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264 B A T H S O F B R ID A .
diate influence of tbe government. The
statement above given of the saline and
gaseous contents of these waters, can only
serve to point out the principal ingredients.
I had no means with me of verifying them
by tests, but the taste is sufficient to indicate
the presence of muriate of soda, combined
with magnesian salts. The presence
of carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen,
in considerable quantities, is also appreciable
by the senses. It will therefore
be readily admitted, that waters possessing
these ingredients, with a natural temperature
of 96° or 97° degrees, may produce a
powerful effect on the animal system ; and
those who take them internally. And they
act as a mild but efficacious aperient, unaccompanied
by nausea or debility.
The miller I have before mentioned is
regarded as the wonder of the place. He
is an elderly man, with handsome features,
a fresh complexion, and a lively intelligent
expression of countenance. He is one of
those happy beings gifted by nature with
great capability of action, fertile in resources,
and possessing those buoyant spirits
that smile at common calamities, and
M I L L E R O F B R ID A . 265
regard them only as motives for additional
exertion. After the destruction of
a great part of his property by the inundation
in 1819, he lost no time in useless
lamentations, but immediately began not
only to repair, but to improve his premises,
and provide as much as possible against
the recurrence of similar misfortunes. He
excavated, by his own hands, a large cellar
in the solid rock above the mill, partly by
the pick and partly by blasting ; here his
wine and winter provisions are safe from
any natural power of destruction less formidable
than an earthquake. His name,
with the date, October, 1820, cut in the
rock above the door, record his labours.
The most extraordinary of his performances,
and one, indeed, which almost exceeds
belief, is the removal of an immense
block of marble, which he worked into a
mill-stone for crushing walnuts. The block
had fallen into the valley about three
hundred yards beyond his mill. He long
viewed it with a wishful eye, but the removal
seemed beyond his power ; he was, however,
then in the vigour of life, and he resolved
to attempt it. He began by cutting
the stone into a proper form, which was a
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