In examining the body of an animal that has been killed by caustic lime, we shall find the mucous membrane of the stomach reddened, and evincing marks of inflammation in those parts which have been in contact with it. _Tests for the detection of Quick-lime._ We may proceed, if the substance be free from mixture, to obtain a solution of the earth in distilled water, and to assay it by the following reagents. (_a_) _Carbonic acid, and the soluble alkaline sub-carbonates_ produce a copious white precipitate, which is soluble in an excess of carbonic acid. The _carbonate of lime_, of which this precipitate consists, is also decomposed by muriatic acid, with effervescence, a soluble muriate remaining. (_b_) _Oxalic acid, and oxalate of ammonia._ They precipitate lime-water of a white colour, and the resulting _oxalate_ is not soluble in an excess of acid. (_c_) _Sulphuric acid._ This acid does not precipitate lime water, since the _sulphate of lime_ formed does not require more than 300 parts of water to dissolve it. Whereas, says _M. Orfila_, the smallest quantity of an exceedingly diluted solution of _baryta_ becomes instantly turbid on the addition of that acid, because the _sulphate of baryta_ is insoluble in several thousand times its weight of water. By this test, therefore, we are at once enabled to distinguish lime-water, from barytic water. BARYTA, AND ITS SALTS. _Baryta_, like lime, is a solid, heavy, alkaline earth, having an acrid and peculiar taste; and turning the syrup of violets _green_, and the juice of turmeric _red_. When perfectly calcined, it absorbs water very rapidly, disengaging at the same time a quantity of caloric; the phenomenon is similar to that of _slacking lime_, and admits of the same explanation. It dissolves in about 20 parts of water, at the temperature of 60°; but boiling water will dissolve half its weight of this earth, part of which will crystallize on cooling. MURIATE OF BARYTA. This salt crystallises in square plates, or four-sided prisms; its taste is acrid and pungent. It dissolves in 2½ parts of distilled water at 60° _Fah._ The solution is limpid and colourless, and has been employed in medicine, as a remedy in scrofula, cancer, some forms of syphilis, and in hectic fever connected with ulceration. _Dr. Johnstone_ says that he has seen a delicate female take as much as thirty drops of a saturated solution of this salt, _repeatedly_, without nausea; whence he concludes that it would require at least 2 or 3 drachms to do mischief.[333] _Symptoms of poisoning by Baryta._