298 BATH WATERS. 



Earlycxamina- hitherto been thought to be impregnated^ I suppose there 

 tloa of the jg nothing of either of them dissolved in the waters. 



. <c ^ 1,q1^1 assertion! which had it been vented and be- 

 ' lieved but fifty years ago, would have prevented much 



trouble in evincing the contrary; but since 'tis the 

 fashion to be peremptory, I do assert, That both nitre and 

 sulphur are to be found in all the baths of Bathe, and 

 that dissolved in, and mixed with, the bodif of the waters. 

 In order to the proof of which I shall take some account 

 of the forementioned author's XVth Chapter of his tract 

 of Sal-Nitre, the arguments he hath against it^ and his 

 opinion to the contrary. 



^' His words therefore, as well as I can translate them, 

 are these : 



'^ Among the most celebrated bathes, we may justly 

 reckon those of Bathe, in which admirable waters a con- 

 tinual vestal and sacred fire is maintained, as if things of 

 a most different nature were interleagued. Before I 

 come to the manner how these bathes receive their heat, 

 it will not be improper if I make some inquiry into the 

 contents of these waters. 



" It is therefore manifest, that the bathes of Bathe are 

 impregnated with a certain salt of an acrid nature ; for if 

 any sal alkali, or volatile salt purely salined, be mixed 

 with these waters, a precipitation will ensue, and the 

 waters will become turbid, and of a milky nature. 



'^ Moreover, the Bathe waters powred on boy ling 

 milk, will coagulate it, as any other acid doth. 



" Neither doth this acid salt seem to be the only salt of 

 the Bathe, but is complicated with an alkali ; for if the 

 water be evaporated quite away, a certain salt of a more 

 fixed nature will be found in the bottom of the vessel, 

 which, on the powring of any acid on it, will ferment. 



'' Of the same nature also are the mud and sand of 

 the bathe, which are wrought up with the springs; for 

 any acid liquor being powred on them, an ebullition will 

 follow. 



'^ There may be also observed in these waters a salt, 

 or rather a lime-chalk kind of earth, sticking to the bot- 

 tom of the gouts, or passages, almost in all places where 

 the water passeth. 



From 



