ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 381 



uU-powerful engine, the press, it would perhaps prove no 

 very difficult task to attract public attention to these waters. 

 One thing has certainly struck me with surprise, and that is, 

 that no attempt has ever been made to introduce artificial 

 sea-bathing at Droitwich. The supply of brine is so abundant, 

 that a large, cold, salt-water bath, in that town, is practicable 

 with very little expence ; and when we consider the distance 

 at which we live, in these midland counties, from the sea- 

 coast, and the crowded population of the manufacturing towns 

 in this part of the kingdom, to the relaxed population of 

 which this artificial sea-bathing, both cold and tepid, would be 

 very likely to prove salutary, it seems probable that an 

 establishment lor salt-water bathing might succeed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Droitwich. The Salt Company of that borough 

 have every facility for promoting such an experiment ; and they 

 would deserve well of the community if they would undertake 

 this spirited enterprize. 



In the foregoing remarks it has been my desire to bring under 

 our review some of the important claims which geology has 

 upon our attention, inasmuch as it is closely connected with our 

 knowledge of many productions that.are necessary to our comfort 

 and well-being. The fundamental point on which this science 

 rests is to ascertain the order in which the materials which con- 

 stitute our planet are disposed. A superficial observer might 

 suppose that these materials are scattered irregularly over its 

 surface, or confusedly thrown together. So far liom this being 

 the case, it is incontestably proved that the mineral masses are 

 for the most part disposed in stratified beds, more or less inclined 

 to the plane of the horizon. This outcropping of the strata, as 

 it is called, is productive of the greatest benefit to man. Had 

 they remained nearly in a horizontal position, one stratum might 

 have covered the whole globe. There would have been neither 

 mountains nor valleys, and man would have known nothing of 

 the inferior strata except by artificial excavations. But the great 

 convulsions which opened the fountains of the deep, and burst 

 asunder the crust of the earth, though attended with the greatest 

 devastations, have left the surface of our planet more suited to 

 the actual condition of man, and have brought to light the more 

 valuable of its mineral products, without which many of the 

 arts, and I may add many of the sciences too, would have been 

 unknown. The beds which at one point lie at an impenetrable 

 depth, are at another point elevated to the surface, and their 

 contents rendered accessible to man. Who, then, can doubt that 

 every fact added to the list of human acquirements, — that every 

 truth rescued from the dominion of ignorance and error, — that 

 every addition made to sound knowledge will more and more 

 evince the wisdom of the great Creator, and prove that the works 



