Important: Safety Warning
This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Saline Carbonated Waters
The following afford approximate imitations of these waters. The earthy salts, with salts of iron, should be dissolved together in the smallest quantity of water. The other ingredients to be dissolved in the larger portion of the water, and the solution impregnated with gas. The first solution may be then added, or be previously introduced into the bottles. The salts, unless otherwise stated, are to be crystallized.
Baden Water.
Chloride of magnesium, 2 grs.; chloride of calcium, 40 grs.; sesquichloride of iron, 1/4 gr. (or 3 minims of the tincture); common salt, 30 grs.; sulphate of soda, 10 grs.; carbonate of soda, 1 gr.; water, 1 pt.; carbonic acid gas, 5 volumes.
Carlsbad Water.
Chloride of calcium, 8 grs.; tincture of chloride of iron, 1 drop; sulphate of soda, 50 grs.; carbonate of soda, 8 grs.; carbonated water, 1 pt. Eger.
Carbonate of soda, 5 grs.; sulphate of soda, 4 scruples; chloride of sodium, 10 grs.; sulphate of magnesia, 3 grs.; chloride of calcium, 5 grs.; carbonated water, 1 pt. Or it may be made without the apparatus, thus: -Bicarbonate of soda, 30 grs.; chloride of sodium, 8 grs.; sulphate of magnesia, 3 grs.; water, 1 pt. Dissolve, and add a scruple of dry bisulphate of soda, and close the bottle immediately.
Ems.
Carbonate of soda, 2 scruples; sulphate of potash, 1 gr.; sulphate of magnesia, 5 grs.; common salt, 10 grs.; chloride of calcium, 3 grs.; carbonated water, 1 pt. Pullna Water.
Sulphate of soda, 4 drs.; sulphate of magnesia, 4 drs.; chloride of lime, 15 grs.; chloride of magnesium (dry), 1 scruple; common salt, 1 scruple; bicarbonate of soda, 10 grs.; water slightly carbonated, 1 pt. One of the most active of the purgative saline waters.
Pullna Water, without the Machine.
Bicarbonate of soda, 50 grs.; sulphate of magnesia, 4 drs.; sulphate of soda, 3 drs.; common salt, 1 scruple. Dissolve in a pint of water; add, lastly, 2 scruples of bisulphate of soda, and close the bottle immediately.
Salts for Making Pullna Water.
Dry bicarbonate of soda, 1 oz.; dried sulphate of soda, 2 oz.; dried sulphate of magnesia, 1½ oz.; dry common salt, 2 drs.; dry tartaric acid, oz. (or rather, dry bisulphate of soda, 1 oz.).
Seidlitz Water.
This is usually imitated by strongly acrating a solution of 2 drs. of sulphate of magnesia in a pint of water. It is also made with 4, 6, and 8 drs. of the salts to a pint of water.
Seidlitz Powder.
The common Seidlitz powders do not resemble the water. A closer imitation would be made by using effloresced sulphate of magnesia instead of the potassio-tartrate of soda. A still more exact compound will be the following:- Effloresced sulphate of magnesia, 2 oz.; bicarbonate of soda, oz.; dry bisulphate of soda, oz. Mix and kcep in a close bottle.
Seltzer Water.
Chloride of calcium and chloride of magnesium, of each 4 grs. Dissolve these in a small quantity of water, and add it to a similar solution of 8 grs. bicarbonate of soda, 20 grs. common salt, and 2 grs. of phosphate of soda. Mix, and add a solution of of a gr. of sulphate of iron. Put the mixed solution into a 20-oz. bottle, and fill up with aerated water. But much of the Seltzer water sold is said to be nothing more than simple carbonated water. An imitation of Seltzer water is also made by putting into a stone Seltzer bottle, filled with water, 2 drs. bicarbonate of soda, and 2 drs. of citrate acid in crystals, corking the bottle immedately. Soda powders are sometimes sold as Seltzer powders.
Vichy Water.
Bicarbonate of soda, 1 dr.; common salt, 2 grs.; sulphate of soda, 8 grs.; sulphate of magnesia, 3 grs. tincture of chloride of iron, 2 drops; aerated water, 1 pt. Dorvault directs 75 grs. of bicarbonate of soda, 4 grs. of chloride of sodium, onefifth of a gr. sulphate of iron, 10 grs. sulphate of soda, 3 grs. sulphate of magnesia, to 1 pt. of water. By adding 45 grs. (or less) of citric acid an effervescing water is obtained. M. Soubeiran, relying on the analysis of Longchamps, imitates Vichy water by the following combination: - Bicarbonate of soda, 135 grs.; chloride of sodium, 2½ grs.; cryst. chloride of calcium, 12 grs.; sulphate of soda, 11½ grs.; sulphate of magnesia, 3 grs.; tartrate of iron and potash, 1/8 gr. water, 2 and one-tenth pts. (1 litre); carbonic acid, 305 cubic inches (5 litres). Dissolve the salts of soda and iron in part of the water, dissolve and add the sulphate of magnesia, and then the chloride of calcium in the remaining water. Charge now with the carbonic acid gas under pressure.
Vichy Salts.
Bicarbonate of soda, 1½ oz.; common salt, 15 grs.; effloresced sulphate of soda, 1 dr.; effloresced sulphate of magnesia, 1 scruple; dry tartarized sulphate of iron, 1 gr.; dry tartaric acid, 1 oz. (or dry bisulphate of soda, 1 oz.). Mix the powders, previously dried, and keep them in a close bottle.
These are pharmacists' formulas for bottled imitations of famous European spa waters, written in apothecaries' weights for a dispensing counter rather than a kitchen. Several of the ingredients are not food, and several of the doses are frankly medicinal, so the page is worth reading as a document rather than following.
- Chloride of lime is bleaching powderChloride of lime is ambiguous -- The Pullna formula calls for 15 grains of "chloride of lime." In this period that name usually means bleaching powder, calcium hypochlorite, the disinfectant; in mineral-water formulas it was sometimes used loosely for calcium chloride instead. Either way it is a dispensing-counter article, and the ambiguity alone is reason not to compound this formula.
- These are purgative dosesThe book itself calls Pullna water "one of the most active of the purgative saline waters." Four drams each of sulphate of soda and sulphate of magnesia is roughly half an ounce of Glauber's salt and Epsom salt in a single pint. That is a laxative dose, and the Seidlitz variants at 8 drams to the pint are stronger still.
- Iron salts are not a trace additionIron salts are pharmacy articles -- Sesquichloride of iron and tincture of chloride of iron were dispensing stock, sold under standards that no longer exist. The quantities asked for are trace amounts -- a drop or two of the tincture, or a fifth of a grain of the sulphate -- and in several places the printed fraction has dropped out, so the intended dose cannot be recovered from the page.
- Charging under pressure"Carbonic acid gas, 5 volumes" and "305 cubic inches" mean a gasogene or a soda-water machine forcing CO2 into a stoppered vessel. The alternative given here, sealing bicarbonate and an acid into a bottle and corking it immediately, generates gas inside a closed container with no relief. Nineteenth-century soda bottles burst regularly.
- Reading the weightsA grain is about 65 mg; 20 grains make a scruple, 3 scruples a dram of 60 grains, and 8 drams an apothecaries' ounce of 480 grains, about 31 g. A minim is a sixtieth of a fluid dram, roughly a drop. Several quantities in this text have lost their fractions in printing, so "chloride of iron, gr." and "bicarbonate of soda, oz." cannot be read reliably at all.
- Names that have changedSulphate of soda is Glauber's salt (sodium sulphate); sulphate of magnesia is Epsom salt; carbonate and bicarbonate of soda are washing soda and baking soda; chloride of sodium is table salt; bisulphate of soda is sodium bisulphate, used here purely as a dry acid to set off the bicarbonate. Purity grades of the period were nowhere near what food-grade means now.
- If you want the waterVichy, Selters and Carlsbad water are all still bottled and sold. Buy them, or use a current recipe for carbonated water, rather than compounding these.
Nineteenth-century medicine took mineral water seriously, and "taking the waters" at Carlsbad, Vichy, Ems, Baden or the Bohemian bitter springs at Sedlec and Püllna was a prescribed course of treatment as much as a holiday. Chemists responded by analysing the springs and selling imitations to people who could not travel, which is why this section reads like a dispensary manual: the authorities cited, Dorvault and Soubeiran, were French pharmacists whose formularies were standard references, and Longchamps supplied the analysis of Vichy that Soubeiran worked from. Two of the names have outlived their springs in ordinary language. Seltzer, from Niederselters in Hesse, became the general English word for carbonated water, and the compiler's dry aside that much of the Seltzer sold "is said to be nothing more than simple carbonated water" marks the moment the word slipped its origins. Seidlitz powders, named for the same Bohemian village as the water, were sold as a laxative in paired blue and white papers well into the twentieth century, though as the text notes they were made with Rochelle salt and did not much resemble the spring at all.