Deliquescence is the term applied to the property which certain substances have of absorbing moisture from the air, and becoming damp, and even running into liquid. Caustic potash, and the chlorides of calcium and magnesium, are examples of substances which undergo this change.
Deliquescence
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 740
Source scan(s): p. 0751