Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/45

 convince any one of the enormous quantity of Sprudel water running to no purpose into the river. Klaproth calculated approximatively that one could obtain yearly 746,884 ℔. of sulfate and 1,32,923 ℔. of carbonate of soda; whilst another chymist, Mr. Gilbert, finding erroneous the basis of Klaproth’s calculations, estimates the yearly quantity of those two salts to 200,000 quintals of carbonate of soda. Considering the advantages which might arise from the extraction of such an enormous quantity of soda in a country, like Bohemia, where so much glass is manufactured, several speculators have been struck with the utility of an undertaking, which Mr. Berzelius (Almanach de Carlsbad, 1835, ch. III) thinks easy and infallible. The citizens of Carlsbad, it is true, believe still that whatever is extracted from their springs and sold abroad, must be detrimental to the prosperity of the place; but such prejudices would easily give way to rational consideration.