Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-03-09
MINERAL WATERS.
A Difference Between the Natural and
Artihcially Produced Article.

Artlfclally Produced Article.
The greater part of these waters IN
their natural state, and all OF the
manufactured waters, are more or less
highly charged with carbonic acid gas;
while some OF the imported waters re-
celve an extra charge of it before they
are packed, with a view to increasing
their permanency anb their brilliancy.
And here | must apprise my readers
that we are in the border territory be-
tween two warning clans, the bianchi
and the neri of balneology. Natural
mineral waters" is the war cry of the
one; artificial mineral waters" is
wrought upon the orihamme of the
other. The contest RACES, and will
continue as long as rival interests
clash.
The merits of the case on either hand
may be briefly stated. The opponents
OF artiti !ial mineral waters claim that
the delicacy of the chemical combina-
tions in natural water can not be re-
produced either with accuracy or with
any degree OF certainty in the labora-
tory. Analysis, they say, very truly,
can discover all the chemical elements
that are present; but how, in any
given water, are those acids and bases
combined, and how can we recombin Q
themP The chemist can not always
dissolve in water the mineral deposits
OF spring or river water; there are
silicates and alumina that will resist
even the acids he employs. 1t is not
possible, in many cases, to reproduce
natures combinations in the artificial
waters, and for other reasons than
those that l have given. We can not
know the order in which the ingre-
dents were drawn from the channels
OF the living rock, nor the degrees of
pressure and OF heat that were re-
quired for their delicate commingliug.
In word, art is not nature; and you
can no more reproduce the subtle
potency of a fine mineral water than
you can manufacture fine wine.
What is the rejoinder to this on the
part Of the advocates of artificial min
eral waters.
They say that while the argument l
have just given is good chemistry, it
does not hold good Of imported min
eral waters; it is true only Of mineral
waters taken at their natural source;
while for the home consumer it is not
a question OF waters as they are attheir
source. The mineral waters of the
market are moro or less changed by
expectation and handling, and in many
cases they are purposely medicated, as
by the addition Of salts, or a carbonic
acid gas. "All waters begin to depre-
ciate as soon as they are moved from
the spring" writes an importer, not a
manufacturer, OF mineral waters Now
which is the betterP say the chem
lists; a,water that has been freighted,
perhaps, three thousand miles, and
kept in stock for months, undergoing
unknown changes all the time, or a
fresh artificial water of definitely
known constitution? The chemist does
not claim to reproduce all OF the for
: eign or domestic mineral waters, but
such only as can be uniformly and GER
tainly reproduced. Carbonic acid gas,
the salts of lime, the chloride OF So
dunn. alkalies, and other leading in
: gradients of the most valuable waters
are easily and accurately combinable
, in the laboratory. Such products, it is
claimed, are better than the imported
waters, because they are fresher, and
because we know precisely what they
are.
That they are good there is no doubt.
| Pure carbonic acid water, as / have
said, is the same thing and equally
good however produced. The artificial
, Vichy and Settler are good. Though
the native waters at the spring are bet
ter, none the less the artificial waters
; arc valuable resources for the physi-
clan, and also, as have said, as or
binary beverages. Each has an excel
4 ent function. There is so much truth
s on both sides of the question that one
> need not quarrel over it. Both the i'm
q porters and the manufacturers OF min
9 eral waters have room enough, and
-, are supplying good and useful commod.
:, tiles; and in what l shall say about
their curative values shall not stop
to distinguish between the two classes
of them when both are to be had
Y DR.. Titus NJ Coan, in Harper'S Maya.
d ztae.