A small work of this description will not admit of our entering into a minute detail of all the mineral waters of France; we shall therefore merely give a sketch of their physical characters, medicinal properties, and of the different localities where they are found, to serve as a superficial guide to Invalids; and conclude by giving a more general description of the _Spas of Central France_.
Mineral waters may be arranged into the four following classes; _Saline_; _Acidulous_; _Chalybeate_; and _Sulphureous_.
_Saline._ These waters owe their properties altogether to saline compounds. Those which predominate and give their character to the waters of this class are either,
4. Alkaline Carbonates, particularly Carbonate of Soda.
They are mostly purgative, the powers of the salts they contain being very much increased by the large proportion of water in which they are exhibited.
There are but few _Cold Saline Springs_ in France, viz: those of Andabre or Camares in the department of Aveyron; Jouhe, dep: Jura; Pouillon, dep: Landes; Niederbronn, dep: Lower Rhine. They are employed in diseases which require continued and moderate intestinal evacuations; such as dyspepsia hypochondriasis, chronic hepatitis, jaundice and strumous swellings. They are more grateful to the stomach when carbonic acid gas is also present; and when they contain Iron as in the springs of Camarès, their tonic powers combined with their purgative qualities, render them still more useful in dyspeptic complaints and amenorrhoea.
To this class the water of the Ocean belongs. The quantity of saline matter _Sea Water_ contains varies in different latitudes thus, between 10° and 20° it is rather more than 1/24; at the equator it is 1/25; and at 57° north it is only 1/27. The saline ingredients in 10,000 parts of sea water according to the last analysis of Dr. Murray, are, muriate of Soda 220.01; muriate of lime, 7.84; muriate of Magnesia, 42.08; and Sulphate of Soda 33.16. When brought up from a great depth, its taste is purely saline; but when taken from the surface it is disagreeably bitter, owing, perhaps, to the animal and vegetable matters suspended in it. Its specific gravity varies from 1.0269 to 1.0285; and it does not freeze until cooled down to 28.5° Fahrenheit. Its medicinal properties are the same as those of the saline purgative waters, but more powerful; and as a bath, its efficacy is much superior to that of fresh water.