216 AN ANALYSIS 



The results of the preceding analysis are different from those 

 I had expected to obtain. I had supposed, that in Lavoisier's 

 method, the sulphate of soda, and muriate of lime, which he 

 stated as ingredients, had been obtained from some peculiarity 

 in the process by which their reciprocal action, and consequent 

 transition into muriate of soda and sulphate of lime had been 

 prevented ; and that in the common method of evaporation 

 they are not obtained, because this mutual decomposition takes 

 place. It appears, however, that the results by Lavoisier's 

 method are different from those he stated, and are such as pre- 

 clude this view. No muriate of lime is obtained, and sulphate 

 of lime is obtained in considerable quantity ; of course, the 

 sulphate of soda, which is also found, cannot be considered as 

 being procured, in consequence of its decomposition by muri- 

 ate of lime being prevented by any peculiarity in the process, 

 and must therefore be ascribed to some other cause. 



Besides the peculiarity in this analysis of sulphate of soda, 

 there is another singularity in the result, that little sulphate of 

 magnesia is procured. This salt, it is well known, is extracted 

 in considerable quantity by the common process of evaporation 

 of sea-water on a large scale, being obtained by boiling down 

 the bittern, while, by this method, little or no sulphate of soda 

 is obtained. 



The products of this analysis are thus so different from those 

 usually assigned, and so different from those known to be af- 

 forded by the usual process of evaporation, that it became de- 

 sirable to perform the analysis in the common mode, so as to 

 ascertain the actual results of it with precision, with a view to 

 determine on what these differences depend. This I accord- 

 ingly executed. 



A. Four pints of the same sea-water were submitted to eva- 

 poration in a sand-bath, and^after the crystallization of the mu- 

 riate 



