Its foreign contents are Glauber’s salts ([203]), muriat and carbonat of magnesia, common salt, and oxide of iron, together with a portion of carbonic acid gas, and some other kinds of gas.
The original discovery of the mineral spring at Cheltenham was about the year 1716. The water of this spring issues slowly, and in a scanty stream of not more than 35 pints in an hour, from a bed of sand intermixed with blue clay. The well is sunk to the depth of six feet, and is excluded from communication with the external air. This spring is denominated the Old Spa.
In the year 1788, on digging a well for a private house, another spring was accidentally discovered, which is of nearly the same nature as this, and produces a much more abundant supply of water. It is about a hundred yards distant from it, is upwards of forty feet deep, and is drawn by a pump.
When Cheltenham water is fresh drawn, it appears tolerably clear, though not perfectly transparent. After standing some time, it becomes more turbid, and air-bubbles, in small quantity, rise from it. It contains more salt than perhaps any other waters, except those of the sea and some brine springs; and by far the greatest part of the salts are of a purgative kind. It is also a very strong chalybeate, and has a slight impregnation of sulphur.
This water cannot long be kept, nor can it be transported to any distance without being materially altered. In order, however, to reduce its valuable parts to a more convenient form, for carriage and keeping, the salts are extracted from it on the spot, by evaporation, and crystallizing the residuum. These salts are much used, in addition to the fresh water, for the purpose of increasing its operation on the bowels.
Cheltenham is a small town in the county of Gloucester. It is about ninety-five miles north-west of London, situated in a sandy vale, surrounded with hills of moderate height, and in the midst of a fertile and well cultivated country.
297. BRIGHTON CHALYBEATE WATER is a vitriolated chalybeate, which, when fresh, has a peculiar and faint smell not uncommon in ferruginous waters, and a strong though not unpleasant chalybeate taste.
It contains sulphat of iron or vitriol ([208]), sulphat of lime ([182]), common salt, muriat of magnesia, siliceous earth, and a certain portion of carbonic acid gas ([26]).
Brighton is a well-known market-town, situated on the coast of Sussex, and about fifty-four miles south of London. The chalybeate spring is at Wick, on the declivity of a small eminence nearly a mile west of the town, and a quarter of a mile from the sea. A small but neat building has been erected immediately over the spot from which the water issues, and where it is received, a few feet under ground, into a basin of Portland stone. This reservoir contains only a few gallons of water, but it fills again almost as soon as it is emptied.
The water is so hard as instantly to curdle soap. It is considered useful in cases of debility, indigestion, and such diseases for which chalybeate and tonic remedies are required. The sea-bathing at Brighton is, in many cases, an additional and important advantage to those persons who use the chalybeate water.