Chlorine

klo'rin, an elementary substance. It never occurs free, but always in combination with other substances, very often with sodium. It is a poisonous, greenish gas about thirty-five and one-half times as heavy as hydrogen and two and one-half times as heavy as air. It has an offensive odor and irritates the nostrils when breathed. It may be liquefied by cold and pressure. Chlorine has a strong affinity for hydrogen, and, for that reason, is much employed in bleaching cotton and linen. It decomposes moisture by uniting with the hydrogen, leaving the oxygen free to neutralize the coloring material. This gas is destructive to animal and vegetable life because it absorbs the hydrogen of the water living things contain. Chlorine unites with metals and other substances to form a large class of compounds known as chlorides. Chloride of lime makes an excellent deodorizer or disinfectant, as it not only neutralizes offensive smells but kills bacterial germs. Chlorine enters into the composition of common salt from which it may be obtained by chemical action. See Bleaching