| to employ it in the latter sense. 
| Sauts and ALKALOIDS. 
ALKALINE BASES. 
such as alcohol, tannin, gallic acid, the vegetable 
colouring matters, and several other substances, 
give them an affinity or capacity for oxygen; and, 
for this reason, when alkaline solutions are ap- 
plied to any timber, they occasion it to be satu- 
rated with oxygen, and in consequence accelerate 
its decay. Solutions of potash or soda, in the 
proportion of two or three weights of water to 
one weight of the alkali, or lime water diluted 
with its own weight of water, or strong solutions 
of borax, or of any alkaline carbonates, will, for 
many months, protect delicate instruments of 
iron and steel from oxidation, and preserve them 
in a state of complete polish—Dr. Dana’s Prize 
Essay on Manures—Liebig’s Chemistry of Agri- 
culture.—Ure’s Dictionary of Chemisiry.— Boussin- 
geult’s Rural Economy.— Quarterly Journal of 
Agriculture—Davy’s Agricultural Chemistry. 
ALKALINE BASES. Either the alkalies and 
alkaline oxides entering into chemical combina- 
tion with mineral acids to form salts in the open 
air or in the soil; or the alkaloids or vegetable 
alkalies entering into organic combination with 
vegetable acids to form salts within the organism 
of plants. General chemists seem usually tv em- 
ploy the designation alkaline bases in the former 
sense ; and agricultural chemists seem usually 
See ALKALINE 
ALKALINE EARTHS. The results of the 
| union of oxygen and the metallic bases barium, 
_ strontium, calcium, and magnesium, all of which, 
| with the exception of the last, decompose water 
rapidly at common temperatures. The term al- 
kaline earths is derived from the properties pos- 
| sessed by them in common with the alkalies pro- 
per, while in other respects they resemble the 
earths. Baryta, strontia, and lime are strongly 
caustic, magnesia less so. The two former are 
rather soluble in water, lime less so, and mag- 
nesia requires a very large quantity of water for 
solution. See Ankanizs, Barytss, Linn, Mac- 
NESIA, and STRONTIAN. 
ALKALINE OXIDES. See Ankamius. 
ALKALINE SALTS. Substances formed by 
the chemical combination of alkalies and alkaline 
earths with acids and oxides. All the alkaline 
substances which exert their alkalinity exteriorly 
to vegetable organism, have a great affinity for 
acids, and readily combine with them to form al- 
kaline salts. The compounds thus formed are of 
a neutral character, or want the characteristic 
properties of both the alkalies and the acids out 
of which they are formed ; and they are desig- 
nated alkaline salts in order to be distinguished 
from metallic salts, which are formed by the com- 
bination of metals with acids. The most impor- 
tant of the alkaline salts in agricultural chemis- 
try—whether as regards natural action or man- 
uring—are the carbonates of lime, potash, soda, 
magnesia, and ammonia, the silicates of potash, 
soda, lime, magnesia, and alumina, the phos- 
phates of lime, magnesia, potash, soda, and 
ALKALOIDS. 119 
alumina, the sulphates of potash, soda, lime, 
magnesia, alumina, and ammonia, the nitrates 
of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, and ammonia, 
the oxalates of lime and potash, the muriates of 
lime and ammonia, and the tartrates of lime and 
potash, formed by the combination of carbonic, 
silicic, phosphoric, sulphuric, nitric, oxalic, muri- 
atic, and tartaric acids, with the respective alka- 
hes and alkaline earths. Ammonia and many of 
the alkaline earths also combine with the metal- 
lic oxides,— ammonia, for example, with the 
oxides of copper, cobalt, and nickel, and potash | 
and soda with the oxides of lead and zinc. 
The part which alkaline salts play in the chemi- 
cal processes attendant upon agriculture, is quite 
obvious and exceedingly important. Some par- 
ticular crops, in order to be productive, or even 
in any degree thriving, actually require the pre- 
sence in the soil of a precise kind of alkali. The 
vine, for example, must be supplied with potash 
in order to elaborate the large quantity of bitar- 
trate of potash which characterizes the grape; | 
the sorrel must be supplied with the same alkali, 
in order to elaborate its copious and character- 
istic organic solution of binoxalate of potash ; 
and the numerous plants of the fuci and cheno- 
podize families which produce kelp and barilla, 
must be supplied with some salts of soda, in or- | 
der to their assimilating the pure alkaline soda | 
which they yield up by incineration. “It would 
appear, however,” 
the salts of soda or potash must not exceed a very 
small proportion in the soil. All the experiments 
that have yet been undertaken with a view to 
ascertain the action of different saline substances 
on growing vegetables, have led to no very cer- 
tain conclusion but this, that they must be used 
very sparingly. M. Lecoy has published an ac- 
count of some experiments, made apparently 
with great care, which go to prove that common | 
salt, in the dose of from 14 to 25 cwts. per acre, 
favoured the growth of barley, wheat, lucern, and | 
flax. 
he also found to have the same good effects. 
de Dombasle, however, came to conclusions totally 
Chloride of calcium and sulphate of soda, 
opposed to them, with reference especially to com- | 
mon salt, which, applied in the doses advised by | 
M. Lecoy, was not found to produce any sensible 
effect. M. Puvis also obtained results that were 
equally negative.” See articles Sauts, Porasu, 
Sopa, Lime, Manurss, Wc. 
ALKALINITY. See Atxatrzs. 
ALKALOIDS, or Vrecuto-ALKattes. 
alkaline substances produced in plants during the 
progress of vegetation. The first of them known 
to science, or detected as a distinct substance, 
was morphine, a constituent of opium; and this 
was discovered by Sertuerner in 1804. So very 
many are now known, that we cannot afford them 
separate notice, or even enumeration ; but some 
of them are exceedingly obscure, most are of very 
small importance, and all have the same kind of 
relation to individual genera or species of plants 
says M. Boussingault, “that | 
M. | 
Unique | 
Huai 
