Sect. I. General Observations. In undertaking the series of experiments, described in the following pages, I had not so much in view the discovery of novelties in science, as the determination, by the careful employment of known processes, and by the improvement of methods of analysis, of a number of facts, the establishment of which (it appeared to me probable) might have an influence on an important branch of national revenue and industry. An opinion has for some time past existed, and I believe has been pretty general both in this and other countries, to the disadvantage of British salt as a preserver of animal food; and a decided preference has been given to the salt procured from France, Spain, Portugal, and other warm climates, where it is prepared by the spontaneous evaporation of sea water. In conformity with this opinion, large sums of money are annually paid to foreign nations, for the supply of an article, which Great Britain possesses, beyond almost any other country in Europe, the means of drawing from her own internal resources. It becomes, therefore, of much consequence to ascertain, whether this preference of foreign salt be founded on accurate experience, or be merely a matter of prejudice; and, in the former case, whether any chemical difference can be discovered, that may explain the superiority of the one to the other.
XXVII. Description of a Roman Altar found in the neighbourhood of Aldston Moor, in Cumberland: in a Letter to the Earl of Aberdeen, K.T. President of the Society of Antiquaries, &c. &c. by the Rev. Stephen Weston, B.D. F.R.S. and S.A.