The mineral springs of western Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

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.