Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts
Chapter 1 : Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts.b

Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts.

by Arnold Cooley and Richard Tuson.

Volume I

PREFACE

The design of the present work is briefly, but not completely expressed in its t.i.tle-page. Independently of a reliable and comprehensive collection of formulae and processes in nearly all the industrial and useful arts, it contains a description of the leading properties and applications of the substances referred to, together with ample directions, hints, data, and allied information, calculated to facilitate the development of the practical value of the book in the shop, the laboratory, the factory, and the household. Notices of the substances embraced in the Materia Medica of our national pharmacopias, in addition to the whole of their preparations, and numerous other animal and vegetable substances employed in medicine, as well as most of those used for food, clothing, and fuel, with their economic applications, have been included in the work. The synonymes and references are other additions which will prove invaluable to the reader. Lastly, there have been appended to all the princ.i.p.al articles referred to brief, but clear, directions for determining their purity and commercial value, and for detecting their presence and proportions in compounds.

The sources from which I have derived the vast ma.s.s of materials forming this volume are such as to render it deserving the utmost confidence. I have invariably resorted to the best and latest authorities, and have consulted almost innumerable volumes, both British and foreign, during its compilation. Secondary channels of information have been scarcely ever relied on when original authorities were within my reach. A large portion of the work has been derived from my personal experience and observations in the departments of applied chemistry and hygiene, and from the processes of various laboratories and manufactories, many of which I can the more confidently recommend from having either inspected or witnessed their employment on an extensive scale. The indiscriminate adoption of matter, without examination, has been uniformly avoided, and in no instance has any formula or process been admitted into this work, unless it rested on some well-known fact of science, had been sanctioned by usage, or come recommended by some respectable authority. The settlement of doubtful or disputed points has often occupied me a greater number of hours, and not unfrequently a greater number of days, than that of the lines of letter-press which convey the results to the public. In all cases precedence has been given to the standard formulae of our national pharmacopias, and to those processes which long experience, or well-conducted experiments, have shown to be the most successful, profitable, and trustworthy. In general, the sources of information have been indicated, for the purpose of enabling the reader to form a better estimation of their value. Whenever this is not the case, in reference to borrowed formulae and data, the omission has arisen from the impossibility of determining to whom the merit is justly due.

I have endeavoured as much as possible, in the present work, to avoid confusion of the medical weights with those commonly used in trade and commerce--an attempt which, so far as I am aware, has not been successfully carried out in any other quarter. For this purpose I determined to entirely abandon the usual arbitrary signs or characters employed to represent the divisions of the apothecaries' pound, and to distinguish the two weights from each other, by simply printing, in different type, the plain English names and abbreviations representing their several denominations. The medical signs for the imperial gallon and its subdivisions have also been abandoned for their common English names.

It would have afforded me pleasure to have reduced all the quant.i.ties to one uniform standard, had it been practicable, or, in all cases, advisable.

Under the names of most of the leading diseases that could be profitably noticed in the present work, such explanations and directions have been given as accord with the prevailing opinions and practice of the faculty at the present day. These, when judiciously applied, will prove invaluable to emigrants, travellers, voyagers, and other parties beyond the reach of legitimate medical a.s.sistance; and, under opposite circ.u.mstances, will, in general, enable those who have the care of the sick the better to second and carry out the instructions and efforts of the physician for the benefit of their charge. Here, however, it may be useful to repeat the cautions given in other parts of this volume, as to the impropriety of unnecessarily meddling with the healing art, or neglecting a prompt application to a duly qualified pract.i.tioner, in all cases demanding either medical or surgical aid. It is an indubitable fact that the best efforts of the inexperienced and uninitiated in the mysteries of medical science must be always enormously behind those of parties whose whole lives and study have been devoted to the subject.

The nature of a condensed alphabetical arrangement not permitting numerous articles to come under distinct heads, or to be referred to under all their synonymes, the casual reader may often be led to suppose that this book is most deficient where in reality it is the most copious. In general I have attempted, as much as possible, to bring together subjects of a closely allied character, and compounds which are a.n.a.logous to each other, either in const.i.tution or the mode of their preparation. Thus, most of the formulae for Mixtures, Ointments, Pills, &c., follow in alphabetical order the general articles under these heads; whilst those for the Oxides, Salts, &c., follow the names of their respective bases. In like manner, a notice of a number of preparations will be found included in that of their princ.i.p.al ingredients. The names under which the leading substances appear are generally those which are most familiar to well-informed practical men, and which have commonly reference to either their acknowledged chemical const.i.tution, or to some long-known and easily recognised quality. The following extract conveys an important lesson on this subject, with which I perfectly agree:--"We have been unwilling to make any unnecessary changes in the nomenclature of substances whose names are sanctioned by the usage of the present day; for these names have been, for the most part, rightly a.s.signed by our predecessors, or confirmed by lapse of time. We are indeed aware that every improvement in the knowledge of things ought to be embodied in their names; but we must be careful, in selecting or forming these names, not to make those points appear certain and established which are as yet doubtful, for it is safer to be in the rear than advance of natural history."[1]

[Footnote 1: Preface to the Ph. L., 1851.]

I have exerted myself to the utmost to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this volume, but I feel conscious that, after all my efforts for this purpose, some errors have crept into it, that many subjects which deserve insertion in it have been omitted, and that many others have been either imperfectly or too briefly noticed. "Yet these failures, however frequent, may," I trust, "admit of extenuation and apology. To have attempted much is always laudable, even where the enterprise is above the strength that undertakes it. To rest below his aim is incident to every one whose fancy is active, and whose views are comprehensive; nor is any man satisfied with himself because he has done much, but because he conceives little." When I commenced this work I resolved to leave nothing within its legitimate limits unexamined or unelucidated; and I flattered myself with a prospect of the hours which I should thus "revel away" in a pursuit so congenial to my desires--"the treasures with which I expected every search into those neglected mines to reward my labour--and the triumph with which I should display my acquisitions to mankind." But these were the dreams of a poet, doomed at last to wake a "Cyclopaedist". The long task which I had undertaken soon exhibited its truly onerous character, and daily grew in urgency, until that which promised to be a pleasure had been transformed into an exhausting and continuous labour. At first, a sacrifice of the hours of leisure only seemed necessary to the undertaking--next, those a.s.signed to professional and business avocations were demanded, and absorbed; but, ere long, one by one, the hours usually devoted to repose were sucked into the insatiable vortex, until the bright beams of the rising sun not unfrequently illumined the lamp-lit study or the gloomy laboratory, and surprised the author, no longer an enthusiast, at his still-enduring task.

But long ere this I had learned that to carry out my original resolutions in all their completeness and entirety was impossible, and "that to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he had seemed to rest, was still at the same distance from them."[2] All I can further say in reference to this point is simply to a.s.sure the reader that three of the elements usually deemed essential to give value to a technological work--viz. zeal, industry, and capital--have not been wanting in the production of the present one;--the first two depending on the author, and the other chiefly on the liberality and enterprise of the publisher.

[Footnote 2: Dr Samuel Johnson's Preface to his English Dictionary.]

As heretofore, I beg to solicit my readers to apprise me of any inaccuracies or omissions in this volume which may come beneath their notice. I shall also thankfully receive any hints or suggestions tending to the improvement of future editions of this work. Such communications, to be useful, must, however be written on only one side of the paper.

Parties who may thus kindly afford me a.s.sistance will, in due course, have their services publicly acknowledged; and their names and addresses, unless when otherwise requested, will be published in full.

I have endeavoured to render the present volume as self-explanatory as possible, and, in general, have appended ample directions to the several formulae and processes that seemed to me likely to cause embarra.s.sment to those inexpert in chemical manipulation; but should any party find it otherwise, I shall be happy to reply, gratuitously, to any reasonable questions tending to elucidate the difficulty.

In conclusion, I may add that, having now for nearly a quarter of a century devoted my attention to the applications of chemistry in most of the useful arts and manufactures, both British and foreign, and in sanitation, I am in possession of many valuable processes and formulae, hitherto wholly unknown, or but partially developed, with various improved plans of factories, laboratories, ventilation, &c., which the limits of this work will not permit me to describe in its pages, but on which I should be happy to communicate with parties interested in the same. Persons desirous of establis.h.i.+ng any new branch of manufacture, or of improving an existing one, or of determining the purity or value of articles of food, wines, liqueurs, medicines, &c., or of obtaining formulae or processes which are not contained in this work, may, in like manner, have their wishes complied with, by enclosing to me samples, or the requisite information.

ARNOLD J. COOLEY.

A CYCLOPaeDIA OF PRACTICAL RECEIPTS, PROCESSES, AND COLLATERAL INFORMATION

A--ABBREVIATION

=A-, ab-, abs-.= [L.] In _composition_, from, denoting distance, departure, separation, or opposition; as in _aberration_, _abstraction_, _abnormal_, &c.

=A-, an-.= [Gr.] In _composition_, no, not, without, denoting the absence or loss of some quality or thing; as in _achromatic_, _anhydrous_, _amorphous_, &c.

=AB'ACA= (kah). A species of vegetable fibre, of several varieties, obtained in the Philippine Islands, and remarkable for its brilliancy, strength, and durability. The finer kinds are woven into muslins, and other delicate fabrics; the coa.r.s.er are formed into mats, cordage, and sail-cloth. It has been recently employed in Paris for the manufacture of various articles of furniture and dress; including bonnets, tapestry, carpets, network, hammocks, &c. The fibre, and fabrics made of it, may be bleached and dyed in a similar manner to flax and linen.

=ABATTOIR=. A public slaughter-house for cattle, &c., usually erected within the walls or precincts of a continental town or city.

=ABBREVIATION=. One or more of the earlier letters of a word used to express the whole.

1. Abbreviations in general use:--

A.B., Bachelor of Arts.

A.D., In the year of our Lord.

A.I.C., a.s.sociate of the Inst.i.tute of Chemistry.

A.I.C.E., a.s.sociate of the Inst.i.tute of Civil Engineers.

A.M., Master of Arts.--Before noon.

A.R.A., a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy.

B.A., Bachelor of Arts.

Bart., Baronet.

B.C., Before Christ.

B.D., Bachelor of Divinity.

B.Sc., Bachelor of Science.

C.B., Companion of the Bath.

C.E., Civil Engineer.

C.S., Civil Service.

D.C.L., Doctor of Civil Laws.

D.D., Doctor of Divinity.

D.G., By the Grace of G.o.d.

Dr., Doctor.--Debtor.

D.Sc., Doctor of Science.

D.V., G.o.d willing.

Ed., Editor, or Edition.

e.g., for example.

F.C.P., Fellow of the College of Preceptors.

F.C.S., Fellow of the Chemical Society.

F.G.S., Fellow of the Geological Society.

F.I.C., Fellow of the Inst.i.tute of Chemistry.

F.L.S., Fellow of the Linnean Society.

F.R.A.S., Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

F.R.C.P., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

F.R.C.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

F.R.G.S., Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal Society.

F.R.S.E., Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

H.M.S., Her Majesty's s.h.i.+p.

H.R.H., His (or Her) Royal Highness.

i.e., That is.

Inst., Instant (the present month).

I.H.S., Jesus the Saviour of Man.

K.B., Knight of the Bath.

K.C.B., Knight Commander of the Bath.

K.G., Knight of the Garter.

Knt., Knight.

K.St.P., Knight of St. Patrick.