When moist, the alkalis, with the exception of , readily combine with — Alkali

"The alkalies are extremely soluble in water, s and strontian in considerable quantity, lime, sparingly; magnesia scarcely at all."

"He then strongly heated a weighed quantity of mild magnesia in a connected with a receiver; a few drops of water were obtained in the receiver, but the magnesia lost six or seven times as much weight as the weight of the water produced."

"We shall now enumerate the properties usually described as belonging to alkalies, distinguishing how far they are possessed by the three salts and the four earths above enumerated."

"All the alkalies, except ammonia, are without smell, or nearly so, a particular urinous odor however arises during the solution with heat, of the other alkalies and earths, magnesia excepted."

"They possess the strongest affinity for s of all other bodies, uniting with them generally to such a degree as to produce perfect neutralization, or such a state of union, that the characteristic properties of both acid and alkali are lost, and new ones acquired. Most of the combinations with acids are considerably soluble in water, and all crystallizable with more or less ease."

"Again, as the volatile ammoniacal salt most curable from most animal matter (also of great antiquity) was found to agree with the other alkalies in taste, and in many chemical properties, though not in fixity, this ammoniacal salt was also termed an alkali, but volatile, in opposition to the two former, which remain unaltered in very considerable heat, and are therefore, comparatively, fixed. The volatile alkali is described under the article ."