14 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



a dozen miles of Congress Spring without striking 

 a water supply holding a large quantity of mineral 

 matter. This interesting section seems to be a 

 point towards which waters of a remarkable char- 

 acter gravitate, and probably the supply will be 

 kept up for ages to come, as it has been in the ages 

 which have elapsed. There is wonderful uniformity 

 in the admixtures of mineral matters with the 

 waters, as the various analyses show. No sensible 

 variation in the amount of inorganic constituents 

 has been discovered during the years since chem- 

 ical science was sufficiently advanced to enable cor- 

 rect determinations to be made. The admixtures 

 are so complex and so perfect that it is difficult, or 

 in fact quite impossible, to imitate them in the 

 laboratory. Nature, in her chemical combinations 

 and admixtures, surpasses art, and it is not probable 

 that human science, turned in the direction of the 

 fabrication of mineral water, will ever become so 

 perfect in its imitations as to render the pilgrim- 

 age of invalids to Nature's fountain at Saratoga un- 

 necessary. 



It is a singular fact that there are numerous 

 waters in this country and in Europe, medically in 

 high repute, which are distinguished among chem- 

 ists only for their purity. The celebrated waters 

 of Pfefiers, to which Martin Luther resorted and 

 was cured of terrible hypochondriasis, are almost 



