Excerpt from American Mineral Waters: The New England States The term mineral water has been variously defined, the definition having gradually changed from the restricted sense, meaning a water used only for medicinal purposes, to a water used for drinking or sometimes bathing purposes. Thus Dr. Peale, in his report to the Geological Survey on the statistics of mineral waters and the mineral water industry of the United States, says: Our reports do not restrict the term 'mineral water' to medicinal waters, but include all waters put on the market, whether they are utilized as drinking or table waters, or for medicinal purposes, or used in any other way. Bailey, in a special report of the Kansas Geological Survey, quotes Ossian Henry to the effect that Mineral waters are those waters which, coming from the bosom of the earth at variable depths, bring with them substances which may have upon the animal economy a medicinal action capable of giving rise to effects often very salutary in the different diseases affecting humanity, and he further quotes M. Durian-fardel to the effect that mineral waters are those 'natural waters which are employed in therapeutics because of their chemical composition or their temperatures. Walton, in his history of the mineral springs of the United States and Canada, defines a mineral water, in the medical acceptation of the term, as one which, by virtue of its ingredients, whether mineral, organic, or gaseous, or the principle of heat, is especially applicable to the treatment of disease. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.