1£4 Proceedings of the British Association. 



Thursday. 

 Section B.— CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY. 



' On the Mineral Springs and other waters of Yorkshire/ by W. 

 West, Esq. — The results of analysis of the waters of Harrowgate and 

 other places were detailed with great minuteness, and the districts 

 from which the waters were collected described. The quantity of 

 sulphate of soda existing in some of these springs was very great, and 

 to this salt was principally ascribed their medicinal qualities. 



Mr. Hunt drew attention to the fact discovered by him in Corn- 

 wall, that the quantity of muriate of soda in the waters of that 

 county, increased greatly with their depth, until, at the depth of 312 

 fathoms, he had found as much as 6J- per cent, of that salt. — The 

 Rev. W. V. Harcourt stated, that the waters of an artesian well in 

 the neighbourhood of York, gave evidence of a very great increase, 

 in the quantity of its saline ingredients as it increased in depth, 

 giving at its greatest depth, 48 '3 grains of the sulphates of magnesia 

 and soda per gallon. 



Prof. Daubeny communicated a verbal account of the phosphorite 

 rock in Spanish Estremadura, which he, in conjunction with Captain 

 Widdrington, R.N., had last summer undertaken to explore. He 

 stated its occurrence in one solitary mass, penetrating clayslate, the 

 dimensions being at most 1 6 feet in width, its length along the sur- 

 face of the rock extending to about 2 miles, whilst its depth is un- 

 explored, but certainly considerable. He stated its composition to 

 be about 80 per cent, triphosphate of lime, and about 14 fluoride of 

 calcium, and pointed out the first cause of the secretion of so large a 

 mass of both these substances in the older rocks in order to supply 

 two necessary ingredients to bones and other animal matters. He 

 stated his having detected fluorine in all the bones and teeth of 

 recent as well as of older date which he had examined, and suggested 

 that as a rock of such a composition could hardly fail to be useful as 

 a manure, if it were found in an easily accessible locality, it would be 

 worth the while of geologists to search for veins of this mineral in 

 the older rocks of this and of other countries, where there was a 

 facility of transport. 



Mr. Pearsann observed, that the presence of fluorine in bone had, 

 in all probability, escaped detection from the fact that the fluate of 



