Rosin

“ The chief region of rosin production, is the South Atlantic and Eastern Gulf states of the United States. American rosin is obtained from the turpentine of the swamp pine, Pinus austral is, and of the loblolly pine, P. T aeda. The main source of supply in Europe is the “landes ” of the departments of Gironde and Landes in France, where the cluster pine, P. Pinaster, is extensively cultivated. ”

“ It is possible in this way to manufacture a thick size containing 30 or 40 per cent. of free rosin and a comparatively small proportion of water. Many paper mill firms prefer to purchase such size ready made.
The most recent modification of the ordinary rosin size is a compound prepared by treating rosin with silicate of soda. This alkali dissolves rosin readily, and the soap [Pg 171] obtained when suitably diluted with water decomposes in the beating engine on the addition of aluminium sulphate, with the precipitation of a gelatinous silica which assists in hardening the paper. ”

“ Looking through the volumes around 1868, when the use of rosin-weed in asthma was being quoted in the south and west, I found many quaint notes and comments, but no mention of rosin-weed. To [Pg 45] any physician who has a taste for the history of his art, I would recommend reading a journal of fifty years ago. So many things have been settled that those old physicians puzzled and fought over that it gives one the sense of amusement or lofty detachment of the gods, looking down on struggling, wriggling humanity, yet knowing all the time how it would come out. ”

“ Twitchell suggests 346 as the combining weight of rosin, but 330 is a closer approximation.
The method may be also carried out gravimetrically, in which case petroleum ether, boiling at 74° C. is used for washing out the beaker into the separator. The acid liquor is run off, and the petroleum ether layer washed first with water and then with a solution of 1/2 gramme KOH and 5 c.c. alcohol in 50 c.c. water, and agitated. The rosin is thus saponified and separated. The resinate solution is withdrawn, acidified, and the resin acids collected, dried and weighed. ”

“ Rosin oil is a deleterious adulterant, but one which may be more readily detected than cotton-seed oil. Rosin is [332] added to boiled oil to hasten its drying; this also is an injurious substance. Of late years glycerine has become an article of greater value than formerly, and this may account for the manufacture of linoleic acid and its use as an adulterant of oleic acid and of linseed oil.
Lastly, it may be mentioned that certain samples of “pale boiled oil” have been found to contain what is practically a raw oil mixed with dryers. ”

“ The more caustic the alkali, the less consistence has the resinous compound which is made with it. Hence fat of some kind, in considerable proportion, must be used along with the rosin, the minimum being equal parts; and then the soap is far from being good. As alkaline matter cannot be neutralized by rosin, it preserves its peculiar acrimony in a soap poor in fat, and is ready to act too powerfully upon woollen and all other animal fibres to which it is applied. It is said that rancid tallow serves to mask the strong odour of rosin in soap, more than any oil or other species of fat. ”

“ Rosins when pure are usually without taste or odour—white, yellow, or brown in colour. They are insoluble in water but can be dissolved to a certain extent in alcohol, ether and various oils. Oxygen has not much effect on them with the exception of the copals.
It is very difficult to obtain a pure rosin, it is nearly always a mixture of different rosins, each having separate properties.
One great difficulty to be met with in the making of varnish is that rosins are not always of the same degree of hardness. ”

“ When quite clean from hair, wash it well in warm water, and then in two or three cold waters, that no flavour of the rosin may remain. Take off all the feet at the first joint, make a slit down the belly, and take out the entrails: put the liver, heart, and lights to the feet. ”

“ From the salves we of course choose the "chief," and one we must believe used by nobility if not royalty:
"Sir Edward Tertil's Salve called the chief of all salves.—Take Rosin eight ounces, Virgins wax and Frankincense, of each, four ounces, Mastick one ounce, Harts suet four ounces, Camphire two Drams, beat the Rosin, Mastick and Frankincense in a Mortar together to fine powder; then melt the Rosin and Wax together, then put in the powders; and when they are well melted strain it through a cloath into a pottle of white Wine, and boyl it together till it be somewhat thick ”

“ We have always used the fluid extract of the herb. Goss and Hale used the tincture of the fresh leaves and so the homœopaths have always used it. Since looking into the history of the plant, I recall a remark of that wise old physician, Rademacher, in regard to chelidonium. Ich bin kein Freund von Extrakten. He preferred the tincture of the fresh plant. Tinctures of the fresh plant were Hahnemann's preference too, and it may well be that with [Pg 135] rosin-weed also, the tincture preserves the medicinal power better than the extract.
Mode of Action. If the proving of rosin-weed made by Dr. ”

“ The same formula or the same staining solution cannot be relied upon to give the same results at all times even when applied to the same kinds of wood. A greater or lesser amount of rosin or sap in the wood at the time the tree is felled, will offer more or less resistance to the permeating tendencies of the stain, so that the color may be at one time much lighter, at another darker. ”

“ This is composed of common rosin and plaster of paris and is made as follows: Heat the rosin in a vessel until it flows freely, and then add plaster of paris and keep stirring the mixture. Care should be taken not to make the mixture too stiff. ”

“ To make strong white wax, take three parts of white rosin and one of mutton suet; let them simmer ten minutes or so over a slow fire, dropping in a small quantity of essence of lemon, pour the whole into a basin of clear cold water, work the wax through the fingers, rolling it up, and then drawing out until it is tough. It cannot be worked too much. ”

“ A hundred and fifty miles east to west, say half as much north to south—about a thousand square miles in whole—of metalliferous, coniferous, and Ghostiferous mountain, fluent, and diffluent for us, both in mediaeval and recent times, with the most Essential oil of Turpentine, and Myrrh or Frankincense of temper and imagination, which may be typified by it, producible in Germany;—especially if we think how the more delicate uses of Rosin, as indispensable to the Fiddle-bow, have developed themselves, from the days of St. ”

“ Take 2 pounds of rosin and 1 pint of castor oil; heat together until it looks like molasses. Take an ordinary paintbrush and smear while hot on any kind of paper—an old newspaper is good—and place several about the room. ”

“ Every resin is a natural mixture of several other resins, as is the case also with oils; one principle being soluble in cold alcohol, another in hot, a third in ether, a fourth in oil of turpentine, a fifth in naphtha, &c. The soft resins, which retain a certain portion of volatile oil, constitute what are called balsams. Certain other balsams contain benzoic acid. The solid resins are, amber, animé, benzoin, colophony (common rosin) , copal, dammara, dragon’s blood, elemi, guaiac, lac, resin of jalap, ladanum, mastic, sandarach, storax, takamahac. ”

“ More ley, of greater concentration, is poured in; and the ingredients are moderately boiled for several hours; while a person, as represented in the preceding cut, aids their chemical union by agitating them with a wooden spatula.
9. After a quantity of rosin has been added, and properly incorporated with the other materials, the fire is withdrawn until the next morning, when it is again raised; then, with the view of forming the paste into hard soap, a quantity of muriate of soda (common salt) is added. ”

“ Taking a specimen of very clear light-colored rosin from a shelf in the still-house, I asked him what that quality was worth.
'Thet ar brought seven dollars for two hundred an' eighty pounds in York, airly this yar. It's th' very best No. 1; an' it's hard ter make, 'case ef th' still gets overhet it turns it a tinge. Thet sort is run through two sieves, the coarse [Pg 138] 'un, an' thet ar,' pointing to another wire strainer, the meshes of which were as fine as those of the flour-sieve used by housewives. ”

“ The roots and leaves do yield a glewish and rosinith kind of juice, somewhat yellow, of a rosinlike smell, not unpleasant, and of a sharpe, eager and biting taste, which sheweth that it is by nature hot, whereupon we must gather that it is no kind of yellow henbane as some have thought. ”

“ Soften the extract with the alcohol, then add the collodion, and lastly the acid.
IV.—Resorcin, 1 part, by weight; salicylic acid, 1 part, by weight; lactic acid, 1 part, by weight; collodion elasticum, 10 parts, by weight. Paint the corn daily for 5 or 6 days with the above solution and take a foot bath in very hot water. The corn will readily come off.
Corn Plaster.—Yellow wax, 24 parts, by weight; Venice turpentine, 3 parts, by weight; rosin, 2 parts, by weight; salicylic acid, 2 parts, by weight; balsam of Peru, 2 parts, by weight; lanolin, 4 parts, by weight. ”

“ Some persons drink it as a restorative at breakfast. It will help to regulate the monthly flow of women. An infusion of the herb mixed with poplar bark, and used every night, will make the hair soft, glossy, and strong.
In Northern Ireland is found the Wild Rosemary, or Marsh Tea (Ledum palustre) , which has admirable curative uses, and from which, therefore, though it is not a common plant in England, a medicinal tincture (H.) is made with spirit of wine.
The herb belongs to the Rock Rose tribe, and contains citric acid, leditannic acid, resin, wax, and a volatile principle called "ericinol." ”

“ The oil exists chiefly in the outer skins of the seeds, and is easily extracted by boiling water, as in the making a linseed poultice. These seeds contain gum, acetic acid, acetate and muriate of potash, and other salts, with twenty-two parts per cent. of the oil. They were taken as food by the ancient Greeks and Romans, whilst Hippocrates knew the demulcent properties of linseed. An infusion of the seeds has long been given as Linseed tea for soothing a sore chest or throat in severe catarrh, or pulmonary complaints; also the crushed seed is used for making poultices. ”

“ The bitterness in the Roses when they are fresh, especially the juice, purges choler, and watery humours; but being dried, and that heat which caused the bitterness being consumed, they have then a binding and astringent quality: Those also that are not full blown, do both cool and bind more than those that are full blown, and the white Rose more than the Red. The decoction of red Roses made with wine and used, is very good for the head-ache, and pains in the eyes, ears, throat, and gums; as also for the fundament, the lower part of the belly and the matrix, being bathed or put into them. ”

“ Orange flowers are valued as a perfume, and yield their flavour to rectified spirits; and, in distillation, both to spirits and water. In Portugal and Italy a fragrant red-coloured oil is obtained from them, which, by some persons, is considered of more delicate and agreeable perfume than even ottar of roses.
The juice of the orange, when ripe and of good kind, is extremely sweet, grateful, and wholesome. In fevers, and other complaints, it is of considerable use for allaying heat and quenching thirst; and, in scurvy, it has been found a very valuable remedy. ”

“ In making rose water, it is the custom in some laboratories to strip the petals from the calyx and to reject the latter; in others, the roses are distilled entire, and so far as we have observed, with equally good result.
Chemical Composition—In a chemical point of view, the petals of R. centifolia agree with those of R. gallica, even as to the colouring matter. Enz in 1867 obtained from the former, malic and tartaric acid, tannin, fat, resin, and sugar.
In the distillation of large quantities of the flowers, a little essential oil is obtained. ”

“ The whole plant, yielding its juice, may be blended with lard to be used as an ointment; and an infusion of the roots, made with boiling water, an ounce to a pint, may be taken as a medicine—a wineglassful three times in the day.
In Ireland it is known as "Rose noble," also as Kernelwort, because the kernels, or tubers attached to the roots have been thought to resemble scrofulous glands in the neck. "Divers do rashly teach that if it be hanged about the necke, or else carried about one it keepeth a man in health." ”

“ Roseine exists in the shape of minute crystals, resembling those of sugar. They are hard and dry, and of the most brilliant emerald green. Drop five or six of these little crystals into a large glass of limpid water. They will dissolve; but instead of giving a green solution, the product is an exquisite crimson-rose color, the color seeming to trickle from the surface of the water downward. When the solution has proceeded for a short time, stir the water with a glass rod, and the uncolored portion of it will become carmine. ”

“ The dry Conserve, which is called the Sugar of Roses, is a very good cordial to strengthen the heart and spirits; as also to stay defluctions. The syrup of dried red Roses strengthens a stomach given to casting, cools an over-heated liver, and the blood in agues, comforts the heart, and resists putrefaction and infection, and helps to stay lasks and fluxes. Honey of Roses is much used in gargles and lotions to wash sores, either in the mouth, throat, or other parts, both to cleanse and heal them, and to stay the fluxes of humours falling upon them. ”