so Method oj'ihtennining the Pinportiun 



possibly be true; and if it should ultimately be received, their 

 rejection will certainly not enhance their reputations with pos- 

 terity ; for, in that case, it will be inferred that they either 

 wanted the discernment to perceive the force of my arguments, 

 or else that, from a feeling of jealousy, which is unworthy of 

 philosophers, they wanted the candour to acknowledge it. 

 I am yours, &c. 



Walter Forman. 



Note. — We feel obliged, at the same time that we insert the above com- 

 munication from Captain l'"orman in defence of his New Theory, to avow 

 that his arguments have not convinced us, as we have not been able to re- 

 concile them with the laws which govern the motion of fluids. — And we 

 cannot help thinking that the confidence vvhith he feels in his theory causes 

 him to undervalue those conclusions to which the freest discussion and most 

 profound inquiries on the subject have almost uniformly led. 



We would not, however, be understood to deny an expansion in the wa- 

 ters of the ocean occasioned by the attractive power of the moon ; as any 

 power diminishing their gravity must necessarily in some degree produce 

 that effect. — Edit. 



XII. Method of determining the Proportio7i of Carbonic Acid 

 in Mineral Waters*. 



DR. AUG. VOGEL of Munich found by repeated experi- 

 ments, that the method of determining the quantity of car- 

 bonic acid contained in a mineral water, recommended as being 

 the best by M. Thenard in his System of Chemistry, vol. iv. 

 p. 159, is uncertain in its results. 



M. Thenard recommends to introduce the mineral water 

 into a retort, from which a bent tube leads into a solution of 

 muriate of lime and caustic ammonia. After the water has 

 boiled two or three minutes the whole of the carbonic acid gas 

 is extricated, passes into the solution of muriate of lime, and 

 combines with the lime through the influence of the ammonia. 



Dr. Vogel has found muriate of baryt as well as muriate 

 of lime mixed with ammonia to be equally unfit to detect 

 small quantities of carbonic acid. When he dissolved from 

 three to four cubic inches of carbonic acid gas in one ounce of 

 caustic ammonia, and put this ammonia into a solution of one 

 part of muriate of lime, or of muriate of barytes in nine parts of 

 water, neither of those liquids was affected by it ; but precipi- 

 tation would begin only when the quantity of carbonic acid 

 was increased ; or, without increasing the quantity of gas, the 

 carbonates were precipitated by ebullition, which also disen- 

 gaged a little ammoniacal gas. 



* From Schweicger's N. Journal, fur CJiem. u. Fliys. Bd. 3. H. 2. p. 204. 



When 



