crumbles into powder. If the water be in excess, then naturally a portion of it remains and forms a solution. This process is called ‘slaking’ lime. Slaked lime is used in practice in intermixture with sand as mortar. Slaked lime is a definite hydrate of lime. If it is dried at 100° it retains 24·3 p.c. of water. This water can only be expelled at a temperature above 400°, and then quicklime is re-obtained. The heat evolved in the combination of lime with water is so intense that it can set fire to wood, sulphur, gunpowder, &c. Even on mixing lime with ice the temperature rises to 100°. If lime be moistened with a small quantity of water in the dark, a luminous effect is observed. But, nevertheless, water may still be separated from this hydrate.73
If phosphorus be burnt in dry air, a white substance called ‘phosphoric anhydride’ is obtained. It combines with water with such energy, that the experiment must be conducted with great caution. A red heat is produced in the formation of the compound, and it is impossible to separate the water from the resultant hydrate at any temperature.
The hydrate formed by phosphoric anhydride is a substance which is totally undecomposable into its original component parts by the action of heat.
Almost as energetic a combination occurs when sulphuric anhydride, SO3, combines with water, forming its hydrate, sulphuric acid, H2SO4.
In both cases definite compounds are produced, but the latter substance, as a liquid, and capable of decomposition by heat, forms an evident link with solutions.
If 80 parts of sulphuric anhydride retain 18 parts of water, this water cannot be separated from the anhydride, even at a temperature of 300°. It is only by the addition of phosphoric anhydride, or by a series of chemical transformations, that this water can be separated from its compound with sulphuric anhydride. Oil of vitriol, or sulphuric acid, is such a compound.
If a larger proportion of water be taken, it will combine with the H2SO4; for instance, if 36 parts of water per 80 parts of sulphuric anhydride be taken, a compound is formed which crystallises in the cold, and melts at +8°, whilst oil of vitriol does not solidify even at -30°.
If still more water be taken, the oil of vitriol will dissolve in the remaining quantity of water. An evolution of heat takes place, not only on the addition of the water of constitution, but in a less degree on further additions of water.74
And therefore there is no distinct boundary, but only a gradual transition, between those chemical phenomena which are expressed in the formation of solutions and those which take place in the formation of the most stable hydrates.75
We have thus considered many aspects and degrees of combination of various substances with water, or instances of the compounds of water, when it and other substances form new homogeneous substances, which in this case will evidently be complex—i.e. made up of different substances—and although they are homogeneous, yet it must be admitted that in them there exist those component parts which entered into their composition, inasmuch as these parts may be re-obtained from them. It must not be imagined that water really exists in hydrate of lime, any more than that ice or steam exists in water. When we say that water occurs in the composition of a certain hydrate, we only wish to point out that there