158 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I67A, 



A Discourse denying the P re-existence of ^Icalizate or Fixed Salt in any Subject, 

 before being exposed to the Action of the Fire. To which is added a Corifirma- 

 tionof an Assertion J delivered in Numb. 101, of these Tracts, viz. That Alca- 

 lizate, or Fixed Salts, extracted out of the ashes of Vegetables, do not differ from 

 each other: the same likeiuise affirmed of Volatile Salts and Vinous Spirits. By 

 Dr. Daniel Coxe. N° 107, P- 150. 



The alcalizate or fixed salts of plants, extracted out of their ashes after incine- 

 ration, or out of tartar calcined, do, in my apprehension, neither pre-exist in 

 the vegetables that afforded them, before they were exposed to the action of 

 the fire ; nor do they differ considerably, I am certain not sensibly, from each 

 other. The former part of this position may be thus made out. 



1 . I never yet found, that any vegetable, or indeed animal or mineral sub- 

 stance, did in the least manifest to the taste or by its effects, that it contained 

 any such salt. Many plants and roots lightly bruised, affect the eyes and nose 

 after the manner of volatile salts, and several bite the tongue and strike upon 

 the palate. Some herbs yield a copious volatile salt, immediately after they are 

 pressed by a considerable degree of heat ; and many sorts of earths abound with 

 it, so that it is highly probable, they often actually exist in vegetables, in the 

 very same form, wherein they appear to us on distillation from the herbs them- 

 selves, or from soot. And that acid salts do really exist in many plants, is dis- 

 played by their taste and effects. They may also be obtained without fire or 

 any artificial analysis; as is evident in tartar, and the reputed essential salts of 

 many plants; in verjuice, vinegar, and verdegris, whose acidities maybe con- 

 creted, and made to appear in a dry form. Now did alcalies exist in the plants 

 before the analysis, especially so copiously as they sometimes appear afterwards, 

 they would certainly betray themselves by some visible sensible property, or 

 other symptom of their presence. 



2. Did alcalies pre-exist in plants, probably animals, whose sole food they 

 are, would also abound therewith; whereas, on the contrary, we do not find 

 the least traces of them, either in blood, urine, bones, horns, &c. which all 

 abound with volatile salts; nor in some other parts, excrements and juices, 

 that afford much acidity, which may frequently by coagulation be brought to a 

 saline form or consistence. Nor can it reasonably be pretended, that the fer- 

 ment of the stomach and other parts, several digestions and repeated circula- 

 tions, have altered its property, and at length rendered it volatile. For first, 

 alcalies seem to be of a very fixed nature, and are not easily volatilized : and 

 daily experience will evince, that the chyle does not in the least participate, 

 either in taste or any other property, with alcalisate salts. Besides, herbs 



