Talcum powder

“ Do not use any soap, and give only bran or salt baths or use pure olive oil and no water at all on the chafed parts. Dry the parts carefully with old, soft linen and dust them with a powder made of starch and talcum—equal part—with one-fourth as much boric acid, all carefully mixed together. Or use starch two parts and boric acid one part. Pure stearate of zinc powder is also good. Keep a little piece of soft linen between the folds of the flesh, so they will not be irritated by rubbing together. ”

“ If you are going out in the sun or wind, follow with a little good talcum or rice powder, to protect the face from the raw winds, or, if the skin is inclined to be dry, apply a little cold cream before using the powder. ”

“ It is thus that the purchaser receives by equal weight a smaller-looking quantity, and as the eye has generally a great influence when the consumer determines a purchase, the small-sized parcels will impress him unfavorably. This second quality of soap powder is made of the same ingredients as the other, except that an addition of about 6 parts of talcum is made, and this is stirred up with the other material after all the soda has been dissolved. Some makers cheapen the products also by reducing the quantity of hard soap from 5 to 3 parts and they avoid the filling ”

“ By mixing 100 parts of prepared talc, while still moist, with 12 parts of spermaceti, previously rubbed to a moist powder with some rectified alcohol, and drying at a moderate heat, a product known in commerce as "Blanc fard," or "Blanc français," is obtained.
Talc by itself not furnishing a beautiful white, it is mixed, according to circumstances, with subnitrate of [Pg 336] bismuth (flake-white) , magnesia, chalk or zinc-white. White lead, though frequently used, cannot be recommended, it being injurious to health. Subnitrate of bismuth furnishes the best white ”

“ For example, camphor powders more easily when a few drops of spirits of wine are added to it; mace, nutmegs, and such oily aromatic substances are better for the addition of a little white sugar; resins and gum-resins should be powdered in a cold place, and if they are intended to be dissolved, a little fine well-washed white sand mixed with them assists the process of powdering. Tough roots, like gentian and calumba, should be cut into thin slices; and fibrous roots, like ginger, cut slanting, otherwise the powder will be full of small fibres. ”

“ Andrew Lang refers to the use of “mummy powder” by the physicians of the Court of Charles II.— (“Myth,” etc. vol. i. p. 96.)
Human tallow was employed in medicine, rendered from the skin and other parts. It was regarded as efficacious in eradicating small-pox pustules, while an “oleum Philosophorum” was distilled from it and held in high repute for tumors, catarrhal troubles, affections of the ear, etc.— (Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 9.)
Human flesh “mumia,” was recommended in the preparation of the best “Paracelsus salve.... Recommended for cure of bruises and against congealed blood.... ”

“ Some of these laws simply require the packages to bear a label setting forth the fact that alum is one of the ingredients; others require the baking powder packages to bear a label naming all the ingredients of the powder.
200. Fillers.—All baking powders contain a filler of starch. This is necessary to keep the materials from acting before the powder is used. The amount of filler varies from 15 to 50 per cent; the least is found in the tartrate powders and the most in the phosphate powders. The amount of gas which a powder gives off regulates its value ”

“ The Tartaric Acid and Bi-Carbonate of Soda can of course be bought cheaper of wholesale druggists than you can make them, unless you are doing things on a large scale, but Potato Starch any one can make. It is only necessary to peel the potatoes and to grate them up fine into vessels of water, to let them settle, pour off the water, and make the settlings into balls, and dry them. With these directions anyone can make as good baking-powder as is sold anywhere. ”

“ Mix this part with white talc, reduced to fine powder, and moistened with a little lemon-juice and water. Then form the whole into a paste, and having put it in small pots, expose it to dry. This colour is reserved for the use of the toilette; but it has not the durability of that prepared from cochineal.
325. ECONOMICAL ROUGE.
Fine carmine, properly pulverized and prepared for the purpose, is the best that can be employed with safety and effect: it gives the most natural tone to the complexion, and imparts a brilliancy to the eyes, without detracting from the softness of the skin. ”

“ All have a certain proportion of starch to absorb moisture. Of these the alum powders are the most harmful and should be avoided. Practically all of the well-known brands of baking powder are of the first-mentioned class and wholesome, and are rarely adulterated. ”

“ It is a trick—for it deserves no better name—of our rivals to show by chemical analysis that my powder contains alum, but are careful neither to state the kind nor the change it undergoes in baking. The manufacturer who knowingly misrepresents the goods of a rival, may well be doubted when he speaks of the quality of his own.
"Great stress is laid on the fact that cream tartar is a vegetable acid, the product of the grape, hence it must be healthy. They forget that cream tartar is not entirely vegetable, but principally second handed minerals. ”

“ I have made a large number of analyses of Royal Baking Powder, and have found it to be an absolutely pure cream of tartar powder, entirely free from alum, ammonia, and all adulterations and impurities. In leavening power it is of the very highest. ”

“ It is equally evident that in the construction of compound medicinal powders, the addition of an inert ingredient, which the mere chemist might condemn and discard as useless, not unfrequently acts a very important part in the combination, owing to its effects in dividing and comminuting the mere active constituents: the sulphate of potass in Dover’s powder acts merely in dividing and mixing more intimately the particles of opium and ipecacuan: the phosphate of lime appears to act in the same mechanical manner in the Antimonial Powder ”

“ Mix 4 oz. quick lime in 6 pints of soft water, and let it stand covered an hour; then pour off the liquid.
Seidlitz Powders.
Put into one tumbler, 2 drachms of Rochelle salts, and 2 scruples of carbonate of soda; into another tumbler put 2 scruples of tartaric acid, fill each tumbler rather more than a quarter part, then pour the two together.—Or: mix carefully 2 drachms of sulphate of magnesia in fine powder, with 2 scruples of bicarbonate of soda, and mark the packet No. 1; in another packet, marked No. 2, put 40 grains of tartaric acid in fine powder. ”

“ With regard to the best powder to dust an infant with, there is nothing better for general use than starch—the old-fashioned starch made of wheaten flour—reduced by means of a pestle and mortar to a fine powder; or Violet Powder, which is nothing more than finely-powdered starch scented, and which may be procured of any respectable chemist. Some mothers are in the habit of using white lead; but as this is a poison, it ought on no account to be resorted to. [136]
9. If the parts about the groin and fundament be excoriated, what is then the best application? ”

“ How to make a powder for the poorer sort of people. Take two drams of bole Armoniack with three drams of the Seeds of Oxalis, Aloes Epeticum Lotum, and Red Corrall of each of these a dram, the powder of Diatrio Santalon, eight scruples with the pills of dry Oringes, Cloves Cinamon and Saffone of each of these five drams, make of these a fine powder, you may use the same with conserves [Pg 18] or without them, with sirrups or with distilled waters, but much rather with juces and such convenient licquors as is before named. ”

“ Forms of Exhibition. No form is so efficient as that of powder, a fact which would seem to argue against the exclusive value of the Cinchonia; even the ligneous fibre which the chemist pronounces to be inert and useless, may produce its share of benefit by modifying the solubility of the other ingredients, or by performing some mechanical duty which we are at present unable to understand or appreciate; but where the stomach rejects it, it must be administered in infusion or decoction, with the addition of its tincture. ”

“ They in turn grate the root into a coarse powder with instruments made of cylindrical-shaped pieces of wood bound at intervals with sinnet, the powder falling on to finely woven mats which are carried away by girls and tipped into a cradle of bamboo and cocoanut-fibre. This acts as a filter, through which salt water is poured while a man kneads the powder into a dough with such energy that he has to be relieved at frequent intervals. ”

“ A large party of young men and women were in consequence taken severely ill; and one girl died, who had been prevailed on to take the powder at the bottom of the vessel, on being assured that it was ginger.
The quantity of the powder or tincture requisite to prove fatal or dangerous has not been accurately settled. Indeed practitioners differ much even as to the proper medicinal doses. The smallest dose of the powder yet known was twenty-four grains (Orfila) ; and the smallest fatal dose of the tincture was one ounce, which is equivalent to six grains of powder. ”

“ After some time the whole mass is transformed into a gray powder. It is quickly filtered off with the aid of an aspirator, washed with alcohol and then with ether, and brought under a desiccator with concentrated sulphuric acid. In order to purify the substance, it is dissolved in water and treated with bone-black. The solution is then evaporated to a sirup, and this poured into a mixture of equal parts of anhydrous alcohol and ether. In this way the new compound is obtained as a very fine, pure white powder which rapidly settles. It has much the appearance of starch. ”

“ With the extract dampen the powder as evenly as possible, then spread out and dry over some hot surface. When dry, again pulverize thoroughly. Protect the product from the light. As much of the powder as will lie on the point of a penknife is added to a churnful of milk, or cream, before churning, and it gives a beautiful golden color, entirely harmless. To make the extract of turmeric add 1 part of powdered turmeric to 5 parts of alcohol, and let macerate together for fully a week. ”

“ The powder to be granulated is placed in a mortar, and mucilage of gum acacia is gradually added until a crumbly mass is made; this is then rubbed through a wire sieve (about 12 meshes to the inch) , and the granules produced are spread out on paper, and left to dry spontaneously, or they are placed in a copper pan, and kept in constant motion over a stove until dry; when perfectly dry, they are placed in a mortar, and sufficient quantity of strong tincture of tolu (3 dr. to 1 oz.) is added to them, until by constant stirring they all appear glossy and shining ”

“ Thallic oxide, Tl2O3, is obtained as a dark reddish powder, insoluble in water and alkalis, by plunging molten thallium into oxygen, or by electrolysing water, using a thallium anode. Thallic hydroxide, Tl (OH) 3, is obtained as a brown precipitate by adding a hot solution of thallous chloride in sodium carbonate to a solution of sodium hypochlorite. On drying it has the composition TlO (OH) . Hydrochloric acid gives thallous chloride and chlorine; sulphuric acid gives off oxygen ”

“ A single trial of the Royal Baking Powder will convince any fair-minded person of these facts.
[A] While the diagram shows some of the alum powders to be of a higher degree of strength than other powders ranked below them, it is not to be taken as indicating that they have any value. All alum powders, no matter how high their strength, are to be avoided as dangerous. ”

“ If what I have here claimed for the above smokeless powder be true, it would appear that it may be taken as really an ideal smokeless powder. Why, then, has it not already been universally adopted? Surely such a powder is just what every government is seeking. In reply to this, let me say that, in order for the above compound to be an effective and successful smokeless powder, with the manifestation of the many desirable qualities which I have recited, a great many other conditions are necessary, some of which I will mention. ”

“ Bleaching powder is easily acted upon by the carbonic acid in the air, which liberates the weak hypochlorous acid. This, of course, results in a loss of available chlorine. The original material for analysis should be kept in a closed container and protected form the air as far as possible. It is difficult to obtain analytical samples which are accurately representative of a large quantity of the bleaching powder. The procedure, as outlined, will yield results which are sufficiently exact for technical purposes. ”

“ With respect to the granulation of powder, we may observe, that although some writers consider that granulated powder is stronger than the fine powder, yet others are of opinion, that its strength is not increased by granulation. Grained powder is more fit for use; but the graining of it prevents the whole of the powder from taking fire instantaneously. Gunpowder, although prepared in the best manner, is not wholly consumed by inflammation. ”

“ The high-grade powder used in warfare in these days is known in this country as "brown powder," because of its color. In Europe such powder has a dozen or more names, generally called after the men who have invented each kind. There are only two places in this country where the powder used in our big guns is made. ”