Part 28

2. (Opaque.)--_a._ From white potash-soap and gum-mucilage (thick), of each 3 _oz._; new white honey, 6 _oz._; and the yelks of 5 large eggs; well mixed together, and afterwards intimately blended first, with oil of almonds (scented as before, or at will), 2 _lbs._; and afterwards, with thick pistachio-milk (made of the fresh-peeled nuts and rose-water), 5 _fl. oz._

_b._ From almond-paste, honey, white potash-soap, and glycerin, of each. 1 _oz._; yelk of 1 egg; oil of almonds, 1/2 pint (holding in solution--); essential oil of almonds, 1 _dr._; balsam of Peru, 1/2 _dr._

_Uses, &c._ To whiten and soften the skin, and to prevent it chapping. A small portion, about half the size of a filbert, with a few drops of warm water, produces a very white and rich lather, with which the hands and face are lightly rubbed, and the skin, in a short time, gently wiped with a small napkin, whilst the water on it is still milky.

The manufacture of AMANDINE is a matter of some difficulty and labour. The details essential to success are given under EMULSINES. It is sometimes coloured, which is done by infusing or dissolving in the oil, before using it, a little--spinach-leaves, for GREEN; and palm-oil, or annatto, for YELLOW and ORANGE. A beautiful SCARLET or CRIMSON tinge may be given to it by a little liquid rouge or carmine (ammoniacal), added just before removing it from the mortar. See EMULSINES, OLIVINE, PASTE, &c.

=AMANI'TA MUSCA''RIA.= The fly-agaric or fly-mushroom. See AGARIC.

=AMANITINE.= _Syn._ AMANITINA, L. The name given by Letellier to the poisonous principle of _amani'ta muscaria_, and some other species of fungi. It is brown, uncrystallisable, and soluble.

=AMARA.= [L.] In _medicine_ and _pharmacology_, the bitter tonics.

=AMARANTH.= _Syn._ AMARANTH'US, L.; AMARANTE, Fr. The flower love-lies-bleeding (_amaranthus caudatus_--Linn.). In _poetry_, an imaginary flower that never fades. (Milton.) In _chromatics_, a colour inclining to purple.

=AMARYTH'RINE.= A bitter principle found, in certain lichens, associated with erythrine (which _see_).

=AMASI.= This, the native name given by the natives of Central Africa to sour milk, which they prepare by adding to the new milk, a small quantity of milk previously allowed to become sour. The milk thus acidified is considered by them far more wholesome than new milk.

=AMAUROSIS.= _Syn._ GUTTA SERENA, SUFFUSIO NIGRA. A diminution or total loss of sight, arising from paralysis of the retina or optic nerve.

=AM'BER.= _Syn._ ELEC'TRON, Gr.; ELEC'TRUM, SUC'CINUM (Ph. D.), L.; AMBRE, SUCCIN, Fr.; BERNSTEIN, Ger.; LYNX-STONE[dagger], LA'PIS LYN'CIS[dagger], L. A well-known yellowish, semi-transparent, fossil resin, of which trinkets and the mouth-pieces of pipes are commonly made.

_Nat. hist., &c._ Amber is found in detached pieces on the sea-coast, and is dug up in diluvial soils. That of commerce comes chiefly from the southern coasts of the Baltic, where it is cast ashore between Königsberg and Memel; and from Ducal Prussia, Saxony, Poland, Sicily, and Maryland (U.S.), where it is dug out of beds or mines. It has also been found on the shores of Norfolk, and small pieces are occasionally dug up in the gravel pits round London. It is probably an antediluvian resin; and when found on the coast, is supposed to be disengaged, by the action of the sea, from neighbouring beds of lignite or fossil coal. Much diversity of opinion for a long time prevailed amongst naturalists and chemists as to the origin of amber, some referring it to the vegetable, others to the mineral, and some even to the animal kingdom; its natural history and analysis affording something in favour of each. The vegetable origin of amber has, however, been recently shown by various facts, and is now generally admitted. According to Sir David Brewster, its optical properties are those of an indurated vegetable juice. ('Ed. Phil. Journ.,' ii.) Insects and fragments of vegetables are frequently found imbedded in it; and this in a manner which could only have occurred when the resin was a viscid fluid. Microscopical researches have led to the conclusion that it is the production of some species of pine, closely allied to the pinus balsamea. ('Entom. Trans.,' i & ii.)

_Manuf._ Amber is WORKED in a lathe, POLISHED with whiting and water or rottenstone-and-oil, and FINISHED OFF by friction with flannel. During the operation the pieces often become hot and electrical, and fly into fragments; to avoid which they are kept as cool as possible, and only worked for a short period at a time. The workmen are said to often suffer considerably from electrical excitement. Amber is JOINED and MENDED by smearing the surface of the pieces with linseed or boiled oil, and then strongly pressing them together, at the same time holding them over a charcoal fire, or heating them in any other convenient way in which they will not be exposed to injury. The commoner varieties are HARDENED and rendered CLEARER, either by boiling them in rape oil for about 24 hours, or by surrounding the pieces with clean sand in an iron pot, and exposing them to a gradually increasing heat for 30 or 40 hours. During this process small fragments are kept in the sand at the side of the pot, for the purpose of occasional examination, lest the heat be raised too high, or be too long continued.

_Prop., &c._ Hard; brittle; tasteless; glossy; generally translucent, but sometimes opaque, and occasionally, though rarely, transparent; colour generally yellow or orange, but sometimes yellowish-white; becomes negatively electric by friction; smells agreeably when rubbed or heated; fracture conchoidal and vitreous or resinous; soluble in the pure alkalies, and, without decomposition, in oil of vitriol, which then becomes purple; insoluble in the essential and fixed oils without long digestion and heat; soluble in chloroform; melts at about 550° Fahr.; burns with a yellow flame, emitting at the same time a peculiar fragrant odour, and leaving a light and shiny coal. By dry distillation it yields inflammable gases, a small quantity of water, a little acetic acid, a volatile oil (OIL OF AMBER; O'LEUM SUC'CINI, L.) at first pale, afterwards brown, thick, and empyreumatic, and an acid (SUCCIN'IC ACID; ACIDUM SUCCIN'ICUM, L.); with residual charcoal 12 to 13%. Sp. gr. 1·065 to 1·09, but usually about 1·070. It cannot be fused without undergoing more or less chemical change.

_Ident._ Amber may be known from mellite and copal, both of which articles are occasionally substituted for it, by the following characteristics:--1. MELLITE is infusible by heat, and burns white:--2. A piece of COPAL, heated on the point of a knife, catches fire, and runs into drops, which flatten as they fall:--3. AMBER burns with spitting and frothing, and when its liquefied particles drop, they rebound from the plane on which they fall (M. Haüy):--4. Neither mellite nor copal yields succinic acid by distillation; nor the agreeable odour of amber when burnt; nor do they become so readily electric by friction.

_Uses._ It is chiefly made into mouth-pieces for pipes, beads for necklaces, and other ornaments and trinkets. It is also used as the basis of several excellent varnishes. In _medicine_, it was formerly given in chronic coughs, hysteria, &c.--_Dose_ (of the powder), 10 to 60 gr.

_Remarks._ The finer sorts of amber fetch very high prices. A piece 1 _lb._ in weight is said to be worth from 10£ to 15£. 5000 dollars a few years since were offered in Prussia for a piece weighing 13 _lbs._, and which, it was stated by the Armenian merchants, would fetch from 30,000 to 40,000 dollars in Constantinople. It is more valued in the East than in England; and chiefly on account of the Turks and other Orientals believing it to be incapable of transmitting infection. In the royal cabinet, Berlin, there is a piece weighing 18 _lbs._, supposed to be the largest ever found. The coarser kinds alone are employed in medicine, chemistry, &c.

=Amber, Ac'id of=* ([)a]s'-). Succinic acid.

=Amber, Bal'sam of.= _Syn._ BAL'SAMUM SUC'CINI, L. The thick matter left in the retort after the rectification of oil of amber; and which it resembles in its properties.

=Amber, Facti''tious= (-t[)i]sh'-). _Syn._ SUC'CINUM FACTI''TIUM, L. Mellite, copal, and anime, have each been substituted for amber, especially for small fragments of it. Recently an imitation has been produced by acting on gutta percha with sulphur, at a high temperature, which, either alone or in combination with copal, is said to have been extensively passed off for genuine amber.

=Amber, Liq'uid=[dagger]. See LIQUID-AMBAR.

=Amber, Oil of.= See OILS.

=Amber, Re'sin of.= See PYRÉTINE.

=Amber, Salt of.= Succinic Acid.

=Amber, Sol'uble.= _Prep._ Fragments of amber are cautiously heated in an iron pot, and as soon as it becomes semi-liquid, an equal weight of pale boiled linseed-oil, previously made hot, is very gradually stirred in, and the whole thoroughly blended. Used as a cement for glass and earthenware, and thinned with oil of turpentine to make varnishes. It will keep any length of time if preserved from the air.

=AMBER-CAM'PHOR.= See PYRÉTINE (Crystalline).

=AM'BER DRINK=[dagger]. Amber-coloured malt liquor.

=AM'BER-SEED.= Musk-seed (which _see_).

=AM'BER-TREE.= The popular name of a species of anthospermum, an evergreen shrub, of which the leaves, when bruised, emit an agreeable odour.

=AM'BERGRIS= (-gr[)i]s; gr[=e]se[double-dagger]). _Syn._ GREY AMBER*; AMBRAGRI''SEA (gr[)i]zh'-e-[)a]), L.; AMBREGRIS, Fr.; AMBRA, AMBAR, Ger. An odorous, solid substance, found floating on the sea in tropical climates, and in the cæcum of the cachalot or spermaceti whale (physeter macrocephalus). It has been supposed by some to be a morbid secretion of the liver or intestines, analogous to biliary calculi; but according to Mr Beale, it consists of the mere indurated fæces of the animal, perhaps (as suggested by Brande and Pereira) somewhat altered by disease. "Some of the semifluid fæces, dried with the proper precautions, had all the properties of ambergris." (Beale.) It is occasionally found in masses weighing from 60 to 225 _lbs._

_Prop., &c._ Solid, opaque, ash-coloured, streaked or variegated, fatty, inflammable; remarkably light; highly odorous,[40] particularly when warmed, cut, or handled--the odour being peculiar and not easily described or imitated, of a very diffusive and penetrating character, and perceptible in minute quantities; rugged on the surface; does not effervesce with acids; melts at 140° to 150° Fahr. into a yellowish resin-like mass; at 212° flies off as a white vapour; very soluble in alcohol, ether, and the volatile and fixed oils. It appears to be a non-saponifiable fat, analogous to cholesterine. Sp. gr. 0·780 to 0·926.[41]

[Footnote 40: It has a "pleasant musk-like odour, which is supposed to be derived from the squid ('sepia moschata') on which the animal feeds," the "horny beaks" of which "are often found imbedded in the masses." (Pereira.) It has a smell resembling that of dried cow-dung." (Redwood, 'Gray's Supplement,' 1857, p. 606.)]

[Footnote 41: Sp. gr ·780 to ·896--Brande; ·908 to ·920--Pereira.]

_Pur._ From the high price of genuine ambergris it is very frequently, if not nearly always, adulterated. When quite pure and of the best quality, it is--1. Nearly wholly soluble in hot alcohol and ether, and yields about 85% of ambreine:--2. It almost wholly volatilises at a moderate heat, and when burnt leaves no notable quantity of ashes; a little of it exposed in a silver spoon melts without bubble or scum; and on the heated point of a knife it is rapidly and entirely dissipated:--3. It is easily punctured with a heated needle, and on withdrawing it, not only should the odour be immediately evolved, but the needle should come out clean, without anything adhering to it (Normandy):--4. The Chinese are said to try its genuineness by scraping it fine upon the top of boiling tea. "It should dissolve (melt) and diffuse itself generally." Black or white is bad. The smooth and uniform is generally factitious.[42]

[Footnote 42: Ure's 'Dict. of A., M. & M.,' 5th Ed., i, 128.]

_Uses, &c._ It is highly prized for its odour, which is found greatly to improve and exalt that of other substances; hence its extensive use in perfumery. In _medicine_ it was formerly given as an aphrodisiac, in doses of 3 to 10 gr. "A grain or two, when rubbed down with sugar, and added to a hogshead of claret, is very perceptible in the wine, and gives it a flavour, by some considered as an improvement." (Brande.)

=Ambergris Facti''tious.= An article of this kind, met with in the shops, is thus made:--Orris-powder, spermaceti, and gum-benzoin, of each, 1 _lb._; asphaltum, 3 or 4 _oz._; ambergris, 6 _oz._; grain-musk, 3 _dr._; oil of cloves, 1 _dr._; oil of rhodium, 1/2 _dr._; liquor of ammonia, 1 _fl. oz._; beaten to a smooth hard mass with mucilage, and made into lumps whilst soft. This fraud is readily detected.

=AM'BREINE= (-bre-[)i]n). _Syn._ AMBREI'NA, L.; AMBREINE, Fr.; AMBARSTOFF, Ger. The fatty, odorous principle of ambergris.

_Prep._ Digest ambergris in hot alcohol (sp. gr. 0·827) until the latter will dissolve no more, then filter. The AMBREINE will be deposited as the solution cools, in an irregular crystalline mass, which may be purified by recrystallisation in alcohol.

_Prop., &c._ Melts at about 90°; volatilises at 212° to 220° Fahr.; nitric acid converts it into AMBREIC ACID. It closely resembles cholesterine.--_Prod._ 85%.

=AMBRETTE'= (-br[)e]t'). [Fr.] Musk-seed.

=AMBROSIA, RING'S VEGETABLE= (Tubbs, Peterborg, U.S.). A liquid with a sediment, containing 1 per cent. of lead. (Chandler.)

=AMEISEN BALSAM.= Von Dr Livingstone (Ahnelt, Charlottenburg). Balsam of ants. Castor oil, 72 grms.; balsam of Peru, 2 grms.; bergamot, 5 drops. (Hager.)

=AMERICAN PILLS= (A. H. Boldt, Lexington). For full-blooded, corpulent persons, and for those of sedentary habits, for irregular menstruation, and against contagious diseases. Made of scammony, rhubarb, and soap. (Schädler.)

=AMERICAN MEDICINES, Dr SAMPSON'S= (New York). Two kinds of pills of coca:--No. 1. 85 pills composed of coca extract and coca powder, and each pill containing about 0·006 grm. of a morphia salt. No. 2. 50 pills, also of coca, and each containing 0·05 grm. of powdered iron. Both kinds are rolled in lycopodium. (Hager.)

=AMERICAN PILLS FOR ASTHMA.= Gilded pills made of gum ammoniacum.

=AMERICAN SCHAMPOO-FLUID FOR PROMOTING THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR.= Spirit of wine and rum, with some carbonate of ammonia and potash.

=AMERICAN DROPS FOR TOOTHACHE= (Majewsky, Warsaw) have been found of various composition. Some which profess to have taken a prize at the Vienna Exhibition were composed of French brandy, containing common salt, and coloured with cochineal. The first was a spirituous solution of an ethereal oil with some oil of cloves, coloured rather reddish; No. 2 was a similar solution with some oil of peppermint and tincture of rhatany; and No. 3 was merely a diluted solution of No. 2. (Hager.)

=AMERICAN UNIVERSAL BLOOD-PURIFYING HERB TEA= (Dr Kuhr), for women's diseases, hysteria, nervous debility, epilepsy, stomachic complaints, asthma, hæmorrhoids, gout, rheumatism, worms, and much besides. White horehound, marsh mallow, liquorice wood, and sassafras, of each, 10 parts; anise, coriander and fennel, of each, 5 parts; red poppy petals, 4 parts; lavender flowers, 2 parts; senna, peppermint, millefoil flowers, and valerian root, of each, 1 part. (Kuhr and Selle.)

=AM'ETHYST= (-th[)i]st). _Syn._ PURPLE ROCK-CRYSTAL; AMÉTHYSTE, Fr.; AMETHYS'TUS, L. A beautiful sub-species of quartz or rock crystal, of a violet-blue colour of varying intensity, in great request for cutting into seals, brooches, and other like articles of ornament. It was known and prized in the earliest ages of antiquity. Among the ancients, cups and vases were made out of this mineral; and it was an opinion of the Greeks and Persians, that an amethyst bound on the navel would counteract the effects of wine, and that wine drank out of an amethystine vessel would not intoxicate. See GEMS.

=Amethyst.= In _chromation_, _dyeing_, &c., a rich variety of deep violet colour. Hence, AMETHYST'INE ([)i]n), &c.

=Amethyst, Orient'al.= A rich violet-blue variety of transparent, crystallised corundum.

=AM'IANTH= (-e-[)a]nth). _Syn._ AMIANTH'US, AMIAN'TUS, L.; AMIANTE, Fr. The whiter and more delicate varieties of asbestos, particularly those which possess a satiny lustre.

=AM'IDIN= (-e-d[)i]n). [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ AM'YDINE; AMIDI'NA, L. A substance noticed by Saussure in starch-paste, when long kept. According to Caventou, it is formed at once by the action of boiling water on starch. It forms the interior substance of the starch-grains, and its properties are intermediate between those of starch and gum. It is, indeed, the soluble part of starch, of which a perfect solution can only be obtained by prolonged ebullition in a large quantity of water.

=AMID'OGEN.= NH_{2}. Literally, the generator of amides; in _chemistry_, the name given by Kane to an hypothetical body, composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one of nitrogen. It forms AMIDES by combining with other bodies.

=Amidogen Ba'ses.= In _chemistry_, 'amines' in which only one equiv. of hydrogen is replaced by an organic radical; and hence called PRIMARY MON'AMINES.

=AMMONIA.= NH_{3}. _Syn._ AMMONIA GAS, AMMONIACAL GAS, ANHYDROUS AMMONIA, TERHYDRIDE OF NITROGEN; AMMONIAQUE, Fr.; AMMONIAK, Ger. At the present day the ammonia of commerce is chiefly prepared from the ammoniacal liquor of the gas-works and the manufactories of ivory black, animal charcoal, &c. Lant or stale urine is also an important source of ammonia. In these places a large quantity of crude ammoniacal liquor is produced; to which either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid is added, by which it is converted into a salt, which may be obtained nearly pure by evaporation, and one or more crystallisations, and, in the case of the hydrochlorate and carbonate, subsequent sublimation. Other sources and processes have been sought out and occasionally adopted for the preparation of the principal salts of ammonia (its sulphate, carbonate, and hydrochlorate); some of which have been patented, but few of them have got into general use, or have been carried out on the large scale. For many years the manufacture of ammonia and its compounds has incessantly engaged the attention of European chemists.

Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to directly convert the nitrogen of the atmosphere into ammonia. Of these we may mention one which consisted in passing a mixture of nitrogen, carbonic oxide and steam over red-hot hydrate of lime, whereby ammonia and carbonic acid are formed. A plan for the indirect application of atmospheric nitrogen in the preparation of ammonia was suggested by Margueritte, in which it was proposed that cyanide of barium should be prepared, and its nitrogen converted into ammonia by the aid of a current of superheated steam at 600° C. According to the description of this process in a patent, not, however, in practice, native carbonate of baryta is calcined with about 30% of coal-tar, for the purpose of rendering the mass porous as well as more readily converted into caustic baryta at a lower temperature. The carbonaceous mass is, after cooling, placed in a retort, and kept at a temperature of 300° C., while air and aqueous vapour are forced in, the result being the formation of ammonia in considerable quantity, and carbonate of baryta, which is again used.

Ammonia is evolved from ball soda while cooling; during the formation of cyanogen and cyanide of potassium in blast furnaces; and the formation of sal-ammoniac in the process of iron smelting.

Ammonia, in a state of combination, is found, in variable quantities, among the saline product of volcanoes, in sea and rain water, in bituminous coal, in urine, in guano, and in the atmosphere, especially that of large towns. The minute stellated crystals sometimes found on dirty windows in London, and other populous cities, consist of sulphate of ammonia. It is also found in clayey and peaty soils, and in minute quantity in good air and water. (Brande; Fownes; Letheby.) In the free state it exists in the juices of some plants, and in the living blood of animals, and it is freely developed during the decomposition of azotised vegetable substances, and during the putrefaction of animal matter.

_Prep._ A mixture of fresh hydrate of lime with an equal weight of sal ammoniac (both dry and in fine powder) is introduced into a glass flask or retort, the beak of which communicates with one end of a U-shaped tube filled with small fragments of recently burnt quick-lime, and from which extends another glass tube, about 18 inches long, having its further end bent up ready to be placed under a gas-jar, on the shelf of a mercurial pneumatic trough. (See _engr._) The joints being all made air-tight by collars of india rubber, heat is applied by means of a spirit-lamp, and as soon as the air contained in the apparatus is expelled, the gas is collected for use. It cannot be dried by means of chloride of calcium. Powdered quick-lime may be substituted for the hydrate in the above process; in which case the evolved gas is anhydrous, but a much greater heat is then required for its liberation.

_Comp._ Ammonia is a compound of 3 volumes of hydrogen, and 1 vol. of nitrogen, condensed into two volumes; and by weight of 82·35 parts of nitrogen, 17·65 parts of hydrogen, or, in other words, of one atomic weight of nitrogen and three of hydrogen, having the formula NH_{3}.

_Prop._ Gaseous, colourless, invisible; highly pungent, acrid, irritating and alkaline; irrespirable, unless very largely diluted with air; extinguishes combustion; burns slowly in oxygen; sp. gr. 0·589; 100 cub. inches weigh 18·26 gr. Under a pressure of 6·5 atmospheres, at 50° Fahr., it forms a transparent, colourless liquid of the sp. gr. 0·731; at 60° Fahr. this liquid expanded into 1009 times its volume of ammoniacal gas; at -40° Fahr., and the ordinary atmospheric pressure, it forms a subtle colourless liquid, which at -103° Fahr. freezes into a white, translucent, crystalline substance. (Faraday.) It is highly basic; all its salts are either volatilised or decomposed at, or under, a red heat--those with a volatile acid sublime unchanged--those with a fixed acid lose their ammonia. It is decomposed into its elements by transmission through a red-hot tube; and when in contact with metallic oxides or spongy platinum, at the same temperature, the newly evolved hydrogen unites with the oxygen of the oxide or of the atmosphere, forming water. Water at 50° Fahr. absorbs 670 times its volume of this gas, and the solution has the sp. gr. 0·875. Its concentrated aqueous solution boils at 130°, and freezes at -40° Fahr.

_Tests, &c._ Ammonia is recognised by--1. Its pungent odour:--2. By turning vegetable blues green, and vegetable yellows brown; but which soon regain their previous colours, especially on the application of heat:--3. By producing dense white fumes when brought in contact with those of hydrochloric acid:--4. By the Nessler test (see WATER, QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF):--5. If a saturated solution of arsenious acid is mixed with a solution of nitrate of silver (strength 2%) a trace of ammonia causes the formation of try-argentic arsenite:--6. Böttger says a very delicate test for ammonia is afforded by an aqueous solution of carbolic acid. On adding to a liquid containing the smallest quantity of ammonia, or an ammoniacal salt, a few drops of this solution, and then a small quantity of a filtered solution of chloride of lime, the liquid becomes green, especially when warmed.