Silica, as regards its _salt forming properties_, stands in the series of oxides on the boundary line on the side of the acids in just such a place as alumina occupies on the side of the bases--that is, aluminium hydroxide is the representative of the feeblest bases and silicic acid is the least energetic of acids (at least in the presence of water--that is, in aqueous solutions); in alumina, however, the basic properties are distinctly expressed, while in silica the acid properties preponderate. Like all feeble acid oxides it is capable of forming, with other acids, saline compounds which are but slightly stable and are very easily decomposed in the presence of water. The chief peculiarity of the silicates consists in the number of their types. The salts formed with nitric or sulphuric acid exist in one, two, and three tolerably stable forms, but for acids like silicic acid the number of forms is very great, almost unlimited. The natural silicates in particular furnish proof of this fact; they contain various bases in combination with silica, and for one and the same base there often exist various degrees of combination. As feeble bases are capable of forming basic salts in addition to normal salts--that is, a compound of a normal salt with a feeble base (either the hydroxide or the oxide)--so the feeble acid oxides (although not all) form, in addition to normal salts, highly acid salts--that is, normal salts _plus_ acid (hydrate or anhydride). Such acids are boric, phosphoric, molybdic, chromic, and especially silicic, acid. In order to explain these relations it is necessary first to recollect the existence of the various hydrates of silica, or silicic acids,[20] and then to turn our attention to the similarity between silicon compounds and metallic alloys. Silica is an oxide having the appearance of, and in many respects the same properties as, those oxides which combine with it, and if two metals are capable of forming homogeneous alloys in which there exist definite or indefinite compounds, it is permissible to assume a similar power of forming alloys in the case of analogous oxides. Such alloys are found in indefinite, amorphous masses in the form of glass, lava, slags, and a number of similar siliceous compounds which do not contain any definite types of combination, but nevertheless are homogeneous throughout their mass. By slow cooling, or under other circumstances, definite crystalline compounds may--and sometimes do--separate from this homogeneous mass, as also sometimes definite crystalline alloys separate from metallic alloys.