Mineral Waters at Cheltenham. 15 



ing, as they owe their reputation less to the caprice of 

 fashion, patronage, or popular opinion, than to their own 

 intrinsic properties. 



Here at first the afflicted resorted in search of health. They 

 found the goddess propitious to their prayers ; they returned 

 again to pay their vows, and brought beauty and ele2;ance 

 in their train. The lately discovered mineral springs of 

 Cheltenham belong to those tew fountains of health met 

 with in Great Britain, which have' not been discovered by 

 accident : our knowledge respecting them being the result 

 of actual labour, undertaken with a view to remedy the pre- 

 vailing scarcity of the waters of other springs, which have 

 long given celebrity to the town of Cheltenham, and which 

 scarcity is said to have prevented many invalids from visiting 

 that place. These complaints no longer exist. The exer- 

 tions of several individuals have completely remedied this 

 evil ; — to Dr. Jameson, a resident physician of Cheltenham, 

 is due the honour of having discovered, in the year 1804, a 

 saline spring near that town ; and to the spirited exertions 

 and indefatigable enterprises of Henry Thompson, esq., of 

 Tottenham, the public will for ever remain highly indebted 

 for the discovery of the mineral springs which form the 

 chief subject of this paper; and who has also spared no ex- 

 pense and labour to improve the natural beauties of the 

 place, so as to render the acconimodations of these wells 

 ■worthy of the company who visit them from all quarters. 

 It is under the direction of this gentleman, likewise, thai 

 baths, both cold and warm, have been erected in a style 

 superior to those usually met with, which do signal honour 

 to the town of Cheltenham, 



Before I proceed to state the result of the analyses of the 

 waters I was called upon to undertake at the fountain head, 

 I beg leave to remark, that I do not mean to exhibit invi- 

 dious comparisons, nor do I contend for superior medicinal 

 properties which tliey may be found to possess, when com- 

 pared with "ither springs of a similar nature, which have 

 long gained a distinguished place in the catalogue of fnedi- 

 cated waters, and the efficacy of which long experience 

 Jjas permanently fixed and sufficiently established. Unbiassed 



as 



