Part 90

Until the researches of Harnack and Witkowsky the Calabar bean was supposed to owe its activity, when internally administered, to the presence of a powerful alkaloid called _esernia_ or _physostigma_. These chemists, however, have lately succeeded in discovering in the bean, in addition to eserina, another very potent alkaloid, to which they have given the name _calabaria_ or _calabarine_.

Calabarine appears to exert a physiological action antagonistic to that of eserine, and since the commercial preparations of the drug consist, according to the above chemists, of mixtures of the two alkaloids in varying proportions, the discordant effects frequently observed to follow the administration of any of the various preparations of the bean, admit of ready explanation. Wherever eserine predominated it appeared to suppress the effects of calabarine; on the other hand, if this latter preponderated, the paralysing effect on the spinal cord otherwise exercised by eserine would fail to be produced.

The necessity of having preparations of calabar free from calabarine, in cases where the drug is administered for tetanus, will be apparent when it is stated that calabarine itself induces the disease.

We quote the following from 'New Remedies' for June, 1877:--

"The well-known manufacturing chemist, E. Merk, in Darmstadt, has heretofore prepared and sold a substance which was supposed to be the only active principle of calabar, and which he called calabarine, but which was really eserine or physostigmine. He now accepts and confirms the results of Harnack's and Witkowsky's researches, and has put both of the active principles upon the market labelled with their correct name, viz. '_Physostigmin_' (or eserine, being the same substance which he formerly sold as calabarine), and '_Calabarin_,' distinguished by the addition of Harnack's name (Harnack's 'Calabarine'). _The attention of physicians and pharmacists is particularly directed to the change of appellations._"

Calabar bean is a powerful poison. The antidotes are:--Diffusible stimulants; the hypodermic injection of the 1/50th of a grain of sulphate of atropia, to be repeated if necessary at the end of two hours; and artificial respiration. See ESERINE.

=CAL'AMINE.= See ZINC (Carbonate of).

=CALCINA'TION.= The operation of burning or roasting any solid body to expel its more volatile parts, as the conversion of chalk into lime by the expulsion of carbonic anhydride. The roasting of the ores in the first stage of the Welsh process of copper smelting and in the Silesian mode of extracting zinc is technically termed CALCINATION.

The method of conducting the process of calcination depends on the nature of the body operated on. Many substances, for delicate experiments, are calcined over a spirit lamp in a platinum spoon or crucible; others, in iron vessels or earthen crucibles, placed in a common furnace. When the action of the air proves injurious, as in the manufacture of charcoal, the process is performed in close vessels or chambers. In some cases the fuel is mixed with the articles, and they are both burnt together, as in the manufacture of lime, the roasting of ores, &c. The process of drying salts, or driving off their water of crystallisation by heat, is also frequently called CALCINATION; thus we have calcined copperas, alum, &c.

=CAL''CINER.= A reverberatory furnace used for the calcination of metallic ores, particularly those of COPPER and ZINC (which _see_).

=CAL'CIUM.= [Eng., L.] Ca. The metal of which LIME is an oxide. Though it is a chemical curiosity when isolated, it is one of the most abundant substances in nature, forming a very large portion of the crust of the earth. It occurs in combination with fluorine as fluor-spar; with oxygen and carbonic acid as chalk, limestone, and marble; and with oxygen and sulphuric acid as gypsum. The metal was first obtained from lime by Sir H. Davy in 1808; but little was known of its properties until Dr Matthiessen formed it by the electrolytic decomposition of the chloride of calcium.

_Prep._ 1. By the action of a powerful voltaic current upon a paste of pure lime in contact with mercury, as in the original method of preparing barium.

2. By the electrolysis of chloride of calcium in a state of fusion.

3. (Caron.) Fused chloride of calcium in powder, 300 parts; distilled zinc, finely granulated, 400 parts; sodium, in small pieces, 100 parts; the whole placed in a crucible and heated to redness in an ordinary furnace. The action is very feeble at first, but after some time zinc flames arise. The heat must now be moderated to prevent the volatilisation of the zinc, but at the same time it must be maintained as high as possible. When the crucible has remained in this state for about a quarter of an hour it may be withdrawn. On cooling, a metallic button will be found at the bottom. This alloy of zinc and calcium, which generally contains from 10 to 15% of the latter metal, must be placed in a coke crucible and heated until the whole of the zinc is driven off. The alloy should be in pieces as large as possible. When proper precautions have been observed a button of CALCIUM is obtained, only contaminated with the foreign metals contained in the zinc.

_Prop., &c._ The metal belongs to the group which includes BARIUM, STRONTIUM, and MAGNESIUM; it is of a light yellow colour; is rather harder than lead, and very malleable. It melts at a red heat. It tarnishes in a day or two, even in dry air, and in contact with moist air it breaks up like ordinary lime. Its sp. gr. is 1·55.

_Tests._ Salts of calcium in solution produce a white precipitate with carbonate of ammonium; it becomes far less voluminous on heating the solution, and dissolves very readily in hydrochloric acid. Sulphuric acid, when added to concentrated solutions, gives an immediate white precipitate; if the solution is not concentrated, the precipitate may separate gradually, in minute crystals; and if it is very dilute, no precipitation will take place, because sulphate of lime is soluble in about 500 times its weight of water. With neutral solutions, even when very dilute, oxalate of ammonium gives a copious white precipitate, soluble in most dilute acids.

=Calcium, Acetate of.= Add prepared chalk to acetic (or purified pyroligneous) acid till fully saturated; filter and evaporate, that crystals may form. Diuretic. _Dose_, 10 to 20 grains.

=Calcium, Acid Phosphate of.= _Syn._ SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME, SOLUBLE ACID PHOSPHATE. CaH_{4},2PO_{4}. This may be procured by treating bone-earth with two thirds of its weight of oil of vitriol, as in the preliminary stage of the extraction of phosphorus. It is extensively used as a manure for turnips.

=Calcium, Bibasic Phosphate.= Ca_{2}H_{2}P_{2}O_{8} + 3H_{2}O. Dissolve 608 grams of crystallised calcium chloride in 1000 grams of distilled water, and add gradually to this solution 1000 grams of sodium phosphate, dissolved in 10,000 grams of water. Allow the precipitate to deposit, and wash it five or six times with 10 litres of water each time; drain the precipitate on a moistened cloth. As soon as its consistence permits, detach from it irregular pieces, and place them to dry in the open air upon filtering paper; the spontaneous desiccation is sufficiently rapid.

From 'Formulæ for New Medicaments adopted by the Paris Pharmaceutical Society.'

=Calcium, Bro'mide of.= CaBr_{2}. _Syn._ CAL'CII BROMI'DUM, L. _Prep._ (Magendie.) To a solution of bromide of iron add hydrate of calcium in slight excess; filter, evaporate to dryness, redissolve in water, and again filter, and evaporate.

=Calcium, Carbonate of.= See CHALK.

=Calcium, Chlo''ride of.= CaCl_{2}. _Syn._ CAL'CII CHLORI'DUM (B. P.). _Prep._ Hydrochloric acid and water, of each 10 fl. oz.; chalk, 5 oz.; evaporate the solution until the salt becomes solid, and dry the residue at about 400° F.

It is obtained in solution as a residuum in making several preparations of ammonia, as the liquor and carbonate, and in making carbonic acid by the action of hydrochloric acid on marble. The residuum is concentrated and set aside to crystallise, or evaporated to dryness.

_Prop., Uses, &c._ This salt crystallises in colourless, striated, hexagonal prisms, terminated by very acute points. It is very soluble in alcohol and water, the latter even at 32° dissolving more than its own weight, and at 60° three or four times its weight of this salt. When heated, the crystals undergo watery fusion. When dissolved in water, they produce great cold; and hence are frequently employed as an ingredient in FREEZING MIXTURES. These crystals contain nearly half their weight of water. They are very deliquescent, passing readily into the liquid state, and forming what used to be called oleum calcis, or oil of lime. The anhydrous chloride is hard and friable; slightly translucent; totally and readily soluble in water, and, like the crystallised salt, very deliquescent. In the laboratory chloride of calcium, either fused or merely dried, is continually used for drying gases and for absorbing the water from ethereal and oily liquids in organic analysis. The unfused is now generally preferred for this purpose, as it is more porous than the fused. The salt is also used in the rectification of alcohol, and to form a bath for heating stoneware stills and other apparatus liable to be cracked on the sand bath. As a chemical reagent it is employed chiefly in detecting certain organic acids. As a medicine it has been given in some scrofulous and glandular diseases. _Dose_, 10 to 20 gr. See SOLUTIONS.

=Calcium, Flu'oride of.= CaF_{2}. _Syn._ HYDROFLU'ORATE OF LIME. This occurs native as the mineral called fluor-spar. It is found in beautiful crystals in the lead mines of Alston Moor and Derbyshire, and in the concretionary crystalline masses known as Blue John or Derbyshire spar at Castleton. It may be prepared by the action of hydrofluoric acid upon lime, as directed under BARIUM, FLUORIDE OF.

=Calcium Hypophosphite.= CaP_{2}H_{4}O_{4}. Mix milk of lime (1 in 5) in porcelain capsule placed in a sand bath, with half its weight of phosphorus in small pieces, and heat it to ebullition, operating in the open air or under a chimney with a good draught. Spontaneously inflammable phosphuretted hydrogen is given off, the vapour of which should be avoided. Add from time to time a little warm water, to replace that which has evaporated. Discontinue the heat when the phosphorus has disappeared--that is, when inflammable bubbles cease to be produced. If the phosphorus remain in excess, add more milk of lime, and continue the heat until the complete disappearance of the metalloid. Allow the liquor to cool and then filter; then saturate it with a current of carbonic acid gas to eliminate any excess of lime remaining uncombined. Filter again, and concentrate the liquor in a water bath to dryness, keeping the temperature below 100° C., to avoid detonations. Preserve the salt from the air in well-closed bottles.

From 'Formulæ for New Medicaments adopted by the Paris Pharmaceutical Society.'

=Calcium, I'odide of.= CaI_{2}. _Syn._ HYDRI'ODATE OF LIME; CAL'CII IODI'DUM, CALCIS HYDRIO'DAS, L. _Prep._ 1. (Magendie.) From a solution of protiodide of iron and hydrate of calcium, as directed under iodide of barium.

2. Dissolve lime or carbonate of lime in hydriodic acid.

_Prop., Uses, &c._ It is a deliquescent salt, easily soluble in water, and has a bitterish taste. It has been used in scrofulous affections, internally, in doses ranging from 1/8 to 2 gr., thrice daily, and externally in ointments containing 2 dr. or less to the oz.

=Calcium, Lactophosphate.= This product ought not to be employed except in the state of solution in water or in syrup. In the pasty or solid state its solubility varies, and it is always an indefinite compound.

_Solution._ Bibasic phosphate of lime, 17 grams; concentrated lactic acid, as little as possible; distilled water, 964 grams. Suspend the phosphate carefully in the distilled water, add the lactic acid, allow solution to go on for some minutes, and filter.

From 'Formulæ for New Medicaments adopted by the Paris Pharmaceutical Society.'

=Calcium, Oxide of.= See LIME.

=Calcium, Phosphate of.= _Syn._ CALCIS PHOSPHAS (Ph. B.). Digest bone-ash, 4 _oz._, in hydrochloric acid, 6 _fl. oz._, diluted with a pint of water, until it is dissolved.

Filter the solution, if necessary; add water, 1 pint, and afterwards solution of ammonia (Ph. B.), 12 _fl. oz._, or a sufficient quantity, until the mixture acquires an alkaline reaction, and having collected the precipitate on a calico filter, wash it with boiling distilled water as long as the liquid which passes through occasions a precipitate when dropped into solution of nitrate of silver acidulated with nitric acid. Dry the washed product at a temperature not exceeding 212° F.

=Calcium, Phos'phide of.= _Syn._ PHOSPHU'RET OF LIME; CAL'CII PHOSPHURE'TUM, C. PHOSPHI'DUM, L. _Prep._ By passing the vapour of phosphorus over lime (in small fragments) heated to redness in a porcelain tube. A brownish substance, supposed to be a mere mechanical mixture of phosphide and phosphate of calcium. Thrown into water, it suffers instant decomposition, and phosphuretted hydrogen gas escapes.

=Calcium, Sulphides of.= Calcium forms with sulphur at least three different compounds:--

=1. Calcium, Protosul'phide of.= CaS. _Prep._--_a._ From sulphate of lime, exposed at a high temperature to a stream of hydrogen gas.--_b._ From dried gypsum, 25 parts; lampblack or finely powdered charcoal, 4 parts; calcined together at a strong heat in a covered crucible.

=2. Calcium, Bisulphide of.= CaS_{2}. _Prep._ From sulphur and quick-lime, equal parts; water, q. s.; slake the lime, add the sulphur, and boil until a solution is obtained, which on cooling deposits crystals.

=3. Calcium, Pentasulphide of.= CaS_{5}. _Prep._ As the last, but increasing the quantity of sulphur, and continuing the boiling for a longer period. Little is known about it.

=4. Calcium, Sulphate of.= See GYPSUM.

=5. Calcium, Commercial Sulphuret of.= _Syn._ COMMERCIAL SULPHIDE OF CALCIUM. _Prep._--_a._ As 1, _b_ (_above_).

_b._ Sulphur, 1 part; hydrate of lime, 3 parts; water, 2-1/2 pints; boil it until it solidifies on cooling, then pour it out on a cold marble slab, and when solid break it into pieces and preserve it in a well-corked bottle.

_c._ (Guibourt.) Quick-lime, 7 parts; sulphur, 4 parts; mix, and heat the compound for about 2 hours in a covered crucible.

_d._ (Cottereau.) Quick-lime, 2 parts; sulphur, 1 part; water, 5 parts; as 4, _b_ (_above_).

_Obs._ The precise composition of the last three preparations is uncertain. They are acrid, caustic, stimulant, and diaphoretic. _Dose_, 1 to 3 gr. Sulphide of calcium has been used as a depilatory by applying it made into a paste with water, and washing it off in about 1/4 of an hour. Made into an embrocation, it has been strongly recommended in gout, scabies, &c. Its solution yields pure sulphur on the addition of hydrochloric acid.

=CALCULA'TIONS= (Useful). 1. To find the Value of a Dozen Articles. Take the price in pence as shillings, and if there are any farthings in the price, add threepence for each. Thus 2s. 8d., or 32 pence per yard, is £1 12s. per dozen.

2. To find the Value of One Hundred Articles. For every farthing take as many pence and twice as many shillings. Thus, 1-1/4d. each is--5d., and 10s. = 10s. 5d. per hundred.

3. To find the Value of a Pound at any price per Ounce. Take the price in farthings as shillings, and divide by three. Thus, 5-1/4d. per ounce is 21 farthings; taken as shillings, 21 ÷ 3 = 7s. per pound.

4. To find the Value of an Ounce at any price per Pound. Take the shillings as farthings, and multiply by three. Thus, at 6s.--6 × 3 = 18 farthings, or 4-1/2d. per ounce.

_Obs._ By reversing Nos. 1 and 2, the price of a single article or pound may be found from the price per dozen or hundred. For several other calculations, useful in domestic economy, chemistry, &c., see BREWING, DECIMALS, EQUIVALENTS, MEASURES, PER-CENTAGE, WEIGHTS.

=CAL'CULUS.= _Syn._ STONE. In _medicine_, a hard concretion formed within the animal body by the deposition of matters which usually remain in solution. The concretions most commonly found are those formed in the kidneys or bladder, and termed urinary calculi, and those formed in the gall-bladder or biliary ducts, which are called biliary calculi. Urinary calculi are in most cases composed of substances which are constituents of healthy urine, such as uric acid, urate of ammonia, and the phosphates of lime and magnesia; they are, however, sometimes composed of substances which are met with in unhealthy urine, such as oxalate of lime, cystine, &c.

Biliary calculi, or gall-stones, usually contain from 50 to 80 per cent. of cholesterin, a crystallisable fatty body, constituting a never failing ingredient in healthy bile, the rest of the concretion being made up of biliary resin and colouring matter, with a small quantity of inorganic salts.

Calculus or stone in the bladder, which is a prevalent disease in Norfolk, both among men and sheep, has been attributed to the use of the hard water of the district.

Both of these give rise to very painful symptoms, and may even threaten life. See CHOLESTERIN.

=CALEFACIENTS.= Applications that excite warmth.

=CAL'ENDAR.= _Syn._ CALENDA'RIUM, L.; CALEN'DRIER, Fr. A table of all the days of the year, arranged in the order of days and weeks, to which are generally added certain astronomical indications and dates of great civil and religious events. The most remarkable calendars are the Hebrew calendar, the calendar of the Greeks, the Roman, or Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar (now adopted by all Christian peoples except the Greeks and Russians), and the French Republican calendar, which, having remained in force about thirteen years, was abolished by Napoleon I on the 1st of January, 1806.

=Calendar, Perpet'ual.= A table which furnishes the general indications necessary to construct a calendar for any year, and to resolve, without error, many difficulties connected with the verification of dates.

=CAL'ENDERING.= The process of finishing by pressure the surface of linen or cotton goods. It is usually performed by passing the fabric between cylinders pressed together with great force. It is necessary that one of the cylinders, at least, shall be of a material combining considerable hardness with a slight degree of elasticity; for this purpose the paper cylinder is used. It is made by forcibly compressing a number of circular discs of thick pasteboard, each with a square hole in the centre, upon an iron axis, so as to form a solid cylinder, which is turned perfectly smooth and true in a lathe. The paper cylinder usually works against a hollow roller of copper or iron, heated by steam or metallic heaters. Before the final rolling in the calendering machine the fabric is lightly smoothed by passing over warm cylinders. Cotton goods are starched, and a fictitious appearance of stoutness is sometimes given to them by employing starch thickened with plaster of Paris, porcelain clay, or a mixture of these. Watering is a beautiful effect, produced by means of a hot cylinder with a pattern raised upon it. Glazing is produced by combined rubbing and pressure, the rollers being made to move with unequal velocities, so that one side of the fabric is rubbed as well as pressed by the roller whose surface moves with the greater speed. A copper cylinder is preferred for glazing, and is made so hot that if the machine stops it burns the goods. The old method of glazing consisted in burnishing the surface of the fabric with a polished flint.

=CAL'ICO.= See COTTON.

=Cal'ico Printing.= The art of producing figured patterns upon calico by means of dyes and mordants topically applied by wooden blocks, copper plates, or engraved cylinders. The goods are either directly printed in colour, or receive their patterns by being run through a colouring matter or mordant, when the dye is only produced upon that portion of the ground previously prepared for it. Of late this system of dyeing has been extended to silk and woollens.

The mordants are thickened with some glutinous substance, as flour, starch, or gum, to render them adhesive and to prevent their spreading.

The following are the principal styles of calico-printing, each requiring a different method of manipulation:--

In the madder, fast colour, or chintz style, the mordants are applied to the white cloth, and the colours are brought out in the dye bath. This is the method commonly followed for "permanent prints."

In the padding or plaquage style, the whole cloth is passed through a bath of some particular mordant, and different mordants are afterwards printed on it before submitting it to the dye bath. By this means the colour of the ground and pattern is varied. Like the last, it is much used for gown pieces, &c.

In the reserve or resist-paste style, white or coloured figures are produced by covering those parts with a composition which resists the general dye afterwards applied to form the ground of the pattern. In this style the dye bath is indigo, or some other substantive colour.

The discharge, or rongeant style, is the reverse of the preceding; it exhibits bright figures on a dark ground, which are produced by printing with acidulous or discharge mordants after the cloth has been passed through the colouring bath.

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

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

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

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

=CAL'OMEL.= See MERCURY (Chlorides of).

=CALOTRO'PIS PROCE'RA.=, =CALOTRO'PIS GIGAN'TEA.=, (Ind. Ph.). _Syn._ MUDAR.--_Habitat._ One or other of these species, everywhere in India.--_Officinal part._ The root-bark, dried (_calotropis cortex_). Small flat or arched pieces, brownish externally, yellow-greyish internally, peculiar smell, and mucilaginous, nauseous, acrid taste. Its activity appears to reside in a peculiar extractive matter named _mudarine_.--_Properties._ Alterative tonic; diaphoretic, and, in large doses, emetic.--_Therapeutic uses._ In leprosy, constitutional syphilis, mercurial cachexia, syphilitic and idiopathic ulcerations, in dysentery, diarrh[oe]a, and chronic rheumatism, it has been used with alleged benefit.