3S Chemical Analysis of ihd [JaK« 



(B) _ 



Tills circumstance, together with the marked diiference 

 in the proportions of the salts, furnished by each analysis, in- 

 duced me to undertake an analysis myself, having been furnished 

 with a sufficient quantity of water for the purpose by Dr. William 

 Thomson, whose recent death, at Palermo, has deprived mine° 

 ralogy of a zealous disciple. This water had been brought by 

 the Abbe Mariti from the East, and had been given by him to 

 Dr. Targioni Tozzetti. 



The water was colourless and transparent, except a small 

 degree of muddiness, obviously owing to the cork stopper. At 

 the bottom of the flasks lay a single cubic crystal, which had 

 again begun to re-dissolve. The taste of the water was bitter, 

 saltish, and sharp. Its specific gravity was 1*245. 



Five hundred grains of this water, evaporated to dryness and 

 left upon a sand-bath till they no longer lost any weight, gave as 

 a residue 213 grains of dry salt. This salt, while stili warm, was 

 digested with five times its weight of alcohol. After it had been 

 allowed to exert its whole solvent power, by being left in a mo« 

 derately warm place, and by frequent agitation, the alcohol was 

 decanted off, and the undissolved salt treated again in the same 

 manner with half the quantity of alcohol. 



The alcohol was evaporated, and the residual dry salt was 

 again treated with alcohol : but only with a quantity sufficient to 

 take up the most soluble salts, and to separate a portion of 

 common salt which had been dissolved along with them by the 

 alcohol in the first process. The alcohol, being evaporated, left 

 behind 174 grains of a salt mass, consisting of a mixture of 

 muriate of magnesia and muriate of lime. 



To determine the proportions of these two salts, the mass was 

 dissolved in water, and precipitated while boiling by carbonate of 

 soda. The edulcorated precipitate was mixed with water, satu- 

 rated with sulphuric acid, and the liquid was evaporated to dry- 

 ness. By washing the dry mass with a little water, the sulphate 

 of magnesia was separated from the sulphate of lime, and the 

 magnesia was precipitated at a boiling temperature by carbonate 

 of soda. The precipitated magnesia, which when edulcorated 

 and dried weighed 70 grains, was neutralized with muriatic acid, 

 and the solution evaporated to dryness. The muriate of mag- 

 nesia, thus restored, was found to weigh, while still warm, 121 

 grains. By subtracting this quantity from the original 179 

 grains, we obtain 53 grains as the weight of the muriate of lime. 



The muriate of soda, freed by means of alcohol from the salts 

 soluble in that liquid, weighed, after being well dried, 38 grains. 

 But we may reckon $9 grains, the grain of difference wanting 

 to make up the sum total of the salts, being obviously owing to 



the greater degree of dryness given in the last processes than in 



... g 



