1 50 Account of the New Mineral Spring at Albany. 



Inferences to be drawn from the above experiments. 



It appears from the experiments which I have detailed, 

 that this water has a very close resemblance to the waters of 

 Ballston and Saratoga ; that it contains muriat of soda, and 

 carbonat of lime, and iron held in solution by carbonic acid 

 gas, and that it does not contain any sulphat, or differ es- 

 sentially from the Congress spring at Saratoga. Although 

 the use of tests or reagents affords no certain criterion of the 

 exact proportion of any substance which a mineral water 

 contains, yet they are an unerring guide in conducting further 

 experiments, and save much time and labor in looking for 

 substances which they have ascertained not to be present. 

 Thus, experiments 4 and 5 having decided that whatever 

 iron it contained was suspended by the carbonic acid, it was 

 unnecessary to look for any metallic salt. Experiment the 

 8th having decided that it contained no sulphuric acid, no sul- 

 phates were to be sought for. Experiment the 6th having 

 shown the presence of a large quantity of marine acid we of 

 course expect to find a marine salt. Experiment 9th shows 

 the presence of carbonat of lime supersaturated with carbonic 

 acid gas. It then becomes necessary only to ascertain the 

 quantity of this gas, and of those substances which were held 

 in solution by it, which we shall now proceed with as follows : 



Examination of the gaseous contents. 



The importance of carbonic acid gas, in a medicinal point 

 of view, as well as a menstruum capable of holding various 

 substances in solution, requires that particular attention 

 should be paid not only to the detection of it, but to the 

 quantity which is contained in the mineral water. Various 

 methods have been adopted for collecting it. That which I 

 pursued, on this occasion, was the same which I found both 

 convenient and successful in my inquiry into the chemical 

 properties of the waters of Ballston and Saratoga, published 

 in the year 1817, to which work I must refer for a plate and 

 description of the instrument, only observing now that it 

 consisted of a tin vessel, in the cover of which, a small tube 

 was soldered, in which was placed a glass cylinder gradu- 

 ated in cubic inches. When heat is applied, the gas as- 

 cends into the cylinder, and is then easily measured and ex- 

 amined. Pursuing this method, I obtained from one pint of 

 the Albany water, twenty six cubic inches of a gas which 



