The Romance of Modern Chemistry

NATURAL WATERS away is tinged a yellowish or reddish colour, owing to the action of the oxygen in the air on the carbonate of iron deposited from the spring water. Saline springs containing sulphate of magnesia and sulphate of soda are frequently found. The waters of these springs are bitter and act as purgatives. It is interesting to note that sulphate of magnesia is commonly known as Epsom salts, on account of the fact that it was found in a spring at Epsom by a London physician of the seventeenth century. There are springs of this class in other parts of England, but the best known spas at which bitter waters are available are Sedlitz, Friedrichshall, and Kissingen. Other mineral waters which are peculiar are those which contain sulphur in some form or other; the springs at Harrogate and Strathpeffer are the best known of the kind in this country. Owing to the sulphuretted hydrogen and the sulphide of soda which these waters contain, they have an unpleasant taste and smell, but they are much valued for their medicinal properties. Those happy individuals, however, who have hitherto escaped the ills to which flesh is heir, will have no desire to cultivate a closer acquaintance with sulphur springs. 105