The Sedative Salt hath the appearance and the taste of a Neutral Salt: it does not change the colour of the juice of violets; nor does it easily dissolve in water; for it requires a quart of boiling water to dissolve two ounces of it: yet, with regard to Alkalis, it has the properties of an Acid; it unites with those salts, forms therewith a saline compound which crystallizes, and even expels the Acids that happen to be combined with them; so that it decomposes the same Neutral Salts that are decomposed by the Vitriolic Acid. The Sedative Salt, when suddenly exposed to the violent heat of a naked fire, loses near half its weight, melts, puts on and retains the appearance of glass; but its nature still remains unchanged. This glass dissolves in water, and shoots anew into crystals of Sedative Salt. This Salt communicates to the Alkaline salt with which it is united, when in the form of Borax, the property of melting with a moderate heat, and forming a kind of glass; and it is this great fusibility that recommends the frequent use of Borax as a flux for assaying ores. It is also employed sometimes as an ingredient in the composition of glass; but, in time, it always communicates thereto the fault which its own glass hath, namely that of tarnishing with the air. The Sedative Salt hath, moreover, the singular property of dissolving in Spirit of Wine, and of giving to its flame, when set on fire, a beautiful green colour. All these observations we owe to Mess. Geoffroy and Baron.