[Note 6: The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious theory for
the solution of siliceous substances in water [Journal de Physique, Mai
1792.]. This theory has not been taken up merely at a venture, but
is founded upon very accurate and interesting chemical experiments.
Hitherto, however, the nature of the siliceous substance is not
sufficiently known, to enable us to found, upon chemical principles, the
mineral operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be dissolved,
or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline salt, and that it may
be also volatilised by means of the fluor acid, is almost all that we
know upon the subject. But this is saying no more in relation to the
mineral operations employed upon the siliceous substance, than it would
be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this metal is dissolved
by aqua regia.
It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may have its
menstruum, by means of which it may be retained with water in a
dissolved state; but from this it does not follow, that it is by the
means of aqueous solutions of all those mineral bodies, that nature
operates the consolidation of bodies, which we find actually
accomplished with all those different substances.
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