cated cones were formed by the merchants from broken pieces or fragments of the Egyptian sal ammoniac, by solution and imperfect crystallisation or sublimation. In this manner the merchants at Marseilles convert the refuse of the Egyptian sal ammoniac into cakes by a new sublimation, in order that it may become more saleable, though it is not readily purchased by artists. Gaubius, however, has described a kind of sal ammoniac which he obtained from India, with the information that it was made in Indostan from the soot of animal dung; but in my opinion this requires further confirmation. Where and at what time the first works for making sal ammoniac were established in Europe, I am not able to determine. The account given by Thurneisser, that the first sal ammoniac was made in the Tyrol in the ninth century, is truly ridiculous. It is not worth the trouble to inquire where he or Paracelsus found this foolish assertion; but I shall transcribe the passage, which Möhsen also has quoted,* from the original, now become scarce.† One might be almost induced • Beyträge zur Geschichte der Wissenchaften in der Mark Brandenburg, p. 76. + Mɛyaλn xuμia vel Magna Alchymia das ist ein Lehr und unter weisung--- durch Leonh. Thurnaissern. Berlin 1583, fol. pa 53. Und sol der aller erste, der solche salz nach conterfeyt und gemacht hat, gewesen seyn Hans von der Zeit, welcher umb das jahr Christi 834 aus dem Dörflein Charras, das in Tyrol oberthalb dem Markt Imbst ligt, als ein geschickter bergmann, zum grossen Kayser to believe, that in the time of Boyle there were manufactories of sal ammoniac in Europe.* But, perhaps, there may be no other foundation for all this than the before-mentioned assertion of Cæsalpinus, that this salt came from Germany. At Bamberg, the Germans were long accustomed to boil the sediment of the salt-pans with old urine, and to sell it cheap for sal ammoniac; and Weber asserts that some of the same kind is still made at Vienna. The hundred weight costs from twenty to thirty florins, but the refuse may be purchased for a mere trifle. If I am not mistaken, the first real manufactories of sal ammoniac were established in Scotland; and the oldest of these, perhaps, was that erected by Dovin and Hutton at Edinburgh in 1756, and which, like many in England, manufactures this salt on a large scale. Among the newest undertakings of this kind is Carlen gen Ach ist kommen, und als ein berümbter und künstlicher mann, ein zeugmeister worden ist, der auch 361 jahr gelebt, und viel guter stücklein in der Alchymia (wie Paracelsus in andern theil seines büchlein Corda sursum meldet) erfunden hat, wie man dann noch heute zu tag, in seinem Johansen von der Zeyt geschriebenen Samlungbuch, mit sehr alten und uns diser zeit frembden Deutschen worten zu sehen haben mag. consist * Though the sal-armoniac that is made in the East may in great part of camel's urine, yet that which is made in Europe (where camels are rarities) and is commonly sold in our shops, is made of man's urine. Natural History of the human blood, iv. p. 188. ↑ J. A. Weber Nützliche wahrheiten für Fabrikanten. Wien 1787, 8vo. p. 211. History of Edinburgh, by H. Arnot. Edinb. 1779, 4to. p. 601. Gravenhorst's manufactory at Brunswick, and that which in the neighbourhood of Gottenburg manufactures sal ammoniac from the refuse left in making train oil; but in regard to the present state of them I have obtained no information.* FORKS. Ar present forks are so necessary at table among polished nations, that the very idea of eating a meal without them excites disgust. The introduction of them, however, is of so modern a date that they have scarcely been in use three centuries. Tam prope ab origine rerum sumus, says Pliny,† in speaking of a thing which, though very new, was then exceedingly common. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans have any name for these instruments; and no phrase or expression which, with the least probability, can be referred to the use of them, occurs any where in their writings. But had forks been known, this could not have been the case, since so many entertainments are celebrated by the poets or described by other writers; and they must also have been mentioned by Pollux, in the very full catalogue which he has given of articles necessary for the table. • Neue Abhandl. der Schwed. Akadem. xii. p. 275. The Greek word creagra* signified indeed a fork, but not a fork used at table. It meant merely a flesh-fork, or that instrument employed by cooks to take meat from a boiling pot, as is proved by the connexion of the words in all those passages where it occurs. † It is mentioned by Pollux, and by Anaxippus, in Athenæus, among the utensils of the kitchen; and the scholiast on Aristophanes says, that this fork had a resemblance to the hand, and was used to prevent the fingers from being scalded. Suidas quotes a passage where the word denotes a hook at the end of a long pole, with which people, even at present, draw up water-buckets from wells and other deep places. This instrument, therefore, appears sometimes to have had only a hook, but sometimes two or more prongs. Creagra occurs once in Martianus Capella, a Latin writer, but in a passage which is not intelligible. Equally inapplicable to our forks are the words. furca, fuscina, furcilla, fuscinula, and gabalus, which are given in dictionaries. The first two were undoubtedly instruments which approached nearly to our furnace and hay forks. The trident of Neptune also was called fuscina. The fur * Κρεαγρα. + The scholiast on the Equites of Aristophanes, 769, p. 208, says : κρεαγρα ειρηται απο του τα κρεα επι τοις λεβησιν αγρεύειν και ανασπαν. Athen. lib. iv. p. 169. § Suidas quotes a passage from an epigram where this κρεαγρα is called σιδηροδακτύλος. cilla even was large enough to be employed for a weapon of defence, as is proved by the expressions furcillis ejicere and expellere. Fuscinula, which in modern times is used chiefly for a table fork, is not to be found even once in any of the old Latin writers. The old translation of the Bible only explains the word ngɛayga by fuscinula. Gabalus, according to every appearance, has given rise to the German word gabeln, but it denotes the cross or gallows, which last word Vossius deduces from it.* A learned Italian, who asserts also that the use of forks is very new, is of opinion, that the Romans often used ligula instead of forks. † This I shall not deny; but the ligula certainly had more resemblance to a small spatula, or tea-spoon, than to our forks. According to Martial, many spoons at the other end seem to have been ligula. But the two epigrams must be read in conjunction, so that the second may appear a continuation of the How crux or gabalus and furca were different from each other and yet often combined, is explained in Lipsius de Cruce, lib. iii. p. 98. Brunsvigæ 1640, 8vo. + Hieron. Baruffaldi Schediasma de armis convivalibus. In Sallengre, Novus Thesaurus Antiquit. Roman. iii. p. 742. Mart. Epigr. xiv. 120. Ligula Argentea. Quamvis me ligulam dicant equitesque patresque, 121. Cochlearia. Sum cochleis habilis, sed nec minus utilis ovis ; |