178 The Bath Thermal Waters ; 



Bath as a Health Resort. 



The laudatory epithet of " King of Spas " which Dr. 

 Granville gave to Bath half a century ago denoted much 

 more than the medical faculty of its thermal springs. It 

 included the attractions of Nature, the embellishments of 

 Art, and the qualities of situation and climate which make 

 Bath a pleasant residence, and a healthy place to live in. 

 One of the Saxon appellations of Bath was — the City of 

 the Warm Vale. 



Meteorological statistics tell us nothing about human 

 susceptibilities to weather. When all the figures are set 

 down in dull, dry order, and everything has been recorded 

 which may be registered by instruments, there still remain 

 influences not easy to describe, capable of affecting people 

 (especially invalids) in entirely different ways. The Transac- 

 tions of the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field- 

 Club may .be consulted for details of barometric pressure, 

 thermometric and hygrometric range, mean temperatures, 

 prevaiHng winds, cloud, and rain. 



" The Bath climate owes its chief distinction to its more 

 temperate character, or to its extremes of heat and cold 

 lying within more contracted limits, notably in very hot and 

 very cold seasons." The girdle of hills protects the city 

 from the extremity of cold, and blunts the edge of frigid 

 winds ; while that long arm of salt water, the Bristol Channel, 

 moderates heat in accordance with the well-known law about 

 proximity of sea. The Midland Counties and even central 

 Yorkshire are hotter than Bath on any given hot day, and 

 colder than Bath on any given cold day. Those parts of 

 England approach, like other large areas of land, the Conti- 



