VOL. LXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 271 



to this table, Mr. B. thinks that it may with greater propriety be classed as 

 belonging to the hare species, than by any other marks of a specific difference 

 which has been hitherto relied on. 



111. On the Sulphureojis Mineral IVaters of Castle-Loed and Fairburn, in 

 Rosshire ; and of the Salt Purging Water of Pitkeathly, in Perthshire, Scot- 

 land. By Donald Monro, M. D., F. R. S. p. 13. 



The following account of the Castle-Loed mineral water is contained in a letter 

 from Dr. Mackenzy : " The Castle-Loed is a strong sulphureous mineral water ; 

 when taken up from the spring, it is as pure and transparent as the clearest rock 

 water ; but if kept in an open vessel, or an ill-corked bottle, it soon becomes of 

 a milky sort of foulness, and it loses its strong sulphureous smell in 24 hours. 

 " The bottom of the well, and of the channel which conveys its water from 

 thence, is black, as if dyed with ink; and the leaves of the alder bushes that 

 fall into the well, or into its channel, soon contract a blackish colour in the 

 water ; but when taken out, and dried in the sun or shade, appear covered with 

 a whitish dust, which is undoubtedly sulphur ; for, by burning one or more on 

 an ignited shovel, or clear live coal, they produce a blue flame, and emit a very 

 suffocating sulphureous smell. 



" All that I can learn of the operation of this water, from some sensible people 

 of credit and observation, who have drank it, this as well as former seasons, is, 

 that it very sensibly increases the urine, and sometimes remarkably opens the 

 pores; but I do not find, from the report of any, that it purges, though drunk, 

 to the quantity of 3, sometimes of 4, English quarts in the day. Almost every 

 person remarks, that it whets the appetite, and sits light on the stomach. 

 I have been told by several, that they have had head-achs immediately after 

 drinking their morning bottle, but of no long duration, nor to any great degree. 

 " It is impossible to say with certainty the number of cures these waters have 

 made, or what particular cases have received most benefit from using them ; for 

 every person in the county prescribes water for himself, and runs to the well, 

 or sends for the water, for every complaint, acute and chronic. I have indeed 

 myself directed several people with various complaints to drink them. Some 

 very foul faces have been quite cleared ; and, at this time, a gentleman's son, 

 g years of age, with a herpes round the neck, which had proved extremely 

 obstinate to other means, has got a perfect cure by drinking and washing with 

 them ; and his sister, a young lady of 1 8, who, from an untoward recovery 

 from the meazles and small-pox, fell into a sort of habitual erysipelas on the 

 face, head, breast, and arms, is now using them, and I think with evident 

 advantage. Some foul ulcers on the legs, and one with every appearance of a 

 carious thigh bone, have been perfectly cured. And a servant-maid in my own 



