Physicians and the chemical analysis of mineral waters in Eighteenth-century England.

PHYSICIANS in England had been curious about the active principles of natural mineral waters since the early seventeenth century, when the idea of visiting a spa to drink or bathe in the waters first became popular. After the Restoration, fashionable London society, led by the king and court, established the practice of visiting spas such as Tunbridge Wells, Epsom, or Bath during the summer. Doctors were quick to recognize the advantages of persuading patients to take the waters at their source under the supervision of a resident physician, whilst the patients themselves were often glad of an excuse for spending a month or two enjoying the social delights of the spa whilst submitting to the strict regimen and medical treatments prescribed to enhance the effects of the waters. Coming from the depths of the earth, the latter were commonly thought to bear mysterious qualities which would provide cures for stubborn diseases such as bladder-stone and gravel, gout, rheumatism, diabetes, scrofula, and skin complaints. The waters were so difficult to analyse that it remained unclear what medicinal substances they really contained, and their curative properties had generally been determined by trial and error.2 There were many contradictory views, and physicians relying upon their clinical records devised their own methods of using the waters. Consequently, conflicting advice was often pressed upon patients by rival physicians in pursuit of professional advantage and financial gain. Already by the beginning of the eighteenth century it had become clear that if mineral waters were to be used most effectively a better understanding of their chemical composition was essential. It had long been the practice to examine mineral waters in three stages. First, their