NETER (ne'tar), (Heb. neh'ther; Sept.and Symmachus, virpov, nit'ron ; Vulg. nitrum ; Eng lish version 'niter .), occurs in Prov. xxv:2o; Jer. ii:22; where the substance in question is described as effervescing with vinegar, and as being used in washing; neither of which particulars applies to what is now, by a misappropriation of this ancient name, called • niter,' and which in modern usage means the saltpeter of commerce, but they both apply to the natron or true nitrum of the ancients.
The similarity of the names which is observable in this case is considered by Gesenius of great weight in a production of the East, the name of which usually passed with the article itself into Greece. Both Greek and Roman writers describe natron by the words given in the Sept. and Vul gate. Jerome, in his note on Prov. xxv :2o, con siders this to be the substance intended. Natron, though found in many parts of the East, has ever been one of the distinguishing natural productions of Egypt. This substance, according to Herodo tus, was used by the Egyptians in the process of embalming (ii :76, 77). The principal natron lakes now found in Egypt, six in number, are situate in a barren valley about thirty miles west xard of the Delta, where it both floats as a whitish scum upon the water, and is found deposited at the bottom in a thick incrustation, after the water is evaporated by the heat of summer. It is a
natural mineral alkali, composed of the carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda, derived from the soil of that region. Forskal says that it is known by the name atrun, or 'wino', that it effervesces with vinegar, and is used as a soap in washing linen, and by thc bakers as yeast, and in cookery to assist in boiling meat, etc. (Flora /E.iryttiaco ilrabica, Haunix, 1775, pp. 45. 46). Combined with oil it makes a harder and firmer soap than the vegetable alkali. (See Boarrir.) The applica tion of the name niter to saltpeter seems accounted for by the fact that the knowledge of natron, the true niter, was lost for many centuries in this country, till revived by thc Hon. R. Boy.le, who says he 'had had some of it brought to lum from Egypt.' (See NITER.) J. F. D.