1 6 NUTRIENTIA. Art. I. 2. 4. 4. 



■winch may be owing to the elementary fluid of heat confolidated 

 in the lime. It is the (learn occafioned by this heat, when water 

 is fprihkled upon lime, if the water be not in too gr^eat quan- 

 tity or too cold, which breaks the lime into fuch fine powder as 

 almoft to become fluid, which cannot be efFe&ed perhaps by 

 any other means, and which I fuppofe mud give great prefer- 

 ence to lime in agriculture, and to the folutions of calcareous 

 earth in water, over chalk or powdered lime-ftone, when fpread 

 upon the land. 



4. It was formerly believed that waters replete with calcare- 

 ous earth, fuch as incruft the infide of tea-kettles, or are faid to 

 petrify mofs, were liable to produce or to increafe the (lone in 

 the bladder. This miftaken idea has lately been exploded by 

 the improved chemiftry, as no calcareous earth, or a very minute 

 quantity, was found in the calculi analyfed by Scheele and Berg- 

 man. The waters of Matlock and of Carlfbad, both which cover 

 the mofs, which they pafs through, with a calcareous crufl, are 

 fo far from increasing the ftone of the bladder or kidneys, that 

 thofe of Carllbad are celebrated for giving relief to thofe labour- 

 ing under thefe difeafes. Philof. Tranf. Thofe of Matlock 

 are drunk in great quantities without any fufpicion of injury ; 

 and I well know a perfon who for above ten years has drunk 

 about two pints a day of cold water from a fpring, which very 

 much incrufts the vellels, it is boiled in, with calcareous earth, 

 and affords a copious calcareous fediment with a folution of fait 

 of tartar, and who enjoys a ftate of uninterrupted health. 



V. 1. As animal bodies confift much both of oxygen and 

 azote, which make up the compofition of atmofpheric air, thefe 

 fhould be counted amongft nutritious fubftances. Befides that 

 by the experiments of Dr. Prieftley it appears, that the oxygen 

 gains admittance into the blood through the moift membranes 

 of the lungs ; and feems to be of much more immediate confe- 

 quence to the prefervation of our lives than the other kinds of 

 nutriment above fpecified. 



As the ban's of fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, is carbone, 

 which aifo conftitutes a great part both of vegetable and animal 

 bodies ; this air fhould likewife be reckoned amongft nutritive 

 fubftances. Add to this, that when this carbonic acid air is 

 fwallowed, as it efcapes from beer or cyder, or when water is 

 charged with it as detruded from limeftone by vitriolic acid, it 

 affords an agreeable fenfation both to the palate and ftomach, 

 and is therefore probably nutritive. 



The immenfe quantity of carbone and of oxygen which con- 

 ftitutC i'o great a part of the limeftone countries is almoft be- 

 yond conception, and, as it has been formed by animals, may 



again 



