88

WILDBAD.

CHAPT. V.

The warm springs of Wildbad, I freely confess, I con- sider in cvery respect equal to those of Gastein, much more convenient, and infinitely superior to them in the comfort- able and delightful Sensation they produce. The diseases wliich tbe Wildbad watcrs have cured, are of tlie. same dass, and of tbe same character and importance, as those said to have been benefitted by the Gastein baths: and re- coveries equally wondcrful have been recordcd, and have come to my knowledge as liaving been obtained in the one place as in the other. But I cannot too much insist on the great fact wliich renders Wildbad so superior to all other warm springs, — namely, tliat there we plunge into the spring itself, ready prepared by 11a tu re; whereas at Gastein the latter can only be regulated by artificial contrivances.

The Gastein water, I can conccive, might be found superior to tliat of Wildbad, in such cases as are likely to require a niucli higher temperature than is to be found in the latter place; and I am convinced tliat such cases exist, and would and might be cured, werc medical men on the spot daring enougli to Order a higher temperature for tlieir removal. In all such cases, of course, Wildbad could not, and Gastein could, be of service, but so far from ever using the latter spring at a higher temperature than tliat found at Wildbad, Drs. Storch, Eble, Streinz, and others, apprehend danger even from tlie protracted use of the batli at the ordi- nary degree of lieat at which it is more gcncrally employed. They say, and I admit tliat one or two of my patients con- firmed the Statement, tliat morbid irritability of the whole nervous System—exaltation of the sensoriuni —an itchy Sens­ation in the skin, — and other Symptoms of over-excitement injurious to the patient,—have followed either too great a heat in the bath, or too protracted a stay in it, or too lengthened a course of bathing. In corroboration of tliis