It is manifestly of considerable practical importance to understand the conditions which determine the time of the setting up of plaster. According to Payen, the rapidity of setting, provided the plaster has dehydrated at a temperature sufficiently low, depends entirely on the structure of gypsum employed. Thus, according to him, the fibrous kinds gives a plaster setting almost instantaneously. The water, he says, penetrates the material freely, setting takes places almost simultaneously throughout the mass. The hydration of each particle is accompanied by an expansion, and under the conditions specified, this expansion being unresisted takes place to the maximum extent, with the result of leaving cavities between the crystals, and producing a set plaster of less coherence and density. On the other hand, where granular crystalline gypsum has been used, setting begins at the surface of each group of crystals before the water has penetrated to the interior; the hydration is in consequence more gradual, and resistance being offered to the expansion of the inner parts, a harder and denser material is obtained. That this expansion contains an element of truth is indicated by the practice of employing the granular crystalline variety for the preparation of moulding plaster. The explanation appears, however, to be inadequate in several respects, especially in view of the fact that plasters for moulding are reduced to a fine state of division before use. It seems as if this treatment must, in great part at any rate, break up the crystalline aggregates. In order to discover a more satisfactory explanation, let us examine the results of the chemical analysis of plasters used in commerce. One is struck by the large percentage of water they usually contain. Thus, four samples of ordinary plaster analyzed by Landrin have an average of 90.17 per cent. of CaSO4 and 7.5 per cent. of water, while two samples of best plaster contained 89.8 per cent. of CaSO4 and 7.93 per cent. of water. These numbers do not add up to 100, the difference being due to silica and other impurities of the original gypsum, amounting altogether to about 3 per cent. It might be suggested that the reason why these plasters set more slowly than completely dehydrated plaster is owing simply to the fact that they contain, apparently, some unaltered gypsum, which serves to _dilute_ the action. Were this so, a similar result, as far as time of setting is concerned, should be obtained with a plaster containing a corresponding quantity of dead-burnt material. This, however, is not found to be the case. The time of setting appears, then, to be connected in some special and peculiar manner with the retention of water by the burnt plaster. The following explanation of this connection is offered, an explanation only tentative at present, owing to want of experimental data. The following substances are known: Gypsum, and set plaster, CaSO4 + 2 H2O, containing 20.93 per cent. of water.