53-' 



THE MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



vreden, and the Ehrlich Forest spring near Bloemfontein. In 

 the springs at Matjesfontein, Lochinvar. and Weltevreden the 

 amount of free sulphuretted hydrogen is considerable. All these 

 are practically unknown as medicinal springs. Strange to say, 

 those springs which have attained a reputation as sulphitr waters, 

 Aliwal North and Malmesbury, contain only very small amounts 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen. 



Hot sulphur springs are. as a rule, less fre(|uent than cold 

 ones. It is, therefore, interesting to note that a large number 

 of our springs have temperatures considerably higher than the 

 average temperature of the atmosphere (Aliwal North. Malmes- 

 bury, and Machadodorp), and one of the group of springs con- 

 stituting the Zongala geyser is just a little below boiling-point. 

 The amount of sodium chloride in the two Isinuka springs is 

 so considerable that they might as well be classed as brine 

 springs, and the amount of sodium sulphate and carbonate they 

 contain would justify their being regarded as sulphated alkaline 

 waters. The action of these com])ounds on the system is well 

 known, and when once the effect of the spring has been carefully 

 studied it will be easy to classify it according to the constituent 

 which predominates therapeutically. But the only way to study 

 the effect of a spring- is to keeji a careful medical record of a 

 large number of cases. 



Chalybeate Spri)igs owe their curative prc^percies to the iron 

 they contain. Some chalybeate springs also contain sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. The Zwartkops water is of this type, and here again 

 the medical man must act as arbiter in the question of classifica- 

 tion. Chalybeate springs are defined as such, containing not less 

 than 0.7 grams of ferrous iron per 100,000. Unfortunately, in 

 snany of the analyses iron and aluminium liave not been deter- 

 mined separately, but for a rough approximation I am assuming 

 the values given in the column Fe.O.. + ALO.^ to be iron oxide 

 (inl\. The values f(.r ferrous iron in grams per 100.000 would 

 then be : 



Balmoral 4.0 Tooverwater Poort . . 0.23 



Iiningi 5.3 Zvvartkoi)s 0.77 



Caledon 1.39 



W'armbad ( Oudts- 



hoorn) 0.3 



[t will be noticed that Warm!)ad and Tooverwater Poort 

 fall tar ]jek)w the minimum. In coiumcnting on the analysis of 

 the Oudtshoorn spring (Warmbad) in the report for 1908, the 

 Senicr Analyst points out that the value is probal)ly low in con- 

 se(|uence of the di roini)osition of ferrous bicarbonate on expo- 

 sure. The figure for Balmoral is of little \alue for purposes of 

 comi.arison in view of my unwarranted assum])tion regarding 

 the values (jf iron and aluminium oxides. But in the case of 

 inungi the iron is calculated from ferrous carbonate, and a spring 

 which contains almost four times as much iron as the famous 

 C\'dedon water deserves attention. i)articularlv in view of the 



