Amongst the various means resorted to by quackery to speculate upon the
credulity of mankind, simple river or spring water, coloured and flavoured
with inert substances, has not been the least productive; and many a time
the Thames and Seine have been fertile sources of supposed invaluable
medicines. Sangrado's doctrines on aqueous potations have long prevailed
in the profession; and it has been stoutly maintained that a water diet
can cure the gout and various other diseases. That relief, if not cures,
have been obtained by this practice, there cannot be the least doubt. Are
we to attribute these favourable results to the effects of the
imagination, the beneficial efforts of nature, or the salutary abstinence
which this prescription imposed? Possibly they all combined to assist the
physician's efforts, or rather aid his effete treatment. Cold water and
warm water have in turn been praised to the very skies by their eulogists,
and become the subject of ridicule and persecution on the part of more
spirited practitioners.
In surgery, water has ever been considered of great utility; it, no doubt,
was instinctively used by man to cleanse and heal his wounds. Patroclus,
having extracted the dart from his friend Eurypylus, washes the wound; and
the prophet Elisha prescribes to Naaman the waters of Jordan. Rivers had
various qualities, and were supposed to prove as different in their action
on the economy as the mineral springs which from time immemorial, have
been resorted to. These effects may in fact not be altogether doubtful;
for, although these salutary streams may not possess sufficient active
ingredients to be recognised by chemical tests, yet we know that
substances which appear perfectly inert may prove highly active and
effectual when combined and diluted naturally or artificially. Moreover,
in the effects of watering-places on the invalid or valetudinarian, we
must not forget the powerful influence of change of air and habit, the
invigorating stimulus of hope, and the diversion from former occupations.
To these auxiliaries many a remedy has owed its high reputation; and
probably when Wesley attributed his recovery to brimstone and
supplication, he in a great measure might have considered rest from
incessant labour the chief agent in his relief. The exhilarating effects
of the picturesque site of many of these salutary places of resort is
universally acknowledged. Montaigne, Voltaire, Alfieri, acknowledged their
influence on the imagination. Petrarch's inspirations flowed with the
waters of Vaucluse, some of Sevigne's most delightful letters were written
at Vichy, and Genlis and Stael were particularly happy in their epistolary
elegance at Spa and Baden.
We owe to accident many valuable discoveries in medicine. It is said that
several Indians, having used the waters of a lake in which a cinchona tree
was growing, experienced the benefit which led to the use of the Peruvian
bark; and the thermal properties of the baths of Carlsbad were first made
known by the howling of one of Charles the Fourth's hounds, that had
fallen in them in a hunt. It has been also observed, in various countries,
that particular waters produced various morbid affections; and to this
cause have been attributed goitres, cretinism, calculi, and other
distressing diseases. The ancients dreaded the impurity of their rivers.
The Romans boiled their water in extensive _thermopolia_, where not only
potations were drunk hot, but occasionally refrigerated with ice and snow,
and, when thus prepared, called _decocta_. Juvenal and Martial refer this
custom to the Greeks. Herodotus informs us that the Persian monarchs were
accompanied on their expeditions by chariots laden with silver vases
filled with the water of the _Choaspes_ that had been boiled, and which
was solely destined for the king's use: Athenaeus tells us that it was
light and sweet. Many ancient coins and inscriptions have recorded these
salutary properties of certain waters.
This real or supposed efficacy was scarcely discovered before it became
the domain of priests: and common rain or river water became valuable and
sanctified when blessed by them: hence the introduction of lustral water.
The fluid extracted from the gown of Mahomet is the sacred property of the
sultan. The moment the fast of the Ramazan is proclaimed, this holy
vestment is drawn from a gold chest, and, after having been kissed with
due devotion, plunged in a vase of happy water, which, when wrung from the
garment, is carefully preserved in precious bottles, that are sent by the
monarch as valuable presents, or sold at exorbitant prices as cures for
any and every disease. Thus were the good effects of ablution, especially
in wounds, attributed to some secret charm or quality conferred upon it by
clerical benediction or the legitimacy of princes. When a quack of the
name of Doublet cured the wounded at the siege of Metz in 1553, the water
he used was considered to have been of a mystic nature; and Brantome
describes his treatment in the following words: "Durant le susdit et tant
memorable siege, etait en la place un chirurgien nomme Doublet, lequel
faisait d'estranges cures avec du simple linge blanc, et belle eau claire
venant de la fontaine ou du puit; mais il s'aidait de sortileges et
paroles charmees, et chacun allait a luy." This Doublet, no doubt, was
acquainted with an ingenious treatise on gun-shot wounds, written by
Blondi in 1542, in which he strongly recommended the use of cold water;
but, as his recommendation was not founded on any miraculous quality, he
was forgotten, while Doublet was considered a supernatural being. Previous
to this simple and sagacious method of healing wounds, various curious
applications were in high repute; more especially the oil of kittens,
which the celebrated Pare discovered to his great delight, was prepared by
boiling live cats, coat and all, in olive oil, and was until then a
valuable secret preparation, called _oleum catellorum_, and its use, with
that of other nostrums, was known under the name of _secret
dressing_.[20]
This simple mode of dressing wounds, especially those that were inflicted
by fire-arms, was a great desideratum; for, up to this era in surgery,
these injuries were healed by the application of scalding oil or red-hot
instruments, under the impression that they were of a poisonous nature.
Pare was one of the first army-surgeons who exploded this barbarous
practice. Having, according to his own account, expended all his boiling
oil, he employed a mixture of yolk of egg, oil, and turpentine, not
without the apprehension of finding his patients labouring under all the
effects of poison the following day; when, to his great surprise, he found
them much more relieved than those to whom the actual cautery had been
applied. In more recent times, armies have been unjustly accused of making
use of poisonous balls; and this absurd charge was brought against the
French after the battle of Fontenoy, when the hospital fever broke out
among the wounded crowded in the neighbouring villages. Chewing bullets
was also considered a means of imparting to them a venomous quality. Lead
and iron, the metals of which these projectiles were usually cast, were
also deemed of a poisonous nature. A sort of aristocratic feeling seemed
to obtain in those days; and it is related that two Spanish gentlemen had
procured gold balls to fire at Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, that so
noble and generous a prince should not fall by the vile metal reserved for
vulgar people; and, in the adverse ranks, La Chatarguene, a noble of the
French court, had prepared bullets of the same costly material for the
reception of Charles V. It was under the impression of this poisonous
nature of wounds, that individuals of both sexes, called suckers, followed
armies, and endeavoured to extract the venom by suction; the records of
chivalry give us instances of lovely damsels who condescended to perform
this operation with their lovely mouths upon their _damoiseaux_; and
Sibille submitted the wounds of her husband, Duke Robert, to a similar
treatment: indeed, these suckers were chiefly females. May not this
practice be the origin of the term _leech_, applied in ancient times to
medical men? Leechcraft was the art of healing. Thus Spenser:
And then the learned leech
His cunning hand 'gan to his wounds to lay,
And all things else the which his art did teach.
To this day, the custom of sucking wounds prevails among soldiers; and
there is every reason to hope, from the experiments of the late Sir David
Barry, that the exhaustion produced by cupping-glasses will be found of
essential service in all venomous wounds. This practice of suction, no
doubt, was known in Greece; Machaon performed it at the siege of Troy. The
mothers and wives of the ancient Germans had recourse to the same process.
In India the suction of wounds constitutes a profession. It was by this
means that the Psylli cured the bite of serpents; and it is related of
Cato, that his abhorrence of the Greek surgeons was such, that he directed
Psylli to follow the Roman armies.
Water affords a beautiful illustration of that indestructibility with
which the Creator invested matter for the preservation of the world he
formed from elementary masses, and appears to have existed unchangeable
from the commencement of the universe. Its constituent parts are not
broken into by any atmospheric revolution; they continue the same, whether
in the solid ice, the fluid state of a liquid, or the gaseous form of a
vapour. Its powers are undiminished, whether in the wave or the steam; the
most effective agent in the hands of man to promote that welfare and
happiness which his own errors deprive him of, frequently bringing on
those calamities that his perversity attributes to the will of the
Omnipotent. Water is the same in the atmosphere as on the earth, and falls
in the very same nature as it ascends; electricity has no other influence
upon it than that of hastening its precipitation. Chemical agents, however
powerful, can only decompose its elementary principles upon the most
limited scale. The heterogeneous substances with which water may
occasionally be alloyed must be considered as purely accidental.
The homogeneous characters of this fluid admit of no alteration, and, like
atmospheric air, are still obtained as pure most probably as when they
first emerged from chaotic matter. The same principles are found in the
clouds, the fogs, the dews, the rain, the hail, and the snow. For the
preservation of the world it was indispensable that water should be
endowed with the property of ever retaining its fluid form, and in this
respect become subject to a law different from that of other bodies, which
change from fluid to solid. This is a deviation from a general decree of
Nature. Were it not for this wise provision of the Creator, the world
would shortly have been converted into a frozen chaos. All bodies contract
their dimensions, and acquire a greater specific gravity by cooling; but
water is excepted from this law, and becomes of less specific gravity,
whether it be heated, or cooled below 42 deg. 5'. Were it not for this
exemption, it would have become specifically heavier by the loss of its
caloric, and the waters that float on the surface of rivers would have
sunk as it froze, until the beds of rivers would have been filled up with
immense masses of ice. From the observations of Perron, there is reason to
believe that the mountainous accumulations of ice that have hitherto
arrested the progress of polar navigators have been detached from the
depths of the ocean to float upon its surface. This circumstance would
account for the difference of temperature of the sea according to its
depth. The experiments of Perron, made with an instrument of his own
invention, which he called the thermobarometer, gave the following
results:
1st, The temperature of the sea upon its surface, and at a distance from
shore, is at the meridian, lower than that of the atmosphere in the shade;
much more elevated at midnight, but in a state of equilibrium morning and
evening.
2nd, The temperature rises as we approach continents or extensive islands.
3rd, At a distance from land, the temperature of the deep parts of the sea
is lower than that of the surface, and the cold increases with the depth.
It is this circumstance which led this ingenious philosopher to conclude
that even under the equator the bottom of the sea is eternally frozen.
Humboldt is of a contrary opinion, and maintains that the temperature is
from two to three degrees lower in shallow water; and he therefore is of
opinion that the thermometer might prove of material use to navigators. He
attributes this diminution of temperature to the admixture of the lower
bodies of water with that of the surface. Who is to decide between these
two ingenious experimentalists? "Experientia fallax, judicium difficile."
The curious reader may consult in this investigation the tables of Forster
in Cook's second voyage, those of Lord Mulgrave when Captain Phipps, and
various other navigators.
The salutary medicinal effects of sea-bathing are generally acknowledged,
although too frequently recommended in cases which do not warrant the
practice; in such circumstances they often prove highly prejudicial. The
ancients held sea-water baths in such estimation, that Lampridius and
Suetonius inform us that Nero had it conveyed to his palace. As
sea-bathing is not always within the reach of those who may require it,
artificial sea-water has been considered a desirable substitute; and the
following mode of preparing it, not being generally known, may prove of
some utility. To fifty pounds of water add ten ounces of muriate of soda,
ten drachms of muriate of magnesia, two ounces of muriate of lime, six
drachms of sulphate of soda, and the same quantity of sulphate of
magnesia. This is Swediaur's receipt. Bouillon Lagrange, and Vogel,
recommend the suppression of the muriate of lime and sulphate of soda, to
be replaced with carbonate of lime and magnesia; but this alteration does
not appear necessary, or founded on sufficient chemical grounds for
adoption.
Sea-water taken internally has been considered beneficial in several
maladies; and, although not potable in civilized countries, it is freely
drunk by various savage tribes. Cook informs us that it is used with
impunity in Easter Island; and Schouten observed several fishermen in the
South Sea drinking it, and giving it to their children, when their stock
of fresh water was expended. Amongst the various and capricious
experiments of Peter the Great, an edict is recorded ordering his sailors
to give salt water to their male children, with a view of accustoming them
to a beverage which might preclude the necessity of laying in large stocks
of fresh water on board his ships! The result was obvious: this nursery of
seamen perished in the experiment. Russel, Lind, Buchan, and various other
medical writers, have recommended the internal use of sea-water in
scrofulous and cutaneous affections; but its use in the present day is
pretty nearly exploded.