48 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1666. 



quality, and used against dropsical distempers ; the latter containing some sul- 

 phur, saltpetre and gold,* and being an excellent water to drink, is much used in 

 the principal tavern of the city. 



In Alsace, in the valley called Leberthal, near Geesbach, an ancient mine 

 work, there runs out of a cavern a foul, fattish, oily liquor, which, though the 

 countrymen of that place employ in greasing their wheels instead of ordinary 

 wheel-grease, yet it affords an excellent balsam, by putting a quantity of it into 

 an earthen pot well luted, that no steam may exhale ; and then, with a gentle 

 fire at first, but stronger afterwards, boiling it for three hours together ; when 

 it will have decreased a fourth part, and an earthen matter, like pitch, will 

 settle itself at the bottom : but on the top, when cold, there will swim a fatty 

 substance, like lyne-oil, limpid and somewhat yellowish, which is to be de- 

 canted from the thick sediment, and then gently distilled in an alembic in 

 arena ; by which means there will come over two different liquors, one phleg- 

 matic, the other oily, which latter, swimming on the phlegm, is to be severed 

 from it. The phlegm is used as an excellent resister and curer of putrefactions 

 of the lungs and liver ; and it heals all foul wounds and ulcers. The oily part, 

 being diluted with double its quantity of distilled vinegar, and three times dis- 

 tilled over, yields a rare balsam, used against all inward and outward corruptions, 

 stinking ulcers, hereditary scurfs and scabs. It is also much used against apo- 

 plexies, palsies, consumptions, giddinesses, and head-aches. Inwardly they 

 take it with succory water against all corruptions of the lungs. It is a kind of 

 petroleum, and contains no other mineral juice, but that of sulphur, which 

 seems to be thus distilled by nature under ground ; the distillation of an oil out 

 of sulphur by art, being not so easy to perform. 



Of the richest Salt Springs in Germany. N" 8, p. 136. 



The salt springs at Hall in Saxony are four, called Gutighr, the Dutch spring, 

 the Mettritz, and the Hackel-dorn. The first three contain each about seven 

 parts of salt, three of marcasite, and 14 of water. The last contains less, but 

 yields the purest salt. They are, besides their ordinary use, employed, medi- 

 cinally to bathe in ; and a spirit is extracted from them, used with good success 

 against venom, and the putrefaction of the lungs, liver, reins, and spleen. 



The salt water at Lunenburg, being more greenish than white, and not very 

 transparent, is nearly of the same nature and contents with that of Hall. It has 

 a mixture of lead in it, which hinders it from being boiled in pans of that metal ;'|- 

 and if it contained no lead at all it would not be so good, that metal being 



* The existence of gold in this mineral water is wholly imaginary, 



•J- This mixture of lead is supposititious, but were it true, it could be no impediment to tlie boiling 

 of the water in pans of that metal. 



