120
WILDBAD.
CHAPT. VII.
at several draughts. Trifling- as these rules may appear, the power of digesting tlie water often depends on their observance.
It is best to begin with half a glass of the water at a draught (the glass contains about four ounces), and to pro- ceed, for the first two or three days, as far as two or three glasses, not more— until at the expiration* of a week or ten days, when the quantity may be augmented.
The patient should take care never to drink the mineral waters wliile he himself is heated, or exhausted from pro- tractcd walking; for by that means he avoids the chance of obstruction and inflammation of the bowels.
The quantity pf mineral water adapted for eacli patient cannot be ascertained beforehand; but the general rule with respect to the proper quantity of water, to be drunk, is to take as much of it as will pass off by the kidneys, or the pores of the skin, and cause, at the same time, brisk action of the intestinal canal twice or three times per diem.
Constipation will occasionally tease a patient, notwith- standing the quantity of resolvcnt water drunk. In such a case it is advisable to increase the laxative power of the water, by adding Carlsbad salts, or cream of tartar, or any other gcntle or saline aperient. Dr. Malfatti, the great leading physician, at Vienna, recommends as a proper means of opening the bowels in case of costiveness during the use of hot mineral springs, half a glass of lukewarm new milk, takeu half an liour before the use of the water.
Patients, suffering of complaints of the ehest, should take the water, mixed with half its quantity of warm goats- milk; measures have also be taken to preparc goats-whey equal to that of Switzerland, which is drunk in combination with the mineral waters. — Such patients also, whose cases