Abstract

The 1675 Observations sur les eaux minerales des plusieurs provinces de France by Samuel Du Clos is a study of French mineral waters commissioned by the Académie royale des sciences. Neither its relatively obscure author nor its tedious enumeration of French spring waters, part of the Académie’s commitment to collective natural histories, stand out. Yet an examination of the chronicles of its production, transmission, and reception—focusing on the personal and institutional backgrounds of its author and main recipient across the Channel, the English naturalist Martin Lister (1639–1712)—sheds light on the changing attitudes toward chymical knowledge, practice, and scientific communication in both private and public contexts.