l68 Cn the Difcovery of Scignclte's Salt. 



depend, makes their benefit to mankind more certain, and 

 (hows how they may be applied in various cafes of which 

 .the artift or manufacturer never had an idea*. If, by this 

 c induct, he leffen the merit of one, he on the other hand 

 points out employment to many; and gives rife to eftablifli- 

 ments in which thoufands participate, and by which they 

 acquire riches. 



Thus Scignette difcovered fal po'ychreft while he was 

 engaged in making foluble tartar (tartrite of potafh), and, 

 accordinc; to the old opinion, imagining that both the fixed 

 alkalis were, the fame, ufed foda inftead of the alkali of tartar 

 (potafh). By thefe means he procured, not without furprife, 

 a fait different from the common foluble tartar, which he 

 wifhed to prepare, and from the other well known fait alfo. 

 He was induced therefore, to examine it ; and having found 

 it to be a new laxative, he recommended it and became rich. 

 The experiments of learned chemifts difcovered the compo- 

 nent parts of this fait; the mode of preparing it was then 

 made publicly known; and, by more accurate examination, 

 the difference, before overlooked, between vegetable and 

 mineral alkalif was determined : by which new light was 

 thrown upon chemiftry, and an important fervicc rendered 

 to a variety of arts. 



Among thofe who contributed to bring this fait into re- 

 pute was Nicholas Lemerv, to whom Seignette fent a large 

 quantity of it, which he diftributed at Paris, though unac- 

 quainted with its component parts}". Its compofition was 

 difcovered at the fame time, about the year 1731, by two 

 French chemifts, Boulduc and Geoffroi. The former pub- 

 lilhed his obfervations in the Memoirs of the Academy of 



■*" Nam invenire prxclare, enuntiare magnirice, internum etiam barbari 

 (blent; difjionere apte, figurare vane, mfi erudite, pegatutn eft. Plin t . 

 Epifl. 111. 13. 



+ Profelfor Gmclin, in anfwer to the qucftion, Who firft remarked the 

 difference between the vegetable and mineral alkalis, replied that, at anr 

 jute, ii was firft properly defined by St^hi. See G. E. Stablii Funda- 

 tnenta Chymia -dogmatics et experimental/ s. Norimbergze. J746 3 vol. 

 410. 111. p. 268 a id 304. 



* Lemery VoLkommene Chymift. Drefden und Leipzig, 1734- * vo '* 

 >\o. I. p. 511. *. 



Sciences; 



