64 On Mineral Waters. 



in them, or in any other medicine, a panacea^ is absurd. The 

 diseases, therefore, in which they are indicated, are limited in 

 number; and yet it would be unjust towards medical writers, 

 who have treated the subject, to question their veracity, wherever 

 they may have recommended the same water in cases of oppo- 

 site characters ; for, on closer inquiry, we often find that con- 

 trary forms of disease originate in the same primary cause. 



Thus the confined ideas of a few prejudiced individuals, and 

 the unworthy motives of others, alike fail in depreciating this 

 valuable class of medicines; whose reputation, on the contrary, 

 continues to extend and gain strength, from year to year. 

 Physicians, no less distinguished for the rank they hold in the 

 profession, than for their impartial love of truth, have published 

 the results of their mature experience, in the treatment by 

 mineral waters, and have borne ample testimony to their merits. 

 Germany, from her abundance in powerful mineral springs, 

 has presented the widest field for observations of this kind ; and 

 the works of F. Hoflfman, Marcard, Becher, Zimmermann, Diel, 

 Hufeland, Kreysig, Wurzer, and others, prove that they have 

 not been neglected. 



As we possess no adequate substitutes for these salutary 

 remedies, it cannot but be considered highly desirable to attempt 

 their imitation by art, with a view to extend the benefit of their 

 use to persons whose occupations or whose pecuniary circum- 

 stances do not admit of a journey to the natural springs. But 

 almost all attempts of this kind have failed, from the arbitrary 

 and negligent mode of proceeding. Hence the suspicion with 

 which such imitations have been regarded. How far the 

 artificial mineral waters of Dr. Struve have been brought to 

 coincide with their originals, I shall endeavour to show in the 

 following pages : — • 



An artificial mineral water, professing to be a perfect sub- 

 stitute for a natural one, must 



1st. Contain all the ingredients of the latter; and in the 

 proportions established by accurate chemical analysis. 



2d. It must coincide with the original in all physical phfeno- 

 mena, as well as in its impression on the external senses. 



In respect to the first point, no branch of chemistry has been 

 the victim of so much abuse as the analysis of mineral waters; 



