And why is not water caustic? When I dip my hand into water, though cold, it ought to burn me from the caustic nature of its oxygen.
MRS. B.
Your hand does not decompose the water; the oxygen in that state is much better supplied with hydrogen than it would be by animal matter, and if its causticity depend on its affinity for that principle, it will be very far from quitting its state of water to act upon your hand. You must not forget that oxyds are caustic in proportion as the oxygen adheres slightly to them.
EMILY.
Since the oxyd of arsenic is poisonous, its acid, I suppose, is fully as much so?
MRS. B.
Yes; it is one of the strongest poisons in nature.
EMILY.
There is a poison called verdigris, which forms on brass and copper when not kept very clean; and this, I have heard, is an objection to these metals being made into kitchen utensils. Is this poison likewise occasioned by oxygen?
MRS. B.