40S Questions^for Solution relating^ to Meteorology, 



The town of Aix, in Provence, possesses baths of thermal wa- 

 ter, known under the name of the Baths of Sextius. They 

 are surrounded by an edifice, the building of which was com- 

 pleted in 1705. The spring was formerly so copious, that in 

 the last two months of that same year, 1705, it was amply suf- 

 ficient for the supply of upwards of 1000 baths. The water 

 was amply sufficient for nine pipes of a fountain, and nine stop- 

 cocks for baths. From the year 1707 the water began to be 

 less plentiful, and in a few months was so much diminished, that 

 the establishment was wholly abandoned. 



Other warm springs exist in this town, at the Cours, in the 

 Garden of the Jacobins, at the Monastery of St Barthelemy, at 

 the Triperie, Grioulet, the Hotel de la Selle d'Or, at the Hotel 

 des Princes, &c., and at the bottom of certain wells, such as that 

 belonging to Sieur Boufillon (in the corner of the Rue des 

 Maj'chands), and the tanners' pits. These different springs 

 diminished like that of Sextius, and even more rapidly. Many 

 of them, and, among others, the spring of the Jacobins, of St 

 Barthelemy, Triperie, and Grioulet dried up entirely. 



While this diminution of the fountains at Aix was going on, 

 to the entire destruction of many of them, some individuals be- 

 gan to turn to their own advantage some very copious springs, 

 which they had discovered, by digging to a small depth in pro- 

 perties situated at a little distance from the town, in the territory 

 of the district called the great and the small Barret. The idea 

 that these new waters were just the former waters of the town, 

 soon occurred to the minds of many persons ; but the impossibi- 

 lity of proving that such was the fact, for a long time prevented 

 the authorities from interfering. At last, in 1721, during the 

 dreadful plague that prevailed in Provence, Dr Chicoineau of 

 Montpellier, having thought it expedient to order baths for the 

 persons detained in quarantine, Vauvenargues, the commandant 

 of Aix, came to the following resolution : " The warm baths of 

 the town of Aix having appeared to us necessary to wash and 

 purify the convalescent patients ; and as the said baths do not 

 supply sufficient water for this purpose, on account of the 

 quantity that has been withdrawn from the spring by various 

 neighbouring proprietors, we order, for the good of the service, 

 that steps be immediately taken to bring it back, &c. &c." In 

 virtue of this order, the consuls caused the holes dug in the dis- 



