connected with Health and the Arts. 311 



Whether the water of springs is more valuable than that of 

 rivers ? And on this point he regards it impossible to come 

 to any general conclusion, as every thing depends upon the pe- 

 culiar chemical and physical nature of each separate example. 

 Thus, the water of La Bitvre and of La Beuvrone, at Paris, 

 contain respectively eighteen and twenty-nine times more sul- 

 phate of lime and of chlorate of calcium and magnesium (those 

 salts which render water hard — in other words, improper for 

 the dissolving of soap and the cooking of vegetables), than the 

 water of the springs which rise in the neighbourhood of the 

 Saone, and which, it is proposed, should supply the wells of 

 the city of Lyons. The water, then, of the specified rivers 

 must be much inferior in value to that of the fountains. On 

 the other hand, the waters of other springs — and the author 

 cites many examples taken in the neighbourhood of Lyons — 

 contain almost a fourfold quantity of these earthy salts, and 

 are, in this respect, as bad as the worst water of wells. He 

 concludes, therefore, that you may have good and bad spring- 

 water, as well as good and bad river-water, and that the ques- 

 tion of the comparative excellence can be decided only a pos- 

 teriori, and this, too, after you have first established the cha- 

 racter of good potable water. 



The qualities which are universally esteemed in drinking- 

 water are perfect freedom from all disagreeable taste or fla- 

 vour, and clearness, and coolness. The Bictionnaire des 

 Sciences Medicates has the following definition : " Water may 

 be considered good and potable when it is cold, clear, with- 

 out odour, when its flavour is neither insipid nor disagreeable, 

 nor sharp, nor salt, nor sweetish ; when it contains little foreign 

 matter, when it contains air in solution, and when it readily 

 cooks dry vegetables." 



The odour which water contracts, in those cases in which it is 

 not owing to sulphur or some other active mineral substance, 

 arises from the organic matters, more or less in a state of de- 

 composition, with which it has been in contact ; sometimes 

 also from turf, or even, as is seen in many localities, from a 

 certain quantity of carburetted hydrogen gas, gradually dis- 

 engaged from certain clays. If this odour is persistent, the 

 water should not be considered potable, and it should be re- 



