Plin. xxxi. 6, § 32, p. 556. Vitruv. viii. 3, p. 158.
1236
xxxi. 10.
1237
Plin. xxiv. 1; xxxi. 3, § 22. Geopon. ii. 5, 14, p. 85.
1238
Speculum Naturæ, vii. 87, p. 480.
1239
Hieronym. ad Jerem. ii. 22.
1240
“For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.”
1241
In regard to the two plants usnee, asne, and usnem, assuan, see Avicennæ Canon. Medic. Venet. 1608, fol. pp. 338, 406, 407. Serapio de Temperam. Simplic. p. 164. In Du Cange’s Gloss. Gr. p. 12, addend. ἀλκαλη, and in Gloss. Lat. v. the word alcali is quoted only from modern writers. That kali, however, does not mean the plant, but the concrete ashes, is proved by the explanation in Castelli’s Lexicon.
1242
In the annotations to Scribonius Largus, p. 228.
1243
Commentationes, p. 145. Recueil des Questions, &c., p. 231.
1244
Such things were known to Aristotle. See Mirab. Ausc. c. 146.
1245
Dissertat. de Igne Græco. Upsaliæ, 1752.
1246
De Subtilitate, xiii. 3. p. 71. ed. Francof. 1612, 8vo.
1247
De Mirabilibus Mundi, p. 201; at the end of the book De Secretis Mulierum. Amst. 1702, 12mo.
1248
Liber Ignium ad Comburendos Hostes, auctore Marco Græco; ou, Traité des Feux propres à détruire les Ennemies, composé par Marcus le Grec. Publié d’après deux manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Paris, 1804, three sheets in quarto.
1249
Biblioth. Arab. Hisp. Escurial, ii.
1250
See the works quoted in Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 978. In the year 1798, M. Langles proved, in a paper read in the French National Institute, that the Arabians obtained a knowledge of gunpowder from the Indians, who had been acquainted with it in the earliest periods. The use of it in war was forbidden in their sacred books, the Veidam or Vede. It was employed in 690 at the battle of Mecca.
1251
The following may be advantageously consulted: – Archæologia, v. p. 148; Henry’s Hist. of Great Britain, vol. iv.; Muratori Antiq. Italiæ Medii Ævi, ii. p. 514; Watson’s Chemical Essays, i. pp. 284, 327; Histoire de France, par Velly, xvi. p. 330; Dow’s Hist. of Hindostan, vol. ii.; Erdbeschreibung der entferntesten Welttheile, ii. p. 159; Stettler Schweitzer Chronik. p. 109. The inhabitants of Berne purchased the first gunpowder from the people of Nuremberg in 1413.
1252
A fragment from the writings of Synesius was printed, for the first time, in Frabricii Bibliotheca Græca, viii. p. 236, where the words occur.
1253
Raspe on Oil-painting. London, 1781, 4to, p. 145.
1254
Speculum Naturale, vii. cap. 13, p. 432.
1255
Lib. vii. cap. 88, p. 480.
1256
Symbola Aureæ Mensæ. Francof. 1617, 4to, lib. vii. p. 335.
1257
De Asse, 1556, fol. lib. iii. p. 101.
1258
Les Anciens-Minéralogistes de France, par Gobet. Paris, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. xxxiv. i. p. 51, 284; ii. p. 847.
1259
[The celebrated chemist Baron Berzelius, professor at Stockholm, states in his Manual of Chemistry (edit. 1835, vol. iv. p. 86), that every possessor of land in Sweden is still compelled to deliver a certain quantity of saltpetre yearly to the state, and gives directions for testing its goodness.]
1260