Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 25

The stronger varieties of ale usually contain from 6 to 8% of 'absolute alcohol,' ordinary strong ale, 4-1/2 to 6%; mild ale, 3 to 4%; and table ale, 1% to 1-1/2%; (each by volume); together with some undecomposed saccharine, gummy, and extractive matter, the bitter and narcotic principles of the hop, some acetic acid formed by the oxidation of the alcohol, and very small and variable quant.i.ties of mineral and saline matter. For the adulterants of ale, see PORTER. See BEER, BREWING, FERMENTATION, MALT-LIQUORS, &c.

=Ale, Dev'ons.h.i.+re White.= A liquor once generally drunk, and still in demand, in the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge and Modbury, Devon.

_Prep._ Ordinary ale-wort (preferably pale) sufficient to produce 1 barrel, is slowly boiled with about 3 handfuls of hops, and 12 to 14 lbs.

of crushed groats, until the whole of the soluble matter of the latter is extracted. The resulting liquor, after being run through a coa.r.s.e strainer, and become lukewarm, is fermented with 2 or 3 pints of yeast; and, as soon as the fermentation is at its height, is either closely bunged up for 'draught,' or is at once put into strong stoneware bottles, which are then well corked and wired.

_Obs._ White ale is said to be very feeding, though apt to prove laxative to those unaccustomed to its use. It is drunk in a state of effervescence or lively fermentation; the gla.s.s or cup containing it being kept in constant motion, when removed from the mouth, until the whole is consumed, in order that the thicker portion may not subside to the bottom.

=Ales, Med'icated.= _Syn._ BRYT'OLES; BRUTOLeS, Fr.; CEREVIS'Iae MEDICA'Tae, L. In _pharmacy_, ale prepared by macerating medicinal substances in it, either at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, or when heated; infusions and decoctions, in which ale or beer is employed as the menstruum. The old dispensatories enumerate several medicated ales; such as CEREVISIA OXYDOR'CICA, for the eyes; C. ANTI-ARTHRIT'ICA, for the gout; C. CEPHAL'ICA, for the head; C. EPILEP'TICA, against epilepsy; &c.

Preparations of this kind are now seldom ordered by the faculty, and their use is chiefly confined to the practice of empirics, and to domestic medicine. Bark, rue, savine, antis...o...b..tic plants, aromatic bitters, and stomachics, are the substances most commonly administered in this way. Ale in which wormwood, gentian, orange-peel, and the like, have been steeped, taken warm early in the morning, is much esteemed as a restorative tonic by drunkards and dyspeptics. See BEER, PURL, &c.

=ALE'BERRY.= A beverage made by boiling ale with spice, sugar, and bread-sops; the last commonly toasted. A domestic remedy for a cold.

=ALE'GILL= (_g_ hard). Ale or beer flavoured or medicated by infusing the leaves of ground ivy in it; pectoral, stomachic, and nervine.

=ALE'WIFE.= The _clupea serrata_, an American species of herring. Its proper name is a'loof, although the established p.r.o.nunciation and common orthography is ale-wife.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

=ALEM'BIC.= _Syn._ MOORS'HEAD; ALEM'BICUS, L.; ALAMBIC, Fr.; DESTILLIRKOLBEN, Ger. An old form of distillatory vessel usually made of gla.s.s or earthenware, but sometimes of metal. The body (_a_) which holds the liquid for distillation is called the CU'CURBIT; the upper part (_b_) the HEAD or CAP'ITOL; (_c_) is the RECEIVER. It is still employed in the laboratory, in the distillation of articles that are apt to spurt over into the neck of the common retort, and thus vitiate the product.

=ALEUROM'ETER.= _Syn._ ALEUROMeTRE, Fr. An instrument for determining the quant.i.ty and quality of gluten in wheat-flour, invented by M. Boland. It essentially consists of a hollow copper cylinder, about 6 inches long, and 3/4 of an inch internal diameter. This tube has two princ.i.p.al parts; the one, about 2 inches long, is closed at the lower end, forming a kind of cup, into which the gluten is placed; it screws into the remainder of the cylinder. The cup being charged with a sample of gluten, and the upper part of the cylinder being screwed on, it is exposed in an oven, or (preferably) in an oil bath, to a temperature of 350 to 380 Fahr.[17]

From the length of the tube the gluten occupies in swelling, as measured by a graduated scale, its quality is determined. The 'crude gluten' of good wheat-flour augments to four or five times its original volume, when thus treated; but that from bad flour does not swell, becomes viscid and semi-fluid, and generally gives off a disagreeable odour; whilst that of good flour merely suggests the smell of hot and highly baked bread.

[Footnote 17: Mr Mitch.e.l.l recommends the heat to be 420; whilst Dr Masprett gives 284 Fahr. as the proper temperature; but of these the first is too high, and the other too low. About 210 gr. are also ordered to be taken for examination; but the exact quant.i.ty is immaterial. (See Mitch.e.l.l's 'Falsification of Food.')]

=AL'GA.= (-ga). [L.] Sea-weed. A common name of gra.s.s-wrack ('zostera marina'--Linn.), though not one of the algae.

=AL'Gae.= (al'-je). [L. pl.] _Syn._ AL'GALS; ALGae (DC.), AL'GALES (Lindl.), L.; ALGUES, VARECH, Fr.; ALGE, MEERGRa.s.s, SEEGRa.s.s, Ger. Sea-weeds. In _botany_, an order of Thallogens living in water or very moist places, nourished throughout their whole surface by the medium in which they live, having no distinct axis of vegetation, and propagated by zoospores, coloured spores, or tetraspores. Linnaeus defines them--"plants, the roots, leaves, and stems of which are all in one." The algae consist either of simple vesicles lying in mucus, or of articulated filaments, or of lobed fronds formed of uniform cellular tissue. Those that vegetate in salt water are popularly called SEA-WEEDS (fu'ci, L.) and LA'VER (ulvae, L.); those found in fresh water CONFER'Vae. One of their divisions (the _Zoospermeae_) comprehends the lowest known forms of vegetable life, being merely adhering cells, emitting, at maturity, seeds or sporules having a distinct animal motion. In _Oscillatorias_, the whole plant twists and writhes spontaneously; and _Zymenas_ actually copulate like animals. Some of the Algae possess great beauty. In the lower grades the colour is green; in the higher, red or purple.

_Prop., Uses, &c._ None of the Algae are poisonous. Several are nutritious, emollient, and demulcent, from containing mucilage (carrageenin), starch, sugar (mannite), and a little alb.u.men; and are hence used as esculents.

The ash from the dried weed varies in different varieties from 9% to fully 25%; and contains variable quant.i.ties of pota.s.sa, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, manganese, and silica, with sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chlorine, and a little iodine and bromine. (Schweitzer; Forchhammer; G.o.dechens.) 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 algae as furnis.h.i.+ng an economical source of mannite.

The sea algae are used for manure; their ashes form KELP.

The following table, showing the results of several a.n.a.lyses of different kinds of algae, and ill.u.s.trating 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 Algae. Water. Dry matter. Nitrogen in contained in dry matter. dry matter.

-----------------------------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------ _Chondrus crispus_, 1792 8208 1534 9587 bleached, from Bewlay Evans. _Chondrus crispus_, 2147 7853 2142 13387 unbleached, Ballycastle. _Gigastina mamillosa_, 2155 7845 2198 13737 Ballycastle. _Chondrus crispus_, 1979 8021 1485 9281 bleached, second experiment. _Chondrus crispus_, 1996 8004 2510 15687 unbleached second experiment. _Laminaria digitata_, or 2138 7862 1588 9925 dulse tangle. _Rhodomenia palmata._ 1656 8344 3465 21656 _Porphyra laciniata._ 1741 8259 4650 29062 _Iridaea edulis._ 1961 8039 3088 19300 _Alaria esculenta._ 1791 8009 2424 15150 -----------------------------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------

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 algae 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 a.n.a.lysis of it given above to be fully justified. In preparing the algae 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 Marthae (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 pota.s.sium, 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 GEHoRIG, Ger. Pertaining to food or aliment; nutrimental; nouris.h.i.+ng.

=Alimentary Ca.n.a.l'.= _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 pa.s.sage or conduit extending from the mouth to the a.n.u.s. 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 excrement.i.tious matter. In others it is a true ca.n.a.l, with both a mouth and an outlet. Another step, and we find this ca.n.a.l is divided into a stomach and intestines. In the higher grades, a mouth, pharynx, and sophagus precede the stomach. Birds have one or two sacculi or crops added to the 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, Cae'c.u.m, CO'LON, and REC'TUM; the lower end or orifice of the last being called the A'NUS. The existence of an alimentary ca.n.a.l is said to be the only true characteristic of an animal. Plants have no common receptacle for their food, nor ca.n.a.l 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 nouris.h.i.+ng, 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-pota.s.sium (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 184 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 ma.s.s is converted into alizarin-pota.s.sium by heating it with caustic potash. From the alizarin-pota.s.sium 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 pota.s.sium 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 h.o.m.ologues is by Girard. The material used is that which distils between 290 and 360; it is purified by distillation and pressure, the portion which pa.s.ses over, between 300 and 305, being collected separately. This mixture is treated with pota.s.sium 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, pota.s.sium, 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 quant.i.ty of pota.s.sium 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 1488, and introduce the same into a retort, which may be made of gla.s.s, 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 quant.i.ty 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 1848, 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 s.p.a.ce 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.