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Jean-Louis Alibert (1768-1837), Pierre-Alphée Cazenave (1802-1877) and Ferdinand von Hebra (1846-1880) are among the most famous names of the XIXth century dermatology. All were interested in hydrotherapy and mineral waters. Alibert was especially fond of sulfurous waters from the Pyrenees, for treating almost every inflammatory disease, like psoriasis, chronic eczema and even hair diseases or cheloids. He mentioned very often the use of mineral waters in his two masterpieces, Description des Maladies de la peau (1806) and Clinique de l'Hôpital Saint-Louis (1833). In case patients were not able to travel and spend times at thermal stations, he recommended artificial waters made by pharmacists in specialized places in Paris, consisting in water plus minerals, in order to obtain a composition close to natural spring waters. Around 1850, Cazenave also used mineral waters and hydrotherapy, mainly sulfurous waters. In Vienna, von Hebra was more reluctant to the use of mineral water, as he believed that the time spent in baths was more important than the composition of the water itself. Adrien Doyon (1827-1907), who translated Hebra's book in French, strongly disagreed with him, as he had a dermatology private practice in Uriage, in the French Alps. Modern hydrotherapy in dermatology is clearly in relation with this XIXth century tradition. © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés.)

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease, which is accompanied by social and emotional complications leading to considerable disability. There is no definitive cure and treatment options carry complications. Balneotherapy has been used for years in psoriasis. Antibiotic, keratolytic, and anti-inflammatory effects of these waters have been proved. Persian medicine (PM) is a source of natural remedies for skin disease. The aim of study is to explain scientific evidences of Persian mineral waters as a treatment option for psoriasis. This is a narrative review, which investigates medical manuscripts of medieval Persia from 10th to 19th centuries AD noted as credible textbooks about mineral waters. Furthermore, balneotherapy evidences searched in databases including Pubmed, Scopus, and Cochrane until December 2017 to obtain clinical evidences related to psoriasis. In PM, mineral waters have keratolytic activity and can regulate superficial skin layers hyperproliferation, which is recommended for psoriasis treatment. In various studies, antiproliferative, keratolytic, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects of these waters have been proved completely. There are scientific evidences, which demonstrate that mineral waters in Persia, can reduce clinical symptoms of psoriasis and improve quality of life in patients. Therefore, this method might be considered as treatment options for psoriasis., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Between 1886 and 1893, the doctor and hygienist Ricardo Jorge was linked to a commercial and medical project on the waters of Gerês. Known for many centuries and used for therapeutic purposes, they were administered on an empirical basis. When new chemical analyses were first published, the empirical properties of these waters took on a new role in hydrotherapy based on their now proven mineral and medicinal qualities. The article discusses in detail Ricardo Jorge's business venture, framing it in the context of the economic collection and treatment potential of mineral waters and the revival of the phenomenon of hydrotherapy, legitimized by new developments in the chemical analysis of waters. The commercial failure to exploit the water resources highlights the difficulties of this project and the complexity of the professional practice of hydrological medicine, although it resulted in a strengthening of Ricardo's authority and prestige in the field of hydrotherapy.

Existing literature on mineral springs in early modern France suggests that composition played a minor role in the evaluation of those springs. In fact it played a major role from at least the beginning of the seventeenth century. Composition was studied by a wide range of actors, from physicians in the provinces to chemists at the Paris Academy of Science, with a view to establishing the efficacy of particular springs against particular diseases. Iatrochemistry played a complex role in these evaluations. Followers of Paracelsus and van Helmont were among the first to perform chemical analyses on mineral waters. But there were physicians who studied composition without chemistry, or who used chemistry while opposing iatrochemistry. Conversely, there were iatrochemists who used chemistry to study mineral waters but not to evaluate them, and there were many chemists who gave at least as much weight to clinical experience as they did to composition.

This article considers how chemical analyses were employed not only to study and describe mineral waters, but also to promote new spas, and to reinforce the scientific authority of experts. Scientists, jointly with bath owners, visitors and local authorities, created a significant spa market by transforming rural spaces into social and economic sites. The paper analyses the role developed by the chemist Antonio Casares in the commodification of mineral water in mid-19(th) century Spain. His scientific publications and water analyses put a new economic value on some Spanish mineral waters and rural springs. First the paper explores the relationship between geographic factors, regulation, and spa development in 19(th) century Spain, and considers how scientific work improved the economy of some rural areas. Then the transformation of numerous country springs into spas, and the commodification of baths as places between science and leisure is examined. Finally the location of spas across the borders of medicine and chemistry is shown, together with the complex field operations required to study mineral waters. This paper reveals an intense circulation of knowledge between the field, laboratories and scientific publications, as well as the essential role developed by experts like Casares, who not only contributed to the study of rural springs but also to their economic transformation.

The island of Pithecusa (Ischia) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea in the north end of the Gulf of Naples at about 30 kilometers from the same city. Pithecusa is very popular for its hot springs which even the ancients used. This report aims to analyze the renal therapeutic benefits of the Pithacusa thermal mineral spring through a review of two different manuscripts: i) "Di Napoli il seno cratero"(The gulf of Naples) of Domenico Antonio Parrino (1642-1708) and ii) "De' rimedi naturali che sono nell'isola di Pithecusa oggi detta Ischia"(On the natural cures of the island of Pithecusa known today as Ischia)of Giulio Iasolino (1583-1622). These two manuscripts published during the 18th century and both manuscripts highlight the thermal virtues of the thermal springs of Pithecusa. In the past natural remedies were important in the treatment of different diseases including that of thermal springs dating back to ancient Rome. Thermal springs were used to treat spasms, skin diseases, hair loss and various renal ailments. Both manuscripts describe the thermal springs in Ischia and their therapeutic benefits in medical diseases.

This article studies a scientific controversy on the chemical analysis of Carratraca Spa water and discusses the shaping of the scientific authority of two mid-19th century Spanish experts in mineral waters: Antonio Casares, professor of chemistry at the University of Santiago, and Jose Salgado, medical director of the Spa. It considers the resources employed by the two experts in the dispute and shows that much of the scientific controversy involved not only technical issues but also numerous economic, social and personal interests of the participants. Besides addressing the role played by both experts in the controversy, the article reports on the participation of other stakeholders with different levels of expertise. Their involvement in the dispute was reflected in specialized media, medical reports, special issues, chemical treatises, and specialized articles as well as in the general press. Finally, the article shows that discussions on analytical methods, instrument use or results interpretation also involved consideration of other issues, such as the training and skills of experts and their privileges, prerogatives and scientific authority, which affected the development and ending of the controversy.

The standard history of pneumatic chemistry is dominated by a landmark-discoverers-type narrative stretching from Robert Boyle, through Stephen Hales, Joseph Black, and Joseph Priestley, to Antoine Lavoisier. This article challenges this view by demonstrating the importance of the study of mineral waters - and their "aerial component" - to the evolution of pneumatic chemistry, from around van Helmont to the period before Black (1640s-1750s). Among key figures examined are Joan Baptista van Helmont, Johann Joachim Becher, Robert Boyle, Friedrich Hoffmann, and William Brownrigg.

This paper is devoted to the analysis of clinical principles of physician humanist F.P. Haas expounded in his book "Ma visite aux Eaux d'Alexandre en 1809 at 1810" by F.P. Haas (M., 1811). The translation of this book into the Russian language gave an idea of the clinical views of the medical profession in this country in the beginning of the XIXth century (before the Patriotic War of 1812) including relationship between doctors and their patients and medical ethics. Haas proposed a well-substantiated therapeutic strategy with the use of mineral waters taking into consideration residual assimilative capacity of the patient's organism.

The article is concerned to the history of formation of sanitary-treatment stations on the North Caucasus, in Chechnya (Goryachevodsky and Mikhailovsky mineral springs) till 1917 year. The basis of the article are archive documents, scientific papers of contemporaries and official documents. Goryachevodsky and Mikhailovsky mineral springs were more than 70 years the one the best recreative base of the Caucasian standing army including the caucasian cossack troop. The sanitary-treatment stations were of great importance during the active military actions with Hill people within the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan, during the Crimean War (1853-1856), The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the First World War (1914-1918), when the amount of the wounded and ill soldiers increased.

The therapeutic approaches used against scrofula in the 19th Century in Ferrara are discussed. In the manuscripts and treatises of the time treasured in the town's libraries, hygienic and dietetic rules and treatment of this illness were described. In particular, baths and mineral water spas (sulphurous, ferruginous and other mineral waters, such as a bromo-iodine-salt water) and the sea-bathing establishment were recommended. The remedies reported in Campana's Pharmacopoeia ferrarese and the efficacious treatments employed in St Anna Hospital are discussed. The Committee and its President, Marquis Giovanni Manfredini, decided to cure the scrofulous in bathing establishments.

In the end of XIXth century, the french "Compagnie des eaux minérales de Pougues-les-Eaux" begins to exploit the spanish natural purgativ water of Carabaña. In the same way, Edouard Jéramec, director of the french compagny, decides to associate to his firm the best medicine to fight against rickets and tuberculosis. He joins the new medical theory wich recommends to give more calcium to tubercular patients, called "méthode de recalcification du Dr Ferrier". Then, with the chemist Emile Perraudin, he creates the pharmaceutical laboratory named "Produits Scientia". One of their famous patents medicines will be the "Tricalcine".

By looking at the fierce debates in the city of Carlsbad in Bohemia around the fabrication of medical salt by a local doctor, David Becher, from 1763 to 1784, the paper examines the interactions between different spheres or levels of circulation of knowledge in the Habsburg Empire. The dispute crystallized around the definition of the product, about its medical qualities and its relation with the water of the local mineral spring. The city's inhabitants contested the vision of the medical experts, fearing that the extraction of the medical salt from the spring water and its sale outside the town would have a negative effect on the number of visitors to the spa. Their vision implied a more or less 'popularized' form of alchemical thinking as it identified the mineral water with the extracted 'salt', conceived as the 'essence' of the water, produced by evaporation. The Carlsbad salt dispute highlights the complex interactions among the different networks in which knowledge circulated through the Habsburg Empire in the eighteenth century. The different actors relied on specific networks with different logics of discourse and different modes of circulation. In each case the relation between the local, the regional and the imperial had to be negotiated. The paper thus sketches out the different geographies of knowledge in the Habsburg Empire but also its localization in and around Carlsbad.

Before the First world War, many french societies exploited spanish purgatives watters. The watter was drawn in Spain, but it was bottled in France for many reasons. The authors of this article explain the beginnings of exploitation of three of the most famous purgatives watters: Rubinat source Llorach, Carabaña and Villacabras.

Mineral waters in the three provinces of the french Basque Country are investigated according to the legends linked to them, their use and their recent story.

This essay addresses mineral water as a medical, experimental and economic material. It focuses on the career of the Reverend Dr William Laing (1742-1812), a physician and cleric who wrote two pamphlets about the water of provincial spa located in Peterhead, a town on the north-east coast of Scotland. I begin by outlining his education and I then reconstruct the medical theory that guided his efforts to identify tonics in the well's water. Next, I explain why Laing and several other local inhabitants thought themselves to be authorities on the palliative power of the water and I close by showing how such effects were commodified by local entrepreneurs. Although I concentrate primarily upon Peterhead Spa, this study touches upon several issues relevant to the types of medical theory and chemical experimentation that were being used in provincial Scotland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This article presents the "Lithinés du Dr Gustin", a very popular medicine at the beginning of the XXe century. They were used as an artificial water, to treat gout. A first part of the article presents Dr Gustin, Arthur Mille, the chemist, and the "Lithinés". A second part relates an action at law between the laboratory "Lithinés du Dr Gustin " and the syndicat of operators of mineral water from La loire.

The treatment of diseases with mineral spring water belongs to the oldest medical therapies. The "remedy" mineral water is therefore of importance also within the pharmacy. The present pharmacy historical work examines the impact of the use of mineral waters, as well as of their dried components, as therapeutic agents in the 19th and early 20th centuries, i.e. from approx. 1810 to 1930, as well as the contributions given by pharmacists in the development and analysis of mineral water springs. Beside these aspects, the aim here is also to describe the role played by pharmacists in the production of artificial mineral water as well as in the sale and wholesale of natural and artificial mineral water. In the first part of this work the situation in Switzerland and its surrounding countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and Austria, is discussed. The second part contains a case-study of the particular situation in the Canton Tessin. It is known from the scientific literature published at that time that information on mineral water was frequently reported. Starting from the beginning of the 19th century the number of such publications increased tremendously. The major part of them were publications in scientific journals or contributions to medical and pharmaceutical manuals and reference books. In particular the spa-related literature, such as spa-guides, was of growing interest to a broad public. The inclusion of monographs into the Swiss, the Cantonal as well the foreign pharmacopoeias granted a legal frame for the mineral waters and their dried components. These works are of major importance from a pharmacy historical standpoint and represent a unique proof of historical evidence of the old medicinal drug heritage. The most frequently used therapies based on mineral waters were drinking and bath cures. Several diseases, particularly those of a chronic character, were treated with mineral waters. The positive influence of these cures on the recovery of the patients was to attribute, on the one hand to the physico-chemical properties of the water and on the other hand to the climatic, nutritional and social factors characterising the selected health resort. All over Europe, pharmacists were dealing with mineral waters, among them even very famous names such as Klaproth, Trommsdorf, Lampadius and Fresenius. They were on one side involved in the development and analysis of the waters, while on the other side they were interested in their artificial production. Their knowledge and findings in the area of the mineral water source chemistry gave a crucial impetus to the future evolution of analytic chemistry. Following the improvements in the precision of analysis and classification of the composition of the mineral waters, the imitation of artificial mineral waters increased significantly. Certain pharmacists tried to copy well-known mineral waters in their properly furnished laboratories. At the same time, pharmacies were important sales points: natural and artificial mineral waters as well as their dried components were either sold there, or delivered upon prescription. In the second part of this work, specifically concerning the situation in the Canton Tessin, the most important local sources and spa resorts are described, as well as the analyses performed and the researchers involved. Moreover, the types of therapies used at that time are mentioned. The integration of the local mineral waters into the pharmacopoeia of the Canton Tessin, the Farmacopea Ticinese, is also discussed. Of particular interest are the delivery and the sale of mineral waters and their dried components by a local pharmacy. In the Canton Tessin, the five most frequented spa resorts were Acquarossa, Brissago, Craveggia, Rovio and Stabio. Craveggia spa resort is of course based in Italy; it has however been included in the present work due to its proximity to Switzerland and to a connected historical Substantial differences existed among the individual health resorts mentioned, especially regarding the quality and quantity aspects of the performed mineral water analyses, as well as in the reported written evidence and publications on the success of the therapies. Differences were also to be found in the conditions of the health resort facilities and in the medical support given. The therapy opportunities included mainly drinking and bath cures, which could occur alone or in combination. In the mentioned health resorts different clinical disease symptoms were treated. The most important baths were located in Acquarossa and Stabio, which were specialized in selected therapeutical domains, because of their particular water compositions. Numerous personalities from science and politics were concerned by the local springs and accepted to contribute to the promotion of these structures. Their engagement led to the integration of the native springs in the Farmacopea Ticinese. Since at that time it was extremely difficult to find experienced mineral water analysts in the region, the analyses of local native sources were assigned to qualified experts mainly coming from Italy. This scientific co-operation between the southern part of Switzerland and the northern part of Italy was, already at that time, active also in other work domains. The evaluation of the historical documentation available from the Farmacia Vantussi shows that this pharmacy supplied a considerable assortment of national and foreign spring waters, as well as foreign dried components. Of commercial interest was, to be noted, the free sale of the waters to hospitals, institutions, hotels, restaurants as well as to private households. The sales of waters and of their dried components upon prescription, however, constituted only the minor part. The introduction of the industrial bottling occurring in the first decades of the 20th century, led to a lowering price trend, through which the product 'mineral water' became accessible to a broader public. Henceforth its importance as welfare and medicinal water decreased and the product was considered purely as table water and as a foodstuff. As a consequence this new function brought the sales of mineral waters into the hands of depots and wholesalers, and later on also to retailers, while concomitantly pharmacies turned away from this kind of business.

With some papers from "Société anonyme des eaux minérales du Breuil et du Broc's archives, the authors explain the difficults beginnings of Hydroxydase, by Louis Tixier, a pharmacist.

After the presentation of the history of the growing of artificial mineral waters in France, the authors explain the pharmacists' functions in the production of Soda-waters. To illustrate their purpose, they use documents deposited in the Yvelines departemental archives.

Going back to the dawn of time, we deal with two historical figures, that of Pope Bonifacio VIII, and that of the hierophant of art, Michelangelo Buonarroti. The texts and the codes of the British Museum (Department of Manuscripts), of the Biblioteca Medica Laurenziana (Archivio Buonarroti) of Florence, and the Biblioteca Apostolica of Vatican, convincing detalled evidence that both figures were urological patients. It concerns two clinical cases with especially pertain to the history of lithiasis of urinary tract. Even though, both of them--the first with nephrolithiasis or gravel, and the second with a bladder stone--were historically bound with the well-known cures of Fiuggi in Italy.

This text is the second part of a forward article about the history of minerals water's sold by chemists. It studies specially the evolution of containers and labels: they are the reflect of the application of law and technology.

In May, 1605, King Henri IV established the first national regulation of water in France. Mineral waters were considered as therapeutic, so pharmacists were expected to sell them. In 1823, pharmacists obtained a relative independence to sell mineral waters. Some of them became spring operators. In 1964, the bottling's licence obliged them to modernize their installations. Some of them abandoned. Gradually, mineral waters arrived in supermarkets and disappeared from pharmacies. Since 1980, mineral waters are not considered any more as therapeutic. They are now only good for the health.

Nicolas Larbaud was a chemist, who was qualified by the Faculty of Pharmacy of Paris. He was interested, since his installation in Vichy, in therapeutic mineral waters and in exploiting those waters by bottling them or by thermal baths. Larbaud had many proceedings with his own family, with the Vichy official company with his colleagues and with the administration. He had to defend by force Prunelle spring which was drilled in his own pharmacy. He discovered Saint-Yorre thermal spring and exploited it. He earned a great fortune, was elected mayor and district counselor. His son was Valery Larbaud, writer and translator.

Although no more than a few dozen mineral wells and springs existed in Michigan at any one time, since their discovery over 125 years ago nearly two hundred firms have operated watering places for the suffering in this state. The publications produced by this industry were collectively quite numerous, but scarcely a hundred or so examples of this genre can be located today. On those rare occasions when materials of this nature can be found in out-of-print book stores or antiquarian dealers'catalogs, it is not uncommon for the asking price to approach $100 per piece. Now that this union list has revealed how scarce and valuable these publication are, persons and institutions possessing such items should take precautions to ensure the security of their holdings.

In this paper I review the advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that have taken place in this century. From spas to monoclonal antibodies for the manipulation of the immune system, we have come a long way in just one hundred years. However, although research is being pursued in many promising directions, the discovery of a truly effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is still being awaited.

In the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom, founded in 1815 under Austrian rule in the northwestern regions of Italy, the mineral waters were the object of a special attention by the political authorities, often with the direct intervention by the Archduke Ranieri. Chemical researches on the properties, composition, transportation and conservation of the water from different sources in the area of Recoaro, near Vicenza, were carried out by Girolamo Melandri Contessi (professor of chemistry at Padua University). In his work, carried out for ten years and more, he developed a new analytical procedure by following the suggestions made by J. Murray, a Scottish physician who applied the stoichiometric relations to the quantitative determination of salt content. The gas content was exactly measured with the Lavoisier's gasometer, improved by a device for the fine gauge. Melandri also built an apparatus for bottling water with carbon dioxide to avoid contamination by atmospheric oxygen.

The authors made medical-historical review of the development of the Health resort in South-West Bulgaria, since the antiquity to our days. Special attention is detached of the investigate of Health resort during the second semi-centennial of the XX century. The authors investigations reflect over the fluoric mineral waters. This type waters are very important for tooth prophylaxis and osteoporosis. Important contribution is the proved stimulating effect of fluoric mineral waters. The type waters are very important for tooth prophylaxis and osteoporosis. Important contribution is the proved stimulating effect of fluoric mineral waters in the village Ognianovo. There the fluorine is 5.5 gram by the litre.