Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1846-09-19
Hot Springs OF Arkansas.

r. An othcer in the Kentucky Cavalry Regi.
mcnf' now on its way through Arkansas to
Mexico gives the following description of the
celebrated Hot Springs near Little Rock, in
Arkansas:
with some eight or ten officers of the repi.
mont arrived at this point last night, sixty !
miles rom Little Rock, and twenty from our
road, and now can see about the third wonder !
OF our Union. In a ravinc fifty yards wide, be- |
tween two mountains. spurs from the Rocky
Mountains, is Hor SPRINGS VILLAGE, composed
of about thirty rudely constructed log and board
huoses. The mountains run nearly east onc
west, md close in at the northern one the bou.
ses are built. while before them, sweeping the
base of the other mountain, runs a rivulet as
clear as crystal. Of IS degrees temperature be.
fore and 10 degrees after it's in;ermixture
with the water from The springs. The springs
eighty.four in number, are confined TO the
southern mountain, and gush it's side from the
base hundred yurds up. The greatest heat of
any which measured (and there is none hot.
iet) wns l49 degree. the least 40 degrees
lher temperature ranges generally from l35
to l45degrces The water is strongly impreg.
mated with lime, ss is seen by The incrustations
OF carbonate Of lime formed as it flows along
with this exception it must be very pure
Though so hot that one has to drink it by small
mouhfu's, it is very pal,able, quickly assuages
'hirst, and never nauseates; and, the more
strange, when little salt and peper are added
'as'es very much IKE chicken broth. Here is
'ood tor r. fiectl"n: the phl'opher may come and
anslize the water, note the composition Of the
rock soil, and de'rius, and then make many
uncertain theories TO account for the eternal
tire that boIs the caldron from which issues the
many streams. The mountain Is composed OF
very porous iiinstone, and strikes one as ha.
wing once been fused and beaved up molten
mass, TO take whatever shape its weight
and p'ab'li'y might give It, while the earth, in
the inters'iccs OF its projections, appears as il
Posl'e side lie firm and has regularity of arrange.
menta. strata. and veins. Doubtless the same
causes which make burning volcano also sup.
ply this phenomenon.
Some forty or fly invslids are now here,
mos, Of them affected with rheumatism and
mercurai complaints, in which disease the as
tonishing efficacy Of the baths is discerni5le
see several who arrived a few weeks ago, so
helpless, crooked, and de'ormed that they had
to be lifted as inanimate beings, now walking
with agility. There are others who had taken
great dcal OF mercury. ard whose systems
were not cean.ed of it until they bathcd here
some weeks. when Pro'usc salvation occur
ring, and continuing from two TO four or SIX
weeks, every vestige Of the disease was remov.
ed. The baths are thirty steps from the rooms
one OF vapor, and another by shower from
stream an inch in diameter, and falling ten Of
fifteen feet. always being under the Same roof
The vapor bath is made by putting an air.tgh
room over spring, protecting the feet by trel
Ii. work their temperature is from l40 TO l3(
degrees. The ba'her generally first lets th'
spou, pour upon him, then goes to the vapo
bath, and remains from ten to twenty minutes
returns TO the spout which washes him off, theI
wipes dry and dresses, repeating the last in
saturated with perspira,ion. The bath is yer,
eneryatiny. and il requires discretion TO cover,
an individual who wishes to indulge in il; it j