872 MUNJISTINE 



is the earthenware case or box, in the assay furnaces, for receiving the 

 cupels, and protecting them from being disturbed by the fuel. See ASSAY. 



MULBERRY OIIi. A flavouring essence introduced by Mr. Condy, which 

 consists chiefly of suberic ether. See SUBERIC ACID. 



MULBERRY PAPER. The Broussonetia papyri/era ; the inner bark of this 

 species is used in China for the preparation of si kind of papor, and in Polynesia for 

 the production of a peculiar cloth. 



MULBERRY TREE. The Morus nigra is the common mulberry, and M. alba 

 the white mulberry. The leaves of both species are used for feeding silkworms. 



IKUXiE. A machine for spinning cotton. See COTTON SPINNING. 



MUXiHOUSE BLUE. The name given to one of the aniline colours prepared by 

 Gros, Renaud, and Schaeffor, of Mulhouse. It is formed by boiling the solution of 

 rosaniline salt (nitrate is generally used) with a solution of gum-lac and carbonate 

 of sodium. See ANILINE. 



MUM. A malt liquor made in Brunswick with wheat meal and oat and bean meal. 



MUKTDXC is the name of iron or arsenical pyrites among Cornish miners. 



MITNTGO (sometimes also termed Shoddy) is the artificial wool formed by tearing 

 to pieces, and completely disintegrating old, woollen cloths or garments, or even pieces 

 of new cloth, such as tailor's clippings. 



3VTUNTJEET or East Indian madder, the Rubia Munjista. See MADDEK. 



MUaTJISTINE. An orange colouring-matter contained together with purpurine in 

 munjeet. This colouring-matter has been so thoroughly investigated by Dr. Stenhouse, 

 that it cannot be better described than in his own words. His paper in the ' Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society of London,' vol. xii. p. 633, is entitled ' Preliminary Notice of an 

 Examination of Rubia Munjista, the East Indian Madder, or Munjeet of commerce : ' 



' It is rather remarkable that while few vegetable substances have been so frequently 

 and carefully examined by some of the most eminent chemists as the root of the 

 Rubia tinctorum or ordinary madder, the Rubia Munjista or munjeet, which is so 

 extensively cultivated in India, and employed as a dye-stuff, has been, comparatively 

 speaking, very much overlooked, never having been subjected, apparently, to anything 

 but a very cursory examination. 



' From some incidental notices of munjeet in Persoz and similar writers, and a few 

 experiments which I made some years ago, I was led to suspect that the colouring- 

 matters iu munjeet, though similar, are by no means identical with those of ordinary 

 madder, and that probably the alizarine or purpurine of madder would be found to be 

 replaced by some corresponding colouring principle. This hypothesis I have found 

 to be essentially correct, for the colouring-matter of munjeet, instead of consisting of 

 a mixture of alizarine and purpuriiie, contains no alizarine at all, but purpurino and 

 a beautiful orange colouring-matter, crystallising in golden scales, to which I purpose 

 giving the name of munjistine. Munjistine exists in munjeet in considerable quantity, 

 and can therefore be easily obtained. 



' The colouring-matter of munjeet may be extracted in various ways : that which I 

 have found most suitable is as follows : each pound of munjeet in fine powder is 

 biled for four or five hours with 2 pounds of sulphate of alumina and about 16 

 pounds of water. The whole of the colouring- matter is not extracted by a single 

 treatment with sulphate of alumina ; the operation must be repeated, therefore, two or 

 three times. The red liquid thus obtained is strained through cloth filters while still 

 very hot, and the clear liquid acidulated with hydrochloric acid. It soon begins to 

 deposit a bright red precipitate, the quantity of which increases on standing, which 

 it should be allowed to do for about twelve hours. This precipitate is collected on 

 cloth filters and washed with cold water till the greater portion of the acid is removed. 

 It is then dried, reduced to a fine powder, and digested in a suitable extracting appa- 

 ratus with boiling bisulphide of carbon, which dissolves out the crystallisable 

 colouring principles of the munjoet, and leaves a considerable quantity of dark- 

 coloured resinous matter. The excess of the bisulphide of carbon having been 

 removed by distillation, the bright red extract, consisting chiefly of a mixture of 

 munjistine and purpurine, is treated repeatedly with moderate quantities of boiling 

 water and filtered. The munjistine dissolves, forming a clear yellow liquid, while 

 almost the whole of the purpurine remains ou the filter. When the solution is 

 acidulated with hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, the munjistine precipitates in largo 

 yellow flocks. These are collected on a filter and washed slightly with cold water. 

 The precipitate is then dried by pressure and dissolved in boiling spirits of wine, 

 slightly acidulated with hydrochloric acid to remove any adhering alumina. As the 

 iminjistine does not subside from cold alcoholic solutions, even when they are largely 

 diluted with water, about three-fourths of the spirit are drawn off by distillation, 

 when the munjistine is deposited in large yellow scales. By two or three crystallisa- 

 tions out of spirit in the way just described, the munjustine is rendered perfectly pure, 





