2 32. DR. DAUBENY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF IODINE AND BROMINE 
have only to observe, that they are no doubt combined with hydrogen, forming 
the hvdriodic and hydrobromic acids, and neutralized in all probability by 
magnesia, both forming with this basis salts decomposable at a low tempera- 
ture, which seems to be the case with the compounds of both bromine and 
iodine existing in the waters I have examined. Even long continued boiling, 
there is reason to believe, diminishes the quantity of bromine originally present ; 
and hence it seems advisable, when the object is to estimate the whole of 
this principle which a mineral water may contain, to combine the hydrobromic 
acid with lime, in the manner which I have recommended to be done when 
speaking of the mode of separating bromine from its combination. 
I may conclude by observing, that there is little question as to the possibi- 
lity of procuring a sufficient supply of bromine from our English brine-springs, 
should a demand be created for this new substance, either for medical pur- 
poses or for the arts of life ; for, from a few rough trials of its comparative 
abundance in the Middlewich and Ashby springs, and in those of Kreutznach 
in the Palatinate, which affords, it is said, the principal supply for present con- 
sumption, I should regard our own quite as highly charged : neither can it be 
doubted but that the proportion of bromine present in many brine-springs ex- 
ceeds considerably that contained in the present ocean, which, from experiments 
recently made by myself on water taken from the English Channel a short 
distance from Cowes, I have stated in the Table as existing in the proportion 
of one grain to the gallon. 
