C 56 3 
VI. On the Decomposition of the Acid of Borax or Sedative Salt. 
By Lawrence de Crell, M. D. F. R. S. Lond. and Edinb. 
and M. R. I. A. Translated from the German. 
Read February 7, 1799. 
The salt called Borax, so useful in various manufactures and 
arts, and hitherto imported only from Thibet and Persia, or, in 
small quantities, from Tranquebar,* has ever excited the atten- 
tion of natural philosophers. This attention was principally 
directed to the acid (called sedative salt) contained in it; its 
other component part, the alkaline salt, (soda or natron,) being 
better known, and found in many other natural productions, 
either alone, or in conjunction with other acids. The acid above- 
mentioned has hitherto been discovered only by Hofer, in the 
lagone of Castelnuovo ; by Martinovich, in the petroleum of 
Gallicia,'f mixed with alkaline earth; and by Mr. Westrumb, 
near Luneburg. The scarcity of this acid, and its being found 
only in the substances and situations abovementioned, occa- 
sioned a supposition, in the minds of those who minutely ob- 
serve and examine the course of nature, that it is not a simple 
substance, but is formed afresh from a variety of other sub- 
stances, previously decomposed, by a singular coincidence of 
operative causes; and, consequently, that it belongs to com- 
pounds. 
* Demachy’s Laborant im Grossen, Part 2, page 89. 
f Crell’s Annalen, 1791. T. I. p. 16 z. 
