Observations on the Ballston waters.

  • Hosack, David, 1769-1835.
Date:
[1810?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the Ballston waters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    8/16
    The Ballston waters have been long known to yield a great quantity of fixed air, and to hold in solution a large portion of iron. By the analysis referred to, it appears that they yield a much larger proportion of fixed air, and that they contain a greater quantity of iron, than any other mineral water that has hitherto been discovered, not except- that of Vichy, one of the strongest chalybeate waters in Europe. But it appears that they also contain another sub- stance, viz. the muriate of lime, which, with the other ingre- dients with which it is associated, promises to be of great and extensive utility. We are, accordingly, from this analysis induced to ascribe more virtues to the Ballston waters than physicians have ge- nerally believed them to possess. Although much is due to exercise, change of air, and an agreeable occupation of the mind, which the amusements of watering places usually afford, I have no doubt, from the sensible effects produced upon the system by the waters themselves, that they also are productive of great good in a variety of diseases, some of which I shall now briefly enumerate. 1. From the effects of the Ballston waters, as a strong chalybeate, they may be employed with advantage in most diseases of debility, whether directly or indirectly such. But in those complaints which are attended with an in- creased excitement of the whole system, or with local in- flammation, they are manifestly prejudicial. 'These prin- ciples are deducible from the qualities of the waters alone ; but they are also confirmed by the experience and obser- vation of physicians who have attended to their opera- tion.