Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2 / In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments

by Mrs. Marcet

CAROLINE.

How very small, then, is the proportion of lime dissolved!

MRS. B.

Barytes is still of more difficult solution; it dissolves only in 900 times its weight of water: but it is much more soluble in the state of crystals. The liquid contained in this bottle is lime-water; it is often used as a medicine, chiefly, I believe, for the purpose of combining with, and neutralising, the superabundant acid which it meets with in the stomach.

EMILY.

I am surprised that it is so perfectly clear; it does not at all partake of the whiteness of the lime.

MRS. B.

Have you forgotten that, in solutions, the solid body is so minutely subdivided by the fluid as to become invisible, and therefore will not in the least degree impair the transparency of the solvent?

I said that the attraction of lime for carbonic acid was so strong, that it would absorb it from the atmosphere. We may see this effect by exposing a glass of lime-water to the air; the lime will then separate from the water, combine with the carbonic acid, and re-appear on the surface in the form of a white film, which is carbonat of lime, commonly called chalk.

CAROLINE.