158 Account of the Neiv Mineral Spring at Albany. 



ling appearance that the Seltzer and Pyrmont waters have, 

 where the gas forming no carbonats, and consequently being 

 in a free state, these waters show quite a different appear- 

 ance. This is fully exemplified in the artificial soda water, 

 where no earths are made use of, and where the carbonic 

 acid gas is in a free state, combined with the water by atmos- 

 pheric pressure. 



With respect to the medicinal qualities of this water, I must 

 refer for a full account of them to the work on this subject 

 which I have before mentioned ; feeling that this Journal is 

 more particularly confined to other subjects. But it has been 

 frequently asked, which of these waters is the most valuable ? 

 To this the obvious answer is that as they differ essentially in 

 the quantity and quality of their contents, so should they be re- 

 commended according to the different diseases and constitu- 

 tions to which they are adapted. As the waters of the Congress 

 spring and of Albany differ but little in their saline contents, and 

 are endowed with the same cathartic qualities, they seem adapt- 

 ed to become suitable remedies in the same complaints, while 

 the waters of Ballston containing a much less quantity of saline 

 ingredients, and still possessing the valuable properties arising 

 from the impregnation of iron and carbonic acid gas, they 

 seem to be possessed of equal tonic power, and are equally 

 valuable when cathartics* are not necessary or are injurious. 



As the Congress spring contains a quantity of carbonat 

 of lime and magnesia, so vastly exceeding that which we find 

 in the Albany water, it becomes a question to consider 

 whether it renders it, in a medical point of view, more valua- 

 ble. If I were to give my opinion, I should say not. ; on the 

 contrary, when it is recollected how many pints of this water 

 are frequently taken daily by invalids, it may be doubted 

 whether so much of these carbonats is not injurious to the 

 stomach, while the water at Albany, containing nearly the 

 same proportions of carbonat of soda as of lime and magnesia, 

 no injurious effects can be produced by the use of it. I shall 

 now add only one remark, in which all judicious physicians will 

 agree, and this is, that whatever benefit may be expected 

 from the use of this or any other mineral water, can be ob- 

 tained only by a moderate and steady perseverance in drink- 

 ing it, and not as is very frequently the case, by a too free use 

 of it for a short period. 



* At the time of Dr. Mead's analysis, the spring under the bath house 

 at Ballston, had not been discovered. 



