Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 167

_Taste_ Very bitter. Bitter.

_Reaction } Red colour when dropped } Yellow with Nitric } upon the bark. } colour.

Acid._ }

Angostura or cusparia bark has fallen into comparative disuse, in consequence of nux vomica or false angostura bark having formerly, in several instances, been mistaken for it, and administered with fatal results. The leading characteristics of these two barks have been pointed out by M. Gibourt. (See previous table.)

=CUSPAR'IN.= _Syn._ ANGOSTU"RIN, ANGOSTU"RA. The bitter principle of Cusparia-bark. It is neutral; crystallises in tetrahedrons; is easily fusible; soluble in rectified spirits, in acids, and in alkaline solutions. It is precipitated of a whitish colour by tincture of galls.

=CUS'TARD.= A composition of milk, or cream, and eggs, sweetened with sugar, and variously flavoured. Custards may be cooked either in the oven or stew-pan.

_Prep._ 1. (Soyer.) Milk (boiling), 1 pint; sugar, 2 oz.; thin yellow peel of half a lemon; mix, and set it aside for a short time; then take eggs, 4 in no., beat them well in a basin; add, gradually, the milk (not too hot), pa.s.s the mixture through a colander or sieve, and fill the custard cups with it; these are then to be placed over the fire in a stew-pan, containing about one inch of hot water, and left there for 12 minutes, or till sufficiently set. The above is for PLAIN CUSTARDS; but it forms a good basis to receive any of the usual flavouring ingredients, as fresh or stewed fruit, peels, essences, orange-flower water, brandy, or other spirits, &c.

2. (Rundell.) As the last, but using cream instead of milk, or equal parts of the two, with 2 additional eggs. Very rich; like the last, any suitable flavouring matter may be added to it.

3. (ALMOND CUSTARDS,--Rundell.) As either of the above, adding blanched sweet almonds, 4 oz.; bitter do., 6 in no.; beaten to a smooth paste.

4. (BAKED CUSTARDS,--Rundell.) From cream, 1 pint, with 4 eggs; flavoured with mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and add a little white wine, rose-water, and sugar; bake in cups.

5. (COFFEE CUSTARDS,--Soyer.) Hot milk and strong-made coffee, of each 1/2 pint; sugar, 2 oz.; dissolve, and add it, gradually, to 4 eggs (well beaten), and proceed as in No. 1. Chocolate custards and cocoa custards are made in the same way.

6. (COLD CUSTARD, _for invalids_,--Dewees.) 1 egg; sugar, a tablespoonful; beat well together; and add, gradually, constantly stirring, cold water, 1/2 pint; rose water, 2 teaspoonfuls; and a little grated nutmeg. An agreeable and nutritious demulcent. A wine-gla.s.sful every 2 or 3 hours, or _ad libitum_.

7. (LEMON CUSTARDS,--Rundell.)--_a._ As No. 1 (nearly), using a little more lemon peel. In the same way orange custards are made, but using orange peel.

_b._ From candied lemon peel and lump sugar, of each 2 oz., beaten in a mortar quite fine, and added to either No. 1 or No. 2. Orange and citron custards may be made in the same manner. A little orange-flower water, or marsala, or sherry, may be also added at pleasure. They are best baked.

8. (ORANGE CUSTARDS.) As _above_, No. 7, _a_ and _b_.

9. (RICE CUSTARDS,--Rundell.) Boil 1/2 a cupful of the best ground rice in a pint of milk until dissolved, then mix it with a quart of cream; flavour with nutmeg, mace, and a little brandy, and put it into a cup or a dish.

=CUTCH.= See CATECHU.

=CUTTLE-FISH.= The bone or skeleton of the _Sepia officinalis_ of Linnaeus, or common cuttle-fish (CUTTLE-FISH BONE; OS SE'PIae), is used by the law-stationers to erase ink-marks from paper and parchment, an application familiar to most schoolboys of the present generation. Reduced to powder (PUL'VIS SE'PIae), it forms a valuable dentifrice and polishing powder, and is used for forming the moulds for small silver castings.

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The _Sepias_, which inhabit the seas of all quarters of the globe, like the other _cephalapoda_, are carnivorous. They are able to exercise considerable locomotive powers, by means of their tentaculae or arms which surround the mouth, and which are usually provided with numerous suckers.

Head downward, they walk on these arms at the bottom of the ocean. The _sepias_ are also fleet swimmers; effecting their progress through the water either by making the expansion of their skin perform the same office as fins; or by the forcible projection of water from the cavity of their mouths, the reaction accompanying which operation drives them rapidly through the water in a different direction. They are provided sometimes with eight, and sometimes with ten tentaculae, and have naked bodies. The black fluid which the animal is capable of ejecting from its ink-sac, when pursued by its enemies, was formerly employed in the manufacture of the pigment called from its source "sepia."

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=CUTS.= These are incised wounds of greater or less extent, and must be treated accordingly. The divided parts should be drawn close together, and held so with small pieces of strapping or adhesive plaster stretched across the wound. If the part is covered with blood, it should be first wiped with a damp sponge. When the wound is large and it is much exposed, a good method is to sew the parts up. The application of a little creasote or a spirituous solution of creasote will generally stop local bleeding, provided it is applied to the clean extremities of the wounded vessels. A good way is to place a piece of lint, moistened with creasote, on the wound, previously wiped clean, or to pour a drop or two of that liquid on it. An excellent method is to cover the part with a film of collodion.

Friar's balsam, quick-drying copal varnish, tincture of galls, copperas water, black ink, &c., are popular remedies applied in the same way. A bit of the fur plucked from a black beaver hat is an excellent remedy to stop the bleeding from a cut produced by the razor in shaving. A cobweb is said to possess the same property.

=CY'ANATE.= _Syn._ CY'ANAS, L. A salt in which the hydrogen of cyanic acid is replaced by a metal or other basic radical.

=CYAN'IC ACID.= HCNO. _Syn._ ACIDUM CYAN'Ic.u.m, L. _Prep._ 1. Cyanuric acid, deprived of its water of crystallisation, is distilled in a retort, and the product collected in a well-cooled receiver.

2. (Liebig.) A current of sulphuretted hydrogen gas is pa.s.sed through water in which cyanate of silver is diffused, the process being suspended before all the cyanate of silver is decomposed.

_Prop., &c._ Cyanic acid is a limpid, colourless liquid; it reddens litmus; is sour to the taste; possesses a modified sulphurous odour, similar to that which is always perceived when any of its salts are decomposed by an acid; it forms salt with the bases called CYANATES; when in contact with water it suffers decomposition in a few hours, and is converted into bicarbonate of ammonia; it cannot be preserved for any time, as shortly after its preparation it spontaneously pa.s.ses into a white, opaque, solid ma.s.s, to which the name CYAMELIDE has been given. By distillation this new substance is reconverted into cyanic acid.

=CY'ANIDE.= _Syn._ CYAN'URET; CYAN'IDUM, CYANURE'TUM, L. The compound formed by the union of cyanogen with a metal or other radical. See CYANOGEN, HYDROCYANIC ACID, and the respective bases.

=Cyanide, Al'kaline.= _Syn._ CRUDE CYANIDE OF POTa.s.sIUM AND SODIUM.

_Prep._ (R. Wagner.) Dry ferrocyanide of pota.s.sium, 4 parts, dry carbonate of soda, 1 part, are melted together in an iron crucible at a red heat, and continually stirred until the iron rod comes out covered with a white crust, when the heat is withdrawn, and after a few moments' repose the supernatant liquid portion is poured out on a clean iron slab. This crude mixed cyanide is quite as useful as the more expensive one of Liebig, and is equally fit for technical applications, as electrotyping, gilding, silvering, &c. See POTa.s.sIUM, CYANIDE OF.

=CY'ANINE.= A base discovered by Mr G. Williams in CHINOLINE BLUE. See _below_.

=Cyanine, I'odide of.= _Syn._ CHIN'OLINE BLUE. The action of iodide of amyl upon chinoline gives rise to iodide of amylchinoline. Addition of excess of soda to an aqueous solution of this iodide produces a black resinous precipitate, which dissolves in alcohol with a magnificent blue colour. This precipitate is the IODIDE OF CYANINE, or CHINOLINE BLUE. Many attempts have been made to use it in dyeing; they have, however, failed on account of the instability of the colour.

=CYAN'OGEN.= CN or Cy. A highly important compound radical or quasi element, discovered by M. Gay Lussac in 1815.

Best obtained by carefully igniting dry cyanide of mercury in a small retort, and collecting the gas over mercury.

_Prop., &c._ A colourless gas, possessing a pungent and peculiar odour, resembling that of peach-kernels or prussic acid; under a pressure of about 4 atmospheres, at a temperature of 45, it a.s.sumes the liquid form (Faraday), and this fluid again becomes gaseous on withdrawal of the pressure; water absorbs nearly 5 times its bulk of cyanogen at 60 Fahr., and alcohol about 23 times its volume; with hydrogen it forms hydrocyanic acid, and with the metals a most interesting and important cla.s.s of bodies called cyanides or cyanurets; when kindled, it burns with a beautiful purple flame, carbonic acid and nitrogen being evolved. Sp gr. 1806. See HYDROCYANIC ACID, &c.

Forms a bromide and iodide when the cyanide of mercury is distilled with bromine or iodine, and which are colourless, volatile, highly poisonous solids; and two isomeric chlorides, one a very volatile liquid, prepared by pa.s.sing chlorine over moist cyanide of mercury, and the other in white volatile needles, prepared by exposing aqueous hydrocyanic acid to chlorine in sunshine.

=CYANU"RIC ACID.= H_{3}C_{3}N_{3}O_{3}. _Syn._ PYRO-U"RIC ACID. A peculiar acid, discovered by Scheele. It is a product of the decomposition of the soluble cyanates by dilute acids, or of urea by heat, &c.

=CY'DER.= See CIDER.

=CY'DONINE.= The peculiar gum of quince seed. It resembles ba.s.sorin in most of its properties.

=CY'MIDINE.= An oily base, h.o.m.ologous with aniline, obtained by the action of iron filings and acetic acid on nitro-cymol.

=CY'MOL.= A peculiar hydrocarbon found in oil of c.u.min, in admixture with c.u.minol. The two bodies are separable in a great measure by distillation, cymol being the most volatile portion of the oil.

=CYNAPINE.= An alkaloid obtained from _aethusa cynapium_, or _fool's parsley_. It possesses no practical interest.

=CYSTICERCI.= These parasites are embryo taenia or tapeworm, infesting the bodies of men and different animals. One variety of the _cysticerci_ has its habitat in the organisms of men, pigs, oxen, horses, camels, sheep, and roe-deer; another in the muscles and internal organs of cattle; a third is found in cattle, sheep, horses, the reindeer, squirrels, certain kinds of monkeys, and occasionally in man; whilst a fourth--the _Cystercus cellulosae_--is more especially met with in measly pork. Professor Gamgee believes that probably 5 per cent. of the pigs in Ireland are affected with this last _cystercus_.

The following figure represents a piece of measly pork infested with cysticerci. Professor Leuckart seems to have shown pretty conclusively that man may become infested with a certain form of tapeworm by partaking of imperfectly cooked veal or beef, infested with the second variety of the parasite.

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=CYST'INE.= C_{3}NH_{7}SO_{2}. _Syn._ CYST'IC OXIDE. Obtained from cystic oxide calculi (in powder) by digestion in solution of ammonia. By spontaneous evaporation the ammoniacal solution deposits small, colourless crystals of cystic oxide. It forms a saline compound with hydrochloric acid, and is decomposed by the strong alkalies.

=CY'TISINE.= A purgative bitter principle, extracted from the _Cytisus Laburnum_ (Linn.), or _common laburnum_, and some other plants.

=DAGUERRE'OTYPE.= See PHOTOGRAPHY.

=DA"HLIA DYE= (dale'-y'a). The shade of colour which is commonly termed 'dahlia' is a reddish lilac. It is produced by combining a blue or purple with red when a compound colour is used. Upon wool and silk it can be obtained directly by means of archil or cudbear, either alone or 'blued'

by a small quant.i.ty of sulphate of indigo. Upon cotton indifferent shades of dahlia are obtained by macerating in sumac liquor, working in tin solution, and dyeing in logwood mixed with some red wood.

=DA"HLINE.= A species of fecula obtained from the tubers of the dahlia.

It is identical with inuline. It is not employed in the arts.