472 plint's fattiral history. [Book XXXI. 



It will be only proper, therefore, in the first place to set forth 

 some instances of the powerful properties displayed by this 

 element ; for as to the whole of them, what living mortal could 

 describe them ? 



CHAP. 2. (2.) THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF WATERS. 



On all sides, and in a thousand countries, there are waters 

 bounteously springing forth from the earth, some of them cold, 

 some hot, and some possessed of these properties united : those 

 in the territory of the Tarbelli,^ for instance, a people of Aqui- 

 tania, and those among the Pyrensean^ Mountains, where hot 

 and cold springs are separated by only the very smallest dis- 

 tance. Then, again, there are others that are tepid only, or 

 lukewarm, announcing thereby the resources they afford for 

 the treatment of diseases, and bursting forth, for the benefit of 

 man alone, out of so many animated beings.* 



Under various names, too, they augment the number of the 

 divinities,^ and give birth to cities ; Puteoli,® for example, in 

 Campania, Statyellae'' in Liguria, and Sextise® in the province 

 of Gallia iN'arbonensis. But nowhere do they abound in greater 

 number, or ofier a greater variety of medicinal properties than 

 in the Gulf of Baiae f some being impregnated with sulphur, 

 some with alum, some with salt, some with nitre, ^*^ and some 

 with bitumen, while others are of a mixed quality, partly acid 

 and partly salt. In other cases, again, it is by their vapours 

 that waters are so beneficial to man, being so intensely hot as 

 to heat our baths even, and to make cold water boil in our 

 sitting-baths ; such, for instance, as the springs at Baise, now 

 known as "Posidian," after the name of a freedman^^ of the 

 Emperor Claudius ; waters which are so hot as to cook articles 



2 He alludes to the mineral waters of Acqs or Dax on the Adour, in the 

 French department of the Ariege. They are still highly esteemed. 



2 The principal of which are those of Aigues-Chaudes, Aigues-Bonnes, 

 Bagneres- Adores, Cambo, Bagneres, Bareges, Saint- Sauveur, and Cautereti 



•* Ajasson remarks that animals in all cases refuse to drink mineral waters. 



5 He alludes to Neptune, Amphitrite, the Oceanides, Nereides, Tritons, 

 Crenides, Limnades, Potamides, and numerous other minor divinities. 



6 See B. iii. c. 9. ? See B. iii. c. 7. ^ See B. iii. c. 5. 

 9 The mineral waters of Baioe are still held in high esteem. 



i<- As to the identity of the "nitrum " of Pliny, sec c. 46 of this Book. 

 1^ Posides, a eunuch who belonged to the Emperor Claudius, according 

 to Suetonius, c. 28. 



