.PYRMONT WATER. 



of tliis important dlfcovcry. Wc (hall lierc add fomc farther 

 remarks on the efFefts and medical iifes of this water. 



Pcrfons wlio drink it at the well are affeftid with a kind 

 of giddinefs or intoxication, which is probably owing to the 

 great quantity of carbonic acid with which tl'.e water abounds. 

 The common operation of this water is by urine ; but it is 

 alfo a gentle fudorific ; and if taken in large quantity, 

 proves laxative. However, in order to this efleft, it is 

 iifual to mix fome falts with the lirft glaffcs. It ir. drank 

 by glafsfuls in the morning, to the quantity of from one to 

 five m- fix pints, according to circumflances ; thofe who 

 drink it walking about between each glafs. This water is 

 recommended in cafes where the conititution is relaxed ; in 

 want of appetite and digeltion ; weaknefs of the llomach, 

 and heartburn ; the green fickneis ; female obftruftions and 

 barreniiefs ; the fcurvy, and cutaneous difeafes ; and in the 

 gout, efpccially, as Hoffmann obfcrves, when mixed witii 

 milk ; in colics ; bloody fluxes ; difordcrs of the breall and 

 lungs ; in which cafe it is beft taken lukewarm : in nervous, 

 hylleric, and hypcchondriacal diforders ; in apoplexies and 

 palfies ; in the gravel and urinary obftruftions ; in foulnefs 

 of the blood ; and in obllrudlions of the liner vefFels. It 

 amends the lax tenure of the blood ; exhilarates the fpirits 

 without inflaming, as vinous liquors are apt to do; and is 

 reckoned among the beft refloratives in decayed and broken 

 conftitutions. It is faid to pofTefs the general virtues of the 

 Spa water, and at the fountain it is more fpirituous, as well 

 as a ftrongcr chalybeate. Elliot's Medicinal Virtues, &c. 

 of Mineral Waters, 1781, p. l8l. 



Near the famous well at Pyrm.ont is a ftone quarrv under 

 gi'ound, from fome parts in which a fulphureous fteam comes 

 out, which commonly lifes to a fmall height. Animals held 

 in this Iteam are foon fuffocatcd, bat recover, if quickly 

 taken out. When a man ilands in this fteam, but with his 

 head over it, it proves an excellent fudorific. Dr. Seip 

 propofes to perform cures in feveral difeafes with it. See 

 Phil. Tranf. N° 448, fed. 4, and Mifc. Berohn. torn. v. 

 part 2. feft. 4. See Grotta dc/ Serpi. 



Pyrmont Water, Imitation of. This medicinal water 

 may be imitated very nicely by art in the following manner : 

 take a quart of the pureft and lighteft water, add to it 

 thirty drops of a ftrong folution of iron made in fpirit of 

 fait, a drachm of oil of tartar per dehquium, and thirty drops 

 of fpirit of vitriol, or a little more or lefs, as is found ne- 

 ceffary, not to let the alkali of the oil of tarlar prevail too 

 ftrongly, though it m.uft prevail a little. Shake all brillvly 

 together, and on tafting it will be found extremely to re- 

 femble the true Pyrmont water. 



The bafis on which this is founded is the analyfis and trial 

 of the true Pyrmont water, by which it is found to contain 

 a fubtile aqueous fluid, a volatile iron, and a predominant 

 alkali, all joined together into one brifk pungent fpirituous 

 water. The artificial Pyrmont thus made, if the propor- 

 tions are carefully minded, will extremely i-efemble the na- 

 tural, and will have the fame effect as a medicine. Shaw's 

 Leftures, p. go. 



But the beft method of forming artificial Pyrmont water is 

 by impregnating it with fixed air, or carbonic acid, for which 

 we are indebted to Dr. Prieftley. The firil perfon, we believe, 

 who afl ually compounded an artificial acidulous or fpirituous 

 water, like that of Sultzer or Pyrmont, was M. Venel; though 

 he was ignorant of the real nature of the ingredient to which it 

 owed thefe qualities, and which he erroneoufly fuppofed to be 

 common air. For this purpofe he diffolvcd in a pint of water 

 two drachms of foffile alkali, to which he added an equal 

 quantity of marine acid : in the procefs he made ufe of a 

 veffel with a narrow r.eck, and to prevent the efcape of the 



air, he difpofed the ingredients in fuch a manner, that ther 

 could not communicate with each other till after the bottle 

 was corked. In this cafe the fixed air diflodged from the al- 

 kaline fait, in a pliial nearly full and clofely corked, being 

 conlined, fuffers a degree of comprellion that greatly pro- 

 motes its combination with the water. See Memoircs pre- 

 fentcs par les S^avans Etrangers, torn. ii. containing two 

 Memoirs of M. Venel, read before the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences in 1750; and Laviofier's Eflays, &c. by Henry, 

 ]). 34, &c. However, Dr. Prieftley was undoubtedly the firft 

 who fo far improved upon the difcoveries made by himfelf and 

 others in relation to the principle then denominated fixed air, 

 as to contrive an ealy method of impregnating water with it. 

 The firft idea of this kind occurred to him in 1767, when, 

 having placed ftiallow veflels of water within the region of 

 fixed air on the furface of the fermenting veffels of a brewery, 

 and left them all night in that fituation, he found that the 

 water had acquired a very fenfible and pleafant impregnation. 

 He proceeded to accelerate the impregnation by pouring the 

 water from one veiliil into another, while they were both 

 held within the fphcre of the fixed air. The method of ef- 

 fedfing this by air diflodged from chalk and other calcareous 

 fubftances, did not occur to him till the year 1772, when he 

 publiftied his direftions for this purpofe, together with a 

 dravi'ing of the neceilary apparatus, which he had before 

 communicated to the Board of Admiralty. This apparatus, 

 reprcfcnted in Plate XV. Pneumatics, Jig. I, confiils of a 

 glafs veffel, a, with a narrow neck, and io formed, that it 

 will ftand upright, with its mouth downwards : this veffel, 

 when filled with water, and covered with a flip of paper or 

 thin pafteboard, preffed clofe to it, to prevent the admif- 

 fion of common air, is inverted in another veffel, b, with a 

 little water in it, fo that the flip of paper or pafteboard may 

 be withdrawn, and the end of the pipe, c, introduced into it. 

 This pipe is flexible and air-tight, and beft made of leather, 

 fewed with a flioemaker's waxed thread. It is kept open at 

 both ends by a piece of a quill, while one of them is intro- 

 duced into the veffel of water, and the other into the bladder 

 d; the oppofite end of which is tied round a perforated 

 cork, kept open by a quill, and the cork is made to fit a 

 phial, e, two-thirds of which fliould be filled with chalk juft 

 covered with water. Dr. Prieftley has fince found it meft 

 convenient to ufe a glafs tube ; and to preferve the advantage 

 which he had of agitating the veffel e, he makes ufe of two 

 bladders, communicating by a perforated cork, to which 

 they are both tied. He alfo obferves, that the flexible pipe 

 is not Bcceflary ; but inftead of this a bent tube of glafs 

 muft be ready to be inferted into the hole made in tlie cork, 

 when the bladder containing the fixed air is feparated from the 

 phial in which it was generated. The extremity of this tube 

 being put under the veflel of water, and the bladder being 

 compreft'ed, the air will be conveyed into it, as in the other 

 cafe. Inftead of the bladder, a fmall phial may be inter- 

 pofed between the phial containing the chalk, &c. and the 

 veffel of water : for thus the chalk and water that may be 

 thrown up the tube communicating with this phial will lodge 

 at the bottom of the other, while nothing but the air will 

 get into the pipe communicating with the water. The ap- 

 paratus being thus prepared, let the phial containing the 

 chalk and water be detached from the bladder, and the pipe 

 alfo from the veflel of water ; pour a httle oil of \-itrioI 

 upon the chalk and water ; and having carefully preffed all 

 the common air out of the bladder, put the cork into the 

 bottle prefently after the effervefcence has begun. Alfo 

 prefs the bladder once more after a little of the newly-gene- 

 rated air has got into it, in order the more effectually to 

 clear it of all the remains of the common air ; and then in- 



troduce 



