Dissolve any quantity of _sal catharticus amarus_, commonly called Epsom salts, in its own weight of water; filter the liquor, and add to it by degrees a filtrated solution of pearl ashes in an equal quantity of water, stirring them gently until the mixed liquors have acquired the appearance of a complete coagulum: then cease adding any more of the alkaline lixivium; and, having diluted the precipitate, and mixed it intimately with a small quantity of hot water, immediately throw the mixture into a large vessel of boiling water. Keep it boiling for a quarter of an hour, then take it out, and put it into glazed earthen vessels. As soon as the powder has subsided, and before the water be quite cold, pour it off, and add a fresh quantity of boiling water: repeat these ablutions with several parcels of hot water, till the liquor has entirely lost its saline taste. Then let it be so agitated as to suspend the finer parts of the powder; in which state decant it into other vessels, and having separated the water from the Magnesia by inclination, put it on large chalk stones, till a considerable part of the humidity be absorbed. Then wrap it up in sheets of white paper, and dry it before the fire. Pour hot water on the remaining powder, stir it, decant it in its turbid state, and separate the Magnesia from the water as before. By these means, the whole, or most of it, will be reduced to an equal degree of fineness. The separation of the Magnesia will be promoted by heating the saline lixivia before they are mixed; and the larger the quantity of water into which the precipitated powder is cast, the more speedily and perfectly will the vitriolated tartar, which is formed by the alkali of the _sal catharticus_, be washed off. Dr. Black directs that three or four times the quantity of water, to that of the solutions, should be added; but this I have found greatly insufficient. The neutral salt should be washed off as quickly as possible; otherwise, as he justly observes, by allowing the mixture to stand for some time, the powder concretes into minute grains, which when viewed with a microscope, appear to be assemblages of needles diverging from a point. These concretions cannot be redissolved by any washing, however long continued. His intention, in boiling the mixture, is much better answered, by adding it to the water when in a state of ebullition; and once boiling in this manner is more effectual than a dozen washings in hot water.