The following glossary of medical terms was assembled as part of a project on medicine from 1760-1830 but it includes some terms from a wider period. I have drawn on several sources, including, with the permission of the author, Medical Terms used in the late 18th Century which appeared on a now obsolete web site written my Melanie McClusky. Information from Dr Johnson's Dictionary, first published in 1755, is shown in red.
Figure 2 is a simple cartoon showing three different types of aquifers: confined, unconfined, and perched. Recharge zones are typically at higher altitudes but can occur wherever water enters an aquifer, such as from rain, snowmelt, river and reservoir leakage, or from irrigation.
Below ground we take water from stores called âaquifersâ â they may be out of sight but they are a critical source, providing three-quarters of all your water. The water in the aquifers comes from rain which has soaked into the soil and gradually been absorbed by porous underground rocks such as chalk and limestone. Once stored within these sponge-like rocks the water can move through pore spaces towards springs, rivers or the sea, or it can be pumped up to the surface.