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1Author:  Burke William M.DAdd
 Title:  The mineral springs of western Virginia  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: Among the numerous advantages bestowed on Virginia by a bountiful Providence, there are perhaps none more important than the salubrity of climate and rich profusion of mineral waters of its transmontane territory. The happy combinations of these blessings, added to its central position, will not only make Western Virginia the great Mecca of invalid pilgrims, but its pellucid fountains, its beautiful villas, its secluded glens and majestic mountains, and the rich drapery of its noble forests, will ever attract to it the admirers of Nature's own workmanship. I have just received your letter of the 7th inst., soliciting my opinion and experience of the remedial effects of the waters of the Hot Springs in chronic diarrhœa and difficult menstruation. "In April, 1833, I was seized with cholera in a southern climate, from which I had scarcely recovered when intermittent fever attacked me. This continued at intervals until September, when congestive fever intervened, and continued with great violence for the space of nine days, and only subsided to give place to the intermittent again. From this, morbid appetite began to prey upon me. The ague alternated with a severe dysentery until March, 1834. Ostematous swellings of the lower extremities made their appearance, but gave way to the use of alteratives and muriated tincture of iron. I became much emaciated and debilitated; my spleen became much enlarged; an excessively morbid condition of the stomach continued; an ungovernable craving for food of the grossest description, and other indigestible substances. In the mean time, an uncontrollable diarrhœa, which has given me more uneasiness than every other symptom, came on. "In the month of January, 1806, during my attendance on the Virginia Legislature, of which I was then a member, I was very sorely afflicted with an attack of inflammatory rheumatism; and about the first of July, in the same year, after the disease had assumed a chronic state, I arrived at the Hot Springs in Virginia much debilitated, requiring two persons to put me in and take me out of the carriage. I remained at the Springs sixty-three days, using the bath once every day except three. I was weighed the day I got to the Springs, and also on the day I left them; and if I was correctly weighed, I gained sixty pounds in weight in sixty-three days, and remained free from that complaint for upwards of twenty years. "In 1826, I had a protracted attack of bilious fever, which left me in this condition. My stomach and bowels being much disordered, accompanied with great flatulency, gave me from 4 to 6 passages every 24 hours, and sometimes oftener; my stools mixed with blood more or less, and sometimes with matter very offensive. At length a tumor formed in the lower intestine about the size of a small walnut, attended with great heat and itching, which ultimately broke, and I occasionally discharged considerable quantities of blood and matter by stool. I then thought, and still think, that the whole rectum was much diseased, and I should be compelled to submit to an operation or fall a victim to the disease. In addition to many other sufferings, in the fall of 1831, I had a severe rheumatic attack, which pervaded my whole muscular system, but was most distressing about my breast, chest, bowels and hips. In this situation, about the first of July following, I went to the Hot Springs barely able to sit up, and used the waters freely, drinking and bathing until the 30th of August, when I left them much relieved in every way. The ensuing summer I again returned to the Hot Springs, and used the waters by drinking and bathing until the last of August, when I returned home entirely relieved of bowel disease and nearly so of my rheumatism. I have again this summer visited these Springs, where I have been for three weeks using the waters as before, and believe myself entirely relieved of all my complaints, except a little stiffness in my hips and back. At your request, and for the benefit of the afflicted, I give you as near as I can, a statement of my case, which has been complicated and difficult to describe. I am a resident of Detroit, State of Michigan. In July, 1829, I was attacked with a bilious fever and severe inflammation of the stomach, and was reduced very low by bleeding and medicine. I remained in a feeble state about six months, when an ulcer came out on the side of my ancle nearly the size of a dollar. This has continued on one or the other, and sometimes on both of my ancles, ever since except about two months in March and April last. My legs have been so much swelled, that I have been compelled to bandage them to the knee, most of the time. About three years ago, a rheumatic disease set in, the cords of my legs 8* swelled to the knees, and at times to the body, (mostly on the inside) with hard lumps on the cords frequently as large as hickory nuts, and extremely painful. "In the summer of 1836 I visited the Virginia Springs, with liver disease, as stated by many physicians. I used the Sulphur Waters for some time, but without any decided effect. I then came to the Hot Springs, and after using the Spout bath for a few days, the pain in the right side, from a dull, increased to an acute, which induced me to apply to Dr. Goode for advice. He gave me ten grains of calomel, which brought about a most happy change in my feelings and health; producing copious discharges of dark bilious matter, when forty grains, often before taken, produced but a limited effect. I give you the following statement of my case. About ten years ago I became dyspeptic, and was unwell in the usual way, when at length I became much worse; almost every thing taken in the stomach produced pain, and frequently violent spasms, which threatened death. I experienced no relief except when under the influence of calomel. Tiring of which, after suffering for about two years, I determined to try the Sulphur Waters. In compliance with your request, I transmit you an account of my case. In the latter part of 1836, I had a violent attack of cholica pictonum, or white lead disease; which, in despite of the most energetic treatment, terminated in a paralysis of my arms and hands, which deprived me almost entirely of the use of them, with great emaciation and general debility and prostration. I received on yesterday your message from Mr. Seth Ward; it affords me pleasure to comply. The case of rheumatism you desired the particulars of was that of Mr. J— C—, of Charleston, S. C., aged eighteen years. He had been seriously afflicted for some time before he was put under my protection, which was on the 17th day of June, when we left Charleston for the Virginia Springs. We arrived at the White Sulphur on the 28th of June, and remained there until the 9th of July, taking from eight to ten tumblers of the water daily. I am now erecting a continuous line of framed house (one story high) one hundred and sixty feet long, by twenty-one feet in width, containing twenty-four (fire) rooms, ten feet by twelve feet in clear, and all upon the same level, with a neat portico in front the entire length. I have removed the house from the Bath near the hotel, and I mean to convert the bath into a pool with a railing around it. In the place of this I shall make two spacious baths sixteen by twenty up at the Red Chalybeate Springs. A new walk from the centre of the hotel towards these Springs, together with other improvements not only about the hotel, but in the road, fences, &c., I hope will add both comfort and pleasure to my future visitors. Through my friends, J. S. Cook, Esq. and Dr. H. J. Bowditch, I received specimens of the water, red deposit and mud, from the Red Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, for chemical analysis. It was with great interest that I engaged in the experiments, as very little was known of the chemical composition of this water, although its medicinal effects had rendered the watering-place a celebrated one. I have sent Mr. Cook an account of the results obtained. Since my observations were communicated, Mr. Cook has allowed me to peruse a copy of a letter from Professor Rogers, dated in May, 1835, in which is contained a notice of a peculiar organic matter contained in the water. He has therefore anticipated my discovery, by some years. I do not, however, consider this substance identical with baragene or glairine of the Warm Springs of Italy and France. It is, so far as I know, new and peculiar, and seems to be an azotised base combined with sulphur, and so combined as to neutralize the distinctive characters of the sulphur. The hy-drosulphuric acid gas (sulphuretted hydrogen) found in the water, is produced through the agency of this body; either by its action on the sulphates present, or more probably the substance itself disengages hydro. sulp. acid, before reaching the surface of the earth, abstracting oxygen from air already dissolved in the water. It is in favour of this view that less oxygen is present in this than in common water, the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in river water often giving 38 per 100 of oxygen. I have minutely examined the saline contents of the water, and the results sent you are those which have been checked by independent experiments. The almost entire absence of chlorine, or muriatic acid, is a singular fact. I examined every bottle for chlorine, and although in most of them traces were found, they were not constantly observed, and quite as likely to be derived from accidental sources, as from the water. The largest quantity found would have carried my decimals to four, or five, and is wholly unimportant. The water gives by tests indications like those observed when chlorine is present, but the appearance is fallacious. I have arranged the acids and basis according to the views of Murray and Berzelius, and experiments show that in this case these views are correct. The alkaline action of this water is due to the solution of the carbonate of magnesia in carbonic acid (Murray's fluid magnesia), and the peculiar substance distinctive of this water seems to be dissolved in this solution. I. When separated from a solution by evaporation, or by drying from a gelatinous state, it forms greasy films, which do not darken solutions of lead or copper. We think that a candid review of the analysis of the Red Sulphur and of our remarks on its action, founded on a long observation and experience, will lead every unbiassed mind to conclude that the claims of this water as a curative agent are well founded; but we do not mean to rest our case here; we can prove beyond a doubt that this water exerts an influence over the circulation that no other agent has been known to exert. The evidences which we have received of this fact in the course of our nine years of ownership, would fill a large volume; but we will content ourselves with publishing a few recent cases in addition to those given by the late Dr. Huntt in his pamphlet on this Spring. Few persons were better qualified than that lamented physician to make observations on a mineral water. His perception was clear, his observation acute, his discrimination accurate, his judgment sound, and his integrity 19 incorruptible; and after witnessing with his own eyes the effects of this water, and reflecting well and long on what he was about to assert, he pays it the following compliment: On my way to this place, at a public house where we stopped to dine, I picked up a newspaper, the Western Whig, dated 14th August (last month), in which I find there had been a committee formed to take into consideration a report prevailing prejudicial to the curative qualities of the Mineral Waters at the Red Sulphur Springs, &c., &c., which report was proven to be false by said committee, as well as by a number of certificates signed by gentlemen of high reputation and intelligence. I have purposely delayed advising you of the state of my health since my return to this city. The change which came over me while under the operation of the Red Sulphur water was so sudden, and so great, that I confess I doubted whether the good effects would be permanent. It is now upwards of two months since I left the Red Sulphur Spring, and I am happy to be able to assure you that my health is even better than when I left you. My cough and expectoration, 21 which was confined almost entirely to the morning when I returned to this city, has now pretty much subsided, and my lungs are evidently stronger than they were then. I have, moreover, gained some two or three pounds in weight since I returned. Having been a sufferer for more than three years, from organic disease of the heart, connected with bronchitis, pronounced so by eminent physicians of S. Carolina, I had the good fortune to visit your Spring, and using the water freely for nearly two weeks, with a decidedly good effect upon my obstinate disease, I feel it a duty I owe to the public, and to other sufferers like myself, to say, that I find it to possess none of the irritating quality that some persons suppose. So highly have I been pleased with the medicinal qualities of the water of your Spring, that I beg you will send me a barrel of it containing 30 or 35 gallons. The undersigned, visiters at the Salt Sulphur Springs, prompted by a sense of grateful respect for your kind and unwearied attentions to ourselves and families, beg leave to convey to you our assurance of entire satisfaction with the arrangements of your establishment. Such have been the cordial hospitalities and ample and varied accommodations of your house, that we shall ever look back to our temporary residence with you with pleasure and delight. Having been greatly benefitted by drinking the waters of your valuable Spring, I deem it a duty to my fellow-beings to leave this statement of my case in your hands.—For six months previous to my coming here, I had been suffering with a most obstinate constipation of the bowels, which I had tried in vain to remove by medicine, diet, and exercise; and during that time I could not obtain a stool without the aid of an injection, and great pain attending it. After being here ten days, the Salt Sulphur water began to act freely on my bowels, and now, at the expiration of a month, I am glad to inform you that the constipation is entirely removed, my health and strength restored, and I am now going home in cheerful spirits to my friends. Mrs. — left her house in a state of great debility, scarcely able to walk, and was but little recruited by the journey. She reached the Salt Sulphur on the 20th July having stopped a week at the White Sulphur on the way but without using the water. After remaining three days at the Salt Sulphur, and partaking of the waters there she proceeded to the Red Sulphur, and staid there six days returning on the 29th July to the Salt, having, while at the Red, used two or three tumblers of the water per diem; remained at the Salt Sulphur until the 9th of August. When Mrs. — arrived first at the Salt Sulphur, she weighed 91 pounds, and was unable to walk any distance, or use any degree of exercise, without suffering greatly. Some years since I was afflicted with an obstinate and dangerous disease, from which I was unable to obtain relief until I visited the Salt Sulphur Spring, near Union, in the county of Monroe. The use of that water restored me to perfect health; which makes it my duty to state, at the request of the proprietors, the high opinion I have formed of its medicinal efficacy. I consider the Salt Sulphur water eminently useful in all cases that require cathartic remedies, particularly such diseases of the liver and stomach as proceed from biliary obstructions. The operation upon the bowels is active, but not violent; cleansing effectually the alimentary canal, and promoting digestion in a remarkable degree. The cathartic tendency of the water is so mild and certain, that the stomach and bowels are never oppressed or irritated; and whilst the healthy functions of the system are enabled to take their course, the suspended causes of disease are gradually worn away. In the year 1812 I visited the Sweet and Sulphur Springs. I was then laboring under a nervous debility and extreme costiveness. I derived much benefit from the use of all those waters, but found none so strong and active as the Salt Sulphur. I concur in the opinion with many, that this is a valuable water, and should be more sought after. Intending to leave your excellent and perfectly arranged establishment to-morrow on my return home, I cannot, however, do so without expressing my thanks to you for your politeness and attention to myself, (and I observed the same attention to others,) during my stay at the Salt Sulphur; and I have much pleasure in saying, that the use of the Salt Sulphur Spring water has been eminently beneficial to me, for, prior to my coming here, I had been suffering for upwards of eighteen months from a total derangement of stomach from a long residence in a warm climate (Bermuda), say, bad bile, great acidity of stomach, and an overflow of mucus to the lungs; in short, I had the dyspepsia with all its disagreeables, accompanied with debility of body. Having tried the White Sulphur for ten days without benefit, I came here, and in a week I found relief from all my complaints; but my medical adviser, who practised at the White, recommended me to try the Red Sulphur, notwithstanding my having written to him of my improved state,—my pulse, for one thing, being reduced from 80 to 73 beats. I went to the Red, and staid there eight days;* *We have a distinct recollection of this gentleman's case. He had been laboring under chronic irritation of the stomach, which, by too free use of the Sulphur waters, and perhaps imprudence in diet, was converted into an acute form, about the time he reached the Red Sulphur. Dr. Saunders, then resident physician at the Red, instituted a vigorous treatment, which in a few days subdued the attack, and the patient's system was now in a condition to receive all the benefit which he subsequently derived from the Salt Sulphur. my pulse rose on the third day to 82, the fifth day 89, the sixth day to 96 and 100. I was obliged to be leeched, which reduced my pulse to 84. I had three headaches and great dryness of tongue; so on the 9th day in the morning, I returned to the Salt, where, on the fourth day, my pulse was again at 73, on the sixth day at 71, and has continued from that day to this, varying only from 71 to 72, night and morning. I have been affected for five or six years with an obstinate disease of the liver, and dyspepsia, and have visited nearly all the Springs in the mountains without having experienced any material benefit, until I came to this place. I have applied to some of the best physicians without being relieved, but am happy to state, that the Salt Sulphur water has had a most beneficial effect in removing many of the inconveniences attending my disease, insomuch that I am induced to carry a portion of it home with me. During the summer of 1845 I was induced to try the Iodine Spring, at the Salt Sulphur Springs, in Monroe, for an obstinate and (as I then supposed) incurable eruption on the skin of one of my children. The disease first appeared, at the age of three weeks, in the shape of small red spots upon the cheeks, succeeded very soon by little watery pimples, which rose and broke continually, but without healing. In a short time the affected parts increased in size as well as quantity, until they extended from the face to the head and neck, and thence over the entire body—presenting one uniform and consolidated appearance of disease over the whole surface. The neck, head, and face discharged matter from the scabs, and the legs from the knee down. For fourteen months I kept the child constantly under medical treatment, but without any permanent benefit, or any prospect of recovery, until, at the instance of Dr. M.—(who at that time was residing at the Salt,) I was induced to make a trial of its waters. He represented the disease as a constitutional affection of the blood which could not be relieved, and which ought not to be arrested very suddenly, but assured me, very confidently, that it would yield to nothing with so much certainty and success as to the external application of the Iodine water at the Salt. The child was bathed twice a day in the water made gently tepid, of which it drank pretty copiously during the ceremony. About the fourth day there was an evident change for the better, and the child from that time continued to improve daily, until at the expiration of six weeks, the sores had healed, the scabs had disappeared, the pimples and splotches had subsided, and the skin for the first time for more than fourteen months assumed a natural and healthy appearance. I have no doubt by remaining a few weeks longer every vestige of the eruption would have been removed. But I consider the disease at this time as effectually conquered, and as having changed its type completely. Indeed, the only indications ever visible are an occasional roughness on the skin. As we used no medicine, except occasionally some mild cathartic, I feel no hesitation in ascribing all the results that I have stated to the effects of the Iodine water.
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