LIME. 
of shield above, and a longitudinal flat dish 
beneath; aperture placed on the right side, 
within the shield ; four feelers, situate above 
the mouth, with an eye at the tip of each 
of the larger ones. There are sixteen 
species ; L. lanvis : body black, and almost 
without wrinkles, found among the moss 
late in the autumn, five lines long ; body 
glossy, w'ith undulate, transverse striae on the 
shield ; narrower and not so much wrinkled 
as the next. L. ater ; body black and fur- 
rowed with deep wrinkles : of this species 
there are five or six varieties, differing in 
colour and size ; the duskj’-brow’n with a 
yellowish mouth, a streak on each side ; is 
found in woods, meadows, fields, and gar- 
dens ; is from one and a half to five inches 
long ; crawls slowly, and leaves a slime 
upon whatever it passes over. L. alba, is 
white, and is found in woods and groves ; 
from three to five inches long. L. hyalinus ; 
body hyaline ; feelers obselete, with a 
brown line reaching from the feelers to the 
shield ; inhabits mossy places, and is very 
destructive to the young shoots of kidney- 
beans ; belly with numerous interrupted 
wrinkles. L. agrestes ; body wliitish, with 
black feelers : five varieties, of which some 
have the power of secreting a large quantity 
of mucous from the under surface, and 
forming it into a thread like a spider's web; 
by this means it often suspends itself, and 
descends from the branches of trees, or any 
height it had crawled up to. It is found in 
gardens, pastures, and groves, from May 
till December. One of the varieties of this 
species is that which has been recommend- 
ed to be swallowed by consumptive per- 
sons ; it is half an inch long, and when 
touched it sticks as if dead to the fingers. 
LIME, or calcareous earth, predominates 
in most stones which are soft enough to be 
scratched with a knife. These are chalk, 
lime-stone, marble, spars, gypsum, or plaster- 
stone, and various others. As the lime is 
most frequently combined with carbonic 
acid, it is usual for mineralogists to drop a 
small quantity of nitric acid upon the stones 
they are desirous of classing; and if they 
froth by the escape of the acid, they con- 
clude that lime enters into the composition. 
To obtain pure calcareous earth, powdered 
chalk must be repeatedly boiled in water, 
which will deprive it of the saline im- 
purities it frequently contains. It must 
then be dissolved in distilled vinegar, and 
precipitated by the addition of concrete 
volatile alkali. The precipitate, when well 
washed and dried, will consist of lime imited 
to carbonic acid ; the latter of which may 
be driven off by heat, if necessary. 
If chalk, marble, lime-stone, spar, or any 
other specimens of this earth, containing 
carbonic acid, be exposed to continued ig- 
nition, they give out carbonic acid and 
water, to the amount of nearly half their 
weight. The remainder, consisting chiefly 
of lime, has a strong tendency to combina- 
tion, and attracts w'ater very powerfully. 
The addition of water to lime produces a 
very considerable heat, attended with noise, 
and agitation of the parts, which break 
asunder ; a considerable vapour arises, 
which carries up with it part of the lime ; 
and a phosphoric light, is seen, if the ex- 
periment be made in the dark. Lime thus 
saturated with water is said to be slaked. 
Water dissolves about one five-hundredth 
part of its weight of lime, and is then called 
lime-water. This solution has an acrid 
taste, and turns syrup of violets to a green 
colour. If lime-water be exposed to the 
open air, the lime attracts carbonic acid, 
and is by this means converted into chalk; 
which, not being soluble in water, forms a 
crust on the surface, formerly called cream 
of lime, which, when of a certain thickness, 
breaks, and falls to the bottom : and in this 
vs'ay the whole of the lime will in time be 
separated. If the fire have been too vio- 
lent in the burning of lime, the stones be- 
come hard, sonorous, and incapable of ab- 
sorbing water with the requisite degree of 
avidity. This effect seems to arise from 
part of the calcareous earth having entered 
into fusion with the clay, flint, or other 
contaminating earths, with which it forms 
a glass that covers and defends the rest. 
The paste of lime and water, called mor- 
tar, has a degree of adhesion and ductility, 
though much less than clay. When dry, it 
is more or less friable, like chalk. A mix- 
ture of sand, or broken earthen vessels, 
greatly increases its firmness, which it 
seems to effect by rendering it more diffi- 
cult for the parts to be removed with re- 
spect to each other. When mortar is left 
to dry by the gradual evaporation of its 
superfluous water, it is very long before it 
obtains its utmost degree of firmness. But 
if dry quick-lime be mixed with mortar, it 
gradually absorbs the superfluous water, 
and the mass becomes solid in a very short 
time. .See Mortar. 
Lime has an affinity for tannin, whence 
it is probable that a portion of it is retained 
in tanned leather, perhaps not to the im- 
provement of its quality. It has an edul- 
