Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 13

=ACTINOGRAPH.= An instrument for registering the intensity of the chemical influence (_actinism_) of the sun's rays.

=ACT, TOWNS IMPROVEMENT CLAUSES, 1847= (10 & 11 Vict., c. 34), The following provisions of this Act are incorporated in the Public Health Act, 1875, and refer exclusively to urban districts:--

1. With respect to naming the streets and numbering the houses.

2. With respect to improving the line of the streets and removing the obstructions.

3. With respect to ruinous or dangerous buildings.

4. With respect to precautions during the construction and repair of sewers, streets, and houses.

5. With respect to the regulation of slaughter houses.

Notices for alterations under the 69th, 70th, and 71st sections, directions under the 73rd section, and orders under the 74th section of the said Towns Improvement Clauses Act, may, at the option of the urban authority, be served on owners instead of occupiers, or on owners as well as occupiers, and the cost of works done under any of these sections may, when notices have been so served on owners, be recovered from owners instead of occupiers; and when such cost is recovered from occupiers, so much thereof may be deducted from the rent of the premises where the work is done as is allowed in the case of private rates under the Act.

=AC'TUAL.= Real, effectual, absolute; as opposed to that which is merely virtual or potential. In _surgery_, a red-hot iron, or any other heated body, used as a cautery, is termed the ACTUAL CAUTERY; whilst a caustic or escharotic so employed is called the POTENTIAL CAUTERY.

=ACTUAL CAUTERY.= See ACTUAL.

=ACUTE'.= _Syn._ ACUT'US, L.; AIGU, Fr.; HEFTIG, HITZIG, SPITZIG, Ger.

Sharp, pointed, sensitive. Applied to the senses, as acute hearing, eyesight, &c. In _pathology_, diseases exhibiting violent symptoms, and whose course is short, are said to be acute diseases.

=ADAPTER.= In _chemistry_, a tube placed between two vessels (commonly a retort and receiver) for the purpose of uniting them or increasing the distance between them, so as to facilitate the condensation of vapour in distillation. (See _figure._)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

=ADDER'S TONGUE.= _Syn._ COMMON ADDER'S TONGUE; OPHIOGLOS'SUM VULGA'TUM, Linn. A perennial plant, of the natural order Filices (DC.), growing wild in England. It is found in our woods and pastures, and flowers in May and June. It was once used to form a celebrated traumatic or vulnerary ointment and is still highly esteemed among rustic herbalists.

=ADEPS.= _Syn._ LARD. See ADEPS PRaePARATUS, FAT, and LARD.

=ADEPS BENZOATUS.= _Syn._ BENZOATED LARD.

=ADEPS PRaePARATUS.= _Syn._ AXUNGE; PREPARED LARD.

=ADHE'SION= (-he-zhun). _Syn._ ADHae'SIO, L.; ADHESION, Fr.; ANHaNGUNG, ARXLEBUNG, Ger. The act or state of sticking or being united.

=Adhesion.= In _physics_, the force with which bodies remain attached to each other when brought into contact; _e.g._, ink adheres to paper, paint adheres to wood, &c. It differs from 'cohesion' in representing the force with which different bodies cling together; whereas cohesion is the force which unites the particles of a h.o.m.ogeneous body with each other, _e.g._, particles of iron cohere and form a ma.s.s of iron; particles of water cohere and form a ma.s.s of water, &c.

=Adhesion.= In _pathology_, the morbid union, from inflammation, of parts normally contiguous but not adherent.

=Adhesion.= In _surgery_, the reunion of divided parts, by the adhesive inflammation; as when incised wounds heal by what is termed the 'first intention.'

=ADHE'SIVE.= _Syn._ ADHaeSI'VUS, L.; ADHeSIF, Fr.; ADHaSIVE, VERWACHSEND, Ger. In _pharmacy_, &c., having the quality or property of sticking or adhering. Hence adhe'siveness.

=AD'IPOCERE= (-sere). _Syn._ GRAVE-WAX; ADIPOCE"RA, L.; ADIPOCIRE, Fr.; FETEWACHS, Ger. A substance resembling a mixture of fat and wax, resulting from the decomposition of the flesh of animals in moist situations, or under water. It is chiefly margarate of ammonium. Lavoisier proposed to produce this substance artificially, for the purposes of the arts.

Attempts have since been made to convert the dead bodies of cattle (carrion) into adipocere, for the purposes of the candle-maker and the soap-boiler, but without success. Besides, dead animal matter can be worked up more profitably than in making artificial adipocere.

Hatchettine or rock-fat is sometimes called 'adipocere'; and bog-b.u.t.ter is a substance nearly similar to it.

=AD'JECTIVE.= _Syn._ ADJECTI'VUS, L.; ADJECTIF, Fr. In _dyeing_, depending on another, or on something else; applied to those colours which require a base or mordant to render them permanent. See DYEING.

=AD'JUVANT.= [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ AD'JUVANS, L.; AIDANT, &c., Fr. a.s.sistant; helping. (As a substantive--) In _prescriptions_, see PRESCRIBING (Art of).

=ADULTERATION.= Strictly speaking, this term ought only to be applied to the practice of adding substances to articles of commerce, food or drink, for the purposes of deception or gain, but a wider interpretation is frequently placed on the word than the definition given by magistrates and a.n.a.lysts, these latter often regarding accidental impurity, or even, in some instances, actual subst.i.tution as acts of adulteration.

The following definition of an adulterated substance has been adopted by the Society of Public a.n.a.lysts--

A substance shall be deemed to be adulterated--

A. _In the ease of food or drink:_

1. If it contain any ingredient which may render such article injurious to the health of a consumer.

2. If it contain any substance that sensibly increases its weight, bulk, or strength, or gives it a fict.i.tious value, unless the amount of such substance present be due to circ.u.mstances necessarily appertaining to its collection or manufacture, or be necessary for its preservation, or unless the presence thereof be acknowledged at the time of sale.

3. If any important const.i.tuent has been wholly or in part abstracted or omitted, unless acknowledgment of such abstraction or omission be made at the time of sale.

4. If it be an imitation of or sold under the name of another article.

B. _In the case of drugs:_

1. If when retailed for medical purposes under a name recognised in the 'British Pharmacopia' it be not equal in strength and purity to the standard laid down in that work.

2. If when sold under a name not recognised in the 'British Pharmacopia'

it differs materially from the standard laid down in approved works on materia medica, or the professed standard under which it is sold.

_Limits._ The following shall be deemed limits for the respective articles referred to:

_Milk_ shall contain not less than 90 per cent., by weight, of milk solids, not fat, and not less than 25 per cent. of b.u.t.ter fat.

_Skim Milk_ shall contain not less than 90 per cent. by weight, of milk solids not b.u.t.ter fat.

_b.u.t.ter_ shall contain not less than 80 per cent. of b.u.t.ter fat.

_Tea_ shall not contain more than 80 per cent. of mineral matter, calculated on the tea dried at 100 C., of which at least 30 per cent.

shall be soluble in water, and the tea as sold shall yield at least 30 per cent. of extract.

_Cocoa_ shall contain at least 20 per cent. of cocoa fat.

_Vinegar_ shall contain not less than 3 per cent. of acetic acid.

The practice of fraudulent adulteration has been indulged in for centuries. In every civilised state there have been enactments against it.

The Romans had their inspectors of meat and corn. In England an Act to prohibit adulteration was pa.s.sed as early as 1267, and penalties against it were in force in 1581, 1604, 1836, 1851. In 1822, Acc.u.m published a work having the sensational t.i.tle of 'Death in the Pot,' and in 1855 appeared Dr Ha.s.sall's book, 'Food and its Adulterations.' The information conveyed in these works, added to the revelations of the 'Lancet' Sanitary Commission, and the contributions to scientific literature on the subject of food by Letheby, Pavy, Parkes, Blyth, and others, together with the published evidence given before the House of Commons Commission appointed to carry out an inquiry into the subject, roused public attention to such a degree as to lead to the pa.s.sing by the legislature of the Adulteration Acts.

The sophistications may be divided into several distinct cla.s.ses:

1. To give weight or volume, such as water added to b.u.t.ter, plaster of paris to flour, &c.; red earths to annatto, sand to tea-leaves, &c.; water to milk, &c.; all these, therefore, are subst.i.tutions of worthless or very cheap articles which take the place of the real.