ASHES

ASHES, Cinis,the terrene or earthy Part of Wood, and other combustible Bodies, remaining after they are burned or consumed with Fire. See Earth, Burning, Fire, etc.

Ashesare properly the Earth, and fixed Salts of the Fuel, which the Fire cannot raise, all the other Principles being gone off in the Smoke. See Smoke, Fuel, Fixed, Salt, etc. The Chemistsfrequently call the Ashes of a Body its Calx. See CALX and CALCINATION. Ashes,if well burnt, are usually pure White, by reason the Oil to which they owe their Blackness when in a Coal, is supposed quite evaporated. See COAL, SULPHUR, etc. White, Black, etc.



The Ashes of Kali, Fern, or the like, are a principal ingredient in the Composition of Glass. See Kali, Glass, etc. The Ashes of all Vegetablesare found to contain Iron, insomuch that M. Geoffroy makes it a chemical Problem, which he proposes to the Public, to find Ashes without any Particles of Iron therein—Whether the Metal existed in the Plants themselves, or is produced in them by the Operation of Calcination, is a Point very ingeniously controverted between Messrs. Geoffroy and Lemery the younger, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy. See the Substance of the Dispute under the Article Metal. Ashes,are of considerable Use in making Lixiviums, or Lyes, for the Purposes of Medicine, Bleaching, Sugar-Works, etc. See LIXIVIUM; see also BARILLA, etc. The Ancientspreserved the Ashes of their dead Ancestors, with great Care and Piety, in Urns, for the Purpose. See FUNERAL, URN, etc. Ashes, of all Kinds,in Virtue of their Salt, make an excellent Manure for cold and wet Grounds. See MANURE.
Hence that of Virgil,
——Ne pudeat, Effetos cinerem immundum jactare per agras. Pot-Ashes.

See POT-ASHES. In the Philosophical Transactions, No. 21,we have an Account of a Shower of Ashes in the Archipelago, which held several Hours, and extended to Places distant above 100 Leagues. See SHOWER and RAIN.

ASHES