The mineral springs of England, and their curative efficacy : with remarks on bathing, and on artificial mineral waters / Edwin Lee.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mineral springs of England, and their curative efficacy : with remarks on bathing, and on artificial mineral waters / Edwin Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    discovered: but on investigating the matter more closely, it was found that the water rose through a drain in the ground-floor of a house, and on the drain being cleared, the sulphurous properties of the spring were destroyed. Most cold sulphurous springs would be found to have a similar origin. This is the case at Moffat, where the water passes through a bog of vege- table matters, and the springs of Harrowgate are similarly situated. Saunders says, in his work— The sulphurous springs all appear to take their rise from a large bog at a short dis- tance fi'om the wells; the bog consists of the remains of decayed vegetable matter forming a black, fetid, half-fluid mass, in many places four or five feet deep, which everywhere rests on a bed of clay or gravel. From hence the water appears to pass underground through a stratum of shale, and having undergone a natural filtra- tion in its passage, it rises perfectly transparent at the wells, where it is received for the use of the numerous invalids. Dr. Garnett and others hold the same opinion, in which, however, Dr. Hunter does not concur; but I have no doubt, that if the bog could be cleared, these springs would lose their sulphurous property. This appears to have been the case with the Crescent