the Decomposition of the Earths, &c. 
345 
The metal from strontites sunk in sulphuric acid, and ex- 
hibited the same characters as that from barytes, except in 
producing strontites by oxydation. 
The metal from lime, I have never been able to examine 
exposed to air or under naphtha. In the case in which I was 
able to distil the quicksilver from it to the greatest extent, the 
tube unfortunately broke, whilst warm, and at the moment 
that the air entered, the metal, which had the colour and 
lustre of silver, instantly took fire, and burnt with an intense 
white light into quicklime. 
The metal from magnesia seemed to act upon the glass, 
even before the whole of the quicksilver was distilled from 
it. In an experiment in which I stopped the process before 
the mercury was entirely driven off, it appeared as a solid, 
having the same whiteness and lustre as the other metals of 
the earths. It sunk rapidly in water, though surrounded by 
globules of gas, producing magnesia, and quickly changed in 
air, becoming covered with a white crust, and falling into a 
fine powder, which proved to be magnesia. 
In several cases in which amalgams of the metals of the 
earths, containing only a small quantity of mercury were ob- 
tained, I exposed them to air on a delicate balance, and 
always found that during the conversion of metal into earth, 
there was a considerable increase of weight. 
I endeavoured to ascertain the proportions of oxygene, and 
bases, in barytes and strontites, by heating amalgams of them 
in tubes filled with oxygene, but without success. I satisfied 
myself, however, that when the metals of the earths were 
burned in a small quantity of air they absorbed oxygene, 
MDcccfur. Y y 
