32 Mr. A. B. Northcote on the Brine-springs of Worcestershire. 



Since gypsum is an invariable constituent of rock-salt strata, 

 it is reasonable to suppose that it dissolves as such in the brine ; 

 and as its solubility is increased by the presence of sulphate of 

 soda and chloride of sodium*, I have ventured in the arrange- 

 ment of results which follows, to calculate all the lime as sul- 

 phate, although were it not for the presence of those salts, it 

 would be a larger per-centage than the water would dissolve. 



Table of constituents calculated in 100 parts. 



In the table which follows next, I have given some results 

 obtained by Dr. Daubeny in an examination which he made of 

 the Droitwich brine in 1830f. In his paper he states the con- 

 stituents in a pint, and in that quantity was unable to detect 

 the presence of bromine or iodine ; there is no doubt, however, 

 as he has observed, that if far larger quantities were operated 

 upon, both these elements would be found; of the former of 

 them, indeed, I have shown a slight but still distinctly recog- 

 nizable trace to exist in about half a gallon of the brine ; and 

 there is every probability that iodine also would be found by 

 working on a larger scale. I have also introduced the results of 

 an analysis made by Mr. Horner in the year 1812 J; at that 

 time there were no fewer than five pits in Droitwich from which 

 brine was drawn. The specific gravity of the different specimens 

 he states to vary from 1*2061 1 to 1*17471, and the amount of 

 salts in a pint to range between 2289*75 and 1922*97 grains; 

 the results calculated in his paper to the pint, I have (as also in 

 the case of Dr. Daubeny' s experiments) recalculated to the im- 



* Ginelin's Handbook, vol. iii. p. 202. 



t Transactions of the Royal Society for 1830. 



j Geological Transactions, Old Series, vol. ii. p. 94. 



