Mltwrahgkal Phenomenon.-- jilkali. 513 



tarn indications of cliange of weather. It is to be obferved, that it rained at Chamouni the 

 next morning. 



Nature has exhibited figns of drynefs whlcli do not deceive tlie inhabitants of the coun- 

 try, and ferve to predict ftorms long before hand ; fuch as the flaccidity or drooping of 

 plants with large and thin leaves ; fuch as the gourd and the beet in our gardens, the pe- 

 tafite in the fields, and the cacalia in the mountains. It is obferved, that the leaves of thefe 

 plants droop and incline towards the ground on the approach of ftormy weather ; and that 

 on the contrary they fpring up, and afllime an appearance of vigour, when the dew or rain 

 has reftored the elafticity and natural frcfhnefs to their fibres. I mud; add, that the heavy 

 rain in the month of September laft was preceded by a wind of extraordinary drynefs : 

 and as we are defirous of knowing the purpofe, or at lead the ufe, of each of the lavi-s of na- 

 ture, I would remark, that thefe great droughts which precede llorms feem intended to put 

 vegetables into 3' proper ftate to obtahi the greateft advantage from the rains, on which their 

 growth is to depend. A dry air relaxes and empties their velTels, and gives them the power 

 of abforbing the rain-water which fuccecds. This water finds the air through which it falls 

 loaded with carbonic acid and other exhalations which give fertility to plants. 



It is in fact obferved, that the rain of ftorms which fuccecd uncommonly dry weather 

 gives to vegetables a peculiar growth and ftrength, much greater than arc found to fuccecJ 

 other rains or long continued wet weather. 



Hence we perceive, that the moi^e attention we pay to natural phenomena, the more rea- 

 fon we find to admire the order and uniformity which prevail in the laws to which they 

 are fubjccl. 



VI. 



On the various Denoviinatkiis given to the Alkali of Ti^rtm: By a Correfpondetit. 

 To Mr. Nicholson, Editor of" The Journal of Natural Philofophy, is'c" 



SIR, 



xVMONGST the numerous innovations which have taken place witliin thefe few years, 

 nothing perhaps lias undergone fuch an infinite variety of modifications as the chemical no- 

 menclature : fo far indeed has the rage for novelty been carried in this refpeft, that every 

 perfon who, without a demonftrable necellity for the change, propofcs at prefent cither a new 

 fyftem, or an alteration in any one already received, mud juftly incur the cenfiire of in- 

 creafing the confuGon which fuch an endlcfs mutation of names has already produced. I 

 fliall however beg leave to mention a circumftance which has frequently appearcil to me to 

 be a remarkable one. We have no tolerable appellation univerfally received in our own 

 . language for a fubftance which is indifputably in more ordinary ufe in the laboratory, and 

 more frequently fpoken of in chemical writings, than any other — the pure alkali of tartar. 

 Let us only fee what are the appellations which liave been given to it. 



Kail, the, name applied to this fait by the London College of Phyficians, is not only im- 

 proper, as being already that of a genus of plants, but has in faifl been long ufed as tlie dif- 

 VoL. 1.— February 1798. 3U tinc'livc 



