Massey on Saltpetre. 137 



hundred loads of lime were got together, and laid, with 

 strata of horse muck, in long high ridges, the more to be 

 exposed to this element ; the consequence of which was, 

 that the rain running off, without penetrating the mass, no 

 putrefaction ensued, and the lime, at the end of four or five 

 years, was found to have received little or no impregnation ; 

 upon which the work was dropped, with great loss to the 

 proprietors.' 



P. 211. 'Upon many accounts it has been before ob- 

 served that Glauber sometimes threw all sorts of dung into a 

 large wooden vessel, and, when they had completed their 

 putrefaction, percolated a fixed alkaline solution through 

 them ; which furnished him with a ley of the same kind and 

 nature with that drawn from nitrous earths and wood- 

 ashes.' 



P. 220. ' All these things being considered, with the 

 practice of the Swedes, and the success of our own experi- 

 ments, we judge ourselves authorised to advise all those 

 who are employed in making saltpetre, to place but a few 

 wood-ashes at the bottom of their tubs, to serve by way of 

 filter, and to supply their place with potash. 



