Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 663
small quantities, acting as an alterative, and inducing,
by their mild operation, a gradual change in the
habit; and, secondly, when employed in larger doses
where purging is indicated, fulfilling that intention
in the most desirable manner, without irritating the
nerves, or weakening the patient as much as other
purgatives. After a little use, almost every body can
drink them without any great disgust, though they
are at first no less nauseous to the taste, than otfensive
to the smell.
I shall only add, that the external use of the Har-
rowgate waters being justly deemed a powerful auxili¬
ary in many of the disorders for which they are
resorted to, particularly those of the cutaneous class,
there are proper baths for this purpose, to the supply
of which three springs out of four are devoted, that
which is reserved for drinking being more strongly
impregnated with salt and sulphur than the rest.
MOFFAT WATERS.
The sulphureous and saline waters of Moffat, in
North Britain, are almost as much resorted to as
those of Harrowgate. The impregnation of the for¬
mer, indeed, is not so strong as that of the latter,
and their effects are, of course, somewhat different.
Two or three quarts of the Moffat waters may be
drank in a morning, without any sensible effect but
that of increasing the flow of urine. It now and then
purges ; but this is so far from being its constant or
regular mode of operation, that opening medicines are
almost always necessary during a course of it. Its evi¬
dent determination to the kidneys renders it of essential
service to persons afflicted with the stone and gravel,
particularly the latter. It has likewise afforded great
relief in many bilious complaints, and in the early
symptoms of a scrofulous habit. But its chief point
of celebrity, and that in which it may be said to rival