Sodality

“ Soda, one of the alkalies contained in the ashes of plants, is very much the same as potash in its agricultural character. Its uses are the same as those of potash—before enumerated. Soda exists very largely in nature, as it forms an important part of common salt, whether in the ocean or in those inland deposits known as rock salt. When combined with sulphuric acid it forms sulphate of soda or Glauber's salts. In combination with carbonic acid, as carbonate of soda, it forms the common washing soda of the shops. It is often necessary to render soils fertile. ”

“ Had it not been for physiological research we should not have known that the chloride of sodium was such an important constituent in the animal economy; we should have been in utter ignorance of the science of life, and we should never have known how man is begotten, how developed, or how he dies. ”

“ When the harvesters arrived, he recognised among them a woman, now married to one of the reapers, with whom he had been familiar two years before, while she was yet a girl. One evening he slipped into the sheep-cot, and pulled her by the feet as she lay between her husband and her brother, who were both snoring open-mouthed. She got up and came to him, and they lay silently together in the sultry darkness on the trodden soil which, although it had been raked over, still retained, from the winter sojourn of the sheep, so keen an ammoniacal odour as to bring tears into one's eyes. ”

“ Relative Injuriousness of the Several Salts.—Of the three sodium salts that usually constitute the bulk of “alkali,” only the carbonate of soda is susceptible of being materially changed by any agent that can practically be applied to land. So far as we know, the salt of sodium least injurious to ordinary vegetation is the sulfate, commonly called Glauber’s salt, which ordinarily forms the chief ingredient of “white” alkali. ”

“ He might have been found in twenty directions at once, at every spot where there was some insurmountable obstacle, a mass of clearings which no one knew what to do with, a hollow which it was difficult to fill up, a pile of soil mingled with plaster over which the engineers in their feverish haste grew impatient, but which he sifted with his own hands and in which he always finished by finding some sop or other, or a speculation in his own peculiar line. ”

“ But, while he thus regained health, his senses remained in a state of stupor which reduced him to the vegetative life of some poor creature born only the day before. Indeed, he was nothing but a plant; his sole perception was that of the air which floated round him. He lacked the blood necessary for the efforts of life, and remained, as it were, clinging to the soil, imbibing all the sap he could. It was like a slow hatching in the warm egg of springtide. ”

“ The moment it is brought in contact with the water, the oxygen of the water unites with the sodium and produces the effects of heat, light, and sound, the result of the chemical energy of the sodium in its potential form being brought into the active or kinetic form by mere contact with the water. ”

“ On its way to the surface, or at the surface, the chloride of sodium becomes decomposed by contact with carbonates of ammonia and potassa—sulphuric and nitric acids. In a soil well supplied with decaying animal or vegetable matter, these carbonates or sulphates of soda, as they rise to the surface, might be formed into nutriment for plants, and taken up by their roots; or in one well flooded occasionally with fresh water, any superabundance of the salts or their bases might be taken up in solution and carried off. ”

“ To the alkali in the soil (carbonate of sodium) , add sulphate of lime. As soon as the mixture is made with sufficient water, a change will take place, and the substances (carbonate of sodium and sulphate of lime) will form new [75] compounds. Thus we will get, out of those two substances, two new compounds, viz., carbonate of lime and sulphate of sodium. Of these, carbonate of lime is not injurious to vegetable life, and sulphate of sodium (Glauber salt) is only injurious when present in large quantities. ”

“ How to sodder upon Silver, Brasse, or Iron. There are two kindes of Sodder, to wit, hard Sodder, and soft Sodder. The soft Sodder runneth sooner then the hard: wherefore if a thing be to be sodered in two places, which cannot at one time well be performed, then the first must be sodered with hard soder, and the second with soft: for if the first be done with soft, it will unsoder againe before the other be sodered. Note, that if you would not have your soder to runne over any one part of the peece to be sodered, you must rub over that part with chalke that you would not have it runne upon. ”

“ Beneath the softly smiling heavens, La Beauce, still torpid from the winter frosts, seemed to lie half-dozing and half-awake, basking in sweet indolence. The distant fields, bathed in a suffused light, were already green with the wheat, oats, and [Pg 457] rye sown during the autumn. In those plough-lands that remained bare, the spring sowing had recently been commenced. All around men could be seen striding over the rich soil scattering their seed with the same uniform gesture. The grains could be distinctly perceived falling like a flashing gilded stream from the hands of the nearer sowers. ”

“ In addition to these experiments, we have made some observations clinically. To eighteen adults—fourteen men and four women—we ordered ten grains of the pure nitrite of sodium in an ounce of water, and of these seventeen declared that they were unable to take it.... One man, a burly, strong fellow, suffering from a little rheumatism only, said that after taking the first dose he ‘felt giddy,’ as if he would ‘go off insensible.’ His lips, face, and hands turned blue, and he had to lie down for an hour and a half before he dared move. ”

“ The mineral compound of greatest importance perhaps is sodium chloride, or common salt.52 This is a natural constituent of most of our foods, and is also added to food in its preparation for the table. When it is withheld from animals for a considerable length of time, they suffer intensely and finally die. It is necessary in the blood and lymph to keep their constituents in solution, and is thought to play an important rôle in the chemical changes of the cells. It is constantly leaving the body as a waste product and must be constantly supplied in small quantities in the foods. ”

“ Then, as the old man almost choked with anger, and nearly sank down from sheer exhaustion, his son quickly answered:
"It's really very foolish of you, dad, to worry yourself in this way. Fly at me as much as you like, if it relieves you in any way at all; but you really ought to take things more philosophically. One can't eat the land, you know! You'd pull a very wry face if any one served you with a dish of soil, wouldn't you? ”

“ Physiology has been a boon to humanity and an inexhaustible field of research to the scientific.
In a chemical point of view there is no more important mineral constituent in the human body than the chloride of sodium, for it occurs nearly in every part of the system, both solid and fluid, in close and intimate relation with the organic compounds, and it materially influences their chemical and physical properties; for instance, the albumen partly owes its solubility to the presence of salt, the quantity of which causes the differences which it presents as regards its coagulation ”

“ We can not touch sodium with our knowledge of the properties of chlorine, nor vice versa. Similarly, we can not touch sodium with our knowledge of the properties of salt, nor salt with our knowledge of the properties of sodium, except, mark you, as we may say that one property of sodium is its power to unite with chlorine to produce salt. My familiar expression for this is that the external world and our minds are so constituted, are so articulated with each other, that every object in that world must be treated on its own merits. ”

“ Is it not a blessing to know that nature has munificently provided a means whereby these distressing evils may be checked and definitely eradicated by a daily use of such an enemy to, and destroyer of, disease as the chloride of sodium, universally known as common salt? ”

“ Sodium is a soft silver-white metal, scarcely solid at common temperatures, fuses at 194° Fahr., and volatilises at a red heat; it oxidises very rapidly in the air; when placed on the surface of cold water, it decomposes that liquid with great violence, but generally without flame, in which it differs from potassium; on hot water it burns with a bright yellow flame—in both cases a solution of pure soda being formed. Sp. gr. ”

“ If common salt be a chloride of sodium, and experiment obliges us so to regard it, what is there in its aqueous solution that should lead us to consider it as containing a muriate of soda; what evidence of any new arrangement of elements? Dr. T. is certainly in mistake, when he says, “for all practical purposes, therefore, the solution of a metallic chloride in water may be viewed as the muriate of an oxide, and on this account I shall always regard it as such in the present treatise.” ”

“ Water being present, this becomes muriate of soda,—that is, a compound of muriatic acid and soda: muriatic acid is hydrogen, combined with a most remarkable gaseous body, called, from its yellow colour, chlorine; and soda, oxygen in union with the metal sodium,—therefore, when anhydrous, culinary salt is truly a chloride of sodium. Chlorine in some respects resembles oxygen; it attacks metallic bodies with great energy; and, in many cases, produces the most vivid incandescence, during the process of combination. ”

“ The delicacy of spectrum analysis may be imagined from the fact that a quantity of sodium amounting to less than the two-millionth of a grain can be detected by its means. Indeed, it has taught us that sodium in one form or other exists almost everywhere. This mode of analysis is only serviceable to indicate the composition of any salt or other substance, the quantities of the different elements found by its use having no influence on the appearances brought out by the prism. ”

“ And even if weeds were to cover its surface for years together, that would be a rest for it, and it would grow young and fertile again. The soil cares nothing about our quarrels; this mighty toiler, ever absorbed in her workings, troubles herself no more about man than about a swarm of ants.
Jean had had his share of grief and trouble, pain and rebellion. And now Françoise was slain, Fouan was slain, the wicked seemed triumphant, the foul and sanguinary vermin of the villages were able to pollute and prey upon the soil. ”

“ The soda which Nature also uses is particularly good for dissolving rock that will hardly dissolve without it; silica, for instance, out of which are made the hardest of the sand grains, the sand in sandstone, the sharp, glassy edges of grass blades, and the blades of wheat, and the stalks of corn. Whenever there is a great deal of silica in rock you find soda mixed right with it. This, having the rocks already salted and mixed with soda before putting them in the oven, Mother Nature has always found so convenient! ”

“ The chief functions of sodium nitrate are to give to the plant a supply of oxidized nitrogen ready for absorption into its tissues and incidentally to aid, by the residual soda, in the decomposition of silt particles containing potash or phosphoric acid and in supplying to the soil salts of a more or less deliquescent nature. ”

“ If sodium be thrown on to water, caustic soda is produced, a substance made up of hydrogen, oxygen, and the simple radicle sodium; by another reaction a substance can be obtained consisting of hydrogen, oxygen, and the compound radicle nitryl (NO2) . These two bodies have analogous formulæ, Na OH and (NO2) OH, they may both be regarded as derived from water, H HO, by the replacement of one half of the hydrogen by a radicle; in one case by Na, in the other by NO2. Again, the whole of the hydrogen in water may be replaced by sodium, with production of the compound sodium oxide, Na2O. ”

“ An enormous quantity of sodium carbonate, or soda, as it is usually called, is needed in the manufacture of glass, soap, bleaching powders, and other commercial products. Formerly, the supply of soda was very limited because man was dependent upon natural deposits and upon ashes of sea plants for it. Common salt, sodium chloride, is abundant, and in 1775 a prize was offered to any one who would find a way to obtain soda from salt. ”

“ The sot rattled his spoon and stirred up a tempest of flame in the salad-bowl, while he split his sides with laughter.
"Right you are; go on. Sure enough it was me—supposing it wasn't you!"
"And I tell you further that spendthrifts of your kidney don't deserve that the corn should grow. Only to think that our property—yes, all that land that the old folks took so much trouble to leave us—has been pledged by you, and handed over to others. You dirty blackguard, what have you done with the land?" ”

“ REH, s. [Hind. reh, Skt. rej, 'to shine, shake, quiver.'] A saline efflorescence which comes to the surface in extensive tracts of Upper India, rendering the soil sterile. The salts (chiefly sulphate of soda mixed with more or less of common salt and carbonate of soda) are superficial in the soil, for in the worst reh tracts sweet water is obtainable at depths below 60 or 80 feet. ”

“ It follows from this, that with the question of a fundamental essence or substance behind properties, we are, as students of objective nature, in no wise concerned. As to whether there is or is not a real essence of sodium, or of salt, to which the sensible properties of these substances adhere, is no affair of ours. Physical science can not even raise the question of an absolute reality or realities behind the objects with which it deals. ”