1799-] 
would-be philofophers, who are fo ready 
avith their advice on all occafions. I af- 
fare you, I had rather fide with you than 
with them; and when TI am with you, 
Z thall confider myfelf quite out of haym’s 
way. 
You fay, ‘that if the principle Jaid 
‘down in the letter reterred to, 1s jut, 
then it follows, that pot-a/b cakes fhould 
be good for children; tor ,pot-afh, as 
‘well as volatile falts, is an alkali. It 
awill prevent the mifcievous effects of an 
-acid upon their ftomachs, and calm the 
diforders to which their little bowels are 
fubje&.”? There again you are right+ 
that fort of bread is, indeed, good for 
them. Do you not fee, where the experi- 
‘ment is fairly made, how tat and hearty 
‘they; grow by eating cakes tin¢ctured a 
dittle with that excellent material. If it 
would not divulge too much of a fecret in 
the practice of ph) fic, I would tell-you, 
that this very thing pot-a/b, which wo- 
men have fo great.a duration of time 
mingled with their cakes;~is a grand re- 
medy in various diforders of the alimentary 
canal to which infants are fubjected. But 
I hope you will. not give them all to your 
children ; on the other hand, bring them 
‘on the table in the evening; for I declare, 
that, next to your engaging manners and 
converfation, few things.can give a more 
agreeable relifh to the tea, when I haxe 
the honour to fip it with you, thangoo? 
pot-ajfh cake. 
It is enquired by you further—Oh, 
dear ! how minute you are!—** Whether, 
as acids corrode and deitroy the teeth of 
certain ladies of our acquaintance, aika- 
lize wafbes and powders would not be 
good for them ?’’ To be fure they would ; 
and you may now underftand, that if 
foot or fine afbes have ever been beneficial as 
dentifrices, it is by virtue ot the alkaline 
matter with which they abound. ‘The 
former contains ammoniac, and the latier 
pot-a/b; and theie are the active ingredients 
in both. A weak folution of pearl-ath in 
water is better than either, being more efh- 
acious, as well as more neat and conve- 
nient. The mouths of many perfons are 
manufactories of fuch acids as eat away 
the teeth, and give a peftilential taint to 
their breath. How unclean and odious 
as this feptic venom! and yet it 4s wholly 
deftructible by alkalies. It at once afflicts 
and difgufts me to witnefs the confe- 
quences of that negleét with which thefe 
‘handy and fimple applications are treated. 
Then you beg me to inform you 
{ cannot proceed any further at prefent ; 
for you ought to recollect, that, as much 
‘as I delight in obeying your commands, 

“Dr. Mitchill on the popular Uje of Alkalies, 
~~. 
195 
I muft attend a little to the bufinefs of the 
Jegiflature. We have in hand the nui- 
fance-biil for the city of New-York ; and 
‘I wifh it was in our power to alkalize 
every foul thing there. You mutt, there- 
fore, give me credit for my condefcen- 
fion in thus vouchfafing, while I have the 
great affairs of the {tate to engage me, to 
aniwer your queftions about /melling- 
bottles, ginger-bread, and tooth-wa/fhes. 
The weather is dreadfully cold, and 
my fingers are almoft benumbed; though 
they are ftill Aexible enough to guide the 
pen while I affure you that, &c. &c. 
Sam. L. MITCHILL, 
Albany, Feb. 3, 1798. 
RFS TO ree 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
TY HE account of Profeffor Eickhorn’s 
“¢ Introduction to the Old Tefiament,” 
given in the Appendix to the 24d volume 
of the Monthly Review enlarged (from 
May to Auguift, 1707) is. fo interefting, 
that many perfons unacquainted with the 
German language mutt be defirous, I ima- 
gine, of feeing a tranilation of that very 
‘Amportant work. 
I take the liberty of afking, through 
the channel of the Monthly Magazine, 
Whether a-tranflation of the whole, or of 
amy detached parts, ts now in hand? 
It feems to be, by fueh fort of criti- 
cifm as this work contains, that the pe- 
tulant objections of unbelievers on the. 
one hand, and the orthodoxy, as it is 
called, of churchmen on the other, is to’ 
be correéted, and we are at length to 
amake forme nearer approaches to truth. 
If the following paffage, inferted in 
the Review, fhould be enlarged upon and 
elucidated in the work, a tranflation 
would probably be a valuable acquifitiong 
as a detached part. 
‘¢ Certainly thinking men would have re- 
conciled themfelves to thefe important monue: 
ments of human intellect, if but one ex- 
pounder oftheir contents, af but one defen- 
der of their importance, had arifen, to thew. 
that the greater part of this miraculous and 
of this fupernatural, is not to be found 
in the books themfelves, but has refulted 
from mifunderftanding ;—from ignorance -of 
language ;—from inattention to the mode of 
thought and exprefiion, which characterizes 
thefe incommon with the other earlieft produce 
tions of ligerature ;—tfrom mifapprehenfion 
of the fpirit of the Eaft ;—or from impotence 
of fympathy with the childhood of intelleét, fo 
as to view all things through a fimilar me- 
dium of imagination.” 
Your’s, &a M,C. 
For 
