a general name applicable to all substances that separate from a liquor, and are collected upon its surface; but is more particularly applied to the following.

Cream of Lime, is that part of the lime which had been dissolved in the water in its caustic state, but having again attracted some fixed air from the atmosphere, becomes incapable of solution, and therefore separates from the water in the mild state of chalk, or limestone.

Cream of Milk, generally called simply cream, is the most oily part of the milk; which being naturally only mixed, and not dissolved in the rest, soon separates from them, as being specifically lighter; after which it collects on the surface; from which it is generally skimmed, to complete the disengagement of the oily from the caseous and ferous parts, that is to make butter*. Cream of milk is not only an agreeable aliment when recent, but is also useful in medicine as a lenient, when applied to sores and erysipelas attended with pain and proceeding from an acrid humour.

Cream of Tartar. See Chemistry, n° 292.