288 History of the English Landed Interest. 



volatile ; light and heavy ; dry and moist ; soft and corrosive ? 

 Under this Riddle they describe Nitre to us,"^ And when the 

 mad quest of the philosopher's stone was superseded by more 

 intelligent research, nitre occupied a foremost position in the 

 analyst's laboratory. Its uses were still described in wild and 

 extravagant terms, being the " secret menstruum," the " bal- 

 samick Liquor for the Multiplication of Corn and Vines, which 

 ascends from the abysses of the Earth into the regions of the 

 Air, from whence it descends impregnated with the Siderial 

 Influences, and diluted in the Waters of Rains, of Snows, and of 

 Dews to give Fertility to the Earth." Bacon recommended it 

 as a source of increased fruitfulness to plants, and Boyle, after 

 indefatigable toil and application bestowed on its analysis, 

 decided that no minerals, plants, and animals could subsist 

 without it, and that there was no more catholic salt in 

 nature. It was both volatile and fixed, acid ai|d alkaline, 

 " changing its figure under Analysis like a Proteus," even 

 when Boyle was holdiug it " bound in the chains of his Chemi- 

 cal operations." 



In Bradley's opinion nitre and saltpetre were identical, their 

 only difference being that the former was a less pure form of 

 the latter. He confused both with the compounds of calcium 

 found as a coating inside lead water-pipes. To him, as well as 

 to Palissy, Cosmopolite, Paracelsus, and De la Chambre, there 

 was but this one manurial agent. The learned societies of 

 France, England, and Germany ^ recognised the nitrous salt 

 in the fertilising essence of Nile water, dung, snow, rain- 

 water, and other real or imaginary manures ; and the whole 

 scientific w^orld extolled in extravagant terms the virtues of a 

 compound the true nature of which it had as yet failed to 

 grasp. 



Experts of the eighteenth century treated as valuable 

 legacies the errors of a classic age. Bradley shared Pliny's 

 ignorance in attributing to wine the virtues of invigorating 



^ De. Afercur. Philosophy sect. 68. 



^ Such, for example, as the Ro3'al Society of England, the German 

 Academj' " Curiosorum. Naturae," and the Fathers of the Christian Doc- 

 trine in France. 



