The History of Baths

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History of Water Through the Ages Part 2

"Waters" varied enormously both in terms of their origin from rainfall, snow, dew, and pond, spring, and river water all were different as they had the physical attributes of the area around them. In other words, their mineral composition differed, their were sulphur waters, hot springs imbued with gases, mud and water with medicinal powers. Fresh spring water has had an ancient belief in its purity, even if it was often erroneous; it is clear that from ancient history water has had two forms, potable and non-potable.

Many classical writers have written bout water, yet few mention its taste, the prevailing idea through history was that the less taste it had the better.
For the philosophers of early eighteenth-century Europe, "cold" and "hot" described terms of chemical composition, Sulphurous water was "hot," but water-containing alum was "cold".

Most writers described water from North facing mountain streams to be
preferable, partly because running water did not putrefy as fast as rainwater. Caius Plinius Secundus, (AD 23 – August 24, AD 79), known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Roman author, a natural philosopher commander of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia. He observed running waters were to be preferred to stagnant waters and that waters stored in cisterns were undesirable because they accumulated "slime or disgusting insects". He also noted that the taste of rivers is variable, owing to mineral difference in the river beds.
“For waters vary with the land over which they flow and with the juices of the plants they wash"

Beyond taste and health effects, spring waters were characterized in terms of the many properties they were believed to have. Pliny and the Roman architect Vitruvius both recorded accounts of springs that turn black sheep into sheep with wool, or of waters that assist women to conceive.

Many spring baths and rivers were the embodiment of a divinity, such as the fables of the 30,000 nymphs associated with springs in Greece along with their brothers the rivers. In many rural, places in Europe worship of these divinities still exist. Periodic efforts by the medieval Roman Catholic Church to halt the practised usually failed. It may have been this failure to make them more important and may have led of the association of water and sites of wells to be associated with Saints and miracles as in Fatima or Lourdes.

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