( 1^* ) 



I kept this water in my ftudy for fome days, frequently looking 

 at it, and I always found that much of the liquid, as it feemed to 

 my naked eye, did not evaporate ; and at length I faw many fa- 

 line particles in it like fg. 23 ; but thefe, except a few, were fo 

 very fmall, that they could not be difcovered without great at- 

 tention. 



Moreover, I poured rain water on the caput mortuum or aflies, 

 having firft pounded it fmall, in order to extract the fixed fait. I 

 fuffered this water in part to evaporate, and I difcovered in it an 

 incredible number of minute faline particles, which in many 

 places were collected or coagulated together in great numbers, and 

 yet retained their particular figures : this collection or coagulation 

 of particles, bore fome refemblance to the figures of fun flowers, 

 fo that in them I could not difcover the faline particles, unlefs at 

 the edges, where they reprefented the leaves of the flowers, as is 

 fliewn at^o-. 24. In other places the faline particles lay in an irre- 

 oular manner on one another. 



I faw alfo many fingle particles, of the fliape fliewn at jig. 25, 

 all their extremities terminating in points. Upon keeping my 

 eye long fixed upon a place where only fome few fmall particles 

 of water lay, the heat which my touch occafioned, (the air be- 

 ing then molfl), caufed a great number of particles to arife with 

 one of their eiuis above the water ; but, on the application of a 

 little more heat, thefe newly formed particles difappcared, and with 

 ftill moi-e heat, fome little vapour arofe, and many of the faline 

 particles were changed into a tranlparent watery liquor, but foon 

 after all that liquor in many places was changed into irregular fa- 

 line particles ; thefe faline particles were fo foft, that upon breath- 

 ing on them they again changed into a fluid ; but when I again ap- 

 plied a flrong heat, I faw them to be more folid. The particles of 

 fait which had concreted in the fhape of fun-flovvers, and fome 

 others of the fame fpecies, remained unaltered, fo that I concluded 

 both thefe were fixed fait. 



