C 372 '3 _ . 
dired a more full Inquiry to be made into a Matter 
of this Importance, and to order proper Works to 
be crc&ed for making Bay-Salt, and for making and 
refining white Salt, and to put thofe Works under 
the Management of able and judicious Perfons, to 
make exad and accurate Trials, in order to difeo- 
ver the bed and chcapcft Methods of doing them. 
And the Methods, which fhould be mod approved 
of, might for the general Good be made public, 
and cftablifhed by Law as a common Standard, to 
which all thofe who make Salt in the Britijh Do- 
minions fhould be obliged to conform. 
However imperfedt this Extract may appear, I 
mud now beg your Indulgence for having taken up 
more of your Time than is ufually allow’d to Works 
of this kind. I mud plead in my Excufe the great, 
the National Importance of the Work irfclf, the 
mafterly Manner with which the Subject-Matter is 
treated, as w r ell as its falling in fo exactly with that 
Inftitution, in which we are fo defirous of diftin- 
guifhing ourfclvcs. The making and refining Salt 
muff certainly be confidcred as one of thofe mecha- 
nic Arts, the Hiflory of which, as we are taught by 
the noble * Verulam , is a neccflary Part of that 
Knowledge, that true Science of Nature, which is 
not taken up in vain and fruitlefs Speculations, but 
effectually labours to relieve the Necellities of hu- 
man Life. 
XVI. 
* Verulam de Aug . Sclent, lib. II. cap. 2, 
