On 7 Jan 2007 at 12:56, Lyle Bickley wrote:
HCL is an acid, not a caustic. Caustic is strongly
alkaline - as in Sodium
Hydroxide (Caustic Soda), Calcium Oxide (Caustic Lime), etc.
Well, as long we're picking nits...here we get into the area of
"Chemistry vocabulary" versus "Everyday vocabulary". While
"caustic"
generally connotes "corrosively basic" when talking about reagents in
the lab, strictly speaking, "caustic" implies only corrosive or
burning; either strongly acidic or basic, or even neither (see, for
example "lunar caustic"). The biological sense is "anything that
destroys living tissue".
When I was young, the treatment for canker sores was cauterization
(same root as "caustic") of the sore with a stick of lunar caustic
(it didn't work all that well, but the result looked better than the
alternative of applying a gentian violet solution, which didn't work
either).
Middle English caustik, from Latin causticus, from Greek kaustikos,
from kaustos, from kaiein, kau-, to burn.
Google "define: caustic" and see what pops up.
Cheers,
Chuck