Our steam-baths being a new institution, I shall give summarily the result of my observations during the seven years of their existence.
The vapour, rising so copiously from our wells, had never been examined before. We are indebted for its first analysis to Mr. Nentwich, apothecary at Carlsbad, who undertook it, at my request, before they were opened to the public.
“The vapour of the Hygiaea-spring, taken in the apparatus standing the nearest of the square channel, through which it rises, gave, on the 20th of December 1826, with an external atmospheric temperature of + 5 R., the following result:
- The temperature within the closed apparatus was + 36 R.
- 100 parts of vapour, + 36° R., cooled to + 5° R., were reduced to 83,333 parts of space, and that gaz was composed of 4,183 parts of carbonic acid gaz and of 79,150 parts of atmospheric air.
- The water, under the form of drops, is, with the exception of a little carbonic acid gaz, entirely free from saline parts.”
We see, therefore, that the Carlsbad vapour is composed of atmospheric air, carbonic acid gaz and aqueous vapour.
One might be inclined to question the powerful effects of such a simple mixture, entirely free from fixed particles; that power, however, will be more
