The sanitary powers of the iron-springs of Schwalbach : a balneological essay / by Rudolph Birnbaum, M.D., physician in Schwalbach ; translated by the author.

  • Birnbaum, Rudolph
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sanitary powers of the iron-springs of Schwalbach : a balneological essay / by Rudolph Birnbaum, M.D., physician in Schwalbach ; translated by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Quite different is the effect of an uncovered bath, the carbonic-acid-gas being allowed to enter into the bathers lungs. This gas, whether it enters through the skin or the lungs, works so effectually that after six or seven [in few cases more than twelve] baths— even when covered—it is followed by a general feeling of weariness and fatigue:—To rest a day abstaining from the use of the spa both in bathing and drinking, is quite sufficient to restore the body. On this account I think it necessary to take care that my patients take their baths with intervals, so that the body is allowed to recover from the unaccustomed influences to which it has been exposed. In cases where these precautions were not followed, I often saw the bad consequences of their neglect. The patients (as they often do, directed by their own ideas) prolonging their baths beyond the reason¬ able time and drinking as much as possible of the strongest spa (that is the one which contains the greatest amount of iron) find, after having done thus for some days, that they feel sick and weary and that they have an exceedingly annoying headache which produces symptoms of dizziness and fainting. Against these accidents, which are effected by the abuse of the carbonic-acid-gas, I always ordered with never failing success complete rest with the application of ice— compresses upon the head and small pieces of cracked ice taken every four or five minutes. After this indispensable digression, I return to the main-subject, which is to show, what is the real