Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/56

 48 GLYCERINE and its strong affinity for water, it may be ap- plied to the skin or to mucous surfaces, when sired to prevent dryness and to use a bland and soothing application, as in chapped hands or lips, many skin diseases, a parched and glazed condition of the mouth, &c. If ap- plied undiluted, it withdraws water from the raoister tissues under it. For external uses it mar be advantageously combined with tannin, carbolic acid, or borax, all of which are readily dissolved by it With starch a plasma of any required consistency may be formed, which takes the place of an ointment, and has the ad- vantage of not being greasy, and being capable of easy removal by washing. Inferior varieties of glycerine may contain irritating impurities. Either alone or with a small proportion of car- bolic acid, it is a very useful medium for the preservation of anatomical specimens in a con- dition of pliability, and is also of great value in microscopic anatomy. Glycerine is a powerful solvent, and may be used in pharmacy to pre- vent drying as well as decomposition. The vegetable alkaloids dissolve in it readily, and may be used in this form for subcutaneous in- jection. It has been suggested for internal use in diabetes, instead of sugar, and also as a sub- stitute for cod -liver oil; but experience does not assign to it much value for these purposes. For use in cosmetics and perfumery it is large- ly manufactured, its soft agreeable qualities, without greasiness or liability to putrefy, ren- dering it an excellent ingredient in soaps for the toilet, pomade, hair tonics, &c. It is lately employed in the photographic art, and its use is extending for a variety of new purposes. A jrly<-orine ointment of much repute for chapped hands and excoriations is made as follows: } oz. of spermaceti is melted together with a drachm of white wax and 2 fluid oz. of oil of almonds, by a moderate heat ; the mixture is l>oured into a Wedgwood mortar, when a fluid ounce of glycerine is added to it and rubbed till the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and cold. The consumption of glycerine in the manufac- ture of beer amounts to more than 20,000 cwt. per annum. It also finds extensive use for the toll.) wing purposes: mixed with water to fill wet gas metres ; to lubricate the inside of moulds l'>r piaster casts; to prevent the shrinkage of wooden vessels; to preserve meat, fruit, can- die*, medicines, mustard, and tobacco; as a hair wash; in soaps and cosmetics; for the extraction of perfumes ; to impart elasticity to paper ; in various photographic operations ; as a solvent for certain aniline colors; in calico MK; in the preparation of leather; as a ito for oil in delicate machinery ; as a float to swimming compasses; in mercurial manometers; as a substitute for alcohol in the preservation of anatomical preparations; to prevent the rusting of instruments ; in the ar- tificial production of oil of mustard ; to cure 1*, burns, and bites of venomous insects; i !' tvim-nts; fur throat dis- iu upyin- ink ; in chemistry to prevent GLYPTODON the precipitations of the heavy metals; and very largely in the manufacture of the explosive compounds nitro-glycerine, dynamite, dualline, and lithofracteur. (See EXPLOSIVES.) GLYNN, a S. E. county of Georgia, bordering on the Atlantic, and bounded N. by the Alta- maha river ; area, about 400 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 6,376, of whom 3,450 were colored. It is traversed by the Macon and Brunswick and the Brunswick and Albany railroad. The sur- face is level and occupied partly by sandy pine barrens, partly by vast swamps, which when drained are productive. The sea island cotton grows here in perfection. Several islands on the coast, one of which is about 12 m. long, are included in the county. The chief produc- tions in 1870 were 15,589 bushels of Indian corn, 6,774 of sweet potatoes, 167 bales of cotton, and 740,880 Ibs. of rice. There were 2 manufactories of tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware, 1 iron foundery, and 4 saw mills. Capi- tal, Brunswick. GLYPTODON, a gigantic fossil mammal, be- longing to the edentate order with the mega- therium and mylodon, but to the family dasy- pidrn or armadillos, found in the post-tertiary Glyptodon clavipes. deposits of the pampas of South America, and especially in the neighborhood of Buenos Ayres. This animal, with the fossil genera above men- tioned, establishes the transition between the sloths and the armadillos, and also indicates some pachyderm affinities. Four species have been described by Prof. Owen, of which the largest is the G. clavipes; this species, in the structure of the foot and the articulation of the lower jaw, approaches the pachyderms ; it resembles the megatherioids in the strong de- scending process of the zygomatic arch, com- pressed from before backward; the cranium was protected by dermal plates, and its well developed ridges indicate the existence of very powerful muscles. The teeth, eight on each side of each jaw, have a large proportion of hard dentine, and are characterized by two lateral sculptured grooves, whose wide and deep channels divide the grinding surface into three portions; hence the generic name ap- plied by Owen, which means "sculptured tooth." The back and sides were covered by a carapace composed of thick polygonal bony plates, united by sutures, smooth on the inside, rough and sculptured externally, to the num- ber of more than 2,000. The length of the largest living armadillo, covered with a flat-