A letter to Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B. F.R.S., being a medical commentary on the results of the recent analysis of the Buxton tepid water : to which are appended a statement of the improvements now in progress at Buxton and Dr. Playfair's analytical report / by William Henry Robertson.

  • Robertson, William Henry.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B. F.R.S., being a medical commentary on the results of the recent analysis of the Buxton tepid water : to which are appended a statement of the improvements now in progress at Buxton and Dr. Playfair's analytical report / by William Henry Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thirty-six years between the first and the second of these analyses, and of thirty-two years between the second and your own analysis. According to all these analyses, of such distant respec¬ tive dates, the Buxton tepid water was found to contain a certain proportion of free nitrogen. According to the different analyses of the great warm mineral spring at Bath, the most various results are set forth. A recent analysis, by M. Walcker, the celebrated German chemist, assigns to the Bath thermal water only 0'40 cubic inches per imperial gallon of carbonic acid, and only 14 cubic inches of atmospheric air, there being no mention what¬ ever of free nitrogen. An analysis by Professor Daubeny assumes that there are 96 per cent, of nitrogen in the thermal water of Bath. The satisfactory character of this statement is, however, considerably detracted from, by the circumstance that, in addition to carbonic acid and nitrogen, oxygen was found in the Bath mineral water. It should, moreover, be borne in mind, that in the instance of the Bath water, and in that of most of the great mineral waters, even should future analyses assume for them as large a proportion of free nitrogen as is assumed by your analysis for the Buxton tepid water, the water issues from the earth at so high a degree of temperature as to be unfit for immediate use, either externally or internally; such water has to be cooled considerably, either by exposure to the air or by the addition of colder water, before it can be used as a bath or taken into the stomach; and thus the gaseous constituents must be dissipated in an important degree; whereas the temperature of the St. Ann’s springs, at Buxton, enables this water to be used in its natural state, without exposure or dilution, securing that its effects, so far as these may be dependent upon the presence of