A Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts, Processes, and Collateral Information (part 8)

Steam-colour printing consists in printing the calico with a mixture of dye extracts and mordants, and afterwards exposing it to the action of steam.

Spirit-colour printing is a method by which brilliant colours are produced by a mixture of dye extracts and solution of tin, called by the dyers “spirits of tin.”

Pigment printing consists in applying such colours as ultramarine, magenta, or aniline purple, to the cloth, and fixing them by such agents as casein, albumen, or solution of india rubber. This style of printing has been developed to a great extent since the introduction of the splendid mauves and purples obtained from aniline.

For further information on this subject the reader is referred to Ure’s ‘Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines,’ Calvert’s ‘Dyeing and Calico Printing,’ edited by Stenhouse and Groves; Wagner’s ‘Clinical Technology,’ and Crooke’s ‘Practical Handbook of Dyeing and Printing,’ where he will find the several processes of calico printing fully treated on, and most ably and accurately described. To enter largely into the subject in this work might amuse the reader, but would be of no practical value; as calico printing is an art only practised on the large scale, and by men who obtain their whole knowledge of it in the laboratories and printing rooms of the factories.

CAL′OMEL. See Mercury (Chlorides of).

CALOTRO′PIS PROCE′RA., CALOTRO′PIS GIGAN′TEA., (Ind. Ph.). Syn. Mudar.—Habitat. One or other of these species, everywhere in India.—Officinal part. The root-bark, dried (calotropis cortex). Small flat or arched pieces, brownish externally, yellow-greyish internally, peculiar smell, and mucilaginous, nauseous, acrid taste. Its activity appears to reside in a peculiar extractive matter named mudarine.—Properties. Alterative tonic; diaphoretic, and, in large doses, emetic.—Therapeutic uses. In leprosy, constitutional syphilis, mercurial cachexia, syphilitic and idiopathic ulcerations, in dysentery, diarrhœa, and chronic rheumatism, it has been used with alleged benefit.

Powder of Mudar. (Pulvis Calotropis.) Take of the roots of mudar, collected in the months of April and May from sandy soils, a sufficiency; carefully remove, by washing, all particles of sand and dirt, and dry in the open air, without exposure to the sun, until the milky juice contained in it becomes so far inspissated that it ceases to flow on incisions being made in it. The bark is then to be carefully removed, dried, and reduced to powder. Preserve in well-corked bottles.—Dose. As an alterative tonic, 3 grains, gradually increased to 10 grains or more, thrice daily. As an emetic, from ⁄2 to 1 drachm.

CAL′OTYPE. See Photography.

CALUM′BA. Syn. Calumbæ Radix, B. P. Calum′ba-root; Kalumb, Hind. The root of a plant of Eastern Africa, extensively used in medicine as a stomachic and mild tonic. Dose, 10 to 20 grains, three or four times a day. The botanical name of this plant is Jateorhiza palmata, or Cocculus palmatus. See Calumbine (below); also Infusions and Tinctures.

CALUM′BA WOOD. This wood, which is used as a tonic by the Cingalese, is not the produce of the true calumba plant, but of Menispermum fenestratum. It contains the alkaloid BERBERINE (which see).

CALUM′BINE. Syn. Calom′bine, Calum′bina. A bitter substance discovered by Wittstock in calumba root.

Prep. 1. Digest calumba root (in coarse powder) in water acidulated with acetic acid; express, filter, boil to one half, again filter, add carbonate of calcium, in slight excess, and evaporate to dryness in a water bath; reduce the residuum to powder, and digest it in boiling alcohol; the latter will deposit crystals of CALUMBINE on cooling.

2. (Wittstock.) Evaporate tincture of calumba root (made with rectified spirit) to dryness; dissolve the residuum in water, and agitate the solution with an equal bulk of ether; after repose for a short time, decant the ethereal portion, distil off most of the ether, and set the liquid aside to crystallise.

Prop., &c. Impure calumbine occurs as a yellow-brown mass; when pure, it forms rhombic prismatic crystals or delicate white needles; it is only slightly soluble in alcohol, ether, and water; 40 parts of boiling rectified spirit take up only 1 part of calumbine. Its best solvent is acetic acid; it is also soluble in acidulated and alkalised water. Neither nut-galls nor metallic salts affect its solution. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves it, and assumes first a yellow, and then a red colour. Its properties indicate that weak vinegar or sour wine would be the best menstruum for extracting the medicinal virtues of calumba root. Dose, 1 to 3 gr. twice a day as a tonic and stomachic, in dyspepsia, debilitated stomach, bilious vomiting, &c.; and in the later periods of dysentery and diarrhœa.

CALX. This term was formerly applied to the residuum of the combustion of any substance; or to any substance which had been exposed to a strong heat. See Calcination, Lime, &c.

CAMBOGE′. See Gamboge.

CAM′ERA LU′CIDA. [L. and Eng.] When a ray of light (r) falls upon a quadrangular glass prism (a), it is bent by two reflections (at c and d), and thrown upwards where it may be received by the eye, to which it will appear described on the table or sheet of paper (f) placed to receive it. The point of a pencil used to trace any object on the paper can also be seen, and by its means the picture can be easily copied. When the prism is mounted on a stand, and a thin brass plate with a small hole through it for the eyepiece adjusted thereto, it forms the CAMERA LUCIDA of the opticians. The image may be magnified or lessened by placing a lens so as either to intercept the rays before they strike the prism, or before they reach the eye. An ingenious person will readily be able to set up this instrument, than which a more useful one cannot exist.

CAM′ERA OBSCU′′RA. [L. and Eng.] An optical instrument for producing upon a screen the image of a field of view more or less extensive. It was invented by Baptista Porta in the 16th century. The principles and construction of the camera obscura may be thus described:—A convex lens (B) is placed in a hole admitting the light into a darkened box or chamber (A), which, falling on a white ground (D), produces an inverted picture of every object within its range. The image thus formed may be restored to its natural position, by allowing the rays of light to pass through two lenses instead of one, or by receiving the rays on a mirror placed at an angle of 45°, when the image will be thrown on the floor in its original position. The picture may be viewed through an oblong aperture cut in the box, or the experiment may be performed in a darkened room, by placing the lens in a hole in the shutter, and allowing the image to fall on the wall, or on a sheet of white paper stretched to receive it.

In the simplest form, when intended for taking views or portraits, the image is thrown upon a mirror placed at an angle of 45°, and resting on the bottom of the box, by which means it is thrown upwards against a plate of glass, also placed at a similar angle. On this is laid a piece of semi-transparent tracing paper, on which the object is distinctly seen painted, and may be traced out with a pencil. When the camera is used in photography, slides are provided to retain the sensitive paper in the proper position in the box or dark chamber to receive the image, and the whole apparatus is adjusted with screws, and slides of the most delicate description. Achromatic glasses are also employed. See Photography.

CAM′PHINE. The name given by the trade to rectified oil of turpentine when sold for burning in lamps, in order that purchasers may not be aware of the inflammable character of the liquid. Since the introduction of the hydro-carbon oils from coal, shale, and petroleum, camphine has been little used for burning. To rectify the turpentine, it is passed in vapour through a solution of caustic potash, soda, or lime; or through sulphuric acid.

CAM′PHOR. C10H16O. Syn. Cam′phire, Lau′rel Cam′phor; Campho′ra, B. P. A crystalline substance found in many plants; though only obtained in large quantities from two, namely, Camphora officinarum and Dryobalanops aromatica. The first, commonly known as the laurel camphor tree of China and Japan, yields the camphor of commerce; the latter, the Sumatra or Borneo camphor, and the peculiar fluid known as liquid camphor.

It is found that several of the essential oils, by carefully distilling off about one third their volume, yield a species of camphor. By collecting this, and redistilling the remainder of the oil 2 or 3 times, a farther quantity of camphor may be obtained. Oil of rosemary, treated in this way, yields about 10% of camphor; oil of sweet marjoram the same; oil of sage yields 13%; oil of lavender, 25%. By keeping the oils loosely corked, and in a cool place, they produce a larger portion of this camphor. Aniseed camphor is the congealable portion of oil of aniseed, separated from the liquid oil, which it resembles in odour and flavour.

Camphor, Am′ber. See Pyretine (Crystallised).

Camphor, Com′mercial (Crude). The produce of the laurel camphor tree, brought to Europe chiefly from China and the island of Formosa, in the form of greyish grains, aggregated into crumbling cakes.—Prep. The Chinese and Japanese extract the camphor by cutting the wood into small pieces, and boiling it with water in iron vessels, which are covered with large earthen capitals or domes, lined with rice straw. As the water boils, the camphor is volatilised along with the steam, and condenses on the straw.

Cam′phor, Commercial (Refined). Syn. White camphor; Campho′ra, B. P. Prep. 100 parts of crude camphor are mixed with 2 parts each of quick-lime and animal charcoal, both in powder, and the mixture is placed in a thin, globular, glass vessel, sunk in a sand bath. The heat is then cautiously applied, and the vessel gradually and carefully raised out of the sand as the sublimation goes on. When the process is complete, the subliming vessel is removed and allowed to cool.

Obs. The whole process of refining camphor requires great care and experience to ensure its success. If conducted too slowly, or at a heat under 375° Fahr., the product is found to be flaky, and consequently unsaleable, without remelting or subliming. An improvement on the common method is simply to sublime the above mixture in any convenient vessel furnished with a large and well-cooled receiver, and to remelt the product in close vessels under pressure, and to cool the liquid mass as rapidly as possible.

Prop., &c. A white, semi-crystalline solid, very volatile at common temperatures; freely soluble in alcohol, ether, bisulphuret of carbon, benzol, oils, and acetic acid, and sufficiently so in water (about 1⁄4 gr. to 1 oz.), to impart its characteristic smell and taste; 100 parts of alcohol (sp. gr. ·806) dissolve 120 parts of camphor; concentrated acetic acid dissolves twice its weight of camphor; average sp. gr. ·990. It fuses at 347°, boils at 400° Fahr., and when set fire to, burns with a bright flame. It evaporates slowly at ordinary temperatures, and crystallises on the inside of bottles. While floating on water it undergoes a curious rotatory movement.

Uses, &c. Camphor is sedative, narcotic, anodyne, diaphoretic, and anaphrodisiac. Dose, 2 to 10 gr. in the form of pill or bolus, or made into an emulsion with yolk of egg, mucilage, or almonds. In overdoses it is poisonous. The best antidote is opium or wine, preceded by an emetic. It is also used externally in ointments, liniments, and embrocations.

Camphor is frequently put into wardrobes and clothes-trunks, to keep away insects; it is used to make the white stars and fire of the pyrotechnist; and by the varnish-maker to increase the solubility of copal and other gums. Mixed with six times its weight of clay, and distilled, it suffers decomposition, and yields a yellow, aromatic, volatile oil, smelling strongly of thyme and rosemary, which is much used by the wholesale druggists and perfumers to adulterate some of the more costly essential oils, and by the fancy soap-makers to scent their soaps.

Camphor may be beaten in a mortar for some time, without being reduced to powder, but if it be first broken with the pestle, and then sprinkled with a few drops of rectified spirit of wine, it may be readily pulverised. By adding water to an alcoholic or ethereal solution of camphor, this drug is precipitated under the form of an impalpable powder of exquisite whiteness.

Tests. Pure camphor is entirely soluble in rectified spirit, oils, and strong acetic acid; a fragment placed on a heated spoon or in a warm situation will wholly disappear, and the evolved fumes will be highly fragrant (camphoraceous), and be free from an acid or terebinthinate odour. In an alcoholic solution of natural camphor ammonia gives but a slight precipitate, which is dissolved on shaking the mixture; a similar solution of artificial camphor under the like treatment gives a flocculent precipitate, which remains undissolved. See Camphor, Factitious (below).

Camphor, Facti′′tious. Syn. Hydrochlorate of tur′pentine, Hydrochlorate of camphene, Artificial camphor. Prepared by passing dry hydrochloric acid gas into pure oil of turpentine, cooled by a freezing mixture or pounded ice. After a time a white, crystalline mass is formed, which must be drained, and dried by pressure between folds of bibulous paper. It may be purified by solution in alcohol.

Prop., &c. It has a camphoraceous taste and odour; burns with a greenish, sooty flame, and when blown out evolves a terebinthinate odour; heated a little above the boiling-point of water, slight fumes of hydrochloric acid gas are perceptible.

Camphor, Hydrochlo′′rate of. Syn. Mu′′riate of camphor; Campho′ræ hydrochlo′′ras, L. By passing hydrochloric acid gas over camphor, in small fragments, until it ceases to be absorbed.

Camphor, Liq′uid. Syn. Camphor oil; O′leum campho′ræ, L. A pale yellowish, limpid fluid, which exudes from Dryobalanops aromatica, a tree growing in Sumatra and Borneo, when deep incisions are made in the trunk. It is supposed that the crystalline Sumatra camphor (see below) is deposited from this fluid. The liquid camphor has somewhat the odour of CAJEPUT OIL, and might, no doubt, be beneficially employed for the same purpose. It is sometimes imported into Europe.

Camphor, Monobromated. C10H15O1Br. Coarsely powdered camphor is introduced into a flask of about ten times the capacity of the amount it is intended to prepare. A fine stream of bromine is then allowed to fall upon the powder with continual agitation; the addition of bromine ceases when the camphor is liquefied. A large long abductor tube is then fitted to the flask, and the other end plunged into an alkaline solution, which will absorb the vapour that would otherwise incommode the operator. The flask is placed in a water bath that is raised to ebullition, when the reaction soon commences. This is at first rather active, there being an abundant evolution of hydrobromic gas, and some vapour of bromine and undecomposed camphor. The liquid, which is at first dark brown in colour, acquires an amber colour and the evolution of gas suddenly slackens. The operation should be carried out at a temperature between 80° and 90° C. The amber-coloured liquid that remains in the flask solidifies upon cooling, and appears then as a slightly citrine-coloured friable mass. It is purified by treating it several times with boiling 90° to 95° alcohol, filtering the liquor, and leaving it to crystallise. The crystals are to be dried in the air upon unsized paper.

Dr Bourneville advises monobromated camphor to be administered either in the form of pills, made up with conserve of roses, or of a mixture rubbed up with mucilage of gum arabic and syrup. He gives it in doses varying from twelve to thirty centigrams daily. Where it cannot be taken by the mouth he injects the following solution subcutaneously:—Monobromated camphor 3 gr., alcohol 35 gr., glycerin 22 gr.

Camphor, Nitrate of. Syn. Camphor oil; O′leum campho′ræ facti′′tium, L. Prepared by dissolving camphor in nitric acid, in the cold.

Camphor, Sul′phite of. From camphor and sulphurous acid gas, as hydrochlorate of camphor.

Camphor, Suma′tra. Syn. Bor′neo camphor, Hard c., Dragon’s brain perfume. Obtained from Dryobalanops aromatica, being found in natural fissures or crevices of the wood. It resembles ordinary camphor in most properties, but its odour is not of so diffusible a nature. This kind is not seen in European commerce.

CAMPHOR CAKES. See Balls (Camphor).

CAMPHOR′IC ACID. H2C10H14O4. Syn. Acidum camphor′icum, L. Prep. From camphor, 1 part; and nitric acid (sp. gr. 1·33), 4 parts; distilled together in a glass retort, with a gradually increasing heat, until vapours cease to be evolved; the camphor that has volatilised is then added to that in the retort, along with 4 or 5 parts more of nitric acid, and the process repeated again and again, until 20 parts of acid have been consumed, when crude camphoric acid crystallises out of the remaining liquor on cooling. The crystals are purified by washing with cold distilled water, solution in boiling water, and evaporating the solution until a pellicle forms; crystals of pure camphoric acid are formed as the liquid cools.

Prop., &c. Small, colourless, lamellar or acicular crystals; acid; bitter; fusible at 158° Fahr.; sparingly soluble in water; soluble in alcohol; alcoholic solution not precipitated by water, which distinguishes camphoric acid from benzoic acid. Its salts are called CAMPHORATES. The soluble camphorates may be made by digesting the carbonate or hydrate of the metal in a hot solution of the acid, and the insoluble camphorates by double decomposition. By distillation, camphoric acid yields a colourless, crystalline, neutral substance, which has been improperly called anhydrous camphoric acid.

CAM′WOOD. This dye-stuff resembles Brazil wood in its properties, and is used in a similar manner.

CAN′ADA BALSAM. Syn. Bal′samum Canaden′se, Terebinth′ina Canaden′sis, L. A thick, viscid oleo-resin obtained from the Abies balsamea (Lindley), a tree of common growth in Canada and the State of Maine. It is much employed as a medium for mounting microscopic objects. When pure it is perfectly transparent, has an agreeable odour (not terebinthinate), and is wholly soluble in rectified oil of turpentine, with which it forms a beautiful glassy and colourless varnish, much used for preparing a semi-transparent copying paper.

A mixture of 3 parts of Canada balsam and one of wax, if added to pile masses, is said to have the effect of binding together the component parts of the mass, and of keeping the piles made from it soft and in good shape.

Canada Balsam, Facti′′tious. Syn. Balsamum Canadense Facti′′tium, L. Prep. 1. Yellow resin, 3 lbs.; oil of turpentine, 1 gall.; dissolve, and add essence of lemon, 2 dr.; oil of rosemary, 1⁄4 dr.

2. To the last add of nut oil, 1 pint. Both are sold in the shops for Canada balsam.

CAN′DIES. See Candying.

CAN′DLES. Candle-making, once a rude and noisome trade, has, since the researches of Chevreul and Branconnot into the nature of the fats, developed into one of the most important branches of scientific industry, the progressive improvements in which, accompanied by a corresponding cheapening and immensely increased efficiency in one of our chief means of artificial illumination, have added greatly to the comfort and enjoyment of every civilised community. Candles are either dipped, moulded, or rolled. The cheaper sorts of tallow candles are formed by the first process, and wax candles by the last; all the other kinds are moulded. The moulds are tubes of pewter, well polished on the inside, eight or more being fitted into a frame, the upper part of which forms a trough to receive the melted candle material. When in the moulds the candles are inverted; in other words, the bottom of each mould corresponds to the top of the candle. The wick passes through a small hole at the lower extremity of the tube, and is held in the axis by a little bar placed across the top. At the factories of Price’s Patent Candle Company the frames of moulds are ranged close together in long benches, and are filled with hot candle material from cars running along little railways above them. When quite cold the candles are withdrawn. The plan of pulling them out one by one with the aid of a bodkin has been superseded at the factories above mentioned, by the ingenious device of blowing them out with compressed air.

The wicks of ordinary tallow candles are made of the rovings of Turkey skein-cotton, 4 or more of which, according to the intended thickness of the wick, are wound on a reel, from which they are again run off, and cut into the proper lengths. Of late years the wicks of the best candles have been made in such a way that they do not require snuffing. This object is effected by causing the wick to bend over, and its end to fall outside the flame, where it is exposed to the oxygen of the air. This bending over is variously brought about.—1. By twisting the wick with one strand shorter than the rest, which, being slightly stretched during the moulding of the candle, contracts again and bends the wick when the fat melts. 2. By plaiting the cotton into a flat wick, which naturally takes the required curve. Such a wick is generally dipped in a solution of borax, which preserves it from being acted upon by the flame except at its extreme point at the edge of the flame. A very fine wire is sometimes included in the plaited wick. 3. In Palmer’s patent two-wicked candles, which were formerly much used in lamps, the wicks are saturated with subnitrate of bismuth ground up with oil; they are then twisted tightly round a wire, which is withdrawn after the candle is moulded. In burning, the ends gradually untwist and stand out of the flame on either side. Other devices are said to be employed.

The wicks of candles should be free from knots and inequalities, as well as from adhering particles of cotton, the presence of all of which are the cause of the “guttering” one frequently sees in a burning candle. The finer the thread of which the wick is composed the more complete will be the combustion of the melted fatty material. Unless the above precautions are attended to, in selecting the wick, it will not be so entirely consumed as it ought to be.

Candles, Com′posite. Mould candles formed of a mixture of the hard fatty acid obtained from palm oil and the stearine of cocoa-nut oil. They were introduced in 1840. Other compositions are occasionally used, such as a mixture of spermaceti and hard white tallow, to which a little bleached resin is added.

Candles, Med′icated. These have been proposed as a convenient means of diffusing the active principles of certain volatile substances through the atmosphere, and for complete and partial fumigations. They are seldom employed in England.

Candles, Mercu′′rial. From the red sulphide or the grey oxide of mercury mixed with wax, and a wick of cotton inserted therein. Recommended by Mr Colles for partial mercurial fumigation. They are burnt under a glass funnel with a curved neck, the upper orifice of which is directed to the diseased part.

Candles, Par′affin. From the beautiful translucent substance paraffin (which see). These candles surpass all others in elegance, and are entirely free from odour and greasiness. The light produced by 98 lbs. of paraffin candles is equal to that of 120 lbs. of spermaceti, or 138 lbs. of wax, or 144 lbs. of stearic, or 155 lbs. of the best composite candles (Letheby). They are sometimes delicately tinted with red, mauve, violet, crimson, and rose colour. Aniline colours will not dissolve in paraffin. Stearic acid, however, is a solvent for them, and accordingly when the candles are tinted with the coal-tar colours these are previously dissolved in the stearic acid, always mixed with the paraffin. This insolubility of the aniline colours in paraffin has been suggested as a test for the purity of this hydrocarbon, and of its freedom from stearic or other fatty acids. For colouring paraffin candles black the paraffin is heated nearly to the boiling point with anacardium shells or nuts, which dissolve readily in the heated paraffin. The Belmontine Candles of Price’s Patent Candle Company are formed of the paraffin of Rangoon tar.

Previous to the paraffin being made into candles, it is necessary that it should be purified and bleached. Many processes for effecting these ends have been devised. In the works of Price’s Candle Company the method known as “Hodge’s” is had recourse to. This consists in first freeing the crude paraffin from the coarser impurities, melting it, casting it into cakes, and allowing it to cool sufficiently slowly, so as to form well-defined crystals. The cakes are then placed upon a bed of some porous and absorbent material, and subjected to a temperature not sufficient to melt the paraffin, but only the liquid hydrocarbons and other more easily fused bodies, the latter running off from between the crystals of the paraffin, and being absorbed by the porous substance upon which the paraffin rests. This process is repeated until the removal of the liquid hydrocarbons from the solid paraffin has been satisfactorily accomplished. If it be requisite to subject the paraffin to further purification, the following method is frequently adopted. The paraffin, previously melted by steam, is placed in a tank, with from 5 to 10 per cent. of strong sulphuric acid, and the mixture agitated for some hours by means of air (the time depending on the quality of the paraffin), the sulphurous acid fumes resulting from the reaction being carried off by a suitable contrivance. After the agitation is completed, the paraffin, after being allowed to stand for some time, is decanted into a suitable vessel containing animal charcoal, with which it is digested for some hours. Upon the subsidence of the charcoal the paraffin is drawn off if at all turbid, and is passed through a funnel heated by means of a steam jacket.

Another method, the invention of Messrs Fordred, Lambe, & Sterry, for the decolorisation of the paraffin employed in candle manufacture, consists in digesting the paraffin at a temperature of 230° F. with about 12% of powdered fuller’s earth. Of late this process has supplanted the charcoal one; and it may be employed, no matter by what means the previous purification of the paraffin has been carried out. The paraffin and fuller’s earth are to be well agitated together, and when the latter has fallen down the clear paraffin is decanted from it. The inventors affirm that their process answers quite as well if marl clay, or any other similarly constituted and equally abundant natural substance be substituted for fuller’s earth; and that no matter which of these bodies is employed, they may be re-used, and any adhering paraffin be removed by washing with agitation, or by other suitable contrivances.

Messrs Smith & Field’s patent for the removal of the colouring matters of the paraffin consists in the employment of silicite of magnesium. The patentees state that the successful issue of the operation depends not only upon the careful preparation of the salt used, but upon its being dried at a temperature of as exactly as possible 212° F. The careful preparation before insisted on of the magnesium salt, which is procured by the double decomposition of magnesium, sulphate, and sodium silicate, includes its thorough washing from adhering sodium sulphate previous to its desiccation. If this precaution be neglected, the porosity of the silicate will be impaired, and its bleaching effect more or less interfered with; and further, the patentees state that if the washed silicate be heated to redness, its decolourising power will also be lost.

It appears that the paraffin employed in making the candles consists of a mixture of paraffins having different melting points. The following are the melting points of some of the chief varieties of paraffin:—

Paraffin from Boghead coal at 45° to 52° C.

” ” Brown coal ” 56° C.

” ” Peat ” 46·7° C.

” ” Rangoon oil or tar ” 61° C.

” ” Ozokerit ” 65·5° C.

Paraffin candles contain from 5{?} to 15 per cent. of stearin, this addition being made for the purpose of diluting the paraffin as well as for raising the melting point of the paraffin where this is low. The stearin, moreover, serves to preserve the rigidity of the candle in the candlestick, and to prevent its bending out of the upright position. Paraffin candles are always moulded, but previous to this being done the moulds must be heated to a temperature above the melting point of the paraffin; this may vary from 60°, 70°, and 87° C., according to the paraffin employed. The moulds having been filled with the melted paraffin are, after one or two moments only, plunged into cold water, when the candle immediately becomes solid. Unless this were done the candle would be spoilt, owing to the crystallisation of the paraffin. A thin wick is required for paraffin candles.

Candles, Spermace′ti. From spermaceti (which see). These are very delicate in appearance, but rather expensive. They burn well, but as the melting point of spermaceti is low, 120° Fahr., they will not bear carrying about in the hand without guttering. They are generally adulterated with stearic acid or hard white tallow.

In candle-making “spermaceti is usually mixed with 3 per cent. of wax or paraffin to destroy its highly crystalline structure; it is moulded in the usual way with plaited wicks that require no snuffing. Occasionally the spermaceti candles are cast without any admixture of wax, the moulds being raised to a higher temperature just as with stearic acid. Some manufacturers, in order to make the spermaceti appear like wax, use gamboge to give the desired tint; such candles are known as transparent wax.” Spermaceti candles are largely consumed in India.

Candles, Stear′ic. Under this head we may place the various sorts of candles moulded from the hard fatty acids of both animal and vegetable origin. The principal sources whence British manufacturers derive their acids are tallow, palm oil, and cocoa-nut oil. The processes employed for separating them are generally described under Stearic Acid. Candles formed of the fatty acids can now be prepared so as to imitate and almost rival those of wax and spermaceti; and they are quite as cheap as the nearly obsolete mould candles formed of common tallow. They are extremely hard; they do not grease the hands, and they burn away brightly and steadily, without giving off any offensive odour. Uncoloured, they are snowy white, but a yellow tint is frequently given them by gamboge.

Candles, Tal′low. From ordinary tallow or from tallow which has been freed from much of its oleic acid by pressure. These have so unpleasant an odour and are so apt to gutter, that they will probably ultimately disappear from use. They are, however, sold at so low a price, that among the lower classes they must long retain their hold. For dip candles the wicks are immersed in melted tallow, and after rubbing with the hands are placed straight and allowed to harden, after which they are arranged upon the “broaches” ready for dipping. For mould candles the last operation is omitted. Great care is taken to select a cotton that yields the least possible quantity of ash after burning.

In the process of “dipping,” the “dipping cistern” being filled with tallow of a proper temperature from the boiler, one of the broaches covered with wicks is placed upon the end of the “dipping beam,” and pressed down gently into the melted fat; it is then withdrawn, the bottoms of the candles just touched against a board placed on one side of the cistern for the purpose, and the frame removed to the rack. This operation is repeated until the candles acquire a sufficient size, when they are finally cooled, sorted, weighed, and strung in pounds for sale.

The mould candles once in common use were made of the finer kinds of tallow only; a mixture of 3 parts of sheep, with 1 part of ox suet, being preferred. See Wax.

Candles, Wax. These are most frequently made by pouring melted white wax on to the wicks, which are hung upon frames and covered with metal tags at the ends to protect the cotton from the wax in those parts. The frames are made to turn round, and melted white wax is poured first down one wick, and then the next, and so on. When the wicks have been subjected to this operation once and have become sufficiently cooled, they have a second, and then a third coat given them, until they are of the required thickness. The candles are next rolled into proper shape on a marble slab or wooden board. The conical top is moulded by properly-shaped tubes, and the bottoms are cut off and trimmed. Wax candles are now seldom moulded, but if so the same processes are followed as for stearic and paraffin candles. The large altar candles, which frequently weigh from thirty to forty pounds, are made by hand.

Wax Tapers. These, which are of various degrees of thickness, are not made of pure wax, but of wax (usually vegetable wax) and tallow, the latter being added to give them flexibility. When they are required to be coloured, resin and turpentine are added to the tallow. For further particulars, consult Wagner’s ‘Chemical Technology,’ “Candle-making.”

CANDLE NUTS. The kernels of the alearites triloba, the candleberry tree, a plant growing in most tropical countries. The nuts when dried, and stuck upon a reed, are used by the natives of the Polynesian Islands as a substitute for candles. They contain a large amount of pure palatable oil, which is sometimes used by artists as a drying oil. After the expression of this oil the cake has been used as a food for cattle; also as a manure.

The following is the composition of the nuts:—

Shells.

Water 3·71

Organic matter 89·90

Mineral matter 6·39

Kernels.

Water 5·27

Fat 62·97

Cellulose 28·99

Mineral matter 2·79

Ash of Kernel.

Lime 18·69

Magnesia 6·01

Potash 11·33

Phosphoric acid 29·30

CAN′DLESTICKS. Metallic, earthenware, and porcelain candlesticks, snuffers, and snuffer-stands, are recommended to be cleaned by pouring boiling hot water on them (previously placed in an earthen pan), and, after wiping them quite dry with a cloth, to clean them with a piece of wash leather; those made of silver, or of plated copper, may be finally polished with a little plate powder; those of white metal, with a little whiting or fine chalk, and those of brass, with a little rotten-stone or one of the polishing pastes. For articles of this kind, made of bronze and papier maché, the water should be used only hot enough to melt the tallow, and they should be only gently dabbed or rubbed off with a very soft cloth or leather. The common practice of placing candlesticks before the fire to melt off the grease is injudicious, as the solder or japan about them is almost certain to be injured. Hence the common annoyance of damaged or “crippled” candlesticks in houses where there are careless servants.

CAN′DYING. When the object is simply to form a confection or sweetmeat, imbued with the aroma, flavour, or medicinal property of any substance, candies are generally prepared by simply boiling lump sugar with a sufficient quantity of the infusion, decoction, tincture, expressed juice, or sometimes even the powder of the particular article, until a portion taken out and cooled becomes quite solid, when it is either poured out on a marble slab, or into tin, marble, or paper moulds, dusted with powdered lump sugar.

When the object is to preserve the form and character of the vegetable in the candy, the substance is boiled in water until soft, and then suspended in concentrated syrup (in the cold), until they become transparent; after which they are either dried in a current of warm air, or in a stove, at a heat not exceeding 120° Fahr. The syrup must be kept fully saturated with sugar by reboiling it once or twice during the process.

Another method occasionally employed by confectioners for almonds and the like is to put the substances into a syrup boiled until it forms a small thread between the opening fingers, and to stir the whole until it is nearly set. See Sugar Boiling.

The following are the principal candied articles kept at the shops:—

Candied Al′monds. From blanched almonds, roasted and halved.

Candied Angel′ica. Prep. 1. From the root. Boil the fresh roots (after slicing them and removing the pith) in water, to deprive them of part of their bitterness and aroma; then drain them and put them into syrup boiled to a full candy height, and boiling hot; let them remain until nearly cold, when they may be taken out and carefully dried.

2. From the stems. From the tender stems, stalks, and midribs of the leaves, as last. Used as a sweetmeat and dessert. It is said to be cordial, stomachic, tonic, and aphrodisiac.

Candied A′pricots. From the fruit, scarcely ripe, either whole or cut into quarters, immersed in the syrup (hot), without any further preparation.

Candied Cit′rons. From the peels.

Candied Erin′go. From the roots, slit and washed.

Candied Gin′ger. From the roots of green ginger.

Candied Hore′hound. From a strong decoction or infusion of the root, and lump sugar, 1 pint to 8 or 10 lbs. may be used. Boil the mixture to a candy height, and pour it whilst warm into moulds or small paper cases well dusted with finely powdered lump sugar; or pour it on a dusted slab and cut it into squares.

Candied Lem′on Peel. As Candied Citron.

Candied Or′ange Flow′ers. From the flowers deprived of their cups, stamina, and pistils (2 oz. to each lb. of sugar), as Candied Almonds, but poured out on a slab.

Candied Or′ange Peel. From the peel of the Seville orange, or common orange, as Candied Citron.

Candied Su′gar. See Sugar Boiling. The following are articles of a more special character.

Candy, Car′away. 1. From caraway seeds (in fine powder), ⁄2 oz.; sugar, 1 lb.

2. Oil of Caraway, 1 dr.; sugar, 1 lb.

Candy, Diges′tive. Syn. Live-long candy. Prep. 1. Rhubarb and bicarbonate of soda, of each 1 dr.; ginger, ⁄2 dr.; cinnamon, 20 gr. (all in fine powder); heavy magnesia, 1 oz.; powdered sugar, 2 oz.; mucilage of tragacanth, q. s. to form a lozenge mass; to be divided into small squares of 18 or 20 gr. each.

2. As the last, but adding finely powdered caraways, 1 dr.; oil of caraway, 15 drops; and sugar, 1 oz. Both are used as heartburn and digestive lozenges.

Candy, Gin′ger. Prep. 1. From ginger (in coarse powder), 3 oz.; boiling water, 1⁄4 pint; macerate in a warm place for 2 hours, strain, add lump and moist sugar, of each 5 lbs., and boil to a candy.

2. Ginger (in very fine powder), 1 oz.; powdered sugar, 2 lbs.; syrup, q. s. to make a paste. Stomachic and carminative.

For various sweetmeats which might come under the head of Candy, see Confections, Drops.

CANKER. This disease consists in a depraved condition of that part of the sensitive foot of the horse which secretes the horny frog and sole. It mostly occurs in coarsely-bred animals, and is the result of filth, damp, and bad ventilation. The treatment consists in first removing all loose horn, and allowing all pent-up matter to escape; the exuberant granulations must be carefully cut away, and the parts then washed with a tepid lotion of sulphate or chloride of zinc; after drying the surface dust it with oxide of zinc; apply tow dipped in a mixture of tar and lime, and “keep it in firm contact with the parts by means of a leather sole or strips of hoop iron underneath a shoe lightly tacked on. Dress in this manner daily, keeping up the dry pressure for a week.” (Finlay Dun.)

CAN′NON METAL. See Gun Metal.

CANTHAR′IDES. Syn. Spanish flies, Blistering f., Lyt′tæ; Canthar′is, B. P. The Cantharis vesicatoria of Latreille, commonly known as the Spanish fly, is an insect of the order Coleoptera; it abounds in the south of France, Spain, and Italy; and has spread into Germany and the south of Russia. When alive it exudes a strong fetid and penetrating odour.

Pur., &c. These insects should be preserved in well-closed bottles or tin canisters. The addition of a few drops of oil of cloves, or of strong acetic acid, or even of a few cloves in substance, will preserve them unchanged for a length of time in closed vessels. The best proof of their goodness is the smell. The powder is constantly adulterated. The plan of the wholesale druggists is to sort out the most worthless flies for powdering, and to compensate for their deficiency of vesicating power by adding 1 lb. of euphorbium to every 12 or 13 lbs. of flies. When a superior article is required, liquorice powder is added (4 or 5 lbs. to every 14 lbs.), along with about 1 lb. of euphorbium, and sufficient blue black or charcoal to turn the yellow of the liquorice to a greenish colour. The best mode of detecting this adulteration is by the microscope. It should be borne in mind that only those flies which have attained their full growth possess blistering properties. The immature or undersized insects are destitute of epigastric power.

Ant. An emetic of sulphate of zinc, followed by the stomach-pump, if necessary. The vomiting may be promoted by copiously drinking warm bland diluents, such as broth, linseed tea, milk, &c. Friction on the spine, with volatile liniment and laudanum, and the subsequent administration of draughts containing musk, opium, and camphorated emulsion, have been strongly recommended.

Tests. By the microscope very minute particles may be discovered in the stomach and intestines, on a post-mortem examination. Orfila thus found particles of cantharides in a body that had been interred nine months.

Uses, &c. Spanish flies are used externally to raise blisters, and internally as a stimulant and diuretic, generally in the form of tincture. In excess they produce strangury, bloody urine, satyriasis, delirium, convulsions, and death. See Tinctures, Vesicants, &c.

CANTHARI′DIN. C5H12O2. Isomeric with picrotoxin. This substance is found in, and is the vesicating principle of, the Spanish fly, Chinese blistering fly, and other coleopterous insects. Prep. Pulverised cantharides are allowed to remain in contact for 24 hours with twice their weight of chloroform, in a displacement apparatus. The chloroform is then drained off, and finally displaced by alcohol, and the solution is left to evaporate. The cantharidin crystallises out, saturated with green oil. In order to purify the cantharidin it is laid on bibulous paper, which absorbs the greater part of the oil, and then crystallised out of a mixture of alcohol and chloroform. (Procter.)

Prop. Prismatic crystals, melts at 200° C., volatilises in white fumes, which strongly irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, and condenses in rectangular prisms. Cantharidin is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, acetic acid, and in the fixed and volatile oils. Its solution in any of the liquids above mentioned possesses vesicating properties, which, however, is not exhibited by solid cantharidin.

CAOUT′CHOUC. Syn. India rubber, Elastic gum. India rubber is the concrete juice of the Ficus elastica, Siphonia elastica, the Urceola elastica, and many other tropical plants. The fresh milky juice is spread over moulds of unbaked clay, and is then exposed to the heat and smoke of a fire, or torches, to dry it, whence it derives its dark colour. Successive coats of juice are laid on, and the operation of drying repeated until the bottles acquire sufficient thickness. When it has become thoroughly hard and dry, the clay is beaten out. In this form it is commonly imported.

Prop., &c. The general properties of india rubber, as well as its numerous applications, are well known. The fresh juice has a cream-like appearance and consistence, is coagulated by heat, and is miscible with water, alcohol, and wood naphtha; sp. gr. 1·012 to 1·041; it yields from 18% to 45% of solid caoutchouc, either by heat or evaporation. By excluding it from the air it may be preserved unchanged for a considerable period.

Solid caoutchouc has a sp. gr. ranging between ·919 and ·941; it melts at 248° Fahr. into a viscid mass, which does not again harden on cooling; it is unaltered by chlorine, hydrochloric acid, sulphurous acid, fluosilicic acid, ammonia, caustic alkaline lyes (even when boiling), and most similar substances; nitric acid and sulphuric acid act on it only by long contact when concentrated. Some specimens of caoutchouc are harder than gutta percha itself, and equally inelastic, whilst others never perfectly solidify, but remain in a condition resembling that of birdlime or printers’ varnish.

The best solvents of caoutchouc are rectified sulphuric ether (which has been washed with water to remove alcohol and acidity), chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, a mixture of bisulphide of carbon and absolute alcohol (94 of the first to 6 or 7 of the last), and caoutchoucin. All these liquids dissolve india rubber rapidly in the cold, and leave it unaltered on evaporation. The first two are, however, too expensive to be generally employed. The others have a disagreeable odour, but are much cheaper than the rest, and possess the advantage of leaving the film of caoutchouc in a firmer and stronger condition than other solvents. Pyrogenous oil of turpentine is another cheap and good solvent. Benzol, rectified mineral or coal-tar naphtha, crude petroleum, and oil of turpentine dissolve india rubber by long digestion and trituration (with heat), otherwise they merely form with it a glutinous jelly that dries very slowly and imperfectly, leaving it much reduced in hardness and elasticity. The fats and fixed oils also readily dissolve caoutchouc (with heat), forming permanently glutinous solutions or pastes; so also do most of the volatile oils, but the solutions with the majority of them dry with difficulty.

One of the most remarkable properties of india rubber is the great amount of heat which is disengaged during its condensation by pressure or in the exercise of its elasticity. During the process of kneading the raw caoutchouc in the “masticators,” the cold water thrown in to reduce the temperature soon becomes boiling hot. When no water is added, a temperature so high is often reached as to occasion the melting of the rubber. This is particularly the case during the process of “dry kneading” with quick-lime. A tube 2⁄4 inches in diameter, impactly secured, was subjected to a force of 200 tons. The result was a compression amounting to 1-10th; great heat was evolved, and the excessive elasticity of the substance caused a fly-wheel weighing five tons to recoil with alarming violence. Mr Brockedon states that he succeeded in raising the temperature of an ounce of water 2° in about fifteen minutes by collecting the heat evolved by the extension of a small thread of caoutchouc. He refers this effect to the change in specific gravity, and contends that the heat thus produced is not due to friction, because the same amount of friction is occasioned in the contraction as in the extension of the substance, and the result of this contraction is to reduce the caoutchouc thus acted upon to its original temperature.

The edges and surfaces of india rubber are readily and perfectly joined by mere contact and intense pressure. On the small scale the edges may be moistened with ether, naphtha, oil of turpentine, or some other solvent, or by long boiling in water, and immediately pressed tight together and held in contact for some time.

Elastic tubes are readily formed of india rubber by cutting it into uniform slips of proper thickness and winding them round rods of polished glass or metal, so that the edges are in close contact or “overlapping.” A piece of tape is then wound round outside it, and the whole boiled in water for 2 or 3 hours, after which time the edges will be found to be sufficiently adherent. A better plan is to immerse the “rubber” in a mixture formed of bisulphide of carbon, 95 parts, and rectified spirit, 5 parts, until it swells into a pasty mass, which may then be moulded into any desired form or passed through the die of a tubing machine. For chemical purposes, brewing, &c., vulcanised india-rubber tubing has now taken the place formerly occupied by the unprepared material.

The once celebrated “Mackintoshes” are made by spreading two or more coats of a paste made of caoutchouc and rectified coal-tar naphtha over the surface of the stuff or cloth, and, when it has become partially dry, pressing two such surfaces evenly together by passing the goods between a pair of cylinders or rollers. The articles are then placed in a stove room for the composition to harden, and to remove the odour of the naphtha. Of late years vulcanised or mineralised rubber (coloured) has been used for this purpose, and being spread on the outside of the stuff instead of the inside forms an ornamental and thoroughly waterproof material.

India-rubber thread is prepared by stretching it (previously cut into coarse filaments) to 5 or 6 times its length in boiling water or hot air, in which state it is allowed to cool slowly. This process is repeated again and again until it reaches 16,000 or 17,000 times its original length, when it is glazed by agitating it with powdered sulphur or French chalk. This thread is readily joined or “pieced,” as it is called, by paring the ends obliquely with a pair of scissors or a knife, and then pressing the clean ends strongly together with the fingers. When the coarse filaments from the cutting machine are simply stretched with the moistened thumb and finger in the act of “reeling” to about 8 or 9 times their length, they are said to be “inelasticated,” and are ready to be made into elastic braces, elastic web, and other like elastic tissues and fabrics in the braiding machine.

Caoutchouc, Vul′canised. Syn. Vulcanised india rubber, Mineralised i. r., Sulphuretted i. r. The discovery of the singular action of sulphur and the mineral sulphides on caoutchouc was made by Mr Charles Goodyear, of New York, in 1842, at which date the manufacture of vulcanised india rubber may be said to have commenced. In 1843 Mr Thomas Hancock patented a process for vulcanised india rubber in these countries, founded on that of Mr Goodyear. A sheet of caoutchouc immersed in melted sulphur absorbs a portion of it, and at the same time undergoes important changes in many of its leading characteristics. So prepared, it is no longer affected by changes of temperature; it is neither hardened by cold nor softened by any heat insufficient to destroy it. It loses its solubility in the solvents of ordinary caoutchouc, whilst its elasticity is greatly augmented, and has become permanent.

The same effect is produced when sulphur is kneaded into caoutchouc in a masticator, or by means of powerful rollers, as well as when common solvents (naphtha, spirit of turpentine, &c.) are charged with a sufficient amount of sulphur in solution to become a compound solvent of the rubber. In these cases articles may be made of any required form before heating them for the change of condition technically termed “vulcanisation.” It is necessary, however, for this purpose that the form should be carefully maintained both before and during the exposure to the heat.

“A vulcanised solid sphere of 2⁄2 inches in diameter, when forced between two rollers ⁄4 inch apart, was found to maintain its form uninjured. In fact, it is the exclusive property of vulcanised caoutchouc to be able to retain any form impressed upon it, and to return to that form on the removal of any disturbing force which has been brought to act upon it.” (Brockedon.)

Caoutchouc combines with from 12% to 15% of sulphur; the quantity of sulphur added to the naphtha paste should not, therefore, exceed 10% or 12% of its weight.

The temperatures for vulcanisation by the common method range from 320° to 330°; and the period required is one hour or more, according to the temperature. A much lower temperature is, however, sufficient if the duration of the exposure is much extended or the compound mass is softened with any of the common solvents of india rubber.

The process of sulphuring, or mineralisation, is differently conducted in different manufactories. Under Mr Burke’s patent, oxysulphide or amorphous sulphide of antimony (formed by decomposing a solution of crude antimony in a lye of potash or soda with hydrochloric acid) is employed. This powder he combines with either india rubber or gutta percha, or mixtures of them, by kneading in a “masticator” for 2 or 3 hours, and after strong compression in a mould whilst still warm, he exposes the mass to a steam heat ranging from 250° to 280° Fahr. The block, so prepared, is afterwards cut into sheets, &c. The advantages possessed by the product are that it possesses no unpleasant odour, nor does the sulphur effloresce on its surface, as in ordinary vulcanised india rubber.

Under Mr Christopher Nickel’s patent (1849) 1 part of sulphur is kneaded with 6 parts of caoutchouc, and then pressed into moulds, as before. He also vulcanises rubber by exposing it in a cylinder heated in a steam jacket to the fumes of sulphur or to sulphuretted gases, given off from a retort connected with the apparatus. The rubber thus prepared he next subjects to hydraulic pressure in moulds, at a temperature ranging between 220° and 250° Fahr.

Small articles or sheets of india rubber may be extemporaneously vulcanised at common temperatures by simple immersion, for a minute or two, in a mixture of bisulphide of carbon, 97⁄2 parts, and protochloride of sulphur, 2⁄2 parts; after which they must be well washed first in weak alkaline lye, and next in pure water. Mr Parkes employs 100 instead of 97⁄2 parts of the bisulphide. This method is termed “cold sulphuring.”

An excellent method of vulcanisation, recommended by Mr Parkes, particularly applicable to small articles, consists in immersing them for about 3 hours in a close vessel containing a solution of polysulphide of potassium at 25° Baumé (sp. gr. 1·197), and of the temperature of 240° Fahr. It is afterwards washed in an alkaline lye, then in pure water, and dried.

Among the many applications of vulcanised india rubber those connected with its elasticity and its enormous contractile power when extended are particularly striking. Under Mr E. Smith’s patent, “torsion springs” for roller blinds, door springs, clock springs, carriage springs, &c., are made of it. Mr Hodges, in another patent, has availed himself of the same property as a new mechanical power. Short lengths of caoutchouc, which he terms “vulcanised power purchases,” are successively drawn down from or lifted to a fixed bearing, and attached to any weight which it is required to raise; when a sufficient number of these power purchases are fixed to the weight, their combined elastic force lifts it from the ground. Thus, 10 purchases of the elastic strength each of 50 lbs. raise 500 lbs. Each purchase is 6 inches long, and contains about 1⁄2 oz. of vulcanised caoutchouc. These 10 purchases, if stretched to the limit of their elasticity (not of their cohesive strength), will lift a weight exceeding 650 lbs.

The same principle has been applied to relieve and equalise the strain on ships’ cables, especially where several boats are towing one vessel; and as a projectile force. A number of power purchases, attached to the barrel of a gun constructed to project harpoons, will exert a power, if suddenly relieved, proportioned to their aggregate forces. By similar contrivances balls may be projected 200 yards or more, and a charge of No. 4 shot can be thrown 120 yards. A bow, in which the string alone is elastic (the reverse of the usual form), has been contrived which throws a 30-inch arrow 170 yards.

The last great improvement in the manufacture of caoutchouc is the discovery that by continuing the process of vulcanisation for a longer time at an increased heat and under pressure, a hard black substance is obtained, which can be turned in a lathe like ebony. This substance has already been applied to an extraordinary number of uses. See Vulcanite.

An exceedingly useful combination of cork and india rubber has lately been introduced. See Kamptulicon.

Caoutchouc, Facti′′tious. See Oil, Consolidated.

CAOUT′CHOUCIN. An extremely light fluid obtained by distilling india rubber.

Prep. (Barnard’s patent process.) A highly volatile fluid, discovered by Mr Barnard. India rubber or caoutchouc, as imported, cut into small lumps, containing about 2 cubic inches each, is thrown into a cast-iron still, connected with a well-cooled worm-tub (any flat vessel with a large evaporating surface will do, the entire top of which can be removed for the purpose of cleaning it out); and heat is applied in the usual way, until the thermometer ranges to about 600° Fahr., when nothing is left in the still but dirt and charcoal. The dark coloured fetid oil which has distilled over is next rectified along with ⁄3rd its weight of water, once or oftener; and at each rectification becomes brighter and paler, until at about sp. gr. ·680 it is colourless, and slightly volatile. The product is then shaken up with nitro-hydrochloric acid, or chlorine, in the proportion of a ⁄4 of a pint of the acid to 1 gallon of the liquid. To enable the dirt to be the more easily removed from the bottom of the still, common solder, to the depth of about ⁄2 an inch, is thrown in.—Prod. 80%.

Prop., &c. Mixed with alcohol, caoutchoucin dissolves gums and resins, especially copal and india rubber, at the common temperature of the atmosphere, and it speedily evaporates, leaving them again in the solid state. It mixes with the oils in all proportions. It has been used in the manufacture of varnishes, and for liquefying oil paints, instead of turpentine. It is very volatile, and requires to be kept in close vessels. According to the researches of Himly, Gregory, and Bouchardat, the caoutchoucin of Barnard consists of several liquids, some of which have the composition of olefiant gas, and others that of oil of turpentine.

CA′′PERS. The flower buds of various species of Capparis, particularly C. spinosa, caper tree, preserved in vinegar. They are chiefly imported from Spain, Italy, and the south of France, where the caper tree is largely cultivated for the purpose. The flower-buds are picked daily, and thrown into a cask of strong pickling vinegar, until it becomes full, when it is sold to the dealers by the collector. The former sort them into different sizes by means of copper sieves, in a similar way to that adopted for lead shot and gunpowder. In this way they are divided into nonpareilles, capuchins, capotes, seconds, and thirds, of which the former, or smallest, are regarded as the best; but much depends upon the quality of the vinegar.

The bright green colour of capers, so much valued by the ignorant, arises chiefly from the presence of copper derived from the sieves used in sorting them. In many cases, copper coin, as sous and halfpence, are added for the purpose. Thus the eye is gratified at the sacrifice of the stomach, and an insidious poison introduced into the system, simply to give an unnatural appearance to a condiment which tastes better without it. See Copper.

CAPILLAIRE′. [Fr.] Simple syrup, or a concentrated solution of sugar in water, flavoured with orange-flower water, or some other similar aromatic. The name was originally given to a mucilaginous syrup, prepared by adding to an infusion of maiden-hair (Adiantum capillus Veneris) some sugar and orange-flower water.

CAP′NOMOR. See Kapnomor.

CAP′RIC ACID. HC10H19O2. Syn. Ru′tic acid; Acidum cap′ricum, L. An acid discovered by Chevreul, and obtained by decomposing caprate of barium with dilute sulphuric acid, or primarily by the saponification of butter or cocoa-nut oil, when it appears combined with butyric, caproic and caprylic acids. It is also procured by acting upon oleic acid or oil of rue with nitric acid.

Obs. When butter is saponified with caustic potassa or soda, and the resulting soap decomposed by adding an acid, in excess, and distilling the mixture, the four acids above named pass over into the receiver, in combination with water. The mixed acids may be separated by saturating them collectively with baryta, and by taking advantage of the unequal solubility of the newly formed barium salts. The less soluble portion (equal to about ⁄20th of the dry mass) contains capric and caprylic acid; the larger and more soluble portion, butyric and caproic acid. On the same plan the two groups are resolved into their separate acids. These acids are deprived of their uncombined water by means of chloride of calcium. It is advisable to employ the term rutic acid, as the older term is easily confounded with caproic and caprylic.

Prop. Capric or rutic acid crystallises in fine needles, which fuse at 86° Fahr., giving out an odour resembling that of a goat. It is sparingly soluble in boiling water.

Prep. (Miller.) Castor oil is saponified by means of potassa or soda, and afterwards an excess of the hydrated alkali is added, amounting to one half the oil used. The mass is heated in a retort, and an oily liquid covered with water distils over. This oily liquid, which is the octylic alcohol, is rectified several times with potassa until the residue is no longer coloured brown.—Prop. A colourless liquid, of powerful aromatic odour; insoluble in water, but dissolving readily in acetic acid, ether, and alcohol. Its boiling point is 356° Fr., its sp. gr, ·823. The caprylate of ethyl, erroneously termed caprylic ether, is a colourless liquid, with an agreeable odour of pine-apples.

CAPSAICIN. Until the researches of Mr Thresh proved to the contrary the active principle of the capsicum fruit, or cayenne pepper, and the one to which it was thought it owed its acrid and pungent properties, was believed to be an alkaloid, and was named capsicine in consequence. Mr Thresh succeeded in obtaining an alkaloid from the capsicum, but this was entirely wanting in acridity and pungency. Its discoverer states that capsaicin occurs only in the pericarp of the fruit. The details of the process by which it may be obtained are given in the ‘Year Book of Pharmacy’ for 1876-77, from which it will be seen that the substance may also be procured by preparing a strong tincture of capsicum, and submitting it to dialysis. Capsaicin when cautiously heated to 138° F., melts to a transparent oily fluid, and if then allowed to cool rapidly, it becomes solid, assuming a crystalline condition in doing so. It volatilises at 240° F., without suffering decomposition. Strong nitric acid acts violently on it, decomposing and dissolving it. The crystals dissolve very readily in ether, amylic, alcohol, acetic ether, benzine, and fixed oils, and still more readily in alcohol, and in rectified and proof spirit. In turpentine and carbon disulphide it dissolves much more slowly. It is not affected by boiling for some considerable time in dilute sulphuric acid, and the acid liquor shows no signs of glucose.

A specimen of capsaicin which Mr Thresh believes to have been in a pure condition was sent to Dr Flückiger’s laboratory for analysis, and Dr Buri, by whom the combustion was made, reports that it gave the following composition:—C19H14O2, a result which Mr Thresh found to agree very fairly with some capsaicin derived from a specimen fruit obtained from a different source from that sent to Dr Flückiger. Administered internally in doses of the ⁄25th of a gram, capsaicin gave rise to violent griping and purging; and when a lotion consisting of one part diluted with forty of glycerin and spirit was placed on the arm, it soon gave rise to such pain, and caused so much inflammation, that the lint which was wetted with the solution had to be removed very shortly after being applied.

CAP′SICUM. [L. and Eng.] Syn. Chil′i, Red pepper. A genus of plants belonging to the natural order Solanaceæ, species of which yield the fruits which are used to form Cayenne pepper and Chili vinegar. The officinal capsicum of B. P. is the fruit of the species C. fastigiatum. See Pepper, Tinctures, Vinegars.

CAP′SULES. This term is now commonly applied to small egg-shaped or spherical vessels, in which medicines are placed, for the purpose of covering their nauseous taste at the time of swallowing them. They are commonly made of gelatin, mixtures of sugar and gelatin, or animal membrane.

Capsules, Gel′atin. Prep. 1. By dipping the bulbous extremity of an oiled metallic rod into a strong solution of gelatin. When the rod is withdrawn, it is rotated, in order to diffuse the fluid jelly equally over its surface. As soon as the gelatinous film has partially hardened, it is removed from the mould and placed on pins, furnished with suitable heads, and fixed on a cork table. When sufficiently dry, the capsules are placed upright in little cells, made in the table to receive them, and the liquid with which they are to be filled is then introduced by means of a small glass tube. They are next closed by dropping some of the melted gelatin on the orifice of each. Six parts of gelatin, and one part sugar, are now the common proportions.

2. (Simonin.) Oval balls of wax, of the requisite size, are prepared by pouring wax, into a wooden mould, consisting of two parts, and arranged for the reception of a row of these balls. These are afterwards stuck on iron needles, affixed to rods of convenient size, in rows. The balls are now uniformly coated all at once by dipping in the usual manner, then removed from the needles, and are next placed with the needle holes downwards, on a gently heated plate, when the wax flows out, and a round capsule is left behind.

Cap′sules, Gel′atin and Su′gar. Prep. (Giraud.) Gelatin, 6 parts; solution of gum and simple syrup, of each 1 part; water, 5 parts; melt in a water bath, remove the scum, and proceed as before.

Capsules, Glut′en. These, which form the subject of a French patent, are said to be formed of the gluten of wheat flour, a substance which is insoluble, although softened, by water. We have placed these capsules for twenty-four hours in warm water, and found them, at the expiration of that time, still unbroken, the enclosed medicine being completely enveloped. The mode of preparation is kept secret.

Capsules, Mem′branous. Syn. Organ′ic capsules. From gut-skin moistened and stretched over an oiled bulb of glass or metal, and filled in the common way. These have been patented, but they do not appear to be an improvement on the common capsule of gelatin.

Obs. The common capsules usually hold about 10 or 12 gr. of balsam of copaiba. Those of the shops in nine cases out of ten, are filled with adulterated copaiba, and at least 4-5ths of them are filled with train oil or linseed oil, to which a few drops only of the balsam are added.

Balsam of copaiba (capivi) and oil of cubebs, or a mixture of them, castor oil and cod-liver oil, are the substances most usually administered in this way. Baccæ copaiferæ factitiæ are officinal in the Ph. Castr. Ruth. Ratier has proposed to grease them and administer them per anum. Ricord has strongly recommended capsules of copaiba, coated with extract of rhatany, as much superior to the common ones of copaiba alone, in the treatment of gleet and gonorrhœa. They may be easily prepared by either of the following methods:

1. By immersing, for an instant, the common capsule in a mixture of extract of rhatany (newly prepared from the root), 3 parts; syrup of moist sugar, 1 part; mucilage of gum Arabic, 1 part; melted together in a water bath.

2. By forming the bodies of the capsules with the above mixture or composition, instead of with gelatin, and then following the same manipulations as for the manufacture of the common gelatin capsules.

These capsules are said to sit well upon the stomach, the tone of which they contribute to improve, and to act with greater certainty than those made of copaiba and gelatin alone.

CAR′AMEL. A dark-brown substance obtained by heating sugar. It is formed during the roasting of all materials containing sugar, such as coffee and malt. It is much used for colouring soups, wines, spirits, and other liquids.

Caramel, Crude. Syn. Spirit colouring, Burnt sugar. Prep. From cane sugar, by heating it to from 410° to 428° Fahr., as long as aqueous vapour is formed; dissolving the product in water, and concentrating the solution by evaporation.

Caramel, Pure. Prep. 1. (Graham.) Crude caramel, obtained as above, is placed on a parchment-paper dialyser. The undecomposed sugar and certain intermediate compounds diffuse out with considerable facility, and what ultimately remains on the dialyser possesses five times the colouring power of the original crude caramel, weight for weight. See Dialysis.

2. (Peligot.) Add strong alcohol to a filtered aqueous solution of crude caramel until it ceases to produce a precipitate; collect the precipitate, which is caramel, on a filter, wash with alcohol, and dry. Graham recommends that the product should be dissolved and precipitated four or five times, or till the mass thrown down, from being plastic at first, becomes pulverulent.

3. (J. J. Pohl.) Cane sugar is heated in a spacious metallic vessel by means of an oil bath to 410° or 419° Fahr. as long as aqueous vapours escape, the mass being occasionally stirred with a spatula. The mass is then finely powdered and digested with alcohol for two or three hours; the digestion is repeated until the fluid no longer tastes bitter.

Prop. A solution containing 10% of purified caramel is gummy, and forms a tremulous jelly on standing. Evaporated in vacuo, it dries up into a black shining mass soluble in water; but if the solution be evaporated to dryness by the heat of a water bath, the whole matter is rendered insoluble in hot or cold water. A very small proportion of caramel suffices to give a rich sepia tint to water.

CAR′AT. A weight of 4 grains used in weighing diamonds, which are spoken of as of so many carats weight. Among assayers, a carat is a weight of 12 grains; but more commonly a proportional weight or term, representing the number of parts of pure gold in 24 parts of the alloy; pure gold being spoken of as of 24 carats fine. It is commonly the 24th part of the “assay pound,” and is nominally subdivided into 4 assay grains, and these again into quarters. See Assaying.

CAR′AWAY. Syn. Caraway seed; Se′mena carui, L.; Carui, B. P. The fruit of the Carum Carui (Linn.), an umbelliferous plant, common in England and other parts of Europe. These fruits, commonly called “seeds,” form an agreeable and useful aromatic and carminative, and are especially esteemed in the flatulent colic of children. They are also largely employed as an adjuvant or corrective in various officinal preparations; and as a flavoring ingredient in cakes, biscuits, cordials, confectionery, &c. See Essences.

CARBAZOT′IC ACID. See Picric Acid.

CARBOL′IC ACID. H.C6H5O. Syn. Phenylic acid, Phenic acid, Phenol, Phenylic alcohol, Hydrate of phenyle, Hydrated oxide of phenyle. A powerful antiseptic substance obtained from coal-tar oil.

Prep. Crude, heavy coal oil is agitated with milk of lime, allowed to stand, and the aqueous portion separated from the undissolved oil and decomposed by hydrochloric acid. The oily liquid obtained is purified by distillation.

1. Crude coal oil is distilled in a retort furnished with a thermometer, and the portion which passes over when the heat ranges between 300° and 400° Fahr., is collected apart, and mixed with a hot saturated solution of caustic potassa; after standing for some time, a semi crystalline pasty mass forms, from which the supernatant liquid is decanted; the pasty mass is now agitated with a small quantity of water until dissolved; the solution thus formed separates into two portions, the denser of which contains carbolate of potassa; this being separated by decantation, is decomposed by hydrochloric acid. The solution of carbolic acid which rises to the surface is digested with chloride of calcium, to remove water, and purified by distillation; the distillate, by refrigeration, furnishes crystals of the acid, which must be drained, dried, and preserved from the air.

2. From salicylic acid. Mix intimately together equal weights of salicylic acid and powdered glass; introduce the mixture into a good German retort, and heat on a sand bath, gradually raising the heat till it becomes red hot at the bottom. The vapour is condensed in any convenient receiver. If the materials are perfectly dry, it solidifies to a mass of crystals as soon as it condenses, but if there be a trace of water present it remains liquid. The slower it distils over the lighter will be the colour, while if a high temperature be employed it comes over nearly black. It may be rendered colourless and anhydrous by rectification over quick-lime.

Of late years the manufacture of carbolic acid has increased to a great extent, and is generally found in a pale yellow clear solution, instead of as a dark hazy liquid. The pure anhydrous acid is in long, colourless, prismatic crystals, often, however, on keeping turning a beautiful pink, rose, or crimson, and which rapidly deliquesce in moist air, becoming converted into a colourless refractive liquid, having a faint odour of roses and tar. At 95° F. they become an oily liquid, having an odour and taste like creosote. Sp. gr. 1·065, boiling point 370° F. Exposed to the air the crystals absorb moisture and liquefy. The acid is slightly soluble in water, but freely soluble in glycerin, alcohol, and ether. Carbolic acid is poisonous, and is a powerful antiseptic.

Tests.—About a grain of hypochlorite of calcium, added to a little aqueous solution of carbolic acid, placed in a test-tube, produces after agitation, the addition of a few drops of ammonia, and the application of a gentle heat, a bright blue colour with a tinge of green. One drachm of the acid if pure completely dissolves on being shaken with half a pint of warm water.

Uses. The extraordinary antiseptic properties of carbolic acid have long been known, but its extended use has been delayed, owing to the difficulty experienced in obtaining it in considerable quantities. It is now, however, principally owing to the labours of the late Dr F. Crace Calvert, produced on a large scale, and this chemist has proposed its application to many valuable purposes. As a medical agent it seems to have all the useful properties of creosote in an exalted degree, with some peculiar actions of its own, and is being applied with marked success in the Manchester Royal Infirmary and similar institutions, in cases of chronic diarrhœa, obstinate vomiting (even after creosote has failed), and as a disinfecting wash for ill-conditioned ulcers and gangrenous sores. It has been said to have been used with marked success internally as a remedy for hooping-cough. It has also been applied successfully in cases of foot-rot, a disease which annually carries off large numbers of sheep. It has been employed for the preservation of gelatin solutions and preparations of size made with starch, flour, and similar materials, and of skins and other animal substances. It appears to act strongly as an antiferment, and Dr Calvert states that it is one of the most powerful preventives of putrefaction with which he is acquainted. Commercial creosote is frequently nothing more than hydrated carbolic acid.

Professor Lister, of Edinburgh, adopting the germ theory of putrefaction, and regarding the putrid discharge from wounds as the result of the presence of atmospheric organisms which find a suitable nidus in the decomposing animal tissue exposed by the wound, seeks to exclude the access of these germs by the use of antiseptics, particularly of carbolic acid, the destructive action of which on living organisms is well known. He applies to the wounds dressings of gauze previously prepared with carbolic acid, additionally using as a lotion the acid, well diluted with water; whilst during the dressing of the wounds and the performance of surgical operations carbolic acid is diffused in the form of spray into the surrounding atmosphere with the object of destroying the germs floating in it.

Antidotes.—Calcined magnesia, or bicarbonate of soda, in milk after short intervals. In the absence of these, chalk, soap and water, or the plaster from the ceiling. Olive oil additionally. More than fifty per cent. of the carbolic acid manufactured is used for the purpose of preparing the following pigments and dye materials:—

1. Picric acid. 2. Phenyl brown. 3. Grenat soluble. 4. Coralline. 5. Azuline. These will be found described under Tar colours.

CAR′BON. C. Syn. Carbo′nium, Car′bo, L.; Charbon, Fr.; Kohlenstoff, Ger. An elementary or simple non-metallic solid body, very widely diffused through nature. Its purest and rarest form is that of the diamond. Nearly pure, it occurs very abundantly in the forms of graphite and anthracite. In combination with oxygen, as carbonic acid, it exists in the atmosphere and in the waters of most springs, also in limestone, marble, chalk, and dolomite. Combined with hydrogen, it enters largely into coal, peat, and lignite. It is an essential constituent of organic matter, and hence it has been termed the “organic element.” Charcoal, lamp-black, and coke, are more or less pure forms of carbon. By strongly igniting lamp-black in a covered crucible the element is obtained sufficiently pure for most chemical purposes.

It is best obtained purest by burning a jet of pure olefiant gas in an atmosphere of pure chloride, collecting the amorphous carbon deposited, and igniting in vacuo at a red heat.

Forms several chlorides, sulphides, &c., of which the following are the chief:—

Carbon, Protochloride of. Obtained from the sesquichloride by subliming it repeatedly through a tube filled with fragments of glass heated to redness. A transparent colourless liquid, with aromatic odour.

Carbon, Sesquichloride of. C2Cl6. Obtained by exposing Dutch liquid with chlorine, in a glass vessel, to the direct rays of the sun, taking care to renew the chlorine as long as it is absorbed. The liquid is ultimately converted into the sesquichloride of carbon, which is a white crystalline, volatile substance.

Carbon, Tetrachloride of. Syn. Bichloride of Carbon. It may be obtained by passing chlorine (desiccated by being made to pass through a tube wetted with strong sulphuric acid), through a bottle containing bisulphide of carbon, and afterwards through a porcelain tube, wrapped in sheet copper, and filled with fragments of broken porcelain, maintained at a red heat, by a charcoal or gas furnace, and condensing the product in a bottle surrounded by ice. A mixture of tetrachloride of carbon and chloride of sulphur is thus obtained. By shaking this mixture with solution of potash, the chloride of sulphur is decomposed and dissolved, whilst the tetrachloride of carbon separates, and falls to the bottom. The upper layer having been poured off, the tetrachloride may be purified by distillation.

Tetrachloride of carbon is a colourless liquid, having a sp. gr. 1·6, and boiling at 172° F. It is insoluble in water, but dissolves in alcohol and ether. Its vapour, diluted with air, is employed as an anæsthetic.

Carbon, Oxychloride of. COCl2. Syn. Chlo′rocarbon′ic acid, Phosgene gas, Chloride of carbonyl. Equal measures of carbonic oxide and chlorine are exposed to the direct rays of the sun; they combine, and become condensed to half their volume. It is a colourless, suffocating gas, which is immediately decomposed by water into carbonic and hydrochloric acids.

Carbon, Sulphide of. CS2. Syn. Bisulphide of carbon, Carbon disulphide, Sulphuret of carbon. Bisulphide of iron (iron pyrites), 5 parts, and fresh dry charcoal, 1 part, are heated together in a stoneware retort, furnished with a glass tube, having the end bent, and passing nearly to the bottom of a bottle or receiver filled with pounded ice. The bisulphide of carbon collects at the bottom of the receiver, and is then purified from adhering moisture and sulphur by distilling it, at a low temperature, from fused chloride of calcium.

By passing the vapour of sulphur over fragments of charcoal, heated to bright redness in a porcelain tube, and collecting the product as before.

Sulphide of carbon is best manufactured by means of Peroncele’s apparatus figured in the accompanying drawing.

A is a fire-clay gas retort supported on the fire-clay block B; E and E are openings, one being that of a porcelain tube firmly cemented into the cover of A, serving for the introduction of sulphur; the other opening is for the introduction of pieces of coke, with which before the operation commences the retort is filled. The vapours of the sulphide of carbon pass through the tubes H and I into the vessel J, wherein part of the sulphide is condensed, and flows through K into the flask L, filled with water, thence through M into O, finally being run off by the tap N. Any vapours not condensed in J pass through P P into the worm T, the condensed sulphide being collected in S. The crude sulphide is rectified by redistillation over zinc or perchloride of mercury by means of a steam or water bath. If the perchloride is employed it should remain in contact with the crude sulphide for at least 24 hours before redistillation.

Prop., Uses, &c. A colourless, pungent, fetid liquid, having the sp. gr. 1·27. It is exceedingly volatile, boiling at 118·5° Fahr., and has never been frozen. It is highly inflammable, burning with a pale-blue flame, and giving off sulphurous and carbonic-acid gases. It freely dissolves sulphur and phosphorus, and by spontaneous evaporation deposits the first in beautiful crystals. The solution of phosphorus is much used in electrotyping objects, which are coated with a conducting film by its means. Its refractive power is remarkably high, and on this account it is employed to fill hollow lenses for spectroscopes and other optical instruments. It produces intense cold by its evaporation. A spirit thermometer, having its bulb covered with cotton, if dipped into this fluid and suspended in the air, rapidly sinks from 60° to 0°, and if put into the receiver of an air-pump it will fall to -81° Fahr. A mixture of sulphide of carbon and solid carbonic anhydride forms almost the most powerful frigorific agent known. Sulphide of carbon is now prepared on the large scale, and extensively employed as a solvent.

It is thus used for extracting from the cake of fruits and seeds the oil remaining in them after they have been submitted to pressure. The sulphide is subsequently separated from the oil by distillation. In Algiers it is used for obtaining the essential oils contained in the rose, jessamine, and lavender. It is also employed for dissolving the fat from bones, and from the crude wool. Furthermore, it is an excellent solvent for caoutchouc, as well as for the ordinary resins.

Its vapour is employed by agriculturists to kill the larvæ infesting grain. Latterly, it has been employed as a disinfectant.

a. Carbon Bisulphide as an Antiseptic. By P. Zöller (‘Deut. Chem. Ges. Berl.,’ ix, 1080-1084). The author has continued his experiments on this subject with the object of determining (1) the minimum quantity of bisulphide required, and (2) whether articles of food preserved by means of it are fit for human consumption.

As regards the first point, he found that meat of all kinds, and even entire animals, in quantities up to 20 kilograms, kept perfectly well for several weeks in vessels of sheet zinc, into which 5 grams of carbon bisulphide had been introduced, the meat being either simply hung on hooks or wrapped in cloths and laid on perforated shelves in the vessels. Probably a smaller quantity of the bisulphide would suffice. Meat also kept well for 62 days in a vessel in which carbon bisulphide was liberated by introducing potassium xanthate and dilute sulphuric acid. Freshly baked bread, vegetables, and fruits of all kinds (asparagus, radishes, young beans, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, currants, cherries, peaches, apricots, lemons, &c.), and juices of fruits kept perfectly well in glass vessels, into which carbon bisulphide has been introduced, in the proportion of 5-10 drops for each litre of capacity.

Bread, vegetables, and fruit thus preserved are fit to eat after simple exposure to the air, and cannot be distinguished by taste or other qualities (except a slight loss of colour in some fruits) from fresh bread, &c. Meat retains even after exposure to air the disagreeable odour of carbon bisulphide. But besides this odour, which disappears on boiling or roasting, the meat has a slight smell of the volatile fatty acids and the taste of game. To most people, however, this taste is not unpleasant. The presence of fatty acids is to be attributed to decomposition taking place in the interior of the meat, and not preventable by the carbon bisulphide, the function of which is merely to kill germs present in the air or on the surface of substances submitted to its influence.

b. By Hugo Schiff (‘Deut. Chem. Ges. Ber.,’ ix, 828). Cocoons of silkworms which had been killed by exposure to the vapours of carbon disulphide underwent no change during six months’ keeping in flasks in the laboratory. The bodies of some pigs which had been used for physiological experiments were put into a stoppered vessel with a few c. c. of carbon disulphide in 1869, and have been perfectly preserved without decomposition. The same result was obtained with a lizard 35-45 centimetres long, which had been suffocated accidentally in 1869, and was bottled whole. In this case a small quantity of liquid collected at the bottom of the vessel, and the green hue of the skin became a dirty greyish green, but not the slightest putrefaction occurred. Similar results were obtained with the intestines of poultry immersed in water in 1872 with a little carbon disulphide, in a bottle with a greased stopper; with a lump of beef weighing 200 grams; and with the body of a finch killed with paraconine. The beef yielded a normal flesh fluid, and was eaten by a dog without hesitation even after several months.

Purification.—1. It is stated that the odour of sulphide of carbon can be readily removed by allowing it to stand over mercury or corrosive sublimate for some time, and then redistilling.

2. The following method by Kern is stated by him to be the best for purifying sulphide of carbon:—The impure product is well mixed in a tall glass vessel with some lead nitrate, and with a small quantity of metallic lead. When the salt turns dark the liquid is poured into another vessel with a fresh quantity of the lead salt; and so on until the salt remains nearly white while mixed with the liquor. The sulphide of carbon is then placed in a retort, and distilled over into a well-cooled receiver.

3. M. Yvon proposes a process which consists in adding copper turnings to the sulphide; no slaking is necessary. The sulphide soon becomes nearly colourless, and loses its usually unpleasant odour. Miller says reduced copper produces the same result.

Carbon sulphide is employed therapeutically in doses of 2 drops, gradually increased to 5, as a sudorific in rheumatism. It is also dropped (40 to 50 drops) on the part, to promote the reduction of strangulated hernia. Externally, it is employed in liniments for rheumatic pains.

CAR′BONATE, a salt in which the hydrogen of (hypothetical) carbonic acid (H2CO3) is replaced by a metal or other basic radical.

Prep., &c. The processes by which the commercial carbonates and many others are prepared are described under the respective bases. Most of the earthy carbonates are found abundantly in nature. In general the salts of this class may be formed by adding an alkaline carbonate to a salt of the metal in solution by double decomposition.

Prop. The carbonates of the alkalies are soluble in water; those of the other bases are for the most part insoluble, except the water is highly charged with carbonic acid. From most of them carbonic anhydride or anhydrous carbonic acid can be easily expelled by heat.

Tests. The carbonates are easily distinguished by the following reactions:—They dissolve with effervescence in hydrochloric acid and in most other acids; in some cases a gentle heat is required to promote the disengagement of the gas.—The gas evolved in the last, passed into lime water and baryta water, occasions white precipitates, which redissolve in acids with effervescence, and after the solution has been boiled are not reprecipitated by liquor of ammonia.—Chloride of calcium and chloride of barium give white precipitates in solutions of the neutral alkaline carbonates, but in solutions of the alkaline bicarbonates only after ebullition; and the precipitates are readily soluble with effervescence in acetic acid.

Estim. The quantity of the metal in an alkaline or earthy carbonate may be easily determined by the ordinary volumetric methods of alkalimetry (which see), and the quantity of carbonic acid, by the method of Fresenius and Will (see Alkalimetry). The apparatus figured on next page, or preferably that shown in the article on Alkalimetry, may be used instead of the more complicated contrivance of the German chemists.

A weighed sample of the carbonate to be examined is placed in the flask a along with a little water, and the small tube, b, filled with either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, is carefully introduced. The cork, with its chloride of calcium tube, d, is then fitted to the flask, and the whole apparatus very accurately weighed.

On inclining the apparatus the acid escapes over the side of the small tube, and mixing with the liquor in the flask, expels the carbonic acid of the carbonate, which is then dried by passing over the chloride of calcium. After effervescence has ceased heat should be applied to the bottom of the flask, until it be filled with steam, to expel the carbonic gas it contains. The loss of weight gives the weight of the carbonic acid gas that was contained in the sample. The quantity of carbonic acid in the carbonates of the metals that do not contain water may be determined by heating them to redness in a platina crucible.

a, Flask containing the sample of carbonate for examination, stopped by a closely fitting cork, through which passes the bent tube c.

b, A small tube, sufficiently long to maintain a slanting position without falling, filled with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid.

c, A bent tube, connecting the flask with d.

d, Horizontal tube, filled with small fragments of fused or dried chloride of calcium, with a fine orifice at the extremity e.

CARBONIC ACID. H2CO3. True carbonic acid has not yet been obtained in any satisfactory condition, although the solution of carbonic anhydride (often called carbonic acid), or anhydrous carbonic acid, is generally regarded as such. It forms with bases an important series of salts, called the carbonates, by double decomposition.

CARBONIC ANHYDRIDE. CO2. Syn. Carbonic acid, Carbon dioxide, Fixed air, Choke damp; Acide carbonique, Fr.; Kohlen säure, Ger. A compound formed by the chemical union of carbon and oxygen.

Hist. Van Helmont recognised carbonic acid as a peculiar gas. Dr Black, in 1757, proved that it was a constituent of limestone, and gave it the name of fixed air; he also showed that the causticity of alkalies depended on its absence. Bergmann first described it as an acid, applying to it the term aërial acid. Lavoisier, in 1776, established its true nature, and gave it the name it now bears. Faraday, in 1823, by pressure at an extremely low temperature, reduced carbonic acid to a liquid, and a few years later Thiloria and Brunel obtained it in the solid form.

Nat. Hist. Carbonic acid is a constituent of the atmosphere, its presence being essential to the existence of vegetable life on the globe. It issues from the earth in many situations, as the Grotto del Cane in Italy, the Valley of Poison in Java, and near the Lake of Laach in Germany. It gives to many mineral springs their sparkling brilliancy, and is held in solution by all natural waters. Combined with the bases, lime and magnesia especially, it exists in large quantities in the crust of the earth. It is the chief product of combustion, and one of the products of fermentation. It is always being exhaled by animals in the process of respiration, and in smaller quantities by plants at night or in the shade. It forms the terrible “choke-damp” or “after-damp” of the coal mines. It is the gas disengaged during the effervescence of soda water and other aërated drinks, and the cause of the freshness of newly-drawn beer.

Prep. Hydrochloric acid, 1 part, diluted with water, 4 or 5 parts, is poured upon fragments of white marble, previously placed in a suitable generating apparatus.

Carbonic acid is rapidly evolved, and may be collected, with some loss, over water in the pneumatic trough. If required dry, the gas must be passed over fragments of fused chloride of calcium, placed in a large tube, or through a small quantity of concentrated sulphuric acid, and collected by displacement or over mercury.

From oil of vitriol, 1 part; water, 6 parts; and chalk or whiting, 1⁄4 part; mixed in a suitable vessel, applying agitation.

Prop. Under ordinary conditions carbonic acid is a colourless, non-inflammable, irrespirable gas, possessing a slightly pungent odour, and an acidulous taste. Water absorbs its own volume of this gas, and by pressure may be made to take up enormous quantities, forming carbonated or aërated water. Its sp. gr. is 1·520; hence it may be poured from one vessel to another like water. By a pressure of thirty atmospheres at 32° Fahr. it is liquefied, the pressure required decreasing as the temperature gets lower. At -94° Fahr. it solidifies into a vitreous transparent mass.

Carbonic acid, even when greatly diluted with air, cannot be inhaled without insensibility following. An atmosphere containing more than its natural quantity of gas (1 part in 2500 parts by measure) acts upon the system as a narcotic poison; hence the danger of over-crowded rooms. It is a non-supporter of combustion, at once extinguishing a lighted candle, gas-jet, or even a piece of burning phosphorus, when these are placed in a jar of the gas.

Tests. It feebly reddens litmus paper, extinguishes the flame of a burning taper, and forms a white precipitate in aqueous solutions of lime and baryta, which is soluble in acetic acid. By the last test a very small quantity of this gas may be easily detected in the atmosphere of rooms, &c. A lighted candle is generally used to test an atmosphere suspected to contain carbonic acid: but it is found that air that will support combustion will contain sufficient of this gas to cause insensibility.

Ant., &c. The patient should be immediately removed into the open air, and placed on his back with the head slightly raised. Cold water should be dashed over the body, hot water or mustard poultices applied to the feet, and ammonia (carefully) to the nostrils. Brandy-and-water and other stimulants may be administered. Continued friction on the surface of the body is also very useful. If the patient has ceased to breathe artificial respiration should be attempted. This may be done by gently pressing down the ribs, and forcing up the diaphragm, and then suddenly withdrawing the pressure. The inhalation of air, mixed with very little chlorine gas, has also been recommended. Wells, cellars, or other underground apartments, containing carbonic acid in poisonous quantities, may be freed from this gas by pumping it out in the same way as water, observing to allow the suction hose to fully reach the floor or bottom of the place. Fresh slaked lime or milk of lime, copiously thrown in, will have a like effect, by absorbing the gas. Free ventilation, whenever it can be established, is, however, not only the cheapest, but the most efficient remedy. See Asphyxia.

CARBON′IC OXIDE. CO. Syn. Protoxide of carbon, Carbon monoxide, Ga′seous oxide of carbon; Oxy′dum carbon′icum, L. A gaseous compound of carbon and oxygen, containing less oxygen than is contained in carbonic acid.

Prep. 1. From carbonic acid gas passed over fragments of charcoal, heated to redness in a tube of porcelain or iron.

2. From crystallised oxalic acid, gently heated with 5 or 6 times its weight of strong sulphuric acid in a glass retort.

3. From ferrocyanide of potassium in fine powder, and 8 or 10 times its weight of concentrated sulphuric acid, heated together in a glass retort.

Obs. All the processes except the last give a mixture of carbonic acid and oxide. It is therefore necessary to pass the gas through a caustic alkaline solution or milk of lime to deprive it of carbonic acid. It may then be passed over dried chloride of calcium, to deprive it of moisture. It may be collected either over mercury or water, as the latter absorbs very little of this gas.

Prop. Carbonic oxide is colourless, inodorous, neutral, inflammable, and irrespirable. It is extremely poisonous, 1% mixed with air being sufficient to cause dangerous drowsiness. The deaths produced by the combustion of charcoal in close rooms are now attributed to this gas. The antidotes, &c., are the same as for poisoning from inhaling carbonic acid.

CAR′BUNCLE. A larger sized and dangerous form of boil, attended by extensive sloughing. The treatment consists in lancing, poulticing, and the adoption of a generous diet, with wine and stimulants. The safer plan, however, is to seek the advice of a medical man.

CAR′BURETTED HY′DROGEN. See Hydrogen.

CARD′AMOM. Syn. Card′amum; Cardamo′mum, B. P. The seed or fruit of the Elettaria Cardamomum forms the officinal cardamom. It is warm, pungent, carminative, and stomachic, and is largely used as a condiment in the East, and in Europe as an adjuvant in other medicines. Several kinds of cardamoms used medicinally and as spices are produced by the genus Amomum, belonging to the natural order Zingiberaceæ, the Ginger family.

CARD′BOARD. Cardboard, or sized pasteboard, is made of two to fifteen sheets of sized paper, pressed and stained. There are varieties of cardboard known as Bristol-board, London-board, the former being largely used for water-colour drawings, mounting-board, ornamental board, &c.

CAR′MINATIVES. Medicines that allay flatulency and spasmodic pains. Among the principal carminatives are ANISEED, CARAWAY SEED, CARDAMOMS, CASSIA, CINNAMON, GINGER, PEPPERMINT, and the PEPPERS. To these may be added ARDENT SPIRITS, and most of the AROMATIC ESSENCES and TINCTURES. See Mixtures, Patent Medicines, &c.

CAR′MINE. Syn. Carmine red, Vegetable scarlet; Carmi′num, L. A beautiful red pigment prepared from the cochineal insect.

Prep. The preparation of carmine is little understood, but success in its manufacture depends less on any mystery connected with the process than on the employment of the purest water and the best materials, and the exercise of moderate care, dexterity, and patience. The following forms will produce carmine of the richest hues down to ordinary and common, according to the skill possessed by the manipulator.

1. (Madame Cenette’s process.) Cochineal (in powder), 2 lbs., is boiled in pure river water, 15 galls., for 2 hours, when refined saltpetre (bruised), 3 oz., is added to the decoction, and the whole boiled for 3 or 4 minutes longer; salt of sorrel, 4 oz., is next added, and the boiling again renewed for 10 or 12 minutes; the heat is now removed, and the liquid allowed to settle for about 4 hours, after which time it is decanted with a syphon into shallow plate-like vessels, and set aside for three weeks. At the end of this time the film of mould which has formed on the surface is dexterously and carefully removed, without breaking it or disturbing the liquid beneath it. The remaining fluid is next very carefully removed with a syphon, and the adhering moisture, as far as possible, drained off, or sucked up with a pipette. The residuum, which is the carmine, is dried in the shade, and possesses extraordinary lustre and beauty.

2. (Alxon or Langlois’ process.) Powdered cochineal, 1 lb., is boiled in river water, 4 galls., for 10 minutes, when carbonate of soda, ⁄4 oz., dissolved in water, 1 pint, is added, and the whole again boiled for ⁄2 hour longer; when the decoction is cold, alum (in fine powder), ⁄4 oz., is thrown in, and the liquid agitated rapidly until it is entirely dissolved; after 20 minutes’ repose it is decanted into another vessel, and clarified by heating it with the whites of 2 eggs; the perfectly clear liquid is then allowed to repose for 40 minutes or longer, when it is decanted, and the carmine which it has deposited is collected, drained on a filter, and dried on shallow plates covered with silver paper. The product by either of the above processes varies from 9⁄2 to 10% on the weight of the cochineal employed in them.

3. (China or Spirit process.) Cochineal, 1 lb., is boiled for 15 minutes, in water, 3 galls., powdered alum, 1 dr., is next added, and the whole again boiled for 5 or 6 minutes; when the liquid has become cold, the clear portion is decanted, and again heated, the solution of tin (spirits of tin) cautiously dropped in until all the carmine is precipitated; it is collected, drained, and dried, as before. Prod. 1⁄2 oz.

3. (French process.) From cochineal (in powder), 1 lb., boiled for 15 minutes, in water, 3 galls.; cream of tartar (in powder), 1 oz., is then added, the boiling further continued for 10 minutes, and powdered alum 1⁄2 oz., thrown in; after another 2 minutes’ boil the heat is withdrawn, and in 5 or 6 minutes more the clear portion is decanted into porcelain vessels, which are set aside until the carmine falls down.

4. (German process.) Powdered cochineal, 1 lb., water, 4 galls.; boil 15 minutes, add powdered alum, 1 oz.; boil 3 minutes longer, remove the heat, allow the liquor to settle for 5 minutes, pour off the clear portion into porcelain or earthenware vessels, and set them aside for 3 or 4 days. The carmine is found deposited on the bottom of the vessel, and must be now carefully drained and dried, as before. The decanted liquor yields more carmine by standing in fresh vessels. Product. About 1⁄2 oz.; besides ⁄2 oz., or more, of an inferior quality obtained as a second deposit.

5. (English process.) From cochineal, 1 lb., and carbonate of potash, ⁄2 oz., boiled in water, 7 galls., for 15 minutes; the vessel is then removed from the fire, and powdered alum, 1 oz., added; the liquor is then well agitated and allowed to settle for about 15 minutes longer; the clear liquid is next decanted into a clean copper, and isinglass, ⁄2 oz., dissolved in water, 1 pint (and strained), added; as soon as a coagulum forms upon the surface, the heat is removed, and the liquid is strongly agitated with a bone or silver spatula, after which it is allowed to repose for 20 or 30 minutes. The deposited carmine must be drained and dried, as before.

Obs. The best black cochineal is generally used for the preparation of carmine. For ordinary qualities spirits of tin (bichloride) is added to the decoction as a precipitant, and the liquid being put into suitable vessels (wash-hand basins answer very well), a deposit of carmine slowly takes place. Neither exposure to solar light nor artificial heat is advisable during the drying, but the latter must nevertheless be effected with all possible expedition. Hence the finer shades of carmine can only be successfully made during certain states of weather; as in very hot weather the liquid rapidly sours or ferments, and the deposit is more or less dissolved; whilst in dull, damp weather it is difficult to dry the precipitate sufficiently, which is then apt to become mouldy, and to lose colour. The researches of Pelletier and Caventou tend to show that the solution of tin used as a precipitant should be at the maximum of oxidation or chlorination, to produce the richest shades of carmine. That first deposited is, in all cases, the most beautiful, and the quality gradually deteriorates as the process proceeds. 6 or 7 dr. only of carmine of the very finest quality can hence be obtained from 1 lb. of cochineal.

Prop., &c. Pure carmine is a very light, lustrous, scarlet powder, entirely soluble in ammonia, a test by which its purity is readily determined. Mr Warren De la Rue says the pure colouring principle of cochineal is carminic acid. By digesting ammonia on carmine until all the colour is taken up, filtering and adding acetic acid and alcohol, till the whole is precipitated; and lastly, carefully washing the precipitate with spirit of wine, at proof, and drying in the shade, carmine of the richest and most lustrous hue may be obtained even from samples of inferior quality.

Uses, &c. As a pigment in velvet and miniature painting, and for tinting artificial flowers, and as rouge for the complexion. The powdered cochineal (carmine grounds), from which the coloured liquor (liquid rouge, carmine liquor) has been decanted, is used by the paper stainers, and both are used in the preparation of carminated lake.

Carmine, Blue. See Indigo.

Carmine, Li′quid. Syn. Fluid carmine, Liquid rouge, Carmine ink. Prep. 1. A solution of carmine in ammonia water, or spirits of hartshorn. Very rich and beautiful.

2. The residual liquor of the process of making carmine. Inferior. The first is used in velvet and miniature painting, and for tinting artificial flowers; the second for common purposes, as a stain or wash.

Carmine, Pur′ple. See Murexide.

CARMIN′IC ACID. C14H14O8. Prep. (W. De la Rue.) The powdered insect, after treatment with ether to remove the fat, is digested in water. The decoction of cochineal is precipitated by adding a solution of acetate of lead, and the impure carminate of lead thus formed, after being washed with water, is suspended in water, and decomposed by a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen; the whole process is repeated with the decanted solution so obtained; the second solution is then evaporated to dryness (in vacuo over sulphuric acid), dissolved in absolute alcohol, digested on some washed crude carminate of lead (to separate a little phosphoric acid), and, lastly, mixed with ether (to precipitate some nitrogenised matter); the residuum obtained by careful evaporation (in vacuo) is pure carminic acid.

Prop., &c. A purple-brown mass, yielding a rich-red powder; it is freely soluble in water and alcohol; slightly soluble in ether; and without decomposition in oil of vitriol; it is feebly acid; its salts are termed carminates, only two or three of which have been examined. According to Mr De la Rue, this acid constitutes the pure colouring matter of cochineal.

CARNAUBA ROOT. The root of the corypha cerifera, a wax-bearing palm, growing on the shores of the Rio Francisco, in Brazil. Dr C. Symes (see ‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ 3rd series, v, 661) says:—Two bales of this root have been imported into Liverpool, with the following remarks in Portuguese:—“This root is recognised by the professor as an excellent purifying agent, and has been successfully applied in the cure of various diseases arising from impurity of the blood. We are indeed astonished that it is not more widely known, as its therapeutic qualities, which are worthy of full credence, rival those of sarsaparilla. The carnauba root likewise has a diuretic power, and possesses unusual efficacy, in the cure of acute and chronic blennorrhœas. It is, furthermore, very cooling, and displays a vigorous action in purifying the blood.” Mr Cleaver, who submitted the root to analysis, found it to contain very minute quantities of an alkaloid, an acrid resinous body, a red colouring matter, a variety of tannic acid, and a small portion of volatile oil.

CAROBA. The leaves of a tree belonging to the family Bignoniaceæ, employed in Brazil as a diaphoretic, diuretic, and alterative tonic. Dr Alt states that he has used them extensively, and with much success, in old-standing cases of syphilitic eruptions, and after a course of mercurial treatment. They are usually administered either in the form of powder or decoction.

CAROT′INE. C18H24O. A crystalline, copper-red substance, obtained from the root of the Daucus carota (sativa) or garden carrot. It is tasteless; odourless; neutral; fusible; inflammable; insoluble in ether and water; slightly soluble in alcohol; and very soluble in the mixed and volatile oils.

CAR′PETS. Consideration of cleanliness and economy demand a few words on carpets and hearth-rugs. We are assured by an experienced person that before proceeding to sweep a carpet, a few handfuls of waste tea-leaves should be sprinkled over it (say some five or six minutes before). A stiff hair broom or hair brush only should be employed unless the carpet be very dirty, when a whisk or carpet-broom may be used first, followed by another made of hair, to take off the loose dust. The frequent use of a stiff “carpet-broom” (those made of cane or birch are here alluded to) soon wears off the beauty of the best carpet. An ordinary clothes-brush, or a clean one, resembling the dirt brush used for shoes, is best adapted for superior carpets. When carpets are very dirty they should be cleaned by shaking and beating. “If you must have a carpet, take it up two or three times a year, instead of once. A dirty carpet literally infects the room: if you consider the enormous quantity of organic matter from the feet of people coming in, which must saturate it this is by no means surprising.” (Miss Nightingale.) In laying down carpets it is very advisable, at first, to cover the floor beneath them with large sheets of thick paper, so as to prevent dust from rising between the boards. Old drugget, sacking, matting, or any similar substance, will effect the same purpose, and will, moreover, materially increase the durability of the carpet, by preserving it from the contact of the hard floor.

Brussels Carpets may be cleaned with ox-gall (1 pint to a pailful of water), and a scrubbing-brush, and floor-cloth; afterwards rinsing them in fresh water applied in the same way. They should be previously perfectly freed from dust by beating, and should be nailed down before commencing the above operations. Great care should be taken to rub them as dry as possible with a clean dry floor-cloth. A small portion only should be done at a time, and a dry windy day selected for the purpose. A carpet treated in this manner will be greatly refreshed in colour, particularly the greens.

Kidderminster Carpets will scarcely bear the above treatment without becoming so soft as to get speedily dirty again. This may in some measure be prevented by brushing them over with a hot weak solution of size in water, to which a little alum has been added. Curd soap, dissolved in hot water, may be used instead of ox-gall, but it is more likely to injure the colours if produced by false dyes. When there are spots of grease on the carpeting they may be covered with curd soap, dissolved in boiling water, and rubbed with a brush until the stains are removed, when they must be cleaned with warm water as before. The addition of a little gall to the soap renders it more efficacious. Some persons employ a mixture of soap, fuller’s earth, and turpentine, for the same purpose. Benzol rapidly removes the grease stains, and may be advantageously substituted for preparations of soap.

CAR′RAGEEN. Syn. I′′rish moss; Chondrus, L. The Chondrus crispus of botanists, a well-known alga or seaweed. It contains a large proportion of a peculiar jelly, called carrageen′in or pect′in. This may be purified by agitation with dilute alcohol and filtration. The jelly forms an agreeable article of diet. It is used to a limited extent for thickening colours in calico printing. In medicine, carrageen is used in the form of a jelly and decoction as a demulcent, and is often prescribed in pulmonary complaints. See Fixature, Algæ, Paste, Syrup.

CAR′ROT. Syn. Caro′ta, L. The seed is carminative and diuretic; the expressed juice of the root is anthelmintic. Scraped raw carrot is sometimes employed as a stimulant application to sore nipples; the boiled root as a poultice to sores and tumours. As an article of food, unless young and well dressed, carrots are rather indigestible. Carrots can be kept for many months if the tops are cut out, and they are then placed in damp sand.

Analysis of Carrots.

Water 87·30

Albumenoids 0·66

Cellular tissue, gum, and
non-nitrogenous substance 2·56

Sugar 5·54

Fibre 3·20

Mineral matters ·74

100·00

CAR′THAMIN. C14H16O7. Syn. Pure rouge, Saf′flower carmine, Safflower lake. The red colouring matter of Carthamus tinctorius or safflower, formerly much used as a dye, particularly in the form of pink saucers for dyeing stockings.

Prep. 1. Safflower, exhausted by washing it with water (or with water acidulated with acetic acid), is dried, coarsely pulverised, and the powder digested in a weak solution of carbonate of sodium; pieces of clean white cotton or calico are then immersed in the solution, and acetic acid gradually added in slight excess; the cotton is next washed, dried, and digested in a fresh quantity of dilute solution of carbonate of sodium, and agitation employed until the whole of the colour is again dissolved; the new solution is filtered and slightly super-saturated with citric acid (or acetic acid); the carthamin, which falls down in rich carmine-red flocks, is lastly washed with cold distilled water, and dried.

2. Washed safflower (dried and powdered), any quantity; aqueous solution of carbonate of sodium (containing 15% of carbonate), q. s. to form a thick paste; after some hours press out the red liquor, nearly neutralise it with acetic acid, put in cotton as before, and add acetic acid in slight excess; the next day remove the cotton and wash it in water holding in solution 5% of carbonate of sodium, until the colour is dissolved out, after which precipitate with citric acid, as before.

Prop., &c. An amorphous, brilliant, greenish powder; nearly insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, forming a gorgeous purple solution, and in weak alkaline lyes giving an equally beautiful red one.

CAR′THAMUS. Syn. Saf′flower. In botany, a genus of composite plants, the most important species of which is Carthamus tinctorius, the safflower. The florets of this yield a beautiful pink dye (see above), and are sometimes used to adulterate hay saffron. The “cake saffron” of the shops consists entirely of safflower and mucilage. The fruits, commonly called “seeds,” yield by expression the useful oil known in India as Koosum oil.

CARUM (PTYCHOTIS) AJOWAN. Ind. Ph. Syn. Ajwain or Omum plant. Habitat. Tropical Africa? Much cultivated in India.— Officinal part. The fruit (Fructus Ptychotis, Ajwain fruit). Occurs in the form of minute umbelliferous fruits, which, examined with a lens, are seen to be covered with prominent tubercles, extremely aromatic, evolving, when rubbed, a strong odour resembling that of common thyme. Taste somewhat bitter, and very pungent. Its virtues reside in a volatile oil.—Properties. Valuable stimulant, carminative, and antispasmodic.—Therapeutic uses. In flatulence, flatulent colic, atonic dyspepsia, and diarrhœa, it is a remedy of much value.

Oil of Ajwain, or Omum (Oleum Ptychotis). The oil obtained by distillation from the fruit. Recently prepared, colourless, but soon acquires a yellowish tinge. It has the odour of the fruit, and an acrid burning taste. Sp. gr. about 0·88.—Dose, 1 to 3 drops on sugar or in emulsion.

Ajwain, or Omum Water (Aqua Ptychotis). Take of ajwain fruit, bruised, 20 oz.; water, 2 galls. Distil a gallon.—Dose, 1 to 2 fluid ounces. A valuable carminative; also useful in disguising the taste of disagreeable drugs, especially castor oil, and obviating their tendency to cause nausea and griping.

CARYOPH′YLLIN. C10H16O. Syn. Clove camphor, Clove resin. A crystalline substance, isomeric with ordinary camphor, which deposits from oil of cloves in needles.

CARYOPH′YLLUS. See Clove.

CASCARIL′LA. Syn. Cascarillæ cortex (B. P.), L. The bark of Croton eleutheria or the seaside balsam, a tree growing in the Bahamas and Jamaica. It is an aromatic bitter, stomachic, and tonic—Dose, 10 gr. to 30 gr., in the form of powder, infusion, or tincture; in diarrhœa, dysentery, dyspepsia, low fevers, intermittents, &c.

CASCARIL′LINE. Syn. Cascaril′lina. Prep. (Duval.) Cascarilla is exhausted with cold water by percolation, precipitated with acetate of lead, and the filtrate treated with sulphuretted hydrogen; the filtered liquid, after agitation with animal charcoal and filtration, is gently evaporated to dryness. The powder is redissolved in boiling alcohol and crystallised by very slow or by spontaneous evaporation. It has a bitter taste and acid reaction; its aqueous solution is unaffected by the ferric salts and tincture of galls.—Dose, 1 to 3 gr.; in dyspepsia, &c.

CASE-HARD′ENING. Syn. Steel sur′facing. The operation of giving a surface of steel to iron goods. Tools, fire-irons, fenders, keys, &c., are usually case-hardened.

Process. 1. The goods (finished in every respect but polishing) are put into an iron box, and covered with animal or vegetable charcoal, and “cemented” at a red heat for a period varying with the size and description of the articles operated on: these, when taken out, are hardened by plunging into water, or oil, if they are of a delicate nature.

2. (Moxon.) Cow’s horn or hoof is baked or thoroughly dried and pulverised; to this is added an equal quantity of bay salt, and the whole is made into a paste with stale chamber-lye, or white wine vinegar; the iron is covered with this mixture, and bedded in it, in loam, or inclosed in an iron box. In this form it is laid on the hearth of the forge to dry and harden, then it is put into the fire, and blown till the lump has a blood-red heat (no higher). It is hardened as before.

3. Coat the goods with a paste made of a concentrated solution of prussiate of potash and loam; then expose them to a strong red heat, and when it has fallen to a dull red, plunge the whole into cold water.

4. The goods, previously polished and finished, are heated to a bright-red, and rubbed or sprinkled over with prussiate of potash. As soon as the prussiate appears to be decomposed and dissipated the articles are plunged into cold water.

Obs. The process of case-hardening has been well conducted when the surface of the metal proves sufficiently hard to resist a file. The last two plans are a great improvement upon the common method. By the topical application of prussiate of potash (ferrocyanide of potassium) any part of a piece of iron may be case-hardened without interfering with the rest.

Case-hardening Powders. Syn. Case-hardening compositions. 1. Prussiate of potash, dried and powdered.

2. Prussiate of potash, 3 parts; sal-ammoniac, 1 part; mix.

3. Sal-ammoniac and bone-dust, of each 2 parts; prussiate of potash, 1 part. (See above.)

CA′SEIN. Syn. Ca′seum, Ca′sein, Lactalbu′men, Albumen of milk. The nitrogenous principle of milk. Cheese made from skimmed milk and well pressed is nearly pure casein. (Liebig.)

Prep. 1. The curd obtained by adding dilute sulphuric acid to milk is well washed and dissolved in carbonate of soda. It is allowed to stand for 24 hours, to let the oil rise to the surface, and when this is properly skimmed off, the casein is precipitated by an acid. The process is repeated a second time, and the coagulum digested with alcohol and ether, and dried. With all these precautions the casein still contains some saline matter which cannot be removed.

2. Milk is coagulated by hydrochloric acid, and the curd then well washed with dilute acid, and finally with pure water. The curd so prepared is dissolved by digestion at 110° Fahr., with a large quantity of water; the solution, after filtration, is coagulated with carbonate of ammonia; the coagulum is washed with water, ether, and alcohol, and finally dried.

Prop., &c. Coagulated casein is readily dissolved by the alkalies and alkaline carbonates. The most remarkable property of casein is its coagulation by certain animal membranes, as in the process of cheese-making with rennet. See Lactarin.

CASKS. The care and management of casks is an important affair in a large establishment. It is found that they last longest when stored either in a dry situation, or in one uniformly very moist. Continual variations from the one to the other speedily rot them. As soon as casks are emptied they should be bunged down quite air-tight, with as much care as if they were full, by which means they will be preserved both sweet and sound. Should any of the hoops become loose they should be immediately driven up tight, which will at once prevent the liability of their being lost or misplaced, as well as the casks fouling or becoming musty from the admission of air. For this purpose those out of use should be occasionally hauled over and examined.

Numerous plans are adopted for CLEANING and PURIFYING CASKS, among which are the following:—

1. Wash them well out with oil of vitriol, diluted with an equal weight of water.

2. Wash them first with a little chloride of lime and warm water, and then with water soured with oil of vitriol.

3. Match them with sulphur, or with sulphur mixed with a little saltpetre.

4. Unhead them and whitewash them with fresh milk of lime, made pretty strong. This plan is commonly followed for brewers’ vats.

5. Remove the heads, and char the insides of the staves by the aid of a fire of shavings kindled within them.

6. A simpler, safer, and more effectual method of charring them than the last is to wash the dry casks out with strong oil of vitriol (sp. gr. 1·854). This not only purifies the surfaces of the staves, but penetrates into all the cracks, some of which might escape the action of the fire.

7. Steam has lately been applied to the insides of casks with great advantage. High-pressure steam is driven in at the bung-hole, at the same time that the cask is violently agitated (a heavy chain having been previously put into it), until all the dirt and bad smell is removed.

8. A lye of pearlash or soda, mixed with milk of lime, as well as strong hot brine, and other similar liquors, have been adopted by some persons, and are highly spoken of.

9. The coopers boil the staves for gin casks in a strong lye of alum before placing them together, to prevent their colouring the spirit, but washing with oil of vitriol is a better plan.

10. Some persons fill musty casks with water and add 3 or 4 lbs. of coarsely powdered fresh burnt charcoal, and agitate well for a few days.

11. Wash with bisulphite of lime.

Obs. In all the above processes the greatest care must be taken to scald or soak and well rinse out the casks after the treatment described. See Brewing Utensils, Sporokton, Matches, &c.

CAS′SAREEP. The expressed juice of the sweet cassava, concentrated by heat and flavoured with aromatics. It is used in the West Indies as a condiment. (See below.)

CAS′SAVA. A poisonous shrub cultivated in the West Indies and in many parts of South America for the sake of the starchy matter contained in its roots. It belongs to the natural order Euphorbiaceæ, and is known to botanists under the names Manihot utilissima (Pohl), Janipha manihot (Humboldt), and Jatropha manihot (Linn.), the former being that now generally adopted. The name “bitter cassava” is commonly given to it in the West Indies, to distinguish it from another species of the same genus, Manihot aipi (Pohl), which, from having no poisonous properties, is named the “sweet cassava.” The roots of both species yield the starch, but those of the poisonous plant are the richer.

The roots, after being well washed and scraped, are rasped or grated, and the pulp thus formed is subjected to strong pressure, to expel the poisonous juice which it contains. The compressed pulp is next thoroughly dried over the fire, being constantly stirred the whole time, by which any remaining portion of the noxious juice is either volatilised or decomposed. It now forms CASSAVA MEAL. When it is further prepared by grinding, it forms FINE CASSAVA MEAL or CASSAVA FLOUR. When the compressed pulp is baked on a hot plate, it forms CASSAVA BREAD or CASSAVA CAKES, the flavour of which greatly resembles that of Scotch oat-cakes. See Tapioca.

CAS′SIA. In botany, a genus of the natural order Leguminosæ, including several important medicinal plants. The “purging cassia,” Cassia fistula (Linn.), produces pods containing a soft, blackish pulp. (See below, also Senna.)

Cassia Pulp. Syn. Cassia præpara′ta, Cassiæ pulpa (B. P.), L. Prep. The cassia (pods or fruit), broken lengthwise, are macerated in sufficient distilled water to cover them for six hours, constantly stirring; and the purified pulp strained through a hair sieve, and evaporated to the consistence of a confection in a water bath.—Dose. As a mild laxative, 1 to 2 dr.; as a purgative, ⁄4 oz. to 1⁄2 oz.

CAS′SOLETTES (Scented). See Pastilles and Perfumery.

CAS′TOR. Syn. Casto′′reum, L. (B. P.) “The follicles of the prepuce of the Castor fiber or beaver, filled with a peculiar secretion.” (Ph. L.) “A peculiar secretion from the præputial follicles.” (Ph. E. and D.) It is often sophisticated; a fraud readily detected by the “absence of the membranous partition in the interior of the bags, as well as by the altered smell and taste.” (Ure.) Russian castor, which is very rare, may be distinguished by a tincture of 1-16th part in alcohol, being of the colour of deep sherry, while that with American castor is of the colour of London porter. (Pereira.)—Dose, 1 to 2 dr. or more, in powder or made into pills; in nervous and spasmodic affections, especially in hysteria, epilepsy, and other like diseases of females.

CASTOR CAKE. The crushed and closely-pressed seeds of the Ricinus communis, after the expression of the oil, are said to be sometimes employed as a cattle food, and have the following composition:—

Moisture 9·95

Organic matter 81·07

Phosphate of lime and magnesia 4·49

Alkaline salts 1·80

Sand 2·69

100·00

This cake, even when mixed with large quantities of linseed cake, &c., is intensely poisonous. A pupil of the Editor states, however, that in India castor cake, after exposure to the sun, is commonly and safely used as a food for cattle.

CAS′TOR OIL. See Oils.

CAS′TORIN. Syn. Castorin′a, Castoreum camphor. When castor is cut into small pieces and boiled in about 6 times its weight of alcohol, crystalline substance (castorin) is deposited by the filtered tincture in cooling. By re-solution in alcohol it may be obtained under the form of colourless, prismatic, acicular crystals.

Obs. Genuine Russian castor, although the most expensive, must be employed in the above process, as scarcely any castorin can be obtained from the American variety.

Prop., &c. Castorin has the odour of castor, and a coppery taste; it is inflammable, and is soluble both in ether and hot alcohol.

CASTS. In preparing casts and moulds with gelatin, wax, fusible metal, and similar substances, it is important to use them at the lowest temperature compatible with fluidity; as when only a few degrees hotter the water which adheres to the things from which the casts are taken is converted into vapour, and produces bubbles. Fusible metal may be allowed to cool in a teacup until just ready to set at the edges, and then poured into the moulds. In this way beautiful casts from moulds of wood, or of other similar substances, may be procured. When taking impressions from gems, seals, &c., the fused alloy should be placed on paper or pasteboard, and stirred about till it becomes pasty, from incipient cooling, at which moment the gem, die, or seal should be suddenly stamped on it, and a very sharp impression will then be obtained.

CATALEP′SY. Syn. Trance; Catalep′sis, Catalep′sia, L. A disease in which the organs of sense and motion cease to exercise their functions, and the heart and lungs feebly perform their offices, and in a scarcely perceptible manner. The paroxysm generally comes on without previous warning, and its duration varies from a few minutes to several days, and if medical reports are to be credited, sometimes for a much longer period. Dr Cullen seriously affirms that this disease is always counterfeited.

Treat. Ammoniacal stimulants applied to the nostrils, and spirituous liquors injected into the stomach, with general friction of the body, and free access to pure air are the best remedies. Electricity and galvanism should also be had recourse to when the necessary apparatus is at hand.

CAT′APLASMS. See Poultices.

CAT′ARACT. An opaque condition of the lens of the eye. It is a common cause of blindness. It can only be cured by a surgical operation.

CATARRH′. Syn. Catarrh′us, L. The “cold in the head,” or “cold on the chest,” of domestic medicine. Influenza is a severer form of this complaint, and has been called epidemic catarrh.

The common symptoms of catarrh are a copious discharge from the eyes and nose, a hoarseness, and generally a cough, more or less severe. The exciting causes are sudden changes of temperature and exposure to currents of cold air while the body is heated; hence the frequency of colds in hot and changeable weather.

Treat. A light diet should be adopted, and animal food and fermented and spirituous liquors should be particularly avoided. Some mild aperient should be administered; and when the symptoms are severe, or fever or headache is present, small diaphoretic doses of antimonials, accompanied by copious draughts of diluents, as barley water, weak tea, or gruel should be taken. This treatment, except in very bad cases, will generally effect a cure.

In HORSES catarrh is caused by sudden changes of temperature, draughts, and faulty ventilation. Let the animal have plenty of cool fresh air, the body being kept warm by means of horse-cloths and bandages. If necessary, give a mild physic-ball, or a clyster; keep it on a soft, laxative diet, and give it an ounce of nitre daily. Should there be sore throat or troublesome cough apply a mild blister of cantharides or mustard.

The following will be found a serviceable mixture:—Mendererus spirit, 1⁄2 oz.; sweet spirit of nitre, 2 drachms; syrup of sugar, ⁄2 oz.; camphor mixture, enough to make a 6-oz. mixture. An adult may take two table-spoonfuls of this mixture every 3 or 4 hours. Should the cold in the head be severe and accompanied with cough, it has been recommended to inhale the vapour of pure washed ether by drawing it alternately into the nostrils from a wide-mouthed bottle holding about an ounce, and clutching it in the warm hand until about a fourth of the ounce has been volatilised. This repeated two, three, or four times in 48 hours is said to effect a cure within that time. Persons liable to colds are advised to use the cold bath.

Dr Ferrier’s Remedy for a Cold in the Head.—Hydrochlorate of morphia, 2 gr.; powdered gum Arabic, 2 drachms; subnitrate of bismuth, 6 drachms. Mix. Let a very small quantity be sniffed up the nose every five minutes for 20 or 30 minutes.

Another remedy: Carbolic acid, 10 drops; tincture iodine; chloroform, of each 7⁄2 grams. Place a few drops in a test-tube, and heat cautiously over a spirit-lamp, and when it boils remove, and inhale by the nose. Repeat after a few minutes. Two inhalations are said to be sufficient to cure a cold in the head. (‘Year-book of Pharmacy.’)

CAT′ECHIN. Syn. Catechu′ic acid, Resinous tan′nin. When cubical gambir or catechu, in powder, is treated with cold water, a portion remains undissolved. This is catechin. By repeated solutions in alcohol it may be obtained under the form of white, silky, acicular crystals.

Prop., &c. Catechin strikes a green colour with the salts of iron, but does not precipitate gelatin. When dissolved in caustic potassa, and the solution exposed to the air, it absorbs oxygen, and japonic acid is formed. If, instead of caustic potassa, carbonate of potassa is employed, it is converted into rutic acid.

CAT′ECHU. Syn. Cas′′hew, Cutch, Gam′bir; Cat′echu (Ph. L. E. & D.), Ter′ra Japon′ica, L.; Cachou, Fr. “The extract from the wood of Acacia Catechu, or from the leaf of Uncaria Gambir.” (Pale catechu, Catechu Pallidum, B. P.) Also of the “kernels of areca catechu; probably, too, from other plants.” (Ph. E.) The term is now applied to several extracts similar in appearance and properties to that of Acacia Catechu.

There are several varieties of catechu known in commerce, of which the principal are—

Catechu, Bombay. Firm, brittle, dark brown, of a uniform texture, and a glossy, semi-resinous, and uneven fracture, Sp. gr. 1·39. Richness in tannin, 52%.

Catechu, Bengal. Rusty brown colour externally; porous, and more friable than the preceding. Sp. gr. 1·28. Richness in tannin, 49·5%.

Catechu, Malabar. Resembles the last in appearance, but is more brittle and gritty. Sp. gr. 1·40. Richness in tannin, 45·5%.

Of the above varieties the first is the one generally employed in medicine, and which commonly passes by the name of catechu. The second popularly passes under the name of terra Japonica (Japan earth), from the old belief that it was of mineral origin.

Catechu, Pale, is prepared at Singapore and in the Eastern Archipelago. It generally occurs in cubical reddish-brown pieces, porous, bitter, and astringent in taste. Entirely soluble in boiling water; the solution, when cold, is not rendered blue by iodine. Of 100 parts, only 60 are dissolved by cold water, and the solution is bright. Thirty parts of isinglass precipitate the whole of the astringent matter.—Test. Sp. gr. 1·39. “The pale catechu being already in the Edin., the B. P. 1864 retained it with the black; but the black is the one adopted by all other pharmacopœias, and is preferred in the arts and manufactures; it is well known to be far superior to the pale in astringency, and is always to be had of good quality; it is therefore a matter of surprise and regret that it has been rejected from the ‘British Pharmacopœia.’” (Squire.)

Estim. It is often of importance to the tanner and dyer to determine the richness of this article in tannic acid or tannin. The following are two simple methods:—

1. Exhaust a weighed sample (in powder) with ether, and evaporate by the heat of a hot-water bath. The product, which is the tannin, must then be accurately weighed.

2. Dissolve the sample (in powder) in hot water, let it cool out of contact with the air, filter, and add a solution of gelatin as long as a precipitate falls. The precipitate, after being washed and dried at a steam heat, contains 40% of tannin.

Uses, &c. Catechu is extensively employed in medicine, both internally and externally, as an astringent. It is used to flavour British brandy, and by the tanners as a substitute for oak bark. With it the dyer produces, inexpensively, many of his most pleasing browns. Alum mordants are mostly employed in dyeing with catechu. “The salts of copper with sal-ammoniac cause it to give a BRONZE COLOUR, which is very fast; the protochloride of tin, a BROWNISH YELLOW; the perchloride of tin, with the addition of nitrate of copper, a DEEP-BRONZE HUE; acetate of alumina, alone, a REDDISH BROWN, and with nitrate of copper, a REDDISH-OLIVE GREY; nitrate of iron, a DARK-BROWN GREY. For dyeing a GOLDEN COFFEE-BROWN, it has entirely superseded madder; 1 lb. of it being equivalent to 6 lbs. of this root.” (Ure.)—Dose, 10 gr. to 30 gr. in solution, in water, or made into a bolus, or sucked as a lozenge.

CAT′GUT. The prepared and twisted intestines of animals. Prep. The guts, taken whilst warm from the animal, are thoroughly cleaned, freed from adherent fat, and well rinsed in pure water. They are next soaked for about 2 days in water, after which they are laid on a table and scraped with a copper plate, having a semicircular notch, beginning the operation at the smaller end. In this way the mucous and peritoneal membranes are removed. The guts are then put into fresh water, and soaked until the next day, when they are again scraped, the larger ends cut off, and after well washing, again steeped for a night in fresh water, and then for 2 or 3 hours in a weak lye of pearlash or potash (2 oz. to the gall.) They are lastly washed in clean water, and passed through a polished hole in a piece of brass to smooth and equalise their surface; after which they are twisted, and sorted, according to the purposes for which they are intended. For many purposes the prepared gut is dyed or sulphured, and rubbed with olive oil. It improves by age. Red or black ink, or any of the simple dyes or stains, are used to colour it.

Uses, &c. Catgut is employed in several of the arts. The strings of harps, violins, &c., are formed of this material. Whipcord is made from catgut, which is sewed together while soft with the filandre or scrapings, after which it is put into a frame and twisted. Bowstrings for hatmakers are made out of the largest intestines, 4 to 12 of which are twisted together, until the cord is extended to 15 to 25 feet in length. It is then rubbed perfectly smooth and free from knots, half dried, sulphured twice, again stretched and sulphured, and lastly dried in a state of tension. Clock-makers’ cords are made of the smallest intestines in a similar manner.

The best fine catgut is made at Venice or Rome, from the intestines of thin, sinewy sheep. That made in England is formed from the fat sheep killed for the shamble, and is, hence, inferior. Coarse catgut, for turning lathes, &c., is made from the intestines of horses, cut into 4 or 5 strips, by forcing a ball furnished with projecting knives placed cross-wise along them. These strips are next twisted, dried, and rubbed smooth with fish skin. Gutta percha and vulcanised india rubber are now applied to many of the purposes formerly exclusively occupied by catgut.

CATHAR′TICS. See Purgatives.

CATHAR′TIN. The purgative principle of senna, first noticed by Lassaigne and Fenuelle. A strong aqueous infusion of senna leaves is evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, out of contact with the air; this fluid extract is then digested in alcohol or rectified spirit, and the tincture, after filtration, is evaporated to dryness by a gentle heat.

Prop., &c. A reddish-coloured, uncrystallisable mass; having a peculiar odour and a bitter, nauseous taste; freely soluble in both water and alcohol, and strongly cathartic. Two or three grs. cause nausea, griping, and purging. It has been proposed to employ it, combined with aromatics, as a cathartic.

CATH′ETERS. Small tubes introduced into the bladder for the purpose of drawing off its contents. They may be regarded as hollow bougies.

Prep. 1. A piece of smooth catgut, or steel wire, bent to the proper shape, is coated with melted wax. When cold it is dipped repeatedly into an ethereal solution of india rubber, until a sufficient thickness is obtained, after which it is dried by a gentle heat, and then boiled in water to melt out the wax, and to allow the catgut to be withdrawn. A solution of india rubber in bisulphide of carbon is now generally employed instead of an ethereal solution.

2. From slips of india rubber, as directed under Bougies.

3. A smooth tissue of silk is woven over a bent wire, and then coated with a surface of india rubber, or elastic varnish, and finished off as before. See Bougies.

CAUDLE. Gruel enriched by various additions.

Prep. 1. Thick oatmeal gruel mixed with about one half its weight of good mild ale (made hot), and as much sugar, and mace, nutmeg, or ginger, as will make it agreeable.

2. To the last add an egg, well beaten.

3. Sugar, 3 or 4 lumps; hot water, a table-spoonful; dissolve; add 1 egg; beat well together; further add a glass of wine and a little nutmeg or ginger; mix well, and stir the mixture into good gruel (hot), ⁄4 pint.

Uses, &c. A nourishing and restorative mixture during convalescence, much used among certain classes after accouchement. It is an excellent domestic remedy for colds, &c., unaccompanied with fever; for which purpose it should be taken on retiring to rest at night, preceded by a dose of castor oil during the day.

CAULIFLOWER. Like the cabbage, the cauliflower forms a very nutritious article of diet; rich in albumenoids and phosphates. The ash, as will be seen from the subjoined analysis, contains a large amount of mineral matter:—

Ash of Cauliflower.

Potash 34·39

Soda 14·79

Magnesia 2·38

Lime 2·96

Phosphoric acid 25·84

Sulphuric acid 11·16

Silica 1·92

Phosphate of iron 3·67

Chloride of sodium 2·78

CAUS′TIC. Syn. Caus′ticum, Escharot′i-cum, L. A substance that corrodes or destroys the texture of organised bodies. This action is popularly termed “burning.”

The principal caustics are nitrate of silver, caustic potassa, a mixture of caustic potassa and quick-lime, sulphate of copper, red oxide of mercury, verdigris, tincture of sesquichloride of iron, chloride of zinc, chloride of antimony, nitric acid, acetic acid, and carbolic acid.

Use. Caustics are employed to remove excrescences, morbid growths, granulations, &c., as corns, warts, and proud flesh; and to open issues, abscesses, &c. The first, second, and fourth are applied by gently rubbing them on the part previously moistened with water; the third is commonly made into a paste, with rectified spirit or glycerin, before application; red oxide of mercury and verdigris (in the form of powder) are often sprinkled over foul and indolent ulcers; whilst the acids and other liquid caustics are applied with a feather, camel-hair pencil, or glass rod. The same applies to the liquid preparations below. In all cases care should be taken to confine the application to the affected part.

Caustic, Ammoni′acal. See Ointments, and Caustic, Gondret’s.

Caustic, Antimo′′nial. Syn. Causticum antimonia′le, L. Chloride of antimony.

Caustic, Arsen′ical. Syn. Causticum arsenica′le, C. arsenio′sum, C. a. compos′itum, L. Prep. 1. See Caustic, Plunket’s.

2. (Cutan. Hosp.) Calomel, 2⁄2 oz.; red sulphide of mercury, 1 dr.; arsenious acid, 1 dr. to 2 dr.

3. (Van Mons.) Arsenious acid, 6 dr.; dragon’s blood, 2 dr.; animal charcoal, 1⁄2 dr.; cinnabar, 3 oz.

4. (Ratier.) Arsenious acid, 1 part; kino, 8 parts; cinnabar, 16 parts. The ingredients of the last three must be separately reduced to fine powder, and then carefully mixed. They are favourite applications on the Continent, in cases of cancer, cancerous sores, obstinate lepra, &c. They are either dusted over the part, or are made into a paste with mucilage or the saliva, and applied like an ointment on a piece of rag or lint; due caution being observed, and the effects watched. The last is much used in the French hospitals.

Caustic, Canquoin’s. See Zinc Caustic.

Caustic, Canthar′ides. Syn. Causticum Canthar′idis, L. Prep. 1. Powdered cantharides made into a paste with concentrated acetic acid.

2. (Cutan. Hosp.) Tannin, 1 oz.; cantharides (powdered), 2 oz.; strong acetic acid, 8 oz.; digest a week, and strain. Blisters.

Caustic, Common. See Potassa (Hydrate of), and Caustic of Potassa with Lime.

Caustic, Duville’s. Prep. 1. Aloes, 5 oz.; proof spirit, 10 oz.; oil of vitriol, 6 oz.; mix.

2. Aloes (in powder), 2⁄2 oz.; rum, ⁄4 pint; mix, and the next day add, oil of vitriol, 1 oz. A favourite caustic in veterinary practice; especially in foot-rot.

Caustic, Filho’s. Prep. From caustic potassa, 2 parts; quick-lime (in powder), 1 part; melt together in a ladle, mix well, and pour it into small leaden tubes, the size of a large swan-quill. When cold, coat each piece with melted beeswax, to exclude the air. Used as a strong caustic in veterinary practice. It is applied like nitrate of silver.

Caustic, Golden. Syn. Caustic of chloride of gold; Causticum aur′eum, C. aur′′ii chlor′idi, L. Prep. 1. (Recamier.) Terchloride of gold, 6 gr.; nitro-hydrochloric acid, 1 oz.; dissolve.

2. (Legrand.) As the last, but using nitric acid. Both are recommended as caustics in syphilitic, scrofulous, and scorbutic ulcers, cancerous growths, &c.; applied by means of a dossil of lint.

Caustic, Gondret’s. Syn. Gondret’s ammoni′acal caustic; Pommade de Gondret, Fr.; Causticum ammoniaca′le, L. Prep. 1. See Ointment, Ammoniacal.

2. (Original formula.) Almond oil, 2 dr.; suet, 4 dr.; lard, 6 dr.; melt together in a wide-mouthed bottle, cool a little, add solution of ammonia, 12 dr.; and agitate until cold. A powerful rubefacient and counter-irritant; used to produce an immediate revulsion. If covered with a compress, it raises a blister in 4 or 5 minutes.

Caustic, I′odine. Syn. Causticum iodin′ii, L. Prep. (Lugol.) Iodine and iodide of potassium, of each 1 part; water 2 parts; dissolve. Used in similar cases to iodine paint, and to scrofulous growths and ulcers.

Caustic, Lu′′nar. Syn. La′pis inferna′lis, L. Prep. 1. Nitrate of silver fused and formed into sticks by pouring it into moulds.

2. (E. R. Squibb.) Nitrate of silver fused with a small quantity of chloride of iron, and formed into sticks or points. The chloride of iron gives toughness to the caustic.

Caustic, Mercu′′rial. Syn. Caustic of nitrate of mercury; Causticum ac′idi hydrar′′gyri nitra′tis, C. h. deutronitratis, L. From mercury, 1 part; commercial nitric acid, 2 parts; dissolve.

2. (Cutan. Hosp.) Mercury, 1 part; nitric acid (sp. gr. 1·5), 2 parts.

3. (P. C.) As No. 1, but evaporating the solution to ⁄4ths its weight. These liquids are applied with a pencil or lint, in scrofulous and syphilitic ulcers and eruptions, and in lupus, psoriasis, lepra, and other obstinate skin diseases; but their use requires great care.

4. (With arsenic.—Cutan. Hosp.) Mercury, ⁄2 oz.; nitric acid, ⁄2 oz.; arsenious acid, ⁄2 dr.; as before.

Caustic, Ni′tric. Syn. Solid′ified nitric acid; Causticum ni′tricum, L. Prep. (Dr Rivallie.) Concentrated nitric acid is gradually dropped on a piece of lint, placed in a saucer or glass; as soon as the lint is gelatinised, it is pressed into a suitable shape with a glass rod, and applied to the part; it must be removed in 15 minutes. In cancerous tumours, fungoid growths, &c.

Caustic, O′′piated. Syn. Causticum opia′tum, L. Prep. 1. Common caustic (potassa with lime), 4 dr.; powdered opium, 1 dr.; soft soap, q. s. to make a paste. Applied to fungous ulcers.

Caustic, Plunket’s. Upright crowfoot and lesser spear-wort, of each 1 oz.; sulphur, 5 scrup.; white arsenic (in very fine powder), 1 dr.; beat to a smooth paste, form it into balls, and dry them in the sun. In cancer; a portion of one of the balls is reduced to powder, which is mixed up with yelk of eggs, and applied on a piece of bladder.

Caustic of Potassa with Lime. Syn. Vienna paste. Rub together equal parts of hydrate of potash and quick-lime, and keep the powder in a well-stoppered bottle.

Caustic, Poten′tial. Fused caustic potassa.

Caustic, Recamier’s. See Caustic, Golden.

Caustic, Sulphu′′ric. Syn. Causticum sulphu′′ricum, C. ac′idi sulphu′′rici, L. Prep. 1. Plaster of Paris made into a paste with oil of vitriol.

2. Saffron, lint, or unsized paper, soaked in oil of vitriol, and triturated to a plastic mass.

Caustic, Zinc. Syn. Caustic of chloride of zinc, Dr Canquoin’s cancer caustic; Causticum zinc′i, C. z. chlorid′i, L. Prep. 1. (Dr Canquoin.)—a. From chloride of zinc, 1 dr.; flour, 2 dr.; made into a stiff paste with water, q. s.

b. From chloride of zinc, 1 dr.; flour, 3 dr.; water, q. s.; as the last.

c. From chloride of zinc, 1 dr.; flour, 4 dr.; water, q. s.; as before.

d. From chloride of zinc, 2 dr.; chloride of antimony, 1 dr.; flour, 5 dr.; as before.

Powdered opium may be mixed with either of the preceding to mitigate the pain.

2. (Alex. Ure.) As above, but substituting plaster of Paris for the flour there ordered.

Uses, &c. As a caustic in cancer, lupus, skin-marks (nævi), &c. It is formed into small cakes or wafers not exceeding 1 or 2 lines in thickness, one of which is applied to the part, and allowed to remain on from 6 to 12 hours, when it is removed, and the part covered with a poultice. It produces an eschar, often exceeding a quarter of an inch in depth. The chlorides must be in the form of powder, and well mixed with the flour previously to adding the water. The last (No. 1, d) is recommended in nodulated cancerous tumours.

CAUS′TICS (Ve′terinary). In veterinary practice, any of the substances enumerated in the forgoing list may be employed; but nitric acid, sulphuric acid, carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, and nitrate of silver, are those most commonly used. See Veterinary Medicines.

CAV′IARE. Syn. Cav′iar, Cav′iale. The salted roe of several species of sturgeon. It is much esteemed by the Russians, as well as by some other nations of northern Europe, and is occasionally eaten as a delicacy in this country. It is, however, very oily, indigestible, and unwholesome.

CAYENNE′. See Capsicum, Peppers.

CEDAR-WOOD (Oil of). See Oils.

Cedar-Wood (Tincture of). See Tinctures.

CE′DRAT. See Liqueurs.

CE′DRENE and CE′DROLA. The oil of cedar-wood, by careful distillation, is separable into two substances—a solid crystalline compound (cedrola), and a volatile liquid hydrocarbon (cedrene). The first may be converted into the other by distillation with phosphoric anhydride.

CELLULARES. In botany, a name given to cryptogams, or flowerless plants, upon the supposition that they consist entirely of cells.

CEL′LULOSE. See Lignin.

CEMENT′. Syn. Cement′tum, L. Any substance which, when applied to the surfaces of other bodies, causes them to adhere together when placed in contact. Those referred to below are amongst the most useful preparations of this class. The term cement is also applied by builders and architects to several species of mortars and like compositions employed either to unite stones and bricks into masses, or as a protective covering against the weather or water, or to make statues, cornices, and similar ornamental articles.

In general the thinner the stratum of interposed cement, the stronger is the junction of the surfaces operated on. This caution is necessary, as in their anxiety to unite broken articles persons generally defeat themselves by spreading the cement too thickly on the edges of the fracture; whereas the least possible quantity should be used, so as to bring the edges as close as possible together.

Cement, Al′abaster. 1. Prom plaster of Paris (in fine powder), made into a cream with water, and at once applied.

2. Yellow resin, 2 parts; melt and stir in plaster of Paris, 1 part.

3. Yellow resin, beeswax, and plaster of Paris, equal parts.

4. Resin, 8 parts; wax, 1 part; melt and stir in plaster of Paris, 4 parts, or q. s.

5. Sulphur or shell-lac, melted with sufficient plaster of Paris or colouring matter to give the desired shade. Used to join or mend pieces in alabaster, white marble, Derbyshire spar, porphyry, and other like substances; and to fill up cracks, supply chips out of corners, &c. The last four are applied hot, the surfaces to be united having been previously warmed. See Cement, Waterglass.

Cement, Architect′ural. 1. From paper (reduced to a smooth paste by boiling it in water), sifted whiting, and good size, equal parts, boiled to a proper consistence.

2. Paper paste, size, and plaster of Paris, equal parts; as before.

Obs. This is a species of papier-maché. It is used to make architectural ornaments, busts, statues, columns, &c. It is very light, and receives a good polish, but will not stand the weather unless it is well varnished or painted.

Cement, Arme′nian. Syn. Diamond cement, Persian c., Turkish c., Jewellers’ c. The jewellers of Turkey, who are mostly Armenians, have a singular method of ornamenting watch-cases, &c., with diamonds and other precious stones, by simply gluing or cementing them on. The stone is set in silver or gold, and the lower part of the metal made flat, or to correspond with the part to which it is to be fixed; it is then gently warmed, and the glue is applied, which is so very strong that the parts thus cemented never separate. This glue will strongly unite pieces of glass and china, and even polished steel, and may be applied to a variety of useful purposes.

Prep. 1. (Original Armenian formula; Eton.) Dissolve five or six bits of gum mastic, each the size of a large pea, in as much rectified spirit of wine as will suffice to render it liquid; and, in another vessel, dissolve as much isinglass, previously a little softened in water (though none of the water must be used), in French brandy or good rum, as will make a two-ounce phial of very strong glue, adding two small bits of gum galbanum or ammoniacum, which must be rubbed or ground till they are dissolved. Then mix the whole with a sufficient heat. Keep the glue in a phial closely stopped, and when it is to be used set the phial in boiling water.

2. (Keller’s Armenian Cement.) Soak isinglass, ⁄2 oz., in water, 4 oz., for 24 hours; evaporate in a water bath to 2 oz.; add rectified spirit, 2 oz., and strain through linen; mix this, whilst warm, with a solution formed by dissolving gum mastic (best), ⁄4 oz., in rectified spirit, 2 oz.; add of powdered gum ammoniac 1 dr., and triturate together until perfectly incorporated, avoiding loss of the spirit by evaporation as much as possible.

3. (Ure’s Diamond Cement.) Isinglass, 1 oz.; distilled water, 6 oz.; boil to 3 oz., and add rectified spirit, 1⁄2 oz.; boil for a minute or two, strain, and add, while hot, first a milky emulsion of ammoniac, ⁄2 oz., and then tincture of mastic, 5 dr.

4. Isinglass soaked in water and dissolved in spirit, 2 oz. (thick); dissolve in this 10 gr. of very pale gum ammoniac (in tears), by rubbing them together; then add 6 large tears of gum mastic, dissolved in the least possible quantity of rectified spirit.

5. Isinglass dissolved in proof spirit (as above), 3 oz.; bottoms of mastic varnish (thick, but clear), 1⁄2 oz.; mix well.

Obs. When carefully made, this cement resists moisture and dries colourless. As usually met with, it is not only of very bad quality, but sold at exorbitant prices. “Some persons have sold a composition under the name of Armenian cement in England; but this composition is badly made; it is much too thin, and the quantity of mastic is much too small.” (Eton.) Methylated spirit may be used instead of the pure spirit in the above preparations. Mastic and mastic varnish are also used by jewellers as cements.

Cement, Beale’s. Chalk, 60 parts; lime and salt, of each 20 parts; Barnsey sand, 10 parts; iron filings or dust, and blue or red clay, of each 5 parts; grind together and calcine. Patented as a fire-proof cement.

Cement, Boil′er. Prep. Dried clay in powder, 6 lbs.; iron filings, 1 lb. Make into a paste with boiled linseed oil. Used to stop cracks and leaks in iron boilers, stoves, &c. See Cement, Iron, Steam-boiler c.

Cement, Bot′any Bay. Yellow gum (Botany Bay gum) and brickdust, equal parts, melted together. Used to cement coarse earthenware, &c.

Cement, Bot′tle. Prep. 1. Resin, 1 lb.; tallow or suet, ⁄4 lb.; melt together, and stir in the colouring matter.

2. Resin, 5 lbs.; beeswax, 1 lb.; colouring, q. s.; as last.

3. (Red.) To each pound of the above add whiting (dry), 3 oz., and light red (burnt ochre), 4 oz.; or red bole, q. s. (all in fine powder).

4. (Black.)—a. To each pound of No. 1, or No. 2, add ivory black (bone black), q. s.

b. From black pitch, 6 lbs.; ivory black and whiting of each, 1 lb.; melted together. Used in the same way as common sealing-wax for bottle corks, cask bungs, &c. See Cement, Maissiat’s.

Cement, Brim′stone. Melted brimstone, either alone, or mixed with resin and brickdust. Cheap and useful.

Cement, Bru′yere’s. Clay, 3 parts; slaked lime, 1 part; mix and expose them to a full red heat for 3 hours, then grind to powder. Recommended as an hydraulic cement.

Cement, Build′ing. Syn. Artificial puzzolene′. From a mixture of clay or loam, broken pottery, flints, or siliceous sand, or broken bottle glass, and wood ashes, exposed to a considerable heat in a furnace, until it becomes partially vitrified; it is then ground to fine powder, sifted, and mixed with one third its weight of quick-lime, also in fine powder, after which it must be packed (tight) in casks to preserve it from the air and moisture. For use it is mixed up with water and applied like Roman cement.

Cement, Cap. Prep. 1. Resin, 5 lbs.; beeswax and dried Venetian red, of each 1 lb.; melted together.

2. (C. G. Williams.) Equal weights of red lead and white lead. Used for chemical and electrical purposes. For cementing glass tubes, necks of balloons, &c., into metal mountings. No. 2 is preferable to white lead alone, and may be depended on for temperature up to 212°.

Cement, Cheese. From grated cheese, 2 parts; quick-lime (in fine powder) 1 part; white of egg, q. s.; beat to a paste. Used for earthenware, &c.

Cement, Chem′ical. Syn. Soft cement. Prep. From yellow wax, 4 parts; common turpentine, 2 parts; Venetian red (well dried), 1 part; melted together. Used as a temporary stopping or lute for the ends or joints of tubes, which are not exposed to much heat; as in alkalimetry, &c. See Cement, Electrical.

Cement, Chi′nese. Syn. Shell-lac cement, Liquid glue. Prep. 1. Finest pale orange shell-lac (broken small), 4 oz.; rectified spirit (strongest), 3 oz.; digested together in a corked bottle in a warm place until dissolved. Very strong and useful; almost odourless. It should have about the consistence of treacle.

2. As before, but using rectified wood naphtha as the solvent. Inferior to the last, but excellent for many purposes.

3. (Without spirit.) Prep. Borax, 1 oz.; water, ⁄4 pint; shell-lac, 3 oz.; boil in a covered vessel until dissolved, then evaporate to a proper consistence. Cheap and useful, but dries slowly.

4. Macerate for several hours, 6 parts of glue, in small pieces, in 16 parts of water; then add 1 part of hydrochloric acid, and 1⁄2 part of sulphate of zinc; and let the mixture be kept for 10 or 12 hours at a temperature of 68° or 70° C.

Uses, &c. Employed to mend glass, china, fancy work, jewelry, &c., for which it is only inferior to Armenian cement. The first formula produces a cement so strong that pieces of wood may be joined together, cut slopingly across the grain, and will afterwards resist every attempt to break them at the same place. In many of the islands of the Indian Ocean, in Japan, China, and the East Indies, a similar cement is used to join pieces of wood for bows, lances, &c. The fluid is thinly smeared over each face of the joint, a piece of very thin gauze interposed, and the whole pressed tightly together and maintained so until the next day. Joints so made will even bear the continual flexure of a bow without separating. It is admirably adapted for fishing rods. The product of the second formula is commonly sold as LIQUID GLUE. That of the last is much used by the druggists and oilmen, instead of gum, for fixing paper labels to tin, and to glass when exposed to damp.

Cement, Cop′persmiths’. Syn. Blood cement. From bullock’s blood thickened with finely powdered quick-lime. Used to secure the edges and rivets of copper boilers, to mend leaks from joints, &c. It must be used as soon as mixed, as it rapidly gets hard. It is cheap and durable, and is suited for many other purposes.

Cement, Curd. Prep. 1. The curd of skimmed milk (obtained by the addition of vinegar or rennet) is beaten to a paste with quick-lime, in fine powder.

2. Add vinegar, ⁄2 pint, to skimmed milk, ⁄2 pint; mix the curd with the whites of 5 eggs; well beaten and powdered quick-lime, q. s. to form a paste. Used for mending glass and earthenware; they resist water and a moderate degree of heat.

3. Rub from two to four parts of the curd, with a cold solution of borax, till a thick liquid is obtained, that becomes clear on standing. This is an excellent cement for artificial meerschaums, and may be used to give consistency to silk goods, or to coat artificial flowers, and court plaster, to the latter of which it imparts more adhesiveness and firmness.

Cement, Cut′lers’. Prep. 1. Black resin, 4 lbs.; beeswax, 1 lb.; melt, and add finely powdered and well-dried brickdust, 1 lb.; mix well.

2. Equal weights of resin and brickdust, melted together.

Use. To fix knives and forks in their handles. It is put into the hollow of the handle, and the metal, previously made hot enough to melt the composition, pressed into its place whilst warm, and the whole kept upright and still until quite cold.

Cement, Di′amond. See Cement, Armenian.

Cement, Egg. White of egg thickened with finely powdered quick-lime. Used to mend earthenware, glass, china, marble, alabaster, spar ornaments, &c. It does not resist long exposure to moisture unless it has been exposed to heat.

Cement, Elas′tic. Prep. 1. Caoutchouc (in small pieces), 1 part; chloroform, 3 parts; dissolve.

2. (Lenher.) Caoutchouc, 5 parts; chloroform, 3 parts; dissolve, and add gum mastic (powdered), 1 part. Elastic and transparent.

3. Gutta percha, 3 parts; caoutchouc, 1 part (both cut small); bisulphide of carbon, 8 parts; mix in a close vessel and dissolve by the heat of a water bath. This is to be gently warmed before it is applied.

4. Gutta percha, 1 lb.; caoutchouc, 4 oz.; pitch, 2 oz.; shell-lac, 1 oz.; linseed oil, 2 oz.; melted together. This must be melted before being applied.

Obs. The cements 1 and 2 are elastic and transparent, and are applicable to many uses. The others, 3 and 4, are used for uniting leather, cloth, &c.

Cement, Elec′trical. Syn. Chemical cement. From black resin, 7 lbs.; red ochre, 1 lb.; plaster of Paris, ⁄2 lb. (both well dried and still warm); melted together, and the heat and agitation continued until all frothing ceases, and the liquid runs smooth; the vessel is then withdrawn from the fire, and the mixture stirred until cooled sufficiently. Used to cement the plates in galvanic troughs, join chemical vessels, &c. See Cement, Cap, Cement, Singer’s, &c.

Cement, Engineers′′. Prep. 1. Ground white lead, mixed with as much red lead as will make it of the consistence of putty.

2. Equal weights of red lead and white lead, mixed with boiled linseed oil, to a proper consistence. Used by engineers and others to make metallic joints. A washer of hemp, yarn, or canvas, smeared with the cement, is placed in the joint, which is then “brought home,” or screwed up tight. It dries as hard as stone. It also answers well for joining broken stones, however large. Cisterns built of squares stones, put together, while dry, with this cement, will never leak or come to repair.

Cement, Extempora′′neous. 1. Shell-lac, melted, and run into small sticks the size of a quill. Used to join glass, earthenware, &c. The edges are heated sufficiently hot to melt the cement, which is then thinly smeared over them, and the joint made while they are still hot. This is the cement so commonly vended in the streets of London, and which used to surprise us in our boyhood days.

2. Tears of gum mastic, used in the same way. Commonly employed by jewellers and others.

Cement, Fire′proof. Prep. From fine river sand, 20 parts; litharge, 2 parts; quick-lime, 1 part; linseed oil, q. s. to form a thin paste. Applied to walls, it soon acquires a stony hardness. It is also used to mend broken pieces of stone, stone steps, &c. See Cement, Beale’s, &c.

Cement, Flour. Syn. Paste, Flour paste. This useful and well-known article is made by mixing about a tablespoonful of wheat flour with cold water, (say) ⁄2 pint, adding the latter gradually, and thoroughly stirring in each portion before pouring in more; the vessel is then placed over the fire, and the whole assiduously stirred until it boils, great care being taken to prevent caking on the bottom, or burning. Some persons add about ⁄3 of a teaspoonful of powdered alum to the water, which is said to strengthen the product; the shoemakers add a little quantity of powdered resin to the flour, with the same intention. The addition of a little brown sugar and a few grains of corrosive sublimate will prevent it turning mouldy, and is said to preserve it for years. When too hard or dry, it may be softened by beating it up with a little hot water.

Cement, French. Mucilage of gum Arabic, thickened with starch powder or farina; a little lemon-juice is sometimes added. Used by naturalists in mounting specimens; by artificial-flower makers; and by confectioners, to stick paper, wafer papers, ornaments, &c., on their fancy cakes. Plain mucilage is often used in the same way.

Cement, Gad’s. Syn. Gad’s hydraulic cement. From clay (well dried and powdered), 3 parts; oxide of iron, 1 part; mixed together, and made into a stiff paste with boiled oil. Used for work required to harden under water.

Cement, Glass. Syn. Glass flux. Prep. Red lead, 3 parts; fine white sand, 2 parts; crystallised boracic acid, 3 parts; mixed and fused; it is levigated, and applied with thin mucilage of tragacanth. Used for mending broken china, &c. The repaired article must be gently heated, so as partially to fuse the cement.

Cement, Gibbs’. Mr Gibbs patented in 1850 various processes for making admirable building and architectural cements, equal in hardness and duration, and superior in colour, to the best Roman and Portland cements at present in use. His materials are obtained from “the vast beds of (natural) argillaceous marls and marly limestones, or marl stones, which contain the due admixture of lime, silica, and alumina, from which hydraulic cements and artificial stones may be manufactured.” These materials he finds in “the chalk formation, the Wealden formation, the Purbeck beds, the lias formation, the mountain limestone, and the lowest strata of the coal-measures.” After duly choosing his materials according to the particular object in view, he prepares them “by burning in kilns, and grinding in mills, in the way cement is now manufactured.” Marls and limestones are to be “first dried in kilns or ovens, at a heat fit for baking, until all moisture be driven off, and that then the calcination be prolonged as much as possible; the heat being kept as low as is only just sufficient to effect complete calcination—this being indispensable, to avoid the commencement of vitrification, which would destroy the adhesive properties of the cement.”

Cement, Glue. Prep. 1. From glue, 1 lb. melted with the least possible quantity of water, and then mixed with black resin, 1 lb., and red ochre, 4 oz.

2. Glue, melted as above, and mixed with about ⁄4th of its weight each of boiled oil and red ochre.

3. (Ure.) Melted glue (of the consistence used by carpenters), 8 parts; linseed oil, boiled to varnish with litharge, 4 parts; incorporate thoroughly together.

4. Glue (melted as last), 4 parts; Venice turpentine, 1 part.

Obs. The first three dry in about 48 hours, and are very useful to render the joints of wooden casks, cisterns, &c., watertight; also to fix stones in frames. The last serves to cement glass, wood, and even metal to each other. A good cement for fixing wood to glass may be made by dissolving isinglass in acetic acid, in such quantities that it becomes solid when cold. When applied let it be heated. They all resist moisture well.

Cement, Grind′ers’. Prep. 1. From pitch, 5 parts; wood ashes and hard tallow, of each 1 part; melted together.

2. Black resin, 4 lbs.; beeswax, 1 lb. melt, and add of whiting (previously heated red hot, and still warm), 1 lb.

3. Shell-lac, melted and applied to the pieces slightly heated. Used to fix pieces of glass, &c., whilst grinding. The last is used for lenses and fine work.

Cement, Hamelin’s. Syn. Hamelin’s mastic. From siliceous sand, 60 parts; Bath or Portland stone (in fine powder), 40 parts; lime-marl, 20 parts; litharge, 8 parts; ground together. For use it is mixed up with linseed oil and used like mortar. When this cement is applied to the purpose of covering buildings intended to resemble stone, the surface of the building is first washed with linseed oil.

Cement, Hensler’s. Litharge, 3 parts; quick-lime, 2 parts; white bole, 1 part (all in fine powder); linseed-oil varnish, q. s. to make a paste. Used for china, glass, &c. It is very tenacious, but long in drying.

Cement, Hœnle’s. Shell-lac, 2 parts; Venice turpentine, 1 part; fused together, and formed into sticks. It is used like extemporaneous cement for glass and earthenware.

Cement, Hydraulic. Hydraulic mortars or cements are those which set or become hard under water. Common lime does not possess this property; but limestone containing from 8% to 25% of alumina, magnesia, and silica, yield a lime on burning, which does not slake when moistened with water, but forms a mortar with it, which hardens in a few days when covered with water, although it does not acquire much solidity in the air. Puzzolana, septaria, and argillaceous or siliceous earths, burnt, either with or without the addition of common limestone, and then ground to powder, form excellent hydraulic cements. The reniform limestone, commonly called “cement stone,” which is found distributed in single nodules or lenticular cakes, in beds of clay, is the substance most commonly used in this country for the manufacture of the cements in question.

“A very good hydraulic mortar is made by slaking lime with water containing about 2 per cent. of gypsum, and adding a little sand to the product. The presence of the gypsum tends to delay the slaking of the lime, and also to harden the substance formed after the slaking.

“If water containing a little lime in solution be added to burnt gypsum, a very hard compact mass is obtained. This substance is much used as an imitation marble, as by polishing it with pumice stone, colouring it, and again polishing with oil, it may be made to resemble natural marble very closely. Hardened gypsum treated with stearic acid, or paraffin, and polished, is used as a substitute for meerschaum, which it much resembles.” See Gad’s, Hamelin’s, and Parker’s Cements, &c.

Cement, Iron. This cement, which is much used for closing the joints of iron pipes and similar purposes, is formed of the borings or turnings of cast iron, which should be clean and free from rust, mixed with a small quantity of sal-ammoniac and flowers of sulphur. For use, it is stirred up with just enough water to thoroughly moisten it, and it is rammed or caulked into the joints with a blunt caulking chisel and hammer, after which the joint is screwed up by its bolts as tightly as possible. If the turnings and borings are very coarse they are broken by pounding in an iron mortar, and the dust sifted off before use. The following are good proportions:

1. Sal-ammoniac (in powder), 2 oz.; flowers of sulphur, 1 oz.; iron borings, 5 lbs.; water, q. s. to mix.

2. Sal-ammoniac, 2 oz.; sulphur, 1 oz.; iron borings, 12 lbs.; water, q. s. to mix.

3. Sal-ammoniac, 2 oz.; iron borings, 7 or 8 lbs.; water, q. s. to mix.

4. Iron borings, 4 lbs.; good pipeclay, 2 lbs.; powdered potsherds, 1 lb.; make them into a paste with salt and water.

Remarks. The first of these forms is that generally employed for common purposes, but formerly much more sulphur and sal-ammoniac were used. We are told by one of the leading engineers in London that the strongest cement is made without sulphur and with only 1 or 2 parts of sal-ammoniac to 100 of iron borings (see the third form); but that when the work is required to dry rapidly, as for the steam joints of machinery wanted in haste, the quantity of sal-ammoniac is increased a little, and a very small quantity of sulphur is added. This addition makes it set quicker, but reduces its strength. As the power of the cement depends on the oxidation and consequent expansion of the mass, it is evident that the less foreign matter introduced the better. No more of this cement should be made at a time than can be used at once, because it soon spoils. I have seen it become quite hot by standing even a few hours, when it contained sulphur; and I have been informed by workmen that when much sulphur is used, and it has been left together in quantity all night, combustion has taken place. The last form produces a cement that gets very hard when allowed to dry slowly, and is excellent for mending cracks in iron boilers, tanks, &c.

Cement, Japanese. Syn. Rice glue. From rice flour, mixed with a little cold water, and boiling water gradually poured in until it acquires a proper consistence; when it is boiled for 1 or 2 minutes in a clean saucepan or earthen pipkin. It is beautifully white, and almost transparent, for which reason it is well adapted for fancy paper work, which requires a strong and colourless cement. It is superior to French cement. (See antè.)

Cement, Keene’s Marble. Baked gypsum or plaster of Paris, steeped in a saturated solution of alum, and then recalcined, and reduced to powder. For use it is mixed up with water, as ordinary plaster of Paris.

Obs. This cement has been most extensively applied as a stucco. It is susceptible of a high polish, and when coloured produces beautiful imitations of mosaic and other inlaid marbles, scagliola, &c. It is not adapted to hydraulic purposes, or for exposure to the weather, but it is admirable for internal decorations, and from its extreme hardness is very durable. It may be coloured or tinted of any shade, by diffusing mineral colours (levigated, if in powder) through the water used to mix up the cement with. A pleasing tint is given to this cement by adding a little solution of green copperas to the alum liquor.

Cement, Laboratory. Syn. Chemical mastic. From equal parts of pitch, resin, and plaster of Paris (thoroughly dried), mixed together. Used for the masonry of chlorine chambers, vitriol works, &c.; and as a lining for casks intended to hold chloride of lime.

Cement, Letter-fixing. Prep. Copal varnish, 15 parts; drying oil, 5 parts; turpentine, 3 parts; oil of turpentine, 2 parts; liquefied glue (made with the least possible quantity of water), 5 parts; melt together in a water bath, and add fresh slaked lime (perfectly dry, and in very fine powder), 10 parts. Used to attach metal letters to plate glass in shop windows, &c.

Cement, Mahogany. Prep. 1. Melt beeswax, 4 oz.; then add Indian red, 1 oz., and enough yellow ochre to produce the required tint.

2. Shell-lac, melted and coloured as above. Very hard. Both are used to fill up holes and cracks in mahogany furniture by the cabinet makers. Red putty is also used for the same purpose.

Cement, Maissiat’s. India rubber is melted either with or without about 15% of either beeswax or tallow; quick-lime (in fine powder) is gradually added; and the heat continued until change of odour shows that combination has taken place, and until a proper consistence is obtained. Used as a waterproof and air-tight covering for corks, bungs, &c.

Cement, Marine. See Glue, Marine, and Cement, Elastic.

Cement, Martin’s. This is manufactured in the same way as Keene’s, only carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash is used as well as alum, and the burning is carried on at a higher temperature.

Cement, Opticians’. Prep. 1. Shell-lac softened with rectified spirit or wood naphtha. For fine work.

2. Beeswax, 1 oz.; resin, 15 oz.; melt and add whiting (previously made red hot, and still warm), 4 oz.

3. Resin, 1 lb.; melt and add plaster of Paris (dry), 4 oz. The above are used to fix glasses, stones, &c., while polishing and cutting them. The last is a very strong cement for rough purposes.

Cement, Oxychlo′′ride of Zinc. (Sorel.) Prep. In solution of chloride of zinc, marking from 50° to 60° of Baumé’s hydrometer (i.e. sp. gr. 1·490 to 1·652), dissolve 3% of borax or sal-ammoniac; then add oxide of zinc which has been heated to redness, until the mass is of a proper consistence.

Obs. This cement becomes as hard as marble. It may be cast in moulds like plaster of Paris, or used in mosaic work, &c.

Cement, Parabol′ic. Syn. Universal cement. Prep. Curdle skim milk with rennet or vinegar, press out the whey, and dry the curd by a very gentle heat, but as quickly as possible. When it has become quite dry grind it in a coffee or pepper mill, and next triturate it in a mortar until reduced to a very fine powder. Mix this powder with ⁄10th of its weight of new dry quick-lime, also in very fine powder, and to every ounce of the mixture add 5 or 6 gr. of powdered camphor; triturate the whole well together, and keep it in wide-mouth 1-oz. phials, well corked. Used to join glass, earthenware, &c. It is made into a paste with a little water, as wanted, and applied immediately.

Cement, Parian. Is prepared as Keene’s, substituting a solution of borax (1 part of borax to 9 of water) for a solution of alum.

Cement, Park′er’s. This cement is made of the nodules of indurated and slightly ferruginous marl, called by mineralogists “septaria,” and also of some other species of argillaceous limestone. These are burnt in conical kilns, with pit coal, in a similar way to other limestone, care being taken to avoid the use of too much heat, as if the pieces undergo the slightest degree of fusion, even on the surface, they will be unfit to form the cement. After being properly roasted the calx is reduced to a very fine powder by grinding, and immediately packed in barrels, to keep it from the air and moisture.

Uses, &c. This cement is tempered with water, and applied at once, as it soon hardens, and will not bear being again softened down with water. For foundations and cornices exposed to the weather it is usually mixed with an equal quantity of clean angular sand; for use as a common mortar, with about twice as much sand; for coating walls exposed to cold and wet, the common proportions are 3 of sand to 2 of cement, and for walls exposed to extreme dryness or heat, about 2⁄2 or 3 of sand to 1 of cement; for facing cistern work, water frontages, &c., nothing but cement and water should be employed. Under the name of compo’ or Roman cement it is much employed for facing houses, water cisterns, setting the foundations of large edifices, &c.

Cement, Pew’s. Quick-lime, 1 part; baked clay, 2 parts (both in powder); mix and calcine; then add gypsum (fresh baked and in fine powder), 1 part, to powdered baked clay, 2 parts; mix well, add the former mixture, and incorporate them well together. Used to cover buildings. It is applied like mortar, and is very hard and durable. See Cement, Gibbs,’ &c.

Cement, Plumb′ers’. Black resin melted with about an equal weight of brick-dust. Some times a little pitch or tallow is added.

Cement, Port′land. From clay and chalk, or argillaceous river-mud and chalk or limestone, calcined together, and then ground to powder. See Cement, Parker’s.

Cement, Ro′man. Genuine Roman cement consists of puzzolene (a ferruginous clay from Pozzuoli, calcined by the fires of Vesuvius), lime, and sand. The only preparation which the puzzolene undergoes is that of pounding and sifting. It is generally mixed up with water, like most other cements, but occasionally with bullock’s blood and oil, to give the composition more tenacity. That used in this country is now generally prepared from the septaria of either Harwich or Sheppy, or of the lias formation, or from the cement stone found in the upper division of the lias formation, or in the shale beds of the Kimmeridge clay. It is also prepared from several artificial mixtures of ferruginous clay and lime, calcined together. It must be kept in close vessels, and mixed with water when used. See Cement, Parker’s and Gibbs’.

Cement, Seal Engra′′vers’. Resembles plumbers’ cement. Used to fix the pieces of metal while cutting, and also to secure seals and tools in their handles. It grows harder and improves every time it is melted.

Cement, Sin′ger’s. Prep. 1. Melt together resin, 5 lbs., and beeswax, 1 lb., and stir in finely-powdered red ochre (highly dried and still warm), 1 lb., and plaster of Paris, 4 oz.; continuing the heat a little above 212° Fahr., and stirring constantly till all frothing ceases.

2. Resin, 6 lbs.; dried red-ochre, 1 lb.; calcined plaster of Paris, ⁄2 lb.; linseed oil, ⁄4 lb. Used to cement the plates in voltaic troughs, to join chemical vessels, &c. No. 2 is specially applicable to troughs. See Cement, Electrical.

Cement, Steam-boiler. Prep. Litharge, in fine powder, 2 parts; very fine sand and quick-lime (that has been allowed to slake spontaneously in a damp place), of each 1 part; mix and keep it from the air. Used to mend the cracks in boilers and ovens, and to secure steam joints. It is made into a paste with boiled oil before application.

Cement, Steam-pipe. Prep. Good linseed oil varnish is ground with equal weights of white lead, oxide of manganese, and pipeclay.

Cement, Stucco. This is a compound of powdered gypsum or strong gelatin. It is used for coating walls, and also for ornamenting ceilings. It takes a high polish, and coloured designs can be painted on it. When employed on walls a coarser kind is first laid on, which is followed by a coating made of choicer specimens of gypsum, or glue, or isinglass. When this latter and outer coat becomes dry it is polished with pumice, tripoli, and linen. The colour is incorporated with the outer coatings of the stucco by mixing the metallic pigments with it, and then applying it to the wall, after which a very thin coating of gypsum and isinglass, or sometimes of oil, is given to it, and when the whole is partially dried the tint is brought out by polishing, as before stated. Generally the finest effect is obtained by oil.

Cement, Transpar′ent. See Cement, Elastic.

Cement, Turn′ers’. Prep. Beeswax, 1 oz.; resin, ⁄2 oz.; pitch, ⁄2 oz.; melt, and stir in fine brickdust, q. s.

Cement, Univers′al. See Cement, Parabolic.

Cement, Var′ley’s. Syn. Varley’s mastic. Black resin, 16 parts; beeswax, 1 part; melt, add whiting (sifted, dried by a dull-red heat, and allowed to cool), 16 parts; and stir until nearly cold.

Cement, Water. Prep. 1. From good grey clay, 4 parts; black oxide of manganese, 6 parts; limestone (reduced to powder by sprinkling it with water), 90 parts; mix, calcine, and powder.

2. Mix white iron ore (manganese iron ore), 15 parts, with lime, 85 parts; calcine and powder as above. Both this and the preceding must be mixed up with a little sand for use. A piece thrown into water rapidly hardens.

3. Fine clean sand, 1 cwt.; quick-lime, in powder, 28 lbs.; bone ashes, 14 lbs. The above are beat up with water for use. See Cement, Hydraulic, &c.

Cement, Waterglass. For glass, earthenware, porcelain, and all kinds of stoneware, these cements are excellent. A cement for glass and marble is prepared by rubbing together one part of fine pulverised glass, and two parts of pulverised fluorspar, and then adding enough waterglass solution to give it the consistency necessary in a cement.

Waterglass mixed with hydraulic cement to a thick dough makes a good cement for the edges and joints of stone and marble slabs. It is well to mix but little at a time, as it hardens very quickly. (‘Journal of Applied Chemistry.’)

Cement, Wa′terproof. Several compounds of this class have been already noticed. The celebrated “waterproof cement of Dihl” consists of porcelain clay or pipeclay, dried by a gentle heat, and powdered, mixed up to the consistence of a paste with boiled linseed oil, and, sometimes, a little oil of turpentine. It is coloured by adding a little red or yellow ochre, or any similar pigment. It is used to cover the fronts of buildings, roofs of verandahs, &c.

Concluding Remarks. For mending broken CHINA, EARTHENWARE, GLASS, and WOOD, the preparations generally used are the cements described above as Armenian, Botany Bay, Cheese, Chinese, Curd, Egg, Extemporaneous, Glass, Glue, Hensler’s, Hœnle’s, Mahogany, and Parabolic. For SPAR, MARBLE, and similar materials, the Alabaster cement is specially adapted; the Egg and Parabolic cements will, however, answer the same purpose. For CLOTH, LEATHER, PAPER, CARD, and LIGHT FANCY WORK, the most suitable cements are the Elastic, Chinese, Flour, French, and Japanese. The cements adapted for CHEMICAL and ELECTRICAL APPARATUS, and for SEALING BOTTLES, are also termed Bottle, Brimstone, Cap, Chemical, Electrical, Laboratory, Maissiat’s, and Varley’s. The BUILDING and HYDRAULIC CEMENTS are described under the heads Architectural, Beale’s, Bruyere’s, Fireproof, Gad’s, Gibbs’, Hamelin’s, Hydraulic, Keene’s, Oxychloride, Parker’s, Pew’s, Portland, Roman, Water, and Waterproof. The cements used for METAL-WORK, &c., in different trades, are noticed under the heads Coppersmiths’, Cutlers’, Engineers’, Grinders’, Iron, Letter-fixing, Opticians’, Plumbers’, Seal-engravers’, Steam-boiler, Steam-pipe, and Turner’s. See Glue, Lute, Mortar, Tooth-cement, &c.

CEMENTA′TION. The process of imbedding a substance in, or covering it with, some powder or composition capable of acting on it when heated, and in this state exposing it to a red heat. Iron is converted into steel, and glass into Réaumur’s porcelain, by cementation.

CEN′TAURIN. Syn. Centaurin′a. The bitter extractive matter of Erythæa centaurium, or common centaury. Combined with hydrochloric acid, it has been highly recommended as a febrifuge.

CER′ASIN. Syn. Prun′ine. The insoluble portion of cherry-tree gum. It is identical with bassorin. Dr John applies the term to all those gums which, like tragacanth, swell, but do not dissolve in water. See Bassorin.

CE′RATE. Syn. Cera′tum, L. A thick species of ointment containing wax. Cerates are intermediate in consistence between ointments and plasters; but are less frequently employed than either of those preparations. The medicinal ingredients which enter into the cerates are very numerous; indeed, almost every kind of medicine capable of exercising a topical effect may be prescribed in this form.

It is a general custom with the druggists to use a less quantity of wax for their cerates than that which is necessary to give them a proper consistence, and in many cases it is omitted altogether, and its place supplied by hard suet, or stearine, and frequently by common resin. Lard is also very generally substituted for olive oil. Indeed, in no class of pharmaceutical preparations are the instructions of practitioners and the colleges more commonly disregarded. The operation of melting the ingredients should be performed in a water bath or steam bath, and the liquid mass should be assiduously stirred until cold.

All the medicated cerates may be prepared by adding the active ingredients, in the form of fine powder, soft extract, solution, &c., as the case may be, to either simple cerate or spermaceti cerate, in the proportions indicated under the head of “Doses” appended to every article of importance noticed in this work. The mixture, which must be complete, may be effected by working the articles together on a marble or glass slab or tile, or, still better, by trituration in a clean wedgwood mortar. In some cases the simple cerate is melted by a gentle heat, and the whole stirred or triturated until nearly solid; in others, digestion with heat is employed.

Cerate. Syn. Sim′ple cerate, Simple dres′sing; Ceratum (Ph. L.), C. sim′plex (Ph. L. 1824). Prep. (Ph. L.) Yellow wax, 20 oz.; melt by a gentle heat; add olive oil, 1 pint; and stir until it begins to solidify.

Used as a simple emollient dressing. The corresponding preparations of the other colleges will be found noticed under Ointments. The ceratum simplex of the Ph. E. is SPERMACETI CERATE.

Cerate, Ac′etate of Lead. Syn. Ce′rate of sugar of lead; Cera′tum plum′bi aceta′tis (Ph. L.), L. Prep. (Ph. L.) White wax, 5 oz.; olive oil, 18 fl. oz.; melt together; add, acetate of lead (in fine powder), 5 dr., previously triturated with olive oil, 2 fl. oz., and stir till they unite (begin to solidify). Used as a cooling dressing to burns, excoriations, and inflamed sores.

Cerate, Ammoni′acal. Syn. Cera′tum ammoniaca′le, L. Prep. (Rechoux.) Simple cerate, 1 oz.; carbonate of ammonia, 1 dr.; mix. As a counter-irritant in croup, &c.

Cerate, Arsen′ical. Syn. Cer′atum arsen′ici, C. a′cidi arsenio′si, L. Prep. 1. (Ph. U. S.) Arsenious acid (in very fine powder), 20 gr.; simple cerate, 1 oz.

2. (Sir A. Cooper.) Arsenious acid and sublimed sulphur, of each 1 dr.; spermaceti cerate, 1 oz. The above ingredients must be very carefully triturated together. The first is used as a dressing to cancerous sores; the second is applied on lint as a caustic in like cases.

Cerate, Belladonn′a. Syn. Cerate of deadly nightshade; Cera′tum belladonn′æ, L. Prep. 1. (W. Cooley.) Extract of belladonna, 3 dr.; simple cerate, 1 oz.; olive oil, 1 dr.; triturate together in a warm mortar, until nearly cold. Used in frictions to indolent tumours.

2. (Compound; C. b. compos′itum, L.) Prep. (W. Cooley.) Belladonna cerate, 1 oz.; iodide of gold, 12 gr.; carefully triturated together. Used as a friction to scrofulous and syphilitic tumours, and to remove syphilitic and rheumatic pains. A most active and excellent preparation.

Cerate, Brown. See Plasters.

Cerate, Caca′o. Syn. Caca′o pommade. Prep. Butter of cacao, white wax, and oil of almonds, equal parts, melted together and strained. Used as a cosmetic for chapped hands and lips, &c.

Cerate, Cal′amine. Syn. Turner’s cerate, Healing salve; Ceratum calami′næ (Ph. L. & E.), C. la′pis calamina′ris (Ph. L. 1788), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Yellow wax, 7⁄2 oz.; olive oil, 1 pint; melt together, remove the vessel from the fire, and when they first begin to thicken, add prepared calamine, 7⁄2 oz., and stir constantly until they cool.

2. (P. E.) Prepared calamine, 1 part; simple cerate (Ph. E.), 5 parts; mix.

3. (Ph. D.) See Ointment.

4. (Commercial.) Hard suet, 5 lbs.; lard, 3 lbs.; melt and sift in, gradually, calamine, 4 lbs.; agitate well for a few minutes, or until the whole is perfectly mixed, and after one minute’s repose pour it off into another vessel, the coarse sediment that has fallen to the bottom being carefully avoided; lastly, stir assiduously, until it is nearly cold. This forms the Turner’s cerate of the wholesale druggists. In many cases nothing but lard and calamine are used.

Uses, &c. When honestly prepared with genuine calamine, it is a most valuable desiccant and astringent application to excoriations, ulcers, burns, scalds, sore nipples, &c. It has long been held in popular esteem as a drying and healing dressing for sores.

Cerate, Cal′amine with Mercury. Syn. Cera′tum calami′næ cum hydrar′gyro, L. Prep. (Ph. Chirur.) Calamine cerate, 1 lb.; red oxide of mercury, 1 oz.; mix. Used as a stimulant application to foul and indolent ulcers, psorophthalmia, &c.

Cerate, Cal′omel. Syn. Cera′tum calomela′nos, C. hydrar′gyri chlor′idi, L. Prep. 1. Calomel, 1 dr.; spermaceti cerate, 7 dr. In herpes, and some other skin diseases.

2. (Compound; C. c. compos′itum, L.) Calomel, 2 dr.; calamine cerate, 1 oz.; olive oil, 1 dr.

Cerate, Cam′phor. Syn. Cera′tum camphora′tum, C. camphor′æ, L.; Pommade du frère cosme, Fr. Prep. Olive oil, 1 lb.; white wax, ⁄2 lb.; camphor, 3 dr. As an application to chaps, chilblains, abrasions, excoriations, and slight wounds. See Balls, Camphor.

Cerate, Canthar′ides. Syn. Blistering cerate; Cera′tum lytt′æ, C. canthar′idis, L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Cantharides (in very fine powder), 1 oz.; spermaceti cerate, 6 oz.; mix.

2. (Parrish.) Cantharides, 12 parts; lard, 10 parts; yellow wax and resin, of each 7 parts; incorporated by fusion. Irritant; used to keep blisters open, and to stimulate issues, and indolent ulcers and tumours.

Cerate, Chalk. Syn. Cera′tum cre′tæ, L. Prep. 1. Chalk (thoroughly dried, and in fine powder), 2 dr.; simple cerate, 6 dr.; almond oil, 3 dr. Used in piles and foul ulcers.

2. (Acetated.) See Cerate, Kirkland’s Neutral.

3. (Compound; Cera′tum cre′tæ compos′itum, L.)—a. To simple chalk cerate, 1 oz., add powdered catechu, ⁄2 dr. In piles, and foul and indolent ulcers.

b. (U.S. Hospital.) Lead plaster and olive oil, of each 8 oz.; white wax, 3 oz.; melt together; add solution of subacetate of lead, 6 oz.; thoroughly incorporate, and then further add, chalk (in fine powder), 5 oz. Cooling and astringent. Useful in inflamed sores, excoriations, piles, &c.

Cerate, Cher′ry-laur′el. Syn. Cera′tum lauro-cerasi, C. calmans, L. Prep. (Roux.) Simple cerate, 1 oz.; cherry-laurel water, ⁄2 oz. As an application to burns.

Cerate, Cincho′na. Syn. Bark cerate; Cera′tum cincho′næ:, L. Prep. 1. Extract of bark, 2 dr.; simple cerate, 1 oz.

2. (Van Mons.) Simple cerate, 8 oz.; camphor, 1⁄2 dr.; melt together by a gentle heat, then add gradually, decoction of Peruvian bark (concentrated), 1 oz., and triturate until cold. Used as a dressing for ill-conditioned ulcers.

Cerate, Cin′nabar. Syn. Cera′tum ru′brum, C. cinnaba′ris, C. hydrar′gyri sulphure′ti ru′bri, L. Prep. 1. Camphor, 20 gr.; vermilion, 60 gr.; simple cerate, 1 oz. This is Alibert’s “Antiherpetic pommade.”

2. (Ph. Chirur.) Yellow wax and lard, of each ⁄2 lb.; yellow resin, ⁄2 oz.; red sulphide of mercury, 1 dr. Used as a common dressing.

Cerate, Cit′rine. See Cerate, Resin, Nitrate of Mercury c.

Cerate, Copai′ba. Syn. Cera′tum copai′bæ, L. Prep. 1. Spermaceti cerate, 3 oz.; melt by a gentle heat, then add, balsam of copaiba, 1 oz.

2. (Dr Houlton.) White wax, 1 oz.; balsam of copaiba, 2 oz.; mix, as last. Both the above have been recommended as topical applications to wounds and ulcers of the rectum, vagina, and urethra; especially in those of a fistulous character; and in piles, &c.

Cerate, Cop′per. Syn. Cupria′ted cerate; Cera′tum cu′pri; C. c. ammonia′ti, L. Prep. (Swediaur.) Simple cerate, 8 parts; melt, and add solution of ammoniuret of copper, 1 part. As a stimulant dressing for indolent ulcers; and in psorophthalmia, &c.

Cerate, Cosmet′ic. Syn. Cold cream, Cerate of Ga′len; Cera′tum cosmet′icum, C. Galeni, Cremor frigida, L.; Pommade en crême, Fr. Prep. 1. Oil of sweet almonds, 1 lb.; white wax and spermaceti, of each 2 oz.; melt, pour the mixture into a marble or wedgwood mortar, which has been heated by standing for some time in boiling water; add, gradually, rose water, 10 fl. oz., assiduously stirring until an emulsion is formed; then further add, oil of bergamot, ⁄2 oz.; oil of lavender, 1 dr.; and continue the stirring or trituration until the whole has become cold.

2. To the last add otto of roses, 1 dr.; oil of rosemary, 15 drops.

3. Oil of almonds, 5 oz.; spermaceti, 5 dr.; white wax, 4 dr.; rose water, 3⁄2 oz.; balm of Mecca (genuine), 8 drops.

4. As the last, with essence of vanilla, 15 drops; essence of ambergris, 10 drops.

5. (P. C.) White wax, 1 part; oil of almonds, 4 parts; rose water, 3 parts; as before.

6. (Van Mons.) White wax and butter of cacao, of each 1 part; oil of almonds and rose water, of each 4 parts.

Obs. The above are used as agreeable and cooling emollients for irritable surfaces, excoriations, sore nipples, &c. See Cold cream and Ointments.

Cerate, Cro′ton. Syn. Cera′tum croto′nis, L. Prep. (Caventou.) Lard, 5 parts; wax, 1 part; melt, and when nearly cold add croton oil, 2 parts. Used as a counter-irritant; but is apt to affect the bowels.

Cerate, Goulard’s. See Cerate, Lead.

Cerate, Hemlock. Syn. Cera′tum co′nii, L. Prep. (St. B. Hosp.) Spermaceti, 2 oz.; white wax, 3 oz.; melt, and add of hemlock ointment, 12 oz. Used for inveterate cancerous, scrofulous, and other sores.

Cerate, Hon′ey. Syn. Cera′tum mel′is, L. Prep. 1. Simple cerate, 3 parts; honey, 1 part; oil of lemon-grass, 6 drops. Used as cold cream.

2. (Ph. Chirur.) Olive oil, ⁄2 lb.; wax and lead plaster (or galbanum plaster), of each 4 oz.; melt, and add honey, ⁄2 lb. As a cooling emollient dressing.

Cerate of Honey with Turpentine. (Paracelsus). Common turpentine, 1 lb.; the yolk of 20 eggs; honey, 1 lb.; beat together the honey and yolk, and add the turpentine, softened by heat.

Cerate, Is′sue. Syn. Cera′tum ad fonticulos, L. As issue plaster, but adding a little almond oil.

Cerate, Kirk′land’s. Syn. Kirkland’s neutral cerate; Cera′tum neutra′le, C. cre′tæ aceta′tis, L. Prep. 1. Lead plaster, 8 oz.; olive oil, 4 oz. melt, sift in chalk, 4 oz.; mix well, then add gradually Goulard’s extract, ⁄2 oz.; distilled vinegar, 4 oz.; and stir until cold.

2. (Paris.) Lead plaster, 8 oz.; olive oil and chalk, of each 4 oz.; sugar of lead, 3 dr., (dissolved in) distilled vinegar, 4 fl. oz. As a cooling dressing to irritable ulcers and excoriated parts.

Cerate, Lead (Compound). Syn. Gou′lard’s cerate; Cera′tum plum′bi compos′itum (Ph. L.), L. Prep. (Ph. L.) Olive oil, 16 fl. oz.; yellow wax, 8 oz.; melt, remove the vessel from the fire, and when they begin to thicken, add gradually solution of subacetate of lead (slightly warmed), 6 fl. oz.; and stir constantly until the whole is nearly cold; then add camphor, 1 dr., dissolved in olive oil, 4 fl. oz. (by heat), and stir until the cerate is quite cold. Used in similar cases to Kirkland’s cerate (which see). See also Acetate of Lead cerate.

Cerate, Mar′shall’s. Prep. 1. Palm oil and calomel, of each 2 oz.; acetate of lead, 1 oz.; ointment of nitrate of mercury, 4 oz.; triturated together in a wedgwood mortar.

2. (Paris.) Palm oil, 5 oz.; calomel, 1 oz.; acetate of lead, ⁄2 oz.; citrine ointment, 2 oz.; as the last. Applied to the eyes, &c.

Cerate, mercu′′rial. Syn. Cera′tum mercuria′le, C. hydrar′′gyri, L. Prep. 1. (Guibourt.) Strong mercurial ointment and simple cerate, equal parts.

2. (Ph. L. 1746.) Strong mercurial ointment and yellow wax, of each 6 oz.; lard, 3 oz. Both are used as dressings to venereal ulcers.

3. (Compound; Cera′tum mercuria′le compos′itum, C. hydrar′′gyri, L.) Prep. (Ph. L.) Mercurial ointment (strong) and soap cerate, of each 6 oz.; camphor (in powder), 1⁄2 oz.; triturate together. Alterative and discutient; used to disperse indolent tumours and swellings, and as a resolvent in enlarged joints, &c.

Cerate, Meto′′pium. Syn. Cera′tum meto′′pii, L. Prep. (Dr Barham.) Hog-gum (from Rhus Metopium), and lard, of each 4 oz.; white wax and root of Sweet Aristolochia (powdered), of each 2 oz.; yellow resin, 1 oz.; in stiff joints and rheumatic pains.

Cerate, Mez′ereon. Syn. Cera′tum mez′erei, L. Prep. 1. Extract of mezereon, 1 part; (dissolved in) alcohol, 5 parts; add beeswax, 5 parts; olive oil, 11 parts; melt together, and continue the heat until all the alcohol is evaporated.

2. Green oil of mezereon, 1 part; simple cerate, 20 parts; melt together. Both are used to keep up the discharge from blistered surfaces, and as a stimulant application to indolent sores.

Cerate, Neu′tral. See Cerate, Kirkland’s.

Cerate, Ni′trate of Mer′cury. Syn. Cit′rine cerate; Cera′tum hydrar′′gyri nitra′tis, L. Prep. (St. B. Hosp.) Citrine ointment and simple cerate, equal parts. See Ointments.

Cerate, O′pium. Syn. Laud′anum cerate, An′odyne c.; Cera′tum o′′pii, C. opia′tum, C. anody′num, L. Prep. 1. Tincture of opium and olive oil, of each 2 dr.; simple cerate, 1 oz.; digest with heat until all the spirit and water is evaporated, constantly stirring the mixture all the time.

2. (Gilbert.) Wine of opium, 1 dr.; simple cerate, 1 oz.

3. (Lagneau.) Opium (in fine powder), ⁄2 dr.; yolk of 1 egg; mix, then triturate it with simple cerate, 1 oz.

Uses. The above are applied to painful swellings, piles, and ulcers, and in chronic ophthalmia, &c.

Cerate, Phosphora′ted. Syn. Cera′tum phospho′ri, C. phosphora′tum, L. Prep. 1. Phosphorus, 6 gr.; simple cerate, 3 oz.; heat together in a phial placed in a water bath, with frequent agitation for 2 hours; and after repose for 10 minutes, pour off the clear portion, and stir it well until cold.

2. (Foy.) Phosphorated ether, 5 parts; simple cerate, 24 parts.—Uses. Both of the above have been recommended as frictions in obstinate cutaneous affections, and in rheumatism of the joints.

Cerate, Pitch. Syn. Ceratum pi′cis Bergundi′cæ, L. Prep. (Beral.) White wax, 3 parts; suet, 4 parts; Bergundy pitch, 6 parts; melted together. A mild stimulant and detergent dressing. See Ointments.

Cerate, Quin′ine. Syn. Cera′tum quiniæ, L. Prep. 1. Sulphate of quinine, 5 or 6 gr.; simple cerate, 1 dr. Applied to the denuded dermis (endermically).

2. Sulphate of quinine and olive oil, of each 1 dr.; simple cerate, 6 dr. As a friction. Both are used in intermittents.

Cerate, Res′in. Syn. Basil′icon, B. cerate, B. ointment, Yellow b., Cit′rine cerate; Cera′tum citri′num (Ph. L. 1788), C. resi′næ fla′væ (Ph. L. 1745), C. resi′næ (Ph. L. 1809 and since), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Yellow resin and beeswax, of each 15 oz.; melt, add olive oil, 1 pint; strain through a cloth, and stir the mixture until cold.

Obs. The above is the formula of the London College, but the basilicon of the shops is seldom, if ever, made in this manner. The following forms are those commonly used in trade, but the products are much inferior to that made according to the directions in the Pharmacopœia.

2. (Commercial.)—a. Yellow resin, 10 lbs.; beeswax, 2 lbs.; linseed oil, 7 lbs.; melt together, and stir until cold.

b. As the last, but using nut oil instead of linseed oil.

c. Nut oil, 1 gall.; beeswax, 5 lbs.; yellow resin, 14 lbs.

d. Lard (common) and linseed oil, of each 3 lbs.; yellow resin, 9 lbs.; as before.

Uses, &c. This cerate is a mild stimulant, detergent, and digestive application; and as such is employed to dress foul and indolent ulcers, blistered surfaces, burns, &c. For the corresponding preparations of the other colleges, see Ointments.

3. (Compound; Desh′ler’s cerate; Cera′tum resi′næ compos′itum, L.) Prep. (Ph. U. S.) Resin, suet, and beeswax, of each 1 lb.; turpentine, ⁄2 lb.; flax-seed oil (linseed oil), ⁄2 pint; as above. Rather more stimulating than resin cerate, but used for the same purposes.

Cerate, Rose. Syn. Lip salve; Cera′tum rosa′tum, L. Prep. (P. C.) Oil of almonds, 16 parts; white wax, 8 parts; alkanet root, 1 part; digest, with a gentle heat, until sufficiently coloured, then strain, and for every ounce of the cerate, add otto of roses, 2 drops. See Lip Salve.

Cerate, Sav′ine. Syn. Cera′tum sabi′næ (Ph. E.; and Ph. L. 1836), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. E.) Beeswax, 1 part; lard, 4 parts; fresh savin (leaves bruised), 2 parts; boil together until the leaves become crisp, then strain, with pressure, through a linen cloth.

2. (Ph. L. 1836.) Lard, 2 lbs.; savin leaves, 1 lb.; beeswax, ⁄2 lb.; as last.

3. (Ph. L. 1851.) In the B. P. this preparation is included among the OINTMENTS (which see); in trade, however, the old name (Ph. L. 1836) is still generally retained.

Obs. The preparation of this cerate requires caution, as the active principle of the savin, being volatile, is injured by long boiling and a high temperature. The leaves are usually boiled until they are crisp, but as this takes some time, the essential oil, and consequently the odour, is nearly all dissipated. A better plan is to express the juice from the leaves, and to add it to the wax and oil melted together, and just beginning to cool. As usually met with in the shops, this cerate has a lively green colour, and the odour of the fresh plant; but neither of these is derived from the leaves in the common process of making it. The first is caused by the addition of powdered verdigris, and the last by adding a little of the essential oil of savin to the compound when nearly cold. The preparations of the British Colleges have only a very pale green colour, and even that rapidly changes by exposure to the air. A uniform green colour may therefore be regarded as a proof of adulteration; as the unadulterated compound, however, skilfully prepared, is of a dingy green colour, of little intensity; and after it has been made a short time, it fades on the surface, and the under portion becomes streaky and mottled. A greater quantity of colour is obtained from the leaves by long digestion in the fat and wax in earthen vessels, at a moderate heat, than by hasty boiling. In this way a lively green is sometimes produced, but it rapidly changes in the manner just mentioned.

The following forms are those commonly adopted by the wholesale druggists for the manufacture of this cerate:—

4. Lard and suet, of each 6 lbs.; yellow wax, 2 lbs.; melt them together in an earthen vessel; add 2 oz. of distilled verdigris (previously rubbed down smooth in a mortar with an equal weight of sweet oil); strain, whilst hot, into a large earthen pot, and when the whole has cooled a little, add of oil of savin, 1 oz., and stir until cold.

5. Savin leaves, 4 lbs.; yellow wax, 2 lbs.; lard, 8 lbs.; boil until the leaves become crisp; then strain, and add, of green ointment (lively coloured), 5 lbs.; when cooled a little, further add, of oil of savin, 3 dr., and stir briskly until cold. Prod., 13⁄2 lbs.

Uses, &c. Savin cerate and ointment are chiefly employed to keep up the discharge from blisters (perpetual blisters), for which purpose it is preferable to preparations of cantharides. The practice of colouring this cerate with verdigris, which is general in trade, cannot be too severely censured, as its therapeutic action is thereby altered. The copper may be detected by burning down a little in a platinum or Hessian crucible, washing out the ashes with a little dilute nitric acid, placing the liquor in a glass tube, and applying the usual tests. See Copper and Ointments.

Cerate, Sim′ple. Syn. Cera′tum sim′plex, L. Prep. 1. (Ph. E.) Spermaceti, 1 part; white wax, 3 parts; olive oil, 6 parts; melt by a gentle heat, and stir until cold. This preparation is similar to Simple Ointment (Unguentum Simplex), B. P. (which see).

Cerate of Snails. White wax, 3 parts; spermaceti, 3 parts; oil of almonds, 32 parts; mucilage of snails, 24 parts; otto of rose, sufficient to scent it.

Cerate, Soap. Syn. Compound soap cerate; Cera′tum sapo′nis (Ph. L. 1836), C. saponis compos′itum (Ph. L. 1851), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Boil litharge, 15 oz., in distilled vinegar, 1 gall., until dissolved, stirring continually; then add of Castile soap, 10 oz.; again boil until all the moisture is evaporated; then add, gradually, beeswax, 12⁄2 oz., and olive oil, 1 pint, previously melted together, and stir until nearly cold. Similar to Soap cerate plaster (Emplastrum Cerati Saponis), B. P. (which see).

2. (Wholesale.) Distilled vinegar, 6 galls.; litharge, 5 lbs.; soap, 3⁄4 lbs.; yellow wax, 4⁄2 lbs.; olive oil, 6 pints. Mix as above. Good nut or poppy oil may be used instead of olive oil.

Obs. Unless the instructions contained in the above formulæ are followed in every particular, the process is apt to miscarry. When this is the case, the cerate, on cooling, separates into two portions, and is commonly full of hard, gritty particles. To prevent this, care should be taken to use soap of the best quality. This mishap cannot be got over by long boiling and stirring, as is generally supposed. The only remedy is the addition of a little more soap, previously melted with some water, and again evaporating to a proper consistence. A small quantity of solution of potassa has a similar effect.

The colour and consistence of soap cerate chiefly depends on the length of time it is kept heated after the addition of the oil and wax. As evaporation proceeds, so the colour and consistence increase. Its usual colour is that of a lively, pale chocolate-brown, but occasionally it is much paler. This arises from its containing an undue quantity of moisture. When it has been kept heated for a period beyond that usually adopted, it attains greater hardness, and is then frequently called hard soap cerate (Cera′tum saponis durum); but by over-boiling it is apt to become gritty.

Uses, &c. Soap cerate is resolvent, cooling, and desiccative, and is chiefly employed as a cooling dressing for scrofulous swellings, &c. It may be spread on linen and applied like a plaster. It is sometimes used as a support for fractured limbs, and forms an excellent dressing for soft corns.

Cerate, Spermace′ti. Syn. White cerate, White lip salve, Simple c.; Ceratum sim′plex (Ph. E.), C. album (Ph. L. 1745), C. sperma′tis ce′ti (Ph. L. 1788), C. ceta′cei (Ph. L. 1809, and since), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Spermaceti, 2 oz.; white wax, 8 oz.; melt by a gentle heat; add, olive oil (warm), 1 pint, and stir with a spatula until they cool.

2. (Ph. E.) See Cerate, Simple.

3. (Ph. D.) The corresponding preparation of the Ph. D. is classed under Ointments, and contains lard.

4. (Commercial.) On the large scale lard or suet is substituted for oil, by which means less wax is required. The following is a good form where a cheap article is wanted, and is that commonly adopted in the wholesale trade:—

Clarified mutton suet, 5⁄2 lbs.; white wax and spermaceti, of each ⁄4 lb.; as above.

Obs. The materials should be melted by a very gentle heat (that of a water bath is best) in a clean stoneware vessel, and as soon as perfect liquefaction takes place, the heat should be withdrawn, and the fluid cerate strained into a clean vessel, and stirred with a clean wooden spatula until it solidifies. To facilitate the cooling, the vessel may be placed in cold water or in a current of cold air. In this way the product is rendered both whiter and finer than when the liquid mass is allowed to cool by itself. By adding a little flowers of benzoin with the oil, or a little nitric ether when the cerate is about half cold, this, as well as other like preparations, will keep for years without becoming rancid or suffering any material change of condition.

Uses, &c. Emollient and cooling. It is commonly employed as a soft, cooling dressing, as a lip salve, as an application to chaps, chilblains, &c.

Cerate, Sul′phur. Syn. Cera′tum sulphu′ris, C. sulphura′tum, L. Prep. (P. C.) Washed sulphur, 2 parts; cerate of Galen, 7 parts; almond oil, 1 part; mix. In itch, &c.

Cerate, Sul′phide of Mer′cury. Prep. (Swediaur.) Yellow resin, ⁄2 oz.; yellow wax and lard, of each ⁄2 lb.; vermilion, 20 gr. As a dressing to unhealthy ulcers. See Cerate, Cinnabar.

Cerate, Tobac′co. Prep. Beeswax, 3 oz.; yellow resin, 1 oz.; olive oil, 6 oz.; tobacco juice, 4 oz.; mix and evaporate to dryness, and when nearly cold, add bergamot, 2 dr. Used to destroy pediculi, &c.

Cerate, Touch. Syn. Cera′tum pro tec′tu, L.; Cerat pour le toucher, Fr. Prep. (Soubeiran.) Spermaceti and yellow wax, of each 1 part; olive oil, 16 parts; melt, add caustic soda, 1 part, and stir until cold. Used in hospitals for practising the touching in accouchements.

Cerate, Turner’s. See Cerate, Calamine.

Cerate, Ver′digris. Syn. Cera′tum æru′ginis, C. cu′pri diaceta′tis, L. Prep. 1. Resin cerate, 19 parts; verdigris (in fine powder), 1 part.

2. (For. Ph.) Wax and resin, of each 6 parts; Venice turpentine, 5 parts; linseed oil, 2 parts; verdigris, 1 part. Used as a mild escharotic and stimulant to fungous ulcers, warts, corns, &c.

Cerate, White. See Cerate, Spermaceti.

Cerate, Zinc. Syn. Cera′tum zinc′i, C. z. oxy′di, L. Prep. 1. Oxide of zinc, 20 gr., spermaceti cerate, 1 oz. Used in sore nipples, excoriations, &c.; and in chronic ophthalmia.

2. (Compound; Cera′tum zinci compositum, L.)—a. To the last add calomel, 10 gr. Used as the last, and in scrofulous ophthalmia.

b. (Mid. Hosp.) Zinc ointment and compound lead ointment, equal parts. Cooling, astringent; in excoriations, and as a dressing for ulcers.

c. (Hufeland.) Oxide of zinc and lycopodium, of each 15 gr.; simple cerate, ⁄2 oz. In sore nipples, ulcerations of the breast, tetters, &c. It acts best when diluted with half its weight of spermaceti cerate.

d. (U. S. Ph.) Precipitated carbonate zinc, 2 oz.; simple cerate, 10 oz. A substitute for calamine cerate.

CEREB′RIC ACID. A peculiar acid compound, first noticed by M. Frémy, obtained along with oleo-phosphoric acid when the brain and nerves are treated with hot alcohol. It is solid, white, crystalline; freely soluble in boiling alcohol, and forms a solid gelatinous mass with hot water; fusible with decomposition, exhaling a peculiar odour, and leaving much charcoal behind. It has been found also in the yolk of eggs, in seminal fluid, and in pus. With the alkalies it forms insoluble salts termed cerebrates.

CEREB′ROLEIN. When oleo-phosphoric acid is boiled in water, it is resolved into a fluid neutral oil and phosphoric acid, which dissolves. The former is cerebrolein.

CE′RIN, HC27H53O2. (Brodie.) Syn. Cerotic acid. When pure beeswax (bleached) is digested in boiling alcohol for some time, a solution of myricin and cerin is formed. The former is deposited as the liquid cools, and the latter may be obtained by evaporating the decanted portion. Cerin is a white, crystallisable substance, soluble in 16 parts of boiling alcohol; it fuses at 144° Fahr.; and is readily saponified with caustic alkaline lyes. It greatly resembles white wax, of which, indeed, it forms from 70%; to 80%.

CERISIN. A substance obtained from ozokerit or fossil wax, very similar in appearance and properties to white wax, for which it has been proposed as a substitute in pharmaceutical preparations. At present it is chiefly used in the manufacture of candles. Cerisin appears to be one of the paraffins. It differs, however, from ordinary paraffin in not being unctuous to the touch, in being non-translucent and firmer in texture, and in having a higher fusing point. It seems to be intermediate between ordinary paraffin and wax.

CE′RIUM. Ce. A metal discovered in 1803 by Hisinger and Berzelius in the mineral named cerite.

Cerium Oxalate. (Ph. B.) It may be obtained as a precipitate by adding a solution of oxalate of ammonia to a soluble salt of cerium.—Dose, 1 to 2 gr. Given in the vomiting of pregnancy.

CE′ROMEL. Prep. (Van Mons.) Beeswax, 1 oz.; honey, 4 oz.; melt together and stir until cold. An excellent application to irritable ulcers, abraded surfaces, sore nipples, &c.

CERO′TIC ACID. See Cerin.

CESSPOOLS. It may be well to point out that the local authorities of any district in which a cesspool is situated are required by the Public Health Act—1. To see that it is so constructed and kept as to prevent its becoming either a nuisance or detrimental to health. 2. That an examination of any cesspool can be made by the sanitary inspector, or by any officer appointed by the local authority, after notice of entry has been served upon those who are the occupiers of the premises on which it is situated. 3. The local authority may itself undertake the cleansing of a cesspool, or it may enact bye-laws imposing this duty on the occupiers of the premises. 4. If the local authority, after having undertaken the cleansing of a cesspool, fail to do its duty, it becomes liable, after notice from an occupier, for the payment to the said occupier of a penalty not exceeding five shillings a day during default. 5. Any person in an urban district who allows the contents of a cesspool to overflow, or to soak therefrom, incurs a penalty of forty shillings for each offence, and a further charge of five shillings a day for the continuance of the offence after notice. 6. Information of any nuisance under the said Act in the district of any local authority may be given to such local authority by any person aggrieved thereby, or by any two inhabitant householders of such district, or by any officer of such authority, or by the relieving officer, or by any constable or officer of the police force of such district.

It does not come within our province to enter into details as to the best method of building a cesspool.

We may, however, state, that owing to the defective and leaky construction of a cesspool, it very frequently becomes a serious source of dangerous contamination to the wells in the neighbourhood, as well as a ready means of contagion, when it contains the excreta of fever patients. The outbreak of typhoid fever at the west end of London in 1874, the origin of which was traced to the milk supply, was owing to the vessels in which the milk was collected in the country having been washed out with water taken from a well near a cesspool, into which ran the contents of a privy belonging to a house, some of the inmates of which were labouring under typhoid fever.

For a cesspool not to be injurious to health it should be water-tight and ventilated by a shaft; it should never be allowed to overflow; and should be sunk at as great a distance from houses or dwellings as possible.

CE′TIN. C32H64O2. Chevreul applied this name to pure spermaceti. Prep. Dissolve spermaceti in boiling alcohol, and collect the crystals that are deposited as the solution cools. Bright pearly crystals, melting at 120°, and subliming at 670° Fahr. See Spermaceti.

CETRAR′IC ACID. H2C18H14O8. Syn. Cetrar′in. The bitter principle of Iceland moss (Cetraria Islandica). It exists, in the free state, in the cortical portion of the thallus.

Prep. 1. Iceland moss (bruised), 1 part; rectified spirit, 6 parts; boil in a covered vessel for half an hour; express the liquor whilst hot, filter, and distil off the spirit; redissolve the residuum in boiling alcohol, decant the clear, and let the solution cool slowly; lastly, collect the crystals and preserve them out of contact with air.

2. (Herberger.) Iceland moss (in coarse powder), 1 lb.; alcohol (·883), 4 lbs.; boil as before, cool until vapours cease to rise, express the tincture, add hydrochloric acid, 3 dr., (dissolved in) water, 2 oz.; let it rest for a night in a closed matrass; then decant, throw the deposit on a filter, press it in bibulous paper, and whilst still moist wash it with both alcohol and ether; lastly, purify it by digestion in boiling alcohol, as before.

Prop., &c. Pure cetraric acid occurs under the form of minute, shining, acicular crystals; it is intensely bitter, non-volatile, scarcely soluble in water, ether, and cold alcohol; soluble in alkaline solutions forming soluble salts, which give a red colour with the persalts of iron, and a yellow one with acetate of lead. The compounds are called cetrarates.—Dose, 2 to 4 gr. every three hours, as a febrifuge; 1 to 3 gr. thrice daily, as a tonic.

CHA′BERT’S OIL. Syn. Chabert’s empyreumat′ic oil; O′leum empyreumat′icum Chaberti, O. contra tæniam Chaberti, L. Prep. (Ph. Bor. 1847.) From empyreumatic oil of hartshorn, 1 part; oil of turpentine, 3 parts; mix and distil over three fourths only in a glass retort, and keep it in well-stopped bottles. In tapeworm.—Dose, 2 teaspoonfuls in water, night and morning, until 4 to 6 or even 7 oz. have been taken; a cathartic being also administered from time to time.

CHAFING. See Excoriations.

CHAIRS. The black leather work of chairs, settees, &c., may be restored by first well washing off the dirt with a little warm soap and water, and afterwards with clean water. The brown and faded portions may now be retained by means of a little black ink, or preferably, black reviver, and when this has got thoroughly dry, they may be touched over with white of egg, stained and mixed with a little sugar-candy. When the surface is nearly dry, it should be polished off with a clean brush.

CHALK. Syn. Soft carbonate of lime, or Carbonate of calcium, Earthy c. of l.; Cre′ta, L. Chalk is largely used in the arts and manufactures, and in medicine. The natural varieties are remarkable for the fossils which they contain. The COLOURED CHALKS which are used as pigments and for crayons generally contain both clay and magnesia, as well as oxide of iron, and are minerals quite distinct from WHITE CHALK, or CHALK properly so called. The latter is an AMORPHOUS CARBONATE OF LIME. Exposed for some time to a red heat, it is converted into QUICK-LIME; ground in mills and elutriated, it forms WHITING; the same process performed more carefully and on a smaller scale produces the PREPARED CHALK used in medicine. When prepared artificially (by precipitation), it is the PRECIPITATED CHALK of modern pharmacy. (See below.)

Chalk, Black. A variety of drawing slate.

Chalk, Brown. A familiar name for umber.

Chalk, Cam′phorated. Syn. Cretaceous tooth powder, Cam′phorated t. p.; Cre′ta cam′phorata, C. cum campho′ra, L. Prep. 1. Camphor, 1 oz.; add a few drops of spirit of wine, reduce it to a very fine powder, and mix it (perfectly) with precipitated chalk, 7 oz.; lastly, pass it through a clean, fine sieve, and keep it in a corked bottle. These proportions make the strongest “CAMPHORATED TOOTH POWDER” of the shops.

2. Camphor, 1 oz.; precipitated chalk, 15 oz.; as before. These are the best and safest proportions, and those now generally adopted by the West-end perfumers.

3. As either of the above, but using prepared chalk in lieu of precipitated chalk. Less white and velvety, but cleans the teeth better than the softer article.

Uses, &c. Camphorated chalk is much esteemed as a dentifrice; especially by smokers, and those troubled with foul teeth, or offensive breath. It may be scented with a few drops (3 or 4 to each oz.) of otto of roses, oil of cloves, or neroli, or of the essences of ambergris, musk, or vanilla; but care must be taken not to overdo it. When the teeth are much furred or discoloured, it may be mixed with about one seventh of its weight of finely powdered pumice stone (sifted through lawn), which will render it more effective. A little carmine, rouge, light red (burnt ochre), red coral, or rose pink, is also sometimes added to give it a tinge approaching that of the gums. The quantity of camphor (1 to 3 or 4) commonly ordered in certain books is absurdly large, and would render the compound not only unpleasant in use, but actually detrimental to the teeth. See Dentifrices.

Chalk, French. Soap stone or steatite, a soft magnesian mineral, possessing the property of writing on glass. It is used by tailors for marking cloths. Its powder (obtained by scraping) is very soft, velvety, and absorbent of grease. It forms the boot powder of the boot- and shoe-makers.

Chalk Mixture. Syn. Mistura Cretæ, L. Prepared chalk, 1 part; gum arabic (in powder), 1 part; syrup, 2 parts; cinnamon water, 30 parts; mix by trituration.—Dose, 1 to 2 oz., with astringent tinctures and opium. Care should be taken to use the prepared chalk as directed; the precipitated chalk has a crystalline character, and is said to occasion irritation of the bowels. (Squire.)

Chalk, Precip′itated. Syn. Precipitated car′bonate of lime; Cre′ta præcipita′ta, Cal′cis carb′onas præcipita′tum, L. Prep. 1. By adding to a solution of chloride of calcium, any quantity, another of carbonate of soda (both cold), and well washing the precipitate with pure water, and drying it out of the dust.

2. (Ph. D.) Solution of chloride of calcium (Ph. D.), 5 parts; carbonate of soda, 3 parts; (dissolved in) water, 4 parts.

3. (B. P.) Dissolve chloride of calcium, 5 oz.; and carbonate of soda, 13 oz.; each in two pints of boiling distilled water; mix the two solutions, and allow the precipitate to subside. Collect this on a calico filter, wash it with boiling distilled water, until the washing cease to give a precipitate with nitrate of silver, and try the product at the temperature of 212° F.

Uses, &c. It is chiefly employed for making aromatic confection, cretaceous powder, and chalk mixture. That of the shops is seldom pure, the refuse of the soda-water makers (sulphate of lime) being commonly sold for it. When pure it is wholly soluble, with effervescence, in dilute hydrochloric acid. (See below.)

Chalk, Prepa′′red. Syn. Cre′ta (Ph. E. & Ph. L. 1836), Cre′ta prepara′ta (Ph. L. 1851), Cre′ta al′ba (Ph. D.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. D. 1836.) Rub chalk, 1 lb., with sufficient water, add gradually, until reduced to a smooth cream; then stir this into a large quantity of water, and, after a short interval, to allow the coarser particles to subside, pour off the supernatant water (still turbid) into another vessel, and allow the suspended powder to settle; lastly, collect the chalk so prepared and dry it. In the same way shells are prepared, after being first freed from impurities and washed with boiling water.

2. (Commercial; Whi′ting.) On the large scale the chalk is ground in mills, and the elutriation and deposit made in large reservoirs. It is now seldom prepared by the druggist.

Pur. Almost entirely soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, provided it contains no sulphate of lime or silica, giving off small bubbles of carbonic acid gas.

Test. The salt formed by dissolving the chalk in hydrochloric acid, if rendered neutral by evaporation to dryness and redissolved in water, gives only a very scanty precipitate on the addition of a saccharated solution of lime, indicating absence of phosphate. (B. P.)

Uses, &c. In medicine, as an absorbent, antacid, and desiccant; in acidity, heartburn, dyspepsia, and other like stomach affections, and in diarrhœa, depending on acidity or irritation; in the latter, generally combined with aromatics, astringents, or opium. It forms a valuable dusting powder in excoriations, ulcers, &c., especially in those of children.—Dose, 10 gr. to a spoonful, in a little water or milk, or made into a mixture with mucilage or syrup.

Chalk, Red. A natural clay containing about 18% of protoxide and carbonate of iron.

CHALYB′EATES. Syn. Chalybea′ta, Ferrugin′ea, L. The medicinal qualities of the preparations of iron are noticed under the name of that metal. Those most frequently employed in medicine are—IRON FILINGS; Quevenne’s iron; the BLACK OXIDE, MAGNETIC OXIDE, and SESQUIOXIDE OF IRON; the AMMONIO-CHLORIDE and SESQUICHLORIDE; the CARBONATE and SACCHARINE CARBONATE; the CITRATE and AMMONIO-CITRATE; the IODIDE, LACTATE, and SULPHATE; the TARTRATE, AMMONIO-TARTRATE, and POTASSIO-TARTRATE OF IRON; and the CHALYBEATE MINERAL WATERS. For the doses, &c., see the respective articles.

CHAM′OMILE. Syn. Anthe′mis, L. The flowers of the Anthemis nobilis (Anthemidis Flores, B. P.). They are bitter, stomachic, and tonic; in dyspepsia, loss of appetite, intermittents, &c. They are an effectual remedy for nightmare; and, according to Dr Schall, the only certain remedy for that complaint.—Dose, 10 gr. to ⁄2 dr., or more, in powder or made into a tea. Fomentations are also made with it. See Extracts, Oils, Pills, &c.

CHAMPAGNE′. See Wines.

CHAPS. These are too well known to require description. Chapped hands are common amongst persons with a languid circulation, who are continually “dabbling” in water during cold weather. Chapped lips generally occur in persons with pallid, bluish, moist lips, who are much exposed to the wind in dry cold weather; especially in those who are continually moving from heated apartments to the external air. The application of a little COLD CREAM, POMATUM, SPERMACETI OINTMENT, LARD, or any similar article, will generally prevent chaps on the lips, and chaps and chilblains on the hands. Persons employed in oil and tallow works, or about oil, and who have consequently their hands continually in contact with greasy matter, never suffer from these things. A little oil or unguent of any kind, well rubbed on the hands on going to rest (removing the superfluous portion with a cloth), will not only preserve them from cold, but tend to render them both soft and white. See Chilblain.

CHAR (Potted). The flesh of the Salmo Alpinus (Linn.), or trout of the Alps, common in the lakes of Lapland, preserved by the common process of potting.

CHAR′BON-ROUX [Fr.]. See Charcoal, Wood (below).

CHAR′COAL. Charcoal is made by charring organic substances, such as wood, bone, blood, &c., and is, in other words, the fixed residuum of vegetable or animal matter exposed to a high temperature out of contact with atmospheric air.

There are several different varieties of charcoal, the chief of which, however, are wood and animal charcoal.

Charcoal, Animal. Syn. Animal black, Bone black, Ivory black, Carbo animalis. The charcoal obtained by igniting bone in close vessels, but often applied likewise to any charcoal obtained from animal matter.

Commercial. Bones (deprived of their grease by boiling) are broken to pieces, and put into small cast-iron pots, varying from ⁄8 to ⁄2 an inch in thickness. Two of these being filled, are dexterously placed with their mouths together and then luted with loam. A number of these vessels are then placed side by side and piled on each other, in an oven resembling a potter’s kiln, to the number of 100 or 150, or even more. The fire is next kindled, and the heat kept up strongly for 10 or 12 hours, according to circumstances, until the process is completed. The whole is then allowed to cool before opening the pots.

A more economical method is by distillation, as under:—

Bones (previously boiled for their grease) are introduced into retorts similar to those used in gas works, and heat being applied, the volatile products are conveyed away by iron pipes to cisterns where the condensable portion is collected. As soon as the process of distillation is finished, the solid residuum in the retorts, while still red hot, is removed through their lower ends into wrought-iron canisters, which are instantly closed by air-tight covers and luted over. These are then raised to the ground by a crane, and set aside to cool.

The bones, having been carbonised, are ground in a mill, and the resulting coarse powder, sorted by sieves into two kinds, one, granular, somewhat resembling gunpowder, for decolorising liquids, and the other, quite fine, to be used as a pigment. The first is sold under the name of animal charcoal; the second as bone or ivory black. The latter and other fine varieties of animal charcoal are fully described under the head of Black pigments.

Uses, &c. This crude animal charcoal possesses the valuable property of taking lime and other saline matter from syrups and other aqueous solutions, especially organic ones, at the same time that it decolours them. Its power as a decoloriser may be tested by adding it to a solution of brown sugar or of molasses, or to water containing ⁄1000 part of indigo dissolved in sulphuric acid. The test should be made in a small glass tube. By well washing and carefully reburning it, this charcoal may be used any number of times. As a decoloriser and deodoriser, animal charcoal is vastly superior to vegetable charcoal.

Dr Stenhouse has invented a charcoal respirator to cover over the mouth and nostrils of a person going into an infected atmosphere. Charcoal is also used with excellent effect to prevent the escape of noxious vapours and offensive effluvia from the ventilating openings of sewers. The charcoal condenses and oxidises the escaping sewer gas in its pores. Dr Garrod has proposed animal charcoal as a general antidote in cases of poisoning.

Prepared Animal Charcoal. Hydrochloric acid, 1 lb.; water, 1 pint; mix, add bone black, 7 lbs.; make a paste; in 2 or 3 days stir in boiling water, 1 quart; and the next day wash it with fresh water until the washings cease to affect litmus paper or a solution of carbonate of sodium; then collect it in a cloth, and drain, press, and dry it; lastly, heat it to redness, as before. Used to decolour syrups, &c.; and occasionally by the distillers and rectifiers.

The most powerful charcoal is prepared by calcining blood, and well washing the residue, and which is the method of the last ‘London Pharmacopœia.’ The B. P. directs it to be made by burning bones in a closed vessel.

Concluding Remarks. Animal charcoal, however prepared, if intended to be used as a deodoriser or decoloriser, should be kept thoroughly excluded from the air, as by exposure it loses all its valuable properties, and becomes absolutely inert. Freshly burnt charcoal is therefore to be employed whenever it can be obtained.

Charcoal, Wood. Syn. Veg′etable charcoal; Car′bo lig′ni, L. The residue obtained after heating wood without access of air to about 572° Fahr. It is extremely porous, and retains the structure of the wood from which it is derived. It consists essentially of carbon and of the fixed or inorganic matter which exists in wood; but if carbonisation be imperfectly effected, it may contain a sensible amount of hydrogen.

Charcoal burning is effected in the open air in piles or stacks provided with a yielding cover, in pits, in closed chambers of brick or stone, and in iron retorts heated externally like common gas retorts. The latter method is only practised by the manufacturers of pyroligneous acid and gunpowder.

Charcoal for Fuel, &c. The method of pile burning is that which is most extensively practised. Pieces of wood of equal length are piled concentrically round a sort of chimney formed by driving 3 stakes in the ground; those nearest the centre are almost vertical, and the surrounding pieces have a slight but gradually increasing inclination; a second row, and in the case of very large piles even a third, may be stacked in a similar manner one above the other. The pile is covered with turf and soil, and kindled by filling the space within the 3 central stakes with easily inflammable wood, which is ignited. The character of the smoke which issues from vents made in the piles indicates exactly the degrees of carbonisation in different parts. When the charcoal is drawn from the pile it is extinguished by cold water, or if that is not at hand, by charcoal dust or dry soil. In some parts of Sweden the wood is charred in large rectangular stacks, and in China the method of charring in pits is practised.

Charcoal for Gun′powder; Cyl′inder Charcoal. The charcoal employed in the manufacture of gunpowder is burnt in close iron cylinders, and has hence received the name of cylinder charcoal. For this and other nice purposes it is essential that the last portion of the tar and vinegar should be suffered to escape, and the reabsorption of the crude vapours prevented by cutting off the communication between the cylinders and the condensing apparatus; as without this precaution, on the fire being withdrawn, a retrograde movement of the product takes place, and the charcoal is much reduced in quality. Alder and willow are the woods chiefly used for making charcoal at Waltham Abbey. The Dutch white willow, and after that the Huntingdon willow, are said to yield the best charcoal for gunpowder. The charcoal from the cylinders of the pyroligneous acid (wood vinegar) works is also called cylinder charcoal, and is that chiefly used for chemical purposes; but it is inferior to that prepared for gunpowder.

Charcoal for Scientific Purposes. The box-wood charcoal, employed in voltaic electricity, is prepared by putting prismatic pieces of box-wood, about 1 inch long by ⁄2 inch thick, into a crucible, which is then filled with clean, dry sand, covered up, and exposed to a red heat for about an hour.

Uses, &c. These are numerous and varied. Charcoal is extensively employed as a fuel; and in metallurgy for tempering metals, making steel, &c.; reduced to powder, it is used to surround vessels and bodies required to retain their heat for some time; a coating of charcoal, formed on piles and stakes of wood by charring them, promotes their preservation. Fresh burnt charcoal, in coarse powder, restores tainted meat and putrid water, discolours vegetable solutions, deodorises fetid substances, and withdraws lime from syrups filtered through it. Exposed on trays it is used as a disinfectant and deodoriser in the wards of hospitals and in dissecting rooms, also as a material for water filters.

In medicine, charcoal is principally used as a deodoriser and disinfectant, either in the form of powder or made into a poultice. It has been given internally in dyspepsia, diarrhœa, dysentery, heartburn, agues, constipation, sickness of pregnancy, and various other diseases, with advantage. As a prophylactic of cholera and fevers it is invaluable and superior to all other substances. It forms the best tooth powder known, as it both whitens the teeth and deodorises the breath.—Dose, 10 gr. to a teaspoonful, or more ad libitum. An ointment made with lard and charcoal has been successfully employed in some skin diseases. In all cases, to be useful, the charcoal must be both fresh-burnt and fresh-powdered, and carefully preserved, out of contact with the air, until about to be administered. Fresh carbonised bread forms an excellent charcoal, both for a prophylactic and a tooth powder.

Charcoal varies in its qualities according to the substance from which it is prepared: that of the soft woods (willow or alder) is best for crayons and gunpowder; that of the hard woods for fuel, and for blowpipe supports. That made by a low red heat, not exceeding cherry red, and which has a dull surface, is the most valuable. If the heat be carried much beyond this point, the charcoal acquires a brilliant surface, and deteriorates in quality. Chestnut charcoal is preferred by smiths for forging, as it not only burns slowly, but deadens as soon as the blast ceases. Areca-nut charcoal is preferred as a dentifrice; but the willow charcoal or box-wood charcoal is usually substituted for it by shopkeepers.

Ant., &c. Poisoning or suffocation, resulting from respiring the fumes of burning charcoal, has been already alluded to, and the treatment briefly pointed out. See Carbonic anhydride.

CHAR′GES (for Cattle). See Veterinary Medicine.

CHAR′RING (Surface). The operation by which the surface of wood is carbonised, to prevent its decay from exposure to air and moisture. Stakes and piles are generally thus treated before they are driven into the ground. Casks are charred on the inside by coopers when they are intended to hold water. In both these cases the fire is commonly applied directly to the wood. A new method has, however, been lately employed with apparent success. This consists in washing the wood with the strongest oil of vitriol. In this way not only the outer surface, but the surface of all the cracks and holes, get carbonised, which is not the case when heat is employed. It succeeds admirably with musty casks and vats.

CHATHAM LIGHT. A flash light used for military signals. It is produced by blowing a mixture of pulverised rosin and magnesium dust through the flame of a spirit lamp.

CHEESE. Syn. Ca′seum, Ca′seus, L. The curd of milk compressed into a solid mass. That of commerce is usually salted and dried, and in some varieties it is also coloured and flavoured.

The process of cheese-making is one which is eminently interesting and scientific, and which, in every gradation, depends on principles which chemistry has developed and illustrated. When a vegetable or mineral acid is added to milk, and heat applied, a coagulum is formed, which, when separated from the liquid portion, constitutes cheese. Neutral salts, earthy and metallic salts, sugar, and gum Arabic, as well as some other substances, also produce the same effect; but that which answers the purpose best, and which is almost exclusively used by dairy farmers, is rennet, or the mucous membrane of the last stomach of the calf. Alkalies dissolve this curd at a boiling heat, and acids again precipitate it. The solubility of casein in milk is occasioned by the presence of the phosphates and other salts of the alkalies. In fresh milk these substances may be readily detected by the property it possesses of restoring the colour of reddened litmus paper. The addition of an acid neutralises the alkali, and so precipitates the curd in an insoluble state. The philosophy of cheese-making is thus expounded by Liebig:—

“The acid indispensable to the coagulation of milk is not added to the milk in the preparation of cheese, but it is formed in the milk at the expense of the milk-sugar present. A small quantity of water is left in contact with a small quantity of a calf’s stomach for a few hours, or for a night; the water absorbs so minute a portion of the mucous membrane as to be scarcely ponderable; this is mixed with milk; its state of transformation is communicated (and this is a most important circumstance), not to the cheese, but to the milk-sugar, the elements of which transpose themselves into lactic acid, which neutralises the alkalies, and thus causes the separation of the cheese. By means of litmus paper the process may be followed and observed through all its stages; the alkaline reaction of the milk ceases as soon as the coagulation begins. If the cheese is not immediately separated from the whey, the formation of lactic acid continues, the fluid turns acid, and the cheese itself passes into a state of decomposition.

“When cheese-curd is kept in a cool place a series of transformations takes place, in consequence of which it assumes entirely new properties; it gradually becomes semi-transparent, and more or less soft, throughout the whole mass; it exhibits a feebly acid reaction, and develops the characteristic caseous odour. Fresh cheese is very sparingly soluble in water, but after having been left to itself for two or three years it becomes (especially if all the fat be previously removed) almost completely soluble in cold water, forming with it a solution which, like milk, is coagulated by the addition of the acetic or any mineral acid. The cheese, which whilst fresh is insoluble, returns during the maturation, or ripening, as it is called, to a state similar to that in which it originally existed in the milk. In those English, Dutch, and Swiss cheeses which are nearly inodorous, and in the superior kinds of French cheese, the caseine of the milk is present in its unaltered state.

“The odour and flavour of the cheese is owing to the decomposition of the butter; the non-volatile acids, the margaric and oleic acids, and the volatile butyric acid, capric and caproic acids are liberated in consequence of the decomposition of glycerin. Butyric acid imparts to cheese its characteristic caseous odour, and the differences in its pungency or aromatic flavour depend upon the proportion of free butyric, capric, and caproic acids present.” In the cheese of certain dairies and districts, valerianic acid has been detected along with the other acids just referred to. Messrs Jljenko and Laskowski found this acid in the cheese of Limbourg, and M. Bolard in that of Roquefort.

“The transition of the insoluble into soluble casein depends upon the decomposition of the phosphate of lime by the margaric acid of the butter; margarate of lime is formed, whilst the phosphoric acid combines with the casein, forming a compound soluble in water.

“The bad smell of inferior kinds of cheese, especially those called meagre or poor cheeses, is caused by certain fetid products containing sulphur, and which are formed by the decomposition or putrefaction of the casein. The alteration which the butter undergoes (that is, in becoming rancid), or which occurs in the milk-sugar still present, being transmitted to the casein, changes both the composition of the latter substance and its nutritive qualities.

“The principal conditions for the preparation of the superior kinds of cheese (other obvious circumstances being of course duly regarded) are a careful removal of the whey, which holds the milk-sugar in solution, and a low temperature during the maturation or ripening of the cheese.”

Cheese differs vastly in quality and flavour, according to the method employed in its manufacture and the richness of the milk of which it is made. Much depends upon the quantity of cream it contains, and consequently, when a superior quality of cheese is desired, cream is frequently added to the curd. This plan is adopted in the manufacture of Stilton cheese and others of a like description. The addition of a pound or two of butter to the curd for a middling size cheese also vastly improves the quality of the product. To ensure the richness of the milk, not only should the cows be properly fed, but certain breeds chosen. Those of Alderney, Cheddar, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Guernsey, and North Wiltshire deserve a preference in this respect.

The materials employed in making cheese are milk and rennet. Rennet is used either fresh or salted and dried; generally in the latter state. The milk may be of any kind, according to the quality of the cheese required. Cows’ milk is that generally employed; but occasionally ewes’ milk is used; and sometimes, though more rarely, that from goats.

In preparing his cheese, the dairy farmer puts the greater portion of the milk into a large tub, to which he adds the remainder, sufficiently heated to raise the temperature to that of new milk. The whole is then whisked together, the rennet or rennet liquor added, and the tub covered over. It is now allowed to stand until completely “turned,” when the curd is gently struck down several times with the skimming-dish, after which it is allowed to subside. The vat covered with cheese-cloth is next placed on a “horse” or “ladder” over the tub, and filled with curd by means of the skimmer, care being taken to allow as little as possible of the oily particles or butter to run back with the whey. The curd is pressed down with the hands, and more added as it sinks. This process is repeated until the curd rises to about two inches above the edge. The newly formed cheese, thus partially separated from the whey, is now placed in a clean tub, and a proper quantity of salt added, as well as of annotta, when that colouring is used, after which a board is placed over and under it, and pressure applied for about 2 or 3 hours. The cheese is next turned out and surrounded by a fresh cheese-cloth, and then again submitted to pressure in the cheese press for 8 or 10 hours, after which it is commonly removed from the press, salted all over, and again pressed for 15 to 20 hours. The quality of the cheese especially depends on this part of the process, as if any of the whey is left in the cheese it rapidly becomes bad-flavoured. Before placing it in the press the last time the common practice is to pare the edges smooth and sightly. It now only remains to wash the outside of the cheese in warm whey or water, to wipe it dry, and to colour it with annotta or reddle, as is usually done.

The storing of the newly-made cheese is the next point that engages the attention of the maker and wholesale dealer. The same principles which influence the maturation or ripening of fermented liquors also operate here. In England, a cool cellar, neither damp nor dry, and which is uninfluenced by change of weather or season, is commonly regarded as the best for the purpose. If possible, the temperature should on no account be permitted to exceed 50° or 52° Fahr. at any portion of the year. An average of about 45° is preferable when it can be procured. A place exposed to sudden changes of temperature is as unfit for storing cheese as it is for storing beer. “The quality of Rochefort cheese, which is prepared from sheep’s milk, and is very excellent, depends exclusively upon the places where the cheeses are kept after pressing and during maturation. Those are cellars, communicating with mountain grottoes and caverns, which are kept constantly cool, at about 41° to 42° Fahr., by currents of air from clefts in the mountains. The value of these cellars as storehouses varies with their property of maintaining an equable and low temperature. Giron mentions that a certain cellar, the construction of which had cost only 480l. (12,000 francs), was sold for 8600l. (215,000 francs), being found to maintain a suitable temperature, a convincing proof of the importance attached to temperature in the preparation of these superior cheeses.” (Liebig.)

It will thus be seen that very slight differences in the materials, in the preparation, or in storing of the cheese, materially influence the quality and flavour of this article. The richness of the milk—the addition to or subtraction of cream from the milk—the separation of the curd from the whey with or without compression—the salting of the curd—the collection of the curd, either whole or broken, before pressing—the addition of colouring matter, as annotta or saffron, or of flavouring—the place and method of storing—and the length of time allowed for maturation, all tend to alter the taste and odour of the cheese in some or other particular, and that in a way readily perceptible to the palate of the connoisseur. No other alimentary substance appears to be so seriously affected by slight variations in the quality of the materials from which it is made, or by such apparently trifling differences in the methods of preparing it.

Var. The varieties of cheese met with in commerce are very numerous, and differ greatly from each other in richness, colour, and flavour. These are commonly distinguished by names indicative of the places in which they have been manufactured, or of the quality of the materials from which they have been prepared. Thus, we have Dutch, Gloucester, Stilton, skimmed-milk, raw-milk, cream, and other cheeses; names which explain themselves. The following are the principal varieties met with in Europe:—

Cheese, Brickbat. From its form; made in Wiltshire of new milk and cream.

Cheese, Cheddar. A fine, spongy kind of cheese, the eyes or vesicles of which contain a rich oil; made up into round, thick cheeses, of considerable size (150 to 200 lbs.).

Cheese, Cheshire. From new milk, without skimming, the morning’s milk being mixed with that of the preceding evening, previously warmed, so that the whole may be brought to the heat of new milk. To this the rennet is added, in less quantity than is commonly used for other kinds of cheese. On this point much of the flavour and mildness of the cheese is said to depend. A piece of dried rennet, of the size of half-a-crown, put into a pint of water over night, and allowed to stand until the next morning, is sufficient for 18 or 20 gallons of milk. In large, round, thick cheeses (100 to 200 lbs. each). They are generally solid, homogeneous, and dry, and friable rather than viscid.

Cheese, Cottenham. A rich kind of cheese, in flavour and consistence not unlike Stilton, from which, however, it differs in shape, being flatter and broader than the latter.

Cheese, Cream. From the “strippings” (the last of the milk drawn from the cow at each milking), from a mixture of milk and cream, or from raw cream only, according to the quality desired. It is usually made in small oblong, square, or rounded cakes, a general pressure only (that of a 2 or 4 lb. weight) being applied to press out the whey. After twelve hours it is placed upon a board or wooden trencher, and turned every day until dry. It ripens in about three weeks. A little salt is generally added, and frequently a little powdered lump sugar.

Cheese, Derbyshire. A small, white, rich variety, very similar to Dunlop cheese.

Cheese, Dunlop. Rich, white, and buttery; in round forms, weighing from 30 lbs. to 60 lbs.

Cheese, Dutch. (Holland.) Of a globular form. 5 to 14 lbs. each. Those from Edam are very highly salted; those from Gouda less so.

Cheese, Gloucester. Single Glo′ster; from milk deprived of part of its cream; Double Glo′ster, from milk retaining the whole of the cream. Mild tasted, semi-buttery consistence, without being friable; in large, round, flattish forms.

Cheese, Green or Sage. From milk mixed with the juice or an infusion or decoction of sage leaves, to which marygold flowers and parsley are frequently added.

Cheese, Gruyère. A fine description of cheese made in Switzerland, and largely consumed on the Continent. It is firm and dry, and exhibits numerous cells of considerable magnitude. Its flavour is peculiar, and is not generally liked by English people.

Cheese, Lincoln. From new milk and cream; in pieces about 2 inches thick; soft, and will not keep over 2 or 3 months.

Cheese, Neufchâtel. A much-esteemed variety of Swiss cheese; made of cream, and weighs about 5 or 6 oz.

Cheese, Norfolk. Dyed yellow with annotta or saffron; good, but not superior; in cheeses of 30 lbs. to 50 lbs.

Cheese, Parmesan. (Parma, &c.) From the curd of skimmed milk, hardened by a gentle heat. The rennet is added at about 120°, and an hour afterwards the curdling milk is set on a slow fire until heated to about 150° Fahr.; during which the curd separates in small lumps. A few pinches of saffron are then thrown in. About a fortnight after making the outer crust is cut off, and the new surface varnished with linseed oil, and one side coloured red.

Cheese, Roquefort. From ewes’ milk; the best prepared in France. It greatly resembles Stilton, but is scarcely of equal richness or quality, and possesses a peculiar pungency and flavour.

Cheese, Slipcoat or Soft. A very rich white cheese, somewhat resembling butter; for present use only.

Cheese, Stilton. The richest and finest cheese made in England. From raw milk to which cream taken from other milk is added; in cheeses generally twice as high as they are broad. Like wine, this cheese is vastly improved by age, and is therefore seldom eaten before it is 2 years old. A spurious appearance of age is sometimes given to it by placing it in a warm, damp cellar, or by surrounding it with masses of fermenting straw or dung.

Cheese, Suffolk. From skimmed milk; in round, flat forms, from 24 lbs. to 30 lbs. each. Very hard and horny.

Cheese, Swiss. The principal cheeses made in Switzerland are the Gruyère, the Neufchâtel, and the Schabzieger or green cheese. The latter is flavoured with melilot.

Cheese, Westphalian. In small balls or rolls of about 1 lb. each. It derives its peculiar flavour from the curd being allowed to become partially putrid before being pressed. In small balls or rolls of about 1 lb. each.

Cheese, Wiltshire. Resembles poor Cheshire or Glo′ster. The outside is generally painted with a mixture of reddle or red-ochre or whey.

Cheese, York. From cream: it will not keep.

Qual., &c. Cheese has been objected to as an article of diet, but without sufficient reason, since it is, when of good quality, eminently nutritious, wholesome, and digestible. Like all other food, cheese digests more readily when well masticated, and the neglect of this precaution is one reason why it frequently disagrees with delicate stomachs. It is rendered more agreeable to many palates by toasting it, but becomes less digestible by that operation. The basis of cheese is casein or coagulated curd, a protein substance; it therefore cannot fail to prove nutritious, provided it is properly digested. Cheese-curd, carefully freed from water and milk by expression, and the addition of salt, is a mixture of casein and butter. It contains all the phosphate of lime and part of the phosphate of soda of the milk. (Liebig.) When taken as a condiment, especially when rich and old, it powerfully promotes the secretion of the saliva and gastric juice, and thereby aids the stomach in performing its proper functions. Rotten cheese is very unwholesome.

We give below the composition of some of the principal varieties of cheese:—

Cheddar. Double Gloucester. Skim.

Water 36·64 35·61 43·64

Casein 23·38 21·76 45·64

Fatty matter 35·44 38·16 5·76

Mineral matter 4·54 4·47 4·96

100·00 100·00 100·00

Stilton. Cotherstone.

Water 32·18 38·28

Butter 37·36 30·89

Casein 24·31 23·93

Milk, sugar, and extractive matters 2·22 3·70

Mineral matter 3·93 3·20

100·00 100·00

Gruyère. Ordinary Dutch.

Water 40·00 36·10

Casein 31·50 29·40

Fatty matter 24·00 27·50

Salts 3·00 ·90

Non-nitrogenous organic matter and loss 1·50 6·10

100·00 100·00

Concluding Remarks.—It is surprising that cheese is not more frequently made an article of domestic manufacture, especially by housewives resident in the country. The operations of cheese-making are all exceedingly simple, and not laborious, and will, in most cases, amply repay the outlay for the milk. Besides, cheese is not unfrequently coloured with stains and pigments which are injurious, and even poisonous, the risk of taking which is not encountered when it is made at home. Several persons have nearly lost their lives from eating cheese coloured with annotta, for instance. This substance, though harmless in itself, is frequently adulterated with red lead, so that the cheesemonger may very innocently introduce a poison, when he only intends to improve the colour of his goods.

When a whole cheese is cut, and the consumption small, it is generally found to become unpleasantly dry, and to lose flavour before it is consumed. This is best prevented by cutting a sufficient quantity for a few days’ consumption from the cheese, and keeping the remainder in a cool place, rather damp than dry, spreading a thin film of butter over the fresh surface, and covering it with a cloth or pan to keep off the dirt. This removes the objection existing in small families against purchasing a whole cheese at a time. The common practice of buying small quantities of cheese should be avoided, as not only a higher price is paid for any given quality, but there is little likelihood of obtaining exactly the same flavour twice running. Should cheese become too dry to be agreeable, it may be used for stewing, or for making grated cheese or Welsh rare-bits.

Cheese, Ap′ple. The pomace or ground apples from the cider press.

Cheese, Dam′son. Prep. From damsons boiled with a little water, the pulp passed through a sieve, and then boiled with about one fourth the weight of sugar, until the mixture solidifies on cooling; it is next poured into small tin moulds previously dusted out with sugar. Cherry cheese, gooseberry cheese, plum cheese, &c., are prepared in the same way, using the respective kinds of fruit. They are all very agreeable candies or confections.

Cheese, Facti′tious Roque′fort. Prep. (Roulle.) The gluten of wheat is kneaded with a little salt, and a small portion of a solution of starch, and made up into cheeses. It is said that this mixture soon acquires the taste, smell, and unctuosity of cheese, and when kept a certain time is not to be distinguished from the celebrated Roquefort cheese, of which it possesses all the peculiar pungency. By slightly varying the process other kinds of cheese may be imitated.

Cheese, Legumin. The Chinese prepare an actual cheese from peas, called “tao-foo,” which they sell in the streets of Canton. The paste from steeped ground peas is boiled, which causes the starch to dissolve with the casein; after straining the liquid, it is coagulated by a solution of gypsum; this coagulum is worked up like sour milk, salted, and pressed into moulds.

Cheese, Toasted. This much relished article is seldom well prepared. The following has been recommended as an excellent receipt:—Cut the cheese into slices of moderate thickness, and put them into a tinned copper saucepan, with a little butter and cream; simmer very gently until they are quite dissolved, then remove the saucepan from the fire, allow the whole to cool a little, add some yolk of egg, well beaten, add spice, make the compound into a “shape,” and brown it before the fire. See Fondue.

CHELSEA PENSIONER. Prep. From gum guaiacum, ⁄4 oz.; rhubarb, ⁄2 oz.; cream of tartar, 2 oz.; flowers of sulphur, 4 oz.; nutmegs, 2 in number (all in powder); honey, 1⁄2 lb., or q. s.; made into an electuary by beating them together in a mortar.—Dose, 1 to 2 table-spoonfuls, night and morning, in gout and chronic rheumatism. The name is said to have been given to it from the circumstance of a Chelsea pensioner having cured Lord Amherst with it.

CHEL′TENHAM SALTS. See Salts.

CHEM′IQUE or CHEM′IC BLUE. See Indigo.

CHEROOT. A species of cigar imported from Manilla, in the Philippine Islands, distinguished by extreme simplicity of construction as well as delicacy of flavour. The cigars now so commonly sold as cheroots in England are, for the most part, made of inferior tobacco, and are often much adulterated articles.

CHER′RIES are the fruit of different species of the genus Cerasus. They are regarded as wholesome, cooling, nutritive, laxative, and antiscorbutic. Brandy flavoured with this fruit or its juice is known as cherry-brandy. Morello cherries preserved in brandy are called brandy cherries. See Brandy, Fruit, &c.

CHER′RY LAUR′EL. Syn. Lau′rel. The Cerasus Lauro-Cerasus, a shrub common in every garden in England, and often confounded with the true laurel or Sweet Bay, which does not possess any of its deleterious properties. Leaves, occasionally used instead of bay leaves in cookery. The distilled oil and distilled water are both poisonous. See Oil, Water.

CHESTNUT. Both the horse-chestnut and the edible variety have been employed for the adulteration not only of coffee, but of chicory.

CHI′CA. The red colouring matter deposited by a decoction of the leaves of Bignonia Chica in cooling. Used by the American Indians to stain their skin. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, oil, fat, and alkaline lyes, and slightly so in boiling water.

Chi′ca. See Maize beer.

CHIC′ORY. Syn. Wild suc′cory; Cichor′ium Inty′bus (Linn.), L. A plant belonging to the natural order Compositæ. It is indigenous to this and many other countries of Europe, and is extensively cultivated for the sake of its roots, which are sliced, roasted, and ground, to form the chicory of the shops. Nearly 100 millions of pounds are annually consumed in Europe. Much of the chicory used in Britain is of home growth; but still more is imported in a raw state from Holland and other parts of the Continent. A blue dye has been prepared from the leaves of this plant.

The FRESH ROOT OF CHICORY (ra′dix chico′rii re′cens) is reputed to be alterative, attenuant, diuretic, febrifuge, hepatic, resolvent, and tonic; and in large doses aperient. It is now seldom used in medicine, although it appears to possess similar qualities and equal activity to those of dandelion. “An infusion of the root, mixed with syrup, becomes thick; forming the GOMME SACCHO-CHICORICE of Lacarterie.” (Fee.)

Analysis of Chicory (the raw root):—

Moisture 77·0

Gummy matter (like pectin) 7·5

Glucose, or grape sugar 1·1

Bitter extractive 4·0

Fatty matter 0·6

Cellulose, inulin, and woody matter 9·0

Ash 0·8

100·0

The ROASTED ROOT is prepared by cutting the full-grown root into slices, and exposing it to heat in iron cylinders, along with about 1⁄2% or 2% of lard, in a similar way to that adopted for coffee. When ground to powder in a mill, it constitutes the CHICORY of the grocers (CHICORY COFFEE, SUCCORY C.; RADIX CHICO′RII TORREFAC′TA, R. C. T. CONTRI′TA); so generally employed both as a substitute for coffee and as an adulterant of that article. The addition of 1 part of good, fresh roasted chicory to 10 or 12 parts of coffee forms a mixture which yields a beverage of a fuller flavour, and of a deeper colour than that furnished by an equal quantity of pure or unmixed coffee. In this way a less quantity of coffee may be used, but it should be remembered that the article substituted for it does not possess in any degree the peculiar exciting, soothing, and hunger-staying properties of that valuable product. The use, however, of a larger proportion of chicory than that just named imparts to the beverage an insipid flavour, intermediate between that of treacle and liquorice; whilst the continual use of roasted chicory, or highly chicorised coffee, seldom fails to weaken the powers of digestion and derange the bowels. “There can be no doubt that roasted chicory must, when taken largely, have a tendency to excite diarrhœa.” (Pereira.)

Pur., &c. The ground chicory of the shops, like ground coffee, is almost universally adulterated. Pigments are added to it to colour it, and various vegetable substances to lessen its value. The following articles have been reported to have been detected in roasted chicory, or to have been known to be used to adulterate it:—Venetian red, reddle, and red clay; roasted acorns, beans, carrots, damaged dog-biscuits, damaged bread, damaged wheat, horse-chestnuts, mangel wurzel, parsnips, peas, rye, and sugar; coffee flights (coffee husks), coffina (roasted lupins), Hambro’ powder (roasted peas coloured with reddle), and the marc of coffee; exhausted bark (from the tan yards), logwood dust, mahogany dust, &c. It has also been asserted that the scorched livers of bullocks, horses, and dogs have been applied to the same purpose; but of this there is not sufficient evidence. The only way to avoid being thus cheated or poisoned is to buy the chicory whole, and to grind it at home.

Roasted chicory is highly absorbent of moisture, and should, therefore, be always kept in close vessels (bottles or canisters), the same as coffee. If the lumps become tough or soft, or the powder cakes together, it is unfit for use; but in some cases it may be recovered, by exposing it on a plate in an oven until it again becomes perfectly dry or brittle.

Tests.—1. Powdered chicory thrown on water turns it reddish-brown and rapidly sinks, leaving light impurities either floating or diffused through the liquid.—2. The cold decoction tested with tincture, or solution of iodine, gives a brown colour; if it turns purple, blue, or black, it indicates the presence of roasted peas, beans, rye, or some other like substance, containing starch.—3. Persulphate or perchloride of iron, added in the same way, should not materially affect the liquid; if it turns it bluish or blackish, it indicates the presence of roasted acorns, oak-bark tan, or some other substance containing tannin.—4. Water acidulated with vinegar, digested on the powder, should not be blackened, or even materially darkened, by tincture of galls or a solution of red prussiate of potash; the contrary shows the presence of ferruginous colouring matter.—5. The dry powder, when incinerated, should not leave more than 4⁄2 to 5% of ash, which should be of a greyish or fawn colour; the contrary indicates the presence of reddle, red clay, ochre, or the like.—6. To the above may be added attention to the odour, colour, and appearance, both to the naked eye and under the microscope; by the latter, adulteration may be easily detected. See Coffee.

CHIL′BLAIN. Syn. Per′nio, L. An inflammatory swelling, of a purple or lead colour, produced by the action of cold. Chilblains (PERNIO′NES) exclusively attack the extremities of the body, and are generally confined to the fingers, toes, and heels. The common symptoms are itching and irritation, more or less intense, often accompanied with shooting pains, and tenderness, and tumefaction of the parts. Children, especially those of a scrofulous habit, and elderly persons, are generally the most liable to chilblains. The common cause of chilblains is holding the hands or feet to the fire after exposure to cold. The sudden change of temperature partially destroys the vitality of the minute surfacial vessels, and thus prevents the proper flow of blood through the part. The best preventives of chilblains are woollen socks or stockings, good waterproof shoes, woollen gloves, exercise, and friction. These act by promoting the circulation of the blood in the extremities, and protecting them from vicissitudes of temperature. When chilblains have once formed, the best treatment is friction with stimulants, as spirits of wine and camphor, oil of turpentine, opodeldoc, dilute spirits, camphorated oil, hartshorn and oil, &c. Linnæus recommends bathing the part with dilute muriatic acid, just strong enough to faintly prick the skin. When the inflamed parts have ulcerated, they are commonly called KIBES. In this state they should be dressed with a little resin cerate or elemi ointment. If fungous granulations appear, they must be removed by touching them with nitrate of silver or blue vitriol. See Chaps, &c.

Remedies for Chilblains.—The following have been strongly recommended by different parties, and may all prove useful in their turns, as circumstances and convenience may suggest:—

1. Sulphate of copper, 1 oz.; rosemary water, 1 pint; dissolve.

2. Sal-ammoniac, 1 oz.; vinegar, ⁄2 pint.

3. Sal-ammoniac, 1 oz.; rum, ⁄2 pint; camphor, 1 dr. The affected part is wetted with the above night and morning, and when dry is touched with a little simple ointment, cold cream, or pomatum.

4. Soap liniment, 2 oz.; tincture of cantharides, 1 oz.; oil of cajeput, 2 dr.

5. Oil of turpentine, 2 oz.; camphor, 3 dr.; oil of cajeput, 1 dr. The application of the last two is accompanied by gentle friction.

6. (Dr Graves’ Preventive.) Sulphate of copper, 20 gr.; water, 1 oz. As the first three.

7. (Lejeune’s Balsam.) See Chilblain Balsam.

8. (Linnæus’ remedy.) Hydrochloric acid, 1 oz.; water, 11 oz. As No. 3.

9. (Morton’s Liniment.) Calomel and camphor, of each 1 dr.; spermaceti ointment, 4 dr.; oil of turpentine and cocoa-nut oil, of each 2 dr. As No. 5.

10. (Wahler’s Ointment.) Black oxide of iron, bole, and oil of turpentine, of each 1 dr.; resin cerate, 1 oz. For broken chilblains. We have found a mixture of equal parts of calamine cerate and resin cerate answer quite as well. See Cerate, Ointment.

11. (Russian remedy.) The rind of perfectly ripe cucumbers dried, with the soft parts attached. For use they are placed with the inner side, previously soaked in warm water, over the soft parts. (Med. Zeitung.)

12. (Rhein.) Dissolve 1 oz. of tannin in a pint of water, and 74 grains of iodine in 1⁄4 oz. of spirit of wine; the solutions are then mixed, and enough water added to make the whole up to 2⁄2 pints. In applying it, which is best done at bedtime, the mixture is gently warmed over a slow fire; the affected part is dipped into it while still cold, and retained in it till the liquid, on being stirred, feels uncomfortably hot. The vessel is then withdrawn from the fire, and the affected part dried over it. The vessel must be of earthenware or porcelain, and care must be taken not to use too much iodine, especially when abrasions are present.

13. (L′Union Médicale.) Oxide of zinc, 2 parts; tannic acid, 1 part; glycerin, 10 parts; balsam of Peru, 8 parts; camphor, 4 parts.

14. (Swediaur’s Paste.) Bitter almonds, 8 oz.; honey, 6 oz.; powdered camphor and flour of mustard, of each ⁄2 oz.; burnt alum and olibanum, of each ⁄2 oz.; yolks of 3 eggs; beat to a paste. To be applied night and morning.

15. (Vance’s Cream.) Ointment of nitrate of mercury, 1 oz.; camphor, 1 dr.; oil of turpentine, 2 dr.; oil of olives, 4 dr.; mix well together. To be applied by gentle friction 2 or 3 times daily.

Obs. All the preceding preparations are intended for chilblains before they break. The liniments of ammonia, camphor, opium, soap, and turpentine, as well as the compound camphor liniment of the British Pharmacopœia, are also excellent preparations for the same purposes.

CHIL′DREN (Care of). See Infancy.

Children (Diseases of). See the respective heads, and Diseases.

CHIL′LIES. See Capsicum, Peppers.

CHIM′NEYS were not introduced into England until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and for a considerable period the principles of their construction were ill-understood. When the air inside and outside a chimney is at the same temperature, an equilibrium exists; there is no draught in the chimney, because the downward tendency of that within is counteracted by the upward pressure of that without. Let a fire be kindled in the grate; hot air is evolved, the chimney is heated, the air it contains suffers expansion, and a portion is expelled. The chimney now contains a smaller weight of air than it did before; the external and internal columns no longer equibalance each other, the warmer and lighter air is forced upwards from below, and its place is occupied by cold, and consequently heavier air. If the fire continues to burn, and the chimney retains its temperature, the second portion of air is disposed of like the first, and the ascending current continues, so long as the sides of the chimney are hotter than the surrounding air. Should the reverse happen to be the case, as sometimes occurs from sudden atmospheric changes, the column of air within the chimney rapidly contracts in volume, the deficiency is filled up from without, the column of air becomes heavier than one of a corresponding height on the outside of it, or in the apartment, and, obeying the common laws of gravitation, it falls out of the throat of the chimney or fire-place just as a heavy body sinks in water, and has its place occupied by air from above. In this way a descending current, of more or less intensity and duration, is established, and, if there is a fire in the grate, the chimney “smokes,” or, if the grate is empty, perhaps the smoke from neighbouring chimneys finds its way into our apartments. By the judicious arrangement of the fire-place, and the throat and flue of a chimney, an upward current may be constantly ensured so long as there is a fire in the grate, or the air of the apartment is warmer than the external atmosphere.

Count Rumford was the first who scientifically investigated the construction of chimneys. He showed that more heat is obtained from the fire by reflection when the coverings are placed in an oblique position. He also directed that the fire itself should be kept as near to the hearth as possible, and that the throat of the chimney should be constructed much narrower than was then the practice, in order to prevent the escape of so much heated air as happened with wide throats. By contracting the open part of the fire-place immediately over the fire, as by lessening the width of the hobs, or by bringing the throat of the chimney closer to the fire, and by contracting the throat of the chimney itself, within certain limits, any desired amount of draught may be obtained. When the space above the fuel is too small, the throat too near the burning fuel, or the throat itself too contracted, the draught of a common chimney is often too strong, and much fuel and heat is wasted. When the reverse is the case, the draught is commonly too languid, the fire draws badly, a portion of the smoke escapes into the room, and all the usual annoyances of a smoky chimney are suffered. By a proper attention to these conditions a common fire-place may be adapted for the combustion of bituminous or easy burning coal, or of anthracite, and varieties of coal that require a considerable draught. It may even be converted into a wind furnace; whilst the inconvenience of smoky chimneys may be always avoided, and, when existing, easily cured. This is presuming, however, that a sufficient supply of air exists in front of the fire-place (i.e. in the apartment), not only for the combustion of the fuel, but also for the upward current of the chimney. Many chimneys smoke simply from the apartment being so ill-ventilated that the supply here alluded to is not provided. It may be further stated, as a rule, that the greater the length of a chimney the stronger will be the draught. Hence, the chimneys of the upper rooms of a house often smoke, whilst the fires in the rooms beneath them burn pleasantly and vigorously. Such cases are commonly relieved by a chimney-pot or cowl, of which numerous varieties are now before the public. The more crooked or tortuous the course of a chimney the less likely is it to be affected by eddies and gusts of wind from neighbouring buildings or hills. See Fire, Grate, Smoke Prevention, Stove.

CHI′NA. In the purchase of china, glass, and earthenware, care should be taken to select those patterns which in case of breakage can be the most readily matched. Peculiar or rare patterns should be avoided, for if any such be broken, it will generally be found very difficult and expensive, and frequently impossible, to replace them.

China, glass, and earthenware, when very dirty, are best cleaned with finely powdered fuller’s earth and warm water, followed by rinsing in clean water. A little clean soft soap may be added to the water instead of fuller’s earth. See Packing, Porcelain.

CHIN′OIDINE. See Quinoidine.

CHINOLINE BLUE. See Cyanine.

CHINTZ (to Wash). Boil 2 lbs. of rice in two gallons of water till soft; and pour the mixture into a tub; let it stand until it attains a warmth generally used for coloured linens; then put the chintz in it, and wash it with the rice instead of soap, until all the dirt has disappeared. Next boil another 2 lb. of rice, as above, in another two gallons of water, but strain the rice from the water, and mix it in warm water. Wash the chintz in this till quite clean, and afterwards rinse it in the water the rice was boiled in. This will answer the same end as starch, as no wet will affect it, as it will be stiff while it is worn. If a gown, it must be taken to pieces; and when dried, it must be hung as smooth as possible, after which it must be dry-rubbed with a smooth stone, but no iron must be used.

CHIRETTA. Chirata. The entire plant (Ophelia chirata) is employed in medicine. Northern India. The plant is pulled up by the root when the flowers begin to decay, and the capsules are formed. The dried plant, sometimes with, but more commonly without, the root, is the form in which the chiretta is generally met with in commerce. The whole plant is intensely bitter, but is without odour. In its physiological action it bears a great resemblance to gentian. Instead of a constipating, it appears to possess a slightly relaxing effect. It is an excellent stomachic and carminative, and is said to diminish the tendency to acidity, and to be of great service in the dyspepsia accompanying gout. No vegetable alkaloid has been obtained from it. If given in powder, the dose of chiretta is twenty grains. It is, however, more generally given in the form of an infusion or tincture (which see).

CHI′TIN. This name has been given to the hard, insoluble matter forming the shells and elytra of insects. It is obtained by boiling the elytra of the cockchafer with water, alcohol, ether, acetic acid, and alkalies.

CHIT′TICK’S REMEDY. Dr Chittick’s remedy for stone consisted of a fixed alkali, administered in veal broth. (Paris.)

CHLORAL. C2HCl3O. A peculiar liquid first obtained by Liebig, by the action of chlorine on alcohol. The name was intended to express its origin from chlorine and alcohol.

Prep. (Liebig.) Anhydrous alcohol is placed in a tubulated retort, and dry chlorine gas passed through it, at first in the cold, but afterwards with the application of a gentle heat, until the chlorine passes unchanged through the liquor on raising it to the boiling temperature; on cooling, the whole forms a crystalline mass of what was at one time thought to be chloral hydrate, but which subsequent researches have shown to be chloral alcoholate; this is melted by a gentle heat, and agitated with three times its volume of oil of vitriol; on increasing the heat a little, an oily stratum of impure chloral rises to the surface. It is purified by boiling it for some time (to drive off free hydrochloric acid and alcohol), next distilling it with an equal volume of oil of vitriol; and lastly, rectifying it from some powdered quick-lime, the process being stopped as soon as the surface of the lime becomes dry.

Prop., &c. Chloral is an oily liquid, possessing an ethereal smell; it is soluble in alcohol, ether, and water; with a small quantity of the latter it rapidly changes into a semi-solid crystalline mass (chloral hydrate), which is soluble in a larger quantity of water; boils at 201°; sp. gr. 1·502. It is decomposed by the caustic earths and alkalies. By age it is converted into a white, solid, translucent substance (insoluble chloral), which is reconverted by heat and by sulphuric acid into ordinary chloral.

Obs. In operating as above the chlorine is most conveniently introduced by a tube inserted into the tubulature of the retort, and a long tube, bent upwards, should be connected with the beak to convey away the hydrochloric acid gas extricated, and to allow the volatilised alcohol and chloral to condense, and flow back into the retort.

Chloral, Camphorated. Hydrate of chloral and camphor, equal parts. Rub them together in a warm mortar until they liquefy. It forms clear mixtures with oil of turpentine and chloroform, but not with solution of ammonia. It is a counter-irritant, and applied externally it has been found to give relief in rheumatic pains and neuralgia. It should be painted on the affected part with a camel’s-hair brush.