Volume 1

Cooley's Cyclopædia of practical receipts and collateral information in the arts, manufactures, professions, and trades, including medicine, pharmacy, and domestic economy : designed as a comprehensive supplement to the pharmacopœia and general book of reference for the manufacturer, tradesman, amateur, and heads of families.

Cooley, Arnold J. (Arnold James)

Date:: 1892

Credit: Cooley's Cyclopædia of practical receipts and collateral information in the arts, manufactures, professions, and trades, including medicine, pharmacy, and domestic economy : designed as a comprehensive supplement to the pharmacopœia and general book of reference for the manufacturer, tradesman, amateur, and heads of families. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Cover
Title Page
Preface
Cover

45/916 page 29

iETHIOPS -ffi'THIOPS. See Ethiops. AFFECTION. [Eng., Fr.] Syn. Affec'tio, L. In pathology, a term nearly synonymous with AFFINITY, CHEMICAL. Syn. Affinitas, L.; Affinite, Fr.; Verwandschaft, Ger. Che- mical affinity is that property of bodies in virtue of which, when brought into contact, they react on each other, forming new bodies Nothing is known as yet about the nature of chemical affinity, nor has a satisfactory hypothesis been suggested concerning it (Ostwald, in Watt's ' Diet, of Chem./ 2nd edit., vol. i). The subject is a very complex one, and cannot be gone into here, but a word or two may be said with regard to the popular acceptation of the term. If mercury and water be shaken up together, and the mixture then be allowed to settle, the mercury will fall to the bottom of the containing vessel, neither it nor the water having undergone any change. If, on the other hand, mercury and (excess of) iodine be rubbed together in a mortar, a bright scarlet powder will be produced, which is neither mercury nor iodine, but a chemical compound of the two, viz. mercuric iodide, Hgl2. In this case chemical combination has taken place between the mercury and the iodine, these two substances having what is called an ' affinity' for one another, thus : Hg + I2= HgL, Again, when chlorine gas is passed into a solu- tion of potassium iodide, the chlorine displaces the iodine from its combination with the potassium, forming potassium chloride, thus : KI + C1 = KC1 + I. Here the potassium is said to have a greater affinity for chlorine than it has for iodine. Chemical affinity is exerted at very minute dis- tances, and therefore substances must be (appa- rently) in contact in order that they may combine with one another. The affinity of one substance for another depends, further, on various condi- tions, the most important of which are the tem- perature, the pressure, and the relative masses of the elements or compounds in question. See Chemical Combination. AFFUSION. In chemistry, the washing of a precipitate, &c, for the purpose of removing soluble matters. In medicine, affusion is of three kinds •: 1. Lotions, which consist in washing a part of the body with a sponge or rag soaked in a liquid. 2. Aspersions, which consist in throwing a liquid, drop by drop, like rain, upon the body. 3. Shower baths, which consist in allowing a number of small streams of water to fall from a height upon the surface of the body. If the water fall from a considerable height affusion is then termed douche by the French. AFTER-DAMP. Syn. Choke-damp. Car- bonic acid gas resulting from explosion of air and fire-damp (light carburetted hydrogen) in coal mines. AFT'ER-PAINS. Those following child-birth due to the contraction of the uterus. The only remedy is patience; they may, however, be fre- quently alleviated by small doses of morphia or Liquor Opii Sedativue. Heated cloths and warm I—AGARIC 29 fomentations are sometimes useful, particularly if assisted by moderate but sufficient pressure on the abdomen, by means of a broad bandage. They seldom follow with severity the first birth. In animals rarely continue more than twenty- four hours, and as a rule, i. e. if normal, do not call for special treatment. When birth has been sudden and rapid they persist longer and are more severe. If the accesses of pain are fre- quent and acute and continue beyond twenty-four hours, the retention of some part of the foetal membranes, or commencing inversion of the uterus, is to be suspected, an exploration should then be made in order to ascertain the cause and determine the remedies to be adopted. In ordi- nary cases where the after-pains are not in- creased by a special cause, the remedies used for the human subject will be found useful. AFT'ER-WASH (wosh). In the art of the dis- tiller, the liquor in the still after the spirit has been drawn over. AGALA'CTIA. Absence of milk. Not uncom- mon in mares and cows, especially those which have not been bred from for a long time, or have had their firstborn late in life. Treatment. Good food, and especially legumi- nous food, with aniseed and fennel or fennel seeds. AGAR-AGAR. Japanese isinglass is derived from several algse, especially Spherococcus com- pressus, Gloiopeltis tenax, Oelideum corneum, and G. cartilagineum. It occurs in European commerce either in transparent pieces two feet long and as thick as a straw, prepared in Singa- pore by steeping the algse in hot water ; or more frequently in yellowish-white masses about a foot long and an inch wide. Uses. Employed for bacteria culture, also as a food for invalids, likewise as a dressing for silks and calico. AG'ARIC. [Eng., Fr.] Syn. Agar'icum, Agar'icus, L.; Blatterschwamm, Pilz, Schwamm, Ger. In botany, a genus of fungi, of numerous species, embracing the mushrooms and champignons. Of these plants, some are edible, others poisonous. The term is also commonly applied to the boletus found on oaks (touch- wood), and on larches (male agaric). See Mushrooms. Fly-agaric. Syn. Fly mush'room ; Agar'i- cus muscaria, Linn.; Amani'ta m. One of the most narcotic and poisonous of our fungi, producing, in small doses, intoxication and a pleasing species of delirium; for which purpose it is commonly employed in Kamschatka. (Hooker.) It possesses the singular property of imparting an intoxicating quality to the urine, which continues for a long time after taking it. This secretion is, therefore, commonly saved by the natives during a scarcity of the fungus. Thus, with a few amanitaj, a party of drunk- ards may keep up their debauch for a week and the intoxication so produced is capable of being propagated through five or six individ- uals. (Langsdorff.) Water in which it has been boiled is poisonous; but the boiled fungus itself is inert. The liquid from it is used as a fly-poison; whence the name mushroom is de- rived. It may be known by its rich orange-red colour in autumn.

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