OBSERVATIONS On the Mineral WATERS OF FRANCE Made in the ROYAL ACADEMY Of the SCIENCES By the Sieur DU CLOS Physician in Ordinary to His Most Christian Majesty Now made English VERITAS IN PUTEO LONDON Printed for Henry Faithorne and John Kersey at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. THis Treatise being the Product of that Ingenious Assembly the French Royal Academy of the Sciences and Curious both in Subject and Method has been thought not unworthy to speak the English Tongue It may be hop'd that Our Nation which is so good Natur'd as to imitate sometimes even the Follies of those our Neighbours may hence be excited by a Generous Emulation to a like if not greater Performance in this kind Some may object what is Here done arrives not to the Exactness of Certain Knowledge which tho granted hinders not but such a numerous Collection of faithful Experiments may find a favourable acceptance The Subject Matter lies Dark and Deep in the very Bowels of our Mother Earth and the Great Chain of Causes and Effects is perfectly known only to that All-Wise Being whereon it depends OBSERVATIONS On the Mineral WATERS OF FRANCE Made in the Royal ACADEMY Of the SCIENCES THe Use of Mineral Waters having deservedly obtain'd a great Esteem and Reputation for the Cure of many Chronical and Rebellious Diseases some Physicians have applied themselves to search out by Experiment their Nature and Principles thereby to judge how far they are proper for certain Diseases and the particular Constitution of the Diseased While others have been contented to refer themselves to common Opinions founded on the Observations of some Effects This Matter being subordinate to Physical Speculation the Royal Academy of the Sciences have determined to employ themselves in the Enquiry of the Qualities of those in this Kingdom which are most considerable And till favourable occasion may offer to make Observations at their Springs they have caused these Waters to be brought from several Provinces with much care to examine them in the usual Assemblies of the Naturalists of this Academy The Resolution to proceed herein has not been taken without much consideration the Reasons from the advantage of these Waters for the restoring Health in many Diseases being counterbalanced by those of the Difficulty in knowing the Causes of their Proprieties which depend particularly upon the Mixtures of certain Substances which meet together in their Passages in the Earth or in the Cavities and Interstices of Rocks which are various and many as Vapours Juices Salts Earths c. The greatest part of these substances wherewith Mineral VVaters are impregnateâ— cannot be discern'd and the different Mixture which is made of several together may constitute so great a Number of Kinds of Mineral Waters wholsom or unwholsom that it is impossible to give any knowledge or determination of them all The Waters of the same Springs may at divers times receive considerable Alterations either by new Mixtures or by the Cessation of those which have been formerly made It is not probable that these Waters called Mineral should be produced alone by Mineral Vapours condens'd or that there is in the Earth Mines sufficiently abounding to furnish continually Vapours capable being condens'd to maintain a perpetual Course of these Waters in Springs which dry not But it may be that some Mineral Vapours or Exhalations do mix with common VVaters which traverse the Earths where they meet and are condens'd and that these VVaters are impregnated with their Qualities and of some other Volatile Salts not Concrete elevated in these dry Exhalations or humid Vapours The distinguishing the Qualities of these Exhalations and Vapours is not easy the Diversity of their Principles is very great the Rencounter of their Mixtures is casual the Conditions of the Places thro which they pass and wherein they are retained are not evident and the Alterations which they produce in the Waters wherein they insinuate themselves are not always very manifest There is no less difficulty to know and distinguish the Juices which are mixt with Mineral Waters and particularly those which receive nothing of Concretion and which communicate to these Waters no sensible Quality for these liquid Juices and wholly Volatile pass in distillation with the substance of the Water and are no otherwise manifest than by Effects which simple Water cannot produce The Juices which are call'd Concrete because they are Condensable and Resoluble leave Sediments which render them visible and palpable after the Distillation or Evaporation of the Water wherewith they are mixt But it is difficult to discern their Kinds and Proprieties if they have no resemblance to those which are already known or if they are many conjoin'd The Salts and Earths are the most sensible and most common substances which mix with the Waters of Springs and Wells There is almost no sort of Earth which participates not of some Salt dissoluble in the Waters which pass thro it and the Current of these Waters carries away always some fine Earth This is found the most manifest in these Waters But the knowledg of these Salts and Earths mixt in these Waters is not always so distinct as to determine their Species and make a certain judgment of their Properties There are few Concrete Salts known to us There may be many which have no resemblance with Common Salt Nitre Alum or Vitriol which are the four most common Genders of Concrete Mineral Salts Those whose disposition towards Concretion is not yet compleated and which are yet in Embryo or their first Seminal Being are less distinguishable in that State And those which are more formed and either already Concrete or capable of Concretion by some called Enix that is to say born and come forth out of their Matrixes have not substances Simple and Homogeneous in each kind The Salt which goeth under the Name of Common Salt contains two different Parts mixt together whereof one is Condens'd and Chrystalliz'd thro Cold in a Humid after Evaporation of one part of the Water wherein this Salt hath been dissolv'd the other is not Chrystalliz'd or Condens'd but by a total Evaporation of the remaining Water The former Part is most Sulphurous and by its Sulphureity mixeth with the Sulphurous Salt of Tartar Calcin'd and Dissolv'd by the Moisture of the Air or in common Water without trouble and without Coagulation But the other Part containeth an Acidity which Coagulates in an instant the dissolv'd Salt of Tartar and all other fixt Salts Sulphurous and Nitrous Vitriol which shooteth forth by the Humid Air on Sulphurous Marchasites hath likewise a Succulent part Condensable only by a total Evaporation of its Aqueous Humidity of a taste very Acrimonious of a consistence Unctuous and easily dissoluble by a humid Air which Part is much different from that which first is Condensed and Chrystallized thro Cold in Water wherein this Vitriol hath been dissolved These Chrystals are Pure Acid-Austere Vitriol whence there is precipitated much Mineral Earth by
were dissolv'd in order to be purified The Quantity of Salt as well Nitrous as Common wherewith each of these Mineral VVaters are Impregnated cannot always be precisely determined it being not always equal in the VVaters of the same Springs according to the Constitutions of the Air wet or dry and other Accidents 'T is sufficient to remark only the Differences of much little or middle Quantity The waters which have been observ'd to have a remarkable and great Quantity of a Salt like to true Nitre are those of Bourbon l' Archambaut Vichy Mont d' Or Vic le Comte Martres de Veyre S. Mion S. Floret and Andabre Those which have but a Mediocrity are those of Chaudesaigues Pougues Pont-Gibault S. Alban Jaude Beaurepaire Josse Vic en Carladois and Prugniez And those which have little are those of Neris Esvahon and Sail. The Salt which was found to have a resemblance with Common Salt was abundant in the VVaters of Balleruc la Bourboule Chastelguyon and Availles There was a moderate Quantity in those of Bourbon Lancy Bagniéres Encausse and Digne But there was very little in those of B aréges Capvert Barbazan la Trauliére Besse Pons en Saintonge la Rocheposay Vaujour Chasteau-Gontier S. Reyne Premeau Provins Forges S. Paul de Rouen Belesme Hebecrevon Reuilly la Taille Menetou Bourberouge Vaux Montigny Montbosq and Pont-normand There was no manifest Salt found in those of S. Pardoux Bardon Chanonat Mans c. There hath not been found in any of these VVaters either Alum or Vitriol discernible in their Sediments These substances which are reckoned in the rank of Mineral Salts are Concrete Juices condens'd by Evaporation of the superabundant Humidity dissolving them They participate of much Earthiness very fixt and their Acid Spirits are not separated but by great Heat which raiseth them with an Augmentation of a Corrosive Acidity The Taste somewhat Aigre or Vinous must needs proceed from other mixtures than those of Alum or Vitriol since it is so easily lost in the open Air when these VVaters are exposed thereto for a few days and more speedily when they are a little warmed In the Distillation of these VVaters in Balneo Mariae this Acidity is neither found in what is distill'd nor in what remains in the Alembic where no other Salts are to be found but Nitrous or Common Only the VVater of Vahls in Dauphiné from a certain Spring called la Dominique left after Distillation a certain Salt having some resemblance to White Vitriol It was of a Taste a little Vitriolic sweetish and somewhat Styptic This Salt being dissolv'd in Common Water made the Tincture of Tournesole to become Red almost as Vitriol doth and being mixt with the Salt of Tartar dissolv'd also in Common Water became Black as Ink and precipitated a Black Earth It being otherwise with White Vitriol which doth not so much blacken with the Salt of Tartar It were proper to enquire whether this Water of la Dominique be Emetic as that wherein Vitriol is dissolved and whether it produceth Effects like to those Waters wherein there is a True Compleat Vitriol The Brownish-Red or Purple Colour which Acid Mineral Waters take by the Infusion of certain substances which with Vitriol make Ink is no certain sign that Vitriol is the Cause of the Acidity of these Waters in the most part whereof there is no Vitriol but a Sulphurous Nitre capable to absorb Vitriolic and Aluminous Acidities There were found in certain Sulphurous Earths Vaporous Juices not Coagulable which are Acid and do seem to be Vitriolic Seminaries which may in time gain by degrees Concretions approaching to those of Vitriols These Vaporous Juices meeting with the Waters of certain Springs may give them a Vaporous Acidity but which is easily lost as those of the Waters of Pougues S. Mion Vic le Comte Vic en Carladois Martres de Veyre S. Parise la Trauliére Besse and several others Tho when these Juices have any beginning of Concretion there remains some part in the Sediments after the Distillation of the Water as in that of la Dominique which nevertheless lost its Acidity by Heat As for the Earths which have been found in different Quantity in the Mineral Waters examin'd by the Academy the particular Distinction of their Species hath been more difficult than that of the Species of their Salts There was found much Earth in the Waters of Petit Bain Bain de la Reyne and the Spring of la Forgue at Bagniéres also in those of Barbazan Encausse Prugniez and Chastelguyon Moderately in those of the Grand Bain Bain de S. Roch de Bagniéres Capvert Andabre Bourbon l'Archambault Vic le Comte Martres de Veyre S. Floret Pierre de Clermont Jaude Josse Digne Pougues and Passi Little in those of the Spring of Salut de Bagniéres and in those of Baréges Chaudesaigues Mont d' Or Vic en Carladois S. Mion Besse Vernet Chanonat Pont-Gibault la Bourboule S. Alban Sail la Trauliére Vichy Bourbon Lancy Neris Esvahon Pons en Saintonge Montendre la Fonsrouilleuse la Rocheposay Vaujour Chasteau-Gontier Premeau S. Reyne Provins Mans and in all those of Normandy There was no manifest Earth found in the Waters of Balleruc and Availles the Sediments whereof were wholly Saline The most part of these Earths were White and Subtil as those of the Waters of Bagniéres Capvert Barbazan Encausse Andabre Prugniez Vic en Carladois Vic le Comte Martres de Veyre Besse Vernet Chastelguyon S. Pierre de Clermont Jaude Pont-Gibault la Bourboule Josse S. Alban Sail Neris Esvahon S. Parise the two Bourbons and Pougues Others were Grey as those of the Waters of Baréges Mont d' Or Chaudesaigues S. Floret Chanonat Vichy Bardon S. Pardoux la Trauliére Pons la Rocheposay Chasteau-Gontier S. Paul de Rouen Belesme Premeau and S. Reyne Others Ruddy as those of the Waters of Vaujour Mans Provins Forges and almost all the other Waters of Normandy In Evaporation of all these Waters their Earths were in different Forms some in that of Films swimming a top as those of the Waters of Capvert Barbazan Encausse Vic en Carladois Vic le Comte Martres de Veyre Vernet S. Alban Vichy Pougues S. Parise and Pons Others in Flakes as those of the Waters of Baréges Andabre Prugniez S. Floret Chanonat S. Pierre la Bourboule and Josse Others in Mucilages as those of the Waters of Chaudesaigues Vic en Carladois Montendre Vaujour Mans and Premeau Others in Clods as those of the Waters of Vic le Comte and S. Mion Others in Chaffy form as those of the Waters of Chastelguyon Besse Bardon and S. Pardoux Others in small sandy Grains as those of the Waters of la Fonsrouilleuse la Rocheposay and S. Reyne Others in a subtil Brown Powder as those of the Waters of Provins and almost all those of Normandy There have been also observed some other Differences of these Earths by putting them in distill'd Vinaigre and burning them strongly in the Fire
and that this Water may be so much the better forasmuch as being before expos'd to the Air in the Channel of the River it hath not that Crudity which those Waters have which proceed from deep Earths and Rocks Whether its Mineral Quality be taken from the Earth of this Meadow it were possible to discover somwhat by Experiment on this Earth observ'd as well in its Surface as at bottom if the soaking thro of the Water of the River hindereth not the search Of the Water of Spa. This Water of Spa brought into France for the Use of the Queen about the end of Summer and sent to the Laboratory of the King's Library to be examin'd was in four Bottles one whereof was but half-full having been ill stop't and the Water run out The Water of this Bottle was a little troubled and altho it was still of a Taste moderately inclining to somewhat Aigre and Vinous it tinctur'd not with Galls The Water of the other three Bottles which had been well stopt and were full was very Limpid and of a Taste somewhat Aigre and Vinous It took a Minim Colour with Galls Being mixt with the Dissolution of Mercury Sublimate made in Common Water it troubled and rendred it Milky and mixt with the Dissolution of German Vitriol likewise made in Water it troubled that also and in a little time there was made a Precipitation of Ruddish subtil Earth as do those Waters wherein there is a Sulphurous Salt The Acidity of this Water hindereth it not from troubling and precipitating Salt of Lead dissolv'd in Common Water It made the Tincture of Tournesole to turn little Red which a less Acidity turneth much Which gives occasion to judg that the Acidity of this Water is not Simple Being put to distil by a very gentle heat in a high Glass-Alembic to separate the more Volatile and Subtil part what pass'd first was not found different from what followed and what remain'd in the Cucurbite ceasing Distillation after having drawn about 1 4 neither was there any Acidity in the whole Water What remain'd in the Cucurbit having been put in an Earthen Vessel upon warm Ashes to evaporate gently in order to observe whether there were made any Concretions during Evaporation this Water remain'd always Limpid and when there were no more than two Ounces in the Vessel there were made new Essays to know the Quality of the Salt therein by putting a little of this Water as well in the Dissolution of Mercury Sublimate made in Common Water which it troubled and made Milky as on that of German Vitriol which it also troubled with a certain Precipitation of Ruddish Earth and also on Syrup of Violets which became Green All which Effects were Proofs of a Sulphurous Salt confirming those drawn from the former Essays The Vessel wherein the Evaporation was made was found lin'd in its upper part near the edge and all about with a Saline Concretion and lower toward the bottom it was lin'd with a Yellowish Earth almost Insipid but a little Restringent The Evaporation being finish'd there remain'd of the whole Quantity of this Water which was lb vij â„¥ vj. Ê’vj an Earthy and somewhat Saline Sediment being all over the inward Surface of the Vessel This Sediment being taken thence weigh'd only Gr. xlviij whereof 3 4 were a Light Subtil Ruddish Earth and 1 4 was a Sulphurous Salt which caus'd Mercury Sublimate to precipitate of a White Colour as doth the Salt of Marle and also the Volatile Salts of Plants and Animals and not of a Red or Orange Colour as do the true Nitres and Alcalies This Particularity would have oblig'd us to have made a Ninth Class wherein to have plac'd this foreign Water if we had found the like in France to have fill'd it up Advertisements and Corollaries THe great Quantity of Mineral Water which Physicians cause them to drink to whom they prescribe the Use thereof for the Cure of some Rebellious Diseases which yield not to Ordinary Remedies gives occasion to judge that the Principal Effect which they expect is the cleansing of the Viscera by this Inward Washing This Effect is considerable because the most part of Chronical Diseases proceed from the Obstruction of the Viscera which this great Quantity of Drink may resolve The Ease which many Patients receive is the reason why few Physicians give themselves the trouble of searching the particular Qualities of these Waters which are nevertheless very different and considerable enough to deserve Inquiry in order to make the better use of them according to the Diversity of Diseases and the different Constitution of the Diseased 'T is easy to judge that all Waters of Running Springs such as are the Mineral Waters which are us'd in Physic may have particular different Qualities if it be considered that some of these Waters come from Places near the Surface of the Earth others from certain Places more Deep Those which have not been able to penetrate further because of Beds of Stone or Fat Earth which happen underneath rest on this sort of Bottoms and run out only where they find any Passages They have their Originals either from the fall of Rain-Waters or by the Percolation of the Waters of Rivers and Lakes or of the Sea thro the Neighbouring Earths or those which they can reach and in traversing these Earths which are less compact they dissolve the Salts which are there and impregnate themselves with certain Subtil Earthy Particles which are found by Evaporation The Water which comes from Places more Deep whither its Weight caus'd it to fall according as it could pass cannot rise again in its Liquid Consistence without force but being rarified by some inward heat of the Earth it riseth in Vapours afterwards resuming its first and Natural Liquid Consistence by the Cold toward the Surface of the Earth in coming forth it produceth Springs and also little Lakes on the highest Mountains whither it may very well rise since that it mounteth even to the middle Region of the Air where Snow is form'd and whence Rain falls These Waters being rarified in the Profundities of the Earth whence they rise receive easily Mixtures of Mineral Exhalations and Vapours which are frequent in these Places but these Mixtures being not often distinguish'd in these Waters rising from their Springs either by Scent or Taste cannot be understood but by their Effects the Assignment whereof to their proper Causes is not always easy and certain The Information which we give here of the Salts and Earths of several Mineral Waters will not fully satisfie the Curiosity of those who would be likewise instructed concerning the other Causes of the Proprieties of these Waters since that besides the mixture of Concrete substances found in them according to the Observations here related there may also be contain'd substances not Concrete so Subtil and so Volatile that there can remain nothing in the Sediments which may be perceiv'd to differ from the Salts