ADIRONDACK  MINERAL  SPRINGS.  67 
We  see  from  the  above  analysis  that  the  Adirondack  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  general  run  of  mineral  waters  by  its  con- 
taining a  larger  proportion  of  iron  and  the  alkalies,  potassa  and 
lithia,  all  in  the  form  of  carbonates.  In  looking  over  the 
analyses  of  the  different  mineral  springs  of  Europe,  we  find  but 
two,  Bourbon  L'Archambault  and  Cransac,  both  in  France, 
which  can  compete  as  chalybeates  with  the  Adirondack  potassa 
and  lithia,  which  exist  in  appreciable  quantity  in  the  latter 
spring,  are,  in  nearly  all  others,  entirely  absent,  or  exhibit  traces 
only  of  their  presence.  We  must  except  from  this  remark,  as 
relates  to  lithia,  its  large  proportion  in  some  of  the  springs  at 
Saratoga,  and  in  two  new  artesian  wells  at  Ballston.* 
Every  newly  discovered  mineral  spring  must  be  regarded  as 
an  acceptable  addition  to  our  Materia  Medica,  and  the  Adiron- 
dack is  presented  to  us  as  a  medicinal  agent,  possessing  marked 
curative  powers  in  different  diseases.  Those  in  which  it  has 
been  found  most  efiicacious  are  sub-acute  and  chronic  rheuma- 
tism and  affections  of  the  kidneys  and  bladder  ;  after  these  come 
dyspepsia  and  certain  cutaneous  eruptions.  Cases  coming  within 
my  own  observation  and  those  kindly  communicated  to  me  by 
professional  brethren  of  this  city,  confirm  the  statements  of  the 
medical  gentlemen  at  Whitehall,  and  of  other  intelligent  persons, 
going  to  show  the  very  decided  operation  of  this  water  as  a 
diuretic,  and  under  circumstances  too  in  which  the  most  ap- 
proved medicines  of  this  class  had  failed  to  produce  the  desired 
effect.  In  nephritic  calculi  or  gravel,  complete  relief  has  been 
obtained,  and  in  two  cases  the  water,  to  use  the  expressive 
language  of  one  of  my  informants,  "washed  out"  calculi,  and 
at  the  same  time  freed  the  patient  from  discharges  of  bloody 
urine  and  mucus,  and  one  of  them  from  albuminuria.  A  case 
of  obstinate  rheumatism,  in  which  the  knee  joint  had  been  long 
affected,  and  the  usual  remedies  tried  without  avail,  yielded  to 
the  free  and  somewhat  prolonged  use  of  the  water.  That  most 
troublesome,  and  so  often  unmanageable  disease,  diabetes  melli- 
tus,  has  been  not  only  arrested  in  its  course,  but  cured,  by 
drinking  of  the  Adirondack  water — on  the  testimony  of  Drs. 
Long,  Gordon  and  Bennett,  of  Whitehall.    Dr.  Shumway,  of 
*  Chemical  News,  September,  1869. 
