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I CAME to the knowledge of this power of alkaline falls, I 

 may fay, accidentally. I had a wi(h to procure fome kind of 

 alkaline liquor that might be fafely taken, for the purpofe of 

 correcting acidities in the ftomach, I knew that a folution 

 of fait of tartar was exceedingly offenfive to the tafte, and if 

 it was of ftrength fufficicnt to neutralize any quantity of acid 

 in the ftomach, it could not be fwallowed without danger to 

 the paffages, from its caufticity. It occurred to me, that its 

 caufticity might probably arife from its having a ftrong affinity 

 to fomething or other, to get at which it burned or deftroyed 

 the texture of the flefh. If this fhould be the cafe, it was- 

 natural to fuppofe, that this fait, if intimately mixed with flefh, 

 would faturate itfelf with whatever it was that it had fuch a 

 ftrong appetite for, and, being fo faturated, it would ad no 

 further on our flcfh, and might, without danger, be taken in- 

 wardly. To try this, I firft enclofed Ibmc bits of lean raw 

 mutton in a vial with a ftrong folution of fait of tartar ; but, 

 after ftanding feveral days, no fuch alteration as I expedled 

 appeared in the Hquor. I was willing to account for this, by 

 fuppofing the fait had a greater affinity to the water than to 

 any thing in the flefh ; I therefore cut fome flefh from the 

 breaft of a turkey, roafted the day before, and made it as dry 

 as. I could ; this I pounded in a mortar, adding by degrees fome 

 dry and finely powdered fait of tartar*, until I thought there 

 was enough, fori had no rule to judge by; the mixture grew 



moift, 



• This fait had been fent to me rendered cauftie by q^uick-lime, though I had not 

 dcfired it. 



