Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1017

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LIQtIAMEN pyriticum, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome authors to the liquid matter remaining in the pans in which the common vitriol is made ; after which no more of that fait will (hoot. It is otherwife called liquamen of vitriol. See Vitriol.

LIQITAMUMIA, a term invented by fome of the difpenfa- tory writers to fignify human fat.

LIQUID (Cyel.)See Fluids, Cycl. and Suppl

Liquid alum. We have a fort of liquid alum found with us. It is very well known, that the fame ftone will often pro- duce vitriol, alum, and fulphur. This is praftifed in the Countries where thefe fubftances are prepared in greateft abundance. The ftones are firft burnt, and the fulphur melted from them ; they are then expofed to the air till they moulder in pieces, and then the vitriol is produced from them ; and after all this is feparated, they afford alum on a fecond burning and expofing to the air. The fame ftones, which are of the marcafite kind, as are ufed in Germany for this purpofe, are found in our coal countries, as about Newcaftle, and elfewhere; and nature with us fometimes performs that which art does with them. When thereiiave been fubterraneous fires in any part of thefe countries, it is not uncommon to find liquid alum in the places where they have raged. It is a milky thick liquor, and is found lodged in cavities of the ftrata of ftone, when the fulphur and fal a'rmoniac have been fublimed away. The acid aluminous part of the matter will alfo take wing with a great degree of heat, leaving in the place of the liquor only a dry ftyp- tic, and hard ftony matter. The liquor itfelf is of a very ftyptic tafte, and will yield one half its weight of pure cryftalline alum on evaporation. Philof. Tranf. N° 130.

LIQUOR (Cycl.) — Fermented Liquors. See the article Fermented liquors.

Tejl Liquor, among the dealers in brandy. See the articles Spirit and Test liquors.

Liquor mineralis anodynm, the name given by Hoffman to a liquor of his own invention, famous at this time in Ger many, and fuppofed by Burggrave to be made in tills man ner. Take oil of vitriol and Indian nitre, of each four ounces, diftil the fpirit gradually from this by a retort j pour two ounces of this fpirit cautioufly and fucceffively into fifteen ounces of fpirit of wine highly rectified ; diftil this, and there comes over a very fragrant fpirit. This is to be again diftilled, to render it perfectly pure, adding firft to it a fmall quantity of oil of cloves, and a quantity of water, equal to that of the fpirit ; after this, as foon as the watery vapours begin to arife, the whole procefs is to be flopped, and the fpirit kept alone in a bottle well ftopt. This has great virtues, as an anodyne, diaphoretic, antifeptic, and carminative. It is not certain, that it is exactly the fame with Hoffman's, that author having never publifhed his manner of making it, but it appears the fame to the fmell and tafte, and has the fame virtues.

LIQUORICE, g/ycyrrbiza, in botany; See Glycyrrhiza. This is a plant propagated in many parts of England to very great advantage. It delights in a rich light fandy foil, which fhould be three feet deep at leaft ; for the greateft advantage confifts in the length of the roots. The greateft quantities of it propagated in England are about Pontefract in York- fhire, and about Godalmin in Surry, though there is no in- confiderable quantity propagated in the gardens about Lon- don.

The ground defigned for liquorice muft be well dug, and dunged the year before, that the dung may be thoroughly 4-otted in it, and juft before it is planted, the earth is to be dug three fpades deep ; and laid very light. The plants to be fet fhould be taken from the fides or heads of the old roots, and each muft have a very good bud, or eye, other- wife they are very fubject to mifcarry; they mould alfo be about ten inches long, and perfectly found. The beft fea- fon for planting them is the end of February, or the be- ginning of March, and this muft be done in the following manner. The rows muft be marked by a line drawn acrofs . the bed, at two feet diftance, and the plants muft be fct in thefe by making a hole of their full depth, and fomething more, that the eye of the root may be an inch below the furface : they muft alfo be fet at two feet diftance from each other in each row. When this is done, the ground may be fowed over with onions, which not rooting deep, will do th& liquorice roots no injury for the firft year. In Oclober, when the ftalks of the liquorice are dead, a little very rotten dung mould be fpread over the furface of the ground. Three years after the time of planting, the liquorice will be fit to take up for ufe ; and this mould be done juft when the ftalks are dead oft"; for if taken up fooner, the roots are very apt to mrink greatly in their weight. The roots about Lon- don look browner than thofe which have been propagated in a lefs rich foil, but then they are much larger, and grow quicker to their fize. Miller's Gardners Diet.

LIRIODENDRUM, in botany, a name given by Linnasus to a genus of plants called tulipifira by Catefby, and others, and by us the tulip tree. The chafers are thefe : the pe- nanthium confifts of three oblong and concave leaves, which ftand expanded, and referable petals, and fLJ with the flower. bupPL. Vox,. I.

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The flower confifts of fix or nine petals, which are oblongs eredr, and obtufe, narrower at the bafe than in any other part, and all of the fame fize. The ftamina are a great number of filaments, fhorter than the flower, ere<Et, and very flender, and affixed to the receptacle of the fructifica- tion. The antherse are flender, and grow to the infides of the ftamina. The germina are numerous, and are ranged into the form of a cone. The ftyles are fhort, and the ftigmata are fimple. There is properly no fruit, but the {eeds are laid together in an imbricated manner, fo as to re- femble a ftrobilus : thefe are numerous, pointed, and com- preffed at the bafe, and ending in a pointed fcale. Linnesi Gen. PI. p. 254. Catefby, p. 48.

LISSA, or Thynnus Lyssa, in zoology, a name by which fome authors have called the fifh more ufually called glijja, a large fea fifti of the tunny kind. Belhn. de Pifc. p. 118.

LISTENING, in the manege, as when we fay a horfe goes a UJiening pace. Sec Ecoute.

LITCHI, in botany, the name of an Oriental fruit very com- mon in China, and greatly efteemed by the Chinefe. They fay it is of the exa£t middle temperature between hot and cold, and that, beyond all other vegetables, it gives vigour and ftrength to the body: they alfo commend it for the gravel, when properly prepared. This is a fruit that muft be nicely watched, to find the time of its ripening, and when that comes it muft be gathered, for it foon decays.

LITE, the name of a plaifter much commended by the anti- ents; it confifted of verdigreafe, wax, and refin. Whatever virtues this plaifter pofieiled, might be probably found in the melilot plaifter of the fliops in "general, till the late re- formation made by the London Pharmacopcea, the colour being generally given by our wholefale dealers with verdi- greafe, not with the juice of the herb from which it took its name.

LI FER./E communicatoriez, in church hiftory, letters granted by the bifhop to penitents, when the time of their pe- nance was finuhed, by which they were again received into the communion of the faithful. Hofm. Lex. in voc-

LITHAGOGI, an epithet given by fome medical writers to fuch medicines as work by urine, and arc fuppofed to have the virtue of expelling the ftone.

LITHANTHRAX, in natural hiftory, is ufed as the name of the common pit coal. Among the learned, it is one of the - clafs of opake inflammable foffils, and is diftmguifhed from the reft by being of a gloffy hue, foft, friable, not fufible, but eafdy inflammable, and leaving, after burning, a large refiduum of whitifh afhes. We have three fpecies of this foffil in common ufe for our fuel in different parts of the kingdom. 1. A hard dufky black coal. This is in common ufe with us, under the name of Scotch coal (though that name is not reftrained to this fpecies alone, but the follow- ing is indifcriminately known among the dealers by the fame appellation) this is ufually of a rough and dufty furface, and is lefs gloffy, when frefh broken, than any other coal. It burns brifkly, and turns wholly to afhes, not leaving any cinders. There is a vaft deal of this dug about Limington in Hampfhire, whence it is often called by the dealers Li- mington coal. 2. A hard gloffy coal. This is fometimes fold in London with the former, under the name of Scotch coal, but it is more determinately known in many parts of the kingdom by the name of Welch coal. It is diftinguifhed from the others by its great hardnefs, and gloffy black, where frefh broken, and is much efteemed for burning with lefs fmoak than any other kind ; and in fome parts of this king- dom, and generally in Wales } they ufe it to make malt, without any previous burning. The third is our common coal, too well known to need any defcription, but diftin- guifhed from all the others by its mattery friable ftru£ture, and its great glofs when frefh broken. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 418. See Coal. LITHARGE {Cycl.) — This preparation of lead is of great ufs in the roafting the ftubborn ores of gold, filver, and copper ; for it melts all kinds of ftones and earth into glafs, fooner than the metals ; and by this means the metal, which is heavier, will fall through the glafs, which is a thin and light fubftance, and will be collecied under it into a regulus, with only a few dufty fcorite adhering to it. But if it be copper that is thus feparated, a fmall portion of it is always deftroyed; and if gold or filver, a like fmall portion is al- ways lodged and detained in the fcoriae. But as the litharge penetrates through all forts of veffels, and while melting rifes into a fcum, that often runs over their edges, the aflayers never ufe it alone, but always mix with it fuch fubftances as may give it a clammynefs, fuch as flints, fand, clay, or the like : they mix two parts of lithargt with one part of any of thefc fubftances, and add fome nitre, or common fait, that the whole may run the more eafily. They fhut up the vefiels, which muft be made very thick and folid, with a fmall cover or lid, cut clofe, and placing this in a wind furnace, they keep it in fufion a quar- ter of an hour, looking at times into the afh-hole, to fee if the glafs have not efcaped through the vcfiel, and run down thither. Very often it is found fweating through the fides of the veflel, like water, and falling in drops into the

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