Properties.

The Star water is mildly cathartic, has a pleasant, slightly acid taste, gentle and healthy in its action, and yet powerful in its effects.

It is far more desirable for general use as a cathartic than the preparations of the apothecary.

Rev. Dr. Cuyler, in one of his peculiarly charming letters, gives the Star Water preference over all others as an active and efficient cathartic.

THE TEN SPRINGS.

This is the name which was formerly given to several springs in the immediate vicinity of the Excelsior, and embracing the Union and the Minnehaha, which have been recently tubed.  The other springs have been neglected, and the name “Ten Springs” has been abandoned.

THE UNITED STATES SPRING

Is located under the same colonnade as the Pavilion, and less than ten feet distant from it.  When the Pavilion was being retubed, in 1868, a new spring was discovered flowing from the east (the Pavilion and nearly all the other springs flowing from the west).  It has been carefully tubed and christened the United States.  It seems to be tonic in its properties, with only a very slight cathartic effect.  It is now used for mixing with the still wines by our German citizens, who find in it the virtues of their own Nassau Spring.  There are very few of the Saratoga waters that can be used successfully with the red and white wines, the presence of a very large proportion of chloride of sodium being considered an objection.  The United States Spring seems to fully answer the purpose, giving to the wines a rich flavor and sparkling character.

It is a matter of surprise to visitors that two springs, welling up their waters so near together, should yet be widely different.  Where nature in her subterranean laboratory obtains all the elements, and how she can manage that from one crevice shall issue a water whose ingredients shall never materially differ, and whose temperature shall remain constant throughout the year, while within a few feet she sends up an equally unvarying, and yet widely different spring, is indeed a problem, and the oftener one reflects on subjects of this kind, the oftener is the old fashioned observation repeated, that “let a man go where he will, Omnipotence is never from his view.”

THE WASHINGTON SPRING

Is situated in the grounds of the Clarendon Hotel, on South Broadway.

History.

This fountain was the first tubed in this mineral valley, being opened by Gideon Putnam, in 1806.  It was used for bathing purposes chiefly.  Dr. Steel writes of it in 1828, that it is “found of eminent service when applied to old, ill-conditioned ulcers, and obstinate eruptions of the skin.”  A cluster of bushes formed a shelter for the external use of the water.