1 66 The Bath Thermal Waters ; 



(not much less than half a miUion gallons daily). This 

 abundance makes our use of it easy and highly advantageous. 

 Movement and play of muscle are permitted by the mere 

 bulk of fluid. 



(2) So much hot water. — Whether the water be hot or 

 warm, . it increases the heat of the body, partly by direct 

 supply, partly by diminished radiation and evaporation. To 

 put the matter in the fewest words ; — cold refreshes by stimu- 

 lating the functions, heat by physically facilitating them. 

 Heat helps organic life when it is incapable of independent 

 work ; so that there is a quickening of all vital processes 

 which take place in cells, juices, and animal tissues. Now 

 Nature's store of cold water is prodigal enough ; it is here 

 and everywhere ; but to obtain hot water in any quantity 

 from the interior of the earth is a grand economy of force 

 and trouble. From the days of Rome to the present day, 

 natural thermal water has furnished the bath of luxury and 

 the bath of health. 



(3) So much hot saline water. — The chief Continental 

 balneologist, Dr. Braun, calls Bath a " representative of the 

 hot indifferent springs ;" and he styles our city the English 

 Teplitz. The gross element of heat cannot be separated 

 from chemical composition. Essentially Bath thermal Water 

 is alkaline ; but not alkaline in the sense in which the waters 

 of Vals and Vichy are. The alkalinity of these waters 

 depends on carbonate of soda. A lime water is called 

 "earthy,"' and its alkalinity is modiiied by a combination 

 with sulphuric acid. Hence in a geological grouping of 

 mineral waters, we call all those in which sulphate of lime 

 is the main constituent Lime Sulphated Waters.* There 



* For this term we are indebted to our English balneologist, Dr. John 

 Macpherson. 



