Artificial Preparation of Medicinal Waters. 127 
stituted for the natural waters, which had been previously import- 
ed in large quantity from their respective springs. The artificial wa- 
ters were even preferred there, not without sufficient reason, as it is 
well known to all who are acquainted with the subject, that the sub- 
stances which are most essential in these mineral waters, are carbonic 
acid gas, with a small proportion of a neutral salt, an alkali and a little 
iron and magnesia, all of which can be combined with pure water, 
and in greater quantity than in the natural spring. 
From the time of Bergman’s attempt, in the year 1771, to intro- 
duce the artificial mineral waters into general use, where access 
could not be easily bad to the natural spring, other chemists of great 
celebrity turned their attention to the subject, sanctioning the attempt 
and pointing out how other medicinal waters besides those already 
mentioned may be imitated artificially. About twenty years after 
the publication of Bergman’s essays, Kirwan produced his celebrated 
“treatise on the analysis of mineral waters; induced to this attempt, 
as he observes, by “the advantages which mankind have derived 
from their medicinal effects, and from the necessity of a knowledge 
of their contents, in order to prescribe them in cases of disease where 
they are applicable, as well as to imitate such as are found beneficial, 
in countries where they have not = discovered or where they can- 
not be procured in a state of purity.” 
The ancients were not unacquainted with the pnetlicioal qualities 
of certain mineral waters, but were entirely ignorant of the nature of 
their contents, and of the qualities that result from their combination. 
Pliny, with his usual sagacity, at so early a period as the year 79, 
when writing on the subject of natural history, observes, “Tales sunt 
aque qualis terra per quam fluunt,” thus showing that he was aware, 
even at that time, in what manner waters received their impregnation. 
He proceeded, however, no farther, nor was it until several centuries 
after his time, that a knowledge of chemistry taught us how to dis- 
cover, with some accuracy, what are the ingredients of mineral 
waters, and whether they possess medicinal qualities or not. 
Many persons are persuaded that there is something mysterious in 
the natural production of mineral waters, which could never be either 
explained or imitated ; we now know, however, that the mineral wa- 
ter is only a compound of the water itself and of those substances 
which it holds in solution. It can therefore be of little consequence, 
whether by passing through the bowels of the earth it extracts dif- 
