"Externally used, these waters are beneficial in the whole class of nervous disorders, especially in those irregular anomalous diseases more frequently met with in females when not connected with a full habit or extreme debility. They are useful in all uterine diseases when active inflammation is not present. In cases of relaxed habit and debility, when sufficient power of reaction exists in the system, their tonic and bracing properties are very decided. Persons suffering from a residence in warm, low, and damp climates, and subject to nervous affections, will generally find them a complete restorative. They are very useful in chronic diseases of the mucous membrane, such as leucorrhœa, gonorrhœa, &c., and certain forms of bronchial disease arising from a relaxed condition of the membrane; also in local paralytic affections unconnected with congestion of the brain.
"In chronic rheumatism these baths have been pronounced a specific. Of their mode of action little is known with certainty, but the results are undeniable and admirable. The most obstinate, complicated, and troublesome cases invariably yield to a patient and judicious use of the remedy. The milder cases generally yield in ten days or two weeks, those of longer standing require a longer time for their eradication.
"It is to be regretted that the results of a careful analysis, and a more extended medical notice, cannot now be given to the public; but probably practical experience is after all the best test to which a mineral water can be subjected, and this test Berkeley has stood for more than eighty years with increasing reputation.
"Strother's is the principal hotel in the place. It adjoins the grove, and will accommodate comfortably about 400 persons. It is built of wood, on three sides of a quadrangle, 168 feet front by 197. The front building is four stories high, has a portico 130 feet long by 16 wide; a dining and ball-room 106 feet by 30, three large public parlours, and a bar-room. The wings are respectively two and three stories high. A basement of stone, fire proof, roomy, and well ventilated, contains the kitchen department and wine cellar. The court yard, about 100 feet square, is tastefully ornamented with trees, flowers, and shrubbery. Besides the ordinary single and double chambers, this house contains about thirty suites of apartments, of two, three, and four chambers, for the accommodation of families. The main building, with several out-houses, contains 200 lodging rooms, all neat, well ventilated, and conveniently arranged. In conducting this establishment essential comfort is generally preferred to external appearance, although the latter is by no means neglected. The furniture is neat, new, and simple, while the beds and bedding are costly and of the finest quality. The mattresses are of curled hair, and made by the best upholsterers of Baltimore, the table is admirably served, and the ice-houses capacious and unfailing.
"Attached to the hotel, are a fine band of music, billiard tables, pistol gallery, and ten-pin alleys. Riding horses, buggies, and carriages, are furnished for pleasure excursions.
"O'Ferrall's hotel is conveniently situated, well kept, and will accommodate about 100 persons. Other accommodation for 150 persons may be found in the place."
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BERKELEY SPRINGS.
"These springs were resorted to by invalids at a very early period, and had great celebrity throughout the colonies. Hundreds annually flocked thither from all quarters, and traditional accounts of the accommodations and amusements of these primitive times are calculated to excite both the mirth and envy of the present age. Rude log huts, board and canvass tents, and even covered wagons, served as lodging-rooms, while every family brought its own substantial provision of flour, meal, and bacon, trusting for lighter articles of diet to the good will of the 'Hill Folk,' or the success of their own foragers.
"A large hollow scooped in the sand, surrounded by a screen of pine boards, was the only bathing-house, and this was used alternately by ladies and gentlemen. The time set apart for the ladies was announced by a blast on a long tin horn, at which signal all of the opposite sex retired to a prescribed distance from the rustic bath-house, and woe to any unlucky wight who might afterward be found within the magic circle. The whole scene is said to have resembled a camp-meeting in appearance, but only in appearance. Here day and night passed in a round of eating, drinking, bathing, fiddling, dancing, and revelling; gaming was carried to great excess, and horse-racing was a daily amusement.