3*4- THE . VIRTUES OF LIME-WATER: 
If 
lime as not to be feparable from them by any affufion of water. 
But if this be fo, it muft be allowed that lime-water cannot owe 
its virtues to this fait ; nor by confequence lime itfelf, whoTe vir¬ 
tues are of the fame kind, though vaflly ftronger. If it be faid, that 
lime-water contains fome of the finer parts of the lime, to which 
its virtues are owing ; we anfwer, that as the calcarious matter 
which lime-water affords, is a mere alcaline earth, the fuppofed fait 
muft have left it, and confequently cannot be fo inseparably united 
with the earthy parts of the lime as is fuppofed. Further, as 
quick-lime, after being rendered infipid by frequent afiufions of 
water, acquires its former properties by a new calcination *, it 
evidently follows, that no peculiar faits are required in animal 
Ihells, ftones, or chalk, in order to their being changed into quick¬ 
lime by calcination. 
Nay, if lime-ftone be, before calcination, impregnated with al¬ 
caline] acid, or neutral faits, it will not, by being burnt in the 
moft intenfe fire, acquire the properties of quick lime f. And 
hence we may fee, why quick-lime, whofe virtues have been ex¬ 
tracted by a ley of an alcaline fait, does not become quick-lime a- 
gain by a new calcination. 
Since then there does not appear any good reafon to afcribe 
the virtues of quick-lime or lime-water to any acid or alcaline faits ; 
it may be alked, what is the nature of quick-lime, and whence 
do its a&ive qualities proceed ? To which I anfwer, that it is an 
alcaline earth, which acquires, by calcination, highly acrid, pene¬ 
trating and igneous properties ; and that, as the native faits of 
vegetables are, by the adion of the fire, converted into a fixed 
alcaline nature, fo the earthy matter of animal Ihells, and certain 
ftones, is, by burning, changed into an acrid cauftic fubftance, 
which, however it may agree in fome things with thefe faits, dif¬ 
fers from them in many refpeds, and is of a nature peculiar to 
Itfelf. 
The 
* Mémoires de l’acad des fcîences 1700, edit. 8vo. p. 160. ; et Macquer Eiemens de chemie 
théorique, p 66. 
f Macquer Elemens de chemie théorique, p. 68. &c.