Spa

spa, a town of Belgium noted for mineral springs. It is situated in a beautiful valley of the Ardennes about equally distant from Liege and Aix-la-Chapelle. The town is a center of toy making and other small industries, but is composed largely of hotels, baths, and other accommodations for guests. The springs, several in number, furnish a cool, sparkling water, impregnated with alkaline salts, carbonic acid gas, and a trace of iron. Spa water is celebrated as a remedy for nervousness, dyspepsia, and liver complaints. Immense quantities are bottled for export to all parts of the world. Wooden toys dipped in the water take on a tan color. The term spa is now of general application to mineral springs elsewhere. See Waters; Sulphur Springs