Before modern medicine, the positive medicinal benefits of bathing in mineral springs were the stuff of legend. Although not scientifically proven at the time, the effect of the heat, the minerals, along with the social aspect of communal bathing and the hygiene that resulted, combined to make almost miraculous results. Even fertility was seemingly cured– in the 1700s, Queen Mary “took the waters” at the thermal springs in Bath, England while suffering from infertility and 10 months later gave birth to her son!