A new, plain and rational treatise on the true nature and uses of the Bath waters.

  • Graham, James, 1745-1794.
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new, plain and rational treatise on the true nature and uses of the Bath waters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    She had been two years at Liege, under the care of phyficians in that ancient city, but being abandoned by them as incurable, (he was brought home; and loon after that, having a certificate of her cafe from the pariih prieft and magiftrates of Spa, fiie likewife was put under my care, and file had the good fortune to be perfectly cured in a few weeks. CLAUDE de GRAND, mafter baker in Spa, jumping backwards laftChrift- mas from a high barrel, lit on a piece of wood which bent the great toe of his right foot to his fiiin, making the tendons crack like a piftol; his foot and ancle imme- diately fwelled, growing gradually bigger and bigger, with an increafing feverity of of pain. Since lafi April he did not, to his knowledge, fieep one quarter of an hour irr any one day or night. The agonizing tortures he endured, notwithftanding the bed afiiftance, were infinitely beyond either d-feription or conception: it gave him Ao other idea than that of bars of red-hot iron in the very marrow of his bones, night and day; and had he not, he fays, had the benefit of a ftriftly religious education, he could not have been reftrained a thoufand times from, putting an end to his exhaufted life. When he was brought into my houfe he exhibited fuch a picture of difirefs, goodnefs, and extreme fuffering, that the nobili ty iofified immediately on my doing every thing in my power to relieve him. His foot and ancle were fwelled to a moll monftrous degree, the Ikin feemed, and really was almofi as hard as a bull’s hide, and of a blueilh red, or black colour. The foot and ancle were inwardly full of long fiftulous ulcers, which poured out bloody, offenfive, thin Iharp matter; and the miferable man had fo fwarthy and morbid a look, that his whole frame feemed contaminated with the deadly mortification already begun in his foot and leg. From the judicious ufe of the knife, however, and pdwerful applications, the parts put on a better appearance, and his pain abated after the very firft day[; and ip a week, Lady Spencer and the good Marquis, who, anxious for the poor man’s re- covery, frequently attended the drefiings, were aftoniflied at the change; the gan- grenous appearance, hardnefs and fwelling were almofi: quite gone, the Ikin being now wrinkled and loofe, and the matter tolerably good. We remained at Spa ano- ther week, and when he was difeharged, he was totally free from pain, had got another countenance and complexion, and w'alked before his noble benefactors brilkly, and even without any afiiftance whatever. The WIFE of JEAN de MARTEAU, of Heftraument, near Spa, aged thirty- three years, very (lender and delicate, was delivered, piecemeal, in the courfe of twenty-four hours, of her firft child. For fourteen days after (he lay weak and motionlefs as one dead; The pain lhe fuffered was conftant and fevere. la time, however, her inward bodily pains wore off; but as they decreafed, her limbs wafted, grew dead and ufelefs. They became at length fo intirely paralytic, cold and infenfible, that both hands, arms, feet, and legs, might be burned, pinched, or pricked with a pin, without her being fenfible of it. Mrs. de Marteau had had the advice and afiiftance of fix phyficians, had been at Liege, and lately at Vervier in a doctor’s houfe fix weeks, but all without receiving the lead benefit. When (he was brought to my houfe her hufband carried her, and (lie appeared to the great perfonages who did me the honour of being prefent, as weak, helplefs, and unable to fipport herfelf, as a (ilk thread. Her arms, hands, legs, and feet were all of a blueilh red colour, contracted, pined, diftorted, as cold as lead, and (he had been in this ftate about feven months. We all thought the cafe a hopelefs one; but encouraged with the fuccefs of jnyoperation s in cafes fomewhat fimilar, my noble vifitors ordered that 2oguine* flrould