On Sal Nitrtim and Nitro- Aerial Spirit 169 



the alkaline salt of quicklime leaves its own acid and 

 combines with the acid of vitriol), although the acid 

 salt is first precipitated from the embrace of the 

 alkaline salt, still the liquid does not become in the 

 least degree turbid, because that acid salt which sinks 

 is in nowise opaque but soluble in the liquid, and 

 consequently transparent and imperceptible. 



Nor should we omit to state that quicklime mixed 

 with the lye of ashes renders it more powerful and 

 acrid. And yet in water which has slaked lime the 

 acid salt, which is entirely opposed to the lixivial salt, 

 seems to have the upper hand, since precipitation will 

 take place in that water if an alkaline salt is put into 

 it, as was said before. 



In regard to this it is probable that the aqueous 

 part of the lye, when poured upon quicklime, no 

 sooner meets the very fiery and dry acid salt of the 

 lime and renders it fit as it were for dissolving, so that 

 it effervesces with the alkaline salt (for it was shown 

 above that the acid of lime does not, unless diluted 

 with water, effervesce with an opposite salt), than 

 the alkaline salt with which the lye is imbued com- 

 bines at once with the acid salt of the lime and so 

 destroys its powers that the alkaline salt which 

 belongs to the lime is not now, as in other cases, 

 conquered and subjugated by the acid of the lime, but 

 may be extracted from the water of the lye with its 

 powers unimpaired. Since, therefore, the alkaline salt 

 of quicklime is extremely acrid and fiery, it necessarily 

 follows that the lixivial water impregnated with it 

 becomes in the highest degree biting, caustic, and 

 fiery. 



I 



