x799.] 
purpofe now to do, as I have fufficiently 
refted fince I delivered the Oration on the 
anniverfary of American Independence to 
the Citizens of New-York, on the 4th 
inftant. ; \ 
The earthy matter compofing the cryf- 
tals you admired fo much, is principally 
of that kind called by MEN OF SCIENCE 
calcareous, It refembles very nearly the 
lime of which fo much ufe is made in 
conftruéting and cleaning houfes. The 
proof of which is, that by proper manage- 
ment fuch a kind of terrene fubftance 
may be produced from them. Lime or 
calcareous earth is capable of being dif- 
folved in water, of being precipitated from 
its folution and of combining with various 
acids, whereby it affumes according to 
circumftances a great variety of forms, 
fuch as marbles, alabafters, lime-ftones, 
fluors, corals, fhells, chalks, and cryftals 
of different fhapes, hues and fizes. 
Lime however, though fo much the fub- 
ject of admiration in its cryftallizations, 
is more the object of wonder on account 
of its antifeptic porver, whereby it pre- 
ferves animal and vegetable fubftances 
from corruption, and perpetuates their re- 
mains longer than any other material with 
which we are acquainted. Bodies thus 
furrounded by lime and afterwards hard- 
ened to ftone are called petrifactions ; and 
thefe petrifaétions exhibit the moft ancient 
remains of organized beings that are to be 
found on the globe we inhabit. Mum- 
mies and other pieces of embalming are 
of a very modern. date compared to them, 
as you obferved in the Egyptian pieces I 
fhowed you. Thefe are more eafily fubjeét 
to crumbling and decay, while ¢ho/e are as 
durable as the hills which they compofe. 
This antifeptic quality of lime is alluded 
to very philofophically in Mr. SARGENT’s 
dramatic poem, which I {aw lately in your 
hand, (The Mine, p. 29, & 30.) where 
the queen of the gnomes and her attendant 
fpirits thus fing of the power of petri- 
jaction, perfonified under the name of 
FossiLia: 
Where the fanguine corals fhine, 
In a dripping fea-worn cave, 
Let chill Fosstr1a recline 
Watching the quick-circling wave: 
As her tranflucent fhuttles glance, 
The teffellated webs advance 5 
*Till nature refcued by her potent breath 
Exults to perifh and revives in death. 
Her f{plendid talifman can give 
‘Each plant ana infec? form to live 5 
Gay Lirds ftill flutter tho” tomarble grown, 
Dhe.deer’s proud antiers branch in wrinkled 
. «. ftane ; a 
Monturiy Mac. No. t. 
Dr. Mitchill’s third Letter on Alkalies 
693 
Impearl’d the {caly tortoife lies $ 
While the huge elephant fupplies 
His ivory {poil ; and wreath’d in rocky fold 
The crefted /nake convolves his maze of 
gold. 
Lime or calcareous earth prevents pu- 
trefaétion by abforbing the water and neu- 
tralizing the feptic acid neceflary tor that 
procefs. It is allowed by all, that moift- 
ure, which is but another term for a mo- 
derate quantity of water, is effential to 
putrefaction. 
that fuch animal and vegetable fubftances 
as contain fepton (azote) do afford by its 
aid, in convenient degrees of heat, feptic 
(nitric) acid; and the common experiment 
of decompounding the lean or mufcular 
part of animals by the agency of that 
acid, and obtaining thereby feptous (azo- 
tic) air proves that this four offspring of 
corruption, isa great deftroyer of organic 
matter. The practice of corroding by 
feptous (nitrous) acid the folid parts of 
animal vilcera, after their injection with 
coloured wax, evinces to all makers of 
anatomical preparations beyond a fcruples 
how deftruétive is the operation of a wa- 
tery folution of oxygenated fepton. 
Thus in the experiment of the chemi 
and difector jut mentioned, the feptic acid 
makes deftructive work upon dead bodies or 
their parts. So in the cafe of feptite of filver 
(lunar cauftic) applied as an efcharotic, to 
deftroy warts or proud flefh, the acid of 
putrefaction difengaged from the metal 
decompofes or eats away the ving fub- 
ftance. Both dead and living bodies, 
in this manner, yield to the deftroying in- 
fluence of this acid which is engendered in 
the midft of corruption. \ 
The attra&tion of the feptic acid by 
lime, and the formation of calcareous ni- 
tre thereby, is a common procefs in alf 
places where thefe two materials come 
within the {phere of each other’s action. 
Hence you can explain why human and 
other animal bodies buried in chalk and 
other forms of calcareous earth, laft almoft 
unchanged for many centuries. For the 
fame reafon, in fome vaults and fubterra- 
nean repofitories of the dead, as in the 
catacombs near Rome and Naples, which 
you read of in the books of travels, the 
carcales of the deceafed, though they have 
lain within their cells a long time, remain 
to this day in a ftate of remarkable pre- 
fervation. And upon the fame principle, 
you may comprehend wherefore the ‘corpfe 
of any of your departed friends will be 
well guarded againft putrefe &tion by bein 
furrounded by a coffin full of chalk 5) there 
fs 4U will 
It is equally well-known, 
eee 
