354 OLIVER: MINERAL SPRINGS OF THE WEST RIDING. 
Alkaline Earths being- formed : 
Ca ) Ca ) 
Fe CI2+ vet \ C03 = Fe CO3+ vel \ Cl^ 
) Mg ) 
Hence the Chloride of Iron water does not contain earthy 
carbonates, but holds in solution large proportions of Carbonate of 
Iron, and Calcium and Magnesium Chlorides. 
But this reaction is not merely supported by the present com- 
position of this remarkable water ; it is furthermore illustrated by 
its chemical history, which besides shows us how the constitution of 
a mineral spring may be completely revolutionized by the admission 
of a new constituent. 
The present Chloride of Iron well was sunk in 1819, when (and in 
1829) the water was carefully analysed by Dr. Hunter, who deter- 
mined the presence of salines along with Proto-carbonate of Iron ; 
and this analyst — aware of the observation made by Dr. Thos. 
Garnett about 1790, to the effect that Chloride of Iron existed in a 
chalybeate water close to the well under examination* — specially 
tested for, but failed to discover, iron combined otherwise than with 
carbonic acid.j The correctness of Dr. Hunter's analysis was con- 
firmed by Drs. Garnett, Murray, and Scudamore. At this time the 
percentage proportions of the carbonates and chlorides of calcium 
and magnesium resembled those now present in the other saline 
waters, e.g. the Old Sulphur Spring which fairly represents them. 
But in 1854 Hoffmann, while maintaining the general chemical 
features of the water, recorded a considerable increase of the chlorides 
of the Alkaline Earths, and of the Carbonate of Iron. This alteration 
is so considerable, that one might suspect that Chloride of Iron may 
have been overlooked by Professor Hoffmann ; this theory is, how- 
ever, opposed by the presence of carbonate of lime, and is moreover 
improbable when one bears in mind the well-known accuracy and 
skill of the analyst. These facts appear to me to support the notion 
* " In a chalybeate water, near the road (Ripon road), and not far from 
the Crescent Garden, the iron is dissolved in muriatic acid." — A Treatise on the 
mineral waters of Harrogate, by Thos. Garnett, M.D., 1792. 
t See " Essay on two mineral springs recently discovered at Harrogate, and 
on the springs of Thorpe Arch and Ilkley, dec. — by A. Hunter, M.D., 1819. 
