472 
plint's natural histobt. 
[Book XXXI. 
It will be only proper, therefore, in the first place to set forth 
some instances of the powerful properties displayed by this 
element ; for as to the whole of them, what living mortal could 
describe them ? 
CHAP. 2. (2.) THE DIEFEEENT PROPEETIES OF WATERS. 
On all sides, and in a thousand countries, there are waters 
bounteously springing forth from the earth, some of them cold, 
some hot, and some possessed of these properties united : those 
in the territory of the Tarbelli,^ for instance, a people of Aqui- 
tania, and those among the Pyrensean^ Mountains, where hot 
and cold springs are separated by only the very smallest dis- 
tance. Then, again, there are others that are tepid only, or 
lukewarm, announcing thereby the resources they afford for 
the treatment of diseases, and bursting forth, for the benefit of 
man alone, out of so many animated beings.* 
Under various names, too, they augment the number of the 
divinities,^ and give birth to cities ; Puteoli,^ for example, in 
Campania, Statyellae''' in Liguria, and Sextise^ in the province 
of Gallia !N'arbonensis. But nowhere do they abound in greater 
number, or ojQfer a greater variety of medicinal properties than 
in the Gulf of Baise f some being impregnated with sulphur, 
some with alum, some with salt, some with nitre, and some 
with bitumen, while others are of a mixed quality, partly acid 
and partly salt. In other cases, again, it is by their vapours 
that waters are so beneficial to man, being so intensely hot as 
to heat our baths even, and to make cold water boil in our 
sitting-baths ; such, for instance, as the springs at Baise, now 
known as Posidian,'* after the name of a freedman^^ of the 
Emperor Claudius ; waters which are so hot as to cook articles 
2 He alludes to the mineral waters of Acqs or Dax on the Adour, in the 
French department of the Ariege. They are still highly esteemed. 
3 The principal of which are those of Aigues-Chaudes, Aigues-Bonnes, 
Bagneres- Adores, Cambo, Bagneres, Bareges, Saint- Sauveur, and Cauteret, 
^ Ajasson remarks that animals in all cases refuse to drink mineral waters. 
5 He alludes to Neptune, Amphitrite, the Oceanides, Nereides, Tritons, 
Crenides, Limnades, Potamides, and numerous other minor divinities. 
6 See B. iii. c. 9. ? See B. iii. c. 7. » gee B. hi. c. 5. 
9 The mineral waters of Baise are still held in high esteem. 
As to the identity of the "nitrum " of Pliny, see c. 4'6 of this Book. 
11 Posides, a eunuch who belonged to the Emperor Claudius, according 
to Suetonius, c. 28. 
