As I Had Neither Hydrometer Nor Thermometer To
Ascertain The Weight And Warmth Of This Water; Nor Time To
Procure
The proper utensils, to make the preparations, and repeat
the experiments necessary to exhibit a complete analysis, I did
not
Pretend to enter upon this process; but contented myself with
drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which perfectly answered
my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured an ugly
scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the use
of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used
externally, left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin:
that when, we boiled it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams
smelled like those of sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the
same manner: but the bath itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln.
The water, after standing all night in a bottle, yielded a
remarkably vinous taste and odour, something analogous to that of
dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the active particles consist
of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine petroleum, or a mixture of
both, I shall not pretend to determine: but the best way I know
of discovering whether it is really impregnated with a vitriolic
principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual operations of
chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the bath, or
adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid, in
any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty
hours.
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