326 The Vitriol 



fchlacken-bad, where fome arfenic, by means of 

 fulphur and vitriol, infinuates itfelf into the water, 

 which notwithstanding, has as good effects, and per- 

 forms as good cures as any other medicinal water. 

 Not that we are to imagine fuch waters to hold 

 great quantities of arfenic •, it fometimes fcarce 

 amounting to grains, nay, not to one eighth of a 

 grain in feveral pounds of water, as I have found 

 in the fchlacken-bad. 



And though a water mould happen to hold a 

 greater quantity, if not to a very extraordinary 

 degree, it mould not therefore be confidered as 

 noxious and poifonous, but its innocence, nay, 

 ufefulnefs, ought to be judged of by the effects, 

 and not by pre-conceived fpeculations. It is, how- 

 ever, true, that of all the vitriols I have ever ex- 

 amined, I found no one fort arfenical, though 

 fuch a thing might be furmlfed from fome groove- 

 vitriols, in confederation of the arfenical admixture 

 in their pyrites. 



Laftly, to mention fbmething on the head of 

 acidula and therma : thefe certainly, in regard to 

 their vitriol, fulphur, iron, copper, arfenic, alfo 

 their alum, take their rife only from pyrites •, the 

 vitriolifation of which loofens thefe parts, and fits 

 them to incorporate with the intercurrent waters, 

 and to render them mineral. 



The other contents, either a pure, or a vitrio- 

 lated lixivious fait, though the laft becomes inch 

 by evaporation only, are by no means produced, 

 as none fuch can be procured from pyrites. And 

 here principally we have two queries to make. 



(i.) How 



