A section of the new red sandstone is seen just below St. Augustine's Church, on the northern side of the floating basin, or old bed of the river Froom. Another, admitting still better of observation, is in the new cut of the Avon. This stone has been much used in building, but is too deficient in durability for the purpose, a fault which may be seen in the walls of the cathedral. Of the medicinal character of new red sandstone, a very good account has been given by Dr. Henry, when speaking of this formation as it occurs around Manchester, and we shall therefore quote his words.
“ The only principles on which the strata of any district lying beneath the soil and superficial beds of clay and gravel, appear capable of exerting an influence over the health of its inhabitants, are─as those strata absorb water more or less readily and completely, thereby affecting the hygrometrical state of the atmosphere; and as they furnish, by springs and rivers, water more or less impregnated with foreign ingredients, and therefore less or more fit for the use of man. Under the first view, the red sandstone is well adapted, by the avidity with which it imbibes water, to moderate the evils of a rainy climate like that of Lancashire. Under the second aspect, this rock furnishes an abundant supply of beautifully clear water, agreeable to the palate, but holding, in solution, much carbonate of lime, and a little sulphate of that earth, both of which are deposited on boiling. There is no reason to suppose that these impregnations have any effect unfavourable to health. They can have no tendency to produce calculus diseases, which were once imputed
