AMERICAN MINERAL WATERS: THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 MINERAL WATERS DEFINED. 



The term mineral water has been variously defined, the definition 

 having gradually changed from the restricted sense, meaning a water 

 used only for medicinal purposes, to a water used for drinking or 

 sometimes bathing purposes. Thus Dr. Peale, in his report to the 

 Geological Survey on the statistics of mineral waters and the mineral- 

 water industry of the United States, says: "Our reports do not 

 restrict the term 'mineral water ' to medicinal waters, but include all 

 waters put on the market, whether they are utilized as drinking or 

 table waters, or for medicinal purposes, or used in any other way." 



Bailey, in a special report of the Kansas Geological Survey, quotes 

 Ossian Henry to the effect that "Mineral waters are those waters 

 which, coming from the bosom of the earth at variable depths, bring 

 with them substances which may have upon the animal economy 

 a medicinal action capable of giving rise to effects often very salutary 

 in the different diseases affecting humanity," and he further quotes 

 M. Durian-Fardel to the effect that mineral waters are those "natural 

 waters which are employed in therapeutics because of their chemical 

 composition or their temperatures." 



Walton, in his history of the mineral springs of the United States 

 and Canada, defines a mineral water, in the medical acceptation of the 

 term, as one which, by virtue of its ingredients, whether mineral, 

 organic, or gaseous, or the principle of heat, is especially applicable 

 to the treatment of disease. 



Clark 1 says that between the so-caUed mineral waters and waters 

 of ordinary character no proper line of demarcation can be drawn. 

 In fact, some of the springs having the greatest commercial impor- 

 tance yield waters of exceptionally low mineral content and owe their 

 value to their remarkable purity. They are simply potable waters 

 carrying a minimum of foreign matter in solution. Other springs, on 

 the contrary, are characterized by excessive salinity, and between 

 the two extremes nearly every intermediate condition may be 

 observed. 



1 Data of Gee-Chemistry, U. S. Geological Survey Bui. 330, p. 139. 



