44 



knot has neither been untied nor cut through. Those 

 researches have in some respects promoted science, 

 without however teaching us where the subterraneous 

 laboratory lays, in which the Almighty prepares the 

 mineral ingredients of our waters 5 out of what store- 

 house he draws them 5 how he mixes and heats them; 

 nor by what ramification of channels he leads them, 

 in mercy to mankind, to the various orifices, where 

 a sickly multitude flocks annually , to partake of the 

 blessing. "Should we not believe," said Galen, spea- 

 king of thermal waters, above two thousand years 

 ago, "that Vulcan and all the Cyclops of his retinue, 

 "are incessantly blowing and stirring up the fire of 

 "their subterraneous furnaces , to maintain a tempe- 

 "rature so equal and so constant?" 



I have only named here learned men who have 

 attempted to explain the heat of our waters,- french, 

 Italian and german men of science have paid equal 

 attention to the phenomenon, but with as little suc- 

 cess, in their respective countries. 



