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On the Valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. 11 



tion during the summer months, becomes an essential considera- 

 tion in the statement both of the specific gravity and component 

 elements of the water. At that time the rainy season, or "lat- 

 ter rain," had just passed ; the Jordan and the streams on the east, 

 south and west, had discharged themselves into the lake, thus 

 diluting, by this accession of fresh water, the previous body of 



water in the lake. 



The specimen analyzed, was taken from the northwest an- 

 gle of the sea, about three miles from the mouth of the Jordan, 

 a consideration scarcely less important than the former, when it 

 is recollected that the Jordan alone is supposed to discharge, on 

 an average, daily, about six millions five hundred thousand tons 

 of water into the Sea, a discharge that must sensibly affect the 

 quality of the water for a considerable distance around the em- 

 bouchure. 



formed out of the constituents present, whilst the proportion in which these salts 

 exist is a point which we cannot obtain data for calculating, until we are able to 

 estimate numerically the relative force of affinity subsisting between the ingredi- 

 ents. According therefore to the received views on this subject, the chemist 

 ought in strictness barely to set down, as the results of his analysis, the respective 

 weights of the acids and bases present. " 



With this view of the subject, I have not endeavored to reconstruct the water of 

 the Dead Sea from my analysis, but have only given the several weights obtained. 



1st. Acids. — Chlorine: This was precipitated by nitrate of silver, and the bro- 

 mine of course was thrown down by the same operation. After drying the mixed 

 chloride and bromide of silver, it was fused in a porcelain crucible of known 

 weight, and the weight of the fused mass obtained. To estimate them separately, 

 as much of the mixture as could be removed conveniently from the crucible on 

 warming it over a lamp, was introduced into a tube of hard glass and weighed. 

 The tube was then connected with an apparatus by means of which dry chlorine 

 was passed over the assay while heated to redness by a lamp. The chlorine thus 

 combined with the silver before in union with the bromine, and the resulting loss 

 of weight was ascertained by the balance. Estimated in this way, 100 parts of 



the water yielded 



Chlorine, ....••••• 



Bromine, 



10-290 



0684 



Sulphuric acid was detected by hydrochlorate of baryta, but in quantity too 



small to be estimated. 



2d. Bases. — Lime was thrown down by oxalic acid, converted into sulphate 

 after ignition, and weighed 1*424. Magnesia was separated from the alkalies by 

 means of the process recommended by Berzelius, with oxide of mercury. The 



magnesia weighed 2 355 per cent. 



The alkaline chlorides were evaporated to dryness, and the weight calculated 

 from the known constitution of the chlorides. The soda contained only a trace 

 of potash, and weighed 3008 per cent. 



Recapitulation. — The constitution of the water of the Dead Sea, therefore, by 



this analysis, is as follows : 



