Chapter 6

THE MEDICINAL WATERS AND THEIR ACTION.

Physiological Functions in Healthy Individuals--Performance of the Physiological Functions in Health and Disease--Action of Oxygen upon the Nitrogenous and Non-nitrogenous Compounds--Origin of Calculi, Nodosities, and Tophi--Action of the Thermal Water upon the Great Emunctories--Chalybeate Water when used as a Douche, or Taken Internally--Analyses of the Waters--Selection of Buxton by the Romans--First Treatise upon the Buxton Spa, written by Dr. Jones in 1572--Source and Nature of the Waters.

In a healthy individual, where the physiological functions are performed with exactitude and regularity, the elimination of the various effete matters, the result of waste of tissue, is uniform, and easily carried off out of the system by the skin, the kidneys, lungs, and bowels. The nitrogenous components become oxidised, and urea ultimately formed, which being very soluble is freely excreted by the sudorific glands in the perspiration, and by the kidneys in the urine. The non-nitrogenous compounds are also changed by the action of oxygen into carbonic acid, which is expelled from the system by the lungs. If the natural functions are not perfectly and with regularity performed, the balance of power must of necessity be lost, and disease engendered. The system then becomes charged with uric acid, which has a strong affinity for certain bases in the human organism, and forms salts either insoluble or only slightly so, which are with difficulty eliminated either by the skin or kidneys, and hence we have the formation of calculi in the bladder, nodosities on the joints, and tophi in the ears, indicating the uric acid diathesis.

The action of the Buxton nitrogenous thermal waters being solvent, stimulant, antacid, chologoge, diuretic, diaphoretic, and slightly purgative, restores the balance of power, not only by stimulating the gastric and hepatic organs to a correct performance of their normal functions, thus in conjunction with a strictly regulated diet (essential in all cases) cutting off the very source of the materies morbi, but also (when there) by eliminating it from the system by the great emunctories, viz., the skin, kidneys, lungs, and bowels. As the large proportion of invalid visitors to Buxton consist of those suffering from the uric acid or gouty diathesis, and rheumatism, and seek relief from the excruciating pains and cripplement incident to such diseases, the great attraction must of necessity be the medicinal waters, of which there are two kinds--the cold chalybeate or iron spring, and the natural thermal water. Of the former there are numerous springs in the neighbourhood of Buxton, but the only one now resorted to has been conveyed through pipes from a distance to a room adjoining the natural baths, and is used with much benefit in many forms of uterine disease as a douche. As such also it is prescribed in cases where the conjunctivae are in a relaxed condition, consequent either upon rheumatic inflammation or local injuries. It should on no account be applied to the eyes until the inflammatory action has entirely subsided.

When drunk, one tumbler (twice or thrice daily after meals) may be taken by an adult with much advantage when suffering from anaemia, chlorosis, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, diabetes connected with the gouty diathesis, chronic cystitis, or general debility.

Although it may be classed as a mild chalybeate, I have frequently seen great benefit derived from its internal use (partly, no doubt, owing to the presence of sulphate of lime), especially in children of an undoubtedly strumous habit, where glandular swellings presented themselves in the neck, and the mesenteric glands were enlarged. In such cases, when taken regularly for some weeks (half a tumbler thrice daily after meals), the appetite returns, the digestive functions are improved, the glandular swellings subside, and the whole system becomes reinvigorated, so as to restore bloom to the cheek, brilliancy to the eyes, vigour to the limbs, and the natural buoyancy of spirit to childhood.

According to Dr. L. Playfair's analysis in 1852, one gallon of the water was found to contain the following solid constituents:--

Grains. Pro-carbonate of Iron 1.044 Silica 1.160 Sulphate of Lime 2.483 Alumina trace Sulphate of Magnesia 0.431 Carbonate of Magnesia 0.303 Sulphate of Potash 0.147 Chloride of Sodium 1.054 Chloride of Potassium 0.450 7.072

The thermal water, as before stated, arises from various fissures in the limestone rock, upon which formation the greater part of the town of Buxton is built. The flow is uniform (during the heat and drought of summer, and the cold and frost of winter) in volume, about 140 gallons per minute, in temperature 82 deg. Fahrenheit, and in solid constituents.

According to the latest analysis, made by Dr. Thresh in 1881, the following results were obtained. The mud which had settled around the mouths of the springs and floors of the tanks into which the water is conveyed consisted of--

Grains. Oxide of Manganese 80.32 Sulphate of Barium, Sand, &c. 1.08 Lead Oxide 0.15 Copper Oxide 0.07 Molybdic Acid 0.02 Iron and Aluminium Oxide 1.36 Cobalt Oxide 0.30 Zinc Oxide 0.46 Barium Oxide 0.79 Calcium 5.31 Strontium trace Magnesium 3.18 Carbon Dioxide 3.23 Phosphoric Acid 0.01 Water 3.93 100.21

The following is the result of his analysis of the water:--

Grains. Bicarbonate of Calcium 14.01 Bicarbonate of Magnesium 6.02 Bicarbonate of Iron 0.03 Bicarbonate of Manganese 0.03 Sulphate of Barium 0.05 Sulphate of Calcium 0.26 Sulphate of Potassium 0.62 Sulphate of Sodium 0.84 Nitrate of Sodium 0.03 Chloride of Sodium 0.02 Chloride of Magnesium 0.95 Chloride of Ammonium trace Silicic Acid 0.95 Organic Matter 0.02 Carbon Dioxide 0.20 Nitrogen 0.19 24.22

There were also traces of lead, strontium, lithium, and phosphoric acid.

As the gas issued from the fissures in the limestone rock, it was found to consist of 99.22 grains of nitrogen, 0.88 grain of carbonic acid, and that held in solution in the water, 6.1 cubic inches nitrogen, 4.1 carbonic acid.

In comparing Dr. Thresh's analysis with those previously made by Drs. Pearson, Muspratt, Sir Charles Scudamore, and Sir Lyon Playfair, it will be seen that a new constituent appears in the form of molybdinum, which, as mentioned above, was detected in the mud deposit at the bottom of the tanks into which the water is conveyed, as it issues directly from the springs. In other respects the analyses differ but slightly, nor does the efficacy of the water appear to have become less potent in alleviating or curing those diseases for which it is so deservedly celebrated.

The Romans, ever luxurious in their use of hot and tepid baths, doubtless selected the Buxton basin as a station, not merely from a military point of view, but on account of the thermal springs, the curative effects of which they would readily discover by receiving fresh energy to their wearied bodies, from the stimulating action of the water immediately upon taking a bath, as well as relief from many diseases, especially of a rheumatic character, to which their life of hardship and exposure rendered them so liable.

From the Roman period until about the year 1572 there is little or no recorded history of Buxton. About that time, however, a Dr. Jones wrote a treatise on the Buxton Spa, advocating its claims so forcibly to those afflicted with gout or rheumatism that ere long it became the resort of the _elite_ in the fashionable world as well as the poor.

Dr. Jones mentions in his very interesting treatise that in his time Buxton was resorted to by large numbers of the poor and afflicted people from the surrounding districts. The indigence and deplorable condition of some of these people were so extreme and their numbers so great that to supply their necessities the whole of the "treasury of the bath fund was consumed, part of which the people of the adjoining chapelry of Fairfield claimed for the purpose of paying the stipend of their chaplain." So great indeed became the grievance that they by petition sought the protection of Queen Elizabeth in the matter.

Dr. Jones, in his quaint and forcible way, writes in reference to the "treasury of the bath" fund: "If any think this magisterial imposing on people's pockets let them consider their abilities and the sick poor's necessities, and think whether they do not in idle pastimes throw away in vain twice as much yearly. It may entail the blessings of them who are ready to perish upon you, and will afford a pleasant after-reflection. God has given you physic for nothing; let the poor and afflicted (it may be members of Christ) have a little of your money, it may be better for your own health. Heaven might have put them in your room, and you in theirs, then a supply would have been acceptable to you."

As the thermal water issues from the various fissures in the limestone rock, it is slightly alkaline, bright, sparkling, of a blueish tint, especially when collected in bulk, and soft and rather insipid in taste.