46 



SIXTH RKPORT — 1836. 



In the pre- 

 sence of io- 

 dine and 

 bromine. 



In the ab- 

 sence of air. 



tionable, the chemist oup^ht to consent to regard this action as 

 indicative, of undiscovered principles, or modes of combination. 



Thus certain salt springs in Piedmont had acquired from time 

 immemorial a reputation in the cure of goitre, which the nature 

 of their then known mineral impregnation would not explain. 



Recent investigations have, however, shown, that these springs 

 contain a small quantity of iodine, the very principle now found 

 most efficacious in this and other glandular disorders. 



The superior efficacy attributed to the waters of Cheltenham 

 and Leamington over mere artificial solutions of sulphate of 

 soda, &c. of the same strength, was difficult of explanation, until 

 chemical analysis had shown that, in addition to the more 

 common ingredients, these springs contain portions of two 

 active principles, iodine and bromine, wanting in the imitation 

 of them. 



In like manner chemists, in the pride of half knowledge, may 

 often have smiled at the faith reposed in the water, of Ashby- 

 de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, and of Ki-eutynach, in the Palati- 

 nate, both which, until lately, appeared to be little more than 

 mere saturated solutions of common salt. 



But the advance of science has shown, that these two springs 

 are precisely the ones most fully impregnated of any perhaps 

 known with salts of bromine, and therefore most highly charged 

 with the properties of that active principle. 



It has long been a vulgar notion, that goitre arose from 

 drinking snow water, and this opinion, which was derided by 

 men of science, seems to be in some measure substantiated by 

 the recent researches of Boussingault in the Andes*. 



That naturalist commences by showing, that the goitre of the 

 above elevated region can arise, neither from the Innnidity of the 

 climate, as had been supposed by some, nor from the nature of 

 the earthy ingredients of the springs, as had been imagined by 

 others. 



He then observes, that persons who habitually employ as their 

 beverage water devoid of its due proportion of air (whether that 

 deficiency be owing, to the rarefaction of the atmosphere on the 

 high table land on which it lie^, or to the circumstance of its 

 being immediately obtained from the melted snow of the moun- 

 tains) are subject to this disease, whilst persons who take care 

 to aerate their water before drinking it, as may be done by 

 those residing at a moderate elevation, by merely exposing it to 

 the atmosphere for 30 or 40 hours previous, escape the deformity. 



For the same reason, a river, which at a high level appears to 



* Annalea de Chimie, 1833. 



