14 
THE ANALYSIS OF ILKLEY SPA WATER. 
BY BENJAMIN ARTHUR BURRELL, F.I.C. 
Modern Ilkley occupies the site of the Brigantian stronghokl of 
Llecan, which subsequently became the Roman station of Olicana. 
" Ichley Fountaine," has been in repute for bathing for about 
two centuries, a small bath-house having been built in 1699* Hearne's 
edition of Leland's Itinerary contains a letter written by Dr. Richardson 
in 1709 stating, " Ilkley . . . chiefly famous for a cold well, 
which has done very remarkable cures in scrofulous cases by bathing, 
and in drinking of it." 
In 1734 Dr. Short wrote, " Ichley Spaw springs out of the middle 
of a mountain, a Mile high. . . . The Water is very clear, brisk 
and sparkling, has no taste, colour nor smell different from the common 
Water, is of the same Aveight. Its Basin and Course are of no other 
Dye than that of a common Spring. . . . Five pints of this 
Liquor exhaled left seven Grains of sediment. . . . Therefore, 
though this Water is of the greatest Esteem and Repute of any in the 
North of England, in the King's Evil and other old Ulcers ; yet it 
derives these Effects neither from its fixt nor volatile Parts, but 
wholly from the Coldness and Purity of the Element." f 
Dr. Rutty in 1757 quotes from another treatise of Short's specif y- 
'ing the virtues of the " Ichley Water. "{ 
Dr. Adam Hunter's examination in 1819 gave : — 
Temperature of water, 48° F. 
Temperature in shade, 64° F. 
Sp. Gr. at 55° F., 1-00015. 
A wine gallon was found to contain 
Muriate of Lime 6-50 grains. 
Muriate of Magnesia ... 3-00 „ 
Total 9-50 „ 
i'\ \ ry White's " Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire," 1838. Vol. II., p. 511. 
"The Natural, Experimental, and Medicinal Histor}' of the Mineral Waters of 
Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire," Thos. Short, M.D., of Sheffield. London, 
1734. Page 307. 
:|: " A Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters," John Rutty, M.D., London. 1757. 
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