332 Artificial Preparation of Medicinal Waters. 
I would not imply that the Sedlitz powders are not medicinal ; on 
_the contrary, they are powerfully cathartic, and this mode of exhib- 
_ iting the Rochelle salt is highly eligible. I object only to the substi- 
tution of this preparation for the mineral water of Sedlitz to which 
it has no resemblance, while at the same time, I quote it as an exam- 
ple of one of those methods by which an artificial preparation of a 
simple saline mineral water may be effectually imitated. 
From this sketch of the different attempts which have been pro- 
posed to make an artificial preparation of cold medicinal waters, it 
will be seen that it was considered an object of importance from an 
early period, nor was it ever doubted either by the chemist or the 
physician, that water, when artificially prepared upon true scientific 
principles, possessed all the essential qualities of the natural spring, 
and the experience of the most eminent of the faculty has fully sat- 
isfied them of this fact. 
The two different methods which have been proposed, possess 
their advantages as well as their disadvantages. That which was first 
adopted by Bergman, and which has been since improved as the 
knowledge of chemistry has advanced, is so correct in its principles, 
that it affords a perfect imitation of the natural water as proved by 
analysis ; it may be said ina sense to bring the spring to every man’s 
door, but the necessary apparatus is too expensive, and the process is 
too troublesome to admit of its being made in small quantities for do- 
mestic use. Nothing can be better adapted for large cities, but when 
it is bottled and sent to distant countries and different climates, it is 
obviously subjected to the same disadvantages as the natural waters. 
The heat of a warm climate will render the water perfectly vapid by 
the extrication of the gas, and the consequent precipitation of all those 
substances which it holds in solution; excessive cold will be equally 
effectual in injuring it; besides, not being a very portable article, the 
expense and inconvenience of carriage to any great distance renders 
it too expensive for most persons to purchase it. Under these cir- 
cumstances, the discoveries of modern chemists into the nature and 
properties of the alkalies and their combination with carbonic acid 
gas, suggested to them the attempt of making an artificial prepara- 
tion of the most celebrated mineral waters. By the superior affini- 
y of other acids for the bases of the alkaline carbonates, the carbon- 
ie acid was expelled and combined with the water, while the strong- 
er acid, with the alkali, formed a neutral salt, which enters into solu- 
tion, and can only add to the medicinal qualities of the water 
