Now I am reprinting it, not so much for its
interest to my professional brethren as a quaint and learned
contribution to medical literature in the seventeenth century, but
because it is the earliest and most indispensable source of the history
of the waters of Harrogate.
A careful study of it will correct a number of remarkable errors, which
now pass current as historical facts in connection with the rise into
fame of Harrogate as our premier Spa. These errors would never have
arisen had there been a more free access to this very scarce book. Most
writers appear to have depended for their knowledge of its contents
upon the summary of it contained in Dr. Thomas Short's "History of
Mineral Waters," published about a century after the publication of
"Spadacrene Anglica." In commenting on this and other works abridged in
his History, the learned author states:
"Some of them are very scarce and rare. Therefore, such as have them
not, have here their whole _substance_, and need not trouble themselves
for the treatises." Unfortunately, they did not have their "whole
substance," and hence these errors.
"Spadacrene Anglica" deals mainly with the Tuewhit Well or the English
Spa.
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