rEALE.] INTRODUCTION. 11 
Many springs which have acquired great reputations for their medicinal 
effects are found, upon chemical examination, to be not so highly miner- 
alized as many potable waters. That their medicinal value is recognized 
and that they are sources of profit to their owners, and also indirectly 
an addition to the wealth of the localities in which they are located, 
seem sufficient reasons why such springs should be noted. It is not 
proposed to discuss the relative merits of the various springs. 
The tables of analyses appended to the lists under the different States 
will give an idea as to the chemical composition of the various waters. 
At present the facts as to the therapeutic action of our mineral waters 
are so meager and our knowledge of their effects is so inexact that it 
would be useless to attempt their classification from a therapeutic 
standpoint. 
Neither are the data sufficient for a complete reference of American 
springs to a chemical scheme of classification. Of the more than eight 
thousand springs in our lists only a few more than eiadit hundred have 
been analyzed, so that the definite chemical composition of at least 
nine-tenths of the springs is still unknown. 
The classification of mineral waters is a subject the consideration of 
which would require a separate paper, as its discussion is beset with 
many difficulties. All that is necessary here is to indicate the principal 
divisions, to one or another of which the springs in the lists have been 
assigned in a general way. First, the waters are characterized in regard 
to their temperatures, as either thermal or non-thermal, the temperature 
column in the tables indicating, in most cases, to which of these classes 
the springs belong. Secondly, certain gases are usually present in the 
water of most springs, and these springs are indicated by the terms 
carbonated, sulphureted, carbureted, &c. They are also mentioned as 
chalybeate, alkaline, saline, calcic, silicious, or acid, according to their 
predominant or characteristic solid constituents, or by a combination 
of the terms when more than one is present in large quantity. 
Brine springs and wells (with a few exceptions where they have been 
used for medicinal purposes) have been omitted from the tables, as they 
are generally utilized in the production and manufacture of salt, and 
are therefore not usually applied to the ordinary uses of mineral springs. 
They also formed the subject of separate discussion in the Mineral 
Kesources, 1883-'84, for which this paper was originally prepared. 
Tables of analyses of the springs for each State and Territory, so far 
as they have been analyzed, have been compiled, and an attempt has 
been made to get the analyses in the most authentic form. The results 
were found stated in some thirty or more ways. 
The limited time in which this paper was prepared did not permit the 
reduction of the analyses to one standard, and they are incorporated 
in the tables mainly as given in the sources from which they were taken, 
with the exception that where expressed in grains to fractions of the 
gallon they were iucreased to grains per gallon. When not otherwise 
stated in the tables, the gallon mentioned is the standard United States 
(139) 
