314 On ike Alkalie.^ of ComfTtcrce. 



ot" the pieces of limestone, wliich contract a colour more or 

 less grav ; while the potash going really into vapours, from 

 the violence of the fire, passes into the interior of the stone, 

 which, after being burnt, rcniains very white. We carefully 

 detached and an^iysed a great cjuanlity of this external mat- 

 ter, and we there found the exact proportion of potasli which 

 existed in the whole mass o't the pieces ; this pioporaon v/as^ 

 nearly a 5-lOOdth of the weight of the lime. 



Chemists who may repeat our experiments will find in 

 lime more or less potasli than the quantity above announced; 

 it must vary according to circumstances, and particutaily 

 from the nature of the wood employed in burning the June. 



Some chemical Anomalies clearly explained hy the Presr>ice 

 of Pota-th in Lime, and th" Necessity (f p^-evioiisly ivaJi- 

 ing the Limey or of eniployi:}g, in ciiemicul Experiments 

 and medical Preparations, Lime burnt with Pit Coal. 



By this mean? we may consequently explain the pretended 

 decomposition of a very small qaaiitily of munate or soda 

 operated by a very great quantity of lune; an error into 

 which the immortal Scheele has fallen, and in which he 

 has been followed by some of our mo»t celebrated French 

 chemists *. 



Some chemists have also been led into error upon mixing 

 sulphate of soda and lime. 



Thi? also explains the disputes among the chemists of the 

 Academy of Sciences (and which are contained in the me- 

 rrioirs of that learned body about the commencement of the 

 last century) upon a salt which some of them said was jound 

 in lime, while others denied its exislencc rntirelv. 



Thence proceeds the well- founded idea of a property pe- 

 culiar to i.he first water drawn off lime; a property Wc.ich 

 has been improperly contested, and which caunot exiii in 

 second lime water. 



* I do not mean, however, to deny that in some particular cases li*e can 

 ileconipnse the miirii.c a;id the sulphate of soda ; I merely insist that we piay 

 be allowed to doubt it, provided we are not previously certain that the lime 

 mixed with the oac or other of these salts did t>ot contain pDtash. 



This 



