THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 



PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL 



On the Mineral Water of the Baths of Nevis, in the West In- 

 dies ; in a Letter addressed to Professor JAMESON, by John 

 Davy, M.D., F.R.S, London and Edinburgh, Inspector- 

 General of Army Hospitals. 



My Dear Sir, — In a visit which I made last year to Nevis, 

 I paid some attention to the mineral water of which there is 

 a spring at the baths of that island ; and through the kind- 

 ness of James Davoren, Esq., of Nevis, I obtained portions 

 of the water for examination on my return to Barbadoes. 



As, to the best of my knowledge, this water has not hitherto 

 been analyzed ; — as its effects, when drank, are decidedly 

 beneficial in many instances of derangements of function of 

 the stomach and intestinal canal ; — and, more especially, as 

 some of the results I have obtained in the trials made on it 

 bear on points interesting in relation to geology, and in which 

 I know you take a lively interest, I would hope that a short 

 account of the baths (avoiding minute detail, as unsuitable 

 to the occasion), and of the analysis of the mineral water, 

 with a few incidental remarks and inferences, may not be 

 unacceptable to you and to the readers of the Philosophical 

 Journal. 



The Baths of Nevis are pleasantly situated on a rising 

 ground, reputed healthy, about half a mile from the sea- 

 shore. They are two in number. Each is sufficiently large 

 to admit of swimming in it. One is warm, the other tepid ; 

 the former was 98° of Fahr. when I tried it ; the latter 88°. 

 Adjoining them is a well, or rather a little cistern, the water 



VOL. XLIII. NO. LXXXV. — JULY 1847. A 



