Massey on Saltpetre. 



and being, as it is said, its first president (1752), when yet in 

 Shudehill. (It is also said that Mr. Miles Bower was first 

 president, but others must settle that point.) 



These Masseys were evidently men of wealth and of 

 weight, with intellectual and benevolent tendencies. 



In the MSS. there is mentioned as present at the 

 second meeting of the Society Mr. John Massey. 



Mr. James, the president, had some knowledge of 

 chemistry, and his paper seems to indicate having been 

 abroad. It is a good specimen of the thinking of the 

 time, and we shall give a pretty full extract. 



A Treatise on Saltpetre, by James Massey, Esq. 



P. 1 88. ' Saltpetre, to give a just description of, it, is a 

 neutral saline concrete, evidently formed by a combination 

 of a peculiar acid with a fixed vegetable alkaline salt. This 

 acid is found in certain earths, from which it is extracted, by 

 elixiviating them along with wood-ashes, the fixed salt of 

 which, uniting with the acid, forms this neutral one, 

 which crystallises in the ley when boiled down to a due 

 consistence. 



' From this plain account of the formation of saltpetre, 

 it must be obvious that it can nowhere be found without 

 the concurrence of these two .principles ; and, consequently, 

 not in the air, or in vegetables or animals, because, though 

 this peculiar acid may perhaps be found in these subjects, 

 the fixed salt must needs be wanting. 



' That it may be sometimes found in the earth we 

 shall not deny, owing to the accidental introduction of 

 wood-ashes to a soil impregnated with this acid. And 

 that from hence it may pass into the stems and apices of 



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