Whiting is simply chalk ground and washed to separate impurities. It is extensively used as a size-colour, for cleaning silver and other metals, as well as glass, and in preparing frames for gilding; and (in milk) may be used as an antidote to poisoning by oxalic acid. It is often mixed with white lead as an adulterant.
Whiting
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 10: Swastika to Zyrianovsk and Index, p. 645
Source scan(s): p. 0674