76 On Mineral Waters, 



ill a common solution of various salts. It is, moreover, a cha- 

 racteristic feature of organic nature, that her creations are de- 

 pendent upon the locality and disposition of the principles (ar- 

 rangement des molecules.) And yet we are in possession of 

 facts, such as the artificial production of oxalic and formic 

 acids, of sugar, of gum, of volatile oils, &c. which allow us to 

 hope that chemistry will, hereafter, accomplish many things 

 which at present appear impossible. 



It still remains for us to examine the merits of Berthollet's 

 theory, in as far as it refers to the means of estimating the 

 value of a mineral water in a therapeutical sense. According 

 to Dr. Murray, a spring exhibiting, on analysis, the carbonates 

 of lime, and magnesia, and common salt, would hold the lime 

 and magnesia, regardless of the other ingredients, in the state 

 of muriates. Thus, mineral w^aters, from which we obtain 

 these earthy carbonates, in a comparatively large proportion, 

 as, for instance, the springs of Kreutzbrunnen and Auschowitz, 

 at Marienbad, should possess in a striking degree the medical 

 virtues of the muriates of lime and magnesia ; a circumstance 

 which experience by no means tends to confirm. 



Again, it follows, that the iron must exist in all waters as a 

 muriate ! How are we, under this impression, to account for 

 the fact, that, on shaking up a chalybeate with atmospheric air — 

 even though an excess of carbonic acid gas, and of muriate of 

 soda, be present — the iron is precipitated, when we know that 

 its muriate is equally soluble as its permuriate ? Physicians 

 are more fully aware of the different effects of muriate of iron, 

 and of its carbonate in chalybeate waters. 



Murray's theory assumes the actual ingredients to differ very 

 materially from — Berthollet's view, on the other hand, presents 

 them as in a great measure agreeing with, — the immediate re- 

 sult of analysis. And it must be confessed, that the leading 

 tendency of a mineral spring bears a near relation to these 

 results. The different effects of two springs (coinciding in every 

 other particular) from the predominance of a single salt in the 

 one, — an occurrence by no means uncommon, — is at once ex- 

 plained in the doctrine of Berthollet : for a change is thereby 

 effected in the proportions of all the other salts. 



The imitation of mineral springs has one more obstacle to 



