# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Cheltenham Water

Edition of 1802.
​CHELTENHAM WATER, a mineral spring, rising in the town of that name, in Gloucestershire, and celebrated for its medicinal properties.
This spring issues slowly, and in a scanty stream, from a bed of sand, intermixed with blue clay. The well is sunk about six feet deep, and excluded from communicating with the external air: its sides are covered with a yellow ochre, which indicates the nature of the water.
When fresh drawn, Cheltenham water, though tolerably clear, is not perfectly transparent. It becomes more turbid by standing, and produces a small quantity of air-bubbles, emitting a slight, but easily perceptible smell, which increases on the approach of rain, is divested of any briskness, or pungency, but has a brackish, somewhat bitter, and chalybeate taste. Its temperature is, invariably, from 53° to 55 degrees.
The sensible effects produced by this water, when first taken into the stomach, are, generally, a degree of drowsiness, and sometimes head-ach; which, however, dissipate spontaneously, before it operates on the bowels. A moderate dose acts speedily as a cathartic, causes no griping, and leaves no languor: for this reason, and likewise on account of the salutary operation of the chalybeate, and, perhaps, of the carbonic acid, or fixed air, Cheltenham water may, as Dr. Saunders has remarked, be preserved for an indefinite length of time, without being productive of any inconvenience to the body; and the use of it may improve the appetite, strengthen the organs of digestion, and invigorate the whole constitution.
This medicinal spring, when judiciously resorted to, has proved of considerable benefit in a variety of diseases, especially those of the chronic kind; in removing glandular obstructions, particularly such as affect the liver, in the restoration of those persons, whose biliary organs are injured by a long residence in hot climates, and who are suffering under the symptoms, either of excess, or deficiency of bile; and lastly, in dispelling some of the most distressing, and painful cutaneous affections, of the species usually denominated scorbutic eruptions.
Cheltenham water ought, however, to be taken with due precaution; for, though its ferruginous ingredient probably enables the constitution to support, without ​debility, a longer course of evacuation, than most other medicines of tins kind, yet it cannot be used in every case, where a simple chalybeate is indicated. There are constitutions naturally languid, or debilitated by disease, so that they may be materially injured by a long-continued operation on the bowels. These saline waters, nevertheless, possess the peculiar advantage, that they may be used without any preparation. No other medicine is required, during their use, except the occasional addition of crystallized salts, of the same nature, where the water is not sufficiently laxative for costive habits; and likewise the use of the warm bath, particularly in cutaneous disorders.
The season for drinking Cheltenham water, is during the summer months; and, if possible, it should always be taken at the fountain head, and never kept long exposed to the air. It may, however, be cautiously warmed in close vessels, if, in a cold state, it should be offensive to the stomach of the patient.—Different circumstances will necessarily vary the extent of the dose; for which, half a pint of water is generally sufficient; and, if repeated three or four times, at proper intervals during the day, it seldom fails to produce an aperient effect.
Among the separate treatises published on this subject, we believe the most complete, though, perhaps, not the latest, is, Dr. J. Smith's "Observations on the use and abuse of the Cheltenham Waters; with remarks on different saline compositions;" published in 1784.