The Spas of Germany. By the author of 'St. Petersburgh' (A. B. Granville)

Front matter

DR. GRANVILLE'S SPAS OF GERMANY. VOL. I. > THE SPAS OF GERMANY 8V THE AUTHOR OF " ST. PETERSBURGH. FUBSTEN-BAD AT WILDBAD. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HENRY COL BURN, PUBLISHER GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1837. I INSCRIBE THE PRESENT VOLUMES IN REMEMBRANCE OF MY ELDEST AND BELOVED SON gfiMeg &ofcert, WHO, HAVING ATTAINED, BY HIS PRIVATE VIRTUES, AND PROFESSIONAL WORTH. (BEFORE HE WAS TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF AGE) THE RANK OF LIEUTENANT AND ADJUTANT IN HIS LATE MAJESTY'S EIGHTY-NINTH REGIMENT, WAS, DURING MY ABSENCE FROM ENGLAND, SUDDENLY REMOVED FROM THIS LAND OP PROBATION, ON THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER 1836: JUST AS RETURNING HEALTH SEEMED TO OPEN THE FAIREST PROSPECTS ON HIS PATH.

Preface

. It does not often tall to the lot of a writer who undertakes to add a fresh work to English literature, to light upon a subject absolutely new. Still less often does it happen, that what is new, shall prove, at the same time, useful and amusing. To two of these qualities, the subject I have selected on the present occasion may lay indis putable claims. Whether the third or last of them may, with the like justice, be ascribed to it, depends on the manner in which the subject has been treated, — and of that the reader alone must judge. The very motive which induced me, in this instance, to compose and publish a work on the Mineral Waters of Germany, — namely, the total want of such a book in the English language, — shows that the subject, in this country, must be b2

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. VIII new ; — I mean new, when treated, as I trust it has been in these volumes, in the character of a general, full, extended, and practical account of the principal and most celebrated of those waters — an account that shall leave no particle of the necessary information respecting them untouched ; and new also, as resulting from recent investiga tions of the places themselves, instituted in every case by the author in person. The previous existence of a well-known hu morous narrative relating to two or three mineral springs in Germany, — and likewise of two other works, purely professional, on the mineral waters of every part of the world, one of which is a mere geographical indicator of the places it mentions, — does not detract from the accuracy of my assertion, that the subject I have selected is new.

That it is also calculated to prove highly useful, requires scarcely any demonstration. There may be people in England who are sceptical, as to the alleged virtues of mineral waters, in curing diseases. Such scepticism, however, has not deterred, and never will deter, thousands of invalids from resorting annually to the natural sources of those waters, in the hope of there finding that relief to their sufferings, which they had failed to receive from medical skill at home. If, therefore, in

PREFACE.

. IX writing a book that shall assist such persons in every respect, during their peregrination and use of the waters, I facilitate their object, — the work which performs that task will be justly entitled to the character of a useful publication. That the subject may be made amusing, too, is a self-evident truism ; and that I have done my best, throughout these volumes, to render it so, I will frankly confess ; whether successfully or not, remains to be seen. The only difficulty on this point I shall have to contend against, will be that of reconciling the gravity of the writer's profession and the importance of the subject, with the light and varied style in which I have endeavoured to treat that subject. The public have shown, by the very flattering manner in which they were pleased to receive a former publication of mine, — the title of which I have placed as my only distinction in front of the present work, — that they did not consider a narrative of travels, in which useful, and even medical information, was mixed up with entertaining and lighter matter, incompatible with the severer studies and pursuits of my profession.

Encou raged therefore by such a precedent, I have, on the present occasion, adopted the same, nay, a more discursive manner of imparting knowledge ; and I have only to express a hope that my mo-

PREFACE.

. X tive for so doing may be attributed to the right cause. The composition of a purely professional treatise on the Mineral Waters of Germany, would have been a matter of no great difficulty, to one who for years has paid much attention to them, and who has recently examined them in person. But the sphere of utility of such a work would have been very circumscribed. The me dical profession in this country, now-a-days, would scarcely care anything for a dry technical treatise on foreign mineral waters. A full proof of this exists in the fate which a work of infinite merit on the mineral and thermal springs of the four quarters of the globe, published in 1832, by Dr. Gairdner, of Edinburgh, met at the hands of the profession. So little was that book read, that the copies presented to the library of the Royal Society, and of another scientific institution, — both of which profess to afford the facility of circulating works among their mem bers, many of whom are medical men, — have been actually found with the leaves uncut in March 1837 !

And yet the work of Dr. Gairdner is not more excellent as a technical, scientific, and philosophical work, than it is extraordinary as a specimen of industry. As such, it was recommended by the vigilant editor of an old-

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. XI established quarterly medical review, who never fails to point out to his brethren what is deserving of their patronage — -who is himself a successful author — and who has ventured, on one or two recent occasions, to convey professional information to the public generally, stripped of the stiff-necked pedantry of his art, in the man ner that I have endeavoured to adopt in the following pages. Who can doubt that the failure of the book in question has arisen from the circumstances of its being addressed solely and speci ally to men of science, and of its being totally unsuited to general readers ? To eschew, then, such a fate, and the cause that led to it, I have attempted, in these volumes, to combine all that a practical physician can impart of information to general readers, with as many curious and miscellaneous details of cities, institutions, scenery, buildings, mines, customs, persons, and manners, as offered them selves to my notice.

I have adopted the form of a narrative for the vehicle of whatever know ledge I had to communicate respecting each of the mineral springs, in preference to a mere me thodical catalogue raisonne, in which numerous technicalities would have deterred the reader from proceeding in his perusal of the work. Finally, instead of strictly limiting myself to the many

PREFACE.

. points of dry matter-of-fact, which the subject naturally involves, and the application of which is decidedly useful— I have introduced matter which, however irrelevant it may at first sight appear to the principal subject of the work, will nevertheless, on the ground of variety, serve the purpose of inducing many to consult these vo lumes, who might otherwise have been deterred from so doing. Thus, for instance, the reader will find frequent descriptions of dinners, &c. in the course of the narrative, which some persons may view as being out of place in a book of this character : but on further consideration their in troduction will, I hope, be deemed desirable : first, because it is essential to show the injustice of the prevailing fashion among English travellers, of complaining that on going to Germany an adieu must be bidden to all the comforts of the table ; secondly, because to an invalid, who is to travel abroad under the guidance of the present work, in search of health, it is of some importance that he should know beforehand, what, and how many, different species of cuisine he is likely to encounter in each division of that empire. Whether I am mistaken in the estimate I have formed of what is likely to please, time will show ; but I feel confident of having, at all events,

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. XIII discharged the whole duty voluntarily imposed upon myself, by conveying to the public, in a popular form, a fuller, a more minute, and a more practical account of the mineral springs of Ger many, than has ever before been attempted in this country, or, I may safely say, in any country — considering the manner and form of the book, and the general collective character of its details. Germany boasts of some hundreds of publications on mineral waters, not a few of which are excellent. Many of them are of a purely local character ; others are wider in their sphere, and embrace the consideration of every mineral spring throughout the country. But a work presenting the narra tive of a Grand Tour to all the most celebrated and fashionable mineral watering-places of Germany, in regular succession, (except Pyrmont and Aix la-Chapelle, the latter of which I had already de scribed in a former work,) a tour in which amuse ment is blended with information, and descriptive sketches of the " humours and fancies " of each Spa, are mixed up with the accurate details, collected on the spot, of everything that is useful in a medical and social point of view ; — such a work, I believe, does not exist in any language. Yet no one can doubt that a work of this nature is sought for by all those who wish to visit the Spas of Germany. I have only to hope that the pre-

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. XIV sent one will be considered as having accom plished that desideratum. I have just mentioned the word Spa, and I have adopted it throughout the present work, in stead of the more ordinary expressions of water ing-places, bathing-places, &c. The reason must be obvious. It was necessary, where a con stant repetition of it was likely to occur, that the word employed to signify a mineral source, at which people assemble, to drink as well as to bathe in the waters, and at which gas-baths and mud-baths are also administered, should be brief, and equally applicable to all of them, without affecting any exclusive meaning, except that which, in common acceptation, it is under stood to imply. The word Spa was ready at hand, as a generic appellative, of the sort I wished ; and the authority of the great English lexicographer left no doubt, in my mind, of the propriety of using it.

With respect to the classification which I have adopted for the several Spas I visited, and which differs from all the classifications generally employed, — it was a necessary conse quence of the narrative-form of the work itself. In travelling from certain Spas to others, I could only view them geographically, according to the part of Germany to which they belonged ; and

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. XV I therefore divided them into geographical groups. Had I taken the more usual mode of grouping them according to chemical distinctions, I should have had, in the course of the narrative of my recent travels, to jump from one place to another, the most distant and apart, and frequently back again to the same spot, in order to give an ac count of the various springs, agreeably to the inconvenient, and I must say incorrect, arrangement usually observed, of " sulphurous," " saline," " chalybeate," and " acidulated" mineral waters. In conclusion, I may state that the reader will find the many and various topics connected with the subject of the present volumes, not arranged in a methodical and dry manner, but interwoven with the continuous narrative of my travels, under the following heads: A. The geographical and local position of the Spa. 1.

Its ancient and modern history. 2. Its physical, statistical, municipal, political, and social description. 3. Its present condition. 4. Climate, temperature, meteorology. B. Accommodations -minutely describing 1. Hotels. a. Mode of living. b. Expenses. 2. Lodgings. 3. Places of amusement.

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. 4. Comforts and discomforts. 5. Promenades and public places. 6. Assemblies and society. C. The springs. a. Nature of the water. 1. Mode of using it. 2. Internally. 3. Externally. Baths. Gas-baths. Mud-baths. 4. Disorders for which it is recommended. b. Classes of persons who assemble at the Spa. D. Anecdotes of the sort of life led at the Spas. ] . Examples of extraordinary cures. 2. Sketches of the inhabitants. 3. Medical attendance. Physicians. E. Best mode of reaching the Spas. 1. Routes for travelling thither. 2. Posting diary. 3. Information respecting conveyances of every sort. 4., Season for visiting the Spa. 5. Incidental information. F. Analysis of the several mineral waters. 1. The best works written upon them. G. Statistical details in support of what has been advanced. 1. Tables of thermometrical differences. 2.

Table of German posts and distances 3. List of prices and charges. 4. Statement of the total expenses incurred by families and single individuals at each Spa, including the journey to and from the place.

PREFACE.

. XVII One perfectly novel and original feature in the present essay, is the general and comparative chemico-pneumatic table, placed at the end of the second volume. That table was compiled, arranged, and calculated by myself, at consi derable trouble and expense of time, from the most undoubted authorities ; and it embraces the chemical analysis of all the springs I have described in the body of the work. The idea of devising something of this kind, arose in my mind pretty early in the course of writing the work, when I found that the insertion of every analysis at full length, with the continual repeti tion of the names of each ingredient in each spring, (as they are generally given in other works,) would be tedious and irksome to the reader, and would interrupt and detract from the inte rest of the narrative.

I therefore constructed the table in question, which speaks for itself, and the use of which cannot fail to be of considerable service, not only to the public in general, but to professional men in particular, — very few of whom have the means of applying to the original works for information, or are likely to avail themselves of such means, if they had them within their reach. The great advantage of being able, at one glance, by means of such a table, to judge of the relative composition of any two, or more, particular

PREFACE.

. springs — of seeing, at once, the most prevailing and characteristic ingredients in them — and of summing up the respective quantities of solid substances held in solution by the several springs, in one and the same measure of mineral water, to which I have reduced them all, — is another and not one of the least important features of the present volumes. A. B. Granville, M.D. 16, Grafton-street, Berkeley-square, June, 1837. USE AND POWER OF MINERAL WATERS. I. introductory remarks. If the present were only a work of imagination, or a mere book of travels, I should esteem any introduction or preliminary observations unnecessary. But the volumes which I lay before the public on this occasion aim at something more ; for their intention is, to convey practical information on a great variety of topics con nected with the principal subject of the work.

Hence, as it would ill suit the narrative style adopted in the fol lowing pages, to have it interrupted by the constant recur rence of those topics, however useful, it becomes necessary to refer to them, and treat of them, once for all, un der the head of " General Considerations." These will be brief, yet full and explicit, in the hope that the reader may be tempted to peruse them. It is indeed of some consequence that, ere he proceeds farther, the reader should properly and deliberately digest such general con- XX siderations ; as, without them, it would be a matter of difficulty fully to comprehend the meaning of many passages and allusions in the body of the work. I shall arrange what I have to offer, on this part of my subject, under a few clear and short sub-divisions ; pre facing them by a declaration, that I do not profess to in dite an essay, still less a treatise, but simply to give a few general views, of a popular as well as practical cha racter, upon the use and power of the German mineral waters.

II. prevailing ignorance respecting foreign mineral WATERS, AND EFFECTS OF IT. There is no doubt that the great blessing offered by Providence to man, suffering under bodily disease, in the sanative power of mineral waters, particularly of those of Germany, has been withheld from the people of this country longer than from any other nation. A resource so efficacious, so ample, and I might add, so general, for combating disease, — as the continental physicians have long since proved, — has been to England almost as a sealed book. The leading medical men in London — those who are most likely to be consulted by such patients as can afford to, and would willingly, leave their home for a season to seek health on foreign shores — are avowedly little conversant with the subject. Neither by travels, nor by the perusal of foreign works, have they had many opportunities of becoming acquainted with it.

Were this the only obstacle to the dissemination of practical knowledge in this country respecting foreign mineral waters, the difficulty would not be insuperable. USE AND POWER OF MINERAL WATERS. XXI But with a want of knowledge, there unfortunately exists also a singular scepticism on the part of medical men, as to the power of mineral waters in curing disease ; and such a scepticism, — carried to the extreme of poh-poo ing every suggestion, which has for its object the send ing of an invalid to a foreign Spa, — has often prevented a salutary excursion of that sort, and has deprived the patient of its beneficial results. Examples of this kind have occurred repeatedly in my own experience. They in fact occur almost daily. Last year a patient of consequence, under my care in London, was recommended, on account of a complaint which was of frequent recurrence, to go to a Spa of great celebrity, as the only likely means of strengthening the system, and rendering the constitution invulnerable to future attacks.

A metropolitan physician of the first respectability, who acted in consultation at the time, did not actually deride, but seemed to hold very cheap, the alleged efficacy of foreign mineral springs. Upon being questioned as to any practical knowledge he might have of them, he candidly admitted that he possessed none. The recommendation, however, was adopted, and the result has answered every expectation. I was conversing a short time ago with a law officer of the crown, with whom I was proceeding on a visit to a near and invalid relative of his in the country, when the subject of foreign mineral waters was accidentally intro duced. On hearing my opinion of them, my travelling companion smiled incredulously, and assured me that his medical attendant, a general practitioner of vast practice and popularity, considered them as little short of " sheer c POPULAR CONSIDERATIONS ON THE nonsense." — " Has your medical friend," observed I to him, " ever had occasion to treat you, during any pro tracted ailment or chronic disorder, whether of the sto mach or otherwise ? and if so, did he find it necessary to send you alterative powders, saline draughts, and purga tive or strengthening mixtures, without end, containing some one or other of the preparations of soda, lime, pot ash, magnesia, or steel, &c, with a view to restore you to health ?

If he did, and he relied, at the time, upon the efficacy of those preparations for your recovery, why should he deny the same efficacy to the very identical ingredients disseminated through that universal and po tent element, water, by the hand of nature, with a che mistry far more cunning than his, assisted, moreover, by a caloric he cannot imitate ? But the truth is, that your medical friend is wholly unacquainted with the constitution, and consequently the power, of such natural agents — else he would not deride them." Sometimes ignorance of this important subject, acts as an obstacle to the diffusion of knowledge respecting it, not from the incredulity which it gives rise to, but in con sequence of the mistakes it occasions. Thus, upon being consulted as to the propriety of proceeding to some particular Spa in Germany, a medical practitioner in England has been known to advise rather a watering place at home, as equivalent in his estimation to the fo reign one.

A case of this kind, which is not of rare oc currence, came under my notice this spring. Having recommended Kissingen to a patient, as the only gently aperient saline chalybeate that was appropriate to his disease ; another physician, who had never heard USE AND POWER OF MINERAL WATERS. of the place, being told that it was a chalybeate, as sured the patient that Tunbridge would do just as well. Now, no two mineral springs can differ more widely in every respect than Kissingen and Tun bridge. At other times, the non-acquaintance of the most in fluential medical men in London, with the nature and use of foreign mineral waters, leads to more serious mischief, than that of simply impeding the progress of know ledge respecting them. Forced " by the pressure from without," or by the influence of fashion, to concede a point to their patients, who have made up their minds to visit a foreign Spa in the summer, because some friend or acquaintance had recovered the year before by so doing, — they have occasionally undertaken to choose the place for such patients, and have, not unfrequently, directed them to precisely the wrong spring.

Without alludingto any of the instances of this kind which have come to my own know ledge during the last twenty years that I have been prac tising in the metropolis ; I will refer my readers at once to the cases mentioned by the best foreign writers on mineral waters, of patients who had been sent to parti cular Spas, but who ought never to have left home; — and of some who were directed to watering-places in certain parts of Germany, when they ought to have been sent to Spas placed in totally different situations. Nor is the testimony of such medical men liable to suspicion; since, in most cases, the opinion they ex pressed, to the effect just mentioned, was in direct oppo sition to their own interests. Thus Dr. De Carro, in his English manual of the Carlsbad waters, states dis tinctly, that patients had been sent thither, and with c POPULAR CONSIDERATIONS ON THE specific instructions too, whom he was obliged to send back again.

" Such mistakes," he says, " caused by an imperfect knowledge of the effects of our waters, are but too frequent. Supported by hope, the journey to the wells was at least tolerable ; but, deprived of all further illusions, the way home is dreadful." Dr. Heidler, of Ma rienbad, Dr. Bischof, of Toeplitz, and Dr. Peez, of Wies baden, made similar observations to me, and they have recorded them in their respective valuable works on the Spas at which they practise. One or two other examples of less importance might be adduced, of the general want of knowledge in this country, on the subject under consideration. The existence of what are called Seidlitz powders, is one in stance of it. These effervescent salts, although not in the least resembling them, are, nevertheless, sold to the public, bought, and used, as " possessing all the efficacy and sanative power of the celebrated springs in Ger many," of that name.

Another instance is, the appli cation made to the able chemist who superintends the German Spa at Brighton, by medical practitioners in London and the country, for a supply of salts " to make the Marienbad and Carlsbad at home !" as if such things could be. Strange as it may appear, there is another and a last proof of the accuracy of my present proposition, which is of quite a different description from the proofs already adduced ; and that is the hasty and eager manner in which people set off from England for Schlangenbad and Schwalbach, (places before unknown to them,) the in stant they had read the captivating volume, which a man of sense and keen observation, but not a medical or a scientific man, had published on those two German watering-places. Away went the two or three thousand invalids, at full speed, to bathe in the Snakewater and to drink the bubbling Paulinen, immediately after the appearance of that book, and every year since, without knowing why or wherefore, and without being certain that either the one or the other of those springs was suited to their constitution, and likely to relieve their complaints.

Credulity, in this instance, demonstrates want of know ledge, and, therefore, supports my argument. III. Efficacy and Power of Mineral Waters. It would be late in the day to undertake, at the present time, to prove the efficacy and power of foreign mineral waters, were it not that the want of knowledge of those qualities, just demonstrated, renders such a task on my part necessary. There is a primd facie line of evidence to prove the efficacy and power of mineral waters, which it is almost needless to hint at. Simple and natural, though it be, I hold it, in my humble opinion, to be the best. Books have been written by authors of great celebrity, to prove that which, of itself, carries conviction to common sense. In what other way does the human body shake off disease, whether spontaneously or while under the action of remedies, except by means of secretions of some description or other?

What disorder has ever been cured without some striking, (insulated or con tinuous, it matters not,) but at all events, critical discharge from the emunctories of the body ? In other words, without either perspiration, expectoration, or sali vation ; increased action of the intestines or of the POPULAR CONSIDERATIONS ON THE kidneys ; suppuration, boils, or eruptions ; deposition of gouty matter, or discharge of hemorrhoidal blood ? Well, then,— mineral waters most unquestionably exist, which, when taken internally, or used as baths, can and do produce, sooner or later, one or other or all of these several effects. No one has ventured to deny the fact : it is the successful application of the fact, alone, to the cure of disease, that has been doubted. But it is rather too bad logic to admit that certain effects, acting on the human body under disease, would lead to recovery — to admit also that mineral waters can produce such effects — and yet, to deny that those effects, because produced by mineral waters, can cure disease !

The next argument to prove the efficacy of mineral waters, I would deduce from the admitted fact, that bountiful Providence has not placed a single natural agent within our reach, which is not possessed of some property calculated to benefit us. The vegetable and mineral world sufficiently testify to that. Next, after them, in degree of general diffusion throughout the uni verse, come the natural waters, bubbling or boiling out of the earth's bosom, charged with many of the principles which belong to the mineral world, and a few which belong to the vegetable world also. Are these waters, then, likely to have been bidden to flow for nothing ? Look round Germany alone, and you will find that country teeming with mineral springs. I have placed at the head of these volumes a map indicative of not less than three hundred such; and they have all been frequented, from the earliest periods, by invalids who have found in them a successful termination to their sufferings.

Do not these results attest that there must exist some virtue in such X.W'ii springs ? But let us confine our remarks to those springs only, of major importance, which have been well studied by men of eminence. Does not the testimony of the latter go to prove, most indisputably, the power and efficacy of mineral waters ? Again, if we view the question in reference to the quantity of mineral water, constantly flowing from the natural sources with a regularity which is never interrupted, in a condition as to constituent principles, which is permanent, and endowed with a resisting and an unconquerable power against all disturbing elements, when everything else around seems to obey the influence of those elements ; — is there no force in that argument ? The reader will find, in almost every chapter of this work, authentic statements of the prodigious quantities of mineral water discharged from the several hot and cold springs I visited ; and if he turn to the pages of the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, he will find, in an ably written article on mineral waters generally, that the Sprudel, according to Reuss, Fuhrmann, and Mitterbacher, gives 192| milbons of cubic feet, or 12,008,000,000 pints avoirdupois of hot water per day !

As there are 31^ grains of sulphate, muriate, and carbonate of soda, in every pint avoirdupois of the Sprudel water, besides other solid ingredients ; if the quantity of water just mentioned be correctly quoted, we have mineralising agents of acknowledged power thrown out of the bowels of the earth to the stupendous amount of 376,250,000,000 grains daily by that one spring alone. Surely the pre sence of such a quantity of effectual agents in water, must secure certain effects on the constitution when that water is applied to it. This consideration, of the solid contents POPULAR CONSIDERATIONS ON THE of mineral waters, is so important, that it has in duced me to give, in the body of this work, the quan tity of them in each pint avoirdupois of the water respectively, as a more useful fact, than the mere quotation of its specific gravity.