LEMINGTON PRIORS, is a village two miles east of the town of Warwick, famous for its mineral waters. One salt spring, which rises near the church yard, has been long known, as well as another which rises in the bed of the river; but the most remarkable spring was discovered in the year 1790. The waters of both springs have been analyzed with great accuracy by William Lambe, M. A. late Fellow of St John's college, Cambridge, who has given us the following synoptical table of the substances contained in them:
Gaseous Fluids contained in a Wine gallon in Cubic Inches.
| WATER OF THE NEW SPRING. | WATER OF THE OLD SPRING. | |
|---|---|---|
| Hepatic gas | Too small to be measured. | Too small to be measured. |
| Azotic gas | 3.5 | 3 |
| Carbonic acid gas | .5 | — |
Solid contents of a Wine-gallon in Grains.
| WATER OF THE NEW SPRING. | WATER OF THE OLD SPRING. | |
|---|---|---|
| Carbonat of iron | .75 | Too small to be weighed. |
| Oxids of iron and manganese | — | Too small to be weighed. |
| Oxygenated muriat of iron and manganese | Unknown, but very small. | Unknown, but very small. |
| Sulphur | Unknown, but very small. | — |
| Muriat of magnesia | 11.5 | 58 |
| Muriat of soda | 430 | 330 |
| Sulphat of soda | 152 | 62 |
| Sulphat of lime | 112 | 146 |
In the course of his experiments, for which we must refer to the original memoir, in Transactions of the Manchester Society, Mr Lambe thinks he discovered the origin of the muriatic acid. He found a coincidence, very unexpected, between the hepatised solution of iron and the oxygenated muriat of iron. "I had almost concluded (says he), from the resemblance between the properties of this salt and the phenomena of the water, that the water contains this very salt. Now, I conclude, that they contain a matter, be it what it may, produced by the action of hepatic gas on iron. But they are the very same facts which form the basis, upon which each separate inference is built. Does it not follow, then, as a necessary consequence, that the hepatised solution itself contains a muriat of iron highly oxygenated, and that therefore in this process muriatic acid is generated? This conclusion seemed authorized by reason, and experiment has confirmed it."