Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/588

 564 SALERNO SALIERI It contains a small proportion of starch, and 48 per cent, of a peculiar mucilage more nearly allied to cellulose than to gum ; it will convert 40 parts of water into a thick jelly ; small amounts of sugar and albumen are also pres- ent. Salep is hardly known to Americans; druggists keep it to supply the wants of Eu- ropeans, who use it in a decoction flavored with spice, wine, and sugar. SALERNO (anc. Salernum), a town of S. Ita- ly, capital of the province of Principato Cite- riore or Salerno' (see PEINCIPATO CITERIOBK), at the head of the gulf of Salerno in the Medi- terranean, 30 m. 8. E. of Naples ; pop. in 1872, 27,759. The port, long nearly filled up with sand, has been improved since 1868. The cathedral, begun about 1080 on the site of an older edifice, contains the remains of Pope Gregory VII., and according to tradition also those of St. Matthew, to whom it is dedicated. The university of Salerno, especially celebrated in the middle ages for its school of medicine, was replaced in 1817 by a lyceum. Salernnm was originally founded by the Greeks or Tyr- rhenians, and received a Roman colony in 194 8. C. It was some time the residence of the Lombard duke of Benevento, in 840 became an independent principality, in 1077 was cap- tured by Robert Guiscard and made the capi- tal of the duchy of Apulia, and afterward passed to the kingdom of Naples. SALES, Francis de. See Ki: M L- DE SALES. SALFORD. See MANCHESTER. 8ALIANS, or Sallt Franks, a tribe of Germans, who iu the 5th century invaded Gaul, and by its conquest under Clovis founded the French monarchy. (See FRANKS.) Their code of law was called the Salic. (See CODE, vol. v., p. 7.) Salic land (terra Salica or dominicata) was a name given to an estate subject to no burden, depending upon no superior, and upon which the manor house of the master was situated. Later the title was applied also to inherited landed property as distinct from acquired pos- sessions, and by the Salic law females were excluded from inheriting this species of prop- erty. This last feature of their law has al- ways prevailed in France with respect to the crown, as it did in Spain under the Bourbon line till 1830, when it was abolished in favor of Isabella. The German emperors of the house of Franconia, from Conrad II. to Henry V. (1024-1125), are designated as Salians. SALICINE, a crystallizable bitter substance contained in the leaves and young bark of the willow (talix), poplar, and several other trees, discovered by Leroux in 1880. It was investigated by Piria, who discovered many of its derivatives, among them salicylic acid. It is prepared by boiling the bark in water, con- centrating the decoction, digesting with oxide of lead, and precipitating the lead by sulphu- retted hydrogen, when salicine crystallizes out on evaporating and cooling. By treatment with animal charcoal and recrystallizing it may be obtained pure in small white silky needles, having an intensely bitter taste, but no alka- line reaction. Its formula is CisHigOi. It is soluble in 5'6 parts of cold, and in much less boiling water. The addition of sulphuric acid produces a deep red color. Distilled with a mixture of bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid, among other products there is a yellow, sweet-scented oil, called salicylol, having the composition CTHOJ, identical with the vola- tile oil which was obtained from the flowers of spircea ulmaria or common meadow-sweet by Lowig and Weidmann. SALIC LAW. See SALIANS. SALICYLIC ACID, a product of salicine, car- bolic acid, and other substances. (See SALI- CINE.) "When salicylol is acted on by chromic acid or potassium hydrate, it becomes oxidized, forming potassium salicylate, with evolution of hydrogen (C,H.Oi + HpK=C,HKO, + H a ). The potassium salicylate is decomposed by the action of hydrochloric acid, liberating salicylic acid, CiHeO, with production of potassium chloride (C 7 H.KO, + HC1=C,H,O, + KC1). Oil of wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbent) also yields, by distillation with potash, methyl alco- hol and salicylic acid. The latter may also be formed by passing dry carbon dioxide into warm phenol (carbolic acid), to which at the same time are added small pieces of sodium. The reaction forms sodium salicylate, from which salicylic acid may be obtained by the action of hydrochloric acid. It is this manner of producing salicylic acid which gives it im- portance both in a scientific and commercial point of view. Two German chemists, Kolbe and Lautemann, chose carbolic acid to experi- ment upon, with a view to produce salicylic acid, and its discovery is therefore not an acci- dent. Salicylic acid crystallizes from an alco- holic solution by spontaneous evaporation in large, monoclinic, four-sided prisms. From a hot aqueous solution it separates on cooling into slender needles, often an inch long. It melts at 266 F., and gives off phenol at a higher temperature. It has a sweetish sour taste, and reddens litmus paper strongly. It does not act on polarized light. It is very slightly soluble in cold, quite soluble in hot water, and still more in alcohol ; and boiling oil of turpentine dissolves about one fifth of its weight. The acid solution imparts a deep red color to ferric salts. Salicylic acid has re- cently attracted much attention as a powerful anti-ferment, taking the place of carbolic acid or phenol as a dressing to wounds and ulcers, and as a general antiseptic. "When consider- ably diluted it is almost odorless and tasteless, and in moderate quantities it has no poisonous effects. It prevents the souring of worts and beer, and is used by glue manufacturers to arrest putrefaction. SALIERI, Antonio, an Italian composer, born in Legnano, Aug. 19, 1750, died in Vienna, M.-iy 7, 1825. In 1766 he went to Vienna with Gassmann the contrapuntist, who in- structed him, and whom he succeeded in 1775