1853. 



THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF CANADA. 



all ancient fossiliferoits strata, from the early Potsdam sandstone 

 up\Yards, but it also finds living representatives in our tropical 

 seas. It is a Lingula, — probably Lingula quadrata. 



Of Crustaceans I have been able to find but a very few 

 remains. The casts of a small trilobite are not uncommon, and 

 may be noticed in some of the small slabs on the table. This 

 family is, however, well represented in the Loraine shales. Mr. 

 Hall figures three species which are peculiar to that rock. 

 Gi-aptolites, a kind of fossil whose true character is still a matter 

 of doubt, — whether they lie within the limits of the vegetable or 

 animal kingdom, — are abundant in the shaly portion of the rocks 

 at the Garrison Common. Upwards of twenty species have 

 already been described as belonging to the Loraine shales and 

 rocks of anterior origin. I have only been able to detect one 

 species in this neighbourhood, which is shown in these small 

 slabs of arenaceous shale. 



I have now briefly adverted to the most important and charac- 

 teristic fossil members of the three classes of the animal kingdom, 

 which meet the eye during a very cureory and incomplete examina- 

 tion of layers of rocks about three hundred yards long and five feet 

 in perpendicular altitude, in the immediate neighbourhood of this 

 city. If such a superficial examination indicates the existence of 

 abundant remains of an ancient vegetable and animal world 

 within twenty minutes' walk of this room, — rich, most probably, 

 in numerous undescribed and at present unknown species, — it is 

 surely to be hoped that through the instrumentality of its mem- 

 bers, the museum of the Canadian Institute will soon be enriched 

 with the stony records of that remote epoch in the history of the 

 world, which is so distinctly and beautifully traced out by these 

 mute memorials of the past. 



The Slineial Springs of Canada; by Henry Croft, L. L. D., 

 ProfessDr of Chemistry in the University of Toronto. 



{Read hcforc the Canadian Institute January 15iA, 1853.) 



It is not my intention, in the paper which I shall have the 

 honour of reading before the Society this evening, to endeavour 

 to give anything approaching to a detailed account of the mineral 

 springs of this portion of Canada, inasmuch as neither my own 

 observations nor those of others have up to the present time been 

 sufliciently extensive to warrant any such attempt. Our know- 

 ledge of the subject is yet entirely in its infancy, as might natu- 

 rally be expected, from the small number of persons resident in 

 the Province who are capable of undertaking the necessary accu- 

 rate investigations, from the wide extent of country of which 

 comparatively little has been explored with respect to its natural 

 productions, and lastly from the difliculty attending the transport 

 from a distance of those large quantities of material which are 

 required for an extended examination. 



The object which I have in view in the present communication 

 is simply to impress upon the membei's of the Institute the inte- 

 rest and importance of the subject, and to endeavour to enlist 

 them in attempts to increase our knowledge by pereonal observa- 

 tion, and by the transmission to the Society of any mineral 

 waters which to them may seem worthy of more particular atten- 

 tion. It frequently happens that springs are met with, which, 

 from possessing a disagreeable smell or a peculiar taste, attract 

 attention, and are believed by ordinary observere to possess 

 valuable properties, but which, when submitted to the test of 

 chemical anah'sis, ai-e found to be nothing at all extraordinary. 

 Many such instances have fallen under my notice, of which I will 

 allude only to one from the neighbourhood of the Falls, lately 

 submitted to me for analysis. The water, according to the 

 accounts I received, has acquired a character of medicinal 

 virtues, which are most probably imaginary, as one pint 



contains only 4.24 grains of solid matter, consisting principally of 

 simple sulphate and carbonate of lime. Our knowledge of the 

 subject being so exceedingly limited, the greater portion being 

 due to the able researches of the talented chemist of the geologi- 

 cal survey, I shall content myself with some few facts di'awn from 

 his experiments, as well as my own, and some observations upon 

 our present knowledge of mineral springs in general. 



The term mineral waters is generally applied to such as differ 

 materially in their constituents, at least as regards quantity, from 

 ordinary lake and river water. It has also been occasionally 

 stated that mineral springs were characterized by their high tem- 

 perature; but this is by no means a true definition, as many 

 springs, especially tliose arising in elevated regions, possess an 

 exceedingly low temperature. In its more general sense, the term 

 " mineral water " might be extended to all waters whatsoever. — 

 whether derived from the air, from rivers, from lakes, or from 

 the sea; but it is usual to confine it to those possessing more or 

 less of a medicinal character. 



Until within a comparatively short period, the attention of 

 chemists was principally directed to the detection and determina- 

 tion of those ingredients which, from their quantities, were evi- 

 dently capable of exerting medicinal action ; but of late years, 

 since the methods of chemical research have been so materially 

 improved, and the detection of many substances, even when in 

 the most minute quantities, has been rendered possible, great 

 attention has been paid to such investigations, and some very 

 curious facts ascertained with regard to the presence in mineral 

 waters of a great variety of substances, to which in some cases 

 the medicinal virtues of the springs have been with reason 

 ascribed. 



The more ordinary substances occurring in mineral springs are 

 the following: lime, magnesia, iron, alumina, potash, and soda; of 

 acids, — carbonic, hydrosulphuric, silicic, and hydrochloric, besides 

 certain organic bodies possessing an acid character. 



The earliest additions to this list were made by the discovery 

 of those valuable agents iodine and bromine in many springs ; of 

 fluorine and lithia in the hot springs of Carlsbad, and of 

 phosphoric acid, baryta, and strontia in a few others. These 

 three latter bodies have lately been detected by Mr. Hunt, in two 

 mineral springs, — one in the parish of St. Joseph of Lanoraie, 

 and the other in Fitzroy. 



A much more remarkable discovery is that which has been 

 more prominently brought forward since the year 1 846, viz. — ^the 

 existence of various heavy metals, or rather of their compounds, 

 in a considerable number of mineral waters. Among the most 

 curious of these ingredients may be mentioned areenic, which 

 seems to be much more universally diffused through nature than 

 was formerly supposed. Some allusion to this ftict appears in 

 the writings of that prince of alchemists, Paracelsus ('or, to give 

 him his more extended title, Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus 

 von Hohenheim^, who mentions the presence of arsenic and 

 orpiment in the water of Gastein. As Dr. Will properly jemarks, 

 but little credence can be given to his statement, when we con- 

 sider the exceedingly impeifect nature of the analytical methods 

 adopted at that period. The fii-st notice of this remarkable sub- 

 stance was made by Trippier, who found it in a spring at Algiers, 

 and the discovery has been confirmed and extended by 

 Chevallier,Osann,Daubree,Walchner, and Will. The latter chemist 

 examined not only various German mineral waters, but also the 

 ferruginous deposits which are formed from them, and in which 

 he succeeded in detecting, not only areenic, but also copper, tin, 

 lead, and antimony. The quantities of these ingredients, as may 

 be supposed, are exceedingly small. As an instance, in 10,000,000 

 parts of one of the springs of Rippoldsau there was found six 



