BAILEY: LOUISVILLE MINERAL WATER. ITO 
belongs to the class known as alkaline water. From a medicinal 
standpoint, its most important ingredients are, no doubt, the 
magnesium bi-carbonate, the iron bi-carbonate and the sodium 
sulafte. There are numerous waters in the state that contain 
more magnesium salts than this spring, but very often these are 
mixed with a large quantity of sodium chloride, so that the water is 
really a brine and hence cannot be used as a beverage. 
Iron is held in solution by the excess of carbonic acid gas, so 
that soon after the water is drawn this gas has an opportunity to 
escape and the iron is oxidized and separates out as a yellowish 
powder, and some of the lime carbonate is frequently deposited 
with it. The water is therefore not adapted to shipping away from 
the spring, though possibly, if thoroughly charged with carbonic 
acid gas and kept under pressure, this might be done. 
The quantity of mineral matter is not very large; many of our 
springs and some rivers contain more. The Saline river, for 
instance, contains twice as much mineral matter in solution as this 
spring, but in this river about half of the mineral matter is common 
salt. The Solomon river contains nearly as much mineral matter 
as the Louisville spring, but here, too, there is about forty per 
cent. salt. The water analyzed is decidedly ‘‘ hard” on account 
of the large quantity of calcium carbonate (lime) held in solution, 
but that would be naturally expected where water flows through 
limestone strata as in this case. 
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