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ANALYSIS OF MINERAL WATERS. 275 
cannot be considered as being necessarily the real ingredients, 
and to state them as such would often convey a wrong idea of 
the real composition. There are two views according to which 
the state of combination in a saline solution may be inferred, 
and in conformity to which, therefore, the composition of a 
mineral water may be assigned. It may be supposed, that the 
acids and bases are in simultaneous combinations. Or if they 
be in binary combinations, the most probable conclusion with 
regard to this, as I have already endeavoured to shew, (p. 230.) 
is, that the combinations are those which form the most soluble 
- compounds, their separation in less soluble compounds, on 
evaporation, arising from the influence of the force of cohe- 
sion. In either of these cases, the propriety of first stating as 
the results of analysis the quantities of acids and bases obtain- 
ed, is obvious. On the one supposition, that of their existing 
in simultaneous combination, it is all that is to be done. On 
the other supposition, the statement affords the grounds on 
which the proportions of the binary compounds are inferred. 
And there can be no impropriety in adding the composition 
conformable to the products of evaporation. The results of 
the analysis of a mineral water may always be stated, then, in 
these three modes : Ist, The quantities of the acids and bases: 
2dly, The quantities of the binary compounds, as inferred from 
the principle, that the most soluble compounds are the ingre- 
dients ; which will have at the same time the advantage of ex- 
hibiting the most active composition which can be assigned, 
and hence of best accounting for any medicinal powers the wa- 
ter may possess : And, 3dly, The quantities of the binary com- 
pounds, such as they are obtained by evaporation, or any other 
direct analytic operation. The results will thus be presented 
under every point of view. 
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