THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES in THE HARROGATE SPAS. ON THE HARROGATE SPAS, nf lir : EXHIBITING A MEDICAL COMMENTARY ON THE WATERS, FOUNDED ON PROFESSOR HOFM ANN'S ANALYSIS. (A. NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION.) BY G. WEST PIGGOTT, M.A., M.D., CANTAB. FELLOW OF ST. PETER'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND FELLOW OF THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. LONDON : CHURCHILL ; HARROGATE : P. PALLISER, POST OFFICE. [Entered at Stationers' Hall.] 1856. T. PALLISER, PRINTER, "ADVERTISER OFFICE," HAKHOGATE. PEEF ACE. " By chemic art, your healing qualities I too may boast to know; and whence derived, From earths, or salts, or mineral particles Combined, suspended by attraction's laws, Or held in union by aerial chains, And crown'd by sprightly gas." NOTWITHSTANDING the favourable reception of former editions of "THE HARROGATE SPAS," I have ventured to entirely recast the subject matter of the present work, which has indeed been almost re- written. It seemed, therefore, more appropriate to designate it as a New, rather than as a Fourth Edition. To blend the historical and descriptive ; to glance at the lovely landscapes, and prominent objects of natural and artistic beauty in the neighbourhood ; to present the reader with the evidence which, during six years, has gradually strengthened my con- victions of the real efficacy of the Harrogate waters, exceeding, as they do, in number and variety, all others assembled in one spot ; and to warn him against their injudicious use : such are the principal objects of the work. He will find that the special, and indeed the cele brated, action of the waters upon that all-important organ, the human skin, is one of the best explana- tions of their beneficial effects upon the general health. IV PREFACE. Accordingly, I have here attempted to demonstrate the peculiar influences of atmospheric changes, of air weather, damp, and cold, telling upon a debilitated skin; to describe the insidious effects of obstructed perspiration; and to infer the great advantages to the constitution, obtainable, in an enfeebled state of the skin, from improving its varied functions, by bathing, and drinking the waters. The action of the Harrogate Spas upon the blood, the nerves, and the secretions, have next occupied my attention ; and lastly, as they seemed more likely to prove useful than abstract descriptions, I have intro- duced a number of cases illustrative of skin disorders. Harrogate, May, 1856. CONTENTS. PART I. HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. CHAPTER I. PAGE. HISTORICAL AND INTRODUCTORY. Ancient celebrity of Min- eral Spas. Roman Customs 1 Baiae and its waters. Renown of Spaa. Origin and gradual development of Harrogate, 18 CHAPTER II. LOCAL SCENERY. Advantages of attractive scenery to invalids. 19 Descriptions of the Environs of Harrogate. View from the Telescope Observatory 26 CHAPTER III. A FEW WORDS ON HARROGATE. General sketch, and peculi- arity of the Air 28 Verdict of an eminent writer upon Harrogate 32 CHAPTER IV. THE WATERS OF HARROGATE. The various springs in use- . 37 PART II. ON AIR, WEATHER, BATHING, &C. CHAPTER I. CHANGE OF Am 45 The effects of impure air. The influence of changes of weather on the general health, in a debilitated state of the skin . 63 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. PAGE. DEBILITY OF THE SKIN AND ITS INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE, IN A CHANGEABLE CLIMATE, UPON THE GENERAL HEALTH. . . 64 Debility of the Skin, though a diseased state, is not always a visible skin disorder. General influence of the skin on internal organs. Explanation of the effects of cold bathing, in a debilitated state of the skin. The value of the REACTION 68 Common causes and results of the debility in question. . . 78 Endowments of the Skin. Sympathetic influences 87 CHAPTER III. DEBILITY OF THE SKIN AS CONNECTED WITH OBSTRUCTED PERSPIRATION. 87 Disastrous consequences of obstructed perspiration in plants as well as man. . . . 90 Glandular torpor of the skin. Vapour baths. TUBERCLE. .. 95 CASE I. Severe chronic bronchitis 96 Examples of checked perspiration 97 CASE II. Pyrosis. CASE III. Nettle rash, tic doloureux, & nervous headache. . . 99 CASE IV. Severe headache 102 CHAPTER IV. BATHS AND BATHING 102 Hot, warm, tepid, cool, cold, vapour and douche baths. .. 122 CHAPTER V. COUNTER BATHING. Description of extreme debility of the skin. Principles of applying baths. Customs of various Nations as regards the use of transition baths 127 PART III. AN INQUIRY INTO THE MEDICINAL CHARACTERS OF THE HARROGATE WATERS. CHAPTER I. PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGATION. The waters have powerful medicinal effects, apart from the change of air 131 CONTENTS. Vll PAOR. They contain ingredients native to the blood in health. . . 1 36 and these ingredients have a variety of constitutional effects when taken separately. BLOOD MEDICATION. Consideration of the NATURAL GROUPS formed by the associa- tion of the various remedies. General suggestions deri- vable from the known action of each. Uses of common salt, or chloride of sodium 142 CHAPTER II. THE MEDICINAL CHARACTERS OF THE CHLORIDES OF POTASSIUM, MAGNESIUM, CALCIUM, &c. Chloride of potassium 146 Chloride of magnesium 150 Chloride of calcium 153 Chloride of calcium is essentially a blood remedy . . . . 154 Rickets, spinal distortions, and scrofula, . . 1 J6 Sulphide of sodium 164 Action of sulphuretted hydrogen, 165 Summary of the argument 169 PART IT. THE MEDICINAL USES OF THE WATERS. CHAPTER I. CHALYBEATE WATERS and their general properties 1 76 CHAPTER II. IMPERIAL CHALYBEATE SALINE. General properties. . . . 182 Play of the passions 186 Struma and glandular obstruction 188 CASE V. Overworked nervous system, secretory torpor, and blood disorder 1 92 Disorders of the spleen. Kala Ximuk 193 Torpor of the liver, 19;"i Atonic indigestion 198 Eruptions of the face, periodic derangements. Spinal irritation . . . 200 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. MONTPELIER SAUKE CHALYBEATE. PAGE. Comparison witn Homburg and other Foreign springs. . . 203 General uses in abdominal plethora, mesenteric obstruction, mucous dyspepsia, induration of liver, &c 208 CAS>E VI . Induration of liver 208 CHAPTER IV. THE STRONG SULPHUREOUS WATERS. Comparison with Foreign Waters. Indigestion, mucous dys- pepsia. Weak digestion 225 Nervous dyspepsia. Bilious affections 232 Abuse of mercury, 236 CASE VIII.. Jaundice of three months' duration, . . 237 Congestion and Plethora. Dropsy. Systemic Indigestion. -- Colonic Indigestion, from excessive use of purgatives. 246 Intestinal Torpor. Causes 248 Rheumatism and Gout 250 Nervine Disorders. CASE IX. Epilepsy 252 CASE X. Sciatica and Neuralgia 253 ERUPTIONS OF THE SKIN. Illustrative Cases, XI-XXI. 254268 CHAPTER V. MILD SULPHUREOUS WATERS. CHAPTER VI. ON CONSTITUTIONAL INFLUENCE, REGIMEN, AND DIET. . . . 272 CHAPTER VII. ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE WATERS 278 APPENDIX. PROFESSOR HOFMANN'S ANALYSIS. THE HAKKOGATE SPAS PART I. HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. TEE HABKOGATE SPAS, CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL AND INTRODUCTORY. The experience of mankind has, from the earliest times, been steadily in favour of the use of natural medicinal springs. Instinct is the same in all ages, because it is the voice of Nature. The practice of bathing must have been coeval with the earliest times of human existence. The curiosity natural to man would soon lead him to experiment upon the proper- ties of various natural springs. And, whether revealed by research or by accident, he would quickly conceive the idea of such springs possessing a medicinal influ- ence. But, as mankind have ever been prone to as- cribe the unknown to supernatural causes, the multi- tude would naturally adopt the belief of presiding deities. In. ancient times, medicinal springs were therefore dedicated to the gods fabled by a designing priesthood. Nations flocked to the most celebrated fountains, while a mysterious and pompous ceremonial irresistibly enthralled the imagination of the credulous, and diverted their attentive regard from the indepen- dent virtues of the spring. Hence charms, amulets, incantations and prayers, disguised the medicine, 2 ^ THE HARROGATE SPAS. while they captivated the heart of the people. It was the privileged priests alone who could propitiate these divine agencies. To them the sick resorted for relief. Under penalty of death, they enforced the treatment of disease according to the established customs recorded within their temples. A new malady could not be treated, for which the records made no provision. The victim, left to the force of Nature, flew to his charms, and incase of restoration, ascribed his recovery to their supernatural efficacy. The spirit of inquiry was systematically denounced and effectually extin- guished. The practice of bathing doubtless preceded that of drinking mineral waters, but the early history of the two is inseparable. "When Circe entertains Ulysses in her palace, a bath is prepared for his reception, after which he is anointed with costly perfumes and robed in magnificent attire. The bath was the first refresh- ment offered to a distinguished guest. "Now, from nocturnal sweat and sanguine stain, They cleanse their bodies in. the neighbouring main ; Then in the polished bath, refreshed from toil, Their joints they supple with dissolving oil: In due repast indulge the genial hour, And first to Pallas their libations pour ; They sit, rejoicing in her aid divine, And the crown'd goblet foams with floods of wine." The Iliad. (Pope.) The strongest motives of human nature, as well as a peculiar training by exercise and thebath, were brought into play by the ancients, for the purpose of developing the physical and mental qualities of the masses. To be a victor at the olympic games, according to Cicero, was considered almost more glorious than a triumph at Home. A competition in which even kings did not THE HARROGATE SPAS. disdain to engage in which the conquerors were said to be equal to the gods, and in honour of whom, statues, not only to themselves but sometimes even to their horses, were erected in the woods encompassing the temple of Jupiter a competition for such mighty dis- tinctions could not fail to exercise all the ingenuity and wisdom of the age for their attainment. Success was final. The victors were maintained at the public expense during the remainder of their lives. Hence an immense multitude of people not only from all Greece, but from most remote countries, assembled to witness the celebration of these games. "Works of genius were there exhibited. It was there that Hero- dotus rehearsed his history where the boy Thucidides wept at its recital and formed the acquaintance of the great historian. The training of the aspirants to these divine hon- ours in the Olympic games, was gradually perfected during centuries of experience and investigation. Bathing and inunctionwere indispensable to their athletic exercises, which, it is said, were instituted 776 years before the Christian era. Bathing establishments were attached at first only to the gymnasia or training schools of the olympic games. Subsequently, the Romans, at the height of their luxury, imitated the Greeks and built magnifi- cent public baths, not only at home but wherever they carried their victorious amis. The remains of these Roman, works, still magnificent in ruins, excite a just admiration of this sagacious policy. The Roman sol- dier surpassed all others in hardihood and prowess, owing to this spirited combination of systematic batJtiny with athletic exercises. THE HARROGATE SPAS. " Hence the limbs, Knit into force ; and the same Roman arm, That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth, First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave. Even from the body's purity, the mind Derives a secret sympathetic aid." But, although the Greeks generally regarded their hot springs as presents from their gods, to whom they dedicated them in consequence of their invigorating virtues yet some of the ancient philosophers ventured upon a different explanation of their effects as Aris- totle, who ascribed them to impregnations with copper, gold, sulphur, bitumen, and nitre. Whilst the priest- hood of paganism long retained a tenacious claim to the treatment of disease, which in no small degree sustained their popular influence. Internal diseases were supposed to be inflicted by an angry demon. This idea, in various parts of the uncivilized world, from the frozen wilds of Xorth America to the torrid climes of South Africa, still prevails. Superstition and the love of the marvellous, amid the glory of conquest and the wisdom of the senate, long enchanted the Ro- man people. "Fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream, rare omen, a singular disorder, a distant journey, per- petually disposed the devout polytheist to multiply the articles of his belief and to enlarge the list of his protectors. The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams possessed in peace, their local and respective influence ; nor could the Roman, who depre- cated the wrath of the Tiber, deride the Egyptian who presented his offering to the beneficent genius of the -Nile. The Greek, the Roman, and the Barbarian, as they UK! before their respective altars, easily per- suaded themselves, that under various names and with various ceremonies, thcv adored the same deities ; THE HARHOGATE SPAS. the elegant mythology of Homer gave a beautiful and almost a regular form to the polytheism of the ancient world. Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects, and the freedom of the city was be- stowed on all the gods of mankind." At this period, the English mineral waters were known in Rome ; " the spirit of improvement had passed the Alps and been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gradually cleared away to open a free space for convenient and elegant habitations. York was the seat of government, London enriched with commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salu- tary effects of its medicinal waters." Roman ruins denoting the site of ancient baths have also been dis- covered at Buxton and Aldborough. Rome, two thousand years ago, had its Baice, its Veil a and Sale mum, the former on the hot and the latter on the cold water systems, and when the one failed the Romans sought the other just as people do now. We are indebted for the celebration of these waters to Horace, who, in consequence of an acrid discharge from his eves, was recommended by the new v / cold-water doctor, Antoiiius Musa, to repair to the very cold waters of Yelia and Salernum, the warm waters of Baiac being thought prejudicial. Horace, in prospect of undergoing this new regimen, thus ex- presses himself to his friend Yala, in his loth epistle, with all the fastidiousness and curiosity of a modern Spa visitor : " Dear Yala, say how temperate, how severe, Are Velia's winters and Salernum's air, The genius of the folks, the roads, how good ; Which eats the better bread, and when a flood Of rain descends, which quaffs the gathered shower ; Or do their fountains purer water pour ? 6 THE HARROGATE SPAS. At sea-port towns I shall expect to find My wines of generous]and smoother kind ; With flowing language to inspire my tongue , And make the listening fair one think me young. With hares or boars, which country's best supplied ? Which seas their better fish luxurious hide ? That I may home return in luscious plight, 'Tis ours to credit, as 'tis your's to write." It is recorded that Antonius Musa had the happi- ness of curing Augustus Csesar of a chronic disease of the liver which his other physicians thought desperate ; a cure which exalted the profession of physic from a state of contempt. The prince and the people contend- ed in honouring a man who had restored a life so valuable to the state. Such glorious distinction was not confined to him alone, but extended to all the pro- fession. The disciples of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, were then first allowed the privileges and immunities of a Roman citizen. The cold bath was now prescribed for all disorders. But the same pre- scription which had cured Augustus having unhappily killcd Marcellus, the whole body of physicians were degraded to their former state of contempt.* But that the use of mineral waters, f and particu- larly of sulphur waters, is of very great antiquity, may be gathered from the poet already quoted, who thus writes in allusion to the change in the fashion of bathing : " By my physician's learn'd advice. I fly From Baiae's waters : yet, with angry eye The village -views me, when I mean to bathe, The middle winter's freezing wave beneath ; Loudly complaining, that their myrtle groves Are now neglected, Sulphureous Stoves j Of ancient fame, our feeble nerves to raise * Dio. lib. 53. Suet. oct. cap. 59. et. 81. t There were other kinds of Mineral Springs at Bake, mentioned by Pliny T Hnrac" uses the word Sutfura, which means sulphur springs. THE HARROGATE SPAS. , And dissipate the lingering cold disease ; "While the sick folks in Clusium's fountains dare Phmge the bold head, or seek a colder air. The road we now must alter, and engage Th' unwilling horse to pass his usual stage, Ho ! whither now ; his angry rider cries, And to the left the restive bridle plies, "We go no more to Baiae " The sulphur waters of Baia\ bubbling forth very near the lake of Avernus, were said to cure the artic- ular disease (rheumatism or gout) and restore motion and use to the nerves and joints. Even before the time of Cyesar, Baioo was the place where the rich llomans thought themselves entitled to lay aside the restraints of republican hypocrisy, and to give them- selves up to the pleasures and voluptuousness which brought this charming place into such notoriety, that Cicero, in his defence of the young M. Caolius, thought it necessary to apologize for defending a man who had lived at Baiee. Baiao is now deserted. The ruins of old baths are now shewn as temples, and as the re- mains of former palaces, visible beneath the waves of the sea. Baiao owed its fame to its beautiful myrtle groves, hot baths, and its situation within a most charming bay, secured by surrounding hills from the violence of the winds. And Pliny says, " by the com- mand of my physician, I must desert the delicious Baianian baths in order to proceed to Salernum and Velia, to be cured of weakness in my eyes."* But the Romans, in the days of their sensuality, were accustomed to use the warm bath for the purpose of removing the ill effects of gluttony, or after an unusual degree of fatigue. The Emperor Titus is said to have fallen a victim to this practice, and so great was the * Flin. lib THE HARROGATE SPAS. extent to which this pernicious custom was carried, that Hadrian at last passed an edict to repress an in- creasing fashion, that did not escape the sarcasm of Horace. " The poor, in mimicry of heart, presumes To change his barbers, baths, and beds, and rooms." And again he writes, " If he lives well, who revels oxit the night, Be gluttony our guide : away, 'tis light ; Then let us bathe, while th* indigested food Lies in the swelling stomach, raw and crude ; - Forgetting all of decency and shame, From the fair book of freedom strike our name." For centuries after the pantheism of Rome was overthrown by Christianity, when the priesthood and its deities had passed away together, baths and min- eral waters became almost generally abhorred and forsaken. In former times men could not or would not be cured by such means unless their imagination was inflamed. They possessed only glimmering lights of science to account for the marvellous. Their rea- son demanded an adequate cause ; the presiding divin- ity of the spring was their only hope. But Christi- anity threw their deities into contempt, and the springs, divested of their pompous ceremonial, lost also their efficacy in public regard. Mankind had to be taught how much had been effected by the medicinal constituents of mineral waters. Accordingly, it was not till the ninth century that the practice of bathing and drinking was revived. Charlemagne set the ex- ample by constructing a splendid suite of baths at Aix-la-Chapelle, for his own use : and, to render bath- ing still more fashionable, he held his levees within their precincts. The ancient name of !>ath was Akc- jn ancestor, (city of afflicted men) and there is good THE HARROGATE SPAS. reason to believe that Bath was much frequented about that time. After the death of Charlemagne, however, in con- sequence of the long series of international disasters which followed, the attention to this subject appeared to nag. We are told, however, that the revival of bathing in Germany was owing to the prevalence of leprosy, supposed to have been caused by want of per- sonal cleanliness : and, however it had formerly been in use among the ancient Germans, it was quite neg- lected from 1144 to 1417. It would indeed seem, such were the habits of the times, that both Sovereigns and ecclesiastics found it necessary to resolve upon in- genious measures, for the purpose of promoting per- sonal cleanliness. The clergy converted the practice of bathing into an act of religion, whilst the Sovereign insisted upon it as an indispensable part of a ceremo- nial. " The people were persuaded that they could ira-sh away their sins and obtain absolution. These baths, so taken, were termed baths of the soul ("Bal- nea anirnarum" and "refrigeria animse"). Many monasteries and baths, particularly vapour baths (va- poraria), were established, and bequests made for the soul baths. By virtue of these, the poor people Avere admitted at stated hours to bathe gratuitously, either in the cloisters or in the baths of the toAvn. They were likewise cupped or bled Avhen they desired, and after- wards fed or presented AA r ith bread, beer, and salt ; and tliis for the benefit of the soul of the founder, and for cooling 1 it and assuaging; its sufferings in the tires of o o o o purgatory." " While the Sovereign, in order to bring the knights to cleanliness, and to get rid of their filthy long beards, 10 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. commanded that no knight should be admitted into any order, or any knight be created, unless he had bathed, and caused his beard to be taken off the even- ing before. These laws of police have now become su- perfluous, but bathing, being no longer a part of the duties of knighthood or of sumptuous marriage cere- monies, and having no connexion with the welfare of souls in purgatory, has fallen into much neglect." To Savonarola of Padua, who wrote upon them in 1498, is due, the revival of the reputation of mineral waters. Our own countryman, Dr. Jones, in 1572, followed up the same subject in England, in a treatise on Bath and Buxton, written in the English tongue, in defiance of the prejudices of the age. For indeed, it was still doubted, even under the new rule of Eliz- abeth, whether any under the rank of gentlemen or merchants, might be permitted to peruse the Scrip- tures in the English. (Hume). Dr. Jones, therefore, deprecated the professional wrath of the times against his anglicised and therefore daring lucubration, with no slight misgivings as to the result : " Xow seeing Galen, in whom was heaped as in a grainard : all knowledge, both philosophical! and phi- sicall, was enuied, disdained, backbyted, and yet of some is : what shall I think to go scot fre, that am so inferiour unto him as the scholar unto the maister : no, no, therefore I will arme my head with patience and my harte with a clear conscience, protesting be- fore God and men (which thorow the cnviousness of the time I am driven to) that this that I have done, T have done neyther of a proud mynd, ambicious de- sire, or ouer wening in myselfe, but of a fervent zeale to the preservation of health and mayntayning of lyfe : THE HARROGATE SPAS. 11 bycause I saw so many repaire thither without all order. By means whereof some went away very sick, that came indifferent well, which if they had had good counsail might. And some more by hap then by cun- ning, as it dyd them no good, so it dyd them no harme." Chemistry, the only key to the real nature of the springs, had been studied chiefly by alchemists, con- jurors, and monks. But the opened Bible had might- ily burst the priestcraft fetters which a dark and big- oted policy had forged for science. England was rousing from an intellectual sleep. For the spirit of the age had breathed upon mankind a quickening energy. It was enough to enlighten the people in order to dispel the mysterious prestige of a pilgrim- age to the wells : a prestige which had too long at- tracted a wondering throng of true believers in their virtues, expecting to obtain as much the pardon of their sins as the cure of their bodies. The phenomena of nature, as in a mirage, forages had not only appeared confused and distorted, but inverted. The flood of light dawning with the vast intelligence of a Bacon, had yet to dispel the delusive mists which shrouded the temple of science. But the healing art, the offspring of observation, after the age of Bacon, could not long escape the transforming touch of science, the true philosopher's stone. The halls of medical learning, however, long re-echoed the sounds of fierce and virulent dispute. But at length, the ge- nius of medicine, arousing from the fevered delirium of enthusiasm, demanded satisfaction for the past and security for the future. Medical science was placed on u new basis, illuminated by the concentrated light of the sister sciences. For it might only be by theii* 12 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. aid that the veil darkly concealing the mysteries of life, health, and disease, could be even partially pene- trated. By the aid of chemistry applied to the blood and animal juices, and the microscopic scrutiny of or- ganised particles, the age-honoured doctrine of Hip- pocrates, the father of medicine, that there are dis- orders of the blood and fluids corresponding to certain diseases of the human frame has been re-established. But as mineral waters act principally upon the blood, it is evident that the doctrine of blood-disorder, re- cently revived, confers a new interest upon the study of mineral springs, calculated to raise them greatly in the scale of medicinal importance. The Baconian philosophy applied to medicine, has, slowly indeed, but securely, relaid the foundations of an ancient doctrine or philosophy of disease, which is based upon facts, not upon mere hypotheses ; and it has taught new facts or generalizations of truth, and new principles for conducting a scientific and there- fore an enlightened investigation of the nature and treatment of disease. The opened Bible did not at once, however, allay the mania for pilgrimages to the springs. " Within the last two years, innumerable herds of people nocked to Saint Mongo's and Saint Robert's well, (near Knares- bro')," though, says Dr. Deane, " they are of no credit, at present, for their superstition and their reputation live and die together : their great and famous cures being rather feigned and imaginary than real." (IG'26.) But though simple " holy waters" were thus strip- ped of their pretensions, public favour was deservedly transferred to the stronger kind ; their effects being .substantial and reputation lasting. Spaa, in Belgium, THE H ARROGATE SPAS. 13 was now, (1626), rising to the height of its celebrity. "So soon as the roads thither were rendered passable, the English, travellers by disposition and great admi- rers of the picturesque, thronged to the fountains, and filled the town with their magnificence. They loved to expend their riches. And those whose energetic passions threw them into dissipation, introduced a fatal and ruinous luxury." The notorious Baiseof the an- cients was revived in the precincts of Spaa. To Dr. De Steers, twenty-five years a resident physician there, resorted the nobility of Europe. Exhausted roues, worn-out hypochondriacs, delicate and pallid conva- lescents, and immense numbers of debilitated persons, certainly found great advantage from the bracing air of the Forest of Ardennes, and the use of the sparkling chalybeate springs at Spaa ; of which several were in use, and all of them enriched with a profusion of an exhilarating gas. "A milord Anglais," accompanied by his medical attendant, in 1626, arrived there, to be placed under the famous de Steers. The gentle- man was singular. During the first three days of every month, he neither ate, drank, nor spoke : he kept his room. On the eleventh day of the month, he would rise early, go out hunting, come home hungry, eating and drinking enormously. In the third part of the comedy, "the scene entirely changed ; he became pas- sionately fond of music, and squandered hundreds upon the squallinis of that day. At the end of the month the taciturnity, fasting, &c., returned." De Steers was not slow in extolling the virtues of the springs. And, acknowledging, as we must do, the powerful tonic effects of steel dissolved in water by carbonic acid gas, we may perhaps forgive De Steers pronouncing 14 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. the verdict " that they had worked miracles of cures, their effects being all but supernatural, exciting the admiration and curiosity of physicians and philosophers who had gone there." For in modern times, Dr. Sutro, a writer on the German Spas, says, regarding Spaa, " You will, find in your experience, that a delicate fe- male, after having been laid up for five or six weeks with severe enteritis, for instance, weakened only in a small degree by the necessary remedial measures, may sometimes take quinine and iron for a very long time before regaining her previous bodily and mental health, while a month's course of one of the above chalybeates, selected according to the previous history and consti- tution of the patient, will often have the effect of com- pletely restoring the former strength. Though less iron was ingested in the latter instance, the remedy was accompanied by the highly-stimulating carbonic acid, so that the moving force of the blood must have been augmented and a greater power of provoking metamorphosis created, besides the addition of the re- quired element" i.e., steel, to the blood. From the time of De Steers the celebrity of Spaa continued to rise. Peter the G^eat, in 1717, resorted thither, exhausted with his unscrupulous and sanguin- ary wars, and menaced with dropsy. Completely re- covering by the use of the Pouhon spring, by drinking twenty-one glasses of three ounces each, every morn- ing before breakfast, he caused a statue of himself to be erected over it, to celebrate his cure. These lines, thereon engraved, tersely describe the virtues of the spring : OBSTRUCTUM REFERAT. DURUM TEJUT. HUMIDA SICCAT. DEBILE EORTIFICAT si TAMEX LIJJIS ARTE. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 15 But long before this period, Harrogate, enriched with a mineral spring similar to that of Spaa, had acquired no little fame by the reports of famous cures performed by the use of this well being rapidly spread among the good people of England. It was discovered in 1571, and no one had written upon it till 1626, yet " the great influx of people of all ranks" shortly af- terwards, shews that it must have become widely celebrated. It was only necessary to authenticate the cures in order to induce the frequenters of Spaa to forego both the expense and toil of " going beyond Sea," and to prefer resorting to " THE ENGLISH SPAW" as it was then called, where it was thought equal ben- efit might be obtained at less risk both to the morals and the purse. But the sturdy English character, ever averse to change and new ideas, except under extreme pressure from without, slowly adopted the idea of forming mag- nificent watering places in imitation of foreigners, for whom they long had nursed a national contempt. Let us glance at MR. MACAULAY'S account of English watering places, a century after Knaresboro was overflowing with visitors to the " English Spaw Foun- taine," at "Harrigate Head." " Bath, as yet, was only a maze of four or five hun- dred houses. The hedgerows intersected the space which is now covered by the Crescent and the Circus. And the poorer patients, to whom the waters had been recommended, to use the language of a contemporary physician, 'had a covert rather than a lodging.' Gentlemen who visited the springs at Bath, slept in rooms hardly as good as the garrets which not many years afterwards were occupied only by footmen. The 16 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. floors of the rooms were coloured brown, with a wash made of soot and small beer, in order to hide the dirt. As for Cheltenham, the cattle browsed over the space now covered by that gay succession of streets and villas. And to Buxton the gentry of the surrounding country resorted, withno greatpleasure or satisfaction." " They were crowded into low wooden sheds, and re- galed with oatcake, and with a viand which the hosts called mutton, but which the guests strongly suspected was dog." Tunbridge Wells, however, so much within the influence of the Metropolis, boasted of greater lux- uries. "The Court, soon after the restoration, visited the springs, but there was no town within a mile of the spring. Hustic cottages, somewhat neater and cleaner than the ordinary cottages of the time, were scattered over the heath. Some of these cabins were moveable, and were carried on sledges from one part of the common to another. To these huts men of fashion, wearied with the din and smoke of London, sometimes came in the summer, to breathe fresh air, and catch a glimpse of rural life. During the season a kind of fair was daily held near the fountain. The wives and daughters of the Kentish farmers came from the neighbouring villages with cream, cherries, wheat- ears, and quails. To chaffer with them, to flirt with them, to praise their straw hats and tight heels, was a refreshing pastime to voluptuaries, sick of the airs of actresses and maids of honour." Now Bath, Buxton, and Tunbridge, were each dis- tinguished by only one kind of mineral water, the springs being respectively hot, cold, and tepid. Buj, when it became generally known that Harrogate was enriched with a great variety of medicinal springs,, THE HARROGATE SPAS. 17 and that excellent accommodation could be obtained either there or at the ancient town of Knaresborough, great numbers of visitors, many with their coaches drawn by six horses, frequented the wells. It was not long, however, before the more rapid medicinal activity of the sulphureous waters, as compared with the cha- lybeates, happily provided remedies of a more exten- sive application. Yet, many circumstances for a long time impeded the progress of a spot thus favoured. In 1571, the whole neighbourhood was a thick Forest. The ancient " Harrigate Head" was an isolated, almost inaccessible, nook in the Wolds of Yorkshire. " He was esteemed a running fellow who could find these springs." Much was required to raise a wilder- ness to the importance of a first-rate Spa. Its dis- tance from the Metropolis, the fostering patron of our English Spas, the dangers of the road, the absence of capitalists to embark in speculations on so sequestered a region, and the want of royal visits, would all con- duce to prevent its rapid rise. We are indeed apt, in these wonderful days of world- wide news carried by lightning and steam, to underrate the difficulty of dif- fusing knowledge at the time we write of. In 1712, the following characteristic advertisement appeared in the Newcastle Courant : "Edinbro', Berwick, New- castle, Durham, and London stage coach begins on Monday, the 13th of October. All that desire to pass from Edinbro' to London, or any place on that road, let them repair to Mr. John Baillic's, at the "Coach and Horses," at the head of Canongatc, Edinbro', every other Saturday ; or to the Black Swan, in Holborn, every other Monday, at both of which places they may be received in the stage coach, which performs the 18 . THE S ARROGATE SPAS. whole journey in THIRTEEN days, without any stop- pages, (if God permits), having eighty able horses to perform the whole journey ; each passenger paying 4 10s., allowing each person 201bs. of luggage ; all above, 6d. per pound. The coach sets off at six o'clock in the morning." Besides, if we compare the circumstances connected with the rapid development of some other watering places, we shall see that the merits of ancient springs situated in the heart of a manufacturing district, can be estimated neither by the style and amount of its archi- tecture, nor the number of its permanent inhabitants. When capital circulates hotly and steadily in a focus of commercial enterprise, an old veteran place of resort necessarily receives for a time an indifferent attention. On the other hand, where no such absorbing interests exist, it is easy to imagine that in an agricultural pro- vince, spirited capitalists find great attractions in the fields of newly-discovered Spas, promising to the plough of modern advancement a harvest too alluring to be despised. So in the wealthy and thickly popu- lated districts, perhaps the most so in Europe, which border on Harrogate, capital is almost wholly ab- sorbed in manufacturing pursuits. Yet any one ade- quately acquainted with the variety and medicinal powers of the Spas of Harrogate, the salubrious cha- racter of its soil, and the freshness of its atmosphere, must be convinced that it has not received that degree of regard which such natural advantages might justly claim. The reflective visitor to these springs, so sur- prising in their profusion, cannot but entertain the idea that, had this singular spot recently acquired a quick notoriety from a sudden discovery of its waters, THE HAREOGATE SPAS. 19 instead of their having been slowly brought to light during a space of three hundred years, it would have had its resources developed in a manner commensurate with its importance. The magic wand of the capital- ist would have transformed the irregular architecture of individual caprice into the bolder and more beauti- ful lines of symmetrical design. CHAPTER II. LOCAL SCENERY. Among the various circumstances which render HaiTOgate attractive as a watering place, we ought in fairness to ascribe much to its local scenery, much to its fashionable gaities, more to its peculiarities of at- mosphere and situation, but still more to the variety and abundance of its mineral springs. We shall touch on these points in order. Local scenery, so far contributing to the health as it is a strong inducement to the invalid to be con- tinually on the move, is of incalculable importance. A retreat devoted to the restoration of the general health, indeed, cannot abound with too many incite- ments for exercising in the open air, which, in pro- portion as it promotes the evaporation of insensible perspiration, necessarily exerts a paramount influence iipon the internal functions of the body. And as too much stress can hardlv be laid upon this point, wo shall tliink it worth while further to touch upon this 20 THE HARROGATE SPAS. question in a separate chapter, for who can doubt tha a dry, sweet and perpetually circulating air is one of Nature's greatest restoratives ? On such accounts in- valid visitors, as far as their strength permits, cannot be too urgently recommended to avail themselves of the benefits of atmospheric influence. For this pur- pose, fortunately the neighbourhood possesses many spots of interest to the tourist. Landscapes of pic- turesque beauty, beetling scars, and venerable ruins, enlivened by enchanting prospects, offer sufficient charms for combining, by exercise among such inter- esting scenes, invigoration of the corporeal with re- creation of the mental powers. RIPOX is an ancient city, remarkable for its early history and spacious Cathedral. There is some archi- tecture yet remaining, of an antiquated date ; the style is much varied, corresponding to the lapse of more than twenty generations ; the sepulchral crypt of the Cathedral silently witnesses the course of time, by an innumerable collection of human skulls. " St. Wil- fred's needle," a Saxon touch-stone crypt, (where "they prick'd their credit who could not thread the needle ;") and the monumental sculpture and ancient inscriptions are worthy of inspection. The nave of the Cathedral is said to be the widest in Great Britain, except those of St. Paul's, Chichester, Winchester, and York. The transept, as also the vestry, contains specimens of very early Norman masonry. The Bishop's Palace, Ripon, is also worthy of attention, and a very fine view of the city may be obtained there. STUDLEY PARK is within two or three miles of Ripon. This celebrated retreat is very richly distin- guished for a graceful combination of natural with THE HARROGATE SPAS. 21 artificial beauties, for its magnificent prospects, ver- dant loveliness, variety of effect, and bold scenic surprises. Indeed it is impossible to give an adequate account of its beautiful scenery in any short descrip- tion. Yet I may mention its having produced in my mind, a most vivid impression of a rare commingling of all those charms of landscape which harmonize with the air of the place as a retreat for monastic medi- tation : what with foreign foliage, gigantic and lux- uriant vegetation, delightful bursts of wood and water, distant views, temples, grottoes, and statues, half hid- den amid sylvan charms, the imagination seems be- wildered in a wilderness of magical effects, and at a loss among its varied landscapes to admire any one in preference to another. I unwillingly quit this topic to pass on to another principal attraction of this place : FOUNTAINS ABBEY ; a majestic pile of ruins, still noble in dilapidated grandeur, and venerable in hoary desolation. The loveliness of its position em- bosomed in a sheltered valley, appearing as if exca- vated for its reception ; the various transmutations of the impressive and the picturesque, the vastness of its deserted halls, the silent repose of its unroofed chan- cel, sadly relieved by the prominent tombstone-slabs of its former occupants the completeness of the ruin with the full preservation of all the details of its ori- ginal ground plan, its unique position, and ready trout stream, and all those harmonious appearances of local advantages which the sagacity of the monks of old displayed in the selection of their habitations ; alto- gether confer an interest upon a visit to Fountains Abbey which no written description can convey. BRIMHAM ROCKS. Pedestrians, who are robust 22 THE HARROGATE SPAS. enough to breast a difficult ascent, in order to enjoy a lofty view, and admire the wild freaks of nature, displayed in the formation of fantastic forms, boulders, blocks, and rocking-stones, dispersed in indescribable confusion, will find here an unusual treat ; less hardy mountaineers can more comfortably survey these rocks from the telescope tower on Harlow Hill. THE "WHARFE and WHARFDALE. A day may be pleasantly spent in visiting this dale which is rich in varied prospects, by proceeding from Starbeck sta- tion to Poole, whence conveyances may be obtained for the valley of the Wharfe, Otley, Ilkley, and Bolton Bridge. BOLTON ABBEY. This may be visited on the same circuit : but the most pleasant and direct route from Harrogate lies on the Harrogate and Skipton road ; it is 16 miles from Harrogate. Bolton Abbey is beautifully situated ; its ivy- wreathed ruins well harmonize with the surrounding scenery, which is at once lovely, striking, and bold, producing a very pleas- ing effect. Here we also have an example of the in- telligence displayed in the selection of monastic sites. Amid lovely and sheltered regions, the river Wharfe here flows quietly past the ruin, but higher up the stream, the scene entirely changes its character ; the banks, no longer flowing in tranquil curves, are found closing in, uneven and rugged ; and strangely hewed by the hand of time and the waters of ages, are fantas- tically chisselled out of the living rock, between which the angry stream, indignant with its narrow bounds, boils and foams in mimic fury amid the obstacles to its passage. The Strid, or narrowest part of this water- nvorn chasm, is always a strong point of interest ; for THE HARROGATE SPAS. 23 it tempts to a feat of hardihood which has already proved fatal. A loquacious guide will tell sufficient traditions of this spot to deter the fool-hardy from at- tempting the apparently easy "feat of the Strid." A pleasing though distant view of Barden Tower cheerfully enlivens the grave solitude of the river and its ravine. Few of the visitors penetrate much farther than this point, though the Tower and Chapel are well worth an extended walk. KXARESBOROUGH, with its Castle-green, dungeons, fortified position, dropping- well, ancient church, rail- way viaduct over the Nidd, and romantic woodland walks on the west side of the river, claims many interesting objects of attraction, and no one should incur the disgrace of having been in its neighbourhood without paying it a visit. St. Robert's and Mother Shipton's Cave and the historical reminiscences of the place, where the murderers of Thomas-a-Becket took refuge, and Eugene Aram perpetrated the murder of Daniel Clark, (signalized by Bulwer), doubtless render this place very remarkable. Its fine old church is also worthy of inspection. Camden mentions the dropping- well of Knaresbo- rough. He says, " the waters thereof spring not up out of the veins of the earth." But the description of this remarkable town, given in the language of the early part of the 17th century, is well worth quotation. " Gnaresbrugh, (commonly called Knarcsborow), is a very ancient Market Town, in the "West Riding of Yorkshire, distant 14 miles from the city of Yorke, where the Pole is elevated 54 degrees and 20 oddc minutes. On the south part thereof is that fair and goodly Fort, so much renowned both for its pleasant 24 THE HARROGATE SPAS. situation and remarkable strength, known by the name of Knaresborow Castle, seated on a most ragged and rough rock ; whence (as learned Mr. Camden saith) it is so named." " Both the Castle and Town are fenced on the south and west parts with the River Nidd ; which is beauti- fied here with two faire bridges of stone, which lead from the Town into the forest adjoining, as also unto a large park of his Majesty's, called Bilton Park, well stocked with fallow deer ; part whereof is bordered by the said river. The town itself standeth on a hill, having almost on every side an ascent to it ; and about it are divers fruitful valleys well replenished with grape, corn, and wood. The waters there are whole- some and clear, the air dry and pure. In brief, there is nothing wanting that may fitly serve for good and commodious habitation, and the content and entertain- ment of strangers. The dropping well is known al- most unto all who have travelled unto this place ; the water whereof distilleth and trickleth down from a Jianging rock over it, not only dropping- wise but also falling into a many pretty little streams : this water first issuing out of the earth not far from the said hanging rock, and running awhile in one entire cur- rent, continueth so, till it cometh almost to the brim of the crag, which being opposed by a damme (as it were artificial) of certain spongy stones, is afterwards divided into many smaller branches, and falleth from on high in manner aforesaid." Knaresborough Spa is near the Starbeck railway- station ; the Spa comprises a chalybeate and ancient sulphur spring and a suite of baths, it is about three quarters of a mile from the " Granby," the chief hotel THE HARROGATE SPAS. 25 at High Harrogate, (as being somewhat the largest.) But we ought, in justice, to remark that there are other first-class hotels both in High and Low Harro- gate, possessing very extensive accommodation. HACKFALL is remarkable for a noble prospect, per- haps the finest in the North of England ; it will amply reward the visitor, although it is 18 miles fqpm Har- rogate and 7 from Bipon. At Mowbray point, as it is called, suddenly bursts upon the sight, a very fine view, full of grandeur in the foreground and soften- ing beauty in the distance. Both the ascent and descent from the summit are of a very pleasing and romantic character forgetting the fatigue. ALMIAS CLIFF is about 4 miles south-west from HarlowHill Tower, and the view from the crags is very fine the valley of the Wharfe may be well seen thence, and a good idea formed of the nature of the ground surrounding Harrogate on the south and south-west side ; a subterraneous passage or fissure is worthy of no- tice, which is of very considerable but unknown length. HAREWOOD HOUSE. Open to visitors on Thursdays, between 1 1 and 4 o'clock. A magnificent residence. In the park, Harewood Castle is still an object of attraction. PLUMPTOX. The property of the Earl of Harewood. Distinguished* for very delightful and extensive grounds, variegated by water, rocks, beautiful walks, and tasteful arrangements of evergreens, &c., it is much visited and greatly admired. RIPLEY CASTLE. The seat of Rev. H. J. Ingilby. Visitors are admitted on Fridays. It is one of the most ancient hereditary possessions in Yorkshire. SWIXTON. About 2 miles beyondHackfall; one of tltf most beautiful and pleasantly- situated mansions in tie 4 26 THE HARROGATE SPAS. neighbourhood ; the grounds have been elegantly laid out at a vast expense and possess great natural and artificial claims for admiration. A bridge, seventy feet high, is thrown over the deep ravine of Quarry Gill. NEWBY HALL. A specimen of Sir Christopher Wren's ^nansion architecture, to which noble wings have since been added. Besides the interesting tap- estries which adorn many of its splendid rooms, and the high order of its exquisite paintings, the visitor will be rewarded by contemplating a costly assemblage of sculpture in the gallery of statues, which is con- sidered to rival the first private collections in the country. HARLOW CAR. Three alkaline sulphureous springs and a complete suite of baths, a chalybeate well, much resembling the Tunbridge water, a romantic view, and a convenient hotel and grounds, quite sequestered and most delightfully as well as warmly situated, here combine to render it an interesting residence for those who require the baths close within reach. THE OBSERVATORY on Harlow Hill, commands, by the ample telescopic aid afforded on its summit, a magnificent panorama of the surrounding country. Indeed, we think it would be difficult, amid English scenery, to hit upon a tower- view of greater loveli- ness, extent, and diversity. The following lines, with which we have recently been presented, gracefully describe the chief beauties of the prospect : " And then on Harlow Tower we stood, The racing breezes coursed around, There stole to us each murmured sound, From distant town, and field, and wood. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 27 Castle and hall, and hamlet, lay Bare to the sky in beauty wild ; And sunlit, proudly flashing, smiled Fair in the golden light of day. There swept a music o'er the lands ; There hung a glory in the skies, That streaked the clouds with thousand dyes ; The laughing streamlets clapped their hands ; And over all the good old shire, Thread-like, there gleam'd the public ways ; And trembled in the purple haze, The distant haven's ancient spire.* Clear bursts of verdure shone with flowers ; Calm sheets of water slept between, And far, past many a regal scene, Uprose the proud York Minster towers. F. A." The view from this tower, in clear weather, always gratifies the visitors, who may thus at once compre- hend the reason of the peculiar freshness of the air of the neighbourhood. They will see High Harrogate, eastward, in the foreground, situated on an extensive upland slope. And, as the eye sweeps over the cele- brated "vale of York, the richest, pleasantest, and most extensive in Britain," the broken line of the Hambledon Hills may be discovered, fading away towards Hull, on the south-east, and Stockton-on-Tees, in the north-east, forming very bold and beautiful objects at 30 miles distance, not unlike sharp but ir- regular clouds hanging upon the horizon in a summer haze. Low Harrogate, as described in 1765, "lies low, dry, and warm, compassed with small hills. To the west and south-west, is a thin, clear, healthy, open, * A resident from Hull, well acquainted with its telescopic appear- ances, pointed out to us, not only a church steeple, but a contiguous factory chimney, which, in his opinion, together with the known di- rection, completely identified the steeple as that of St. Stephen's, Hu-i at a distance of 60 miles. 28 THE HARROGATE SPAS. cold air, from a wholesome rocky desert. On the east and north-east, a fine champaigne, fruitful, plentiful country, fit for all manly exercises : free from what- ever is unhealthy and offensive to the outward senses, either from land or water." CHAPTER III. A FEW WORDS ON HARROGATE. Gaieties and gravities abound at Harrogate. The sick, to use the waters, resort thither both late and early in the year. The gay, seeking an agreeable change rather than a medicinal course, principally appear after the parliamentary recess. Balls, concerts, excursions, and promenading, and the interchange of social visits, then form a conspicuous part of the daily occupations. And, whatever be the causes of the social spirit and cordiality animating the sojourners at Har- rogate, whether derived from frequent excursions of pleasure for the day to these interesting retreats, or the weekly re-unions at the hotels, whence it is cus- tomary to issue cards of invitation to the various balls, or from the common topic of conversation, the virtues of the waters and the encouraging hopes of their success, kindly expressed among the visitors; it is certain that Harrogate is remarkable for an air of friendly intercourse among its visitants, which is in general rather a characteristic of a Foreign than of an English watering place. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the effects of mental enjoyment upon bodily improvement, to prove that the THE HARROGATE SPAS. 29 charms of scenery are real. The medicinal effects of emancipation from the accustomed toils and usual anxieties of routine life, are not to be despised. The brain- worn modern must seek re-invigoration by men- tal rest and bodily exercise, regular hours, and mode- rate indulgence at the social board ; for him, the dis- sipation of accustomed trains of thought must re-string and re-tune the instrument of thought, before he can execute a successful part in the full orchestra of active life. And, indeed, if his taste accord, music will be found no insignificant means of tranquillizing a fevered brain, lulling its restless activities into oblivious re- pose, and beguiling the mind from a pernicious brood 1 ing over bodily ailments. And, hence music has ever been esteemed as one of the greatest and most soothing influences for a mind ill at ease. Harrogate is nondescript either as a village or town. Extremely irregular in the style of its stru tures, it exhibits lordly hotels and handsome as w^- as humble lodgings scattered in curious confusi 1 - Forming a huge quadrant, on its general ground p n , its curvature is turned southward and eastward, Vy- ing its extremities expanded into two dissimilar w i g s - Fronting the whole of this curvature as also the cst- ward side, is an extensive range of open ground Com- prising about two hundred acres, secured by *-ct of Parliament, to the use of the visitors for all t)J pur- poses of exercise. No buildings are allowed rnon the open side of the road. Hence the "stray" trovides an easy and inviting retreat for the invalidfrom his own door to the open air ; one of the chief -harms of the sca-sidc and a great boon to the coivalescent. The stray is beautifully situated, selected fjr military 30 THE HARROGATE SPAS. reviews to which it is admirably adapted, and laid out for a race-course. The stray-owners have, during the last few years, greatly contributed to the salubrity of the stray by an expensive but systematic draining, so that every part of it is now available for exercise, yet, thirty years since Dr. Hunter found the approach to the Tewitt well, or " Old English Spaw" inaccessible to carriages, and seated on a good hunter, he narrowly escaped being bogged, after very considerable exertions 'ttempting to visit it! ,e drainage of the stray, at a cost of above 1000, i now rendered it comparatively dry, and proportion - tely free from those unwholesome marsh vapours hich infest dank and stagnant commons. Many circumstances conduce to the salubrity of the osphere of this part of Yorkshire. The geological racters of the country extending eastward and west- d towards the German and Atlantic oceans, accord- to Professor Phillips, are peculiarly favourable to ess of soil. Currents of air, in passing over these tracts of country, become very considerably mo- . The high ground of Harrogate, thus situated, nea at the narrowest part of England and at about 50 iUes distance from the eastern and western coasts, enjo\ the oceanic breezes at once softened and dried by a Wl passage, and nearly purified of saline matter. Thaummit of Harlow Hill is, according to the Ord- nance Virvey, 596 feet above the sea-level, so that the view frbii the top of the observatory is commanded from ark)levation of 700 feet. While High Harro- gate chilch, at its base, is nearly 450 feet above the same levi ; Low Harrogate being 120 feet lower. THE H ARROGATE SPAS. 31 "Westerly breezes prevail. Heavy showers rapidly disappear in the absorbent soil of this district. These points, in a great degree, account for that peculiar lightness of the air of Harrogate, which is almost the first thing that strikes visitors on their arrival from lowland countries, especially those emerg- ing from low, damp, or marshy districts. Dr. Garnett, the accomplished physician, who 64 years ago was the first to form a definite analysis of the springs, tersely declares "No place can boast of a purer or better air than Harrogate. Almost every person, on coming here, experiences a lively, bracing, exhilarating power. Situate at a great height above the level of the sea, it experiences the breeze from whatever point it blows. The air never stagnates but circulates freely, and is not rendered humid by stagnant water. And we often hear " travelled" visitors speak of it in similar terms. MILTON would have certainly said of this, if of any place, " But hero I feel amends, " The breath of heaven fresh blowing pure and sweet." And this accounts for the fact that the locality is free from those autumnal effluvia arising from vegetable decomposition, which are so greatly favoured by damp- ness of soil and a stagnation of atmospheric currents. The very varied style of building, in I larrogate, affords great choice as regards handsomely-furnished houses, or well-appointed apartments in lodgings or hotels. The charge for lodgings varies considerably at different times of the year, regulated somewhat by the term for which they are engaged and the demand ; while at the hotels the prices are generally uniform throughout the season. And most of these hotels are distinguished 32 THE HARROGATE SPAS. as much for the abundance and elegance of their tables as for the moderation of their weekly charges.* There are four distinct bathing establishments. The Montpelier Baths and grounds, comprising several mineral springs, and the Victoria Baths are all in Low Harrogate. But the Knaresbro' Spa is situated near the Starbeck Railway Station, on the Leeds Northern line ; whilst the Harlow Baths are about a mile west of Harrogate. The most direct route from London and the South, to Harrogate, is by the Great Northern, at King's Cross. Passengers by this line change once at Church Fenton and proceed thence direct to Low Harrogate station, near the Brunswick Hotel. This route would include passengers from Peterboro, Lincoln, and Ret- ford : mistakes are frequently made by passing from this liner ound by Leeds. It is, in general, more direct from points on the Midland Counties railway and the western side of England, to proceed to Leeds from Xormanton and alight at the High Harrogate Station, at Starbeck. f Harrogate is a seven hours' ride from Town. We shall conclude this chapter with some extracts from Dr. Granville's " SPAS OF ENGLAND," who, though often comically satirical upon some of the sa- lient points of a somewhat old fashioned watering place, and accordingly accused of gross misrepresenta- tion, has pronounced a favourable verdict, if not * From six to seven shillings per diem for board and lodging. f Harrogate is 191 miles from London, 20 from York ;."from Leeds 15, Otley 10, Ilipon 11, Studley Park and Fountains Abbey 14, Bolton Bridge 16, Brimham Rocks 8, Hacisf'all 18, llipley Castle 4, Plump- ton 3, and Kuaresboro' 3 miles from llarrcgate THE HARROGATE SPAS. 33 a more eulogistic, for Harrogate, than upon any other mineral Spas, whether German or English. "Such a profusion of important mineral springs collected it one place, renders Harrogate a genuine Spa, to which thousands must flock annually to seek health, some under proper advice and management, others at random. Even in Germany, hardly any one of the most popular Spas, Baden Baden, Wiesbaden, and perhaps Carlsbad excepted, can boast of having had, during any one year, a much larger assemblage of water bibbers." (Written in 1839.) " Like most of the really celebrated Spas in England, Harrogate was, at the first discovery of its springs, a mere village: but unlike most of them, Harrogate remains a village to this day. ..." " This is precisely the circumstance which has saved Harrogate. Who can cavil at the nature, genuine- ness, and efficacy of the Harrogate Waters ? On the other hand, who has not cavilled, and cavils to this day, at the Waters of Leamington and Cheltenham ? Those of Harrogate are unsophisticated : because the place remains as it was. Harrogate is, in fact, a true and genuine Spa. The situation is delightful. And for geological formation favourable to human life, Harrogate stands almost pre-eminent. That such a place must enjoy a salubrious air it is hardly necessary for me to add. The extensive walks which, with im- mense tracts of finely-cultivated country, surround this favoured spot, allow full play to the sweeping breezes, and render the air remarkably pure and bracing. Nothing can be purer than the air of Har- rogate. Its elasticity is felt by every new visitor im- mediately on his arrival. A spirited capitalist would 34 THE HARROGATE SPAS. find an unexplored mine of wealth in Harrogate, which is not one of your ephemeral Spas, dependent on fashion ; its almost peculiar waters are lasting, and so must, and will be, their reputation." " I have dwelt more largely, perhaps than is con- sistent with the nature of the present work, on the Spas of Harrogate. But among the few really important Spas of which England can boast, in comparison to other countries, I hold Harrogate to be of such mani- fest superiority indeed, I was going to say uniqueness, on account of the peculiar nature of its waters, (if properly managed) its sulphur-mud, now first recom- mended, and its situation, that I felt anxious to bring all its merits before the general reader more fully than any medical treatise has done before." " Harrogate has the elements within itself of be- coming a Spa of the first magnitude, even to the extent of attracting foreign travellers." THE HARROGATE SPAS. 35 CHAPTER IV. THE WATERS OF HARROGATE. Many reasons have, for ages, induced both the healthy and the sick to resort to mineral Spas in quest of relaxation or relief. We are lovers of Nature more than lovers of art. The wearied merchant and the jaded man of letters equally expect, in change of scene, with all its change- ful circumstances, relief from the cares and anxieties of accustomed toils. With this class there is a grow- ing inclination for resorting to the medicinal Fountains of Nature. And this is still more the hope of the invalid who is wearied with perhaps long and in- effectual treatment by drugs. But whatever virtues may be fairly claimed for mineral waters when pro- perly selected, it is impossible to deny great benefit to the " change of air." The fresh mountain air, the early exercise, the mental relief, the hearty appetite, and the pleasant society of the assembled company, all tend greatly to invite the return of health, and assist most materially the medicinal operation of our waters. But this cannot disprove the curative influence of the springs. Regimen does much, but it is not all- sufficient. The good effect of regimen is no argument against the virtue of medicine ; neither can it be an argument against the virtue of powerful springs de- monstrated to hold in solution the most active medi- 36 THE HARROGATE SPAS. cinal agents with which we are acquainted. It is our duty, as physicians, to place our patients under the most favourable circumstances for resisting disease. That such circumstances must abound at a spa, afford- ing unrivalled variety in the character of its waters, unsurpassed purity of air, and every inducement to enjoy it, and facilities for treatment not obtainable at home, cannot be disputed. NOT in accounting for the improvement frequently witnessed among visitors can we omit the influence of hope. It is not merely the patients but enlightened phy- sicians who avow a decreasing confidence in the exhi- bition of drugs. They depend rather upon every known means for insuring the improvement of the general health. Many an invalid delights under new skies and a purer air, to try the sparkling draughts of Nature's fountains after art has failed ; and he may well be excused an enthusiastic confidence and a lively hope which greatly contribute to his restoration. The mystery which ever shrowds the secret alchemy of Nature inspires his trust. He rejoices, in spite of the interrogating spirit of the day, to be cured by subtle agencies above his comprehension, as much as he loves to contemplate the sublime and the beautiful. And though, while contemplating the healing waters springing from the rock, he may see little of the sublime or the beautiful in their gush, except in the accidental scenery of their birth, yet he cannot but think with Hofmann, the celebrated physician to the king of Prussia, that "mineral waters are of such virtue and efficacy for the preservation of health and cure of diseases, as in the highest degree to exceed other remedies prepared by the nicest art." THE HARROGATE SPAS. 37 And these considerations become more cogent when we reflect how great a change has come over the physician's dream of physiological life how great a change has passed upon the present generation from the constitutions of their forefathers, whom not to bleed too often was to kill, but whose children can seldom admit of that proceeding at all. The day of the conquest of disease by heroic remedies is passing away. It is the decline of the general health which the physician has now principally to contend against ; and whether he restores it by vegetable or by mineral remedies, by regimen or by bathing, or by all of them combined, this is the true secret of his success. Nor can it be concealed that the cordial co-operation of his patient wonderfully promotes the success of the physician. But since Nature has, over many lands, distributed her mineral fountains, everywhere distinct and en- dowed with peculiar virtues fitted for particular con- stitutions and special disorders, we cannot undertake to assert that our springs of Harrogate, however various and complex in composition, are capable of curing every disorder to which man is subject. And we conceive that their just reputation can only bo established upon a secure basis, by demonstrating in what cases these waters are really medicinal, rather than by claiming for them an almost universal application. The waters of Harrogate may be arranged into foin- distinct classes : I. The pure chalybeate or steel springs. II. The saline chalybeates.. 38 THE HARROGATE SPAS. III. The mild sulphureous springs. IV. The strong sulphureous springs. I. STEEL SPRINGS. (1) THE STARBECK CHALYBEATE. (2) THE SWEET SPA, near the Granby Hotel, High Harrogate. (3) THE HOSPITAL CHALYBEATE. (4) THE HARLOW CAR SPRING, very similar, as already stated, to the Tunbridge water, according to the analyses of Mr. "West and Sir C. Scudamore, re- spectively. (5) THE TEWIT WELL, or " OLD ENGLISH SP AW," near the Brunswick Station. (6) THE ROYAL STEEL SPRING, recently added to the attractions of the Cheltenham Pump-Room. II. SALINE CHALYBEATES.* (1) THE IMPERIAL CHALYBEATE SALINE ;f Chel- tenham Rooms. This name distinguishes it from the saline chaly- beate in the Montpelier Gardens which contains nearly a fourfold amount of saline matter, but only a little more than half the amount of the chalybeate impreg- nation of the Imperial spring. (2) THE MONTPELIER SALINE CHALYBEATE, so de- signated in Professor Hofmann's Report, by the authority of the Medical Committee, had been form- erly named the Kissengen water. This remark, it is * Low Harrogate. f Incorrectly named the Cheltenham Water, to which it has no re- semblance whatever. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 39 hoped, will prevent the confusion arising from the simultaneous use of two distinct names.* III. MILD SULPHUREOUS SPRINGS. (1) The weakest in saline matters are those of HARLOW CAR : but which, as they possess a peculiar softness and alkaline reaction, are admirably adapted for bathing purposes in all irritable states of the skin, when the stronger kind prove too stimulant. Three springs are in use to supply the baths. The waters there are, like that of Starbeck, exceedingly pure and transparent. (2) Next in saline strength is THE STARBECK SUL- PHUREOUS WATER ; which, being constantly collected in covered reservoirs, one of which is now completing of a capacity of 80,000 gallons, supplies from one spring alone, sufficient water for 10,000 baths during the season : the weekly supply of water being about 10,000 gallons. (3) THE MAGNESIA WATER ; now introduced by a gutta-percha tube from the bogs into the Royal Pump- Room. This water, also distributed at the bogs by a Wedgewood apparatus, is at present most lavishly al- lowed to run to waste ; and though producing at least an equal supply of water with the Starbeck spring, and from its chemical composition being equally adapted for preservation and bathing purposes, yet no means are available for securing baths of this water to the general public. It is nevertheless patent to every well-informed resident, that the Hospital patients, who * Sec the publication " Harrogate and its Resources" with an Ap- pendix of Medical Remarks, by the Committee. 40 THE HARROGATE SPAS. principally use this water as an external application, thus derive very distinguished benefit. It has received its appellation from the whitish appearance caused by the deposition of some carbonate of lime and mag- nesia after long exposure in open vessels. In the Analytical Report, it is termed the Hospital mild sul- phur-water. Several mild sulphureous waters are observable in open wells at the bogs, about sixteen in number, of which two only have been analyzed by Professor Hof- marni, viz., the magnesia water, and the Hospital strong sulphur-spring. But there is here a supply of mild sulphureous waters from those wonderful geolo- gical strata, at the bogs, adequate for the formation of public baths on a very large and liberal scale. System- atic reservoirs for continually collecting the waters, might be constructed, sufficient for the distribution of 100,000 gallons, weekly, of bathing- water. Cheap baths of the best waters, plentifully supplied close at hand, would prove a great boon to the visitors, and an incalculable advantage to the town. (4) THE NEW CRESCENT WATER. We venture to give this title to the Hospital strong sulphur-water now marked at the bogs by a rude square covering of masonry. In Dr. Garnett's time, no spring was more popular than the Old Crescent water, now unfor- tunately lost. He announced an extraordinary fact, that sulphur and iron were both transparently dis- solved in the water : a chemical enigma. For, a fa- vourite experiment among the visitors is to mix a glass of the sulphur-water with one of the steel spring, the mixture instantly assuming an inky colour. I low Nature here contrived to combine, transparently, the THE HARROGATE SPAS. 41 chalybeate with the sulphureous principle, in the old and new Crescent water, we are unable to explain. The new Crescent water, however, as well as the old, is distinguished for this marvellous combination : and one indeed extremely rare. COMPARATIVE ANALYSES IN GRAINS PER GALLON. New Crescent Water. Old Crescent Water. HOFMANN. GARNETT. Saline Matters 438 grs. 1 Saline Matters 171 grs. Carbonate of Iron 1 j Carbonate of Iron .... 2 CUBIC INCHES OF CUBIC INCHES OF Sulphureous gas 25 | Sulphureous gas 13| (5) THE MONTPELIER MILD SULPHUR WATER is supplied, as the name indicates, at the Montpelier Gardens, and is intermediate in strength between the Starbeck water and the spring just described, but pos- sesses properties somewhat different, as a compari- son of the analyses will readily demonstrate. (6) A mild sulphur-water, of which no trustworthy analysis is now extant, is also exhibited at the Victoria Bathing Establishment. IV. STRONG SULPHUREOUS SALINE SPRINGS. (1) THE OLD SULPHUR- WELL, or Royal Sulphur Spa, has now for centuries been the lion of Harrogate. And, honoured by a handsome Pump-Room, close to the Crown Hotel, it is, of all others, the spring most resorted to, and comparatively for the relief of a greater variety of bodily infirmities. But, (2) THE MONTPELIER STRONG SULPHUR- WELL is so similar in composition as to induce the belief that, with slight modifications, the two must have a 42 THE HARROGATE SPAS. common source. Great numbers resort to this spring. And, in consequence of the delightful and shady re- treat afforded by the grounds, and the musical band in attendance, besides the two other waters obtain- able there, as well as various kinds of baths, the establishment is deservedly popular. Such then, are the principal drinking-waters in use at Harrogate. But numerous as these are, many others exist. Within no great circuit, nearly a hundred different mineral springs attest the bounties of the liberal hand of Nature to meet the wants of not a few of the ills which flesh is heir to. Concerted excursions, to the various scenes we have briefly depicted in words, form a conspicuous feature in the summer pastimes. These trips, for reasons already mentioned, we would encourage by every possible means. If change of air be the dernier resort of physicians, and sometimes surpasses in beneficial effect the most skilfully- applied medicines, we are not to depend on mere change of residence, but upon a full submission to the free influences of the air of the country, not of closed carriages, nor of close rooms, but upon frequent, persevering exposure to the bracing breezes. The animation and gay hilarity usually created by parties of pleasure, the charming strolls through new but romantic scenes, and the redoubled exertions and amusing adventures, incident to an agreeable |J/c nic, cannot fail, when judiciously man- aged, profoundly to promote, in a care-worn, over- wrought, nervous system, the restoration of the gen- eral health. We cannot wonder, therefore, at the frequency and success with which such excursions are so happily projected. THE HAEEOGATE SPAS PART II. ON AIR, WEATHER, AND BATHING; AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE GENERAL HEALTH ; ESPECIALLY IN AN UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF THE SKIN. ON AIR, WEATHER, BATHING, &c. PART II. CHAPTER I. CHANGE OF AIR. Connected with the external world by exquisite sensibilities, the human frame is undoubtedly sub- jected to innumerable influences through the medium of the air. Its nerves, widely spread upon the surface, catch a thousand impressions, the transmission of which, more or less, institute important organic chan- ges. Man has, within him, besides the mental, an assimilative principle of growth in common with plants. The same influences which, borne on the wind and poured in the sunbeam, so tenderly cherish the flowery loveliness of the valley, and so lavishly develope the majesty of the forest, also tell upon him, in health, with a purpose equally constant and bene- ficent . It was of truth, with a deep philosophic in- sight that Thompson finely wrote : " Ye fostering breezes, blow ! Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend, And temper all, thou world-reviving sun, Into the perfect year." Surely, man, to whom belongs the susceptibilities of a sentient being, as well as the vegetative process of nutrition, still more yields to such influences ever stir- ring around and within him. Change of air, including many changes in the condition of the atmosphere, cannot have been without reason designated as the dernier resort of the convalescent and languishing sick, 46 THE HARROGATE SPAS. who not seldom find in it a means of completing those constitutional changes which, it may be, medical art had already established. The harp of Hygeia some- times swells forth the music of health, responsive to the fresh mountain-breath, in harmonies in vain evoked amid the discordant din of cities. The change, indeed, involves much more than mere change of air. Nature's wheels, in the whirl of mod- ern times, oft-times groaning on their axles, demand the oil of relaxation. In convalescence from acute diseases, change of air is the best restorative. Country air, to delicate children reared in cities, will often establish the ruddy glow and sprightly vigour of health, when all other means have failed. Pure air freely ventilating the lungs during health- ful exercise, is unquestionably the most efficient restorative and purifier of the blood. The want of it, in effect, the most fatal poison. The large draughts of fresh air inhaled by the sportsman in the heat of the chase, by its supply of oxygen, burns off, as in a slow furnace, the waste and worn-out particles intend- ed continually to be thrown off in health. Contrast his healthy brilliance of complexion, with the sickly appearance resulting from deprivation of fresh air, though active exercise, perhaps, in factories and workshops, may not have been wanting. The blood becomes poisoned by the accumulation of its own pro- ducts, unless freely ventilated every moment. Change of air, then, by placing the system under increased facilities for spontaneous purification, when the opposite conditions have long persisted, must have an important effect on disorders arising from an im- pure state of the blood. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 47 Curious is that law of Nature which renders the nourishing element of one organ poisonous to the life when applied to another. Carbon, the chief basis of every kind of food, and oxygen, the active agent in its consumption, unite chemically in the blood forming that carbonic acid, so fatal if accumulated in the blood, yet so grateful when introduced into the stomach, as in champaign and other effervescing wines. In health, a just equilibrium is established between the amount of oxygen inhaled by the lungs and of the carbon, in the blood, supplied by the food. The oxygen consumes the carbon, the product is ex- haled as carbonic acid. Hence it necessarily follows that insufficient ventilation of the lungs, and particu- larly when impure air is breathed continuously, per- mits an excess of carbon to accumulate within the system. Thus, the amount of the dark venous blood gradually preponderates over that of the scarlet arte- rial blood ; and this explains the dusky complexion of persons labouring under a process of slow carbonic acid poisoning : an appearance also often witnessed in those dying from the effects of diseased lungs ; and a con- stant effect of an inadequate supply of oxygen. Car- bonic acid, acting upon the brain and nerves, stupifies the intellect, prostrates the energies, and depresses all the vital functions, whilst, on the contrary, the action of oxygen is to impart vigour, elasticity, and nerve, and to vivify all animated nature. Any means, therefore, which tend to remove the poison and supply the antidote, are of the utmost con- sequence to the health. The air of sleeping apart- ments is not seldom one of the unsuspected causes of a carbonized state of the blood. 48 THE HARROGATE SPAS. A most common condition is a surcharge of the blood with carbon : a certain result of a prolonged in- dulgence in close apartments, close carriages, and ill- ventilated assemblies. The following anecdote will illustrate this point : A young lady who came to Bath, to put herself under the care of Dr. Adair, gave a rout, and insisted that he should be of the party. The room was small, the company very numerous. He had not been seated long at the card-table, before a young gentleman fell into a swoon. The doors and windows, as a matter of course, were thrown open, by which the young lady was much injured. How the rest of the company fared (said the Doctor) I know not, but my own feelings and sufferings after I retired from this oven, convinced me of the dangerous conse- quences of such meetings. On declaring, a few days afterwards, to one of my medical brethren, my reso- lution of writing a bitter philippic against routs, he archly replied, " Let them alone, doctor, how other- wise should ticenty-six physicians subsist in this place ?" It cannot be doubted, that in the continual expo- sure to the deleterious influence of the emanations collected in such assemblies, originate many of the nervous symptoms consequent upon the enjoyment of the London season. Persons so affected, in fact, la- bour under a slow poisoning from carbonic acid gas. This gas, it is true, exists in the atmosphere, but only in minute quantities, viz. i per cent. But in crowded assemblies, and in close rooms, especially where candles, oil, camphine, or wax-lights, are consumed, the per centage frequently rises a hun- dred fold. Lavoisier, upon examining the air of a hospital in Paris, discovered such an increase, viz : THE HARROGATE SPAS. 49 In the lowest ward 4 per cent, of carbonic acid gas. In the highest ward 2 J The air of the Tuilleries, after the end of a play, con- tained also 2 J per cent. Terrible examples of whole- sale mortality, not merely in the barbarous murders of the notorious Black If off* Calcutta, but in a chari- table hospital, are on record. During the years 1782 1785, two thousand, nine hundred, and forty-four children, under 14 days old, died in the Lying-in Hospital, at Dublin, out of 7G50 ; this prodigious loss of life was at last ingeniously traced to deficient ventilation, in consequence of all these children dying under symptoms of carbonic acid poisoning. All these ill-fated little victims "foamed at the mouth, their thumbs were drawn up into the palms of their hands, their little jaws were locked, the face swelled, and they looked as though they were choked." The ventilation of the wards, by means of tubes, six inches in diameter, introduced into the ceiling, completely succeeded in arresting this shocking mortality. In the next three years, the mortality was diminished nine times. Only 165 died in that time out of 4243. Never was any principle more fully established. An unsuspected chronic poisoning from vitiated air had long reigned with unmitigated malignity. * Mr. Holwcll and all the survivors from the catastrophe, were im- mediately seized with putrid fever. Mr. Hohvell says, his thirst in the Hole at first grew insupportable ; his difficulty of breathing in creased ; and he was seized with a strong palpitation of the heart. Such were the sufferings of those unfortunates " that they used exe- crations and abuse to provoke the guard to fire upon them and end their miseries. They dropt fasten all sides, and a pungent steam arose from the bodies of the living and the dead as pungent and volatile as hartshorn.' 1 '' G 50 THE HARROGATE SPAS. The tender condition of young infants requires, on their first introduction to atmospheric influence, a purity in its nature which cannot excite too much solicitude. Our forefathers, to judge by an ancient M.S. poem, must have suffered far less from such poisoning than their dissipated descendants. It was the custom at Court, immediately after dinner, to re- sort to the open air for games of amusement. " To daunce they went, all in same To see them playe hyt was fayr game A ladye and a knyght, Ther they playde, the somers daye All what hyt was neyr nyght." A simple calculation will shew how readily the air of an inhabited room, when badly ventilated, may become impregnated with carbonic acid gas. We breathe about 17 times per minute during sleep, and more frequently when awake : and at each breath inhale about six pints, i. e. about one thousand gallons in eight hours. But air, returned from the lungs, contains four per cent, of carbonic acid, so that about forty gallons of the gas are diffused in a sleeping apartment, in the course of a single night, by the respiration of one person. In a close unventilated bed-room, towards morning, the air becomes ex- ceedingly unwholesome to its occupant. And if the room be small, and used by two persons, the whole of its contained air will have been respired,. and be sufficently impregnated to act as a slow poison on the constitution when long continued. "We have seen Lavoisier found the air of a hospital contained one hundred times its natural proportion of carbonic acid, viz. 4 percent., i. e., the same percentage as air once inhaled. The patients were in effect, therefore, THE HARROGATE SPAS. 51 breathing entirely vitiated air. But experiments have been conducted to ascertain in what proportions common air requires to be impregnated with the gas, in order to have a poisonous effect. Dr. Golding Bird, ascertained that an atmosphere containing five per cent., proved fatal to a bird in thirty minutes : we!* cannot doubt that a much less impregnation would in time prove highly t deleterious. Professor Christison remarks, " the cases of insidious poisoning by small doses of carbonic acid gas, scarcely admit of explanation, save on the grounds of the essential and specifically poisonous action of the gas, when suf- ficiently diluted to become respirable." Delicate persons with contracted chests, are much more sensi- tive to the poisonous action, the first symptoms of which, and generally experienced after long contin- uance in hot, close, and crowded assemblies, are throbbing head-ache, a feeling of fulness and of tight- ness across the temples and back of the head. Gid- diness, loss of muscular power, a sensation of tightness at the chest, increased action of the heart and palpi- tation often succeed. The ideas become confused, the memory partially fails ; a buzzing noise in the ears, impaired sight, a strong tendency to sleep, or some- times actual fainting occurs. These are the early stages, when speedy removal to fresh air will do much to restore animation. It is unneeessary to describe the severer symptoms. The gas is absorbed as well by the skin as by the lungs, and thus produces equally injurious effects. We cannot doubt that much of the mortality in the war-hospitals had its origin in the same cause. Ballingall, whose extensive experience deserves attention, declares "It has often been proved 52 THE HARROGATE SPAS. that more human life was destroyed by accumulating sick men in low, ill-ventilated apartments, than by leaving them exposed in severe and inclement weather, at the side of a hedge or common dyke."* The removal from such deleterious vapours is, then, a powerful reason of benefit received by change of air. Indeed, so animating are the effects of emerging from close cities to the fresh breezes of the hills, that it seems much of the enchantment of the loveliest scenery would lose its chief spell, but for that ex- hilarating air which gives a keener sense for the beautiful. " Thus, when the changeful temper of the skies, The rare condenses, the denser rarifies New motions on the altered air impressed, New images and passions fill the breast ; Then the glad birds in tender concert join, Then croaks the exulting rook and sports the lusty kine." Virgil, But other changes in the air we breathe result from resorting to new localities. Let us consider its com- position and action in another point of view. The atmosphere, forty miles high, becomes rarer as we ascend ; but, if reduced to one uniformly dense envelope around the earth, it might be considered as about five miles deep. Three gases form it by simple mixture without chemical combination, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid. Neither of these gases interferes with the other. The circumambient ocean is made * Dr. Arnott's ventilator, usually inserted in the flue of the chimney, near the ceiling, is, we think, the most efficient instrument in use. The air of a sleeping apartment furnished with it, during some months of observation, constantly seemed fresh and pure after an early ramble on the hills, when the ventilator had remained open during the night, and as uniformly felt close and impure when it had remained closed at night. THE ITARROGATE SPAS. 53 respirable, by the dilution of its oxygen with nitrogen. The oxygen, diffused, uncombined and ever active in the processes of all animated nature, essentially sustains every terrestrial form of life. Carbonic acid forms an immense treasury for the growth and nutri- ment of animals and plants. These elements combine in producing, upon the surface of the body, a variable pressure which, when the barometer stands at 30 inches, and the thermo- meter at 60 degrees, may be estimated as follows : Pressure of Nitrogen gas 22764 Ibs. Oxygen gas 6912 Carbonic acid gas 15 Watery vapours ... . 309 Total average pressure on the sur- ) o r,nn face of the human body ) ' This calculation explains the influence, on the general health, of variable weather, as indicated by the baro- meter, and of residing on very high ground. It also shews that the weather-glass, for every movement of the mercury, denotes a change of pressure on the hu- man frame, at the rate of one thousand pounds pres- sure for each inch of rise or fall within the tube of the instrument. According, then, to individual po- cidiarities, delicate persons experience a real change of sensation dependent on barometric change of wea- ther. A sudden rise in the glass is, in some, accom- panied by an increased flow of animal spirits, corres- ponding to increased atmospheric pressure. Two inches rise denotes two thousand pounds increase of pressure, whilst a similar fall, foreboding inclement skies, elicits a corresponding languor or depression. And it is remarkable that Dr. Moffat has recorded, that of seven sudden deaths, five happened with a 54 THE HARROGATE SPAS. north-west wind accompanied by hail-storms. And, that during the years 1850, 1851, all the attacks of ap- oplexy occurred either during, or immediately after, a fall in the barometer. The atmospheric pressure, indeed, acts upon every part of the frame as a univer- sal and subtle bandage pressing equally in all direc- tions. The tension thus produced is an essential con- dition for the discharge of the vital functions ; and, the variation of that tension, a cause of definite alteration of those functions. They say it is impos- sible to infuse a good cup of tea on the top of a high mountain, because water, owing to the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, evaporates at many de- crees below the boiling point : a fact which simply illustrates the principle, that evaporation from the human skin proceeds more rapidly on high ground. We may therefore give a scientific apology for the complaints of the delicate, uttered during the preva- lence of unfavourable weather. "We can account for the depression, sinking, weakness, and tremor, diffi- culty of breathing, and general discomfort, which then, more or less, actually distresses them. The loss of tension is real, and, doubtless, so are also, in many persons, the corresponding sensations. But the individual effects of increased or diminished pressure depend entirely upon the state of the constitution at the time. The nervous centres are peculiarly susceptible to this alteration. The brain and its continuation into the spinal canal, are protected in a bony case, and by means of the blood-vessels with which they are plcii- tifullv supplied, are susceptible to atmospheric pres- sure which is unerringly transmitted by the fluid THE HARROGATE SPAS. 55 which surrounds them, like a water cushion, within the skull and spinal column. But variable pressure especially affects nervous sensation. Let us illustrate this point from Mr. Lane's Travels in Egypt. He describes a curious custom of the Eastern ladies, in- tended to modify the pressure of blood about the head in that torrid climate. First comes a small close-fitting cotton cap, next, a red cloth one with a tassel at the crown. A square kerchief of printed or painted muslin, or one of crape is wound tightly round. A kind of crown, called ckoor's, is a common ornament among the ladies, sewn upon the cloth cap. It is often made of dia- monds, set in gold, but of considerable iceight. It is at first painful to wear, and women who are in the habit of wearing it, complain of head- ache when they take it off ! But further. Atmospheric changes profoundly affect the motion of the animal juices. Baron Liebig has published an interesting volume on this subject. It appears from his researches, that the salutary influence which has ever been ascribed to change of air, depends upon new r ly-discovered prin- ciples. Delicate membranes pervade the human frame. The minutest blood-vessels consist of tubes of such membranes inconceivably attenuated. The ultimate tissues are placed on their outside, and the circulating fluids within them. But sue// fluids pos- sess the] property of exuding t/t rough the membrane in a manner ichich depends, according to LIEBIG, principal?// upon atmospheric pressure, the drt/ncss of the external air and its temperature. The same principles regulate the passage of the digested food through the mucous 56 THE HATIROGATE SPAS. membrane into the blood- vessels ; and the same prin- ciples regulate, when the skin is in a healthy condi- tion, the evaporation of the Insensible perspiration, as well as the exhalation of effluvia from the lungs. An experiment, known to every housewife, will illus- trate this point. If a common jar be filled with water and tightly covered with a thin bladder in dry weather, especially on high ground, the bladder will shortly become concave by the evaporation of some of the contained water. Evaporation from the leaves of trees produces a powerful force which raises the sap to the highest leaflet from the lowest root. All this accounts for the increased appetite, im- proved digestion and heightened spirits, experienced from exercise promoting perspiration, whether sensi- bly, as in sweat, or insensibly, as a vapour, in the open air and on high grounds, when the atmosphere is clear, dry, and highly favourable to eA 7 aporation. On the contrary, we know that a damp, murky, situation is exceedingly unfavourable to the spirits and general health. .Sidney Smith describes his sensations on re- turning from the country to town, with his usual piquante style. I have just got into all my London feelings, says he, which come on the moment I pass Hyde Park Corner. I am languid, unfriendly, heart- less, selfish, sarcastic, and insolent. Forgive me, thou inhabitant of the plains, child of Mature, rural woman, agricultural female ! Remember what you were in Hill Street, and pardon the vices inevitable in the greatest of cities. We may sometimes observe the salutary but rapid benefit experienced by persons emanating from un- healthy districts. Without the aid of any medicine THE HARROGATE SPAS. 57 whatever, by removal from the ill-ventilated counting house, from the effluvia of a multitude, and the reeking smoke of the manufactories, to a place afford- ing the opposite conditions, we often observe that the dull sunken eye brightens ; the characteristic sallow hue disappears from the features ; the step becomes sprightly; the chest expands with increased desire for air, while the pulse acquires a softer, slower, and more healthy beat : changes which are not so ob- servable by resorting to a humid locality. The tranquillized nervous system also accumulates power derived from all these agreeable effects. Everything favours it. Free exhalation from the skin favours a more equable circulation of the blood, better nutrition of the nervous system, and a more steady flow of nervous energy, to sustain the functions of every part. "We cannot overrate the sanitary importance of what is called seasonable weather. It has been ob- served in ancient times and confirmed in all subse- quent ages, that the constitution of the year, the peculiarities of the spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the amount of rain, mist, fog, and heat, the prevailing winds, and the condition of the sky, whether clear, serene, overcast, gloomy, or changeable, influ- ence the health, according to the state of the individual, in a manner deserving close observation. The watery vapour suspended, according to its height, to melt in dews and mist, or fall in showers, enwraps the globe in an ever-changing mantle which regulates the radiating heat of its swarming surface; or invisibly dissolved in the air, withdrawing its 58 THE HARROGATE SPAS. clouds, gives keenness to the nipping night. Anon, pregnant with blight and tempest, its vapours resolve into stormy hail, emit the purifying flash, auspicious to the health of man, and restore to the weeping heavens a smiling equilibrium of the elements. Rain, damp, mist, and fog, tell heavily upon the vital functions, by producing a chilling effect. For when the body is long exposed to a cool, damp atmos- phere, its natural heat is more rapidly conducted away than by exposure to a cool, dry air ; and the excess of moisture being unfavourable, as we shall shew, to the flow of the insensible perspiration, necessarily has a depressing as well as a chilling effect upon the con- stitution. The direction of the wind and its velocity also pe- culiarly affect the health. Abundant observations shew that a north-east wind proves most fatal to the consumptive, the south-west, least so. A strong north- east wind, accompanied by continued cold and mois- ture, occasions a considerable increase of mortality from disorders of the lungs. Further, a moist, warm atmosphere promotes vegetable and animal putrefac- tion ; and if calm also prevails, that particular consti- tution of the season is established which is most con- ducive to fatal epidemics. A southerly icct autumn, in'th an overcast sky, followed by A southerly damp, at first mild, and then northerly severe winter, ushering in A southerly calm, rery wet spring, was, according to the observation of Hippocrates, the precursor of a pestilential year. And it is worth while noting that the sweating sickness of 1506 was THE HARROGATE SPAS. 59 preceded by an exceedingly wet year and a severe winter. The Influenza, which has appeared in England about seventeen times during the last three hundred years, was invariably ushered in by wet seasons, and in gen- eral by a southerly wind. In 1510, it occurred "after a long moist air !" In. 1577, there was a great scar- city of corn, " from the past great rains. All the corn was choked and blasted, and the harvest exceed- ingly wet and rainy." There were " great gluts of rain in 1762." And on the next invasion of Influenza, ten years later, the autumn had been rainy, the fol- lowing spring was very late, and the season became "gloomy, cold, and humid, with occasional dry fogs and peculiar storms." Hippocrates records, that the combination of seasons just mentioned, preceded an epidemic of malignant erysipelas, continuing till winter, which destroyed the skin, bones, and laid bare the ribs ; whole limbs dropped off, and the mortality was great. And a southerly calm, hot, severe summer, succeeding a south- erly calm drenching spring, the epidemic continued to rage, gigantic boils appeared, and all kinds of fevers. The Cholera, and the Influenza, spread more rapidly during the prevalence of a southerly wind, favoured by a dead calm, and an exceedingly gloomy and moist condition of the atmosphere. Mr. Ilingestoii observes, of the Cholera, 1854, " The calm that was the great- est was the worst. The disease began to decline as the wind rose." Between August 19th and October 21st, there was a calm, frequently a dead calm, ex- cept during ten days, with what sailors call cats paicx, along the surface of the stagnant ocean.* * Association Medical Journal, 1854. 60 THE HARROGATE SPAS. We have seen, then, how generally epidemic years are accompanied by a calm, moist state of the weather ; let us also note a different combination of A northerly stormy wet autumn, A northerly stormy drenching winter, A northerly wet, cloudy, cold spring, A northerly cool summer, folloiced by A northerly, very damp, autumn. Hippocrates tells us that, in this case, the first two seasons were tolerably healthy, but that the spring proved unhealthy. Intense inflammation of the eyes commenced, which lasted till autumn, and which de- stroyed the sight. In the summer and autumn, fatal dropsies followed dysentery. Bilious and watery di- arrhosas, fevers, rashes, convulsions, and swellings about the ears, marked the peculiar constitution of the year. The contemplation of the accurate records preserved in the writings of Hippocrates, the most distinguished physician noticed in history, is full of instructive in- terest. He vividly shews us the dependence of present disease upon past, as much as upon present, seasons. Those who succumb to prevailing diseases, carry about them a peculiar susceptibility, modified by the continu- ous or sudden action of the weather telling upon a feeble state of the functions of the body ; a state which predisposes them to its attack, however excited. The popular belief in the effect of certain winds, was thus quaintly expressed by Tusser, in 1654 : " The West, as father, all goodness doth bring, The East, a forebearer, no manner of thing; The South, as unkind, draweth sickness too near, The North, as a friend, maketh all again clear." THE HARROGATE SPAS. 61 The south and east winds were condemned, and the north and west equally praised by the ancients. " In a thick and cloudy air men are tetrick, sad, and peev- ish ; and if the wsfarn winds blow, or there be a calm, or a fair sunshine day, there is a kind of alacrity in men's minds. It cheers up man and beast. But if it be turbulent, rough, cloudy, stormy weather, men are sad, lumpish, and much dejected, angry, waspish, dull, and melancholy." Doubtless, a swift wind con- veys many of its properties derived from passing over large continents. The eastern wind, blowing from the Russian steppes, is proverbially hostile to the English constitution. Wind singularly affects the rheumatic and delicate. We knew a sailor who was regularly, once a fortnight, attacked with ague, so long as the eastern wind prevailed, but was free from it when the wind shifted its quarter. Experience on a large scale shews that child-bed fevers prevail chiefly during cold moist weather, when they are apt to be fatal. And Hippocrates asserts, that if the winter be southerly, showery, and mild, and the following spring northerly, dry, and u'interly, those women who expect their con- finements in the spring are apt to experience prema- ture labours. Among the various influences, favourable to health, experienced in resorting to the open country, must certainly be reckoned that of solar light. No artifi- cial light can be a healthy substitute for the rays of the sun. The assimilative or nutritious processes in man, as well as those of plants, demand the vivifying powers of the sunny beams of day. Scrofula rages in darkened dwellings. Personal experience, reading, reflection on a great number of 62 THE HARROGATE SPAS. facts, says Baudeloque, and the analysis of a great many observations, have convinced me, that particular conditions of the atmosphere are a principal cause of scrofula. However indifferent the food, however much cleanliness is neglected, whatever the climate, the exercise, 'the duration of sleep if the house in which he dwells, is placed in a situation freely and directly exposed to the sun's rays, and fresh air ; and the house be sufficiently dry, airy, light, and well proportioned to the number of its inmates, scrofu- lous diseases will never make their appearance ; whilst if the habitations be withdrawn from the rays of the sun, and a renewal of fresh air be difficult, if, in short, they are small, low, dark, and with difficulty ventilated, scrofulous disease will inevitably follow. If, indeed, we regard the agency of solar light in regulating vegetation, in reversing a chemical action, for the leaves of vegetables inspire oxygen, and breathe forth carbonic acid in the dark, and reverse this action in the daylight ; or contemplate the singular manner in which the sunbeams affect their colours, and in a dark place, draw them to seek the light, and compare its effects upon man, we shall see how essential is solar light to vigorous animal, as well as vegetative, development; numerous observations prove that it promotes both the symmetrical growth of the young, the perfection of the blood and complexion, and the energetic metamorphosis of the ultimate tissues of the frame. , " In maladies characterised by imperfect nutrition and sanguification, as scrofula, rickets, anoomia, and in weakly subjects, with acdematous (or swollen) limbs, free exposure to solar light is sometimes attended with THE HARROGATE SPAS. 63 very happy effects. Open and elevated situations probably owe part of their healthy qualities to their position, with regard to it. The observations of Dr. Edwards, on the influence of light promoting the per- fect development of animals, led him to conclude that in climates where nudity is not incompatible with health, exposure of the whole surface of the body to light is favourable to the regular conformation of the body ; and he has therefore suggested insolation in the open air as a means calculated to restore healthy conformation in scrofulous children, whose deviations of form are not incurable." We have seen, then, how intimately associated are atmospheric changes, denoted by the term change of weather, with the diseases prevailing at particular seasons of the year : that they are capable of affecting the vital condition of man as well as of plants ; and that the air we breathe, by ventilating or damaging the blood, by pressing lightly or heavily on the body, by obstructing or promoting both perspiration and the motion of the animal juices as well as the digestion of the food, deeply affects the bodily health. We have also seen how certainly such results are developed by changes thus produced on the various workings of the human skin. We shall now further consider the insidious effects of a weak condition of the skin which disables it from resisting hostile atmospheric influence. 64 THE HARROGATE SPAS. CHAP. II. DEBILITY OF THE SKIN AND ITS INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE IN A CHANGEABLE CLIMATE, UPON THE HEALTH. " Against the rigours of a cold damp heaven, To fortify their bodies, some frequent The gelid cistern, and, where nought forbids, I praise their dauntless heart ; a frame so steeled Dreads not the cough, nor uncongenial blasts That breathe the tertian, or fell rheumatism ; The nerves, so tempered, never quit their tone, No chronic languors haunt such hardy breasts." A most common, and yet too often an entirely un- suspected cause of decline of the general health, is a debilitated state of the skin, undistinguished by any visible eruption. And though, indeed, many valuable works have been written upon visible skin diseases, we are not aware that the simple form of debility of the skin has yet been definitely noticed as a disease. It has prob- ably been overlooked as such, because, in general, no external appearance fixes its stamp to distinguish a disorder which is one rather of function than of organic change, as the term strictly implies. External and visible derangements of the skin, of great variety, may, it is true, co-exist with its debilitated functions ; we may observe it to be harsh, dry, deficient in its natural softness and elasticity ; that it cracks easily and does not heal kindly ; but these are not necessary signs of the debility. Others are required : such as the manner in which bathing in various kinds of baths, as well as how change in the weather, affect the gen- eral surface, in order to shew when this debility really exists. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 65 We might, for the sake of a broad illustration, per- haps venture to divide the community into two dis- tinct classes : those who can, and those who cannot, bathe in the sea, with pleasure and advantage. We should find, upon a careful examination, a large num- ber of the latter suffering under a debilitated state of the skin. W~e do not say that such a disability or disinclination for sea-bathing is always a decisive symptom, but it is certainly a presumptive one, of such a state, unless organic internal disease already exist. And whether the surface be visibly affected or not, we are of opinion, that the debility in question gradually tells upon the general health in two principal ways. I. When, from fatigue or other causes, the already feeble powers of the skin cannot sustain its circulating and exhalent functions under accidental exposure to change of weather, wet or cold, and the health becomes imperilled by the serious effects of " catching cold upon cold." II. Debility of the skin, under continued exposure to atmospheric influence, gradually inflicts an insidi- ous, though a chronic, injury upon the general health; an injury, directly or indirectly, arising from the fol- lowing physiological conditions : (1) A weak, unequal, and deficient circulation of the blood through the vessels of the skin. (2) An increased susceptibility to damp and cold, and changes in the weather. (3) A morbid sympathetic action between the skin and the various visceral organs. (4) Obstructed perspiration,* the most fertile source * In some cases, debility of the skin is expressed by excessive coli- quative sweating. 66 THE HARROGATE SPAS. of chronic colds, bronchitis, diarrhoea, and disorders of the kidneys, &c. ; and, in fact, a cause of dead particles dangerously surcharging the blood. (5) Lastly, derangement in the nutritive functions of the skin. And this may comprehend the origin of a variety of risibk skin disorders, which, so far as they save more vital organs from a dangerous attack, may be considered salutary efforts of Nature. The very opposite effects produced on the vigorous and on the weak, by the action of the cold bath, prove how much is wanting in the condition of the delicate to raise them to the standard of health. A compari- son of the different phenomena produced, shews how much can be accomplished through the skin, by gra- dually educating and training the nervous centres to supply nervous energy to the cutaneous nerves, when- ever and wherever it is demanded, to re-act against external impressions, of whatever kind, whether in the act of cold bathing or in accidental exposure to damp, wet, or cold, or change of weather. Let us contrast the effects of cold bathing, in per- fect health, with the results produced in an opposite state. The robust bather boldly plunges into the coldest river ; in a moment he rises to the surface, suddenly excited by the shock into one general glow of vital reaction. The vivid impression of the cold plunge has evoked the energetic action of the whole nervous system. Suddenly telegraphed by their nervous expansion on the skin, these centres dis- charge a mighty force to arouse their involuntary muscles of respiration and circulation. The lungs and heart, momentarily oppressed with the tide of blood driven inwards by the first shock, re-act. The THE HARROGATE SPAS. 67 chest heaves with vigorous inspirations, the heart dances wildly with the inward torrent; the vital stream, rapidly charged with oxygen in the lungs, rebounds through the frame to the forsaken surface ; now the awakened energies diffuse a delightful glow of buoyant exhilaration ; now a lusty swimmer, as in a native element, combats the wave with sportive vigour and animation, and quits it refreshed, re- strung, and braced for feats of strength or speed. But change the scene. Watch the young, delicate tyro at the sea-side, thoughtlessly forced, either by folly or ignorant solicitude, to take the dreadful plunge ; a practice which, as it has sealed the fate of thousands, cannot be too strongly condemned. Agi- tated, amazed, and confounded by the first sudden shock, the shuddering victim of debility feels inde- scribable sensations of distress. The nerves of the skin suddenly paralysed, and its blood-vessels con- tracted, the system unnerved, and a volume of blood driven forcibly inwards, the vital organs, thus taken by surprise, are at once overpowered. The great centres of nervous energy, unused to this novel emergency, cannot respond to the sudden demand upon their capital of nervous force. The faltering circulation, the agitation, the sick- ness, the ringing of the ears, dimness of sight, gid- diness, and prostration, equally attest the general fact. The system cannot recover from the shock, the chill, and the checked circulation, till many hours have elapsed. No wonder, then, that there are per- sons who, having once made* the rash experiment, fear to repeat it to the last day of their existence. We cannot doubt, when reflecting on such effects, 68 THE HARROGATE SPAS. how intimately the extensive expansion of the great nervous centres upon the general surface of the skin, brings those centres into direct communication with external influences. And whilst this nervous expan- sion is a ready means for rousing the dormant ener- gies of the whole nervous system, to maintain a higher tone, yet, the same nerves, when relaxed and debili- tated, on the other hand, constitute a most fertile source of danger to the health, when cold and damp, are continuously applied ; a principle which explains much of the injury resulting from residing in low, damp, marshy districts, in a debilitated state of the skin. % But, it may be observed, that as healthy blood can alone maintain the body healthy, an ill-nourished one is generally diseased. So far, therefore, as it can be shewn that the reactions of bathing, just described, really exalt the nutritive functions of the body, we may count upon great improvement in those func- tions which regulate the nourishment of the frame. For nutrition is a constant act of the blood, and therefore, healthy nutrition depends on the constant action of healthy blood, or, translating this into more explicit language, health depends on the activity of all those processes by which the health of the blood is maintained, and by which its vital acts are facili- tated. Whatever therefore favours these vital pro- cesses of the blood, must improve the nutrition of the whole body, and consequently tend to eradicate those diseases originating in defective nutrition. But the vital activity of the blood is so intricate and comprehensive a question, that it may suffice to notice, among the phenomena produced by bathing, THE HARROGATE SPAS. 69 (1) The generation of animal heat. (2) The agency of oxygen. (3) The production of a vigorous circula- tion of the blood through every part of the frame. (4) The promotion of organic waste, purifying the system from refuse elements, accumulated unless dis- charged through the skin, &c. (5) The undoubted influence of the nervous system upon their discharge through the secretions.* All such vital processes can be shewn to be influenced by bathing, and exert a profound influence on nutrition, and especially upon the growth, and the symmetrical development of youth, a true effect of the vigorous execution of the laws of growth. No attentive observer, indeed, of the effects pro- duced by the singular reaction induced by cold bath- ing, can doubt, so general a glow must everywhere quicken the vital processes of the blood. By it, every organic action is energetically enlivened ; by it, ner- vous action, respiration, and circulation, are greatly augmented. Hence results, a variety of important changes, closely connected, either with the manufac- ture or purification of the blood. All the secretions, being under nervous influence, are modified. Increased respiration affords a better supply of oxygen to the blood. Hence the arterial, or red blood, reaches fur- ther. Red blood, the only nourishing portion, pene- trates, during re-action, to the inmost recesses of the smallest blood-vessels ; it therefore facilitates the nutrition of the whole frame ; whilst, as it becomes more highly charged with oxygen, the worn-out ele- ments of the frame, are more rapidly replaced by new. * Every secretion is truly an act of the blood, although modified by other causes. 70 THE HARB.OGATE SPAS. Besides, by the improved circulation, all these actions are greatly promoted. It is on such accounts, that several disorders of de- fective nutrition receive surprising benefit from the proper employment of the cold bath. Thus, in rickets, an affection depending upon disordered nutrition, it is highly beneficial. So also, the strumous constitu- tion, where there is a tendency to consumption, en- larged glands, and general delicacy, may receive the most decided invigoration from cold bathing ; and this complaint is also connected with disordered nutrition. A variety of affections of the organs of digestion, as- sociated with the same constitution, is capable of great relief by the same means. The systematic use of cold ablution fortifies the nutritive processes against the encroachment of these insidious diseases. It is a most common thing to observe, that boys of a sickly, delicate constitution, in a few years, by the aid of a sea life, become hale and hearty seamen ; and this is as much attributable to the washings of the sea as to its breezes. It almost seems superfluous to add, that general ab- lution, properly applied, must be most beneficial in chronic debility of the skin, and therefore, also in the disorders dependent upon it. Liability " to catch cold," is not to be cured by closed doors, or double- quilted waistcoats ; it is the indulgence of the morbid sensibility of the skin, which, while continued, renders its relief impossible. In no case is this chronic de- * Venous, or black blood, (t. e. blood deprived of oxygen in its course through the smallest arterial blood-vessels), so far from being nourishing, is poisonous. It causes death, in drowning, and in suffo- cation. It is the lungs which, by supplying oxygen, change the black blood into red. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 71 bility more manifest than in some of the severest forms of asthma. Numerous writers concur in affirm- ing, that nine attacks out of ten result from cold ap- plied to the skin : that it is indeed catching cold which induces these attacks. A man, struck with asthma, feels as if his chest were encased in cast iron. All his muscular energies are concentrated in the act of breathing ; the nervous centres are at fault; and they are influenced, through reflex action, by the disorder of the nerves of the skin. Hence it has been found, that the cold bath, during the intervals of attack, is a sovereign remedy against some of the worst forms of asthma. That shock of cold water, which causes the chest to sob and heave mightily for breath, may well unlock the straightened breast of the asthmatic invalid. That crimson glow which blushes over the whole sur- face of the bather, may well teach, at last, the torpid skin to acquire new powers of discharging the func- tions of re-action. We cannot, then, too highly value the importance of a re-action which, by withdrawing a large volume of blood from internal organs, directs it to circulate in a new field, within the structures of the skin. Deep- seated disorders, caused I// congestion of the Mood, vanish as by a charm, when that blood can be trained permanently to circulate freely, equally, and vigorously at the circum- ference, instead of oppressing the centre. The sketch here given of the internal changes sud- denly produced by the impression of the cold bath, are suggestive of the slower influences of climate, in all its vicissitudes of cold and damp, upon the vital actions of the frame. The disturbance of the balance of the circulation, in proportion to its duration, is a SA 72 THE HARROGATE SPAS. most influential condition in a vast majority of the diseases of man. Unequal distribution, fulness, stag- nation, or excessive determination of blood to particu- lar parts, constitutes a state of passive or active conges- tion in the blood-vessels, and congestion in any organ cannot long exist without disease. Determination of blood to a particular locality may be rapid, but its effects are often singularly lasting. "Witness the effects of extraordinary muscular exertion under unfavour- able pressure, as a tight cravat, or a closely-laced boddice. Congestion may be slowly or rapidly induced. An over-worked, over-stimulated brain, at length loses its normal tone. A rush of blood to the head takes place under trivial excitement, and the brain falters in its former powers of concentrated thought. Blushing is a most instructive example of the in- fluence of nervous power upon the circulation of the blood. Physiology teaches the ultimate causes of this interesting phenomenon. Every artery, however mi- nute, is surrounded to its termination with innumer- able nerves and ganglions, each resembling little brains. These nerves maintain a certain tone, elasticity, and force of contraction, which prevents the arteries from swelling under ordinary circumstances ; but they sud- denly lose some supply of nervous influence by excess of emotional action at the great centres ; at this mo- ment, the vessels, being deprived of their customary nervous tone, are dilated by the force of the blood. Hence the active determination of blood summoning the mantling blush. Now when the nervous centres similarly cease to supply the blood-vessels of any part with the necessary THE HARROGATE SPAS. 73 tone or power of contraction, these vessels admit more blood than they ought to do. Under strong emotions which, as it were, expend nervous energy at the great nervous centres, especially those about the heart and stomach, a similar blushing or rush of blood may be developed at any predisposed part ; and when the tone of the great blood-vessels is reduced, then palpitation, shortness of breath, giddiness, &c., &c., supervene. We see then how congestion may follow exhaustion. Again, A, B, C, D, in a state of perspiration, on a sporting excursion, are exposed to a keen wind, or get thoroughly drenched with rain ; A is seized by a fever, B catches bronchitis, C an attack of congested liver and bilious fever, while D escapes. A, having no particular organ predisposed to disease, suffers a general reaction, called fever. B suffers from con- gestion of the blood in a predisposed mucous mem- brane of the lungs, and C from a similar disorder in the circulation of the liver. There was a general application of cold and wet producing very different effects. Hence there were the same exciting, but different predisposing causes. But what is more ex- traordinary, a healthy person will commonly escape any ill effects from riding on a coach or open carriage in a general draught of air, but sometimes be made ill from a trifling local current of air, by riding in a par- tially closed carriage. Without amplifying these illustrations, it is evident that whatever causes largely and permanently disturb the circulation of the blood, must gravely affect the general health. That impressions of damp and cold, 8 B 74 THE HARROGATE SPAS. and local draughts of air, by depressing the circulation within the skin, produce a determination of blood upon the internal organs ; the mucous membrane of the lungs and digestive canal, as well as the liver and kidneys, &c., being each liable to congestion accord- ing to individual predispositions. Congestion, either active or passive, then, is a com- mon result of atmospheric changes. But as the same changes do not produce, in all persons, similar effects, there must be other circumstances which control these results. Upon investigation it will be found, that in proportion as the circulation within the skin is liable to be arrested by cold and damp, so are its various functions also liable to be deranged, and that the skin regulates, to a wonderful extent, the changes going forward within the body, in the processes of secretion, digestion, absorbtion, circulation, and nervous action. Now, England is particularly remarkable for rapid atmospheric changes and sudden alterations of tem- perature. The reports of the Registrar General shew an extraordinary increase in visceral affections, corresponding to sudden variations in temperature, especially if the air is loaded with moisture, and few countries are more notorious for diseases of the lungs than England. There can be no doubt, therefore, that variable degrees of cold and moisture, are in some way connected with the prevalence of disorders of the chest. They stand in the relation of cause and effect, and the condition most favourable to their full operation is a neglected state of the skin. In cold countries, a debilitated state of the skin causes, in the most direct manner, disorders of the respiratory organs, for two reasons. First, because THE HARROGATE SPAS. 75 the cold air predisposes the mucous membrane of the lung to such attacks ; and secondly, because the ob- structed secretions of the skin, being thrown back into the blood, find the lungs already predisposed to in- flammation. On the other hand, in hot countries, a debilitated state of the skin, arising from excessive action, by reason of the intimate sympathy between the skin and the mucous membrane, causes, in a direct manner, the organs of digestion to be liable to derange- ment ; and hence, the liver complaints, bilious fevers, and dysentery of hot climates. Calculous disorders are very common in England, but extremely rare in the West Indies ; facts which exactly correspond to the diminished action of the skin here and its increased perspiration there. An officer was ordered suddenly to repair from this country to Jamaica, under very peculiar circumstances. He was just about to undergo "an operation for the removal of stone." After residing some time there, every symptom of his complaint vanished. The absurd neglect of the requirements of the skin, when continued for a series of years, cannot fail to impair its functions, and so render persons, in the prime of life, liable to distressing disorders of the lungs. For, in our changeable climate, what are generally the most fatal diseases ? Pneumonia, (inflammation of the lungs), and consumption; and, in elderly per- sons, bronchitis, without including epidemic diseases, which, though produced by specific causes, are yet aggravated by the suppression of the natural excretion of the skin. But, can any one doubt that, had the skin been less debilitated, the tone of the minute ves- sels of the skin been more permanent, had the ner- 76 THE HARROGATE SPAS. vous tissue been less excitable and more efficient in function, can any one doubt whether this pneumonia or that obstinate bronchitis would not have been more easily warded off ? The debility of the skin tells in two ways : first, by its inability to sustain external cold with impunity, and secondly, by its incapability of being stimulated by medicines to that degree of action which frequently alone can save the patient. A feeble organ with its enfeebled vessels and irritated nerves (and irritability, by a physiological law, always increases by debility) is too often incapable of sustain- ing the full curative action of a powerful remedy, such, at least, as is necessary to save life. Accordingly, it frequently happens that, when people die of "a cold in the chest," under medical treatment, this event generally results, not so much from unskilfulness on the part of the practitioner, as from the inability of the weakened organs to respond to, and carry forward, the salutary actions of the remedies. Let all those, therefore, who delight in the comforts of flannel and warm fires and close apartments, remember, that a period of life may be approaching, when some distres- sing affection, arising from a debilitated state of the skin, may cause them to regret that neglect of its demands, which shall then have principally contribu- ted both to the inveteracy and acuteness of their suf- ferings. We would here, then, be understood, not to depre- cate a proper attention to clothing, but a dangerous neglect of the habitual state of the skin ; a very com- mon oversight. And though an enduring source of chilliness must ever be fraught with danger, still the practice of many invalids carefully to seclude them- THE HARHOGATE SPAS. 77 selves from cold air, in every possible way, cannot be too highly censured. For, by such indulgence, the skin becomes more and more sensitive, and continually less able to discharge its proper functions. The victims, indeed, of excessive abuse of protective clothing and warm apartments, acquire, at length, ex- traordinary meteorological properties. They can ap- prise you that an east wind is become prevalent in the night, that a deep snow is at hand, or a thunder-storm brooding. In fact, their susceptibilities to changes of weather render them the victims of every keen blast, and at last, they derive a gloomy pleasure in watching the fall of the barometer and foretelling their ap- proaching ailments, with all the tenacity of the hypo- chondriac. But though an eloquent and still fashionable de- clamation, on "stomach difficulties" and its outrageous abuses, ascribes a thousand ills to INDIGESTION, and complacently lays so much blame on the stomach, yet the skin is often far the worse-used organ of the two, when the relief of an obstructed condition of the skin will do more to relieve the dependent indigestion of the stomach than any amount of mere stomachic treat- ment. Perfect digestion is impossible while the skin is wholly debilitated. Nature, indeed, inflicts a keener punishment for neglect of the skin, the safety-valve of the constitu- tion, than for long- continued abu&e of the digestive powers : a result necessarily according with the oppo- site duties which they are destined to fulfil in the scheme of organic life. The stomach feeds the blood. The skin relieves it of putrefactive particles, which, when retained in the system, are of a highly combus- 78 THE HARROGATE SPAS. tible nature ; particles which, largely gathering in the frame, are apt to fire the system with inflammation whenever the kindling spark is in any way applied. The skin cannot, like the stomach, admit of interrupted function without a general constitutional disturbance. It is one thing to fast and another thing to surcharge the blood with poisonous elements ; one thing to run short of fuel, and another, at a lively heat, to shut. down the steam of Nature's engines. No wonder she is apt to explode her force upon some tender part of her machinery. The stomach good humouredly bears an incredible amount of ill usage at a luxurious table, yet, with a little rest, light work, and perhaps a cooling seltzer and sherry draught, recovers again and again from an outrageous indulgence. But the skin, on the contrary, even upon slight exposure to a draught of air, or to wet and cold, often extorts a penalty for the impru- dence, which either strikes a death-blow or renders life burdensome and blighted to the latest hour of existence. On such grounds we believe, close attention to the state of the skin, by the people of England, will do more to protect them against those diseases peculiar to its variable climate than all other measures what- soever. We cannot but think, that an organ is im- portant in proportion to the high degree of its organ- ization, i. c., the amount of its blood-vessels, extent of its sympathetic relations and peculiar endowments ; conditions eminently fulfilled by the human skin. On such accounts, even temporary changes in its physiological state, produce effects, not only of a very profound character at the time, but calculated to tell upon the future state of the constitution. Hence, it THE HARROGATE SPAS. 79 is most common to hear patients refer their sufferings to distant periods when they somehow caught a severe cold. But the great importance of these considerations wiH become more evident by adverting more closely to the structure, functions, and endowments of the skin. In structure, it consists of three layers. The deepest is a stratum of minute blood-vessels, less than the thousandth part of an inch in diameter, amongst which are interwoven innumerable twigs of nerve fibre. A middle layer is distinguished by a germinating mem- brane, which continually produces successive crops of minute scales, which form the scarf-skin of the ex- ternal surface. These scales, at first, however, are true ceJls, i. c., minute sacks, or bags, formed of a membrane enclosing a fluid. But as the successive crops rise and push forward the outer-layers, from \\ _thin, outwards, these cells, drying by evaporation, at length form a compact scaly pavement, of an elastic, flexible, and porous character, viz : the epidermis, or external skin, (the same which is raised by a blister or a burn) ; the pores here alluded to being the mouths of the perspiratory ducts. The chief points to be ob- served in this imperfect sketch, are, I. The extensive character of the blood-vessels of the skin. II. The nervous endowments, affording a means of affecting the mind by sensation, and the internal or- gans by sympathetic action. III. Pro\lsion for a constant renewal of new scarf- skin, by means of a germinating membrane. I V. Extensive contrivances for conveying away a secretion of the blood. Each pore of the sk^ is the open mouth of a duct, which proceeds from a secreting 80 THE HARROGATE SPAS. gland placed in immediate contiguity to the cutaneous blood-vessels before mentioned. It is therefore plain, that the functions of the skin may be disordered in four principal ways, besides the various complications. The most common form, however, of derangement, consists in debility of the vessels of the skin, accom- panied by increased sensibility and consequent irrita- tion of internal organs, together with inadequate or improper activity of the perspiratory system. Whence arise the chilliness, the partial heats, cold- ness, and odd sensations experienced in the skin, and the deficient or unnatural character of the sensible perspiration ? Whence, also, the rapid manner in which impressions, made upon the surface, are com- municated to other parts? In consequence of the sluggish excretion of the insensible perspiration, chronic ailments are frequently aggravated, and when these various functions are much deranged, sympa- thetic fever is a certain result. Rheumatism, gout, and various forms of inflammation are then developed, according to individual predisposition. It sometimes, however, happens that the skin is both the came and scat of the disorder, in this case, a skin disease of an exceedingly obstinate character is set up. Far less difficult of cure are those skin diseases which have their origin and maintaining cause in the organs of digestion, or in a faulty condition of the blood. For when a person suffers from some cutaneous affection traceable to severe curable disorder of the blood, or in- ternal organs, he has a far better prospect of relief than when no such constitutional or digestive derang- ment can be discovered. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 81 After what has been advanced, there can be little difficulty in understanding the extraordinary influ- ence of the physiological condition, popularly termed " catching a cold." The consecutive phenomena are familiar to every one. A highly organised surface, like the skin, is capable of instantly suspending its functions. The impression of cold contracts the cu- taneous blood-vessels, the skin itself also contracts and roughens the minute hairs become erect, (" goose skin" appears). The secretion of perspiration, de- pending, like all others, upon the presence of arterial blood, stops : at the same time, the blood of the sur- face is thrown upon internal organs, and the great nervous centres are strongly impressed ; should this state of things last for any time, and the nervous and circulating systems be feeble, re- action is brought about only after a considerable interval ; persons who have taken a severe cold usually experience much chilliness for a considerable time, and in general, the duration of the chill is proportionate to the severity of the attack about to follow: at last comes the re- action with all its attendant symptoms. Experience, however, shews that even a severe cold may often be arrested, provided this state of chill has not been long established. The sooner a re-action can be effected the less mischief will ensue. In some cases, a " stiff glass" of brandy and water, and a hot bed, and a basin of hot gruel instantly brought into requisition, will often work a marvellous cure in the case of a recent chill. We may form some idea of the injury caused by immediately checking perspiration, by the experi- ments of Lavoisier and Seguin. The skin, according to these philosophers, discharges, in health, eight 82 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. grains per minute, or about two pounds in the twenty- four hours. Now, as all secretions destined to be constantly discharged, prove deleterious if retained in the system, no one can fail to understand that the functions of the skin cannot be long arrested without more or less illness resulting ; therefore, so long as the chill lasts, the noxious matter which ought to be thrown out, is being retained, and therefore accumu- lating in the general mass of blood, and this affords a ready explanation of the serious inflammations result- ing from such causes. "I counted," says Mr. Erasmus Wilson, "the perspi- ratory pores in the palm of the hand, and found 3,528 in a square inch : now each of these pores, being the aperture of a little tube of about a quarter of an inch long, it follows, that in a square inch of the skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube equal to 882 inches, or 73J feet; surely, such an amount of drainage, of 73 feet in every square inch of the skin, assuming this to be the average of the whole body, is something wonderful, and the thought natu- rally intrudes itself what, if this drainage were ob- structed ?" " The number of square inches of surface in a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2,500 ; the number of pores, therefore, is 700,000, and the num- ber of inches of perspiratory tube 1,750,000, that is 145,833 feet, or 48,600 yards, or nearly 28 miles." A gentleman, after severe exertion, which had in- duced a copious perspiration, had immediate occasion, very lately, to superintend some business in his own cellar ; remaining there but a short time, he caught so severe a cold, that an inflammatory fever, the result of the chill, destroyed him in a few days. He had THE IIARROGATE SPAS. 83 only recently returned from his wedding tour. Here, it is to be remarked, that the nervous action, secretion, and circulation, having their functions debilitated by temporary fatigue, were rapidly, yet deeply, compro- mised by the chill of a damp cellar. The intense in- flammatory re-action overpowered the vital forces. A delicate person, suffering from debility of the skin, without the exhaustion of fatigue, might experience a similar result from emerging from a warm room to stay in a cold cellar. The sympathetic endowments of the skin are of no less importance than its excretory properties. Depend- ing on the mysterious agency of vital currents, or upon some influence for which we possess no method of appreciation, except by the phenomena of life, the transmission of impressions received by the sensi- tive parts of the skin are as instantaneous as they are inscrutable. "Why should titillation, or tickling of the skin, cause death, or a burn prove fatal ? A result which could hardly be expected from the amount of surface injured. How is it that persons have been able to remain unhurt, in large ovens, while flesh, deprived of life, underwent a rapid roasting, and yet with scarcely any increase of the temperature of the bodies of the experimenters ? "Why should a few sprinklings of cold water revive a person from a faint- ing fit, and a ducking dissipate intoxication ? The American mode of rescuing from poison by opium, is an extraordinary instance of the influence of the skin upon the conditions of internal organs. Our American brethren had recourse to a relay of powerful flagellators who took their turn, for some hours, in 84 THE HARROGATE SPAS. thrashing a person to life, who was poisoned \vlth laudanum. Equally extraordinary is the fact, that some persons who are subject to epileptic fits, have occasionally prevented an attack, by tightly tying a finger, or a h'mb, which warns them by the " aura epileptica" of the rapid approach of the fit. Such facts abundantly prove, upon whatever principle they are capable of explanation, that the skin possesses a vast influence upon the internal economy. " My beautiful, My only Venice, this is breath! Thy breeze, Thine Adrian Sea-breeze, how it fans my face : Thy very wind feels native to my veins And cools them into calmness. How unlike The hot gales of the horrid Cyclades, "Which howled about my Candiotu dungeon, and Made my heart sick." Every one will feel the truth of this beautiful em- bodiment of the same principle, in the above lines of Byron. Modern physiology, however, discovers that every microscopic nerve-fibre of the surface, is, as it were, a telegraphic wire, not only communicating with the brain, but with the great central stations of the ner- vous system for the distribution of nervous energy. In short, that powerful impressions can be made upon these centres through the sympathies and sensibilities of the cutis, or true skin, which can hardly be accom- p'ished in any other way. The whole rationale of counter irritation, and the philosophy of baths and 1\ .thing, whether in simple, medicated, or mineral water, are founded upon this fact. No principle is more available in medicine than that brilliant discovery of Marshall Hall, the reflecting functions of the ner- vous system. The connexion of the nerves of the skin THE HARROGATE SPAS. 85 with those of respiration, is one of them. By this principle we can understand why the daily use of the shower-bath will often do more than all other reme- dies to restore easiness of breathing to a feeble girl, suffering from nervous debility alone, who cannot mount an ordinary staircase without severe oppression of the chest. This reflex function is illustrated by tickling the foot of a paralysed leg, which may be made in this way to start, although the patient cannot make it move by an effort of the will. By the same sympathetic action between the skin and the lungs, travellers, who are much exposed to currents of air, naturally respire a greater amount of air than the sedentary living in a still atmosphere ; the impression of the air stimulates the lungs to in- creased action. Even invalids who are unable to take exercise find their breathing easier and deeper in a fresh atmosphere ; hence the importance of their being much in that kind of open air which never stagnates. The same sympathy may be observed in the convul- sive efforts of the chest, caused by the first plunge in the cold bath. The fanning of fresh air, upon the same sympathetic principle, revives the trembling heart of the invalid, relieves his panting chest, and refreshes all his powers. The air, entering the lungs, crimsons the black and languid tide returning to the heart, by the agency of oxygen, and there ventilates the vital stream. But more than this, the nerves of the skin, intimately connected with the mechanical action of the chest, receive a stimulus from the fresh air, and thus cause the breast to heave with increased 86 THE HARROGATE SPAS. appetite and aerial enjoyment. This also is effected through the great nervous centres, by reflex action. On the principle already advanced, as excessive action leads to debility, the livers of persons who have resided long in hot climates become very commonly debilitated. There are other reasons, no doubt, for this result, but this may fairly be assigned as a sympa- thetic cause. Dr. Watson, in his celebrated lectures on the practice of physic, has very strikingly pointed out the con- nexion between the liver and the skin. Indeed, the promotion of a free action in the skin, often affords, in cold countries, the means of rousing a tor- pid liver into a state of activity. The skin has also special relations to the mucous membrane of the ali- mentary canal. In fact, their disorders often appear reciprocal. To grooms it is a well-known principle, that the state of the horses' "coat" is a sure criterion of that of the stomach ; experience has taught them the value of this : continued friction of the skin, will often restore the jaded horse after a long journey, when all other means fail. If we contemplate the manifold endowments of the skin, That it possesses an exquisite sensibility, not only of touch, but for transmitting the impressions caused by atmospheric changes, to the great nervous centres, That these centres possess the wonderful property of reflecting these impressions received through the skin, upon the various internal organs, and so changing their vital actions by means of the sympathetic nerves, That in this way even the secre- tions and circidation of internal organs may be gravely THE HARROGATE SPAS. 87 affected through the skin, Then we must admit that such external influences, whether arising from changes in the weather, or from exposure to damp and cold, must be peculiarly apt to tell upon the general health in a weak, relaxed, or debilitated state of the skin. And this argument receives greater force from the well- known fact, that where there is want of nervous tone, the nerves are more easily affected by exciting causes. Whenever the state of weather is opposed to the free evaporation of the insensible perspiration, in per- sons suffering from debility in the functions of the skin, and whose mucous membrane is also delicate, then watery or bilious diarrhoea, if the liver sympa- thises, becomes very prevalent. Continued cold moist weather is the common precursor of such attacks. On the other hand, those whose blood circulates vigo- rously in the skin, in spite of the weather, escape an attack of the prevailing disorders. Whilst others, who offer little cutaneous resistance to atmospheric influ- ence, and are predisposed to rheumatic, gouty, gravel- ly, or catarrhal affections, experience a repetition of their former ailments. CHAPTER III. DEBILITY OF THE SKIN AS CONNECTED WITH OBSTRUCTED PERSPIRATION. THE disastrous consequences of interrupted per- spiration are forcibly illustrated by its destructive operation on vegetable life. " All flesh is grass," And, the vital prosperity of both, by a natural law, is poised delicately upon the same meteorological balance. 88 THE HARROGATE SPAS. Pestilence, as well as famine, follows in the track of blasting blights. " For oft engender'd by the hazy North, Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp, Keen in the poison 'd breeze ; and wasteful eat, Thro' buds and bark, into the blackened core, Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft The sacred sons of vengeance ; on whose Course, corrosive famine waits, and kills the year." Whilst on the other hand, nothing more contributes to healthful life than a salubrious condition of Nature " in verdure clad :" when " Sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs, Hang, not relaxing, on the springs of life." The subject has been so well handled by DR. HALES, above a century ago, that BARON LIEBIG quotes his observations on the effect of obstructed perspiration at considerable length. DR. HALES calculated, that an acre of hops, in twelve hours, perspired, in a kindly state of the air, about 220 gallons of moisture. "But in a rainy moist state of the air, without a due mixture of dry weather, too much moisture hovers about the hops, so as to hinder, in a good measure, the kindly perspiration of the leaves, whereby the stagnating sap corrupts, and breeds mouldy fen, which often spoils vast quantities of flourishing hop-grounds. This was the case in the year 1723, when ten or fourteen days almost continual rains fell, about the latter half of July, after four months of dry weather, upon which the most flourishing and promising hops were all in- fected with mould or fen, in their leaves or fruit, whilst the then poor and unpromising hops escaped and pro- duced plenty ; because they, being small, did not per- spire so great a quantity as the others : nor did they THE HARROGATE SPAS. 89 confine the perspired vapour so much as the large thriving ones did in their shady thickets. This rair, on the then warm earth, made the grass shoot out as fast as if it were in a hot bed, and the apples grew so precipitately that they were of a very fleshy consti- tution, so as to rot more remarkably than had ever been remembered." " I have, in July, (the season for fire-blasts, as the planters call them), seen/' says HALES, "the vines in the middle of the hop- ground, all scorched up, almost from one end of a large ground to the other, when a hot gleam of sunshine has come immediately after a shower of rain ; at which time the vapours are often seen with the naked eye, but especially with reflecting telescopes, to ascend so plentifully, as to make a clear and distant object become immediately very dim and tremulous. This is an effect which the gardeners about London have too often found to their cost, when they have incautiously put bell-glasses over their cau- liflowers, early in a frosty morning, before the dew was evaporated off them ; which dew, being raised by the sun's warmth and confined within the glass, did there form a dense, transparent, scalding vapour which burnt an& killed the plants." BARON LIEBIG remarks that " when these observations are translated into our present language, we perceive with what acuteness HALKS recognised the influence of evaporation on the life of plants. According to him, the development and growth of the plant depend on the supply oi nourishment and moisture of the soil, which is de- termined by a certain temperature and dryness of the atmosphere. The absorbent power of plants, the motion of their sap, depends on evaporation ; the 90 THE HARROGATE SPAS. amount of food necessary for their nutrition, which is absorbed, is proportional to the amount of moisture given out (perspired) in a given time. When the plant has taken up a maximum of moisture, and the evaporation is suppressed by a low temperature, or by continued wet weather, the supply of food, the nutri- ment of the plant, ceases, the juices stagnate and are altered ; they now pass into a state in which they be- come a fertile soil for microscopic plants, (the fen, or mould). When rain falls after hot weather, and is followed with great heat without wind, so that every part of the plant is surrounded by an atmosphere saturated with moisture, the cooling due to further evaporation ceases, and the plants are destroyed by fire-blast or scorching." LIEBIG applies the same explanation to the potato rot. Thus, the blight of the hops, and the potato rot, appear, in many cases, to depend upon obstructed perspiration. If such, indeed, be the pernicious effects of obstructed perspiration on plants, we may infer, from the large provision made for the elaboration and discharge of perspiration from the human skin, that its obstruction cannot be less deleterious to human health. Nature, which does nothing in vain, requires, in health, that a great variety of products shall be con- stantly evaporated by the skin. Professor Thompson thus enumerates their ultimate components : Carbonic Acid. Muriate of Soda. Hydrogen. Sulphate of Soda. Nitrogen. PJio-^pJiatc of Lime and Iron. Acetate of Ammonia. Lactafc of Lime. Carbonate of Soda. Lac fate of Potash. P/V-s of the Tepid Bath. In very excitable consti- tutions, or where the warm bath might prove too stim- ulating, and as an introduction to the cooler baths, this bath may bo of great service. Refrigerating in effect , 112 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. and not exciting the sudden and powerful reaction of the cold bath, nor the particular effects of the warm bath, it is of notable value in a variety of cases thus indicated. And where the dormant powers of the constitution require awakening, and it is labouring under feeble attempts to relieve itself of some chronic disorders, as chronic rheumatism, atonic gout, the in- digestion of debility, &c., the slow re-action induced by the tepid bath may be highly beneficial in gradu- ally rousing the powers of the constitution ; but it is a remedy requiring medical superintendence. We, of course, here allude, not to tepid sponging, but to complete immersion in the tepid bath. THE COOL OR TEMPERATE BATH. Whenever any kind of sudden shock is required to stimulate the nervous system by the use of cool baths, the advantages obtained depend entirely upon the glow or re-action produced. But as saline impregna- tion, as well as the impression of cold, is capable of stimulating the skin, it is plain that the combination of the shock of cold with saline stimulus, may efficiently induce this glow in cases of debility, which neither the cold nor the temperate bath without that saline stimulus could accomplish. It is on this account that sea-bathing (when at the warmest*) is found to be so valuable, from the combi- nation of moderate shock with saline excitement. The same observation may be applied to baths of mineral water impregnated with a variety of chemical agents, as the chlorides of sodium, calcium, and magnesium, * The temperature of the sea on the English coast;, very seldom ranges higher than 00 THE HARROGATE SPAS. 113 assisted also by stimulating gases. And it is partly on account of the stimulating effects of such mineral waters upon the skin, and partly owing to the absorp- tion of their chemical elements, that it is generally acknowledged, by those best able to judge of such matters, that bathing in appropriate mineral waters is quite as beneficial as drinking them. Cool or temperate bathing is particularly adapted for the slighter cases of cutaneous debility ; and by its regu- lar employment, the bather may be gradually accus- tomed to bear the full tonic effects of the cold bath ; for which, in fact, it is an excellent preparatory substitute. The time of immersion must vary with the strength of the bather. If shock is intended, then the more sudden the impression, and the colder the fluid, the greater will be its effect ; in general, re-action will be stronger up to a certain point, as the immersion is longer ; but if once a fair re-action be felt, the bather should at once quit the bath, for a second chill being once established, a second glow, while bathing, seldom if ever, takes place. Here, as in the use of all remedial measures, the point at which utility ends and mischief begins, is as various as the circumstances under which the consti- tution of the bather is placed. The most powerful remedies, by a law of Nature, are also the most fatal if misapplied ; the same principle is applicable to tem- perate bathing, which may prove powerfully medi- cinal, used as a momentary shock, but very injurious to an invalid if he be too long immersed. THE COLD BATH. Whether we throw our retrospect into the early ages, when cold ablution was part of a religious rite, pro- 114 THE HARROGATE SPAS. scribed at divine command by Moses, who was both priest and physician ; or trace it to the days of Roman superstition, when it boasted of innumerable holy wells in this and other countries, each claiming the super- natural aid of its tutelary saint we shall reflect that, in all ages and in every country, cold ablution has con- tinued to be universally acknowledged as the most necessary and the most salubrious of national customs in health, and one of the most powerful tonics in disease. And, it is therefore one which requires to be cautiously used. Inducing two different modes of action, it becomes either powerfully invigorating, or overpowering and depressing, according to the strength of the bather and the manner in which it is used. Cold bathing, properly followed up, has a pro- found influence, not only upon the nervous system, but upon the nutrition of the whole frame ; and espe- cially upon the growth and symmetrical development of the young. It is also, to a great extent, a preven- tive of debility of the skin, and one of the best re- sources against those diseases either directly or indi- rectly contracted from torpor or inactivity of the func- tions of the skin. These powers render it a most efficacious remedy for several disorders, depending either upon feeble nervous power; upon defective nutrition ; or upon chronic debility of the skin. To enumerate all the diseases to which cold bathing is applicable, would require a numerous list of derange- ments of the general health, connected either with disorder of the nerves, defective nutrition, relaxed fibre, or extreme delicacy of the skin THE II ARROGATE SPAS. 115 GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR COLD BATHING. The remarks already made, under the title of the warm bath, apply also here, with greater force. If the bather has attentively perused what has already been advanced, he will have seen, that the great object of cold bathing is to obtain the greatest possible re-action in tlie least possible time. Common sense will therefore as much deter him from entering the cold bath slowly, as from doing so rashly. He ought to arrange the circumstances under which lie bathes, so as to effect the best possible state for bearing the shock, and ensuring the glow. An abiding sense of chill after the bath is always injuri- ous ; when this follows the bath, the time of immer- sion has either been too long, or the water has been used too deep, or too cold. CAUTIONS. The cold bath is inadmissible in all organic diseases, great obstructions, inflammations, fulness of blood, most eruptions on the skin ; and it is particularly so in congestion of the liver, in a feeble state of the heart, determination of blood to the head, and great debility. VAPOUR BATHING. This term includes a variety of baths. But it is here applied to such only as depend upon the action of the vapour of water : an action very different from that of water baths. The medicinal peculiarities of the vapour of water especially depend, when it is applied to the human body, upon several conditions not generally attended to. It may be exhibited so as to produce a variety of effects, either to cool powerfully, to soothe and relax 116 THE I1ARROGATE SPAS. intimately, to stimulate the surface generally, and equalize the circulation, or energetically to promote perspiration. I. Powerfully cooling. The detrimental effect of wet clothing, when the body is heated by exercise and exposed to a draught of dry air, does not simply depend upon the contact of wet. It is the rapid evaporation, or drying of clothes on the body, which produces a much greater impression of cold, than is due merely to the actual temperature of the draught of air, to which the wearer may be exposed. On a hot summer's day we have witnessed ICE pro- duced by the rapid evaporation of water under an air- pump. Ether, when dropped on the bulb of a ther- mometer covered with linen, by rapidly evaporating, causes intense cold in the mercury in the tube. A damp bed, in the same way, induces upon the sleeping guest, a powerful impression of cold ; for animal heat is rapidly abstracted by converting the damp of the bed into the vapour of water. These facts are examples of a general principle. II. It may be also applied so as to become intimately soothing and relaxing. In this case, the vapour must be prevented from evaporating by some kind of water- proof covering. The powerfully anodyne effects of every kind of warm fomentation, warm poultices, and " water dressing," are owing to the same agent warm vapour more or less confined to the surface. " The water dressing" alluded to, is truly a local vapour bath, and consists of lint or linen moistened with cold water laid upon the surface, and then covered with oil silk, and has, among the profession, superseded a multitude of antiquated dressings, ointments and salves. Allay- THE HARROGATE SPAS. 117 ng pain, promoting the local circulation, economizing warmth, and in general without creating great heat, it facilitates all the vital processes of healing, and protects tender parts from the irritation of dry air. III. The vapour of water may be employed so as generally to stimulate the surface and equalize the :irculation. A complete vapour bath, applied to the whole per- son, is of course here required. Vapour, like water- baths, might evidently be divided into several classes iccording to the temperature employed. But, while the various kinds of the latter differ only in temperature, vapour baths present, besides the question of heat, two other distinct properties for con- iideration. The first is, the great difference of the powers of conducting heat, in the case of water and vapour ; and the second, the peculiar effects of various degrees of dryness or moisture of the air impregnated with vapour. (1.) Thus, although a water-bath at 120 cannot be endured, steam vapour has been borne at 180. A frog lives only two minutes in warm water at 104, but will survive many hours in vapour at the same heat. If the air be only slightly damp, its conduct- ing power is much diminished ; ovens, have been entered and occupied for many minutes at 250, by several experimentalists without injury, while flesh was being completely baked. In these cases the dif- ferent conducting powers of hot moist air, and of dry air, may be compared to the different effects upon the hand which touches them, of iron and of wooden rails, heated by the summer's sun, when both are really of the same temperature. 118 THE HARROGATE SPAS. (2.) A vapour bath has very distinct effects upon the skin, according to the amount of vapour suspended. This is a most important principle, already illus- trated in the chapter on change of air. The same heat operates very differently when the bath is loaded with steam, and when nearly free from it. The latter approaches the dry air bath. Suppose, for the sake of comparison, the heat be 106. If there be much vapour, it conducts heat better ; the same temperature 106 will be much hotter to the sense of touch ; it will be more stimulating as regards mere heat, (just as the iron rail feels hotter in summer than the wooden one) ; hence, instead of its producing the soothing effects of the vapour of water already described, the very reverse happens. It is on this, and other accounts, that vapour baths, as commonly constructed, often prove heating, and disappoint the physician. Incipient inflammations or colds, are thus liable to be aggravated, because, the moisture of the air, which, in the vapour bath, is always present, is not under control. Nor is this all : the most important medicinal ob- ject of the vapour bath, is either to restore the natural perspiration, when obstructed, or to increase its flow. In thousands of cases the skin is dry, obstinate and impervious ; to restore a proper action to the skin is often no less difficult than indispensable. The success of the vapour bath, in producing true perspiration, will in many cases be defeated, if it be too abundantly supplied with steam ; because Liebig has shewn, that the evaporation of the fluids of the body, through the skin, is almost prevented in a very moist atmosphere, and that it is increased ad the air THE H ARROGATE SPAS. 119 is drier, warmer, and barometrically lighter. Hence it is, that perspiration may fail to be induced in a very moist vapour bath, and yet be elicited in one less loaded with vapour, where, not only is evaporation quicker, but the apparent heat, as shewn by the ther- mometer, may be higher, with less distress; indeed Dr. Gower informs us that, under the use of a hot air bath exhibited to a patient in bed, he has obtained a more abundant flow of perspiration at moderate tem- peratures than at a much greater heat. To administer, therefore, the vapour bath upon philosophical principles, (could require the moisture as well as the temperature to be measured by a proper instrument.* USE. The vapour bath may be adapted to effect several purposes. In addition to the influence of mere warm bathing, we here possess a powerful means of directly eliciting perspiration, in cases where the warm bath might prove insufficient for that object. Accord- ing to the temperature, moisture, and time employed, vapour bathing softens, expands or quickens the pulse ; it equalizes the circulation, impels it to the surface, and promotes, either the insensible evaporation of the skin, or excites a copious flow of its secretions. It then becomes a direct evacuant or depurator of the blood. Rheumatism, scrofula, gout, bilious complaints in which the liver has secreted too little bile, disorders of the kidneys affecting the general health, also the indigestion of systemic oppression, and general ma- laise from torpid secretions sometimes, therefore, admit of remarkable relief through the constitutional changes effected in the blood by th'e vapour bath. * The hygromctric thermometer. 120 THE HARROGATE SPAS. The ancient oracles, at Delphi, were uttered by a woman raving under the potent effects of a peculiar vapour. Chloroform and ether exhibit marvellous results due to vapour introduced into the air-cells of the lungs ; the skin, indeed, is less influenced by va- pours, yet, fume baths of sulphur, iodine, and cin- nabar, applied to the skin, are known to be powerfully medicinal. Experiments made upon animals whose bodies alone were enclosed in gas-tight bags, shew that various vapours and gases, at length, produce, in this way, violent effects. The vapour of newly- painted houses is acknowledged to have a deleterious influence, as well as the contact of paint. Incipient colds and inflammations, some affections of the lungs, especially where appropriate medication is employed, and a variety of skin diseases may also be greatly benefited by its use. Its success, however, will depend entirely on a just appreciation of the par- ticular derangements requiring relief. It is not the multiplication of remedies or measures, but their pre- cise choice and adaptation which must restore the general health. The subtle effects of vapours, whether applied to the skin or to the lungs, or both, are clearly shewn in the following facts. A merchant vessel, on the homeward voyage, ex- hibited a scene of singular distress ; every one on board became salivated ; quicksilver had, by the bursting of a barrel, got loose in the ship's hold. It was vapour of mercury which occasioned this mysterious mischief. A botanist, during an excursion, deposited in his hat a poisonous plant ; the vapour of this plant caused him to be seized with nu alarming illness. Again, a THE HARROGATE SPAS. 121 man who, unconscious of danger, laid down to sleep on some bales of tobacco, narrowly escaped death by its poisonous effects upon him. It sometimes happens, that medicine administered to the stomach, fails to have a beneficial influence, either 'from its disagreeing with that organ, from a stomachic change effected upon the medicine, or from the circuitous nature of its course through the glands before it enters the blood. In such cases, great ad- vantages may be derived by the use of medicine sus- pended in the form of vapour in the bath. We witness the happy effects of absorption through the lungs and skin, in the beneficial influence of change of air, impregnated with fresh particles ; as a change from barren tracts to wooded country, especially pine forests, a change to the neighbourhood of sulphur- springs, or a change to sea-air, from lowland vapours or miasmata. It is on the same principle that ague disappears, as draining improves the soil. The Turks have, for ages, employed sulphureous vapours for bathing purposes, diffused through a spacious edifice. They breathe these vapours for hours. At many foreign sulphur springs, such vapours are regarded as highly medicinal to the lungs. The company assem- ble to inhale the emanating gas, in a room especially devoted to that purpose. Sulphur water here falls in a violent stream upon a metallic boss, and thus, on all sides, spreads its odours. The neighbourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle is celebrated for its freedom from consumption ; indeed, so powerful is the influence of the sulphur-gas of mineral springs, that residing near them has a remarkable influence upon the general health. This is effected by the absorbing powers of 12 122 THE HARROGATE SPAS. the skin and lungs. And, it must be allowed that, permanent influences, although slight, may, in time, produce profound physiological changes. DOUCHE AND SHOWER BATHS. These baths, of course, may be varied very much, according to the force, fall, quantity, and warmth of the water, as well as the number of minutes during which they are taken. The head ought always to be protected, and never, under any circumstances, sub- mitted to any blow from the impulse of a stream of water. In cases where the extremities are generally cold, standing in warm water, or on flannel dipped in hot water, may be recommended. Employed cold, shower baths resemble cold baths in their action ; but if the shower descends slowly, they have an unpleas- antly chilling effect ; on this account, a full stream, taken for a few seconds only, with tepid water, is sometimes very advisable by way of preparation. CHAPTER V. COUNTER BATHING. Notwithstanding the variety and unquestionable value of the baths already discussed, we sometimes hear it said, " I have tried warm bathing, but it proves relaxing ; shower-baths occasion me a dreadful shock ; vapour-baths exhaust me, I can bear none of them. I have gone through a course without any good result." The same thing is too often declared of medicines, THE HARROGATE SPAS. 123 until some new combination of them, to the surprise of the recipient, at last proves successful. It is cer- tain, however, that combinations of various modes of bathing, on the same principle, may prove highly salutary, when a course of single baths, on the routine vyttcm, has been attended with disadvantageous results. The following description may be regarded as a type of this class of invalids. Sleep is precarious, sudden noise alarming or intolerable, provocation quick. The temper becomes capricious, gloomy, and animated, by sudden turns. Chills are very readily taken, and a cold wind (as the phrase goes) cuts them to the bone, whilst slippers and hose of the warmest material prove inadequate to their comfort. Hot bottles, during repose, cannot, without distress, be dispensed with ; indeed, the head sometimes burns at the expense of the feet, which are pinched with cold. Nervine medicines give very temporary relief ; neither the stomach nor liver, &c., can long be kept in toler- able order ; and worse than all, fresh air at last fails to revive the spirits. In short, the powers of the ner- vous system, of generating heat, and of adequate cir- culation, are greatly below the healthy standard. The general health is greatly on the decline. In these cases, so far as benefit may be obtained by the instrumentality of the skin alone, it is not sufficient merely to bathe according to a simple course of warm baths, shower-baths or perspiratory baths, on the con- trary, the bathing must be so adapted to the irrita- bility, nervousness, or low powers of reaction in the bather, and be so combined and conducted, that it shall constantly tend To economise and husband the dial powers, 124 THE HARROGATE SPAS. To promote capillary circulation, without relaxing t\& fibres or enfeebling their contractility To give an increased tonic power to the mildest forms of tonic baths, avoiding over-stimulation, which always, in the end, produces depression To confer upon the debilitated skin, nervous centres, and perspiratory functions increased powers of resisting atmospheric changes. These important objects ought never to be lost sight of, in managing those cases in which the general health is much depressed. They are the exposition of a gen- eral principle ; it is the prerogative of science, to ex- tract from a multitude of facts, such a generalization as shall express, instead of the letter, the spirit of them all. The records of Home, of the customs, from time im- memorial, of the northern tribes of America, Norway, Finland, and Siberia, as well as those of the luxurious inhabitants of the south, supply the facts ; the gene- ralization of which may be expressed by the principle of counter bathing, the bath, and the counter bat//. In Finland, Norway, Siberia, and North America, the hot vapour bath is followed up by one of snow or river water. While the Russian, half parboiled, rushes forth in barbaric wildness to roll and gambol in the snow, irrespective of sex ; the Indian springs from his rude vapour pit to bound into a river. The seve- rity of the climate regulates the proper severity of the transition. The Fin, in this way, rejoices with impu- nity to burst from vapour at 160, -into his native air at 40 below freezing, and thus invigorates himself against the rigour of his climate. In England, com- paratively slight transitions are therefore requisite and sufficient for counter lathing. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 125 Messrs. Lewis and Clark, in their "Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri," give an interesting account of the bathing customs of the Indians, which illustrate the same principle. "One of their men had so great a weakness in his loins that he could not walk nor even sit upright, without extreme pain. They exhausted the resources of their art upon him in vain, and at length, at the suggestion of an Indian hunter, and by request of the patient himself, they placed him in a vapour bath, with the steam as hot as it coulfl. be borne. In twenty minutes he was taken out, plunged twice, in rapid succession, into cold water, and returned to the bath. During all the time he drank copiously of horsemint tea. At the end of three quarters of an hour, he was again withdrawn, carefully wrapped, and suffered to cool gradually. The morning after the operation he was able to walk, and was nearly free from pain." Major Long relates that the Indian sweating baths are in high repute for curing many disorders, and that they are generally constructed near the edge of a water-course, and formed of pliant branches of trees stuck into the ground in a circle, bent over at the top and covered in every part with bison ropes, some of them contain only one person, others four or five. The invalid enters with a kettle of water and some heated stones on which the water is sprinkled, until the requisite degree of steam is produced. When it is thought that the perspiration is sufficiently profuse, the patient is taken out and plunged into the water, pre- viously breaking the ice, if the stream is frozen. He is not subjected a second time to the action of the steam, but covers himself with his robe and returns home. 126 THE HARROGATE SPAS. Here also, we may again observe, that the severity of the transition is regulated by the severity of the atmospheric changes. Counter bathing, in its simplest forms, is, according to its mode of application, a mild or a most energetic process for soothing or rousing the nervous and circu- lating functions. Rapid sponging with hot water, followed up immediately by cold or tepid ablution, has produced, in delicate persons, very remarkable results. It may be varied to a very great extent by the follow- ing combinations. 1. Vapour and shower-bath. 2. Hot bath and cold. 3. Warm bath and cold douche or shower. 4. Vapour bath and tepid bath, &c., &c., which, under proper management, confer benefit when simple baths would prove worse than useless. The value of transition baths is universally known in Eastern climes. What has for ages been the cus- tom in the " City of the Sultan," where, during some parts of the year, its inhabitants, on account of their proximity to the Black Sea and the Russian wastes, are subjected to terrible atmospheric vicissitudes? They nationally adopt the custom of counter bathing. Reclining at first amid clouds of vapour, they are finally laved with cooling water. " Here beauty on her broider'd cushion lies, With languid brow, and dreaming down-cast eyes ; A rose o'ercharged with rain : beside the fair A kneeling slave binds up the glossy hair ; Pours perfumed water o'er the drooping face, And lends to loveliness another grace." The Turkish baths form the climax of Eastern luxury, adorned with every ornament, calculated in unison with the delicious enjoyment of the bather, to heighten magnificence and enchant the eye. THE HARROGATE SPAS. 127 Now every bath, however small, is contrived upon the same principle, comprising an outer room or hall, in which the bather's dress is arrayed ; a cooling-room pleasantly warmed and well furnished, and the bath itself, where the air is impregnated with hot sulphu- reous steam vapour. This is usually a vast hall en- tirely formed of marble. They are so much frequented that large fortunes are acquired by them, in spite of the heavy government tax levied upon these establish- ments. It is worthy of note that the bathing-hall is supplied with fountains of both hot and cold water. The bather, arrayed but in one thin garment, enters first the cooling room, moderately heated by rills of hot water and by vapour issuing from the bathing- hall ; and provided there with wooden shoes, he soon passes into the hall. Streams of water poured over his dress render it thoroughly saturated ; while the evaporation from this dress (clinging closely to the person) tends greatly to cool the bather in a room where the floor is universally too hot to be touched with the naked feet. Hence, hours can be spent in these baths. The limbs are gently rubbed with a glove of camel's hair; the hair is combed and satu- rated with water poured over the head. At the door of the cooling-room, the dripping garment is exchanged. Reclining on mats and cushions, they sometimes repose for hours, wrapt closely in long white raiment. But in the outer hall, folded in warm cloths, per- fumed, and laid to rest on ottomans and sofas, they freely partake of luxurious refreshments. The morn- ing levee begins. Such is the Turkish Hamman. The baths are used on alternate days by the men and the women respectively. THE HAKKOGATE SPAS. PART III. AN INQUIRY INTO THE MEDICINAL CHARACTERS OF THE IIARROGATE WATERS. THE MEDICINAL CHARACTERS OF TIIE HARROGATE WATERS. CHAPTER I. PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGATION. At the very threshold of this inquiry we are met with (i difficulty very cogently urged against the intrin- sic efficacy of Natural Spas, viz. : That it is one of the most difficult problems in medicine to ascertain the exact value of what are called medicinal springs : That the salutary influences of a watering place, with all its change of occupation and atmosphere, its relax- ation and regimen, involve in uncertainty, the pre- cise influence which the mineral spring really exer- cises in the cure of disease. This is considered a main difficulty necessary to be overcome before we can clearly ascertain the precise curative properties of the springs. How far we have succeeded in removing a stumbling-block, which yet exists in the path leading to a proper appreciation of the value of such mineral waters, must be left to the judgment of the reader. We shall attempt to give him a sketch of the process of inductive evidence which has, during some years of reflection, carried to our own mind a full conviction of the independent efficacy of our springs, apart from all the extrinsic in- fluences of regimen and change of air. We have already endeavoured to briefly examine the effects of the latter, we must now notice those of the former. 132 THE HARROGATE SPAS. The reader who is desirous of entering upon this question, should follow the line of inquiry which a fortunate discoverer of such springs would naturally pursue. Imagine that a score or so of such multiform spas had only just sprung to light. Delighted with the startling novelty, the enterprising possessor would anxiously await the verdicts of the chemist and the physician upon their chemical and medicinal virtues. The chemist would depone that the waters were thus and thus impregnated, and would accurately sum up their constituent elements, and then, according to the laws of the chemical affinity and solubility of certain known combinations, he would re-arrange them and combine them, in the most probable state of their natu- ral association, into chlorides, carbonates, sulphates, &c., &c. On the other hand, the physician, acutely conversant with the medical properties of the various ingredients, and the virtues of similarly impregnated springs, would, from a careful consideration of these properties, be able, without a trial of the waters, to pronounce a highly probable verdict upon their actual medicinal qualities : probable, because he would know that the properties of a compound medicine are not always exactly represented by the sum of the properties of each ingredient. But such probability is not enough. The actual virtues ought to be proved in face of this otherwise damaging objection. It is evident this process would be inadequate to detect and demonstrate the nature and laws of combined medicinal operations. Another must be applied. And philosophical research is equally applicable to every department of natural science. That method, the suggestive and inductive, is also THE HARROGATE SPAS. 133 applicable here, to search for and prove the laws of hidden operations ; a method which has so success- fully been applied to astronomy, which has fathomed the depths of the solar system, estimated the speed of a sunbeam, and detected the laws of all the celestial movements. Let us glance at this admirable process. Untiring observations on the starry spheres, during the lapse of ages, accumulated a multitude of facts. Then, ingenious experiments were instituted to explain the laws of motion, and these experiments at last suggested the stupendous laws which conservate the heavens. A falling apple, indeed, suggested the mighty secret of universal gravitation. From the laws suggested by experiments arose the principles of dynamical science. But how were they proved? Terrestrial experi- ments could only suggest, not demonstrate them. It was not enough to explain, on hypothesis, the hitherto mysterious and contradictory movements of the plane- tary worlds. It was necessary to predict, and it was necessary to verify those laws by the accuracy of the predictions in their fulfilment. Such agencies, so subtle and recondite, fearfully and wonderfully work- ing between distant worlds, could only be reached by subtle processes of research. !Not less profound and wonderful are the laws of medicinal vital re-action. The same process of inves- tigation is, and ought to be, applied for their detection. Experiment must suggest them. Prediction should verify them. The vital laws regulating the living particles circulating about the great centres of life, in man, the masterpiece of creation, arc not less diffi- cult of search than those laws which maintain the 13 134 THE KARROO ATE SPAS. balance of a universe of revolving worlds. The teles- cope and the micrometer indeed, aided by the mathe- matics of Newton, have surveyed the abyss of space, to tell us that, even there, the same great laws are at work binding the universe in one sublime bond of central revolutions. And the microscope too, and the test-tube aided by the science of Liebig, have been busy with the arcana of life, scrutinizing some of its hidden mysteries. In each investigation, research had been useless without instruments sufficiently deli- cate to appreciate and observe them. By measuring the time of descent of a falling bullet, we may define that gravity is an accelerating force which generates a velocity of 16s feet per second. But in animal life there exists a force called vital, appreciable indeed, but not measurable. Hence, observations of its effects upon substances submitted within the body to its influ- ence, are of the most complex and delicate nature. This force is neither gravitating, mechanical, electric, nor chemical, nor vegetative alone, but a combination of all, subservient to the principle of life. It is a simple thing to note the beats of a pendulum near the equator or the pole, in order to determine the varia- tions in gravity, and thence the magnitude and figure of the earth. But to comprehend one beat of the pulse, and appreciate the vital actions both accom- panying it and producing it, is a problem worthy of the highest human intellect. It is on such accounts that the methods of suggestion and verification are so important in physiological investigations regarding the action of medicinal agents. Fortunately for the subject in hand, the substances submitted to the operation of the vital force, by the THE HARROGATE SPAS. 135 exhibition of the solutions of the various ingredients natural to these springs, are most of them the familiar constituents of the blood of man. Allied by nature to his chemical constitution, they present within that fluid a scene of incessant vital transformations, afford- ing wide scope for experimental research. Whilst the generality of both vegetable and metallic remedies baffle all inquiry as to the part they take in modify- ing the chemistry of life, the actions of such ingredi- ents as form essential components of the blood, may fairly be considered as within the reach of successful observation. The blood may be regarded, indeed, as liquid nutri- ment in its highest organised state, endowed with the principle of life. That which incessantly builds up the whole frame, disburses all its expenses, forming bone, muscle, and nerve, membrane, cuticle, and hair, as well as supplies every possible secretion out of its own wealth of combinations, must be an exquisite laboratory of vital processes in health and disease. It is constantly spending its resources in all the pro- cesses of repair demanded by the waste of action, and as constantly gaining supplies to satisfy that demand. Agents, therefore, which do contribute mineral sub- stances essential to its constitution in health, can, in disease, by no means be insignificant reinforcements to the scene of that restless struggle for the mastery, waged, as it were, between the superior vital, and the inferior chemical force, between the plastic or attract- ive powers of nutrition and the loosening or repulsive powers of atomic dissolution. Animal life, indeed, in the simplest point of view, consists in manifold ex- changes of particle for particle, atom for atom, between 136 THE H ARROGATE SPAS. the elements of the blood and the substances of the organic tissues. An indisputable analytical report of the composition of the principal classes of these waters, from the pen of Professor Hofmann, has been completed : a report, as remarkable for the clearness and elegance of its diction as for the elaborate merit of its scientific details. He has furnished us with a tableau of the manner in which Nature has grouped, in many of our springs, the following substances : GASES DISSOLVED IN, OR RISING IN BUBBLES FROM, THE WATERS. Oxygen. Carbonic acid. Nitrogen. Carbonetted hydrogen. Sulphuretted hydrogen. MINERAL CONSTITUENTS, ARRANGED EITHER ACCORDING TO SOLU- BILITY OF THEIR COMPOUNDS IN PURE WATER, OR IN CARBONIC ACID "WATER : -- Chloride of potassium. Carbonate of potash. Chloride of magnesium. Carbonate of magnesia. Chloride of calcium. Carbonate of lime. Chloride of sodium. Carbonate of iron, of soda. Iodide of sodium. Bromide of sodium. Sulphide of sodium, (or Silica. Sulphur united to sodium.) Manganese. Comparing, then, the chemical analyses of the springs obtained by Professor Hofmann, with the analysis of the blood, we find that the chlorides of potassium and sodium, oxide of iron, magnesia, soda, lime, sulphur, manganese, and silica, are ingredients native both to the springs and to the blood. The starting-point of our inquiry is, the correlation of these mineral ingredients with the blood itself, the THE II ARROGATE SPAS. 137 most complex of all organic products. The investi- gation of Denis, Lecanu, Simon, Nasse, Lehmann, Bcqucrel, Rodier, and Gavarret, have combined to give the following analysis of healthy human blood. We have made the computation from their researches, for 200,000 grains, which nearly represents 25 pounds, the average amount in a healthy adult man, in order to secure facility of comparison with the analysis of the springs, and to avoid minute decimal parts : MINERAL CONSTITUENTS. Grains. Chloride of sodium 720 Chloride of potassium 72 Phosphates of lime and magnesia 50 Tribasic phosphate of soda 40 Carbonate of soda 168 Sulphate of soda 56 Oxide and phosphate of iron 100 Mineral constituents 1206 ORGANIC CONSTITUENTS. Red particles of the blood 26200 Albumen 14000 Fibrine 440 Fatty Matters 260 Extractive and organic matters containing sulphur largely, also salivary matters, biliary colouring matters, silica, and manganese 1094 Water .156800 Organic constituents 198794 Mineral constituents "1206 Grains in the adult human blood. ....... 200,000 In order, therefore, to apply the method of research already described, it is necessary that experiments should have been registered, as to the separate medi- cinal operations of these substances. Then, the con- 138 THE HARROGATE SPAS. sideration of the natural groups of these agents, in the various springs, will suggest the general principles and laws of their operation. We shall next have to seek for their verification by the agreement of predictions calculated upon them, with the observed results ; the highest proof of their truth. The substances noted on page 136 may, according to the latest researches, be classed as follows : I. BLOOD REMEDIES. (a) Htematic. Remedies contributing elements to the constitution of the blood. Medicating to the blood. (b) Depurating. Remedies relieving the blood of waste products destined to be eliminated through the secreting organs, by promoting general or special secretions. (c) Alterative. Remedies exerting a gradual but pro- found influence in effecting constitutional alterations. (d) Span&mic. Remedies reducing plethora, diluting, solvent, liquifying, promoting capillary circu- lation, and lessening the adhesiveness of the blood globules to the sides of the minute ves- sels, the prelude to congestion. II. EVACUANTS. Promoting particular discharges from the system, either sensibly or insensibly, as by sensible or in- sensible perspiration, purgation, &c., &c. Ill NERVINE. Changing nervous action. (a) Tonic. Generating increased nervous energy. THE H ARROGATE SPAS. 139 Increasing molecular tension (generally or locally) of the muscles, both voluntary and involuntary; heightening contractility of minute vessels, abating chronic congestion, and facilitating capillary motion. (b) Stimulant. Arousing actual, though dormant, ner- vous energy. (c) Narcotic. Sedative, Soothing, &c., &c. IV. SPECIAL. Remedies acting specially. As antidotes to chronic, me- tallic, or syphilitic poisoning. Anthelmintic, destroying -worms. Suitable as special local applications, &c. GROUP I. THE CHALYBEATE WATERS. The pure chalybeates, holding in solution a less amount of mineral elements than ordinary spring water, with the exception of iron, derive their chief action from THE CARBONATE OF IRON dissolved in the water by the aid of carbonic acid gas. Indeed, the action of the minute doses of the chloridal salts is completely transcended by that of the chalybeate element which, being presented in a very dilute, readily-assimilated state, is well adapted for elabora- tion within the blood, as oxide and phosphate of iron. Now, from remote ages, iron has, to this day, been celebrated as a restorative tonic. But not until the era of new methods and instru- ments of research could the accumulated facts of many centuries suyyest a new law of operation susceptible of verification. 140 THE HABROGATE SPAS. The extraordinary changes, effected during the use of steel among the particles of impoverished blood, suggest the principle of BLOOD MEDICATION. The eye rendered a thousand times more penetrating by the microscope, and the balance of the chemist sensitive to the thousandth of a grain, place this great principle beyond all doubt. Such renovation of the blood would warrant the prediction, that steel, judiciously exhibited, in the most soluble and easily- assimilated form, such as chalybeate waters present, ought to exceed, in medicinal opera- tion, the use of ordinary steel drugs. Accordingly, Professor Conolly, of the London University, writes, "That they (chalybeate waters) more manifestly alter the state and appearance of the body than any other medicine whatever, in conditions of the body suited to their use : no alteratives, in fact, are so effectual. They substitute general energy for general debility, and revive the colour and health in patients, before pallid and wan, or discoloured, as in the chlorotic, from long disease." And again, the celebrated Edinboro' Professor de- clares, "Mineral Waters often produce cures which we in rain attempt to perform ly the combinations in our shops, even though they contain nothing but iron." [The italics are their own.] To such testimonies, were they insufficient for veri- fication, might be added many authentic records.* The prediction is here verified in the most satisfactory manner. The chalybeate clement, therefore, medicate* the impoverished blood. And we may fairly claim, for * See " Records of Cures effected by the llarrogatc Waters, in the reign of Charles I." THE HARROGATE SPAS. 141 chalybeate wells, a restorative power exceeding ordi- nary steel drugs. An objection, supposed to have weight, has been advanced against this conclusion ; That the actual amount of iron exhibited, during the use of the cha- lybeate springs, is inadequate to produce these surpris- ing effects. An objection which, against such evi- dence, can have no more force than the assertion, that the power of gravitation docs not seem adequate to bind the earth in its solar orbit. But the statement itself is erroneous. The iron is not inadequate, for 10 grains of sulphate of iron, the strongest steel drug in use, contains only one grain of oxide of iron. Therefore, a grain of the oxide suspended in carbonic acid waters, is a chalybeate equivalent for ten grains of that excellent preparation of iron, the sulphate. Steel wells are, then, by no means inadequate remedies, so insignificantly weak in chalybeate impregnation. The simplest group of medicinal elements next pre- sented for consideration, is the Starbeck water, which contains a combination of tlic chloride of sodium and the alkaline carbonates, with only a comparatively slight sulphureous impregnation. GROUP II. STARBECK, OR KNARESBORO' SPA. Chloride of sodiu Carbonate of pot Carbonate of sod; (lu run INURED TENTS. .... 122 Carbonate? of lima ..... 7