EFF 



EFF 



the edicts are of several kinds ; some im- 

 porting a new law or regulation ; others, 

 the erection of new offices, establish- 

 ments of duties, rents, &c. and some- 

 times articles of pacification. In France, 

 edicts are much the same as a proclama- 

 tion is with us, but with this difference, 

 that the former have the authority of a 

 law in themselves, from the power which 

 issues them forth ; whereas the latter 

 are only declarations of a law, to which 

 they refer, and have no power in them- 

 selves. 



Edicts can have no room in Britain, 

 because that the enacting of laws is 

 lodged in the Parliament, and not in the 

 King. 



Edicts are all sealed with green wax, 

 to shew that they are perpetual and irre- 

 vocable. 



EDITOR, a person of learning, who 

 has the care of an impression of any 

 work, particularly that of an ancient 

 author. Thus, Erasmus was a great 

 editor; the Louvain doctors, Scaliger, 

 Petavius, F. Sirmond, Bishop Walton, 

 Mr. Hearne, Mr. Ruddiman, &c. are like- 

 wise famous editors. 



EDULCORATION, in chemistry, a 

 term applied to the process of washing 

 out from a precipitate any excess of acid 

 or alkali, or compound salt, that may ad- 

 here to it. The usual method is by fil- 

 tration, repeated with different waters, 

 till the last portions that drain are wholly 

 tasteless, and produce no change on the 

 usual tests. This method is tedious, and 

 often ineffectual, and the following adopt- 

 ed in its stead. When the precipitate is 

 deposited, instead of throwing it on a 

 filter, pour it into a silver crucible, and 

 boil it with water ; after this, withdraw it 

 from the fire, allow it a few minutes to 

 subside, and draw off the clear liquor ; 

 then add fresh water to the residue, and 

 boil it again, and proceed thus till all the 

 soluble impurities are got rid of. 



EEL. See MURNA. 



EEL spear, a forked instrument with 

 three or four jagged teeth, used for 

 catching of eels : that with the four teeth 

 is best, which they strike into the mud at 

 the bottom of the river, and if it strike 

 against any eels, it never fails to bring 

 them up. 



EFFECTS, in commerce, law, &c. the 

 goods possessed by any person, whether 

 rnoveable or immoveable. 



EFFERVESCENCE, in chemistry, is a 

 rapid disengagement of gas taking place 

 within a liquid ; in consequence of this, 

 numerous bubbles rise to the surface, 



forming a head of froth, and bursting with 

 a hissing noise. There is some resem- 

 blance between effervescence and fer- 

 mentation ; the latter is, however, slower 

 and more durable. Hence chemists for- 

 merly applied the term fermentation to all 

 the phenomena which are at present de- 

 noted by effervescence. Gas produced by 

 effervescence is by means of single or dou- 

 ble elective affinity : in the one case it is 

 generally carbonic acid gas, in the other 

 it is either nitrous gas or hydrogen. Gas 

 can have but little affinity with the fluid in 

 which it is immersed, in order to produce 

 effervescence. Thus, carbonic and muri- 

 atic acids are both gases, and are both ex- 

 tricated from alkaline combinations by 

 sulphuric acid, yet a solution of carbonate 

 of potash in water will produce a vehe- 

 ment effervescence with sulphuric acid, 

 while muriate of potash in the same cir- 

 cumstances will occasion none at all, the 

 carbonic acid having a very slight affinity 

 for water acidulated by sulphuric acid, 

 while the muriatic acid will combine with 

 the same very readily. 



EFFLORESCES CE, in chemistry, is 

 the formation of a powdery crust, or of 

 minute crystals, on the surface of any 

 substance. This term is applied to two 

 distinct phenomena. Salts are either un- 

 alterable in the air, or they attract mois- 

 ture from it and are resolved into a fluid, 

 or they yield part of their water of crys- 

 tallization to the air, and are reduced to 

 powder. This effect, at its commence- 

 ment, is called efflorescence, ami such 

 salts are denominated efflorescent There 

 is, however, another kind of efflores- 

 cence, which is discernible in iron py- 

 rites, or new mortar ; and in these cases 

 it implies the appearance of a superficial 

 covering of minute hair-like crystals, and 

 is occasioned by the chemical changes that 

 take place on the surface of the sub- 

 stance where these crystals appear. Thus 

 sulphuret of iron is changed by efflores- 

 cence into sulphate of iron or green vi- 

 triol ; but sulphate of soda, when sub- 

 jected to the efflorescence first mention- 

 ed, though changed in form, remains the 

 same in composition, except that it has 

 lost part of its water. The one destroys 

 crystals, the other produces them. See 

 Aikin's " Mineralogical and Chemical 

 Dictionary " 



EFFLUVIUM, in physiology, a term 

 much used by philosophers and physi- 

 cians, to express the minute particles 

 which exhale from most, if not all, ter- 

 restrial bodies, in form of insensible va- 

 pours. Sometimes, indeed, these effluvia 



