herbs are sometimes boiled with them in the Bath waters to a proper consistence for such purpose.

BRISTOL WATERS are obtained from springs, known by the name of the Hot Wells. These waters at their origin are warm, clean, pellucid, and sparkling : and if left to stand in a glass, cover its inside with small air-bubbles. They give no scent, are soft and agreeable to the taste, and generally raise the thermometer to 70 or 800.

The Bristol waters are supposed by many to be a modern discovery, and their use only of late date, but this is a very erroneous opinion. Dr. Venner, nearly two centuries ago, has written professedly of them, and given them their true character, and proper commenda. tions in all the diseases in which they are at this time found effectual, the diabetes only excepted, in which their use has not been known so long. They were not, indeed, much frequented at that time, nor for some years afterwards; but that was merely from the want of the necessary accommodations at the place.- Dr. Maplet, in the year 1639, wrote largely of their virtues, particularly in disorders of the urinary bladder and kidnies, and adds great praises of their external efficacy in curing cancerous ulcers; but with all this praise they never came into fashion, till their character was estab lished by Drs. Mead and Lane.

They have been recommended in a variety of disor ders; in consumptions and weakness of the lungs; in cases attended with hectic fever and heat, (in which, beside other properties, they differ from the Bath waters;) in uterine and other internal hæmorrhages; in old diarrhoeas and dysenteries; in the diabetes, for which some have extolled them as a specific; and in other cases, where the secretions are too much increased, and the humours too thin; in the stone and gravel; in strangu. ary; in colliquative sweats; in scorbutic and similar cases; in colics; in the gout and rheumatism; in loss of appetite and indigestion; and in many other diseases. A gallon of Hot Wells water contains 12.75 grs. chalk 7.25, muriat of magnesia, 4 sea salt, 11.25 sulphat of soda, 11.75 sulphat of lime, 13.5 carbonat of lime, and 30 cubic inches carbonic acid gas.

BUXTON WATERS.-The waters of the medicinal springs near Buxton, in the Peak of Derbyshire, resemble those of Bristol. These waters are the hottest in England, except those of Bath, and raise the thermometer to 830.

The Buxton waters break out in several places contiguous; what is called Buxton bath, includes several warm springs. Taken inwardly, they are esteemed good in the bilious cholic, loss of appetite, and coldness of the stomach; in inward bleedings; in contractions of the vessels and limbs, especially from age; in cramps and convulsions: in the dry asthma without a fever. Inwardly and outwardly they are said to be good in rheumatic and scorbutic complaints; in the gout; in inflammation of the liver and kidnies, and in consumptions of the lungs : also in old sprains; in hard callous tumours; in withered and contracted limbs; in the itch, scabs, nodes, chalky swellings, ring-worms, and other cutaneous complaints. As to the difference of age and sex in patients, there is little caution required in the drinking of them, except that they should be taken more sparingly by young people, between the ages of twenty-three and thirty, if very full of blood and juices. Buxton waters have a sweet and pleasant taste a wine gallon containing only 1.75 grs. muriat of soda, 2.5 sulphat of lime, 10.5 carbonat of lime, and a 64th of its bulk of nitrogen gas and atmospheric air.

CHELTENHAM WATERS, Gloucestershire, are some of the best and most noted purging chalybeate waters in England. The dose is from one pint to three or four: they operate with great ease. They are best taken a little warm: they create an appetite, are excellent in scorbutic complaints, and have been used with success in the gravel. A gallon of Cheltenham water contains an ounce of purging salts, consisting of sulphats of soda and magnesia, 25 grs. muriat and carbonat of magnesia, 5 grs. oxyd of iron, 30.368 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas, and 15.184 of nitrogen and sulphuretted hydrogen gases.

TUNBRIDGE WATERS are among the most famous chalybeate waters in England. The wells are situ.

ated about five miles from the town of Tunbridge in Kent. This is a brisk, light water, has a ferruginous taste: exposed to the air, it soon loses its virtues; as it does also in a few days in bottles. It is sometimes usual to mix with the first glass of the water, taken in the morning, either a little common salt, or some other purging salt, in order to make it operate with a foul stomach it is apt to cause nausea or vomiting. The Tunbridge water is chiefly resorted to in June, July, and August; and is recommended in all the disorders in which the celebrated Spa waters of Germany are serviceable; as it possesses the same virtues, though in a weaker degree. A wine gallon of this water contains muriat of magnesia 2.25 grs. oxyd of iron 1, muriat of soda 0.5, sulphat of lime 1.25, carbonic acid gas 10.6 cubic inches, nitrogen gas 4, and atmospheric air 1.4 cubic inches.

MATLOCK WATERS are warm waters (usually at 690) supplied by several springs at Matlock, in Derbyshire; in their nature and virtues they are similar to those of Bristol and Buxton. The baths are recommended in rheumatic complaints, cutaneous disorders, and in other cases were warm bathing is serviceable. The country is highly romantic and picturesque, and cannot fail to make an impression on the imagination of invalids.

MALVERN WATERS issue from two noted springs, one of which is called Holy Well between Great and Little Malvern; the other, St Ann's Well, in Wor. cestershire: they are light and pleasant chalybeates, and almost entirely free from an earthy matter: three quarts of the Holy Well water being evaporated, left behind scarce the fourth part of a grain of sediment. These waters are recommended as excellent in diseases of the skin; in leprosies, scorbutic complaints, the king's evil, glandular obstructions, scald heads, old sores, cancers, &c.; they are also of use in inflamma.. tions and other disorders of the eyes; in the gout and stone; in cachectic, bilious, and paralytic cases; and in old head-aches. They are likewise used externally by washing the part several times a day, and afterwards covering it with cloths dipped in the water, and kept

and

constantly moist. Some of those who bathe are said to go usually into the water with their linen on, to dress upon it wet, without any inconvenience. These waters, when first drank, are apt to occasion nausea; others they purge briskly for several days; but they operate by urine in all. They should be drank freely for some days before they are used externally. Independent of the waters, Malvern, from the elevation of its situation, purity of its air, rich, varied, and éxtensive rural scenery, and fine rides, is peculiarly delightful as a summer residence.

ISLINGTON WATER is a slight chalybeate water, reckoned one of the best of the kind about London. The iron in this water is held in solution by means of carbonic acid gas, or fixed air: when its air has escaped, the iron is precipitated like rust; if the water he left to putrefy, the air, disengaged by the putrefaction, again dissolves the iron, and causes it to be suspended in the water: it then recovers to a certain degree its chalybeate taste, and property of tinging black with galls, both which it had lost before.

The water is recommended in cases of indigestión and loss of appetite, in lowness of spirits, nervous, hysteric, and hypochondriacal complaints, and relaxed habits. In obstructions of the liver, kidneys, &c. cu. taneous or scorbutic affections, it may be used with advantage. The Islington wells are stronger than the spring discovered at Hampstead, and merit the trial of patients.

At Stow in Gloucestershire, a very strong carbonated chalybeate spring has recently been discovered, which promises to be of considerable advantage as a powerful tonic medicine. Dr. Marcet has also analyzed the ferruginous spring, called the WICK, near Brighton, and found that a gallon of it contains 11.2 grains sulphat of iron, 32.72 sulphat of lime, 12.24 muriat of soda, 6 muriat of magnesia, 1.12 siliceous earth, and car bonic acid, eighteen cubic inches or one thirteenth part of its volume.

There are many other mineral springs of considerable efficacy, in different parts of the United Kingdom, which it would exceed the limits of this work to particularize.

PART II.

ARTICLES OF COMMERCE OR MANUFAC TURE, DERIVED FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS OF NATURE.

METALS, MINERALS, WOODS, COLOURS, AND OTHER PRODUCTIONS, USED IN THE ARTS OR IN TRADE.

METAL, is a simple, ponderous, shining, fusible, fossil body. Formerly, only seven metals were known,, but modern discoveries have added to the number above twenty others. The principal ones are platina, gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, tin, mercury, zink, nickel, bismuth, antimony, arsenic, &c. The general radical character of pure metals is, that of all known bodies they are the heaviest; the newly discovered metals potussium, and sodium, which float on water, form the only exception.

PLATINA or PLATINUM, is a metal, which in most of its properties is equal to gold, but in others it is very superior. It was first ascertained to be a perfect metal by Scheffer, a Swedish chemist in 1752. By him it was named white gold, from its weight, and indestructible nature. It soon became subject to the experiments of all the chemists in Europe, and obtained from its colour the name of platina, signifying little silver, from plata, which is Spanish for silver. Platina has been found in the mines of South America, and in the silver mines of Guadalcanal, in Estremadura. Platina ore is generally mixed with four other metals, osmium, iridium, rhodium, and palladium. This greyish white metal, being heavier than gold, equally exempt from the action of acids, although somewhat less ductile, is found of great service for chemical purposes, as crucibles, &c. and for domestic use, it is much more durable than either gold or silver.

GOLD was thought to be not only the purest, most ductile, and shining, and on these accounts the most valuable of metals, but also the heaviest, till platina was