REPORTS 



THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Report on the Present State of our Knoivledf/e luith respect to 

 Mineral and Thermal Waters. By Charles Daubexy, 

 M.B., F.R.S., M.R.I.A., ^c. Professor of Chemistry and 

 of Botany, Oxford. 



The term " Mineral Water," in its most extended sense, com- Definition. 

 prises everj^ modification existing in nature of that universally- 

 diffused fluid^ whether considered with reference to its sensible 

 properties, or its action upon life. For as every agent which 

 affects the animal system in a peculiar manner, must be pre- 

 sumed to possess something in its constitution which is wanting 

 in others, the circumstance of any remarkable medicinal virtue 

 residing in a spring ought, if well established, to be regarded^ as 

 a proof of something distinctive in its physical or chemical na- 

 ture. All medicinal springs therefore Avill range themselves 

 under the head, either of thermal, or of mineral waters, deriving 

 their properties from the temperature tliey possess, or from some 

 peculiarity of saline or gaseous impregnation ; but the subject- 

 matter of the present Report embraces a much wider field than 

 this, including the consideration of every other description of 

 water, whether circulating through the atmosphere, collected in 

 the ocean, or distributed over the surface of our continents. 



The former of these, however, or atmospheric water, as being 1st. Atmo- 

 the purest form of any which nature presents, will supply us 'P'^' 

 with the fewest materials for comment. I ought however to 

 notice the reported detection in it of small quantities, of iron, 

 nickel, manganese, of certain ammoniacal compounds, and of a 

 peculiar organic substance chemically different from the extrac- 

 tive matter and the gluten of plants and animals, ■which from its 

 yellowish brown colour has been called pyrrhine. 



VOL. V. 1836. B 



ineric 

 Water. 



