338 



COLCHICUM 



COLD 



is mainly indebted to him for the Private Bill 

 Office and for the royal record commission, whose 

 proceedings he for many years superintended. But 

 his greatest service was in the Act (1800) for tak- 

 ing the first census. In 1802 he was elected 

 Speaker, the duties of which high and honourable 

 office he continued to discharge with as much 

 impartiality as distinction until May 1817, when 

 ill-health compelled him to resign. He received 

 a pension of 4000 a year, and was raised to the 

 peerage as Baron Colchester, his father having been 

 rector of All Saints, Colchester. He died 7th May 

 1829. See his Diary and Correspondence (3 vols. 

 1861), edited by his son Charles, second Lord Col- 

 chester (1798-1867), who was postmaster-general in 

 1858. 



Col'chicum, a genus of Liliacese, sub-order 

 Melanthacese. The species, which are few in 

 number, are stemless, with flowers half subter- 

 ranean Jike the crocus, the limb of the perianth and 

 part of the tube only 

 rising above ground. 

 The flowers much re- 

 semble crocus-flowers, 

 but are readily distin- 

 guished by having six 

 instead of three 

 stamens, and three 

 styles instead of one. 

 The superior ovary does 

 not remain to ripen 

 underground, but after 

 the flowering is over, 

 rises in the form of three 

 little follicles slightly 

 adhering to each other, 

 on a lengthened stalk. 

 The only British species 

 is C. autumnale, the 

 Meadow Saffron, some- 

 times also, but incor- 

 rectly, named Autumn 

 Crocus, which is plenti- 

 ful in meadows and pas- 

 tures in some parts of 

 England and of the 

 continent of Europe. 

 The flowers are pale 

 purple ; they appear 

 in autumn, unaccom- 

 panied by any leaves ; 

 the leaves, which are 

 large and broadly lan- 

 ceolate, appear in 

 spring, when the stalk 

 which bears the ripen- 

 ing fruit arises amongst 

 them. The whole plant 

 is very acrid and poisonous, chiefly owing to the 

 presence of an alkaloid called Colchicine or 

 Colchicia. Cattle are not unfrequently injured 

 by it in pastures where it abounds. It is a 

 valuable medicinal plant, and is administered, in 

 small doses, to allay the pain of gout and rheu- 

 matism. Repeated doses produce vomiting, purg- 

 ing, increase of the urinary secretion, and profuse 

 perspiration. The parts chiefly used for medicinal 

 purposes are the corm ( popularly called the root ) 

 and the seeds. The seeds are round, brown, rather 

 larger than mustard-seed. Other species of col- 

 chicum appear to possess similar properties. The 

 hermodactyls of the druggists' shops, which for many 

 centuries have enjoyed an extensive celebrity for 

 soothing pains in the joints, and are brought from 

 the Levant, are believed to be the corms either of 

 C. variegatum or C. bulbocodioides. C. autumnale 

 is not unfrequent in flower-borders, particularly a 

 rariety with double flowers. 



Meadow Saffron 



(Colchicum autumnale) : 



a, a leaf. 



Colchis* a province of ancient Asia, on the east 

 coast of the Pontus Euxinus or Black Sea, situated 

 north of Armenia and south of the Caucasus. 

 Colchis was famous in Greek mythology as the 

 land of Medea (q.v.) and the goal of the Argo- 

 nauts (q.v.); afterwards it was better known to 

 the Greeks as the seat of some colonies of the 

 Milesians. It was noted for its wines and fruits. 

 The principal town was Dioscurias ; the principal 

 river the Phasis. The Colchians were at one time 

 subject to Persia, and subsequently to Mithridates, 

 king of Pontus, and ultimately passed under the 

 mighty empire of Rome. 



ColCOthar is the name given by the alchemists 

 to the red powder ( mainly red oxide of iron ) which 

 remains in the retorts when green vitriol or the 

 sulphate of iron is calcined. It is used for polish- 

 ing glass and the like, and is called crocus by 

 artists. 



Cold is the term by which we signify a relative 

 want of sensible heat. There are therefore no- 

 determinate boundaries between cold and heat, 

 and it is a mere arbitrary distinction to call the 

 degrees of the thermometer below the freezing- 

 point degrees of cold. When the atmosphere, or 

 any substance which conies in contact with our 

 body, is at a lower temperature than the skin, ife 

 absorbs heat from it, and we call it cold. See 

 HEAT. 



The physiological action of cold on the animal 

 organism requires a brief notice. All animals 

 (the warm-blooded animals to the greatest extent) 

 have a certain power of maintaining the heat of 

 the body, in defiance of external cold, as has been 

 shown in the article ANIMAL HEAT. This power is 

 mainly due to a process analogous to combustion, in 

 which carbon and hydrogen taken into the system 

 in food are made to unite with oxygen derived 

 from the air by respiration. If the combustible 

 materials are not duly furnished, or if the supply 

 of oxygen be deficient (as in various diseased con- 

 ditions), there must be a depression of temperature. 

 Now, if the temperature of a bird or mammal ( except 

 in the case of hybernating animals) be lowered 

 about 30 below its normal standard (which in birds 

 ranges from 100 to 112, and in mammals from 96 

 to 102), the death of the animal is the result. The 

 symptoms indicating that an animal or a man is 

 suffering from a depression of the temperature of 

 the body are retardation of the circulation of the 

 blood, causing lividity of the skin, which is followed 

 by pallor, in consequence of the blood being almost 

 entirely driven from the surface through the 

 contraction of the vessels ; a peculiar torpor of the 

 muscular and nervous systems at the same time 

 manifests itself in an indisposition to make any 

 effort or exertion, and in intense sleepiness. The 

 respiratory movements become slower ( see RESPIRA- 

 TION), and the loss of heat goes on, therefore, with 

 increasing rapidity, till the fatal limit is reached, 

 and death supervenes. 



In hibernating animals (the marmot, dormouse, 

 bat, &c. ) the power of generating heat within their 

 oAvn bodies is very slight, their temperature fol- 

 lowing that of the external air, so that it may be 

 brought down nearly to the freezing-point. See 

 the articles HIBERNATION, STARVATION, DORMANT 

 VITALITY : also, for other phenomena connected 

 with cold, HEAT, CLIMATE, FREEZING MIXTURES, 

 FROST, ICE, THERMOMETER, TEMPERATURE. 



Great or prolonged atmospheric cold is a most 

 powerful depressing agent, and is a fruitful cause 

 of disease and even of death. Whenever the 

 temperature of the atmosphere is suddenly re- 

 duced, and particularly when it is reduced below 

 the freezing-point, a considerable addition takes 

 place to the mortality of the country at large. The 



