On the Waters of the Dead Sea. 317 
Gmelin, the former, particularly, in rather considerable 
quantity. For these reasons, it was therefore obvious that 
another analysis of the waters, performed with all the care 
and precautions that are now usually employed in this species 
of investigation, was absolutely necessary, in order that we 
might be enabled to determine which of the above analyses 
was the most trustworthy, or to point out the cause or causes 
which led to the discrepancies observed. Consequently, when 
Mr C. J. Monk, (son of the venerable Bishop of Gloucester 
and Bristol), who has recently returned from a long journey 
in Syria and the Holy Land, kindly offered to place at our 
disposal for this purpose a bottle of the water, we most will- 
ingly acceded to his proposal, with what result the following 
pages must testify. 
The specimen so presented to us was collected by Mr 
Monk himself, on the 10th of March last, near the north- 
western extremity of the lake, about half-a-mile from the 
spot where the Jordan enters, but quite apart from all direct 
influence arising from the stream of fresh water which flows 
into it. 
The water was perfectly clear and colourless, and did not 
deposit any crystals on standing in closed vessels, even when 
cooled considerably below its ordinary temperature. Its 
taste, as we have before observed, was intensely bitter and 
nauseous, and when swallowed, even in small quantity, it 
produced a sensation bordering upon sickness. It possessed 
no unpleasant odour. Its specific gravity, at 66° F., was 
1:17205. The boiling-point, as determined in a glass vessel, 
with the barometer at 29°74 inches, and the thermometer at 
47°75°, was 221-75° F.* It did not exert any definite re- 
action upon either blue or reddened litmus paper, proving 
the absence of all uncombined acid and carbonated alkali ; 
neither did it in the slightest degree affect acetate-of-lead 
paper, as from Rae Wilson’s statement we should have ex- 
pected it. Only the slightest perceptible opalescence was 
produced in it upon boiling, or on the addition of an ammo- 
* Ty Apjohn found that of his specimen to be 2217; 
