Abstract

La Bourboule and its Waters

One cannot examine the history of the thermal waters of central France without feeling anew the complexity of modern rivalries and the novelty of the forms in which they clash. That of La Bourboule in Auvergne, aside from its therapeutic and its geological interest, is a story of applied science and of business rivalry which is paralleled only, but only in some points, by that of certain oil-wells in petroleum districts. La Bourboule, until recently an insignificant and torpid village, now a thriving town, is situated in the center of the springs of Auvergne, the richest, most varied, and most abundant group of mineral waters in the known world. Those of La Bourboule are the most important of known arsenical waters. Their history is modern, and it does not begin with a Roman inhabitation and bath-installation.