[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902) › v1.c19.7 # A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c19.7 A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c19.7 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.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. - [Previous: v1.c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.v1.c19.6) - [Next: v1.c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.v1.c19.8) - [Up: v1.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.v1.c19) ## Linked texts (2) - [Carakasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka) — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit - [Suśrutasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.susruta) — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.v1.c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.ray-1902.v1.c19.7) · Pramāṇa