The medical aspects of Bournemouth and its surroundings / Horace Dobell ; illustrated with chromolithographs (by Hanhart), and photographs (by Debenham and Gould), from original sketches by the author.

  • Dobell, Horace, 1828-1917.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical aspects of Bournemouth and its surroundings / Horace Dobell ; illustrated with chromolithographs (by Hanhart), and photographs (by Debenham and Gould), from original sketches by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    formations, and was probably imported from Devonshire (its nearest natural source) during some tremendous inundation, ■which poured it over the surface of the geological formations of Hampshire after they were complete. Where this exists it simply adds to the lightness and porosity of the soil. I was curious to know to what extent the sands of which the Bournemouth cliffs so largely consist resemble in light- ness the recently thrown up sand on the beach. I therefore procured specimens (a) of the sand on the beach; {h) from the top of the cliffs; and (c) from some portions of the deep strata exposed in the chines; and I got Mr. S. Hardwick, a very scientific and painstaking chemist, to submit them all to the same amount of drying in a water-bath, and then to take their specific gravity. It was found in all to be 1002-5— water being 1000. Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, F.G.S., the greatest living autho- rity on the Geology of the Bournemouth district, writes to me, October 14, 1884 :— The subsoil of Bournemouth is, practically, clear silicious sand, uncontaminated even with fossil organisms. On the east the sands extend to the river at Christchurch, and no clay lohat&mr comes tvithin, I should think, fifty feet of the surface. On the west there may be an occasional, but very slight out- crop of clay near the surface here and there, but as a rule the patches of clay are small and deep down. You would be perfectly right in describing it as a forma- tion of clean quartzite sand, similar to that on Bagshot Heath, with no mixture of clay on the east cHff, and very little on the west until Poole Harbour is reached. The immense importance of this singularly light, graveUy and sandy soil as the site of a health resort is recognised by all authorities. Thus Dr. Scoresby Jackson says: - It is an important matter to be acquainted with the physical and chemical properties of the soil of a country and to have a knowledge of its general geological conformation as well as of its mineralogical productions. The temperature