On mineral waters : their physical & medicinal properties : with descriptions of the different mineral waters of Great Britain and the Continent, and directions for their administration / by Robert Mortimer Glover.

  • Glover, Robert Mortimer, 1816-1859.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On mineral waters : their physical & medicinal properties : with descriptions of the different mineral waters of Great Britain and the Continent, and directions for their administration / by Robert Mortimer Glover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    portance of this law, especially in the study of mineral water’s. Something similar is the case in Botany, where the members of the same natural family of plants possess analo- gous properties] that is to say, resemblance in external form is attended with similarity of action on the systems of men and animals. The remarkable chemical analogies between chlorine, bromine, and iodine are particularly cited as accompanied by analogy of action. Observe how close is this analogy. Chlorine has the lowest combining equivalent; then comes bromine, then iodine. Chlorine is a light green gas, bromine a deep red liquid, iodine an intense violet solid. The specific heats of these bodies and their compounds, according to M. Kegnault, observe the same kind of analogy. ISTay more, according to my friend Dr. Cogswell, even the endosmotic powers are closely related.* Is it not highly interesting to find the same beautiful relation subsist between the physio- logical and medicinal properties of these bodies 1 also be- tween manganese and iron, baryta and lead, soda and silver, magnesia and zinc. The reader must recollect, however, that analogy is not identity. The probability is, that these chemical relations mean fundamental identity of composition; and that if chlorine be A, then bromine is A + B, iodine A + 2 B, and so on. I have pointed out, in like manner, that if to the equivalent of bai’ium we add half its equivalent, we get lead. As another illustration of this invaluable law of relation between the * Endosmosis is a power which has much to do with the phenomena of life. It is a law by which a thicker fluid can attract a thin through a membranous partition. By means of this power the sap is supposed to ascend in trees. Now, according to the researches of my friend Dr. Cogswell, the compounds of bromine in solution are intermediate in endosmotic power between those of chlorine and iodine.