1 64 The Bath Thermal Waters , 



to study patiently their good and bad effects. In judging 

 the medical- action of a spa, therefore, it is wrong merely 

 to take into account the principal constituents of the Water, 

 as if it were a question of pure chemistry. Every mineral 

 water is a complex medicine, having a peculiar mixture and 

 a specific temperature. Put the same materials together in 

 a laboratory, according to identical weight and measure, 

 and we do not at all get the same vital product. Nature 

 will not be mimicked so easily. " There are natural com- 

 positions contrived for the benefit of mankind," wrote Dr. 

 Oliver (1719), "which exceed all the compounds man can 

 invent." Thus we approach with unbiassed minds those 

 benign pools which flow " without tides " at our very feet 

 and have a genealogy beyond all historic record. Legend 

 and romance have embellished what might have been only 

 a bit of dull science. Without metaphor, this hot fluid is 

 a message from the very deeps, telling us of the structure of 

 things beyond all hypothesis and all knowledge. What has 

 been flowing for so many ages will go on ad secula ; and 

 we realise the ancient epigram that the least stable phe. 

 nomena of Nature are yet sometimes the most permanent.* 



The Bath Thermal Water is a clear and almost colourless 

 fluid. When freshly drawn. It may show a momentary 

 sparkle ; in bulk (as seen in the open baths) its tint varies 

 somewhat with atmospheric conditions, appearing sometimes 

 light sea-green, at other times pale blue. There is no odour 



* Charlemagne found an inscription on the spot where he afterwards 

 built his palace at Aachen. The inscription contained the name Granus, 

 which he supposed was that of a Roman Emperor, and that induced him 

 to build his own palace there. Granus was really the local name of a 

 Celtic deity — the Sun. Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen is called in Latin Aquce 

 Grani (Waters of Granus), exactly equivalent to the Roman name of Bath 

 (AquEe Soils). For this note I am indebted to my learned friend and 

 Icinsraan, the Rev. T. L. Kingsbury, Canon of Sarum. 



