"The taste of an alkali is acrid, burning, and nauseous. It acts with so much energy and rapidity on the tongue, as to destroy, if concentrated, the skin of the part which it touches, and hence its extreme causticity. The three alkalies possess this in the highest degree, more rapidly soluble than the earths, and the latter only s, strontian, and lime, exhibit this corrosive taste, magnesia being absolutely insipid."