Part 19
_Prop., Uses, &c._ None of the Algæ are poisonous. Several are nutritious, emollient, and demulcent, from containing mucilage (carrageenin), starch, sugar (mannite), and a little albumen; and are hence used as esculents. The ash from the dried weed varies in different varieties from 9% to fully 25%; and contains variable quantities of potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, manganese, and silica, with sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chlorine, and a little iodine and bromine. (Schweitzer; Forchhammer; Gödechens.) Sea-weeds, their charcoal, and their ashes, have been long regarded as alterative and resolvent; and anti-phthisic virtues have been attributed to them by Laennec and others. They were formerly much given in scrofulous affections and glandular enlargements; but their use is now almost superseded by that of iodine and its preparations. Dr Stenhouse has proposed some of the algæ as furnishing an economical source of mannite. The sea algæ are used for manure; their ashes form KELP.
The following table, showing the results of several analyses of different kinds of algæ, and illustrating the very large amount of nitrogen contained in them, is from Mr Walter Blyth's excellent dictionary of 'Hygiene and Public Health.'
+--------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | Per cent. | Protein Kinds of Algæ. | Water. |Dry matter.|Nitrogen in|contained in | | |dry matter.|dry matter. -----------------------------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------ _Chondrus crispus_, | 17·92 | 82·08 | 1·534 | 9·587 bleached, from Bewlay | | | | Evans. | | | | _Chondrus crispus_, | 21·47 | 78·53 | 2·142 | 13·387 unbleached, Ballycastle. | | | | _Gigastina mamillosa_, | 21·55 | 78·45 | 2·198 | 13·737 Ballycastle. | | | | _Chondrus crispus_, | 19·79 | 80·21 | 1·485 | 9·281 bleached, second | | | | experiment. | | | | _Chondrus crispus_, | 19·96 | 80·04 | 2·510 | 15·687 unbleached second | | | | experiment. | | | | _Laminaria digitata_, or | 21·38 | 78·62 | 1·588 | 9·925 dulse tangle. | | | | _Rhodomenia palmata._ | 16·56 | 83·44 | 3·465 | 21·656 _Porphyra laciniata._ | 17·41 | 82·59 | 4·650 | 29·062 _Iridæa edulis._ | 19·61 | 80·39 | 3·088 | 19·300 _Alaria esculenta._ | 17·91 | 80·09 | 2·424 | 15·150 -----------------------------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------
From the above, we learn the important fact that the sea-weeds found on our coasts are amongst the most nutritious of vegetable substances, and that they, when dry, are even richer in nitrogenous matter than either oatmeal or Indian corn in the same state. The following are the chief varieties of algæ which are used as food by the dwellers on our coasts as well as on the continent:--PORPHYRA LACINIATA and VULGARIS, called _laver_ in England, _stoke_ in Ireland, and _slouk_ in Scotland. CHONDRUS CRISPUS, called _carrageen_ or _Irish moss_, and also _pearl-moss_, and _sea-moss._ LAMINARIA DIGITATA, known as the _sea-girdle_ in England, _tangle_ in Scotland, and _red-ware_ in the Orkneys; and LAMINARIA SACCHARINA, ALARIA ESCULENTA, or _bladder-lock_, called also _henware_, and _honey-ware_ by the Scotch. ULVA LATISSIMA or GREEN LAVER--RHODOMENIA PALMATA or _dulse_ of Scotland. Under the name of "marine sauce" the LAVER was esteemed a luxury in London, where it may now occasionally be met with in the shops of provision merchants. The employment of the CHONDRUS CRISPUS or _Carrageen_ in the form of an aliment for consumptive and weakly persons, would seem from the analysis of it given above to be fully justified. In preparing the algæ for food, they must be soaked in water to remove the saline matter, and where they are possessed of a bitter flavour this may be removed by adding a little carbonate of soda to the water. They should then be stewed in water or milk till they are tender. The best flavourings are pepper and vinegar. See JELLY.
=ALGARO'BA.= _Syn._ CA''ROB-TREE, ST. JOHN'S BREAD; CERATO'NIA SIL'IQUA, Linn. A leguminous tree of southern Europe, Palestine, and part of Africa. Pods (ALGAROBA BEANS), used for food, and to improve the voice; they contain a sweetish, nutritious powder, and are supposed to have been the 'locusts' on which St. John fed in the wilderness; their decoction has been used as a pectoral in asthma and coughs.
=Algaroba or Algarovil'la.= The astringent pods of prosopis pallida, p. siliquastrum, and Inga Marthæ (South American trees), bruised and more or less agglutinated by the extractive exudation of the seed and husks. They are used in tanning, for which purpose they have been strongly recommended; indeed that of Chili, and of Santa Martha (New Carthagena), is said to possess "four times the power of good oak bark" (Ure); and in dyeing are only inferior to oak-galls.
=ALGONTINE.= A mouth and tooth wash. An aqueous solution of nitrate of potassium, aromatised with oil of peppermint, tincture of myrrh, and tincture of cinnamon.
=ALGOPHON= (Bernhard, Salzburg). For pains in decayed teeth. A solution of ethereal oil of mustard (2 grms.) in spirit of cochlearia (30 grms.), coloured green by saffron and litmus. (Wittstein.)
=AL'IMENT.= [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ ALIMEN'TUM, L.; NAHRUNG, SPEISE, Ger. Food; nutriment; anything which nourishes or supports life.
=ALIMENT'ARY= _Syn._ ALIMENTA''RIUS, L.; ALIMENTAIRE, Fr.; ZUR NAHRUNG GEHÖRIG, Ger. Pertaining to food or aliment; nutrimental; nourishing.
=Alimentary Canal'.= _Syn._ ALIMENTARY DUCT; CANA'LIS ALIMENTA''RIUS, L. In _anatomy_, the cavity in the bodies of animals into which the food is taken for the purpose of being digested; the whole passage or conduit extending from the mouth to the anus. In some of the lower animals this is a simple cavity, with only one opening; when the same aperture which admits the food also gives egress to the excrementitious matter. In others it is a true canal, with both a mouth and an outlet. Another step, and we find this canal is divided into a stomach and intestines. In the higher grades, a mouth, pharynx, and [oe]sophagus precede the stomach. Birds have one or two sacculi or crops added to the [oe]sophagus. The stomach of the ruminants consists of four sacs or parts, each of which may be regarded as a separate stomach; that of the bottle-nose whale contains no less than seven of such sacs. The part below the stomach, forming the intestines, is also variously subdivided, complicated, and connected. In man, these subdivisions are termed--DUODENUM, JEJU'NUM, IL'EUM, CÆ'CUM, CO'LON, and REC'TUM; the lower end or orifice of the last being called the A'NUS. The existence of an alimentary canal is said to be the only true characteristic of an animal. Plants have no common receptacle for their food, nor canal for carrying away effete matter; but every animal, however low in the scale of being, possesses an internal cavity which serves it as a stomach.
=Alimentary Sub'stances.= _Syn._ ALIMENTS; MATE''RIA ALIMENTA''RIA, L. Substances employed as food.
=ALIMENTA'TION.= [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ ALIMENTA'TIO, L.; NAHRHAFTIGKEIT, Ger. The act, process, power, or state of nourishing, or being nourished.
=AL'IZARI.= [Tur., ali-zari.] The commercial name of madder in the Levant.
=ALIZARIN.= C_{10}H_{6}O_{3} . 2H_{2}O. _Syn._ LAZARIC ACID. A red colouring matter obtained from madder.
_Prep._ 1. Exhaust madder with boiling water, and precipitate the decoction by sulphuric acid. Wash the precipitate, and, while yet moist, boil it with a concentrated solution of hydrate of aluminum in hydrochloric acid, and mix the solution with hydrochloric acid; red flakes of impure alizarin deposit. Dissolve this precipitate in alcohol or in dilute ammonia, and treat the solution with hydrate of aluminum. Boil the aluminum compound thus formed with carbonate of sodium, and, after freeing it from resinous impurities by digestion with ether, decompose it with hot hydrochloric acid. Wash the alizarin thus separated, dry it by simple exposure to air, and purify it by repeated crystallisation out of alcohol.
2. Sublime on a paper an alcoholic extract of madder. This method yields the purest alizarin.
_Props._ Red prisms; sublimes at 419° F.; odourless, tasteless, and neutral to test-paper; sparingly soluble in water, even at the boiling temperature; soluble in alcohol and ether; not decomposed by hydrochloric acid; dissolved, without decomposition, by strong sulphuric acid; soluble in solutions of the alkalies and their carbonates; acids precipitate alizarin from its alkaline solutions in orange-coloured flakes; alumina decolorises an alcoholic solution of alizarin, forming a red lake.
=ALIZARIN, ARTIFICIAL.= C_{14}H_{8}O_{4}. This colour was first obtained by Graebe and Liebermann in 1869 from anthrachinon, an oxidation product of anthracen, this latter being a substance which is formed during the destructive distillation of coal-tar. These chemists converted anthracen into antichinon by means of nitric acid.
The crude anthracen is previously purified by treatment with benzoline (petroleum spirit), aided by heat, and by being subjected to the action of the centrifugal machine to fusion, and to sublimation.
According to the original method of preparing alizarin, the anthrachinon was first converted into a dibromide of anthrachinon by treatment with bromine, and this bromated compound, by further treatment either with caustic potash or soda at a temperature of 180° to 200° C., converted into alizarin-potassium (or alizarin-sodium if caustic soda has been used), from which the alizarin is set free by means of hydrochloric acid.
Alizarin is now procured from anthrachinon by treatment at a temperature of 260° C., with concentrated sulphuric acid of 1·84 sp. gr., the anthrachinon being converted into a sulpho-acid; this acid is next neutralised with carbonate of lime, the fluid decanted from the deposited sulphate of lime, and carbonate of potash added to it, with the object of throwing down all the lime. The clear liquid is then evaporated to dryness, the resulting saline mass is converted into alizarin-potassium by heating it with caustic potash. From the alizarin-potassium thus obtained the alizarin is set free by the aid of hydrochloric acid.
In another method the preparation of anthrachinon is avoided, and anthracen employed directly, by first converting it, by means of sulphuric acid and heat, into anthracen sulphonic-acid. After having been diluted with water, the solution of this acid is treated with oxidising agents (peroxides of manganese, lead, chromic acid, nitric acid), and the acid fluid is afterwards neutralised with carbonate of lime. When peroxide of manganese has been used, the manganese is also precipitated as oxide. The oxidised sulpho-acid having been previously converted into a potassium salt, the latter being heated with caustic potash, alizarin is obtained. The details of these two processes will be found set forth in the terms of the patent taken out by Messrs Caro, Graebe and Liebermann, further on.
The following method of preparing alizarin from anthracene paranaphthalene and their homologues is by Girard. The material used is that which distils between 290° and 360°; it is purified by distillation and pressure, the portion which passes over, between 300° and 305°, being collected separately. This mixture is treated with potassium chlorate and hydrochloric acid, whereby it is converted into tetra-chlorinated products. These are oxidised either by nitric acid in the water bath, or by a metallic oxide (red or brown oxide of lead), and sulphuric or acetic acid. In the first place a mixture of dichloranthraquinine and chloride of chloroxyanthranyl are obtained. These substances are treated in presence of a metallic oxide (oxide of zinc, oxide of copper, or litharge), with an alcoholic solution of sodium acetate. The metallic oxide removes the last atom of chlorine from the sodium chloroxyanthranilate, and converts it, like the dichloranthraquinine, into alizarin. The purification is effected by means of benzine, petroleum, &c., which dissolve out the foreign matters, and by successive precipitation from the alkaline solutions by mineral acids. The foreign matters may also be separated by means of a little alum, when it is necessary to work with neutral potash or soda salts.
Another method for the preparation of alizarin has been patented by Dale and Schorlemmer. It is as follows: 1 part of anthracen is boiled with 4 to 10 parts of strong sulphuric acid, then diluted with water, and the solution neutralised with carbonate of calcium, barium, potassium, or sodium. The resulting sulphates having been removed by nitration or crystallisation, the solution is heated to between 180° and 260° with caustic potash or soda, to which a quantity of potassium nitrate or chlorate has been added, about equal in weight to the anthracen, as long as a blue-violet colour is thereby produced. From this product the alizarin is separated in the usual way by precipitation with an acid. Several other patents have been taken out for the preparation of artificial alizarin.
The specification of Messrs Caro, Graebe, and Liebermann, and dated June 25th, 1869, was the first which was taken out in England. We quote it here because it enters more fully into detail than any of the others.
"Our invention is carried into effect by means of either of the two processes which we will proceed to describe.
"In the one process we proceed as follows--We take about one part by weight of anthraquinone and about three parts by weight of sulphuric acid of about specific gravity of 1·488, and introduce the same into a retort, which may be made of glass, or porcelain, or of any other material not easily acted upon by sulphuric acid, and the contents are then to be heated up to about 260° Centigrade, and the temperature is maintained until the mixture is found no longer to contain any appreciable quantity of unaltered anthraquinone. The completion of this operation may be ascertained or tested by withdrawing a small portion of the product from time to time, and continuing the operation at the high temperature until such product upon being diluted with water is found to form a substantially perfect solution, thereby indicating that the anthraquinone has become either entirely or in greater part converted into the desired product. The products thus obtained are then allowed to cool, and are diluted with water; carbonate of lime is then added in order to neutralise and remove the excess of sulphuric acid contained in the solution; the mixture is then filtered, and to the filtrate carbonate of potash, or carbonate of soda, by preference in solution, is to be added until carbonate of lime is no longer precipitated; the mixture is then filtered, and the clear solution is evaporated to dryness, by which means the potash or soda salts of the sulpho-acids of anthraquinone are obtained, and which are to be treated in the following manner:--We take about one part by weight of this product, and from two to three parts by weight of solid caustic, soda, or potash; water may be added or not, but by preference we add as much water as is necessary to dissolve the alkali after admixture; we heat the whole in a suitable vessel, and the heating operation is continued at a temperature of from about 180° to 260° Centigrade, for about one hour, or until a portion of the mixture is found upon withdrawing and testing it to give a solution in water, which being acidulated with an acid, for example, sulphuric acid, will give a copious precipitate of the colouring matters. The heating operation having been found to have been continued for a sufficient time, the resulting products are then dissolved in water, and we either filter or decant the solution of the same, from which we precipitate the colouring matters or artificial alizarin, by means of a mineral or organic acid, such, for example, as sulphuric or acetic acid. The precipitated colouring matters thus obtained are collected in a filter or otherwise, and after having been washed may be employed for the purpose of dyeing and printing, either in the same way as preparations of madder are now used or otherwise.
"In carrying out our other process we proceed as follows:--We take about one part by weight of anthracene and about four parts by weight of sulphuric acid of specific gravity of about 1·848, and the mixture being contained in a suitable vessel, is heated to a temperature of about 100° Centigrade, and which temperature is to be maintained for the space of about three hours; the temperature is then to be raised to about 150° Centigrade, which temperature is to be maintained for about one hour, or until a small portion of the product when submitted to the two subsequent processes hereinafter described is found to produce the desired colouring matters; we then allow the result obtained by this operation to cool, and dilute it with water, by preference in the proportion of about three times its weight. To the solution thus obtained we add for every part of anthracene by weight which had been employed in the previous operations, from about two to three parts by weight of peroxide of manganese, preferring to employ an excess, and we boil the whole strongly for some time, and in order fully to ensure the desired degree of oxidation the mixture may be subsequently concentrated, and by preference be evaporated to dryness, and the heat be continued until a small portion of the oxidised product, when submitted to the subsequent processes hereinafter described will produce the desired colouring matters. We then neutralise and remove the sulphuric acid contained in this mixture, and at the same time precipitate any oxides of manganese that may be held in solution, by adding an excess of caustic lime, which we use by preference in the form of milk of lime, and we add the same until the mixture has an alkaline reaction. We then filter, and add to the filtrate carbonate of potash or soda, until there is no further precipitation of carbonate of lime. The solution is then filtered and evaporated to dryness, and we thus obtain the potash or soda salts of what we call the sulpho-acids of anthraquinone.
"In effecting the conversion of the oxidised products thus obtained into colouring matters, or into what we call artificial alizarin, we proceed as follows:--We take one part by weight of this product, and from two to three parts by weight of solid caustic soda or potash, and water may be added or not, but by preference we add as much water as may be necessary to dissolve the alkali. After admixture we heat the whole in a suitable vessel, and continue the heating operation at a temperature of about 180° to about 260° Centigrade for about one hour, or until a portion of the mixture is found to give a solution in water, which upon acidulation with an acid, for example, sulphuric acid, is found to give a copious precipitate of the colouring matters. The heating operation having been found to have been continued for a sufficient time, we then dissolve the product in water, and either filter or decant the solution of the same, from which we precipitate the colouring matters or artificial alizarin by means of a mineral or organic acid, such, for example, as sulphuric or acetic acid. The precipitated colouring matters thus obtained are collected on a filter or otherwise, and after having been washed may be employed for the purpose of dyeing and printing, either in the same way as preparations of madder are now used or otherwise.
"Instead of acting upon anthracen by means of sulphuric acid of the density before mentioned, fuming sulphuric acid may be employed, but we prefer to use the ordinary kind before described.
"In order to effect the process of oxidation, before referred to, other oxidising agents may be used in the place of the oxide of manganese, before mentioned, such, for example, as perioxide of lead, or chromic, nitric, or other acids capable of effecting the desired oxidation may be employed."
Mr W. H. Perkin's patent is similar in principle to that of Messrs Caro, Graebe, and Liebermann, and is dated only one day later.
The following is an outline of a patent taken out in France in May, 1869, by MM. Br[oe]nner and Gutzkon, for the manufacture of artificial alizarin. One part of anthracen is heated with two parts of nitric acid, sp. gr. 1·3 to 1·5. The anthraquinone thus produced is washed and dissolved at a moderate heat in sulphuric acid. Mercuric nitrate is now added, which converts the anthraquinone into alizarin, The mass thus formed is dissolved in an excess of alkali, which precipitates the oxide of mercury, and retains the colouring matters in solution. The alkaline liquor is decanted and neutralised with sulphuric acid, and the precipitate thus formed is washed and collected. If not quite pure the treatment with alkali must be repeated. (The complete specification of this patent is published in the 'Moniteur Scientifique,' vol. xi, p. 865.)
In England a large quantity of artificial alizarin is manufactured by the process of Mr Perkin, and is used as a substitute for madder and madder extract, in Turkey red dyeing and topical styles. The largest makers of artificial alizarin on the continent are Messrs Gessert Frères, of Ebelfort, Messrs Maister, Lucius and Co., of Hæchst, near Frankfort, and the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabric, Mannheim.
The following recipes for printing with artificial alizarin are extracted from Mr Crookes' 'Practical Handbook of Dyeing and Calico Printing':
REDS.
5 lbs. alizarin paste (10 per cent.); 16 lbs. thickening; 1 lb. acetate of alumina, at 15° Tw.; 1/2 lb. acetate of lime, at 25° Tw.
PINKS.
The above diluted with 2 or 3 parts of thickening.
For double printing, when deep red is printed on first, the goods must be steamed one hour before the second printing takes place. After the second printing the goods are again steamed for one hour, and aged for twenty-four hours; they are then passed through one of the following baths, at from 120 to 140 F., remaining in the bath not longer than 1 to 1-1/2 minute:--
250 gals. water; 60 lbs. chalk; 3 lbs. tin crystals.
Or, 250 gals. water; 40 lbs. chalk; 10 lbs. arseniate of soda.
The goods are then washed, and cleaned as follows:--
Take, for 10 pieces of fifty yards each,--
1st. Soaping at 120° F., 3 lbs. soap; 1/4 lb. tin crystals. 2nd. Soaping at 160° F., 3 lbs. soap; 3rd. Soaping at 175° F., 3 lbs. soap. Wash between each soaping.
RED FOR MOSAICS.
8 lbs. alizarin paste (10 per cent.); 10 quarts thickening; 9-1/2 oz. nitrate of alumina, at 23° Tw.; 19 oz. acetate of alumina, at 15° Tw.; 13 oz. acetate of lime, at 25° Tw.
Or, 10 lbs. alizarin paste (10 per cent.); 10 quarts thickening; 13 oz. nitrate of alumina, at 23° Tw.; 19 oz. acetate of alumina, at 15° Tw.; 16 oz. acetate of lime, at 25° Tw.
ANOTHER RED WITHOUT OIL.
8-1/2 lbs. alizarin paste (10 per cent.); 9-1/2 lbs. acetic acid, at 12° Tw.; 3-1/2 lbs. wheat flour; 5 pints water.
Boil well and stir till cold; then add--
1 lb. acetate of lime, at 29° Tw.; 2 lbs. nitrate of alumina, at 23° Tw.; 3 lbs. hyposulphite of lime, at 13° Tw.
PURPLE.