MINERAL WATERS lowered state of the system, or whether they have any direct tend ency to combine with fat and carry oil a portion of superfluous adipose tissue. Their excess of carbonic acid, through its action on the stomach, favours the operation of alkaline waters. They have been classed as follows: (I.) simple alkaliues, where carbonate of soda is the main agent; (II. ) waters containing in addition some chloride of sodium ; (III. ) waters containing sulphates of soda or of magnesia. All these classes may be said to be used in gout, lithi- asis, affections of the liver, catarrh, and obstructions of the gall ducts, in dyspepsia, chronic catarrh of the stomach, and diarrhoea, in obesity, and in diabetes. Some of the waters of the second class are supposed to influence bronchial catarrhs and incipient phthisis, while the more powerful sulphated waters of the third class are especially useful in catarrh of the stomach, and in affections of the biliary organs ; of these only one of importance (Carlsbad) is ther mal. The rival cold waters of Tarasp contain twice as much car bonate of soda. The cold ones are chiefly used internally, the thermal ones both internally and externally. The latter, besides acting as warm water, slightly stimulate the skin when the car bonic acid is abundant, and the carbonate of soda has some slight detergent effect on the cutaneous surface like soap. These waters are unknown in England. They are most abundant in countries of extinct volcanoes. Classes I. and II. of alkaline waters may be said to have a sub- variety in acidulated springs or carbonated waters, in which the quantity of salts is very small, that of carbonic acid large. These table waters are readily drunk at meals. They have of late years been so widely exported as to be within the reach almost of every one. Their practical importance in aiding digestion is in reality much greater than one could expect from their scanty mineraliza tion. They are drunk by the country people, and also largely ex ported and imitated. They are very abundant on the Continent, and, although some of the best-known ones enumerated below are German and French, they are common in Italy and elsewhere : Heppingen, Roisdorf, Landskro, Apollinaris, Selters, Briickenau, Gieshubel, all German ; St Galmier, Pougues, Chateldon, French. Associated with Class III. is that of the strongly sulphated waters known in Germany as bitter or purging waters, which have of late deservedly come into use as purgative agents. They are almost wanting in France and in America, and there are no very good ones in England. The chief supply is from Bohemia and Hungary. The numerous waters of Ofen are the best-known, and some of them are stronger than the Hunyadi, of which an analysis has been given in Table I. They are easily imitated. Some of the best-known are Ofen, Piillna, Saidschiitz, Friedrichshall, Birmerstoff, Kissingen. Two other classes of waters demand a few words of notice. The French have much faith in the presence of minute quantities of arsenic in some of their springs, and trace arsenical effects in those who drink them, and some French authors have established a class of arsenical waters. Bourboule in Auvergne is the strongest of them, and is said to contain T th of a grain of arseniate of soda in 7 ounces of water. Baden-Baden, according to Bunsen s latest analysis, has a right to be considered an arsenical water. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether the small amounts of ar seniate of soda which have been detected, accompanied as they are by preponderating amounts of other salts, have any actual opera tion on the system. The following are among the most noted springs : Bourboule, Mont Dore, Royat, Salies (Bigorres), Plom- bieres, Baden-Baden. Of late years lithium has been discovered in the waters of Baden- Baden ; and various other places boast of the amount of that sub stance in their springs. Indeed a new bath has been established at Assmannshausen on the Rhine in consequence of the discovery of a weak alkaline spring containing some lithium. Not very much is known of the action of lithium in ordinary medicine, and it un doubtedly does not exist in medicinal doses even in the strongest springs. Among these springs are those of Baden-Baden, Assmanns hausen, Elster, Royat, Ballston Spa, and Saratoga (U.S.). AMERICAN MINERAL WATERS. The number of springs in the United States and Canada to which public attention has been called on account of their supposed therapeutic virtues is very large, amounting in all to more than three hundred. Of this number comparatively few are in Canada, and of these not more than six (St Catharines, Caledonia, Plantagenet, Caxton, Charlottesville, and Sandwich) have attained general celebrity. The first three belong to the saline class, the Caxton is alkaline-saline, and the last two are sulphur waters. The St Catherines is remarkable for the very large amounts of sodium, calcium, and magnesium chlorides which it contains, its total salts (450 grains in the pint) being more than three times the quantity contained in the brine-baths of Kreuz- nach in Prussia. The Charlottesville and Sandwich springs likewise surpass the noted sulphur-waters of Europe in their excessive per centages of sulphuretted hydrogen, the former containing more than 3 and the latter 472 cubic inches of this gas in the pint. The mineral springs in the United States are very unequally dis tributed, by far the larger number of those which are in high medical repute occurring along the Appalachian chain of mountains, and more especially on or near this chain where it passes through the States of Virginia, West Virginia, and New York. The Devonian and Silurian formations which overlie the Eozoic rocks along the course of the Appalachian chain have been greatly fissured the faulting of the strata being in some places of enormous magnitude by the series of upheavals which gave rise to the many parallel mountain ridges of the Appalachians. In many places the springs occur directly along the lines of fault. The various classes of mineral waters are likewise very unequally represented, the alkaline springs, and those containing Glauber and Epsom salts, being much inferior to their European representatives. On the other hand, the very numerous and abundant springs of Saratoga compare very favourably with the Selters and similar saline waters, and among the many American chalybeate springs the subclass represented by the Rockbridge Alum is unequalled in regard to the very large percentages of alumina and sulphuric acid which it contains. Besides its greater amount of mineral constituents (135 grains per pint), the Ballston spring surpasses the similar saline waters of Homburg, Kissingen, Wiesbaden, and Selters in its percentage of carbonic acid (53 cubic inches). It is also remarkable for the very large proportion of carbonate of lithia, amounting to 701 grains. Thermal springs are specially numerous in the territories west of the Mississippi and in California. Those in the east mostly occur in Virginia along the southern portion of the Appalachian chain ; in the middle and New England States Lebanon is the only im portant thermal spring. Subjoined is a list of thirty American springs, the design being to represent as many of the more noted spas as possible, while at the same time enumerating the best repre sentatives of the classes and subclasses into which mineral waters are divided according to the German method of classification. Designation and Locality. Therapeutic Application Alkaline. &*$* Iron. Co mon E ^ m Sulphur. C ^K and Indifferent (Thennal). ^Lebanon, Columbia Co., N.Y. (73 F.).. Healing, Bath Co., Va. (88 F.) . ( Scrofulous ulcers and ophthal- 1 mia,oza:na,chronic diarrhoea
and dysentery, secondary
(. and tertiary syphilis. ("Chronic and subacute rheuma- < tism, gout, neuralgia, neph- ( ritic and calculous diseases. ( Chronic rheumatism, gout, j diseases of liver, neuralgia, ( contractions of joints. (Dartrous diseases of skin, ) functionaldi>easesof uterus. j chronic mercurial and lead (_ poisoning. J Calculus, gravel, catarrh of ( stomach or bladdeiylyspepsia. J Gravel, dyspepsia (diuretic, ( diaphoretic). Neuralgia (restorative). Purgative, diuretic. ( Diabetes mellitus, gravel, in- < flammation of bladder,dropsy, ( albuminuria (diuretic). Aperient and alterative. Do. do. ( Dartrous skin diseases, dis- < eases of the bladder, jaun- ( dice, dyspepsia. Do.; scrofula and syphilis. ( Anaemia, gravel, calculus ( (strongly diuretic). ( Rheumatism, gout, scrofula, ~j neuralgia. Rheumatism, gout. f Dyspepsia, jaundice, abdomi- ( nal plethora. Do. do. do. (Ulcers, diseases of the skin, ) passive haemorrhages, atonic j diai rhoea(has 10 grains of free ( sulphuric acid in the pint). ( Chlorosis and ana:niia gene- ( rally; tonic. Do. do. do. Scrofula, chronic diarrhoea, f Anaemia, chlorosis, chronic ( diarrhoea, dropsy. f Dyspepsia, neuralgia, chronic I and subacute rheumatism. Warm, Bath Co., Va. (98 F.) Hot, Bath Co., Va. (110 F.) Paso Robles, San Luis, Obispo Co., ) Cal. (122 F.) j Hot, Garland Co., Ark. (93-150 F.).... Gettysburg, Adams Co , Penn Sweet, Monroe Co., W. Va. (74 F.) Berkeley, Morgan Co., W. Va. (74 F.). Alleghany, Montgomery Co., Va Bethesda, Waukesha Co., Wis f Lower Blue Lick, Nicholas Co., Ky Sharon, Schoharie Co., N. Y White Sulphur, Greenbrier Co., Va ^Salt Sulphur, Monroe Co., W. Va Bedford, Bedford Co., Penn St Catherines, Ontario, Canada Caledonia, Ontario, Canada Hathorne, Saratoga, N.Y ^Ballston, Saratoga Co. N.Y f Oak-Orchard Acid, Gcnesee Co., N.Y... Rawley, Rockingham Co., Va Sweet Chalybeate, Alleghany Co.. Va. Rockbridge Alum, Rockbrklge Co., Va. Cooper s Well, Hinds Co., Miss. Crab Orchard, Lincoln Co , Ky Midland Midland Co , Mich
- Bladon, Choctaw Co., Ala. (carbon- ^
ated alkaline) | Congress, Santa Clara Co., Cal. >^ (saline alkaline) ( St Louis, Gratiot Co., Mich, (-imple (_ alkaline) j Bibliography. 1. German: E. Osann, Darstellung tier Heilquellen Europat, 3 vols., Berlin, 1839-43 ; J. Seegen, Handbuch der II<ilqueUenlehre, Vienna, 18C2; B. M. Lersch, IJydrochemie, 1870, and many other works ; Ilelfft, Handbuch d. Ilalneotherapie, 8th ed., Berlin, 1874 ; Valentiner, Handbuch d. Balneotherapie, Berlin, 1876; L. Lehmann, Udder v. Brunnen Lehre, Bonn, 1877; J. Braun, System. Lehrbuch d. Balneotherapie, 4th ed., by Fromm, Berlin, 1880 ; 0. Leich- tenstern, Balneotherapie, Lcipsic, 1880. 2. French : Dictionnaire des Eaux minerales, <fec., by JIM. Durand-Fardel, Ac., 2 vols., Paris, 1860; J. Lefort, Traitede
Cttemie Hydrolologique, 2d ed., Paris, 1873 ; C James, Guide Pratique aux Eaux