RULES FOR THE USE OF THE WILDBAD WATERS.

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require tlie use of somc otlier mineral springs, will find liere tlie waters of tlie most celebrated Spas of Germany.

Respecting tlie use of tlie baths, tlie first care of the patient should be, not on any account to enter into the bath flushed or feverish, or with a full stomacli, and that his digestipn be in a normal state.

As to the duration of the eure, no Standard can poss- ibly be given; the average number, as bas been stated above, is twenty-four baths for each patient. Still it is a fact, which will require no further proof, that the character of the complaint, the Constitution and the agc of the in­valid, even the state of atmosphere during theseason; that all these, we say, will combine to increase or diminish this number. Everything liere depends from the time of the reaction. If the suflerings of the patient Iiave ccased aflter the lapse of a fortnight, it is not necessary to continue bathing for a Iongcr ]ieriod; on the otlier liand, if this be not the case, the course of bathing may be protractcd to a rnonth, or even six wccks. Here may also be mentioned the belief, current at Wildbad, that the effects of the waters pronounce themselves regularlyin periods of seven days, and there are many who tliink it impossible that a eure could be effected on the sixth, or eleventh, or fifteentli day. This is not quitc unfounded, as experience has shown that the ertses generally ensued on these days.

The bath should be taken early in the morningfast- ing, if ever the forces of the patient allow it. Very ex- liausted and nervous persons who find it impossible to take the waters, externally or internally, with an empty sto- mach, should at least take tlicir breakfast one or two hours before tliey use the waters, and never enter into the bath beforc their food is fully digested. This remark applies also to the evening-baths, which never ought to be taken