IX. A Chemical Account of an Aluminous Chalybeate Spring in the Isle of Wight.
By Alexander Marcet, M.D. F.R.S.
One of the Physicians to Guy's Hospital, and Member of the Geological Society.
The accurate analysis of a mineral water, although attended with
considerable difficulty and labour, must be allowed, in a general point
of view, to be an object of so little importance, that unless there be
some interesting medical question to investigate, or some new analytical
methods to point out in the course of the inquiry, it may be
questioned whether researches of this kind are worth the time and
attention which they require, or deserve to be placed amongst the
records of natural science.
Having thought it necessary, in the present essay, to confine myself to the natural and chemical history of the spring in question, without any digression upon its medicinal qualities, and being well aware that chemical details are considered by geologists merely as collateral objects, some apology may be required for the length of this communication. But if the relation which the history of mineral waters bears to geological and mineralogical inquiries, and the peculiarities of composition for which this spring is remarkable, entitle the subject to the attention of this Society, I hope that the general views and investigations which I have occasionally introduced respecting the analysis of mineral waters, and the composition of several salts connected with this inquiry, will be deemed a sufficient
