EL^EIS 189 



EGGS, HATCHING. See INCUBATION, ARTIFICIAL. 



EGG- APPLES. Tho edible fruit of Solatium ovigerum and S. Melongena. 



EGYPTIAN JASPER. Rolled pebbles of brown jasper from the Valley of the 

 Nile. They are cut and polished as ornamental stones. 



EHXiZTE. A hydrated phosphate of copper, occurring generally in reniform and 

 botryoidal masses. It takes its name from one of its localities Ehl, near Linz, 011 

 the Rhino. According to the analyses made by Bergemann, this mineral contains vana- 

 dium, and it has hence been sometimes called phosphovanadato of copper. 



EHREXSTBERGITE. A mineral found as a deposit in trachyte in the Siebenge- 

 birge. It was examined by Ehrenberg, after whom it was named. It contains silica 

 and alumina, and, according to Bischof and Schnabel, water extracts from it chlorine, 

 sulphuric acid, and magnesia, while hydrochloric acid extracts both iron and manga- 

 nese. Its composition is very variable. 



EIDER-DOWN is so called because it is obtained from the Eider-duck. 



EIDER-DUCK. Sometaria. There are two species of these ducks, abundant in 

 the frozen regions of the North, especially in Iceland, Lapland, Greenland, Spitz- 

 bergen, Baffin's Bay, and Hudson's Bay. To the inhabitants of these countries 

 these birds are exceedingly valuable. They build their nests among precipitous 

 rocks, and the female lines them with fine down plucked from her breast, among 

 which she lays her five eggs. The natives of the districts frequented by the eider- 

 ducks let themselves down by cords among the dangerous cliffs, to collect the 

 clown from the nests. They also catch the hen bird while she is sitting, and pluck 

 the down. When brought to market the down is in balls, weighing from three to 

 four pounds, and not much larger than a man's fist. But the down is so fine and 

 elastic that when opened and held near a fire to expand, one ball would fill a quilt 

 five feet square. See SWAN'S DOWN. 



EISENKXESEIi. A German name for ferruginous quartz, sometimes used for 

 convenience by English mineralogists. 



EJOO. Saguerus Rumphii. A vegetable fibre possessing considerable strength. 

 See FIBEES. 



EKLOGITE. A rock composed of green smaragdite, in which red garnets are 

 embedded. When polished, it forms a beautiful stone for ornamental purposes. It is 

 found in the Sau Alp, in Styria ; and at Miinchberg, in the Fichtelgebirge. 



EIiJEIS. A genus of palm-trees, containing one or two species which grow in 

 tropical Africa and America. The oil-palm, or Elceis guinecnsis, is a native of the 

 western coast of Africa. 



The oil resides in the fleshy portion of the fruit, which is about the size of pigeons' 

 eggs, ovate, somewhat angular, deep orange-yellow, collected in beads. They have 

 a thin epicarp, a fibrous, oily, yellow sarcocarp, which covers and closely adheres to 

 the hard stony putamen or endocarp, within which is the seed. The oil is obtained 

 from the sarcocarp, and in this respect resembles that of the olive. It is obtained 

 either by expression, or by boiling the fruit with water, when the oil separates and 

 rises to the surface. It is imported principally from Cayenne and the coasts of Guinea. 

 It is, when freshly imported, of the consistence of tallow, of an orange colour, 

 possesses the smell of violets, and fuses at about 80 F. It speedily becomes rancid, 

 and decomposes with liberation of glycerine and the fatty acids, and as this change 

 progresses, its fusing-point gradually rises till it sometimes even reaches 97 F. It is 

 composed principally of a peculiar fat, palmitin, and a little oleine and colouring- 

 matter. It is used in the manufacture of soap and candles, and is imported in very 

 large quantities. The following is a general oiitline of the treatment of palm-oil at 

 Price's Candle Company's works. (See ' Pharmaceutical Journal,' vol. xv. p. 264.) 

 The crude palm-oil is melted out of the casks in which it has been imported, and 

 allowed to remain in a melted state in large tanks until the mechanical impurities 

 have settled to the bottom. The clear oil is then pumped into close vessels, where it 

 it is heated and exposed to the action of sulphuric acid. The glycerine and fatty acids 

 are thereby separated, and the colouring-matter and impurities are carbonised and 

 partly rendered insoluble. The mixture has now a greyish -brown colour, and is 

 washed with water to remove the acid. From the washed product, distillation now 

 separates the mixed fatty acids (palmitic and palm-oleic acids), as a white crystalline 

 fat, while the residuum in the still is converted into a fine hard pitch. This pitch is 

 fit for any of the purposes for which ordinary pitch is applicable. The mixed fatty 

 acids may be made directly into candles, or they may be separated by hydraulic 

 pressure, aided, if necessary, by heat. This effects the separation of the liquid part 

 (oleic acid), which, after purification, is fit for burning in lamps and other purposes. 

 The hard cake left in the presses is nearly pure palmitic acid ; it is brilliantly white, 

 not at all greasy, and has a melting point of 13o to 1.38. It is fit for the mauu- 



