Organic Matter found in Sulphureous Springs. 591 



This proposition has indeed been contested by an eminent 

 chemist at Montpellier, Professor Anglada, who is engaged 

 in publishing an elaborate description of the thermal sulphu- 

 reous waters of Roussillon *, in which he endeavours to show, 

 that the baregine must be considered a chemical product, held 

 in solution by the waters at the time they issue from the earth, 

 and deposited by them in a flocculent form, when they come 

 in contact with the external air. 



Others, on the contrary, and amongst the rest the celebrated 

 Vauquelint, inclined to the opinion, that the substance in ques- 

 tion had been extracted from the organic remains present in the 

 rocks through which the mineral water found a passage, owing 

 to the high temperature which the latter may be supposed to 

 possess before it issues from the ground, just as gelatine is se- 

 parated from bones by water under a high pressure,— a notion, 

 unfortunately, inconsistent with the geological position of many 

 of these springs, which proceed from granitic, or other rocks, 

 totally destitute of all traces of organization. 



It will be time, however, to discuss the probability of these 

 chemical theories, when any specimen of the substance alluded 

 to has been submitted to us, in no part of which signs of an 

 organic structure can be perceived : at present it may be suffi- 

 cient to remark, that since, in all the situations in which I have 

 collected it, the greater part at least of the mass appeared to be 

 made up of a congeries of Conferva or Oscillatoria, we need not 

 hesitate in ascribing the whole to the rapid growth of those or- 

 ganic bodies, to which the temperature and constitution of the 

 thermal waters alluded to might chance to be congenial. 



I am happy to be able to fortify this conclusion by the au- 

 thority of Professor DeCandolle, who has assured me, that he 



* Memoires pour servir a VHistoire Ginerale des Eaux Minerales, Sfc. — Two vo- 

 lumes have already appeared. f Aiinales de Chimie, vol. xxviii. 



VOL. XVI. 4 G formerly 



