44 -Improvements in Physical Science (JAN. : 
4. Mineral Water of Pitcaithly.—This water has been long 
known and frequented by the inhabitants of Scotland. Dr. Murray 
has likewise subjected this water to an analysis. He found the 
saline contents in a wine pint to be 
@ommon: salts 32 ic sca 6 OR Shs diy 28 13°4 
Miurtate of lime: ss. .s66 eedi cae of oe HOUSES 
Sulphate of lime.......... S latele eatin. 0:9 
Car DOMAtG/OL MIME are ay ctene stascusteleis are citne c O°5 
34°35 
And the gaseous contents, as ascertained by Messrs. Stoddart and 
Mitchell, are 
Agitiosplieric'alr ss. sys» we O'ov Cub. Ti. 
Carbonic acid gas........ Satara Doe 
But Dr. Murray conceives that the sulphate of lime is produced 
during the analysis by the action of sulphate of soda on muriate of 
lime. According to this opinion, the real constituents of this mi- 
neral water are 
Common salt........... etl. ible eu staal: 
Muriate of lime .......... Sfiishs ile 20:2 
SHIpbHIe OL SOMA. nase] Ls ae ela > «© 0:9 
Carbonate of lime. .....%..... iti as 0°5 
34°3 
M. Vogel, of Paris, has likewise started a similar opinion with 
Dr. Murray, namely, that muriate of lime and sulphate of mag- 
nesia may exist in the same liquid ; but as his paper on the subject 
was only, published in July, 1815, (Schweigger’s Journal, vol. xiii. 
p. 344,) he did not anticipate the British chemist. Pfaff, however, ' 
must be admitted to have anticipated him by at least a year. The 
ingenious opinion, however, the accuracy of which can scarcely be 
called in question, that the salts contained in mineral waters are 
often decomposed and altered during the analysis, belongs, as far as 
I know, originally to Dr. Murray. 
‘ 
IX. VEGETABLE BODIES. 
1, The most important paper which has appeared upon vegetable 
substances is by Professor Berzelius, and was published in the fifth 
volume of the Annals of Philosophy. It describes a set of very 
elaborate and successful experiments to determine the composition 
of the vegetable acids and several other vegetable bodies. Gay- 
Lussac and Thenard had previously published a set of very inge- 
nious experiments upon the same subject; but as they were not at 
sufficient pains to dry the substances which they analyzed, it is not 
easy to draw consequences from their experiments. Berzelius has 
shown that their rules respecting the nature of vegetable substances 
depending on the relative proportions of oxygen and hydrogen which 
