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WILDBAD. — CHAPT. VI.
joints (Anchylosis), frequently find alleviation and eure at Wildbad. In the third stage of Coxalgy cliiefly, wliere the head of the thiglibone is entirely displaced from its cavity, and nature requires the formation of a new articulation, these springs, mollifying the muscular fibres, often asto- nishingly facilitate and accelerate tbe formation of the false joint.
A girl who liad never been ill, previously to her six- teenth year, at tliis period began to suffer violent pains in tlie joint of the right knee, whicli she not could ascribe to any particular cause. The limb beginning to swcll, several medical men were consulted, who treated the complaint as a local disorder, prescribing leeebes, embrocations, and baths of simples , whicli however produced no other effect, than to make evil worse. Soon after tbe girl complaincd of pains in the hip, the knee swelled considerably, and a tension of the calf survening, the patient became obliged to have recourse to assistance, for tending her complaint. The pains she suffered were particularly excruciating towards nightfall, and wlien the weather cliangcd. In the course of the montli of July 1837, the disorder was recognised for a case of coxalgy of the second degree, complicated witli white swelling, and as therapeutic remedies could not be of any furtlier use, the invalid was counselled to try Wildbad—tliis being the only means wliich could eure her. The success of her bathing there has been surprising, and she left the Spa fully restored.
It ought to be discerncd between the rheumatic or in- flammatory stages of Tumor albus, and the scrophulous one, wliich begins witli alterations in the nature of the carti- lages, or of the hone itself. The first dass, in wliich the swelling uses to appear with the first pains, will easier be removed than the latter.— Cures of stiffuess of the joints,