Edinburgh doctrine

As first suggested by the Edinburgh doctrine, water hardness and alkalinity are negatively correlated with lead solvency hard water usually dissolves less lead than does soft water. Unfortunately, many historical actors mistook correlation for identification and assumed that hard water never dissolved lead, rather than the more accurate principle that hard water usually did not dissolve lead. This mistaken assumption often prompted towns and homeowners to install lead pipes without properly investigating the lead-solvent properties of their water suppHes, and to develop a false sense of security regarding their vulnerability to water-related lead poisoning. 

Anonimus the Cabalist.The crowning of nature The doctrine of the chief medicine explained in sixty seven hieroglyphicks, by Anonimus the Cabalist. Edited with a commentary by Adam McLean. Edited by Adam McLean. Edinburgh Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourcebooks, 1980. 136p. 

On the "chemical philosophy" of the Paracelsian tradition, see Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy Paracelsian Science andMedicine in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 2 vols. (New York Science History Publications, 1977). Also see Arthur Donovan, Philosophical Chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment The Doctrines and Discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black (Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press, 1975). 

Donovan, Arthur. Philosophical Chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment. The Doctrines and Discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black. Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press, 1975. 

In 1814 Thomas Charles Hope of Edinburgh wrote in a letter to the British Quaker chemist William Allen I should be very glad to know what doctrine you teach now with regard to oxymuriatic acid. Are you yet a convert to chlorine I am impatient to see Lussac s paper on iodine, in particular to learn how far the facts respecting that substance go to confirm the new views of chlorine. Lussac appears to be a convert to Davy s sentiments, and certainly the acquisition of one who so strenuously opposed them must be accounted a very flattering occurrence (117). 

The Edinburgh Neto Dispensatory with additions and account of the new chemical doctrines published by Mr. Lavoisier, 5 ed., 8°, 1797 (BM 777. h. 37) recommended to his students by Black. 

---