Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/830

 814 GINDELY GINGKO 1 cwt. of meal. When the magma has been made uniform by stirring, the tun is covered to confine the heat, and it is left thus for two hours. It is then stirred up again, the trans- parent spent wash of a preceding mashing is added, and afterward cold water enough to re- duce the temperature to 85. Flanders. yeast is introduced next, in the proportion of 1 Ib. to every 100 gallons of the mixture. Fermenta- tion speedily sets in, and the attenuation is complete in from 48 to 60 hours. A part of the yeast is usually skimmed off from the fer- menting tuns, by which the production of spirit is obstructed, but the quality of the liquor is improved by preventing its impregnation with yeasty particles. The wash and grains are then transferred to the still and converted into low wines, into every 100 gallons of which are put two pounds of juniper berries and about a quarter of a pound of salt. The whole is then put into the low-wine still and the spirit drawn off by a well regulated heat. The quantity of spirit varies from 18 to 21 gallons to the quarter of grain. There are 300 distilleries of this liquor at Schiedam. English gin, manu- factured largely in London and other places in Great Britain, is made usually from the impure products of the distillation of Scotch and Eng- lish whiskey, rectified by one or more distilla- tions, and flavored with various substances, such as the oil of turpentine, oil of juniper, cori- ander seeds, cardamoms, capsicum, &c. This gin is the common alcoholic drink of the lower classes in England, and almost every London dealer has his private receipt for increasing its pungency and strength. It is adulterated prob- ably more than any other liquor. Pure gin contains, according to Brande, 51 '60 parts of alcohol in every 100 parts. GINDELY, Anton, a German historian, born in Prague, Sept. 3, 1829. He became in 1853 professor of the German language and litera- ture at the Bohemian Olerrealschule in Prague, and in 1862 of Austrian history in the univer- sity of that city and archivist of Bohemia. He has published many historical works, including Rudolf II. und seine Zeit (2 vols., Prague, 1862-'5), Monumenta Historic Bohemica (4 parts, 1864-"T), and GescJiiclite des Dreissig- jahrigen Kriegs (1869). GINGER, the scraped and dried rhizoma of zingiber officinale, a plant of the order zingi- leracece, a native of Hindostan, but cultivatad both in the East and West Indies, and in Sierra Leone. It has a tuberous root, an annual stem 2 or 3 ft. high, and smooth, lanceolate leaves, 5 or 6 in. long. Its flowers are yellow- ish and emit an aromatic odor. Its medicinal virtues reside in its root, of which two varie- ties are found in the market, the black and the white or Jamaica ginger. The difference is chiefly in the retention or removal of the epi- dermis, and perhaps a subsequent bleaching process applied to the lighter variety. In com- merce the whole ginger is called race ginger. A preserve is made by boiling the young and tender roots in sugar ; large quantities of it are imported from China. Ginger is used both for cooking and as a medicine. Its odor is aromatic and characteristic, its taste spicy and pungent. It contains a volatile oil and resins, with other constituents of less importance, and enters into Ginger (Zingiber officinale). many officinal preparations, its virtues being usually extracted by alcohol ; but an infusion may be used. The popular aromatic stimulant sold as extract of Jamaica ginger is a concen- trated alcoholic tincture. Ginger is a grateful stimulant and carminative, and is chiefly used either alone or in combination in disorders of the alimentary canal. It will often relieve flat- ulence and the griping pains of a mild colic. It renders bitter infusions and tinctures more acceptable to the stomach, and may be advan- tageously combined with tonic powders. In many cases it palliates, if it does not allay, the distress of seasickness. The dose of the pow- der is 10 grs. or more ; the fluid extract and tincture are the best form for administration. GINGKO (Salisburia adiantifolid), a large tree from China and Japan, belonging to the yew suborder of coniferce. No tree can ap- pear less like a member of the pine family than the ginkgo ; it is a rapid grower, with a straight trunk clothed with a light gray bark ; its de- ciduous leaves are alternate, fan-shaped or wedge-shaped, with the broad apex notched or cut more or less deeply, frequently two- lobed, thick and leathery, with fine longitu- dinal ribs, and of a light yellowish green color. The leaves are so like those of some maiden- hair ferns that it is by some called the maiden- hair tree. The staminate and pistillate flowers are borne upon separate trees ; the former are in slender catkins about 1 inch long, while the female flowers are either solitary or in small clusters at the ends of the branches ; the female flower, which consists only of a naked ovule, is seated in a small cup-like disk ; this increases