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XXXI. Ohfervatlons on the Salt of Bitumen ; the B'lt-NobeH. 

 of the Hindoos. By John Henderson, Efq. Surgeon 

 on the Be?igal Eflabli/htnent *. 



Sal Indus vel fubni^^r.vel fubrufus, bfcuius omnibus fortior. 



Mfffue, c. xvi. 



Et alius eft Indus, qui eft niger, iion nigredine napticitatis. 



Avicenna, lib. ii. c. 624. 



X HE faline fubflance which has lately been imported into 

 Britain under the name oi fait of bitumen, is not, as might 

 be interred from the title, a natural produftion, but an ar- 

 tificial preparation of great antiquity invented b)' the Hindus. 

 It is known in India by various appellations f ; but the trivial 

 name, by which it is familiar to thofe who have refided any 

 time in that country, is khala nimuc, or black fait. It is 

 met with in every village in large irregular lumps, for the 

 moft part of a dark brown colour. 



It has a ftrong faline tafte, with a peculiar fenfation dif- 

 fufed over the mouth, which is not eafily defcribcd. At firfl:, 

 the tafte is difagreeable : but I have been told by thofe who 

 were in the habit of ufing it, that it not only becomes plea- 

 fant, but is often taken to remove a difagreeable tafte in the 

 mouth. When the fait is perfeclly dry, it has fcarcely any 

 perceptible fmell, but when moiftened it fends forth a ftrong 

 J'ulphureous foetor. 



It dlflblves readily in a fmall portion of water, forming a 

 folution of a greenifh colour, which emits a ftrong fulphu- 

 reous fmell, refembling bilge water, or the fouleft gun-fcour- 

 ings. By expofure to the air, the fmell gradually abates, 

 and the greeni(h tint difappears, the liquor becoming as clear 

 as the pureft water : when this has taken place, if the folu- 



* Communicated by the Author. — Th's prefents a curious fpecimen 

 of the Hiniioo ph^'fic; and further, it may fuegeft to Britifh praftitioners 

 the trial of hydro-fulphurets alone or in combuftion, as in the cafe of th« 

 preft-nt fait, in many untried dil'eafes. 



f By the Hindoos it is called bit-nobrn, padnoon, -AViA' foonchnioon \ in 

 Arabic and Perfian MSS. mclk, ?!'.clk-nuft, melk-afived, nlmuci-nuft, n'lmU' 

 tijed, and nimuci-hin.ii. It is the fal-napbtbicus Indus vel Indicia of the 

 Latin verfions of the Arabian and Perfian authors; the pharma opcia au- 

 gitflana of the earlier ci\mor\^ oi the Pharmaioliria Londliicn/is, &c. It 

 muft be obferved, that all the formula; of wliich it is an ingredient in the 

 different pharmacopeias, are copied from the Arabian authors ; and there- 

 fore I doubt much whether it was ever imported into this country before, 

 or even into Europe in any confiderable quantity, for I find no particular 

 account of it in any of thefe books. It is, perhaps, \h<i Jal-ctJ^baliiles and 

 p^omenui of Pliny and Galen. 



lion 



