PROFESSOR FORBES ON THE TEMPERATURES 
XIII. Las Escaldas. 
A. Geological Position . — The springs of Las Escaldas are most remarkably situated 
on the southern side of the Pyrenees, in the district called La Cerdagne Francaise, 
being in the French territory, though almost close to the Spanish frontier, looking 
down the valley of the Segre into Spain, and being almost entirely frequented by 
Spaniards. The character of the spot, too, is romantic : it lies at a distance from any 
road except that which leads to it, and is thus off the track even of the casual tra- 
veller who may pass through this remote and often disturbed district. To the north 
it is surrounded by granitic hills, bare and strewed with detached blocks ; to the 
south, the town of Puycerda and its parched plain are visible. The watering-place 
itself, consisting of but a few houses, is situated however in a green and fertile 
hollow, which pleasingly contrasts with the scenery around. The springs all rise 
from granite, but as usual they are almost at the limit of that rock, the slates of the 
Spanish territory rising upon it at a very short distance. 
B. Specialties of the Springs . — There are two bathing establishments, and one de- 
tached spring. 
I. Bains Colomer. These baths, the principal ones of the place, and which have 
been known for many centuries, are supplied from one great spring, which discharges, 
according to the accurate Anglada # , no less than 795*5 cubic metres in twenty-four 
hours ; a quantity which enables it to work a fulling-mill at a short distance. The 
principal issue of this spring has been inclosed in a sort of reservoir, but it is easy to 
empty this, and to obtain the flow of water direct from the source. It was in this 
way that I measured it, and I had the satisfaction to find it agree within one tenth of 
a degree with that of the “ buvette,” which is merely a ramification of the same spring, 
but so far distinct that it is raised to a higher level. Nothing, therefore, can be more 
satisfactory than the manner in which this spring may be observed. 
II. The Bains Merlat are near the others, but a little lower, a. Source de la Douche : 
small, issues from a crack in the granite rock, and is carried through a baked earth 
conduit six feet long, at the extremity of which its temperature was taken. /3. Grande 
Source : tolerably abundant. It rises in a reservoir, and its temperature was taken 
immediately at its issue from that reservoir into the nearest bath. y. A small but 
highly mineralized cold spring, rising within not many yards of the above. It appears 
to be highly energetic on the animal economy, and is impregnated with the same prin- 
ciples as the adjoining hot springs. This is quite similar to the case of the cold sul- 
phureous spring at the Eaux Bonnes already mentioned. Anglada does not mention 
this spring of Escaldas. Within a very short distance is a fine spring of pure cold 
* Traits des Eaux Minerales du Departement des Pyrdndes Orientales, tom. i. p. 92. Paris, 1833. Anglada 
minutely describes the circumstances of the rise of the spring, and the precautions (similar to my own) which 
he employed in taking its temperature. 
