“The solids in this water are made up of sodium chloride, salt, 116 parts; volatile and organic matter, 90 parts; lime sulphate, a trace; lime carbonate, a slight amount; magnesium carbonate, a slight amount; and the balance of the solids are all wholly made up of sodium bicarbonate. This water is low in solids and of good quality.” =Medical Water.=--The solids that occur most commonly in spring and well water appear in the form of mineral salts. It frequently happens that salts giving a cathartic action are present in sufficient quantity to render the water objectionable when used for drinking. Sodium chloride or common salt frequently occurs in quantity sufficient to be distinctly noticeable. Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) and sodium sulphate (Glauber salts), both of which are well-known laxative salts, very commonly occur in well water. The carbonates of calcium and sulphur also frequently found in well water are inert in physical action when taken in drinking water. The presence of laxative salts in spring water has given great celebrity to many springs both in Europe and America that are famous as cures for all manner of human ills. Such curative value as these springs possess is derived from the cathartic salts contained by the water. The table of contents of the Saratoga Congress Water as given by Dr. Woods Hutchinson shows the solids of one of the most celebrated of America’s medicinal waters. Grains per gallon Sodium chloride 385 Magnesium carbonate 56 Calcium carbonate and sulphate 116 Sodium bicarbonate 9 Sodium iodide 4 Bromide, iron, silica trace ----- Total solids 570 When reduced to ordinary measure and given their common names the mineral solids in a gallon of this water will be approximately: Common salt 8 teaspoonfuls Magnesium 1 teaspoonful Lime and plaster of Paris 2 teaspoonfuls Baking soda 1/6 teaspoonful Bromides and iodides 1/12 teaspoonful The total solids, 570 grains per gallon, contained in Saratoga water, gives the remarkably high content in total solids, of 9758 parts per million; this is almost ten times the limit of the American standard. While such water would not do for constant consumption, it is taken for considerable periods of time with beneficial results and is recommended by many authorities as a water of great medicinal potency.