Properties.

In a general sense its therapeutic effects are alterative, and it possesses a particular adaptation to inflamed mucous surfaces; scrofula in all its forms, dyspepsia in its worst conditions, and kidney difficulties, with every kind of skin disease, including salt rheum, which it never fails to cure, are prominent among the diseases cured by the use of this water.

Its general effect is to tone up the system, regulate the secretions and vitalize the blood, thereby creating a better appetite and better assimilation.

The analysis of this water does not indicate any properties that can account for its astonishing effects on disease, but they are supposed to be owing to its peculiar combination.  Scientific men, however, differ in regard to this point and in regard to the analysis.

A greater number of invalids are now using this water than from all the other springs in the place.  This water is not used as a beverage.  More than a hundred gallons per day are taken away by real invalids, besides that drank at the spring.  To become acquainted with its wonderful cures one needs only to go there and spend an hour conversing with those who are using it for their various ailments.  The water is used at all hours of the day and a short time is all that is needed to learn the high estimation in which it is held as a remedial agent.

SARATOGA “A” SPRING.

The “A” Spring is situated on Spring avenue, a little beyond the Empire Spring, on the eastern side of a steep bluff of calciferous sand rock, upon grounds which could be made quite attractive by a moderate outlay.

History.

The memory of that reverend being, the oldest inhabitant does not recall the time when the existence of mineral water in this immediate locality was not known.  As the merits of spring waters were so little known and understood in the earlier days of their discovery, the demand was far below the supply, and no attempt was made to introduce this spring to public attention, nor any provision for the use of its waters.  In 1865, Messrs. Western & Co. purchased the property, and at once instituted plans for securing the fountain; and a shaft twelve feet square was sunk to the depth of sixteen feet.  The surface above the rock consists of bluish marl, similar to that found all along this mineral valley.  A tube, in the usual form, was placed over the spring, and clay was used as packing around it.  In the spring of the next year the fountain was more perfectly secured by a new tubing, and the water was bottled and shipped all over the country.

An ill wind seemed to be blowing, and in 1867 the bottling-house was nearly destroyed by fire; and the spring was again retubed to the depth of thirty-two feet, going down to the solid rock, where one of the most perfect veins of water was found flowing in all its original purity, which was secured with the greatest care, in order to prevent the mixture of sulphurous or other waters, and carried to the surface through a tube made of maple.