LIME. 
13 
plants that vegetate in it. The power that lime has of 
absorbing moisture will be better understood, when we 
say, that one hundred weight will, in five or six days, 
when fresh, absorb five pounds of water, and that it 
will retain in the shape of powder, when slackened, or 
loosened, as is commonly said, nearly one-fourth of its 
weight.* 
That lime rehardens after being made soft, as in mor- 
tar, is owing to the power which it has of acquiring 
carbonic acid — the fixed air of Dr. Black — from the at- 
mosphere ; when the stone is burned, it loses this prin- 
ciple, but re-absorbs it, though slowly, yet in time, and 
it thus becomes as hard as stone again : we unite it 
with sand to promote the crystallization and hardening. 
The utility of lime in various arts, agriculture, manu- 
factories, and medicine, is very extensive, and in many 
cases indispensable ; and the abundance of it spread 
through the world seems designed as a particular pro- 
vision of Providence for the various ends of creation. 
Lime, and siliceous substances, compose a very large 
portion of the dense matter of our earth ; the shells of 
marine animals contain it abundantly ; our bones have 
eighty parts in one hundred of it ; the egg-shells of 
birds above nine parts in ten — during incubation, it is 
received by the embryo of the bird, indurating the 
cartilages, and forming the bones. But the existence 
and origin of limestone are pre-eminent amongst the 
wonders of creation ; nor should we have been able, 
rationally, to account for the great diffusion of this sub- 
stance throughout the globe, however we might have 
conjectured the formation, without the Mosaical revela- 
tion. It may startle, perhaps, the belief of some, who 
have never considered the subject, to assert what is ap- 
* The weight of lime is very variable, differing in different places ; 
but taking our lime at the average of eighty pounds to the bushel, 
some idea may be conceived of the cooling nature of this substance. 
Lime, to be used as manure, must be in a pulverized state ; and by 
drawing on the land the quantity that we do, we convey to every 
acre so dressed equivalent to two hundred and fifty gallons of water, 
not to be evaporated, but retained in the soil as a refrigerant to the 
fibres of vegetation. 
B 
