112 



Mr. Mansell Pleydell, in his introduction to his " Flora of 

 •Dorset," bears the following testimony to the agricultural value 

 of lime soils: — "The elevated tract of chalk land which nearly 

 encircles the county is almost exclusively devoted to the cultivation 

 of corn, roots, and forage, sustaining large flocks of sheep, the 

 superiority of which gives the Dorsetshire farmer a pre-eminence 

 in the agricultural world." The limestone districts in the North 

 of England also afford favourable conditions for sheep raising. 

 There is a breed of sheep in Westmoreland known as the " Lime- 

 stone," and it is said not to thrive off its own geological forma- 

 tion. Horses are said to thrive better on limestone soils, and to 

 develop plenty of bone and sinew. So, on the whole, the truth 

 of the old proverb that " a lime country is a rich country," seems 

 to be well established. 



. • V. 



Lime in the Service of Man : An account of some of the 

 Applications of Calcium Compounds in the Arts and 

 Industries. 



(Delivered as a General Lecture at the Society's Room, April 24th, 1915.) 

 OR the second time it falls to my lot to deliver the concluding 



- 1 - lecture of a connected series dealing with the compounds of 

 some one chemical element. Last year Silicon was the element 

 chosen, this year Calcium has been selected. 



I set about the preparation of this lecture with some mis- 

 givings, for, while a great number of substances containing or 

 consisting of one or more of the numerous compounds of Calcium 

 are used in the arts and industries, it must be granted that in some 

 cases the Calcium is, if I may use the expression, only a junior 

 partner. Apart from this I doubted, and still doubt, whether the 

 applications are as numerous or as interesting as in the case of 

 the Silicon compounds. Although, in the first lecture of the present 

 series, I had an opportunity of dwelling upon the chemistry of the 

 subject, I take the liberty of prefacing my account of the industrial 

 application of the Calcium compounds by reminding you that the 

 element Calcium is a somewhat hard metal of low density, i.e., 

 low for a metal, of silvery appearance and of great chemical 

 activity. It is never found in the free state in nature. Its principal 

 oxide is known as Lime. This is a hard, white and very infusible 

 substance which greedily absorbs water, yielding slaked lime. It 

 also reacts readily with acids and acid-forming oxides, giving the 

 various calcium salts. Neither quick lime nor slaked lime occurs 



By Hubert Painter, B.Sc, F.C.S. 



