Croton oil

“ The oil expressed from these seeds, Croton Oil, is a powerful purgative, in doses of one drop, or even less, made into a pill with bread-crumb. It is applicable for all the cases mentioned in the last section; and where one drop does not operate the dose may be increased to two or even three drops. In Apoplexy, Fits, &c., where the patient is unable to {54} swallow, it is sufficient to place the oil at the base of the tongue. Its use, as a general rule, should be confined to adults. ”

“ Whatever form of purgative is given, some form of anodyne should be combined. Drissole and Tanquerel [3] are said to have obtained excellent results with croton-oil; one drop is given, followed seven or eight hours later by another, and then by an enema of 2 pints of normal saline. After two or three days the croton-oil may be again given, one drop at a time each day. ”

“ To solve this problem, the oil employed in the experiments was obtained by means of ether. The seeds of croton yield by expression 35 per cent.; treated by ether, they yield from 52 to 55 per cent. If treated by ether, the ether obtained by distillation is free from acid, all the acid remaining in the oil. When a certain fixed quantity of this oil is put in contact with ten times its weight of strong alcohol, the alcohol dissolves 6 per cent. of its own weight, and the oil 50 per cent. ”

“ That material is used by the fertilizing companies and they add to it the requisite amount of ammonia or phosphoric acid, or potash, or what is required for particular kinds of agriculture.
One of the chief products is oil, and the analysis of the crude oil obtained from the process is as follows:
The crude oil is a very dark thick-looking substance, very much like what you would see lubricating any bearing of engines, and very much like the crude oil that is obtained from the oil wells of this country. ”

“ On the other hand, the oils are extremely inert substances, and undergo chemical changes very slowly; so that there is no likelihood of their being converted into carbonic acid, or any other substance which may be useful to the plant; and as they contain no nitrogen, and consist only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they can yield only those elements of which the plant can easily obtain an unlimited supply. I can conceive cases in which the oil might possibly produce some mechanical effect on the soil, but none in which it could act as a manure, in the proper sense of the term. ”

“ Others are deprived of a part of their more volatile constituents by spontaneous evaporation, or by distillation, in vacuo or otherwise, at the lowest possible temperature. Such are known as “reduced oils”.
In most petroleum-producing countries, however, and particularly where the product is abundant, the crude oil is fractionally distilled, so as to separate it into petroleum spirit of various grades, burning oils, gas oils, lubricating oils, and (if the crude oil yields that product) paraffin. ”

“ What happens at the ordinary temperature slowly goes on rapidly in the steam cylinder, where a new condition is reached. The oils are subjected to the heat of high pressure steam, which dissociates or frees these acids from their base, and in this condition they attack the metal and hence destroy it.
This applies as well to vegetable as to oils of animal origin, fish or sperm oil included. Petroleum and oils derived therefrom (generally called mineral oils) are entirely free from this objection. Petroleum contains no oxygen, and hence it cannot form an acid, and therefore cannot attack metal. ”

“ The light oils which are produced in the refining of petroleum and commonly called gasoline are typical solvents for fat and oil. Instead of extracting the oil by the pressure process, as described above, a practically complete extraction may be secured by successive treatments with the light petroleum oils. The principle of the process is exactly that of the extraction of sugar from sugar beets by hot water in the process of the manufacture of beet sugar. ”

“ There are two kinds of vegetable matter which are possible, terrestrial and aquatic, and in the deltaic conditions that characterize so many oil-fields, either could be equally well appealed to as a source of accumulation. The extensive coal and lignite deposits in many geological periods bear eloquent testimony to the presence of carbonaceous matter far in excess of that required to provide proved supplies of petroleum. Every important coal-field demonstrates the fact that vegetable matter can be partially converted into bituminous compounds or hydrocarbons by natural processes. ”

“ If it were commonly associated with coal the problem of its origin would be solved at once. We should then be satisfied that natural mineral oil is produced in the same manner as the artificial product, i.e., by the heating and consequent distillation of certain kinds of coal or of bituminous shales; but, as a matter of fact, it is but rarely that petroleum is found in the midst of coal seams, though it is sometimes so found. ”

“ There is little loss of petroleum oil. Where cottonseed oil is used for technical purposes there is no objection to this method of extraction, and much is to be said in its favor since greater yields of oil are secured. When used for edible purposes, however, petroleum extracted cottonseed oil is not of as high a quality as that extracted by pressure. It is difficult to remove all traces of petroleum, especially the odor, and there are constituents extracted by petroleum which are not mixed with the oil when it is separated by pressure. ”

“ The two chief uses of the distillates from crude petroleum are for illumination and lubrication, but the various fractions in many cases have special applications. Rhigolene is used as a local anaesthetic; petroleum ether is employed as a solvent for caoutchouc, fatty oils, and plant principles, and for carbureting air in gas machines; gasoline is employed in the extraction of oil from oil seeds, in carbureting coal gas, in gasoline lamps, stoves, and plumbers' lamps. ”

“ Some of these liquid oils have again lost their more volatile parts, and become cannel-coal, asphaltum, jet, and amber, according to the purity of the original fossil oil. Dr. Priestley has shewn, that essential oils long exposed to the atmosphere absorb both the vital and phlogistic part of it; whence it is probable their becoming solid may in great measure depend, as well as by the exhalation of their more volatile parts. On distillation with volatile alcaly all these fossil oils are shewn to contain the acid of amber, which evinces the identity of their origin. ”

“ Petroleum Fuels.—Petroleum is defined by Prof. William Robinson as, in the widest sense of the term, comprising not only the mineral oils found in the earth's crust, but also the oils obtained by the destructive distillation of coal and bituminous shale. These complex liquid hydrocarbons vary in appearance from that of clear, light kerosene oils to heavy, dark-greenish slush or semi-fluid slime. After the volatile or lighter oils have been driven off from crude petroleum, the heavy oil left is known as residuum in America ”

“ Crude petroleum varies in its character, for while certain crudes are pale in colour and almost transparent, others are almost black and viscid. Some, indeed, would appear to have undergone a course of refining 52 by Nature itself, for in some fields the crude oil will freely burn in lamps without any refining treatment: in the vast majority of cases, however, the crude oil, as withdrawn from the producing wells, represents a liquid somewhat like molten tar. ”

“ It would be impossible to enumerate all the available sources of vegetable oils, for all seeds and nuts contain more or less fatty matter and as we become more economical we shall utilize of what we now throw away. The germ of the corn kernel, once discarded in the manufacture of starch, now yields a popular table oil. From tomato seeds, one of the waste products of the canning factory, can be extracted 22 per cent. of an edible oil. Oats contain 7 per cent. of oil. From rape seed the Japanese get 20,000 tons of oil a year. ”

“ Coal oil, or petroleum, sometimes found oozing from crevices in rocks, or even floating on water, is a natural inflammable oil stored in the earth. It was known in ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome, but did not become of great commercial importance until the middle of the nineteenth century. It is now obtained by boring wells, and is found in great quantities in certain regions of the country. The crude oil yields many products valuable in the arts, medicine, and manufacture. Kerosene is the substance useful as a fuel and for giving light. ”

“ Oils are also artificially produced from the so-called waste-products of the gas-works, but in some parts of the world the process of their manufacture has gone on naturally, and a yearly increasing quantity is being utilised. In England oil has been pumped up from the carboniferous strata of Coalbrook Dale, whilst in Sussex it has been found in smaller quantities, where, in all probability, it has had its origin in the lignitic beds of the Wealden strata. Immense quantities are used for fuel by the Russian steamers on the Caspian Sea, the Baku petroleum wells being a most valuable possession. ”

“ Some of the oils produced are of excellent quality, but others are inferior, and do not ascend the wick in sufficient quantity to afford a constant light. None of the native petroleums contain carbolic acid and other impurities which exist in the oils distilled from coals and shales; hence their purification is simple and comparatively cheap. “The oil prepared1143 from petroleum is almost colourless; it has a specific gravity of about ·810, and when of good quality only a slight and rather aromatic odour.” (Payen.) See Petroleum, and above. ”

“ We may obtain oil from such material, but it is utterly different from any kind of mineral oil, while, on the other hand, by distilling natural bituminous shales, or cannel coal, or peat, we obtain a crude oil almost identical with natural petroleum, and the little difference between the two is perfectly accounted for by the greater rapidity of our methods of distillation as compared with the slow natural process. We may go on approximating more and more nearly to the natural petroleum by distilling more and more slowly. ”

“ After the mixture, the gases must be screened from the light, otherwise the common carburetted hydrogen would also combine with the chlorine, while water and carbonic acid would make their appearance.
The oil employed for affording gas is the crudest and cheapest that can be bought; even the blubber and sediment of whale oil are employed with advantage. After all, however, coal is so much cheaper, and the gas produced from it is now so well purified, that oil and rosin are very little used in gas apparatus. ”

“ Thirty factories produce about 40,000 litres of the oil daily. Turpentine, creosote, acetic acid, charcoal, coal-tar oils, and other useful substances, are also obtained from the same materials as is the wood-oil. ”

“ But in that year Mr Young, a chemist at Manchester, discovered that by distilling some petroleum, which he obtained from a spring at Riddings in Derbyshire, he was able to procure a light oil, which he used for burning in lamps, whilst the heavier product which he also obtained proved a most useful lubricant for machinery. This naturally distilled oil was soon found to be similar to that oil which was noticed dripping from the roof of a coal-mine. ”

“ As regards the circumstances favoring the accumulation of petroleum, it appears that there should be a shale or other fine-grained rock forming to protect the organic matter during its deposition, a porous stratum above to be penetrated by the hydrocarbons resulting from the decomposition of the organic matter, and finally another shale or slate above, to prevent the further escape of the volatile products. If the sand-rock which usually forms the porous stratum is filled with fissures, large quantities of oil may collect in these. ”

“ When pure and fresh they usually have little or no taste or smell; but, when exposed to the air, they become darker in color, have a disagreeable taste and smell, and are called rancid. As examples of vegetable oils we have cottonseed-oil, linseed-oil, olive-oil, almond-oil and cocoa-butter. Linseed is brought largely from Russia and India; Africa supplies palm-oil; India and the Pacific islands cocoanut-oil; while the best olive-oil is brought from Italy. In animal oils the principal ones are butter, lard, tallow, neatsfoot-oil and sperm-oil. ”

“ The stearessence of anise-seed oil absorbed at its liquefying temperature, in the space of two years, 156 times its volume of oxygen gas, and disengaged 26 times its volume of carbonic acid gas. An oil which has begun to experience such an oxidizement is composed of a resin dissolved in the unaltered oil; and the oil may be separated by distilling the solution along with water. To preserve oils in an unchanged state, they must be put in phials, filled to the top, closed with ground glass stopples, and placed in the dark. ”

“ The fixed oils, except where otherwise directed, are obtained from the bruised or ground fruit or seed, by means of powerful pressure, in screw or hydraulic presses, and are then either allowed to clarify themselves by subsidence or are filtered. Both methods are frequently applied to the same oil. In some cases the impurities are removed by ebullition with water, and subsequent separation of the pure oil. Heat is frequently employed to increase the liquidity of the oil, and thus lessen the difficulty of its expulsion from the mass. ”