[3181] See B. xxiii. c. 13.
[3182] “Ita ut batuerentur ante.” From the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, where the expression Βαπτόμενοι εἰς ὄξος is used, it would appear that the proper word here is “baptizarentur;” or possibly, a lost Græco-Latin word, “bapterentur.” Littré suggests “hebetarentur,” “the part being first numbed” by the aid of a bandage.
[3183] “Spuma salis.” Collected from the foam on the sea-shore.
[3184] See Note 36, above, p. 507.
[3185] Beckmann, who devotes several pages to a consideration of the “nitrum” of the ancients, considers it not to be our “nitre” or “saltpetre,” but a general name for impure alkaline salts. See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 490-503, Bohn’s Ed. Ajasson, without hesitation, pronounces it to be nitrate of potash, neither more or less than our saltpetre, and quotes a statement from Andreossy, that it is still to be found in great quantities at Mount Ptou-Ampihosem, near the city of Pihosem, called Nitria by St. Jerome.
[3186] “Salt bursting from the earth.”
[3187] “Wild.”
[3188] See c. 40 of this Book. He is evidently speaking of a vegetable alkali here. See Beckmann, Vol. II. pp. 492-3, Bohn’s Ed.
[3189] Beckmann thinks that these kinds of water were in reality only impure and not potable, from their nauseous taste, and that hence they were considered as nitrous. Nitrous water, he remarks, or water containing saltpetre, in all probability, does not exist. Vol. II. pp. 498-9. Bohn’s Edition.
[3190] Or in other words, crystallization. Beckmann remarks that, in reference to alkaline water, this is undoubtedly true. Vol. II. p. 499.