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Updated: May 20, 2025
We sailed on waters that were from four to five feet deep; their temperature was by day from 33 to 34 degrees of the centigrade thermometer; they exhaled a strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen, to which no doubt some rotten plants of arum and heliconia, that swam on the surface of the pools, contributed.
Ambrosio said, "We remember it well, we saw it this very spring; we were carried there to examine some ancient Roman baths, and we were struck by the blue milkiness of the water, by the magnitude of the source, and by the disagreeable smell of sulphuretted hydrogen which everywhere surrounded the lake."
I inquired of the missionary whether the moistened clay were made to undergo that peculiar decomposition which is indicated by a disengagement of carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen, and which is designated in every language by the term of putrefaction; but he assured us that the natives neither cause the clay to rot, nor do they mingle it with flour of maize, oil of turtle's eggs, or fat of the crocodile.
The steam issuing from these hot springs contains small quantities of boric acid, that acid being one of those solid substances distilling to some extent in a current of steam. The steam vapours thus bursting forth, owing to some kind of constant volcanic disturbance, are also more or less laden with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, communicating a very ill odour to the neighbourhood.
The cause of the fetid effluvia emitted from this rock, when partially decomposed by means of friction, is now known to be connected with the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen. All bituminous limestone, however, does not possess this property. It is not uncommon in the calcareous beds called in England black marble, but it is by no means their characteristic.
In many a hollow the water bubbles with clouds of vapor and sulphuretted hydrogen; here the soil is hot and evidently underlaid by active fires. It is not safe to go very near, as the crust is thin and crumbling. The water running down the hills has a refreshing sound and a tempting clearness, but the thirsty tongue at once detects it to be a very strong solution of alum.
In pursuing the different stages of the decomposition of the ligneous matter, I observed no appearance of a disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen, to which many travellers attribute the smell perceived amidst mangroves.
=Hydrochloric Acid Gas.= Irrespirable when concentrated, and very irritating when diluted. Very destructive to vegetable life. =Chlorine.= Used in bleaching, and as a disinfectant. Greenish-yellow colour, suffocating odour. In poisoning, inhalation of sulphuretted hydrogen gives relief.
In all cases this water contains a certain amount of gases derived from the decomposition of various substances, but principally from the alteration of iron pyrite, which affords sulphuretted hydrogen.
Why don't YOU rather, with your practical power, turn sanitary reformer the only true soldier and conquer those real devils and "natural enemies" of Englishmen, carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen? 'Ce n'est pas mon metier, my dear fellow. I am miserably behind the age.
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