BATH WATERS. 299 



" From what hath been said may be collected, That Early ex amint- 

 the bathes of Bathe are impregnated with a certain acid g°^ °^ ^^^ 

 saline salt; and the salt of the bathe seems not much un- 

 like tartar vitriolated, or aluminous salt. 



" The reason why these salts destroy not one another, 

 but each of them ferments with its contrary salt, may be 

 understood from what hath been delivered in the former 

 •Chapter; to wit, these salts are so imperfect, that in 

 conjunction they cannot destroy one another. But more 

 of thefee salts hereafter. 



'^ As to nitre and sulphur, with which the Bathes 

 have hitherto been thought to participate, I suppose that 

 neither of them is dissolved in those waters. 

 . " That there is no nitre in the waters appears by this. 

 That the salts that remain after the evaporation of the 

 Bathe Water, put on a coal, burn not as nitre doth. 

 Although I shall not deny, that those immature salts of 

 an alkali nature (which are also contained in the sand 

 and mud of the Bathe) being exposed some time to the 

 air, may, perhaps, by its influence, be conrerted into 

 nitre. 



*' As to sulphur, which hath been so much reported 

 to be in all bathes, 'tis not, I believe, dissolved in these 

 waters. Because,^ 



'' If a solution of alom, vitriol, or any other salt, 

 whether acid, or fixt, be mixed with the water of the 

 Bathe, sulphur discovers not itself to be precipitated, 

 either by a fetid smell, or any other sign, which notwith- 

 standing in the solution of sulphur in the water of 

 unslack'd lime, or made into lixivium, doth appear, when 

 the sulphur by the effusion of any acid liquor is pre- 

 cipitated. 



" I am not ignorant that the water of these bathes, if 

 salt of tartar, or a purely volatile salt, be cast into it, will 

 presently turrt white, as is declared before, which colour 

 proceeds not from sulphur, but a stony, or aluminous 

 matter precipitated, not much unlike to what is observed 

 in the water of unslack'd lime, when any fixt salt is 

 mixed therewith; in which, notwithstanding, it is not to 

 be supposed the sulphur is dissolved ; for if sulphur be 

 bpyled in water of unslack'd lime, the water becomes 

 S s 2 white. 



