46 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



The most important of the sulphurous thermals of Palestine are those of 

 Tiberias, near the Lake of Genesareth. Their temperature varies from 86° to 

 130° F. They were used by the Romans, and are visited by patients from all 

 parts of Asia Minor even at the present time. There was another thermal 

 spring near the Dead Sea, in the country of the Edomites, called Callirhoe, or 

 beautiful spring. This one was visited by King Herod in the hope of being cured 

 of his sickness. According to Josephus, he caused himself to be carried across 

 the Jordan to use the thermals of Callirhoe, which flow into the Lake Asphal- 

 tites. He, however, found it a hard road to travel and failed to recover his 

 health. 



Mineral springs play an important part in the religion of the ancients. When 

 temples were erected to the God of Medicine, the priests of Aesculapius took 

 good care to locate them in the vicinity of mineral springs and such places 

 were destined l)oth for worsliip and for the cure of the sick. They were not 

 only provided with theaters and places for amusement, but also with hospitals 

 and medical schools for the instruction of students. The most important of 

 these were the springs of Nauphia in the sacred grove of Aesculapius. They 

 have been described by Pausanias, and from the remains of their structures 

 we can even at the present day judge of their former grandeur. The water 

 of Nauphia has recently been analyzed by M. Landerer and found to contain 

 chiefly sodium chloride, calcium carbonate and carbonic acid. 



We should also mention the Castalian spring, which had a temperature of 

 only ^s° , and in which Pythia had to bathe before ascending the tripod in the 

 steaming cave in Apollo's oracle at Delphi. There are copious exhalations of 

 carbonic acid gas in that cave, and from the short and incoherent sentences 

 uttered by the priestess in her excitement and paroxyms the most important 

 prophecies were drawn by a cunning priesthood. Such were also the gas springs 

 of Dedona, the most ancient oracle of the Greeks, and the place where Odysseus 

 and Aeneas communicated with Hades to meet the spirits of the departed. 



Roman literature tells us of the magnificence and splendor of the bathing 

 places of Italy in the time of the emperors. The most fashionable of these 

 places was Bajae. They were embellished with the costliest statuary and 

 paintings. Laocoon, from the baths of Titus ; tiie Farnesian Hercules, from 

 those of Caracalla; and The Horse-tamer from those of Constantine, are 

 master-pieces which have never been equaled. To judge from the ruins of 

 Caracalla's baths, they must have resembled a small village. There were over 

 two hundred marble columns found in them, some in a good state of preser- 

 vation, and over 1,600 seats cut out of solid marble. 



The fashion of bathing in hot springs gradually became almost a necessity 

 with the Romans, and in the course of their warlike expeditions they dis- 

 covered many of the most important thermals of Europe and used them as 

 stations for their armies. We will only mention Baden-Baden (Thermae Aure- 

 liae), Wiesbaden (Aquae Matticae), Bath (Aquae Calidae), Aix-la-Chapelle 

 (Aquae Granenses), and Spa, in Belgium (Aquae ad civitatem Tungriam). 



The philosophy of springs — the theories held by natural philosophers of dif- 

 ferent ages as to their origin, composition, speciiic properties and therapeutical 

 use — were based upon the state of natural science at the time. According to 

 the great thinker Aristotle, there are in the interior of the earth a multitude 

 of large caverns containing air. The air at the roofs of these caverns, by the 

 cold, condenses to water and the water breaks forth at the surface wherever 

 it can find an outlet; and his theory thruout antiquity and the middle ages 

 was believed in implicitly. Even good old Origenes, who ascribed the origin of 

 springs to the tears wept by fallen angels, could not materially shake the belief 

 ot Aristotle. His supposition certainly bears some improbable features. If we 

 consider that the springs of Vichy alone discharge three millions and those of 

 Carlsbad another three millions of cubic feet of water annually; the fallen 

 angels must either weep very copiously or their number must be legion. 



