NETER ON ; Sept. and Symmachus, virpon ; Vulg. nitrunt ; English version nitre') occurs in Prov. xxv. 20; 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 misappro priation of this ancient name, called nitre,' and which in modern usage means the saltpetre of commerce, but they both apply to the natron, or true nitrunt 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 Vulgate. Jerome, in his note on Prov. xxv. 20, considers this to be the substance intended. Natron, though found in many parts of the East, has ever been one of the distinguishing natural pro ductions of Egypt. Strabo mentions two places in that country, beyond Momemphis, where it was found in great abundance, and says that those dis tricts were in consequence called the nitritic nomes or provinces (Geog. xvii. p. 1139, Oxon. 1807), to which Pliny refers by the name Nitritis (Hist. Nat. v. 9), and describes the natural and manufactured nitrum of Egypt (xxxi. to). This substance, ac cording to Herodotus, 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 westward of the Delta, where it both floats as a whitish scum upon the water, and is found depo sited 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 natrzen, that it effervesces with vinegar, and is used as soap inwashing linen, and by the bakers as yeast, and in cookery to assist in boiling meat, etc. (Mora /Egypt. aco-Arabica, Haunim 1775, pp. 45, 46). Combined with oil it makes a harder and firmer soap than the vegetable alkali [BoRrrx]. The application of the name nitre to saltpetre seems accounted for by the fact that the knowledge of natron, the true nitre, was lost for many centuries in this country, till re• vived by the Hon. R. Boyle, who says he had had some of it brought to him from Egypt' (Memoirs for a History of Mineral Waters, Lond. 1684-85, p. 86). See an interesting paper in which this is stated, in the Philosophical Transactions, abridged, 1809, vol. xiii. p. 216, etc. ; and for a full descrip tion of the modern merchandise, uses, etc., of the natron of Egypt, see Sonini's Travels, Paris, vol. i. ch. xix. ; Andreossi's lifemoire sur la Valle'e des Lacs de Natron Decade Egyptienne, No. iv., vol. ii. ; Beckman's Rtytrage zur Geschichte o'er Erfindzen gen, th. iv. p. 15, ff. ; J. D. Michaelis, De Nitro Hebraor. in Comment. Societ. Regal. Prelect., pt. i. p. 166; and Supplest. ad Lex. Hebraic., p. 1704 ; Shaw's Travels, zd ed. p. 479.—J. F. D.