!- k -> (JE0L0G1CAL REPORT. [_*|815. Hlt> 



lignite beds occurj that we find in them springs or well- whose 

 water is Ian, so slightly contaminated with the salts win li charac- 

 terize nil more or less as not o interfere with the ordinary uses of 

 well and spring water. 



315. It cannot, therefore, be surprising, in view of the extensive 

 territory occupied, more or less, by these lormations, that mineral 

 springs and wells should lie reported from all quarters of the State; 

 their inconvenient abundance being such, that in extensive regions 

 a draught of pure water can be obtained only from cisterns and 

 streams, and that the former are of necessity used, notwithstanding 

 the abundance of water to be found in wells. Were it not for the 

 superincumbent beds of the Orange Sand formation, whose very 

 general distribution over the surface has so often been noticed, and 

 which afford the purest of water, even though often at inconvenient 

 depths, the State of Mississippi would find itself in great st: aits as 

 regards the quality of its waters. 



For how r ever acceptable may be the presence of mineral waters here and 

 there, yet their universal prevalence, to the exclusion of pure water, is scarcely 

 less undesirable on the land than it is to the mariner at sea, when he linds him- 

 self deprived of all but the ocean brine wherewith to slake his thirst. We might 

 as well attempt to substitute the drugstore for the provision market ; and it is 

 not a little singular, that such a vast number of persons, who religiously eschew 

 to the last extremity the help of a physician, through distrust of medicines, 

 should not only willingly, but eagerly, be dosing themselves, day after day, with 

 natural solutions of the very substances which, if coming from the drugstore, 

 they would not admit within their gates. It would, probably, be difficnlt to 

 find, on either continent, any region where the abuse of mineral waters is 

 carried to a greater extreme, than is the case in some portions of the State of 

 Mississippi — on the ground, very generalby, that these waters are supposed to be 

 " Natures own remedy ;" though on precisely the same principle, it would be 

 competent to the house-wife to use poison hemlock instead of celery, or the 

 natural white arsenic in the place of salt. 



316. I shall give specially, in the Agricultural Report, the numerous localities 

 at which mineral waters occur, and the analyses I have made ; a few general 

 remarks on their character ought, however, to find their place here. 



Sulphuretted hydrogen, and a certain amount of Carbonic Acid, 

 are very generally present. An ingredient common to all the 

 waters of the lignitic formation which I have examined, is common 

 salt or Chloride of Sodium, Glaubers salt; or Sulphate of Soda, is 

 also very common. Potash, in the form of Carbonate or Sulphate, 

 is rarely wanting. But the universally prevalent characteristic of 

 these waters, to which they most frequently owe their injurious 

 effects on health by causeless and constant use, is Magnesia in some 

 form — the Sulphate or Chloride, or both. Next to this, the salts of 

 Lime — commonly the Sulphate, but often the Chloride ; with more 

 or less of the Bicarbonates of both Lime and Magnesia, form the 

 usual ingredients. A trace of Iron is always present ; in numerous 

 instances, strong chalybeates are formed, both by the Bicarbonate, 

 and by the Sulphate of that metal. Sulphate of Alumina, though 

 not a usual ingredient, is often present, and in several cases forms 



