Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 168

=DAIR'Y.= The place where milk is kept, and cheese and b.u.t.ter made. The best situation for a dairy is on the north side of the dwelling-house, in order that it may be sheltered from the sun during the heat of the day.

Ample means should be provided to ensure ventilation, and at the same time to exclude flies and other insects. The temperature should be preserved, as much as possible, in an equable state, ranging from 45 to 55 Fahr. To lessen the influence of external variations of temperature, the walls should be double, or of considerable thickness, and the windows provided with shutters or doors. In summer the beat may be lessened by sprinkling water on the floor, which will produce considerable cold by its evaporation. Dairies built of mud or 'cob' are preferred in the West of England; and this preference arises from the uniform temperature they maintain, on account of the great thickness of the walls, and their being very bad conductors of heat. In large dairy-farms, where b.u.t.ter and cheese are made, the dairy is generally a separate building, and divided into 3 or 4 apartments; one of which is called the 'milk-room,' a second the 'churning-room,' a third the 'cheese-room,' containing the cheese-press, &c.; and a fourth the 'drying-room,' where the cheeses are placed to dry and harden. To these may be added a scullery, furnished with boiler, water, &c., for scalding and cleaning the dairy utensils.

Cleanliness is very essential in all the operations of the dairy, and in none more so than in the milking of the cows. The hands and arms of the milkmaid should be kept scrupulously clean, and should be well washed with soap and water after touching the udder of a sick cow, as without this precaution the sores may be conveyed to the healthy ones. The milk-cans should be scalded out daily, and, as well as all the other dairy utensils, should be kept clean and dry. Before placing the milk on the shelves of the dairy it should be strained through a hair sieve or a searce covered with clean cheese-cloth, as by this precaution any stray hairs that may have fallen into the milk-pail will be taken out.

The average produce of a milch cow, supplied with good pasturage, is about 3 gallons daily from Lady-day to Michaelmas, and from that time to February about 1 gallon daily. Cows of good breed will be profitable milkers, to 14 or 15 years of age, if well fed. See b.u.t.tER, CHEESE, CREAM, &c.

=D'ALBESPYRE'S BLISTERING TISSUE.= Lard and ship's pitch, of each 1 part; resina flav. and yellow wax, of each, 4 parts; finely powdered cantharides, 6 parts; melted together, and spread over taffety.

=DAMAS'CUS BLADES.= See STEEL.

=DAMENPULVER--Ladies' Powder= (J. Pohlmann, Vienna). A face powder composed of 14 parts white lead, 7 of talc, 1 of magnesia, coloured with carmine and perfumed with volatile oil.

=DAMMAR.= A resin employed in mounting many microscopic objects; such as teeth, hair, hard bone, and most tissues which have been previously hardened by treatment with alcohol and chromic acid. Dammar is prepared for use as follows:--

_a._ Gum dammar, 1/2 oz.; oil turpentine, 1 oz.; dissolve and filter.

_b._ Gum mastic, 1/2 oz.; chloroform, 2 oz.; dissolve and filter. Add solution _a_ to solution _b_. (Dr Klein.)

If allowed to become thick by drying, dammar may be used as luting.

=DAMP=, under any form, should be avoided. A humid atmosphere or situation is one of the commonest causes of agues, asthmas, rheumatism, and numerous other diseases.

=Damp Linen= is very injurious, and should be especially avoided. In travelling, when it is expected that the bed has not been properly aired, a good plan is to sleep between the blankets. To ascertain this point the bed may be warmed, and a cold, dry, gla.s.s tumbler immediately afterwards introduced between the sheets, in an inverted position. After it has remained a few seconds, it should be examined, when, if it is found dry, and undimmed by steam, it may be fairly presumed that the bed is well aired; but if the reverse should be the case, it should be avoided. When it is impossible to prevent the use of damp linen, as articles of dress, the best way to obviate any ill effects is to keep constantly in motion and avoid remaining near the fire, or in a warm apartment, or in a draught of cold air until sufficient time has elapsed to allow of the escape of the moisture. The effect of evaporation is the reduction of the temperature of the body; hence the depressing action of damp linen.

=Damp Walls.= Ivy planted against the sound wall of a house is said to exclude dampness. If a wall is already damp, ivy planted against it will, when grown up, cause it to become dry, provided the brickwork is sound and the dampness does not arise from moisture attracted upwards from the foundation. Sometimes, when ivy is propagated from flowering branches, it will not adhere to a wall at all; the way to get over this difficulty is to cut it back to near the surface of the ground. The young wood which will then form will take hold and cling immediately to almost anything.

The following is said to be a good application for damp walls:--Dissolve 3/4 lb. of mottled soap in 1 gallon of water. This composition is to be laid over the brickwork steadily and carefully with a large thick brush, but not in such a manner as to form a froth or lather on the surface. It must be allowed 24 hours to dry on the walls. Now mix 1/2 lb. alum with 4 gallons of water; let it stand 24 hours, and then apply it over the coating of soap. The operation must be performed in dry weather.

=DAM'SON.= A species of small black plum, much used in the preparation of tarts, &c. Damsons are rather apt to disagree with delicate stomachs, and also to affect the bowels. See PLUM.

=DAN'CING.= The practice of dancing as an amus.e.m.e.nt or exercise must be almost as old as the human race itself. Yet, notwithstanding its antiquity and prevalence amongst all nations, both barbarous and refined, the propriety and advantages of its cultivation are of a very questionable character. In a hygienic point of view it can claim no preference, as an exercise, over the more simple ones of walking and running; whilst, from the a.s.sociations it frequently induces, and the heated and confined atmosphere in which its votaries commonly a.s.semble to indulge in it, it becomes the fertile parent of immorality and consumption. A celebrated cyclopaedist has, perhaps harshly, but truthfully, defined dancing to be "a silly amus.e.m.e.nt for the idle and thoughtless."

=DANDELI'ON.= _Syn._ p.i.s.s-A-BED; TARAX'Ac.u.m (Ph. L. E. & D.), L. A common British plant of the natural order Compositae. It is known among botanists by the names _Taraxac.u.m officinale_, _T. dens leonis_, and _Leontodon Taraxac.u.m_ (Linn.). Its root (_Taraxaci Radix_, B. P.) is employed in medicine, being diuretic and tonic. It is roasted and used as coffee, and when mixed with an equal weight of foreign coffee const.i.tutes the article once so much puffed under the name of 'dandelion coffee.' A similar mixture prepared with chocolate forms the 'dandelion chocolate' of the shops. The blanched leaves are used in salads, and the insp.i.s.sated juice, extract, and decoction are employed in medicine, and are considered as detergent, aperitive, and deobstruent. Ground roasted dandelion root cannot now be sold under the name of 'dandelion coffee' or mixed with coffee unless it has previously paid the chicory duty. See DECOCTION, EXTRACT, &c.

=DANDRIFF.= This is a scaly disease affecting the head, and giving rise to the formation of the small troublesome particles known as scurf. A serviceable application is two drachms of borax dissolved in a pint of camphor water; the head to be washed with this lotion once or twice a week, or much benefit may also be derived by washing the head with tepid water, agitated with a piece of quillar bark until a strong lather is produced; or with water containing salt of tartar, in the proportion of two drachms of the salt to a pint of tepid water. As a general rule, the use of soap is to be discountenanced.

=DAN'IELL'S BATTERY.= See VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.

=DAPH'NIN.= A peculiar bitter principle, discovered by Vauquelin in the _Daphne mezereum_ or _mezereon_. It is procured by separating the resin from the alcoholic tincture of the bark by evaporation; afterwards, diluting the residue with water, filtering, and adding acetate of lead. A yellow substance falls down, which, when decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, yields daphnin, under the form of small, colourless, transparent, radiated needles. It is bitter; volatile; sparingly soluble in cold water; freely soluble in hot water, and in alcohol and ether. It possesses basic properties. See MEZEREON.

=DARNEL.= The powder of the seed of the _Lolium temulentum_, a poisonous gra.s.s, is not unfrequently found mixed with the flour of wheat, oats, and other cereals, and when these latter, under these circ.u.mstances, are partaken of as food, they give rise to more or less alarming symptoms of poisoning, which are thus enumerated by Dr Pareira:--Headache, giddiness, languor, ringing in the ears, confusion of sight, dilated pupil, delirium, heaviness, somnolency, trembling convulsions, paralysis, and great gastro-intestinal irritation. One of the most specific signs of poisoning by darnel seeds is said by Seeger to be the trembling of the whole body.

Dr Taylor mentions a case in which thirty persons who had partaken of bread containing darnel seeds were violently attacked with the above symptoms; and another case is on record of sixty persons in a prison at Cologne being similarly attacked from the same cause. Ha.s.sall states that the flour of the darnel seed presents the following appearance under the microscope:--"The starch corpuscles are polygonal, and resemble in this respect those of rice. They are, however, much smaller, and frequently united into compound grains of various sizes, the larger grains consisting of some fifty or sixty starch corpuscles." The structure of the testa is very different from that of either rice or oat, or indeed any of the other cereal grains. It is formed of three coats or membranes. The cells of the outer coat form but a single layer, and, contrary to the arrangement which exists in the oat, their long axes are disposed transversely, in which respect they resemble rice. The fibres of the husk of rice and the cells of the testa of Lolium are, however, very distinct in other respects. In the former the cells are long and narrow, forming fibres, while in the latter they are but two or three times as broad.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The cells of the second coat, which are ranged in two layers, follow a vertical disposition, an arrangement which is contrary to that which obtains in all the other cereal grains with the exception of rice. The cells of the third coat form but a single layer, and resemble those of other grains.

=DATU'RA.= _Syn._ THORN-APPLE; STRAMO'NIUM (Ph. L. E. & D.), L. A genus of plants belonging to the nightshade order, or '_Atropaceae_,' The species _Datura Stramonium_ is an important medicinal plant, the leaves and seeds being officinal in B. P. It is anodyne and sedative, but not hypnotic, though it will often induce sleep by relieving pain. It affects the const.i.tution in much the same way as belladonna.--_Dose_, 1 to 4 or 5 gr., in asthma, gout, headache, neuralgic and rheumatic pains, &c. In spasmodic asthma smoking the leaf often gives instantaneous relief, but must be exhibited with care, as the whole plant is intensely poisonous. No antidote is known. Another species, namely, _Datura tatula_, is now preferred for cigars or cigarettes. Cigars are made from _Datura Stramonium_ more frequently than from _Datura tatula_. They are recommended for asthma. See ASTHMA, CIGARS (Stramonium), DATURIA (_below_).

=DATU'RIA.= _Syn._ DATU'RINE, DATURIN'A, HYOSCY'AMINE. An organic alkali, discovered by Geiger and Hesse in _Datura Stramonium_ or thorn apple. It occurs also in _Hyoscyamus niger_ or henbane. It is best obtained from the seeds. Daturia dissolves in 280 parts of cold and 72 parts of boiling water; it is very soluble in alcohol, less so in ether. It tastes bitter, dilates the pupil strongly, and is very poisonous. It may be sublimed unaltered, and may be obtained in prismatic crystals by the addition of water to its alcoholic solution. With the acids it forms salts, which are mostly crystallisable.

=DAVIDS-THEE--David's Tea= (B. Fragner, Prague). Recommended as a domestic remedy for chronic catarrh of the lungs and air pa.s.sages, and especially for tuberculosis. A mixture of equal parts of great centaury, hyssop, chervil (Scandix odorata), white h.o.r.ehound, milfoil, Iceland moss, and carduus benedictus.

=Davids-Thee, Echter Karolinenthaler--Genuine Karolin's Dale David's Tea= (Kral). Recommended for the same diseases as the preceding. A mixture of white h.o.r.ehound, milfoil, Iceland moss, great centaury, and ground ivy.

According to a communication from a Bohemian apothecary the original prescription reads thus:--Herba cerefolii (Scandicis, chervil), hb.

centaurii minoris (lesser centaury), hb. marrub. (h.o.r.ehound), flor.

millefol. (milfoil flowers), lichen. Isl., of each 6 parts; hb. hyssopi, 3 parts; hb. cardui benedicti, 2 parts. (A. Selle.)

=DEAD, DISPOSAL OF.= As every dead body during the process of the decomposition it undergoes gives rise to products that are not only in the highest degree offensive, but in an especial sense dangerous to the health and lives of a community, the disposal of the dead in a manner best calculated to ensure, with the removal of the corpse from amongst the survivors, the least injurious consequences of its subsequent decay, becomes a problem of supreme importance to the sanitarian.

Probably amongst the nations of antiquity the Romans, with their eminently practical minds, and as we may infer from their other enlightened sanitary arrangements, were the only ancient people who were not guided either by superst.i.tious or religious ideas in the disposal of their dead, at one time burned, but afterwards buried them. The Greeks practised cremation, the Egyptians embalmment (previously disembowelling the body), under the belief that after the lapse of many thousands of years the soul would return to its earthly mansion. The Hebrews sometimes burned their dead, and sometimes interred them. Amongst the ancient Hindoos the body was got rid of sometimes by cremation, sometimes by being cast into the Ganges, or other sacred river, and sometimes by exposure, until eaten by vultures.

The Icthyophagi, or fish-eaters, appear to be the only people of antiquity who disposed of their dead by throwing them into the sea.

Amongst modern civilised nations interment is the method almost universally adopted for disposing of the dead.

Embalmment has been of late years occasionally practised in America, and was frequently adopted during the late civil war in many cases, since it afforded the means of sending the bodies of the slain to surviving relatives at long distances. Sir Henry Thompson's advocacy of cremation was the means of causing the establishment in England a few years back of a society for its introduction; but neither here nor in Germany, where it has occasionally been employed, has the practice being adopted, save in a very few instances, most of which seem to have been merely experimental.

In Calcutta cremation is still practised to some extent by the native population; the process being very effectively carried out by a French company, which has been established for some years. We may mention here an important modification of the ordinary form of interment proposed by Mr Sydney Hadden. Mr Hadden's proposal is to dispense with the coffin, and to place the corpse instead in a large wickerwork receptacle filled with flowers, then inter it.

Of the three modes of disposal of the dead, viz. by burial, by burning, and by consignment to the sea, the first, as we have already said, is the almost invariably prevalent custom amongst civilised communities. That in a sanitary point of view it is less to be commended than either of the other methods is, we think, not difficult of demonstration. When a body is burned the resulting gaseous products of combustion, which most probably consist mainly of carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and nitrogen, diffuse harmlessly into the atmosphere, and there remains behind only the calcined bones which formed the skeleton. An experiment by Sir Henry Thompson has shown that cremation may be performed without giving rise to odour of any kind at a comparatively small expense, and within a very moderate s.p.a.ce of time. He burned a body weighing 227 lbs. in fifty-five minutes by placing it in a cylindrical metallic vessel seven feet long and six feet in diameter, previously heated to incandescence. The evolved gases were made to pa.s.s over a large surface of strongly heated fire-bricks, which formed part of the furnace in which the metallic vessel was placed. The furnace and its fittings were designed by Dr Siemens. The remaining ashes weighed about 5 lbs. In his pamphlet 'On Cremation,' Sir Henry Thompson has proposed that the custom, if adopted, should be carried out in the following manner: "When death occurs, and the necessary certificate has been given, the body is placed in a light wood sh.e.l.l, then in a suitable outside receptacle preparatory to removal for religious rites or otherwise. After a proper time has elapsed it is conveyed to the spot where cremation is to be performed. There nothing need be seen by the last attendant or attendants than the placing of a sh.e.l.l within a small compartment, and the closing of the door upon it. It slides down into the heated chamber, and is left there an hour until the necessary changes have taken place. The ashes are then placed at the disposal of the attendants."

Sir Henry suggests that, previous to the burning of any corpse, proper officers appointed for the purpose should examine into and certify as to the cause of death, and if satisfied that it has resulted from natural events, that they should give the certificate he alludes to.

Sir Henry Thompson proposes that the functions of the officers appointed for this purpose should be the same as those of the _medicins verificateurs_, who are medical inspectors appointed by the munic.i.p.ality of Paris and the other large cities, whose duty consists in visiting each house where a death occurs, in a.s.suring themselves that the person is really dead, and that there are no suspicious circ.u.mstances attending the demise.

In Paris alone there are more than eighty of such medical functionaries.

Burial by casting the corpse into the depths of the sea possesses the great advantage over ordinary interment of removing it from near the habitation of man, whilst the sea water, by its antiseptic properties, would be as little favorable to the dissemination of noxious putrescent compounds as cremation is. On the contrary, if the dead are disposed of by the ordinary method of burial, the objectionable effects arising from their decomposition in the earth are, under the most favorable conditions, only partially overcome; and the reason is obvious, since whilst deep-sea burial prevents animal decay altogether, and burning destroys the body, which, if not got rid of, would become putrid; burial in the earth permits its slow and lengthened decomposition to go on unchecked, and to thus very frequently become a source of contamination and danger to health.[251]

[Footnote 251: "After death the buried body returns to its elements and gradually, and often by the means of other forms of life which prey on it, a large amount of it forms carbonic acid, ammonia, sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen, nitrous and nitric acids, and various more complex gaseous products, many of which are very fetid, but which, however, are eventually all oxidised into the simpler combination. The non-volatile substances, the salts, become const.i.tuents of the soil, pa.s.s into plants, or are carried away into the water percolating through the ground. The hardest parts, the bones, remain in some soils for many centuries, and even for long periods retain a portion of their animal const.i.tuents."--PARKES.]

The atmosphere in the vicinity of graveyards and cemeteries is notoriously unhealthy, whilst water taken from wells situated near them is often so impure as to be wholly unfit for drinking. Several instances are on record in which the disturbance of an old graveyard has frequently been the means of disseminating disease. But although the disposal of the dead by means either of cremation or by consignment of the body to the deep caverns of the ocean are methods, in a hygienic point of view, immeasurably superior to earth-burial, there are, we think, certain obstacles to their adoption, even to a limited extent, by civilised communities, at any rate, for many years to come.

"Both cremation and deep-sea burial are open to the objection, that should the proposed officers appointed to inquire into the circ.u.mstances attending death have been mistaken in their verdict, as for instance in overlooking, or not suspecting a case of secret poisoning, not only would the murderer escape detection, but a sense of possible immunity from punishment might act as an encouragement to others who were equally guilty minded. The proposal that the stomach should be preserved, and kept for a certain time, and, in case of suspicion justifying it, examination, would in many instances fail to lead to detection, since, if certain alkaloids had been employed, they would have to be searched for, not in the stomach, but in the tissues of the dead body. Again, an obstacle to the universal adoption of deep-sea burial would be, in the case of vast continents, the difficulty of transmission from their interior, of the corpse, to the sh.o.r.e. But even if these objections against cremation and sea-burial could be overcome (and possibly they may be eventually), there would still remain the invincible repugnance of the survivors to what sentiment and feeling will persist in regarding as cruel indignity and irreverence toward the dead.

"Yet the eventual disposal of our frames is the same in all cases; and it is probably a matter merely of custom which makes us think that there is a want of affection, or of care, if the bodies of the dead are not suffered to repose in the earth that bore them.

"In reality, neither affection nor religion can be outraged by any manner of disposal of the dead which is done with proper solemnity and respect to the earthly dwelling-place of our friends. The question should be placed entirely on sanitary grounds, and we shall then judge it rightly.

"What is the use of preserving for a few more years the remains which will be an object of indifference to future generations? The next logical step would be to enshrine these remains in some way so as to ensure their preservation, and we should return to the vast burial mounds in Egypt.

"At present the question is not an urgent one, but if peace continue, and if the population of Europe increase, it will become so in another century or two.

"Already in this country we have seen, in our own time, a great change; the objectionable practice of interment under and round churches in towns has been given up, and the population is buried at a distance from their habitations. For the present that measure will probably suffice, but in a few years the question will again inevitably present itself."[252]

[Footnote 252: Parkes.]

Since however, for the reasons above specified, earth-burial seems to be the only means of disposing of the dead likely to prevail for many years to come, the question arises as to how its attendant evils can be as much as possible minimised. The following suggestions, that may a.s.sist to effect this, are offered:--As quickly as possible after death the body should be covered with sawdust, to which carbolic acid has been added, a precaution which not only prevents the escape of fetid gases, but also of putrescent fluids from a badly jointed coffin. Charcoal, although an excellent disinfectant, from its colour, could not out of consideration for the feelings of the relatives or friends, be used until the coffin with its contents had been screwed down.

It is always desirable (save for some special reason) that the corpse should be interred within three or four days of the demise. If a body has to be kept above ground for some time, Mr Herbert Barker recommends a thin layer of sawdust and sulphate of zinc to be placed over it, in the proportion of two parts of the former to one of the latter. The coffin should be made of a material impervious to the air, and of such strength as to withstand the pressure of the overlying earth.