MINERAL WATERS. Mineral waters, though generally charac terised by possessing some principle different from what is found in common water, or some of the ordinary principles in unusual pro portion, yet among these are reckoned certain springs which have no claim to repute beyond what is due to their extreme purity, such as Malvern and Holywell ; or to having a higher temperature throughout the year, than the mean of the latitude where they are situated. These last are classed among the thermal springs, which are properly divided into two sections, the mineralised hot springs and the vnmineraliscd, among which are some only tepid, such as Matlock, where some springs are 66°, the lowest of the class in Britain, and others cold, presenting this peculiarity, that the tepid springs rise from fifteen to thirty yards above the level of the river Dcrwent, whilst those which rise either above or below this range are cold.
For practical purposes mineral-waters may be classed under four heads, each susceptible of secondary heads, according as they are hot or cold, or have other peculiarities, namely : saline, alkaline, chaly beate, and sulphureous. It will not be possible to mention more than a few of the most important of each.
Saline aperient springs : of these some are hot, others cold. The chief arc Carlsbad, Marienbad, Eger or Franzensbad, Kissingen, Wiesbaden, Baden-Baden, Seidlitz, and Saidsehutz, with Pullna, in Germany; Cheltenham,' Leamington, and Harrogate in England ; Dunblane, Pitcaithly, and others in Scotland.
Alkaline waters, owing their properties to different saline principles, are found at Carlsbad, Marienbad, Kissingen, Pullna, Saidschutz, Ems, Toplitz, and Wiesbaden, in Germany; Vichy and Mont d'Or, in France ; Harrogate, Scarborough, and other Yorkshire springs, Cheltenham Leamington, Bath, ancLelsewhere, in England.
Chalybeate waters : with these acidulous waters are often reckoned, as the iron is often associated with much free carbonic acid gas. Some of the chief aro Spa, Pyrmont, Schwalba.ch, Marienbad, Aix-la Chapelle, and Seltzer in Germany ; Tonbridge, Harrogate, and Brighton in England, and Peterhead, in Scotland.
:)ulphureous waters : Aix-la-Chapelle, in Rhine Prussia, Bareges, and other Pyrenean springs, are hot ; Harrogate, Askern, and others in Yorkshire, cold ; Moffat and Strathpcffer in Scotland, also cold.
Ioduretted and other waters. Many springs have of late been found to contain a notable quantity of iodine or bromine, others contain both : Creuzuaeh, in Germany, contains both, but most iodine ; Llandrindod and Bualt in Radnorshire, the springs issuing from the has at Leamington, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham, contain iodine; bromine, but not iodine, exists in small quantity, in the saline aperient waters near London, such as Epsom, also in the springs from the coal-formation of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Neweastle-on-Tyne, and Kingswood, and Bennington near Edinburgh : Woodhall, near Ashby de-la-Zouch, contains most iodine of any British springs yet investigated.
Organic matters, termed Baregine, zoogene, &c., have been foUnd in many springs. Of these an account may be found in Dr. Lankester's Askern and its Mineral Springs,' p. 103.
It is impossible to give directions here for the selection of one kind , of mineral water in preference to another. A decision on this point can only be made by a competent medical attendant. It may be permitted to say a few words on calcareous springs, by which is meant those waters in which some of the salts of lime predominate. These are generally hard. While flowing under ground the lime is often in the state of a soluble bicarbonate, but on reaching the external atmos phere, one portion of the carbonic acid escapes, and some of the carbonate of lime is precipitated. Hence these waters exert a petri fying effect on substances thrown into the springs or receiving wells. This is also the reason why such waters are best used on the spots whence they emerge, and ill bear transportation. Such waters should never be received in leaden cisterns or transmitted through leaden pipes. The chief mineral waters in England which belong to this group are Bath, Bristol, and Buxton. They are noted for their beneficial effects in those diseases which are connected with the presence or generation of an unhealthy acid in the stomach, such as gout, rheu matism, and some cutaneous diseases, in which the power of the water taken internally is often assisted by the use of the same water ex ternally as baths. The change of mode of life generally adopted at watering places, the relaxation from hurtful over-exertion of mind and body, conduce to promote the health of the visitors to these places of resort.