Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/957

 .K A L

K A M

K.

"f AALING, in natural hiftory, the name of a fpecies of ^ ftarling, common in China, and not unfrequent in L^^. the Philippine iflands. It is black, but its eyes, legs, and beak are yellow. It is eafily kept tame, and may be taught both to fing and talk. It eats rice and infects in its wild ftate ; but when kept in a cage will feed very heartily on bread, and all kinds of fruits.

KABANI, in the oriental offices, a perfon who fupplies the place of what we call the notary publick. All obligations that are valid are drawn by him ; and he is Hkewife the public weigh- mafter, and every thing of confequence ought to be weighed before him. Pocock's Egypt, p. 170.

KABBALA. See Cabbala.

KABBOS, in zoology, the name of an Eaft Indian fifh of the muftela kind. It grows to about two feet long, has no fcales, but feels fmooth and foft, like the eel, and is of a brown colour ; the nofe or fnoutmuch paler than the reft, and fpotted with black. The head is obtufe, and the eyes placed very near the extremity of it. Rays Ichthyolog. Append, p. 4.

K.JEADAS, Kai«&fcj, among the Lacedaemonians, a dungeon for throwing their criminals into. It was of the fame nature with the Athenian Barathron or Orygma. Potter, Tom. 1. p. 135. SeeBARATHRON and Orygma.

K/EKURIAGHAKA, in botany, a name ufed by fome au- thors for the tree which affords the gum elemi of the fliops. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. p. 48.

KAFER Aliheud, in the materia medica, the name given by Avifenna to the drug we call bitumen Judaicum, or Jews pitch. What this author gives us under this head, is princi- pally tranfcribed from Diofcorides ; but it appears that the Arabian has confounded, in his account, the piflafphaltum with the afphaltum or Jews pitch, which the original author keeps feparate, and to which he attributes different virtues, and of which he gives different hiftories. Diofcorides tells us, that the pifTafphaltum was generated in the mountains of Epidaurus and other places, and wafhed down into the fea or rivers by the torrents that fucceeded rains, and that the afphaltum was generated in the bottom of the fea. Avifenna tells us, that the kafer aliheud was fometimes produced on mountains, and fometimes in the fea ; and hence it appears, as well as from other inffances, that he has defcribed both together under the fame name of bitumen Judaicum.

The great refemblance in found between this word kafer. and kofer, which is the name of camphor, has been the occafion of great errors among the commentators on the works of the Arabians in general. Averrhoes defcribes this drug in the fame manner that Avifenna and the reft do ; but his inter- preters, inftead of rendering his words bitumen Judaicum, have rendered them Camphora Indica\ hence the being pro- duced in the fea, and the healing of burnt wounds are at- tributed to camphor, though wholly different both from its real hiftory and true virtues.

KAGHU, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the cajou, or cafhew tree, the fruit of which affords us thecafliew nuts. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. p. 37. See Acajou.

KAIEBACA Dabari, in botany, the name ufed by fome au- thors for the arnotto or urucu, called orleana or orellana by other authors. Ger. Emac. p. 1554-

KAIMACHAN, among the Turks. See Caimacan, Cycl.

KAKILE, a fpecies of eruca. See the article Eruca.

The original fenfe of this word was not the plant now named by it ; but the foldanclla or fea bindweed. This was one of the plants ufed in the making the potafhes, or alkali fait for glafs and foap making, when thofe manufactures were firft brought into ufe ; and it had both the names from that fait. The kakile from kali, and the foldaneUa from joder or folda, another name of that fait. Diofcorides calls this crambe thalajjia, and we find the fame name turned into Latin and ftill preferved, and the plant called braffica mari- tima, and in Englifh the fea cabbage.

KAKOUSA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the tree, which affords the gum elemi ufed in medicine. Hort. Beaum. p. 35.

KALD, a word ufed by Rulandus to exprefs vinegar.

KALED, a word ufed by fome of the chemical writers to exprefs volatile.

KALI, Glajwort, {Cycl) in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, compofed of feveral leaves arranged in a circular form. The piftil arifes from the center of the flower, and finally becomes a fruit of a membranaceous ftructure, and roundilh figure, and containing only one feed, which is twifted or wreathed like a fnail ihell, and ufually covered with the leaves of the flower. The fpecies of kali enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. Suppl. Vol. I*

1. The greater kali with the fnail like feed. 2. The prick- ly kali with longer and narrower leaves. 3. The prickly kali with fhorter and broader leaves, 4. The woody Sicilian kali with membranaceous flowers. 5. The fhrubby Spanifh Kali with tamarifk leaves. 6. The fhrubby Spanifh kali with broom like leaves. 7. The fhrubby Spanifh kali with very narrow hairy leaves. Town. Inft. p. 247. This plant abounds greatly with fea ialt, its juices being properly a faline, not an infipid aqueous fluid -, but the dif- ference between the produce of this plant when green and when dry, is wonderful in chemical experiments. If di- ftilled while frefh and green, it yields an iniipid water; if a pound of it be gathered frefh and hung up to dry, it will yield only three ounces of the dried plant ; this being burnt, is more difficult than any other fubftance of a feeming like texture to be reduced to afhes ; and the afhes finally produced from this quantity burnt in a potter's kiln, will yield only a dram and half of awhitifh fait, and this will but'flightly fer- ment with aqua fortis. Four ounces of the freili herb be- ing boiled in water, and that water carefully evaporated, there will be formed near three quarters of an ounce of pure fea fait in its own natural cubic form faftened to the botiom and fides of the veflel ; and when no more fait will fhoot, the remaining liquor being carefully diftilled, encreafing the fire to a proper degree, the water will firft pafs over, and then a dry volatile fait will be railed and (lick to the top and fides of the veflel. The falts being purified, there will be found as the refultof the experiments, that this herb, while growing, contains about one fifth part of its weight of common ialt. The herb which had been thus boiled being dried, and afterwards again boiled in four or five pints of water, and that decoction evaporated to half the quantity, the li- quor will yield feveral different frnells, as that of a honey comb, that of cabbage, and other pot-herbs. And after all this, the boiled herb being left to putrify, yields the fmell of animal excrements, and in the fame manner becomes the refort of flies, and yields a proper place of habitation, and food for numbers of worms hatched out of the eggs cf thofe winged infects. Henkel, de Affinit. Veget. et Miner. All the experiments that can be made with the cubic cry- ftals of fait, formed in the evaporated decoction of this herb, prove them to be common fait ; and the volatile fait raifed afterwards by fire from that iiquor, in which no more of this cubic fait would cryftallize, is found to be a high alkali by its fermenting with the acid fpirits. The juice of" this plant, when it has been fet by in order to fhoot, and all its fea fait has been feparated from it by that means, being dried away by evaporation, and the remainder calcined ; there is found at laft a dry and earthy fubftance, which has fome- what of a lixivial tafte, but does not run to a liquor by being expofed to the air. This calcined fubftance, being mixed with any of the acid fpirits, but particularly with that of vitriol, becomes of a beautiful blue colour, not inferior to the fineft ultramarine.

If the recent herb kali be fet to ferment with common wa- ter, it yields, in the different ftages of fermentation, feveral very different fmells ; firft that of pickled cabbage, after- wards that of earth-worms killed in fpirit of wine, and af- terwards that of fifh and dried herrings. If this matter be after all this diftilled, it yields a fpirit very much refembling the finer fpirit of tartar, and afterwards an empyreumatic oil, exactly refembling thofe of animal fubftances ; but what is remarkable is, that there can be no volatile fait extracted from this putrefied mafs by any art. The refiduum yields a potafh, which efFervefces violently with acids, and with the vitriolic acid, becomes a fal enixum; with aqua fortis, it makes nitre; with fpirit of fait it affords common fait, fuch as that fpirit was diftilled from; and with all the acids of whatever kind undt*r proper management, it yields the blue colour before mentioned, approaching more or Iefs to the fine colour of the ultramarine, according to the na- ture of the acid and the procefs. The fait extracted from purified potafh, made in this manner, is of a greenifh caft like native borax, and the remainder, after the ex- tracting of this fait on mixing and diyx-fting with aqua fortis, will become a foft gelatinous matter of a truly me- tallic tafte.

KALfCABRE, a name given by fome of the barbarous writers to gagates, or jet.

KAMAN, in natural hiftory, a name given by many authors to a ftone found about the burning mountains, and at fome times ufed to engrave feais on. It is defcribed as a white ftone variegated with feyeral colours.

ICAMAR, a word ufed by fome writers in chemiftry to ex- prefs filver.

15 A K AMINE,