116 THE MOUNTAIN. 



tion, navigation, and other mere mechanical values of the vast 

 and wonderful circulatory system of the Americas, (to which 

 slight allusion has been made,) for the commodities of trade, 

 and the perpetually expanding world of life, a full estimate 

 of the uses of the waters of the New World present an- 

 other phase of great significance. This is the consideration 

 of the hygienic and therapeutic value of waters, pure, mine- 

 ral, and thermal, in their relationship to human health, and 

 consequently to human happiness. 



In this department we are presented with a rich and ex- 

 tensive variety; and here also has Nature been lavish in her 

 gifts of value. Almost every water that has been the subject 

 of scientific analysis, and the catalogue comprises all that 

 have been styled mineral waters, are here found in profusion. 

 In some of the oldest inhabited points of the continent there 

 are springs whose reputed virtues, descending by tradition 

 from the aborigines of the country, science has discovered 

 to contain quantities of mineral elements. 



Romance and imagination have had much to do in this de- 

 partment, as the half-fabulous stories of the virtue of many 

 springs, as recorded by their special historians, would am- 

 ply testify : still the real virtues of a number are unde- 

 niable, and their efficacy as remedial agents unquestionable. 

 Throughout the United States this class of waters is abun- 

 dant, sometimes characterized by the predominance of one 

 element, sometimes by another. The leading items in the 

 chemical inventory of their contents decides the character 

 or class to which they belong. They are variously classified 

 by different writers on the subject. That of Dr. Bell* in his 

 recent work being perhaps the most sensible for practical 

 purposes, will serve our purpose, being plain and simple 

 and founded on obvious qualities addressing the senses of 

 all. 



These are, first, acidulous or carbonated ; second, saline ; 



* Dr. Bell's excellent little book on "mineral springs" should be 

 in the hands of every traveller, invalid, and especially every physician. 



