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 to the intestine. What sulphuretted hydrogen reaches the blood is eliminated by the lungs. There seems to be no doubt that the gas is absorbed in small quantities by the skin.

It is in sulphur waters chiefly that glairin and baregin occur. This peculiar organic substance has been found both in American and in European springs. Cold sulphur springs are very widely diffused throughout the world. Thermal ones are not so common. Perhaps the largest though not the strongest group of the latter is to be found in the Pyrenees. We may remark again how very little hydrosulphuric acid there is in many of the most favourite sulphur springs, including the very popular White Sulphur ones of Virginia. There seems to be something peculiarly unsatisfactory in the analysis of sulphur waters, and there has been difficulty in constructing the following imperfect tables.

Some of the most powerful cold wells are those of Challes (with its very peculiar Water), Leuk and Harrogate. Uriage has a very large amount of chloride of sodium in its springs. Cold sulphur waters are on the whole more used in liver and indigestion than warm ones. The general effects of warm sulphur Waters differ so little at the various baths as to make it difficult to mention anything special to particular localities. Schinznach has a reputation in skin complaints, Cauterets, Eaux Bonnes and Challes in laryngeal affections, the two Aix, Luchon and Archena in syphilis.

Alkaline Waters are such as contain carbonate (chiefly bicarbonate) of soda, along with an excess of carbonic acid. Of the action of those carbonates it is known that when taken into the stomach they are neutralized by the gastric juice, and converted into chloride of sodium. On their introduction into the stomach, they produce an increased flow of gastric juice. If given during or immediately after meals in any quantity, they impede digestion. They slightly increase peristaltic action, but only feebly, unless assisted by other salts. They act slightly as diuretics. Of the connexion between the biliary system and alkalies, which undoubtedly exists, not much is known with certainty. The alkalization of the blood by them is assumed by many, but not proved. It is very doubtful whether they reduce the quantity of fibrine in the blood, and thus induce a lowered state of the system, or whether they have any direct tendency to combine with fat and carry off a portion of superfluous adipose tissue. Their excess of carbonic acid, through its action on the stomach, favours the operation of alkaline waters. They have been classed as follows: (1) simple alkalines, where carbonate of soda is the main agent; (2) waters containing in addition some chloride of sodium; (3) waters containing sulphates of soda or of magnesia. All these classes may be said to be used in gout, lithiasis, affections of the liver, catarrh and obstructions of the gall ducts, in dyspepsia, chronic catarrh of the stomach and diarrhoea, in obesity and in diabetes. Some of the waters of the second class are supposed to influence bronchial catarrhs and incipient phthisis, while the more powerful sulphated waters of the third class are especially useful in catarrh of the stomach, and in affections of the biliary organs; of these only one of importance (Carlsbad) is thermal. The rival cold waters of Tarasp contain twice as much carbonate of soda. The cold ones are chiefly used internally, the thermal ones both internally and externally. The latter, besides acting as warm water, slightly stimulate the skin when the carbonic acid is abundant, and the carbonate of soda has some slight detergent effect on the cutaneous surface like soap. These waters are unknown in England. They are most abundant in countries of extinct volcanoes.

Classes I. and II. of alkaline waters may be said to have a sub-variety in acidulated springs or carbonated waters, in which the quantity, of salts is very small, that of carbonic acid large. These table waters are readily drunk at meals. They have of late years been so widely exported as to be within the reach almost of every one. Their practical importance in aiding digestion is in reality much greater than one could expect from their scanty mineralization. They are drunk by the country people, and also largely exported and imitated. They are very abundant on the Continent,

and, although some of the best-known ones enumerated below are German and French, they are common in Italy and elsewhere: Heppingen, Roisdorf, Landskro, Apollinaris, Selters, Brückenau, Gieshübel, all German; St Galmier, Pougues, Chateldon, French.

Associated with Class III. is that of the strongly sulphated waters known in Germany as bitter or purging waters, which have of late deservedly come into use as purgative agents. They are almost wanting in France and in America, and there are no very good ones in England. The chief supply is from Bohemia and Hungary.

The numerous waters of Ofen are the best known, and some of them are stronger than the Hunyadi, of which an analysis has been given in Table I. They are easily imitated. Some of the best-known are Ofen, Püllna, Saidschütz, Friedrichshall, Birmerstorff, Kissingen.

Two other classes of waters demand a few words of notice. The French have much faith in the presence of minute quantities of arsenic in some of their springs, and trace arsenical effects in those who drink them, and some French authors have established a class of arsenical waters. Bourboule in Auvergne is the strongest of them, and is said to contain th of a grain of arseniate of soda in 7 oz. of water. Baden-Baden, according to Bunsen’s latest analysis, has a right to be considered an arsenical water. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether the small amounts of arseniate of soda which have been detected, accompanied as they are by preponderating amounts of other salts, have any actual operation on the system. The following are among the most noted springs: