SALSAPy SALT. 



81 



It is pleasantly situated, being built on the declivity 

 of a hill ; and the approach to it from the sea is 

 very imposing. The domes and minarets of mosques, 

 together with other buildings, environed with 

 cypresses, give it an air of splendour, but, like 

 other Turkish towns, its interior by no means cor- 

 responds with its external magnificence. It is 

 situated in the vicinity of a fertile district, and ex- 

 ports cotton, tobacco, corn, and wool. The ancient 

 walls are nearly entire, and are five or six miles in 

 circuit ; but within them are many void spaces. Of 

 the remains of antiquity the most remarkable are 

 the propyltEa of the ancient Hippodrome. The 

 whole sculpture is in marble, and is considered 

 among the finest pieces of art which have escaped 

 the ravages of time. To the early Christians in 

 this city, St Paul addressed two epistles. 



SALOP, COUNTY OF. See Shropshire. 



SALSAFY (tragopogon porrifolius). This plant, 

 which is often cultivated in gardens for culinary 

 purposes, is sometimes called vegetable oyster, from 

 a similarity in the taste of the root to the flavour 

 of that fish. It belongs to the composite, and is 

 allied to the endive and dandelion ; the root is long, 

 white, tapering, and fleshy; the stems upright, two 

 or three feet high, smooth, striated, hollow, and 

 branching ; the leaves are alternate, embracing the 

 *tem, narrow, and long ; the flowers are solitary 

 and terminal, situated upon swelling peduncles ; the 

 involucre or common calyx consists of several lan- 

 ceolate, very acute and equal leaflets, much longer 

 than the corollas ; the corollas are violet purple. 

 It grows wild in the south of Europe. The roots 

 form a light and wholesome aliment, and are cooked 

 in various manners. The mode of cultivation is, 

 in every respect, similar to that of the carrot. 

 Many prefer the root of the scorzonera Hispanica, a 

 plant somewhat resembling the former, but v.'ith 

 yellow flowers. The root of this last is carrot- 

 shaped, about as thick as one's finger, tapering 

 gradually to a fine point, and thus bearing some re- 

 semblance to the body of a snake ; hence the name 

 of viper's grass. The outer rind being scraped off, 

 the root is steeped in water in order to abstract a 

 part of its bitter flavour, and is then boiled or 

 stewed in the manner of carrots or parsneps. The 

 roots are fit for use in August, and keep good till 

 the following spring. Its culture is the same as 

 that of the salsafy, and it is a native of the same 

 part of the globe. 



SALSETTE; an island on the western coast of 

 Hindostan, formerly separated from Bombay by a 

 strait 200 yards wide, across which, in the year 

 1805, a causeway was carried. It is eighteen miles 

 long by fourteen broad, and is well adapted for the 

 cultivation of sugar, cotton, hemp, indigo, &c. ; but 

 it has hitherto been kept in a state of nature, for 

 the purpose of supplying Bombay with wood, char- 

 coal, and sea salt, of which there is a considerable 

 manufactory. Salsette is remarkably rich in mytho- 

 logical antiquities ; and the remains of reservoirs, 

 with flights of stone steps round them, and the 

 ruins of temples, &c., indicate a former state of 

 prosperity and extensive population. 



SALT. This term was originally employed to 

 denote common salt, but was afterwards generalized 

 by chemists, and employed by them in a very 

 extensive and not very definite sense. They 

 understood by it any body which is sapid, easily 

 melted, soluble in water, and not combustible ; or a 

 class of substances midway between earths and 

 water. Many disputes arose concerning what bodies 

 VL 



ought to be comprehended under the designation, 

 and what ought to be excluded. Acids and alkalies 

 were allowed by all to be salts ; but the difficulty 

 was, to determine respecting earths and metals ; for 

 several of the earths possess all the properties which 

 have been ascribed to salts, and the metals are 

 capable of entering into combinations which possess 

 saline properties. In process of time, however, the 

 term salt was restricted to three classes of bodies, 

 viz. acids, alkalies, and the compounds which acids 

 form with alkalies, earths, and metallic oxides. 

 The two first of these classes were called simple 

 salts ; the salts belonging to the third class were 

 called compound or neutral. This last appellation 

 originated from an opinion long entertained by 

 chemists, that acids and alkalies, of which the salts 

 are composed, were of a contrary nature, and that 

 they counteracted one another ; so that the result- 

 ing compounds possessed neither the properties of 

 acids nor of alkalies, but properties intermediate 

 between the two. 



Chemists have lately restricted the term salt still 

 more, by tacitly excluding acids and alkalies from 

 the class of salts altogether. At present, then, it 

 denotes only the compounds formed by the combi- 

 nation of acids with alkalies, earths, and metallic 

 oxides, which are technically called bases. When 

 the proportions of the constituents are so adjusted 

 that the resulting substance does not affect the 

 colour of infusion of litmus, or red cabbage, it is 

 then called a neutral salt. When the predominance 

 of acid is evinced by the reddening of these infu- 

 sions, the salt is said to be acidulous, and the prefix 

 super, or bi, is used to indicate this excess of acid. 

 If, on the contrary, the acid matter appears to be in 

 defect, or short of the quantity necessary for 

 neutralizing the alkalinity of the base, the salt is 

 then said to be with excess of base, and the prefix 

 sub is attached to its name. 



In the British chemical schools, it is now common 

 to classify the salts in the following orders : 



Order 1st. The oxy-sals. This order includes 

 no salt in which the acid or base, is not an oxydised 

 body. A curious law was observed, by Gay Lussac, 

 to obtain among the salts of this order. Since all 

 the powerful alkaline bases, with the exception of 

 ammonia, are protoxides of an electro-positive 

 metal, one equivalent of an acid will combine with 

 one equivalent of such a base, and form with it a 

 neutral salt. Now, if we divide the order into fami- 

 lies, arranged according to the acid, as sulphates, 

 nitrates, &c., it follows that in each family the 

 oxygen of the salt must bear a constant ratio to the 

 oxygen of the base ; thus, since one equivalent of 

 sulphuric acid contains three atoms of oxygen, and 

 one equivalent of nitric acid five, we have the ratio 

 of the oxygen of the acid to the base in the neutral 

 proto-sulphates as three to one, and in the neutral 

 proto-nitrates as five to one. Should the base pass 

 into a higher state of oxidation, as to the state of 

 binoxide, then will it be disposed to unite with two 

 equivalents of the acid, that is, twice the quantity 

 of oxygen forming a bi-salt, still preserving the same 

 ratio of oxygen as in the proto salts of the same 

 acid and base. This order of salts comprehends the 

 sulphates, double sulphates, sulphites, hyposulphites, 

 hyposulphates, nitrates, nitrites, chlorates, iodates, 

 phosphates, pyrophosphates, metaphosphates, arse- 

 mates, chromates, borates, and carbonates. 



Order 2nd. The hydro salts. This order in- 

 cludes no salt the acid or base of which does not 

 contain hydrogen. In this order the hydrochlorides 



