Memoranda on Tours and Touraine / Including remarks on the climate with a sketch of the Botany And Geology of the Province also on the Wines and Mineral Waters of France

by J. H. Holdsworth

The Bath rooms and appendages are judiciously arranged; when the natural heat of the water—(from 82° to 90° Fah.) is deemed insufficient by the physician, it can easily be increased by the aid of artificial heat, without materially deteriorating the medicinal virtues of the water.

Many Spa Doctors however assert (D^r Granville amongst the number) «that the caloric of mineral waters is of a specific kind, analogous to the heat of the body.» A heat incorporated with the water by a chemico-vital process. And as no external warmth can supply the body with vital heat, so no artificially created temperature can be a real substitute for the natural heat of thermal springs.

The temperature of the water of Bagnoles being about that of the blood—98° Fah. immersion in it produces but a slight sensation of heat; the temperature of our bodies being below that of our blood. The sensation is that of comfort.

Bagnoles is sixty leagues from Paris, and one league from the high road leading from Alençon to Domfront, lying nearly on the route from Havre to Tours.

CHAUDES-AIGUES.

This is a small town in the department of Cantal, six leagues from Saint-Flour, on the road between Clermont and Toulouse, and derives its name from its thermal waters, which were much resorted to in the fifteenth century, and then called Calentes Baiæ.

The temperature of the springs vary from 167° to 189° Fah. The resident poor turn this high temperature to many economical purposes, frequently cooking their entire meals by the natural heat of the waters; an egg is boiled hard by five minutes immersion.

The waters are extensively used by Curriers, Tanners, stuff and Flannel manufacturers, etc, their alkaline principles being found peculiarly adapted to many essential processes in these respective trades; to coloured articles, they are considered to give brilliancy and permanence to the dyes.

The Belle Fontaine du Parc, the highest in temperature of the spring, contains muriate of Soda, carbonate of lime; carbonate of Iron, and Silex.

These waters were held in high repute by the Romans and are particularly mentioned by one of their historians; «Calentes nunc te Baiæ, et scabris cavernatim ructata pumicibus aqua sulfuris atque jecorosis ac phthisiscentibus languidis medicabilis piscina delectat.»