DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0350
320
travels in upper
CHAP. XIX.
Natron—Bleaching of cloth and thread—Other uses
of natron—Senna—Birds—Description of a spe-
cies of falcon ■ Wagtail—Dragon-flics—Wasp—
Cricket—Rain—Delta—Herons— Coot— Quails
—Snipes—Armed plovers—Fenu-greek.
There are in Rossctta magazines of natron, and
manufactures in which it is employed. It is well
known that this is an alkaline earthy salt, or
mineral alkali, found more particularly in Egypt,
in the middle of a desert, to which the ancients
gave the name of the Desert of Nitria, because
our saltpetre being entirely unknown to them,
they had given the name of nitre to thai: substance,
which the Arabs describe under the denomination
of natroum, from which we have derived natron. It
is from having neglected to examine the passages
of Theophrastus, of Dioscorides, of Galen, and of
Pliny, that several moderns have confounded nitre
and natron, which are very different substances.
It is uncommon to meet with natron perfectly
pure. Besides the earthy matter which is almost
always mixed with it, it is not an entirely free al-
kali; it is usually united to marine salt, to Glauber's
salt,
travels in upper
CHAP. XIX.
Natron—Bleaching of cloth and thread—Other uses
of natron—Senna—Birds—Description of a spe-
cies of falcon ■ Wagtail—Dragon-flics—Wasp—
Cricket—Rain—Delta—Herons— Coot— Quails
—Snipes—Armed plovers—Fenu-greek.
There are in Rossctta magazines of natron, and
manufactures in which it is employed. It is well
known that this is an alkaline earthy salt, or
mineral alkali, found more particularly in Egypt,
in the middle of a desert, to which the ancients
gave the name of the Desert of Nitria, because
our saltpetre being entirely unknown to them,
they had given the name of nitre to thai: substance,
which the Arabs describe under the denomination
of natroum, from which we have derived natron. It
is from having neglected to examine the passages
of Theophrastus, of Dioscorides, of Galen, and of
Pliny, that several moderns have confounded nitre
and natron, which are very different substances.
It is uncommon to meet with natron perfectly
pure. Besides the earthy matter which is almost
always mixed with it, it is not an entirely free al-
kali; it is usually united to marine salt, to Glauber's
salt,