240 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
47°, that of the room in which the pump was placed being only 39°, and the
external air out of doors 33°, with a fine clear sky. The water appeared beauti-
fully limpid, and colourless as crystal. Very minute bubbles of air rose in it,
and seemed to increase in number for some minutes after it had been drawn.
Some of these adhered to the glass. When shaken, these air-bubbles will dis-
appear, and rise again, but at no time does the water become turbid as long as it
remains cold.
" On drinking it, the first impression on the palate is rather subacid and
pleasing, but the general and continuous taste is that of pure spring water. It
does not taste or feel harsh to the mouth. I drank a pint tumbler of it without
any marked effect, as to any feelings of chilliness or weight at the stomach.
When boiled and poured into a glass, there is a manifest turbidity, the surface
becomes covered almost imperceptibly with a whitish powdery deposit or cream,
which, on tilting the glass, will adhere to the surface. After this experiment,
the water no longer tastes subacid, and the very minute bubbles of air rise even
more abundantly. Placed in contact with metals, it throws down a copious
precipitate. It corrodes lead and iron rapidly, and the solder of all metallic
vessels. If put into a bottle, it will not deposit any sediment ; but, if a crack
exists in the bottle, its edges will presently be furred with the sediment. If a
large quantity of the water be boiled and afterwards allowed to cool, a large
proportion of a white magnesia-looking precipitate falls down.
These remarks of mine on the physical character of Hockley mineral water
I purposely made and recorded before I would allow Air. Phillips to com-
municate to me his own observations and results, as I did not wish to be biassed
by them.
I opened and examined the well, which I found to be about eighteen feet from
the surface, with about fifteen feet of water in it. Its diameter is three feet six.
During a severe and general drought in all the wells and ponds in the neighbour-
hood, it still was found to have ten feet of water. It has never frozen, and no
landspring seems to affect it.
Judging, a priori, from all these data and particulars, I should be inclined
to attribute very marked alterative virtues to this mineral water, when taken in
small and divided doses. It will act also as an aperient in doses of a pint and a
half, drank in the morning at four times, and as an antacid in stomach com-
plaints, as well as in cases of lithic disorders of the kidneys. The water must be
drank cold, and immediately after being drawn from the well.
Dr. Granville, continuing, says that he had conversed with
various people who had been much benefited by drinking the
water (including a child, a nephew of the proprietor, Mr.
Fawcett). He ends by blessing the spa from which he had at
first hoped so little. The air is (he says) "pure and bracing,"
and the situation "sheltered from the east." Further, he
expresses pleasure that, "in a quarter of England so remote
from any well known and efficient mineral spring," one should
have been so providentially brought to light." In conclusion,
he recommends the building of "a first-rate hotel," as well as
"a pump-room and a series of four bath-rooms."