From my eyes were at my knees — and that’s quite some time ago — I have been hearing of the magnificent therapeutic value of Jamaica’s leading mineral spas at Milk River in Clarendon and Bath in St Thomas. I heard it from my father and he relayed it from his dad; and always the story contained the lamentation that Jamaica was wasting some of its most precious assets. Why have Jamaica’s hot springs been given such a cold official reception?

It has been at least 200 years since the healing property of the Milk River has been known and boasted about worldwide. By now, having already acquired international fame, this facility should be earning us billions of dollars as a health and recreation attraction. Yet, it remains, like the other spas at Bath and Rockfort, relatively rundown and neglected, for want of cash, expert management, and more so, governmental vision.

We often hear of the fun climbing the spectacular Dunn’s River Falls, and relaxing on the inviting white sand beaches of the north coast, but seldom a word about the highly prized health-giving spas that abound in Jamaica. How strange, especially in these times when health care and health tourism are high on the international agenda.

Some of these springs may have dried up over the years, but there was a time when authoritative scientists were able to identify as many as ten including:

(1) Silver Hill in St Andrew: The waters of which were described as chalybeate, aerated, cold and tonic: beneficial in cases of debility.

(2) Moffatt on the White River in the Blue Mountain Valley: The water is sulphuric, cold and purgative, useful in itch and cutaneous diseases.

(3) A similar spring near the source of the Cabaritta River in Hanover.

(4) At Windsor near St Ann’s Bay, reputed for the healing of ulcers.

(5) Warm springs at Garbrand Hall in the Morant River and the Adams River in St. Thomas; and in the Guava River in Portland.

(6) A spring at New Brighton in St Catherine; a mineral spring at Mannatee Bay, also in St Catherine; Golden Vale in Portland; Salt Springs at Ferry on Spanish Town Road, and also at Salt River in Vere.

Keeping up appearances

These thoughts came to mind the other day when I read of the Government’s plan to use Tourism Enhancement Funds to beautify a strip of thoroughfare from the Norman Manley Airport to the northern tip of Mountain View Avenue in Kingston. This driveway is already much better than most in the city. Nobody can reasonably complain of the width and surfaces of the Norman Manley Drive, the Glasspole Drive, and the eastern part of Windward Road, which I suppose will be renamed after the makeover. A lot of work has already been done on Mountain View Avenue. Still, we are about to spend millions of dollars to make it look good, particularly for tourists. Instead of merely keeping up appearances, this sum of money could be better invested in a comprehensive upgrading of the Milk River Spa and is approaches, which with sound management would bring financial returns.

The neglect of Milk River Bath is just another tale of the ungracious manner in which generations of our leaders have treated gifts made to the people by generous gentlemen of old. The splendidly built Ward Theatre, donated by Colonel Charles Ward in 1912, is now falling to pieces, even though it is the nearest thing we have had to a concert hall. The Bournemouth Club and Baths, built in 1926 and given to citizens by Captain George Lindsay in 1937, is a near forgotten memory.

Milk River Bath was given by a repentant slave owner, Jonathan Ludford, whose badly beaten slave had discovered the healing stream that washed his wounds and brought him back from death’s door. Ludford, learning of the curative power of water on his property, donated the land in 1791, and public subscription was raised to erect the buildings. Since then not much has changed for the better.

Ninety-nine years ago Dr Edward Earle, the health officer stationed at Port Royal submitted a paper to the Society of Medical Officers in which he complained:

“It is a matter for regret that the Government of the island (apart from giving pecuniary aid at various times) has never seriously entertained the idea of developing and making use of the natural mineral assets of the island…there are many mineral springs in Jamaica, most of them possessing valuable qualities for the cure of various diseases, of which only two have been utilised for medicinal purposes, namely the hot sulphurous spring at Bath, and the warm salt spring at Milk River.”

Dr Earle wrote: “The bath at Milk River is one of the most remarkable in the world; it is a tepid, saline purgative bath, the temperature remaining at about 92 degrees all through the year round. It possesses a great reputation for the cure of gout, rheumatism, neuralgia and allied nerve complaints, and also in certain conditions arising from liver disorders.”

He marveled as we do to this day: “…I was greatly distressed by the prodigious waste of valuable curative material flowing freely to the ocean and charged with power to alleviate human disease and suffering…curative powers not surpassed by any mineral bath in the world.”

Even before Dr Earle, people in the know were shaking their heads at the waste of natural resources in Jamaica. James C Phillippo, MD, wrote a book on Jamaica’s mineral springs, which was first published at the 1891 Jamaica Exhibition. In it he wrote: “To invalids shut up during the long winter of the North by gout, rheumatism, bronchitis, and consumption, we can not only give a mild and equitable temperature, cloudless skies and abundant occupation, but we can also give them our healing waters.”

Before that, Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum, in introducing his book History of Jamaica, published in 1707, 208 years ago, mentioned: “A hot bath or spring near Morant, situated in a wood, which has been bathed in and drunk of late years for the bellyache with great success…There are states and principalities in Europe that have been kept in a state of solvency by revenues derived from their springs.” A reviewer of Sloane’s book remarked: “…the most striking thing about Dr Phillippo’s narrative is his basic sense of bemusement. Having discovered it (Jamaica) had world-beating natural spas — and not just one sort, every sort, all packaged up in a small island paradise — Jamaica had failed to capitalise on them. At every turn, Phillippo is forced to lament the state of repair of the resources he is describing and to stress the urgent need for funds to develop them to attract wealthy patrons from overseas.”

According to Phillippo, famed analysts in London had determined that the crystal clear water contained “chloride of sodium, sulphate of soda, chloride of magnesium, chloride of potassium, and chloride of calcium, besides traces of lithia, iodine, bromine and silica. These constituents with its temperature of 92 degrees place this spring among the thermal calcic waters of Hamburg, Weisbaden, Kassingen, Bourbonne, Schlangenbad, Gastein and Kranznach. It has the soapy unctuous feel that characterises the Schlangenbad and the warm springs of Virginia, imparting to the skin a velvet smoothness to the touch which continues after leaving the bath”.

Since then it has been widely claimed that the relative radioactivity of the water at Milk River is nine times that of Bath, England; 50 times that of Vichy, France; 5 times more than Karlsbad, Austria; and 54 times as active as Baden, Switzerland.

What I write today is nothing new. Not the healing power of the springs nor the gripes about their neglect. This is why things like this make we want to hear no more New Year’s messages from our leaders. If we could just get one of them to pledge that by next year Jamaica will have at least one world-class spa. Dare we hope?

Alexander Pope once wrote: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” And I would like to add: “But there’s no hope for thermal springs in human quest.”

Ken Jones is a veteran journalist, public relations consultant, and is the author of books on Marcus Garvey, Alexander Bustamante and other leading historic figures. Comments: kensjones2002@yahoo.com