The bath waters having such an origin, and such qualities, must needs be an excellent remedy in the gout, and other chronic cases, for these reasons; 1. Because of their warmth, just suited to the wants of nature, and a little above the heat of human bodies, sufficient to introduce a foreign warmth and motion to cold and decay’d bowels and fluids; whereby the natural warmth and flow circulation is increas’d and enliven’d.
— George Cheyne, Observations Concerning the Nature and Due Method of Treating Gout, 1720
(Cheyne’s book examines the restorative effects of the natural spring water of Bath, England. The British Library states that the author lists all the harmful effects of an Englishman’s lifestyle: “the Rankness of the Soil, the Richness of the Provisions; the living so much on Flesh Meats; the Inconstancy of the Weather, and the indulging in sedentary Amusements, or Speculative Studies.” To combat these problems, Cheyne writes, “Kind Heaven has provided Bath Waters.”)
