CHAPTER I. 
THE SOURCES OF MINERAL WATERS. 
SOME DEFINITIONS. 
1. Herpin defines mineral waters as all waters which, by the 
nature of their principles or by their therapeutic action, differ 
from drinkable waters. 
2. Ossian Henry, sr., says: ‘‘Mineral waters are those wa- 
ters which, coming from the bosom of the earth at variable 
depths, bring with them substances which may have upon the 
animal economy a medical action capable of giving rise to 
effects often very salutary in the different diseases affecting hu- 
manity.”’? 
3. M. Durian-Fardel, speaking of mineral waters, says they 
are ‘‘natural waters which are employed in therapeutics be- 
cause of their chemical composition or their temperature.”’ 
4. A mineral water, in the medical acceptation of the term, 
is one which by virtue of its ingredients, whether mineral, or- 
ganic, or gaseous, or the principle of heat, is especially applicable 
to the treatment of disease.” 
5. Mineral waters are those natural waters which contain 
an excess of some ordinary ingredients or a small quantity of 
some rare ingredients, and which on this account are used as 
remedial agents. 
As an indication of what the United States government is 
doing in gathering statistics of the production of mineral wa- 
ters, and to show how much the term ‘‘ mineral waters’’ covers, 
the following, by A. C. Peale, of the United States Geological 
Survey, from the circular just sent to all the mineral springs 
proprietors in the United States, is quoted: 
‘‘Our reports do not restrict the term ‘mineral waters’ to medicinal waters, 
but includes all spring waters put on the market, whether they are utilized as 
2. Mineral Springs of United States and Canada, Walton, page 14. 
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