A Practical Treatise on the Bath Waters, Tending to Illustrate their Beneficial Effects in Chronic Diseases Containing, Likewise, a Brief Account of the City of Bath, and of the Hot Springs Cambridge Library Collection - History of Medicine Series

Bath physician Joseph Hume Spry (c.1779?1859) was concerned that the popular practice of 'taking the waters' had fallen out of favour. In 1822 he produced this treatise extolling the healing properties of Bath's waters, supported by his own case notes and the writings of other physicians. He claimed that manifold afflictions, ranging from gout to indigestion, could be eased by drinking or bathing in these mineral-rich waters. In addition to offering careful instructions for treating each ailment, Spry's book includes a chapter on Bath's history, detailed descriptions and a sketch of the Roman baths, and a summary of the authors who had previously described the baths, from Solinus in the third century to Spry's contemporaries. Opening the work with a supplicating dedication to one of Bath's wealthy patrons, Charles Herbert Pierrepont, second Earl Manvers, Spry also used the book to appeal for the much-needed restoration of the Roman baths.

Dedication; Explanation of the plan and section of the Roman bath; Introduction; On the ancient city of Bath; Modern Bath; Authors who have written on the Bath waters; General remarks on the analysis of the Bath waters; Cause of heat in the Bath waters; Observations on the use of the Bath waters; Diseases; The general hospital.