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CHAP. 2. (2.)—THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF WATERS.

On all sides, and in a thousand countries, there are waters bounteously springing forth from the earth, some of them cold, some hot, and some possessed of these properties united: those in the territory of the Tarbelli,1 for instance, a people of Aquitania, and those among the Pyrencæan2 Mountains, where hot and cold springs are separated by only the very smallest distance. Then, again, there are others that are tepid only, or lukewarm, announcing thereby the resources they afford for the treatment of diseases, and bursting forth, for the benefit of man alone, out of so many animated beings.3

Under various names, too, they augment the number of the divinities,4 and give birth to cities; Puteoli,5 for example, in Campania, Statyellæ6 in Liguria, and Sextiæ7 in the province of Gallia Narbonensis. But nowhere do they abound in greater number, or offer a greater variety of medicinal properties than in the Gulf of Baiæ;8 some being impregnated with sulphur, some with alum, some with salt, some with nitre,9 and some with bitumen, while others are of a mixed quality, partly acid and partly salt. In other cases, again, it is by their vapours that waters are so beneficial to man, being so intensely hot as to heat our baths even, and to make cold water boil in our sitting-baths; such, for instance, as the springs at Baiæ, now known as "Posidian," after the name of a freedman10 of the Emperor Claudius; waters which are so hot as to cook articles of food even. There are others, too,—those, for example, formerly the property of Licinius Crassus—which send forth their vapours in the sea11 even, thus providing resources for the health of man in the very midst of the waves!

1 He alludes to the mineral waters of Acqs or Dax on the Adour, in the French department of the Ariège. They are still highly esteemed.

2 The principal of which are those of Aigues-Chaudes, Aigues-Bonnes, Bagnéres-Adores, Cambo, Bagnéres, Baréges, Saint-Sauveur, and Cauteret,

3 Ajasson remarks that animals in all cases refuse to drink mineral waters.

4 He alludes to Neptune, Amphitrite, the Oceanides, Nereides, Tritons, Crenides, Limnades, Potamides, and numerous other minor divinities.

5 See B. iii. c. 9.

6 See B. iii. c. 7.

7 See B. iii. c. 5.

8 The mineral waters of Baiæ are still held in high esteem.

9 As to the identity of the "nitrum" of Pliny, see c. 46 of this Book.

10 Posides, a eunuch who belonged to the Emperor Claudius, according to Suetonius, c. 28.

11 There are still submarine volcanoes in the vicinity of Sicily, but the spot here referred to is now unknown.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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  • Cross-references to this page (18):
    • Harper's, Academia
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), A´LBULA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AQUAE TARBE´LLICAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), BAIAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CLEITOR
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), COLOSSAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CRATHIS
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LUSI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MIEZA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PERAEA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PUTE´OLI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SINUESSA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SOLI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TEA´NUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ZAMAE FONS
    • Smith's Bio, Polycleitus
    • Smith's Bio, Tu'llius Lau'rea
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