Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/386

 382 CORRIE CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE and sterile, but the south is more fertile. Be- sides the Correze, the principal rivers are the Dordogne and Vezere, which cross the depart- ment from N. to S. The chief products are rye, buckwheat, and potatoes. Some wine is produced, but it is of poor quality. A consid- erable number of oxen are raised for the Paris market and for work, and there are more than 400,000 sheep, chiefly of native breed. A coal mine is worked at Lapleau, and there are also mines of lead, iron, copper, and antimony, most of which are poorly worked and produce little. The chief manufactures are guns, which are made at Tulle, and cotton. The peasants are poor, their food consisting mainly of buck- wheat, potatoes, and chestnuts, the last of which are very abundant. The department is divided into the arrondisseinents of Tulle, Brives, and Ussel. Capital, Tulle. CORRIE, Daniel, bishop of Madras, born in England in 1777, died in Madras, Feb. 5, 1837. He went to India in 1806, was appointed arch- deacon of Calcutta by Bishop Heber in 1823, and consecrated bishop of Madras June 14, 1835. He was a fellow laborer with Buchanan, Martyn, Heber, and Turner. He translated Sellon's abridgment of the Scriptures, the Eng- lish prayer book, homilies, and other religious works, into Hindostanee, and compiled in Eng- lish the outlines of ancient history for the use of the schools in India. CORRIENTES. 1. A province of the Argen- tine Republic, between lat. 25 30' and 30 S., and Ion. 53 30' and 59 50' W., bounded N. by Paraguay and Brazil, E. by Brazil, S. by the province of Entre Rios, and W. by the Gran Chaco; area, 60,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1869, 120,- 198. It is surrounded by rivers, having the Uruguay on the east, the Parana on the west and north, and the Corrientes on the south. A large portion of the province in the south is covered by forests, furnishing excellent ship timber. The north is marshy, and contains the remarkable lake of Ibera, which covers over 1,000 sq. m. The soil is fertile, and produces rice, sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, &c., abun- dantly; but the inhabitants are mostly em- ployed in the raising of cattle, horses, and sheep. II. The capital of the province, on the left bank of the Parana, 20 m. below its junc- tion with the Paraguay, and 485 m. N. by W. of Buenos Ayres, in lat. 27 32' S., Ion. 58 44' TV. ; pop. in 1869, 10,670. The city is laid out with streets intersecting at right angles. There are several churches of some architectural pre- tensions, a cdbildo or government house, and a college. The buildings are generally of one story, supplied with broad galleries. The bet- ter class of dwellings are of brick, with open courts adorned with orange trees and flowers. The town has an extended water front, and the anchorage admits of a near approach to the shore. It is well situated for commercial purposes, being the entrepot for trade between the upper part of the Paraguay and the Para- na and the seaports on the coast. It is the principal market of the Chaco Indians for furs, and exports hides and wool. CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. This salt has long been described as a bichloride of mercury, con- sisting of two atoms of chlorine and one of mercury ; but it is actually composed of one equivalent each of mercury and chlorine, and should be known as the protochloride of mer- cury, a name very commonly given to calomel, which is properly a subchloride, consisting of two atoms of mercury and one of chlorine. This distinction is the more important to be made, as both these chlorides are powerful medi- cines, and a mistake in administering one for the other might be attended with the most se- rious consequences. Corrosive sublimate was known at an early period to the Chinese, and was spoken of by Geber about A. D. 800. It is obtained in cakes of small translucent and colorless prisms, clustering together, which are soluble in water, and more readily in alcohol. The specific gravity is variously given from 5-14 to 6-5. The salt fuses at 509, and boils at 563, being converted into a colorless vapor of density 9'42. Corrosive sublimate has an acrid and caustic taste, somewhat styptic, and shows an acid reaction in reddening litmus paper. Taken internally, it acts as a violent poison, corroding the parts with which it comes in contact, and producing violent irrita- tion, intense pain in the bowels and stomach, with vomiting and diarrhoea. It is neutralized and its effects mitigated by administering albu- minous matters, as the white of eggs, or glu- ten in the form of flour, or caseous matters, as the curd of milk. It should be remembered, however, that the compounds formed by these substances with corrosive sublimate, although much less active than that salt alone, are only relatively insoluble, and should be got rid of by emetics or the stomach pump as soon as possible. Corrosive sublimate is decomposed by protosulphuret of iron, iron filings, and Pe- ruvian bark, which may consequently be used as antidotes. The salt is obtained in an ex- perimental way by heating a globule of mer- cury in an iron spoon, and plunging it into a bottle of chlorine gas ; the metal takes fire and burns, producing the chloride. It may also be obtained by dissolving the red oxide of mer- cury in hot hydrochloric acid; as the solution cools, the chloride crystallizes. In the large way, it is usually prepared by heating in a re- tort the protosulphate with a mixture of sea salt; the protochloride sublimes, and is de- posited upon cold surfaces, and sulphate of soda remains in the retort. The process of the United States Pharmacopoeia is to boil 2 Ibs. of mercury with 3 Ibs. of sulphuric acid, until a white dry mass is left. This when cold is to be rubbed with chloride of sodium in an earthenware mortar, and then distilled. Cor- rosive sublimate has strong antiseptic proper- ties, owing in part to its forming insoluble com- pounds with nitrogenous substances. A mere trace of it in a bucket of wate"r, it is stated,