Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/581

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fallen in when it was almoft hard, otherwife they would have funk through. Tire pieces of amber including other pieces are alfo of this origin ; and when it has happened that the included piece, and the furrounding mafs, have been of different degrees of colour, the inner piece is obvious, and the effect plain ; but when thefe have been both of the fame colour, which probably moft frequently has been the cafe, we have no traces of the accident ; and probably this, though by accident concealed, is a much more frequent cafe than is commonly imagined.

To all thefe accidental beauties in amber it is to be alfo added, that as in the Mocoa itones, and many other foffils, fo alfo in this there are fometimes found beautiful delinea- tions of trees, ihrubs, and the like. The natural beauties of thefe pieces have tempted the cunning artificers fome- times to counterfeit them ; but in thefe, as well as in the fo- phifticated mafles with infects, the fraud m:iy always be dif- covered by a curious and attentive infpection. Sendelius's Hift. of Amber.

On opening the ditches for the fortifications of Copenhagen, it is faid that feveral large maffes of amber were found," all of them adhering to the fides of large bodies of trees, which were black as ebony. The pieces are preferved in the ca- binet of the king of Denmark in that place, and fome of them weigh forty or fifty ounces. This is an additional cir- cumitance to the common obfervation of fomething, refem- bling wood, being always found where amber is, and de- ferves to be confidered, as it tends to overthrow the prefent received fyftem, of amber being originally a mineral pro- duction.

Amber is the bafis of all varnifhes. For the method of difiblving this fubftance into varnifb, fee the article Varnish. But if amber could be diflblved without impairing its tranf- parency, or one large mafs be made of it by uniting feveral fmall ones, it is eafy' to fee what would be the advantages of fuch a procefs. The art of embalming might poflibly'be alfo carried to a great height by this, if we could preferve the human corps in a tranfparent cafe of amber, as the bo- dies of flies, fpiders, grafhoppers, (sfc. are to a great perfec- tion. Something of a fubiiitute of this kind we have in fine rofin, boiled to a great hardnefs, and perfect tranfpa- rence ; this being diflblved by heat, and the bodies of fmall animals feveral times dipped in it, they are thus coated with colophony, that in fome degree rqfembles amber ; but this muft be kept from duft. Shaw's Lectures, p. 425. Amber, in medicine, is given in its crude Hate, only redu- ced to powder, as an aflringent and balfamic. It is pre- ferred in the fluor albus, in convulfions, and in all difor- ders of the nerves. It is alfo given in coughs, and difcafes of the lungs j and is by fome greatly recommended in inve-

terate head-achs. Its dofe is from

one lcrupie to two.

Its preparations are, I. fal fuecini, or fait of amber. 2. Ok urn fuecini, or oil of amber. 3. Tinclura fuecini, or tincture of amber.

Oleum Succiki, or oil of amber. To purify the dark muddy oil of amber drawn per ft, take two pounds of good brandy, one of fea fait, half a pound of the oil; mix them, and di- ftil them together, and a large proportion will come over very tranfparent, and finely coloured. Boyle's Works, Vol. 1. P- 3 2 9-

Plants m Succinum, or amber. SeePLANTS.

SUCCURY, or Succory, cichrium, in botany. See the article Cichorium.

The common blue-flowered fuccory, or cichorium, is cele- brated among fome of the botanical writers for a property in its flowers, fuppofed to be peculiar to it, and efteemed very Angular; this is, that though naturally of a fine bright blue, they become red as blood on being a little time bu- ried in an anthill. By what accident this property was dif- covered we do not know, but probably only by the fall- ing of fome of the flowers off from the plant into a neft of .thefe little animals. Langham, in his Garden of Health, has related this, but it is no difcovery of his ; for Tragus, long before his time, tells us, fpeaking of this plant, that .nature affords a miraculous phenomenon in its flowers, which is, that if put amongft living ants in their hill, it changes from blue to red, as if blufhing with fhame and fear of fuch numerous and fmall enemies; and John Bauhine records the fame thing from Otho Brunfelfius. It would have been well, if all who have related this wonderful change of colour, would have varied the experiment with the vio- let, and other blue flowers ; they would then have found, that it was not the propetty of the plant, but of the ani- mal, that was the true object of wonder. All blue flowers of plants will turn red on the rubbing them over with acids, and the wonder is, to find that the ants have a natural ani- mal acid about them, capable of making fuch a change ; not that the flowers of the fuccory are fufceptible of fuch a change with acids. Tragus in Stirp. John Bauh'me, Hift Plant.

The method of making the experiment is this : lay bare the top of an anthill with a ftick, and then throw fome of the flowers of fuccory on the place ; the ants will immediately be feen to creep over them, and as they move along, they

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may be obferved frequently to let fall a drop of clear water from the lower part of their bodies; wherever this falls up- on the flower, it makes a large red fiain ; by degrees they let fall more of thefe drops, and every one makini its own particular ftain, the whole flower becomes at length coloured. Sometimes they make this change very quickly in the flower, and fometimes they are a great while about it J but the body of the ant, bruifed upon a leaf of the flower, will immediately ftain the whole, fo far as it reaches. It deferves inquiry, whether the ants limply depeflt this liquor on the flower, or whether they make a wound or punilure on the flu face of the flower firft. The lafl is moft probably true ; becaufe this flower is covered with fo thick an exter- nal membrane, that the acid fpirits of vitriol, fait, or the like, being barely touched upon it, do not inftantly change its colour ; but if it be picked or bruifed, fo as to let in the liquor, the change of colour is then inftantly produced. If the flowers of this plant be fteeped in the ftrongeft vinegar for a long time together, they will not change colour while the menftruum remains cold ; but if it be heated a little, it is by that means put in motion, and rendered capable of entering the pores, and then the colour is inftantly changed. It is not obferved that the ant makes any pundture, and if it does not, it is evident, from the immediate change in the flower, where the ftrong mineral has no fuch effect, that the acid in this little animal is of a very peculiar nature. It has been fuppofed by feme, that the tingling felt in the (km, and the bumps raifed on it by ants, are owing to the falling of this penetrating acid liquor, as the creatuie moves along. The venomous effect of the fling of the bee and wafp, is faid by authors to be owing to the introducing into the wound a fharp liquor, lodged by nature in this animal at the root of the fling. It would deferve a trial, whether the liquor of thefe creatures be of the fame penetrating acid nature with that of the ant, which might be eafily difcover- ed, by forcing out the fling of one of thefe animals by preffure, and making it enter into the petal of the flower of a violet, buglofs, fuccory, or any other of the like plants. This liquor of the ants may eafily be procured in fome quantity from them. If their nefts be diftnrbed with aftick, thruft in among them, they will crawl about the flick, and leave a great number of the drops of their acid upon it, and thefe, if immediately fmelt to, will twinge the nofe like ■ newly diftilled fpirit of vitriol. The larger kind of ants, called by die country people horfe-ants, afford this liquor ftronger, and in greater quantity, than the fmallei, or com- mon ants ; and, on trials, it proves nearly allied to the mi- neral acids in its properties.

The ants, diftilled either by themfelves, or with water, yield an acid fpirit like that of vinegar, or of verdiorcafe, which is more pungent and penetrating. Lead put into mis fpirit affords a good faccharum faturni ; and the fame fait is produced from that metal, if only put into fair water with a large parcel of living ants in it, they foon parting with enough of their acid to make the water a menftruum fharp enough for diffolving that metal. There is alfo fomething very Angular in this acid, which is, that it will preferve it- felf, and be regained from the metalline admixture in its own nature. The common faccharum faturni being diftilled, does not yield back the acid employed in making it, but only an inflammable oil and water; but the faccharum faturni, made by the animal acid of the ant when diftilled, returns back that acid in the fame quantity and ftrength, and no way altered. The vinegar diftilled from verdigreafe, and called fpirit of verdigreafe, is an acid very like this, but ftronger, and more penetrating. Phil. Tranf. N° 68.

SUCK-Ji/!>, in ichthyology, an Englifh name for the remora, or echeneis of Artedi. See Remora.

SUCKING (Cycl.)— Though there are very few inftances cf children which are born with an inability of fucking, yet the writings of phyiicians have recorded fuch cafes; and one, which happened fome years ago in France, gave occa- fion to the members of the Academy to examine ftridly into the caufe of it. Mr. Maloet, who examined the child, found that it wanted the whole palate of the mouth, and that in looking up to the top of the cavity of the mouth, the in- ner part of the nofe was feen ; the child not only wanted the bony parts which form this arch, but alfo the inveftient membrane they are naturally covered by. Mr. Maloet con- ceived that be had now found out the reafon of the child's not having the power to fuck, which he explained in this manner.

In the action of fucking, while the infant has in its mouth the nipple of the nurfe, the air about it is difperfed, and there is made a little void all about it in the cavity of the mouth. At this time the whole breaft is preffed upon as ufual by the external air, though the nipple is not, or at leaft is much lefs fo, and hence the mouth performing the office of a pump, the milk contained in the breaft cannot but difcharge itfelf by degrees through the apertures in the nipple. In order to this, however, it is evidently neceflary that the communication between the mouth and the nofe fhould be flopped by the proper organs ; fince, if this were open, the air, which continually pafl'es through the nofe in 2 refpira-