J u I c; t. 



-principal things which gi« the virtue to nuncral waters ; for 

 thofe which receive no concretion, and are only mingled 

 with the waters in their pailage througii that part of the 

 earth where ihey are evaporated, on the water's being ex- 

 pofed to the air, though they may give a brilkncfs to it, 

 while entire in it, yet are not to be fuppofed to give llic 

 principal virtues. Thefe fluid and volatile juices all fly ofT 

 in the analyfes of the waters, but the concrete juices are 

 more pern^.anent, and leave certain fedinients which render 

 them vifibk- and palpable, after the dillillation of the waters 

 with which they "are mixed. Wlicn llicfe happen to be 

 fiffiple, and of the fame fpccics with thofe known in a folid 

 ftatc, it is eafy to deduce the virtues of the waters from 

 them, and to know what mull be the effeCl of fuch flnids as 

 carry fpar, fulphur, vitriol, or other well-known fnbilances, 

 into the Mood ; but it feldom happe:;s that thefe things are 

 thus contained fimple and entire in tiie waters, they are often 

 blended varioufly with one aiio^her, and often not the whole 

 of the known body is contained, but the principles that con- 

 ftitute fome part of it, fuch as the acid of vitriol without its 

 iretalline part, the bafis of fea-falt without its acid, and fo 

 of the reft. 



Salts and csrths are evidently the moft fenfible and the 

 molt common matters which are mixed with water, and it is 

 from them in general that the medicinal fprings take up 

 their virf.^es. There is fcarcely any earth that does not con- 

 tain fome fort of mineral fait, capable of being walked out 

 by water, though it be generally in imperceptible quanti- 

 ties ; but where the earths are richer in thefe falts. the 

 waters not only take them up, but carry alfo with them the 

 feveral fiuer parti>.les of the ear'h itfelf, in which they are 

 bedded, and rifing np at fome fmall dillance from the place, 

 thev make medicinal fprings, of virtues anfwerable to the 

 peculiar fpecies of the (alt that was lodged there. We are 

 always able to ieparate, by analyfis, the falts and the earths 

 of the mineral waters ; but when we have done this, we are 

 not arrived at the end of the talk, for they are often fuch 

 mixed fubllances, that we can neither know them perfeclly 

 as they are, nor feparate them. 



The four moll known and frequent of thofe concrete 

 juices which are called falts, are alum, nitre, vitriol, and 

 culinary fait ; but the examination of the waters of different 

 medicinal fprings (hews us, that tliere are in the earth others 

 very different from thefe, and that perhaps in great numbers. 

 There is in Alia a native alkali fait, or natrum, and in all 

 the mineral waters we celebrate, there is a peculiar fall fepa- 

 r ible by evaporation, which is more nearly a lied to this 

 than to any of the other four, to one or other of wiiich it 

 has been the cuilom to reduce all fahs ; and yet diftVr.'Ut 

 even from this in fome refpeds. liefides thi.s, thofe juices 

 of the faline kind, whofe difpofition to concretion is not yet 

 finiihed, and whofe (late is, as it were, but in cmbrvo, or 

 the firil ilage of being, are not to be known, when feparated 

 from the waters to whidi yet they may have perhaps given 

 virtues greater than the concrete, in what we call its more 

 yerfeft (late, n>i^bt have given : nay, even thofe that are 

 more formed, and are already concreted, or in a Hate cipa- 

 ble of concretion, have not fimple and homogeneous fub- 

 llances in each of the fpecies. Tlie fait that is called culi- 

 nary fait, is obferved to have two different portions mixed 

 together ; the one i? cc'idenfed and cryllalli/.ed by cold nr-.d 

 in moillure, after the evaporation cf a part of tlie water 

 wherein this fait hath been dili'olved ; and the other will not 

 he cryllabi/.ed nor condenfed, but by a total cvajioration of 

 the water. The portion of this fait that is cryltallized by 

 cold and in moillure, is the moll fulpluireous, and by its 

 fulphureity it will mi» ilfelf with the fulphureous fait of 



calcined tartar rcfolv.-d in a nioift air, or in tommoti water, 

 without turbidnefs, and without coagulation : but tiiat por- 

 tion of this coitmion fait which is not condenfed but by the 

 total evapor.tion of the water which had diffolvtd it, hath 

 an acidity whicli inllanlly coagulates the fait of tartar dif- 

 folved, and all other falts in the fame ttate which are ful- 

 phureous and nitrous. It is evident, that while this fait h 

 in its embryo Hate, the one or the other alone of thefe tv.o 

 very different fubllances of which it is contained, may be 

 mixed with the waters of a fpring, and communicate virtues 

 differe. t from thofe which the whole body of the fait 

 would have done. This fait alio being procured by eva- 

 poration of the water, or by any other analyfis of it, could 

 not be known or referred to tlie common lalts, and much 

 lefs if in the earth, as may very e;ilily happen, it Ihould be 

 united with fo.Tic one of the coiiRituent parts of fome other 

 fa't, in the fame difunited or unfalhioiicd flate. 



The vitriol which in a moill air yields an e/florefcence 

 upon fulphureous marcalites, has likewile a juicy portion, 

 condenfible only by a total evaporation of its aqueous humi- 

 dity ; this is of a very acrimonious talle, of an unctuous 

 fubftance, and eafily runs to water in a moill air. This 

 juicy portion of vitriol is very different from that which 

 Ihoots and condenfcs in the fluid liquor, by means of the 

 cold. Thefe cryltuls are pure vitriol acid, aullerc, and on 

 being mixed with the fulpluireous and nitrons falts, a great 

 quantity of earthy matter precipitates, out of them ; but the 

 other portion will mix itielf with thefe lalts in folution, 

 without turbidnefs or emotion, not iiaving, like the former, 

 that acidity upon which tlie fulpluireous or nitrous falts can 

 act ; which is exactly contr:u y to what happens to commor» 

 fait, of which the firll portion is the moil fiilpluueous, and 

 the latter portion the moft acid. Nitre is alio, like the rell, 

 conipofed of two different falme portions, the one more 

 fulphureous, which cryitalli/.es with the cold, and in moif- 

 ture, and the other, which remains diffolved after all the 

 cryllals are obtained, and which cannot be obtained in a dry 

 form, but by the evaporation of all the humidity. This is 

 lefs fulphureous than the other part obtained in cryilals, and 

 has fome acidity which the other lias not. 



The lull embryos of mineral falts are nothing elfe but 

 vapours or juices not concreted, but totally volatile or va- 

 porable ; of thefe fome may be condenfed, and in p:irt fixed 

 by the action of lire, or difengaged from their matrices, and 

 made capable of concretion by means of the air, as is ob- 

 ferved in certain nitrous, aluminous, and vitriolic falts. The 

 fulphureous part, which is formed in the lime, made of cer- 

 tain hard Hones burnt in the fire, which is generally allowed 

 to be a fpecies of nitre, has certainly its ieminal being iu 

 ihele crude Hones, and in that Hate of its being, is very 

 different from that which we find after it has paffed the lire, 

 wiiicii, from cold and coagulative, changes into canilic and 

 ivfolutive. This cold and coagulative quality of this Hony 

 fait, in its firH Hate, mainfoHs itielf fufficiently in the waters 

 of certain r.^ck fpiings, which are very limpid and cold, and 

 breed cold and fchirroin tumours un<!ir the throats of thofe 

 people who ordinarily drink thtrn, as in the Alps, £;c. See 

 Bko.nchoci:i.k. 



The fcininal matter of this fait then is wholly altered in 

 its nature by lire, and is rendered fulphureous and cauHic 

 as nitre. Fire is able to exalt and alter the Hate of being 

 of this fait, but it is no more able to produce it in thefe 

 Hones than in the HicUs of oyllers, &c. of which alfo a lime 

 is made, whith yields a fait not more fulphureous than this. 

 Du .Clos, Qbferv. fur les Eanx Miner. 



'I'he femiiial being of alum and vitriol mud, in the fame 



mAimcr* exit! in. thui'e- fubliances uut of wliich thofe falta 



4 F « ■ are 



