E *55 3 
VI. Obfervations on the Affinities of Subjlances in Spirit of Wine* 
In a Letter to Richard Kir wan, Efq , F* R. S* by John 
Elliot, M. XX 
Read January 19, 1786. 
S I R, 
I N your excellent papers on the attractive powers of the 
mineral acids, you (hew that metallic calces have ftronger 
attractions to thofe acids, than alkalies and earths. The fol- 
lowing experiments not only confirm this doCtrine, but alfo a 
pofition that I have lately ventured to advance “ that cer- 
tain decompofitions will take place in fpirit of wine, which 
will not at all in water, nor in the dry way»” 
I have ffiewn, that if exprefled oil be mixed with flaked 
lime into a pafte, fo as to form calcareous foap, and mild 
* alkali be added, the latter will not decompofe the former, 
either in water or by fufion. But that if fpirit of wine be 
fubftituted for water, an alkaline foap and mild calcareous 
earth will be formed. As fea fait contains the foffil alkali, and 
as by your table of affinities acids have ftronger attraction to 
metallic calces than to alkalies, I concluded, that if fea fait 
were added to a metallic foap, a fimilar double decompofition 
would take place. 
* In an Appendix to the fecond edition of the “ Elements of the Branches of 
Natural Philofophy connected with Medicine.” 
X 2 Ta 
