25. (PYROGALLIC STAIN.) A weak solution of crude pyrogallic acid. Another
article sold under this name is prepared by distilling nutgalls (coarsely
powdered) in a retort, dissolving the solid acid which sublimes in a
little hot water, and after mixing this with the acid liquid which also
passes over, adding a little rectified spirit. The floating oil is then
separated and the solution filtered.
26. (Redwood.) Litharge, 2 oz.; slaked lime and powdered starch, of each 1
oz.; liquor of potassa, 2 dr.; water, q. s. to form a thick cream. Used as
No. 1.
27. (Redwood.) Liquor of potassa and distilled water, of each 1 pint; mix,
and pass sulphuretted hydrogen through the liquid until it is saturated.
Of this solution take 20 oz.; liquor of potassa, 4 oz.; mix, and label it
'Solution No. 1,' Next dissolve nitrate of silver, 1 dr., in distilled
water, 2 oz.; and label the liquid 'Solution No. 2,' Used in the same
manner as No. 8 and 20.
28. (Spencer's.) From sap green, 1/2 dr.; nitrate of silver, 1 dr.; hot
water, 1 oz. Applied as No. 3.
29. (TINCTURE OF WALNUT.) A strong tincture of the shells of green
walnuts, scented with oil of lavender.
30. (Ure.) Litharge, fresh-slaked lime, and bicarbonate of potassa, mixed
in various proportions, according to the shade of colour desired. Used
like No. 1.
31. (Warren's.) From litharge, 1 oz.; white lead, 2 oz.; quicklime (in
fine powder), 16 oz.; mix, sift through lawn, and at once bottle the
mixture. Used like No. 1. Mixed with water, it is said to dye the hair
black; with milk, brown.
32. White lead, 1 oz.; fresh slaked lime, 1-1/2 oz.; litharge and oxide of
bismuth, of each 1/2 oz.; water, 1 pint; mix, boil 15 minutes, with
frequent agitation, cool, pour it into a bottle, add of solution of
ammonia, 1/4 fl. oz., shake the whole frequently for some hours and the
next day pour off the liquid portion from the white sediment which forms
the dye. Used like No. 1. It is applied for 8 or 10 minutes for a brown;
30 minutes, or longer, for a black. For the first, it is washed off with
water containing a little common soda.
33. The juice of the bark or shell of green walnuts, applied with a
sponge. (Paulus Ægineta.)
34. A leaden comb used daily is said to darken the hair, but we have known
persons persevere in its use for months without any perceptible change
occurring. Premature baldness is a frequent consequence of its use.
_Obs._ It is right to inform the reader that all those compounds which
contain nitrate of silver stain the skin as well as the hair. These stains
may be removed, when quite recent, by rubbing them with water containing a
little sulphydrate of ammonium (see _above_) or iodide of potassium in
solution; but as this is attended with some trouble and inconvenience, the
best way is to avoid the necessity of doing so. The hair-dressers adopt
the plan of smearing hard pomatum over the skin immediately surrounding
the hair, to protect it from the dye. By very skilful manipulation, and
the observance of due precautions, the hair may be thoroughly moistened
with the above fluids, without touching the adjacent skin, but this can
only be done, in the case of the hair of the head, by a second person.
This has led to a preference being given by many to the compounds
containing lead, as the colouring matter formed in them does not stain the
skin. The hue given by the latter (when pale) is very apt to possess an
unnatural redness, but all the shades of colour given by the preparation
of silver are rich and unexceptionable. Pyrogallic acid, and the juice of
walnuts, also stain the skin, although less intensely and permanently than
nitrate of silver.
The detection of dyed hair is often a matter of importance in medico-legal
research. The presence of silver may be shown by digesting the hair in a
little weak chlorine water or hydrochloric acid, when the resulting
chloride of silver may be dissolved out with liquor of ammonia, and
submitted to the usual tests. Hair containing lead, when digested in
dilute nitric acid, gives a solution of nitrate of lead, in which form it
is readily detected. See LEAD and SILVER.
All the preceding compounds are for dyeing living hair (human);
horse-hair, bristles, &c., and other dead hair, may be readily stained by
steeping them in any of the ordinary liquid dyes, more especially those
employed for wool and silk. See POMADES, WASHES, &c.
=HAIRWASH, Golden, or Auricomus=, is a clear inodorous fluid, which is
said to dye hair blond or yellowish red, and really does so. Sold in
bottles containing 250 grammes. When exposed to the air the fluid
decomposes with time. This hair-dye is an aqueous solution of hydroxyl
contaminated with traces of baryta, and can be prepared as follows:--17
parts crystallised caustic baryta and 3 parts potassium chlorate,
intimately mixed in fine powder, are melted by a gentle heat. The mass
must be washed with cold water to remove the potassium chloride, and the
residue shaken in the cold with a solution of 8 parts glacial phosphoric
acid in 25 parts water, the whole being cooled with ice. When the peroxide
of barium is decomposed, the fluid should be decanted from the
precipitate. (Hager.)
=HALL MARKS.= The 'Hall Marks' on articles in gold and silver not only
inform us of their fineness, but furnish us with other important
particulars.
The Hall Mark (proper) denotes the place of manufacture or assay, being an
anchor, for Birmingham; a dagger or 3 wheat sheaves, for Chester;
Hibernia, for Dublin; castle and lion for Edinburgh; castle with 2 wings,
for Exeter; tree and salmon with a ring in its mouth, for Glasgow;
leopard's head for London; 3 castles, for Newcastle-on-Tyne; a crown, for
Sheffield; and five lions' heads and a cross, for York.
The Duty Mark is the head of the Sovereign, showing that the duty is paid.
The Date Mark is a letter of the alphabet, which varies every year, and
with the different companies, thus: the Goldsmith's Company of London have
used from 1716 to 1755, Roman capital letters; from 1756 to 1775, small
Roman letters; from 1766 to 1795 old English letters; from 1796 to 1815,
Roman capital letters, from A to U, omitting J; from 1816 to 1835, small
Roman letters, a to u, omitting j; from 1836, old English letters.
The Standard Mark for gold is, for England, a lion passant; Edinburgh, a
thistle; Glasgow, a lion rampant; Ireland, a harp crowned. For silver, a
figure of Britannia. If under 22 carats, gold has the figures 18.
The Manufacturer's Mark is the initials of the maker, as S. H., W. T., C.
E., &c.
=HAL'OGENS.= In _chemistry_, a name given by Berzelius to chlorine,
bromine, iodine, and fluorine. These elements unite with metals to form
compounds called 'haloid salts.'
=HAMBURGH POWDER.= The material known under this name is used to
adulterate chicory. It is composed of roasted and ground peas, coloured
with Venetian red.
=HAMS.= These are usually prepared from the legs of bacon pigs, but those
of the sheep are also sometimes used for the same purpose. SMOKED HAM is
strong eating, and rather fit for a relish than for diet, and should be
particularly avoided by the dyspeptic and by convalescents.
_Choice._ A sharp knife thrust under the bone should have a pleasant smell
when withdrawn. The recently cut fat should be hard and white, the lean
fine-grained, and of a lively red. Those short in the hock are the best.
_Curing._ An ordinary sized ham requires nearly three weeks, if wet
salted, and about a month if dry salted, to cure it perfectly. At the
expiration of this time they are ready for smoking. MUTTON HAMS should not
lie in pickle longer than 12 or 14 days.
_Cooking._ Hams should be put into the water cold, and should be gradually
heated. A ham of 14 lbs. will take about 4 hours, one of 16 lbs. will take
6-1/2 hours, and one of 20 lbs. about 5-1/2 hours, to dress it properly.
"If it is an old ham, it should be soaked for 12 hours previously."
(Soyer.)
_Pres._ Most grocers and dealers in hams enclose them, after being smoked,
in canvas, for the purpose of defending them from the attacks of the
little insect, the _Dermestes lardarius_, which, by laying its eggs in
them, soon fills them with its larvæ; or maggots. This troublesome and
expensive process may be altogether superseded by the use of pyroligneous
acid, applied by means of a painter's brush.
=HANDS.= Dirty and coarse hands are no less the marks of slothfulness and
low breeding, than clean and delicate hands are those of cleanliness and
gentility. To promote the softness and whiteness of the skin, mild
emollient soaps, or those abounding in oil, should alone be used, by which
means CHAPS AND CHILBLAINS will generally be avoided. The coarse, strong
kinds of soap, or those abounding in alkali, should for a like reason be
rejected, as they tend to render the skin rough, dry, and brittle. The
immersion of the hands in alkaline lyes, or strongly acidulated water, has
a like effect. When the hands are very dirty, a little good soft soap may
be used with warm water, which will rapidly remove oily and greasy matter.
Fruit and ink stains may be taken out by immersing the hands in water
slightly acidulated with oxalic acid or a few drops of oil of vitriol, or
to which a little pearlash or chloride of lime has been added; observing
afterwards to well rinse them in clean water, and not to touch them with
soap for some hours, as any alkaline matter will bring back the stains,
after their apparent removal by all the above substances, except the last.
The use of a little chloride of lime and warm water, or Gowland's lotion,
imparts a delicate whiteness to the skin; but the former should be only
occasionally used, and should be well washed off with a little clean water
to remove its odour. Glycerine employed in the same manner renders the
skin soft, white, and supple. The use of a little sand or powdered pumice
stone with the soap will generally remove the roughness of the skin
frequently induced by exposure to cold. The hands may be preserved dry,
for delicate work, by rubbing a little club moss (LYCOPODIUM), in fine
powder, over them. A small quantity of this substance sprinkled over the
surface of a basin of water will permit the hand to be plunged to the
bottom of the basin without its becoming wet.
=HANG'ING.= In cases of suspended animation from hanging, the assistance
must be prompt and energetic. The body on its discovery should be
instantly relieved from the state of suspension and all pressure about the
throat. The remedial treatment chiefly consists, in the severer cases, in
cupping the temples or opening the jugular vein, and so relieving the head
of the blood which is accumulated in its superficial veins in consequence
of strangulation. When the body is cold, friction, and the other means
used for restoring the animal heat in drowned persons, should be resorted
to. See ASPHYXIA and DROWNING.
=HARD'NESS.= Compactness; solidity; the power of resisting abrasion.
Mineral substances are frequently distinguished and identified by their
relative hardness. This is ascertained by their power to scratch or be
scratched by one another. A valuable table on this subject will be found
in the article on GEMS.
=HAR'MALINE.= _Syn._ HARMALINA. An alkaloid, forming yellow-brown
crystals, discovered in the seeds of _Peganum harmala_. It has a bitter
astringent and acrid taste, is soluble in alcohol, and forms yellow,
soluble salts with the acids. It has been proposed as a yellow dye. By
oxidation it yields another compound (harmine), which is a magnificently
red dye-stuff, easily prepared and applied. The seeds are produced
abundantly in Southern Russia.
=HAR'NESS POLISH.= See BLACKING, &c.
=HARTS'HORN.= _Syn._ CORNU CERVI, C. CERVINUM, CORNU (Ph. L.) L. The "horn
of the _Cervus elephas_" (Ph. L.) or stag.
=Hartshorn, Burnt.= _Syn._ CORNU USTUM (Ph. L.), CORNU CERVI USTUM, L.
_Prep._ (Ph. L. 1836.) Burn pieces of harts' horns until perfectly white,
then grind and prepare them in the same way as directed for prepared
chalk.
_Obs._ Finely powdered bone-ash is usually sold for burnt hartshorn, and
possesses exactly the same properties.--_Dose_, 10 to 30 gr., or more 2 or
3 times a day, in rickets, &c
=Hartshorn Shavings.= _Syn._ HARTSHORN RASPINGS; RARURA CORNU CERVI,
RAMENTA C. C., L. Obtained from the turners. Boiled in water, it yields a
nutritive jelly. Used by straw-plait workers to stiffen bonnets, &c.
=HATCH'ING.= See INCUBATION.
=HATS.= Those should be chosen possessing a short, smooth, fine nap, and a
good black colour; and sufficiently elastic to resist ordinary wear and
tear, without breaking or giving way. The HAT BRUSH for daily use should
be made of soft hairs, but a stiffer one should be employed occasionally,
to lay the nap smooth and close. Grease may be removed by means of porous
brown paper, and pressure with a hot iron.
=HAY-FEVER.= _Syn._ HAY-ASTHMA, CATARRHUS ÆSTIVAS. Dr Aitken defines this
affection as "a variety of asthma or catarrh, occurring generally during
the summer months, especially during the inflorescence of the hay crop, or
during the drying or conversion of the newly-mown grass into hay, in May
and June." The disease is distinguished by extreme irritation of the eyes,
nose, and the whole of the air-passages, these symptoms giving rise in
succession to troublesome itching of the eyes and nose, frequent paroxysms
of sneezing, with copious discharge from the nostrils, pricking sensation
in the throat, cough, tightness of the chest and difficulty of breathing,
accompanied sometimes with, and sometimes without, great mucous
expectoration. The inhalation of the powder of ipecacuanha sets up similar
symptoms with some persons.
Dr Aitken's definition of hay-fever seems to point to what is pretty
generally accepted as its cause, viz. the inhalation of minute and
impalpable emanations from certain grasses given off during the period of
their flowering and subsequent conversion into hay. This supposition as to
the origin of this disease derives support from the circumstance, that it
always takes place during the hay season, and at no other; and also that
it may be cured by the avoidance of hay-fields and hay-stacks. "Hence
going to the sea-coast, and especially to those parts of the coast that
are barren of grass, offers a means of protection; and when this cannot be
done, such persons obtain refuge in some measure from the cause of
irritation, by remaining within doors and shutting out as much as possible
the external air during the hay-crop."[345]
[Footnote 345: Sir Thomas Watson.]
Furthermore, those whom the disease attacks are not particularly subject
to catarrh at other times.
_Treatment._--Numerous remedies have been proposed and employed for
hay-asthma. Dr Elliotson suggests the mild fumigation of the patient's
apartment by means of the solutions of the chlorides of lime or soda; and
further advised the sufferers using a smelling bottle containing one or
the other of the chlorides. He also employed with success the sulphate of
quinine and iron. Mr Gordon recommends the tincture of _Lobelia inflata_,
with the use of the cold shower-bath. Tincture of nux vomica is also said
to have been used with good results, as also has Fowler's solution of
arsenic, with very decided advantage, by Dr Mackenzie.
These potent remedies, however, should only be administered under the
supervision of a qualified medical practitioner. An esteemed medical
friend assures us he has employed the new remedy, _Quinetum_ (the alkaloid
of the East India red bark), with the happiest effects. He gives four
grains of the quinetum three times a day. The use of an ori-nasal
respirator of cotton wool has also been suggested. Great relief has, we
know, in a great number of cases, been experienced by snuffing from a
smelling bottle containing the following ingredients:--Pure crystallised
carbolic acid, 1 dr.; sesquicarbonate of ammonia, 1 oz.; wood charcoal, 1
oz.; oil of lavender, 1/2 dr.; compound tincture of benzoin, 1/2 oz.; all
reduced to fine powder, and thoroughly mixed.
=HEAD'ACHE.= _Syn._ CEPHALALGIA, L. In _pathology_, pain in the head. The
symptoms of this very general complaint are too well known to require any
description. According to pathologists, headache arises either from a
sympathy with the stomach and chylopoietic (chyle-forming) viscera, or
from a weakness or exhaustion of the power of the encephalon. The former
may be called SYMPATHETIC HEADACHE, and the latter NERVOUS HEADACHE. When
it attacks only one side of the head it is called HEMICRANIA. The
treatment of the first form should consist in restoring the healthy action
of the stomach, by the administration of aperients, and by the use of
proper food and exercise; or when that viscus is overloaded with
undigested food, by the exhibition of an emetic. For this purpose 1/4 to
1/2 an oz. of ipecacuanha wine may be taken in a cupful of warm water,
which will generally relieve the stomach, especially if its action is
assisted by drinking copiously of warm water. Headache is a common
accompaniment of indigestion and stomach disease, and in general it will
be found that whatever will remove the one will also cure the other.
Nervous headaches are relieved by nervous tonics and stimulants, as bark,
cascarilla, calumba, and gentian, camphor, ammonia, ether, and wine, the
latter in a state of considerable dilution. A cup of strong coffee or
strong green tea often acts like a charm in removing this species of
headache. Small doses of tincture of henbane have also often a like
effect. 20 or 30 drops of laudanum, or, preferably, half that number of
liquor opii sedativus, may be taken with advantage as an anodyne, and to
induce sleep. Amongst popular remedies may be mentioned 'nasal
stimulants,' as snuff (cephalic), smelling salts, and aromatic vinegar,
the use of which is familiar to every one; and local applications, as very
cold water, ether, vinegar, strong spirits, Cologne water, &c., all of
which are rubbed over the part of the head affected, with the fingers, or
a linen rag dipped in them is laid thereon instead. Pressure on the head
has also been used with advantage. Silence, darkness, and repose, are
powerful remedies, alike suitable to every variety of headache; and change
of air, scene, and occupation, are especially beneficial to those
resulting from excessive mental anxiety or exertion. Blisters are
extensively applied behind the ears in cases of violent headache.
Headache is often symptomatic of other diseases, especially those of the
inflammatory and nervous kind, rheumatism, &c. In all these the primary
disease should be sought out and attempted to be cured. In many cases
these attacks rapidly yield to a few doses of compound decoction of
sarsaparilla containing a little iodide of potassium. Headache in
pregnancy may generally be removed by proper attention to the bowels;
observing to assist their action, should they require it, by the use of
some mild aperient, as castor oil, lenitive electuary, seidlitz powders,
&c. When the constitution is very robust, blood may be taken. Headache in
bed may frequently be relieved by washing the head with cold water, and
discontinuing the use of a nightcap, at the same time preserving the feet
warm by wearing worsted socks or stockings.
=HEAD'ING.= _Syn._ BEER HEADING, CAULIFLOWER H. _Prep._ 1. Alum and green
copperas, equal parts, in fine powder.