Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/246

216] glass bottle, as will, when sufficiently shaken, produce a beautiful milk-white liquor. If a kind of cream should settle on the surface, it will be requisite to add a small quantity of the spirituous solution of the soap.—Those who may wish to have this liquor perfumed, may employ lavender, or Hungary water, instead of the spirit of wine.

This celebrated composition is, however, seldom obtained in a genuine state, when purchased at the shops. Its use, as an external remedy, is very extensive; for it has not only been employed for curing the bites of vipers, wasps, bees, gnats, ants, and other insects, but also for burns, and even the, though not always with uniform success. Besides, it affords one of the safest stimulants in cases of suffocation from mephitic vapours, and in that state of (which see) termed serous, as likewise after excessive intoxication, and in all those paralytic complaints, where the vessels of the skin, or the muscular fibre, require to be excited into action. Nevertheless, it ought to be used with due precaution.  EBONY, an exceedingly hard and heavy wood, imported from the East Indies: it admits of being very highly polished, for which reason it is used chiefly for veneering cabinets, in Mosaic work, &c.

Ebony is of various colours, namely, black, red, and green; but the first is that most generely known and used. Cabinet-makers, inlayers, and others, frequently substitute pear-tree, and other wood, for ebony, by giving the former a black colour; which some effect by washing it in a hot decoction of gall-nuts, and after it is dry, by rubbing it over with ink, and polishing it by means of a hard brush and a little wax: others heat, or almost burn their wood till it become black, so that it acquires such a degree of hardness, that, when properly polished, it can with difficulty be distinguished from genuine ebony.  ECONOMY, a term of extensive signification, and if its meaning be properly understood and practised, the result cannnot fail to be attended with the happiest effects. It is, in particular, applied to rural, domestic, animal, political, and other objects, but more generally to the first mentioned, which form the basis of the present work.

As, by our plan, we are confined to the alphabetical order, in which the different subjects of economy are discussed, according to their greater or less importance, we cannot, consistently, enlarge upon its theory. Those readers who are seriously inclined to adopt practicable rules of economy and frugality, will consult the particular articles connected these measures: others, who wish to acquire more extensive information on rural and domestic economy in general, will be highly gratified by the perusal of Mr. J. 's Synopsis of Husbandry (8vo. 9s. 1800), and especially the collection of the Reports of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor; a work which merits a place in every family library.   Tools: See.  : See ; ; and.  EDUCATION, is the art of rearing, forming, and instructing children, according to the most appropriate rules and maxims.— Many