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dems, that a similar salt having the like properties and ap-plicable to the same purposes, could be obtained from theashes of certain plants, called soda, so named, perhaps, fromit being of the alkaline or saline fraternity, as there aremany plants which possess, in a greater or less degree, theproperties of those minerals in whose calx they are found;to instance, what has been said in certain authors, of pinks,—that a perfect particle of steel has been discovered in thisplant; it is not so much to be wondered at, when we knowthat the ferruginous particles coinmuuicule to that delight-ful plant its various tints of a purple, red, and scarletcolour: the same may be said of the rose, and indeed of allplants which participate of their family sanguine colour.Iron, through nature, communicates this colour to everything where it is found ; even the blood of animals is disco-vered to be made of this hue by the chymical preparation ofiron, suffused through the sustaining juices of animals, thenutritive juice of plants, as prepared in the laboratory ofnature, to commix with the finest and most subtle juices ofanimals and plants, as discovered by that test of naturaltruth, analysis, in that portion of their recipient nutrimentthey obtain from the providence of nature’s God . To theexcess of this component, intended to fortify the inhabitantsof the torrid zone, to enable them to support themselvesunder the intense influence of the heat from a tropical sun,and the transparency of the exterior cuticle, renders theirappearance either black or intensely red, 3 as we have seen ina preceding article on Physiognomy .
Alkali. —It has been thought, by the judicious Pro-fessor Beckmann, the neutral salt obtained from vegetablekaline substances, and which appears to have been inventedand also named by the Arabian and Egyptian chymists, andwith the addition of the Arabic article, el, or, as substi-tuted by Europeans, al, now known as alkaline: likewise,also, known well to the Greeks, was first generally classifiedas nitrum, or, at least, considered by them as a proportionor species of it. In another place, (p. 534 and 535,) thesame sagacious author remarks, from St. Jerome , that it maybe questioned in the etymology of this name, whether the
3 Such is observed to be the appearance of the Ethiopians , and other distincttribes of various nations of the inhabitants of Africa . Hence, we are told, Tippo ,or Typhon, was red, as it is said this name imports redness in the language of ancientEgypt . Hence, also, arose the usual practice of the Egyptians to sacrifice red men,■—or men with red hair, at the altar of Osiris , and whence was also derived thegeneral report of the cruelty of the Egyptian Busim, as Brown, iu his Pteudodoiu )Epidmica, and other authors, informs us.