1847.] Extracts from the Older Journals. 281 



tended to a hint of the Italian Lancisi, and improved upon it. 

 This attentive observer of the noxious exhalations of the marshes 

 around Rome, entertained no doubt of the efficacy of quick-lime 

 and soda to correct pestilential miasmata, " non enim dubitainus,'" 

 he writes treating of the tanning of leather, quin lixivium ex viva 

 calce faratum et pulvis myrti ei sodce, quibus pelles absterguntur 

 et condiunter, pestiferum miasma possunt cokrigere (De bovilla 

 peste, par. ii, cap. 2). It is strange that the effects of lime-water, 

 employed in tanning, to preserve the hides from putrifaction, has 

 not been more attended to by philosophical inquirers. And it is 

 no less strange that the power of lime, to destroy putrid vapor, 

 (septic acid,) if any should be formed, during the preparation of 

 the skins, and thereby prevent the business from growing un- 

 healthy, has been almost entirely overlooked, though the facts are 

 so plain and palpable. The antiseptic operation of lime keeps 

 the pelts from turning to pestilential air, and instantly attracts to 

 itself every particle of it, if any should be formed. It exercises 

 a like power upon water put into casks for mariners' use at sea. 

 The good effects of lime-water in putrid scurvies, and some other 

 diseases, to which seamen are liable, have been so evident, that 

 Alston, in 1752, under a conviction of its beneficial tendency, re- 

 commended one pound of fresh, well-burned quick lime, to be put 

 into a hogshead of water, and to be used as common drink by the 

 diseased, and by way of prevention for the healthy (Dissertation 

 on Quick-lime and Lime-water); and also to put some of it in 

 the ship's well, to prevent the putrid streams and foul air rising 

 from thence. (Lind on the Scurvy, p. 442.) 



The disposition of lime to preserve animal substances is further 

 evinced by the incrustations and petrifactions so plentifully to be 

 found in caves and quarries of calcareous earth, and so frequently 

 seen in the collections of the curious. All nature is full of this 

 kind of evidence. There is, therefore, no necessity of mentioning 

 in detail, the petrified serpents, toads, and almost all sorts of crea- 

 tures, that have been found embalmed in lime-stone. 



But, though alkalies arc such great resisters of putrifaction in 

 carcases of their parts, caustic pot-ash produces some effects upon 

 the living human body, which are not generally known. By at- 

 tending to them, it will appear, this latter may destroy life, though 

 not by inducing any form of malignant or pestilential disorder. 

 Pursuant to the law which provides for the inspection of pot-ash 

 and pearl-ash in the city of New York, large quantities of those 

 articles are deposited in the store-houses of the persons appointed 

 by the government to examine them. The quantity of these salts 

 is so great, that the inspectors are frequently obliged to employ 

 several men to assist them in the capacity of clerks and laborers. 

 In order to make a complete inspection of the alkalies, it has been 



