142 WATER ANALYSIS A. HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 



with regard to the specific gravity, " when compared with that of 

 distilled water by means of the hydrostaticai balance, the difference 

 between them is so trifling as not to be an object of any consider- 

 ation on that account ; the latter is rather the lighter of the two." 

 One other physical peculiarity he notes "in colour it has a milky, 

 slight blue tinge, which appears to be considerably heightened by 

 viewing the water in a tin vessel." He then plunges into what 

 passed in that day for chemistry. 



" That there is an acidity in this water is not to be doubted in 

 the least, from its property of turning white on being n:ixed with 

 alkalies, and from its curdling immediately with soap. This acid 

 is most undoubtedly inherent in its sulphur, and affords a perfect 

 confutation of the opinion which that learned physician, Dr. 

 Stahll, most erroneously maintained viz., c that acids do not 

 pre-exist in sulphur, but are merely creatures of the fire.' This 

 assertion, the author further states, * is easily disproved in these 

 later times by all who are become better acquainted with the 

 component parts of this mineral by the progressive improvements 

 made in chemistry.' " 



But this acidity, singular enough, co-exists with alkalinity 

 " that the Nottington water abounds with an alkali manifestly 

 appears, from an analysis of its component parts, by the usual 

 process of evaporation. The salt which is afterwards extracted 

 from the insoluble residuum, on being well rubbed into raw meat, 

 occasions it to turn very red, in conformity with the well-known 

 property of alkaline nitre." By applying tincture of galls he 

 demonstrates that it has " no chalybeate or ferruginous impreg- 

 nation," and that it " contains no oker is presumed on the first 

 inspection of the water." Moreover, the stones in the vicinity of 

 the well apparently resemble " common stones, and the neighbour- 

 ing springs do not differ from common simple water," whatever 

 these may mean. "In evaporating the water its sulphureous 

 smell is entirely removed by the time half the water is exhaled in 

 the operation. The process of evaporating four quarts of the water 

 to dryness in the common way leaves about two scruples or 



