MINERAL WATERS OF DUNBLANE. 481 



But considering the composition according to the preceding, 

 view, the ingredients and their proportions will be,. 



The peculiarity in the composition of the Bath water, com-- 

 pared with the greater number of saline mineral waters, is,- 

 that it contains a larger quantity of sulphate of soda than is< 

 necessary to convert its muriate of lime into sulphate of lime.. 

 Hence no muriate of lime is obtained after evaporation in- 

 its analysis ; hence even a portion of sulphate of soda is indi- 

 cated; and hence the large proportion of sulphate of lime 

 which that analysis yields. In the Dunblane and Pitcaithly 

 waters, the sulphate of soda is deficient ; the muriate of lime 

 is in large quantity, and is accompanied with muriate of soda : 

 hence the entire want of sulphate of soda, the small quantity 

 of sulphate of lime, and the large proportion of muriate of lime, 

 in their analyses. 



Muriate of lime, it is well known, is a substance of consider- 

 able power in its operation on the living system ; in quantities 

 which are even not large, it proves fatal to animals. Whea 

 taken to the extent of six grains, the quantity of it which, ac- 

 cording to the preceding view, exists in a quart of the Bath 

 water,, it cannot be inactive. It is very probable, too, that a 

 given quantity of it will prove much more active in a state of 

 great dilution in water, than in a less diluted form ; as, in this 



diluted 



