KEPOKT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 11 



ancients, such as Aix, Mont Dor*, Plombieres, and Bath, re- 

 tain at present a lieat as great as is tolerable to the human bod)-, 

 it seems evident, that if they had been only in a slight degree 

 hotter in the time of the Romans, they would have required to 

 be cooled down by artificial means before they were employed 

 for bathing, which we are not told was ever the case. 



The same question, as the one concerning the temperature of Fixed in- 

 mineral springs just discussed, may also be started with respect gredients of 

 to the quality and quantity of their ingredients. But before we springs. 

 proceed to state what is known on this subject, it will be con- 

 venient to advert to a notion at one time advanced by D()be- 

 reinert, namely, that the salts present in mineral waters bear 

 a certain relation as to quantity one to the other. 



Ignorant as we are of the processes by which saline substances Whether in 

 are formed in the interior of the earth, it might be rash to affirm, definite 

 that in a mineral water viiiich had obtained its fixed ingredients one^°o'°he 

 exclusively from one spot, some fixed ratio did not obtain be- other. 

 tween the respective quantities of the latter. 



But it is inconceivable, that a spring, liaving to pass through 

 a great extent of rock befoi'e it reaches the surface, should not 

 more commonly find certain substances to dissolve, or become 

 intermixed with other currents of water in its way, and that in 

 the event of either of these things happening, the relative pro- 

 portions of the original ingredients should remain as before. 



If, therefore, Dobereiner were admitted to have established, 

 that in a few special cases J the salts existing in a mineral water 

 hold a certain definite proportion one to the other, probability 

 suggests, that the circumstance is to be regarded as an exception 

 merely, and not as the rule, and this inference, I believe, will be 

 fully confirmed, by referring to the actual results of the analysis 

 of mineral springs in general. 



Hence, without embarrassing ourselves with the consideration. Whether 



• At Rlont Dor the very bath exists which was constructed in the time ' ^ ^' 



of Caesar. 

 t Uebei- die chemisrhe Constitution der Mineralioasser. Jena, 1821. 

 X I confess myself unable to find any examples which establish Doberei- 

 ner's rule. Let us take the Carlsbad water, to which he appeals, and suppose 

 the ingredients to be in atomic proportions. The following appear to be the 

 nearest approximation that can be made : 



Real amount 

 being 



Sulphate of soda 15 atoms X 72 = 1290 — 1290 



Muriate of soda 9 — X 69 = 621— 517 



Carbonate of soda 12 — X 54 = 648 — 630 



Carbonate of lime 13 — X 50 = 650— 650 



Carbonate of magnesia . . 2 — X 42 =; 84 — 86 

 Here are some remarkable coincidences, it is true, but how arc the propor- 

 tions of the minor ingredients to be reconciled to such a formula .' 



