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Visitors in pursuit of fun and leisure bypassed entirely or remained just a day or two at those springs whose waters attracted the largest numbers of invalids, especially Red Sulphur and Hot Springs. In 1804 John Howell Briggs left Hot Springs after only a few hours ‘‘with great pleasure’’ because ‘‘the number of invalids, afflicted with various diseases, with limbs distorted by pain, and unable to assist themselves . . . rendered an abode here, very unpleasant.’’ A half-century later, an unsympathetic Jane Caroline North could not wait to leave Hot Springs, or ‘‘Crippledom’’ as she called it, for the fashionable and pleasurable White Sulphur Springs. While waiting for her aunt to bathe in the thermal waters, North wrote her sister that she had never seen ‘‘such a collection of miserable looking people’’ before. Red Sulphur’s renown as the gathering place ‘‘only of those whose earthly careers were near at hand’’ led North to refuse even to step foot into its confines. Conversely, true invalids and most doctors regarded the frivolity and fashion at White Sulphur as detrimental to the pursuit of health. Charles William Ashby, who suffered from asthma, informed his wife that White Sulphur was ‘‘the great place for the fashionable world,’’ but was ‘‘not the place’’ for him.18 The fashionables, however, enjoyed and benefited from the springs regimen as much as the invalids. Whether healthy or ill, all of the visitors to the springs followed to some degree the drinking and bathing regimens. The course of a day usually revolved around visits to the springhouse or bathhouse, even for those mainly in search of pleasure. Those with good health and those in search of it shared in these rituals of health that made up the spa experience.  ‘‘The Most Delicious Sensations’’ The new sensations of and constant attention paid to the body constituted a major component of the Virginia Springs experience for every visitor— whether in search of health or pleasure. All of the visitors, male and female, closely monitored the function and appearance of their own bodies and often of others’ bodies as well. They focused primarily on what went into the body—and what came out of it. Gaining weight and learning, often for the first time, how much they weighed fascinated visitors. Much of the conversation—even genteel public conversation—at the springs and material in letters home concerned these corporeal topics. Bathing, which 85 h e a l i n g wat e r s produced more pleasurable and more novel bodily sensations, may have inspired even more discussions of the body and physical experiences than drinking the waters. Outside the Virginia Springs, there was no place in the plantation South where the body captured so much public interest and produced so much discussion among respectable ladies and gentlemen. Visitors to the Virginia Springs seemed to delight in the powerful effects of the waters upon their bodies. In 1792 the four pints of Warm Springs water that Ferdinando Fairfax drank ‘‘produced a gentle and pleasant Operation ’’ during the night. Even when the effects were less pleasant, the men and women who drank the waters monitored the subsequent functions of their bladders and bowels with rapt interest. ‘‘The use of the water & close observation of its effects for 4 days’’ convinced Robert Hubard to leave Alum Springs for Alleghany Springs in 1852. Daily drinkers kept meticulous records of how often, how quickly, how strongly, and how long the various mineral waters worked on their systems, detailing their frequent urinations, recurrent diarrhea, profuse perspiration, and intermittent vomiting. Larkin Newby’s experiences largely confirmed his expectations that White Sulphur ’s waters ‘‘operate freely by the bowels, on the Kidneys & on the pores of the skin.’’ ‘‘The two latter I have already realized & the first in a slight degree—In the night I awoke & found myself in a high perspiration,’’ he recorded in his journal.1 Springs visitors repeatedly filled their letters and journals with such comments about the waters’ effect, using phrases such as ‘‘acting freely,’’ ‘‘most powerfully,’’ ‘‘agrees wonderfully with me,’’ ‘‘had the happiest effect,’’ and ‘‘kept my system a little disordered,’’ as well as ‘‘entirely inactive.’’2 Like many others, Samuel Hoffman felt that his entire ‘‘system [was] pretty well impregnated’’ by White Sulphur’s and Sweet Springs’ waters.3 Most visitors believed that the mineral waters totally infused the body and readily welcomed the signs of their effects or ‘‘benefits,’’ no matter how uncomfortable. Many visitors used their journals while at the springs to track on a...

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