An analysis of Dr. Rutty's Methodical synopsis of mineral waters : addressed, by way of appeal, to the Royal College of Physicians, London / By C. Lucas.
- Charles Lucas
- Date:
- 1757
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An analysis of Dr. Rutty's Methodical synopsis of mineral waters : addressed, by way of appeal, to the Royal College of Physicians, London / By C. Lucas. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![■ [ If- ] Doctor learned the exception to this, before his book was published, and inferts it, p.205, forgetting to after his pofition in all parts of his book, and again clearly contradifhs himfelf; p. 216, and again, p. 261. Here alfo, the Doctor t'ells us, that the refiduum of a water’s caufing a quick urinous fmell upon rub* bing with fait ammoniac, or a yellow color, with cor- rofive fnbhmate, is a proof of a native alcali or na¬ tron. Accurate writers diftinguilh the native alcali into two kinds, the volatile and the fixed. The later alone can produce thefe effects. See how this agrees with the 8th quaere, pref. p. xii. where fait ammo¬ niac and fait of tartar are made to anfwer the fame tell. See the following paragraph. Sure the Doc¬ tor mull have a violent propenfity to appear in- tirely new, or he would have made thefe difiindtions. Here, the Doctor outdoes his ufual out doings: for fear of fufpicion of mifreprefentation, I lhall cite his own words litterally. Quaere. 8. Does it, i. e. the fait of any water, excite an urinous or pungent fmell when rubbed with fait of tartar ? On which the learned author comments thus *, It lhews natron or the nitre of the antients. I am loffed in amazement and confufion at this fuperlative blunder : it is fuch as a fenfible apothecary would correct: his apprentice for. There is hardly a Tyro of three years (landing, that does not know, that pure fixed alcalies of all kinds mix together, with¬ out any change of fmell. Every one knows, that natron or the nitre of the antients, is the native fixed alcali, which fuffers no change upon mixture with an artificial fixed alcali. Any matter’s yield¬ ing a quick, pungent, urinous fmell, upon the admixture of a fixed alcali, gives demonfirativc proof of a volatile alcali, either generated by the mixture, or feparated from an union with fome acid, that of fea fait particularly •, which, with a volatile alcali, forms fait ammoniac, what the Doc- D tor's](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30785157_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
