others.* What was long ago shown by the celebrated Mr. Boyle † was proved in the year 1716 by Geoffroy the younger, that sal ammoniac was composed of the muriatic acid and volatile alkali, and that it could be thence prepared in Europe by sublimation. In the same year the jesuit Sicard gave the first certain account of the sal ammoniac manufactories at Damayer, in the Delta, and described in what manner this salt was prepared there, by sublimation in glass vessels, from the soot of the burnt dung of camels and cows, which is used in Egypt for fuel, with the addition of sea salt and urine. In the year 1719, the Academy of Sciences at Paris received from Lemere, the French consul at Cairo, an account of the process employed; but it contained no mention either of sea salt or of urine. || Afterwards this information was in part confirmed, and in part rectified and enlarged, by Paul Lucas, Granger, or, as he was Abhandl. der Schwed. Akadem. xiii. p. 251. Hildt Handlungszeitung 1795, p. 267. 285. 270. 291. 300. + See the proofs quoted in Gmelin's Geschichte der chemie, ii. p. 69. Memoires de l'Acad. 1720. p. 195. Basil Valentine had before taught how to separate the volatile alkali from sal ammoniac by means of the fixed alkali. § Nouveaux mémoires des missions de la compag. de Jesus, ii. Memoires de l'Acad. 1720. p. 191. Dritte Reise nach der Levante. Hamburg 1721, 8vo. i. p. 208. properly called, Tourtechot,* Shaw,† Pococke, t Hasselquist, || Niebuhr, ¶ and Ma Norden, riti.** Several writers have asserted that sal ammoniac comes also from the East Indies. It is mentioned by Tavernier among the wares which, in his time, were brought from Amadabat, in the territories of the Mogul, to Surat; †† and Geoffroy states, that when the trade of Marseilles was interrupted by the plague, the French obtained from Holland sal ammoniac, which was shaped like a truncated cone, and was given out to be Indian.‡‡ Pomet §§ also says, that some of the same kind was formerly procured from Venice and Holland. But Gaubius asserts that he was never able to hear of any such sal ammoniac in Holland; nor is it to be found in the price currents of the East India company. I am almost inclined to suspect that these trun • Göttingische Samlung der Reisen, iii. p. 427. Memoires de l'Acad. 1735. p. 107. + Reisen. Leipzig 1765, 4to. p. 416. Beschreibung des Morgenlandes. Erlangen 1754, 4to. i p. 400. $ Reise. Breslau 1779, 8vo. p. 251. Abhandl. der Schwed. Akad. xiii. p. 266. Reise, p. 577. ** Viaggio da Gerusalemme par le coste della Soria. Livorno, 1787, 8vo. i. p. 239. ++ Reisen, ii. p. 114. ‡‡ Mem. de l'Acad. 1723, p. 221, where a figure is given of it. Geoffroy Materia medica, i. P. 213. §§ Materialist. ii. p. 506. Gaubii Adversaria. Leidæ 1771, 4to. p. 138. cated conés were formed by the merchants from broken pieces or fragments of the Egyptian sal ammoniac, by solution and imperfect crystallisation or sublimation. In this manner the merchants at Marseilles convert the refuse of the Egyptian sal ammoniac into cakes by a new sublimation, in order that it may become more saleable, though it is not readily purchased by artists. Gaubius, however, has described a kind of sal ammoniac which he obtained from India, with the information that it was made in Indostan from the soot of animal dung; but in my opinion this requires further confirmation. Where and at what time the first works for making sal ammoniac were established in Europe, I am not able to determine. The account given by Thurneisser, that the first sal ammoniac was made in the Tyrol in the ninth century, is truly ridiculous. It is not worth the trouble to inquire where he or Paracelsus found this foolish assertion; but I shall transcribe the passage, which Möhsen also has quoted,* from the original, now become scarce. One might be almost induced ⚫ Beyträge zur Geschichte der Wissenchaften in der Mark Brandenburg, p. 76. ↑ Meyan xua vel Magna Alchymia das ist ein Lehr und unterweisung - - - durch Leonh. Thurneissern. Berlin 1583, fol. p. 53. Und sol der aller erste, der solche salz nach conterfeyt und gemacht hat, gewesen seyn Hans von der Zeit, welcher umb das jahr Christi 834 aus dem Dörfiein Charras, das in Tyrol oberthalb dem Markt Imbst ligt, als ein geschickter bergmann, zum grossen Kayser to believe, that in the time of Boyle there were manufactories of sal ammoniac in Europe. But, perhaps, there may be no other foundation for all this than the before-mentioned assertion of Cæsalpinus, that this salt came from Germany. At Bamberg, the Germans were long accustomed to boil the sediment of the salt-pans with old urine, and to sell it cheap for sal ammoniac; and Weber asserts that some of the same kind is still made at Vienna. The hundred weight costs from twenty to thirty florins, but the refuse may be purchased for a mere trifle.† If I am not mistaken, the first real manufactories of sal ammoniac were established in Scotland; and the oldest of these, perhaps, was that erected by Dovin and Hutton at Edinburgh in 1756, and which, like many in England, manufactures this salt on a large scale. Among the newest undertakings of this kind is Carlen gen Ach ist kommen, und als ein berümbter und künstlicher mann, ein zeugmeister worden ist, der auch 361 jahr gelebt, und viel guter stücklein in der Alchymia (wie Paracelsus in andern theil seines büchlein Corda sursum mildet) erfunden hat, wie man dann noch heute zu tag, in seinem Johansen von der Zeyt geschriebenen Samlungbuch, mit sehr alten und uns diser zeit frembden Deutschen worten zu sehen haben mag. * Though the sal-armoniac that is made in the East may consist in great part of camel's urine, yet that which is made in Europe (where camels are rarities) and is commonly sold in our shops, is made of man's urine. Natural History of the human blood, iv. p. 188. + J. A. Weber Nützliche wahrheiten für Fabrikanten. Wien 1787, 8vo. p. 211. ↑ History of Edinburgh, by H. Arnot, Edinb. 1779, 4to. p. 601. Gravenhorst's manufactory at Brunswick, and that which in the neighbourhood of Gottenburg manufactures sal ammoniac from the refuse left in making train oil; but in regard to the present state of them I have obtained no information.* FORKS. AT present forks are so necessary at table among polished nations, that the very idea of eating a meal without them excites disgust. The introduction of them, however, is of so modern a date that they have scarcely been in use three centuries. Tam prope ab origine rerum sumus, says Pliny,† in speaking of a thing which, though very new, was then exceedingly common. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans have any name for these instruments; and no phrase or expression which, with the least probability, can be referred to the use of them, occurs any where in their writings. But had forks been known, this could not have been the case, since so many entertainments are celebrated by the poets or described by other writers; and they must also have been mentioned by Pollux, in the very full catalogue which he has given of articles necessary for the table. Neue Abhandl. der Schwed. Akadem. xii. p. 275. + Hist. natur. xiv. 4. sect. 5. |