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.]