6 Mayow 



time converted into perfect nietals, it is in like manner 

 probable that seeds of fixed salts lie deep hidden in 

 every fertile soil as in a suitable matrix, and that they 

 by long digestion and the influx of air are changed 

 into fixed salts. For in no other way can we conceive 

 whence there should arise such an abundance of fixed 

 salts as is usually obtained by lixiviation from the 

 ashes of burned plants. For certainly none of these 

 salts can proceed from another source than the earth. 

 Indeed, it is probable that earth, pure and simple, is 

 nothing else than sulphur and fixed salt united 

 together in the closest bonds, and that both are held 

 together in so firm a union that it is only after a long 

 period of fermentation, set up by the air and the 

 weather, that they reach a state of activity. But this 

 will be discussed more fully below. And, at any rate, 

 if sulphur and fixed salt are melted by a gentle heat, 

 there results from their union a mixture of a dark 

 purple colour, very like a clod of earth — the only 

 difference, perhaps, being that earth is composed of 

 sulphur and fixed salt, both immature, and united 

 together by a closer bond. 



