During the second half of the 18th century, the mineral waters of Bath became increasingly popular for their believed medical properties. Several pamphlets and books were published about their restorative qualities, and particularly on the effectiveness of bathing in Bath waters for people affected by paralysis.
The physician Rice Charleton (1722/3–1788) was born in Bristol and worked throughout his life at Bath General Hospital. He published two books about the mineral waters at bath: An inquiry into the efficacy of bath waters in palsies (1770) and Three tracts on Bath water (1774).
The Three tracts present an analysis of the content of the waters at Bath, a reprint of the earlier Inquiry, and a series of case histories of patients attended by William Oliver (1695–1764), another physician at Bath General Hospital.
Charleton’s chemical analysis of the Bath waters is accompanied by a copperplate engraving of the salts that crystalize out from the water. He notes that the square crystals are ‘marine salt’, that the long crystals as ‘calcarious nitre’, and that the irregular shapes are a mix of the two. He also shows an image of ‘a chrystal of the calcareous nitre drawn from the microscope; with several portions of marine salt adhering to it’.
The Inquiry – a fairly slim volume of 98 pages – was intended to ‘ascertain the question, whether Bathing in the Bath Waters be useful, or detrimental, in Palsies’. A table recording ‘the state of the paralytic patients admitted into the Bath Hospital from May 1751 to May 1764’ totals 1,053 cases. Of these, 813 are listed as having been ‘cured and benefitted’ by the waters’, and 240 as ‘not benefitted’. The cases are sub-divided by the type of condition, including ‘general palsies’, ‘hemephlegias’, ‘palsies of the lower limbs’, ‘dead palsies’ (ie those in which the patient lost sensation in a limb or limbs), ‘shaking palsies’, and ‘palsies from cyder and bilious colics’.
The case of Richard Davis, aged 60, is one of those recorded. He was admitted into the hospital on 17 May 1753.
[He] was seized with an apoplectic fit, which terminated in a hemiplegia of the left side. The palsied limbs were deprived of all motion, and their sensation was likewise greatly impaired. … He began with the Waters; of which he drank a pint and a half for some days, and then went into the bath twice a week. By these measures he soon perceived an abatement in his disease, and advanced fast in his recovery, till the beginning of July, when his progress was stopped, the Waters ceasing to make further impressions.
For two weeks the waters were abandoned and a medicine of mustard seed and valerian was administered instead. After this Davis resumed drinking and bathing in the waters, with the addition of a ‘stimulating liniment’ rubbed on his spine. The patient ‘quickly became sensible of the good effects of this course; the operation of which was so powerful and speedy’ that he was discharged on 25 August, ‘perfectly free from his complaint’.
Charleton comments that the effects of the waters in this case ‘were greatly promoted by the season of the year’. His assessment of the hospital records suggested to him that very few patients recovered during cold and stormy winters.
It has subsequently been noted that the case histories recorded in Charleton’s books demonstrate that the reputation of Bath water as a cure for palsy was in part due to the origin of many such palsies at the time: lead poisoning caused by employment conditions or from drinking cider, which was commonly contaminated with lead. The lead caused neurological symptoms but also intense abdominal pains, hence the association of ‘palsies from cyder and bilious colics’ in Charleton’s table.
Katie Birkwood, rare books and special collections librarian
Rehabilitation medicine is the RCP specialty of the month for October 2015.
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