GEOLOGY. 143 



it abstracts water and air from bodies. The action of 

 the corrosive body is a deprivation of water and air, and 

 hence the elevated temperature of burnt lime in water. 

 If again the corrosive lime be full of water and air, it is 

 neutralized. It is now forsooth again a total earth, in a 

 mechanical sense being again provided with water and 

 acid. All earths are an equal or identical mixture. Acids 

 and alkalies are thus to be regarded in this respect as 

 moieties, and thereupon their chemical relation appears 

 to depend. The elemental bodies are desirous to com- 

 plete themselves. If therefore a base stands in corre- 

 sponding import with a certain acid, it will thus have a 

 greater affinity for the latter, tending to separate it from 

 some other combination. Upon tins principle, which has 

 indeed been hitherto unknown to exist, the grades of 

 affinity appear to depend. 



650. As regards the mode of occurrence of the cal- 

 careous earth, it also is not of so mechanical a nature as 

 is generally supposed. Its legitimate relation to sand- 

 stone and other precipitations, speak against that. But 

 crystallization has for the most part disappeared in it ; 

 and it is only in cavities that crystals shoot out, like the 

 ores in metallic veins. In granite the commencement 

 is crystal, but in lime it is the termination ; crystalliza- 

 tion determines the character in granite, in calx or lime, 

 however, the crystals are only blossoms. 



651. The calcareous earth multiplies itself as a reduc- 

 tion of the earth of gravity and that indeed three times. 

 There exists, so to speak, a corrosive silicious as also 

 argillaceous and talcose earth. The three corrosive earths 

 are calcareous earth, strontian and baryta, or it may be 

 said that the first would be salt, the second Inflammable, 

 and the third, metal. 



652. Still a polar separation emerges in the stratified 

 calx, while the two earth-principles become more indi- 

 vidualized. The carbonate of lime ranks on the lowest 

 stage. In this, however, the differencing process of 

 light had not remained stationary, but elevated the car- 

 bon to a higher grade ; carburetted hydrogen and sul- 



