Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 267

=Glycerin Cream with Camphor.= Glycerin, 2 parts; camphor, 1 part; rectified spirit, 1 part. Mix. For chilblains.

=Glycerin Jelly for Microscopic Mounting.= ('Ed. Pharm. Journal.') Soak any quant.i.ty of good clean gelatine in cold water for three or four hours.

Pour off the superfluous water, and melt the gelatine at a gentle heat; when melted filter through flannel, and to the filtrate add an equal quant.i.ty of Price's gelatin.

The above forms a good firm jelly, requiring little trouble in securing the cover.

=Glycerin Ointment.= Glycerin, 8 parts; spermaceti, 4 parts; white wax, 1 part; oil of almonds (fixed), 16 parts. Add the glycerin to the melted ingredients, and stir briskly till cold. For chaps and excoriations.

=GLYCEROLE.= A pharmaceutical preparation, in which glycerin is employed as the excipient.

=Glycerole of Belladonna.= _Syn._ GLYCERINUM BELLADONNae. _Prep._ (Par.

Codex.) Extract of belladonna, 1 oz., glycerole of starch, 10 oz. (by weight); rub together until perfectly smooth. Glyceroles of hemlock, henbane, and opium are ordered by the Paris Codex to be prepared in the same manner.

=Glycerole of Borax.= (B. P.) _Syn._ GLYCERINUM BORACIS, L. 1 of borax in 4-1/2 of glycerin.

=Glycerole of Carbolic Acid.= (B. P.) _Syn._ GLYCERINUM ACIDI CARBOLICI, L. 1 of acid in 4-1/2 of glycerin.

=Glycerole of Gallic Acid.= (B. P.) _Syn._ GLYCERINUM ACIDI GALLICI, L. 1 of acid in 4-1/2 of glycerin.

=Glycerole of Iodine.= _Syn._ GLYCERINUM c.u.m IODINIO. _Prep._ (Par.

Codex.) Dissolve 5 parts of iodide of pota.s.sium and 1 part of iodine in their own weight of water, and add to 40 parts of glycerin (by weight).

Applied in skin diseases.

=Glycerole of Iodide of Pota.s.sium.= _Syn._ GLYCERINUM POTa.s.sII IODIDI.

_Prep._ (Par. Codex.) Iodide of pota.s.sium, 2 parts, glycerole of starch, 15 parts (by weight); dissolve the iodine in its own weight of water, and add to this glycerole of starch.

=Glycerole of Starch.= (B. P.) _Syn._ GLYCERINUM AMYLI, L. 1 of starch in 8-1/2 of glycerin.

=Glycerole of Tannic Acid.= (B. P.) _Syn._ GLYCERINUM ACIDI TANNICI, L. 1 of acid in 4-1/2 of glycerin.

=Glycerole of Tar.= _Syn._ GLYCERINUM PICIS LIQUIDae. _Prep._ (Par. Codex.) Purified tar, 1 oz. (by weight), glycerole of starch, 3 oz. (by weight).

=GLYCOARNICIN.= A radical cure for gangrene and tubercle (Zeller). 40 grammes clarified honey, with 35 grammes of a tincture of fresh arnica herb, made with weak brandy. (Hager.)

=GLYCOBLASTOL= (Professor Kletzinsky, Vienna). An extract of the pericarps of cayenne pepper, made with glycerine, diluted with a little water, and perfumed with a trace of pleasant-smelling oil containing a suspicion of patchouli. (Hager.)

=GLYCOCINE.= _Syn._ GLYCOLL. SUGAR OF GELATIN. (C_{2}H_{5}NO_{2}). This is one of the products of the decomposition of gelatin when boiled with dilute sulphuric acid; after the acid is removed by means of barium carbonate, the glycocine may be procured in crystals by evaporating the solution.

It may also be obtained by heating gelatin with a solution of potash or of soda. It is, however, most easily separated in a state of purity by boiling hippuric acid for half an hour with hydrochloric acid; as the liquid cools benzoic acid is separated in abundance, and glycocine remains in combination with hydrochloric acid; on the addition of absolute alcohol, after the solution has been concentrated by evaporation and super-saturated with ammonia, pure glycocine is deposited in minute crystals.

Pure glycocine has a sweet taste, inferior to that of cane sugar. It is soluble in about 400 parts of cold water, less soluble in rectified spirit, and insoluble in absolute alcohol and in ether. It is not susceptible of the alcoholic fermentation.

=GLYCYR'RHIZIN.= _Syn._ LIQUORICE SUGAR. An uncrystallisable variety of sugar obtained from the root of common liquorice (_Glycyrrhiza glabra_).

It is yellow, transparent, soluble in both water and alcohol, and is not susceptible of the vinous fermentation.

=GLYSTER.= See Enema.

=GNATS and MOS'QUITOES.= Smoke and strong fumes of any kind will drive away these insects. If you only burn a piece of brown paper in an enclosed s.p.a.ce where they are, they soon after 'settle,' and appear to become so stupefied as to remain inactive for some time after. In those parts of the New World where mosquitoes abound, tobacco smoke is commonly had recourse to in-doors, and large fires made of brush-wood or under-wood out-of-doors. Old travellers, when compelled to bivouac during the season in which they are troublesome, are very careful to keep close on the 'lee'

of these fires.

=GOA POWDER.= See ARAROBA.

=GOITRE.= _Syn._ DERBYSHIRE NECK; BRONCHOCELE, TRACHEOCELE; HERNIA BRONCHIALIS, L. A tumour on the fore part of the neck. It sometimes occurs in Derbyshire, and is endemic in the Alps and several other mountainous districts. Iodine and the iodides appear to be the only substances capable of curing or even arresting the progress of this disease.

There seems little doubt that goitre arises from drinking water rendered hard by the presence of magnesian and lime salts.

The disease called cretinism, which is a peculiar form of idiocy, is in some countries more particularly frequently a.s.sociated with goitre. Both these maladies prevail in Wurtemberg, Saxony, Silesia, the Tyrol, Carynthia, Galicia, Austria, and Switzerland. In England, goitre seems princ.i.p.ally confined to the magnesian limestone district extending from Nottingham to the Tyne; it also prevails in a smaller degree in Derbyshire, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Somersetshire, where a few scattered cases of cretinism are to be met with. Goitre is very much more general than is usually supposed in France. In Asia, it is to be found amongst the inhabitants of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, and Ceylon, and in India amongst the dwellers in the valleys and extensive plains that lie at the foot of the Himalayan mountains.

The disease is likewise known to exist in many parts of Africa; goitre is also far from uncommon in certain districts of North America; whilst in South America it is met with amongst the people inhabiting the plateaus of New Grenada, which comprise localities differing so greatly in climatic conditions, as deep and humid valleys, and arid plains almost or entirely dest.i.tute of verdure.

Goitre is a disease that may be very rapidly and readily set up. Bally says he has known certain waters in Switzerland produce it even in eight or ten days; and the French medical journals contain many similar instances of its early development.

=GOLD.= Au. _Syn._ AURUM; OR, Fr.; GOLD, Ger.) Gold is the most valuable and, probably, the longest known of all the metals. From the remotest period it has been esteemed for its beauty and permanence, and has been taken as the standard measure of value amongst all civilised nations. An account of the uses of gold in the arts, and its influence on society in all ages, as a symbol of wealth and an article of ornament and utility, would embrace the whole history of mankind. At the present day it alike contributes to the conveniences, comforts, and luxuries of life; as often exciting the baser pa.s.sions of the human heart as promoting the cause of benevolence and virtue.

Gold is found almost invariably in the metallic state. It occurs as gold dust in the sands of various rivers, and in the alluvial soil of auriferous districts, from both of which it is obtained by the simple process of washing. Traces of it are constantly found in the iron and other pyrites of the more ancient rocks. Sometimes it occurs beautifully crystallised in the cubic form, a.s.sociated with quartz, oxide of iron, and other substances, in regular veins. In the gold fields of California and Australia lumps of nearly pure gold have been discovered in abundance during the last few years. In the former country a ma.s.s of gold weighing 28 pounds was found, whilst in our own colonies one weighing 106 pounds was dug out of a quartz rock, near Bathurst. The latter contained upwards of 91% of pure gold, and nearly 8-1/2% of silver; being as pure as the English sovereign, or, in trade language, '22 carats fine.'

_Prep._ This consists merely in the separation of the gold and its subsequent purification. Formerly, the auriferous sulphides, if very poor, were first roasted, then fused into 'mattes' and again roasted; they were next melted with lead, and the alloy thus obtained was refined by cupellation. When the ores were very rich, the preliminary calcination and fusion were omitted, and the alloy of lead at once formed. This method (by fusion) does not answer well with auriferous copper pyrites or ores very poor in gold. At the present time the method of amalgamation is princ.i.p.ally followed. When a 'vein-stone' is to be wrought for gold, it is reduced to powder (on the small scale by hand, on the large scale in stamping mills), and is shaken in a suitable apparatus with water and mercury; an amalgam of gold is formed, which is then separated from the mixture, and its mercury removed by distillation. The gold is next cast into 'ingots.'

_Refining._--Gold obtained by the first method usually contains a little copper and silver, and frequently tin or iron. Tin may be removed by adding a little corrosive sublimate or nitre to the gold melted in a crucible. The process by amalgamation commonly leaves no other alloy than silver. This metal is removed either in the 'dry way,' by fusing the gold with sulphur or sulphide of antimony; or in the 'wet way,' by 'quartation'

and 'parting.' At the Royal Mint, "when gold ingots contain a certain quant.i.ty of silver" (say 2% or 3%), "instead of leaving it, as formerly, to const.i.tute a part of the standard alloy, it pays to extract it, and to subst.i.tute copper in its place. To get the silver out of the said ingots, they are melted with about 3 parts of silver--the resulting alloy is granulated and boiled with sulphuric acid--the gold remains untouched, and all the silver is dissolved and converted into sulphate.... The sulphate of silver is then decomposed by the immersion of copper plates; the silver is precipitated in a fine, crystalline powder, washed, pressed into ma.s.ses, and melted, and so affords PURE SILVER, which is afterwards made standard by alloying it with copper, and is used for coinage. The resulting sulphate of copper (which exists in the solution) is then crystallised, and sold." (Brande.) "By first exhausting the gold with nitric acid, and then boiling it in sulphuric acid, some two or three thousandth part of silver which escaped the action of the nitric acid is dissolved out, and perfectly pure gold is obtained." (Ure.)

By a foreign invention, patented in 1851 by Mr W. E. Newton, the operations of 'separations' and 'refining' are conducted by one process.

The argentiferous substance, whether in the state of ore or bullion, is reduced to a granulated or spongy state, by fusion along with zinc, or some other metal cheaper than silver, and the zinc is subsequently removed, by digesting the resulting granulated, laminated, or pulverulent alloy, in dilute sulphuric acid, or other acid. The zinc, &c., is recovered by the usual means. This process, carefully conducted, produces metal of great ductility and purity, containing 99% to 99-1/2% of pure gold.

Chemically pure gold is obtained by dissolving the metal in nitro-hydrochloric acid, adding a solution of protosulphate of iron, and collecting and washing the precipitate. In this state it is a brown powder, which acquires a metallic l.u.s.tre by friction or heat.

_Prop._ The most marked properties of gold are its rich yellow colour, its ductility, malleability, insolubility in all menstrua except 'aqua regia'

(nitro-hydrochloric acid), aqueous chlorine, and hydrofluoric acid, and its very slight affinity for oxygen. It melts at a bright red heat (2316 Fahr.--Daniell), and the fused metal has a brilliant green colour. It forms compounds with chlorine, iodine, oxygen, sulphur, &c. Sp. gr. of native gold, 133 to 177; of pure gold, 193 (average); its greatest density is 195.

_Tests._ Metallic gold is characterised by its yellow colour, insolubility in nitric acid, and its ready solubility in aqua regia, forming a rich yellow or amber-coloured liquid, which stains the skin purple. Solutions of gold exhibit the following reactions:--Protosulphate of iron gives a brown precipitate, which acquires a metallic l.u.s.tre when rubbed;--Protochloride of tin (preferably containing a little perchloride) gives a violet, purple, or blackish precipitate, insoluble in hydrochloric acid;--Sulphuretted hydrogen and hydrosulphide, of ammonia give a black precipitate, insoluble in simple acids;--Ammonia gives a reddish-yellow precipitate ('fulminating gold'), with tolerably concentrated solutions, either at once or on boiling the liquid;--Liquor of pota.s.sa gives a reddish-yellow precipitate with neutral solutions of gold, insoluble in excess.

_Estim._ 1. In the dry way;--

The quant.i.ty of gold in an ALLOY is usually estimated by 'a.s.saying' the sample. Before proceeding to the a.s.say, it is necessary to form some estimate of the quant.i.ty of other metals (copper or silver, or both) in the specimen to be examined, in order to employ the proper proportion of lead in the 'cupellation.' The experienced a.s.sayer commonly does this by the 'a.s.say of the touch,' and, in certain cases, by a rough preliminary a.s.say. The quant.i.ty of lead employed may be about 16 times the weight of the copper present in the sample, and when the alloy contains silver an additional allowance of lead, equal to 1/10th of its weight, is made on that account. When no silver is present, or it is not required to be estimated, a much larger proportion of lead may be employed. The weight taken for the a.s.say ('a.s.say pound') is usually 12 or 6 gr. The alloy and dose of lead being accurately weighed and separately wrapped in small pieces of paper, the a.s.say may be at once proceeded with.

a. CUPELLATION. This operation, the most important of the whole, has been already described. Unlike silver, gold will bear the highest heat of the furnace without 'vegetating,' 'fuming,' or being absorbed by the cupel.

The loss of weight gives the amount of copper in the alloy.

. QUARTATION. The cupelled sample is fused with three times its weight of pure silver (called the 'witness'), by which the gold is reduced to one fourth of the ma.s.s, or less, and in this state may be easily removed.

?. PARTING. The alloy, after quartation, is hammered or rolled out into a thin strip or leaf, curled into a spiral form, and boiled for a quarter of an hour, in a small flask, with about 2-1/2 to 3 oz. of nitric acid (sp.

gr. 13); and the fluid being poured off, it is again boiled in a similar manner with 1-1/2 to 2 oz. more of nitric acid (sp. gr. 12), after which the gold is carefully collected, washed in pure water, and dried. When the operation of 'parting' is skilfully conducted, and the acid not too strong, the metal preserves its spiral form; otherwise, it falls into the state of flakes or powder. The second boiling or digestion is technically termed the 'reprise.' The loss of weight by 'parting,' after deducting that of the 'witness,' corresponds to the quant.i.ty of silver originally in the specimen.

d. ANNEALING. This consists in putting the pure gold obtained by the last process into a small porous crucible or cupel, and heating it to redness in the m.u.f.fle.

e. WEIGHING. This must be done with the utmost accuracy. The weight, in grains troy, doubled or quadrupled, as the case may be, gives the number of carats fine of the alloy examined, without calculation.

According to the 'OLD FRENCH METHOD' of a.s.saying gold, the following quant.i.ties are taken:--For the a.s.say pound, 12 gr.; fine silver, 30 gr.; lead, 108 gr. These having been cupelled together, the (perfect) b.u.t.ton is rolled into a leaf (1-1/2 5 inches), twisted on a quill, and submitted to parting with 2-1/2 oz. and 1-1/2 oz. of nitric acid, sp. gr.