into the usual pigs of about one hundredweight each, it is run into large blocks of 31/2 tons. These 31/2 ton blocks are taken on a bogie to the mill-house, where the mill melting pot is charged with them by means of a double-powered hydraulic crane, lifting, however, with the single power only.
Three such blocks fill the pot, and when melted are tapped on to a large casting plate, 8 ft. 4 in. by 7 ft. 6 in., and about 7 in. thick. This block, weighing 101/2 tons, is lifted on to the mill table by the same crane as fills the pot, but using the double power; and is moved along to the rolls in the usual manner by means of a rope working on a surging head. The mill itself, as regards the roll, is much the same as those of other firms; but instead of an engine with a heavy fly-wheel, always working in one direction, and connected to the rolls by double clutch and gearing, the work is done by a pair of horizontal reversing engines, in connection with which there is a very simple, and at the same time extremely effectual, system of hydraulic reversing. On the usual method there is no necessity for full or delicate control of lead mill engines; but with this system it is essential, and the hydraulic reversing gear contributes largely to such control. This may be explained as follows:
In all other mills with which the writer is acquainted, when the lead sheet, or the original block, has passed through the rolls, and before it can be sent back in the opposite direction, a man on either side of the mill must work it into the grip of the rolls with crowbars.
In the writer’s system this labor is avoided, and the sheet or block is fed in automatically by means of subsidiary rolls, which are driven by power. When it is required to cut the block or sheet by the guillotine, or cross-cutting knife, instead of the block being moved to the desired point by hand-labor, the subsidiary driven rolls work it up to the knife; and such perfect control does the engine with its hydraulic reversing gear possess, that should the sheet overshoot the knife 1/8 in., or even less, the engine would bring it back to this extent exactly.
Another point, which the writer looks upon as one of the greatest improvements in this mill, is its being furnished with circular knives, which can be set to any desired width, and put in or out of gear at will; and which are used for dressing up the finished sheet in the longitudinal direction. This is a simple mechanical arrangement, but one which is found to be of immense benefit, and which, in the writer’s opinion, is far superior to the usual practice of marking off the sheet with a chalk line, and then dressing off with hand knives. The last length of the mill table forms a weighbridge, and a hydraulic crane lifts the sheet from it either on to the warehouse floor or the tramway communicating with the shipping quay.
* * * * *
APPARATUS USED IN BERLIN FOR THE PREPARATION OF GELATINE PLATES.
I.–MIXING APPARATUS FOR GELATINE EMULSION.
The mixing vessel–a porcelain kettle capable of containing twenty liters, made at the Royal Porcelain Factory at Berlin, whose products are unequaled for chemical purposes–is also the boiling vessel, and, therefore, fits tightly, by means of the tin ring with the wooden handles, on to a large water bath. The light-tight metal lid, which can be permanently affixed to the kettle, then supports a stirring arrangement of fine silver, which dips into the emulsion and has blades formed like a ship’s screw.
The arrangements for injecting the silver vary. The simplest consists of a large glass vessel containing the silver solution, which is closed by a glass stopper, and terminates below in a funnel running to a fine point. This funnel-shaped bottle fits into an opening specially made for it in the lid of the kettle, and while revolving sends a fine stream into the gelatine. When it is wished to interrupt it, it is only necessary to raise the glass stopper in order to see the stream dry up after a short time.
Another arrangement consists of a contrivance constructed on the principle of the common India-rubber inhaling apparatus, and sends the silver solution into the gelatine in the form of the minutest air-bubbles. After the emulsion is boiled in such a kettle it is allowed to stand until cool, when the ammonia is added. With such a great quantity of emulsion and so large a water bath sufficient heat is retained as to allow the action of the ammonia to take place. As soon as the time set apart for that reaction has elapsed the water bath is emptied and filled with pieces of ice and iced water, and the kettle replaced in it.
If the stirring apparatus be now set in motion, even this large quantity of emulsion will stiffen in at least an hour and a half. It may be further remarked that, the outside of the kettle being black, the lid being light-tight, and all the apertures in it being firmly closed, nearly the whole process can be conducted by daylight, from the mixing to the stiffening, so that it is very convenient to be able to keep the emulsion in the same vessel during all these operations.
II.–DIGESTIVE APPARATUS.
It is very desirable that those who do not prepare their emulsion by boiling, but by prolonged digestion, should possess a regulator which will keep the temperature at a given point. Such an apparatus would also be very useful for warming the emulsion for the preparation of plates, as then one would have no further occasion to pay attention to the thermometer and gas stove. In the accompanying diagram a simple contrivance is shown. The gas which feeds the stove passes through a narrow glass tube, a b, into the wider tube, c d e, which is made air-tight at e. This latter tube has an exit tube at f, by which the gas is supplied to the gas stove. At e it is hermetically closed, and at its deepest part it contains mercury, upon which a little sulphuric ether floats in the hermetically-closed limb, e.g. Lastly, there is a minute opening in the narrowest tube at i. The whole apparatus, or, at least, the under part of it, is dipped into the water bath warmed by the gas boiler. It acts thus: As the temperature rises the ethereal vapor in the shorter limb expands and drives the mercury up the longer tube until it closes the opening of the narrow tube, a b, and thereby impedes the power of the stream of gas. Still, the Bunsen burner does not go out, being always fed by the small opening, i, with sufficient gas to support a small flame until the water bath has so far cooled as to leave the opening at b free, when the burner again burns with a strong flame. By removing the cork, c, from the tube the temperature of the water bath is raised, while by pushing it in it is lowered. The apparatus never goes wrong, and is very cheap. It was first made by Herr C. Braun, of Berlin.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
III.–TRITURATING APPARATUS.
The apparatus hereafter described is in general use, and was invented by Herr Paul Grundner, of Berlin. It is particularly adapted for finely dividing large quantities of emulsion. It consists essentially of a wooden lid, a b, fitting upon a large stone pot, to the under side of which two strong trapezoid pieces of wood, e d and e f, are fixed, in the under part of which semicircular incisions are cut and held together by two leather straps, supporting a strong, easily-removable iron transverse bar, g h. Through the center of the lid, and turned by the crank, m, passes the axle i, which ends under the lid in the long ring, n.
The stiffened emulsion is then placed in the bag, o p q r, made of fine but strong canvas, with meshes about 0.5 mm. (such as is used for working upon with Berlin wool). The iron rod, g h, is then slipped through the four loops at the bottom of the bag, the open end is slung upon the ring, n, and bound tightly to it by the ribbons, r1. The loops upon the iron bar are then pushed as close together in the middle as possible, and the stone vessel is filled with water until o p q r is completely covered. The crank is then turned, by which the bag is wrung, and the emulsion squeezed through the meshes immediately into the water. When this process is continued until the purse between n and g h feels like a metal rod, the best part of the emulsion has been squeezed through, and if one now take out the bag and dissolve its contents, it will be found that the loss of emulsion is almost _nil_.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
It may be remarked that the whole apparatus, with the exception of the crank, must be coated with asphalt varnish; also that the corners, r and q, must be separated off from the purse, as shown by the dotted line, s s s s, otherwise the emulsion would lodge there without being squeezed through. Instead of g h a strong glass rod may be used for small apparatus; but for large apparatus it is indispensable, as the power that requires to be exerted would be far too great for glass.
IV.–WASHING APPARATUS.
The fundamental idea of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3 first occurred to Herr Jos. Junk, of Berlin. In the present form all the subsequent improvements made by Herren Carl Such, Paul Grundner, and others are incorporated. It may be described as follows:
A tin vessel, the bottom of which sinks at e into the shape of a funnel, rests upon strong iron feet, f f, and is covered with a lid, having a double edge closing it light-tight. Through the center of the lid passes the tube, g h, by which the water enters. In the interior of the vessel upon iron hooks stands a wooden vessel saturated with paraffine, open at the ends, and over one end of which the finest hair cloth is stretched at o p. The water which enters the vessel runs off through the siphon. The proceedings are as follows: Turn the granulated gelatine and the water in which it is contained into the horsehair sieve, m n o p. Place the lid upon the apparatus and turn on the water. The whole apparatus fills with water until the siphon begins to act. If the diameter of the siphon be properly measured–one inch should be sufficient for the largest apparatus–and the cock by which the water is turned on properly adjusted, more water will run out by the siphon than runs in through the supply pipe, and the apparatus becomes completely empty.
The siphon has then performed its function, the apparatus fills again, and the play begins anew. The tube, g h, which reaches right down nearly to the bottom of the sieve, takes the water so deep into the vessel that, as long as the water in the apparatus stands high enough above o p, the gelatine nodules are in continuous motion. In order to prevent the finest particles of the emulsion from stopping up the pores of the sieve too much, and thereby incurring the danger of the water in the sieve overflowing its upper edge, thus occasioning loss of emulsion, the tube, g h, is now sometimes omitted and replaced by a supply pipe, represented in the diagram by the dotted lines, x y. In this way every possibility of loss is excluded, and yet a very careful washing provided. Then when, after being emptied by the siphon, the apparatus fills again, every particle of the emulsion which might have formerly been pressed down into the interstices of the sieve would now be driven up again by the upward pressure of the water entering from below, and thus the sieve would always be kept clear and open.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
The great advantages of this apparatus are as follows: 1. From the moment the lid is closed one can work by daylight. 2. The method of washing in moving water is combined with that of complete change of water. 3. The emulsion never comes in contact with metal. 4. Whoever wishes to prepare dry gelatine only requires, when the washing is over and the vessel perfectly emptied, to leave the emulsion to drip for a time, and then to lift out the sieve and its contents and place it in a suitable vessel with absolute alcohol. The latter should be changed once, and when sufficient water has been extracted the sieve should be withdrawn from the vessel and the emulsion allowed to dry spontaneously. In this way all trouble occasioned by changing from vessel to vessel is avoided, and there is no loss of material.
This apparatus is principally valuable in dealing with large quantities, since it saves a great deal of labor, and affords perfect certainty of the emulsion being well washed. It may not be unnecessary to maintain that the difficulties of perfect washing–particularly if one do not wash with running water–increase at least in quadruple proportion to the quantity of emulsion manipulated.–_Franz Stoke, Ph.D., in Br. Jour, of Photography_.
* * * * *
HOW TO MAKE EMULSION IN HOT WEATHER.
By A. L. HENDERSON.
Numerous complaints have reached me within the last few weeks of the difficulty experienced in preparing emulsion and coating plates; one is very likely to blame everything but the right, but doubtless the weather is the culprit.
I have always held that to boil gelatine is to spoil it, and, even when emulsification is made with a few grains to the ounce and cooled down before adding the bulk, the damage is done to the smaller quantity, so that when mixed it contaminates the whole mass; moreover, it is impossible to set and wash the gelatine without the aid of ice.
I have lately made several batches (with the thermometer at 92 deg. in the shade, and the washing water at 78 deg.) as follows:
Hard gelatine……………,…… 1/2 ounce. Water………………………… 2 ounces. Alcohol………………………. 2 ” Bromide ammonia………………..150 grains. Liquor ammonia, 880……………. 60 drops.
When all is thoroughly dissolved and of about 120 deg. temperature, add, stirring all the time,
Nitrate silver………………… 60 grains, Water………………………… 3/4 ounce. Alcohol………………………. 3/4 “
Then again add,
Nitrate silver…………………140 grains. Water………………………… 1 ounce. Alcohol………………………. 1 “
Both solutions being warmed to about 120 deg..
My object is adding the silver in two quantities will be obvious to many–viz., when the first portion of silver is mixed, nitrate of ammonia is liberated (which is a powerful restrainer), and the bulk of the solution being increased, the remainder of the silver may be added in a much more concentrated state.
The alcohol, both in the gelatine and silver solutions, plays a most important part: (1) It prevents decomposition of the gelatine. (2) It allows the gelatine to be precipitated with a much smaller quantity of alcohol (say about 10 ounces).
After letting the emulsion stand for a few minutes to ripen, I pour in slowly about eight ounces of alcohol, stirring all the time, and keeping the emulsion warm; the emulsion will adhere to the stirring-rod and the bottom of the vessel in a soft mass, and all that is now required is to pour away the alcohol, allow the emulsion to cool, tear it into small pieces, wash in several changes of cold water, make up the quantity to ten ounces, and strain; it is then ready for coating.
By this formula I have no difficulties whatever; my plates set in about five minutes, and their quality is such that, “unless a better method is devised,” I intend to adopt it in all weathers.
One word more as to the alcohol. It will prevent the decomposition of gelatine when boiling goes on, or when in the presence of foreign salts; no flocculent deposit is noticed in the alcohol after the emulsion has been precipitated.–_Photographic News_.
* * * * *
THE DISTILLATION AND RECTIFICATION OF ALCOHOLS BY THE RATIONAL USE OF LOW TEMPERATURES.
By RAOUL PICTET.
The industrial problem of the rectification of alcohols is based entirely upon the properties of volatile liquids, upon the laws of the maximum tensions of the vapors of these liquids, and upon the influence of temperature upon those different elements which find themselves in presence of each other in an alembic.
If we desire to follow, in their least details, all the phenomena which succeed one another in a rectifying column, and which are connected with one another by a continuous chain of reciprocal influences, the problem becomes exceedingly complex.
[Illustration: PICTET’S APPARATUS FOR THE RECTIFICATION OF ALCOHOL BY COLD.]
In order that the new applications of the mechanical theory of heat may be readily understood, we shall divide this problem into a series of propositions, which we shall examine separately, and which collectively constitutes in its general features the methodical rectification of liquids.
I. Knowing the maximum tensions of pure water and pure alcohol, can we calculate directly the tensions of the vapors of any mixture whatever of alcohol and water?
Yes, we can calculate this tension by a general formula, provided we take into account the affinity of water for alcohol, which increases the value of the total latent heat of evaporation of the liquid. The results of the calculation are fully confirmed by experience. We thus establish the following laws:
a. For any temperature whatever, the maximum tension of the vapors of a mixture of water and alcohol is always comprised between that of pure water and that of pure alcohol.
b. The tension of the vapors of a mixture of water and alcohol approaches the tension of alcohol so much the nearer in proportion as the proof is higher; and, reciprocally, if water is in excess, the tension of the vapors approaches the tension of the vapors of water.
c. The curves of the maximum tensions of vapors formed by all mixtures of alcohol and water are represented by the same general formula, one factor only of which is a function of the richness of the alcoholic solution.
It results, then, from these laws that we may determine with the greatest exactness the richness of a solution containing alcohol and water, if we know the tension of the vapors that it gives off at a certain temperature. Such indications are confirmed by the centigrade alcoholmeter.
We see likewise that, for these solutions of alcohol and water, the laws of Dalton are completely at fault, since the total pressure of the vapors is never equal to the sum of the tensions of the two liquids, water and alcohol.
II. Being given a solution of water and alcohol, mixed in equal volumes, what will be the quality of the vapors emitted from it?
In other terms, do the vapors which escape from a definite mixture of water and alcohol also contain volumes of vapor of water and alcohol in the same proportion as the liquids?
We have discovered the following laws:
d. The quality of the vapors emitted by a mixture of water and alcohol varies according to the alcoholic richness of the solution, but is not in simple proportion thereto.
e. The quality of the vapors emitted by a definite mixture of water and alcohol varies according to the temperature.
f. In a same solution of water and alcohol, it is at low temperatures that the vapors emitted by the mixture contain the largest proportion of alcohol.
g. The more the temperature rises the more the tensions of the two liquids tend to become equalized.
We have been able to verify these different laws experimentally, and to find an interesting confirmation of our general formula of maximum tensions, in the following way:
Let us take a test tube containing a 50 per cent. solution of alcohol and water, plunge it into water of 20 deg.C., and put its interior in hermetic communication with the receiver of a mercurial air-pump.
We vaporize at 20 deg. a certain quantity of the liquid, and the vapors fill the known capacity of the pump. The pressure of the gases in the interior is ascertained by a pressure gauge, and this pressure should be constant if care is taken to act upon a sufficient mass of liquid and with moderate speed. When the receiver of the air-pump is full of vapors, communication between it and the test-tube is shut off, and communication is effected with a second test-tube, like the first, plunged into the same water at 20 deg.. Care must be taken beforehand to create a perfect vacuum in this test-tube.
On causing the mercury to rise into the space that it previously occupied, the vapors are made to condense in the second test-tube at the same temperature as that at which they were formed.
We immediately ascertain that the pressure-gauge shows an elevation of pressure; moreover, the proof of the condensed alcohol has very perceptibly risen.
If, instead of causing these vapors to condense in the second test-tube, we leave the first communication open, the vapors recondense in the first test-tube without any elevation of pressure; and we do not see the least trace of liquid forming in the second test tube.
This difference of pressure in the two foregoing experiments must be attributed, then, to the specific action of the water on the vapors of alcohol. Now we can calculate the difference of the work of the pump, and put at 1 kilogramme of condensed liquid the difference of mechanical work represented in kilogrammeters. What is remarkable is that this difference is absolutely the equivalent of the heat disengaged when the condensed liquid and the old liquid are remixed; there is a complete identity. Thus the affinity of the water for the alcohol modifies the tension of the vapors which form or condense upon the free surface of the mixture. The two phenomena are closely connected by the law of equivalence.
It results from all the laws that we have cited that by properly regulating the tensions of the vapors of a mixture of alcohol and water, and the temperature of the liquid, we shall be able to obtain a liquid of a desired richness by the condensation of these vapors.
III. It was likewise indispensable to make sure of one important fact: When the temperature of a liquid like alcohol is considerably lowered, can the distillation of a given weight of this substance be effected with sufficient rapidity for industrial requirements? Repeated experiments with a host of volatile liquids have demonstrated the following laws:
If we introduce a volatile liquid into two spherical receivers connected by a wide tube, and if these be kept at different temperatures after driving out all the air from the apparatus, the liquid distills from the warmer into the cooler receiver, and we ascertain that:
h. The weight of the liquid which distills in the unit of time increases with the deviation of temperature between the two receivers.
i. The weight of the liquid which distills in the unit of time is constant for a same deviation of temperature between the receivers, whatever be, moreover, the absolute temperature of the receivers.
k. The weight of the liquid distilled in the unit of time is proportional to the active surfaces of the receivers; that is to say, to the surfaces which are the seat of passage of heat through their thickness.
l. The least trace of a foreign gas in the vapors left in the apparatus throws the preceding laws into confusion, and checks distillation to a considerable degree, especially at low temperatures.
Thus, water distilling between 100 deg. and 60 deg. will pass over as quickly as that which is distilling between 40 deg. and 0 deg.. Absolute temperature is without influence, provided every trace of air or foreign gas be got rid of.
The distillatory apparatus should be provided with an excellent air-pump, capable of preventing all those entrances of air which are inevitable in practice.
The following is the industrial application that we have endeavored to make of these theoretical views: The rectification of alcohols is one of the most complex of operations; it looks toward several results simultaneously. Alcohol derived from the fermentation of grain, sugar, and of all starchy matters in general, contains an innumerable host of different products, which may be grouped under four principal heads:
1. Empyreumatic essential oils, characteristic of the source of the alcohol, and having a powerful odor which infects the total mass of the crude spirits. 2. A considerable quantity of water. 3. A certain quantity of pure alcohol. 4. A variable proportion of volatile substances, composed in great part of ethers, different alcohols, and bodies as yet not well defined. These latter affect the quality of the alcohol by an odor which is entirely different from that of the essential oils.
The object of rectification is to bring out No. 3 all alone; that is to say, to extract the alcohol in a pure state by ridding it of oils, water, ether, and foreign alcohols.
The alcohol industry never realizes this operation in an absolutely complete manner. All the rectifying apparatus in operation at the present day are based on the use of high temperatures varying between 78.5 deg. and 100 deg.. The successive condensation and vaporization of the vapors issuing from the spirits effect in the rectifying columns a partial separation of these liquids, and there are received successively as products of rectification:
1. Bad tasting alcohols, containing the majority of the ethers and impure alcohols.
2. Fine alcohol.
3. Alcohols contaminated by notable proportions of empyreumatic oils.
Industry knows only one means of obtaining an excellent product, and that is to diminish the quantity of fine alcohol which comes from a same lot of spirits, and to make a large number of successive distillations. Hence the large expenses attending rectification, which produce fine alcohols necessarily at an elevated price. We may remark, in passing, that the toxic action of commercial alcohols is in great part caused by the presence of essential oils, amylic alcohol, and ethers, absolutely pure alcohol, as compared with these, being relatively innocent.
Why is it that our present apparatus cannot produce good results in rectifying alcohol? Because they are limited by the temperature at which they must operate. Between 78 deg. and 100 deg. the tension of the vapors of all the liquids mixed in the spirits is considerable for each of them; they all pass over, then, in certain proportions during the operation of rectification.
We have been led, by examining the theoretical question, to ascertain that the proportion of alcohol which evaporates from a mixture is maximum at low temperatures; consequently, we should seek to establish some arrangement which can realize the following conditions: (1) Render variable, at will, the temperature of the boiling liquid; and (2), render variable the pressure of the vapors which act on the liquid.
Thus, to effect the rectification of alcohol it suffices to cause its ebullition at very low temperatures, and to keep up the ebullition without changing such temperatures when once obtained.
It is exactly these two conditions that we have fulfilled in the apparatus that we have just installed in our factory in Rue Immeubles Industriels, at Paris.
By their arrangement, which is shown in the opposite figure, they form a mechanical system permitting of the rectification of alcohols at temperatures as low as -40 deg. or even -50 deg.. They verify experimentally, by their operation, the theoretical deductions which precede. The boilers, A, which, in an industrial application, may be more numerous, receive their supply of spirits from the country distilleries in the vicinity of the factory. There may even be introduced directly into them _vinasses_, or washes, that is to say, liquids, such as are obtained by alcoholic fermentation.
Above the boiler rises a rectifying column composed of superposed plates inclined one over the other, and surmounted by a tubular condenser, which serves to effect the retrogression of the first condensation by means of a current of water supplied by the reservoir placed above.
On leaving this condenser, the vapors which have escaped condensation pass into the refrigerator, C, where they are totally condensed by a current of water which goes to the reservoir above.
The first products obtained contain ethers and impure alcohols, which are collected in the reservoir, E.
When the first products have been thus introduced into the reservoir, and it is ascertained by tasting that good alcohol is passing over, the liquid produced is directed into the second boiler, F. The sliding valve, operated by a screw having a very fine pitch, establishes a communication between the refrigerator, C, and the second boiler, F. The office of this valve we shall learn further on. This first rectification is performed in a vacuum, for a system of metallic pipes connects the entire apparatus with an air-pump, O. The temperature at which the liquids shall enter into ebullition in the boilers, A A, may, then, be regulated in advance.
The operations will be carried on with a more or less complete vacuum, according to the nature of the products to be rectified. The distiller will have to be guided in this by practice alone.
The good tasted products are received in boiler No. 2, F, and there the liquids are submitted to the action of an almost absolute vacuum. As we have before said, their temperature falls immediately and spontaneously. The vapors which issue from this liquid contain almost solely pure alcohol. The other substances, which passed over in the first distillation, no longer emit vapors at temperatures ranging between -10 deg. and +5 deg.. Their temperature is shown by a thermometer running into the boiler, F.
These vapors, purified by ebullition at a low temperature, rise into a second rectifying column, G, which terminates in the refrigerator, H, filled with liquid sulphurous anhydride. This refrigerator is like those which we employ in our sulphurous anhydride frigorific apparatus. Under the action of a special pump, M, this liquid produces and maintains a constant temperature of -25 deg. to -30 deg. in the refrigerator. The vapors of alcohol condense therein at this low temperature, and the cold liquid alcohol flows into the lower part of the refrigerator.
By the action of a return cock, a portion of this liquid falls upon the plates of the column, G, and descends, while the vapors are rising therein. The other portion of the liquid obtained flows into the reservoir, K, at the beginning of the operation, and into the reservoir, L, during all the remainder of the rectification. The ice-making machine keeps up of itself alone the two operations.
In fact, the exhaust of the steam engine which actuates the sulphurous anhydride pump is directed into a worm which circulates through the first boiler, A, and the refrigerator, H, of the frigorific machine keeps up the second rectification, which was brought about below the surrounding temperature, and which for this reason takes place without necessitating any combustion of coal. It suffices to cause the current of water which issues from the condenser of the frigorific machine to pass into the worm of the boiler.
We have, then, two results, two like operations, both produced by the working of a single machine. Moreover, these two operations are performed _in vacuo_, and we know that under these conditions they are effected at lower temperatures. Owing to this fact, likewise, the weight of the water that must be evaporated diminishes just so much. Now, one kilogramme of water requires 636 heat units to cause it to pass from the liquid to the gaseous state, while one kilogramme of alcohol requires only 230 heat units to vaporize it. Thus every decrease of temperature in rectification has for an immediate corollary an important economy of fuel, which is proved by the diminution of radiation, and by the less quantity of water to be distilled.
Between the boilers, A, in which is maintained a temperature bordering on +50 deg. to +60 deg., and the refrigerator, H, in which is easily obtained a temperature of -30 deg. to -40 deg., there is at our disposal a range of temperature of nearly 100 deg., an immense difference compared with that which can be made use of in ordinary apparatus. Thanks to this powerful factor, which is manageable at will, we can take directly from the apparatus alcohols marking 98 and 99 degrees by the centigrade alcoholmeter. Such results are unobtainable by the usual methods.
We have likewise ascertained that at low temperatures the ebullition of alcohol is as active as at near 100 deg..
For a same range of temperature between the boiler and the refrigerator, the weight of alcohol which distills in an hour is constant. By the operation of the valve, D, it becomes easy to allow all the liquid condensed in the first refrigerator to pass into the second boiler; and thus the second rectification, which is effected in a more perfect vacuum, is supplied with exactness. The object of this valve, then, is to allow the liquid to pass, and yet to cut off the pressure in such a way as to have a double fall of temperature throughout the whole apparatus; from 60 deg. to 20 deg. in the first operation, and from 0 deg. to -40 deg. in the second. We may add that the regulation of the valve is extremely easy, because of the screw which actuates it.
To sum up the commercial advantages that our process procures, we may say that it realizes the following _desiderata_: 1. With the cost of a single distillation we have, at once, distillation and rectification, or a single expense for two results. 2. With one operation at a low temperature we obtain products which are almost impossible to get even by an indefinite number of rectifications at a high temperature, the temperature having an intrinsic value in the operation. 3. The alcohols obtained are wholesome, and can be put on the market without danger. 4. Their superior quality gives these alcohols an extra value difficult to calculate, but which is very notable. 5. The whole operation being performed in closed vessels, there is absolutely no waste. 6. For the same reason there is scarcely any danger of fire. 7. The management of the works and the service are performed by the pressure of the gases entirely; there are only a few cocks to be turned to perform all the interior maneuvers, empty and fill the vessels, etc. Hence economy in _personnel_.
* * * * *
ELECTROLYTIC DETERMINATIONS AND SEPARATIONS.
[Footnote: NOTE.–Each of these determinations was accompanied by a series of results in which the practical determinations obtained from the method described were compared with the theoretical contents of the solutions of the various elements. These, however, would take up too much room for insertion in these columns.]
By ALEX. CLASSEN and M.A. VON REIS; translated by M. BENJAMIN, Ph.B., F.C.S.
Ever since the electrolytic method for the estimation of copper came into general use, numerous chemists have endeavored to adapt this peculiarly simple and elegant method to the determination of other metals. According to the experiments which have been made up to the present time, it has been found that the separation of copper is best effected in a nitric acid solution, while that of nickel and cobalt takes place most readily in an ammoniacal solution, and for the precipitation of zinc and cadmium a potassium cyanide solution is the best. The accuracy of the results depend chiefly upon the following of certain fixed rules, such as, for instance, that the precipitation of copper only takes place when there is a definite amount of nitric acid in the solution; that of cobalt and nickel when a certain quantity of ammonium hydrate and ammonium sulphate is present. The electrolytic decomposition of the chlorides has not yet been successfully accomplished, so that prior to the operation it is necessary to convert them into sulphates. The experiments which have been made for the purpose of investigating the application of the electric current in quantitative analyses are very few, about the only exception being the separation of copper from the metals which are not precipitated from a nitric acid solution, or which are deposited as peroxides at the other electrode. We shall endeavor to show in that which follows, that copper, zinc, nickel, and cobalt, and even iron, manganese, cadmium, bismuth, and tin, whether they be present as sulphates, chlorides, or nitrates, may be precipitated and separated from each other by electrolytic methods much more rapidly than by any previously known process.
DETERMINATION OF COBALT.
Neutral potassium oxalate is added in excess to the solution of a cobalt salt, and the clear solution of cobalt potassium oxalate submitted to electrolysis. The intense red color of this solution is soon changed into a dark green; the latter diminishing in intensity as the metal is deposited at the negative electrode. The electric current decomposes the potassium oxalate into the carbonate, so that a precipitate of cobalt carbonate is simultaneously formed with the separation of the metallic cobalt. This precipitate may be dissolved by adding oxalic acid or dilute sulphuric acid; the further action of the current will change the solution to an alkaline reaction, upon which the treatment with acid is repeated until all the cobalt has been separated out in its metallic condition. The electrolytic separation of cobalt is much more easily and rapidly effected when the potassium oxalate is substituted by the corresponding ammonium salt, as the latter forms a soluble double salt with the cobalt compounds. If the ammonium oxalate added is just sufficient to form the double salt, a red cobalt oxalate (_which is only slowly reduced by the current_) will separate out in addition to the cobalt. In order to obviate this difficulty, the solution to which the ammonium oxalate had been added in excess is heated, and then three or four grammes more of solid ammonium oxalate are added. The _hot_ solution, when exposed to the action of the current, deposits the cobalt as a closely adhering gray film. By the aid of two Bunsen’s elements, 0.2 gramme cobalt can be separated in an hour’s time. When the reduction has been completed, and this is best determined by testing a small sample (removed by a pipette) with ammonium sulphide, the positive electrode[1] is removed from the solution, and the liquid poured off. The dish is immediately rinsed several times with water, and the excess of water removed at first with alcohol, and then with absolute ether. The cobalt in the dish is dried in the air bath at 100 deg. C., and in the course of a few minutes a constant weight is obtained.
[Footnote 1: A piece of platinum foil, 4.5 cm. in diameter, is used for the positive electrode, and a deep platinum dish as the negative electrode.–_Vide_ “Classen’s Quantitative Analysis,” 3d Edition, p. 46.]
DETERMINATION OF NICKEL.
This process is precisely identical with the previously described method for cobalt. The ammonium oxalate is added in excess to the solution, which is then heated, and four more grammes of the solid salt added. The separation of the nickel is as rapid as that of the cobalt. The nickel is precipitated as a gray, compact mass, tightly adhering to the electrode.
DETERMINATION OF IRON.
For this estimation, solutions of the chloride as well as those of the sulphate (ammonium, iron, alum) may be used in the manner previously described. The electrolysis is best effected in the presence of a sufficient quantity of ammonium oxalate; no separation of any iron compound takes place. The iron is deposited in the form of a bright, steel gray, firmly-adhering mass on the platinum dish. The iron may be exposed to the air for several days without any noticeable oxidation taking place.
DETERMINATION OF ZINC.
Zinc may be separated from a solution of the double salt fully as easily and rapidly as the previously mentioned metals were. The reduced zinc has a dark gray color, and adheres very firmly to the electrode. The separated metal is dissolved by using dilute acids and heating. It is only removed with difficulty, and generally leaves a dark coating on the dish, which is separated by repeated ignitions and treatment with acid.
DETERMINATION OF MANGANESE.
It is already known that manganese may be separated as the peroxide from its nitric acid solution. We find, however, that the precipitation is only completely effected when the quantity present is small; the amount of nitric acid must also be slight, and it is necessary to wash the dish without interrupting the current. If the manganese is converted into the soluble double salt, prepared by adding an excess of potassium, and submitted to the electric current, the whole of the manganese will be deposited at the positive electrode. When ammonium oxalate is used, the complete precipitation does not take place. As the separated peroxide does not adhere firmly to the electrode, it is necessary to filter it and convert it, by ignition, into the trimangano-tetroxide (Mn_3O_4).
DETERMINATION OF BISMUTH.
This separation presents considerable difficulty, because the metal is not precipitated as a compact mass on the platinum. The bismuth is always obtained in the same form, no matter whether it is precipitated from an acid solution, or from the double ammonium oxalate, or, finally, from a solution to which potassium tartrate has been added. As large a surface as possible must be used, and the dish piled to the rim; then, if the quantity of bismuth is small, the washing with water, alcohol, and ether may be effected without any loss of the element. If small quantities of the metal separate from the dish, they must be collected on a tared filter, and determined separately. In our experiments, an excess of ammonium oxalate was added to a nitric acid solution of bismuth. During the electrolytic decomposition, a separation of the peroxide was observed at the positive electrode, which, however, slowly disappeared. In order to prevent the reduced metal from oxidation, the last traces of water are completely removed by repeated washings with alcohol and anhydrous ether.
DETERMINATION OF LEAD.
The nitric solution of lead acts similarly to that of manganese. When the amount of peroxide separated is so large that it does not adhere firmly, and becomes mechanically precipitated on the negative electrode, it becomes impossible to complete the estimation without loss from the solution of the peroxide, and the results cannot be accepted.
If the double oxalate is submitted to electrolysis, the whole of the lead is separated out in its metallic state, but it is so rapidly oxidized by the air that it is very seldom that it can be dried without decomposition even when the operation is conducted in a current of illuminating gas. The electrolytic estimation of this element cannot be recommended.
DETERMINATION OF COPPER.
The copper may be very easily and rapidly separated from the double ammonium oxalate salt, provided a sufficient excess of ammonium oxalate is present. Weak currents cannot be employed for the determination of this element when it is present in large quantities, for under such circumstances the metal does not adhere with sufficient firmness to the electrode. We employed a current which corresponded to an evolution of 330 c.c. of gas per hour, and we were able to precipitate 0.15 gramme metallic copper in about twenty-five minutes.
DETERMINATION OF CADMIUM.
When the cadmium ammonium oxalate is submitted to the action of the electric current, the metal is thrown down in the form of a gray coating, which does not adhere very firmly to the electrode, but, however, sufficiently so as not to become separated on careful washing.
DETERMINATION OF TIN.
Tin may be easily estimated by electrolysis; it can be separated from its hydrochloric acid solution, or from its double salt with ammonium oxalate, as a beautiful silver gray coating on the platinum. When the ammonium oxalate is substituted by the potassium salt, the operation becomes more difficult, as a basic salt is formed at the opposite pole, and is not easily reduced. If the tin is separated from an acid solution, the current must not be interrupted while the washing takes place, a precaution which it is not necessary to follow when the ammonium oxalate is used. When the tin is dissolved from the platinum dish, it acts like the zinc; that is to say, a black coating is left on the electrode.
DETERMINATION OF ANTIMONY.
Antimony may be precipitated in its metallic state from a hydrochloric acid solution, but it does not adhere very firmly to the electrode. If potassium oxalate is added to a solution of the trichloride, the antimony may be readily reduced, but the metal adheres still less firmly to the electrode than it did in the first instance. An adherent coating may be obtained by adding an alkaline tartrate, but in that case the separation takes place too slowly. The precipitation of antimony may be very readily effected from solutions of its sulpho salts.
To a liquid, which may contain free hydrochloric acid, hydrogen sulphide is added, then neutralized with ammonium hydrate, and saturated with ammonium sulphide in excess. The reduction may be accelerated by the addition of some ammonium sulphate. The antimony separates out as a fine, light gray precipitate on the electrode, and which adheres very firmly, provided the precipitation has not been carried on too rapidly, _i. e._, if the current employed for the reduction was not too strong.
When the reduction has been completed, the supernatant liquid is poured off, and the residue washed in the ordinary manner.
DETERMINATION OF ARSENIC.
Arsenic cannot be completely separated from either its aqueous hydrochloric acid, or from a solution to which ammonium oxalate has been added in excess. From its aqueous as well as from its oxalate solution, a portion of the metal may be separated, but if the current is passed through its hydrochloric acid solution for a sufficient length of time, all the arsenic will be volatilized as arsenious hydride (AsH_3).
SEPARATION OF IRON FROM MANGANESE.
If a solution of ferric oxide and manganese ammonium oxalate is submitted to electrolysis, without the previous addition of ammonium oxalate, the characteristic color of permanganic acid immediately makes its appearance, and the peroxide gradually precipitates itself on the positive, while the iron is deposited on the negative electrode. When the examination is made in the above manner, it is impossible to separate the two metals, for the peroxide will bring down with it a considerable quantity of ferric hydrate. The separation of the two metals is only possible when the precipitation of the manganese peroxide is prevented, until the greater portion of the iron has been deposited. This result may be attained by adding sodium phosphate, or, better still, by the addition of ammonium oxalate in great excess. In both cases the characteristic coloration from permanganic acid is developed by the action of the current at the positive pole; this, however, disappears in the direction of the negative electrode. After the greater portion of the ammonium oxalate has been converted into carbonate, the coloration and necessarily the formation of manganese peroxide begins.
Ammonium oxalate is added to the solution, and heat applied; then three or four grammes more of ammonium oxalate are dissolved in the liquid, which is then immediately submitted to electrolysis. When the amount of manganese is small, the separation of the two elements takes place very rapidly, and the results are accurate. If the amount of manganese is more than double that of iron, the separation of the latter will take a much longer time. Then, in order to effect a complete separation of the two elements, it is necessary to redissolve the deposited manganese in oxalic acid (the acid is added, without interrupting the current, until the liquid becomes red), and the current is allowed to continue its action.
It was found desirable, in effecting this separation, not to employ too strong a current (two Bunsen elements will suffice), and only to increase the strength of the current when it is necessary, in consequence of a large amount of manganese being present, to redissolve the peroxide.
When the process is completed, it is not advisable to allow the current to act any longer, for otherwise some of the peroxide may adhere firmly to the iron, and the latter (after previously having poured off the liquid) must be redissolved in oxalic acid, that is to say, the electrolysis must be repeated. As has been already mentioned in the determination of manganese as peroxide, its precipitation from ammonium oxalate is not complete. The solution which contains the greater portion of manganese, suspended as peroxide, must first, therefore, be boiled to decompose the ammonium carbonate; the remainder of the ammonium oxalate is neutralized with nitric acid, and the manganese converted into the sulphide by ammonium sulphide. The manganese sulphide is then ignited in a current of hydrogen, and weighed as such.
SEPARATION OF IRON AND ALUMINUM.
The quantitative separation of iron from aluminum, which presented many difficulties according to the older methods, may be easily performed by electrolysis. If a solution of iron ammonium oxalate and aluminum oxalate, to which an excess of ammonium oxalate has been added, be submitted to the action of the electric current, the iron will be deposited as a firmly adhering coat on the negative electrode, while the aluminum oxide remains in solution, just so long as the quantity of ammonium oxalate is in excess of the quantity of ammonium carbonate produced. When, finally, a precipitation of aluminum oxide takes place the liquid is almost free from iron. From time to time, the solution, in which the aluminum oxide is suspended, is tested for iron by ammonium sulphide, and the current is interrupted when no further reaction is observed. The best method of procedure is to add ammonium oxalate in excess to a neutral, a slightly acid solution, or to one which has been neutralized by the addition of ammonium hydrate (a hydrochloric acid solution is not well adapted for this purpose); then as much more solid ammonium oxalate is added until for every 0.1 gramme there is 2 to 3 grammes of the oxalate present. The hot solution is then directly submitted to the action of the electric current. After the iron has been precipitated, it is best to stop the action of the current before all the aluminum oxide is thrown down, for otherwise a portion of the latter may adhere firmly to the iron, and be difficult to remove.
In such a case, as was mentioned previously in the separation of iron from manganese, it is necessary to redissolve the iron (after previously having poured off the liquid) in oxalic acid, and then the electrolysis is continued.
In order to effect the complete precipitation of the aluminum oxide from the solution which was poured from the iron, ammonium hydrate is added, and the solution boiled for some time, and then the aluminum oxide is determined in the usual manner. When the quantity of aluminum is less than that of iron, this method may be relied upon to give exact results. With the reverse (_i. e._, an excess of iron) the precipitate of aluminum oxide must be dissolved in oxalic acid (without the interruption of the current), and the electrolysis continued.–_Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft_, 14, 1662.
* * * * *
THE CULTIVATION OF PYRETHRUM AND MANUFACTURE OF THE POWDER.
In accordance with an announcement in the March number of the _Naturalist_, the editor of this department has sent out the seed of two species of pyrethrum, viz. _P. roseum_ and _P. cinerarioefolium_, to a large number of correspondents in different parts of North America. Every mail brings us some inquiries for further particulars and directions to guide in the cultivation of the plant and preparation of the powder. We have concluded, therefore, that such information as is obtainable on these heads will prove of public interest, and we shall ask Professor Bessey’s pardon for trenching somewhat on his domain.
There are very few data at hand concerning the discovery of the insecticide properties of pyrethrum. The powder has been in use for many years in Asiatic countries south of the Caucasus mountains. It was sold at a high price by the inhabitants, who successfully kept its nature a secret until the beginning of this century, when an Armenian merchant, Mr. Jumtikoff, learned that the powder was obtained from the dried and pulverized flower-heads of certain species of pyrethrum growing abundantly in the mountain region of what is now known as the Russian province of Transcaucasia. The son of Mr. Jumtikoff began the manufacture of the article on a large scale in 1828, after which year the pyrethrum industry steadily grew, until to-day the export of the dried flower-heads represents an important item in the revenue of those countries.
Still less seems to be known of the discovery and history of the Dalmatian species of pyrethrum (_P. cinerarioefolum_), but it is probable that its history is very similar to that of the Asiatic species. At the present time the pyrethrum flowers are considered by far the most valuable product of the soil of Dalmatia.
There is also very little information published regarding either the mode of growth or the cultivation of pyrethrum plants in their native home. As to the Caucasian species we have reasons to believe that they are not cultivated, at least not at the present time, statements to the contrary notwithstanding.[1]
[Footnote 1: Report Comm. of Patents, 1857, Agriculture, p. 130.]
The well-known Dr. Gustav Radde, director of the Imperial Museum of Natural History at Tiflis, Transcaucasia, who is the highest living authority on everything pertaining to the natural history of that region, wrote us recently as follows: “The only species of its genus _Pyrethrum roseum_, which gives a good, effective insect powder, is nowhere cultivated, but grows wild in the basal-alpine zone of our mountains at an altitude of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet.” From this it appears that this species, at least, is not cultivated in its native home, and Dr. Radde’s statement is corroborated by a communication of Mr. S. M. Hutton, Vice-Consul General of the U. S. at Moscow, Russia, to whom we applied for seed of this species. He writes that his agents were not able to get more than about half a pound of the seed from any one person. From this statement it may be inferred that the seeds have to be gathered from the wild and not from the cultivated plants.
As to the Dalmatian plant it is also said to be cultivated in its native home, but we can get no definite information on this score, owing to the fact that the inhabitants are very unwilling to give any information regarding a plant the product of which they wish to monopolize. For similar reasons we have found great difficulty in obtaining even small quantities of the seed of _P. cinerarioefolium_ that was not baked or in other ways tampered with to prevent germination. Indeed, the people are so jealous of their plant that to send the seed out of the country becomes a serious matter, in which life is risked. The seed of _Pyrethrum roseum_ is obtained with less difficulty, at least in small quantities, and it has even become an article of commerce, several nurserymen here, as well as in Europe, advertising it in their catalogues. The species has been successfully grown as a garden plant for its pale rose or bright pink flower-rays. Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Pa., writes us: “I have had a plant of _Pyrethrum roseum_ in my herbaceous garden for many years past, and it holds its own without any care much better than many other things. I should say from this experience that it was a plant which will very easily accommodate itself to culture anywhere in the United States.” Peter Henderson, of New York, another well-known and experienced nurseryman, writes: “I have grown the plant and its varieties for ten years. It is of the easiest cultivation, either by seeds or divisions. It now ramifies into a great variety of all shades, from white to deep crimson, double and single, perfectly hardy here, and I think likely to be nearly everywhere on this continent.” Dr. James C. Neal, of Archer, Fla., has also successfully grown _P. roseum_ and many varieties thereof, and other correspondents report similar favorable experience. None of them have found a special mode of cultivation necessary. In 1856 Mr. C. Willemot made a serious attempt to introduce and cultivate the plant[1] on a large scale in France. As his account of the cultivation of pyrethrum is the best we know of we quote here his experience in full, with but few slight omissions: “The soil best adapted to its culture should be composed of pure ground, somewhat silicious and dry. Moisture and the presence of clay are injurious, the plant being extremely sensitive to an excess of water, and would in such case immediately perish. A southern exposure is the most favorable. The best time for putting the seeds in the ground is from March to April. It can be done even in the month of February if the weather will permit it. After the soil has been prepared and the seeds are sown they are covered by a stratum of ground mixed with some vegetable mould, when the roller is slightly applied to it. Every five or six days the watering is to be renewed, in order to facilitate the germination. At the end of about thirty or forty days the young plants make their appearance, and as soon as they have gained strength enough they are transplanted at a distance of about six inches from each other. Three months after this operation they are transplanted again at a distance of from fourteen to twenty inches, according to their strength. Each transplantation requires, of course, a new watering, which, however, should only be moderately applied. The blossoming of the pyrethrum commences the second year, toward the end of May, and continues to the end of September.” Mr. Willemot also states that the plant is very little sensitive to cold, and needs no shelter, even during severe winters.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Willemot calls his plant _Pyrethre du Caucase (P. Willemoti._ Duchartre), but it is more than probable that this is only a synonym of _P. roseum_. We have drawn liberally from Mr. Willemot’s paper on the subject, a translation of which may be found in the Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1861, Agriculture, pp. 223-331.]
The above quoted directions have reference to the climate of France, and as the cultivation of the plant in many parts of North America is yet an experiment, a great deal of independent judgment must be used. The plants should be treated in the same manner as the ordinary Asters of the garden or other perennial Compositae.
As to the Dalmatian plant, it is well known that Mr. G. N. Milco, a native of Dalmatia, has of late years successfully cultivated _Pyrethrum cinerarioefolium_ near Stockton, Cal., and the powder from the California grown plants, to which Mr. Milco has given the name of “Buhach,” retains all the insecticide qualities and is far superior to most of the imported powder, as we know from experience. Mr. Milco gives the following advice about planting–advice which applies more particularly to the Pacific coast: “Prepare a small bed of fine, loose, sandy, loamy soil, slightly mixed with fine manure. Mix the seed with dry sand and sow carefully on top of the bed. Then with a common rake disturb the surface of the ground half an inch in depth. Sprinkle the bed every evening until sprouted; too much water will cause injury. After it is well sprouted, watering twice a week is sufficient. When about a month old, weed carefully. They should be transplanted to loamy soil during the rainy season of winter or spring.”
Our own experience with _P. roseum_ as well as _P. cinerarioefolium_ in Washington, D. C., has been so far quite satisfactory. Some that we planted last year in the fall came up quite well in the spring and will perhaps bloom the present year. The plants from sound seed which we planted this spring are also doing finely, and as the soil is a rather stiff clay and the rains have been many and heavy, we conclude that Mr. Willemot has overstated the delicacy of the plants.
In regard to manufacturing the powder, the flower heads should be gathered during fine weather when they are about to open, or at the time when fertilization takes place, as the essential oil that gives the insecticide qualities reaches, at this time, its greatest development. When the blossoming has ceased the stalks may be cut within about four inches from the ground and utilized, being ground and mixed with the flowers in the proportion of one-third of their weight. Great care must be taken not to expose the flowers to moisture, or the rays of the sun, or still less to artificial heat. They should be dried under cover and hermetically closed up in sacks or other vessels to prevent untimely pulverization. The finer the flower-heads are pulverized the more effectually the powder acts and the more economical in its use. Proper pulverization in large quantities is best done by those who make a business of it and have special mill facilities. Lehn & Fink, of New York, have furnished us with the most satisfactory powder. For his own use the farmer can pulverize smaller quantities by the simple method of pounding the flowers in a mortar. It is necessary that the mortar be closed, and a piece of leather through which the pestle moves, such as is generally used in pulverizing pharmaceutic substances in a laboratory, will answer. The quantity to be pulverized should not exceed one pound at a time, thus avoiding too high a degree of heat, which would be injurious to the quality of the powder. The pulverization being deemed sufficient, the substance is sifted through a silk sieve, and then the remainder, with a new addition of flowers, is put in the mortar and pulverized again.
The best vessels for keeping the powder are fruit jars with patent covers or any other perfectly tight glass vessel or tin box.–_American Naturalist_.
* * * * *
THE REMOVAL OF NOXIOUS VAPORS FROM ROASTING FURNACE GASES.
In a paper read before the Aix-la-Chapelle section of the _Verein deutscher Ingenieure_, Herr Robert Hasenclever presents a summary of the results obtained with various methods for the absorption of the sulphurous acid generated during the roasting of zinc-blende and other sulphurets. Though most of our own metallurgical works are not so located as to be forced to pay much attention to the removal of noxious vapors, the efforts made abroad possess some interest for American metallurgists. Besides containing sulphurous acid, the gases from the roasting furnaces hold varying quantities of sulphuric acid, and Dr. Bernoulli describes a process applied on a large scale in Silesian zinc works, where the gases were passed through towers filled with lime. It was found that there was no trouble on account of the absorption of carbonic acid by the lime, and that the latter acted very efficiently in reducing the quantity of sulphurous acid. Before entering the tower, they contained 0.258 per cent. by volume of sulphurous acid and 2.45 per cent. of carbonic acid; while, after their passage through it, they held 0.017 and 2.478 per cent, respectively. The process, however, is declared by Herr Hasenclever to be too costly for ordinary working, although he does not deny its value under special circumstances.
The removal of anhydrous sulphuric acid from the gases from roasting-furnaces has hitherto, as at the Waldmeister works, near Stolberg, been effected by means of water trickling down in a tower filled with coke, the gases entering below and moving upward. Herr Hasenclever tested the Freytag method, in which the water is replaced by sulphuric acid, and obtained favorable results, as shown by the following analyses of the gases before and after treatment. The figures given are grammes per 1,000 liters:
BEFORE. AFTER.
SO_2. SO_3. SO_2. SO_3.
8.24 0.63 5.74 0.00
8.29 0.37 6.74 0.07
9.36 0.69 6.96 0.00
9.46 0.63 7.38 0.05
10.03 1.08 7.69 0.09
16.52 2.97 14.39 0.23
17.90 1.97 13.32 0.11
17.80 2.46 16.18 0.69
The average absorption for the first set of four analyses when three roasting-furnaces were discharging into the tower was 95 per cent. of the sulphuric acid, and that of the second set of four or five furnaces was 90 per cent. The amount of sulphuric acid charged per twenty-four hours was about 5,000 kilogrammes of 50 degrees Baume, which flowed off with a density of from 56 to 58 degrees Baume. The quantity of acid condensed varied according to the nature of the ores and the number of furnaces working. It ranged between 300 and 1,000 kilogrammes of 60 degrees Baume per twenty-four hours. The condensation of anhydrous sulphuric acid would pay, according to estimates submitted by Herr Hasenclever; but to pass the gases through a tower filled with lime, in order to get rid of the remaining sulphurous acid, would prove too expensive at Stolberg. An attempt to use milk of lime proved partially successful; but it was not followed up, because it was decided to experiment with the process suggested by Prof. Cl. Winkler, of Freiberg, who proposes to pass the gases through a tower filled with iron in some suitable shape, over which water trickles. From the solution thus obtained, sulphurous acid pure enough to be used for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, sulphur, and a solution of green vitriol is made. Experiments with this process are making at Freiberg and at the Rhenania Works, near Stolberg. The trouble with the majority of methods thus far is, that the draught of the furnaces is so much impeded by the absorption towers that fans, blowers, or steam jets must be used to carry the gases through it.
The experience of Herr Hasenclever has proved how difficult it is to find a satisfactory means of removing the noxious vapors from furnace gases without incurring too serious an expense. Thus far the value of the products obtained by absorption of sulphurous acid has not been equal to the cost of producing them. Herr C. Landsberg, who is general manager of the Stolberg Company, has had similar experience, though his experiments were made to test methods suggested at various times by Dr. E. Jacob and Dr. Aarland. Both are very ingenious, and were successful on a small scale, but failed when tried in actual working.–_Engineering and Mining Journal_.
* * * * *
NEW GAS EXHAUSTER.
In common practice, the new exhauster at the Old Kent Road passes about five million cubic feet of gas per day of twenty-four hours, and requires the attention of two men and two boys for driving and stoking, at the following cost:
s. d.
Wages–2 men, at 5s. 6d 11 0
Wages–2 boys, at 3s. 6d 7 0
—–
L 0 18 0
Oil, 1 gallon 0 3 6
Waste, 5 lb 0 1 0
——–
Total L 1 2 6
for five million cubic feet, or 0.054d. per 1,000 feet. The boiler burns a mixture of coke and breeze, chiefly the latter, of small value, costing 0.0174d. per 1,000 feet of gas exhausted; therefore the total cost of exhausting gas by the new system is–
Fuel 0.0174d
Wages, oil, and waste 0.0540
——–
Total 0.07l4d.
per 1,000 cubic feet of gas, exclusive of repairs, which will be decidedly less for the new exhauster than for that on the older system, from the friction being so much less. The feed water evaporated is at the rate of about 7.4 lb. per pound of breeze, and 7.5 lb. per pound of coke.
[Illustration: IMPROVED GAS EXHAUSTER.]
It will be seen that the exhausting arrangements at the Old Kent Road are extremely economical, the cost of fuel being reduced to a minimum; while a man and boy by day, and their reliefs for the night, attend to the machinery inside the exhauster-house, and also to the pumps outside, and stoke the boiler as well.–_Journal of Gas Lighting_.
* * * * *
ADVANCE IN THE PRICE OF GLYCERINE
The continued advance in the price of glycerine continues to excite comment among those who deal in or use it, and no one seems to know exactly where or when the advance is likely to stop, or by what means a retrograde movement will probably be brought about.
As we have heretofore stated, the rise has been brought about by a combination of two causes–a falling off in production and a great increase in the demand, owing to the discovery of new uses for it, and the extension of the branches of manufactures in which it has been heretofore employed.
In pharmacy, it is coming more and more into use daily, and in various other branches of manufacture the same tendency is observable. It has proved itself so elegant and so convenient a vehicle for the administration of various medicinal substances, is so easily miscible with both water and alcohol, and is so pleasant to the taste, that it seems almost a wonder that it should have been so long in attaining the rank among the articles of the _Materia Medica_ which it now occupies. The two manufactures, however, which seem to lead in the demand for glycerine are of nitro-glycerine and of oleomargarine.
The uses to which it is put for the former are well known, but precisely what the latter could want of the article is not, at first glance, quite so obvious. We are informed, however, that it is valued for its antiseptic properties, and also for its softening effect on the _quasi_ butter. Be this as it may, it seems that both here and in Europe the makers of these two articles are buying largely of both crude and refined glycerine.
So it appears that the willingness of the people to eat artificial butter, and the progress in schemes for internal improvement, such as the De Lesseps Canal, for instance, to say nothing of the European revolutionists, are responsible to a great extent for the scarcity of an important article of pharmaceutical use.
On the other hand, while there is a notable increase in the demand for the article, there is a gradual but very sure and noticeable falling off in the production.
At present the supply for the whole world comes from the candlemakers of Europe–chiefly France and Germany–and, as improved methods of illumination push candles out of the drawing rooms of the wealthier as well as the cabins of the poor, and consequently out of the markets, the production of glycerine naturally grows less. In France, for instance, candles are coming to be regarded among the wealthy chiefly as articles of luxury, and are lighted only for display at festivals of especial magnificence and ceremony, while among the poor the kerosene lamp is coming into almost as universal use as here.
To be sure, the inexorable inn-keeper still keeps up, we believe, the inevitable _bougie_, but even that is fast becoming more of a fiction than ever. Even in the churches, it is said, the use of candles is gradually falling off. To these causes must be attributed the decreasing supply of the crude material, but it may be doubted whether this decrease would be sufficient to materially affect the price for some time to come were it not for the increased demand for the two industries to which we have alluded. Obviously, there must be found eventually some substitute for glycerine, or else some new source from which it may be procured. The natural place to look for this would be in the waste lye from the soapmakers’ boilers, but so far no one has succeeded in obtaining from this substance the glycerine it undoubtedly contains by any process sufficiently cheap to allow of its profitable employment.
We are assured by a veteran soap-boiler who has experimented much in this direction that it is impossible to recover a marketable article of glycerine from the lees of soap in which resin is an ingredient. In his words, it “kills the glycerine,” and, as none but a few of the finest soaps are now made without resin, it would seem that the search for glycerine in this direction must be a hopeless one. It is a curious commentary in the present state of affairs that previous to about 1857, when candles were largely manufactured in this country, there was little or no demand for glycerine, and millions of pounds of it were run into the sewers. Even then, however, the use of it as a wholesome and pleasant article of diet was known to the workmen employed in the candle factories, who were accustomed to drink freely of the mingled glycerine and water which constituted the waste from the candles. Yet with this fact under their noses, as it were, it is only recently that members of the medical profession have begun to recommend the same use of glycerine as a substitute for cod liver oil.–_Pharmacist_.
* * * * *
ANALYSIS OF OILS, OR MIXTURES OF OILS, USED FOR LUBRICATING PURPOSES.
Oils, fats, waxes, and bodies somewhat similar in nature, may–according to the substance of a paper recently read before the Chemical Society, by Mr. A. H. Allen, of Sheffield, and Mr. Thomson, of Manchester–be divided into two great classes, viz., those which combine with soda, potash, or other alkalies to form soaps, and those which do not; and as those two classes of bodies differ materially in their actions on substances such as iron, copper, etc., with which they come in contact, it often becomes a question of great importance to the users of oils for lubricating purposes to know what proportions of these different substances are contained in any oil or mixture of oils. The object of the authors was to give accurate methods for determining the percentages of these bodies contained in any sample. Hydrocarbon or mineral oils are now much used for lubricating the cylinders of engines, and especially of condensing engines, and that for two reasons–first, because they are neutral bodies, which have no action on metals; and, second, that they are not liable to deposit on the boilers, if they should happen to be introduced with the condensed water so as to produce burning of the ironwork over the flues.
Animal or vegetable oils or fats are composed of fatty acids in combination with glycerine, and these, under the influence of high-pressure steam, are decomposed or dissociated, the fatty acids being liberated from the glycerine, leaving the former to act upon or corrode the iron of the cylinder. But here their objectionable influence does not end. They form with the iron hard, insoluble compounds called iron soaps, which increase the friction between the cylinder and piston, and in some cases gradually collect into the form of hard balls inside the cylinder.
When the water is used over and over again a considerable proportion of the fatty acids of the oils used for lubricating the piston is carried over with the steam and is found in the condensed water which is introduced into the boiler along with the water. Here it commences action, which proves quite as injurious to the boiler as it does to the cylinder, but in a different way. It acts upon the iron of the boiler and on some of the lime salts which constitute the incrustation, forming greasy iron and lime soaps, which prevent the water from coming into absolute contact with it. Thus the heat cannot be drawn away quickly enough by the water, and the plates thus coated above the flues are liable to become burdened and weakened. This action has in many cases gone on to such an extent that the flues have collapsed under the pressure of the steam inside.
The authors give two different processes for the determination of animal or vegetable oils or fats and hydrocarbon or other neutral oils. They take a certain weight of the sample and boil it with twice its weight of an eight per cent, solution of caustic soda in alcohol. The soda combines with the fatty acids of the animal or vegetable oils forming soaps; bicarbonate of soda is then added to neutralize the excess of caustic soda; and, lastly, sand; and the whole is evaporated to dryness at the temperature of boiling water. The dry mixture is then transferred to a large glass tube, having a small hole in the bottom plugged with glass wool to act as a filter, and light petroleum spirit–which boils at about 150 deg. to 180 deg. Fahr.–is poured over it, till all the neutral or unsaponifiable oil is dissolved out. In the other process no sand is used, but the dry mixture is dissolved in water, and the soap solution which holds the neutral oils in solution is treated with ether, which dissolves out the neutral oil and then floats to the surface of the liquid. The ether solution is then drawn off, and the ether in the one case and petroleum spirit in the other are separated from the dissolved oils by distillation, the last traces of these volatile liquids being separated by blowing a current of filtered air through the flask containing the neutral oil, which is then weighed and its percentage on the original sample calculated.
All animal and vegetable oils yield a small quantity–about one per cent.–of unsaponifiable fatty matter, which must be deducted from the result obtained. Sperm oil, however, was found to be an exception, because from its peculiar chemical constitution it yields nearly half its weight of a greasy substance to the ether or to the petroleum spirit. The substance, however, dissolved from sperm oil after saponification has the appearance of jelly, when the ether or petroleum spirit solution is concentrated and allowed to cool, and the presence of sperm oil can thus be readily detected. Solid paraffin, heavy petroleum or paraffin oils, and rosin oil–which is produced by the destructive distillation of rosin–are not saponifiable, and yield about the whole of the amount employed to the petroleum spirit or ether. Japan wax is almost entirely saponifiable, while beeswax and spermaceti yield about half their weights to the petroleum spirit or ether.
* * * * *
NITRITE OF AMYL.
Dr. Edgar Kurtz, of Florence, has found this medicament so useful in the various aches and pains of every-day life that he has persuaded many families of his acquaintance to keep it on hand as a domestic remedy. It is an excellent external application for stomach-ache, colic, tooth ache (whether nervous or arising from caries), neuralgia of the trigeminus, of the cervico-brachial plexus, etc. It is superior to anything else when inhaled in so-called angio-spastic hemicrania, giving rapid relief in the individual paroxysms and prolonging the intervals between the latter. No trial was made in cases of angio paralytic hemicrania, since in this affection the drug would be physiologically contraindicated. It has a very good effect in dysmenorrhoea, especially when occurring in chlorotic girls; in mild cases external applications suffice, otherwise the drug should be inhaled (when complicated with inflammatory conditions of the uterus or appendages the results were doubtful or negative). Its physiological action being that of a paralyzing agent of the muscular tissue of the blood vessels, with consequent dilatation of their caliber (most marked in the upper half of the body), nitrite of amyl is theoretically indicated in all conditions of cerebral anaemia. Practically it was found to be of much value in attacks of dizziness and faintness occurring in anaemic individuals, as also in a fainting-fit from renal colic, and in several cases of collapse during anaesthesia by chloroform.
It has been recommended in asphyxia from drowning, hanging, and in asphyxia of the new born, but the first indication in these cases is the induction of artificial respiration, after the successful initiation of which inhalations of nitrite of amyl doubtless assist in overcoming the concomitant spasm of the smaller arteries.
One of the most important indications for the use of the drug is threatening paralysis of the heart from insufficient compensation. In such cases it is necessary to gain time until digitalis and alcoholics can unfold their action, and here nitrite of amyl stands pre-eminent. A single case in point will suffice to illustrate this. The patient was suffering from mitral insufficiency, with irregular pulse, loss of appetite, enlargement of the liver, and mild jaundice. Temporary relief had been several times afforded by infusion of digitalis. In February, 1879, the condition of the patient suddenly became aggravated. The pulse became very irregular and intermittent. The condition described as delirium cordis presented itself, together with epigastric pulsation and vomiting. Vigorous counter-irritation, by means of hot bottles and sinapisms to the extremities, etc., proved useless. Digitalis and champagne, when administered, were immediately vomited. The pulse ran up from seventy until it could no longer be counted at the wrist, while the beats of the heart increased to one hundred and twenty and more per minute. The extremities grew cold, and the face became covered with perspiration. The urine was highly albuminous. Nitrite of amyl was then administered by inhalation: at first, three to five drops; then, ten to twenty; and finally, more or less was poured on the handkerchief without being measured. During each inhalation the condition of the patient rapidly improved, but as quickly grew worse, so that the drug was continued at short intervals all night, ten grammes in all having been used. In the morning the patient was better, and 0.5 gramme of digitalis was then given in infusion per rectum, and repeated on the following day, after which the patient remained comparatively well until a year and a half later, when a second attack of the kind just described was quickly cut short by similar treatment.
Another noteworthy case was that of a robust man of thirty years, who was attacked with acute gastro intestinal catarrh. The patient had as many as one hundred watery evacuations in forty-eight hours, with fainting fits, violent cramps in the calves of the legs, two attacks of general convulsions–in short, he presented the picture of a person attacked with cholera. Opium, champagne, hypodermic injections of sulphuric ether, counter-irritation, etc., proved useless. The doctor was on the point of injecting dilute liquor ammonii into the veins, but, none being obtainable, it occurred to him to try nitrite of amyl as a last resort. A considerable amount was poured on a handkerchief and held before the patient’s mouth and nose, while the legs were also rubbed energetically with the same agent. Respiration soon became deeper and more regular, while the pulse gradually returned at the wrist. These procedures were repeated again and again, without regard to the quantity of the drug used, as soon as the radial pulse became weaker, and kept up until the patient complained of a sense of fullness in the head, and requested the discontinuance of the drug. The evacuations became less frequent, and in a week the patient was able to be up. Resuming then, Kurz concludes that nitrite of amyl is indicated in cardiac affections when the capillary circulation is obstructed and the cardiac muscle is threatened with paralysis from overwork; further, in cases of impeded circulation occasioned by cholera or severe diarrhea, particularly in the so-called hydrocephaloid (false hydrocephalus) of children. It is worthy of trial in tetanic and eclamptic seizures, and in tonic angiospasms such as occur during the chill of malarial fevers, although in the last-mentioned condition pilocarpine is perhaps more suitable, provided the energy of the heart be unimpaired.
As regards the dose, Kurz’s experience demonstrates that we need not restrict ourselves to a few drops. The quantity may be increased, if necessary, until symptoms of cerebral congestion show themselves, when the drug should be momentarily or permanently discontinued. Usually from three to five or ten drops are sufficient, sometimes even less. Kurz has met with no unpleasant consequences, much less serious complications, from the application of nitrite of amyl. But the drug is contraindicated in cases associated with cerebral hyperaemia, in atheromatous conditions of the arteries, and in the so-called plethoric state–_Beta’s Memoabilien, March 24, 1881_.
* * * * *
THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE RHEUMATISM.
By ALFRED STILLE, M.D.
The treatment of simple acute articular rheumatism may be abandoned to palliatives and nature. Apart from complications, such cases nearly always recover under rest and careful nursing. Try and disabuse yourselves of the idea that their cure is dependent upon medicines alone; to help nature is often the best we can do. No treatment was ever invented which stopped a case of acute articular rheumatism. It cannot be stopped by bleeding, or sweating, or purging, by niter, by tartar emetic, by guaiacum, by alkalies, by salines, by salicylic acid, or by anything else. The physician can palliate the pain and perhaps shorten the attack, can control and perhaps prevent complications and stiffness of the joints, but he cannot arrest the disease. Where rest, proper diet, and warmth are enjoined, most cases will get well just as soon without as with the use of medicinal methods. Dr. Austin Flint, Sr., of New York, in support of this statement, subjected some patients, a number of years ago, to the expectant treatment, and found that they made just as rapid and just as complete recoveries as did those cases under the most active medication. Purgatives have been used in all ages in the treatment of this disease, because it was thought to be a fever. We are all but too ready to put our necks into the yoke of a theory. In old times they thought that the system ought to be reduced. Before the time of purgatives depletion was employed. This mode of treatment I will not even discuss. There is no evidence of which I am cognizant in favor of purgatives. There are very good reasons indeed why they should not be used: (1) Because they cannot possibly cure; (2) because they oblige the patient to make painful movements; and (3) because they expose him to the dangers of cold. A celebrated London physician had all his patients packed in blankets, and did not allow them to move a finger. This was going to the other extreme. There are certain cases in which purgatives are alleged to be of use, viz.: Those in which the bowels are constipated, and there is a bitter taste in the mouth. I have never seen such cases except in habitual drunkards, and in such cases a purgative does more harm than allowing the effete matter to remain in the system. Opium was once vaunted as a specific, and it was claimed that it diminished the tendency to complications in the course of the disease. Dr. Corrigan, of Dublin, said that large doses of opium were well borne–say from four to twelve grains in the course of twenty-four hours, or sometimes he advised giving as much as one grain every hour. Opium so employed does not produce narcotism, and does not constipate the bowels. More recent experience has shown that opium, of all remedies, is the most likely to cause heart complications. Some have recommended colchicum, arguing that because it does good in gout, it must, therefore, do good in rheumatism. But colchicum is not a remedy for rheumatism. Many years ago it was very much the custom to administer large doses of powdered Peruvian bark. The rationale of these large doses was founded upon their sedative effect. Haygrath, Morton, Heberden, and Fothergill were the first to employ this method. Later still, a number of noted French physicians, among them Briquet, Andral, Monerat, and Legroux, renewed the use of this medicine in the form of quinia, but gave it in smaller doses, seeking only its tonic effect, from five to fifteen grains being administered in the course of twenty-four hours, and then it was still continued in smaller doses. Still more recently, quinia taking the place of Peruvian bark, the old plan of administering large doses has been resumed. From thirty all the way up to one hundred grains have been administered in the course of twenty-four hours. Never was there a more profligate waste of a precious medicine. Even the physicians who so used it were obliged to acknowledge that it only did good in sub-acute and mild cases. I believe that it has also been fashionable in the so called cases of hyperpyrexia to immerse the patient in a bath varying in temperature from 60 deg. to 98 deg. Fahr. Although patients thus treated sometimes recovered, they also sometimes perished from congestion of the lungs and brain.
Among cardiac and nervous sedatives, digitalis, veratrum album and viride, veratria and aconite, have each, at one time or other, been employed indiscriminately. Such treatment, of course, has only proven itself to be a monument of rashness to those who employed it. Such sedatives may reduce the pulse, but do not shorten the disease. Indeed, if it is possible to prove the absurdity of anything more clearly by mere enumeration of these medicines as cures for rheumatism, I do not know of it. Do digitalis and aconite act in the same manner? This is just one expression of the folly which surrounded the use of digitalis at the time of its discovery. Then every affection of the heart was treated with digitalis.
Within the last few years new remedies have been proclaimed in the shape of salicylic acid and its sodium salt. I confess that I possess no personal knowledge of their use in this disease, for I was at first dissuaded from employing them by a prejudice against the grounds on which they were recommended, and more recently by the contradictory judgments respecting them, and the unquestionable mischief they have sometimes caused. According to their eulogists, the arrest of the disease is secured by them within four or five days, whether the attack be febrile or not; its mortality was diminished; relapses do not occur if the medicine is continued until full convalescence; it is without influence on the heart complications already existing, but it tends to prevent them as well as other serious inflammations. One of these gentlemen assures us that to say it far excels any other method of treatment would be to give it but scant praise. But, upon the other hand, it is accused of producing disorders, and even grave accidents in almost all the functions of the economy. In some cases it has produced ringing in the ears or deafness, or a rapid pulse, or an excessively high temperature, panting respiration, profuse perspiration, albuminuria, delirium, and imminent collapse. In one published case this anti-pyretic did not lower, but, on the contrary, seemed actually to raise the temperature so high that immediately after death it stood at 110 deg. F. Many, very many, analogous cases have been published. I repeat, therefore, that I am personally unacquainted with the effects of this medicine in acute articular rheumatism, and that I have not thus far been tempted to employ it.
It may be difficult to see the connection between blisters and alkalies in their power to influence the course of acute articular rheumatism, and yet it is certain that they do so influence it, and in the same way, _i. e._, by altering the condition of the blood from acid to alkaline. If you ask me to explain to you how blisters act in this way I am obliged to confess my ignorance. To produce this result they must be applied over all the affected joints. Experience, if not science, has decided conclusively in their favor. They do effect a cessation of the local symptoms, render the urine alkaline, and diminish the amount of fibrin in the blood.
This brings us to a consideration of the use of alkalies. Alkalies neutralize the acids, act as diuretics, and eliminate the _materies morbi_. Alone, and in small doses, they are unable to influence the course of the disease; but when given in very large doses their effects are marvelous; the pulse falls, the urine is increased in quantity and becomes alkaline, and the inflammation subsides. The symptoms of the disease are moderated, the duration of the attack is shortened, and the cardiac complications are prevented. The dose of the alkalies must be increased until the acid secretions are neutralized. A very good combination of these remedies is the following:
Rx. Sodae bicarb 3 iss.
Potas. acet 3 ss.
Acid. cit f. 3 ss.
Aquae f. 3 ij. [1]
[Transcribers note 1: Could also be ‘2/3 ij.’]
S. This dose should be repeated every three or four hours, until the urine becomes alkaline. On the subsidence of the active symptoms two grains of quinine may be added with advantage to each dose. The alkalies must be gradually discontinued, but the quinia continued. The diet should consist of beef tea or broth, with bread and milk; no solid food should be allowed. Woolen cloths, moistened with alkaline solutions, may with advantage be applied to the affected joints. To these laudanum may be added for its anodyne effect. The patient must be sedulously protected from vicissitudes of the temperature and be in bed between blankets. The alkaline treatment relieves the pain, abates the fever, and saves the heart by lessening the amount of fibrin in the blood. A long time ago Dr. Owen Rees, of London, introduced the use of lemon juice. This remedy was thought to convert uric acid into urea, and to so help elimination. Though the treatment is practically correct, the theory of it is all wrong. Lemon juice does good in mild cases, but cannot be relied upon in severe attacks. During the febrile stage of acute articular rheumatism the diet should consist mainly of farinaceous and mucilaginous preparations, with lemonade and carbonic acid water as drinks. The cloths applied to the joints should be changed when they become saturated with sweat, and in changing them the patient should be protected from the air. The sweating may be controlled by small doses of atropia, from the one-sixtieth to the one-thirtieth of a grain. To prevent subsequent stiffness the joints should be bathed with warm oil and chloroform, and wrapped in flannel cloths. In the proper season this condition is very well treated by sea-bathing. There is no specific plan of treatment in acute articular rheumatism. The treatment pursued must vary according to the intensity of the inflammation and the peculiarities of the patients.–_Medical Gazette_.
* * * * *
METHOD IN MADNESS.
No psychologist has hitherto been able, and probably it is impossible, to define _madness_, or to give a clearly marked indication of the boundary line between sanity and insanity. Mental soundness is merged in unsoundness by degrees of decadence which are so small as to be practically inappreciable. It is with the mind-state which precedes the development of recognized form of insanity the therapeutist and the social philosopher are chiefly interested. Although in individual cases the subject of mental derangement may, as the phrase runs, “go mad” suddenly, speaking generally insanity is a symptom occurring in the course of disease, and, commonly, not until the malady of which it is the expression has made some progress. Those mental disturbances which consist in a temporary aberration of brain function, and which are the accidents of instability, rather than the effects of developed or even developing neuroses, can scarcely be classed as insanity; although it is true, and in an important sense, that these passing storms of excitement or spells of moody depression may–acting reflexly on the cerebral and nervous centers, as all mind-states and mind-movements react–exert a morbific influence and lay the physical bases of mental disease. The consideration most practical to the community and germane to the question of public safety is, that in any and every population there must exist a dangerously large proportion of persons who are always in a condition of mind to be injuriously influenced by any force which powerfully affects them. As a matter of history, it would seem that the majority of such persons are controlled rather than morbidly excited by the opportunity of throwing themselves into any popular movement. They may suffer afterward for the stimulation they receive at the time of public commotions, but while these are in progress they link their own consciousness with that of other minds, and the tendency to develop individual eccentricities of mental action is thereby for the moment repressed or exhausted. It is in the intervals of great public excitement the peace is disturbed by the vagaries of criminals who are more or less reasonably suspected of being “insane.”
It would be premature to assume that the murderer of Mr. Gold, or the man who attempted to assassinate the President of the United States of America, is insane. There are circumstances in connection with each of these tragedies which must suggest the reflection that the assailants were possibly, or even probably, of unsound mind. We do not, however, propose to discuss these features of the respective cases at this juncture. The full facts are not, as yet, ascertained; but enough is known to warrant an endeavor to clear the way for future remark by disposing of the objection that the suspected perpetrator of the Brighton outrage and the would-be assassin of the President both showed “forethought” and “method.” It is a common formula for the expression of doubt as to the irresponsibility of an alleged lunatic, that there is “method in his madness.” Nothing can be farther from the truth than the inference to which this observation is intended to point. It is not in the least degree necessary that a madman should be unconscious of the act he performs, or of its nature as a violation of the law of God or man; nor is it necessary that he should do the deed under an ungovernable impulse, or at the supposed bidding of God or devil, angel or fiend. The forms of mental disease to which these presumptions apply are coarse developments of insanity. Dr. Prichard was among the first of English medico-psychologists to recognize the existence of a more subtle form of disease, which he termed “moral insanity.” Herbert Spencer supplied the key-note to this mystery of madness when he propounded the doctrine of “dissolution;” and Dr. Hughlings Jackson has since applied that hypothesis to the elucidation of morbid mental states and their correlated phenomena. When disorganizing–or, if we may borrow an expression from the terminology of geological science, _denuding_–disease attacks the mental organism, it, so to say, strips off, layer by layer, the successive strata of “habit,” “principle,” and “nature,” which compose the character. First in order go the higher moral qualities of the mind; next those which are the result of personally formed habits; then the inherited principles of personal and social life; at length the polish which civilization gives to humanity is lost, and in the process of denudation the evolutionary elements of man’s nature are progressively destroyed, until he is reduced to the level of a creature inspired by purely animal passions, and obeying the lower brutish instincts. The term “moral insanity” is accurate as far as it goes, but it expresses only the first stage in a process of dissolution which is essentially the same throughout, but which has unfortunately received different designations as its several features have been recognized and studied apart. The difference between the subject of “moral insanity” and the general paralytic, who has lost all sense of decency and lives the life of a beast, is one of degree. The practical difficulty is to convince the mere observer that forms of insanity which seem to consist in the loss of moral qualities and principles _only_, may be as directly the effect of brain disease as any of those grosser varieties of mental disorder which he is perfectly well able to recognize, and fully prepared to ascribe to their proper cause.
To the professional mind, at least, it will follow from what we have said that the injury to mind properties or qualities inflicted by the invasion of disease may be partial, and must in every case be determined by laws or conditions governing the progress of disease, perhaps on the lines and in the directions which have been least well guarded by educationary influences. A man may lose his faculty of forming a wise judgment long before he is deprived of the power of distinguishing between right and wrong. This is so because it is a higher attainment in moral culture to do right advisedly, than simply to perceive the right thing to do. The application of principle to conduct is an advance on the mere recognition of virtue in the concrete, or even the possession of virtue in the abstract. The question whether any past act of wrongdoing was an act of insanity does not so much depend upon the great question whether the person doing it was insane as a whole being, or whether the deed done was the outcome of passion or error, the direct fruit of limited or special disease. In short, the insanity of the act must be inferred from the morbid condition of the brain from which it sprang, rather than from the act itself. A partially disorganized–or as we prefer to say “denuded”–brain may be fully capable of sane thought, except on some one topic, and able to exercise every intellectual function except of a particular order. Or there may be mental weakness and neurotic susceptibility in regard to a special class of impressions. It would be difficult to name any form of act or submission which may not be the outcome of incipient or limited disease. The practical difficulty is to avoid, on the other hand, treating the fruits of disease as willful offenses; while, on the other, we do not allow the supposition or presumption of disease to be employed as an excuse for wrongdoing. It is, of course, clear that there may be perfect method in such madness as springs from partial or commencing brain disease; for every element in the mental process which culminates in a mad act may be sane except the inception of the idea in which the act took its rise. Thus, in the case of the suspected murderer of Mr. Gold, there may have been perfect sanity in respect to every stage of the process by which the crime was planned and carried out, and yet insanity, the effect of brain disease, in the idea by which the deed was suggested. For example, when a man is suffering from morbid suspicion, and, fixing his distrust on some individual, purposes to murder him, the intellectual processes by which he lays his plans and fulfills his morbidly conceived intention, are performed with perfect sanity, as by a sane will. It is important to recognize this. There is no difference in _nature_ between the mental operation by which a “sane” man contrives and executes a crime, and that by which a known “lunatic” will commit the like offense. There may be as much _method_ in the one instance as in the other, and the faculties which exhibit this method may be as sound and effective, but in the one case the idea behind the act is sane, while in the other it is insane. The brain is not one large homogeneous organ to be healthy or diseased, orderly or deranged, throughout at any one period. Inflammations, and diseases generally, which affect the brain as a whole do not commonly cause insanity properly so called. The organ of the mind is a composite, or aggregate of cells, or molecules, any number or series of which may be affected with disease while the rest remain healthy. At present we are only on the threshold of investigation concerning the physical causes of insanity, and have scarcely done more than recognize the possibility of _molecular_ disease of the brain. Hereafter science will, probably, succeed in unveiling the obscure facts of molecular brain pathology, and enable the medical psychologist to predicate disease of recognized classes of brain elements from the special phenomena of mind disturbance. This is the line of inquiry, and the result, to which the progress already made distinctly tends. For the present, the inferences we can surely draw from known facts are very few; but prominent among the number are certain which it is all-important to recognize in view of the judgment which must hereafter be formed on the two cases now engaging public attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The existence of method in madness is no marvel, and that characteristic cannot therefore be supposed, or alleged, to weigh as evidence against the “insanity” of the criminal. The perpetrators of these heinous offenses against common right and public safety may be more or less responsible for their acts, and, so far as these are concerned, more or less sane or insane. The measure of the morbid element in their individual cases will be the health or disease of the particular part or element of the brain from which the offense sprang. The ultimate judgment formed must be determined upon the basis of scientific tests to be applied to the action of the brain alleged to be the subject of partial or incipient disease. There is nothing in the facts as they stand to supply the materials for a judgment. Precise scientific inquiry can alone solve the enigma each case presents.
* * * * *
SIMPLE METHODS TO STAUNCH ACCIDENTAL HEMORRHAGE.
By EDWARD BORCK, M.D., St. Louis, Mo.
At first sight it seems almost superfluous to write or say a word about any method of arresting hemorrhage from wounds; for the practitioner, as a rule, is well acquainted with all the different manipulations and appliances for the purpose, and enough may be obtained from the text books. Nevertheless, to call attention to some useful, or old, or apparently forgotten matter occasionally, seems not to be amiss, for it refreshes our memory, stimulates us to think about and keeps before our eyes important subjects. A few hints on the above, I hope, will therefore be well received.
The treatment of hemorrhage, viz., the arresting of the same from open wounds, is not only important to the surgeon as the basis of surgery, but it is also of great importance to the laity, and especially to those workmen who are perpetually in danger of being injured. It is astonishing how unknowing the people seem to be, with any method to check bleeding from a wound temporarily; even the most simple method of pressure is in the majority of such accidents not resorted to. The sight of a little blood does not alone upset a timid, nervous woman, but many times the strongest of men; and why? because it naturally creates a feeling of awe and detestation. If a person is wounded by a machine, or otherwise, a crowd of all his fellow workmen gather around him, and look on the poor fellow bleeding; half a dozen or more will start out on a run in different directions to hunt a doctor, or some old woman who has a reputation for stopping bleeding by sympathy, either of whom they are likely to find “not at home.” In the meantime the vital fluid trickles away; nobody knows what to do; everybody does something, but none the right thing. Now, it is true, it does not often happen that any one bleeds to death, wise mother nature, as a rule, coming to their assistance, especially in lacerated wounds; but the anemic condition produced by excessive loss of blood is followed by severe consequences, and is to be dreaded, for it retards recovery. To save all the blood possible ought to be apprehended as an important matter by every one.
Hardly a week passes that some unfortunate is not brought to my office, who has been badly injured in some way; he has been bleeding, perhaps, the distance of several blocks, and arrives almost faint. In the most of such cases they have something tied around their wounds, but hardly ever in any manner so as to be equal to stop the bleeding. In exceptional cases you find a tourniquet or the Spanish windlass applied. This, when applied by a surgeon, may answer very well, but when applied by a non-professional person it is invariably screwed up so tight that the pain produced thereby is so great and intolerable that the patient prefers rather to bleed to death. This is a great objection.
Therefore I will call attention to the method of forcible flexion; and though extreme flexion has been practiced by surgeons in isolated cases, still to Professor Adelman, of Dorpat, is due the credit of first having systematized the following method:
BLEEDING FROM THE UPPER ARM (ART. BRACHIALIS).
Bring the elbows of the patient as near as possible together upon the back, and fasten them with a bandage. From this point let a doppelt bandage pass down to and over the perineum; separate the bandages again in front, let one end run over the left, the other over the right groin back again to the elbows (see Fig. 1)
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
“The illustrations will explain at a glance.”
BLEEDING FROM THE ARTERIES IN THE UPPER THIRD OF THE ARM.
Acute flexion of the elbow, simple bending of the forearm upon the upper arm, will suffice. But if there is bleeding from the arteries near the joint of the hand or from any part of the hand, then the hand must also be brought into flexion, and secured by a bandage. (See Fig. 2.) The bandage must always be wrapped around the wound first.