( 307 ) 



On Spring and River Water, as connected with Health and 

 the Arts. 



Many of our readers will doubtless remember that the lovely 

 city of Lyons,— the ancient Lugdunum, — when under the sway 

 of imperial Rome, possessed a noble aqueduct, which, from 

 the spring-head of Mont Pilate, furnished a superabundant sup- 

 ply of the first necessary of life to its inhabitants— a supply 

 which, when reduced to a modern standard, amounts to not less 

 than five millions of imperial gallons a-day. That invaluable 

 boon has now, for many ages, been suspended ; the colossal 

 work has long lain a ruin, and the citizens have been forced 

 to resort to the waters of the Rhone and the neighbouring 

 springs. This exchange has very generally been believed to 

 be attended with numerous disadvantages and evils ; and this 

 circumstance has fortunately induced Professor Dupasquier, 

 one of the physicians of the Hotel Bieu, and a member of the 

 Council of Health in the department of the Rhone, to under- 

 take an extensive and laborious investigation of the whole 

 subject, bringing to its elucidation all the appliances which 

 modern science can suggest. The results of this investigation 

 he has published in a large and learned treatise which lies be- 

 fore us,* and in which he has arrived at the conclusion, that it 

 would be greatly for the benefit of the Lyonnais again to re- 

 sort to an aqueduct— which has been proposed— and afresh to 

 obtain from springs, on the banks of the Saone, supplies which, 

 he believes, would be scarcely less productive than the an- 

 cient ones. Much of the interest connected with this impor- 

 tant investigation is necessarily special and local ; but, on the 

 contrary, many of the results which have been obtained are 

 new and weighty, and, as connected with Hygiene and the 

 arts, cannot fail to be interesting to the physician and che- 

 mist, to those connected with the arts, and the general 

 reader ; and hence we shall present a short analysis of the 



work. 



As remarked by the author, the vast progress which has re- 

 cently been made in the art of chemical analysis has greatly 



* Des caux dc Source ct des caux de Riviere, computes sous le double 

 rapport Hygieniquc ct ludustricl, &c. Svo, pp. 414. l'aris et Lyon, 1840. 



