On the History of the Old Sulphur Well, Harrogate, 51 



" It moreover contains four measures of acidulous gas be- 

 yond the quantity retained by the calcareous earth in the heat 

 of boiling water, and thirty-five ounces of foetid inflammable 

 gas, such as may be extricated from calcareous liver of sulphur 

 by vitriolic acid." 



The quantity of solid matter above given is equal to 831 

 grains in the imperial gallon ; it is probably underestimated. 

 A more accurate analysis was made in 1783 by Dr. Joshua 

 Walker ; a full account of his method of operating and of his 

 results is published in his treatise on the spring*. He found 

 that it contained 15 drachms of common salt and 26 grains of 

 calcareous earth in the wine gallon, amounting in all to 

 1111*2 grains in the imperial gallon — no very great difference 

 from its total solid contents at the present time. If by cal- 

 careous earth is meant the carbonates of lime and magnesia 

 precipitated on evaporation, the number agrees fairly well 

 with the present quantity of these bodies contained in the 

 water. Among the other constituents are mentioned " hepar 

 sulphuris," " a small quantity of selenites," and "sulphurous 

 vapour in very large proportion." Dr. Grarnett, who examined 

 the spring in 1791, also mentions sulphates to the extent of 

 13*1 grains of magnesium sulphate to the imperial gallon. If 

 we may credit these statements, it is certain that the spring 

 must have experienced at least one remarkable change during 

 its history ; for not a trace of sulphuric acid can now be de- 

 tected. In Dr. Hofmann's analysis made in 1853, calcium 

 sulphate is mentioned to the amount of two tenths of a grain ; 

 but it is not at all improbable that the minute quantity of 

 sulphuric acid, equal to about a milligramme in the litre, cor- 

 responding to this amount of the lime-salt, might have been 

 formed by the oxidation of sulphuretted hydrogen subsequent 

 to the time of collection. No other analyst, either before or 

 since, makes mention of sulphates, Mr. West, who made a 

 careful examination of the water in 1823, speaks positively as 

 to their absence : " with salts of barytes [he employed the 

 chloride, nitrate, and acetate] prepared by other chemists, as 

 well as with my own, not the slightest cloud was produced "f. 

 It is doubtful, indeed, if sulphates have been present in the 

 water at any period of its existence. The analysis given by 

 Dr. Hunter in his treatise on the Harrogate waters (published 

 in 1830) was evidently made with care; and some of the 

 numbers, especially those for the chlorine and soda and total 



* An Essay on the Waters of Harrogate and Thorp-arch, By Joshua 

 Walker, M.D., Physician to the Leeds Infirmary, 1784. 

 t Quart. Journ. vol. xv. p. 82. 



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