cases of acute disease, which it would be absurd to commit to the remedial powers of any spa, there are not many of the diseases which flesh is heir to, which may not in some sense or degree, be lightened or relieved by some of the waters of Harrogate, especially if their efficacy is combined with judicious dietetic and medical

treatment.

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Such are the considerations which have been my ducement, and must form my apology for undertaking my present task; in the execution of which I shall endeavour, as plainly as possible, to treat of the various uses and applications of these useful agents in the relief of disease; and to afford, in a style as little encumbered as possible with technical phrases, such information as may be necessary and useful to the intelligent invalid. It is no part of my plan in the present work to extol one kind of water, at the expense of the rest; but I shall attempt a careful and fair exposition of the properties of the two classes, and the diseases in which they are respectively applicable, in such a manner that the general reader may be able to form his own opinions, and become tolerably well acquainted with both.

North-street, Ripon, May, 1842.

HARROGATE MEDICAL GUIDE.

THE SULPHUR WATER.

There is no water, which, in its natural state, can be called chemically pure. Every spring contains more or less of atmospheric air, and of the various earthy products of the soil over which it runs. It is the nature and quantity of the impregnation with various Gases and Saline Ingredients which constitute a mineral or medicinal water; and the peculiar character of these determines its operation on the human body, in the treatment of various diseases. Now, chemical analysis, however important in a scientific point of view, and unquestionably necessary as it is to guide the medical practitioner, is rarely, in its minutiæ, of much interest or consequence to the general reader. He may well be content to know

that the Water he uses contains such and such salts and gases, without troubling himself about the grains and fractions of grains, and the cubic inches in the gallon-especially as these are not of a quantity or volume to account for the effects produced, when regarded with reference to the general weights and measures of medicines.

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And, yet, perhaps there is nothing more curious in the medical history of mineral waters than this very minuteness of the quantity of active ingredients contained in them, taken in connection with their powerful operation upon the frame. this circumstance some have imputed their efficacy merely to the large doses of water swallowed; and of these was Proust ;-and others have attributed their activity to the very smallness of the quantity of their medicinal contents; of these are the Homœopathists who, as might naturally be expected, seized with eagerness upon a circumstance which apparently so strongly favoured their singular theories. But it is not found, in justification of either of these opinions, that drinking a large portion of simple water will produce the same effects on the one hand, or that the exhibition of the like proportions of the same ingredients, dissolved in water in the common way, is similarly

efficacious on the other; and therefore we are compelled to admit that, in the instance of mineral waters, there is something in nature's chemistry which we can neither successfully imitate, nor thoroughly understand.

This is called, par-excellence, "The Harrogate Water;" not, as might be supposed, that it was the one first discovered at the place, but because it is of more general application than the others. Its principal characteristic is the abundance of Sulphureted Hydrogen gas with which it is charged, and to which many of its medicinal qualities are attributable. The contents of a gallon of this water are (retaining the older names as the more generally understood) as follows:

investigated, whether, the Sulphureted Hydrogen exists in this water in a free state, or in combination with some of its Saline ingredients, may be interesting to the analytical chemist, or the scientific geologist, but has no such practical use as to render it so to the readers of this work. I am quite of opinion, that, whether we estimate the influence of mineral springs upon the system by the properties of the ingredients which result from our analysis of them, or from the application of their constituent principles of the natural and living water, the medical practitioner can get little information from the chemist which will be of use to him in the chamber, or the consulting room; while the general reader can only be puzzled with hard words and bewildered by subtle distinctions. The complications and ever shifting variations of chemical nomenclature too, present an additional obstacle almost insurmountable to those whose leisure and curiosity would otherwise attract them to the study. Well, indeed, may the amateur be discouraged from the pursuit when he finds that an acid, or an alkali, which he knew under a hard name last year, has a new and a harder one this year, and will in all probability have a third next year more perplexing than either. If an endless