156 Mayow 



lime, as was observed by the learned Zwelfer. But it 

 is well enough known that volatile salts are not fixed 

 or changed in that manner except by an acid salt. 

 Further, if water which has slaked quicklime be 

 poured copiously into boiled milk, the milk will soon be 

 curdled, just as if an acid liquid had been mixed with it. 



From what has been said, it is evident I think that 

 contrary salts lie hidden in lime, as may also be 

 inferred from the very contexture of slaked lime. For 

 whenever contrary salts in their encounter lay hold of 

 any third matter, there is formed from the close 

 combination of all a neutral body which is quite 

 insipid, like terra damnata^ and altogether insoluble 

 in water. Of this sort are nearly all the Magisteries, 

 such as those of hartshorn, of coral, and the like. Nor 

 does slaked lime seem to be anything but a Magistery 

 formed by a union of contrary salts with a stony earth. 

 Indeed if salt of tartar be mixed with a solution of 

 alum, a tertium quid \n\\{ be formed that is somewhat 

 sweet and astringent to the taste and not very different 

 from lime, so that it is not at all wonderful that an 

 alkali, pure and unmixed, is not drawn out from 

 quicklime by pouring water upon it ; for its contrary 

 salts act on each other when water is poured on it 

 and are turned into a neutral body. But since the 

 acid salt of the lime is not united firmly to the fixed 

 salt, as will be shown below, the fixed salt extricates 

 itself in the course of time from the fetters of the 

 acid salt and at last, thrust from the structure of the 

 lime, adheres to the whitewashed walls. 



We notice, lastly, here, in support of the foregoing, 

 that quicklime will not become warm if sprinkled with 

 highly rectified spirit of wine, or spirit of turpentine, 

 or with other liquids of that kind. And the reason 

 seems to be that spirit of wine and liquids of that 



