Diseases > Domestic medicine

Jath hare the most indisputable claims to prece-
lency. Tho fame of tbeir medical virtues is more
videly diffused, and more firmly established, than that
>f any other springs in the known world. It is no
wonder, therefore, that the pen of industry, of
jenius, or of ambition, should have been often exer-
:ised upon so popular a topic. Amidst a multitude
jf books, Dr. Falconer’s “ Practical Dissertation on
the Medicinal Effects of the Bath Waters,” is acknow¬
ledged to be he best account which has yet appeared
of what he justly calls a “ powerful, but (in many
instances) nice remedy.” His situation, as physician
to the Bath hospital, must have afforded him the best
opportunities of observing the effects of those waters ;
and he has given the most satisfactory proofs of his
being well qualified to profit by those opportunities.
One of his remarks is really of more consequence
than a whole volume of chemical investigations, which
have thrown just as little light upon the efficacy of
the waters as the fables concerning Bladud, or the
frequently-discovered fragments of Roman antiqui¬
ties. Chemistry, indeed, makes us acquainted with
the component parts of those waters, and tells us
they contain a good deal of calcareous salts, but little,
if any, neutral alkaline salts ; and that they are im¬
pregnated with about a sixtieth part, in bulk, of fixed
air, which holds in solution so very small a quantity
of iron as to be scarcely appreciable, though it gives a
Blight chalybeate taste to the water, when hot from
the spring. But what inference could we deduce
from these, and the like amusing details, in the treat¬
ment of any particular disease ? It is, then, to the
enlightened practitioner, as I said before, that we
must look for useful information ; and, in this view'
of the subject, we cannot wish for more respectable
I authority than that of Dr. Falconer-