10 MINERAL SPRINGS OF THE UNITED STATES [bull. 32. 
not so far as the total number of individual springs is concerned, re- 
ports not having been received from all the localities. Still, they are 
published as preliminary to more detailed work, which it is hoped may 
follow in the future. The information has been derived primarily from 
the various State geological reports, State guide and hand books, Gov 
ernment geological reports and maps, and various scientific publica- 
tions. To enumerate all these sources would be giving a large part of 
the bibliography of the subject, a work now in preparation. Much ad- 
ditional material has been obtained from members of the Geological 
Survey whose duties have taken them into so many portions of the 
country. Supplementary data have been received in answer to a spe- 
cial set of inquiries sent throughout the entire country, and efforts 
have been made to verify the matter presented in regard to the various 
localities by direct correspondence in each instance. 
The answers to the questions, as a rule, have been very satisfactory. 
To mention all those to whom the writer is indebted on this score would 
be impracticable here. 
Although the scope of this paper is far from that of a treatise upon 
the subject of mineral waters, it may perhaps be advisable to repeat 
here the definition of the term " mineral water." The definition will 
depend somewhat upon the point of view, whether it be that of the 
chemist or of the physician or of some one interested only in the com- 
mercial aspect of the subject. Water is itself a mineral and is rarely, 
if ever, found pure in its natural state. As Daubeny says, 1 the term 
"mineral water" in its most extended sense comprises every modifi- 
cation existing in nature of that universally diffused fluid, whether con- 
sidered with reference to its sensible properties or to its action upon life. 
Usually, however, the term is restricted to such waters as contain an 
unusual amount of mineral matter or which are characterized by an un- 
usual degree of heat. From a therapeutic point of view, all waters 
that have an effect upon the animal body are mineral waters, no mat- 
ter how feebly mineralized they may be. 
Where the springs have been improved or where the waters have been 
placed upon the market, the definition has been used in this paper in 
its widest sense, and therefore all such springs have been included in 
the tables. The mention of unimproved springs, however, has been re- 
stricted so far as possible to those of which the waters are mineralized 
to a more or less marked degree. A number of the springs included in 
the tables, although of considerable commercial importance, would 
perhaps be classed as indifferent when viewed in the light of their 
chemical composition. It must be remembered in this connection that 
chemical analyses will not always explain the effects of a mineral water. 
1 Report on the present state of our knowledge with respect to mineral and thermal 
waters, by Charles Daubeny, M. D., &c, in Sixth Report of the British Association 
for the Advancement of Science, p. 1, 1836. 
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