Mineral Spring
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage underground.
Mineral water obtained from mineral springs has long been an important commercial proposition.
Mineral spas are resorts that have developed around mineral springs, where (often wealthy) patrons would repair to “take the waters” — meaning that they would drink (see hydrotherapy and water cure) or bathe in (see balneotherapy) the mineral water.
Historical mineral springs were often outfitted with elaborate stone-works — including artificial pools, retaining walls, colonnades and roofs — sometimes in the form of fanciful "Greek temples", gazebos or pagodas. Others were entirely enclosed within spring houses.
Famous quotes containing the word spring:
“You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, re-creating the world, and you ... feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)