HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS. 11 



This report is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of thermal 

 waters, and I believe it will be found thorough and accurate, repre- 

 senting the sum of our knowledge of these waters at the present time. 

 1 have the honor to request that you transmit this bulletin to the 

 honorable the Secretary of the Interior. 

 Respectfully, 



H. W. Wiley, 

 Chief of Bureau of Chemistry. 

 Hon. James Wilson, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE WATERS OF THE HOT 

 SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE METHODS 

 OF ANALYSIS EMPLOYED AND THE MEDICINAL VALUE OF 

 VARIOUS SUBSTANCES USUALLY FOUND IN MINERAL WATERS. 



By J. K. Haywood, 



In Charge of Laboratory of Insecticides and Agricultural Waters. 



[Analyses performed at the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, under the 



direction of H. W. Wiley, chief chemist.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Hot Springs of Arkansas are situated in Garland County imme- 

 diately adjacent to Hot Springs City, on the western slope and at the 

 base of Hot Springs Mountain, a spur of the Ozark Range. Origi- 

 nally there were said to have been seventy-one of these springs, but 

 on account of improvements on the mountain, necessitating the merging 

 of two or more springs into one, also by reason of the natural changes 

 in the subterranean course of the water, this number has been reduced 

 to forty-nine. Forty-four of these are either in use or can easily be 

 used by making some slight improvements. Five rise from the bed 

 of the creek situated at the base of the mountain, and are consequently 

 lost in the cold water of the stream. Besides the hot springs men- 

 tioned above, there are two cold springs in close juxtaposition on the 

 northern slope of the mountain. 



In making the anatyses of these waters, because of changes apt to 

 take place in certain constituents on standing, some of the determina- 

 tions were made directly on the ground within one hour after the 

 samples had been taken. The determinations mentioned are nitrogen, 

 oxygen, carbon dioxide (free and as bi carbonates), nitrites, nitrates, oxy- 

 gen consuming capacity, and free and albuminoid ammonia. Besides 

 this, 10-gallon samples of each spring were shipped to Washington, 

 D. C., where determinations of the various mineral constituents were 

 at once begun. Each day the temperature of the spring then under 

 analysis was taken; finally at the end of the chemist's stay at Hot 

 Springs the temperatures were retaken in a single day, as well as the 

 flow of each spring. 



