A Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts, &c. Volume II (part 10)

Powder, Ba′′king. Prep. 1. Tartaric acid, ⁄2 lb.; bicarbonate of soda and potato farina or British arrow-root, of each ⁄4 lb. (each in powder); separately dry them perfectly by a very gentle heat, then mix them in a dry room, pass the mixture through a sieve, and at once put it into packets, observing to press it hard, and to cover it with tinfoil or close-made paper, to preserve it as much as possible from the air and moisture.

2. (Delforte’s.) Powdered tartaric acid, ⁄4 lb.; powdered alum, ⁄2 lb.; bicarbonate of soda, ⁄4 lb.; farina, 1 lb.; dry separately, as before, mix, and further add of sesquicarbonate of ammonia (in powder), 3 oz.; lastly, closely pack it in tinfoil.

3. (Green’s.) Tartaric acid, 35 lbs.; sesquicarbonate of soda, 56 lbs.; potato flour, 1 cwt.; mix as before.

Uses, &c. Baking powder is chiefly employed as a substitute for yeast. 1 or 2 teaspoonfuls are mixed with the dry flour and other ingredients, which are then made into a dough, as quickly as possible, with cold water, and at once baked or boiled as the case may be. By the addition of about ⁄2 dr. of turmeric powder to each pound of the mixture it is converted into egg powder. When intended to be kept for any length of time it should be preserved in bottles or tins, so as to prevent the absorption of moisture. We have discovered traces of arsenic in some of the baking powders of the shops, which we refer to common washerwoman’s soda being used in their composition, instead of the pure carbonate or sesquicarbonate.

Powder, Basil′ic. Syn. Royal powder, Cornachini’s p.; Pulvis Basilicus, P. Cornachini, L. Prep. From scammony, calomel, cream of tartar, and diaphoretic antimony, equal parts. This is the formula generally adopted for this compound, which has now long been omitted from the Pharmacopœias. It is still a favourite with many practitioners, as an alterative purgative, and vermifuge for children.—Dose. For a child, 2 to 8 gr.; for an adult, 5 to 20 gr. Compound powder of scammony is now generally sold for it.

Powder, Belladonna, Saccharated. (Wertzler.) Syn. Pulvis belladonnæ saccharatus. Prep. Belladonna root, 15 gr.; pure sugar, 1 dr.; mix. For 72 powders. One twice a day, or oftener, according to the age. In hooping-cough.

Powder, Blaine’s Distem′per. The basis of this preparation is the ‘aurum musivum,’ or bisulphuret of tin. (Dr Paris.)

Powder, Blancmange′. Prep. From sago meal, 1 lb.; essence of lemon, 15 drops; mace, 12 gr.; mix.

Powder, Bleaching. Chloride or hypochlorite of lime.

Powder, Blue. See Smalts.

Powder, Bronze. See Stannic sulphide, Bronzing, &c.

Powder of Burnt Hartshorn. Syn. Pulvis cornu cervini usti, L. Prep. From pieces of hartshorn calcined to whiteness, and powdered. It consists principally of phosphate of lime.—Dose, 10 to 30 gr.; in rickets, &c.

Powder of Burnt Hartshorn with O′pium. Syn. Pulvis opiatus, Pulvis cornu usti cum opio, L. Prep. From powdered calcined hartshorn, 1 oz.; powdered opium and cochineal, of each 1 dr.—Dose, 5 to 20 gr.

Powder of Camphor. Camphor may be readily pulverised by triturating it with the addition of a few drops of rectified spirit or ether.

Powder, Camphorated Nitre. (Swediaur.) Syn. Pulvis nitro camphoratus. Prep. Nitre, 10 gr.; camphor, 4 gr.; gum Arabic, 24 gr.; mix. For two or three doses.

Powder, Capuchin′. Prep. From powdered cevadilla, parsley seed, stavesacre, and tobacco, equal parts. Used to destroy pediculi.

Powder, Castillon’s. Prep. From sago meal, salep, and gum tragacanth, of each 3 dr.; prepared oyster shells, 1 dr.; cochineal, q. s. to colour. Absorbent.—Dose, ⁄2 to 1 dr., boiled in milk; in diarrhœa, &c.

Powder of Cat′echu (Compound). Syn. Pulvis catechu compositus (B. P., Ph. D.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. D.) Take catechu and kino, of each 2 oz.; cinnamon and nutmeg, of each ⁄2 oz.; reduce each to a fine powder, mix, and keep the prepared powder in a well-stopped bottle. Aromatic and astringent.—Dose, ⁄4 dr. to 2 dr.; in various affections.

2. (B. P.) Pale catechu; kino, 2; rhatany, 2; cinnamon, 1; nutmeg, 1; mix.—Dose, 15 to 30 gr.

Powder of Chalk (Compound). Syn. Pulvis cretæ aromaticus (B. P.), Pulvis cretæ compositus (Ph. L., E., & D.), P. carbonatis calcis comp., L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Prepared chalk, ⁄2 lb.; cinnamon, 4 oz.; tormentil and gum acacia, of each 3 oz.; long pepper, ⁄2 oz.; rub them, separately, to a very fine powder, and mix them.

2. (Ph. E.) Prepared chalk, 4 oz.; cinnamon, in fine powder, 1⁄2 dr.; nutmeg, in fine powder, 1 dr.

3. (Ph. D.) Prepared chalk, 5 oz.; cinnamon, 2⁄2 oz.; gum, 2 oz.; nutmeg, ⁄2 oz.

4. (Aromatic Powder of Chalk—B. P.) Chalk, 11; cinnamon, 4; nutmeg, 3; saffron, 3; cloves, 1⁄2; cardamom seed, 1; refined sugar, 25; all in powder; mix.—Dose, 30 to 60 gr.

Uses, &c. Aromatic, astringent, and antacid.—Dose, 10 to 30 gr.; in acidity, flatulence, heartburn, diarrhœa, &c. The following form is used by many wholesale houses:—Prepared chalk, 4 lbs.; powdered cassia, 2 lbs.; powdered calamus aromaticus, ⁄4 lb.; powdered gum, 1⁄2 lb.; long pepper, ⁄4 lb.

Powder of Chalk with Opium (Compound). Syn. Pulvis cretæ aromaticus cum opio (B. P.); Opiated chalk powder; Pulvis cretæ compositus cum opio (Ph. L.), Pulvis cretæ opiatis (Ph. E. & D.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Compound chalk powder, 6⁄2 oz.; powdered opium, 80 gr.

2. (Ph. E.) Compound chalk powder, 6 oz.; powdered opium, 80 gr.

3. (Ph. D.) Compound chalk powder, 4 oz. 7 dr.; opium, in fine powder, 1 dr.

4. (Wholesale.) Compound chalk powder, 21 oz.; powdered opium, ⁄2 oz. Anodyne, antacid, and carminative.—Dose, 10 to 30 gr.; in the same cases as the preceding, than which it is more active. It has long been a favourite remedy in all cases of simple and even choleraic diarrhœa.

5. Aromatic powder of chalk (see Powder of Chalk (Compound), 4), 39; opium, in powder, 1; mix thoroughly, and pass through a sieve.—Dose, 10 to 40 gr.

Powder, Chalk Mixture. Syn. Pulvis pro mistura cretæ, L. Prep. (Beasley.) Powdered gum acacia, 5 oz.; prepared chalk, 4 oz.; white sugar, 3 oz.; oil of cinnamon, 1⁄2 fl. dr.; mix. 40 gr. of this powder, triturated with 1 fl. oz. of water.

Powder, Chol′era (Saline). Syn. Pulvis salinus anticholericus, L. Prep. 1. (Dr O’Shaughnessy.) Carbonate of soda, 5 gr.; chloride of sodium, phosphate of soda, and sulphate of soda, of each 10 gr. For a dose.

Powder of Cin′namon (Compound). Syn. Aromatic powder; Pulvis cinnamomi compositus (B. P., Ph. L.), Pulvis aromaticus (Ph. E.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Cinnamon, 2 oz.; cardamoms, 1⁄2 oz.; ginger, 1 oz.; long pepper, ⁄2 oz.; rub them together so that a fine powder may be made.

2. (B. P., Ph. E.) Cinnamon, cardamom seeds, and ginger, equal parts; to be kept in a well-closed glass vessel.

3. (Ph. D.) Cinnamon and ginger, of each 2 oz.; cardamom seeds (husked), and nutmegs, of each 1 oz. Aromatic and carminative.—Dose, 10 to 30 gr. In the powder of the shops cassia is generally substituted for cinnamon.

Powder, Cla′rifying. Flake albumen. See Albumen.

Powder, Cock′le. From the well-known shell-fish Cardium edule (Linn.), as oyster powder.

Powder, Colbatche’s Specific. Prep. From solution of sesquichloride of iron and acetate of lead, of each 4 oz.; mix, evaporate to dryness, powder the residuum, and preserve it from the air. Astringent and hæmostatic.—Dose, 3 to 8 grs.

Powder of Col′ocynth. Syn. Pulvis colocynthidis, L. That of the shops is generally prepared from the whole of the peeled fruit, with the seeds, instead of merely from the pulp, by which its activity is greatly lessened. A factitious article is also met with in trade, made by grinding bryony root with about twice its weight of colocynth seeds and a very small quantity of gamboge.

Powder, Compound Almond. (B. Ph.) Syn. Pulvis amygdalæ compositus. Prep. Steep 8 oz. of Jordan almonds in warm water till their skins can be easily removed; and, when blanched, dry them thoroughly with a soft cloth, and rub them lightly in a mortar to a smooth consistence; mix gum Arabic in powder, 1 oz.; and refined sugar, in powder, 4 oz.; and adding them to the pulp gradually, rub the whole to a coarse powder. Keep it in a lightly covered jar.

Powder, Compound Bark. (Geneva Ph.) Syn. Pulvis cinchonæ compositus. Prep. Peruvian bark, 1 oz.; rhubarb, 1⁄2 dr.; muriate of ammonia, 1⁄2 dr.; mix.

Powder, Compound Belladonna. 1. (Hecker.) Prep. Belladonna, 1 to 3 gr.; musk, 5 gr.; camphor, 5 gr.; white sugar, 30 gr.; mix. For 8 powders.

2. (Kopp.) Belladonna root, 2 gr.; ipecacuanha, 2 gr.; sulphur, 32 gr.; sugar of milk, 32 gr. Mix, and divide into 3 powders, three daily. In hooping-cough.

Powder, Compound Ceruse. (Ph. L. 1788.) Syn. Pulvis cerusæ compositus. Prep. Carbonate of lead, 5 oz.; sarcocol, 1⁄2 oz.; tragacanth, ⁄2 oz.; mix. For outward use.

Powder, Compound, of Cyanide of Zinc. (Guibourt.) Syn. Pulvis zinci cyanidi compositus. Prep. Cyanide of zinc, 2 gr.; calcined magnesia, 27 gr.; cinnamon, 10 gr.; mix. For 6 doses, in cramp of the stomach.

Powder, Compound Fennel. (Brunsw. Ph.) Syn. Pulvis fœniculi compositus. Prep. Carbonate of magnesia, 1 oz.; fennel seeds, 1-2 oz.; orange peel, 2 dr.; white sugar, 2 dr. Reduce each to a fine powder and mix.

Powder, Compound Musk. (Russ. Ph.) Syn. Pulvis moschi compositus. Prep. Musk, 8 parts; valerian, 10 parts; camphor, 3 parts.

Powder, Compound Opium. (B. P.) Syn. Pulvis opii compositus. Prep. Mix thoroughly 1⁄2 oz. of opium, in powder, with 2 oz. of powdered black pepper, 5 oz. of ginger, 6 oz. of caraways, and ⁄2 oz. of tragacanth. Pass the powders through a fine sieve, rub them lightly in a mortar, and keep the powder in a stoppered bottle. This powder nearly represents the dry ingredients of confection of opium, L.—Dose, 2 to 5 gr.

Powder, Compound Silver. (Serre.) Syn. Pulvis argenti compositus. Prep. Chloride of silver, 1 gr.; washed orris powder, 2 gr. Used in frictions, the same as COMPOUND GOLD POWDER.

Powder, Compound of Sulphate of Soda. Syn. Pulvis sodæ sulphatis compositus. Sel de Guindre. Prep. Dried sulphate of soda, 18 dr.; nitrate of potash, ⁄2 dr.; potassio-tartrate of antimony, 1 gr. A third part to be taken in water or herb broth.

Powder, Compound Sulphur. Syn. Pulvis sulphuris compositus. Ratier:—Sulphur, 1 oz.; cream of tartar, 1 oz.; white sugar, q. s. Van Mons (antidysenteric powder):—Sulphur, 1 oz.; fennel seed, 1 dr.; white sugar, 2 oz.; gum Arabic, 2 oz.; mix. Swediaur (pectoral powder):—Sulphur, ⁄2 oz.; liquorice, 1 oz.; orris, 2 dr.; benzoic acid, 1 scruple; white sugar, 2 oz.; oil of anise and fennel, of each 10 drops.

Powder of Contrayer′va (Compound). Syn. Pulvis contrayervæ compositus, L. Prep. (Ph. L. 1824.) Powdered contrayerva root, 5 oz.; prepared oyster shells, 1⁄2 lb.; mix. A tonic absorbent or antacid.—Dose, 10 gr. to ⁄2 dr., as required.

Powder, Cooling. (G. Ph.) Syn. Pulvis temperane. Prep. Nitrate of potash, 1 oz.; cream of tartar, 3 oz.; sugar, 6 oz.

Powder, Corn. See Corn solvent and Powder, Wart (below).

Powder, Cosmet′ic. Syn. Pulvis cosmeticus, L. Prep. (Ph. Hann. 1831.) Blanched sweet almonds and beans, of each 18 oz.; orris root, 8 oz.; white Spanish soap, 6 oz.; spermaceti, 1⁄2 oz.; dried carbonate of soda, 1 oz.; oils of lavender, bergamot, and lemon, of each 6 dr.; mix, and beat them to a powder. See Powder, Hair, and Hand (below), Paste (Almond), Powders (Scented), &c.

Powder of Cryst′al. From quartz, like Powdered glass (page 805). Used to make fine glass; also for a dryer for paints, and sold under the name of ‘diamond dust’ for razor strops.

Powder of Cubebs with Alum. (Matthieu.) Syn. Pulvis cubebæ cum alumine. Prep. Cubebs, 2 oz.; alum, 4 dr.; mix. For 9 doses. Three daily, in gonorrhœa.

Powder, Cur′ry. Syn. Indian curry powder. The samples of this compound prepared by different houses vary so greatly from each other in the proportions of the ingredients, that it is difficult to regard any one as a standard. The following are therefore merely given as examples:—

Prep. 1. Corianders, 1 lb.; turmeric, ⁄4 lb.; black pepper, ⁄2 lb.; scorched mustard, ⁄4 lb.; ginger, 2 oz.; cumin seed, 1 oz.; capsicums, ⁄4 oz.; mace, ⁄4 oz. (all in powder); mix well.

2. Coriander seeds and black pepper, of each 8 lbs.; turmeric and cumin seeds, of each 4 lbs., allspice, ⁄4 lb.; mace, 1 oz. (all in powder); mix. This receipt is employed by an eminent wholesale house that does very largely in curry powder.

3. (See page 524.)

Used as a condiment and flavouring ingredient. The addition of a few heads of garlic gives it an increased zest for Indian veterans.

Powder, Cust′ard. Prep. From sago meal, 2 lbs.; powdered turmeric, ⁄2 oz.; bitter-almond powder, cassia, and mace, of each ⁄2 dr.

Powder, Cyprus. From Cladonia rangiferina, or reindeer moss. It has a very agreeable smell, and, being extremely retentive of odours, is much used as a basis for scent-powders, sachets, &c. The lichen known as the ragged hoary evernia also possesses nearly similar properties, and is often substituted for it. See Powders (Scented).

Powder, Diapente. (Ed. Ph. 1744.) Syn. Pulvis diapente. Prep. Aristolochia root, gentian, bay berries, myrrh, ivory dust, of each 2 oz.; mix.

Powder, Disinfect′ing. Syn. Pulvis disinfectans, L. Prep. (Keist.) Bisulphate of potassa, 41 parts; sugar of lead, 7 parts; binoxide of manganese, 3 parts, reduce them separately to a fine powder, and, when wanted for use, mix a proper quantity in any suitable vessel. For other formulæ, see Disinfecting compounds. The name is generally applied to hypochlorite of lime.

Powder, Diuretic. (P. Cod.) Syn. Pulvis diureticus. Prep. Gum Arabic, 6 oz.; sugar of milk, 6 oz.; nitrate of potash, 1 oz.; marshmallow root, 1 oz.; liquorice root, 2 oz.; mix.

Powder, Dover’s. Syn. Pulvis Doveri, L. Prep. (Original formula.) Nitre and sulphate of potassa, of each 4 oz.; melt them together in a red-hot crucible, reduce the cold fused matter to powder, and add powdered ipecacuanha, liquorice, and opium, of each 1 oz. This is the formula adopted in the Paris Codex. Compound ipecacuanha powder is now sold under this name. (See below.)

Powder, Duke of Portland’s. Syn. Pulvis antiarthriticus. Prep. Round birthwort, gentian, tops of lesser centaury, tops of ground pine, and germander, of each equal parts.—Dose, 1 dr.

Powder, Egg. See Powder, Baking.

Powder of Elaterium, Compound. (B. Ph.) Pulvis elaterii compositus. Prep. Elaterium, 10 gr.; sugar of milk, 90 gr. Rub them together to fine powder.—Dose, ⁄2 gr. to 5 gr.

Powder, Emmen′agogue. Syn. Pulvis emmenagogus, P. hæmatinus, P. contra amenorrhœam, L. Prep. 1. Saccharine carbonate of iron, 3 parts; powdered myrrh, ginger, and nutmeg, of each 1 part; divide into ⁄2-dr. papers. One for a dose, twice or thrice daily.

2. (Augustin.) Myrrh, 12 gr.; saffron, 3 gr.; oil of cloves, 1 drop. For a dose, as the last.

3. (Klein.) Calomel, 4 gr.; extract of yew, 10 gr.; powdered savine, 1 dr.; Quevenne’s iron, ⁄2 dr.; loaf sugar, 2 dr. For 6 powders; as before.

Powder, Emulsive, of Gluten. (Taddei.) Syn. Pulvis glutenis emulsivus. Prep. Fresh vegetable gluten, 10 oz.; soap, 2 oz.; water, 1 pint. Dissolve, evaporate the solution, dry it on plates, and reduce to powder. As an antidote to corrosive sublimate.

Powder, Escharot′ic (Arsenical). Syn. Pulvis escharoticus arsenicalis, L.; Poudre du Frères Cosme, Fr. Prep. 1. (Original formula.) From white arsenic, 12 gr.; burnt hartshorn, ⁄2 dr.; cinnabar, 1 dr.

2. (P. Cod.) Red sulphuret of mercury and powdered dragon’s blood, of each 2 parts; levigated arsenious acid, 1 part; carefully mixed together. See Caustic, Arsenical.

Powder of Extract of Col′ocynth (Compound). Syn. Pulvis extracti colocynthidis compositi, L. Prep. From compound extract of colocynth (Ph. L. 1836), dried by a gentle heat, and powdered.

Obs. This, like many other articles employed by lazy dispensers, does not represent the preparation for which it is used as a substitute; whilst, from its peculiar character, it is very open to sophistication—a practice, we regret to say, very general with certain druggists. Indeed, some of these parties make this article by simply throwing the ingredients of the extract into a pan along with a little water, and, when they have become soft, stirring them together with a spatula, after which they are desiccated and powdered. This is then labelled by certain houses, “Pulv. Ext. Coloc. co.—P. L.,” and sold to their unfortunate customers as such, although no such an extract has been in the Ph. L. since that of 1836.

Powder, Faynard’s. The charcoal of beechwood, finely powdered. (Paris.) Used in piles, and as a styptic.

Powder, Fe′ver. See Powder, Antimonial (above).

Powder of Flint. Syn. Silex contritus (Ph. L.), L. Prep. As powdered glass. (See page 805.) It is ordered in the Ph. L. to be employed, instead of magnesia, for the purpose of mechanically dividing the essential oils used in the preparation of distilled water. It is also used as an escharotic.

Powder, Fly. Prep. From white arsenic, 5 oz.; white sugar, 6 lbs.; rose pink, 2 oz.; mix, and put 6 dr. in each paper. Used to kill flies. It is poisonous, and should be employed with great caution, particularly where there are children.

Powder, Fu′′migating. Syn. Pulvis fumalis, L. Prep. (Ph. Russ.) Amber, mastic, and olibanum, of each 3 parts; storax, 2 parts; benzoin and labdanum, of each 1 part; reduce them to coarse powder, and mix them well. See Fumigation.

Powder, Galls of (Compound). Syn. Pulvis gallæ compositus, L. See Powder, Astringent.

Powder, Gascoign’s. Syn. Pulvis echelis compositus. Prep. Prepared crab shells, 1 lb.; prepared chalk, 3 oz.; prepared coral, 3 oz.; mix.

Powder, Goelis’s Antihec′tic. Prep. From burnt hartshorn, powdered nutmeg, black pepper, and roasted laurel berries, of each 1 part; liquorice powder, 3 parts.—Dose, ⁄2 to 1 dr; in the hectic fever of scrofulous subjects.

Powder, Gold. Syn. Pulvis auri. Triturate gold leaf with 10 or 12 times its weight of sulphate of potash till bright particles are no longer visible; pass it through a sieve, mix with boiling water, wash what remains on the filter, and dry in a stove.

Powder, Gold Compound. Syn. Pulvis auri compositus. Prep. Auro-chloride of sodium, 1 gr.; lycopodium, starch, or washed orris powder, 1 scruple; mix. A ⁄15th part, gradually increased to ⁄8th part, of this powder to be rubbed on the gums.

Powder of Gold and Iron. (Buckler.) Syn. Pulvis auri et ferri. Prep. Pulverised gold, 2 scruples; clean levigated iron filings, 2 scruples; gum Arabic in powder, 30 gr.; mix. For one dose, to be given in water acidulated with a few drops of sulphuric acid, as an antidote for corrosive sublimate.

Powder, Goulard. Effloresced sugar of lead. Poisonous.

Powder, Grey. Mercurial powder.

Powder, Gregory’s. See Powder of Rhubarb (Compound).

Powder of Guarana, Compound. (Dr Gavrelle). Syn. Pulvis paulliniæ compositus. Prep. Guarana, 1 dr.; compound cinnamon powder, 4 dr. Mix.

Powder, Gum. (G. Ph.) Syn. Pulvis gummosus. Prep. Gum Arabic, 3 oz.; liquorice, 2 oz.; refined sugar, 1 oz. Mix.

Powder, Hæmostat′ic. Syn. Pulvis hæmostaticus, L. Prep. 1. (Guibourt.) Charcoal and gum Arabic, of each, in powder, 1 part; powdered resin, 4 parts.

2. (Mialhe.) From powdered alum, gum tragacanth, and tannin, equal parts. Used to check local bleeding.

3. (P. Cod.) Prep. Resin, 4 dr.; gum Arabic, 1 dr.; powdered catechu, 1 dr. Mix.

Powder, Hair. Syn. Pulvis pro crine, L. Starch reduced to a very fine powder, and then scented according to the fancy of the artist; it is, lastly, passed through a gauze sieve. In its simple form, without any addition, it constitutes ‘plain hair powder.’ In other cases it is distinguished by the name of the substance added to perfume it. Thus, we have ‘rose hair powder,’ ‘violet h. p.,’ &c. Potato farina, well triturated, is now commonly used for hair powder. Amongst the lower classes, the contents of the ‘flour dredger’ of the kitchen are frequently misappropriated to this purpose. See Powders, Scented (below).

Powder, Hand. Prep. From almond powder, 1 lb.; powdered cuttle-fish bone and white soap, of each 4 oz.; orris powder, 1 oz.; mix. Used to clean the hands, and to render them soft and white. See Powder, Cosmetic.

Powder, Helvetius’s. Syn. Pulvis Helvetii, L. A mixture of powdered alum and dragon’s blood. (Dr Paris.)

Powder, Herrenschwand’s Specific. See Patent Medicines.

Powder, Hiera Picra. Powder of aloes with canella (see above).

Powder, Hufeland’s. Syn. Hufeland’s quinquina factice, Pulvis cinchonæ factitius, P. salicis compositus, L. Prep. From bennet (the herb), calamus aromaticus, chestnut bark, gentian root, and willow bark, equal parts; reduced to powder.

Powder, Hunter’s. See Powder, Wart (below).

Powder, Hunt’s. See Powder, Breakfast.

Powder of Ipecacuan′ha (Compound). Syn. Dover’s powder, Compound powder of ipecacuanha with opium; Pulvis Doveri, Pulvis ipecacuanhæ compositus (B. P., Ph. L., E., & D.), L.; Poudre d’ipecacuanha et d’opium, Fr. Prep. 1. (B. P., Ph. L.) Ipecacuanha and opium, of each, in fine powder, 1 dr.; sulphate of potassa, in fine powder, 1 oz.; mix them (thoroughly). The Edin. and Dublin Formulæ are similar.

2. (P. Cod.) Nitre and sulphate of potassa, of each 4 oz.; ipecacuanha, liquorice root, and hard extract of opium, of each 1 oz. This closely resembles the original formula.

3. (Wholesale.) From powdered ipecacuanha and opium, of each 1 lb.; powdered sulphate of potassa, 8 lbs. Uses, &c. ‘Dover’s powder’ is a powerful and valuable sudorific.—Dose, 5 to 15 or 20 gr., followed by warm diluents; in inflammatory affections, rheumatisms, colds, &c.

Powder, Itch. Syn. Pulvis antipsoricus, L. Prep. 1. Sulphur and potato farina, of each ⁄2 lb.; essence of bergamot, ⁄4 oz.; mix.

2. (Poudre de Pihorel.) A mixture of finely pulverised sulphuret of calcium and farina, in nearly equal quantities. Used either as a dusting powder or mixed with a little oil or fat, and rubbed into the affected part.

3. (Fr. Hosp.) Flowers of sulphur, 1 oz.; acetate of lead, 1 oz. Mix.

4. Equal parts of sulphur and charcoal.

Powder of Jal′ap (Compound). Syn. Pulvis jâlapæ compositus (B. P., Ph. L., E., & D.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Jalap, 3 oz.; bitartrate of potassa, 6 oz.; ginger, 2 dr.; rub them separately into fine powder, then mix them.

2. (Ph. E.) As the last, omitting the ginger.

3. (Ph. D.) Jalap, 2 oz.; bitartrate of potassa, 3⁄2 oz.; ginger, ⁄2 oz. (all in fine powder); mix by careful trituration.—Dose, 20 to 60 gr.; as a purgative in habitual costiveness, dropsies, &c.; also in worms, the tumid bellies of children, &c.

4. (B. P.) Jalap, in powder, 5; acid tartrate of potash, 9; ginger, in powder, 1; mix.—Dose, 20 to 60 gr.

5. (Pulvis lenitivus; Sucre orange purgativ.) From refined sugar, ⁄4 lb.; jalap and cream of tartar, of each 2 oz.; oil of orange peel, ⁄4 oz. A popular purgative on the Continent.—Dose, 1 to 3 dr.

Powder, James’s. Syn. Pulvis Jacobi, P. febrifugus Jacobi, L. The antimonial powder, or compound powder of antimony, of the Pharmacopœias (see above) is the preparation which usually passes under this name; but the true James’s powder is a nostrum the pretended secret of the preparation of which is claimed to be possessed by only two parties in the kingdom. The patent specification of the once celebrated Dr James runs as follows:—

“Take of antimony, calcine it with a continued protracted heat, in a flat, unglazed earthen vessel, adding to it, from time to time, a sufficient quantity of any animal oil and salt, well dephlegmated; then boil it in melted nitre for a considerable time, and separate the powder from the nitre by dissolving it in water.” On this it has been remarked that it yields a product totally different from that which Dr James and his successors have sold under the name, and he has hence been charged with concealing the real formula for his powder, and publishing a false one in its stead.

According to Dr Robinson, the original formula for this nostrum, and that still adopted by the vendors of the proprietary article at the present day, is—Tartarised antimony, 1 part; prepared burnt hartshorn and calx of antimony, of each 5 parts; carefully mixed together, and divided into 21-gr. powders. (‘Phil. Journ. Pharm.,’ vi, 282.)

From analyses recently made of three specimens of James’s powder (‘Newberry’s,’ ‘Butler’s,’ and a sample of 60 years old obtained by Mr Squire), it appears that antimonious acid was present in different proportions, from about 45% to 33%, the amount being greatest in the old specimen; teroxide of antimony was also present to the extent of from 9% to less than 1%, the greatest quantity being again in the old preparation; the remainder in each specimen consisted chiefly of phosphate of lime; no trace of tartaric acid was discoverable in any of the samples.

Perhaps no nostrum ever received such extensive patronage from the faculty as James’s powder. Dr James himself was remarkably successful in its use; but whether his success depended upon his powder or the mercurials and bark which he commonly employed at the same time is still undetermined.

Powder of Kermes with Camphor. (Germ. Hosp.) Syn. Pulvis kermetis cum camphora. Prep. Kermes mineral, 3 gr.; camphor, 6 gr.; white sugar, 2 dr.; mix. For 12 doses.

Powder of Kermes with Ipecacuanha. (Fr. Hosp.) Syn. Pulvis kermetis cum ipecacuanha. Prep. Kermes, 2 gr.; ipecacuanha, 2 gr.; crabs’ eyes, 2 scruples; gum Arabic, 2 scruples; mix. For 12 doses. In hooping-cough.

Powder of Ki′no (Compound). Syn. Pulvis kino compositus (Ph. L.), L. Prep. (Ph. L.) Kino, 15 dr.; cinnamon, 4 dr.; dried opium, 1 dr.; reduce them separately to fine powder, and then mix them.—Dose, 5 to 20 gr.; in diarrhœa, pyrosis, &c.

(B. P.) Prep. Kino, 3⁄4 oz.; cinnamon, 1 oz.; opium, ⁄4 oz.; mix.—Dose, 5 to 20 gr.

Powder, Lausanne. Prep. From nitre, 1⁄2 dr.; carbonate of magnesia, bitartrate of potassa, precipitated sulphur, and oleo-saccharum of peppermint, of each 4 dr.; sugar of milk, 1 oz. Lenitive and antidysenteric.

Powder, Lax′ative. See Species, Laxative.

Powder of Liquorice (Compound). Syn. Pulvis glycyrrhizæ compositus, L. Prep. 1. (Ph. Bor.) Liquorice root and senna leaves, of each 6 oz.; fennel seed and milk of sulphur (pure), of each 3 oz.; white sugar, 18 oz. (all in fine powder); mix. Pectoral and laxative.

2. (B. Ph.) Prep. Senna and liquorice root, both in fine powder, of each 2 oz.; sugar, in fine powder, 6 oz. Mix thoroughly and pass through a fine sieve.—Dose, ⁄2 dr. to 1 dr.

Powder of Magne′sia and Rhu′barb. See Powder of Compound Rhubarb (below).

Powder, Martin’s Cancer. An American nostrum, composed of the powdered stems of the Orobanche Virginiana (Linn.), combined with a very small quantity of arsenious acid. It is used as a sprinkle for open cancers and cancerous sores.

Powder, Mercu′′rial. Syn. Grey powder (Hydrargyrum cum cretâ, B. P.), Mercury with chalk. Prep. 1. (B. P.) Mercury, 1; prepared chalk, 2; triturate till the globules disappear.—Dose, 3 to 8 gr.

2. Mercury, 3 oz.; powdered resin, ⁄4 oz.; prepared chalk, 5 oz.; rectified spirit, q. s.; make a paste with the resin and a small quantity of the spirit; add the mercury, which may be extinguished in a short time; then the chalk and alcohol, gradually, so as to keep up the pasty consistence; lastly, add sufficient spirit to dissolve out the resin, wash the powder on a filter, and dry it. Rectified oil of turpentine may be substituted for the spirit.

Powder, Morison’s Ape′′rient. See Patent medicines.

Powder of Mugwort, Saccharated. (Bresler.) Powdered mugwort root, 3 oz.; sugar, 6 oz.; a teaspoonful four times a day in chorea and epilepsy.

Powder of Mush′room. Syn. Pulvis agarici, P. a. esculenti, L. From edible mushrooms, dried by a gentle heat, and then powdered along with a little white pepper, cloves, and mace. Some cayenne is frequently added.

Powder of Mus′sel. From the Mytilus edulis (Linn.), or common mussel, in the same way as POWDER OF OYSTER.

Powder of Myrrh (Compound). Syn. Pulvis è myrrhâ compositus, L. Prep. (Ph. L. 1788.) Myrrh, dried savine, dried rue, and Russian castor, equal parts, rubbed to powder, and then well mixed. Emmenagogue and antispasmodic.—Dose, 12 to 30 gr.

Powder, Nephritic. (Fuller.) Syn. Pulvis Nephriticus. Prep. Powdered roots of smallage and saxifrage, of each 2 dr.; crabs’ eyes, 1 dr.; sulphate of potash, 1 dr.; sal prunella, 2 scruples; oil of juniper, 4 drops. Mix.—Dose, 20 to 60 gr.

Powder, Nur′sery. See Powder, Violet (below).

Powder of Nux Vomica, Compound. Syn. Pulvis nucis vomicæ compositus; Vogt’s stomachic powder. Prep. Nux vomica, 18 gr.; ipecacuanha, 24 gr.; rhubarb, 1 dr.; prepared oyster shell, 48 gr.; oleo-saccharum of mint, 1 dr. Mix, and divide into 12 powders.

Powder, O′′piated. Powder of chalk with opium.

Powder, Opiated Guaiacum. (Pareira.) Syn. Pulvis guaiaci opiatus. Prep. Guaiacum, 1 dr.; orange leaves, ⁄2 dr.; acetate of morphia, ⁄4 gr. Mix, and divide into 6 powders. One every two hours in articular rheumatism.

Powder of Oys′ter. Syn. Pulvis ostræ, L. Prep. From the common oyster (Ostrea edulis—Linn.), pulped through a sieve, made into a paste with wheaten flour and a little salt, and then rolled out into thin pieces, and dried; these are reduced to powder, sifted, and packed in well-corked bottles. Used to make sauce; about 1 oz., to water, 1 pint. Other shell-fish are treated in the same way.

Powder of Oxide of Zinc with Starch. (Cazenave.) Syn. Pulvis zinci oxydi cum amylo. Prep. Starch, 1 oz.; oxide of zinc, 1 dr.; camphor, in powder, 1 dr. For excoriations and bed-sores.

Powder, Parturifacient. (E. Ph. 1744). Syn. Pulvis ad partum. Prep. Borax, 4 dr.; castor, 1⁄2 dr.; saffron, 1⁄2 dr.; oil of cinnamon, 8 drops; oil of amber, 6 drops. Mix.—Dose, 20 to 30 gr. (This name, and also that of PULVIS PARTURIFACIENS, has been given to powdered ergot.)

Powder, Pea. Syn. Pea flour; Farina pisorum, L. Prep. From peas, in the usual manner. Used to make extemporaneous pea-soup.

Powder, Pearl. Prep. From pure pearl white and French chalk (scraped fine by Dutch rushes), equal parts; triturated together, Some makers add more French chalk. Used as a skin cosmetic. This mixture is preferable to pearl white alone, from being more adhesive.

Powder, Pease. Prep. From dried mint and sage, of each 4 oz,; celery seed and white pepper, of each ⁄2 oz.; turmeric powder, ⁄4 oz.; reduced to fine powder. Used as a condiment and kitchen-spice.

Powder, Pec′toral. See Powder of Liquorice, &c.

Powder of Phosphate of Lime, Saccharated. Syn. Pulvis calcis phosphatis, saccharatus. Prep. Precipitated phosphate of lime, 15 gr., white sugar, 85 gr.; triturate and divide into 20 packets. Two or more powders daily, according to age of child. In rickets.

Powder, Piles. Syn. Pulvis antihæmorrhoidalis, P. Hæmorrhoidalis, L. Prep. 1. (Fr. Hosp.) Precipitated sulphur, 3 oz.; cream of tartar and black pepper, of each 1 oz.; oil of cubebs, ⁄2 dr.—Dose. A teaspoonful, in milk or honey, thrice a day.

2. (External.)—a. From Aleppo galls, in very fine powder, 2 oz.; opium, in fine powder, 1 dr. A pinch to be applied occasionally.

b. From sesquioxide of iron, 1 oz.; powdered acetate of lead, ⁄2 dr. As the last.

Powder of Pitch, Compound. Syn. Pulvis Picis Compositus; Disinfecting Powder Of Corne and Demaux. 100 parts of plaster of Paris are triturated thoroughly with 1 to 5 parts of coal tar. Used as an absorbent and disinfectant to fetid ulcers and wounds.

Powder, Plate. Syn. Pulvis pro argento, L. Prep. 1. Jeweller’s rouge, ⁄4 lb.; prepared chalk or levigated burnt hartshorn, ⁄4 lb.; mix.

2. Levigated putty powder, ⁄4 lb.; burnt hartshorn, ⁄2 lb.; prepared chalk, 1 lb.; rose pink, 1 oz.

3. (Mercurial.) From quicksilver with chalk, 1 oz.; prepared chalk, 11 oz.; mix. Used to clean and polish plate. See Plate.

Powder, Plate Boiling. Prep. From cream of tartar, common salt, and alum, equal parts. A little of this powder, added to the water in which plate is boiled, gives to it a silvery whiteness.

Powder, Plummer’s Al′terative. See Antimony, Ethiops of.

Powder, Poul′tice. Syn. Pulvis pro cataplasmate (Ph. D. 1826), L. Prep. From linseed meal, 1 part; oatmeal, 2 parts; mixed together.

Powder, Purgative and Anthelmintic. (Boerhaave). Syn. Pulvis purgans anthelminticus. Prep. Jalap, 12 gr. (or agaric, 8 gr.), Ethiops mineral, 12 gr.; for one dose.

Powder of Quinine, Aerated. (Dr Meireu). Syn. Pulvis quiniæ aeratus. Prep. Tartaric acid, 15 gr.; disulphate of quinia, 1⁄2 gr. Mix, and add bicarbonate of soda, 18 gr.; refined sugar, 30 gr. Mix for one dose, between the fits of intermittent fever.

Powder of Quinine and Tobacco. (Hug.) Syn. Pulvis quiniæ sulphatis et tabaci. Prep. Disulphate of quinine, 12 gr.; snuff, 1 oz. To be used as a snuff for nervous headaches.

Powder, Rat. See Rats.

Powder of Rhu′barb (Compound). Syn. Gregory’s mixture, Gregory’s powder; Pulvis rhei compositus (B. P., Ph. E. and D.) L. Prep. 1. (Ph. E.) Calcined magnesia, 1 lb.; rhubarb, 4 oz.; ginger, 2 oz. (all in fine powder); mix, and preserve it from the air.

2. (B. P., Ph. D.) Calcined magnesia, 6 oz.; rhubarb, 2 oz.; ginger, 1 oz.

3. Calcined magnesia, 8 oz.; rhubarb, 3 oz.; chamomile, 2 oz.; ginger, 1 oz.

Obs. An excellent stomachic, antacid, and laxative.—Dose, 20 gr. to ⁄2 dr. Some druggists substitute the heavy carbonate for the calcined magnesia ordered above, but this alters the nature of the preparation, and requires the dose to be increased. Heavy calcined magnesia may, however, be employed with advantage.

Powder, Sach′et. See Scented powders.

Powder, Saline′ (Compound). Syn. Pulvis salinus compositus (Ph. E.), L. Prep. (Ph. E.) Pure chloride of sodium and sulphate of magnesia, of each 4 oz.; sulphate of potash, 3 oz.; each separately dried by a gentle heat, and pulverised, then triturated together, and preserved in well-closed vessels. An excellent saline purgative.—Dose, 2 to 6 dr., in ⁄2 pint of water or table-beer, in the morning, fasting.

Powder of Scammony (Compound). Syn. Pulvis scammonii compositus (B. P., Ph. L., E., & D.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Scammony and hard extract of jalap, of each 2 oz.; ginger, ⁄2 oz.; rub them separately to a very fine powder, and then mix them.—Dose, 5 to 15 gr.

2. (Ph. E.) Scammony and bitartrate of potassa, of each, in very fine powder, equal parts.—Dose, 7 to 20 gr.

3. (Ph. D.) Scammony, in fine powder, 1 oz.; compound powder of jalap, 3 oz.; mix,—Dose, 10 to 30 gr.

4. (B. P.) Scammony, 4; jalap, 3; ginger, 1; mix, and reduce to fine powder.—Dose, 10 to 20 gr.

Obs. The above are favourite cathartics in worms, especially for children. They are commonly sold for basilic powder. (See above.)

Powder of Scammony with Cal′omel. Syn. Pulvis scammonii cum calomelane, L. Prep. From scammony, ⁄2 oz.; calomel and white sugar, of each 2 dr. An excellent vermifuge for children.—Dose. For an adult, 5 to 20 gr.; for a child, 2 to 8 gr. Sold for basilic powder, to which it approaches nearer in composition than the preceding.

Powder of Scammony with Soot. Syn. Pulvis scammonii cum fuligine; Poudre d’Ailhaut. Prep. Scammony, 1 dr.; wood soot, 1⁄2 dr.; resin, 2 dr.; mix. Dose, ⁄2 dr. A once fashionable purgative.

Powder, Schmidt’s Parturifa′′cient. Syn. Schmidt’s poudre ocytique, Fr. Prep. From powdered ergot of rye, borax, and oleo-saccharum of camomile, of each 8 gr.; powdered sugar, q. s. For a dose; to be repeated every quarter of an hour until some effect is produced.

Powder of Scordium (Compound). Syn. Pulvis e scordio compositus. (L. Ph. 1746.) Prep. Bole, 4 oz.; scordium, 2 oz.; cinnamon, 1⁄2 oz.; styrax tormentil, bistort, gentian, dittany, galbanum, gum acacia, red rose petals, of each 1 oz.; long pepper, ⁄2 oz.; ginger, ⁄2 oz. Make a powder.

Powder of Scordium with Opium. Syn. Pulvis e scordio cum opio. Prep. Add to the preceding, 3 dr. of dry strained opium, and powder it with the other ingredients.

Powder of Senna (Battley’s Green). Syn. Pulvis sennæ viridis, L. Prep. From senna leaves, dried and heated until they turn yellow, then powdered along with a little (blue) charcoal, to give a green colour.

Powder of Sen′na (Compound). Syn. Pulvis sennæ compositus, L. Prep. (Ph. L. 1824.) Senna and bitartrate of potassa, of each 2 oz.; scammony, ⁄2 oz.; ginger, 2 dr.; all in fine powder; mix.—Dose, 20 to 30 gr., or more; as a purgative or anthelmintic.

Powder, Sil′vering. Prep. 1. Silver dust (fine), 20 gr.; alum, 30 gr.; common salt, 1 dr.; cream of tartar, 3 dr.; rub them together to a fine powder.

2. As the last, but substituting 35 gr. of nitrate of silver for the silver dust.

3. Chloride of silver is dissolved in a solution of hyposulphite of soda, and the solution made into a paste with levigated burnt hartshorn or bone dust; this is next dried, and powdered.

4. Silver dust, 1 oz.; common salt and sal ammoniac, of each 4 oz.; corrosive sublimate, ⁄4 oz.

Obs. The above powders, made into a paste with a little water, are used to silver dial-plates, statuettes, and other articles in copper, previously well cleaned, by friction. The best silver powder for the purpose is that precipitated from its nitric solution by means of a copper plate. When the product of the last formula is used, the articles should be afterwards made red hot, and polished.

Powder of Soap. Syn. Sapo contritus, Pulvis saponis, L. Castile soap, sliced or cut small, dried by exposure to a warm atmosphere, or by a very gentle heat, and then powdered. Used in dispensing; also as a hand, shaving, and tooth powder. As a cosmetic it may be scented at will.

Powder, Spermaceti. Syn. Pulvis cetacei. Spermaceti is pulverised as camphor, by the aid of a few drops of spirit.

Powder of Spermaceti, with Sugar. Syn. Pulvis cetacei cum saccharo. One part of powdered spermaceti with two of sugar. Pectoral.

Powder of Sponge. Syn. Pulvis spongiæ, P. spongiæ ustæ, L. Prep. Let sponge, cut into small pieces, be beaten so as to free it from sand or stones; then burn it in a covered iron vessel, until it becomes black and friable; finally, reduce it to powder. Deobstruent.—Dose, ⁄2 to 3 dr.; in glandular indurations and enlargements, &c. It should be of a brownish-black colour; if over burnt its efficacy is destroyed.

Powder of Squills. Syn. Pulvis scillæ, L. Prep. Remove the membranous integuments from the bulb of the squill, cut it into thin slices, and dry it at a heat between 90° and 100° Fahr.; next reduce it to powder, and keep it in well-stoppered bottles.

Powder, Sternuta′tory. See Snuffs (Medicated).

Powder, Stahl’s Resolvent. Syn. Pulvis resolvens stahlii. Prep. Antimonial powder, nitre, prepared crabs’ eyes, in equal parts.

Powder of Starch with Soda. Syn. Pulvis amyli et sodæ; Devergie’s alkaline powder. Prep. Mix 1 part of carbonate of soda in fine powder with 10 of white starch. For external use in some skin diseases.

Powder, Styp′tic. See Powder, Astringent, Faynard’s p., &c.

Powder, Tonquin. Syn. Pulvis antityssus tunquinensis; Sir G. Cobb’s tonquin powder. Prep. Musk, 16 gr.; cinnabar, 48 gr.; to be mixed or washed down with arrack or other spirit. Three doses to be given on three alternate days, and three more on the three next changes of the moon.

Powder of Trag′acanth (Compound). Syn. Pulvis tragacanthæ compositus (B. P., Ph. L. & E.), L. Prep. 1. (Ph. L.) Gum tragacanth, gum acacia, and starch, of each, in fine powder, 1⁄2 oz.; powdered white sugar, 3 oz. The Edinburgh formula is similar. Demulcent.—Dose, ⁄2 dr. to 2 dr., in water or any simple liquid; in hoarseness and catarrhs, combined with squills and henbane, to allay irritation; in dysentery, combined with ipecacuahna; in gonorrhœa, strangury, &c., combined with acetate of potassa or nitre.

2. (B. P.) Tragacanth, in powder, 1; gum Arabic, in powder, 1; starch, in powder, 1; refined sugar, in powder, 3; rub well together.—Dose, 10 to 60 gr.

Powder of Vanilla, with Sugar. (P. Cod.) Syn. Pulvis vanillæ cum saccharo; Poudre de vanille sucrée. Vanilla is reduced to powder by cutting it in pieces, and triturating it with 9 times its weight of refined sugar.

Powder of Verdigris with Calomel. Syn. Pulvis æruginis cum calomelane. Prep. Prepared verdigris, 1 dr.; calomel, 1 dr.; mix. For external use.

Powder, Violet. Syn. Nursery powder, Skin p. This is simply starch, reduced to a very fine powder, and scented with orris powder or essence of violets. The best kinds are also perfumed with a little musk or ambergris, and are now generally made with potato farina. The commoner sort is only scented with a little essence of bergamot or essence of lemon. ‘Plain violet powder’ is, of course, unscented.

Prep. 1. Powdered starch, 28 lbs.; powdered orris root, 1 lb.; essence of ambergris and essence of bergamot, of each ⁄2 oz.; oil of rhodium, ⁄2 dr.; mix, and pass the powder through a sieve.

2. Powdered starch, 14 lbs.; essence of bergamot, ⁄2 oz.; oil of cloves, ⁄2 oz.; as last. Used as a dusting powder in excoriations, &c. See Powders, Cosmetic (below).

Powder, Ward’s Sweating. Resembles Dover’s powder.

Powder, Wart. Syn. Corn powder, COSMETIC CAUSTIC, &c. Prep. 1. Ivy leaves ground to powder. A pinch is applied with a rag, the part being first moistened with strong vinegar. Useful for soft corns and warts.

2. (Hunter’s.) From savine and verdigris, equal parts. See Corn solvent.

Powder, Warwick’s (Earl of). Syn. Pulvis Comitis Warwicencis, L. Prep. From scammony, prepared with the fumes of sulphur, 2 oz.; diaphoretic antimony, 1 oz.; cream of tartar, ⁄2 oz.—Dose, 15 to 30 gr.

Obs. This is a modification of Cornachini’s powder. It is represented in the present Pharmacopœias by COMPOUND SCAMMONY POWDER. “Cornachini wrote a whole book about his powder, the proportions of the ingredients of which he varied according to circumstances.” (‘Med. Lex.’)

Powder, Wash′ing. The numerous compounds vended under this name have for their basis the soda-ash of commerce, blended with common Scotch soda in variable proportions. The best of them consist either wholly or chiefly of the first of these substances. The alkaline matter is reduced to coarse powder, and stirred up with liquid size, or with a decoction of linseed, Irish moss, or British gum, and is then dried, and again crushed or powdered, and at once put into the packages, in which it is rammed tight, and covered up immediately. The object aimed at by the manufacturer is to keep his commodity from the air as much as possible, because exposure renders it less caustic, and consequently less detergent.

Powder of Yellow Bladder-wrack. (Ph. D.) Syn. Pulvis quercus marinæ. Prep. Yellow bladder-wrack, in flower, is dried, cleansed, and heated in a crucible with a perforated lid till vapours cease to be given off, and the carbonaceous residue reduced to powder.—Dose, 10 gr. to 2 dr.

POWDERS. The following preparations have been placed under this head instead of under ‘Powder,’ because some are invariably spoken of in the plural number, and the others may be conveniently noticed in classes or groups.

Powders, Aerated Sherbet (IN ONE BOTTLE). Double refined sugar, 14⁄2 oz.; powdered orange peel, 12 gr.; bicarbonate of soda, 3⁄2 oz.; essence of cedrat, 12 drops; oil of orange peel, 60 drops; tartaric acid, 4 oz. The powders must be carefully dried, mixed quickly, and afterwards kept dry, in a bottle securely corked. A measure holding nearly 3 dr. of the powder should accompany each bottle.

Powders, Efferves′cing. Prep. 1. (Pulveres effervescentes—Ph. E.) Take of tartaric acid, 1 oz.; bicarbonate of soda, 1 oz. 54 gr. (534 gr.), or bicarbonate of potassa, 1 oz. 2 dr. 40 gr. (640 gr.); reduce the acid and either bicarbonate separately to fine powder, divide each of these into 16 powders, and preserve the acid and alkaline powders in separate papers of different colours.

2. (Pulveres effervescentes citrati—Ph. D.) Take of citric acid (crystallised), 9 dr.; bicarbonate of soda, 11 dr., or bicarbonate of potassa, 13 dr., proceed as last, dividing each into 18 parts.

3. (Pulveres effervescentes tartarizati—Ph. D.) Take of tartaric acid (in crystals), 10 dr.; bicarbonate of soda, 11 dr., or bicarbonate of potassa, 13 dr.; reduce them to powder, and divide them into 18 parts, as before. (See below.)

Powders, Effervescing, with Iron. (P. Cod.) Syn. Pulveres effervescentes cum ferro. Prep. Tartaric acid, 2⁄4 oz.; bicarbonate of soda, 2 oz.; powdered sugar, 9 oz.; dried sulphate of iron, 46 gr. Mix the acid and the sulphate of iron (previously reduced to coarse powder), add the sugar, and lastly the soda, not in very fine powder. All the ingredients must be very dry. Half an ounce of this powder is to be quickly added to 2 pints of pure water (without air) contained in a bottle, which is to be immediately corked.

Powders for Gazogene. For 2 pints:—Powdered tartaric acid, 14 scruples; bicarbonate of soda, 17 scruples.

For 3 pints:—Powdered tartaric acid, 17 scruples; bicarbonate of soda, 21 scruples.

For 5 pints:—One each charge of 2 and 3 pints.

Powders, Gin′ger Beer. Syn. Pulveres effervescentes cum zingibere, L. Prep. 1. Powdered white sugar, 1 to 2 dr.; bicarbonate of soda, 26 gr.; finest powdered Jamaica ginger, 6 gr.; essence of lemon, 1 drop; mix, and wrap it in blue paper. In the white paper put of powdered tartaric acid, 35 gr., or of powdered citric acid, 30 gr.

2. Finest Jamaica ginger, 1 dr.; bicarbonate of soda, 5 dr.; white sugar, 16 dr.; essence of lemon, 6 or 8 drops; mix, and divide it between 12 papers (blue). For the white papers, divide tartaric acid, 6 dr., in the same way. By taking the drachms as ounces, the quantity will be sufficient for 8 dozen. For use dissolve one of each colour separately in somewhat less than half a glass of water, mix the two, and drink the mixture whilst effervescing.

3. (In one bottle.)—a. The sugar and the saline ingredients are separately dried by a very gentle heat, then mixed in a dry room with the ginger and essence of lemon, and at once put into bottles.

b. By adding to the ‘acidulated kali,’ noticed at page 929, about 1-16th of its weight of the finest powdered Jamaica ginger (i. e. ⁄2 dr. to each oz.; 1 oz. to each lb.) at the time of mixing the ingredients together. A dessert-spoonful, thrown into a tumbler two thirds filled with cold water, produces an excellent glass of ginger beer.

Powders, Ink. The article usually sold under this name is noticed under Ink. Another formula, which we have adopted with considerable success, is as follows:—Good black ink, 3 pints, lump sugar, 1⁄2 oz., and gum Arabic, ⁄2 oz., are put into a clean iron pan, and evaporated by the heat of boiling water, with occasional stirring, to dryness; the dried mass is reduced to powder, and divided into 12 parts, which are enveloped in either tin-foil or glazed paper, and kept dry. One of these papers dissolved in ⁄4 pint of hot water forms that quantity of excellent black ink, without sediment, and which answers well with the copying press.

Powders, Lem′onade. Syn. Lemon sherbet; Limonadum siccum, Pulvis pro liminado, L. Prep. 1. Powdered citric or tartaric acid, 12 gr.; powdered white sugar, ⁄2 oz.; essence of lemon, 1 drop (or a little of the yellow peel of a lemon rubbed off on a piece of sugar); mix. For one glass.

2. White sugar, 4 lbs.; citric or tartaric acid, 1⁄2 oz.; essence of lemon, ⁄4 oz.; mix well, and preserve it in a bottle for use. 1 to 2 dessert-spoonfuls make a glass of lemonade. It is also put up in papers containing about 2⁄2 dr. each.

3. (Effervescing.)—a. For the blue papers, take of powdered white sugar, 1 lb.; bicarbonate of soda, ⁄4 lb.; essence of lemon, 1⁄2 dr.; mix, and divide it between 6 dozen papers. Next divide tartaric or citric acid, 5 oz., between 6 dozen white papers. Or the two may be kept in bulk, in separate bottles.

b. (In one bottle.) As ‘ACIDULATED KALI,’ Some makers slightly increase the quantities of acid and essence of lemon there ordered.

Powders, Orangeade. Syn. Aerated sherbet. Prep. Powdered sugar, 14⁄2 oz.; powdered orange peel, 12 gr.; oil of orange peel, 60 drops; essence of cedrat, 12 drops; bicarbonate of soda, 3⁄2 oz.; mix, and put 145 gr. in each blue paper. In the white paper put 32 gr. of tartaric acid (or 30 gr. of citric acid). Or the alkaline and acid powders may be put into separate bottles, with a measure holding the proper proportions of each. The orange peel may be omitted, if necessary.

Powders, Pol′ishing. Prep. 1. (For brass and copper.)—a. From rotten stone, 3 oz.; powdered soap, 1 oz.

b. From rotten stone, 7 oz.; powdered oxalic acid, 1 oz. Both are used with a little water. See Brass paste.

2. (For gold.) Jeweller’s rouge. See Sesquioxide of Iron.

3. (For ivory.) Pumice stone and putty powder.

4. (For plate.) See Plate and Powder, Plate.

5. (For silver.) As the last.

Powders, Scented. Prep. 1. Cosmetic powders.—a. (Poudre de chipre.) Macerate oak moss in running water for 2 or 3 days, then dry and powder it. Used as a basis for other powders, on account of its being highly retentive of odours. Reindeer moss and ragged hoary evernia are also used for the same purpose. See Cyprus powder (above).

b. (Poudre de chipre de Montpelier.) From poudre de chipre, 2 lbs.; musk, 30 gr.; civet, 20 gr. (the last two powdered by means of a little sugar); cloves, ⁄4 oz.

c. (Poudre de fleurs d’oranges.) From starch or cyprus powder, 25 lbs.; orange flowers, 1 lb.; mixed in a covered chest, and stirred twice or thrice daily; the process being repeated, with fresh flowers, a second and a third time. Or, the plain powder is scented by the addition of a little neroli or essence of petit grain.

d. (Poudre de frangipanni.) From poudre de fleurs d’oranges and poudre de chipre, of each 6 lbs.; essence of ambergris, 1 oz.; civet (powdered with sugar), ⁄2 dr. Ash-grey colour.

e. (Poudre de jasmine.) As POUDRE DE FLEURS D’ORANGES, but using jasmin flowers.

f. (Poudre à la maréchale.) From poudre de chipre, 2 lbs.; starch powder, 1 lb.; calamus aromaticus, cloves, and cyperus perennis or rotundis, of each 2 oz. Or, starch powder, 28 lbs.; powdered cloves, ⁄4 lb.; powdered orris root, ⁄2 lb.; essence of ambergris, 2 dr.

g. (Poudre à la mousseline.) From orris root, 1 lb.; coriander seed, 6 oz.; mace and violet ebony, of each 2 oz.; musk seed, cassia, cloves, and sandal wood, of each 1 oz.

h. (Poudre de jonquille.) From jonquils, as POUDRE DE JASMINE.

i. (Poudre à l’œillet.) From plain powder, 2 lbs.; orris root and dried red rose leaves, of each 1 lb.; cloves and musk seed, of each 4 oz.; essence of bergamot and essence de petit grain, of each ⁄2 dr.

k. (Poudre de roses communes.) From pale roses, as POUDRE DE FLEURS D’ORANGES.

l. (Poudre de roses musquées.) From musk roses, as the last.

m. (Poudre à la Vanilla.) From poudre de chipre or cyprus, 3 lbs.; vanilla, powdered by means of sugar, 2 dr.; oil of cloves and essence of ambergris, of each 20 drops.

n. (Poudre à la violette.) See Powder, Violet (as above).

The above are used as cosmetic powders for the skin and hair; also, but less frequently, for sachets, drawers, &c.

2. Sachet powder.—a. From orris root, 2 oz.; cassia, 1⁄2 oz.; cloves, 1 oz.; yellow sandal wood, ⁄4 oz.; oils of lavender and bergamot, of each 1 dr.; otto of roses, 20 drops; musk and ambergris, of each, rubbed with a little sugar, 6 gr.; reduce the dry ingredients to coarse powder, mix them, and add the oils.

b. From corianders, orris root, rose leaves, and calamus aromaticus, of each 4 oz.; lavender flowers, 8 oz.; rhodium wood, 1 dr.; musk, 20 gr.

c. From corianders, orris, calamus aromaticus, and red roses (dried), of each 1 oz.; lavender flowers, 2 oz.; mace and cloves, of each 1 dr.; essential oil of almonds, 10 drops.

d. As last, but substituting musk, 5 gr., for the oil of almonds.

e. From patchouli, 8 oz.; lavender flowers, (lightly dried), 3 oz.; orris root, 2 oz.; cloves, 1 oz.; essence of bergamot, 1 dr.; essences of ambergris and musk, of each ⁄2 dr.

These are used, along with cotton wool, to fill scent bags, cassolettes, &c.; and as scent powder for boxes, drawers, and the like. The scent is added to the dry ingredients, separately reduced to powder, and the whole is then passed through a fine sieve, to ensure perfect admixture.

3. Parfum pour les autres poudres. From poudre d’ambrette, 12 lbs.; civette, 1⁄2 oz.; musk, 1 dr.; reduce the last two to powder by grinding them with some dry lump sugar, then mix the whole together, and pass it through a sieve. Used to perfume hair powder, sachets, &c.

Powders, Seidlitz. Syn. Pulveres effervescentes aperientes, L. Prep. 1. Potassio-tartrate of soda (Rochelle salt), 2 dr.; bicarbonate of soda, 40 gr.; mix, and put it in a blue paper; tartaric acid, 35 gr.; to be put in a white paper. For about ⁄2 pint of water. Laxative.

2. (In one bottle.) From potassio-tartrate of soda, 12 oz.; bicarbonate of do., 4 oz.; tartaric acid, 3⁄2 oz.; white sugar, 1 lb. (all in fine powder); dry each separately by a gentle heat, add of essence of lemon, ⁄2 dr.; mix well, pass the mixture through a sieve, and put it at once into clean dry bottles.—Dose. A dessert-spoonful, or more, to a tumblerful of water.

Obs. The above mixtures, though now universally sold as Seidlitz powder, do not, when dissolved, exactly resemble the natural water, which contains carbonates, sulphates, and chlorides of calcium and magnesium. However, the factitious article is equally effective, and much more agreeable.

Powders, Sher′bet. These are made of the same materials as lemonade powders, the flavouring ingredient being varied to suit the particular case.

Powders, So′da-water. Syn. Effervescing powders, E. saline p., Sodaic p., Aerated soda p.; Pulveres effervescentes, L. Prep. 1. From bicarbonate of soda, 30 gr. in each blue paper; tartaric acid, 25 gr. (or citric acid, 24 gr.), in each white paper. One of each is dissolved separately in about half a glassful of water, and the two solutions mixed, and drank immediately. A cooling, wholesome summer beverage, but it should not be indulged in to excess.

2. (Chalybeated.) By adding 1 gr. of dried protosulphate of iron to each paper of acid. Tonic.

3. (Midgeley’s.) Made by adding ⁄8 gr. of tartarised antimony to each paper of acid. Refrigerant and diaphoretic. For the Ph. formulæ see Powders, Effervescing (above).

Powders, Soup. See Powder, Curry, Powder, Pea, Spice, &c.

Powders, Spruce Beer. Syn. Pulveres effervescentes cum abiete, L. Prep. As ginger-beer powders, but substituting essence of spruce, 3 to 6 drops, for the powdered ginger.

Powders, Tooth. Syn. Pulvis dentifricii, L. The general principles which should be kept in view in the selection of the materials, and in the preparation of dentifrices, have been already fully noticed under Dentifrices, and need not, therefore, be repeated here. Care must be taken that all the dry ingredients be finely pulverised, and that the harder and gritty ones be reduced to the state of an impalpable powder, either by levigation or elutriation. The mixture of the ingredients must also be complete. This is the most readily effected by stirring them well together until they form an apparently homogeneous powder, and then passing this powder through a very fine sieve. Those which contain volatile substances should be preserved in closely corked wide-mouth bottles, and those which contain acidulous or gritty matter should not be frequently employed. The selection of the tooth brush likewise deserves attention. It should be sufficiently stiff to effect its purpose completely; but, at the same time, it should be so formed as not to cause irritation or injury to the gums during its use.

Prep. 1. Cuttle-fish bone and prepared chalk, of each 2 oz.; oil of cloves, 20 drops. This may be perfumed at will, and medicated by any of the substances referred to under Dentifrices.

2. To the last add of powdered Castile soap, 2 oz.

3. Prepared chalk, 12 oz.; cuttle-fish bone, 8 oz.; orris root, 4 oz.; dragon’s blood, 1⁄2 oz.; oils of cloves and cassia, of each ⁄2 dr.

4. Prepared chalk, 1 lb.; pumice-stone, in impalpable powder, ⁄4 lb.; orris root, 2 oz.; pure rouge, ⁄4 oz.; neroli, ⁄2 dr.

5. Yellow cinchona bark and myrrh, of each ⁄2 oz.; recently burnt charcoal, 3 oz.; cloves, 1 dr.

6. Pumice-stone, red coral, and powdered rhatany root, of each, 2 oz.; orris root, ⁄2 oz.; essence of vanilla, ⁄2 dr.

7. (Aromatic tooth powder.) From cuttle-fish bone, 4 oz.; calamus aromaticus, 2 oz.; powdered Castile soap, 1 oz.; oil of cloves, ⁄2 dr.

8. (Asiatic dentifrice.) From prepared red coral, 8⁄4 lbs.; Venetian red, ⁄4 lb.; prepared chalk and pumice-stone, of each 1⁄4 lb.; China musk, 30 gr.

9. (Cadet’s.) From lump sugar and charcoal, of each 1 oz.; Peruvian bark, ⁄2 oz.; cream of tartar, ⁄4 oz.; cinnamon, ⁄2 dr.

10. (Camphorated.) See Camphorated chalk.

11. (Charcoal dentifrice.) From charcoal, preferably that from the willow or the areka nut, either alone or combined with twice its weight of prepared chalk. Scent or medicinals injure it. (See 9, 19, and 26.)

12. (Coral dentifrice.) See 16, 23, and 25 (below).

13. (Deschamp’s ALKALINE DENTIFRICE.) From powdered talc, 4 oz.; bicarbonate of soda, 1 oz.; carmine, 6 gr.; oil of mint, 12 or 15 drops.

14. (Florentine dentifrice.) From prepared shells, 4 oz.; orris root, 1⁄2 oz.; bitartrate of potassa, ⁄4 oz.; Florentine lake, q. s. to colour.

15. (Galvanic dentifrice.) From gold, 3 leaves; silver, 4 leaves; triturate them with alum and sulphate of potassa, of each 1⁄2 dr.; then add, of dry common salt, pellitory of Spain, and Peruvian bark, of each 1 dr.; prepared hartshorn, 1 oz.; mix, and either colour it blue with smalts or red with lake. A useless compound.

16. (Grosvenor’s.) From red coral, 3 lbs.; prepared oyster-shells, 2⁄2 lbs.; orris powder, ⁄2 lb.; oil of rhodium, 25 drops. Rose-pink is now commonly substituted for the coral.

17. (Hemet’s.) From cuttle-fish bone, 6 oz.; cream of tartar, 1 oz.; orris root, ⁄2 oz.

18. (‘Lancet.’) Red bark and Armenian hole, of each 1 oz.; powdered cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda, of each ⁄2 oz.; oil of cinnamon, 2 or 3 drops.

19. (Lardner’s.) From charcoal, in very fine powder, 1 oz.; prepared chalk, 3 oz.; mix.

20. (Mialhe’s RATIONAL DENTIFRICE.) From sugar of milk, 3 oz.; pure tannin, 3 dr.; red lake, 1 dr.; oils of mint and aniseed, of each 7 or 8 drops; neroli, 4 or 5 drops.

21. (Myrrh dentifrice.) From cuttle-fish bone, 6 oz.; myrrh and orris root, of each 2 oz.

22. (Pearl dentifrice.) From heavy carbonate of magnesia or precipitated chalk, 1 lb.; finest smalts, 3 dr.; essence de petit grain, ⁄2 dr.

23. (Pelletier’s QUININE DENTIFRICE.) From prepared red coral, 3 oz.; myrrh, 1 dr.; disulphate of quinine, 12 to 15 gr.

24. (Ph. Russ.) Cinchona bark, 4 oz.; orris root, 2 oz.; catechu and myrrh, of each 1⁄2 oz.; sal ammoniac, 1 oz.; oil of cloves, 20 drops.

25. (Poudre dentifrice—P. Cod.) Red coral, red bole, and cuttle-fish bone, of each 3 oz.; dragon’s blood, 1⁄2 oz.; cinnamon, ⁄4 oz.; cochineal, 3 dr.; cloves, 1 dr.; bitartrate of potassa, 4⁄2 oz.; reduce them separately to very fine powder before mixing them. This is the ‘coral dentifrice’ of the French.

26. (Rignini’s.) From charcoal, 1 oz.; yellow bark, ⁄4 oz.

27. (Rose dentifrice.) From precipitated chalk, 6 oz.; cuttle-fish bone, 3 oz.; bicarbonate of soda, 2 oz.; red lake, ⁄4 oz.; otto of roses, 20 drops.

28. (Ruspini’s.) From cuttle-fish bone, 8 oz.; Roman alum and orris root, of each 1 oz.; cream of tartar, 2 oz.; oil of rhodium, 6 or 8 drops.

29. (Violet tooth powder.) From orris root, 3 oz.; cuttle-fish bone and rose pink, of each 5 oz.; precipitated chalk, 12 oz.; pure indigo, q. s. to give it a pale violet tinge.

30. (Zieter’s.) From finely powdered calcined hartshorn and cuttle-fish bone, of each 6 oz.; calamus aromaticus, cassia, and pellitory of Spain, of each 1 oz.; essence of vanilla, 1 dr.; essence of ambergris, 10 or 12 drops.

31. Chalk, carbonate of magnesia, and pale bark, of each 1 oz.; oil of peppermint, 5 drops.

32. Cream of tartar, sugar of milk, of each 2 oz.; carmine, 88 gr. (all in very subtle powder); oil of peppermint, 4 drops.

Powders, Worm. Syn. Pulveres anthelmintici, P. vermifugi, L. Prep. 1. (Bouchardat.) Powdered Corsican moss and worm-seed, of each 5 dr.; calomel, 40 gr.; rub them together.

2. (Collier.) From powdered jalap and scammony, of each 1 dr.; cream of tartar, 2 dr.; Ethiops mineral, 3 dr.

3. (Guibourt.) Sulphate of iron, 1 dr.; tansy, 2 dr.; worm-seed, 3 dr.

4. (P. Cod.) Corsican moss and worm-seed, of each 2 oz.; rhubarb, 1 oz.; rubbed to a fine powder, and carefully mixed.

POX. A corruption of a Saxon word, originally applied to pustules or eruptions of any kind, but now restricted to varicella, variola, vaccinia, and, in its unqualified form, to syphilis. (See below.)

Pox, Chick′en. Syn. Water-pox; Varicella, L. An eruptive disease, consisting of smooth, semi-transparent vesicles, of various sizes, which afterwards become white and straw-coloured, and about the fourth day break and scale off, without leaving any permanent mark behind them. In hot weather the discharge sometimes becomes purulent, and at others the eruption is attended with considerable fever. Sometimes the vesicles assume a pointed form, and the fluid remains clear throughout the disease; it is then frequently called the “swine-pox.” When the vesicles are large and globular, and their contents, at first whey-coloured, afterwards turn yellow, it is popularly known as ‘hives.’

The treatment of chicken-pox consists in the adoption of a light, vegetable diet, and in the administration of mild saline aperients and cooling drinks.

The chicken-pox, except in children of a very bad habit of body, is an extremely mild disease. Like the smallpox, it rarely attacks the same person more than once during life.

Pox, Cow. Syn. Vaccinia, Variola vaccina, L. This disease was proposed as a substitute and a preventive of smallpox by Dr Jenner in 1798, and its artificial production (vaccination) has rendered smallpox a comparatively rare disease in Britain. There appears no reason to doubt that the pretensions of the advocates of vaccination have been fully justified by the experience of more than half a century; or that this disease, when actively developed, evinced by the completeness and maturation of the pustules, acts as a prophylactic of smallpox.

The process of vaccination is similar to that of inoculation for smallpox. The point of a lance is wetted with the matter taken from one of the pustules, and is then gently inserted under the cuticle, and the scratch afterwards rubbed over with the same. Hæmorrhage should be avoided, as the blood is apt to wash away the virus, or to form a cake which shields the living tissue from its action.

Pox, Small. Syn. Variola, L. This disease comes on with the usual symptoms of inflammatory fever. About the third day red spots, resembling flea-bites, make their appearance on the face and head, and gradually extend over the whole body. About the fifth day small circular vesicles, depressed in the centre, surrounded by an areola, and containing a colourless fluid, begin to form, when the feverish symptoms abate; about the sixth day the throat becomes sore; about the eighth day the face is swollen; and about the eleventh day the pustules acquire the size of a pea, and cease to enlarge, the matter which they contain becomes opaque and yellow, a dark central spot forms on each, the swelling of the face subsides, and secondary symptoms of fever come on; the pustules become rough, break, and scab over, and a dark spot remains for some days, often followed by permanent indentations, popularly known as ‘pock-marks.’ At the end of the sixteenth or eighteenth day the symptoms usually disappear. In the confluent smallpox, a severer form of the disease, the pustules coalesce, the eruption is irregular in its progress, and the inflammatory symptoms are more severe.

The treatment of ordinary cases of smallpox resembles, for the most part, that mentioned above for chicken-pox. As soon as the febrile symptoms become marked the patient should not be suffered to lie in a hot bed, but on a mattress, in a cool and well-ventilated apartment, and antiseptic cooling drinks should be freely administered. When convulsions occur, or great irritability exists, small doses of morphine, opium, or camphor may be administered, and obstinate vomiting arrested by effervescing saline draughts. When the skin is pale and cold, the pulse weak, and the eruption languidly developed, the warm or tepid bath is often serviceable. An infusion of the root of Sarracenia pupurea, an American plant, has been strongly recommended as a preventive and cure of smallpox, but many of our most eminent physicians regard it as valueless. The application on the third day of a mask formed of thin muslin, covered with mercurial ointment, and having holes cut in it for the nostrils, eyes, and mouth, will effectually prevent ‘pitting.’ (Dr. Stewardson.) With the same intention some persons recommend the puncture of the pustules as soon as they are mature. A solution of india rubber in chloroform is now often painted over the face when the eruption has become fully developed. The chloroform quickly evaporates, leaving an elastic film of india rubber, which almost entirely removes the itchiness of the pustules and prevents ‘pitting.’ To remove the pock-marks, whether recent or old, nothing appears to be better than warm sea-bathing, or the use of tepid ioduretted lotions.

The smallpox is eminently contagious, but only attacks the same person once during life. Formerly, a milder form of the disease was propagated by inoculation, a practice introduced into England from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, about the year 1721. At the present day, in England, inoculation, as well as the exposure of a patient labouring under smallpox, is penal, the punishment being either by fine or imprisonment. See Pox, Cow (above).

“The absolute necessity for enforcing this measure after smallpox is conclusively shown by the following cases which occurred during the late severe outbreak of the disease at Ipswich. In the first instance a young man brought a bundle of infected linen with him from London and had it washed at Ipswich. Twelve days after, the servant who washed it showed symptoms of smallpox. In another case, a woman who had been at Highgate Hospital brought with her a shawl which she had worn during convalescence, but had not been disinfected; and in fourteen days her sister, who washed the shawl, was attacked with smallpox.”—Sanitary Record.

PRECIP′ITATE. Any substance which has separated from its solution in a solid and, usually, a pulverulent or flocculent form. The substance by which such a change is produced is called the ‘precipitant,’ and the act or operation by which it is effected is called ‘precipitation.’ The old chemists gave this name to several compounds. Red precipitate, or precipitate per se, is the red oxide of mercury prepared by heat. White precipitate is the Ammoniated mercury of the B. P.

PRECIPITA′TION. The formation or subsidence of a precipitate. (See above.) When the precipitate is the chief object of the process, it is necessary to wash it, after it is separated, by filtration. This operation requires little attention when the substance thrown down is insoluble in water; but when it is in some degree soluble in that liquid, great attention is required to prevent the loss which might result from the use of too much water. Precipitates soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol, are frequently, on the small scale, washed with spirit more or less concentrated.

The best precipitating vessel is a very tall glass jar, furnished with a lip and spout, and narrower at the bottom than at the mouth, so that the precipitate may readily collect by subsidence, and the supernatant liquor be decanted off with more ease.

PREG′NANCY. For the preservation of the health, and the prevention of the numerous discomforts and dangers which so frequently attend this condition, nothing is so effective as exercise. It is this that is so favorable to the humble peasant, and it is its absence that inflicts such calamities on the wealthier classes. Exercise, moderate and unfatiguing, when assisted by regular habits, and a diet nutritious, but not too liberal, is, indeed, capable of not only affording pleasure and increasing the comforts of existence, but is also generally sufficient to greatly lessen the severity of the sufferings, and to ward off the not unfrequently fatal results which terminate this interesting condition.

The sickness of pregnancy may be greatly ameliorated, if not removed, by the occasional use of a saline aperient, and by effervescing draughts formed with the bicarbonate of potassa and citric acid. The oxalate of cerium is strongly recommended by Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, as a remedy for obstinate vomiting in pregnancy.—Dose, 1 gr. to 2 gr. three times a day in pills.

PRESCRI′′BING (Art of). Besides a knowledge of diseases and their treatment, much of the success of the physician depends on circumstances connected with the form in which the remedies are exhibited. In writing a prescription it is necessary to consider the age, sex, temperament, habits and idiosyncracy of the patient, as well as the conditions of climate and season, before the selection of the leading medicament and the apportioning of the dose. The most convenient form of exhibiting it, whether it should be given alone or in some simple form, or combined with other ingredients, the compatibility of the latter, and how far these are likely to assist, impede, or modify its operation, must also receive the consideration of the practitioner. Without a careful attention to all these circumstances the most valuable remedies may be rendered worthless, and the highest medical skill and the best intentions frustrated.

A prescription generally contains several medicinal substances, which are distinguished by medical writers by names indicative of the office which each of them performs. These are—1. The BASIS, which is the principal or most active ingredient;—2. The ADJUVANT, or that which is intended to promote the action of the base;—3. The CORRECTIVE, intended to correct, modify, or control its action, or to cover its odour or taste, as when we add carminatives or diaphoretics to cathartics, or aromatics or liquorice to nauseous substances;—4. The EXCIPIENT, or that which gives the whole a commodious or agreeable form, and which, consequently, gives the prescription its peculiar character, as that of draught, mixture, pills, &c. To these, certain Continental writers add a 5th, the INTERMEDIUM, which is the substance employed to unite remedies which are not, by themselves, miscible with each other, or with the excipient. Of this character are the yolk of egg and mucilage, employed in the preparation of emulsions.

The medicinal substances, with the quantities to be taken, generally arranged as above, are said to form the ‘inscription,’—the directions as to their combination or dispensing, which usually comes next, the ‘subscription,’ and—the orders for the exhibition of the compound medicine, which follow these, the ‘instructions.’ These distinctions are, however, in many cases more technical than useful.

In choosing the form of a prescription it should be recollected that solutions and emulsions generally act with more certainty and rapidity than powders diffused through water; and these, again, than the semi-solid and solid forms of medicine, represented by electuaries, boluses, and pills. On these matters, however, the taste and wishes of the patient should not be disregarded. For this purpose the taste of nauseous medicines should be disguised as much as possible by the judicious selection of an appropriate corrective or excipient. Thus, the disagreeable flavour of Epsom salt may be in a great measure covered by dissolving it in peppermint water; that of aloes by liquorice; that of castor oil and copaiba by orange peel; and that of powdered bark by mixing it with milk immediately before taking it; whilst the bitterness of all bitter substances is concealed by strong coffee.

In order that a prescription may be well made it is not necessary to unite all the elements above referred to. The basis and the excipient are the only two which are absolutely necessary, since there are many medicines which have no need of an adjuvant. The agreeable flavour and odour of some, and the mild and harmless nature of others, often render the intervention of a corrigent unnecessary when they are employed. A single substance may also “be capable of answering two or more purposes. Thus, the adjuvant may also act as a corrigent, as when the addition of soap to aloes, or to extract of jalap, lessens their griping properties, and at the same time promotes their action. In the same way neutral salts correct the colic which follows the use of resinous purgatives, and accelerate their action.” According to Gaubius, the number of ingredients in a prescription should scarcely ever exceed three or four. See Dose, Medicines, Incompatibles, Pills, &c.

PRESCRIP′TIONS. Recipes or formulæ for the preparation and exhibition of medicines intended, generally, for immediate use. See Prescribing (above).

PRESERVES′. A general term, under which are included the various fruits and vegetables which are seasoned and kept in sugar or syrup, more especially those which are so preserved whole or in slices. See Candying, Jam, Marmalade, &c.

PRESS (Correcting for the). See Proofs.

PRESSURE, BAROMETRIC, on the Phenomena of Life. M. Bert has contributed to the ‘Comptes Rendus’ (lxxiii, 213, 503; lxxiv, 617; lxxv, 29, 88) an account of the following experimental researches on the influence of changes in the Barometric Pressure on the Phenomena of Life:—

He finds that at pressures under 18 centimètres of mercury animals die from want of oxygen; at a pressure of one to two atmospheres, from want of oxygen and presence of carbonic acid; at 2-6 atmospheres, from the presence of carbonic acid alone; at 6-15 atmospheres, from the presence of carbonic acid and of excess of oxygen; and at 15-25 atmospheres, from the poisonous action of oxygen alone.

Animals die from want of oxygen when the amount contained in their arterial blood is not sufficient to balance a pressure of 3·5 per cent. of oxygen in the atmosphere. They die from poisoning by carbonic anhydride when the amount contained in their venous blood is sufficient to balance a pressure of 26 to 28 per cent. of carbonic anhydride in the atmosphere in the case of sparrows, of 28 to 30 for mammals, and of 15 or 16 for reptiles.

As the pressure of oxygen in the surrounding air depends on two factors, the percentage proportion and the barometric pressure, the barometric pressure may be reduced to 6 centimètres for sparrows, if the proportion of oxygen in the air is increased; and it may be raised to 23 atmospheres without causing death, if the proportion of oxygen is reduced by mixing the air with nitrogen. Aeronauts might, therefore, ascend higher than it has hitherto been possible to do by taking with them a bag of oxygen to inhale; and the danger that threatens divers of being poisoned by the oxygen in the compressed air might be averted by using a mixture of air and nitrogen.

From an examination of the gases in the blood of animals confined in rarefied air the author finds that both the oxygen and the carbonic anhydride in the blood diminish. The dyspnœa which is felt in ascending mountains is therefore due to want of oxygen in the blood. The diminution in oxygen becomes diminished at 20 centimètres pressure, yet this is the pressure under which the inhabitants of the elevated Mexican plateau of Anahuac live. The oxygen diminishes more quickly and more regularly than the carbonic anhydride. Although there are but very small quantities of gases simply dissolved in the blood, the chemical combinations in which they take part are dissociated very easily and in a progressive manner under the influence of diminished pressure, and this dissociation takes place more easily in the organisms than in experiments in vacuo.

PRINCE’S METAL. One of the names for Dutch gold. (See Gold, Dutch.)

PRINT′ING (Anastatic). A method of zincography, patented in 1845, having for its object the reproduction of drawings, engravings, and letter-press, from copies however old. To describe briefly the preparation of a plate or cylinder, let us suppose a newspaper about to be reprinted by this means. The sheet is first moistened with dilute acid and placed between sheets of blotting paper, in order that the superfluous moisture may be absorbed. The ink resists the acid, which attacks the blanks only. In all cases where the letter-press is of recent date, or not perhaps older than half a year, a few minutes suffice for this purpose. The paper is then carefully placed upon the plate with which the letter-press to be transferred is in immediate contact, and the whole passed under a press, on removal from which, and on carefully disengaging the paper, the letters are found in reverse on the plate. A preparation of gum is then applied to the plate by means of a roller, after which the letters receive an addition of ink, which is immediately incorporated with that by which they are already formed. These operations are effected in a few minutes. The surface of the plate round the letters is next bitten in a very slight degree by dilute acid, and on the fresh application of the ink it is rejected by the zinc, and received only by the letters, which are charged with the ink by the common roller used in hand-printing. Each letter comes from the press as clear as if it had been imprinted by type metal; and the copies are fac-similes, which cannot easily be distinguished from the original sheet.

When pen-and-ink drawings are to be reproduced, they are made on any paper free from hairs or filaments, and well-sized. The ink used is a preparation made for the purpose, closely resembling lithographic ink, and may be mixed to any degree of thickness in pure distilled water. It should be used fresh, and slightly warm when a fine effect is to be given. In making or copying a design a pencil may be used; but the marks must be left on the paper, and by no means rubbed with india rubber or bread. It is necessary to add that the paper should be kept quite clean and free from friction, and should not be touched by the fingers, inasmuch as it will retain marks of very slight touches.

Before closing this notice of anastatic printing it may be proper to remark, that the great pretensions originally set up by the patentees have not been fulfilled by its extensive adoption in trade.

PRINTING (Letterpress). Syn. Typography. The art of collecting together and arranging movable types for the purpose of printing, in one or more colours, by pressure applied from a flat surface or by means of a cylinder biting the paper to be printed, and which is inserted between itself and the type.

In illustration of this section, some specimen types are appended, the greater portion being from the well-known foundry of Messrs V. & J. Figgins, and should now be carefully read down to render the further remarks intelligible. The key is contained in itself by reading the column as one continuous paragraph with the help of the foot-notes. Some idea may thus be formed of the vast number of distinct kinds of type necessary to carry out the requirements of the present system of printing.

Mention there has been made that the name of the body is determined by its number of lines to a foot; but this must be qualified. The Imperial foot, or inch, or yard, is an arbitrary measure of length in reality as well as in name. When one foundry was sufficient to supply all the types that were required for use in the early ages of printing, then a name and its dimensions could be taken as absolute. But with the increase of printing, type-founders also increased; and this has produced the variations of bodies which are so annoying to the typographer, for one single letter or space taken from a body larger than its own, yet of the same name, will be enough to throw the column of type out of a straight line all the way through. Still, when we look to the fact that, according to the ancient masters, the large-sized type called Pica (No. 3 and Nos. 18, 19,20 & 21) requires 72⁄2 lines to the foot, and that Nonpareil, half its size (No. 9, and Nos. 26, 27, 28 & 29), requires 145 lines to the foot, and recollecting that the slightest variation multiplied 145 times must produce a very sensible deviation, the wonder is that each of the founders should approach each other so closely as they do. An attempt was made some years ago to introduce a certain fixity of standard for each body throughout the trade, based on the French system; the difficulties of altering the standards and matrices of each foundry were seen to be so great that the effort was unavailing.

References to the above types—by reading across.

BODY. BOOKWORK FACE. DISPLAY FACE.

1 Great Primer— Roman 14 Gt Primer Manuscript

15 Gt Primer Ext. Ornamented

16 Gt Primer Black

2 English— Roman 17 Gt Primer Condensed Black

3 Pica— Roman 18 Pica Antique

19 Pica Clarendon

20 Pica Rustic

4 Small Pica— Roman 21 Pica Narrow Gauge

5 Long Primer— Roman 22 Long Primer Condensed Sansserif

6 Bourgeois— Roman

7 Brevier— Roman 23 Brevier Grotesque

24 Brevier Extended

8 Minion— Rom. & Italic 25 Brevier Open Sansserif

9 Nonpareil— Roman 26 Nonpareil Egyptian

27 Nonpareil Hair line

28 Nonpareil Ornamented

29 Nonpareil Condensed Grotesque

10 Ruby— Roman

11 Pearl— Roman 30 Pearl Clarendon

12 Diamond— Roman 31 Diamond Grotesque

13 Small Pica 2-line
(No. 4 doubled) German Text

During the latter half of the present century there has been a growing disposition to return to the cut of the letters as used by the early printers. To meet this desire, nearly all the type-founders have introduced Old-style faces, but yet modernised as to their peculiarities. Considering that this article would not be complete without some such notice thereof, as well as to show the contrast, the following is here introduced to the reader.

These old-faced types cut by the celebrated William Caslon, in or about the years 1716-30, are even now viewed with great satisfaction, and held in high esteem, by judges of the typographic art as master-pieces of shape and finish.

To the list of types presented, and which give a sufficient general view, may be added Emerald—between Minion and Nonpareil—for book-work, and also for borders and flowers to be used in neat and artistic work; Gem and Semi-Nonpareil for music; and Minikin, for music and Oriental work.

The larger sizes of type are, with very few exceptions, simple multiples of the Pica; for instance, 6-line Roman means a roman letter of the depth of six lines of Pica; 20-line Antique, an antique of the depth of twenty lines; and so on.

Very little more need be said on the names applied to the different faces. Letters used in Title-pages are especially cut for and styled Titling—Square, Condensed, and if very much condensed in width, Compressed or Narrow-Gauge. On the other hand, when the letters seem pulled out right and left, they are styled Extended.

If the reader will notice the type in which this volume is composed, he will observe that the bottoms of the tail letters are very close down upon the tops of the tall letters, and all but touch: this is termed solid. When a page or book is required to look light and less wearisome to the vision, the lines of type are removed from each other, and a space-line inserted between them—the page is now termed leaded. These space-lines used to be cut, by the compositor, from milled lead, first in strips of the necessary width, then of the required length; hence the term leads, by which name they are commonly known. However, they were but poor appliances at the best. Moulds are now used for casting the metal to the specified thickness in strips of about 9 inches long, then cut by a machine to a set gauge; by these means the thickness of the space-lines, or leads is not only more uniformly secured, but far greater regularity obtained in the lengths cut. Here, as in the large type, as above mentioned, Pica is the standard which regulates the lead; in other words, leads are cast as 3 to a pica, that is, 3 leads form the solid measurement of the Pica body; 4-to-pica requires 4 leads, and the body of the lead continues to decrease according to the prefixed figure, which simply denotes into how many parts the pica is to be divided. Leads are cast so delicately fine that 16 form the pica, but they are seldom used. In many of the News offices brass space-lines have superseded those cast from type-metal.

The method of manufacturing type is—

The face having been determined upon—light or heavy, round or narrow, as well as the thickness of the downstroke—a piece of prepared soft iron is taken, and upon the tip-end thereof the proposed letter is cut in relief; when this cutting is finished it is case-hardened, and afterwards styled the punch. The strike is the next operation. The punch (the letter cut upon which, by-the-bye, is backward) is now punched, or struck, into an oblong piece of copper, about 3 inches long and ⁄3rd of an inch thick, the breadth such as the size of the letter may require: this is the matrix. A most particular part has now to be performed, called justifying; which means that the matrices shall, when placed in the mould, deliver the letters perfectly upright, and all to be true on a line as fine as a razor’s edge. When the process of justifying is accomplished, the matrix is fixed at the bottom of a mould, of the shape of a parallelogram, of the size of the body one way, of the width of the letter the other, and the depth the standard height of the type; the molten metal is forced down this tube, either by hand or by a pump worked by hand or steam, the metal filling the matrix (the sunk letter upon which is now forward) receives the shape of the letter, which is once more reversed, or in a backward position, like as the original punch was cut. The castings are released from the mould by a very ingenious method of opening from the two diagonal corners. The types as cast are forwarded on to the dressers to remove burrs and other superfluities; then are placed in long lines in a frame for finishing; next turned face downwards, and a grooving plane driven across the feet to insure correctness in height; finally looked over for blemishes, when all faulty letters are thrown out; the process is completed by ranging into lines of handy length, and tied up—ready for delivery to the typographer.

PRINT′ING INK. Prep.—a. The VARNISH. Linseed or nut oil, 10 or 20 galls., is set over the fire in an iron pot capable of containing fully as much more; when it boils, it is kept stirred with an iron ladle, and, if it does not take fire of itself soon after the smoke begins to rise, it is kindled by means of a piece of burning paper, stuck in the cleft end of a long stick; the pot is shortly afterwards removed from the fire, and the oil is suffered to burn for about half an hour, or until a sample of the varnish cooled upon a palette knife may be drawn into strings of about ⁄2 inch long, between the fingers; the flame is now extinguished by the application of a closely fitting tin cover, and, as soon as the froth of the ebullition has subsided, black resin is added, in the proportion of ⁄4 lb. to 1 lb. for every quart of oil thus treated; the mixture is next stirred until the resin is dissolved, when dry brown soap, cut into slices, 1⁄4 lbs., is further added (cautiously), and the ingredients are again stirred with the spatula until the whole is united, the pot being once more placed over the fire to promote the combination; when this is effected, the varnish is removed from the heat, and, after a good stirring, is covered over and set aside.

b. The INK. Indigo and Prussian blue, of each, in fine powder, 2⁄2 oz.; mineral lampblack (finest), 4 lbs.; vegetable lampblack, 3⁄2 lbs.; stir them gradually into the warm varnish (a), and submit the mixture to careful grinding, either in a mill or by means of a slab and muller. On the large scale, steam power is now generally employed for this purpose.

An extemporaneous superfine black ink may be made by the following formula:—Take of balsam of copaiba (pure), 9 oz.; lampblack, 3 oz.; indigo and Prussian blue, of each ⁄2 oz.; Indian red, ⁄4 oz.; yellow soap (dry), 3 oz.; grind the mixture to an impalpable smoothness by means of a stone and muller. Canada balsam may be substituted for balsam of copaiba where the smell of the latter is objectionable, but the ink then dries very quickly.

Coloured printing inks are made in a similar way from the following pigments:—Carmine, lakes, vermilion, chrome yellow, red lead, orange red, Indian red, Venetian red, for red; orange chrome, chrome yellow, burnt terra di sienna, gall-stone, Roman ochre, yellow ochre, for orange and yellow; verdigris, Scheele’s green, Schweinfurt green, blues, and yellows mixed, for greens; indigo, Prussian blue, Antwerp b., cobalt b., charcoal b., for blue; lustre, bronze powders, &c., for metallic colours; and umbia, sepia, &c., for brown.

Obs. It is necessary to prepare two kinds of varnish, varying in consistence, from more or less boiling, to be occasionally mixed together as circumstances may require; that which answers well in hot weather being too thick in cold, and vice versâ. Large characters also require a thinner ink than small ones. Old linseed oil is preferable to new. Yellow resin soap is preferred for black and dark-coloured inks, and white curd soap for light ones.

A good varnish may be drawn into threads like glue, and is very thick and tenacious. The oil loses from 10% to 14% by the boiling. Mr Savage obtained the large medal of the Society of Arts for his black ink made as above.

A printer’s ink easily removed from waste paper. The following process for the preparation of a printer’s ink that can be far more readily removed from waste paper than ordinary printer’s ink has been patented by Kirscher and Ebner. Iron is dissolved in some acid—sulphuric, hydrochloric, acetic, &c., will answer, and half of the solution is oxidised with nitric acid and added to the other half and the oxide precipitated from the mixture by means of soda or potash. The precipitate is thoroughly washed, and treated with equal parts of solutions of tannic and gallic acids, and the bluish black, or pure black pigment formed, is thoroughly washed and dried, and mixed with linseed-oil varnish, and can then be immediately used for printing from type, copper, wood, steel, or stone. Waste paper printed with it can be bleached by digesting it for 24 hours in a lukewarm bath of pure water, and 10 per cent. of caustic potash or soda, and then grinding it well in the rag engine, and throwing the pulp upon cloth and allowing it to drain. It is then to be washed with pure water, containing 10 per cent. of hydrochloric, acetic, or oxalic acids, or of binoxalate of potassa, and allowed to digest for 24 hours, and may then be worked up into paper, or it can be dried and used as a substitute in the manufacture of finer paper.

PRINTS (Ackerman’s Liquor for). Prep. Take of the finest pale glue and white curd soap, of each 4 oz.; boiling water, 3 pints; dissolve, then add of powdered alum, 2 oz. Used to size prints and pictures before colouring them.

PRINTS, To Bleach. Simple immersion of the prints in a solution of hypochlorous acid (the article remaining in the solution for a longer or shorter space, according to the strength of the solution) is generally all that is required to whiten it.

PRIVIES. See Water-closets.

PROOF. See Acetimetry, Alcoholometry, &c.

PROOFS (Correcting). The specimen below, with the notes, will, if carefully perused, put the reader into possession of all the secrets of this useful art.

[The same corrected.]

As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs so is it beautifully ordered by Providence, that WOMAN, who is the mere dependant and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten by sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart.

It also is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create THEMSELVES, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their “solitary, but irresistible way,” through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems, &c.

IRVING.

Explanation of the marks:

1. When a letter or word is to be in italics.

2. When a letter is turned upside down.

3. The substitution of a comma for another point or letter.

4. The insertion of a hyphen; also marked (-).

5. When letters should be close together.

6. When a letter or word is to be omitted.

7. When a word is to be changed to roman.

8, 9. Two methods of marking a transposition: when there are several words to be transposed, and they are much intermixed, it is a common plan to number them, and to put the usual mark in the margin.

10. Substitution of a capital for a small letter.

11. When a word is to be changed from small letters to capitals.

12. The transposition of letters in a word.

13. The substitution of one word for another.

14. When a word or letter is to be inserted.

15. When a paragraph occurs improperly.

16. The insertion of a semicolon.

17. When a space or quadrat stands up, and is seen along with the type.

18. When letters of a wrong fount are used.

19. When words crossed off are to remain.

20. The mark for a paragraph, when its commencement has been neglected. Sometimes the sign [, or ¶, or the word ‘break,’ is used instead of the syllables ‘New Par,’

21. For the insertion of a space when omitted or insufficient.

22. To change capitals to small letters.

23. To change small letters to small capitals.

24. When lines or words are not straight.

25, 26. The insertion of inverted commas. The apostrophe is similarly marked.

27. The insertion of a period when omitted, or in place of another point or letter.

28. Substitution of one letter for another.

29. The method of marking an omission or insertion when too long for the side margin.

PROPYLA′MINE. Syn. Tritylamine.

C3H9N, or C3H7 } N.

H

H

This compound or substituted ammonia, in which one of the three atoms of hydrogen is displaced by the radicle propyl or trityl (C3H7), is isomorphous with trimethylamine, which has been often mistaken for it.

Proposed as a remedy for acute and chronic rheumatism.

Hence it is that the commercial substance known under the name of ‘propylamine,’ which has been proposed and employed as a remedy for rheumatism, has been shown to be not propylamine, but its isomer, trimethylamine, or a mixture of this latter, in varying proportions, with ammonia.

Mendius gives the following process for the preparation of propylamine:—36 grams of cyanide of ethyl, 500 grams of common alcohol, 200 grams of water, and 50 grams of 20 per cent. hydrochloric acid, are allowed to act on excess of granulated zinc, and then distilled.

The distillate is put back once, and 400 grams of hydrochloric acid are added.

The product is distilled to get rid of the alcohol, then excess of alkali added to the residue, and the distillation continued, whereupon propylamine and water come over. Mendius says 36 grams of the cyanide of ethyl yield 9 grams of pure propylamine. The propylamine is dried by distillation from solid potash.

Propylamine is a bright, colourless, highly refracting, very mobile liquid, possessing a peculiar, strongly ammoniacal odour. It mixes with water, heat being generated by the mixture. It boils at 50° C., and has a sp. gr. of ·7134 at 21° C.

Propylamine combines with acids, and forms crystallised salts. The chloride is a very deliquescent salt. The sulphate occurs in crystals, and is also deliquescent. See Trimethylamine.

PROPYL′IC ALCOHOL. C3H7O. Syn. Hydrated oxide of propyl, Trityl alcohol. A liquid boiling at 204·8° Fahr., obtained by repeatedly rectifying the first products of the distillation of the fusel oil of marc brandy. It stands to ethylic alcohol (ordinary alcohol) in the same relation in which the latter stands to methylic alcohol (pyroxylic spirit).

PRO′TEIN. The name given by Mülder to a substance which he regarded as the original matter from which animal albumen, casein, and fibrin, were derived; but which is now considered as a product of the decomposition of those important principles by moderately strong caustic alkali.

Prep. (Liebig.) Albumen, casein, or fibrin is dissolved in moderately strong potassa, the solution heated for some time to 120° Fahr., and acetic acid added; a gelatinous precipitate subsides, which, after being washed and dried, is protein.

Obs. The names binoxide and teroxide of protein have been given by Mülder to products of the long-continued action of boiling water upon fibrin in contact with the air.

PRO′TIDE. A soluble, straw-yellow substance, formed, along with other products, by the action of strong solution of potassa on albumen, fibrin, or casein. See Erythroprotide.

PROTO-. See Nomenclature.

PROVI′′SIONS (Preservation of). See Putrefaction.

PRUNES. [Fr.] The fruit of cultivated varieties of Prunus domestica (Linn.). The dried fruit (French prunes or PLUMS; PRUNUM—B. P., Ph. L., PRUNA—Ph. E. & D.) is cooling and gently laxative, and, as such, is useful in habitual costiveness and fevers.

Prunes, Pulp of. Syn. Prepared prunes; Pulpa prunorum, Prunum præparatum (Ph. L.), L. Prep. The imported dried fruit is boiled gently for four hours with water, q. s. to cover them, and then pressed, first through a fine cane sieve, and afterwards through a fine hair sieve; the pulp is, lastly, evaporated by the heat of a water bath to the consistence of a confection. A better plan is to use as little water as possible, by which the necessity of subsequent evaporation is avoided. Used in the preparation of confection of senna.

PRU′NING varies according to the kind of plant or tree operated on and the particular object in view, and its skilful performance must, therefore, greatly depend on the experience and knowledge of the gardener. “In the operation of pruning, the shoots are cut off close to the buds, or at a distance not greater than the diameter of the branch to be cut off; because without the near proximity of a bud the wounds will not heal over. In shoots which produce their buds alternately the cut is made at the back of the bud sloping from it, so that it may be readily covered by the bark in the same or in the following year; but in the case of branches where the buds are produced opposite each other, either one bud must be sacrificed or the branch must be cut off at right angles to its line of direction, which is most conveniently done with the pruning shears.” (Loudon.)

PRUS′SIAN AL′KALI. Ferrocyanide of potassium.

PRUS′SIAN BLUE. Syn. Berlin blue, Paris b., Ferrocyanide of iron, Prussiate of i., Cyanuret of i. This is the well-known blue pigment of the shops.

Prep. 1. The crude but clear solution of ferrocyanide of potassium (blood lye) is precipitated by a mixed solution of alum, 2 parts, and green sulphate of iron, 1 part; the dingy greenish precipitate that falls gradually becomes blue by absorption of atmospheric oxygen, which is promoted by exposure and agitation of the liquor; as soon as it has acquired its full colour, the sediment is repeatedly washed with water, and is then drained, and dried, at first in a stove, but afterwards on chalk stones. Product large, but inferior in quality.

2. Repeatedly digest and wash the precipitate obtained by the above process in very dilute hydrochloric acid, and then in pure water; drain and dry it, as before. Superior.

3. (Paris blue.)—a. Neutralise the solution of ferrocyanide of potassium (blood lye) with dilute sulphuric acid, precipitate the liquid with a solution of any persalt or sesquisalt of iron (as the persulphate, nitrate, sesquichloride, or peracetate); well wash the precipitate with water, and dry it, as before. A very rich and intense colour.

b. (Hochstätter.) Crystallised ferrocyanide of potassium and green sulphate of iron, of each 6 parts, are each separately dissolved in water, 15 parts; after the admixture of the solutions, and frequent agitation, oil of vitriol, 1 part, and fuming hydrochloric acid, 24 parts, are stirred in; after some hours have elapsed a strained solution of chloride of lime, 1 part, dissolved in water, 80 parts, is gradually added, the addition being stopped as soon as an effervescence from the escape of chlorine is perceived; the whole is now left for 5 or 6 hours, when the precipitate is thoroughly washed in pure soft water, drained, and dried. Or, instead of the above, the precipitate is at once washed in dilute nitric acid until its colour ceases to be improved by the process. The product is of the finest quality.

Prop. Insoluble in water and in dilute acids, except the oxalic, in solutions of which it dissolves freely when pure; oil of vitriol dissolves it to a white pasty mass, which is again precipitated of the usual blue colour by water; alkalies instantly decompose it, and so do red oxide of mercury and some other oxides when boiled with it; it burns in the air like tinder, leaving an ash of oxide of iron. It is not poisonous.

Pur., &c. The quality of Prussian blue may be estimated by the richness of its colour, and by the quantity of potassa or soda required to destroy this. If it effervesces with acids, it contains chalk; and if it forms a paste with boiling water, it is adulterated with starch. It is pure if, “after being boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid, ammonia throws down nothing from the filtered liquid.” (Ph. L. 1836.) It is distinguished from indigo by exhibiting a coppery tint when broken, but which is removed by rubbing with the nail.

Concluding Remarks. The commercial Prussian blue is not pure ferrocyanide of iron, but a mixture of this salt with varying proportions of the ferricyanide of iron and potassium, which also has a fine deep blue colour. The object in employing alum is to prevent or lessen the precipitation of oxide of iron by the free alkali in the blood lye, but a portion of alumina is in consequence thrown down with the blue, and tends to render it paler and increase the product. The quantity of alum employed may be varied according to the shades of the intended blue. Samples containing this contamination must not be employed medicinally. (See page 324.)

Prussian Blue, Sol′uble. Prep. 1. (Basic Prussian blue.) By adding a solution of protosulphate of iron to a solution of ferrocyanide of potassium; a bluish-white precipitate, turning dark blue by free exposure, is formed, which, after it has acquired this colour, is washed until it begins to dissolve in the water, and colour it blue; it is then either collected and dried, or is at once dissolved in pure water. This variety is not precipitated from its solution by alcohol.

2. (Ferrocyanide of potassium and iron.) By precipitating a solution of a sesquisalt or persalt of iron (as the persulphate, pernitrate, peracetate, or sesquichloride) with a stronger solution of ferrocyanide of potassium, so that the latter may be in considerable excess. A blue precipitate is formed, which is treated as before. This variety is precipitated by alcohol. Both are freely soluble in pure water, but not in water which has the slightest saline contamination. Hence it is that lengthened exposure to the atmosphere and the use of the common steel pen causes the gradual precipitation of this substance from its solution when used as ink. See Writing fluids.

PRU′′SSIC ACID. See Hydrocyanic acid.

PSEU′DO-MOR′PHIA. A substance of little importance, occasionally found in opium. It differs from morphine chiefly in not decomposing iodic acid. It is said to contain nitrogen.

PTIS′AN. Syn. Ptisana, L. A decoction made of pearl barley, liquorice, raisins, and other like vegetable matters, either alone or so slightly medicated as to be taken as a common drink in fevers, catarrhs, &c. Those retained in English pharmacy have been already noticed. The French physicians often employ this form of medicine. The ’tisanes’ of the P. Cod. are numerous. See Decoction, Infusion, Julep, Tisane, &c.

PTY′ALIN. A peculiar animal matter, analogous to diastase, obtained from the saliva. It is soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol.

Mialhe named ptyalin “animal diastase,” and regarded it as the principal agent in effecting the digestion of starchy foods, by converting them into soluble glucose. One part of ptyalin, according to Mialhe, was capable of transforming 800 parts of insoluble starch into sugar. It has been computed that the average daily secretion of ptyalin by an adult amounts to 116 grains. It very quickly decomposes, and in properties somewhat resembles sodic albuminate.

PUCHA PAT. Syn. Patchouli. Puchá pât is the dried foliaceous tops of Pogostemon Patchouli, an Indian species of Labiatæ. It is much used in perfumery, particularly for making sachets; but its odour, although very durable, is not so agreeable as that of many other substances, unless it is combined with lavender, bergamot, ambergris, musk, or some other like perfume.

PUD′DINGS. The instructions given under Cakes, Pies, &c., will be found, with some slight modifications, also to apply to puddings, and, therefore, need not be repeated here. Soyer tells us that every sort of pudding, if sweet or savory, is preferably dressed in a basin instead of in a cloth. If boiled in a basin the paste receives all the nutriment of the materials, which, if boiled in a cloth, are dissolved out by the water, when by neglect it ceases boiling. To cause them to turn well out, the inside of the basin should be thoroughly ‘larded’ or rubbed with butter.

In the preparation of meat puddings the first and most important point is never to use any meat that is tainted; for in pudding, above all other dishes, it is least possible to disguise it by the confined progress which the ingredients undergo. The gradual heating of the meat, which alone would accelerate decomposition, will cause the smallest piece of tainted meat to contaminate all the rest. Be particular, also, that the suet and fat are not rancid, ever remembering the grand principle that everything which gratifies the palate nourishes.”

“A pudding cloth, however coarse, ought never to be washed with soap; it should be simply dried as quickly as possible, and kept dry and free from dust, and in a drawer or cupboard free from smell.” (Soyer.)

PUD′DLING. See Iron.

PULMONI′TIS. Inflammation of the lungs.

PULP. Syn. Pulpa, L. The softer parts of plants, more particularly of fruits, separated from the fibrous and harder portions.

“Pulpy fruits, if they be unripe, or ripe and dried, are to be placed in a damp situation until they become soft; then the pulp is to be pressed out through a hair sieve; afterwards it is to be boiled with a gentle heat, frequently stirring; and finally, the (excess of) water is to be evaporated in a water bath, until the pulp acquire proper consistence.

“Press the pulpy fruits which are ripe and fresh through a hair sieve, without boiling them.” (Ph. L. 1836.)

PULVERISA′TION. The reduction of any substance to dust or powder.

On the small scale, pulverisation is usually performed by means of a pestle and mortar; on the large scale, by stamping, grinding or cutting the substance in a mill. A few soft substances, as carbonate of magnesia, carbonate of lead, &c., may be pulverised by simply rubbing them through a fine sieve, placed over a sheet of paper; whilst many hard, gritty substances can only be reduced to fine powder by porphyrisation or levigation. Elutriation, or ‘washing over,’ is adopted for several substances, as chalk, antimony, &c., which are required to be reduced to fine powder on the large scale. For some articles which are very tough, fibrous, or resisting, a rasp or file is employed. Whichever of these methods is adopted, the body to be powdered must be very dry, and where spontaneous drying is insufficient, artificial desiccation in a stove or oven, gently heated, is employed. To facilitate this, the substance should be first cut into pieces or crushed small. On the other hand, a few substances, as rice, sago, nux vomica, and St Ignatius’s bean, are often soaked in water, or steamed, before being further operated on. Whenever a substance cannot be dried completely, without an alteration of its properties, an intermedium is had recourse to, by which the moisture may be absorbed, or its state of aggregation modified. Thus, sugar is employed in pulverising civet, musk, nutmeg, and vanilla. When camphor is to be pulverised, the addition of a very small quantity of alcohol renders the operation easy. In other cases the intermedium is of so hard a nature as to assist in breaking down the substance to be powdered; thus, gold leaf is reduced to powder by rubbing it with sulphate of potassa, and afterwards removing this last by means of water. Fusible metals, as zinc and tin, are powdered by pouring them into a mortar, and stirring them rapidly whilst cooling; or, by briskly agitating them, in the melted state, in a wooden box covered with chalk or whiting. Phosphorus is powdered by melting it in urine or lime water, and then shaking the bottle until its contents have become quite cold. Glass, quartz, and silicated stones, require to be heated red hot, and in this state to be thrown into cold water, by which they become sufficiently friable to admit of pulverisation. Many salts which are reduced to fine powder with very great difficulty, and do not dissolve in spirit of wine, are easily obtained in a pulverulent form, by agitating their concentrated aqueous solution with a considerable quantity of rectified spirit; the disengaged fine crystallised powder may then be dried, and further divided by trituration. Potassio tartrate of antimony may be advantageously thus treated. A large number of salts, including nitre, sal ammoniac, and carbonate of potash, may also be reduced to powder by keeping their solutions in a state of constant and violent agitation during their rapid evaporation.

The following rules should be observed in the preparation of powders:—

1. If possible, perfectly dry articles should alone be operated on, and only in dry weather.

2. The nature of the mortar, and the mode of operating, should be adapted to the nature of the substance. Thus, woods and barks should be pulverised in an iron mortar; sugar, alum, and nitre, in one of marble or wedgwood-ware; and corrosive sublimate, only in one of glass.

3. The mortar should be provided with a cover, to prevent loss and annoyance to the operator. If much powder escapes, or if it is dangerous or disagreeable when breathed, or if the substance is rare or costly, the mortar should be covered with a skin of leather, to which the pestle is attached, so that the latter may be freely moved without causing the slightest opening for the escape of the dust occasioned by the process. When aloes or gamboge is powdered, a few drops of olive oil are commonly added with the same intention.

4. The pulverised portions should be separated from time to time by aid of a sieve, the coarser particles being returned to the mortar to be again beaten and triturated; and this alternate pulverisation and sifting is to be repeated until the process is complete.

PUM′ICE STONE. Syn. Pumex, Lapis pumiceus, L. pumicis, L. Found in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. Used, in the solid form, to polish wood, paint, &c.; also, when pulverised, as a polishing powder for glass, bone, ivory, marble, metals, &c.

PUMP FOR USE IN CHEMICAL, PAPER, and other Works. The Perreaux Pump Valve is made of vulcanised india rubber, and is of the form of the valves in the human body. It is of the greatest, and perhaps the really only valuable improvement in valves applicable, equally, to the common hand or jack pump, and the most elaborate mechanical combinations for raising water.

The valve may be taken as the key of the pump; a perfect valve renders an indifferent pump a valuable and effective machine, whereas an imperfect valve, in an otherwise excellently constructed pump, renders it practically useless.

The pump which Simon the tanner, of Joppa, used for pumping his pits, nearly two thousand years ago, may be taken as the type of the common hand pump in use to this day. Various mechanical improvements have been made in its form and construction, but, practically, and effectively, the only real and valuable improvement is the Perreaux valve, now under consideration.

Constructed of a flexible material, and made in form, as nearly as may be, to the valves of the human body, they may be said to be automatic in their action, or self acting; upon the pump being actuated, the least motion of the pump ensuring a corresponding action of the valve, and the most rapid action of the pump, being equally responded to by the pulsation of the valves.

Although the most perfect valves for pumping clear water, because, what is mechanically termed the duty of the pump is complete, in other words, the quantity displaced is discharged, absolutely without loss, yet their most valuable feature is that they pump semi-fluids equally well as clear water.

For the pulps and stuffs in paper mills, for bleaches, dyes, and corrosive liquors, for liquid manures and other such semi-fluids, they stand alone, they are absolutely unchokable.

Used in conjunction with cylinders or barrels made of toughened glass, they form the most perfect pump where the fluid to be raised is of a caustic or corrosive nature, and where the fluid would be destructive to or destroyed by its action upon metals, such for example as the caustic bleach used in the manufacture of paper, &c. See Valves.

PUNCH. An acidulous, intoxicating beverage, composed of water sweetened with sugar, with a mixture of lemon juice and spirit, to which some aromatic, as nutmeg, mace, or cinnamon, is occasionally added. Wine is sometimes substituted for spirit. It is much less drunk than formerly. Rum punch is the most popular amongst sailors, who are now the principal consumers of this beverage.

Prep. 1. Juice of 3 or 4 lemons; yellow peel of 1 lemon; lump sugar, ⁄4 lb.; boiling water, 3⁄2 pints; infuse ⁄2 an hour, strain, and add, of bitter ale, ⁄2 pint; rum and brandy, of each ⁄4 to 1 pint (or rum alone, 1⁄2 to 2 pints). More hot water and sugar may be added if the punch is desired either weaker or sweeter.

2. (Cold punch.) From arrack, port wine, and water, of each 1 pint; juice of 4 lemons; white sugar, 1 lb.

3. (Gin punch.) From the yellow peel of ⁄2 a lemon; juice of 1 lemon; strongest gin, ⁄4 pint; water, 1⁄4 pint; sherry, 1 glassful.

4. (Iced punch.) From champagne or Rhenish wine, 1 quart; arrack, 1 pint; juice of 6 lemons; yellow peel of 3 lemons; white sugar, 1 lb.; soda water, 1 or 2 bottles; to be iced as cream.

5. (Milk punch; Verder.) Steep the yellow rinds of 18 lemons and 6 oranges, for 2 days, in rum or brandy, 2 quarts; then add 3 quarts more of either spirit; hot water, 3 quarts; lemon juice, 1 quart; loaf sugar, 4 lbs.; 2 nutmegs, grated; and boiling milk, 2 quarts; mix well, and in 2 hours strain the liquor through a jelly-bag.

6. (Norfolk punch.) Take of French brandy, 20 quarts; yellow peels of 18 oranges and 30 lemons; infuse for 12 hours; add, of cold water, 30 quarts; lump sugar, 20 lbs.; and the juice of the oranges and lemons; mix well, strain through a hair sieve, add of new milk 2 quarts, and in 6 weeks bottle in. Keeps well.

7. (Orange punch.) As No. 1, using oranges, and adding some orange wine, if at hand. A little curacoa, noyau, or mareschino improves it.

8. (Raspberry punch.) As the last, but using raspberry juice, or raspberry vinegar, for the oranges or lemons.

9. (Regent’s punch.) From strong hot green tea, lemon juice, and capillaire, of each 1⁄2 pint; rum, brandy, arrack, and curacoa, of each 1 pint; champagne, 1 bottle; mix and slice a pineapple into it.

10. (Tea punch.) From strong hot tea, 1 quart; arrack, ⁄2 bottle; white sugar, 6 oz.; juice of 8 lemons; and the yellow rinds of 4 lemons; mixed together.

11. (Wine punch.) From white sugar, 1 lb.; yellow peel of 3 lemons; juice of 9 lemons; arrack, 1 pint; port or sherry (hot), 1 gall.; cinnamon, ⁄4 oz.; nutmeg, 1 dr.; mix.

12. (Yankee punch.) Macerate sliced pineapple, 3 oz.; vanilla, 6 gr.; and ambergris (rubbed with a little sugar), 1 gr., in the strongest pale brandy, 1 pint, for a few hours, with frequent agitation; then strain with expression; add, of lemon juice, 1 pint; lemon syrup, and either claret or port wine, of each 1 bottle; with sugar, ⁄2 lb., dissolved in boiling water, 1⁄2 pint. See Shrub.

PURG′ATIVES. Syn. Dejectoria, Purgantia, Purgativa, L. These have been divided into five orders or classes, according to their particular actions. The following are the principal of each class:—

1. (Laxatives, LENITIVES, or MILD CATHARTICS.) Manna, cassia pulp, tamarinds, prunes, honey, phosphate of soda; castor, almond, and olive oils; ripe fruit.

2. (Saline or COOLING LAXATIVES.) Epsom salt, Glauber’s salt, phosphate of soda (tasteless salt), seidlitz powders, &c.

3. (Active cathartics, occasionally acrid, frequently tonic and stomachic.) Rhubarb, senna, aloes, &c.

4. (Drastic or VIOLENT CATHARTICS.) Jalap, scammony, gamboge, croton oil, colocynth, elaterium, &c.

5. (Mercurial purgatives.) Calomel, blue-pill, quicksilver with chalk, &c.

In prescribing purgatives regard should be had to the particular portion of the alimentary canal on which we desire more immediately to act, as well as to the manner in which the medicine effects its purpose. Thus, Epsom salt, sulphate of potassa, and rhubarb, act chiefly on the duodenum; aloes on the rectum; blue-pill, calomel, and jalap on the larger intestines generally; and tartrate and bitartrate of potassa, and sulphur on the whole length of the intestinal canal. Again, others are stimulant, as aloes, croton oil, jalap, scammony, &c.; others are refrigerant, as most of the saline aperients; magnesia and its carbonate are both aperient and antacid; whilst another class, including rhubarb, damask roses, &c., are astringent. Further, some produce only serous or watery dejections, without greatly increasing the peristaltic action of the bowels; whilst a few occasion a copious discharge of the fæces in an apparently natural form. See Draught, Mixture, Pills, Prescribing, &c.

PURL. Prep. To ale or beer, ⁄2 pint, gently warmed, add of bitters, 1 wine-glassful, or q. s. Some add a little spirit. A favourite beverage with hard drinkers early in the morning.

PUR′PLE. A rich compound colour, produced by the admixture of pure blue and pure red. This colour has always been the distinguishing badge of royalty and distinction. The celebrated Tyrian purple was produced from a shell-fish called murex.

Purple An′iline. Syn. Perkin’s purple, Mauve. This valuable dye-stuff is prepared under W. H. Perkin’s patent, by mixing solutions of sulphate of aniline and bichromate of potassa in equivalent proportions, and, after some hours, washing the black precipitate with water, drying it, digesting it repeatedly in coal-tar naphtha, and, finally, dissolving it in boiling alcohol. It may be further purified by evaporating the alcoholic solution to dryness, dissolving the residue in a large quantity of boiling water, reprecipitating by caustic soda, washing with water, dissolving in alcohol, filtering, and evaporating to dryness. Thus purified, mauve forms a brittle substance, having a bronze-coloured surface. It imparts a deep purple colour to cold water, though dissolving sparingly in that liquid; it is more soluble in hot water, and very soluble in alcohol. See Purple dye (below), and Tar colours.

Purple of Cassius. Syn. Purple precipitate of Cassius, Gold purple, Gold prepared with tin; Aurum stanno paratum, Purpura mineralis Casii, L. Prep. 1. Crystallised protochloride of tin, 1 part; crystallised perchloride of tin, 2 parts; dissolve each separately, mix the solutions, and add of crystallised terchloride of gold (in solution), 1 part; carefully wash, and dry the precipitate. Very fine.

2. (Frick.) Dissolve pure grain tin in cold dilute aqua regia until the fluid becomes faintly opalescent, then take the metal out and weigh it; next, dilute the solution largely with water, and add, simultaneously, a dilute solution of gold and dilute sulphuric acid in such proportion that the tin in the one shall be to the gold in the other in the ratio of 10 to 36.

3. (P. Cod.) Terchloride of gold, 1 part, is dissolved in distilled water, 200 parts; another solution is made by dissolving in the cold, pure tin, 1 part, in a mixture of nitric acid, 1 part, and hydrochloric acid, 2 parts; this last solution is diluted with distilled water, 100 parts, and is then added to the solution of terchloride of gold until precipitation ceases to take place; the powder is, lastly, washed by decantation, and dried by a very gentle heat.

4. Silver, 150 parts; gold, 20 parts; pure grain tin, 35 parts; fuse them together under charcoal and borax, cool, laminate, and dissolve out the silver with nitric acid.

Obs. Purple of Cassius is generally supposed to be a combination of oxide of gold and sesquioxide of tin, in which the latter acts as an acid. Heat resolves it into a mixture of metallic gold and binoxide of tin. It is used as a purple in porcelain painting, and to communicate a ruby-red colour to glass, when melted in open vessels.

PURPLE DYE. The purples now in vogue are the numerous shades of ‘mauve’ and ‘magenta’ obtained by the ‘aniline colours.’ (See above, also Red.) For silk and woollen goods no mordant is required. The proper proportion of the clear alcoholic solution is mixed with water slightly warm, any scum that may form is cleared off, and the goods are entered and worked until the required shade is obtained; a small quantity of acetic or tartaric acid is recommended to be added in some cases. For dyeing on cotton with the aniline colours, the cloth or yarn is steeped in sumac or tannic acid, dyed in the colour, and then fixed by tin; or it may be steeped in sumac and mordanted with tin, and then dyed. Purples were formerly, and are still occasionally, produced by first dyeing a blue in the ‘indigo vat,’ and then dyeing a cochineal or lac scarlet upon the top. See Violet dye.

PUR′PURATE OF AMMO′′NIA. See Murexide.

PURPU′RIC ACID. See Murexan.

PURPURIN. C9H6O3. Syn. Madder purple. The name given by Robiquet and Colin to a beautiful colouring principle obtained from madder.

Prep. Coarsely powdered madder is allowed to ferment with water, after which it is boiled in a strong solution of alum; the decoction is next mixed with sulphuric acid, and the resulting red precipitate is purified by one or more crystallisations from alcohol.

Prop., &c. Crystalline red needles, insoluble in cold water, but soluble in hot water, and in alcohol, ether, and solutions of alum and the alkalies. It differs from alizarin or madder red in containing 2 atoms less of carbon.

PUR′REE. Syn. Indian Yellow. A yellow substance, of doubtful origin, imported from China and India, and now extensively used in both oil and water-colour painting. According to the researches of Stenhouse and Erdmann it consists of purreic acid, a strongly tinctorial vegetable substance, united to magnesia.

PURRE′IC ACID. Syn. Euxanthic Acid. This substance is obtained from purree. It crystallises in nearly colourless needles, which are only sparingly soluble in cold water, and forms rich yellow-coloured compounds with the alkalies and earths. Heat converts it into a neutral, crystallisable substance, called purrenone.

PUS. The cream-like, white or yellowish liquid secreted by wounded surfaces, abscesses, sores, &c.

PUTREFAC′TION. Syn. Putrefactio, L. The spontaneous decomposition of animal and nitrogenised vegetable substances, under the joint influence of warmth, air, and moisture. The solid and fluid matters are resolved into gaseous compounds and vapours, which escape, and into earthy matters, which remain. The most striking characteristic of this species of decomposition is the ammoniacal or fetid exhalations that constantly accompany it.

The nature of putrefaction, and the conditions essential to its occurrence, have been briefly alluded to under fermentation, to which we must refer the reader. It may here, however, be useful to reiterate that this change can only be prevented by the abstraction or exclusion of the conditions essential to its occurrence. This may be affected by—reduction of temperature,—exclusion of atmospheric air, or—the abstraction of moisture. The antiseptic processes in common use are effective in precisely the same degree as these preventive means are carried out. Frozen meat may be preserved for an unlimited period, while the same substance will scarcely keep for more than a few days at the ordinary heat of summer. Animal substances will also remain uninjured for a long period if kept in vessels from which the air is entirely excluded, as in the process now so extensively adopted for the preservation of fresh meat for the use of our army and marine. The third condition is fulfilled when nitrogenised matter is preserved in alcohol, brine, or any similar fluid, and when it is dried. In either case water is abstracted from the surface, which then loses its propensity to putrefy, and forms an impervious layer, which excludes atmospheric oxygen from the interior and softer portion of the substance. Creasote, and most of the antiseptic salts, also act in this way.

Among special antiseptic processes are the following:

Application of cold. The accession of putrefaction is prevented, and its progress arrested, by a temperature below that at which water freezes. In the colder climates of the world, butchers’ meat, poultry, and even vegetables, are preserved from one season to the other in the frozen state. In North America millions are thus supplied with animal food, which, we can state, from personal experience, is often superior in flavour, tenderness, and apparent freshness, to that from the recently killed animal. In temperate climates, and in cold ones during their short summer, ice-houses and ice-safes afford a temperature sufficiently low for keeping meat fresh and sweet for an indefinite period. Substances preserved in this manner should be allowed to gradually assume their natural condition before cooking them; and on no account should they be plunged into hot water, or put before the fire, whilst in the frozen state.

Bucaning. A rude kind of drying and smoking meat, cut into thin slices, practised by hunters in the prairies and forests.

Desiccation or DRYING. In this way every article of food, both animal and vegetable, may be preserved without the application of salt or other foreign matter. The proper method is to expose the substances, cut into slices or small fragments, in the sun, or in a current of warm dry air, the temperature of which should be under 140° Fahr. Articles so treated, when immersed for a short time in cold water, to allow the albumen and organic fibres to swell, and then boiled in the same water, are nearly as nutritious as fresh meat cooked in the same manner. If a higher degree of heat than 140° be employed for animal substances, they become hard and insipid. Owing to the practical difficulties in the way of applying the above process to fresh meats, it is usually employed in conjunction with either salting or smoking, and, frequently, with both of them.

Exclusion of atmospheric air. This is effected by the method of preserving in sugar, potting in oil, and, more particularly, by some of the patented methods noticed below. Fresh meat may be preserved for some months in that state, by keeping it in water perfectly deprived of air. In practice some iron filings and sulphur may be placed at the bottom of the vessel, over which must be set the meat; over the whole is gently poured recently boiled water, and the vessel is at once closed, so as to exclude the external air.

Immersion in antiseptic liquids. One of the commonest and most effective liquids employed for this purpose is alcohol of 60 to 70%, to which a little camphor, ammonia, sal ammoniac, or common salt, is occasionally added. A cheaper and equally efficient plan is to employ a weak spirit holding a little creasote in solution. A weak solution of sulphurous acid may be substituted for alcohol. Weak solutions of alum, or carbolic acid, with or without the addition of a few grains of corrosive sublimate, or of arsenious acid, are also highly antiseptic. These are chiefly employed for anatomical specimens, &c. A solution containing only ⁄600th part of nitrate of silver is likewise very effective; but, from this salt being poisonous, it cannot be employed for preserving articles of food. Butchers’ meat is occasionally pickled in vinegar. By immersing it for 1 hour in water holding ⁄400th part of creasote in solution, it may be preserved unchanged for some time even during summer.

Injection of antiseptic liquids into the veins or arteries of the recently killed animal. It is found that the sooner this is done after the slaughter of the animal the more effective it becomes, as the absorbent power of the vessels rapidly decrease by age. See Gannal’s process (below).

Jerking is a method of preserving flesh sometimes adopted in hot climates. It consists in cutting the lean parts of the meat into thin slices, and exposing these to the sunshine until quite dry and brittle, when they are bruised in a mortar, and pressed into pots.

Pickling in vinegar. In this method the substances, rendered as dry as possible by exposure to the air, are placed in glass or stoneware jars (not salt-glazed), or wooden vessels, when strong vinegar, either cold or boiling hot, is poured over them, and the vessel at once closely corked or otherwise covered up, and preserved in a cool situation. Meat is occasionally thus treated; vegetables frequently so. See Pickle.

Potting in oil. In this case salad or olive oil is substituted for vinegar (see above), and is always used cold.

Salting acts chiefly by abstracting water from the albuminous portions of the meat, by which its disposition to change is lessened.

Smoking. This process, which, as well as the last, is referred to further on, acts both by the abstraction of moisture and the antiseptic properties of certain substances (creasote, &c.) contained in wood smoke. Fresh meat and fish are occasionally smoked; but, in general, substances intended to be thus treated are first salted.

In Donkin and Gamble’s patent process the substances, previously parboiled, are placed in small tin cylinders, which are then filled up with rich soup; the lids are next soldered on quite air-tight, and a small hole is afterwards made in the centre; the cylinders are then placed in a bath of strong brine, or a strong solution of chloride of calcium, which is at once heated to the boiling point, to nearly complete the cooking process; after which the small hole in the lid is hermetically sealed by covering it with solder while the vessel still remains boiling hot; the tins are, lastly, again submitted to heat in the heated bath, the duration of which is proportioned to the quantity and character of their contents, the ‘dressing’ of which is to be perfected by this operation. The ends of the tins, on cooling, assume a concave form, from the pressure of the atmosphere, without which they cannot be air-tight, and the process has been unsuccessful. To determine this, the patentees expose the canisters, prepared as before, for at least a month in an apartment heated to about 100° Fahr.; when, if the process has failed, putrefaction commences, and the ends of the cases, instead of remaining concave, bulge or become convex. This is called the ‘test.’ By this process, which was invented by M. Appert in France about the year 1808, fish, flesh, poultry, and vegetables may be preserved for years in any climate.

Goldner’s process differs somewhat from the preceding, in the employment of a higher degree of heat, more hastily applied, and not prolonged or repeated after the tins are soldered up.

Gannal’s process, having for its object the preservation of butchers’ meat in the fresh state, depends on the peculiarly absorbent property of the flesh of recently killed animals, above referred to. This process consists in injecting a solution of sulphate of alumina, or, better, of chloride of aluminium, of the sp. gr. 1·070 to 1·085 (10° to 12° Baumé), into the carotid artery, by means of a syphon, as soon as the blood ceases to flow from the slaughtered animal; both extremities of the jugular vein being previously tied. 9 to 12 quarts of the solution are sufficient for an ox, and a proportionate quantity for smaller animals. A less quantity is also required in winter than summer. When the animal has been well bled, and the injection skilfully performed, it is scarcely perceptible that the animal has undergone any preparation. The injected animal is cut up in the usual way; and when intended to be eaten within 2 or 3 weeks merely requires to be hung up in a dry, airy situation free from flies; but if it is to be kept for a longer period, it is directed to be washed with a mixed solution of common salt and chloride of aluminium at 10° Baumé, and then simply dried and packed in clean air-tight barrels, and kept in a cool, dry place. If the air cannot be perfectly excluded, it should be packed in dry salt, not for the purpose of preserving it, but to prevent the vegetation of bissus, as, without this precaution, the meat becomes musty from exposure and the action of moisture. Meat preserved by this process may be kept for several years, and merely requires soaking for 24 hours in water, for the purpose of swelling its pores, to give it the appearance and taste of fresh meat, fit for either roasting or boiling. For hot climates a somewhat stronger solution, or a larger quantity of the usual one, may be injected. The use of the strong solutions ordered in some recent works, however, deprives the flesh of a portion of its apparent freshness, and makes it more nearly approach in flavour to that which has been slightly salted in the ordinary manner.

In addition to the above it may be added that both flesh and fish may be preserved by dipping them into, or brushing them over with, pyroligneous acid, and then drying them. This gives them a smoky flavour; but if pure acetic acid (Ph. L.) be used, no taste will be imparted. These fluids may be applied by means of a clean painter’s brush, or even a stiff feather. A table-spoonful is sufficient to brush over a large surface. Fish and flesh so prepared will bear a voyage to the East Indies and back, uninjured.

Fish may also be preserved in a dry state, and perfectly fresh, by means of sugar alone. Fresh fish may be thus kept for some days, so as to be as good when boiled as if just caught. If dried and kept free from mouldiness, there seems no limit to their preservation; and they are much more nutritious in this way than when salted. This process is particularly valuable in making what is called ‘kippered salmon,’ and the fish preserved in this manner are far superior in quality and flavour to those which are salted or smoked. A few tablespoonfuls of brown sugar are sufficient for a salmon of five or six pounds’ weight; and if salt be desired, a teaspoonful or two may be added. Saltpetre may be used instead of salt, if it be wished to make the kipper hard.

The well-known property possessed by ether, alcohol, pyroxylic spirit, chloroform, and certain other hydrocarbons, of averting putrefaction, has been thus applied by M. Robin:—He encloses the meat or other substances to be preserved in a glass case, along with a sponge or a capsule containing the preservative liquid, which latter is continually evolved in a vaporous condition, and exercises the preservative agency. In this way the vapours of hydrocyanic acid are found to be very efficacious. Camphor is thus employed in the MUMMY CASES in the British Museum.

It has been asserted by Mr George Hamilton that in an atmosphere of binoxide of nitrogen, in the dark, flesh preserves its natural colour and freshness for about five months; and eats well provided it be boiled in open vessels, to expel nitrous fumes. See Candying, Egg, Fish, Fruit, Milk, Pickles, Potting, Preserves, Salting, Smoking, Stuffing, Vegetable substances, &c.

PUT′TY. This name is given to the following preparations (when used alone. ‘Glazier’s putty’ is generally indicated):—

Putty, Glazier’s. From whiting made into a stiff paste with drying oil. It is used to fix panes of glass in sashes, to fill holes and cracks in wood before painting it, &c.

Putty, Plasterer’s. A fine cement used by plasterers, made of lime only. It differs from ‘FINE STUFF’ in the absence of hair.

Putty, Polisher’s. Syn. Putty powder, Calcine; Cineres stanni, Stanni oxydum crudum, L. A crude peroxide of tin, obtained by exposing metallic tin in a reverberatory furnace, and raking off the dross as it forms; this is afterwards calcined until it becomes whitish, and is then reduced to powder. Another method is to melt tin with rather more than an equal weight of lead, and then to rapidly raise the heat so as to render the mixed metal red hot, when the tin will be immediately flung out in the state of ‘putty’ or ‘peroxide.’ The products of both these processes are very hard, and are used for polishing glass and japan work, and to colour opaque white enamel. See Tin.

Putty, To Soften. Take 1 lb. of American pearlash and 3 lbs. of quick-lime. After slaking the lime in water add the pearlash, and let the mixture be made of a consistence about the same as that of paint. When required for use apply it to both sides of the glass, and let it remain in contact with the putty for twelve hours; after which the putty will have become so softened that the glass may be removed from the frame without any difficulty.

PUZZOLA′NA. Puozzolana, or, more correctly, Puzzuolana, is a volcanic ash found at Puzzuoli, near Naples. When mixed with lime it forms an excellent hydraulic cement. A good FACTITIOUS PUZZOLANA may be made by heating a mixture of 3 bushels of clay and 1 bushel of fresh-slaked lime for some hours to redness. (M. Bruyere.) See Cement and Mortar.

PYRI′TES. A term applied to several native metallic sulphides. Iron pyrites is the best known of these.

PY′RO-. The term is applied to several acids that are obtained by the action of heat on other substances; as, PYROGALLIC ACID, PYROLIGNEOUS A., &c.

PYROACE′TIC SPIRIT. See Spirit (Pyroacetic).

PYROGAL′LIC ACID. HC6H5O3. Syn. Acidum pyrogallicum, L. Prep. 1. From either gallic or tannic acid, heated in a retort by means of an oil bath, and steadily maintained at a temperature of about 420° Fahr. as long as crystals are formed in the neck of the retort, or in the receiver, both of which should be kept well cooled. Pure. If a much higher heat is employed, the product consists chiefly of metagallic acid.

2. From Aleppo galls, in very coarse powder, heated in a dish covered with thin filtering paper pasted to its edge, and connected with a well-cooled receiver. Dr Ure says that the so-called Chinese galls furnish, by dry distillation, a “very concentrated solution of pyrogallic acid, which, evaporated on the water bath, yields of brown crystalline pyrogallic acid nearly 15% of the weight of the galls.”

3. (Dr Stenhouse.) By sublimation from the dry aqueous extract of nut-galls, in a Mohr’s apparatus, in the same way that benzoic acid is obtained from benzoin resin, observing the precautions referred to in No. 1 (above). Nearly pure. The product is fully 10% of the weight of extract operated on.

Prop. Light crystals, which, when perfectly pure, are quite white; freely soluble in water, but the solution cannot be evaporated without turning black and suffering decomposition; it strikes a rich blackish-blue colour with the protosalts of iron, and reduces those of the sesquioxide to the state of protoxide; when heated to 480° Fahr., it is converted into METAGALLIC ACID and water.

Uses, &c. Pure pyrogallic acid is now very extensively employed in photography. A solution of the crude acid mixed with a little spirit is used to dye the hair, to which it imparts a fine brown colour, but has the disadvantage of also staining the skin when applied to it.

PY′ROGEN ACIDS. Those generated by heat.

PYRO′LA. See Winter green.

PYROLIG′NEOUS ACID. Syn. Vinegar of wood†, Spirit of w.†, Smoking liquor†, Essence of smoke†; Acidum pyrolignosum, L. Impure acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood in close vessels. It comes over along with tar creasote, and other liquid and gaseous matters. In this state it contains much empyreumatic matter in solution; but by separation from the tar, saturation with slaked lime or chalk, defecation, and evaporation, an impure acetate of pyrolignate of lime is obtained, which, after being gently heated, to destroy part of its empyreumatic matter, without injuring its acetic acid, is again dissolved and defecated, and then precipitated by a solution of sulphate of soda, when a solution of acetate of soda and a precipitate of sulphate of lime are formed by double decomposition. The solution is next evaporated to dryness, the dry mass (pyrolignite of soda) dissolved in water, and the new solution filtered and recrystallised. The crystals of acetate of soda, obtained by the last process, yield nearly pure acetic acid by distillation along with sulphuric acid. See Acetic acid and Vinegar.

PYROLIG′NEOUS SPIRIT. See Spirit (Pyroxilic).

PYROM′ETER. An instrument to measure high degrees of heat. Wedgwood’s pyrometer, the one best known, depends on the property which clay possesses of contracting when strongly heated. Prof Daniel’s pyrometer consists, essentially, of a small rod or bar of platinum, which acts in a precisely opposite manner to the preceding, viz., by its expansion.

PYROPH′ORUS. Syn. Luft-Zunder, Ger. Any substance that inflames spontaneously when exposed to the air.

Prep. 1. Neutral chromate of lead, 6 parts; sulphur, 1 part; triturate them with water, q. s. to form a paste, and make this into pellets; dry these perfectly by a gentle heat, then heat them in a closed tube until the sulphur is all driven off; lastly, transfer them to a stoppered phial.

2. (Homberg’s pyrophorus.) From alum and brown sugar, equal parts; stir the mixture in an iron ladle over the fire until dry, then put it into an earthen or coated glass phial, and keep it at a red heat so long as the flame is emitted; it must then be carefully stopped up and cooled.

3. (Dr Hare.) Lampblack, 3 parts; burnt alum, 4 parts; carbonate of potassa, 8 parts; as the last.

4. (Gay Lussac.) From sulphate of potassa, 9 parts; calcined lampblack, 5 parts; as No. 2.

5. Alum, 3 parts; wheat flour, 1 part; as No. 2.

6. (Lead pyrophorus—Göbel.) Heat tartrate of lead to redness in a glass tube, and then hermetically seal it. See Tartrate of Lead.

Obs. When the above are properly prepared, a little of the powder rapidly becomes very hot, and inflames on exposure to the air. The accession of the combustion is promoted by moisture, as a damp atmosphere or the breath. With the exception of the first and sixth, “they owe their combustibility to the presence of sulphide of potassium.” (Gay Lussac.)

PYROPHOSPHOR′IC ACID. See Dibasic Phosphoric acid (Phosphorus).

PYRO′SIS. Syn. Black water, Water brash, Water qualm. An affection of the stomach, attended by a sensation of heat and the eructation of a thin, sour liquid, often in considerable quantity, especially in the morning.

The following pill will be found of service in this affection:—Powdered opium, ⁄8th gr.; subnitrate of bismuth, 5 gr.; extract of gentian, sufficient to make into 2 pills. To be taken two or three times a day, before meals.

The solution of bismuth and citrate of ammonia (Liquor Bismuthi et Ammoniæ Citratis, B. P.), in doses of ⁄2 dr. to 1 dr., taken as above, is another medicine which may be had recourse to, should the above fail to give relief.

PYBOTARTAR′IC ACID. H2C5H6O4. Obtained by the destructive distillation of tartaric acid. See Tartaric acid.

PYROTECH′NY. The art of making fireworks. The three principal materials employed in this art are charcoal, nitre, and sulphur, along with filings of iron, steel, copper, or zinc, or with resin, camphor, lycopodium, or other substances, to impart colour, or to modify the effect or the duration of the combustion. Gunpowder is used “either in grain, half crushed, or finely ground, for different purposes. The longer the iron filings are, the brighter red and white spots they give; those being preferred which are made with a coarse file, and quite free from rust. Steel filings and cast-iron borings contain carbon, and afford a more brilliant fire, with wavy radiations. Copper filings give a greenish tint to flame; those of zinc, a fine blue colour; the sulphide of antimony gives a less greenish blue than zinc, but with much smoke; amber affords a yellow fire, as well as colophony (resin) and common salt; but the last must be very dry. Lampblack produces a very red colour with gunpowder, and a pink one with nitre in excess; it serves for making golden showers.” When this substance is lightly mixed with gunpowder and put into cases, it throws out small stars resembling the rowel of a spur; this composition has hence been called ‘spur fire.’ “The yellow sand, or glistening mica, communicates to fire-works golden radiations. Verdigris imparts a pale green; sulphate of copper and sal ammoniac gives a palm-tree green. Camphor yields a very white flame and aromatic fumes, which masks the bad smell of other substances. Benzoin and storax are also used, on account of their agreeable odour. Lycopodium burns with a rose colour and a magnificent flame; but it is principally employed in theatres to represent lightning, or to charge the torch of a Fury.” (Ure.) See Fires (Coloured), Flame Colours, Gunpowder, Stars, Rockets, &c.

The following substances are in requisition by the Pyrotechnist:—

Zinc. This metal is employed in the form of fine powder, which is obtained as follows:—The metal, scarcely melted, is poured into a hot mortar, where it is reduced to powder, being kept during the operation at a temperature of 401° F. It is then sifted to remove any particles which may have escaped contact with the pestle.

Copper. This metal may be obtained in a state of minute division by precipitating it from a solution of sulphate of copper by means of iron, the precaution being taken of using a large quantity of iron. The precipitate, after being well washed, is dried between folds of blotting paper, and kept in well stoppered bottles.

Iron-sand. A quantity of sulphur is melted in a crucible over a slow fire, and when it is quite fluid, iron filings are thrown in while the whole is being stirred. The crucible is removed from the fire, and the contents are rapidly stirred until cold. The material is then rolled on a board till it is broken up as fine as corned powder, after which the sulphur is sifted out.

Soda Powder. This powder is prepared with the same precaution as ordinary gunpowder, the proportions which answer best being:

Nitrate of soda 630 parts.

Sulphur 125 ”

Charcoal 125 ”

880 parts.

As the nitrate of soda is hygrometric, this powder must be preserved in closed vessels from the moisture of the air.

Lead Powder. This mixture is also prepared like gunpowder, and the constituents are used in the following proportions:

Nitrate of lead 12 parts.

Nitrate of potash 2 ”

Charcoal 3 ”

17 parts.

In the manufacture of this mixture on a large scale considerable care is necessary, since the mixture of nitrate of lead and charcoal is very liable to ignite by friction.

Prepared Blood. 450 to 500 grammes of zinc is dissolved in 1340 grammes of hydrochloric acid 22° B., largely diluted with water, and filtered. This solution is again diluted with its own volume of water, and mixed with fresh blood. The whole is well stirred from time to time for 48 hours, and the clear liquor is siphoned off from the precipitate. The precipitate is well washed with water, dried, and reduced to powder, in which state it may be kept for any length of time.

Touch Paper. This paper is prepared by immersing purple or blue paper in a solution of nitrate of potash in spirits of wine or vinegar, and carefully drying it.

When the touch paper is used with small articles, a piece is tied round the orifice with thread, leaving sufficient paper to form a small tube at the end. This tube is filled with gunpowder, and the paper twisted over it, when all is ready for firing.

Touch paper for capping every description of fireworks, such as squibs, crackers, Roman candles, &c., is prepared in the following manner:—Dissolve 2 oz. of the best saltpetre in 1 quart of warm water, and take care that the water is very clean.

After the mixture has stood for half an hour, pour off 1⁄2 pint into a white basin, then cut your sheets of dark blue double-crown paper in half. The weight of the paper should be 12 or 14 lbs. per ream.

Place the paper on a slab sufficiently large to give you room to use a small piece of sponge, with which you use the liquor to wet your paper. Cover each half sheet with the liquor as quickly as possible, on one side only, and immediately this is done place it on a line, the wet side on outwards, and when nearly dry, if you have a great number of sheets, place them together as evenly as possible under a press for one hour, then lay them out to dry, after which they will be quite smooth and ready for use.

In pasting this paper on the work, take care that the paste does not touch that part which is to burn. To use this paper correctly, cut it in strips sufficiently long to go twice round the mouth of the case, or even more if requisite. When you paste on the strips, leave a little above the mouth of the case not pasted; in small cases a little meal powder is put into the mouth, and then the paper is twisted to a point. In larger cases damp priming is used, and when dry, the capping process is proceeded with.

Crackers. The following mixtures are used for ordinary crackers:—

Meal powder parts 5 15 6 8 16

Fine charcoal ” 1 4 — 2 17

Coarse charcoal ” — — 6 — —

Sulphur ” — — 2 — 1

Saltpetre ” — — 16 1 7

Composition for crackers with Chinese fire—

Meal powder parts 9 6 16

Saltpetre ” 6 8 —

Sulphur ” 1 2 3

Charcoal ” 1⁄2 1⁄2 2

Fine iron ” 5 — 7

Sand ” — 5 —

Composition for crackers with brilliant fire—

Meal powder parts 8 8 36 18 32

Sulphur ” 1 1⁄2 1 1 3

Iron filings ” 2 2⁄2 — — —

Litharge ” — — — 2 —

Steel filings ” — — 8 3 12

The paper generally used for cartridge is that known as ‘elephant’ or cartridge, the latter being the more frequently employed.

Cartridge paper is employed in the preparation of crackers, which vary from 12 to 15 inches, and 3⁄2 inches diameter. One edge of the paper is folded down about ⁄4-inch in breadth, then the double edge is turned down about ⁄4-inch, and the single edge is bent back over the double fold so as to form a channel ⁄4-inch wide. This is filled with meal powder, which is then to be covered by the folds on each side, when the whole is to be pressed very smooth and close, by passing it over the edge of a flat ruler. The part containing the powder is to be gradually folded into the remainder of the paper, each fold being carefully pressed down. The cracker is then doubled backwards and forwards into as many folds of about 2⁄4 inches as the paper will allow.

The whole is pressed together by means of a wooden vice, a piece of twine is passed twice round the middle across the folds, and the joinings are secured by causing the twine to take a turn round the middle at every turn. One of the ends of the folds may be doubled short under, which will produce an extra report, but the other must project a little beyond the rest, for the priming and capping with the touch paper. When these crackers are fired they give a report at every turn of the paper.

The crackers may also be made of two single cards, rolled over each other and covered with paper coated with paste. The crackers are partially filled with the composition by means of a tin funnel. Ordinary powder is then introduced, and the remaining space is filled with a little sawdust.

Revolving Crackers. These crackers are charged at each end with clay to a depth of two lines, and filled with a composition without gunpowder. The clay prevents the fire streaming out at the ends, and it escapes through two holes placed opposite each other. The two holes are united at the same time by connecting them by means of a quick-match, and a rotatory motion is thus communicated to the cylinder.

English Pin Wheels. Pin, or Catherine wheels are of very simple construction. A long wire about ⁄16th of an inch in diameter is the former; on this wire are formed the pipes, which being filled with composition, are afterwards wound round a small circle of wood so as to form a helix or spiral line. The cases are generally made of double-crown paper (yellow wove), and cut into strips to give the greatest length, and of width sufficient to roll about four times round the wire, and pasted at the edge so as to bite firmly at the end of the last turn. When a number of pipes are made and perfectly dry, they are filled with composition. These cases are not driven for filling, but are filled by means of a tin funnel with a tube ⁄4 of an inch long, made to pass easily into the mouth of the case, which is gradually filled by lifting a wire up and down in this tube, the diameter of the charging wire being half that of the tube. The dry composition being placed in the funnel, the moment an action of the wire takes place the composition begins to fall into the case, which the charging wire compresses by continuous motion until you have filled the pipe to within ⁄4 of an inch of the top. The pipe is then removed, and the mouth neatly twisted, which will be the point for lighting.

When a number of pipes are ready, place them on a damp floor, or in any damp situation, until they become very pliant, but by no means wet; then commence winding them round a circle of wood whose substance must be equal to the thickness of the diameter of the pipe; and when wound, secure the end with sealing-wax, to prevent its springing open; after winding the required quantity let them dry. Now cut some strips of crimson or purple paper ⁄16th of an inch wide, and in length twice the diameter of the wheel; then paste all over thoroughly. Take a strip and paste it across the wheel diametrically, rub it down, then turn the wheel over, and place the ends down to correspond with the opposite side; when dry, the wheel will be ready for firing.

They may be fired on a large pin or held in the hand, but it is preferable to drive the pin into the end of a stick, which will prevent any accident, should a section of the wheel burst.

Squibs. These are either filled with grained powder, or with a mixture consisting of:—Gunpowder, 8 parts; charcoal, 1 part; sulphur, 1 part. The cases, which are about 6 inches long, are made by rolling strips of stout cartridge paper three times round a roller, and pasting the last fold. They are then firmly tied down near the bottom, and the end is either dipped into hot pitch or covered with sealing-wax. The cases are filled by putting a thimble full of the powder in, and ramming it tightly down with a roller, this operation being continued until the case is filled. It is then capped with touch paper.

Serpents (Marroon Squibs). A suitable case being ready, it is filled two thirds up with a powder consisting of:—Saltpetre, 16 parts; sulphur, 8 parts; fine gunpowder, 4 parts; antimony, 1 part. This, after being rammed down into the case tolerably tightly, the remainder of the space is filled with grained or corned powder.

Sparks. These fireworks differs from stars in size, being very small and made without cases. The English method of preparing them is as follows:—A mixture of

Fine gunpowder 1 part

Powdered saltpetre 3 parts

Powdered camphor 4 ”

is placed in a mortar, and some weak gum-water in which a little gum tragacanth has been dissolved, is poured over it, and the whole worked up into a thin paste. Some lint, prepared by boiling it in vinegar or saltpetre, and afterwards dried and unravelled, is placed in the composition so as to absorb the whole. This is then poured into balls about the size of a pea, dried and sprinkled with fine gunpowder.

In Germany the following compositions are used:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Chlorate of potash parts 24 40 12 20 — — — 40 21 21 14 20 96 40

Chlorate of potash and copper ” — — — — — — — — 23 23 — — — —

Chlorate of baryta ” — — — — 18 — — — — — — — — —

Nitrate of potash ” — — — — — 12 26 — — — — — — —

Nitrate of lead ” 24 — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Nitrate of baryta ” — — — 40 — — — — — — — — — —

Calomel ” — — — 13 7 — — 28 12 12 4 8 18 —

Sulphide of copper ” — — — — — — — 28 — 12 6 4 — —

Sulphate of strontia ” — — — — — — — — — — — 20 72 37

Oxalate of soda ” — 16 10 — — — — — — — — — — —

Chalk ” — — — — — — — — — — 5 — — —

Powdered zinc ” — — — — — 14 28 — — — — — — —

Powdered charcoal ” — — — — — 5 11 — — — — — — —

Sulphur ” 12 — 1 13 — — — — — — 6 3 — —

Gum lac ” 1 8 — 1 3 — — — — — — 2 18 8

Soap ” — 3 1 — — — — 3 3 3 — — — —

Starch ” — — — — — — — 10 — — — — — —

Sugar ” — — — — — — — — 4 4 — — — —

Pine soot ” — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 —

The above mixtures are intended to give coloured sparks, according to the numbers.

No. 1 gives a bluish-white colour.

” 2 and 3 give yellow.

” 4 gives green.

” 5 gives green.

” 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 give blue.

” 11 and 12 give violet.

” 13 gives red.

” 14 gives purple.

The materials are mixed with a small quantity of a solution of starch, so as to form a thick paste, which is forced through a perforated plate, the holes in which are twice as large as it is intended the sparks should be on drying. The small pieces fall on a pasteboard, to which the workman gives a rapid horizontal motion to round the grains. They are then dried, and those which are perfectly round are selected and separated by sieves of different meshes to collect those of the same size together.

Chinese Fire.

Red Chinese or Gerbe Fire.

Calibre of
the case. Saltpetre. Sulphur. Charcoal. Iron Sand.
1st order.

lbs. lbs. oz. oz. oz.

12 to 16 1 3 4 7

16 to 22 1 3 5 7 oz. 8 drms.

22 to 36 1 4 6 8

White Chinese Fire.

Calibre. Saltpetre. Bruised
Powder. Charcoal. Iron Sand.
3rd order.

12 to 16 lbs. 1 lb. 12 oz. 7 oz. 8 drms. 11 oz.

16 to 22 ” 1 ” 11 ” 8 ” 11 ” 8 drms.

22 to 36 ” 1 ” 11 ” 8 ” 8 ” 12 ”

The iron sand is moistened with a little spirits of wine, and then mixed with the charcoal and saltpetre, which have been previously incorporated in another mortar.

Simple Stars or Fireballs. These are generally used in combination with other arrangements, &c., and the composition of which they are made, consists of—saltpetre, 16 parts; sulphur, 8 parts; fine gunpowder, 3 parts.

These materials are mixed with gum and as little spirits of wine as will suffice to make a very stiff paste. This paste is cut up into small squares, which are rolled up into balls on a board covered with gunpowder.

The gunpowder, which adheres, serves for the purpose of firing them. When perfectly dry, they are ready for use.

Gerbes. These fireworks display themselves as luminous jets of fire somewhat resembling a water spout. Previously to putting in the brilliant composition, put two scoops of first firing or preparatory fire, for which the following will suit, in cases not larger than ⁄4 lb. size:—16 oz. meal powder, 6 oz. saltpetre, 3 oz. sulphur, 3 oz. fine coal. It is important to see that the interior of the cases are quite smooth and free from wrinkles.

Gold Rain. The larger rockets are filled with this material, which consists of small squares made in the same way as the simple stars. It is composed as follows:—

Ordinary. Chinese. Composition for immediate use.

Saltpetre parts 16 4 Saltpetre parts 4

Sulphur ” 8 2 Sulphur ” 2

Fine charcoal ” 2 4 Fine small coals ” 1

Pine soot ” 2 — Fine gunpowder ” 8

Meal powder ” 4 16 Coarse cast iron ” 4

A portion of the cotton is softened in linseed oil and the materials prepared in a mortar with water.

Roman Candles. These are made somewhat like gerbes and filled with the same materials, the only difference being that stars are placed between the different layers of substances. The materials must not be too tightly rammed down or the stars will be destroyed.

Simple Stars or Fireballs. Take of saltpetre 16 parts, sulphur 8 parts, fine gunpowder 3 parts; mix them with gum and only just enough spirits of wine to make a very stiff paste. Cut this up into small squares, and roll into balls covered with gunpowder. When properly dry they are ready for use.

Marroons. These are small cubical boxes filled with an explosive composition which explodes suddenly, making a loud report. They are generally used in combination with other fireworks. The boxes are made of pasteboard, the corners being made tight by pasting paper over them, but leaving the top open until they are filled. They are filled with coarse gunpowder, when the top is closed with strong paper well cemented, and the whole box is wrapped round two or three times with lind cord dipped in strong glue. A hole is made in one of the corners, into which a quick-match is introduced, and the marroon is ready for action.

The reader who may be desirous of further information on the subject of Pyrotechny, cannot do better than consult the article on the subject in ‘Knapp’s Chemical Technology,’ edited by Messrs. Richardson and Watts.

To this work we are indebted for much of the material contained in the present papers. See Coloured fires.

PYROXYL′IC SPIRIT. See Spirit (Pyroxylic).

PYROX′YLIN. Syn. Fulminating cotton, Gun-cotton. A highly inflammable and explosive compound, discovered by Schönbein. It is obtained by the action of nitric acid on cotton (cellulin, C6H10O5), in the presence of sulphuric acid.

By varying the strength of the nitric acid three kinds of gun-cotton may be obtained, called respectively mononitro-cellulin [C6H9(NO2)O5], dinitro-cellulin [C6H8(NO2)2O5], and trinitro-cellulin [C6H7(NO2)3O5]. The first is but slightly explosive; the second is not sufficiently explosive to be used as a substitute for gunpowder, but is best adapted for the preparation of collodion; the third is highly explosive, and is the variety employed in mining and military operations, &c.

Prep. 1. (B. P., Dinitro-cellulin.) Cotton-wool, 1; sulphuric acid, 5; nitric acid, 5; mix the acids, immerse the cotton, and stir with a glass rod for three minutes, or until it is thoroughly wetted, then remove it, and thoroughly wash out the acid, so that the washings cease to produce a precipitate with chloride of barium. Drain on filtering paper, and dry in a water bath. Used in the preparation of Collodion.

2. Concentrated nitric acid (sp. gr. 1·500) and concentrated sulphuric acid (sp. gr. 1·845) are mixed together in about equal measures; when the mixture has become cold it is poured into a glass or wedgwood-ware mortar or basin, and clean, dry carded cotton, in as loose a state as practicable, is immersed in it for 4 or 5 minutes, the action of the liquid being promoted by incessant stirring with a glass rod; the acid is next poured off, and the cotton, after being squeezed as dry as possible, by means of the glass stirrer, or between two plates of glass, is thrown into a large quantity of clean soft water, and again squeezed to free it from superfluous moisture; it is then washed in a stream of pure water until it becomes perfectly free from acid, and is, lastly, carefully dried by the heat of hot water or steam, at a temperature not higher than about 180° Fahr. 3. (Schönbein.) Nitric acid (1·45 to 1·50), 1 part; sulphuric acid (1·85), 3 parts (both by volume); proceed as above, but, after the cotton has been squeezed from the acid, allow it to remain in a covered vessel for an hour before washing it, and after washing it, dip it into a solution of carbonate of potassa, 1 oz., in pure water, 1 gall., then squeeze, and partially dry it; next dip it into a weak solution of nitre, and dry it in a room heated by hot air or steam to about 150° Fahr. (See Patent Specif.)

4. (Von Lenk.) The cotton, having been thoroughly cleansed and dried, is steeped, as above, in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids (the strongest obtainable in commerce), squeezed as dry as possible, and immersed in a fresh mixture of strong acids, being allowed to remain in this second mixture 48 hours. It is then washed in a stream of water for several weeks, and finally treated with a solution of silicate of potassa (soluble glass). This is the celebrated Austrian gun-cotton which was reported on so favorably by a committee of the British Association in 1863. The treatment with silicate of potassa is adopted merely for the purpose of retarding the combustion.

5. (‘Bulletin de St Pétersbourg,’)—a. Take of powdered nitre, 20 parts; sulphuric acid (1·830 to 1·835), 31 parts; dissolve in a glass vessel, and, whilst the solution is still warm (122° Fahr.), add of dry carded cotton 1 part, and employ agitation until this last is well saturated; then cover over the vessel with a plate of glass, and let it stand, for 24 hours, at a temperature of about 86° Fahr.; next well wash the cotton, as above, first with cold and afterwards with boiling water, and dry it carefully at a very low temperature.

b. From sulphuric acid (containing 3 equiv. of water), 13 parts; nitric acid (monohydrated), 12 parts; carded cotton, 1 part; the immersion being limited to one hour at a temperature of from 104° to 122° Fahr. (See ‘Pharm. Journ.,’ vol. xiii, No. 2.)

Prop., &c. Pyroxylin explodes, with a very sudden flash, and the development of very little heat, without either smoke or residue, at a temperature of about 300° Fahr. (No. 3 at 277° Fahr.). Several modifications of pyroxylin are known, varying considerably in composition, though they all contain the elements of hyponitric acid, and are all explosive. Some are insoluble in a mixture of ether and alcohol, whilst others are readily dissolved, forming the glutinous solution which is used in surgery under the name of ‘collodion,’ and which is also extensively used in photography. The best gun-cotton (Von Lenk’s) is of no use whatever for making collodion. The pyroxylin prepared by the formula 5, a (above), is soluble in a mixture of 7 parts of ether and 1 part of alcohol; whilst the product of 5, b, if prepared by 2 hours’ digestion instead of 1, is said to be even soluble in absolute alcohol.

Obs. General von Lenk has overcome all the difficulties which have hitherto prevented gun-cotton being used in place of gunpowder. By spinning the gun-cotton into thread or yarn, and weaving this into webs, he has succeeded in making cartridges which will produce the exact amount of force required. The time needed for the complete ignition of the cartridge can be diminished or increased at pleasure by varying the mechanical arrangement of the spun threads. Each gun and each kind of projectile requires a certain density of cartridge. In general, it is found that the proportion of 11 lbs. of gun-cotton occupying 1 cubic foot of space produces a greater force than gunpowder of which from 50 to 60 lbs. occupies the same space, and a force of the nature required for ordinary artillery. See Collodion and Xyloidin; consult also Abel’s researches in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society.’

QUACK MED′ICINES. See Patent medicines, Ointment, Pills, &c.

QUAIL. The Coturnix vulgaris, a gallinaceous bird, allied to the partridge, but of smaller size. Its flesh is highly esteemed by epicures. It is imported from Turkey, preserved in oil; and from Italy, potted with clarified butter.

QUARANTINE. The old laws of Quarantine, as the French derivation of the word indicates, compelled a vessel coming from the shores of a country liable to, or ravaged by, an infectious disease, such as plague, to those of a region free from contagion, to undergo forty days’ isolation before it was unladen, or its passengers were allowed to land at the healthy port.

In Europe these ancient enactments against the importation of infection are still more or less vexatiously enforced in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey; and in a modified form at Malta and some of the French and Italian ports. In the Mediterranean ports, ships coming from countries which lie in the southern or eastern shores of that sea are usually subjected to a quarantine of from six to fifteen days, during which period the passengers are confined in a sort of barrack called a ‘lazaretto,’ the merchandise, letters, &c., of the vessel being in the meantime frequently fumigated, or otherwise disinfected.

The inconveniences to commerce and the necessary intercourse between nations attending the too rigorous carrying out of quarantine have, within the last twelve years, led to a series of sanitary international conferences between the European Governments, with the object of divising some methods which, without weakening the safeguards to the public health, should as much as possible reduce the inconveniences attending the enforcement of quarantine to a minimum. At the last of these conferences, which was held at Vienna in 1873, the members were almost unanimous in advising the abolition of quarantine on European rivers.

Until within the last twenty years the old quarantine laws were pretty strictly enforced in this country. Since this time, however, they have been considerably relaxed, or, we should rather say, superseded by the following ordinances, which, upon the authority of an order in council of July 31st, 1871, can be enforced in the case of suspected vessels.

This ordinance declares that it is lawful for a sanitary authority, having reason to believe that any ship arriving in its district comes from a place infected with cholera, to visit and examine the ship before it enters the port.

Art. 3 provides that the master of a cholera-infected ship, or one that has even been exposed to the infection of cholera, is to moor, anchor, or place her in such a position as from time to time the sanitary authority shall direct.

Art. 4 provides that no person shall land from any such ship until after the examination.

Art. 5 provides for the proper examination of all persons on board by a legally-qualified practitioner, and permits those not suffering from cholera to land immediately.

Another order in council, dated August 3rd, 1874, empowers any custom-house officer, or other person having authority from the Commissioners or Board of Customs, at any time before the Nuisance Authority shall visit and examine the ship, to detain the ship.

“No person shall, after such detention, land from the ship, and the officer shall forthwith give notice of the detention, and of the cause thereof, to the proper nuisance (local) authority; and the detention shall cease as soon as the nuisance authority shall visit and examine the ship, or at the expiration of twelve hours after notice shall have been given to such nuisance authority.”

Another order in council, dated August 5th, 1871, directs that the master of a vessel, in which cholera has existed, shall not be allowed to bring his vessel into port until he has destroyed the infected clothes and bedding.

Local Government Boards are also invested with considerable executive powers, by which they are enabled to enforce quarantine during the prevalence of any contagious disease in other countries. The main Act, however, relating to quarantine, is the 6th of Geo. IV., c. 78; and all vessels having on board any person or persons affected with a dangerous or infections disorder, are to be deemed as coming within its provisions (see ‘Public Health Act,’ Schedule v., part 3). There is a land, as well as a sea quarantine. Thus, for instance, in some countries, more particularly those of Eastern Europe, the former is still in force on the frontiers of contiguous States, to the great impediment of commerce and inconvenience of travellers.

The late outbreak of plague in Astrakan has led to its being established and very strictly carried out on the borders of Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Germany.

Hecker, writing on the probable origin of quarantine, remarks:—“The fortieth day, according to the most ancient notions, has always been regarded as the last of ardent diseases, and the limit of separation between these and those which are chronic. It was the custom to subject lying-in women for forty days to a more exact superintendence.

There was a good deal also said in medical works of forty days’ epochs in the formation of the fœtus, not to mention that the alchemists always expected more durable revolutions in forty days, which period they called the philosophical month. This period being generally held to prevail in natural processes, it appeared reasonable to assume and reasonably to establish it; as that required for the development of latent principles of contagion, since public regulations cannot dispense with decisions of this kind, even though they should not be wholly justified by the nature of the case. Great stress has also been laid on theological and legal grounds, which were certainly of greater weight in the fifteenth century than in modern times; such as the forty days’ duration of the flood; the forty days’ sojourn of Moses on Mount Sinai; our Saviour’s fast for the same length of time in the wilderness; lastly, what is called the Saxon term, which lasts for forty days.

QUAR′TAN. Occurring every fourth day.

QUARTA′TION. The practice, among assayers, of alloying 1 part of gold with 3 parts of silver, before submitting it to the operation of ‘parting,’ in order that its particles may be too far separated to protect the copper, lead, palladium, silver, or other metals, with which it is contaminated, from the solvent action of the nitric or sulphuric acid, as the case may be. See Assaying.

QUARTZ. Pure native silica. It is an essential constituent of granite and many other rocks. Its crystalline, transparent varieties, are known as rock crystal. See Glass, Powder, &c.

QUASS. Syn. Posca venalis, L. Prep. Mix rye-flour and warm water together, and keep the mixture by the fireside until it has turned sour. Used as vinegar in Russia.

QUAS′SIA. Syn. Quassia (Ph. L., E., & D.; Quassia lignum, Quassia wood, B. P.). The “wood of Picræna (Picrasma) excelsa, Lindl.” (B. P., Ph. L.), or Jamaica quassia; and also of the “Quassia amara, Linn.” (Ph. E.), or Surinam quassia. The latter is the original quassia, but it is no longer imported. Quassia is characterised by its intense bitterness. It is reputed tonic and stomachic, assisting digestion, and giving tone and vigour to the system. Its name was given to it by Linnæus, in honour of a negro slave who had long employed it as a remedy for the malignant endemic fevers of Surinam. When sliced, it forms the ‘quassia chips’ of the shops. It is generally taken in the form of infusion. This last, sweetened with sugar, forms a safe and effective poison for flies.—Dose (in powder), 10 to 20 gr.

Roasted quassia, reduced to powder, is largely employed, instead of hops, to embitter porter; and the unroasted powder is used for the same purpose in the adulteration of the bitter varieties of ale.

QUAS′SIN. Syn. Quassite, Quassina. A peculiar bitter principle, obtained by precipitating decoction of quassia with milk of lime, evaporating the filtrate, dissolving the residue in alcohol, treating with animal charcoal, again evaporating, dissolving in water, and crystallising. 8 lbs. of quassia chips yield 1 drachm.

QUEEN’S BLUE. Thumb blue. See Blue.

QUEEN’S MET′AL. A species of pewter used for teapots, &c., made by fusing under charcoal a mixture of tin, 9 parts, and antimony, bismuth, and lead, of each 1 part; or, tin, 100 parts; antimony, 8 parts; copper, 4 parts; bismuth, 1 part. See Britannia Metal and Pewter.

QUEEN’S YEL′LOW. Subsulphate of mercury.

QUERCITRIN. The bark of the Quercus tinctoria yields a neutral substance, to which the above name has been given. Quercitrin may be prepared as follows by the process of Rochleder:—The bark is boiled with water, the decoction is left to cool, and the impure quercitrin which separates is collected, then rubbed to a pulp with alcohol of 35° B., heated over the water bath, collected on linen, and pressed, whereby the principal impurities are removed. The residue is dissolved in a larger quantity of boiling alcohol, the solution is filtered hot, and water is added to it until it becomes turbid, so that the greater part of the quercitrin separates before the liquid is cold. It is then collected, pressed, and purified by a repetition of the same treatment.

Another process, by Zwenger and Dronke, is this:—The bark, in small pieces, is exhausted with boiling alcohol, the alcohol is distilled off, and the residue, while still warm, is mixed with a little acetic acid, and then with neutral acetate of lead; the filtrate, freed from lead by sulphuric acid, is evaporated, and the quercitrin which crystallises is purified by repeated crystallisation from alcohol.

“Hydrated quercitrin forms microscopic, rectangular, partly rhombic tablets, having their obtuse lateral edges truncated; pale yellow when pulverised. It is neutral, inodorous, tasteless in the solid state, bitter in solution, permanent in the air.”

QUER′CITRON. The bark of Quercus nigra or tinctoria, a species of oak indigenous in North America. With alum mordants it yields a very permanent yellow dye.

QUER′CITRON. A yellow dye stuff, composed of the shavings and powder of the bark of Quercus tinctoria, or Q. nigra, or Q. citrina, a kind of oak, a native of North America. It abounds more particularly in Pennsylvania, Carolina, and Georgia.

In America quercitron is used for tanning, and in Europe for dyeing only. When employed for the latter purpose it is used in the form of an aqueous decoction, mordanted with alum or chloride of tin. Leesching states that a dye possessing greater colorific powder may be procured by boiling the bark with dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acid.

QUICK′SILVER. See Mercury.

QUILLAI BARK. Syn. Quillay bark, Soap bark. The Quillaya saponaria, from which yields this bark, is an evergreen tree, growing in the mountainous parts of Chili, in South America.

It is believed to take its name from the native word quillay, which signifies to wash. The inner bark only is employed. When bruised and agitated in water it imparts a lather to the water, in the same way that soap does. This quality has been found to be due to the existence in the bark of saponin—the same principle which confers a similar property on Saponaria officinalis. The bark is free from any bitter principle, as well as from tannic acid. It is very generally used amongst the inhabitants residing on the western side of South America, where it is employed for removing grease from silk, and also in the form of a wash for cleansing and preserving the hair.

When had recourse to for cleansing silks, quillai bark is said not to change the colour of the fabric. It is sometimes given as a febrifuge, and as a remedy for cold in the head. For this latter purpose the powder is snuffed up the nostrils, when it occasions sneezing and profuse discharge from the nose.

QUILLS. Prep. 1. The quills or wing-feathers of the goose (goose quills) are separately plunged, for a few seconds, into hot ashes, cinders, or sand, of a temperature about equal to that of boiling water, after which they are scraped with a blunt knife, strongly rubbed with a piece of flannel or woollen cloth, and gently ‘stoved,’ they are, lastly, tied up in bundles by women or children. A yellow tinge is often given to them by dipping them for a short time into dilute hydrochloric or nitric acid, or into an infusion of turmeric.

2. Suspend the quills in a copper over water sufficiently high to nearly touch the nibs; then close it steam tight, and apply three or four hours’ hard boiling; next, withdraw the quills, and dry them, and in 24 hours cut the nibs and draw out the pith; lastly, rub them with a piece of cloth, and expose them to a moderate heat in an oven or stove. Quills prepared in this way are as hard as bone, without being brittle, and nearly as transparent as glass. Crow quills and swan quills may be cured in the same manner.

QUI′NA. See Quinine.

QUINAMINE. Syn. Quinamina. C20H26N2O2. This alkaloid was discovered by Hesse, in 1872, in the bark of Cinchona succirubra, cultivated at Darjeeling, in British Sikhim.

Dr de Vrij gives the following process for the preparation of quinamine:—The mixed alkaloids obtained from the red bark are converted into neutral sulphates, and the solution treated with Rochelle salt, whereby the tartrates of quinine and of cinchonidine are separated. After collecting these upon a filter the filtered liquid is shaken with caustic soda and ether. By this process the amorphous alkaloid and the quinamine are dissolved by the ether, with slight traces of cinchonine, whilst the bulk of this last alkaloid remains undissolved. After distilling the ethereal solution the residue is transformed into neutral acetate, and the solution of this mixed with a solution of sulphocyanate of potassium.

By this reaction the sulphocyanate of the amorphous alkaloid is precipitated in the shape of a yellow, soft, resinous substance, whilst the sulphocyanate of quinamine remains dissolved. After subsiding and filtering, the solution is clear and quite colourless, and by addition of caustic soda the quinamine is precipitated. It is then collected upon a filter, washed, and dried. It can now easily be obtained crystallised by dissolving it in boiling spirit, from which it crystallises in cooling. By this process the author obtained 0·38 per cent. of pure quinamine from samples of red cinchona quill bark, which he had received, through the Secretary of State for India, from the plantations in British Sikhim.

QUINCE. Syn. Cydonia, L. The fruit of Cydonia vulgaris, or common quince tree. Its flavour in the raw state is austere, but it forms an excellent marmalade (quince marmalade), and its juice yields an agreeable and wholesome wine. The seed or pips (cydoniæ seminæ; cydonium—Ph. L.) abound in gummy matter, which forms a mucilage with water, and possesses the advantage of not being affected by the salts of iron or alcohol. See Decoction, Fixature, and Jelly.

QUINETUM. The alkaloids contained in the East Indian red bark (Cinchona succirubra) consist of a large percentage of cinchonidine, cinchonine, quinine, and amorphous alkaloid, besides a trace of quinidine, the preponderating alkaloid being cinchonidine.

Dr de Vrij, of the Hague, has devised a process by which these can be extracted in their entirety, and to the mixed alkaloids so obtained the name ‘quinetum’ has been given.

It is affirmed of quinetum that it possesses a remedial value as a tonic and antiperiodic that renders it, in many cases, superior to quinine, ague being one of these; also that it may be advantageously employed in affections in which quinine would be inadmissible. A medical correspondent informs us that he has used it with signal success in hay asthma. Another advantage it has over quinine is, it is much lower in price. Quinetum, according to Dr de Vrij’s process, as well as a sulphate and hydrochlorate, are prepared by Mr Whiffen, of Battersea.

QUINICINE. An alkaloid obtained in 1853 by Pasteur, by exposing quinine or quinidine, under favorable circumstances, to a temperature varying from 248° to 266° Fahr., for several hours. It is very probable that this alkaloid is either identical, or in very close connection, with the amorphous alkaloid soluble in ether which occurs in all barks, and particularly in the young barks of the plantations in India.

QUINIDINE. C20H24O2N2.2Aq. Syn. Quinidia, Conchinine, &c. An alkaloid contained in many species of cinchona, together with quinine and cinchonine, and therefore often found in the mother liquors of quinine manufactures. It is identical with the β quinine of Van Heyningen, and was discovered, in 1833, by Henry and Delondre. As the cinchonidine discovered by Winckler, in 1848, has been unhappily denominated quinidine by this chemist, there is still a confusion about these alkaloids, and, therefore, the quinidine of commerce was very often a mixture of both, till Pasteur made, in 1853, a classical investigation of this matter. He maintained the name of quinidine for the alkaloid discovered by Henry and Delondre, because it is isomeric with quinine, and gives the same green colour when treated with chlorine followed by ammonia, and gave the name of cinchonidine to the alkaloid discovered by Winckler, because it is isomeric with cinchonine. He determined also the action of the solutions of these alkaloids on the plane of polarisation, and found that the quinidine turned this plane to the right, its molecular rotation in alcoholic solution being [a] = 250·75° →, whilst he found that the cinchonidine turned this plane to the left, its molecular rotation in alcoholic solution being [a] = 144·61° ←.

Prop. &c. Many of the salts of quinidine are very similar to those of quinine, but the normal salt with hydriodic acid is not only very different from that of quinine, but also from those of all the other cinchona-alkaloids. The normal hydriodate of quinidine is so very sparingly soluble in water that 1 part requires, at 60° Fahr., not less than 1200 parts of water to be dissolved. Therefore the presence of sulphate of quinidine in the sulphate of quinine, which often occurs, either from that article being carelessly made or from wilful adulteration, can be easily detected by adding a few minims of solution of iodide of potassium to the saturated solution of sulphate of quinine in water of 60° Fahr., whereby, if quinidine is present, its hydriodate will be separated either in the shape of a sandy precipitate or, if only traces are present, in the shape of striæ on the sides of the glass where this has been rubbed by a glass rod.

For an account of its medicinal properties, the reader should consult the recent report from India upon the experiments made there by order of Government with all the four cinchona-alkaloids, which experiments are very favorable to the therapeutical action of quinidine compared with that of quinine.

QUININE. C10H12ON. Syn. Quina, Quinia. Till recently it was found in the greatest quantity in good Calisaya bark, particularly in that from Bolivia, but since it has been found in great quantity in some other barks, especially in the bark of Cinchona officinalis, for instance, in the bark of that species grown in Ceylon. Red bark contains not only quinine and cinchonine, but also cinchonidine.

Prep. 1. By precipitating a solution of sulphate of quinine with a slight excess of ammonia, potassa, or soda, and washing and drying the precipitate. By solution in alcohol, sp. gr. ·815, and spontaneous evaporation, it may be procured in crystals. Crystals may also be obtained from “its solution in hot water with a little ammonia.” (Liebig.)

2. (Direct.) By adding hydrate of lime, in slight excess, to a strong decoction of the ground bark made with water acidulated with sulphuric acid, washing the precipitate which ensues, and boiling it in alcohol; the solution, filtered while hot, deposits the alkaloid on cooling.

Prop., &c. Quinine, when prepared by precipitation, is an amorphous white powder, but when this precipitate is left in the liquor it assumes, after some time, the appearance of aggregated crystalline needles; when slowly crystallised from its solution, these needles are remarkably fine, and of a pearly or silky lustre. It is freely soluble in rectified spirit and in ether, and of all the cinchona-alkaloids it is the most soluble in ammonia. It is upon this fact that Kerner’s method for testing the purity of sulphate of quinine is founded. Its normal salts, if dissolved in water, have a slightly alkaline reaction upon red litmus paper. It is only sparingly soluble in water, even when boiling; both the fixed and volatile oils dissolve it with the aid of heat, more especially when it has been rendered anhydrous, or is presented to them under the form of an ethereal solution. It fuses by a gentle heat, without decomposition; forms crystallisable salts, which are only slightly soluble in water, unless it be acidulated, and, like the pure alkaloid, are extremely bitter, and possess much of the characteristic flavour of cinchona bark. It is precipitated by the alkalies and their carbonates, by tannic acid, and by most astringent substances.

Pur. See Quinine, Sulphates of, and Quinometry (below).

Tests. Quinine is recognised by—1. Its appearance under the microscope.—2. Its solubility in ether, and in pure ammonia water.—3. Its solubility in concentrated nitric acid, forming a colourless liquid, which does not become yellowish until it is heated.—4. The solubility of itself and salts, when pure, in concentrated sulphuric acid, forming colourless fluids, “which do not acquire any coloration upon being heated to the point of incipient evaporation of the sulphuric acid, but which afterwards become yellow, and finally brown.” (Fresenius.)—5. Its solubility in concentrated sulphuric acid to which some nitric acid has been added, forming a colourless, or, at the most, only a faintly yellowish liquid.—6. It is wholly destroyed by heat.

A solution of quinine in acidulated water, and solutions of its salts, exhibit the following reactions:—1. Ammonia, potassa, and the alkaline carbonates, give white, pulverulent precipitates, becoming crystalline after some time (see above), and which are soluble in ammonia in excess, and which, when ether is added after the ammonia, and the whole is agitated, redissolve in the ether, whilst the clear liquid, on repose, presents two distinct layers.—2. Bicarbonate of soda (avoiding excess) gives a similar precipitate, both in acid and neutral solutions of quinine, either at once or after a short time. The precipitate is soluble in excess of the precipitant, and is again precipitated from the new solution upon protracted ebullition. “Vigorous stirring of the liquid promotes the separation of this precipitate.” (Fresenius.)—3. If recently prepared chlorine be added to it, and then ammonia, a beautiful emerald-green colour is developed. (Ph. L.)—4. A concentrated solution of ferrocyanide of potassium being added, in excess, after the chlorine, instead of the ammonia, a dark red colour is instantly produced, which after some time passes into green, especially when freely exposed to the light. This reaction is not characteristic of quinine, for with quinidine one gets the same reaction.—5. If caustic potassa be used instead of ammonia (see above), the solution acquires a sulphur-yellow colour. “These reactions are restricted to this alkaloid.” (Dr Garrod.)

Flückiger says;—“The most characteristic test for ascertaining the presence of quinine is the formation of the splendid green compound called thalleiochine, which is produced if solutions of the alkaloid or its salts are mixed with chlorine water, and then a drop of ammonia added.”

If one part of quinine is dissolved in 4000 parts of acidulated water, and then about ⁄10 of the volume of the liquid, of chlorine water, and a drop of ammonia added, a green zone will be readily formed if the liquids are cautiously placed in a flask without shaking.

If the solution of quinine contain no more than ⁄5000, the green of one may still be obtained, but in more diluted solutions the success becomes more and more uncertain.

From a practical point of view we may state that ⁄5000 of the alkaloid is the smallest quantity whose presence can thus be discovered with certainty; Kerner (1870) has succeeded with ⁄20000 but I was not able to corroborate this statement.

The author was also induced to try the action of bromine in place of chlorine. The thalleiochine is then, indeed, produced in solution which contain only ⁄20000 of quinine.

Yet the behaviour of bromine displays some striking differences. Chlorine alone, as already stated, causes no immediate alteration of somewhat diluted solutions of quinine, whereas they became turbid on addition of bromine as long as there is about ⁄2500 or more of quinine present. Now, the precipitate which is produced by bromine in solution of quinine does not turn green if a little ammonia is subsequently added, or, at least, the thalleiochine thus obtained is rather greyish. But in more dilute solutions of quinine bromine acts more readily than chlorine. An excess of bromine is to be carefully avoided.

This is easily performed if the vapour of bromine, not the liquid bromine itself, is allowed to fall down on the surface of the solutions of quinine; their superficial layer only must be saturated with bromine by gently moving the liquid. Then a drop of ammonia will produce the green or somewhat bluish zone, which is much more persistent than that due to chlorine.

Consequently, for demonstration of the test under notice, chlorine is to be used in comparatively concentrated solutions. In solutions containing so little quinine (less than ⁄2500) that it is no longer precipitated by the vapour of bromine, the thalleiochine test succeeds much better with bromine, and goes much further, as shown above.

The author also shows that morphine gives a dark, dingy brown colour with chlorine and ammonia, which is capable of more or less masking the reaction of quinine.

Another test for quinine is the formation of its iodosulphate, the so-called herapathite. For this purpose the quinine is dissolved in 10 parts of proof spirit, acidulated with ⁄20th part of sulphuric acid, and to this solution an alcoholic solution of iodine is carefully added, and the liquid in the meanwhile stirred with a glass rod. There appears either immediately or after some minutes a black precipitate of iodosulphate of quinine, which if redissolved in boiling proof spirit, forms in cooling the beautiful crystals of herapathite. 100 parts of this herapathite, if dried on a water bath, represent 56·5 parts of pure quinine.

Dr de Vrij prefers the employment of the iodosulphate of chiniodine as a reagent for the detection and estimation of quinine. In a communication to the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal’ he writes:—“In estimating quinine in a mixture of cinchona-alkaloids by means of an alcoholic solution of iodine the reagent requires to be added in slight excess, in order to ensure complete precipitation. An undue excess of the reagent, however, causes the formation of a compound richer in iodine and much more soluble in alcohol than herapathite, and thus renders the determination inaccurate.” For this reason the author suggests the application of an alcoholic solution of iodosulphate of chiniodine (so-called sulphate of amorphous quinine) in place of free iodine. The reagent is made as following:—

Two parts of sulphate of chiniodine are dissolved in eight parts of water containing 5 per cent. of sulphuric acid. To this clear solution, contained in a large capsule, a solution of one part of iodine and two parts of iodide of potassium, in 100 parts of water, is slowly added with continuous stirring, so that no part of the solution of chiniodine comes into contact with excess of iodine. By this addition an orange-coloured flocculent precipitate is formed of iodosulphate of chiniodine, which either spontaneously, or by a slight elevation of temperature, collapses into a dark brown, red-coloured, resinous substance, whilst the supernatant liquor becomes clear and slightly yellow coloured. This liquor is poured off, and the resinous substance is washed by heating it on a water bath with distilled water. After washing, the resinous substance is heated on the water bath till all the water has been evaporated. It is then soft and tenacious at the temperature of boiling water, but becomes hard and brittle after cooling. One part of this substance is now treated with 6 parts of alcohol of 92 or 94 per cent. until it is completely dissolved, and the solution allowed to cool. In cooling a part of the dissolved substance is separated. The clear dark-coloured solution is evaporated on a water bath, and the residue dissolved in 5 parts of cold alcohol. This second solution leaves a small part of insoluble substance. The clear dark-coloured solution obtained by the separation of this insoluble matter, either by decantation or filtration, constitutes the reagent which the author has used for some time under the name of iodosulphate of chiniodine, both for the qualitative and quantitative determination of crystallisable quinine.

To determine a quantity of quinine contained in the mixed alkaloids obtained from a sample of cinchona bark, 1 part of the alkaloid is dissolved in 20 parts of alcohol, of 90 or 92 per cent., containing 1·6 per cent. of sulphuric acid, to obtain an alcoholic solution of the acid sulphates of the alkaloids.

From this solution the quinine is separated by adding carefully, by means of a pipette, the above-mentioned solution of the iodosulphate of chiniodine, as long as a dark brown-red precipitate of iodosulphate of quinine-herapathite is formed. As soon as all the quinine has been precipitated, and a slight excess of the reagent has been added, the liquor acquires an intense yellow colour. The beaker containing the liquor with the precipitate is now covered by a watch-glass, and heated on a water bath till the liquid begins to boil.

After cooling, the beaker is weighed, to ascertain the amount of liquid which is necessary in order to be able to apply later the above-mentioned correction. For although quinine-herapathite is very little soluble in alcohol, it is not insoluble, and therefore a correction must be applied for the quantity which has been dissolved both by the alcohol used for the solution of the alkaloids and the alcohol contained in the reagents.

The liquor is now filtered to collect the iodosulphate of quinine on a small filter, where it is washed with a saturated solution of herapathite in alcohol. After the washing has been completed, the weight of the funnel with the moist filter is taken, and the filter allowed to dry in the funnel. As soon as it is dry the weight is taken again, to ascertain the amount of solution of herapathite which remained in the filter, and which left the dissolved herapathite on the filter after the evaporation of the alcohol.

This amount is subtracted from the total amount of liquid, and for the remaining the correction is calculated with reference to the temperature of the laboratory during the time of the analysis. The dry iodosulphate of quinine is taken from the filter and dried on a water bath, in one of a couple of large watch-glasses closing tightly upon each other, so that the weight of the substance contained in the glass may be taken without the access of air.

When, after repeatedly ascertaining the weight, it remains constant, this weight is noted down, and to it is added the product of the calculated correction. The sum of this addition is the total amount of iodosulphate of quinine obtained from the mixed alkaloids subjected to the operation, and from this weight the amount of crystallisable quinine can be calculated by the use of Hauer’s formula, 2C40H24N2O43(HO1SO3), 31 (old notation), which the author has found to be correct. According to this formula, 1 part of iodosulphate of quinine, dried at 100° C., represents 0·5509 per cent. of anhydrous quinine, or 0·7345 per cent. of disulphate of quinine.

The accuracy of this determination may be seen from the following examples:

0·24 gram of anhydrous crystallised quinine gave 0·541 gram of herapathite dried at 100° C. = 0·298 gram of quinine.

According to Hauer’s formula, 0·5336 gram of herapathite = 0·294 gram of quinine, which ought to have been obtained.

1·048 gram of bitartrate of quinine gave 1·224 gram of herapathite = 0·674 gram of quinine.

According to the formula of the bitartrate, C20H24N2O21C4H6O6 + Aq. = 442; 1·048 of bitartrate represents 0·69 of quinine, so that 1·255 gram of herapathite should have been obtained.

Notwithstanding the different circumstances in which the reagent was applied, the results are satisfactory.

The two following experiments were made with pure quinine, dried at 100° C., at which temperature it still retains water, under identical circumstances:—

1·0664 gram of hydrated quinine gave 1·7266 gram of herapathite = 164·5 per cent.

1·055 grams of the same hydrated quinine gave 1·7343 gram of herapathite = 164·3 per cent.

The author further states that the iodosulphate of quinine and of quinidine prepared by means of his new reagent have an analogous composition, and are identical with the compound described by Herapath, whilst the iodosulphates of cinchonine and cinchonidine have a different composition from the former, and both require more iodine to be converted into the optical iodosulphates described by Herapath. Of all these iodosulphates that of quinine is by far the most insoluble in alcohol, and is precipitated first and free from the others by a judicious application of the iodosulphate of chinioidine.

Quinine is distinguished from both cinchonine and quinidine by its comparatively free solubility in ether; the last of these being very sparingly soluble, and the other wholly insoluble, in that menstruum. The presence of cinchonine may also be positively determined by reference to the behaviour of that alkaloid. Quinidine is also distinguished from quinine by the different crystallisation, greater specific gravity, and freer solubility of its salts in cold water.

Estim. See Quinometry.

Uses, &c. Pure quinine is but rarely used in medicine, but several of its salts are employed as remedies, on account of their great stimulant, tonic, and febrifuge powers. As a tonic in dyspeptic affections, and for restoring strength and vigour to morbidly weakened habits, and as an antiperiodic or agent to counteract febrile action, it appears to be superior to all other remedies, provided no abnormal irritability of the mucous membranes, or of the circulatory organs, exists. The dose of the salts of quinine, as a tonic, is ⁄2 to 1 gr., twice or thrice daily; as an antiperiodic, 2 to 5 gr., or even more, every second or third hour, during the intervals of the paroxysms of ague, and of other intermittent or periodic affections; also in acute rheumatism. The sulphate (disulphate) is the salt generally used; this and other salts are most effective when taken in solution.

The nature of the influence exerted upon blood by quinine was, in 1872, made the subject of a fresh investigation by Schulte. Its extraordinary power of stopping fermentation and putrefaction, by destroying low organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, has been before pointed out. It is supposed to diminish the formation of pus in inflammation by arresting the motions and preventing the exit from the blood-vessels of the white blood-corpuscles, the accumulation of which, according to Cohnheim, constitutes pus.

By depriving the red blood-corpuscles of the power to produce ozone, it diminishes the change of tissue in the body, and thereby lessens the production of heat. Ranke and Kerner have shown the waste of tissue is reduced when large doses of quinine are administered, as indicated in the small proportion of uric acid and urea excreted.

With the object of ascertaining whether this effect is referable to the direct influence of quinine on oxidation in the blood, or to its indirect influence through the nervous system, Schulte employed a method, based upon the changes occurring in the alkalinity of the blood, observed by Zuntz, who had noticed that a considerable formation of acid takes place in freshly-drawn blood, and continues in a less degree till putrefaction commences.

The amount of acid formed was estimated from the diminished alkalinity of the blood, as comparatively shown by the quantity of dilute phosphoric acid required for exact saturation.

A sufficient quantity of chloride of sodium was added to the phosphoric acid to prevent the blood-corpuscles from being dissolved, and interfering with the reaction by their colouring matter. The point of saturation was fixed at the point of transient reddening of carefully prepared test paper by the carbonic acid. Schulte has thus been enabled to confirm the experiments of Zuntz and Scharrenbroich, showing that quinine and berberine lessen the production of acid, and that quinine can stop it both before and after coagulation; that sodium nitropicrate has an action similar to, and nearly as powerful as, quinine; while the action of cinchonine is much less energetic. Harley has shown that whilst quinine lessens oxidation in blood, some substances, such as snake poisons, increase it. Binz found that when putrid fluids were injected into the circulation of an animal, the temperature rose; but that this increase of temperature could be more or less prevented by the addition of quinine to the putrid liquid, or the simultaneous injection of the quinine.

With respect to the influences of quinine on the change of tissue, Schulte gives the result of some careful experiments made by Zuntz, who found that after taking three 0·6 gram doses of hydrochlorate of quinine for two days, the amount of urine he excreted was increased by one third, and then decreased as much, the specific gravity falling from 1018 to 1012; the urea also showed a marked decrease.

The salts of quinine may be made by simply saturating the dilute acids with the base, so that part of the latter remains undissolved, and gently evaporating the solutions for crystals, or to dryness. Prince Lucien Bonaparte recommends all these salts to be prepared by the addition of a strong alcoholic solution of quinine to a cold solution of the acid. We have tried this method with success.

Quinine, Ac′etate of. Syn. Quinæ acetas, L. Prep. 1. (P. Cod.) Mix quinine, 2 parts, with water, 3 parts; heat the mixture, and add of acetic acid, q. s. to dissolve the alkaloid, and to render the solution slightly acid; lastly, decant or filter the solution whilst boiling hot, and set it aside to crystallise. The mother water, on evaporation, will yield a second crop of the acetate.

2. Effloresced sulphate of quinine, 17 parts, is dissolved in boiling water, and mixed with crystallised acetate of soda, 6 parts. The acetate of quinine crystallises.

Prop., &c. Satiny, acicular crystals, which are rather more soluble in water than those of the sulphate.—Dose, ⁄2 to 5 grains.

Quinine, Arse′′niate of. Syn. Quinæ arsenias, L. Prep. (Bourières.) Arsenic acid, 1⁄2 dr.; quinine, 5 dr.; distilled water, 6 fl. oz.; boil them together in a covered glass vessel until the alkaloid is dissolved, then set the solution aside to crystallise.

Uses, &c. Recommended by Dr Neligan, and others, as being more powerfully antiperiodic than the other preparations of quinine.—Dose, ⁄12 to ⁄4 gr., made into pills; in agues, neuralgia, &c.; also in cancer.

Quinine, Ar′senite of. Syn. Quinæ arsenis, L. Prep. Sulphate of quinine, 100 parts, is dissolved in alcohol, 600 parts, and boiled with arsenious acid, 14 parts. The liquid is then filtered. The poisonous salt is deposited in the crystalline form as the liquid cools.

Uses, &c. As the last.

Quinine, Chlo′′ride of. Hydrochlorate of quinine (see below).

Quinine, Ci′trate of. Syn. Quinæ citras, L. Prep. 1. By mixing a hot solution of sulphate of quinine with a like solution of citrate of soda.

2. From quinine and citric acid, as the acetate. Needle-shaped prisms.—Dose, &c. As the sulphate or disulphate.

Quinine, Disulphate of. Sulphate of quinine (see below).

Quinine, Ferrocy′anide of. Syn. Cyanide of iron and quinine; Quinæ hydroferrocyanas, Quinæ ferro-prussias, L. Prep. (P. Cod.) Sulphate of quinine, 100 parts; ferrocyanide of potassium, 31 parts; distilled water, 2500 parts; boil for a few minutes, and, when cold, separate the impure salt which floats as an oily mass on the surface, wash it with a little cold water, and dissolve it in boiling alcohol; the solution will deposit crystals as it cools.

Obs. This compound is by some said to be the most efficacious of all the salts of quinia. Pelouze asserts that it is simply quinine mixed with some Prussian blue.—Dose, 1 to 6 gr.

Quinine, Ferrosul′phate of. See Quinine and Iron, Sulphate of (below).

Quinine, Hydri′odate of. Syn. Iodide of quinine; Quinæ hydriodas, Q. iodidum, L. Prep. 1. By adding, drop by drop, a concentrated solution of iodide of potassium to a like solution of acid sulphate of quinine, and drying the precipitate in the shade; or heat the liquid nearly to the boiling point, and allow it to crystallise.

2. (Parrish.) Effloresced sulphate of quinine, 5 parts, dissolved in alcohol, and decomposed by an alcoholic solution of 3 parts of iodide of potassium, precipitates sulphate of potassa, and yields, on cooling and evaporating, hydriodate of quinine in fine crystalline needles.

3. (Ioduretted—Bouchardat.) From an acid solution of quinia and a solution of iodide of iron containing a slight excess of iron, as No. 1.

Obs. The above are reputed alterative, tonic, and antiperiodic.—Dose, 1 to 4 gr.; in obstinate intermittents, and in the scrofulous affections of debilitated subjects.

Quinine, Hydrochlo′′rate of. Syn. Chloride of quinine, Muriate of quinine†; Quinæ hydrochloras, Quinæ murias, L. Prep. 1. By neutralising dilute hydrochloric acid with the base, as above.

2. (Ph. Bor.) Chloride of barium, 5 dr.; boiling water, 1 lb.; dissolve, add, gradually, of sulphate of quinine, 2 oz.; boil gently for a few minutes, filter the solution whilst hot, and set it aside that crystals may form.

3. (Quinæ murias—Ph. D.) Dissolve chloride of barium, 123 gr., in distilled water, 2 fl. oz.; add of sulphate of quinine, 1 oz., dissolved in boiling water, 1⁄2 pint; mix, evaporate the solution to one half, filter, and again evaporate until spiculæ begin to appear; next allow the liquid to cool, collect the crystals, and dry them on bibulous paper. The mother liquor, by further concentration and cooling, will yield an additional product.

Obs. Hydrochlorate of quinine occurs in snow-white groups of feathery crystals, of a mother-of-pearl lustre, which are more freely soluble than those of the disulphate.

Quinine and Iodide of Iron. Syn. Quinæ et ferri iodidum. (Bouchardat.) Prep. Pour a strong solution of acid sulphate of quinine into a fresh solution of iodide of iron; collect the precipitate, dry it quickly by pressing it between blotting paper, and keep it from the air.

Quinine, Ki′nate of. Syn. Quinæ kinas, L. Prep. By saturating a solution of kinic acid with quinine, and purifying by crystallisation out of alcohol. The kinate of quinine is obtained in crystalline warts, soluble in 4 parts of water and 8 parts of alcohol.

Quinine, Lac′tate of. Syn. Quinæ lactas, L. Prep. As the ACETATE or CITRATE. By spontaneous evaporation fine crystals may be obtained. Said to agree better with dyspeptic patients than the other salts of quinine.

Quinine, Mu′′riate of. Hydrochlorate of quinine (see above).

Quinine, Neutral Hydrobromate of. Syn. Quinæ hydrobromas. (M. Boille.) This salt is prepared by double decomposition of bromide of barium and neutral sulphate of quinia, and is thus easily obtained pure and free from chloride, the great solubility of bromide of barium in alcohol facilitating the removal of any chloride which is insoluble.

The two salts are dissolved separately in alcohol and the solutions filtered. The neutral sulphate of quinia solution is gradually added, in slight excess, to the bromide of barium solution until a precipitate ceases to form.

The solutions, diluted with water, are distilled to recover the alcohol, afterwards filtered to separate the sulphate of quinia which has been precipitated by the water, and then concentrated sufficiently to induce rapid crystallisation. The addition of water is indispensable for the concentration and crystallisation; the hydrobromate, being soluble in alcohol of all proportions, redissolves as the alcoholic liquor is concentrated. M. Boille claims for his neutral hydrobromate of quinine its much readier solubility over the officinal sulphate, as well as its superior richness in quinine.

Quinine, Ni′trate of. Syn. Quinæ nitras, L. Prep. As the HYDROCHLORATE, substituting dilute nitric acid, or nitrate of baryta (P. Cod.), for hydrochloric acid or chloride of barium.

Quinine, Phos′phate of. Syn. Quinæ phosphas, L. As the ACETATE. Silky, needle-shaped crystals, with a pearly lustre. It has been highly recommended in intermittents, &c., associated with rickets and stomach affections.

Quinine, Salicylate of. Syn. Quinæ salicylas. This may be made by mixing an alcoholic solution of quinine with an alcoholic solution of salicylic acid to complete saturation, and afterwards allowing the alcohol slowly to evaporate.

Quinine, Sul′phates of. The salt often called ‘disulphate of quinine’ is now generally regarded as the normal sulphate, while the soluble salt, often called the ‘neutral sulphate’ is considered to be an acid salt. This change in nomenclature results from doubling the atomic weight of the alkaloid quinine:—

1. Quinine Acid, Sulphate of. (C20P24N3O2.H2SO4.7Aq.) Syn. Sulphate of quinine†, Neutral sulphate of quinine†, Soluble s. of q.; Quinæ sulphas solubilis, L. Prep. From sulphate of quinine, 1 oz., dissolved, by the aid of heat, in water, ⁄2 pint, previously acidulated with dilute sulphuric acid, 5 fl. dr.; the solution affords crystals on cooling, and more on evaporation.

Obs. This salt possesses the advantage of being soluble in about 10 parts of water at 60° Fahr.; but it is seldom used in the crystalline form; still, as the officinal sulphate (‘disulphate’) is generally prescribed along with a small quantity of dilute sulphuric acid to render it soluble, this acid sulphate is, in fact, the compound which is commonly given. It is the ‘bisulphate,’ ‘supersulphate,’ or ‘acid sulphate of quina’ of Soubeiran and other Continental chemists.

2. Quinine, Sulphate of. (C20H24N2O2)2.2H2SO4.7Aq. Syn. Normal sulphate of quinine, Disulphate of q., Quinine; Quinæ disulphas (Ph. L.), Quinæ sulphas (Ph. E., D., & U. S., & P. Cod.), Quinæ sulphas (B. P.), L.; Sulphate de quinine, Fr. Prep. 1. (Ph. L. 1836.) Take of yellow cinchona bark, bruised, 7 lbs.; sulphuric acid, 4⁄4 oz.; (diluted with) water, 6 galls.; boil them for 1 hour, and strain; repeat this a second time for 1 hour, with a like quantity of acid and water, and again strain; next boil the bark for 3 hours, in water, 8 galls., and strain; wash the residue with fresh quantities of boiling distilled water; to the mixed decoctions and washings, add moist hydrated oxide of lead to saturation, decant the supernatant fluid, and wash the sediment with distilled water; boil down the liquor for 15 minutes, and strain, then precipitate the quina with liquor of ammonia and wash the precipitate (with very cold water) until nothing alkaline is perceptible; saturate what remains with sulphuric acid, ⁄2 oz., diluted with water, q. s., digest with animal charcoal, 2 oz., and strain; lastly, the charcoal being well washed, evaporate the mixed liquors, that crystals may form.

2. (Ph. E.) This process varies from the last one, in the bark (1 lb.) being first boiled in water (4 pints) along with carbonate of soda (4 oz.); the residuum, being pressed, is moistened with water, and again pressed, and this operation is repeated a second and a third time, the object being to remove, as much as possible, the acids, colouring matter, gum, and extractive, before proceeding to extract the alkaloid. Carbonate of soda is also used as the precipitant, instead of ammonia, and the precipitate is formed into a sulphate (disulphate) by being stirred with boiling water, 1 pint, to which sulphuric acid, 1 fl. scruple, or q. s., is subsequently added. The crystals, after digestion with prepared animal charcoal, 2 dr., are ordered to be dried at a heat not higher than 140° Fahr.

3. (Ph. D.) Yellow bark, 1 lb., is macerated for 24 hours in water, 2 quarts, acidulated with oil of vitriol, 2 fl. dr., and then boiled for half an hour, after which the fluid is decanted; this is repeated a second and a third time with water, 2 quarts, and oil of vitriol, 1 fl. dr.; the decanted (or strained) liquors are evaporated to a quart, and filtered, and slaked lime, 1 oz., or q. s., added to the solution until it exhibits a decidedly alkaline reaction; the precipitate is next collected on a calico filter, and, after having been washed with cold water, partially dried on porous bricks, and subjected to powerful pressure enveloped in blotting paper, is boiled for 20 minutes in rectified spirit, 1 pint, and the liquid, after subsidence, decanted; this is repeated a second and a third time with a fresh pint of spirit, and the residuum being well pressed, the mixed liquors are filtered, and the spirit removed by distillation; the brown viscid residuum is dissolved in boiling water, 16 fl. oz., boiled, and dilute sulphuric acid, ⁄2 fl. oz, or q. s., added to render the solution neutral or only slightly acid; animal charcoal, ⁄2 oz., is next stirred in, the mixture boiled for about 5 minutes, filtered, and set aside to crystallise; the crystals are dried on blotting paper by mere exposure to a dry atmosphere.

4. (B. P.) Yellow cinchona bark, in coarse powder, 16; hydrochloric acid, 3; distilled water, a sufficiency; solution of soda, 80; dilute sulphuric acid, a sufficiency. Dilute the hydrochloric acid with 10 pints of the water. Place the bark in a porcelain basin, and add to it as much of the diluted hydrochloric acid as will render it thoroughly moist. After maceration, with occasional stirring, for twenty-four hours, place the bark in a displacement apparatus, and percolate with the diluted hydrochloric acid until the solution which drops through is nearly destitute of bitter taste. Into this liquid (hydrochlorate of quinine) pour the solution of soda, agitate well, let the precipitate (quinine) completely subside, decant the supernatant fluid, collect the precipitate on a filter, and wash it with cold distilled water until the washings cease to have colour. Transfer the precipitate to a porcelain dish containing a pint of distilled water, and, applying to this the heat of a water bath, gradually add diluted sulphuric acid until very nearly the whole of the precipitate has been dissolved, and a neutral liquid has been obtained. (Or add about half the precipitated quinine to some water in an evaporating basin, warm the mixture and pour in diluted sulphuric acid until the precipitate has dissolved and the liquid is neutral or only faintly acid, then add the other half, stir well, and again heat liquid.) Filter the solution (sulphate of quinine), while hot, through paper, wash the filter with boiling distilled water, concentrate till a film forms on the surface of the solution, and set it aside to crystallise. The crystals should be dried on filtering paper without the application of heat.

5. “Those who are well acquainted with the chemistry of the cinchona-alkaloids all agree with me in condemning the boiling of bark with dilute acids. I prefer the following method, which can also be used on a small scale for quinometry:—

“Yellow bark, or any other bark in which quinine prevails, like, for instance, that of Cinchona officinalis, 1 lb., is mixed with milk of lime, made from 4 oz. of lime and 40 oz. of water. After drying this mixture it is exhausted with strong methylated spirit (the strongest possible) and the slightly coloured solution neutralised with sulphuric acid, so that the liquor has a slight acid reaction upon blue litmus paper. After filtering or subsiding, the clear liquid is distilled and the residue in the still dissolved in water, carefully neutralised, so that the solution has a slight alkaline reaction upon red litmus paper, treated with charcoal and crystallised, &c.”—De Vrij.

6. (‘Hospital sulphate’—Mr E. Herring.) The crushed bark is boiled in a solution of caustic soda or potassa, to extract colouring matter and gum; it is then pressed, washed with cold water, a second time boiled with a solution of caustic alkali, and again pressed, washed, and pressed; the decoloured and purified bark is next exhausted by coction with acidulated water, in the usual way, and the filtered mixed decoctions are precipitated with carbonate of soda; the precipitated quina is then dissolved in hot dilute sulphuric acid, to saturation, when the ‘HOSPITAL SULPHATE’ crystallises out as the solution cools; this is, lastly, washed with a little cold water, drained, and dried.—The advantage of this process is the non-use of animal charcoal as a bleacher, and the consequent less cost of the product. In the preparation of his ‘WHITE SULPHATE,’ Mr Herring uses benzol as a solvent, instead of alcohol. Patent dated July 28th, 1853.

Prop. When pure, sulphate of quinine forms very light, delicate, flexible, white needles, which are efflorescent, inodorous, and intensely bitter; it is soluble in 740 parts of water at 60°, and in 30 parts at 212° Fahr.; it takes about 80 parts of cold rectified spirit for its solution, but is freely soluble in boiling alcohol and in acidulated water; it melts at 240° Fahr., and is charred and destroyed at a heat below that of redness. The crystals contain 76·1% of quinine, 8·7% of sulphuric acid, and 15·2% of water; of the last, they lose about 3-4ths by exposure to dry air, and nearly the whole when kept in a state of fusion for some time.

Pur. This may not be inferred from the form of its crystallisation, for the sulphates of quinidine and of cinchonidine may be obtained in the same form of crystallisation. As mentioned already, the reaction with chlorine and ammonia does not distinguish quinine from quinidine, as both give the same green colour. “It is entirely soluble in water (hot), and more readily so when an acid is present. Precipitated by ammonia, the residuary liquid, after evaporation, should not taste of sugar. By a gentle heat it loses 8% or 10% of water. It is wholly consumed by heat. If chlorine be first added, and then ammonia, it becomes green.” (Ph. L. 1836.) “On adding chloride of barium to 100 gr. of this salt, dissolved in water mixed with hydrochloric acid, 26·6 gr. of sulphate of baryta, dried at a red heat, are prepared.” (Ph. L. 1851.) “A solution of 10 gr., in 1 fl. oz. of distilled water, and 2 or 3 drops of sulphuric acid, if decomposed by a solution of ⁄2 oz. of carbonate of soda, in two waters, and heated until the precipitate shrinks and fuses, yields, on cooling, a solid mass, which, when dry, weighs 7·4 gr. and when reduced to powder, dissolves entirely in a solution of oxalic acid.” (Ph. E.)

Adult. Sulphate of quinine is said to be often adulterated with starch, magnesia, gum, sugar, cinchonine, quinidine, &c.; but, according to De Vrij, those with starch, magnesia, gum, and sugar, are very rare if ever they were really observed. Very frequent are those with the sulphates of the other cinchona-alkaloids, and these become even still more frequent, as very different kinds of bark are used for the manufacture of quinine. Salicin is, if ever, but very seldom used for adulteration of quinine. The best practical test for the purity of sulphate of quinine is the following:—A saturated solution of the salt is made at 60° Fahr., and one part of this solution is mixed with 2 or 3 minims of a concentrated solution of iodide of potassium, whilst another part is mixed with 2 or 3 minims of a concentrated solution of tartrate of potash and soda. If the sulphate of quinine is pure its solution will remain unaltered by both reagents, even after rubbing the sides of the test tube with a glass rod and standing many hours. But if it contains one or more of the other cinchona-alkaloids there will appear either precipitates or striæ on the glass where it has been rubbed by the glass rod. Iodide of potassium indicates particularly the presence of even traces of quinidine, but also of cinchonidine and cinchonine, provided their quantity be not too small. Tartrate of potash and soda indicate, under these circumstances, only the presence of cinchonidine. The first three remain undissolved when the salt is digested in spirit; the fourth is dissolved out by cold water; the fifth may be detected by its total insolubility in ether; or, by precipitating the quinine by solution of potassa, and dissolving the precipitate in boiling alcohol; cinchonine crystallises out as the solution cools, but the quinine remains in the mother liquor; and the last, by the greater solubility and sp. gr. of the salt, &c. If the sample disengages ammoniacal fumes when treated with liquor of potassa, it contains sal ammoniac. The presence of most foreign organic substances is also shown by the sample being turned brown, and being soon charred when treated with a drop of concentrated sulphuric acid. If it turn red it contains salicin, a substance which is now frequently used to adulterate sulphate of quinine. The pure sulphate is not discoloured by this reagent.

Uses, &c. The sulphate is more extensively employed than any of the other salts of quinine, and, indeed, to almost the exclusion of them. It is the article intended to be used whenever ‘sulphate’ or ‘disulphate’ of quinine, or even ‘quinine,’ is ordered for medicinal purposes, unless the name is qualified by some other term. It is a most valuable stomachic, in doses of ⁄4 to 1 gr.; as a tonic, 1 to 3 gr.; and as a febrifuge, 2 to 20 gr.

Quinine, Sulpho-tar′trate of. Syn. Quinæ Sulpho-tartras, L. Prep. From sulphate of quinine, 4 parts; tartaric acid, 5 parts; distilled water, 20 parts; mix, gently evaporate to dryness, and powder the residuum.

Quinine, Tan′nate of. Syn. Quinæ tannas, L. Prep. Dissolve sulphate of quinine in slightly acidulated water, and add a solution of tannic acid as long as a precipitate forms; wash this with a little cold water, and dry it. The Ph. Græca orders infusion of galls to be used as the precipitant. In intermittent neuralgia.

Quinine, Tar′trate of. Syn. Quinæ tartras, L. Prep. (P. Cod.) From tartaric acid and quinine, as the acetate.

Quinine, Vale′′rianate of. Syn. Quinæ valerianas (Ph. D.), L. Prep. 1. As the acetate or citrate.

2. (Ph. D.) Valerianate of soda, 124 gr., distilled water, 2 fl. oz.; dissolve; also dissolve hydrochlorate of quinine, 7 dr., in distilled water, 14 fl. oz.; next heat each solution to 120° (not higher), mix them, and set the vessel aside for 24 hours; lastly, press the mass of crystals thus obtained, and dry them, without the application of artificial heat.

Prop., &c. Silky needles and prisms; its solution suffers decomposition when heated much above 120° Fahr. It is powerfully antispasmodic, antiperiodic, and nervine.—Dose, ⁄2 gr., every two hours, or 1 to 3 gr. twice or thrice daily; in epilepsy, hemicrania, hysteria, neuralgia, and other nervous affections.

QUININE AND COD-LIVER OIL. Syn. Cod-liver oil with quinine, Quiniaretted cod-liver oil; Oleum morrhuæ cum quinâ, Oleum jecoris aselli cum quinâ, L. This medicine is a solution of pure anhydrous quinine in pure cod-liver oil.

Prep. 1. Pure quinine (preferably recently precipitated) is fused in a glass or porcelain capsule by the heat of an oil or sand bath, carefully applied, by which it assumes a brown colour and the appearance of a resin; it is then allowed to cool out of contact with the air, after which it is reduced to powder in a dry mortar, and added to pure pale Newfoundland cod-liver oil, gently heated in a closed glass vessel over a water bath; the solution of the alkaloid is promoted by constant agitation, and, when complete, the vessel, still corked, is set aside in a dark situation to cool; when the ‘quiniaretted oil’ is quite cold it is put into bottles, in the usual manner, and preserved as much as possible from the light and air.

2. The anhydrous quinine is dissolved in a little anhydrous ether before adding it to the oil, which in this case need not be heated, as the union is effected by simple agitation; should this not take place, it may be gently warmed for a few minutes.

3. The anhydrous quinine is dissolved in anhydrous alcohol, and after being added to the oil, the whole is gently heated, in an open vessel, by the heat of a water bath, until the alcohol is expelled; agitation, &c., being had recourse to as in No. 1.

Prop., &c. The above preparation resembles ordinary cod-liver oil, except in having a pale yellowish colour and a slightly bitter taste, similar to that of cinchona bark. It is said to possess all the properties of cod-liver oil combined with those peculiar to quinine, by which the tonic, stomachic, and antiperiodic qualities of the latter are associated, in one remedy, with the genial supporting, and alterative action of the other. The common strength is 2 gr. of quinine per oz.

QUININE AND I′RON. These two important medicinal agents are combined together in various ways. The following compound salts are often prescribed.

Quinine and Iron, Cit′rate of. Syn. Citrate of iron and quinine; Ferri et quinæ citras, B. P. Prep. 1. (B. P.) Solution of persulphate of iron, 4⁄2; sulphate of quinia, 1; dilute sulphuric acid, 1⁄2; citric acid, 3; solution of ammonia and distilled water, of each a sufficiency; mix 8 of the solution of ammonia with 40 of the water, and to this add the solution of persulphate of iron, previously diluted with 40 of the water, stirring them constantly and briskly. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours, stirring it occasionally, then put it on a calico filter, and when the liquid has drained away, wash the precipitate with distilled water until that which passes through the filter ceases to give a precipitate with chloride of barium. Mix the sulphate of quinia with 8 of the water, add the sulphuric acid, and when the salt is dissolved, precipitate the quinia with a slight excess of solution of ammonia. Collect the precipitate on a filter, and wash it with 30 of the water. Dissolve the citric acid in 5 of the water, and having applied the heat of a water bath, add the oxide of iron, previously well drained; stir them together, and when the oxalic acid has dissolved, add the precipitated quinia, continuing the agitation until this also has dissolved. Let the solution cool, then add, in small quantities at a time, 1⁄2 solution of ammonia, dilute with 2 of the water, stirring the solution briskly, and allowing the quinia which separates with each addition of ammonia to dissolve before the next addition is made. Filter the solution, evaporate it to the consistence of a thin syrup, then dry it in layers on flat porcelain or glass plates, at the temperature of 100° Fahr., remove the dry salt in flakes, and keep it in a stoppered bottle. Solubility, 2 in 1.—Test. Taste bitter as well as chalybeate. When burned with exposure to air, it leaves a residue (oxide of iron) which yields nothing to water. 50 gr., dissolved in an ounce of water, and treated with a slight excess of ammonia, gives a white precipitate (quinia) which, when collected on a filter and dried, weighs 8 gr. The precipitate is entirely soluble in pure ether, indicating absence of quinidia and cinchonia. When burned it leaves no residue. When dissolved by the aid of an acid it forms a solution which, after decolorisation by a little purified animal charcoal, turns the plane of polarisation strongly to the left (cinchona turns it to the right).—Dose, 5 to 10 gr. as a tonic, three times a day, in solution or in pill.

2. (Ph. U. S.) Triturate sulphate of quinine, 1 oz., with distilled water, 6 fl. oz., and having added sufficient diluted sulphuric acid to dissolve it, cautiously pour into the solution water of ammonia with constant stirring, until in slight excess. Wash the precipitated quinine on a filter, and having added solution of citrate of iron, 10 fl. oz., keep the whole at a temperature of 120° by means of a water bath, and stir constantly until the alkaloid is dissolved. Lastly, evaporate the solution to the consistence of a syrup, and spread it on plates of glass, so that, on drying, the salt may be obtained in scales.—Dose, 2 gr. to 5 gr.

Quinine and Iron, I′odide of. Syn. Quinæ et ferri iodidum, L. Prep. From protiodide of iron, 2 parts; hydriodate of quinine, 1 part; rectified spirit, 12 parts; heat them together, and either evaporate to dryness or crystallise by refrigeration. A powder, or crystalline scales.

Quinine and Iron, Sul′phate of. Syn. Ferrosulphate of quinine; Quinæ ferro-sulphas, Quinæ et ferri sulphas, L. Prep. From solutions of the sulphates of iron and quinine, in atomic proportions, mixed whilst hot, and the crystals which form as the liquid cools carefully dried and preserved from the air.

QUININE AND MERCURY. See Mercuric and Quinine chloride.

QUINOA. The seed of this plant (a species of Chenopodium) is largely consumed by the people who dwell in the elevated regions of Chili and Peru, in which countries it is found growing at a height of some 13,000 feet above the sea-level. Mr Johnston says there are two varieties of it, a sweet and a bitter one. It is a highly nutritious cereal, resembling ointment in properties.

According to Voelker, quinoa has the following composition:

Quinoa seeds
dried at 212° F. Quinoa flour.

Nitrogenous matter 22·86 19

Starch 56·80 60

Fatty matter 5·74 5

Vegetable fibre 9·53 —

Ash 5·05 —

Water — 16

QUINOID′INE. Syn. Amorphous quinine, Chinoidine; Quina amorpha, Quina informis, Quinoidia, Quinoidina, Quinoidinum, Chinoideum, L. A few years after the discovery of the quinine by Pelletier and Caventou, Sertuerner, a German physician, and known as the discoverer of morphia, obtained, by a peculiar method, from yellow bark, an amorphous alkaloid which was called by him Chinoidin (to which the name amorphous quinine is improperly given), and also fever-killer (Fiebertödter). He found that not only this alkaloid itself, but also all its compounds with acids, were equally amorphous. As recent investigations have proved that this amorphous alkaloid occurs in all cinchona barks, and is found particularly in many young Indian barks in great quantity, it is quite natural that in the manufacture of quinine the uncrystallisable sulphate of this alkaloid should accumulate in the mother liquors of the sulphate of quinine. From such liquors it is precipitated in an impure state by an alkali, and brought into commerce under the name of quinoidine. As this amorphous alkaloid has the property of preventing the crystallisation of the salts of the other alkaloids, particularly those of quinidine, it is clear that the quinoidine of commerce very often contains quinidine and also cinchonidine. Dr de Vrij, for instance, found sometimes more than 20% of quinidine in some samples of quinoidine of commerce. Although commercial quinoidine contains many impurities which may have their origin partly in the adulteration of the cinchona-alkaloids, unadulterated quinoidine, no doubt, chiefly consists of the amorphous alkaloid discovered by Sertuerner.

The quinoidine of commerce ought never to be used in medicine unless purified. For this purification there are two methods: 1. That of Mr Bullock, which gives the purer but the more expensive product. Crude quinoidine is exhausted with ether, which, after defecation, is distilled off, leaving the purified quinoidine behind. This process has been patented in England by Mr Bullock. 2. That of Dr de Vrij, which consists in boiling 9 parts of crude quinoidine with a solution of 2 parts of oxalate of ammonium in water. By this process the alkaloids contained in the quinoidine are dissolved whilst the impurities, and amongst them the lime which is often contained in the crude quinoidine, remain undissolved. The solution is mixed with a large bulk of water, then filtered and the purified quinoidine precipitated by a slight excess of liquor of soda.

Prop., &c. In its crude form quinoidine somewhat resembles aloes; in its purest state it is a yellowish-brown, resin-like mass, freely soluble in alcohol and ether, but nearly insoluble in water; with the acids it forms dark-coloured, uncrystallisable salts. It is powerfully febrifuge, but less so than either quinidine or quinine, although it is identical in chemical composition with both of them.—Dose, 2 to 4 gr. for adults, ⁄4 to 1 gr. for children, given in wine, lemonade, or acidulated honey.

QUINOM′ETRY. Syn. Cinchonometry. The art of estimating the quantity of quinine in cinchona bark, and in the commercial salts of this alkaloid.

Proc. 1. For bark.—a. (Ph. E.) A filtered decoction of 100 gr. of bark, in distilled water, 2 fl. oz., is precipitated with 1 fl. dr., or q. s. of a concentrated solution of carbonate of soda; the precipitate, after being heated in the fluid so as to become a fused mass, and having again become cold, is dried and weighed. “It should be 2 gr., or more, and entirely dissolve in a solution of oxalic acid.” To render the result strictly accurate, the product should be dissolved in 10 parts of proof spirit, containing ⁄20th of sulphuric acid, and to this solution carefully added an alcoholic solution of iodine as long as there appears a brown precipitate, which immediately turns black by stirring with a glass rod. This precipitate, collected upon a filter, washed with strong alcohol and dried on a water bath, is Herapath’s iodosulphate of quinine, of which 100 parts represent 56·5 parts of pure quinine.

b. (Rebourdain.) 100 gr. of the bark (coarsely powdered) are exhausted with acidulated water, and the filtered solution rendered alkaline with solution of potassa; it is next shaken with about 1-3rd of its volume of chloroform, and then allowed to repose for a short time; the chloroform holding the alkaloid in solution sinks to the bottom of the vessel in a distinct stratum, from which the supernatant liquid is separated by decantation; the chloroformic solution, either at once or after being washed with a little cold water, is allowed to evaporate; the residuum, when weighed, gives the per-centage richness of the sample.

Obs. A like result may be obtained with ether instead of chloroform; in which case the solution of quinine will form the upper stratum.

c. Instead of Rebourdain’s process, Dr de Vrij prefers that of Charles, so far as regards the separation of the total mixed alkaloids from the bark. To this mixture is applied the process mentioned above (a), viz. solution in acidulated proof spirit, &c.

2. For the SALTS. The above methods, as well as several others which have been devised for the purpose, may also be applied to the salts of quinine; but, unfortunately, they are inapplicable when great accuracy is required, owing to the non-recognition of the presence of quinidine, as such, and which, consequently, goes to swell the apparent richness of the sample in quinine. The following ingenious method, invented by Dr Ure, not merely enables us to detect the presence of cinchonine and quinidine in commercial samples of the salts of quinine, but, with some trifling modifications, it also enables us to determine the quantity of each of these alkaloids present in any sample:—“10 gr. of the salts to be examined” (the sulphate is here more especially referred to) “is put into a strong test-tube, furnished with a tight-fitting cork; to this are to be added 10 drops of dilute sulphuric acid (1 acid and 5 water), with 15 drops of water, and a gentle heat applied to accelerate solution. This having been effected, and the solution entirely cooled, 60 drops of officinal sulphuric ether, with 20 drops of liquor of ammonia, must be added, and the whole well shaken while the top is closed by the thumb. The tube is then to be closely stopped, and shaken gently from time to time, so that the bubbles of air may readily enter the layer of ether. If the salt be free from cinchonine and quinidine, or contain the latter in no greater proportion than 10%, it will be completely dissolved; while on the surface, where contact of the two layers of clear fluid takes place, the mechanical impurities only will be separated. After some time the layer of ether becomes hard and gelatinous, and no further observation is possible.”

“From the above statement respecting the solubility of quinidine in ether, it appears that the 10 gr. of the salt examined may contain 1 gr. of quinidine, and still a complete solution with ether and ammonia may follow; but in this case the quinidine will shortly begin to crystallise in a layer of ether. The least trace of quinidine may be yet more definitely detected by employing, instead of the ordinary ether, some ether previously saturated with quinidine, by which means all of the quinidine contained in the quinine examined must remain undissolved. It is particularly requisite, in performing this last experiment, to observe, (immediately) after the shaking, whether all has dissolved; for, owing to the great tendency of quinidine to crystallisation, it may become again separated in a crystalline form, and be a source of error.”

“If more than 1-10th of quinidine or (any) cinchonine be present, there will be found an insoluble precipitate at the limits of the two layers of fluid. If this be quinidine, it will be dissolved on the addition of proportionately more ether, while cinchonine will remain unaffected.”

Note. To Dr Ure’s test Dr de Vrij prefers, for several reasons, Dr Kerner’s test, ‘Zeitschrift für Analytische Chemie,’ von Fresenius, 1st Jahrg, 1862; ‘Ueber Die Prufung des Käuflichen Schwefelsauren Chinins auf fremde Alkaloides,’ von Dr G. Keraer.

QUINOVIC ACID. C28H33O4. This is insoluble in water, also in chloroform, and difficultly soluble in alcohol. It can be obtained from the boiling alcoholic solution, by cooling, in small crystals. In the leaves, bark, and wood of the cinchona tree this acid is contained, together with quinovin, and it is this mixture which has been recently applied in therapeutics, as a powerful tonic in cases of dysentery, &c. The mixture can easily be obtained from the leaves, bark, or wood of cinchona, and even from bark which has been exhausted by ebullition with water or diluted acids, by cold maceration with weak milk of lime, by which it is dissolved, as it combines easily with bases. It is only the quinovate of lime which has till now been used in medicine.—Dose, 2 to 8 gr. every two hours.

QUINOVIN. C30H48O8. Syn. Cinchovin, Quinovia.

QUINOVIN. A very bitter amorphous glucoside contained in the genus Cinchona, Nauslea, and probably in many other allied genera. It is insoluble in water, very soluble in rectified spirit and in chloroform, with which last liquid it forms, in concentrated solutions, a jelly. If a current of hydrochloric gas is passed into its alcoholic solution the liquid becomes hot and the quinovin is split up into a peculiar kind of sugar.

QUIN′QUINA. Dr de Vrij states that the substance known under this name is a mixture of hydrochlorate of cinchonidine and of cinchonine. See Cinchona.

QUIN′SY. See Throat affections.

QUINTES′SENCE. Syn. Quinta essentia, L. A term invented by the alchemists to represent a concentrated alcoholic solution of the active principles of organic bodies. It is still occasionally employed in perfumery and the culinary art. See Essence, Tincture, &c.

QUITTOR. It generally shows itself at the top or coronet of the hoof of the horse, in the form of a fistulous opening (whence quittor is also called ‘the pipes’), filled with a purulent discharge.

Quittor invariably points to the presence of an internal ulcer, abscess, or some other irritating cause, the discharge from which, accumulating under the hard hoof, slowly works its way to the surface. The origin of quittor is generally some injury to the hoof, such as a corn, a prick, or an inequality of tread.

The first thing to be done is to remove the animal’s shoe, to cut away any dead or discoloured horn, so as to reach the seat of the suppuration, and to allow it to escape by a more direct outlet. Hot-water fomentations and poultices should afterwards be applied for a few days. Should the sores show an indisposition to heal, the parts should be washed with a tolerably strong solution of sulphate of zinc, or of bichloride of mercury—25 grams of the latter to an ounce of water. The application of strong caustics is to be particularly deprecated.

QUOTID′IAN. Occurring or returning daily. See Ague.

RAB′BIT. The Lepus cuniculus (Linn.) of the Cuvian order Rodentia. The domestic rabbit, when young, is a light and wholesome article of food, approaching in delicacy to the common barn-door fowl; but has less flavour than the wild animal. The fat is among the ‘simples’ of the Ph. L. 1618. Its hair and skin are made into cheap furs, gloves, hats, &c.

Composition of Rabbit’s Flesh (Bartlett).

Rabbit No. 1.
Grains. Rabbit No. 2.
Grains. Rabbit No. 3.
Grains. Average
Grains. Percentage.
Grains.

Water 5,982 6,623 7,315 6,640 73·17

Fibrin and Syntonin 1,143 1,247 1,393 1,261 13·90

Gelatin 302 335 350 329 3·63

Fat 240 272 345 286 3·15

Albumen 276 305 340 307 3·38

Alcoholic extract, including salts 106 119 135 120 1·32

Watery extract 102 108 125 112 1·23

Calcium phosphates 16 19 25 20 0·22

Edible portion 8,167 9,028 10,029 9,075 100·00

Additional gelatin from stewing bones 215 232 251 233 2·06

Bones, &c., dissected out and stewed 1,501 1,674 1,854 2,027 17·88

Shank bones, fur and eyes, thrown away 313 352 382 waste.

10,201 11,286 12,516 11,335 ...

Rabbit Pie. Cut up two young rabbits, season with white pepper, salt, a little mace, and nutmeg, all in fine powder; add also a little cayenne. Pack the rabbit with slices of ham, forcemeat balls, and hard eggs, by turns in layers. If it is to be baked in a dish add a little water, but omit the water if it is to be raised in a crust. By the time it is taken out of the oven have ready a gravy of knuckle of veal, or a bit of the scrag, with some shank bones of mutton, seasoned with herbs, onions, mace, and white pepper. If the pie is to be eaten hot, truffles, morels or mushrooms may be added, but not if intended to be eaten cold. If it be made in a dish put as much gravy as will fill the dish, but in raised crusts the gravy must be carefully strained, and then put in cold as jelly.

Rabbit Pudding. Cut a rabbit into sixteen pieces, and slice a quarter of a pound of bacon; season with chopped sage, pepper, and salt; then add potatoes and onions according to the size of the family, and half a pint of water. Boil for two hours. The meat and vegetables must be well mixed. Rice may be substituted for potatoes if preferred.

Rabbit, Ragout of. “Wash and clean a good-sized Ostend rabbit; boil the liver and heart, chop them, and mix with veal stuffing; fill the rabbit, sew it up, and tie it into shape. Put a piece of fat beef and 1 lb. of bacon, cut in slices, into a saucepan, with 1 oz. of dripping; put in the rabbit to brown, turning it over to brown both sides; pour off the dripping, and put in 1 quart of water; let it simmer gently an hour and a half. A quarter of an hour before serving skim off all the fat, and thicken the gravy with a little corn flour; season with pepper and salt, and, if liked, stew a bunch of herbs and half an onion with it. Lay the rabbit on a dish with the bacon round it, and pour the gravy over.” (Tegetmeier.)

RAC′AHOUT. Syn. Racahout des Arabes. This is said to be farina prepared from the acorns of Quercus Ballota, or Barbary oak, disguised with a little flavouring. The following is recommended as an imitation:—Roasted cacao or chocolate nuts, 4 oz.; tapioca, and potato farina, of each 6 oz.; white sugar, slightly flavoured with vanilla, ⁄2 lb. Very nutritious. Used as arrow-root.

RACE′MIC ACID. Syn. Paratartaric acid. This compound was discovered by Kestner in 1820, replacing tartaric acid in grape juice of the Department of the Vosges. Racemic acid and tartaric acid have exactly the same composition, and yield, when exposed to heat, the same products; the racemates also correspond in the closest manner with the tartrates. Racemic acid is rather less soluble than tartaric, and separates first from a solution containing the two acids. A solution of racemic acid precipitates a neutral salt of calcium, which is not the case with tartaric acid. A solution of racemic acid does not affect a ray of polarised light, while a solution of tartaric acid rotates the ray to the right.

“Dessargnes and Jungfleisch found by experiment that under the influence of heat ordinary tartaric acid is readily transformed into inactive tartaric acid and racemic acid, and the latter chemist thought to find in this fact an explanation of the production of racemic acid.

“But observations continued through many years upon mother liquors from various tartaric acid factories showed that although more or less inactive tartaric acid was present in all of them, racemic acid was not, even when they had been subjected to prolonged treatment, and its occurrence in appreciable quantity was confined to a small number of specimens. In fact, some samples of mother liquor from factories where evaporation was carried on in a partial vacuum contained more racemic acid than others from factories where evaporation was carried on over a pure fire. Recently Jungfleisch noticed that the liquors richest in inactive tartaric acid were also rich in alumina, and the suspicion that alumina favoured the conversion was confirmed by direct experiment; also that the neutral aluminum sulphate has but little action. Jungfleisch has come to the conclusion that when there is an accumulation of alumina on the mother liquor, the conditions are favorable for the production of a large proportion of inactive tartaric acid, and a small proportion of racemic acid, although when the latter is present in considerable quantity, it becomes the most manifest through its comparative insolubility. Examination of liquors from which racemic acid has been deposited has always shown them to contain much inactive tartaric acid. This theory does not exclude the probability that certain vines under particular conditions produce racemic acid.”

RACK′ING. See Cider and Wines.

RAD′ICLE. Syn. Radical. According to the binary theory of the constitution of saline compounds, every salt is composed, like chloride of sodium (NaCl), of two sides or parts, which are termed its radicals. That part of a salt which consists of a metal, or of a body exercising the chemical functions of one, is called the metallic, basic, or basylous radical; while the other part, which, like chlorine, by combining with hydrogen would produce an acid, is designated the chlorous or acidulous radical. Every salt, therefore, consists of a basic and of an acid radical. Sometimes radicals are elementary in their nature, when they are called simple; and sometimes they are made up of a group of elements, when they are termed compound. Some radicals, both simple and compound, have been isolated, while many have but a hypothetical existence. In the following formulæ the vertical line separates the basic from the acid radicals, the former being on the left, the latter on the right:—

H F Hydrofluoric acid (Fluoride of hydrogen).

Na Cl Chloride of sodium.

K CN Cyanide of potassium.

Ca CO3 Carbonate of calcium.

NH4 Cl Chloride of ammonium.

C2H5 NO2 Nitrite of ethyl.

RAD′ISH. The common garden radish (Raphanus, L.) is the root of Raphanus sativus (Linn.), one of the Cruciferæ. There are several varieties. They are all slightly diuretic and laxative, and possess considerable power in exciting the appetite. The seed is pressed for oil. The horseradish (ARMORACIA, L.) belongs to a distinct genus.

RAIN-GAUGE. Syn. Ombometer, Pluviameter, Udometer. An instrument for determining the quantity of water, which falls as rain, at any given place. A simple and convenient rain-gauge for agricultural purposes is formed of a wide mouthed funnel, or open receiver, connected with a glass tube furnished with a stop-cock. The diameter of the tube may be exactly 1-100th that of the receiver, and if the tube be graduated into inches and tenths, the quantity of rain that falls may be easily read off to the 1-1000th of an inch. The instrument should be set in some perfectly open situation; and, for agricultural purposes, with its edge as nearly level with the ground as possible. Another form of gauge is furnished with a float, the height of which marks the amount of liquid. The diameter of the gauge should range between 4 and 8 inches. The quantity of water should be duly measured and registered at 9 a.m. daily.

Mr Symonds, F.R.B.S., has drawn the following code of instructions for the guidance of those registering the amount of rainfall at any locality:—

1. Site. A rain-gauge should not be set on a slope or terrace, but on a level piece of ground, at a distance from shrubs, trees, walls, and buildings—at the very least as many feet from their base as they are in height.

Tall growing flowers, vegetables, and bushes must be kept away from the gauges. If a thoroughly clear site cannot be obtained, shelter is most endurable from north-west, north, and east; less so from south, south-east, and west; and not at all from south-west or north-east.

2. Old Gauges. Old-established gauges should not be moved, nor their registration discontinued, until at least two years after a new one has been in operation, otherwise the continuity of the register will be irreparably destroyed. Both the old and the new ones must be registered at the same time, and the results recorded for comparison.

3. Level. The funnel of a rain-gauge must be set quite level, and so firmly fixed that it will remain so, in spite of any gale of wind or ordinary circumstances. Its correctness in this respect should be tested from time to time.

4. Height. The funnel of gauges newly placed should be one foot above grass. Information respecting height above sea level may be obtained from G. J. Symons, Esq., 64, Camden Square, N.W., London.

5. Rust. If the funnel of a japanned gauge become so oxidised as to retain the rain in its pores, or threatens to become rusty, it should have a coat of gas tar or japan black, or a fresh funnel of zinc or copper should be provided.

6. Float Gauges. If the measuring rod is detached from the float it should never be left in the gauge; if it is attached to the float it should be pegged or tied down, and only allowed to rise to its proper position at the time of reading. To allow for the weight of the float and rod these gauges are generally so constructed as to show 0 only when a small amount of water is left in them. Care must always be taken to set the rod to the zero or 0.

7. Can and Bottle Gauges. The measuring glass should always be held upright. The reading is to be taken midway between the two apparent surfaces of the water.

8. Date of Entry. The amount measured at 9 a.m. on any day is to be set against the previous one, because the amount measured at 9 a.m. of, say, the 17th, contains the fall during fifteen hours of the 16th, and only nine hours of the 17th. (The rule has been approved by the meteorological societies of England and Scotland, cannot be altered, and is particularly commended to the notice of observers.)

9. Mode of Entry. If less than one tenth (·10) has fallen, the cipher must always be prefixed; thus, if the measure is full up to the seventh line, it must be entered as ·07—that is, no inches, no tenths, and seven hundredths. For the sake of clearness it has been found necessary to lay down an invariable rule that there shall always be two figures to the right of the decimal point. If there be only one figure, as in the case of one tenth of an inch (usually written ·1), a cipher must be added, making it ·10. Neglect of this rule causes much inconvenience. All columns should be cast twice—once up and once down—so as to avoid the same error being made twice. When there is no rain a line should be drawn rather than a cipher inserted.

10. Caution. The amount should always be written down before the water is thrown away.

11. Small Quantities. The unit of measurement being ·01, observers whose gauges are sufficiently delicate to show less than that are, if the amount is under ·005, to throw it away; if it is ·005 to ·010 inclusive, they are not to enter it as ·01.

12. Absence. Every observer should train some one as an assistant; but where this is not possible, instructions should be given that the gauge should be emptied at 9 a.m. on the 1st of the month, and the water bottled, labelled, and tightly corked, to await the observer’s return.

13. Heavy Rains. When very heavy rains occur it is desirable to measure immediately on their termination; and it will be found a safe plan, after measuring, to return the water to the gauge, so that the morning registration will not be interfered with. Of course, if there is the slightest doubt as to the gauge holding all the falls it must be emptied, the amount being previously written down.

14. Snow. In snow three methods may be adopted; it is well to try them all:—(1) Melt what is caught in the funnel by adding to the snow a previously ascertained quantity of warm water, and then deducting this quantity from the total measurement, enter the residue as rain. (2) Select a place where the snow has not drifted, invert the funnel, and, turning it round, lift and melt what is enclosed. (3) Measure with a rule the average depth of snow, and take one twelfth as the equivalent of water. Some observers use in snowy weather a cylinder of the same diameter as the rain-gauge, and of considerable depth. If the wind is at all rough all the snow is blown out of a flat-funnelled rain-gauge.

15. Overflow. It would seem needless to caution observers on this head, but as a recent foreign table contains six instances in one day, in which gauges were allowed to run over, it is evidently necessary that British observers should be on the alert. It is not desirable to purchase any new gauge of which the capacity is less than four inches.

16. Second Gauges. It is often desirable that observers should have two gauges, and that one of them should be capable of holding eight inches of rain. One of the gauges should be registered daily, the other weekly or monthly, as preferred, but always on the 1st of each month. By this means a thorough check is kept on accidental errors in the entries, which is not the case if both are read daily.

17. Dew and Fog. Small amounts of water are at times deposited in rain-gauges by fog and dew. They should be added to the amount of rainfall, because (1) “they tend to water the earth and nourish the streams,” and not for that reason only, but (2) because in many cases the rain-gauges can only be visited monthly, and it would then obviously be impossible to separate the yield of snow, rain, &c.; therefore, for the sake of uniformity, all must be taken together.

18. Doubtful Entries. Whenever there is the least doubt respecting the accuracy of any observation, the entry should be marked with a ?, and the reason stated for its being placed there.

Obs. The height at which the rain-gauge is elevated from the ground is a matter of considerable moment. Thus, one observer found the fall of rain at York for twelve months (1833-1834) to be—at a height of 213 feet from the ground, 14·96 inches; at 44 feet, 19·85 inches; and on the ground, 25·71 inches.

Later experimentalists have confirmed this curious fact. Thus, Colonel Warde found the following to be the relative rainfall at different periods for the four years extending from 1864 to 1867:

Inches.

On a level with the ground 1·07

At a height of 2 inches 1·05

” 6 ” 1·01

” 1 foot 1·00

” 2 feet 0·99

” 3 ” 0·98

” 5 ” 0·96

” 10 ” 0·95

” 20 ” 0·94

One of the causes that have been assigned for this singular phenomenon has been—the greater exposure in elevated situations of the rain to dispersive action of the wind, a surmise which derives some support from the circumstance, that when a rain-gauge is placed on a building, the roof of which is flat, of large area, and with few, if any, chimneys to disturb the air currents, an amount of rain is collected equalling that obtained on the surface of the ground.

RAI′SINS. Syn. Dried grapes; Uvæ (B. P.). Uvæ siccatæ, Uva (Ph. L.), Uvæ passæ (Ph. E. & D.), L. “The prepared fruit of Vitis vinifera” (Linn.)—Ph. L. The grapes are allowed to ripen and dry on the vine. After being plucked and cleaned, they are dipped, for a few seconds, into a boiling lye of wood ashes and quicklime at 12° or 15° Baumé, to every 4 galls. of which a handful of culinary salt and a pint of salad oil has been added; they are then exposed for 12 or 14 days in the sun to dry; they are, lastly, carefully garbled, and packed for exportation. The sweet, fleshy kinds of grapes are those selected for the above treatment; and, in general, their stalks are cut about one half through, or a ring of bark is removed, to hasten their maturation.

Raisins are nutritious, cooling, antiseptic, and, in general, laxative; the latter to a greater extent than the fresh fruit. There are many varieties found in commerce. Their uses as a dessert and culinary fruit, and in the manufacture of wine, &c., are well known, and are referred to elsewhere. See Grapes, Wines, &c.

RANCID′ITY. The strong, sour flavour and odour which oleaginous bodies acquire by age and exposure to the air. For its prevention, see Fats, Oils (Fixed), &c.

RAPE OIL. See Oils (Fixed).

RASH. Erasmus Wilson notices four different affections, as included under this head:—

1. St Anthony’s fire, or ERYSIPELAS, the severest of them all, already referred to.

2. Nettle-rash, or URTICARIA, characterised by its tingling and pricking pain, and its little white elevations on a reddish ground, like the wheals caused by the sting of a nettle. This efflorescence seldom stays many hours, and, sometimes, not even many minutes, in the same place, and is multiplied or reproduced whenever any part of the skin is scratched or even touched. No part of the body is exempt from it, and when many of them occur together, and continue for an hour or two, the parts are often considerably swelled, and the features temporarily disfigured. In many cases these eruptions continue to infest the skin, sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, for one or two hours together, two or three times a day, or perhaps, for the greatest part of the twenty-four hours. In some constitutions this lasts only a few days; in others several months.

There are several varieties of nettle-rash or urticaria noticed by medical writers, among which URTICARIA FEBRILIS, PERSISTANS, and EVANIDA, are the principal.

The common cause of nettle-rash is some derangement of the digestive functions, arising either from the use of improper food or a disordered state of the nervous or other systems of the body. Lobsters, crabs, mussels, shrimps, dried fish, pork, cucumbers, mushrooms, and adulterated beer or porter, bear the character of frequently causing this affection. In childhood it commonly arises from teething. Occasionally, in persons of peculiar idiosyncrasy, the most simple article of food, as almonds, nuts, and even milk, rice, and eggs, will produce this affection.

The treatment may consist of the administration of gentle saline aperients, and in severer cases a gentle emetic, followed by the copious use of acidulated diluent drinks, as weak lemon-juice-and-water, effervescing potassa-draughts, &c., and, when required, diaphoretics. The clothing should be light, but warm, and the itching, when severe, may be allayed by the application of a lotion of water to which a little vinegar or camphorated spirit has been added; the latter must, however, be employed with caution. A hot knee-bath is useful in drawing the affection from the face and upper part of the body. A ‘compress,’ wrung out of cold water until it ceases to drip, and kept in contact with the stomach by means of a dry bandage, has been recommended to relieve excessive irritation of the stomach and bowels. It has been stated that decoction of Virginian snake-root is particularly useful in relieving chronic urticaria.

3. Red-rash, RED-BLOTCH, or FIERY SPOT, is commonly the consequence of disordered general health, of dyspepsia, and particularly, of females, of tight lacing. Sometimes it is slight and evanescent; at others it approaches in severity to the milder forms of erysipelas, there being much swelling and inflammation. Chaps, galls, excoriations, and chilblains are varieties of this disease produced by cold, excessive moisture, or friction. The treatment is similar to that of nettle-rash.

4. Rose-rash, FALSE MEASLES, or ROSEOLA, is an efflorescence, or rather a discoloration of a rose-red tint, in small irregular patches, without wheals or papulæ, which spread over the surface of the body, and are ushered in by slight febrile symptoms. There are several varieties. The causes are the same as those which produce the preceding affections, and the treatment may be similar. In all of them strict attention to the diet, and a careful avoidance of cold applications, or exposure to cold, so as to cause a retrocession, are matters of the first moment.

RASP′BERRY. Syn. Hindberry. The fruit of Rubus Idæus (Linn.), a small shrub of the natural order Rosaceæ. It is cooling, antiscorbutic, and mildly aperitive. It is frequently used to communicate a fine flavour to liqueurs, confectionery, wine, &c. See Fruits and Vegetables.

Fresenius gives the following as the composition of raspberries:

Cultivated.

Wild Red. Red. White.

Soluble Matter—

Sugar 3·597 4·708 3·703

Free acid (reduced to equivalent in malic acid) 1·980 1·356 1·115

Albuminous substances 0·546 0·544 0·665

Pectous substances, &c. 1·107 1·746 1·397

Ash 0·270 0·481 0·318

Insoluble Matter—

Seeds, Skins, &c. 8·460 4·106 4·520

Pectose 0·180 0·502 0·040

[Ash from insoluble matter included in weights given] [0·134] [0·296] [0·081]

Water 86·860 86·557 88·180

100·000 100·000 100·000

RATAFI′A. Originally a liquor drank at the ratification of an agreement or treaty. It is now the common generic name in France of liqueurs compounded of spirit, sugar, and the odoriferous and flavouring principles of vegetables, more particularly of those containing the juices of recent fruits, or the kernels of apricots, cherries, or peaches. In its unqualified sense this name is commonly understood as referring to cherry-brandy or peach-brandy.

Ratafias are prepared by distillation, maceration, or extemporaneous admixture, in the manner explained under the head LIQUEUR. The following list includes those which are commonly prepared by the French liquoristes:—

Ratafia d’Angelique. From angelica seeds, 1 dr.; angelica stalks, 4 oz.; blanched bitter almonds, bruised, 1 oz.; proof spirit or brandy, 6 quarts; digest for 10 days, filter; add, of water, 1 quart; white sugar, 3⁄2 lbs.; mix well, and in a fortnight decant the clear portion through a piece of clean flannel.

Ratafia d’Anis. See (Liqueur) Cordial, Aniseed.

Ratafia de Baume de Tolu. From balsam of Tolu, 1 oz.; rectified spirit, 1 quart; dissolve, add water, 3 pints; filter, and further add of white sugar, 1⁄2 lb. Pectoral and traumatic.

Ratafia de Brou de Noix. From young walnuts with soft shells (pricked or pierced), 60 in no.; brandy, 2 quarts; mace, cinnamon, and cloves, of each 15 gr.; digest for 8 weeks; press, filter, add of white sugar, 1 lb.; and keeping it for some months before decanting it for use. Stomachic.

Ratafia de Cacao. Syn. R. DE CHOCOLAT. From Caracca cacao-nuts, 1 lb.; West Indian do., ⁄2 lb.; (both roasted and bruised;) proof spirit, 1 gall.; digest for 14 days, filter, and add, of white sugar, 2⁄2 lbs.; tincture of vanilla, ⁄2 dr. (or shred of vanilla may be infused with the nuts in the spirit instead); lastly, decant in a month, and bottle it.

Ratafia de Café. From coffee, ground and roasted, 1 lb.; brandy or proof spirit, 1 gall.; sugar, 2 lbs. (dissolved in); water, 1 quart; as last.

Ratafia de Cassis. From black currant juice, 1 quart; cinnamon, 1 dr.; cloves and peach kernels, of each ⁄2 dr.; brandy, 1 gall.; white sugar, 3 lbs.; digest for a fortnight, and strain through flannel.

Ratafia de Cerise. From Morello cherries, with their kernels bruised, 8 lbs.; brandy or proof spirit, 1 gall.; white sugar, 2 lbs.; as last.

Ratafia de Chocolat. Ratafia de cacao (see above).

Ratafia de Coings. From quince juice, 3 quarts; bitter almonds, 3 dr.; cinnamon and coriander seeds, of each 2 dr.; mace, ⁄2 dr.; cloves, 15 gr. (all bruised); rectified spirit, (quite flavourless), ⁄2 gall.; digest for a week, filter, and add of white sugar, 3⁄2 lbs.

Ratafia de Crème. From crème de noyeau and sherry, of each ⁄4 pint; capillaire, ⁄2 pint; fresh cream, 1 pint; beaten together.

Ratafia de Curaçoa. Curaçoa.

Ratafia de Framboises. Raspberry cordial.

Ratafia de Genièvre. From juniper berries (each pricked with a fork), ⁄4 lb.; caraway and coriander seed, of each 40 gr.; finest malt spirit (22 u. p.), 1 gall.; white sugar 2 lbs.; digest a week, and strain with expression.

Ratafia de Grenoble. From the small wild black cherry (with the kernels bruised), 2 lbs.; proof spirit, 1 gall.; white sugar, 3 lbs.; citron peels, a few grains; as before.

Ratafia de Grenoble, de Teyssère. From cherries (bruised with the stones), 1 quart; rectified spirit, 2 quarts; mix, digest for 48 hours, then express the liquor, and heat it to boiling in a close vessel; when cold, add of sugar or capillaire, q. s., together with some noyeau, to flavour, and a little syrup of the bay laurel, and of galangal; in 3 months decant, and bottle it.

Ratafia de Noyeau. From peach or apricot kernels (bruised), 120 in no.; proof spirit or brandy, 2 quarts; white sugar, 1 lb.; digest for a week, press, and filter.

Ratafia de Œillets. From clove-pinks (without the white buds), 4 lbs.; cinnamon and cloves, of each 15 gr.; proof spirit, 1 gall.; macerate for 10 days, express the tincture, filter, and add of white sugar, 2⁄2 lbs.

Ratafia d’Ecorce d’Orange. Crème d’Orange.

Ratafia de Fleurs d’Oranger. From fresh orange petals, 2 lbs.; proof spirit, 1 gall.; white sugar, 2⁄2 lbs.; as last. Instead of orange flowers, neroli, 1 dr., may be used.

Ratafia à la Provençale. From striped pinks, 1 lb.; brandy or proof spirit, 1 quart; white sugar, ⁄4 lb.; juice of strawberries, ⁄4 pint; saffron, 20 gr.; as before.

Ratafia des Quatre Fruits. From cherries, 30 lbs.; gooseberries, 15 lbs.; raspberries, 8 lbs.; black currants, 7 lbs.; express the juice, and to each pint add, of white sugar, 6 oz.; cinnamon, 6 gr.; cloves and mace, of each 3 gr.

Ratafia Rouge. From the juice of black cherries, 3 quarts; juices of strawberries and raspberries, of each 1 quart; cinnamon, 1 dr.; mace and cloves, of each 15 gr.; proof spirit or brandy, 2 galls.; white sugar, 7 lbs.; macerate, &c., as before.

Ratafia Sec. Take of the juice of gooseberries, 5 pints; juices of cherries, strawberries, and raspberries, of each 1 pint; proof spirit, 6 quarts; sugar, 7 lbs.; as before.

Ratafia à la Violette. From orris powder, 3 oz.; litmus, 4 oz.; rectified spirit, 2 galls.; digest for 10 days, strain, and add of white sugar, 12 lbs.; dissolved in soft water, 1 gall.

RATS. The common or brown rat is the Mus Decumanus (Linn.), one of the most prolific and destructive species of the Rodentia. It was introduced to these Islands from Asia; and has since spread over the whole country, and multiplied at the expense of the black rat (Mus Rattus—Linn.), which is the old British species of this animal, until its inroads on our granaries, our stores, and dwelling-houses have increased to such an extent, that its extirpation has become a matter of serious, if not of national, importance.

For the destruction of these noxious animals two methods are adopted:—

1. Trapping. To render the bait more attractive, it is commonly sprinkled with a little of one of the rat scents noticed below. The trap is also occasionally so treated.

2. Poisoning. The following are reputed the most effective mixtures for this purpose:—

Arsenical Paste. From oatmeal or wheaten flour, 3 lbs.; powdered indigo, ⁄2 oz.; finely powdered white arsenic, ⁄4 lb.; oil of aniseed, ⁄2 dr.; mix, add of melted suet, 2⁄2 lbs.; and beat the whole into a paste. A similar compound has the sanction of the French Government.

Arsenical Powder. From oatmeal, 1 lb.; moist sugar, ⁄4 lb.; white arsenic and rotten cheese, of each 1 oz.; rat-scent, a few drops.

Millers’ Rat Powder. From fresh oatmeal, 1 lb.; nux vomica (in very fine powder), 1 oz.; rat-scent, 5 or 6 drops. This is highly spoken of by those who have used it.

Mineral Rat-poison. From carbonate of baryta, ⁄4 lb.; sugar and oatmeal, of each 6 oz.; oils of aniseed and caraway, of each a few drops.

Philantrope Muophobon. A French preparation, which, according to Mr Beasley, consists of tartar emetic, 1 part, with farinaceous matter, 4 parts, and some other (unimportant) ingredients.

Phosphor Paste.

Rat-scents. The following are said to be the most attractive:

a. Powdered cantharides steeped in French brandy. For traps. It is said that rats are so fond of this, that if a little be rubbed about the hands they may be handled with impunity.

b. From powdered assafœtida, 8 gr.; oil of rhodium, 2 dr.; oil of aniseed, 1 dr.; oil of lavender, ⁄2 dr.; mix by agitation.

c. From oil of aniseed, ⁄2 oz.; tincture of assafœtida, ⁄4 oz.

d. From oil of aniseed, ⁄4 oz.; nitrous acid, 2 to 3 drops; musk, triturated with a little powdered sugar, 1 gr.

RA′ZORS. See Papers, Paste, and Shaving.

REA′GENTS. See Tests.

REAL′GAR. This valuable red pigment is the bisulphide of arsenic. It is found native in some volcanic districts; but that of commerce is prepared by distilling, in an earthen retort, arsenical pyrites, or a mixture of sulphur and arsenic, of orpiment and sulphur, or of arsenious acid, sulphur, and charcoal, in the proper proportions. See Disulphide of Arsenic.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO FARMERS. A series of valuable suggestions, intended for the guidance of farmers in the purchase of manures and cattle-feeding materials have lately been issued by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In substance they are as follows:—In the purchase of feeding-cakes, the guarantee of ‘pure’ should be insisted upon, since this means a legal warranty that the article is produced from good clean seed. The terms ‘best’ and ‘genuine’ are of no value, and should be objected to. Furthermore, the sample should be subjected to analysis. For this purpose a sample should be taken out of the middle of the cake, whilst the remainder of the cake from which the sample has been selected, should be sealed up and placed aside for reference in case of dispute.

The following advice is given to farmers about to purchase manures:—Raw bones or bone dust should be purchased ‘as pure,’ whilst they should be guaranteed to contain not less than 45 per cent. of tribasic phosphate of lime, and 4 per cent. of ammonia. ‘Boiled bones’ should be purchased as ‘pure’ boiled bones, guaranteed to contain not less than 48 per cent. of tribasic phosphate of lime, and 1⁄4 per cent. of ammonia. Dissolved bones vary so greatly that the buyer should insist on a guarantee of quality under the heads of ‘soluble phosphate of lime,’ ‘insoluble phosphate of lime,’ and ‘nitrogen’ or ‘ammonia,’ also for an allowance at current rates for each unit per cent. if the bones should prove on analysis to contain less than the guaranteed per-centages, &c. It should be insisted that mineral superphosphates are delivered dry and in good condition, and be guaranteed to contain a certain per-centage of soluble phosphates at a certain price per unit per cent. No value is to be attached to ‘insoluble phosphates.’ Compound artificial manures, which are rarely used, should be purchased on exactly the same terms. Nitrate of soda should be purchased on exactly the same terms. Nitrate of soda should be guaranteed to contain 94 to 95 per cent. of pure nitrate. Sulphate of ammonia should yield 35 per cent. of ammonia. Peruvian guano should be sold under that name, and guaranteed to be in a dry, friable condition, and to contain a certain per-centage of ammonia.

In buying artificial manures the purchaser is recommended to obtain a guarantee that they shall be delivered in a sufficiently dry and powdery condition to allow of sowing by the drill.

Samples, taken out of three or four bags, should be well mixed together, and they should be analysed not later than three days after delivery. Two tins, holding about half a pound each, should be filled in the presence of a witness, sealed up, one sent to the analyst, and the other retained for future reference.

RECTIFCA′TION. The redistillation, &c., of a fluid, for the purpose of rendering it purer.

RED. A term denoting a bright colour, resembling blood. Red is a simple or primary colour, but of several different shades or hues, as scarlet, crimson, vermilion, orange-red, &c.