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Waters of Asia Minor 



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Art. III. — On some of the Thermal Waters of Asia> Minor; 

 by Dr. J. Lawkence Smith, of New OvleaiiSj Prof, Chem. in 



the University of Louisiana. 



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Part I. — The Thermal Waters of Broosa. H 



There are few countries where Thermal Waters are so nnmer- 

 ons, and cover so extensive a surface as in Western Asia Minor; 

 many of them still bear marks of the estimation in which they 

 were held by the ancient Romans and Greeks for the purpose of 

 supplying their baths. 



Owing to the difficulty of obtaining proper vessels or corks at 

 or near the springs, coupled with the risk of breakage by the 

 necessary transportation on the backs of horses over rough and 

 mountainous roads, travellers have been deterred from col lectin 

 these waters for the purpose of analysis. In my travels through 

 certain parts of this country, I took along with me bottles and 

 corks, and collected between twenty and thirty specimens of dif- 

 ferent localities, some of them in considerable quantity; and of 

 that number fifteen or sixteen have arrived safely to my labora- 

 tory, where most of them have been already examined. 



in my remarks upon them I will first allude to the thermal 

 waters of Broosa or Prusia, which are the most important at the 

 present day, and the most accessible from Constantinople. The 

 spot itself is hallowed by many interesting historical associations. 

 The city was founded by Hannibal during a friendly visit which 

 this great Carthagenian general made to Prusias, the king of By- 

 thinia, whose name was given to it. Like all other cities of so 

 ancient date, it has gone through many changes, passing succes- 

 sively into the hands of the Greeks, Romans, and Turks, Since 

 132G the Turks have continued masters of this part of Asia Minor, 

 §, it having been conquered by Osman just prior to his death, for 



many years after which event it remained the capital of the 

 Ottoman empire. 



Broosa is readily reached from Constantinople by a steamer that 

 goes from this latter place to Modania, on the gulf of the same 

 name, about seventy miles from Constantinople. From Modania 

 a ride of about twenty miles on horseback brings you to Broosa, 

 at the foot of the Bythinian Olympus. The warm baths of this 

 place have been celebrated from the earliest epochs, and the visit 

 of Constantine with his wife in 797, is recorded in history as hav- 

 ing resulted favorably in restoring the latter to health. And at 

 a still later period Sultan Soleiiian the Great visited these baths 

 on account of an attack of gout, and to commemorate his cure he 

 had a large dome constructed over the source to which he attri- 

 buted the beneficial effects derived by him ; the dome still stands. 



