Plunkett & ^TVDBETiT— Constituents of the Mallow Spa. 75 



XII. — Repoet oisT the Solid axd Gaseous CoisrsTrTUEXTS op the 

 Mallow Spa, ix the Cotjxty op Cork. By "VYilliam PLirifKETT, 

 FeUowof the Chemical Society, and Lancelot Stijddeet, LL. D., 

 Ex-Scholar, Trinity College, Dublin. 



[Eead, June 25, 1877.] 



At the suggestion of the Member for the Borough, Mr. John George 

 M'Carthy, M. P., the authors being deputed by the Royal Irish 

 Academy to analyze this mineral water, repaired for the purpose 

 to Mallow, in August last; and the visit was repeated by Mr. Plunkett 

 in the September following, l^ear the east end of the town, and 

 north of the Blackwater, and at the base of limestone hills sheltering 

 them from the north and east winds, are some warm wells, two of these 

 being in the field adjoining the Spa House, provided by the lord of the 

 manor. Sir Denham JS'orreys, Bart. This house contains, in the front 

 room, the spring so long used and celebrated. 



It is this principal Spa that the authors were instructed to examine ; 

 but they thought fit also to determine the gaseous constituents of one 

 of the outside springs, called the Ladies' Well. 



The well in the house, besides, supplies the baths in the adjoining 

 room, and its overflow affords enough to the town for domestic 

 purposes. This well is surrounded by a circular margin of stone ; it 

 is three feet deep, and two feet and a-half wide. 



A tablet there states that ''the baths have been found efficacious 

 in the cure of cutaneous diseases, chronic gout, rheumatism, palsy, 

 and stiff joints ; (that) they restore the balance of the circulation, 

 allay nervous irritation, and remove pain. The Mallow Spa (it adds) 

 resembles in its properties the hot wells at Clifton, and has been 

 long used for its efficacy in the cure of scrofulous and consumptive 

 diseases." 



Doctor Alexander Knox, in his work on " Irish Watering 

 Places," quotes some physicians of Mallow and Cork, much to the same 

 effect. 



The principal well in August last showed a temperature of 

 70-16° F., or 21-2° C, the atmosphere being at 58-1° F., or 14-5° C. 

 Residents of the place agree that this water is warmest in October, 

 the Ladies' Well in August reached 70-8° F., or 21-6° C; but it 

 is shallower, and more exposed to the sun's heat tlian the inside 

 spring. 



The suii ace of both wells is overspread with gas bubbles, breaking, 

 and continuously renewed. 



"The gas (writes Dr. Knox) was popularly supposed to be prin- 

 cipally carbonic acid ; but (he adds) if the analysis of Professor 

 Daubeny, instituted on the spot, be correct, it is composed of — nitrogen, 

 93"5 parts, and oxygen, 6'5 parts" in the hundred. 



