Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-12-03
A CALIFORNIA CURIO.
Chemical Properties of a Spring
 That Makes the Hair Grow.
The Strange Discovery of a Bald-HeadeC Old Man Whose Scalp Was Made to Produce a Generous
 Growth.

The spring is about thirteen miles southeast of San Diego, at the head of little valley branching from the Sweet water. Standing on the little mound out of which the waters gush you can See Mount San Miguel to the east, to the southward Sweetwater lake, and off in the west a range of low hills which just shuts off the view of the Pacific ocean. And if you follow the road a little farther north you will find your self among the olive and lemon groves of the Sweetwater and Spring valleys. The tiny valley is part of the old Span ish ''Jamacha" grant, and had passed through many and romantic episodes before it made known the powers of its little spring. Underlying it's soil and but a few inches, below the surface there is an immense cement deposit, highly impregnated with iron, arsenic, sulphur and magnesia, and it Is sup posed that the waters get their chemical qualities by percolating through this cement bed and dissolving it's ingredi- ents.
 The first person to discover the virtue of these waters, says the Chicago Inter Ocean, was an old man named Jepsen,
 
 and carried water for domestic pur- poses from this spring. He was then seventy-three years old, his head was perfectly bald on the crown, and what hair he had was thin and scattering. In a few weeks thick growth of hair started up all over his head, and his son, who is now merchant on K street in San Diego, says that he had to cut his fathers hair many times during their residence on the ranch. At the time they regarded this growth of hair as an unaccountable phenomenon, and did not think of attributing it to the waters of the spring until they learned of its effects upon other people.
 At about the same time Charles Fitz- allen, another bald man, nearly sixty years old, was living on the ranch and regularly using the. spring water. In about two months time he found new growth of hair covering his head, which he says is as soft and luxuriant as Ii was in his youthful days.
 Dr. P. c. Remondino, Dr. Thomas L. :Magee and Dr. T. A. Davis, all prom inent San Diego physicians anc members of the board of health of that city, have investigat- ed the spring ana US cures anC have reported as follows to your cor respondent: "The water is alkaline ferruginous, sulphurretted, and arsen ical, and from the evidence brought be fore us we must acknowledge that it ha
 made hair grow on scalps where 1t hac been entirely lost. Of this we have ha1
 several examples on persons whom w have known for number of years ant
 who, until the use of said waters, haC l given up all hope of ever again having 1 full head of hair.''
 Most of the people in San Diego wh'
 known anything about this spring vii
 simply laugh and say, ''Nonsensep' you ask them about it's hair-raisin.
 properties. Their scepticism, however
 is based solely on broad, general prin
 ciples, and no case was found in whicl
 it was due to personal knowledge. Blu
 San Francisco chemist who analyze'
 the water made this report: If ther
 is anything in that water to make hal ] grow liberal application of apollinari s to bald head ought to raise redwoo !