FOOTNOTES
[1190] To this subject belong the following works:—Ars Magna Artilleriæ, Auct. Cas. Siomienowicz. Amst. 1650, fol. p. 61. The author thinks that the nitrum of the ancients is not at present known.
Natural History of Nitre, by W. Clarke. Lond. 1670, 8vo. It is here said that the nitrum of the ancients was impure saltpetre, and that the latter is produced from the former by purification.
G. C. Schelhameri de Nitro, cum veterum, tum nostro commentatio, Amst. 1709, 8vo, contains good philological observations, particularly in regard to the period, but leaves the question undetermined.
Saggi sul ristabilimento dell’ antica arte de’ Greci e Romani pittori, del Sig. Doct. Vin. Requeno. Parma, 1787, 2 tomi in 8vo, ii. pp. 95, 131: a learned but diffuse work. He thinks that the nitrum of the ancients was our saltpetre; and what others consider as proofs of its being mineralized alkali, he understands as indicating alkalized saltpetre. I am not, however, convinced. Before I ascribe to the ancients a knowledge of our saltpetre, I must be shown in their writings properties of their nitrum sufficient to satisfy me that it was the same substance.
Commentat. de nitro Plinii, in J. D. Michaelis commentationes. Bremæ 1784, 4to. The author only illustrates the account of Pliny, and states what, according to his opinion, we are to understand in it in regard to alkali, and what in regard to our saltpetre.
[1191] [Since the discovery of the immense deposits of nitrate of soda in Peru, this salt, from its being much cheaper, has replaced the nitrate of potash in the manufacture of aquafortis, but it is not adapted to the making of gunpowder owing to its deliquescent property.]
[1192] I found the account of the Portuguese saltpetre in Mémoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur. The author of this work was the well-known Theodore king of Corsica.
[1193] More accounts of native saltpetre may be found in Recueil de Mémoires sur la Formation du Salpetre. Par les Commissaires de l’Academie. Paris, 1776, 8vo. Del Nitro Minerale Memoria dell’ ab. Fortis, 1787, 8vo.
[1194] The first, or one of the first, who was acquainted with and made known the cubic saltpetre, was professor John Bohn of Leipsic, in the Acta Eruditorum, 1683, p. 410; but with more precision in his Dissertat. Chymico-Physicæ, Lips. 1696, 8vo, p. 36.
[1195] [It is scarcely necessary to inform the reader that the author understands the soda of commerce, which is a carbonate of soda, and not the hydrated or caustic soda of chemists.]
[1196] [Crude soda or kelp was formerly manufactured to a very large extent in the Highlands, by burning the sea-weed, but since the tax has been taken off salt, most of the soda of British commerce is made by decomposing this with chalk and some carbonaceous matter.]
[1197] In like manner, a heap of dung covered with earth is lixiviated, and the result, without the addition of ashes, used as saltpetre.
[1198] The passage of Jerome relating to Proverbs, xxv. 20, I here insert entire, because I shall often have occasion to employ it:—“Nitrum a Nitria provincia, ubi maxime nasci solet, nomen accepit. Nee multum a salis Ammoniaci specie distat. Nam sicut salem in litore maris fervor solis conficit, durando in petram aquas marinas, quas major vis ventorum, vel ipsius maris fervor in litoris ulteriora projecerit; ita in Nitria, ubi æstate pluviæ prolixiores tellurem infundunt, adest ardor sideris tantus, quod ipsas aquas pluviales per latitudinem arenarum concoquat in petram; salis quidem vel glaciei aspectui simillimam; sed nil gelidi rigoris, nil salsi saporis habentem, quæ tamen, juxta naturam salis, in caumate durare, et in nubilos, aere fluere ac liquefieri solet. Hanc indigenæ sumentes servant, et ubi opus extiterit, pro lomento utuntur. Unde Judæo peccanti dicit propheta Jeremias: Si laveris te nitro, et multiplicaveris tibi herbam borith, maculata es in iniquitate tua, dicit Dominus Deus. Crepitat autem in aqua quomodo calx viva; et ipsum quidem disperit, sed aquam lavationi habilem reddit; cujus natura cui sit apta figuræ, cernens Solomon ait: Acetum in nitro, qui cantat carmina cordi pessimo. Acetum quippe si mittatur in nitrum, protinus ebullit.”
[1199] Herodot. ii. cap. 86 et 87.
[1200] Histor. Ægypti Naturalis iii. 2. See also Forskäl Flora Ægyptiaco-Arabica, p. xlv.
[1201] [Duhamel proved soda to be distinct from potash in 1736, Marggraf confirmed it in 1758.]
[1202] Lib. xxxi. cap. 10.
[1203] De Simplic. Med. Facult. ix. Dioscorides also, v. 131, speaks as if it had been well known that nitrum was commonly burnt.
[1204] Phil. Transactions, 1771, vol. lxi. p. 567.
[1205] De Igne, p. 435, ed. Heinsii, where he speaks of the heat produced in lime by slaking it. Aristotle also mentions together κονία and νίτρον, on account of similar properties. Problemat. i. 39. ed. Septalii, p. 71.
[1206] Hist. Plant. iii. 9, p. 50.
[1207] xxvi. 8.
[1208] xiv. 20.
[1209] De Re Rustica, lib. i. c. 7. Little, however, depended on the wood; the principal thing was the sprinkling with water.
[1210] xxxi. 10.
[1211] xxxi. 7. Here express mention is made of brine.
[1212] Taciti Annal. xiii. 57.
[1213] Lib. xxx. 7.
[1214] This is particularly the case in regard to Aristot. Auscult. Mirab., as I have remarked in the preface to my edition.
[1215] In the island of Dagebull, and also in Faretoft and Galmesbull, Frisio salt is made in the following manner. The inhabitants proceed along the coast in small vessels, and at low water go on shore on the mud, which they dig up till they come to a kind of earth called torricht; it is of a turfy nature, and interwoven with roots. This earth they convey to the islands, where they spread it out in the sun and leave it to dry, after which it is formed into a heap and burnt to ashes. What remains is again spread out, moistened and trod upon with the naked feet; the small stones and other useless parts are picked out, and being again dried and besprinkled with water, the ley is put into salt-pans and boiled into salt.
[1216] Mémoires de l’Acad. de Bruxelles, 1777, i. p. 345.
[1217] Elementa Chemiæ. Lugd. Bat. 1732, 4to, i. p. 767.
[1218] Boyle considered the words of Solomon as a proof that nether must be fixed alkali; and he was the more convinced of it when he saw nitre obtained from Egypt effervesce with acids.
[1219] See the [History of Soap] in vol. i.
[1220] Plin. xxxvi. 26, § 65. The use of nitrum in making glass is often mentioned.
[1221] Plin. xxxi. 10.
[1222] Lib. xxx. 10.
[1223] Forskäl Flora, p. xlvi.
[1224] Plutarchi Sympos. lib. vi. at the end.
[1225] Theophrasti Histor. Plant. ii. 5.—Geopon. ii. 35, 2; and ii. 41.—Palladius, xii. tit. i. 3, p. 996.
[1226] Virg. Georg. i. 193.—Plin. xviii. 7. 845.—Geopon. ii. 36, p. 184.
[1227] Columella, ii. 10, 11.
[1228] Plin. xix. 8, § 41.—Pallad. iii. 24, 6.—Geopon. xii. 17, 1.—Theophrast. de Causa Plant. vi. 14.
[1229] Plin. xxxi. 10; and xix. 5, § 26, 10.
[1230] Apicius, iii. 1, p. 70.—Martial, lib. xiii. ep. 17.—Plin. xix. 8, §41, 3; xxx. 10.—Columella, xi. 3, 23. [Carbonate of soda, as is well known, is still frequently used for this purpose in culinary operations.]
[1231] Herodot. ii. 87.
[1232] Our tanners use unslaked lime for a similar purpose.
[1233] Annot. to Dioscorides, v. 89, p. 951.
[1234] A catalogue of such waters may be found in Baccii Liber de Thermis. Patavii, 1711, fol. v. 5, 6, 7, p. 160. [Carbonate of soda occurs for instance in the celebrated mineral waters of Seltzer and Carlsbad, and also in the volcanic springs of Iceland, especially the Geyser.]
[1235] Plin. xxxi. 6, § 32, p. 556. Vitruv. viii. 3, p. 158.
[1236] xxxi. 10.
[1237] Plin. xxiv. 1; xxxi. 3, § 22. Geopon. ii. 5, 14, p. 85.
[1238] Speculum Naturæ, vii. 87, p. 480.
[1239] Hieronym. ad Jerem. ii. 22.
[1240] “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.”
[1241] In regard to the two plants usnee, asne, and usnem, assuan, see Avicennæ Canon. Medic. Venet. 1608, fol. pp. 338, 406, 407. Serapio de Temperam. Simplic. p. 164. In Du Cange’s Gloss. Gr. p. 12, addend. ἀλκαλη, and in Gloss. Lat. v. the word alcali is quoted only from modern writers. That kali, however, does not mean the plant, but the concrete ashes, is proved by the explanation in Castelli’s Lexicon.
[1242] In the annotations to Scribonius Largus, p. 228.
[1243] Commentationes, p. 145. Recueil des Questions, &c., p. 231.
[1244] Such things were known to Aristotle. See Mirab. Ausc. c. 146.
[1245] Dissertat. de Igne Græco. Upsaliæ, 1752.
[1246] De Subtilitate, xiii. 3. p. 71. ed. Francof. 1612, 8vo.
[1247] De Mirabilibus Mundi, p. 201; at the end of the book De Secretis Mulierum. Amst. 1702, 12mo.
[1248] Liber Ignium ad Comburendos Hostes, auctore Marco Græco; ou, Traité des Feux propres à détruire les Ennemies, composé par Marcus le Grec. Publié d’après deux manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Paris, 1804, three sheets in quarto.
[1249] Biblioth. Arab. Hisp. Escurial, ii.
[1250] See the works quoted in Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 978. In the year 1798, M. Langles proved, in a paper read in the French National Institute, that the Arabians obtained a knowledge of gunpowder from the Indians, who had been acquainted with it in the earliest periods. The use of it in war was forbidden in their sacred books, the Veidam or Vede. It was employed in 690 at the battle of Mecca.
[1251] The following may be advantageously consulted:—Archæologia, v. p. 148; Henry’s Hist. of Great Britain, vol. iv.; Muratori Antiq. Italiæ Medii Ævi, ii. p. 514; Watson’s Chemical Essays, i. pp. 284, 327; Histoire de France, par Velly, xvi. p. 330; Dow’s Hist. of Hindostan, vol. ii.; Erdbeschreibung der entferntesten Welttheile, ii. p. 159; Stettler Schweitzer Chronik. p. 109. The inhabitants of Berne purchased the first gunpowder from the people of Nuremberg in 1413.
[1252] A fragment from the writings of Synesius was printed, for the first time, in Frabricii Bibliotheca Græca, viii. p. 236, where the words occur.
[1253] Raspe on Oil-painting. London, 1781, 4to, p. 145.
[1254] Speculum Naturale, vii. cap. 13, p. 432.
[1255] Lib. vii. cap. 88, p. 480.
[1256] Symbola Aureæ Mensæ. Francof. 1617, 4to, lib. vii. p. 335.
[1257] De Asse, 1556, fol. lib. iii. p. 101.
[1258] Les Anciens-Minéralogistes de France, par Gobet. Paris, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. xxxiv. i. p. 51, 284; ii. p. 847.
[1259] [The celebrated chemist Baron Berzelius, professor at Stockholm, states in his Manual of Chemistry (edit. 1835, vol. iv. p. 86), that every possessor of land in Sweden is still compelled to deliver a certain quantity of saltpetre yearly to the state, and gives directions for testing its goodness.]