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£56 Analysis of the Mineral Waters (Nov. 
sulphate of lime, and the large proportion of muriate of lime in 
their analyses. 
Muriate of lime, it is well known, is a substance of considerable 
power in its operation on the living system ; in quantities which are 
even not large, it proves fatal to animals. When taken to the extent 
of six grains, the quantity of it which, according to the preceding 
view, exists in a quart of the Bath water, it cannot be inactive. 
It is very probable, too, that a given quantity of it will prove much 
more active in a state of great dilution in water than in a less diluted 
form, as in this diluted state it acts, when received into the sto- 
mach, over a more extended surface ; and brsides this, whatever 
effect may be due to the high temperature of the Bath water in 
aiding the operation of the minute portion of iron it contains, the 
same effect must be equally obtained in aiding the operation of the 
much larger quantity of muriate of lime. ‘The conclusion, indeed, 
as to the importance of this effect, is much more probable with 
regard to the muriate of lime than to the iron; for supposing the 
quantity of the former to exist in the Bath water which has been 
assigned, the dose of it taken in a quart of the water is not far from 
its proper medium dose, and is at least equal to one-half the largest 
dose which can be given, and continued without producing irrita- 
tion; while the dose of the iron is not the one-hundredth of that 
which is usually prescribed. Under the circumstances, therefore, 
in which the muriate of lime is presented in the Bath water, it is 
reasonable to infer that it must be productive of considerable imme- 
diate effect. 
The speculation is further not improbable, that, to produce its 
more permanent effects on the system as a tonic, it is necessary it 
should enter into the circulation. In a dilute state of solution it 
may pass more easily through the absorbents ; while’in a more con- 
centrated state it may be excluded, and its action confined to the 
bowels. Hence the reason, perhaps, that in some of the diseases in 
which it is employed, scrofula particularly, it has frequently failed, 
its exhibition having been in doses too large, and in too concentrated 
a form. And hence it is conceivable that in a more dilute state, as 
that in which it may exist in the Bath water, besides its immediate 
operation, it may produce effects as a permanent tonic more im- 
ortant than we should otherwise expect. * 
. T may add that the iron in the Bath water is probably not in the 
state of oxide or carbonate, as has been supposed, but in that of 
muriate. The muriate is the most active preparation of iron, and 
so far increased activity may be given to the slight chalybeate im- 
pregnation 5 and some modification of power may even be derived 
& 
%* ET may mention in confirmation of this that I found a mineral water of consi- 
derable celebrity in Yorkshire, that of Ikley, and which in particular was held 
in high estimation us a remedy in scrofulous affections by several eminent medical 
practitioners to be water uncommonly free from all foreign matter, with the ex- 
‘ception of very minute quantities of muriafe of soda and muriate of lime. T had 
the opportunity of observing, at the same time, proofs of its medicinal efficacy, 
