4 14- Mr. Brayley, Jun., on the Existence of Salts of Potash 



Towards this deficiency we have the 3"909 of sulphuric acid, 

 yet unappropriated. If we suppose this to be combined with 

 potash, we shall have 8'599 of sulphate of potash, being no 

 more than 1'391 in excess, on the entire quantity of salt ana- 

 lysed. If we suppose it to be combined with soda, we shall 

 have 7"08l of sulphate of soda, which is only 0*127 in defect, 

 on the entire quantity. 



Mr. Horner quotes Nicholas, Hassenfratz, and Montigny, 

 as stating sulphate of soda to be a constituent part of all the 

 (foreign) brine-springs they examined. But they had no rea- 

 son to suspect the presence of potash ; and when we consider 

 that from the state of chemical science when they operated, 

 they must have employed very defective methods of analysis, 

 it is quite as probable that Nicholas and Hassenfratz attributed 

 to sulphate of soda the acid really due to sulphate of potash, 

 as that the former salt existed in the brines analysed by them ; 

 while Montigny, whose analysis was made so far back as 1762, 

 no doubt obtained his sulphate of soda, by the action upon 

 each other of the saline constituents of the brine during eva- 

 poration. 



If the Droitwich brine contains muriate of potash, it must 

 be included in what Mr. Horner estimates as muriate of soda. 



In the Phil. Mag. vol. Ixiv. p. 74, will be found the results 

 of Mr. G. Chilton's analyses of some of the principal brine- 

 springs in the State of New York, with an account of the pro- 

 cess he employed. He neither mentions potash nor any 

 alkaline sulphate ; and had the latter existed in the brine, his 

 process would have enabled him to detect it, if he employed 

 correct equivalents ; which, from the date of his analysis ( 1 824), 

 it is to be presumed he would. Muriate of potash he would 

 not have detected*. In Dr. Beck's analysis of the entire salt 

 from Salina brine, quoted in Mr. S. Smith's notice of the salt- 

 springs at that place (Silliman's Joui'nal, vol. xv. p. 11), neither 

 potash nor any alkaline sulphate is mentioned. The mode of 

 analysis employed is not quoted. How far the details of Klap- 

 roth's analyses of brine-springs may throw light on this sub- 

 ject, I am not aware. 



To complete this summary of our present knowledge on 

 this interesting subject of chemical inquiry, which has been 

 drawn up with the view of showing the necessity of instituting 

 fresh researches u})on it, I add the following notices. 



Dr. Wollaston detected traces of potash in the nearly satu- 



* It is a remarkable circumstance, if Mr. Chilton's analysis be correct, 

 tiiat the springs he examined arc in the same district as those of Salina, 

 and rise under precisely similar gcoloi^ical circumstances. 



rated 



