196 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 



*' either by combining with certain of their ele- 

 " ments, or by giving to them new arrange- 

 " ments. Lime should never be appHed with 

 ** animal manures, unless they are too rich, or 

 " for the purposes of preventing noxious efflu- 

 " via ; as in certain cases mentioned in the last 

 " lecture, it is injurious when mixed with any 

 " common dung, and tends to render the extrac- 

 " tive matter insoluble." 



Now, as I have before observed, I have mixed 

 the crassamentum, or clotted part of blood, with 

 qidck lime, which formed a kind of insoluble 

 soap, and was therefore inapplicable as food for 

 plants ; but mixed with slacked lime it formed a 

 perfectly soluble soap, and thus rendered the 

 albumen immediately applicable and inodorous, 

 which left to itself could not have become so, 

 until it had undergone the putrefactive ferment- 

 ation, and have thus generated and diffused a 

 most noxious effluvia. 



He again says, " In those cases in which fer- 

 " mentation is useful to produce nutriment from 

 " vegetable substances, lime is always effica- 

 " cious." Now in the experiment I have just 

 explained, it prevented the fermentation, and I 

 have always found this to be its peculiar pro- 

 perty. 



Parkes says, " It appears from several late 

 " experiments carefully made, that sugar is com- 



