Buxton and its Medicinal Waters   By: Robert Ottiwell Gifford-Bennet (1834-1902)

BY

ROBERT OTTIWELL GIFFORD BENNET, M.D.,

Senior Acting Physician to the Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity .

JOHN HEYWOOD, DEANSGATE AND RIDGEFIELD, MANCHESTER; 2, AMEN CORNER, LONDON, E.C.

PREFACE.

Knowing from long experience the powerful action exerted upon the human system by the Buxton Medicinal Thermal Water, and the unsatisfactory results arising from its indiscriminate and incautious use, either in the form of baths or by taking it internally, I have in the following pages, as briefly and succinctly as possible, endeavoured to make some practical suggestions for the guidance of those of my professional brethren who have had no opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with the Buxton Spa, with the hope that they may prove of service.

R. O. G. B.

Tankerville House, Buxton, May, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. PAGE Situation—Altitude—Geology—Roman Baths—Climate and 9 Temperature—Death Rate—Water Supply—Rainfall Drainage—Railway Communication—Public Buildings—Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity—Visitors’ Accommodation—Antiquarian CHAPTER II. THE MEDICINAL WATERS AND THEIR ACTION. Physiological Functions in Healthy Individuals—Performance 22 of the Physiological Functions in Health and Disease—Action of Oxygen upon the Nitrogenous and Non nitrogenous Compounds—Origin of Calculi, Nodosities, and Tophi—Action of the Thermal Water upon the Great Emunctories—Chalybeate Water when Used as a Douche, or Taken Internally—Analyses of the Waters—Selection of Buxton by the Romans—First Treatise upon the Buxton Spa, written by Dr. Jones in 1572—Source and Nature of the Waters CHAPTER III. THE BATHS AND MODE OF APPLICATION. Kinds of Baths—Natural and Hot—Action of Thermal Water 31 upon the Skin—Natural Baths—Swimming and Plunge for Males and Females—Necessity of Caution in their Use—Importance of Time and Frequency in Taking the Baths—Directions During and After Bathing—Most Favourable Time for Taking Warm or Hot Baths—Directions for the Use of Half, Three quarters, and Full Baths—Drowsiness after Bathing—Massage, When and How Used—When Baths Inadmissible—Hours for Drinking the Medicinal Waters—Diseases in which the Thermal Water should Not be Drunk CHAPTER IV. DISEASES IN WHICH THE WATERS ARE USEFUL. Acute Gout and Rheumatism—Chronic Gout and 41 Rheumatism—Chorea—Many Forms of Paralysis—Muscular Atrophy consequent upon the Gouty Diathesis—Loco Motor Ataxia—Syphilis—Local Injuries—Neuralgia—Sciatica, Lumbago, &c.—Number of Baths Constituting a Course—Length of Residence Required—Action of Water upon Acute and Chronic Diseases—Extract from Devonshire Hospital Report—Inference

CHAPTER I. TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

Situation—Altitude—Geology—Roman Baths—Climate and Temperature—Death Rate—Water Supply—Rainfall—Drainage—Railway Communication—Public Buildings—Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity—Visitors’ Accommodation—Antiquarian.