Saidschitz salt however is prepared there in considerable quantities. The water is evaporated to a proper degree of concentration, when the three sulphates of soda, potash, and magnesia, crystallize. They present crystals of large size. Again dissolved and concentrated, the latter salt is separated from the two former by its greater solubility; and the new solution, when crystallized, furnishes the Saidschitz salt—a tolerably pure sulphate of magnesia. The popular term in Germany for sulphate of magnesia corresponding to our “Epsom salt” is “bittersalz;” but it is known also as Saidschitz and Püllna salz; so that, if you enter a chemist’s, and demand a salt with either of the above titles, he will supply you from a certain bottle, labelled sal-amarum. If you ask for Sedlitz-salt, he will smile at your ignorance, and quietly tell you he does not keep it; and for this, we shall presently see, there is the very best of reasons. The prince is said to get about 1200 florins of good Austrian money annually by his salt making.
SEDLITZ.
It is but a quarter of an hour’s drive from Saidschitz to Sedlitz; a name better known, perhaps, in England, than that of any other spa in Germany. For who has not had a Sedlitz? a genuine Sedlitz? or who has not bought a box of these powders, with the acid in the blue and the alkali in the white paper? as though the wondrous spring could produce a salt, acid or alkaline, at the pleasure of the chemist who dispensed it?
Large manufactories indeed must be there! and how thriving a village Sedlitz must be!! A few miserable hovels, however, soon undeceive you, tenanted by the poorest of the poor. There are nine springs, not separate from the village of the same name, as at Saidschitz, but interspersed among the houses; and really it requires no small discernment to distinguish which are dwelling-houses, and which represent the wooden sheds covering the wells. Spring, No. 2, is the only one in use; and well, No. 2, the only one supplied with a bucket. The bucket was lowered by a rope and windlass (just conceive how civilized a bath-place); and brought up, full of water, for our inspection. I was not caught twice; I did not venture to taste this Bitterwasser with so much rashness. Its taste, color, and other physical properties, are exactly similar to those of Saidschitz-water, except that they are rather less marked, from its containing a smaller quantity of mineral ingredients. The following analysis by Professor Steinmann will be interesting.
Sixteen ounces contain,
| Sulphate of soda | 17.446 | |
| Sulphate of potash | 4.414 | |
| Sulphate of magnesia | 79.555 | |
| Sulphate of lime | 4.144 | |
| Chloride of magnesium | 1.061 | |
| Carbonate of magnesia | 0.201 | |
| Carbonate of lime | 5.297 | |
| Carbonate of stronthian | .009 | |
| Carbonate of protoxyde of iron and manganese, alumina, silica and extractive | .050 | |
| 112.177 | grs. | |
| Carbonic acid gas | 3.461 | grs. |
But where is the salt-manufactory, asked Dr. Richter? The woman was astonished—she knew not, nor had she ever heard of such a thing, although she had been in charge of the wells for thirty years. Her aged mother solved the difficulty. About thirty-three years ago. Prince Lobkowitz rented Sedlitz of the “ordre des chevaliers de l’etoile rouge,” and then a salt apparatus was in action. Finding, I presume, that Saidschitz was a more prolific source of bittersalz, he stopped the process at Sedlitz; so that absolutely, for the thirty-three long years that we have been drinking and enjoying our genuine Sedlitz powders, not a single atom of salt has been prepared.
But it is said, Saidschitz salt has been prepared, it imports little, that the mere name should have been mis-spelt. I answer—truly; a mere verbal error is of no moment; but when it is found, that the salt of Saidschitz and Sedlitz waters is sulphate of magnesia or Epsom salts; and when further it is observed, that the renowned Sedlitz powders are composed, for the most part, of Rochelle salt, or the triple tartrate of potash and soda, I confess, it seems that more than a verbal error is committed.
Like Saidschitz, the waters of Sedlitz are bottled at the establishment of Prince Lobkowitz, at Bilin. Some is sent into Germany; by far the greater part goes to Paris; none to England. The bottles are known by the peculiar manner in which they are stopped; they have metal collars round the necks, on which metal caps are screwed. It is a singular circumstance, that, at Teplitz, not a single bottle of Sedlitz water could be obtained.
Before quitting Prince Lobkowitz and his springs, I may notice another ingenious application of the Saidschitz water. At Bilin there is a mineral spring, containing the carbonate of soda, about 23 grains in the pint. The result is anticipated. It is concentrated considerably by evaporation, and mixed with the Saidschitz water, also much concentrated; a double decomposition of the proximate elements of the carbonate of soda in the one, and the sulphate of magnesia in the other water, ensues: and a very capital carbonate magnesia is precipitated. The prince is said to add 500 more florins of good Austrian money to his income by this preparation.