The therapeutic action and application of the mineral waters of Aix-les-Bains, Savoy : a paper presented to the Section of Medicine of the British Medical Association at Brighton, Aug. 1886 / by Stanley M. Rendall.

  • Rendall, Stanley M.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The therapeutic action and application of the mineral waters of Aix-les-Bains, Savoy : a paper presented to the Section of Medicine of the British Medical Association at Brighton, Aug. 1886 / by Stanley M. Rendall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    system, and not by increasing the alkalinisation of the blood serum, as in the use of Vichy and other alkaline springs. Prior to the expulsion of the poisonous acid principle from the system, it would seem to be set into a freer circulation in the blood current; and this probably accounts for the almost in- variable occurrence of an exacerbation of the pattern’s usual aches and pains,—muscular, nervous, or articular,—a fact causing, frequently, great alarm to those undergoing a treatment, unless previously warned of the probable occurrence of such a condition. The bath attendants are well aware of this fact, and reassure their patients by telling them that the increased pains mean that the waters are, as they say, acting, and that they should congratulate themselves on the fact rather than complain. This exacerbation, however, in those cases that are going to do well, is speedily followed by an amelioration, or complete disappearance of the pain, an improvement that is probably coincident with, and dependent upon, the expulsion of the poisonous detritus from the system. I say probably, because 1 have not yet been able to make a sufficient number of observations to prove the fact, owing to the difficulty (with patients living in hotels) of getting specimens of the total twenty-four hours’ urine. I may add that the apjiearanee of the increased pains is medically of imjiortance as affecting the prognosis, cases where the pains disappear at once, from a sedative action of the hot water, and rubbing, not having such a good outlook as the first class I mentioned, where there is a primary aggravation. As to the action of these waters upon the circulation, it is essentially sedative. This sedative effect is seen, if looked for, in many if not most cases, but is markedly evident in those that have a high pulse rate when first they come under treatment, and it is especially so in that fashionable disease known as “irritable heart.” In three cases of that description which came under my care last summer, bringing, and giving their diagnosis themselves, of “irritable heart,” the fall at the end of the course was from fifteen to twenty pulsa- tions in the minute, the character of the pulse improving at the