The beneficial health effects of mineral springs were recognized at the dawn of human civilization. Although some ancient writers described reactions that can be viewed as �analytical tests�, it was not until the XVIIth century that technical chemists such as Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604-1670) isolated and identified salts present in natural waters. Robert Boyle (1627-1691) described qualitative color tests, and Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742) and particularly Torbern Bergman (1735-1784) developed methods for quantitative analysis of complex mixtures. It was their contributions that enabled the compilation of catalogues providing information about both medicinal uses and composition of numerous mineral waters, e.g., Elliot's �Account of the Nature and Medicinal Virtues of the Principal Mineral Waters of Great Britain and Ireland�� (1789). The major discoveries made in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries related to the analysis of mineral waters and some early attempts aimed at the preparation of artificial mineral waters will be described.

Early (pre-XIX<sup>th</sup>-century) treatises describing the qualitative and quantitative analysis of mineral water

245th National Meeting (2013)

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Early (pre-XIXth-century) treatises describing the qualitative and quantitative analysis of mineral water

Early (pre-XIX^th-century) treatises describing the qualitative and quantitative analysis of mineral water