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AQUAFORTIS, NITRE, SODA,

he likewise describes a similar process among the Gauls andTeutones. 8 And Tacitus, in his Annals , xiii. 57, bearsevidence that this method was observed among the Herman-duri and the Catti. 9 Pliny also states, upon the authorityof Theophrastus , that the Urnbri burned salt in the samemanner. And although Pliny has asserted that this earlymethod of obtaining salt, had been then long given up, inconsequence of the superior arts which civilization hadcommunicated to humanity; it is now ascertained that it waslong continued in many countries, and it is even at this daysaid to exist in some certain districts.

We are told, that about two centuries ago the inhabitantsof the province of Zealand, descendants, perhaps, of theCatti, had no other salt than what they obtained in likemanner from mud, thrown up by the sea, which they dried,burned, and moistened with water; as we have it from Lem-nius, who was himself a native of that country. It is alsorelated by Doxhorn, in his annotations on the precedingpassage from Tacitus , that he saw a painting at Zirkzee,in which the whole process was represented.

That the express period when nitrum was first discoveredis extremely uncertain, may appear from what has preceded;also that this nitrum was an alkaline salt, may, perhaps,have been proved. It has been, indeed, conjectured that itwas a component part of the Greek fire, invented about (>78,which has been believed to be the origin of gunpowder.From the oldest prescriptions which have been found, andwhich is said to have been that given by the Princess AnnaCommena, in which, however, only resin, sulphur, and oil,are mentioned; saltpetre does not appear.

It is believed by an author very well qualified to form ajudgment on the question, 10 that the first certain account wehave of saltpetre by that express name, occurs in the oldestaccount of the invention of gunpowder, which, according tohim, occurred in the thirteenth century. Dr. Rees, in hisCyclopadia, expressly says, about the year 1320; and thatit was first used by the Venetians against the Genoese, in1380; also that it was first employed in Europe at a placeanciently called Fosse Clodia, but now known as Chrogia,

8 ,f Galli® Germaniaeqae ardeotibus lignis aquam salsam infuudunt. Ilispani*quadani sui parte e puteis hauriunt, muriam appellant.” Lib. xxxi. 7. Herebrine is expressly mentioned.

9 ** Illisque silvis salem provenire non ut alias apud gentes eluvie roaris ares-eente unda, sed super ardentem arborum struern fusa; ex contrariisintfr se demen-tis igne atque aquis concretum.” Tuciti Ann. xiii. 57.

10 Professor Beckmann, vol. iv. p. 569.