The joyous time now nigheth fast," That fhall aligge this bitter blast, Spent. Paft. And flake the winter forrow. * To ALIGHT. v. a. [alibtan, Sax. af-lichten, Dutch.] 1. To come down, and ftop. The word implies the idea of defcending; as, of a bird from the wing; a traveller from his horfe or carriage, and generally of refting or ftopping.— There ancient night arriving, did alight, From her high weary waine. Fairy Queen. There is alighted at your gate A young Venetian. When with his horfe he never will alight: Denham. When Dedalus, to fly the Cretan fhore, His heavy limbs on jointed pinions bore; To the Cumean coaft at length he came, And here alighting built this coftly frame. Dryden's Eneid. When he was admonished by his fubject to defcend, he came down gently and circling in the air, and finging to the ground. Like a lark, melodious in her mounting, and continuing her fong till fhe alights; ftill preparing for a higher flight at her next fally. Dryden. When finish'd was the fight, The victors from their lufty steeds alight; Like them difmounted all the warlike train. Dryden. Should a fpirit of fuperiour rank, a ftranger to human nature, alight upon the earth, what would his notions of us be? Addison's Spectator. 2. It is ufed alfo of any thing thrown or falling; to fall upon. But ftorms of stones from the proud temple's height, Pour down, and on our batter'd helms alight. Dryden. ALII DE REGNO, and ALII MULTI, are phrafes which often occur in our ancient records and hiftorians. Their meaning has occafioned much difpute. Dr Brady will have them to signify only tenants in capite; which Mr Tyrrel endeavours to refute, and fhew that they denote the whole commons of the kingdom. * ALIKE. adv. [from a and like.} With refemblance; without difference; in the fame manner; in the fame form. In fome expreflions it has the appearance of an adjective, but is always an adverb.-The darkness hideth not from thee; but the night fhineth as the day: the darknefs and the light are both alike to thee. Pf. cxxxix. 12. With thee converfing, I forget all time; All feafons, and their change, all please alike. Milt. Par. Loft. Riches cannot refcue from the grave, Which claims alike the monarch and the flave. Dryden. Let us urite at least in an equal zeal for thofe capital doctrines, which we all equally embrace, and are alike concerned to maintain. Atterbury. Two handmaids wait the throne: alike i place, But diff'ring far in figure and in face. ALIMA, among mineralifts, a kind of îủ found in goid mines, out of which lead is extracted ALIMENT. n. f. [alimentum, Lat.} Nouif ment; that which nourishes; nutriment; food.New parts are added to our fubftance; and a we die, we are born daily; nor can we give a account, how the aliment is prepared for nuts tion, or by what mechanifm it is diftribute Glanville's Scepfis Scientifica.-All bodies which by the animal faculties, can be changed into t fluids and folids of our bodies, are called alpine at In the largest fenfe, by aliment, I understand eve ry thing which a human creature takes in com mon diet; as, meat, drink; and featoning, a falt, fpice, vinegar. Arbuthnot. ALIMENT, DIGESTION OF. Notwithstandin Glanville's remark above-quoted, we may ad that from our food, by the procefs of digeftion is prepared a very mild, fweet, and whitish qua refembling milk, and diftinguished by the na of chyle; which being abforbed by the lacteal vein by them conveyed into the circulation, and the affimilated into the nature of blood, affords th fupply of nutrition which the continual wafe the body is found to require. See DIGESTION ALIMENT, DIRECTIONS FOR CHOOSING. N to air, food is the moft neceffary thing for prefervation of our bodies: and as on the ch.. thereof our health greatly depends, it is of gr importance to understand in general, what is propereft for our nourishment; and, in particul deviations from health, what is the best adany to restore us. Our blood and juices naturally cline to become putrid and acrimonious: fre chyle, duly received, prevents this deftruc tendency, and preferves in them that mild r which alone confifts with health. An animald affords the moft of this bland nutritious mucilag watery fluids dilute the too grofs parts, and ry off what is become unfit for ufe. It is o the fmall portion of jelly which is feparated in the farinaceous parts of vegetables, that, af being much elaborated, is converted into the a mal nature; yet the use of vegetables preve both repletion and a too great tendency to a trefcent acrimony of the blood. In hot climat as well as from the conftitutional heat of parti lar perfons, vegetables are required in the larg proportion. Animal substances afford the high relifh while our appetite continues; but fate appetite before the ftomach is duly filled. Ve tables may therefore be eaten after either fiel fith: few herbs or fruits fatiate fo much st the ftomach may not be filled with them, w it is already fatisfied with fleth or fifh; for diet, which is very nourishing, can be cate fülnefs, because its nutritious parts are oily! fatiating.-Health depends almost wholly proper crafis of the blood; and, to preferve a mixture of vegetables in fome degree is al required; for a loathing is foon the confeque of animal food alone: hot acrid habits, too beive from milk and vegetables what is needful correcting their exceffes; but in cold, pituit and nervous habits, which require much nourishthent from little digeftion, and from the fmalleft quantity of food, animaal diet is to be used more freely. Thefe being obferved as general principles with respect to the matter and quality of our aliment, the valetudinarian may cafily regulate his diet with fome advantage to himself by an attention to the few following particulars. In winter, eat ficely, but drink sparingly: roast meat is to be preferred, and what is drank should be ftronger than at other feafons. In fummer, let thirft determine the quantity to be drunk, only taking care not to drink any thing cold, when too warm. Cold fomachs never require much drink: boiled meats and vegetables, if not otherwife contradicted, may row be more freely ufed. Lax habits require the winter's diet to be continued all the year, and rigid ones fhould be confined to that of fummer. Tat people fhould faft at times, but the lean fhould never faft long. Thofe who are trouted with eructations occafioned by their food fhould drink but little, and ufe fome unaccustom ed exercife, The thirty may drink freely, but hould eat fparingly. In general, let moderation be cbferved; and though no dinner hath been had, a fight fupper is at all times to be preferred. After very high-feafoned meats, a glass of water acidulated with the acid elixir of virol, or in very weak ftomachs the fweet elixir of vitriol, is reckoned by medical people more affiftant to digefon than brandy. This rule however admits of ceptions, from conftitution and habit. See FOOD and DRINK. ALIMENT, OBLIGATION OF, in Scots law, the atural obligation on parents to provide their chiliren with the neceffaries of life, &c. See Law. ALIMENTAL, adj. [from aliment.] That hich has the quality of aliment; that which nouihes; that which feeds. The fun, that light imparts to all, receives From all his alimental recompenfe, In humid exhalations. Milton's Par. Loft. -Except they be watered from higher regions, hefe weeds muft lofe their alimental fap, and wiber. Brozun. Th' induftrious, when the fun in Lcò rides, Forget net, at the foot of every plant, To fink a circling trench, and daily pour A juft fupply of alimentoi ftreams, Exhaufted fap recruiting. Philips. ALIMENTALLY. edv. [from alimental.] lo as to ferve for nourishment.-The fubftance gold is invincible by the powerfuileft heat, and hat not only alimentally in a fubftantial mutation, ut alfo medicamentally in any corporcal converJon. Brown's Vulgar Errours. ALIMENTARII PUERI, &c. were certain ildren maintained and educated by the munifience of the emperors, in a fort of public places, ot unlike our hofpitals. Trajan was the firft that brought up any of thefe alimentary boys. He was itated by Adrian. Antoninus Pius did the fame For a number of maids, at the folicitation of FaufEna; and hence, in fome medals of that empreis, we read PVELLAE FAVSTINIANAE.---Alexander everus followed his example, at the request of iammea; and the maids thus educated were Jed Mammaanæ. VOL. I. PART II. *ALIMENTAR LO [from alimentarr.] The quality of being alimentary; or of affording nourishment. Did. ALIMENTARY. adj [from aliment.] 1. That which belongs or relates to aliment.-The folu tion of the aliment by maftication is neceffary; without it, the aliment could not be disposed for the changes which it receives as it paffeth through the alimentary duct. Arbuthnot on Aliments. 2. That which has the quality of alimen or the power of nourishing.-I do not think tha water fupplies animals, or even plants, with nourithment, but ferves for a vehicle to the alimentary particles, to convey and diftribute them to the fe vera paits of the body. Roy on the Creation.—Of alimentary roots, fome are pulpy and very nutri tious; as, turnips and carrots. The fe have a fattening quality. Arbuthnot on Aliments. ALIMENTARY DUCT, OF CANAL, du&us alimen talis, is that part of the body through which the food paffes, from its reception into the mouth, to its exit at the anus; including the gula, stomach, and inteftines. The whole ductus alimentulis, may be divided into four parts. 1. That which conveys the food, called the afophagus. 20 That which digefts, or corrodes it, called the ftomack. 3. That which diftributes the chyle, . called the intefines. 4. That which difcharges the feces, called the reum. This duct is faid to be the true characteristic of an animal, there being no animal without it, and whatever has it, being properly ranged under the clafs of animals. Plants receive their nourishment by the numerous fibres of their roots, but have no common receptacle for digefting the food received, or for carrying off the recrcinents. But in all, even the loweft degree of animal life, we may obferve a ftomach and inteftines, even where we cannot perceive the leat formation of any organs of the fenfes, except the common one of feeling, as in oyfters. ALIMENTARY LAW, was an old law among the Romans, whereby children were obliged to find fuftenance for their parents. * ALIMENTATION. n. J. [frem aliment.] 1. The power of affording aliment; the quality of nourishing. 2. The ftate of being nourished by aflimilation of matter received.-Plants do nou rifh; inanimate bodies do not: they have an accretion, but no alimentation. Bacon's Nat. Hift. ALIMONIOUS. adj [from alimony.] That which nour:fhes: a word very little in ufe.-The plethora renders us lean, by fuppreffing our fpirits, whereby they are incapacitated of digeiting the alimonious humours into flefh. Harvey on Cons Sumptions ALIMONY. n. f. [alimonia, Lat-Alimony fignifies that legal proportion of the husband's eftate, which, by the fentence of the ecclefiaftical court, is allowed to the wife for her maintenance, upon the account of any feparation from him, provided it be not caufed by her clopement or adultery. Ayliffe's Parergon Before they fettled hands and hearts, Till Alimony or death them parts. Hudibras. ALIMOS, in botany, a name given by Greek writers to the common liquorice, from its quality M m m ရန် of palling the petite, and making it infenfible either of hunger of thirst. ALINDA, or HALYNDA, a town of Afia, faid by Pliny to have been built by the Haldenfes. ALINDI SIS, or ALINDES, in the ancient gymnaftic medicine, a kind of exercise, wherein perfons being besmeared with oil, roll themselves naked in the duft. ALINGRAHS, or ALINGSAHS, an inland town of W. Gethland, in Sweden, where there are filk, woollen, tobacco, and pipe manufactories. Long. 13. 20. E. Lat. 5o. 20. N. ALINGTON, a town in the county of Northumberland, near Warkworth. ALIOS BATON, in ichthyology, a name given by Ariftotle to the ftrange fish, called by Artedi, lophius, and by others rana pifcartix. ALIPENOS, or ALIPANTOS, (from airane, of negative, and we, to fatter, in the ancient phyfic, an appellation given to dry topical medicines, or fuch as have no fat rixed with them. It fands oppofed to liara, cr plafters, which have fot in their compofition; called alto by Celfus, nia. Gaken gives the name an tọ the remedies applied to fresh wounds, to check the inflammation, and haften their healing. ALIPEDE, [from ala, a wing, and pes, the foot,] nimble; swift-footed. ALIPILARIUS, or ALIPILUS, in antiquity, an officer belonging to the baths, who, by means of wax, and waxen plafters, took off the hairs from the ala, or arm pits. The women who performed this office were called picatrices, and partiltria. The alipilus anfwered to what the Greeks called down. The ancient Romans made it a point of cleanlinefs to keep the arm pits clear and Imooth. In after times, they went farther, and took off the hair from their arms, legs, and other parts, with pitch and rofin, and by the voljella, an inftrument for that purpose. ALIPOW, Montis Ceti, a kind of white turbith, and a ftrong purgative. It is found in feveral places of Languedoc, particularly near Cete, whence the modern betanifts have given it It fometimes ufed inftead of fena; its name. but it is a much fronger cathartic. ALIPTA, [re uqo, Ianoint,] in the ancient gymnaftics, an offer appointed to anoint the athlete. In this fenf the alipte amount to the fame with what are otherwife called unctores, and jatralipt. The word is fometimes ufed, in a lefs proper fenfe, for the director, or fuperintendant of the excrcifes of the atleta; in which fenfe, it is fynonymous with gymnaftes, and padotriva. ALPTERIUM, [or,] in antiquity, a place in the ancient palefiæ, where the athletæ were anointed before their exercises. It was otherwife called elæ othefion, and unctuarium; fometimes alfo coroma. * ALIQUANT. adj. [aliquantus, Lat.] Parts of a number, which, however repeated, will make up the number exactly; as 3 is an aliquant of 10, thrice being 9, four times 3 making 12. * ALIQUOT, adj. [aliquot, Lat.] Aliquot parts of any number or quantity, fuch as will exactly measure it with out any remainder: as, 3 is an aliquot part of 12, becaufe being taken four times, it will just measure it. ALISANDERS, or ALEXANDERS, in botan See SMYRNIUM. * ALISH. adj. [from ale.] Refembling ale; ving qualities of ale.-Stirring it and bear down the yeaft, gives it the sweet alih tafte. M timer's Husbandry. ALISIA, a town of Corfica. ALISMA, or WATER PLANTAIN: A genus the polygynia order, belonging to the hyxand clafs of plants; and the natural method ranki under the 5th order, Tetrapetaloideæ. The racters are: The calyx is a three leaved peria thium: The corolla confifts of three round large, flat, expanding petals: The ftamina co ft of fix fubulated filaments fhorter than the c rolla; the antheræ are roundifh: the pift llu confifts of more than five germina; the ftyli simple, the ftigmata obtufe: the feeds are fm and tulitary. Of this genus there are eight p cies, viz. 1. ALISMA CORDIFOLIA, a native of Americ found in ftagnating waters. 2. ALISMA DAMASONIUM, or ftar headed w ter plantain, a native of Britain. 3. ALISMA FLAVA, or yellow water plantai a native of America, grows in fwamps. 4. ALISMA NATANS, or creeping water pla tain, a native of Britain. 5. ALISMA PARNASSIFOLIA, a native of Amer ca, found in boggy ground. 6. ALISMA PLANTAGO, or great water pla tain, grows in all the marthy parts of Scotland. 7. ALISMA RANUNCULOIDES, or leffer watt plantain, alfo a native of this country. 8. ALISMA SUBULATA, a native of Americ Neither this nor the other American species (N 1, 3, 5), are easily preferved in Britain, for the will not live in the open air, and they require bog to make them thrive: but as they are pla of no great beauty or ufe, it is not worth wh to cultivate them in this country. ALISONTIA, or ALISUNTIA, in ancie geography, a river of Belgic Gaul, now which ting on the borders of Lorrain, and ru ning through the duchy, waters the city of Lu cburg, and, fwelled by other rivulets, falls the Sur. ALITES, in Roman antiquity, birds which a forded auguries by their flight, in diftinction fro Ofcines, or thofe which gave auguries by linga or croaking, &c. To the clafs of alites, beien ed the buzzard, ofprey, &c. To that of g the crane, raven, owl, &c. * ALITURE. n. f. [alitura, Lat.] Nouris made of a moft penetrating mercurial earth; thers of a foliated earth of tartar, and an urinous falt, combined, digefted, and circulated together; others, of fpirit of wine, and falt of urine, coupled in due form; others of fublimate mercury, and vitriol; others of the fame mercury, and highly rectified spirit of wine, frequently cohobated; others of the fapa of urine, expofed to the magne tifin of the air!!! &c. But Kunkel very fhrewdly points out the abfurdity of fearching for an univerfal folvent, by asking, “If it diffolves all fubftances, in what veffel can it be contained ?" eeedings might be favoured, and the good affection of fuch as inclined toward them, kept alive. Harker. 3. Cheerful; fprightly, full of alacrity. -She was not fo much alive the whole day, if the lept more than fix hours. Clarifa. 4. In a popular fenfe, it is ufed only to add an emphafis, like the French du monde ; as, the best man alive; that is, the be, with an emphafis. This fenfe has been long in ufe, and was once admitted into ferious writings, but is now merely ludicrous.And to those brethren said, rise, rife by-live, And unto battle do yourselves address; For yonder comes the proweft knight alive, Prince Arthur, flower of grace and nobilefs. Fairy Queen. The earl of Northumberland, who was the proudft man alive, could not look upon the deftrucon of monarchy with any great pleasure. Claren-John was quick and understood bufinefs, ut no man alive, was more carelefs in looking to his accounts. Arbuthnot. ALKA, the auk. See ALCA. ALKADARII, [from Alkedar, Arab. a decree,] fest of the Mahometans who deny any eternal, ted divine decrees, and are afferters of free will. hey are a branch of Motazalites, and ftand oped to the ALGIAERII, which fee. 'ALKAHEST. n. f. A word used firft by racellus, and adopted by his followers; to figfy an univerfal diffolvent, or liquor, which has e power of refolving all things into their firft inciples. ALKAHEST, HISTORY OF This word is orinally German, being compounded of el and , i. e. all spirit. The two eminent adepts, racelfus and Van Helmont, afferted, that there a certain fluid in nature, capable of reducing all blunary bodies, into their ens primun, or ori. nal matter, or into an uniform portable liquor, at will unite with water, and the juices of our dies; yet wil retain its feminal virtues; and if xed with itself again, will thereby be converted to pure elementary water: whence they alfo agined it would at length reduce all things inwater. This declaration, feconded by the feveration of Van Helmont, that he himself pofTed the fecret, excited fucceeding chemifts and themifts to the purfuit of fo noble a menftruum. Boyle was fo fond of it, that he faid he had ther have been mafter of it than of the philofotone. The different conjectures of chemifts, ith regard to the matter of the alkaheft, are inmerable. Boerhaave feems to expect it from a-falt, and mercury together. Few bodies but me alchemift or other has fixed on, as the obof his refearches after the alkab ft. Some rought on equinoctial dew; others on rain wa, others on talc, others on zinc, others on anmony. Poterius, Beguinus and Glauber confinthemfelves to nitre; Angelus Sala, Sir Kenelm by, and feveral others, preferred vitriol. The kiples of Paracelfus, choose fea falt: Sandiyorus, Tachenius, Beverovicius, Boyle, and fome thers water. Pollemanus, Mullerus, &c. foundall their hopes on black lead; others preferred int: fome potter's varnish. Van Helmont pre nded, that the alkaheft was prepared from comton falt and raddish juice. Becher will have it ALKAHEST is ufed in a more extenfive fense for all fixed falts volatilized, and reduced into a quinteffence. ALKARESTIC, the quality of bodies which are powerfully folvent. ALKAKENGI, winter cherry, the fruit of a fpecies of nightshade. See ALKEKENGI. * ALKALESCENT, adj. [from alkali.] That which has a tendency to the properties of an alkali. All animal diet is an alkalefcent or antiacid. Arbuthnot. * ALKALI. n. f. [The word alkali comes from an herb, called by the Egyptians kali; by us glaffwort. This herb they burnt to ashes, boiled them in water, and, after having evaporated 'he water, there remained at the bottom a white salt; this they called fal kali, or alkali. It is corrofive, producing putrefaction in animal fubftances, to which it is applied. Arbuthnot on dinems.] — Any fubftance, which, when mingled with acid, produces effervefcence and fermentation. ALKALI, in botany. See KALI and SALICORNIA. (1.) ALKALI, in chemistry, one of the general divifions of falts, comprehending that clafs of chemical elements which, by their union with acids, form perf.& neutrals, fo called in diftinction from the falts formed of acids with metals or earths, which are filed imperfect. See the 5 following articles, and the other 5 fections under ALKALINE SALTS. OF. 2.) ALKALIES, COMMON PROPERTIES Alkaline falts are of two kinds, the fixed and the volatile; and of the former there are two fpecies, the vegetable and mineral. All of thefe poffefs fome properties in common, and fome peculiar to each. Thofe which they have in common are, 1. An acrid and pungent tafte, which, when the falts are very pure and ftrong, is abfolutely cauftic, and would entirely deftroy the organ of fenfation if long applied to it. 2. A tendency to diffolve animal fubftances, and reduce them to a gelatinous fubftance, which all of them will do when very ftrong. 3. An attraction for acids, with a power of feparating earths and metals from them. 4. A power of changing the blue vegetable juices to green; the green to yellow; the yellow to orange; the orange to red; and the red to purple. 5. A properfity to unite with oils, and to deftroy almost all colours that can be put upon cloth, whence their ufe in bleaching, &c. Effervefcence with acids was formerly fuppoted to be a diftinguifhed property of alkalies, though it was always known that by a mixture with quicklime they might be deprived of this property. Dr Black, however, fhows, that the effervefcing Mmm 2 with foffil alkali nor its combinations do fo in any ther cafe. In their cauftic ftate too, they on unite with oils, or diffolve in fpirit of wine which laft they have been fuppofed to purif though it is more than probalde that they de compofe and communicate difagreeable qualitie to it. with acids is no property of pure alkali, but is occafioned only by the efcape of fixed air from it: and that when quicklime is added, which attracts the whole or greatest part of the fixed air, no effervefcence can be perceived. In the ftate in which the fixed alkalis are commonly met with, indeed, effervefcence with acids may be faid to be an effential property; but this is entirely owing to the fixed air, to which they are united during the process by which they were originally formed. The quantity of this air, however, is never fo great as to faturate them entirely; on the contrary, their alkaline properties are always very perceptible, and they are commonly faid to be in a mild ftate. But the truth is, that they are in a kind of intermediate ftate between what may be called perfectly mild and perfectly cauftic. In their perfectly mild state, they are united with fuch a large quantity of fixed air as entirely overpowers their alkaline properties; and therefore they are more entitled to the name of alkalies in that state, than when combined with the marine, nitrous, or any other acid; in which cafe the compounds are called neutral salts. But it is a much more laborious and tedious procefs to faturate an alkali completely with fixed air than with any other acid; nor does it, very eafily retain the aerial acid after it has once been combined with it. Hence the cauftic tafte and properties of the alkali almost always predominate, and the fait contains a portion of pure and cauftic alkali, to which alone its virtues are to be afcribed. See ALKALINE SALTS, 7. (3.) ALKALIES FIXED. The properties common to both the vegetable and mineral fixed alkalis are, 1. They refift the action of fire to a great degree, fo that they can eafily be reduced to a folid form by evaporating any liquid in which they happen to be diffolved. 2. By an intenfe fire they flow into a liquid which concretes into a hard and folid mafs in the cold. 3. When mix ed in certain proportions with thofe earths or ftones called vitrifiable, they melt, in a heat ftill more intenfe, into glafs. 4. Mixed with ammoniacal falts, with animal fubftances, or with foot, they extricate a volatile alkali. Both kinds of fixed alkalies may be deprived of their fixed air, and thus rendered pure and cauftic, by the addition of quick lime. In this ftate the difference between them is much lefs perceptible than in any other, though the addition of fixed air, or any other acid, always fhows that no effential change has taken place in either. In this highly cauftic ftate they deftroy the parts of animals in a manner fi milar to that of fire; whence they are called potential cauteries, as the former is called the actual cautery. M. Morveau fays, that of digefling a piece of beef in a folution of cauflic vegetable alkali, the liquor foon became red, and the flesh appeared like a femitranfparent jelly, in which, however, one could easily perceive the ratificaticns of the finalleft fibre; and, after standing fome nionths, it emitted very little fiell. The vegetable alkali is commonly used as the material for the common cauftic, or lapis infernalis of the hops. See CHEMISTRY INDEX. Both alkalis attract moisture from the air when reduced to a foLid form in their cauftic ftate, though neither the (4.) ALKAII FOSSIL R MINERAL. The m neral alkali differs from the vegetable (which f in having a smaller attraction for acids, in ben more eafily fufible by itself, and forming a mo foluble compound with the vitriolic acid. Iti alto cafily cryftallizable, even without the addit of more fixed air than it naturally contains: a experience has determined it to be more prope for glafs or foap manufactures than the vegetab alkali: for which reafon the demand for it is ve confiderable. The mineral alkali was ancient called natron or nitre. It is fpoken of By Pi and Tacitus as an ingredient in glafs, &c. the fcriptures inform us that it was used in batha The knowledge of this falt was in the general fcuration of fèience which followed the decline the Roman empire; nor do we find it mention ed till the time of Mr. Boyle; and, even fine that time, though M. Du Hamel gave an acc rate account of it in a memoir for the yea 1735, little farther notice was taken of it lately. We are now certain that it is fort native in many parts of the world, w is never the cafe with the vegetable_al The places where it abounds most are, E Tripoli, the peak of Teneriffe, Hungary, feve provinces of Ruffia, fome parts of Aña, parice larly Smyrna, &c. though it has not hitherto bea found in any of the western parts of Europe, ta cepting in the neighbourhood of volcanoes, or mineral waters; and in thefe laft only in ver fmall quantity. The great fource of this alkan however, is the water of the ocean. Mineral kali is the natural bafis of fea falt; and cou any method of readily procuring it from this L be fallen upon, it would be a valuable difcovery All the methods hitherto ufed with any fucced by the chemifts may be reduced to two. mixing the nitrous acid with fea falt in a refor in the proportion of four of the acid to 1 of th falt, and distilling off the muriatic acid, or rathe aqua regia, which will be produced in the proces The refiduum will afford a cubical nitre by cry tallization, from whence the alkali may be ob tained pure by deflagrating with charcoal. 2. R adding vitriolic acid, the fpirit of fea falt wit expelled much more eafily, than by the niton acid. The refiduum affords Glauber's fa't i great plenty: this being melted in a crucible w a fufficient quantity of charcoal duft, forms a r par fulphuris; which being decompofed by vegetable acid, the latter may be deftroyed b force of fire, and the alkali obtained in purity See CHEMISTRY, INDEX. The demand in the country for fofil alkali is fupplied from athes of kali and other fea plants, from which is feparated in the fame manner as the vegetab alkali from the afhes of other plants. The purd kind of afhes containing this falt is called ja tarilla, and is imported chiefly from foreign coun tries; that which is obtained from the fea-we I. B growin |