14 



SIXTH REPORT 1836. 



Classifica- 

 tion of Mi- 

 neral Wa- 

 ters. 



Ingredients 

 found in 

 Mineral 

 Waters. 



Iron witli 

 Silica. 



opened at the expiration of a certain time, in order tliat an ana- 

 lysis should be made of it, as well as of the water fresh taken 

 from the spring, by some chemist of reputation ; which being 

 done, and the results being duly registered, a similar sample of 

 the M-ater might be set apart for examination after the lapse of 

 an equal interval of time. 



If this method were adopted, the question at issue might sooa 

 be determined beyond the possibility of doubt. 



Writers on mineral waters liave frequently attempted to chis- 

 sify them according to the nature of their ingredients, but these 

 unfortunately are so often found intermixed in all conceivable 

 proportions, that no division of them into orders founded on 

 such a principle can be regarded as unexceptionable. 



For medical purposes the most useful method would seem to 

 be, to select, as tlae groundwork of the classification, those sub- 

 stances whicli stamp upon a mineral water its peculiar value as 

 a tlierapeutic agent, without regarding v.hethcr they are pre- 

 dominant in quantity or not. Thus, as the most general di- 

 vision, we might distinguish them into, first, alkaline or carbo- 

 nated spi'ings, containing a certain proportion of carbonate of 

 soda ; secondly, saline, rich in muriatic salts ; thirdly, aperieiit, 

 containing the soluble sulphates ; fourthly, sulphureous, contain- 

 ing sulphuretted hydrogen. 



The alkaline might then be subdivided into those witli, and 

 without iron ; the saline into those with, and v.'ithout iodine and 

 bromine ; the aperient into those containing the alkaline, the 

 magncsian, and the aluminous sulphates; the sulphureous into 

 those with free sulphuretted hydrogen, or with the hydrosulphu- 

 rets. Each of their subdivisions might then be distinguished 

 into two sub-orders, the thermal and cold. 



Such a classification might be convenient in a medical treatise, 

 but in a scientific one we should frequently find ourselves em- 

 barrassed in assigning a place to a spring, which, like those of 

 the Pyrenees, partook strongly of the character of the alkaline 

 class, whilst it was at the same time sulphureous ; like that of 

 Wiesbaden, whilst allied to the alkaline ones in its vicinity, was 

 itself strongly saline ; or like the Carlsbad, Toeplitz, Bath, and 

 Ems waters, seemed from its mineral constitution to possess an 

 equal claim to admission into several of the classes established. 



With respect to the particular ingredients which mineral waters 

 contain, it would seem superfluous to notice in the present Re- 

 port any, but those which have been either discovered, or newly 

 investigated, within a short period. 



Iron in a new form of combination has been detected in the 



