Editing Ammonia (section)

== Etymology ==
[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], in Book XXXI of his [[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]], refers to a salt named ''[[Salammoniac|hammoniacum]]'', so called because of the proximity of its source to the Temple of [[Amun|Jupiter Amun]] ([[Greek language|Greek]] Ἄμμων ''Ammon'') in the Roman province of [[Crete and Cyrenaica|Cyrenaica]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0978.phi001.perseus-eng1:31.39|title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXI. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC PRODUCTION, CHAP. 39. (7.)—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SALT; THE METHODS OF PREPARING IT, AND THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT. TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR OBSERVATIONS THERE UPON.|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> However, the description Pliny gives of the salt does not conform to the properties of [[ammonium chloride]]. According to [[Herbert Hoover]]'s commentary in his English translation of [[Georgius Agricola]]'s ''[[De re metallica]]'', it is likely to have been common sea salt.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Georgius Agricola De Re Metallica – Translated from the first Latin edition of 1556|last=Hoover|first=Herbert|publisher=Dover Publications|year=1950|isbn=978-0486600062|location=New York|page=560}}</ref> In any case, that salt ultimately gave ammonia and [[ammonium]] compounds their name.