Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Lixivium

LIXIVIUM, or Ley, signifies a solution of salts or ashes in water, for the different purposes of bleaching, washing, dyeing, &c.—Having, in the progress of this work, frequently employed the term lixivium, we shall in this place only observe, that a ley may be made either of the vegetable or mineral alkali; that the latter is often found native in some parts of the earth, as well as universally combined with the waters of the ocean; but that the former is uniformly obtained from the ashes of burnt vegetables. Hence a lixivium may be prepared even from straw reduced to ashes, if more substantial plants cannot be procured on the spur of the occasion.