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ence of the officials and sealed before them for the purpose of authoritative supervision and control are, if considered necessary, officially analyzed.

On examining the label of one of the samples so obtained the following Hungarian statement translated into English occurs: "The natural bitter water contained in this bottle was yielded from the Hunyadi János Springs, property of Andreas Saxlehner, in the presence of the Chief of the District, mentioned below, and the bottle was officially sealed. Budapest, 19th December, 1884. Office of District No. 1.-Signed by the Secretary and Chief of the Municipality District."

The establishment is open to the inspection of visitors, and especially medical men, on presenting their card at the Saxlehner Offices, No. 3 Andrassy Street, Budapest, and the Saxlehner Spring, whence the Hunyadi János water is derived, is counted one of the sights worth seeing in and around the interesting and enterprising city of Budapest.

The most satisfactory way of establishing the honesty of a natural water is undoubtedly to secure speci

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is particularly ingenious, as is also the filling apparatus, which was specially designed for Messrs. Saxlehner, and capable of filling one hundred thousand bottles in twenty-four hours. It should be added here that all the wells yielding the Hunyadi János water come under the control of the head office of the first district of Budapest, which is subject to the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, who have the entire administration of affairs in Hungary over the whole of the mineral waters, springs, and health resorts in the country. Further, as regards filling and corking and their management, these establishments and wells are submitted from time to time to local inspection, executed by the officials of the district head office, whose competency is established by the existing laws and orders; and, again, bottles filled in pres

mens on the spot and to make independent analyses of them and to compare the results with samples obtained in the ordinary way on the market. If the results coincide there can remain no doubt that the water offered for sale is precisely the same as that drawn from the fountain head. Our commissioner having obtained the permission of the proprietors, which was freely given, to select samples wherever and whenever he chose and from any single well out of the hundred on the property, or of specimens in the filling apparatus, proceeded to do so, the samples being subsequently sealed and sent to the Lancet Laboratory for complete analysis. At the same time some dozen samples of the water were purchased in various and widely separated parts of London for analysis also, with the view of contrasting the results.

In order to make the search for rare constituents as thorough as possible no less than twenty-five litres of the water direct from the filling apparatus, and showing a density of 1.036, was evaporated carefully down to dryness in a shallow copper vessel. This operation was conducted at the spring, and a clear crystalline residue was obtained, which was found to weigh nearly a thousand grammes (more correctly, 917.81 grammes), or two pounds and three eighths of an ounce. This amounts to 36.71 parts of salts in a thousand parts of the water, an amount which almost exactly coincides with that obtained by Liebig. Considering that probably Liebig

results. The lithium was perfectly distinct and was readily isolated in the form of chloride. It amounted to exactly two grains of lithium chloride per gallon. There was, however, no difficulty in recognizing lithia in the whole of the samples examined-that is to say, both in those obtained at the springs and in those purchased.

The total results of the analyses made with the samples may next be recorded. A description of each sample is appended.

Sample A.-This was a sample which had been sealed in the manner already described by the authorities at Budapest, and attached to the bottle was a label

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already given at length. The sample was sealed in 1884.

Specific gravity...

1036.0 Grammes per litre.

operated on a comparatively small volume of the water, | containing a statement in Hungarian which we have and that in the experiment just described no less than twenty-five litres, or forty-four pints, or five gallons and a half were employed, the results are remarkably close and testify to the uniformity of composition of Hunyadi János water. The percentage composition of the salts so obtained was ascertained by analyses to be as follows:

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....

Magnesium sulphate.
Sodium sulphate
Sodium chloride
Sodium carbonate..
Calcium carbonate.

Lithium chloride

Free carbonic acid..

15.84

16.76

1.46

0.61

0.78

0.028

0.40

Sodium carbonate..

Calcium carbonate.

Lithium chloride..

A search for rare constituents in addition to lithia, like cæsium and rubidium, was attended with negative.

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analyses worthy of remark. To begin with, the important fact is established that whatever modification the water may undergo in regard to strength, the ratio of its medicinal constituents is absolutely the same. But, as has been pointed out elsewhere, although the proportion of total salts may vary slightly in the different waters taken from a hundred wells, yet on mixing an average composition is obtained which is constant. Another point worthy of emphasis is the practical identity in composition of the samples of water obtained on the spot

nal importance. Before the quantity of lithium chloride in a natural aperient water has been ascertained it is not possible to attach any medicinal value to the water on this account. The quantity of lithium chloride, which is only two grains per gallon, must be very small in the average dose, a wineglassful, of the water, and accordingly can possess very little value. The presence of lithium, however, is interesting in indicating the genuineness of the water as one from a natural source. was found in every sample examined, including those

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with the samples purchased in bottle at shops in LonThis affords conclusive evidence of the honesty of the water. Taking the mean composition as a basis we find that the ratio of sulphate of magnesium to sulphate of sodium is as 1:1, while common salt occurs to the extent of about one twentieth of the total amount of the sulphates. Carbonate of sodium again amounts to 0.87 gramme per litre, a quantity which is quite sufficient to render the water distinctly alkaline. Carbonate of calcium occurs in similar quantity, traces of this compound invariably accompanying magnesia when abundantly found. Then the water contains about half a gramme of carbonic acid, which is equivalent to a fifth of its volume of carbonic-acid gas. The presence of this gas in solution contributes in no small measure to its palatability, in spite of the rich proportion of saline constituents. As regards lithia, this occurs in distinct quantity, probably as chloride. It is doubtful, however, whether this small quantity signifies anything of medici

purchased and those obtained at the spring. Finally, a very important feature in the results of these analyses consists in the fact that they accord very closely indeed with the results obtained by Liebig thirty years ago. Thus nothing could be more satisfactory from the therapeutic point of view than to be able to state that the composition of Hunyadi János water has remained substantially the same over a period of thirty years.

A consideration of the foregoing results renders the chemistry of Hunyadi János water quite clear, and therefore its therapeutic efficacy can be adjudged to a degree; and since its composition is constant its medicinal effect will not be variable. Further, they establish the important conclusion that the water delivered in London is identical with the natural water obtained from the wells near Budapest. Considerable attention has recently been given to the question of the respective merits of an excess of sodium sulphate or magnesium sulphate in naturally occurring bitter waters. Some have

stated that those waters act most pleasantly in which the magnesium preponderates over the sodium sulphate, since it has been maintained that where the sodium is in excess of the magnesium sulphate the purgative action of the water is too drastic, an effect which may lead to disturbed digestive function and in course of time to debility. On the other hand, some have advanced arguments in favor of a moderate excess of sodium salt on the ground that its action is more prompt and certain. Sulphate of sodium is generally regarded as a more

of natural mineral waters that what are called artificial waters, however admirably prepared, are simply pharmaceutical products and are destitute of a remarkable quality which distinguishes them from the remedies they are intended to imitate, and whatever this difference may be due to it is an established certainty so far that it sharply distinguishes the action of mineral waters containing salts naturally in solution from the action of salts which are made by pharmaceutical processes. The importance, therefore, of employing a natural water when it con

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powerful purgative than sulphate of magnesium, which | is described as a mild, painless, non-nauseating purgative, and less rapid in its action than sodium salt. Whichever argument obtains, however, matters but little in the case of Hunyadi János water, since both the salts occur in practically equal quantities, and doubtless this fact tends to produce a modifying and beneficial effect of both constituents. There can be little doubt that the presence of other salts, such as chloride of sodium and carbonate of sodium, in Hunyadi János water has also a modifying and favorable influence. Lastly, the therapeutic advantage of these salts occurring in a natural water is practically conceded. Why a natural water containing certain salts in certain proportion should act more favorably than a water artificially prepared, and containing the same proportion and quantity of constituents, is by no means understood, and certainly up to the present chemistry fails us for an explanation. An authority has said in some remarks upon the administration

tains the salts that are indicated in medicinal treatment is obvious, and any facts which prove a guide to discriminating between a mineral water that is natural and one that is artificial will be manifestly of value.

How the composition of these saline purgative waters is effected in Nature's laboratory is a point of extreme interest. It is probable that the prime materials at hand for this purpose are dolomite, as the source of magnesia, in conjunction probably with sodium carbonate, which are slowly acted upon by the products of oxidation of iron pyrites. One of the latter products would be sulphuric acid, which may be supposed to dissolve the dolomite or native carbonate of magnesium and the carbonate of sodium, forming sulphates of these metals and free carbonic-acid gas. All these products at any rate occur in Hunyadi János water, and the materials from which it is presumed they are formed are found abundantly in the mountains which form the valley in which the Saxlehner springs are situated.

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