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On Sal JVitnim and Nitro-A'erial Spirit 165 



will acquire a quite new nature because of the addition 

 to it of the acid salt of the vitriol. 



But now to adapt the foregoing to the subject 

 in hand, it is seen that in quicklime and the water in 

 which it has been slaked, the contrary salts are of a 

 nature little suited to combine very closely with each 

 other, and the proof of this is that either of them 

 will immediately unite with a salt more suitable for 

 it. 



For first it is manifest that the acid salt of lime 

 separates from the fixed salt with which it was united, 

 that it may be more firmly combined with the salt of 

 tartar. For if salt of tartar be mixed with water in 

 which quicklime has been slaked, precipitation takes 

 place at once and the water becomes turbid and milky. 

 And the reason is, that although the acid salt of the 

 lime is to some extent subdued by its partner the 

 fixed salt, yet its powers are not so completely 

 destroyed but that the acid is still able to dissolve a 

 small portion of limestone, and besides to fix volatile 

 salts as acids do. If, however, salt of tartar be mixed 

 with the aforesaid water, the acid salt of the lime will 

 combine most closely with it as being a more suitable 

 partner, and their strengths will be utterly destroyed 

 by each other; so that the limestone can now no 

 longer be dissolved by the destroyed acid of the lime, 

 but is precipitated to the bottom along with these 

 combined salts. 



And for the same reason the alkaline, or rather the 

 fiery volatile salt of the lime, will at once desert its 

 acid partner to which it is united, in order to form a 

 closer union with the acid spirit of vitriol, which is 

 more suitable for it. For if sulphur be dissolved in 

 water in which lime has been slaked and spirit of 

 vitriol be then added to the solution, the sulphur will 



