  We present an experimental determination of the isothermal magnetic
susceptibility of the spin ice materials Dy2Ti2O7 and Ho2Ti2O7 in the
temperature range 1.8-300 K. The use of spherical crystals has allowed the
accurate correction for demagnetizing fields and allowed the true bulk
isothermal susceptibility X_T(T) to be estimated. This has been compared to a
theoretical expression based on a Husimi tree approximation to the spin ice
model. Agreement between experiment and theory is excellent at T > 10 K, but
systematic deviations occur below that temperature. Our results largely resolve
an apparent disagreement between neutron scattering and bulk measurements that
has been previously noted. They also show that the use of non-spherical
crystals in magnetization studies of spin ice may introduce very significant
systematic errors, although we note some interesting - and possibly new -
systematics concerning the demagnetizing factor in cuboidal samples. Finally,
our results show how experimental susceptibility measurements on spin ices may
be used to extract the characteristic energy scale of the system and the
corresponding chemical potential for emergent magnetic monopoles.
