Saratoga Springs, a town and village of Saratoga co., New York, on the Adirondack and the Rensselaer and Saratoga railroads, 32 m. N. by W. of Albany; pop. of the town in 1870, 8,537; of the village, 7,516; in 1875, 10,765. The mineral springs, which have given this place its celebrity, and its large elms, are almost the only natural attractions. Saratoga lake, 7 m. long by 2 m. wide, fed by Kayade-rosseras creek and connected with the Hudson by Fish creek, is 3 1/2 m. S. of the village. On the S. E. shore is a valuable white sulphur spring. There are in all at Saratoga 28 springs (including 6 spouting), some chalybeate, others impregnated with iodine, sulphur, and magnesia, and all powerfully charged with carbonic acid gas. The most celebrated are the Congress, Empire, Hathorn, High Rock, Washington, Geyser (spouting), and Pavilion springs. High Rock spring, composed of calcareous tufa, narrows rapidly as it rises above the surface, and terminates 3 1/2 ft. above the ground in a rounded top, in the centre of which is a circular opening a foot in diameter 4 in. below the surface; the depth of the spring from the top of the rock is 32 ft. In 1789 the rock was entire, the water occasionally overflowing and increasing its size by deposits.

Two years afterward a large tree fell upon and cracked it, since which time the water has kept on a general level 5 or 6 in. below the top. The waters of these springs are regarded as valuable aids in cutaneous and liver diseases, in some cases of confirmed dyspepsia, and in chronic affections of the bowels. They are generally tonic and greatly cathartic. At an early period the waters were evaporated in potash kettles, and the precipitated salts sold in small packages; but it was soon found that these salts did not reproduce the original waters on being dissolved. Large quantities of the waters, especially of the Congress, Empire, and Hathorn springs, are bottled and exported. (For analyses, see Mineral Springs, vol. xi., p. 593.) The village contains 7 large and 25 small hotels, 49 boarding houses, four banks, a large town hall, two assembly rooms, a female seminary, a water cure, five printing offices, a daily and three weekly newspapers, and eight churches. The number of visitors during the season, which lasts from June 15 to Sept. 15, ranges from 30,000 to 45,000. - The medicinal properties of the High Rock spring, or the "Round Rock," as it was called by the early settlers, were known to the Iroquois confederacy at the period of Jacques Carrier's visit to the St. Lawrence in 1535. In 1767 Sir William Johnson was carried hither on a litter by the Mohawks, and it is believed he was the first white man to visit the spring.

The first log cabin was built in 1773 by Derick Scowton, and the first framed house in 1784 by Gen. Schuyler, who in the same year cut a road through the forest to the High Rock from Schuylerville. In 1693 a sanguinary battle was fought near the site of the present village between the French under De Manteth and the English led by Major Peter Schuyler, in which the latter were victorious. The name Saratoga (Indian, Saraghoga) signifies the "place of the herrings," which formerly passed up the Hudson into Saratoga lake. - See R. L. Allen, "Analysis of the principal Mineral Fountains at Saratoga," etc. (New York, 1858), and W. L. Stone, "Reminiscences of Saratoga" (New York, 1875).