By the following experiments, I proposed to know whether this
substance could be reduced to a quick-lime. An ounce of magnesia
was exposed in a crucible for about an hour to such a heat as is
sufficient to melt copper. When taken out, it weighed three
drams and one scruple, or had lost 7/12 of its former weight. I
repeated, with the magnesia prepared in this manner, most of
those experiments I had already made upon it before calcination,
and the result was as follows. It dissolves in all the acids,
and with these composes salts exactly similar to those described
in the first set of experiments: but what is particularly to be
remarked, it is dissolved without any the least degree of
effervescence. It slowly precipitates the corrosive sublimate of
mercury in the form of a black powder. It separates the volatile
alkali in a salt-ammoniac from the acid, when it is mixed with a
warm solution of that salt. But it does not separate an acid
from a calcarious earth, nor does it induce the least change
upon lime-water.