on Animal and Vegetable Substances. 35 
On the Action of Lime on the Textures of the Human Body. 
It is commonly asserted and believed, that lime exercises a cor- 
roding, destructive influence on animal matter in general, and that 
animal bodies, exposed to its action, rapidly decompose and disap- 
pear. Accordingly, it has been almost invariably recommended to 
add this earth to graves, in instances in which a rapid decay is con- 
sidered desirable, as on the occasion of the crowding of grave-pits 
with dead bodies, during the prevalency of pestilential diseases.* 
From the results of many experiments which I have made with 
lime on animal substances, I have been compelled to come to the 
conclusion that this opinion is not well founded in fact,—indeed, 
that it is altogether erroneous. 
The experiments were commenced in Malta, in the summer of 
1829, and they were carried on during the following year. The 
method observed was, to immerse the animal matter for trial in 
cream of lime, or rather a paste of lime contained in a wide-mouthed 
bottle, well corked and covered with cerate cloth, to exclude the in- 
gress of atmospheric air, and to preserve the lime in its caustic state. 
One of the first experiments tried was commenced on the 27th 
%* The following instance, extracted from the ninth volume of the Philoso- 
phical Transactions, abridged, may be given as an example of the vague, and, 
as I believe, erroneous manner of considering the operation of lime. In 1746, 
when means for preventing the infection of an epidemic disease, which then 
prevailed among the cattle, were under consideration, burying them was thought 
the most effectual method, and the introduction of lime was recommended “ for 
the more speedy destruction of the distempered carcasses.” But doubts arising 
whether the lime might not exalt the putrid particles, and help to spread the 
infection, it was the opinion of several of the learned, that it was most safe on 
that account to bury them without it. ; 
Dr Parsons, the author of the paper, adds, “that the question will probably 
be decided by a fact that had come to the knowledge of one of the Justices, 
John Milner, Esq., appointed to inspect into the affair, and will serve to pre- 
vent the practice of burying them with lime for the future, as it makes it more 
than probable that malignant particles by the operation of the lime may be 
sent up, and spread through the air.” The fact referred to was the following : 
— Mr Stallwood, a farmer at Hackney, informs the Justices to whom the case 
of the distempered cattle was committed, that he had buried thirteen cows 
very deep, with the quantity of lime appointed by the Justices ; and observing 
his dogs to scratch and tear up the ground with their feet to get at the cow’s 
flesh (the lime fermenting, and causing a foam, as he called it, or strong scent 
of meat to arise, which made the dogs so eager to come at it), he beat them off 
several times, but the dogs always returning as soon as he was gone, for some 
time he hired a boy to keep them off; but that he had buried several other 
cows in another place, with their hides cut and slashed, without any lime, and 
the dogs never attempted to scratch or tear up the ground there.” 'I'wo bushels 
of lime were allowed to each cow. With lime the bodies were buried ten feet 
deep, without lime eight feet deep, 
Relative to the explanation of the fact,—was not the difference observed in 
the two instances owing to this—that, in the one the dogs were attracted by 
the smell of the meat preserved by the lime, and not in the other, where it was 
not so preserved, and where it was undergoing putrefaction ? 
