I 



On Sal Nitriim and Nitro- Aerial Spirit 155 



effervescence of its acid salt with the fixed salt of the 

 lime. 



Further, common sulphur, boiled in the water in 

 which quicklime has been slaked, will dissolve exactly 

 as it would in a liquid imbued with an alkaline salt. 

 However, if spirit of vitriol or any acid liquid be 

 poured into the solution, the sulphur will at once be 

 precipitated with a fetid smell ; so that it is certainly 

 established that the solution of sulphur in the water 

 in which quicklime has been slaked, is due to its 

 alkaline salt, for otherwise the sulphur would not be 

 precipitated from that water when acid liquids are 

 poured into it. 



To this I further add that if quicklime be put into a 

 solution of sal armoniac, whatever of acid there is in 

 the sal armoniac will be absorbed by the fixed salt of 

 the lime, while the volatile sal armoniac, liberated 

 from the saline fetters, passes meanwhile into vapours^ 

 just as if fixed salt of tartar had been mixed with the 

 sal armoniac. Now all these things clearly prove 

 that quicklime and the water in which it has been 

 slaked are impregnated with a fixed salt ; and this 

 we may see for ourselves, for it is certain from common 

 observation that an alkaline salt, or at least a nitrous 

 salt partly composed of an alkali, exudes from walls 

 which have been recently whitewashed and adheres 

 to them. 



Further, the existence of acid salt in lime may be 

 inferred from what follows. For if a solution of any 

 fixed salt be mixed with the water of quicklime, pre- 

 cipitation will immediately take place and the water 

 will become milky, which would not, however, happen 

 unless that water were imbued with some acid salt. 

 Besides, the water of quicklime poured upon any 

 volatile salt fixes it and changes it into an insoluble 



