22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



possibilities of mistaken assumptions. People at large, however, are 

 not yet accustomed to these terms and an analysis in the newest 

 form possesses for most readers less significance than one in the 

 old style. 



There are other differences in the methods of reporting analyses. 

 The older method and the one most widely intelligible among those 

 not skilled in chemistry, is to give the dissolved matter in grains per 

 U. S. gallon of 231 cubic inches. More rarely, older analyses are 

 expressed in grains per Imperial gallon of 277.272 cubic inches. The 

 U. S. gallon contains 58,373^ grains; the Imperial, 70,048.4 grains. 

 Both involve the old system of apothecary's weights. In later years 

 it is a growing custom to express the analysis in parts per million, a 

 method which falls in best with the metric system, in which the 

 analyses are universally made. We can roughly pass f rorn the grains 

 per U. S. gallon to parts per million by multiplying the former by 

 17,^ or from parts per million to grains per gallon by dividing by 17. 

 The writer much prefers parts per million, which is of course in 

 the metric system milligrams per liter. Enough parallel values 

 will, however, be given to make the statements significant to one 

 accustomed to grains per gallon. 



It may further be remarked that the total of solids actually 

 weighed after evaporation of the sample is necessarily always less 

 than the summation of the dissolved salts, where the latter are 

 given as bicarbonates. The extra carbonic acid molecule or partial 

 molecule of the bicarbonate passes off in evaporation. 



Among the analyses made of the Saratoga waters in the last 

 hundred years three groups may be established : 



The oldest were principally performed by Dr John H. Steel, a 

 physician resident of Saratoga Springs in the early years of the 

 past century, and the first one to give the waters thorough scientific 

 study. Doctor Steel published a book on the springs^ in which 



1 A. C. Peale, in his paper on the Mineral Springs of the United States 

 in 14th Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, p. 71, gives a U. S. gallon as 

 58,372 grains and the Imperial as 70,000 or 277 cubic inches. 



2 More accurately by 17.13. The reciprocal is .058. 



3 John H. Steel M. D. An Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Saratoga 

 and Ballston, with Practical Remarks on their Medical Properties, etc. 

 Saratoga Springs, 2d ed. 1838. Earlier imprints appeared in 1817 and 

 1825. The 1825 edition has a geological map. The strata are classified 

 as: I Primitive class — granite, gneiss, syenite, mica slate and soap- 

 stone ; II Transition class — argillaceous slate and gray-wacke ; III Secondary 

 class — compact limestone. A copy with the map is in the New York Public 

 Library. 



