, with a quick, smal], contracted
pulse. During the hot fit, the pulse was full, 
free and quick. In states so opposite, one would 
have hardly expected the same degree of heat. 
Experiment shewed the same exactly. Hippo- 
crates Aph. 4. 48. 7.—72, fays, In febribus non 
remittentibus, si externa frigeant, et interna urantur, 
et sitiant, lethale. This aphorism has generally 
been depended on; but this cannot be said to be 
the case of our patient; he complained of cold 
internal and external. In the cold fit, had not 
the thermometer been applied, no man, would 
have believed that the heat exceeded the natural,
by 7 or 8 degrees.—He gives the history of a 
man, who in a marble chill, which lasted twenty- 
four hours before death, without any sensible 
pulse, raised the mercury in the thermometer to 
97. Here was heat exceeding the natural with- 
out pretence of attrition. The difference of heat 
between thermometers differently placed, he 
found 30.—From these experiments, our author 
N5 in-

298 OF REGIMEN.
ingenuously concludes, that the degree of heat in 
persons found and sick is rarely determined with 
that precision which such subjects require. The 
real degree of heat cannot be fixed in less than 
an hour. Patientia igitur in experimentis, libera 
ab hypothesibus animo capiendis, multa dediscimus quae
humana arrogantia perperam addidisceramus, says De 
Haen, pag. 124. 
IN this inconstant climate, winter and summer 
succeed one another, more than once, in the space 
of twenty-four hours. Our good and 
bad weather may truly be said to de- 
pend on the point of the compass. 
South winds relax and open the pores. North 
winds brace and stop perspiration. Nothing can 
be more pernicious to invalids than air too cold, 
too hot, too moist, or too dry.
Climate in- 
constant.  
1. IF Hippocrates advised his patients to guard 
against the approaching cold of the autumn, in 
the serene climate of Greece, by thick 
cloathing, εδθΤl παXεlη, how much 
more reason have we to be careful? 
Mortalibus turn vitae, turn morborum 
causa est aer, he adds De flatibus, pag. 296. Sy- 
denham condemns the giddy practice of laying a- 
side winter garments too early in the spring, and 
of exposing bodies over-heated to sudden chills. 
This practice, he affirms, has destroyed more 
than famine, pestilence, or the sword. De humor, 
pag. 50, lin. 53. 
Cloaths not 
rashly to be 
changed. 
2. RARELY have we opportunities of contend- 
ing on the subject of cold air; oftener on that of 
heat. From cold, invalids sometimes 
suffer. To avoid this evil, some 
plunge into a greater. In acute dis- 
eases, patients are not only shut up within bed- 
curtains, but buried underloads of blankets. In- 
Heat danger- 
ous. 
valids


299 OF REGIMEN.
valids and people in health lift up every chink. 
Damned to hot bed-chambers, and self-perspira- 
tion, sick people are often broiled to death. Self- 
perspiration not only hurts by heat, but by putre- 
scence also. Hence difficulty of breathing, anxiety, 
dreams, delirium, miliary eruptions, and death. 
This practice was condemned by Forestus in Ger- 
many, 200 years ago; by Sydenham in England, 
and by every rational practitioner, all the world over. 
To tender lungs, heat and cold are both un- 
friendly. That cold which chills the air about 
the morning’s dawn, ought to be awarded by co- 
vering the head, neck, and breast as well as by 
shutting the curtains. The air ought to be satu- 
rated with balsamic vulnerary effluvia. Powder- 
ed gums ought to be sprinkled on the embers. 
Fire ought to be kept up night and day, at an 
equal warmth, from 60 to 65, by a thermometer. 
Those who are able to get put of bed ought to 
walk into another room; the sheets ought to be 
aired, the windows and doors ought to be thrown 
open. Those who cannot get out of bed ought 
to be bolstered up thro’ the day.
Consumptives ought to sleep in spacious upper 
rooms, and alone. If they require not constant 
attendance, nurses ought to wait in the adjoining
room. From statical experiments, we learn, that 
(by absorption) the sick communicate their dis- 
tempers to those who sleep under the same bed- 
cloaths. Heat and contact are, unexceptionably, 
pernicious to consumptives. Dr. Tronchin gives 
instances of wives being infected by sleeping 
with their husbands, in the Dry Belly-Ach. The 
summer effluvia of animal bodies taint the air to- 
a degree sufficient to defeat every intention. 
While the ventilator played at Simson’s room, on 
an assembly night, I tried to make an experiment 
N6 on

300 OF REGIMEN.
on the foul exhausted air. The smell was incon- 
ceivably loathsome, I could not bear it for a mo- 
ment; nor can any man without danger of be- 
ing poisoned. Foul air was the cause of the fa- 
tal catastrophe at Calcutta. Bed-chamber visits 
ought, for this reason, to be rare, and short. 
The windows and doors ought to be laid open in 
the day-time for a thorough perflation of air. 
By covering a patient too warm, and by lec- 
turing too long to seventy students, Professor De
Haen ingenuously confesses that he 
was the cause of miliary eruptions in 
a pulmonary case, idque meo palam fateor neglectu. 
From this error gaining experience, he gradu- 
ally relieved the patient’s body of part of the bed- 
cloaths; he passed him over slightly, in his 
rounds, referring his clinical lecture till he came 
into the hall. Remembering Sydenham’s pre- 
cepts and example, viz. That eruptions caused by 
hot air, ought to be cured by taking the patient out of
bed, and by medicines diluent and cooling, all these 
he strictly followed; so that, by degrees, the 
man’s anxieties decreased, his sweats abated; in 
four days time the miliary eruptions began to 
scale off, his strength increased, while the perip- 
neumony began to throw itself off by expectora- 
tion. On purpose, he owns, he kept the patient 
longer than was necessary, in the Infirmary, that 
the Doctors and Students, confirmatae ejus pancra- 
ticae sanitatis testes existerent. Quantine faciendus, 
in Medicine Sydenhamus! 
Examples. 
He says, he saw cases of the Miliara vera, 
which begin with a rheumatic fever, on the 4, 
5, 6, 7, and 8th day. Some had eruptions on 
the chin, neck, breast, arms, and thighs. These 
lay in the common ward with patients of all dis- 
eases, breathing the same air, and laying under 
the

301 OF REGIMEN.
the same number of blankets. After three or 
four weeks, omnes adepti sunt sanitatem.—Bolder 
by experience, he treated a patient labouring of 
a putrid fever, and covered over with petechiae, 
just as he did patients in common; he took him 
out of bed every day, he drenched him with di- 
luents acidulated with spirit of sulphur. In the 
space of eight days he was free from eruptions 
and fever. “ Sic sensim jugum quod humeris 
“ meis publicus clamor imposuerat excutere vo- 
“ lui, debui. Videram in Belgio foederate prac- 
“ ticos annosiores, qui monita Sydenhami ac Boer- 
“ haavii, in Variolis, Morbillis, Miliaribus, Pe- 
“ techiis, Scarlatinis aspernati, horum morborum 
“ in curatione admodum infortunati effent: vi- 
“ deram alios qui Boerhaaviana scholo enutriti, 
“ Magistrique vestigiis presse inherentes, horam
“ curam feliciter ederent. Recordabar et me Sy- 
“ denhami ac Boerhaavii vestigia prementem, hos 
“ eosdem morbos fummo cum famae ac honoris 
“ incremento, caeteris, qui alias longa semitas 
“ calcarent reclamantibus, felicius curasse. Hinc
“ audacter varios clamores flocci faciens, con- 
“ cludere debui, tarn felicem effe horum mor- 
“ borum curam in aere Austriaco, quam suadente 
“ Sydenhamo in Britannico, quam suadente Boer- 
“ haavo in Belgico fuisse constat.” De Haen Caput 
3. De Aere Decubitu, Sessione, aliisque circa aegros 
moderandis. 
—“ Our fathers talk 
“ Of summers, balmy airs, and skies serene. 
“ Good heaven! for what unexpiated crimes 
“ This dismal change! The brooding elements 
“ Do they, your powerful ministers of wrath, 
“ Prepare some fierce exterminating plague. 
“ Or, is it fix’d in the decrees above 
“ That

302 OF REGIMEN.
“ That lofty Albion melt into the main? 
“ Indulgent nature! O dissolve the gloom! 
“ Bind in eternal adamant the winds 
“ That drown or wither: give the genial west 
“ To breathe, and in its turn the sprightly north; 
“ And may once more the circling seasons rule 
“ The year, nor mix in every monstrous day.” 
§. III. OF EXERCISE.
THE body of man is made up of tubes and 
glands fitted to one another in so wonderful a
manner, that there must be frequent 
motions, conditions, and agitations 
to mix, digest, and separate the juices, 
to cleanse the infinitude of pipes and strainers, 
and to give the solids a firm and lasting tone. 
Exercise ferments the humours, forces them into 
their proper channels, throws off redundancies, 
and helps nature in those distributions which are
necessary for life. 
Exercise ne- 
cessary. 
1. IN, genera], that sort of exercise 
is best to which one has been accus- 
tomed, which best agrees, and in which 
people take delight. 
That which 
agrees best. 
2. EXERCISE is best when the stomach is most
empty. It is to be estimated by the constitution. 
When the patient begins to sweat, 
grow weary, or short breathed, he 
should forbear, till he recovers. For 
the delicate and infirm, that sort of exercise is 
most proper which is performed by external help, 
gestation in wheel carriages, horse-litters, sedan- 
chairs, failing, &c. Julius Caesar was of a weak 
delicate constitution by nature, which he harden- 
ed by exercise. Plutarch says, he turned his 
very repose into action.
On an empty 
stomach. 
3. FOR

303 OF REGIMEN.
3. FOR such as are neither robust nor very
tender, that sort of exercise is best which is per- 
formed partly by ourselves, partly by 
foreign assistance. Of this sort, riding 
on horseback is the foremost, for the be- 
nefits of which I beg leave to refer the reader to
the judicious Sydenham and to Fuller. 
Riding on 
horseback.
By riding the pendulous viscera are shaken, 
and gently rubbed against the surfaces of each o- 
ther; mean while the external air rushes forcibly
into the lungs. These conspiring produce sur- 
prising changes. Sydenham had such an opinion 
of Riding, that he believed not only lesser evils 
could be cured by it, but even th e Consumption in 
its last stage. In this disease, he says, Riding is 
a specific as certain as mercury in the Lues, or 
bark in an Ague, but he cautions phthisics never 
to fatigue themselves by it. On this head he pro- 
duces many instances of recovery. In long jour- 
nies, concussions often repeated have expelled ob- 
structions which the waters had begun to dislodge, 
—Those invalids who ride out in the 
summer, in the heat of the day, act 
irrationally. I would advise them to 
go to bed early, so that they may get 
up early, and ride before breakfast, 
and in the evening. In Italy, it is a common ob- 
servation, that none but Englishmen and dogs are 
to be seen in the streets, in the forenoon. Cane et
Inglesi.  
Riding in the 
heat of the 
day irra- 
tional. 
4. AFTER exercise, the body should 
be well rubbed, then dry linen should 
be put on well aired. 
Linen to be 
changed.
5. AFTER exercise, every man 
oupht to rest before he sits down to 
dinner. Cold small liquors after exer- 
cite are pernicious. 
Cold liquors 
dangerous.  
6. EVERY

304 OF REGIMEN.
6. VERY author who has wrote well on the 
Non-Naturals in general, has copied from the di- 
vine old man. To Hippocrates are we 
indebted for most of the foregoing. 
We now proceed to enumerate some 
of his particular observations, to which 
we may add those of others, who have not copied 
from him. 
Hippocrates 
the best wri- 
ter.
7. Complaints which arise from immoderate 
labour are cured by rest, and e. c. 
In those who loiter away their lives in sloth,
muscular motion languishes, the chyle is neither 
assimilated quickly, nor perfectly. Cachexy ne- 
cessarily becomes the consequence. Let the best
hunter stand still, he may soon plump up; but 
he will every day, become more and more unfit 
for the field. Of twins, let one apply himself to
study; let the other inure himself to hunting. 
The former enjoys the health of a green-sick 
girl; the latter strings his nerves. The lazy 
rich envy the healthy poor; they would enjoy 
health, while they do nothing to preserve it. 
“ Illi vero qui divitiis affluentes, largis quotidie 
“ fruuntur epulis, nec fe ad labores credunt na- 
“ tos, perpetuis querelis medicorum aures fati- 
“ gant, dum volunt vivere fani, ct nihil agere.” 
Boerhaavii Praelect. Academ. From no cause what- 
somever, can health suffer more surely, than by 
exchanging a life of action for a life of indolences 
Well, therefore, might Aretaeus (among the 
causes of cachexy) rank, ab exercitationibus, quies;
a laboribus, otium. Well might Hippocrates say, 
Labor ficcat, et corpus reddit cjjicit; otium hu- 
meddat, et corpus reddit debile. Baccius draws a 
parallel between the active lives of the antients; 
and the flothful lives of the moderns. “ Illorum 
“ vita assiduis dedita exercitiis, sanitatem conser- 
“ vabat,

305 OF REGIMEN.
“ vabat, et promptiores reddebat vires ad singula 
“ tam animi quam corporis munera. Hodie, e. c. 
“ in continuo otio degitur. Principes aut curis 
“ animi jugicer tenentur; aut, fi ad ludicra tran- 
“ fire soleant, ea inertia funt Tabellae, aleae, tro-
“ chi novus modus super mensam agitati. Unde, 
“ non mirum, qui praeproperam accelerant se- 
“ nectutem, incurrantque facile in morbos renales, 
“aut in podagrain, haemicraniam, aliosque id ge- 
nus affectus, medioque veluti curfu deficiant.” 
8. If the body, or any of its mem- 
bers rest longer than usual, it will not 
become the stronger. If, e. c. after a 
long habit of idleness, one enters immediately on
hard labour, he will surely do himself hurt.
Laziness 
hurtful.
9. A soft bed is as irksome to him 
who is accustomed to a hard one, as a 
hard bed is to him who lies at home, 
upon down.  
Custom to be 
studied.
10. Those who seldom use motion, are wearied 
with the smallest exercise, and e. c. 
11. Friction is a sort of succedane- 
um to exercise. Experience dictates
this to Jockies.
Friction.
Friction is an alternate pressure and relaxation 
of the vessels. Gentle friction presses the veins 
only, harder the arteries. By pressing the veins 
the motion of the blood is accelerated towards 
the heart; thus the actions of the heart are ex- 
cited, the blood moves through the vessels. Vital 
power may be increased by friction alone to any 
degree. In the coldest hydropic, a fever may be 
thus raised. In bodies where none of the chylo- 
poetic viscera perform their offices, wonderful ef- 
fects may be produced by rubbing the belly with 
coarse woollen clothes. Thus have dropsies been 
cured. For prevention and cure the antients 
used

306 OF REGIMEN.
used frictions. Let a horse stand unrubbed for a 
few days, he becomes useless. Let him be well 
curry-combed, he may continue nimble for years. 
Columella strongly recommends this practice of 
currying in his Re Rustica. He says, sæpe plus pro- 
dest pressa manu subegisse terga, quam si largissime ci- 
bos praebeas. 
Frictions may be used for different purposes. 
Hence it was that Hippocrates (De Medici offi- 
cio) says, Frictio potest solvere, ligare carne implere,
minuere , dura ligare, mollia solvere, moderata, den- 
fare. The fibres may be relaxed by rubbing with
oils. They may be braced by the use of gums,
spirits, &c. 
12. Reading aloud and singing warms the bo- 
dy, Hence it is, that Dr. Andry 
thinks the reason why women stand 
not so much in need of exercise, be-  
cause they are more talkative than the men. 
Reading and 
singing.
13. THE foundation of chronical ailments are 
generally laid in that time of life which passes 
between puberty and manhood. Moderate exer- 
cise promotes secretions. Violent exercise is more 
injurious than none. Young men who follow 
shooting, hunting, and other rural exercises im- 
moderately commit violence on nature, and anti- 
cipate old age. The animal functions are weak- 
ened, perspiration is interrupted, the fibres are 
rendered rigid, and the radical moisture is dried
up. Those humours which ought to have passed 
by the skin, take possession of the glands, under 
the appearances of head-ach, heart burn, cholic, 
gripes, purging, belching, with all those evils 
which affect the hypochondriac. From rigidity 
of fibres, the morbific matter lodges in the joints 
in the form of rheumatism, ischiatica, nodes, tu- 
mours,


307 OF REGIMEN.
mours, chalk-stones, &c. The lymphatics pour 
their contents into the cavities of the body; 
hence, dropsy, asthma, with all the symptoms of 
cachexy.—Nature has supplied the fair sex with 
evacuations which supply the place of exercise. 
While nature maintains these discharges in a re- 
gular manner, their fibres continue lax, soft and 
delicate. When these discharges come to be sup- 
pressed, and women, notwithstanding, continue 
in health, they become viragos, their fibres par- 
take of the masculine rigidity, they are subject 
to gout, rheumatism, and other diseases, conse- 
quences of immoderate exercise.—The fibres 
of children and eunuchs are also lax; these are
therefore rarely subject to such disorders. 
Galen condemns those who recommend exer- 
cise promiscuously. I have known some men 
(says he) who, if they abstained three days from
exercise, were sure to be ill. Others I knew 
who enjoyed a good state of health though they 
used little or none. 
1. “ Primigines of Mitylens, was obliged to go 
“ into a warm bath every day, otherwise he was 
“ seized with a fever. Effects we 
“ learn from experience, but the causes 
“ of those effects we learn from reason or reflec- 
“ tion. Why did Primigenes require such fre- 
“ quent bathing? By the burning heat of his 
“ skin, I found that he wanted a free perspira- 
“ tion: I therefore ordered him a warm bath to
“ soften his skin and open his pores.” 
Cases.
2. “ I knew another man whose temperament 
“ was equally hot, but he did not require such 
“ frequent bathing, because his calling obliged 
“ him to walk much about the city; he was 
“ moreover of a quarrelsome disposition; by
“ fighting

308 OF REGIMEN.
“ fighting he keeped himself almost in a constant 
“ sweat.” 
3. “ A third I used to restrain from exercise, 
“ because he used it to excess.—I have, e. c. 
“ cured several cold temperaments by rousing 
“ them from lazy lives, and persuading them to
“ labour.” 
Exercise is not to be injoined to patients when 
they are very ill. It were dangerous thus to 
jumble stagnating corrupted humours. 
Such mixtures stuff the lungs, not 
without danger of suffocation. Thus- 
we see cachectics, or leucophlegma- 
tics pant for breath in mounting one 
flight of stairs. In such cases gentle frictions are 
only rational at first, then airing in a chair, rid- 
ing, walking, and at last running. 
Exercise 
dangerous in 
cachectic
cases.
Medical justice obliges me to mention one fla- 
grant proof consistent with my own knowledge. 
Not many summers past, a gentleman 
put himself under my care at Bristol
Hot-wells. By jollity, good fellowship, and elec- 
tioneering, he had almost got the better of one 
of the best constitutions. His case, however, 
was far from being desperate. My principal in- 
junctions were Bristol-water, sobriety, and re- 
pose. For some weeks he seemed to gain ground. 
By riding in the heat of the day, and by living 
too freely, he was taken with a cough and loss 
of appetite. He was bled, and slept soundly- 
through the night; Next day I called with an 
intention to repeat the bleeding; my patient was 
officiously advised to Bath. By procrastinations, 
and unseasonable journies, the inflammation of 
his lungs waxed worse; the season for evacuation 
was lost. He became cachectic, and short- 
breathed; his legs swelled. He had before been  
Case. 
subject

309 OF REGIMEN.
subject to the gout; these symptoms were there- 
fore deemed gouty. Bath-water and exercise 
were unmercifully pursued. After every airing, 
he panted for breath, and seemed ready to expire. 
Nor was it any wonder; for, at that very time, 
haerebat lateri lethalis arundo. A vomica pulmonum
soon burst, and suffocated the gouty man. 
13. LET us now fee what Statical 
Experiments have discovered. 
Statical ex- 
periments.
By moderate exercise the body becomes lighter 
and more lively.—The body perspires more 
when it lies quiet in bed, than when it tosses 
and tumbles. If, after supper, one lies ten hours
in bed, he will perspire freely all the time; but 
if he lies longer, both the sensible evacuations, 
and the insensible perspiration will be diminished. 
—Violent exercise of body or mind brings on 
early age and premature death—Riding on horse- 
back increases the perspiration of the parts above
the waste.—An easy pace is much more whole- 
some than a hard one. But to the infirm who 
are fatigued by it, an easy carriage is preferable, 
because their strength should be recruited not ex- 
hausted.—Moderate dancing promotes perspira- 
tion, and is a wholesome exercise. When the 
perspiration is defective, the remedy is exercise. 
Dr. Arbuthnot recommends exercise from the  
common observation that the parts of the body 
which labour most are larger and stronger. Thus, 
the legs and feet of chairmen, the arms and 
hands of watermen and sailors, the backs and 
shoulders of porters, the limbs of running-foot- 
men, by long use, grow strong, thick, and ac- 
tive. 
“ By toil subdu’d, the warrior and the hind 
“ Sleep fast and deep; their active functions soon
“ With

310 OF REGIMEN.
“ With generous streams the subtle tubes supply, 
“ The sons of indolence, with long repose 
“ Grow torpid; and with slowest Lethe drunk, 
“ Feebly and lingringly return to life, 
“ Blunt ev’ry sense, and pow’rless ev’ry limb.” 
§. IV. OF SLEEP.
SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS bear a great affi- 
nity to exercise and rest. Different 
constitutions require different mea- 
sures of sleep.
Sleep.
1. Moderate sleep increases perspiration, pro- 
motes digestion, cherishes the body, 
and exhilarates the mind. 
Moderate. 
2. Wakeful people should, nevertheless, keep
in bed, quiet and warm, which will, 
in some measure, answer the purpose 
of sleep. 
Quiet.
3. Excessive sleep renders the body
heavy and inactive, impairs the me- 
mory, and stupifies the senses. 
Excessive 
sleep.
4. Excessive wakefulness dissipates
the strength, produces fevers, and 
wastes the body.
Wakefulness.
5. He who sleeps through the day, 
and wakes through the night, inverts 
the order of nature, and anticipates 
old age. 
Unseasonable 
sleep.
6. Sleep after dinner is, in general, a bad cus- 
tom. A late heavy supper is an enemy to sleep. 
Going to bed without any supper, prevents 
sleep. 
7. By Statical Experiments we know 
that found sleep is refreshing.—That 
nocturnal perspiration arises in this 
climate to about sixteen ounces.—That after a 
Statical 
proofs. 
good

311 OF REGIMEN.
good night’s sleep, the body feels lighter from the 
increase of strength, as well as from the quantity 
of matter which it has thrown off by perspira- 
tion.—That restless nights diminish perspiration. 
—That perspiration is more obstructed by a cool 
foutherly air when asleep, than by intense cold 
when awake.—That change of bed diminishes 
perspiration; for things to which we are not ac- 
customed, though better in their nature, seldom 
agree with us.—That stretching and yawning 
promote perspiration.—That perspiration is more 
obstructed by throwing off the blankets when we 
sleep, than by throwing off the cloaths when a- 
wake.—That wine moderately drank induces 
sleep, and increases perspiration.—That drank to
excess it lessens both. 
“ IN study some protract the silent hour, 
“ Which others consecrate to mirth and wine; 
“ And sleep till noon, and hardly live till night.
“ But surely this redeems not from the shades 
“ One hour of life. 
§. V. OF EVACUATION.
DIODORUS SICULUS informs us that the Ae- 
gyptian physicians were maintained at the public 
expence, and obliged, by the laws, 
to conform their practice to rules re- 
corded by authority. To prevent dis- 
tempers (says he) they prescribed glysters, purges, 
vomits, or fasting, every second, third, or fourth 
day. Herodotus informs us, that the Aegyptians 
vomit and purge thrice every month, with a view 
to preserve health, which, in their opinion is 
chiefly injured by superfluity of aliment. Euterpe 
sect. 77. 
Evacuation 
in general. 
At

312 OF REGIMEN.
At water-drinking-places the word preparation 
fills the mouth of every nurse. Some are over- 
prepared before they come. Others prepare them- 
selves. Bleeding, purging, and vomiting, are 
edge-tools. I therefore proceed to point out the 
uses and abuses of Evacuation. 
I. Of Bleeding. 
1. GREAT are the advantages produced by a 
seasonable use of the Lancet. Unseasonable bleed- 
ing is productive of irreparable cala- 
mities. One may venture to affirm 
that full as many of His most Christian 
Majesty's subjects fall by the lancet, as by the
sword. The soberest people in the world are 
doctored in the antiphlogistic regimen, a regimen 
calculated for the carnivorous, lazy, and drunken. 
Following the physician of the Hotel-Dieu, one 
day in his rounds, he met a patient just carried 
in. The doctor demanded of the porters, Qua- 
t-il? one of them answered. La fievre. A-t-il 
été saignée? Oui, Monsicur, dix fois. Diable! Dix 
fois, et pas encore guerit. Saigne le encore. All this 
without touching his pulse, or asking one other 
question. The wretch was bled, and expired 
before his arm could be tied up.
Bleeding its 
daggers.  
2. Of all nations, French surgeons 
are, in general, the most dexterous o- 
perators, dressers, and diffecters, and 
the worst practitioners. 
French igno- 
rant of theo- 
ry.
Mr. Thomas, Surgeon of the naval hospital in 
India, assured me that (in Admiral Pocock’s first
engagement with the French) the British wound- 
ed who were brought ashore, recovered to a man, 
while the French wounded who wrere carried into 
Pondicherry almost all died. The surgeon of the  
Bridgewater

313 OF REGIMEN.
Bridgewater ship of war was then a prisoner in 
that sort, and was witness to the fact, nay the 
French own the secret, and still continue to be 
surprised at the consequences of their own mal- 
practice.—Mr. Morgan, Surgeon of a regiment 
at Guadaloupe, assures me that bleeding is the uni- 
versal remedy among the French practitioners in 
that island. In intermittent fevers particularly, 
they bleed five or six times, and always in the 
cold fit. Many of our officers and private men 
thus expired, before their arms could be bound 
up. Moliere’s raillery has improved the French
practice not a little. 
3. Our best surgeons surpass the 
French in learning. We have philo- 
sophers as well as operators. I know 
not a few whose medical visits I would 
accept in cades the most dangerous. 
Common 
bleeders igno- 
rant.
“ Sydenham attended a lady of a delicate con- 
“ stitution, who (by violent floodings 
“ after child-birth) fell into convul- 
“ sions. He prescribed food of easy 
“ digestion, and trusted to time for a cure. He 
“ visited her daily, and saw his prognostic veri- 
“ fled by the mitigations of the symptoms. Her 
“ nurse mistaking honesty for ignorance, and 
“ wondering that he never wrote, privily in- 
“ troduced a surgeon, who made use of the com- 
“ mon instrument for promoting the Lochia, the 
“ lancet. Her convulsions returned, she died. 
“ The Doctor, calling at his usual hour, found 
“ her husband in tears. Surprized, he demand- 
“ ed the reason. The maid answered, Sir, 
“ my lady is dead. Then she must have been 
“ bled, replied the Doctor, rushing into the bed- 
“ chamber. He examined both arms; no print 
“ of a lancet. He then examined her ankle. 
Example fa- 
tal.  
O “ There

314 OF REGIMEN.
“ There he found the fatal mark. Provoked at 
“ the disappointment, he bluntly told the hus- 
“ band, whom he met on the stairs; Sir, they 
“ have killed your wife.”—From the untimely 
fate of this lady, he warns physicians to order 
innocent nothings to amuse meddling gossips, 
and divert them from quacking under hand.
Public rooms are crowded with hundreds, some 
well, others labouring of inveterate ailments. A- 
nimal effluvia are exalted by the addition of 
smoke, sulphur, wax, and tallow. The external 
air is lifted out at every chink. Is it any wonder 
that weak enervated people should be overcome 
by such air? 
Many may remember the fate of Mrs. Shifner.
Playing at Quadrille, she had the good fortune to
win a sans prendre. Transported with 
joy, she fell into a laughing fit, and 
then into an hysteric. She was bled; convul- 
sions ensued, and she expired. Nor was the con- 
sequence wonderful; she was a woman of a 
weakly constitution, pale complexion, and subject 
to an habitual lax. 
Examples. 
Captain Roper was one night hauled into an 
outer-room in a fainting fit; a surgeon was sent 
for. I ordered the waiter to call his physician, 
who saved his patient with hartshorn, and thanked
me. The gentleman then laboured of an incur- 
able jaundice, dropsy, and cachexy. 
Many may remember the case of Mr. S—n. 
While he held die cards in his hands, he was al- 
most every night, taken with a slight epileptic fit. 
I almost affronted a Right Reverend by opposing 
his being bled. He had a glass of cold water 
with spirit of hartshorn. In an instant he reco- 
vered, begged of the company, that they would 
not

315 OF REGIMEN.
not be alarmed on his account, took up his cards, 
and played on. 
The Surgeons were so often summoned on old 
Nash’s account, that at length they made no 
haste. Was it any wonder that the blood should 
now and then be interrupted in vessels which had 
lasted for fourscore years and upwards? To drive 
away care he latterly indulged himself in drams, 
which alarmed people by bringing on drunken- 
ness, or a temporary apoplexy. 
4. Surgeons may boldly venture on 
the sanguine, robust, and plethoric. 
Cautions.
The patients who resort to Bath-waters labour 
generally of stomach disorders, gout, rheumatism, 
or palsy; these are seldom attended with fever. 
In other respects they are what they call hearty. 
Such generally admit of evacuations. 
Those who resort to Bristol-waters are, for the
most part, emaciated, phlegmatic, hectic, pale, 
lax, and weak. Bleeding, in general, increases
such disorders. 
Suffice here in general to observe, that in Con- 
sumptions attended with inflammation, bleeding 
not only abates that, but, by drawing off the dis- 
eased juices, makes room for founder. But, in 
consumptions glandular, or pituitous, every lan- 
cet is a dagger. If, on trial, the pulse grows 
quicker, more contracted or thready; if the 
blood appears looser in texture, no benefit is to be 
expected from bleeding. If, in such circumstan- 
ces, a vein is opened, colliquation, coldness, de- 
pression, and irrecoverable weakness ensue. The 
assimilating powers are low; there often remains 
no more than what is barely sufficient to main- 
tain the vital flame. When the circulation comes
to be confined within a narrow compass, patients 
feel themselves as it were smothered. Bed-cur- 
O2 tains


316 OF REGIMEN.
tains and windows are thrown open for air. Air 
aggravates, while it seems to relieve. In such 
cases it is hard to resist the importunities of the 
sick; I have ordered little bleedings which gave 
case, and, as I fancied, hasted the poor creatures
to their journey’s end. Anxious to relieve, I 
have taken away blood which vainly I wished to
restore. The symptoms which, in consumptions 
call for bleeding, require the nicest judgment. 
How precarious then must be the fate of those 
who come to St. Vincent’s Well armed with gene- 
ral directions? 
Of Regimes. 
5. To enumerate every circumstance in which
Bleeding were hurtful, would swell my work to 
too great a size. In acute diseases, it is com- 
monly believed that the blood loses its phlogistic
nature the fourth day; in malignant putrid dis- 
eases, it is taken for granted that the blood is al- 
ways dissolved. To convince the reader that 
bleeding is not so well understood as is commonly 
imagined, I refer to some experiments made by 
De Haen on the human blood, page 193, 342, 
&c. 
The vulgar method of judging of blood is by 
its crust. The crust depends on the nature of
the vessel in which it is received. Let 
blood be received into a flat broad ves- 
sel, it forms little or no crust. Let it
be received into a narrow deep vessel, 
the crust appears thick, sizy, and in- 
flammatory. Let blood fall directly into a bason, 
it generally puts on a white inflammatory crust. 
Let the most inflammatory blood be squeezed out 
of the orifice, or trickle down the arm, it puts 
on no white inflammatory crust.—In acute dis- 
eases he found a deep inflammatory crust, in many 
instances, long after the fourth day. In a young 
Judging 
blood by the 
crust fallaci- 
ous. 
7 woman


317 OF REGIMEN.
woman labouring of a continual putrid fever, full 
of spots, where nothing had been done, our au- 
thor found the blood drawn on the eleventh day, 
covered with a phlogistic crust, and compact in 
the red part. The blood that was drawn on the 
twelfth day was still more compact, and more in- 
crusted. Crudity of humours is not to be esti- 
mated by time, but by the condition of the blood. 
Boerhaave’s texts are therefore to be considered, 
cum grano salis. Siziness and dissolution of blood 
depend on causes which puzzle the most intelli- 
gent. 
Of Purging.
MEDICINES, if they do not good, certainly do 
harm. Hippocrates observes, “ That it is dan- 
“ gerous suddenly to alter settled ha- 
“ bits; or to fly from one extreme to 
“ another.” Semel multum aut repents 
vel evacuare, vel calefacere, vel refrigerare, aut alio
quovis modo movere periculosum. Celsus damns the 
custom of frequent purgation. Sed purgationes 
quoque, ut interdim necessariae, fic ubi frequentury
periculum afferunt. Assuescit enim non ali corpus, 
ob hoc infirmum erit. Lib.i. cap. 3. p. 31. This 
we see every day verified in those who, solicitous 
about the prevention of diseases, consume their 
present stock of health in quacking, as Celsus ele- 
gantly expresses it, In secunda valetudine, adversae 
praesidia consumun. Certain it is, that nature may 
be so far misled, that the body may forget the 
calls of nature. Evacuations give rise to cachex- 
ies, or bring the best constitutions to be suscepti- 
ble of every trifling liberty. 
Purging leads 
nature astray.
O3 PURGING

318 OF REGIMEN.
PURGING withdraws that matter which nature 
endeavours to fix on the extremities, and fixes it 
on the viscera. The patient exchanges 
pain, that necessary instrument of na- 
ture, for sickness, nausea, gripings, faint- 
ings, and a numerous train of irregu- 
lar symptoms. Sydenham assures us, that he 
learned, at his own peril, as well as that of o- 
thers, that Purgatives exhibited in the fit, in the 
declension, or in the interval of the gout, have 
hastened those evils which they were intended to 
prevent. Purges, as they rob the blood of its 
spirituous part, so they weaken concoction, de- 
ceive the sick with fruitless hopes, and bring on 
lasting mischiefs which nature undisturbed would 
have subdued. Gouty people are easily disturbed 
by any cause that agitates the body, or mind. 
For this reason the gout follows the slightest eva- 
cuation. 
Purging 
weakens na- 
ture. 
α. I knew a practitioner, who scorning Sy- 
denham and all his cautions, had no notion 
of being confined by the gout, or 
any disease which purges could car- 
ry off. This man was a true believer, he 
took the same measure to himself that he gave 
to others. Whenever he was attacked with 
the gout he took his purges, and was about a- 
gain in a few days. Nature thus debilitated, 
the gouty matter fell at last on his lungs, and
killed him. 
Examples. 
ß. “ A gentleman of Essex bad for many years 
been subject to violent fits of the gout. In 
one of these, wishing for relief or death, he 
applied to the former, who purged him every 
four hours with Gum Guajac draughts, to the 
amount of two hundred stools in ten days. He 
hobbled into the coffee-house, and founded 
this

319 OF REGIMEN.
this doctor’s praise. The consequence was, 
his fits return oftener, and with greater reve- 
rity. He now curses his own imprudence, and 
the doctor’s memory. 
γ. Peregrine Palmer, Esquire, Representative 
in Parliament for the University of Oxford, was 
known for an obstinate lameness, as well as 
for that integrity of heart, and politeness of
manners which distinguished his character. 
From his parents he inherited the gout, and 
had his fits early in life. When he seemed to 
be threatened with a fit, and wanted to in- 
dulge any youthful pursuit, he told me, he 
used to avert it by purging, a folly to which, 
he imputed his lameness, and which he request- 
ed me to publish, as memento to his gouty 
brethren. 
DIFFERENT DISEASES, ages, con- 
stitutions and sexes require different 
purges. 
Different 
purges neces- 
sary.
Resinous, mercurial or rough purges, cause 
heat, and hinder the passing of the waters by 
reason of that stricture which purgatives of all 
sorts leave behind. They destroy the tone also of 
the stomach and intestines.  
Where the guts are clogged with viscid phlegm, 
mineral waters purge at first, even those which 
are astringent, particularly if they are drank in 
large quantities and quick. 
For the purposes of opening the mouths of the 
bibulous vessels, and thereby giving access to me- 
dicated fluids, what can be so natural as salts ex- 
tracted from waters themselves? 
Epsom-salt, or Sal Catharicum amarum is pre- 
pared from bittern, and is now common. Dr. 
Hoy was the first who discovered the way of pre- 
paring it, (vide Philos. Transact. No. 378, &c.) 
O4 For

320 OF REGIMEN.
For purifying and imitating it, see Histoire de l' A- 
cadem. Ann. 1718. p. 38, &c. 
Glauber’s Salt is an artificial composition, an 
union of the vitriolic acid with the mineral alka- 
li, or basis of sea-salt. It has some resemblance 
with that of Epsom, and proves, when the point 
of saturation is exactly hit, a salt of a neutral na- 
ture, of a bitter taste, and a purgative virtue. Ar- 
tificial salts require four times their weight of wa- 
ter to dissolve them. Natural salts dissolve in a- 
bout an equal quantity of water.  
Rochelle salt, or Regenerated Tartar, has a 
more agreeable taste, and a gentler purgative vir- 
tue than either of the former. 
Magnesia Alba, or white Manganese, is that 
alkaline matter obtained by evaporating and cal- 
cining the remains of the mother liquor left in 
refining Salt Petre, which will not shoot into salt. 
This white Manganese is an agreeable gentle pur- 
gative, particularly proper in habits naturally cos- 
tive, and hypochondriac disorders. Its purgative 
quality seems to proceed from its alkaline earthy 
matter dissolved by the sharpness of the juices in
the first passages. The universal acid of the wa- 
ters converts this medicine into a neutral salt, 
which exerts its purging quality on the same prin- 
ciples by which the Epsom salts are known to act.
Hoffman, Stahl, and all the best foreign mineral 
water doctors recommend the four for quickening 
the effects of the waters, so as to render them 
more deobstruent, detersive, and purgative. 
Of Vomiting. 
IN the action of Vomitings the dia- 
phragm is suddenly and violently 
drawn downwards, while the abdominal muscles 
Vomiting, its 
operations. 
con-

321 OF REGIMEN.
contracted also, press the contents of the lower 
belly. Thus the stomach is squeezed, as it were, 
between two presses. As the nerves distributed to 
the stomach, intestines and mesentery, have such 
power over the rest of the nerves of the body, 
we need not wonder that convulsions should be 
excited in the muscles of the face, oesophagus, 
intestines, &c. In the action of vomiting, the 
venous blood is driven violently towards the right 
side of the heart, while those arteries which are 
dispersed over the abdominal viscera are compres- 
sed. Thus, the impetus of the arterial blood is 
forced upwards, while the right side of the heart 
is hindered from emptying itself into the vessels 
of the lungs, respiration being stopped in the act
of vomiting; hence the return of the venous 
blood from the head is prevented. The vessels of 
the head are in danger from turgescency, or ex- 
travasation; for, in violent straining, the face 
reddens, the jugular veins swell, the eyes sparkle 
with fire, the ears tingle, and the head becomes 
giddy. 
In the action of vomiting, the venous blood 
rushes through the Vena portarum in- 
to the liver. If the liver or lungs 
happen to be vitiated, ruptures, and other fatal 
consequences may insue. “ Boer- 
“ haave (in his academical prelec- 
“ tions) says, he saw a woman labouring under 
“ an inveterate jaundice, by taking a vomit, fell 
“ into a superpurgation of putrid matter first, 
“ and then of pure blood, which carried her off. 
“ —Had I not, with my own eyes, have seen 
“ it in the body of the Republic’s President of 
“ the Marine, who could have thought that the 
“ tube of the oesophagus was burst by violent 
“ strainings?”—Hernias have often been pro- 
Dangers. 
Example. 
duced

322 OF REGIMEN.
duced by vomiting.—After violent vomiting, the 
site of the stomach, and other abdominal viscera 
was found strangely changed in the carcass of a 
woman, as we find pag. 238, Memoirs de l'Acad. 
des Sciences l'an. 1716—With justice does Cel- 
sus (lib. i. cap. 3. p. 29) condemn those glut- 
tons who prepare their stomachs for feasts by vo- 
mits. Itaque ijlud luxuriae caufa fieri non oportere 
fateor, interdum valetudinis caufa redie fieri, experi- 
ment is credo. Cornmoveo tamen ne quis, qui valere 
& senescere volet, hoc quotidianum habeat. 
Hence we may see the danger of vomiting to 
plethorics, or to those of bad habits. In spasmo- 
dic reachings, artificial irritations teem with de- 
struction. How judiciously does Sydenham ad- 
vise vaenesection to precede vomiting, in cases 
which require both; left (by violent strainings) 
the pulmonic vessels should be burst, or the brain
hurt; examples of which he says he has seen, 
Sect. i. cap. 4. p. 65. 
While I was studying at Paris. I well remem- 
ber the untimely fate of a fellow-student. Dr. 
Hugh Graham. In very hot weather 
(by posting) we were both heated. By 
fasting and diluting, my complaints vanished in a 
few days. He was feverish, with a nausea, for 
which he proposed a puke, which I opposed, 
begging he would rather bleed. Laughing at my 
fears, he took only only one scruple of Ipecacua- 
na, which vomited not immoderately. Next day 
he complained of a dull pain in the right hyp- 
pochondre, for which I bled him, and would 
have repeated it, as my mind laboured with a 
presentiment of danger. Some few days were 
trifled away in doing nothing. My anxiety 
forced the Doctors Du Moulin and Astruc on my 
friend. I related my fears to them; I dreaded an
Example. 
abscess


323 OF REGIMEN.
abscess in the liver. I told them I feared the sea- 
son was lost. Their answer was, C'est impossible, 
Monsieur, vous craignez trop pour Monsieur votre 
ami, tout va bien. In spite of saignees, purges, 
lavement, &c. the patient shut his eyes. Insist- 
ing still on my prognostic, I begged their pre- 
sence next day. Before I touched the body, I 
prognosticated an abscess in the concave part of
the liver. When I had laid the abdominal visce- 
ra in view, the gibbous part was found. Putting 
my hand under the liver to turn it, I felt it un- 
commonly moist. From my wrist to my fingers 
ends, it was covered with bland well concocted 
pus. Old Du Moulin hobbled across the room, 
and clasping me in his arms, called out, Ma foi, 
Monsieur, vous avez faites un tres bon prognostic. 
The truth was, I watched every groan, 1 at- 
tended him night and day, I read for him, I 
thought for him, I loved him, and, though I 
could not save him, by his untimely fate, I was 
taught three useful lessons, 1. That vomits are 
to be administered only where they are necessary. 
2. That inflammations of the liver run speedily 
to pus; and, 3. That bleeding avails not where 
abscesses are once formed. These three lessons
have enabled me to save others. 
VOMITS warm and strengthen particular mem- 
bers, by deriving a greater supply of blood and
spirits to the part. By repeated suc- 
custions vomits, resolve impacted mat-
ter. On this principle it is that sea- 
voyages remove tumors, and topical inflamma- 
tions; thus it is that rebellious ulcers are render- 
ed tractable, haemorhages and fluxes stopped, as 
have been dropsies. Of the last there are two me- 
morable instances. 
Vomits, their
effects.
Dr.

324 OF REGIMEN.
Doctor Ross, late physician of London, was 
once tapped for a dropsy, His abdomen filled a- 
gain. The day was fixed for the se- 
cond tapping, A vomiting of coffee- 
like water came on spontaneously, and continued, 
at different times, he was emptied. Nor did 
he fill again. This relation I had from his own 
mouth. 
Examples. 
The second volume of the London Medical 
Essays contains a more memorable instance, com- 
municated by Doctor Alexander Mackenzie. 
Where the viscera are found, where the blood 
vessels have been duly emptied, where pains 
and reachings arise from viscid phlegm, 
bilious putrid, or acrid juices, vomits 
seem to be preparatives more natural than purga- 
tives. Lord Palmerston’s case, related by Dr. O- 
liver, proves the text. 
Vomits safe. 
Dr. Woodward, of Gresham-College, seems to 
have been an enthusiast in the doctrine of vo- 
mits. He has furnished the public with many 
successful proofs. Of his unsuccessful he says 
nothing. 
Preparation seems still more necessary, in re- 
gard to bathing, sweating, and pumping. Of these 
I treat particularly, in my Attempt to revive the
Doctrine of Bathing. 
Of Sweating. 
SWEATING is practised in all stages of dis- 
eases. Sweating is as dangerous as any one 
evacuation. In those diseases which 
frequent Bath, sweating is commonly 
practised in bathing; and, where it is easily pro- 
duced, seldom does mischief. Excepting Dia- 
betes, sweating is hardly compatible with those 
Sweating. 
diseases

325 OF REGIMEN.
diseases which frequent Bristol. Cocta non cruda 
funt evacuanda is an aphorism founded in truth. 
He who knows the difference between humours 
crude and concocted, is alone a judge when sweats
are to be prescribed. 
§. VI. OF THE PASSIONS. 
1. To maintain health, the Passions 
must be kept under subjection. Let a 
man be never so temperate, and regu- 
lar in his exercise; yet if he is led away 
by passion, all his irregularity will avail but little.
Passions to be 
kept under 
subjection. 
2. Fear, grief, envy, hatred, malice, revenge 
and despair weaken the nerves, retard the circu- 
lation, hinder perspiration, impair di- 
gestion, and produce spasms, obstruc- 
tions, and hypochondriacal disorders. Valeri- 
us Maximus gives fatal instances of terror. 
Violent anger creates bilious, inflammatory, 
convulsive, and apoplectic disorders, especial- 
ly in hot temperaments. Pliny and Aulus 
Gellius give us fatal instances of extreme joy. 
Sylla having freed Italy from civil wars, return- 
ed to Rome. He said, he could not sleep the 
first night, his foul being transported with ex- 
cessive joy and content, as with a strong and
mighty wind. 
Their effects. 
3. In that journal of Mr. Ives, Surgeon of 
the Dragon ship of war, recorded in Dr. Lind’s 
book of the scurvy, we find a memo- 
rable instance of the effects of oppo- 
site passions. On the thirtieth day of January
1743, this gentleman had ninety men on his sick 
lift, almost all scorbutics, fifty-five of which
seemed, to him, out of the power of medicine. 
News came on board, that the Spaniards were to 
Examples. 
push

326 OF REGIMEN.
push out of Toulon Harbour to join the French, in 
order to give battle to the fleet. Every eye spark- 
led with joy. So fast did the hopeless sick reco- 
ver, that, on the eleventh of February, the day 
of action, there were only four or five of the 
ninety who could be with-held from their fight- 
ing quarters. From the eleventh to the fifteenth,
the effects of joy continued; the Dragon's had 
all done their duty that day; few or none took 
notice of their illness. Every day brought on 
board fresh tidings of the scandalous behaviour 
of some ship or other. Those whom glory and 
the hopes of conquest had almost cured, relapsed. 
Before the end of the month, the sick-lift was as 
deep as ever. 
It is remarkable, in battle, the wounded horses 
follow their regiments, after having lost their ri- 
ders; on three legs they neigh for joy at the 
found of the clarrion. 
In weathering Cape-Horn, the Centurions crew 
was so dispirited by distress, that one half of the
men died. While the same ship cruized for the 
Aquapulco ship, golden dreams supported the men’s 
spirits, for full four months she was remarkably
healthy. 
In that long storm in which the Ipswich ship of
war lost her rudder, &c. fear and despondency 
seized the sailors to such a degree, that they 
rather chose to perish by inches below, than to
get upon deck to extricate themselves from 
danger. 
Those who brood over cares are the first at- 
tacked by putrid diseases, and the hardest to cure. 
Nor do wounds suppurate kindly. The hopes of 
ending their days among their native barren rocks 
make the Switzers fight under any banner.—The 
Royal Highlanders have, from their institution.
been

327 OF REGIMEN.
been real volunteers; many of them have fallen 
by the sword; in other respects, they are remark- 
ably healthy. New corps of Highlanders have 
since been raised; old men have been cozened 
from their families, and boys from their mothers 
laps. No sooner were they wasted to distant 
shores, than they began to pine away. Men ac- 
customed to cold, hunger and fatigue, fell mar- 
tyrs to the maladie de pais,—Africans transported 
to the colonies, no sooner cast their eyes on the 
hated shores, than they refuse sustenance, and 
often plunge into the main from a notion that 
their departed spirits regain their liberty.—Can 
drugs reach the seats of such diseases? What can 
medicines avail to love-sick minds? Wounded 
spirits who can bear? 
4. Moderate joy, virtue, contentment, hope, 
and courage invigorate the nerves, accelerate the 
fluids, promote perspiration, and assist 
digestion. Lord Verulam observes that 
chearfulness of spirit is particularly 
useful when we sit down to meals, or 
go to rest. “ If any violent passion should sur- 
prize us at these seasons, it would be prudent 
“ to defer eating, or going to bed until the mind 
“ recovers its wonted tranquility.”
Moderate 
passions 
healthy.  
5. It is observable that the perspiration is 
larger from any vehement passion of the mind 
when the body is quiet, than from 
the strongest bodily exercise when the 
mind is composed. Hence we infer, 
that those who are prone to anger, 
cannot bear much exercise, because the exube- 
rant perspiration of both might waste too fast. It 
is also remarkable that disorders which arise from 
vehement agitations of the mind, are more stub- 
born than those which arise from violent exercise;
The passion-
ate ougth to 
be quiet. 
because 











328 OF REGIMEN. 
because the latter are cured by rest and sleep,
which have no influence on the former. People 
who cannot bear losing, should never play. 
“ THERE is, they say, (and I believe there is) 
“ A spark within us of immortal fire, 
“ That animates and moulds the grosser frame;
“ And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven, 
“ Its native seat, and mixes with the Gods. 
“ Meanwhile this heavenly particle pervades: 
“ The mortal elements in every nerve 
“ It thrills with pleasure, or grows mad with pain, 
“ And, in its secret conclave, as it feels 
“ The body’s woes and joys, this ruling power 
“ Wields at its will the dull material world, 
“ And is the body’s health or malady.” 
FINIS.