נתר, Prov. xxv, 20; Jer. ii, 22. This is not the same that we
call nitre, or saltpetre, but a native salt of a different kind,
distinguished among naturalists by the name of natrum. The natrum of the
ancients was an earthy alkaline salt. It was found in abundance
separated from the water of the lake Natron in Egypt. It rises from the
bottom of the lake to the top of the water, and is there condensed by
the heat of the sun into the hard and dry form in which it is sold. This
salt thus scummed off is the same in all respects with the Smyrna soap
earth. Pliny, Matthiolus, and Agricola, have described it to us:
Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and others, mention its uses. It is
also found in great plenty in Sindy, a province in the inner part of
Asia, and in many other parts of the east; and might be had in any
quantities. The learned Michaëlis plainly demonstrates, from the nature
of the thing and the context, that this fossil and natural alkali must
be that which the Hebrews called _nether_. Solomon must mean the same
when he compares the effect which unseasonable mirth has upon a man in
affliction to the action of vinegar upon nitre, Prov. xxv, 20; for
vinegar has no effect upon what we call nitre, but upon the alkali in
question has a great effect, making it rise up in bubbles with much
effervescence. It is of a soapy nature, and was used to take spots from
clothes, and even from the face. Jeremiah alludes to this use of it, ii,
22.
call nitre, or saltpetre, but a native salt of a different kind,
distinguished among naturalists by the name of natrum. The natrum of the
ancients was an earthy alkaline salt. It was found in abundance
separated from the water of the lake Natron in Egypt. It rises from the
bottom of the lake to the top of the water, and is there condensed by
the heat of the sun into the hard and dry form in which it is sold. This
salt thus scummed off is the same in all respects with the Smyrna soap
earth. Pliny, Matthiolus, and Agricola, have described it to us:
Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and others, mention its uses. It is
also found in great plenty in Sindy, a province in the inner part of
Asia, and in many other parts of the east; and might be had in any
quantities. The learned Michaëlis plainly demonstrates, from the nature
of the thing and the context, that this fossil and natural alkali must
be that which the Hebrews called _nether_. Solomon must mean the same
when he compares the effect which unseasonable mirth has upon a man in
affliction to the action of vinegar upon nitre, Prov. xxv, 20; for
vinegar has no effect upon what we call nitre, but upon the alkali in
question has a great effect, making it rise up in bubbles with much
effervescence. It is of a soapy nature, and was used to take spots from
clothes, and even from the face. Jeremiah alludes to this use of it, ii,
22.