University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VII.

WARM SPRINGS.

Having finished our general remarks, we
beg leave to introduce our reader to our friend,
Col. John Fry, the worthy lessee and host at
the Warm Springs. Col. Fry is the son of
a revolutionary patriot, and of a "good stock."
He is a short, thick-set man; graceful, gay and
courteous in his manner. In anecdote and
story telling, he is unrivalled; and such,
indeed, is his fund of the latter, that he is
sometimes compelled to have recourse to his
list by way of memorandum, as the devotee
to his beads. It were worth the while of the
dyspeptic to spend some days with him, if it
were only to laugh himself into good humour.

Although probably on the shady side of
three-score years, he can cut a "pigeon
wing" with the youngest and most buoyant;
and as a ladies' man, he bears the palm from
all competitors. But while he is lively with

the gay, he can be grave with the austere, and
can accommodate himself to the dispositions
of his guests with a facility we have never
seen surpassed, and which can only be attained
by constant intercourse with mankind.
It is persons thus constituted that are alone
suited for tavern-keepers. It is an art that,
like riding or swimming, must be learned in
early life; and we would say to him, whoever
he may be, that has not been thus early
indoctrinated, exchange the pursuit for some
other more congenial avocation.

"The Hotel, according to Col. Perkins, is
150 feet in length, built of brick, with a
piazza 15 feet wide; the lodging chambers
are large and the fare good." The accommodations
we should think sufficiently extensive
for 100 persons.

The Warm Spring Bath is one of the greatest
subjects of curiosity in Western Virginia.
We were about to attempt a description of it,
but finding it prepared to our hand in an
interesting article in Bell on Baths and
Mineral Waters, we are sure it will be more

welcome than any thing we could say on the
subject:

"The Warm and the Hot Springs in Virginia,
and the Warm Springs in Buncombe
county, North Carolina, furnish delightful
natural baths for recreation and health. The
bath at the Warm Springs, Bath Court-House,
Virginia, is of an octagonal form, and forty
feet wide from one angle to the opposite one,
and between five and six feet deep in places,
and no where less than four; the bottom is
gravelly. The water of the Spring that supplies
it is of the temperature of 96° Fahrenheit,
clear and transparent, and emitting gas in
large quantities. Few feelings can be more
pleasurable than those which are produced
by bathing in the water. Here one is like a
native of the Sandwich Islands, who, after a
long absence from home, is at last landed on
his native shore: he plunges in the liquid
element in which he had been wont to disport
himself in his earlier days, and, by every variety
of attitude and gesture, endeavours to
compensate himself for his past privations.
After a few bathings in the Warm Springs,
gout and rheumatic cripples begin to exercise

those joints which were immoveable as "by
Anchylosis knit," and soon enjoy entire exemption
from pain. The more juvenile and
healthy, who bathe for pleasure, have to be
reminded of the lapse of time, and cautioned
against the undue exercise of swimming,
which, joined to a prolonged stay in the water,
cause diaphoresis and some subsequent languor
and debility. Two hours at a time are
allotted for the ladies to take the bath, and
the same period for the gentlemen, and so on
through the day. A white flag is hoisted as
a signal that it is occupied by the former.
The water can be let off at the end of every
bathing; and so abundant is the supply, that
the basin is soon replenished by the Spring
gushing up from the gravelly bottom. The
basin has over it a wooden top, and is provided,
on both sides, with small rooms,
heated, when occasion requires it, by fires.
It is here the bathers undress and dress, and
here an attendant is always in waiting.
Lower down the meadow, in which is the
chief Spring which supplies the bath just
described, is another warm one, the water
of which is reserved for internal use.
Close to it is a hydrant, from which cold chalybeate
water is procured. Near to these is
a warm bath similar in temperature and other
properties to the first, but of small dimensions,
and principally intended for the use of the
more aged and infirm, and for children."

We subjoin also, by way of episode, the
very spirited and beautiful legend of this
Spring given by Mr. Otis of Boston, as derived
from the old bath-keeper, and extracted from
his article in the Southern Literary Messenger
of March, 1838:

"A young Indian, more than two centuries
ago, was coming from the Western valley of
the great Appalachian mountains, towards
the waters of the East, that opened into the
beautiful bay whose branches touch the
strands of some of the mightiest marts of a
nation that was not then in existence. He
had never trodden that path before, and nothing
but the pride of youth, which would
not brook that his brethren of other tribes
should triumph over him as their inferior in
adventure, had sustained his manly heart so
far; for he had come, since the rising sun
first touched, that day, the mighty peaks of

the Alleghanies, from the vales that lay at
their feet on the west. He was going to carry
the voice and vote of a powerful nation to the
council-fire that was kindling on the banks
of the great water, and he felt shame at the
recurrence of the idea that the place of the
young Appalachian Leopard could be vacant.
But the night winds beat coldly around him,
and the way was dark. There had been
rains, and the earth was damp and swampy;
and no grass, or fern, or heather, was at hand
with which to make a bed in the bosom of
the valley where he stood. He had not
strength to climb the near range of mountains
that drew up their summits before, as
if to shut out all hopes that he could accomplish
his ardent desire. Weary, dispirited,
and ready to despair, he came suddenly upon
an open space among the low underwood
that covered the valley where he was wandering,
and upon looking narrowly he observed
that it was filled with water. He
could see the clear reflection of the bright
evening star that was just declining to her
rest, and that was peeping into the fountain:—

"By this translucent reflection, he could perceive
that the water was clear, and its depth
he could discern by the pebbles that glistened
in the star-light from the bottom. He saw,
too, that the water was continually flowing
off, and supplying a stream that ran rippling
away among the roots of the oaks that surrounded
the spot; and as he stooped to taste
the liquid element, he found it warm, as if
inviting him to relax his chilled limbs by
bathing in its tepid bosom.

"He laid aside his bow and quiver, unstrung
his pouch from his brawny shoulder, took off
his mocassins, and plunged in. A new life
invigorated his wearied spirit, new strength
seemed given to his almost rigid nerves; he
swam, he dived, he lay prostrate upon the
genial waves in a sort of dreaming ecstacy of
delight; and when the first dawn of day
broke over the rock-crowned hill, at the foot
of which the Spring of Strength lay enshrined,
the young Leopard came forth from his
watery couch, and strode proudly up the
mountain `where path there was none.'

He was `a young giant, rejoicing to run his
course.' Full of new fire and vigour, he manfully
sped on his way; and upon the eve of
that day, when the chiefs and the sons of
chiefs were seated around the solemn council-fire,
no one of them all was found more
graceful in address, more commanding in
manner, more pleasing in look, and sagacious
in policy, than the young Appalachian
Leopard who bathed in the Spring of
Strength."

Col. Perkins says: "The water is perfectly
transparent, and almost as buoyant as the
Dead Sea, as described by Stevens. Bubbles
are constantly rising from the bottom; the
fact that when empty it takes but fifteen
minutes to fill it, shows the abundant supply
of this Mountain Spring." All who have described
this noble fountain, write with enthusiasm;
nor is it indeed to be wondered at, for
the world may well be challenged for its equal.
Its temperature, buoyancy, refractive power,
transparency—all invest it with indescribable
luxury to the feelings and to the sight.

The effect on the human form is dazzling.
Could Damon have caught a glance at his

Musidora in such a pool, it were indeed a trial
of "love's respectful modesty" to withdraw his
gaze—

Thus far we have looked on the sunny side
of the picture; we regret that a regard to
truth requires us to introduce more of the
sombre than is agreeable. Tempting, then,
as is this pellucid fountain, it is necessary that
the traveller should know there is danger in
the indulgence. Experience, fatal in some
cases, has taught this fact.

Dr. Huntt makes the following statement:
"On the third evening I arrived at the Warm
Springs, a distance of two hundred and thirty
miles from Washington; and immediately after
getting out of the stage, I plunged into the
delightful bath at that place, an imprudence
against which I would earnestly caution all
invalids, who arrive after a long journey with

the whole system exhausted by fatigue. The
consequence in my own case warrants me in
pronouncing it fraught with great danger.
While in the bath, its effects were very grateful
and pleasant; but shortly after leaving it
I became chilly, and this feeling was followed
by hot skin, intense headache, and pain in
the chest."

Many years ago, when afflicted with hemorrhages,
pain in the chest, cough, quick pulse,
and other indications of pulmonary disease,
we committed a like imprudence, and the result
was precisely similar to that described by
Dr. Huntt.

We have known several hemorrhages induced
by bathing in this Spring, and indeed
where there is predisposition, they may be
looked for with much certainty. Would an
unmedicated bath of 96° produce the same
effect under similar circumstances? We are
sure it would not; and in such a condition
as that of Dr. Huntt on his arrival, we are
certain that a plain bath of equal temperature
would have abstracted caloric from his feverish,
excited system, and calmed, refreshed, and
invigorated him. We do not hear of similar

injury done by the bath of the same temperature
at the Hot Springs.

It is produced by the excess of nitrogen or
azotic gas in the water. Largely over ninetenths
of those beautiful bubbles rising from
the bottom are supposed to be of this gas; the
remainder are carbonic acid gas. Atmospheric
air consists of 21 parts of oxygen gas, and 79
of azotic gas. The latter undiluted is irrespirable,
and being in excess produces great
distress in the pulmonary apparatus. The
lungs make efforts to take in oxygen, the diaphragm
is spasmodically raised, the heart is
compressed and excited, the quality of the
blood itself is impaired by defective oxygenation—the
lungs, or pleura, or both, become
congested; rupture of blood vessels takes
place, or pleurisy, pneumonia, or irritation of
the mucous surfaces supervenes. In a word,
such a catastrophe may be productive of incalculable
evils. That this is the true explanation
of the pathological condition produced
by the bath is evident, when we find that remaining
half an hour in the house, without
bathing at all, produces similar phenomena.
Now, in our own case, robust as we seem, we

dare not remain in the atmosphere of the
Spring fifteen minutes, and we have seen
others who were affected like ourselves.

We desire not to be understood as asserting
that the greater portion of those who enjoy the
luxury of this delightful bath, cannot do so
with safety and advantage; but as intimating
that the exceptions are sufficiently numerous
to justify caution in its use.

We have perceived that a writer in the
Southern Literary Messenger of May last, has
charged us with "an effort to detract from
the value of the Bath, by representing these
gases as hurtful to those `who are afflicted
with hemorrhages, pain in the chest, cough,
quick pulse and other indications of pulmonary
disease.' "[1] In order to prove to the writer
in the Messenger that we had not any sinister
object in view in our remarks upon the peculiar
effect of the atmosphere of the Bath on
ourselves and others, we cheerfully give a place
to the well-written article from the Messenger.
In every case in which our positions are controverted
or our opinions doubted, we desire to
place before the reader both sides of the question,

and then he can judge for himself.
Were we to enter into an elaborate argument
to sustain every opinion and to refute every
objection, we should indeed bring upon ourselves
a Herculean labour. In the present
case we ask of the reader a careful perusal of
our remarks, and then of the commentary
upon them, and we are sure he will perceive
that the commentator yields all for which
we contended, viz. that great caution is necessary
in the use of so stimulating an agent.
As to the opinion of Dr. Beddoes, which is
relied on, the writer should have seen that it
does not apply. A preponderance of one of
the component parts of the atmosphere is one
thing; great excess, as in this case, is another.
We never intended to convey the idea that
there was danger to healthy, nor even to
slightly indisposed persons, in bathing in the
Warm Springs; but we do assert that no sane
man ought to advise a man afflicted with
hemorrhages, pain in the chest, cough, quick
pulse, and other indications of pulmonary disease,
to bathe in that water.

Within the three last years, our old friend
Col. Fry removed, first to Richmond, and afterwards

to Charlottesville, where he paid the
debt of nature.

For the last two years the Springs have
been under the immediate control of the proprietor,
Dr. John Brockenbrough, former President
of the Bank of Virginia. He has selected
that place as his summer retreat, and
there we hope the nymphs of the fountain
will annually seethe him to re-juvenescence,
so that for many, many years, he may adorn
society as one of the last of the "gentlemen
of the old school"—a generation, now, alas!
rapidly passing away.

The aspect of the place is very much improved,
within two years. There is great
neatness and scrupulous cleanliness all
through the establishment. We found the
managers obliging and the servants among
the best in Virginia; in fine, we saw nothing
to find fault with, but every thing calculated
to produce comfort.

WARM SPRINGS, IN VIRGINIA.

(Southern Literary Messenger.)

These Springs are situated in a beautiful
but narrow valley in the county of Bath, between
two ranges of lofty mountains, running
parallel from North-East, to South-West; lying
about 170 miles nearly West from Richmond,
and on the direct turnpike road leading through
Staunton, and by the Hot and White Sulphur
Springs, to Guyandotte, on the Ohio
river.

The views from many points of the Warm
Springs mountain, especially from the Gap
where the road crosses, and from the Rock,
(2,700 feet above tide water,) are much celebrated
for their grandeur. These Springs
have long been famed for their mineral and
medicinal qualities, having been resorted to by
invalids from the tide water country, in search
of health, for nearly seventy years past. The
land was patented so the enterprising Lewis
family, by Governor Fauquier, in the year
1760. Some years elapsed thereafter, before
there was even a wagon road over the Warm
Springs mountain; the traces of a Warehouse
are still visible at the Eastern base of the

mountain, where the wagons were unloaded
and their contents transferred to pack-horses
and distributed throughout the western country,
this side of the Ohio river. There is now
an excellent and well-graded road over this
mountain. Many tales are related, by the
older inhabitants of this part of the country,
of the discovery and use made of these waters
by the Indians, which are probably, in part,
fabulous, but it is well ascertained that soon
after the discovery of them by civilized man,
they became celebrated for their curative qualities
in various diseases, as well as for the luxury
of bathing; that they were frequented at
much labour and fatigue by great multitudes,
before any other than the Sweet Springs, of
the valuable watering places in Western Virginia,
were known.

For the general effects of the Warm Bath
on numerous cases of disease, we may refer to
the work of Dr. Bell, "on Baths and Mineral
Waters." He enumerates the following diseases,
in which the Warm Bath, from 95° to
98°, will exert a curative agency, viz.:
"Acute pain, with irregular and convulsive
action of the muscles; convulsions of children
and hysterical affections of females; mania

and mental derangement generally; bilious
cholic; infantile cholera and cholera morbus;
chronic diarrhœa; croup; catarrh; bronchitis,
in chronic form; asthma; organic affections of
the heart; chronic affections of the liver; nephritic
disorders; amenorrhœa; affections of
the skin in various forms; violent cases of
gout; chronic rheumatism; suppression of
perspiration and pains in the muscles and
joints; pains in the limbs, following a mercurial
course; paralytic affections," &c. In all
these cases the Warm Bath acts as a powerful
auxiliary to the appropriate remedies prescribed
by the physician. After the fatigue and
exhaustion of a long journey, or other severe
exercise, the Warm Bath is peculiarly adapted
to the refreshment and renovation of the
body, and to the composure of the mind, as
well as of the nervous system. It is well
known that the Emperor Napoleon always resorted
to it during the toils of his various
campaigns, declaring that it had the effect of
soothing and refreshing him. Dr. Darwin remarks,
"to those who are past the meridian
of life, and have dry skins, and begin to be
emaciated, the Warm Bath, for half an hour,
twice a week, I believe to be eminently serviceable
in retarding the advances of age."
Those truly practical philosophers, Dr. Franklin
and Count Rumford, bear testimony to the
benefits of the Warm Bath, by using it to
late periods of their lives; and in the Southern
countries of Europe it is deemed as essential
to the preservation of health, as it is to
cleanliness and comfort. Of the luxurious
Baths of Egypt, Greece and Rome, we have
the most florid descriptions in all the histories
of those countries.

With regard to the use of the Baths at the
Warm Springs, it may be safely remarked,
that the pleasure and voluptuousness of bathing
in them are such as, in a great measure,
to supersede the idea of their more valuable
properties, as medicinal waters; on the principle,
perhaps, that remedies grateful to the palate
are never so efficacious to the patient as
those which are more nauseous. It is not
pretended that these waters act as a panacea
in all cases, or that they may not be injudiciously
used, but many cases might be cited in
which the Warm Springs' Bath, especially
when resorted to for some weeks, and aided
by the internal use of the water, has been attended
with the happiest effects. In dyspep-

sia of long standing, there have been some
remarkable instances of permanent cure from
a daily bath, and half a dozen glasses of water
drunk at the fountain, when persisted in
for six or seven weeks. In chronic rheumatism
and paralytic affections, similar effects
have been produced by the same course; but
it is the misfortune of those who labour under
chronic diseases, that they are prone to expect
relief in a short time, and become impatient
under those slow and alterative remedies that
can alone restore them to health. Such complaints,
in nine case out of ten, yield only to a
judicious course of treatment, long persisted
in. There is no remedy yet discovered, by
the medical faculty, which will at once cure
them, and it is no rash opinion that the Warm
Spring Bath, with the water taken internally,
assisted by proper regimen, moderate exercise
and pure air, will have more efficacy in many
chronic diseases, than all the drugs that can
be prescribed by the faculty. The temperature
of these medicinal waters affords a gentle
stimulus to the surface and causes it to cast
off its impurities, while it disposes the skin to
absorb a certain portion of the fluid, with the
substances held in solution by it. This, in itself,
is of great benefit to the invalid, while to
a person in health, the most pleasurable and
soothing sensations are excited, particularly
when friction is employed on coming out of
the Bath. From the immense quantity of
gas rising from the bottom of the Baths at the
Warm Springs, in innumerable and beautiful
little bubbles, like globules of quicksilver in
appearance, and which add so much to the
delightful sensations when bathing in these
noble reservoirs, an effort has been made to
detract from the value of the Bath, by representing
these gases as hurtful to those "who
are afflicted with hemorrhages from the lungs,
pains in the chest and other indications of
pulmonary disease." Without entering on
any fine spun theory on this point; it may be
observed, that persons labouring under such
diseases, whether incipient or advanced, are
usually oppressed when breathing an atmosphere
highly charged with vapour, and while
it would not be recommended to consumptive
patients to use these Baths, it may safely be
averred that there is no quality in the gases,
rising from them, peculiarly injurious in such
cases. Consumptive patients, it is well
known, have more to apprehend from an excess
of oxygen in the air they breathe, than
from any other quality in the atmosphere, and
no experienced Physician would recommend
to those who are predisposed to, or are labouring
under phthisis pulmonalis, to resort to
what is termed pure mountain air: the effects
of all the mineral waters, or other internal
remedies that can be taken, are more than
counteracted by such a climate. The mild
and temperate regions of the South, even
where marsh miasma prevails, are preferred,
for such patients, to the keen air of the mountains,
abounding with an over proportion of
oxygen, for weak or diseased lungs. The celebrated
Dr. Beddoes, so eminent in consumptive
cases, recommended to his patients thus
afflicted, to sleep over cow-houses, where the
proportion of oxygen in the air was less, and
that of azote greater. That the smell of the
sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which rises from
the Warm Bath, affects, in some instances,
persons of particular Idiosyncracies, (sometimes
only for a few moments,) is most true;
and so there are persons who faint at the
smell of the tuberose, or iris, in a close room,
or even at the fragrance of the damask rose.
But, that there is nothing deleterious in the
gases rising from the Warm Spring Bath, is
established by the fact that a Bath keeper, for
thirty or forty years, slept in one of the dressing-rooms,
during the Bathing seasons, and at
last died of dropsy at the advanced age of 90.
His successor, who has been almost constantly
in attendance for the last 15 years, is also a
remarkably robust and healthy man. These
facts are the best commentary on the assertion
that "remaining half an hour in the house,
without bathing at all, produces great danger."

The following analysis of the water of the
Warm Springs, was made in the year 1835,
by Professor Rogers, of the University of Virginia,
and is, doubtless, very nearly correct.
"The large Bath is an octagon, 38 feet in diameter;
its area is 1163.77 feet. The ordinary
depth being five feet," (it can be increased
to six;) "the cubic capacity is 5818.86
feet, or 43,533.32 gallons; notwithstanding
the leaks, this quantity of water will flow into
the reservoir in one hour. The average temperature
of the Bath is 98 degrees, Fahrenheit.
The gas which rises in the Bath consists
of Nitrogen; with minute quantities of
Sulphuretted Hydrogen and Carbonic Acid.

     

Besides this gas, each gallon of water contains 4.5 cubic inches of gas, consisting of nitrogen	3.25 cubic inches.
Sulphur. Hydrogen	0.25 cubic inches.
Carbonic Acid	1.00 cubic inches.

The saline contents of one gallon of the
water are as follows:

           

Muriate of Lime	3.968
Sulphate of Magnesia (Epsom Salts)	9.984
Carbonate of Lime	4.288
Sulphate of Lime	5.466
And a trace of Soda	0.000
	23.706

From this account it appears, that these
waters contain neutral salts and various gases,
which act as a gentle aperient, diuretic, and
diaphoretic. The large proportion of epsom
salts, (nearly one-half,) is not only ascertained
by analysis, but by the formation of the beautiful
crystals from the spray, as the water falls
over the flood-gate. This salt, doubtless,
gives the water its aperient quality, while the
carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen, give
tone and vigour to the stomach. In Europe
it is found that the tepid waters tend more to
strengthen the digestive organs than those of

a low temperature, more especially in gouty
patients, but the water of the Warm Springs
loses nothing of its aperient quality by being
cooled in closely stopped bottles, and it becomes
more palatable to many by that process.

With regard to Bathing, some precautions
are necessary and proper. No person in a
high fever, or under a high inflammatory diathesis
should use the bath; when the inflammatory
symptoms have been reduced by evacuants
and depletion, he can resort to it with
advantage and will find it to soothe him.
From experience it has been ascertained that
it is injudicious to go into the Bath after a full
meal. In the morning, before breakfast, when
the stomach is empty, or an hour before dinner,
are the best times to bathe. Some persons
prefer taking the Bath just before going
to bed, and it generally produces a gentle perspiration,
followed by refreshing sleep, if none,
or a very light supper has been taken. It has
often been remarked that visiters, after passing
some time at that most valuable of all
our watering places, the White Sulphur, improve
in health most rapidly at the Warm
Springs, which become the general resort for

ten days or a fortnight after the circuit of the
more Western Springs has been made. Besides
the large octagonal Bath, there has lately
been erected a second, or "Lady's Bath,"
neatly finished and of equal depth, and before
the next season a third, or "Spout Bath,"
will be in readiness. The "drinking Spring"
will also be much improved in appearance before
that time. The rise and flow of water
from the Spring and Baths, is estimated at six
thousand gallons a minute, and form a stream
sufficient to drive the wheel of a large mill.
The accommodations and comforts at the
Warm Springs are equal to those of any other
watering place in Virginia, but are limited in
extent. The natural scenery is beautiful, but
as the place was originally laid out for a village,
the public road passing by the Courthouse
and the hotel prevents a judicious or
tasteful arrangement of the grounds about it.
The square containing the Spring and Baths
is, however, in the progress of improvement.
With the delicious climate in summer and autumn,
the Warm Springs afford a delightful
sojourn for some weeks, in those seasons of
the year.