Bourboule, Mont Dore, Royat, Salies (Bigorres), Plombières, Baden-Baden.
| Designation and Locality. | Therapeutic Application. | |||
| Indiff- erent (Ther- mal). |
Lebanon, Columbia co., N.Y. (73° F.) | |||
| Healing, Bath co., Va. (88° F.) | Scrofulous ulcers and ophthalmia, ozoena, chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, secondary and tertiary syphilis. | |||
| Warm, Bath co., Va. (98° F.) | Chronic and subacute rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, nephritic and calculus diseases. | |||
| Hot, Bath co., Va. (110° F.) | Chronic rheumatism, gout, diseases of liver, neuralgia, contractions of joints. | |||
| Paso Roble, San Luis Obispo co., Cal. 122° F. |
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| Hot, Garland co., Ark. (93–150°) F.) | Dartrous diseases of skin, functional diseases of uterus chronic mercurial and lead poisoning. | |||
| Calca- reous and Earthy. |
Gettysburg, Adams co., Penn. | Calculus gravel, catarrh of stomach or bladder, dyspepsia. | ||
| Sweet, Monroe co., W. Va. (74° F.) | Gravel, dyspepsia (diuretic, diaphoretic). | |||
| Berkeley, Morgan co., W. Va. (74° F.) | Neuralgia (restorative). | |||
| Alleghany, Montgomery co., Va. | Purgative, diuretic. | |||
| Bethesda, Waukesha co., Wis. | Diabetes mellitus, gravel, inflammation of bladder, dropsy, albuminuria (diuretic). | |||
| Sul- phur. |
Lower Blue Lick Nicholas co. Ky. | Aperient and alternative. | ||
| Sharon, Schoharie co., N.Y. | Do. do. | |||
| White Sulphur, Greenbrier co., Va., | Dartrous skin diseases, diseases of the bladder, jaundice, dyspepsia. | |||
| Salt Sulphur, Monroe co., W. Va. | Do.; scrofula and syphilis. | |||
| Epsom Salt. |
Bedford, Bedford co., Penn. | Anaemia, gravel, calculus (strongly diuretic). | ||
| Common Salt. |
St Catharines, Ontario, Canada | Rheumatism, gout, scrofula, neuralgia. | ||
| Caledonia, Ontario, Canada | Rheumatism, gout. | |||
| Hathorne, Saratoga, N. Y. | Dyspepsia, jaundice, abdominal plethora. | |||
| Ballston, Saratoga co., N. Y., | Do. do. do. | |||
| Iron | Oak-Orchard Acid, Genesee co., N. Y. | Ulcers, diseases of the skin, passive haemorrhages, atonic diarrhoea (has 10 grains of free sulphuric acid in the pint). | ||
| Rawley, Rockingham co., Va. | Chlorosis and anaemia generally; tonic. | |||
| Sweet Chalybeate, Alleghany co., Va. | Do. do. do. | |||
| Rockbridge Alum, Rockbridge co., Va. | Scrofula, chronic diarrhoea | |||
| Cooper’s Well, Hinds co., Miss. | Anaemia, chlorosis, Chronic diarrhoea, dropsy. | |||
| Glauber Salt. |
Crab Orchard, Lincoln co., Ky. Midland, Midland co., Mich. |
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| Alkaline. | Bladen, Choctaw co., Ala. (carbon- ated alkaline) | |||
| Congress, Santa Clara co., Cal. (saline-alkaline) | ||||
| St Louis, Gratiot co., Mich. (simple alkaline) |
Dyspepsia, neuralgia, chronic and subacute rheumatism. | |||
Of late years lithium has been discovered in the waters of Baden-Baden; and various other places boast of the amount of that substance 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 undoubtedly does not exist in medicinal doses even in the strongest springs. Among these springs are those of Baden-Baden, Assmannshausen, 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 Catharines 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 Kreuznach in Prussia. The Charlottesville and Sandwich springs likewise surpass the noted sulphur-waters of Europe in their excessive percentages of sulphuretted hydrogen, the former containing more than 3 and the latter 4·72 cub. in. of this gas in the pint.
The mineral springs in the United States are very unequally distributed, 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 cub. in.). It is also remarkable for the very large proportion of carbonate of lithia, amounting to 0·701 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 important 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 representatives of the classes and subclasses into which mineral waters are divided according to the German method of classification.
Bibliography.—(1) German: E. Osann, Darstellung der Heilquellen Europas (3 vols., Berlin, 1839–1843); J. Seegen, Handbuch der Heilquellenlehre (Vienna, 1862); B. M. Lersch, Hydrochemie (1870), and many other works; Helfft, Handbuch d. Balneotherapie (8th ed., Berlin, 1874); Valentiner, Handbuch d. Balneotherapie (Berlin, 1876); L. Lehmann, Bäder u. Brunnen Lehre (Bonn, 1877); J. Braun, System. Lehrbuch d. Balneotherapie, 4th ed., by Fromm (Berlin, 1880); O. Leichtenstern, Balneotherapie (Leipzig, 1880). (2) French: Dictionnaire des eaux minérales, &c., by MM. Durand-Fardel, &c. (2 vols., Paris, 1860); J. Lefort, Traité de chemie hydrologique (2nd ed., Paris, 1873); C. James, Guide pratique aux eaux minérales (Paris), many editions; Macé, Guide aux villes d’eaux, &c. (Paris, 1881); Joanne and Le Pileur, Les Bains d’Europe (Paris). (3) Swiss: Meyer Ahrens, Heilquellen der Schweitz (Zürich, 1867); Gsell Fels, Die Bäder und Kurorte der Schweitz (Zürich, 1880). (4) Italian: G. Jervis, Guida alle acque minerali d’Italia (Turin, 1876, &c.); E. F. Harless, Die Heilquellen und Kurbäder Italiens (Berlin, 1848). (5) Spanish: Rubio, Tratado de las fuentes minerales de España (Madrid, 1853); Don J. de Antelo y Sanchez has recently published a work on Spanish waters. (6) English: T. Short, History of the Mineral Waters (London, 1734); J. Rutty, Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters (London, 1757); Granville, Spas of England (1841); E. Lee, Mineral Springs of England (London, 1841); J. Macpherson, Our Baths and Wells (1871); id., Baths and Wells of Europe (1873); and H. Weber’s Eng. ed. of Braun (London, 1875). A great portion of the literature is to be found in monographs on particular places. (7) American: J. Bell, The Mineral and Thermal Springs of the United States and Canada (1855); J. J. Moorman, The Mineral Waters of the United States and Canada (1867); C. F. Chandler, Lecture on Water (1871); G. E. Walton, The Mineral Springs of the United States and Canada (1875); I. Burney Yeo, The Therapeutics of Mineral Springs (1904).
MINERVA, an Italian goddess, subsequently identified with Athena. She presided over all handicrafts, inventions, arts and sciences. Her oldest sanctuary at Rome was in the temple built by Tarquin on the Capitol, where she was worshipped with Jupiter and Juno. She had also a temple on the Aventine,
