242 Iodine in the Mineral Waters of Saratoga. 



it was in reducing the different salts which I employed, to 

 the greatest possible degree of purity, that the greatest part 

 of my time was wasted. I have in all cases, in which it was 

 in my power, deduced the atomic weights of bodies from the 

 rigid analysis of the neutral salts into which they enter, be- 

 cause it is much easier to obtain neutral salts pure, than any 

 of the metallic bodies which constitute their bases. Indeed, 

 not a few of the metals have never yet been exhibited in a 

 state of absolute purity." 



This obstinate adhesion of contaminating substances, ap- 

 pears very little like the effect of either mere mechanical 

 mixture or ordinary affinity. It indicates rather a modifica- 

 tion of that affinity, by a relative increase of the quantity of 

 matter, so as very greatly to add to the energy of the attrac- 

 tive force. And it is probably in the prosecution of the very 

 business, in which Thomson was at this time engaged, (that 

 of accurate analysis,) that chemists are destined, hereafter, 

 to find this law of chemical action, interposing obstacles in 

 their way, which it will require all of their skill to elude, or 

 of their perseverance to overcome. 



Art. IV. — Iodine in the Mineral Waters of Saratoga. — 

 Communicated for the Journal of Science, hy John H. 

 Steel, M. D. of Saratoga Springs, in the State of New- 

 York. 



The Mineral waters of Saratoga, which have become so 

 celebrated for their Medicinal qualities, are situated in a low 

 marshy valley, along the termination of a ridge of seconda- 

 ry limestone ; they discover themselves in a bed of blue marl, 

 which covers the valley throughout its whole extent, and to 

 an unknown depth. On digging into this marl, to any con- 

 siderable distance, in almost any direction, we are sure to 

 find a mineral water ; in some places, at the depth of six or 

 ei^ht feet, it is discovered issuing from a fissure or seam in 

 the underlying limestone, while at other places, it seems to 

 proceed from a thin stratum of quicksand, which is found to 

 alternate with the marl at distances of from ten to forty feet ; 

 at this last depth, the marl is interrupted by a layer of bowl- 

 ders of a considerable size, beyond which no researches have 

 vet been made. 



