Arnold James Cooley

“ Every act of volition, every exertion of muscular power, every functional action of the organism, whether perceptible or imperceptible and involuntary, every play of chemical affinity and decomposition, even thought itself, occasions the disorganisation and destruction, as living matter, of a portion of ourselves. But the process of respiration, and the various important changes with which it is connected, tends, more than all the other vital functions, to waste the substance of the body, the temperature of which it is its special office to support. ”

“ But give to such children the food that nature destined for them, and if the remedy do not come too late to save them, the mournful cry will cease, the face will assume a look of content, by degrees the features will disclose themselves, the limbs will grow round, the skin pure red and white. ”

“ As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs so is it beautifully ordered by Providence, that WOMAN, who is the mere dependant and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten by sudden calamity ”

“ By exercise the mind too is excited to healthy action, its gloomy reveries are dispelled, and the fair face of creation is presented to the mind’s eye in its proper hues. It robs undue mental exertion of half its injurious effects upon the body, whilst it stimulates and directs it in its proper course. It improves the temper, and humanises the character. The disposition is refined, the passions restrained, violent emotions checked, the habits improved, and the personal charms promoted under the stimulus of judicious exercise. ”

“ When a gas is compressed at 500 or 600 atmospheres, and kept at a temperature of -100° or 140°, and then let expand to the pressure of the atmosphere, one of two things must occur. Either the gas, obeying the action of cohesion, liquefies and yields its heat of condensation to the portion of the gas, which expands and is lost in the gaseous form; or under the hypothesis that cohesion is not a natural law, the gas passes beyond absolute zero, that is to say, it becomes inert, a dust without consistence. ”

“ After watching with great care for a considerable time a given spot I have assured myself that new particles actually come into existence; and that one does not, after intently watching for a time and concentrating the attention upon a certain space, merely see one coming into view one after another, as star after star. The material in which the minute germs of bacteria are imbedded, and which, at least in part, consists of formed material produced by the bacteria, is much softer than the matter of which the capsule of fungi consists. It is, perhaps, almost as soft as mucus. ”

“ It would be difficult to say where bacterium germs do not exist. In air, in water, in the soil adhering to tiny particles of every kind, in every region of the earth, from the poles to the equator, they are found. In the substance of the tissues—nay, in the cells of almost all plants, and in the interstices of the tissues of many animals—bacteria germs exist. I know not what part of the body of man and the higher animals is entirely destitute of particles which under favorable circumstances develop into bacteria. ”

“ Within the last few years great attention has been paid to the investigation of the chemistry of steel. The researches of Despretz and Fremy tend to the conclusion that nitrogen exercises a very important influence over the phenomena of ‘steeling,’ and that carbon plays a less necessary part; while those of Caron and Deville still refer the formation of steel to the chemical combination of iron with carbon. There is no test of the value of steel beyond its elasticity and temper, and the fineness, equality, and smoothness of its grain. ”

“ The common system of washing followed by drying in the sun, adopted by the ancients, is a process which of itself, by frequent repetition, decolorises the raw materials of textile fabrics, and thus must inevitably have taught them the art of ‘natural bleaching’ of a character similar to that practised in Europe up to a comparatively very recent period. And this appears, according to the authority of ancient authors, to have been the case. Washing or steeping in alkaline and ammoniacal lyes, or in milk of lime, followed by exposure in the sun, formed the chief basis of their system ”

“ The lighting effect is produced by the passage of the electric spark through the small gap which separates the carbon points, in which interval extremely minute but solid particles of carbon, given off by the points, are heated up to incandescence in the path of the spark, and thus give rise to the intensely luminous focus known as ‘the electric light.’ The brilliancy of the light of course depends upon the quantity of electricity employed. ”

“ If the deposit so obtained be mercury, it condenses in white shining globules;—if lead or bismuth, it does not rise but melts into a yellowish glass, which adheres to the copper; if tellurium, it falls as a white amorphous powder; if antimony, it does not rise at that low temperature; but if it be arsenic, it sublimes as arsenious anhydride, which condenses as minute octahedral crystals, looking, with the microscope, like very transparent grains of sand. ”

“ For the classification of the sciences it is convenient to prepare the way by distinguishing between theoretical sciences which are the sciences properly so called, and practical science. A theoretical science embraces a distinct department of nature, and is so arranged as to give in the most compact form the entire body of ascertained (scientific) knowledge in that department, such as mathematics, chemistry, physiology, and zoology. ”

“ The filtration of water may now be considered. The water of our wells is presented by nature ready filtered to the hand of man, and often exhibits an admirable degree of transparency and purity. It acquires this state by percolating through the mineral strata of the earth, which deprives it of the organic matter it derives from the soil and subsoil, but, at the same time, it dissolves a portion of the saline and earthy media through which it passes, and hence acquires that peculiar ‘hardness’ which is constantly found in spring water. ”

“ Solutio, L. Under the head of solutions (SOLUTIONES) , in pharmacy, are properly included only those liquids which consist of water, or an aqueous menstruum, in which has been dissolved an appropriate quantity of any soluble substance to impart to the liquor its peculiar properties. When spirit is the menstruum, the liquid receives the name of alcoholic solution, spirit, or tincture. ”

“ Fried bacon is remarkably strong, and is hence more likely to offend the stomach than when it is broiled, or preferably toasted before the fire; the last being, of all others, the best way of dressing it so as to preserve its delicacy and flavour. Gourmands, however, often esteem, as ‘une bonne bouche,’ bacon dressed in the flame arising from the dropping of its own fat.
Choice. Good bacon has a thin rind, and an agreeable odour, the fat has a firm consistence and a slightly reddish tinge; the lean is of a pleasing red colour, is tender, and adheres, whilst raw, strongly to the bone. ”

“ Exposure to air and sunlight acts fatally to the Phylloxera, shrivelling and drying it up. Hence its instinct of self-preservation, no less than its search after its food, leads it to bury itself beneath the surface of the soil. But, as the insect does not possess an organisation that fits it for burrowing, the character of the soil has a great deal to do in affording facilities or the reverse favorable to its existence. ”

“ Organized matter, or that which has possessed either animal or vegetable life, or which has been produced by living organs, seems to be alone capable of assimilation, to any extent, by the animal system; and hence it is from the organic kingdom that our aliments are necessarily derived. Water, iron, earthy phosphates, chloride of sodium, and other salts, which form the inorganic constituents of the body, though not of themselves nourishing, are also assimilated when taken in conjunction with organic aliments, and then contribute essentially to nutrition. ”

“ The liver-fluke is of constant occurrence in the livers of diseased sheep, and unless destroyed by thorough cooking will of course pass into the human economy. The embryo fluke gains admission to the sheep’s body through the instrumentality of small snails, to the shells of which it attaches itself. In wet weather the snails crawl over the grass of the meadow which forms the pastures of the sheep, and are swallowed by it. Once in the sheep’s stomach the embryo becomes a fluke, and commences its depredations on the animal’s liver. ”

“ One patient, perhaps, fancies himself a giant; another as heavy as lead; a third a feather, in continual danger of being blown away by the wind; and a fourth a piece of glass, and is hourly fearful of being broken. ”

“ The process of saponification itself proceeds with perfect facility, even in a closed vessel; no gas is disengaged; the neutral fat, of whatsoever kind, is simply resolved into an alkaline salt of the fatty acid, which is soap, and into glycerin, a neutral body resembling syrup, and, like that liquid, miscible with water in every proportion.
“When yellow soap is made with the cheaper kinds of fat it will hardly acquire a sufficient degree of firmness or hardness to satisfy the thrifty washerwoman. ”

“ Lately, I have been trying an ice formed of the frozen solution of the acid (or some other antiseptic) . Though, of course, not so tasteless as pure ice, the flavour is so much lessened by the low temperature, and probably also through the parched tongue, very little appreciating any flavour, that I find scarcely any complaint on that score from the little sufferers; they generally take to it very readily. The process of making it is very simple. A large test-tube immersed in a mixture of ice and salt is the only apparatus required, and in this the solution is easily frozen. ”

“ In the preparation of meat puddings the first and most important point is never to use any meat that is tainted; for in pudding, above all other dishes, it is least possible to disguise it by the confined progress which the ingredients undergo. The gradual heating of the meat, which alone would accelerate decomposition, will cause the smallest piece of tainted meat to contaminate all the rest. Be particular, also, that the suet and fat are not rancid, ever remembering the grand principle that everything which gratifies the palate nourishes. ”

“ When the supply of air is sufficient for the immediate and complete combustion of the whole of the combustible matter, no such precipitation takes place, and the flame is neither white nor brilliant. The richest coal-gas, mixed with sufficient air to convert all its hydrogen and carbon into water and carbonic acid, explodes with a pale blue flash; yet the same gas, when consumed in the ordinary way, burns with a rich white flame. Every one must have noticed the effect of a gust of wind upon the flaring gas-jets of a butcher’s shop ”