18 MINERAL WATERS. 



"When mankind tailed to tind snoha fountain, that virtue 

 was ascribed to dew, and it was supposed that if a person 

 draniv no other lieverage, continued youth would be his. 

 ^^'hen America was discovered all the san<ruine believers 

 in such a fountain turned their attention to the new world. 

 It was this alone that brought many adventurers hither. 

 This was one of the incentives that led De Soto to push west-, 

 ward, innnortalizing hJ?; name by the -discovery of the 

 Mississii)pi. He, however, crossed this river discovering 

 the hot springs of Arkansas, which he and his followers 

 supi)osed to be the fabled fountain of youth. By the less 

 credulous portion of mankind such s})rings have been uspd 

 for the treatment of diseases, many times with the licst 

 results. 



The Greeks and Komanswere well accjuainted with their 

 virtues. As the methods of analytical chemistry have 

 been imi)roved, they have been used to analyze such wa- 

 ters, yet the problem is always a difficult one, and as im- 

 provements are made in the methods of analysis we tind 

 from time to time ditlerent ingredients discovered in them, 

 the presence of which had been previously unsuspected. 



Mineral springs are by common consent divided into 

 four classes. Acidulous, Sulphurous, Chalybeate and 

 Saline. Acidulous are charged with carbonic acid ; Sul- 

 phurous with sulphuretted hydrogen ; Chalybeate contain 

 some of the salts of iron. Saline eml)race a much larger 

 variety, yet all contain in combination or singly some of 

 the salts. It is also frequent in the same spring to find a 

 combination of ingredients, yet one class will more fully 

 predominate. 



With these preliminary remarks we will enter upon the 

 subject more immediately before us, which is to describe 

 the mineral springs of Essex Count3^ This is as yet 

 comparatively a new field of inquiry. Though it may be 

 known that Essex county has mineral springs, their nature, 

 what they contain, whether valuable ingi'edients or other- 



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wise, has never been inquired into. The largest are the 

 springs in Brunswick. They are situated on the bank of 



