Calcium salt

“ It dissolves readily in water, the solution having an acid reaction. The artificial manure known as “superphosphate of lime” consists of this salt and calcium sulphate, and is obtained by treating ground bones, coprolites, &c., with sulphuric acid. The di-calcium salt, Ca2H2 (PO4) 2, occurs in a concretionary form in the ureters and cloaca of the sturgeon, and also in guano. It is obtained as rhombic plates by mixing dilute solutions of calcium chloride and sodium phosphate, and passing carbon dioxide into the liquid. ”

“ Common salt, however, in its natural occurrence, is very much localized; and so it comes that spring and well waters are contaminated chiefly with calcium carbonate and sulphate. Of these two salts, however, the former is held in solution only by the carbonic acid of the water, as calcium bicarbonate. But a carbonate-of-lime water, if exposed to the atmosphere, even at ordinary temperatures, loses its carbonic acid, and the calcium carbonate is precipitated. ”

“ The tests for sulphate of lime in paper ash are based upon the following reactions:—
Calcium sulphate is soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid. The addition of a few drops of barium chloride to the solution produces a dense heavy precipitate, indicating the sulphate. A small quantity of ammonium oxalate solution added to another portion of the dissolved calcium salt previously neutralised with ammonia produces a precipitate and indicates calcium. ”

“ The toxic and antitoxic actions of neutral salts form a case in point. Pure solutions of sodium salts, even sodium chloride, are strongly toxic to many cells, particularly those of marine organisms, as the work of J. Loeb and his successors has shown with especial clearness; but if to the pure solution a little calcium salt is added, this toxic action is prevented or greatly diminished; the calcium (or other favorable salt) counteracts the toxic action of the sodium salt—in other words, has an antitoxic action. ”

“ In the laboratory chloride of calcium, either fused or merely dried, is continually used for drying gases and for absorbing the water from ethereal and oily liquids in organic analysis. The unfused is now generally preferred for this purpose, as it is more porous than the fused. The salt is also used in the rectification of alcohol, and to form a bath for heating stoneware stills and other apparatus liable to be cracked on the sand bath. As a chemical reagent it is employed chiefly in detecting certain organic acids. ”

“ Power and Cambier, Sayre, and Kennedy had previously called attention to the abundance of calcium in the plant, and the writer’s investigations confirm this. Pharmacologists are averse to believing calcium given per os poisonous. The writer has, however, fed 5 grams of the acetate of calcium in solution to a rabbit weighing 652 grams. This animal died in two hours, with marked irritation of the stomach, the result being due to the so-called “salt action.” ”

“ Oxalic acid (or an oxalate) , when heated, in the dry state, with oil of vitriol in excess, is converted into carbonate anhydride and carbonic oxide; the former produces a white precipitate with lime water, and the latter, when kindled, burns with a faint blue flame. Of the above tests, solution of sulphate of calcium (vide No. 3) is the most delicate and characteristic.—5. It is distinguished from Epsom salt by its acid reaction, its solubility in rectified spirit, its complete dissipation by heat, and by emitting a slight crackling noise during its solution in water. ”

“ The salivary, pancreatic, intestinal, lachrymal, and prostatic calculi are chiefly formed of calcareous salts. These salts also are an important, if not the chief, constituent of biliary and urinary calculi. In the former pigment, bile acids, and cholesterin may also be present. Urinary calculi are of still more varied composition, containing not only the calcium salts, as the oxalate, phosphate, and carbonate, but also uric acid and the urates of sodium and ammonium, in addition to the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate. ”

“ These chemists electrolyse either pure calcium chloride, or a mixture of this salt with fluorspar, in a graphite vessel which serves as the anode. The cathode consists of an iron rod which can be gradually raised. On electrolysis a layer of metallic calcium is formed at the lower end of this rod on the surface of the electrolyte; the rod is gradually raised, the thickness of the layer increases, and ultimately a rod of metallic calcium, forming, as it were, a continuation of the iron cathode, is obtained. This is the form in which calcium is put on the market. ”

“ A mixture of pulverised chrome ore and chloride of potassium is exposed to a full red heat, on the hearth of a reverberatory furnace, with occasional stirring for some time, when steam at a very elevated temperature is made to act on it until the conversion is complete, known by assaying a portion of the mass; the chromate is then dissolved out of the residuum, as before. Common salt or hydrate of calcium may be substituted for chloride of potassium, when the chromates of sodium or calcium are respectively produced. ”

“ Neither material is altogether free from objection, the cyanamide heating when mixed with other manures and even with soil, and being liable to give off acetylene gas owing to the presence of calcium carbide, whereas the calcium nitrate is a salt which on exposure to a moist atmosphere readily deliquesces. ”

“ Common grades of the salt contain a little sodium chloride, and in some cases as much as 2 per cent. of the corresponding sulphate; it may also prove to be somewhat deficient in the proportion of carbonic acid present. Cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) , is far more liable to adulteration. A certain quantity of calcium tartrate is often found in the commercial article, originating from its method of manufacture, and amounting, on the average, from 6 to 7 per cent. The salt is, moreover, sometimes intentionally mixed with alum, starch, tartaric acid, gypsum, chalk and terra alba. ”

“ If some of the salt called chloride of calcium in the dry and amorphous state is exposed to the air, it soon absorbs water, or what is termed deliquesces: the same thing occurs with the crystals of carbonate of potash, and if four ounces are weighed out in an evaporating dish, and then exposed for about half an hour to the air, a very perceptible increase in weight is observed by the assistance of the scales and grain weights. ”

“ In fact, sodium and phosphate are more effectively administered as neutral or acid phosphate. It is evident that sodium glycero­phosphate is a superfluous pharmaceutical preparation, particularly when the difficulty of obtaining a pure product and its high price is considered. So far as its calcium value is concerned, calcium glycero­phosphate has no advantages over such calcium salts as the carbonate, phosphate, lactate, or chlorid. ”

“ More or less sulphate of lime and chloride of magnesium are found in salt from whatever locality or source it may be derived. The purest rock salt is the best of all; next to that is sea salt, and then the average quality from brine springs; but the table shows that the “Onondaga factory filled salt” is as pure as the rock salt of Cheshire, England, which is one of the purest known. An impurity of 3 per cent. renders salt unfit for domestic purposes, especially if the impurity consist of chlorides of calcium and magnesium, particularly the former. ”

“ This is the only direct evidence that has been reported that calcium has any connection with cell-wall formation.
Certain species of plants, notably many legumes, require such large amounts of calcium salts for their growth as to give to them the popular appellation of "lime-loving plants." Other plants, known as "calciphiles," while not actually showing abnormally large percentages of calcium in their ash, flourish best on soils rich in lime. On the other hand, certain other species, known as "calcifuges," will not grow on soils which are even moderately rich in lime ”

“ It needs only the occasional addition of a little water to make it last all winter and leave the machinery clean when it is drawn off. With brine an incrustation of salt as the water evaporates is bound to occur which reduces the efficiency of the solution until it is removed. Water frequently must be added to keep the original volume, and to hold the salt in solution. A solution of calcium chloride is less troublesome so far as crystallizing is concerned, but is said to have a tendency to corrode the metals. ”

“ From hypophosphite of calcium, 6 oz., dissolved in water, 4 pints; and crystallised carbonate of sodium, 10 oz., dissolved in water, 11⁄2 pint. Proceed as in making hypophosphite of potassium, but allowing 6 pints as the measure of the filtrate. If required in crystals, the granulated salt may be dissolved in alcohol sp. gr. ·835, evaporated till syrupy, and set by in a warm place. Crystallises in rectangular tables, with a pearly lustre; is very soluble in water and ordinary alcohol, and deliquesces when exposed to the air. ”

“ Look for any flame. H2SO4 acts very strongly on KClO3. What is set free? From this fact explain the combustion in water.
199. Occurrence.—P is very widely disseminated, but not abundant, and is found only in compounds, the chief of which is calcium phosphate Ca3 (PO4) 2. It occurs in granite and other rocks, as the mineral apatite, in soils, in plants, particularly in seeds and grains, and in the bones, brains, etc., of vertebrates. From the human system it is excreted by the kidneys as microcosmic salt, HNaNH4PO4; and when the brain is hard- worked, more than usual is excreted. ”

“ The remarkable remedial effect of calcium salts in overcoming the injurious effects of other soluble salts has already been mentioned. One explanation of these relationships between mineral soil constituents and the living plant is that the life phenomena depend upon a balanced adjustment between the compounds of these different mineral elements with the proteins (producing the so-called "metal proteids") which constitute the active material of the cell protoplasm. ”

“ All waters, unless very impure, become safe by boiling, which process kills any bacteria or germs that may be present.
Of the ordinary saline components of waters, soluble magnesium and calcium salts are the only ones which are objectionable sanitarily if present in relatively large proportion. Calcium carbonate is harmless; but, on the other hand, the notion that the presence of this component adds to the value of a water as a drinking water is a mistake. ”

“ Osmotic growths may be obtained from a great number of chemical substances. The most easily grown are the soluble salts of calcium in solutions of alkaline phosphates and carbonates, to which we have already alluded. We may also reverse the phenomenon by growing phosphates and carbonates in solutions of calcium salts, but in this case the osmotic growths are not so beautiful. ”

“ Potassium is a constitutent of both animal and vegetable food; it occurs in considerable quantity in milk, and in the juice that permeates animal flesh; and most inland plants contain it. We derive the calcium of our system from flesh, bones, eggs, milk, etc. (all of which contain salts of lime) ; most vegetables also contain lime-salts; and another source of our calcium is common water, which usually contains both bicarbonate and sulphate of lime. Magnesium in small quantity is generally found in those foods that contain calcium. Iron is a constituent of blood found in meat ”

“ A crystalline amalgam is formed with mercury, which may be distilled in hydrogen at 400° C, but which forms nitride when heated in nitrogen. Heated to redness with potassium or sodium chloride, calcium sets the metal free. Water acts on calcium only very slowly, with the evolution of hydrogen. In liquefied ammonia at-40° C. calcium ammonia is formed—a reddish-brown solid. ”

“ The human body contains a large store of phosphates which are excreted in the urine in combination with sodium and potassium—​and yet these do not draw the calcium from the blood, brain and bones! To be blunt, Nascher’s theory is absurd. The calcium in its various deposits in the body is already combined with phosphoric acid. Why should the phosphorus introduced take calcium from the phosphate radical with which it is already in combination? Nascher asserts that the phosphorus which is introduced as amorphous phosphorus is excreted as amorphous phosphate of lime within twenty-four hours. ”

“ Calcium is not precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen, but falls as the carbonate when an alkaline carbonate is added to a solution. Sulphuric acid gives a white precipitate of calcium sulphate with strong solutions; ammonium oxalate gives calcium oxalate, practically insoluble in water and dilute acetic acid, but readily soluble in nitric or hydrochloric acid. Calcium is generally estimated by precipitation as oxalate which, after drying, is heated and weighed as carbonate or oxide, according to the degree and duration of the heating. ”

“ Inorganic salts are not ordinarily classed as a food. However, it is essential in the maintaining of life. It performs a very important function in the building of bone and assists also in digestion and metabolism. The vegetable acids, such as tartaric from grapes, lemon and citric, will be found in combination with the bases calcium, sodium and potassium, for example, especially when they are taken from fresh vegetables and fruits. When absorbed they form carbonates and are therefore indispensable in the process of metabolism, since they aid in maintaining the alkalinity of the body. ”