Two and a half centuries of qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses of dead sea water

The waters of the Dead Sea, with their extremely high salt concentration and unusual ionic composition, have challenged the analytical skills of the pioneers of modern chemistry in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Since the first qualitative (Perry, 1742) and quantitative analysis (Macquer, Lavoisier, and Sage, 1781) of Dead Sea brine were published, many chemical analyses of its waters have appreared in the literature. Illustrious names such as Marcel, Klaproth, Gay-Lussac, Gmelin, Hermbstädt, and Boussingault are associated with these early analyses. Many of the analytical results, obtained with the primitive equipment available at the time, are surprisingly accuate, even by present-day standards. Thus, the chemical composition of Dead Sea water was known long before correct maps of the lake had been published and before the geological history, the physical limnology, and the microbiology of the lake were understood.