4 ,o MEDICINAL SPRINGS 



ing produced in this water ; when tinclure of 

 turnfole is poured into it in equal quantity. 



I have obferved above, that the Lokarne wa- 

 ter contains hepatic air. But, fuch is its fubtili- 

 ty and volatility, that it efcapes, although the 

 glafs veflel, in which the water is contained be 

 corked and fcaled in the moil careful manner. 

 A bottle of Lokarne water, the temperature of 

 which was 107, being clofely corked and kept 

 by me in my bed-chamber, loll in the fpuce or* 

 four hours all its hepatic air, Ib that even when 

 fliaken, it exhibited no appearance of having e- 

 ver contained any. And, in water newly drawn 

 out of the fpring, was not above a cubic inch to 

 the pint. 



From what has been faid it appears, that the 

 water of Lokarne is not mere fpring water, 

 though but very flightly mineralized. Moll mi- 

 neral fp rings owe their healing virtues either to 

 aerial acid or hepatic air. Aerial acid, unlcfs 

 contained in a pretty large proportion, in water, 

 produces but little alteration in its nature. Such 

 as in the proportion of eight or ten cubic inches 

 to the pint: whence it. may be inferred that the 

 water of Lokarne is lei's indebted to the aerial 

 acid than to the hepatic air which it contains 

 for its virtues. Hepatic air is a much more 

 powerful agent than aerial acid : two pints of 

 cold water that had abforbed only two cubic 

 inches of hepatic air, retained the peculiar o- 



ilour 



