ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 195 



or deserved more attention from the chemists ; 

 but I very much doubt whether any person has 

 yet been able to give a demonstrative definition 

 of the principles of its various action. 



The application of lime in agriculture has 

 been justly described to have rendered sterile 

 lands fertile, and fertile lands sterile. To speak 

 of it, therefore, as a manure, is evidently absurd 

 and calculated to mislead. The meaning of the 

 term alterative^ as it is used in medicine, is ge- 

 nerally understood, and this appears to me to be 

 the proper denomination for lime, when applied 

 to the cultivation of land. 



Sir Humphry Davy, has given a clear and 

 minute detail of the component parts of the 

 basis of lime, or lime-stone, and of the chemical 

 principles of its formation and action ; but either 

 from a want of a more marked distinction be- 

 tween the effects of quick lime and slacked lime, 

 or from some other cause, his observations, by 

 no means accord with mine. 



He says, " Lime forms a kind of insoluble 

 " soap with oily matters, and then gradually 

 " decomposes them by separating from tlieni 

 " oxygene and carbon ; it tends to diminish, 

 " likewise, the nutritive powers of albumen from 

 " the same causes, and always destroys, to a 

 " certain extent, the efficacy of animal manure*, 

 & 2 



