ALKANET. 11 



builds up an harmonious physical and mental constitution on 

 venison, game, rich mutton, beef, and perfumed wines. 



ALKALI. This word comes from an herb, called by 

 the Egyptians kali ; it is the same as glasswort, of which 

 there are several varieties. The Egyptians burned this 

 herb to ashes, boiled the ashes in water, and when the water 

 was completely evaporated the residuum was a white salt, 

 called by them salkali or alkali. 



The ashes from forests, on the clearing up of land to bring 

 it under cultivation, yield a vast alkaline residuum, and after 

 these ashes have been subjected to boiling and evaporation 

 of its solution in iron pans or pots, they afford one principal - 

 alkali of commerce, known under the name of potash. The 

 common domestic ley, used for the manufacture of soft-soap, 

 is obtained by filtering water through wood-ashes. Hard- 

 soap is made with another alkali of commerce, known under 

 the name of soda; it is obtained through the combustion 

 of marine plants. Soda abounds in sea-plants, and that to 

 a greater extent than potash does in vegetables of inland 

 districts. The barilla of Spain, which is an impure car- 

 bonate of soda, imported from Spain and the Levant, is ex- 

 tracted from the Salsola saliva and vermiculata, and some 

 of these plants yield nearly twenty per cent of ashes, which 

 contain about two per cent of soda. (Johnson's Farmer's 

 Encyclopedia. External Nature as adapted to the Physical 

 Condition of Man, by John Kidd, M. D., F. R. S.) 



Alkaline Salts are bodies formed by the union of alkalies 

 with acids. Combined with fatty substances, as already 

 mentioned, alkalies form soaps. 



ALKANET (Lat. anchusa\. A species of bugloss. Its 

 root is of a deep-red color, as the plant reaches maturity in 

 autumn ; its root is also astringent. Alkanet chips, which 



