A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c19: Note on the Salts
A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c19
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Note on the Salts
v1.c19.1
¹ See pp. 29, 44 and 127.
v1.c19.2
Romaka, also called Sākambarī, is the salt produced from the Sambar Lake near Ajmere (Dutt).
v1.c19.3
Sauvarchala : see under saltpetre.
v1.c19.4
Audbhida (lit. begot of the soil) is the name applied to the saline deposit commonly known as the reh efflorescence. It consists "chiefly of sodium chloride and sulphate in varying proportions. In addition there are sometimes carbonate of soda, and we have usually found some magnesian sulphate. In certain localities the last named salt is in very considerable proportion. In other cases nitrate of lime or alkali is present."
v1.c19.5
"The efflorescences thus produced consist of three groups; 1st, the neutral, which contain no carbonate of soda (these consist chiefly of sodium chloride and sulphate, and frequently magnesium sulphate); 2nd, the alkaline chlorides and sulphates, but no lime or magnesian salt; 3rd, the nitrous efflorescences."—Dr. Center's Note on *Reh* quoted in Watt's Dictionary of the "Economic Products of India". Vol. VI. Part I. pp. 410-417.
v1.c19.6
We have thus a ready explanation of the conversion of mercury and other metals into their chlorides when they were heated in combination with audvida and other salts (see p. 48). The magnesium sulphate would readily yield sulphuric acid, which with sodium chloride and nitre, might be expected to produce aqua regia; (for further information see under "rasakarpúra" or the chlorides of mercury).
v1.c19.7
Vida or Vit is at present taken to be the same substance as the kálánimak or "black salt"; it is difficult to ascertain what it stood for at the time of the Charaka and the Susruta. The following account is given in Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. "BLACK SALT is prepared in upper India chiefly at Bhewani in the Hissar district by heating together in a large earthen pot 82lb of common salt, one pound of the fruit of *Terminalia chebula*, and one pound of *Phyllanthus emblica*, and one pound of sajji (impure carbonate of soda), until by fusion of the salt the ingredients are well mixed, when the pot is removed from the fire and its contents allowed to cool and form a hard cellular mass. This preparation is used medicinally principally as a digestive.” The salt has a reddish brown colour and consists mainly of sodium chloride with traces of sodium sulphate, alumina, magnesia, ferric oxide and sulphide of iron. Most of the samples, we have examined, were found to evolve minute quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen when treated with an acid; even when placed in the mouth the taste of this gas was distinctly felt. It is very probable that when the saline mass is fused with the organic matter [T. chebula], a portion of the sodium sulphate is reduced to sulphide, which by double decomposition converts the traces of iron salt present into the sulphide. The sulphide was detected both in the insoluble residue (as FeS) as well as in the aqueous extract.
v1.c19.8
In the Chemistry of Bubacar, the following salts are mentioned :—
v1.c19.9
La classe des sels renferme onze espèces : le sel commun, que l'on mange, le sel pur, le sel amer, employé par les orfèvres, le sel rouge¹, le sel de naphte² le sel gemme proprement dit, le sel indien³, le sel alcalin,⁴, le sel d'urine, le sel de
v1.c19.10
(1) Sel gemme coloré.
(2) Sel gemme bitumineux.
(3) Salpêtre?
(4) Carbonate de soude.
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cendres ¹, le sel de chaux ². (La Chimie au moyen âge, T. I. p. 308).
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It will be seen, however, that the last 3 or 4 products are in Hindu Chemistry very properly placed under the kshāras or the alkalies (p. 45).
Linked texts (2)
- Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit
- Suśrutasaṃhitā — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit