ANALYSIS  OF  A  CHALYBEATE  WATER. 
105 
ANALYSIS  OF  THE  CHALYBEATE  WATER  FROM  SHARON 
SPRINGS,  N.  Y. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
There  are  several  springs  of  miaeral  water  in  the  vicinity  of 
Sharon  Springs,  which  is  situated  45  miles  west  of  Albany,  in 
the  State  of  New  York.  The  springs  are  called  White  Sulphur, 
Magnesia  and  Chalybeate  Springs,  from  their  most  predomina- 
ting contents.  According  to  an  analysis  of  the  last  named,  its 
water  contains  in  one  gallon  sulphate  of  magnesia,  8'56  ;  sul- 
phate of  soda,  1-00  ;  sulphate  of  lime,  16-36;  sulphate  of  iron, 
86-00;  altogether,  111-92  grs.  solid  matter.  The  temperature 
is  stated  to  be  invariably  48^  F. 
I  have  had  occasion  to  examine  some  of  this  water,  which  had 
been  sent  on  to  this  city,  from  which  fact  I  am  not  able  to  give 
the  composition  of  the  recent  spring  water.  My  analysis  differed 
so  much  from  the  foregoing,  that  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  the 
water  must  have  changed  through  the  influence  of  organic  mat- 
ter, probably  of  a  cask,  which  latter  supposition  proved  to  be 
correct,  as  the  spring  is  said  to  be  destitute  of  the  odor  of  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen,  and  the  water  in  question  had  been  sent  in 
an  entirely  new  barrel.  Moreover,  in  the  demijohn  I  found  a 
black  precipitate,  consisting  of  sulphide  of  iron,  thus  showing 
plainly  that  a  very  considerable  amount  of  iron  had  been  pre- 
cipitated by  the  reaction  indicated  before. 
This  analysis  cannot,  for  these  reasons,  have  the  same  interest 
as  if  it  had  been  performed  with  water  drawn  by  me  directly 
from  the  spring  ;  nevertheless  it  shows  the  amount  of  alkalies 
and  alkaline  earths  the  water  contains,  and,  provided  the  above 
analysis  is  correct,  would  prove  that  the  proportion  of  its 
contents  are  to  some  extent  variable. 
As  near  as  I  could  ascertain,  the  water  had  been  drawn  last 
fall.  When  I  received  it,  it  had  a  not  very  strong  odor  and 
taste  of  sulph-hydric  acid ;  it  possessed  a  slight  acid  reaction, 
and  had  at  60^  F.  a  specific  gravity  of  1-0012. 
After  determining  the  quality  of  its  contents,  the  following 
quantities  were  obtained  from  one  gallon:  sulph-hydric  acid, 
0-2796  grs.,  sulphuric  acid,  44-752  grs.,  carbonic  acid,  9-447 
