A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER XV.

STARCH, AR­ROW-​ROOT, TAPI­OCA, ISIN­GLASS, CAVIARE, THE VINE, WINE, GIN, RUM, BRANDY, VINE­GAR, IN­DI­GO, GAM­BOGE, LOG­WOOD, TAR, PITCH, CAM­PHOR, MUSK, MYRRH, FRANK­IN­CENSE, AND TUR­PEN­TINE.

What is Starch?

A white, pow­dery sed­iment pro­cured from the bot­tom of ves­sels in which flour or meal has been steeped in wa­ter. Pure starch is of a fine white col­or, with­out taste or smell; it will not dis­solve in cold wa­ter, but with warm forms a jel­ly, in which form it is gen­er­al­ly used; it is made by crush­ing, soak­ing, and fer­ment­ing the grains of the ce­re­als, and then wash­ing in pure wa­ter; the wa­ter is then evap­orat­ed, leav­ing be­hind the starch.

_Sed­iment_, mat­ter sub­sid­ed to the bot­tom of liquors.

For what is Starch used?

To stiff­en linen af­ter wash­ing; to make hair pow­der; and for oth­er pur­pos­es in the arts.

From what veg­eta­bles is Starch ob­tained?

All fari­na­ceous veg­etable sub­stances af­ford it, as the pota­to, horse-​chest­nut, &c. Starch be­ing the nu­tri­tive part of the veg­etable, forms an ex­cel­lent food for in­valids, and con­sti­tutes the prin­ci­pal part of ar­row-​root, tapi­oca, &c.; the dif­fer­ent fla­vor of these sub­stances be­ing de­rived from the mix­ture of a small por­tion of for­eign mat­ter pe­cu­liar to the plants which yield them. Starch is pro­cured from pota­toes by crush­ing them to pow­der, and then pro­ceed­ing as in the man­ufac­ture of wheat starch.

What is Ar­row-​root?

The starch ob­tained from the root of an Amer­ican plant by pul­ver­iza­tion. It is of­ten adul­ter­at­ed with pota­to starch, and the lat­ter is even sold in­stead of it, for the two kinds re­sem­ble each oth­er so close­ly that they can hard­ly be dis­tin­guished.

_Pul­ver­iza­tion_, the act of re­duc­ing to pow­der.

_Adul­ter­at­ed_, cor­rupt­ed by for­eign mix­ture.

What is Tapi­oca?

Tapi­oca is an­oth­er kind of starch, ob­tained from the root of the man­ioc plant, which is cul­ti­vat­ed in most hot cli­mates, in Asia, Africa, and Amer­ica. A flour is al­so pre­pared from it, which is used for mak­ing bread. It is par­tic­ular­ly cul­ti­vat­ed in the trop­ical parts of Amer­ica, and in the West In­dia is­lands, where it forms a very im­por­tant ar­ti­cle of food for the Ne­gro pop­ula­tion.

_Ne­gro_, a name giv­en to the black in­hab­itants of Africa and their de­scen­dants.

_Pop­ula­tion_, in­hab­itants of a place or coun­try.

What is Isin­glass?

One of the purest and finest of _an­imal_ glues. It is the pro­duce of sev­er­al kinds of fish, but es­pe­cial­ly of the stur­geon, which in­hab­its the seas of North­ern Eu­rope and Amer­ica.

From what part of the fish is it pre­pared?

From the air-​blad­der, and cer­tain parts of the en­trails; these are tak­en out while fresh, cut open, washed, and ex­posed to the air a short time to stiff­en; the out­side skin is then tak­en off, and the re­main­ing part formed in­to rolls, fas­tened to­geth­er with pegs, and hung up to dry. The isin­glass is then sep­arat­ed in­to threads of dif­fer­ent sizes, or formed in­to flakes. Im­mense quan­ti­ties are an­nu­al­ly pre­pared in this man­ner in Rus­sia.

What are its us­es?

Dis­solv­ing read­ily in wa­ter or milk, it yields a mild nu­tri­ment for the sick, and en­ters in­to the com­po­si­tion of many del­ica­cies for the ta­ble, such as jel­lies, &c. It is mixed with gum to give lus­tre to silk and satin; it is al­so used in mak­ing court plas­ter, and for clar­ify­ing var­ious liquors. Gela­tine, now much used on ac­count of its be­ing less ex­pen­sive, is a sim­ilar prepa­ra­tion, but of an in­fe­ri­or qual­ity.

What else does the Stur­geon sup­ply?

Its roe fur­nish­es the del­ica­cy called Caviare, which is in fact mere­ly that part of the fish sep­arat­ed from the mem­branes and washed in vine­gar and white wine, and dried in the air. It is then well salt­ed, and packed up in bar­rels ready for sale. This is the method of prepar­ing it in Rus­sia, where large quan­ti­ties of it are con­sumed. It is large­ly ex­port­ed to Italy, where it is high­ly es­teemed. It is un­whole­some, and at present the de­mand for it, ex­cept in Rus­sia and Italy, is very lim­it­ed. The best is dry and of a brown col­or, and is eat­en with lemon juice on bread.

To what oth­er us­es is the fruit of the Vine ap­plied be­sides dry­ing it for raisins, as de­scribed in the sixth chap­ter?

The well-​known plant, called the Vine, has been an ob­ject of cul­ture from the ear­li­est ages of the world, for the sake of the fer­ment­ed liquor ob­tained from its fruit; soon af­ter the flood, Noe, who ap­pears to have been the first “hus­band­man,” is men­tioned as hav­ing “plant­ed a vine­yard,” and drank of the juice of the grape; in all those coun­tries where it flour­ish­es, it is in­sep­ara­bly con­nect­ed with their re­li­gious rites, and wine, like corn, formed one of the prin­ci­pal ar­ti­cles which they of­fered on their al­tars to the gods whom they wor­shipped.

_Hus­band­man_, one who cul­ti­vates the fruits of the earth.

_Al­tar_, the place where sac­ri­fices were an­cient­ly of­fered to some de­ity.

What coun­tries pro­duce the best Wines?

The wines of France are gen­er­al­ly ad­mit­ted to be the finest; the prin­ci­pal ones are Cham­pagne, Bur­gundy, and Claret. Of each of these, there are sev­er­al va­ri­eties, cel­ebrat­ed for their pe­cu­liar fla­vor; they are gen­er­al­ly named af­ter the places where they are made. Spain, Por­tu­gal, Italy, Ger­many, Hun­gary, Sici­ly, Greece, and Cal­ifor­nia, al­so pro­duce their var­ious sorts of wine, each es­teemed in its kind.

May Wine be ex­tract­ed from oth­er veg­etable bod­ies?

The word is ap­pro­pri­at­ed in a more par­tic­ular man­ner to the fer­ment­ed juice of the grape; but near­ly all veg­etable pro­duc­tions may be made to af­ford wine. That pro­duced from Ap­ples is called Cider; that from Pears, Per­ry. A kind of wine, called Mead, is pre­pared from hon­ey and wa­ter.

_Ap­pro­pri­at­ed_, ap­plied to.

What is Hon­ey?

A sweet veg­etable juice, col­lect­ed from the flow­ers of var­ious plants by the bees.

What Hon­ey was reck­oned by the an­cients the best in the world?

The hon­ey of Hy­bla, on the east coast of Sici­ly, and of Hymet­tus, a moun­tain of Greece, near Athens.

What oth­er flu­id is drawn from Wine?

Spir­its; by this term is un­der­stood, a volatile flu­id called spir­its of wine, or al­co­hol, ob­tained by dis­til­la­tion from wine, beer, and all fer­ment­ed liquors. It is col­or­less, and of a strong pen­etrat­ing taste and smell. It is of great use in chem­istry; in dye­ing to pre­pare the stuff for re­ceiv­ing col­ors; and in many of the arts.

What is the ves­sel called which is used in Dis­till­ing?

A Still. It is a ves­sel so formed as to col­lect the va­por, which is the spir­it, or al­co­hol, sep­arat­ed from the liq­uid from which it is drawn. This liq­uid prod­uct is it­self re­turned to the still; and the same pro­cess is sev­er­al times re­peat­ed, till the al­co­hol or spir­it is suf­fi­cient­ly strong and pure. There are three prin­ci­pal spir­its used in this coun­try, as gin, rum, and brandy.

_Prod­uct_, thing pro­duced.

What is Gin?

A spir­it pro­cured from raw bar­ley, oats, and malt, mixed to­geth­er in cer­tain pro­por­tions: there are sev­er­al va­ri­eties of this spir­it, all ob­tained from grain. The pe­cu­liar fla­vor of gin is giv­en by in­fus­ing a few hops and some of the berries of the ju­niper fir.

What is Malt?

Malt is bar­ley pre­pared by be­ing steeped in wa­ter and fer­ment­ed, and then dried in a kiln. It is used for mak­ing beer, &c.

Of what are Hops the pro­duce?

Of a grace­ful climb­ing plant, the blos­soms of which are used in mak­ing beer, to pre­serve it and im­prove its fla­vor.

What is Rum?

A spir­it ob­tained from mo­lasses, the flu­id which drains from sug­ar while it is crys­tal­liz­ing.

What is Brandy?

A spir­it dis­tilled from any wine; but the best is pro­cured from weak French wines, which are un­fit for ex­por­ta­tion. Brandy, from what­ev­er wine it has been ob­tained, is at first col­or­less; dif­fer­ent meth­ods are em­ployed to give it the col­or by which it is dis­tin­guished.

_Ex­por­ta­tion_, the act of send­ing ar­ti­cles from one coun­try to an­oth­er.

What is Vine­gar?

An agree­able, acid, pen­etrat­ing liquor, pre­pared from wine, beer, &c. To make vine­gar, the wine or beer is made to un­der­go a sec­ond fer­men­ta­tion, called the _acid_ or _ace­tous_ fer­men­ta­tion; the first which the veg­etable juice had to un­der­go, in or­der to con­vert it in­to wine or beer, be­ing called the _vi­nous_ fer­men­ta­tion. Vine­gar is of great use in cook­ery and medicine; the word is de­rived from the French for wine, _vin_, and _ai­gre_, sour. The an­cients had sev­er­al kinds of vine­gar, which they used as drinks; but it is most like­ly that these vine­gars were dif­fer­ent from that so called among us, and were more prob­ably a kind of wine.

_Ace­tous_, sour.

_Vi­nous_, wine-​like.

What ma­te­ri­als are used for the dye­ing and col­or­ing of our man­ufac­tures?

There are many min­er­al and veg­etable earths which fur­nish mankind with dif­fer­ent col­ors for beau­ti­fy­ing their var­ious man­ufac­tures, and as­sist­ing them in the arts, &c. Some species of in­sects al­so come to their aid, as for in­stance, the cochineals; these in­sects are killed by the ap­pli­ca­tion of heat, and thus form the drug used for giv­ing red col­ors, es­pe­cial­ly crim­son and scar­let, and for mak­ing carmine. The beau­ti­ful and per­ma­nent blue called In­di­go, is the pro­duce of a small shrub, two or three feet in height.

From what part is the Dye ob­tained?

From the leaves; the col­or is pro­duced by soak­ing them some hours in wa­ter, in large ves­sels con­struct­ed for the pur­pose; the sed­iment of the blue liquor drawn from them is af­ter­wards dried and sold in the form of small grains For the painter, they are mixed with oil, or di­lut­ed and made up in­to small cakes with gum wa­ter.

In what coun­tries is In­di­go cul­ti­vat­ed?

It is na­tive in both In­dies, and in South Amer­ica, where its cul­ti­va­tion af­fords em­ploy­ment to many of the in­hab­itants. It al­so grows wild in parts of Pales­tine, and is much cul­ti­vat­ed both in Syr­ia and Egypt. It once formed one of the sta­ples of the South­ern States, but has in a great mea­sure giv­en way to the cul­ti­va­tion of cot­ton.

Has In­di­go been long known?

The cul­ture and prepa­ra­tion of in­di­go were known to the Ori­en­tal na­tions long be­fore it was in­tro­duced in­to Eu­rope. The in­hab­itants of an­cient Britain paint­ed their bod­ies with the blue dye which they ob­tained from woad, a plant which grows wild in France and along the shores of the Baltic, and which great­ly re­sem­bles in­di­go in all its prop­er­ties, ex­cept its bril­lian­cy of col­or.

_Bril­lian­cy_, bright­ness.

What is Gam­boge?

The con­crete resinous juice of a species of gum-​tree, grow­ing in Cam­bo­dia, and oth­er parts of the In­dies. It is brought over in large cakes or rolls of a yel­low­ish brown col­or out­side, and in­side of a deep yel­low or or­ange, which changes to a pale bright yel­low on be­ing moist­ened.

What are the us­es of Gam­boge?

Dis­solved in wa­ter, it forms a beau­ti­ful and use­ful col­or for the painter. It is al­so used in medicine. Gam­boge is sol­uble in ei­ther wa­ter or spir­its of wine. Mixed with a blue col­or, it forms green, in var­ious shades ac­cord­ing to the dif­fer­ent pro­por­tions of the in­gre­di­ents.

What is Log­wood?

The wood of a tree which grows in parts of Amer­ica and the West In­dies. It is im­port­ed in great quan­ti­ties, and em­ployed in dye­ing pur­ple and the finest blacks.

What is Tar?

A coarse, resinous liquor is­su­ing from the wood and bark of pine or fir-​trees; it is in fact the oily juices of the sap thick­ened and col­ored by the heat of the sun or by age; it is ex­tract­ed for use by burn­ing the wood of the trees un­der a heavy cov­er­ing of turf or earth; the tar ex­udes dur­ing the slow com­bus­tion, and is col­lect­ed in­to a cav­ity dug in the ground for the pur­pose. Tar is ex­port­ed in great quan­ti­ties from Nor­way, Swe­den, and our South­ern States.

What are its us­es?

It is ap­plied to the sides of ships and boats and their rig­ging, to pre­serve them from the ef­fects of the weath­er; it is used in­stead of paint for pal­ings, &c.; and some­times al­so in medicine. A kind, called _min­er­al_ tar, is al­so drawn from coal by the pro­cess of dis­til­la­tion. Min­er­al tar is al­so found na­tive in some parts of the earth.

What is Pitch?

A kind of juice or gum, like­wise drawn from unc­tu­ous woods, chiefly those of the pine and fir; it is used for near­ly the same pur­pos­es as tar in ship­ping, medicine, and var­ious oth­er arts. Pitch is prop­er­ly a juice of the wild pine, or pitch tree; it is of a glossy black col­or, dry brit­tle, and less bit­ter and pun­gent than the liq­uid tar.

What is Cam­phor?

A veg­etable sub­stance, chiefly pro­cured from a kind of lau­rel, (Lau­rus Cam­pho­ra,) grow­ing in Bor­neo, Japan, and many East In­di­an is­lands; it is al­so pro­duced from oth­er plants and shrubs, though in very small quan­ti­ties.

How, and from what part of the tree is it tak­en?

All parts of the tree are im­preg­nat­ed with cam­phor; but it is prin­ci­pal­ly ex­tract­ed from the roots and trunk, by dis­til­la­tion; it is white, and of a crys­tal form: its odor is ex­treme­ly fra­grant. In this state it is called _rough_ cam­phor, and is thus ex­port­ed. The Greeks and Ro­mans do not ap­pear to have been ac­quaint­ed with this valu­able drug; and we are in­debt­ed to the Ara­bi­ans for a knowl­edge of it.

What are the prop­er­ties and us­es of Cam­phor?

It is a firm, dry, crys­tal mat­ter, with a hot, sharp, aro­mat­ic taste. It is high­ly odor­ous, and so in­flammable as to burn and pre­serve its flame in wa­ter; it to­tal­ly van­ish­es or evap­orates in the open air, and in Spir­its of Wine it en­tire­ly dis­solves. Cam­phor has var­ious us­es--as in fire-​works, &c.; it is an ex­cel­lent preser­va­tive of an­imal and veg­etable bod­ies, as it re­sists worms and oth­er in­sects. In the courts of East­ern princes it is burnt at night with wax. Its prin­ci­pal use with us is in medicine.

_Preser­va­tive_, a pre­ven­tive of de­cay.

What is Musk?

A dry, fri­able sub­stance of a dark col­or, tak­en from a lit­tle bag un­der the bel­ly of a small an­imal called the Thi­bet Musk, which is a na­tive of the In­dies, Ton­quin, and Chi­na. It in­hab­its the woods and forests, where the na­tives hunt it down. Musk is so strong a per­fume as to be agree­able on­ly in the small­est quan­ti­ties, or when min­gled with some oth­er scent; it is used in per­fumery, &c.

Is there not an­oth­er An­imal which pro­duces a sim­ilar scent?

Yes; an an­imal of Ara­bi­an ori­gin pro­duces an odor­if­er­ous sub­stance called Civet, from which it takes its name of Civet Cat; there are sev­er­al species of this an­imal which pro­duce it, but it is from the Civet Cat that it is most com­mon­ly tak­en. Civets are found in all the warm parts of Asia and Africa, in Mada­gas­car, and the East In­di­an Is­lands. It was for­mer­ly in high es­teem, but is at present very lit­tle used, ex­cept to in­crease the pow­er of oth­er per­fumes.

What is Myrrh?

A kind of gum-​resin, is­su­ing from the trunk of a tree grow­ing in Ara­bia, Egypt, and Abyssinia; it flows ei­ther nat­ural­ly, or by in­ci­sion; and is sent to us in small lumps of a red­dish brown or yel­low col­or. Its smell is strong, but not dis­agree­able. Our myrrh is the same drug that was used by the an­cients un­der the above name. Its chief use now is in medicine. The an­cient Egyp­tians em­ployed it as an in­gre­di­ent in the em­balm­ing of dead bod­ies.

_Em­balm­ing_, pre­serv­ing the bod­ies of the dead from de­cay­ing or pu­tre­fy­ing, by im­preg­nat­ing them with aro­mat­ics and oth­er sub­stances which re­sist pu­tre­fac­tion.

Where is Abyssinia?

Abyssinia is a large king­dom sit­uat­ed in East­ern Africa.

What is Frank­in­cense?

An odor­if­er­ous, aro­mat­ic gum-​resin, which dis­tils, in the heat of sum­mer, from in­ci­sions made in the bark of the tree which pro­duces it: notwith­stand­ing the great use of the gum, both in an­cient sys­tems of re­li­gious wor­ship and in mod­ern medicine, au­thors have been much di­vid­ed in opin­ion with re­gard to the kind of tree from which it is ob­tained; it is a species of tur­pen­tine tree be­long­ing to an or­der of resinous and fra­grant trees and shrubs in­hab­it­ing the trop­ical parts of the world.

For what was it for­mer­ly used?

The an­cients burnt it in their tem­ples as a per­fume, and to do hon­or to the di­vini­ties that were wor­shipped in them: it ap­pears to have been ap­plied to the same pur­pos­es by peo­ple of all re­li­gions. Myrrh and Frank­in­cense were reck­oned by the East­ern na­tions amongst their most cost­ly per­fumes. We are in­formed by St. Matthew's Gospel in the New Tes­ta­ment, that the wise men who came to Beth­le­hem to wor­ship our Saviour at his birth, brought gifts of gold, frank­in­cense, and myrrh. Many of the prim­itive Chris­tians were put to death be­cause they would not of­fer in­cense to idols. In the Catholic Church we still re­tain its use in many cer­emonies.

_Prim­itive_, ear­ly.

_In­cense_, per­fumes burnt in re­li­gious rites, or as an of­fer­ing to some de­ity.

What is the ap­pear­ance of Frank­in­cense?

It is gen­er­al­ly im­port­ed in white or yel­low­ish pieces, or drops, which pos­sess a bit­ter, dis­agree­able taste; it is very in­flammable, and burns with a strong, and pleas­ant odor. That brought from the In­dies is in­fe­ri­or to that from Ara­bia, and in­clines to a red­dish col­or. The com­mon frank­in­cense is soft­er, more resinous, and pos­sess­es less val­ue than the for­mer.

What is Tur­pen­tine?

The resinous juice of many trees, as the pine, larch, fir, &c.; it is, in fact, the juice that ren­ders them ev­er­green, and when in an over-​abun­dant quan­ti­ty, bursts through their bark, and oozes out. Com­mon tur­pen­tine is that pro­cured by in­ci­sions from the wild pine; there are sev­er­al kinds of tur­pen­tine pro­cured from var­ious resinous trees; some are of use in medicine, and most of them in mak­ing dif­fer­ent kinds of var­nish­es, for pre­serv­ing and beau­ti­fy­ing box­es, paint­ings, &c.

_Ooze_, to flow gen­tly.

Is there not a tree more par­tic­ular­ly des­ig­nat­ed the Tur­pen­tine Tree?

Yes, the Tere­binth or Tur­pen­tine Tree of Pales­tine and the East. It is one of the most com­mon for­est trees of those re­gions, and is re­gard­ed with re­spect and dis­tinc­tion sim­ilar to that award­ed to the oak in Eng­land.

What part of it pro­duces the Gum?

The gum, or rather the resin, dis­tils from the trunk. It is called Cyprus or Chi­an Tur­pen­tine, much of it be­ing brought from the isles of Cyprus and Scio, or Chios, and is pro­cured, by in­ci­sion, about the month of Ju­ly. This tur­pen­tine, ow­ing to its su­pe­ri­or qual­ity, as well as its scarci­ty, each tree sel­dom yield­ing over two or three pounds, is very cost­ly.

_In­ci­sion_, a cut­ting.

_Cost­ly_, ex­pen­sive.