Arnold James Cooley

“ The uses of the perspiratory functions appear to be to preserve the suppleness and sensibility of the skin, to maintain the temperature of the body at a uniform standard, and to remove from the system a number of compounds noxious to animal life. The perspiration “is a fluid whose regularity and continuance of exhalation are not merely conducive, but absolutely necessary, to health; without such regularity the animal temperature would run riot, and substances of an injurious quality would be allowed to permeate the finest and most delicate of the tissues of the body.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The picrate of potassium has been given with advantage in intermittent fevers. A solution of picric acid in alcohol is an excellent test for potassa, if there be not too much water present, as it throws down a yellow crystalline precipitate with that alkali, but forms a very soluble salt with soda. Most of the picrates may be made by the direct solution of the carbonate, hydrate, or oxide of the metal, in a solution of the acid in hot water. The picrate of silver forms beautiful starry groups of acicular crystals, having the colour and lustre of gold. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The striking contrast of animal and vegetable food, as far as this point is concerned, is more apparent than real. The actual difference between the two is to be found in the existence of a large quantity of non-nitrogenised matter (sugar, starch, &c.) in the last, which is not contained in the other—matter which abounds in carbon, and which, by its combustion in the system, serves to support the animal heat at a less sacrifice of the organic fabric. In the flesh-eating animal the waste of the organic tissues is very rapid, and the tax upon the vital energies proportionate ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the arts, kreasote is extensively employed to preserve animal substances, either by washing it over them, or by immersing them in its aqueous solution. A few drops in a saucer, or on a piece of spongy paper, if placed in a larder, will effectually drive away insects, and make the meat keep several days longer than it otherwise would. A small quantity added to brine or vinegar is commonly employed to impart a smoky flavour to meat and fish, and its solution in acetic acid is used to give the flavour of whisky to malt spirit. ”

“ Almost every plant, when burned, leaves ashes, which commonly contain silica, potassa, and phosphate of lime; often, also, magnesia, soda, sulphates, and oxide of iron. These mineral bodies appear to be essential to the existence of the vegetable tissues; so that plants will not grow in soils destitute of them, however abundantly supplied with carbonic acid, ammonia, and water. The carbon of plants is wholly derived from carbonic acid, which is either absorbed from the atmosphere, and from rain water, by the leaves, or from the moisture and air in the soil, by the roots. ”

“ Gas is the fuel generally used to heat the inside of the stove. The continuous current of air as it rushes into the iron pipe from without, thus becomes warmed as it ascends into the coil, which it leaves to become diffused into the surrounding apartment, whilst the products of combustion of the gas used as fuel are, by means of a pipe attached to the stove, carried into the chimney, as with coal fire.
A gas-cooking apparatus possesses many advantages over an ordinary coal fire. In the first place, it is more cleanly; in the second, it affords a much more uniform and equable temperature ”

“ The food of vegetables, as far as their organic structure is concerned, consists entirely of inorganic compounds; and no organised body can serve for the nutrition of vegetables until it has been, by the process of decay, resolved into certain inorganic substances. These are carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, which are well known to be the final products of putrefaction. But even when these are applied to vegetables, their growth will not proceed unless certain mineral substances are likewise furnished in small quantities, either by the soil or the water used to moisten it. ”

“ The most appropriate and only safe situation in which to keep paintings, is where there is a pure and moderately dry atmosphere. To protect pictures from the effects of damp, it has been suggested to dip the canvas into a solution of silicate of potash, and afterwards dried, previous to its being used. Impure air abounds in carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen. It is the presence of the last in the air that blackens the ‘lights,’ and causes most of the ‘middle tints’ and ‘shades’ to fade; and it is exposure to damp that produces mouldiness and decay of the canvas. ”

“ A frequent cause of failure in the manufacture of liqueurs and cordials is the addition of too much flavouring matter. Persons unaccustomed to the use of strong aromatic essences and essential oils seldom sufficiently estimate their power, and, consequently, are very apt to add too much of them, by which the liqueur is rendered not only disagreeably high flavoured, but, from the excess of oil present, also ‘milky,’ or ‘foul,’ either at once, or, what is nearly as bad, on the addition of water. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Oxygen gas may be collected in the usual way, either over water, mercury, or in bags; or, on the large scale, in gasometers. The purity of the products of the several processes given above depends on the substances from which the gas is obtained being themselves pure. For particular experiments the first portion of gas should be allowed to escape, or be received apart, as with this, as with the other gases, it is contaminated with the atmospheric air of the apparatus. The gas procured from manganese or nitre may be purified by passing it through milk of lime or a solution of caustic potash ”

“ Pearls were formerly used in medicine as absorbents or antacids; and among the ancients they were occasionally taken, dissolved in acid, both as a remedy and for the purpose of displaying the careless opulence and luxury of their possessors. A perfect pearl, large, truly spherical, highly iridescent, and reflecting and decomposing the rays of light with vivacity, claims to rank with the most costly of the gems, and in some parts of the East is, with justice, more highly prized than even the diamond. ”

“ He contends that the chlorine which the mixture contains destroys the blood poison, that the hydrochloric acid supplies a desirable ingredient for the blood, that the iron improves the impaired red blood disks and assists in forming new ones, whilst the chlorate of potash is a source of oxygen whereby the disintegrated matters floating in the blood are burnt up and destroyed.
Scarlet fever is common to all ages of life, but children and young persons are the most subject to it. Unlike the smallpox, it occasionally attacks the same person more than once. ”

“ When, by an extraordinary supply of any one mineral ingredient, or of ammonia, a large crop has been obtained, it is not to be expected that a repetition of the same individual manure next year will produce the same effect. ”

“ Free carbonic acid is evolved during the fermentation or decay of vegetable matter, and hence the absolute necessity of preventing the leaves of trees falling into water-cisterns formed of lead. The ‘eau de rose’ and the ‘eau d’orange’ of commerce, which are pure distilled water holding in solution small quantities of essential oil, and are imported in leaden canisters, always contain a small quantity of lead, and deposit a sediment, which is not the case when they are kept in glass or incorrodible vessels. ”