Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/524

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C I N

pearance of the carline, and with blue flowers. Town. Lift, p. 132. See Artichoak.

CINCHONA, in botany, the name by which Linnsus calls the tree which produces the jefuitb bark ; this is a peculiar genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the cup is a fmall perianthium, c >mpofcd of one leaf, divided into fivefegments, and remaining after the flower is fallen. The flower confifts of one petal, and is of a funnel Shape ; it is a long and cylin- dric tube, terminating in a wide expanded edge,which is divid- ed into five ferrated and pointed legmen ts ; the (lamina are five fmall filaments, and the apices oblong, and placed within the tube of the flower; the piftil confifts of aroundiSh germen placed below the cup. a ftyle which is of thelength of the flow- er, and a thick oblong fimple ftigma; the fruit is a roundilh capfule, at the top of which Stands the cup by way of a crown; thiscapfule contains two cells, and when ripe opens longitudi- nally into two parts. The feeds are very numerous, and are oblong, compreffed, and furrounded with a foliaceous edge. Linnm Gen. Plant, p. 529.

CINCLUS, in zoology, a name by which fome authors have called the bird more ufually known by the name tringa. Bel- fortius, de Avib. See Tringa.

Cinclus is a namealfo given by fome to the bird called in Eng- lifn the greater reed fparrow, and by the generality of authors junco. Turner. SccJunco.

Cinclus prior, is alfo a name given by Aldrovandustoabird the lame with what we call the flint. See Stint.

Cinclus minor, is with that author the name of a bird more commonly called tringa minor, and known in England by the name of the fandpiper. Aldrovand. Tom, 3. p. 492. See the article Tringa.

Cinclus tertius. See Giarolo.

CINEKACTION. See Cineration, Cycl

CINERARIA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the jacobaea maritima, or fea ragwort, becaufe of the grey colour of its leaves. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

CINERARIUS, in antiquity, an officer retained by the women, whofe bufinefs it was to provide aShes proper for tinging the hair with a deep yellow colour. He was otherwife called cinifio.

Ciner arius is alfo ufed to fignify one who paid a veneration to the afhes and relicks of martyrs and faints.

CINERES Mints, a name given by authors to a dufty and faline fubftancc thrown out of mount ./Etna, in form of powder, and refembling afhes.* After an eruption of this mountain, thefe faline afhes are found fcattered about the opening itfeif, down the fides of the mountain, and over the country for ten miles, or more, round ; thofe afhes, which arc found thrown to the di- stance of eight or ten miles,are generally taken up in form of a very dry duft, almoft infipid to the taite. But what lie up- on, and round about the fkirts of the mountain are very diffe- rent ; they are never dry, though they lie many months cxpofed to the fun's heat, which is very great there, but always feel damp and wet, and are compofed of larger or fmaller lumps, and not of a fine powder, as the more diftant are. They are of a very Strongly vitriolic tafte, refembling that of our common green copperas. From this tafte, and from the great quantities of matter refembling a fort of crocus Martis, and with thefe a great abundance of Sulphur, which is burnt away, and the vaft quantities alfo which are fubUmed about the mouths, and left nnburnt, it appears, that the common pyrites is contained in vaft abundance in the bowels of the mountain, fince green vi- triol and fulphur are its produce, and nothing is fo eafy as to calcine it with the purple powder refembling crocus Martis, which is the third fubftance fo frequent there. This gives great weight to the opinion of thofe who believe all the erup- tions of the burning mountains in the feveral parts ef the world to be owing to this mineral. See the articles Pyrites and Volcano.

CINIFLO, in antiquity, the fame with cincrarius. See Cine- rarius.

CINNABAR of antimony (Cycl.) — It is evident both from the manner of preparing this medicine, and from experiments and obfervations made on it, that thefe three principles exift in it, mercury, fulphur of antimony, and an acid fpirit impregnated with a vitriolic fulphur. That mercury does chiefly conftitute this cinnabar, is evident from its weight, which is nearly equal to that of common precipitate. Mercury revived fromdnna- bar of antimony is greatly to be preferred to that obtained by any other means, both for amalgamating with metals, and for all ufes in medicine; for this mercury is perfectly freed and de- purated from its metallic, terrene, and heterogeneous particles, by the fulphur of antimony.

The manner of reviving mercury from cinnabar of antimony is varioufly delivered by different authors, but mod of them pre- fer the ufe of pot allies to any thing elfe on the occafion. Hoff- man, however, who has written exprefly on the fubject, fays, that filings of fled or copper arc greatly to be preferred to thefe falts. In the making cinnabar of antimony it mould be fub- limed often in order to render it quite pure, and per- fect; and afterwards when it is to be given internally, it fhould be powdered extremely fine, fince in the common way of giv- ing thefe medicines grofiy ground, they can only exert -their operations in the primae viae, it being impofftble for them ever to reach the lacteals, and thence to be received into the mafs of

blood. Many ways have been thought of for the exalting the virtues of this excellent medicine, fuch as folution, fixation, and the drawing a tincture from it. Solution in acid menftrua is wholly to be condemned, for it renders it corrofive and dan- gerous to be taken internally ; and the other infipid and rethc- rial diflblvents which many chymifts boaft of,- are not yet known. The only medicinal preparation that has been con- trived of cinnabar on this plan, is that by pouring fweet fpirit of vitriol on it. This makes only a flight and fuperfieial fo- lution, but the liquor becomes very rich, in virtues far exceed- ing the cinnabar itfeif when taken in powder. Many ways have been attempted to fix cinnabar by means of common fait, oil of fulphur, and oil of vitriol ; and Hoffman gives a method of doing this in fo periccr. a manncr,by means of fpirit of nitre and oil of vitriol, that the mercury of it will not tinge gold white, and a piece of the cinnalar thus fixed be- ing thrown upon burning charcoal, will burn all away, leaving no remainder. Cnefehus boafts of a preparation of cinnabar of this kind with which he cured the gout ; and by his own accounts this feems to be the very preparation ; and the fame preparation has been found an excellent cure for ftubborn quartans, mixed with extract of bark, gentian, and fait of wormwood.

The drawing a tincture from cinnalar of antimony feems im- practicable for many reafons ; all that is pretended to be done of this kind being in reality only drawing a tincture from one part, not from the whole of the medicine, and therefore fuch a tincture cannot be expected to contain all its virtues. Cinnabar is the bcit of all correctors of opium, and an excel- lent preparation of this kind is publifhed by the fame author. Cinnabar is by foine much dreaded as a medicine,in all cafes of inflammation, haemorrhages, and the liK.e diftemperatures of the body, but Stahl reports from repeated experience that it is one of the greateft of all medicines in thefe very cafes, nothing more eiHcacioufly quieting the violent emotions of the blood, or fupply'ing fo happily the place of opiates ; his general pre- fcription in haemorrages, headachs, and other the like affec- tions, being nitre, crabs eyes, and cinnabar. Frid. Hoffman, Diflert. de Gin. Ant.

CINNAMOLOGUS, in the writers of natural hiftory among the antients, the name given to a bird which built its neft ei- ther in the cinnamon tree, or upon rocks and precipices, with the broken branches of that tree. The antients have a great many idle traditions concerning this bird ; fome fay it is the phcenix, and others that it is a peculiar fpecics of fowl. The affertors of the latter opinion bring the accounts of fome of the old writers to countenance it, who fay, that the fineft and moffc valuable cinnamon was that collected by this bird for this pur- pofe, and that it built its neft on inaccefTible rocks and preci- pices, from whence the natives daily beat it down with ftones and arrows, and found a conftant fupply from what the old ones brought to fupply the place of what they threw down. Avienus, and many other authors, however, plainly exprefs themfelves of this bird as the fame with the phcenix ; and it is pretty certain, that all that have written intelligibly have been of that opinion. The common opinion of the phcenix building its neft of fpices, feems to have given birth to all the idle ftories that we hear of this bird in Pliny and other credu-' lous authors.

CINNAMON /;?<?, in botany. See the article Winter anus cortex.

CINNAMUM, the name given by many of the old writers on the materia medica to cinnamon. -It is evident, from a ftridt ex- amination of the writings of the antients, that cinnamum and cinnamomum were fynonymous words, and always ufed to ex- prefs the fame thing ; but the barbarous ages that fucceeded thefe, obferving that there was great difference in Strength and virtue between the bark of the trunk of the tree, which came to them in thick pieces, and the bark of the young branches which came in thin quills, determined to distinguish thefe by the names of cinnamum and cinnamomum ; fo that in their writings the word cinnamum is always to be underftood of the coarfe and large cinnamon of the tree; and the word cinnamomum with them only means the bark of the young branches. A'lacer tells us, that there were three kinds of cinnamon in ufe in his time, but that the fmalteft and fineft was the beft. The Arabian writers when they treat of cinnamon, have three words by which they exprefs it; thefe are felkba,da/im,2M& karfe. The laft word is translated, by the writers of the middle ages, cinnamomum, the word darfini is translated cinramum, and the word felicha is rendered caffia lignea ; but this is not at all war- rantable from the writings of the A rabian authors,for all that they mean by the three words is to exprefs three forts of cinnamon, differing in value and goodnefs, not to take in either the caffia lignea, or the bark of the trunk of the cinnamon tree. The cin- namum or cinnamomum of the antients agrees lefs with this account than the writings of the Arabians; for what the earlieft writers meant by cinnamomum was not a mere bark, but the young Shoots of the tree covered with their bark, and the wood and bark were fold together, and ufed fo by the phyficians. The Greeks called this alfo ««$>«. from whence the Arabians have derived their name kerfe, which they attribute to. all kinds of cinnamon. See Cinnamon, Cycl.

CINNOR. See Kinnor, and Cinyra.

CIN-