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260 B A T H S O F B R ID A .
close to the river, narrowly escaped with
their lives. He lost most of his little property,
as the building where he kept his
wine and winter stores was swept away.
The following winter, the miller’s wife
observed steam constantly rising on the
opposite bank of the river, and on going
to the spot, she found a considerable spring
of hot water, of which she occasionally
availed herself for domestic purposes.
When the circumstance became known.
Dr. Hybord, the physician at Moutiers, examined
the water, and finding it was sulphurous
and aperient, he gave his opinion
that it might be salutary for scorbutic and
other disorders, used both externally and
internally, and recommended some of his
patients to try it. The benefit they received
exceeded his most sanguine expectations.
This induced some of the inhabitants
of Moutiers to form themselves into
a company, and build baths, &c., in the expectation
of its proving a profitable speculation.
They first began with making an
embankment round the spring, to secure it
from future inundations.
Early in the summer of 1820, many remarkable
cures had been effected by these
B A T H S O F B R ID A . 261
waters; and in the course of the autumn
and the following summer of 1821, they
were much frequented. When we were
there in the month of August, the boarding
houses were all full, and we understood
that nearly eighty persons bathed every
day, besides those who drank the waters.
One of the most extraordinary cures, and
what first gave the waters celebrity, was
the case of an elderly woman in the neighbourhood
affected with a dropsy, which
had been declared incurable. Dr. H. recommended
her to take as much as five or
six pints of the water a day, as an experiment.
Unexpectedly finding much relief,
she determined to increase the quantity to
what was considered a dangerous excess,
when, to the surprise of every one who
knew her, she daily diminished in size, and
in the course of three or four weeks was
perfectly cured, having lost 28lb. weight.
In cases of nervous debility, the warm baths
are said to be particularly efficacious, and
also for rheumatism and scurvy ; but the
waters are considered dangerous, where
there is any tendency to inflammation in
the constitution.
The season for visiting the baths of Brida
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