449 



MANGANESE ALUM. 



MANGOLD WURZEL. 



40 



Protochloride of manyanese (MnCl) is the only important chloride. 

 It is largely produced in the preparation of CHLORINE. By evaporation 

 its solution yields pink crystals containing four equivalents of water of 

 crystallisation. 



Carbonate of manganese (MnO, C0 2 ) is a buff-coloured powder pre- 

 cipitated when an alkaline carbonate is added to a manganous salt. 



Sulphate of manganese (MuO, SO, + 7HO, and sometimes MnO, S0 3 

 + 5HO). Formed by treating the biuoxide with strong sulphuric acid. 

 It is a rose-coloured soluble salt, isomorphous with sulphate of mag- 

 nesia. It is largely used in dyeing and calico-printing. It forms double 

 salts with alkaline sulphates. 



Xitrate of mangantse is a deliquescent salt occuring in acicular 

 crystals. 



Silicates of manganese. Several of these occur native. [MANGANESE, 

 in NAT. HIST. Div.] 



Tests for man* anese. The non-precipitation by sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen, and the formation of the sulphide and hydrated oxide in the 

 manner already indicated, readily characterise the protosalts of man- 

 ganese. Manganese is also detected by the production of an ame- 

 thystine bead when a veiy small quantity of the substance under 

 examination is heated with borax in the blow-pipe flame. 



stimation of man tancse. Except for the valuation of the binoxide, 

 this is usually effected by precipitating the carbonate and igniting it in 

 an open crucible, whereby the red oxide (Mu^O,) is produced, containing 

 ~'2' 7 per cent of metal. 



MANGANKSE ALUM. [ALUMS.] 



MANGANESE, Medical Properties of. During the prevalence of 

 pneumatic medicine, preparations of manganese, particularly the 

 binoxide, on account of the large quantity of oxygen it can yield, were 

 much employed ; but since the views of Eeddoes and others, who 

 recommended them, have become obsolete, the articles suggested to be 

 used have fallen into oblivion. A rational ground for reviving some 

 of them is to I e found in the facts that oxide of manganese exists as a 

 constituent of the bones, and may in some cases be deficient in these 

 structures, and also that carbonate of manganese exists in some of the 

 mineral springs of Carlsbad and Marienbad, and hydrochlorate of man- 

 ganese exists in the waters of Kreutznach. The presence of these 

 salts in waters much celebrated for then- utility in various chronic 

 diseases has suggested their employment in some of the complaints 

 which are frequently benefited by them. But even if their curative 

 ties are insufficient to establish them as valuable medicines, the 

 deleterious effects of some forms of manganese justify a notice of them 

 in this place. The extensive employment of black oxide of manganese 

 in the preparation of bleaching-powder produces in some of the work- 

 men a form of paralysis which should be early noticed, inasmuch as 

 after it is thoroughly established it seems altogether incurable, and 

 the only chance of escape is the complete abandoning of the occupation. 

 It is limited to paralysis of the lower extremities, affecting the motor 

 nerves only, for the sensibility is unimpaired. A staggering gait is 

 the first symptom of its commencement: this is often perceived sooner 

 by others than by the sufferer. No choHc, nor constipation, such as 

 attends the use of lead, is manifested. (See Dr. Couper's paper in 

 ' British Annals of Medicine,' i., p. 41.) 



Binoxide of manganese has been used internally in pills, and also as 

 a gargle ; externally as an ointment in some obstinate cutaneous 

 affections. It does not appear eutitled to much attention. Hydro- 

 chlorate, and still more sulphate, of manganese, deserves attention as 

 chologogue cathartics, or promoters of the secretion of bile. The 

 latter salt has a cooling and bitter taste, resembling that of Glauber 

 salts. Dissolved in a considerable quantity of water, and taken in the 

 morning, it produces several liquid stools. Its purgative action may 

 be increased by giving it with infusion of senna or with rhubarb. 

 Alkalies and their carbonates are incompatible with it, as decomposition 

 occurs. Its power of augmenting the secretion of bile renders it a 

 valuable agent along with mercury, or as a substitute for it where mer- 

 cury cannot be borne. It is useful in gout. Care must be observed 

 in usin? it, as in doses as large as some writers have recommended, it 

 causes dangerous, if not fatal, consequences. 



The sulphated ferro-manganesian waters of Crausac, a village in the 

 south-west of France, between Bordeaux and Toulouse, with springs 

 in which this combination exists in two different degrees of strength, 

 lit a valuable means of benefiting feeble systems. 



The manganate of potassn, known by the name of " mineral 

 chameleon," furnishes a useful caustic and cscharotic, especially for 

 foul and fetid ulcers. 



_;anic acid and permanganate of potass are very valuable disin- 

 fectants. Manganic acid is employed as a means of testing the purity 

 or degrees of impurity of the air. [DISINFECTANTS.] 



MANGANIC ACID. [MANGANESE.] 



MANGK, an eruptive disease to which dogs, and all the canine race, 

 as wolves, foxes, &c., as also horses, are subject. It usually occurs as 

 the result of dirt and confinement, bad or deficient food, or some other 

 circumstances producing a generally unhealthy condition. There are 

 several forms of mange, but the red mange and the common scabby 

 kind are the most frequent. It has many analogies to the itch in man 

 [ITCH] ; and the fluid discharged from the eruption of the mange in 

 horses and dogs has sometimes been known to produce the itch in the 

 human skin. I loth appear to depend in general on the presence of a 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOI,. V. 



minute species of Acarua which burrows beneath the skin, and thus 

 excites the irritation and itching by which these diseases are peculiarly 

 characterised. The cure is to be effected chiefly by the use of prepara- 

 tions of sulphur, outwardly and inwardly ; but the mange in dogs is 

 usually difficult of cure. 



MANGLE. [CALENDERING.] 



MANGOLD WURZEL. For many years this plant has been 

 increasing in agricultural importance. When well grown it is a much 

 larger root than the Swedish or common turnip, and as it is cultivated 

 more easily and with greater certainty, at the same time that it is, 

 during most of the season, a better food, no wonder that its cultivation 

 is increasing. It is more easy to get 30 tons of mangolds per acre than 

 20 tons of swedes ; indeed, the latter crop is becoming more hazardous 

 and unsatisfactory year by year, while every year mangolds are increas- 

 ing in the estimation in which they are held. They are not liable to 

 the attack of fly or caterpillar, and though a grub occasionally pene- 

 trates the leaf and eats out the substance of it, and though it is at 

 midsummer sometimes attacked by a sort of canker, which appears to 

 scorch the plant and check its further growth, yet it is much less liable 

 to injury or disease than any other of our root crops ; and sown as it is 

 earlier in spring time than the turnip, it is sure of sufficient moisture 

 during its early growth. In summer time it stands hot weather better 

 than the turnip, and in the autumn it grows inore rapidly to maturity. 

 It needs to be harvested, pitted, or otherwise protected, before frost 

 comes on, as it is not so hardy as the turnip, and this is the only point 

 in which it is inferior. The cultivation of mangold wurzel very much 

 resembles that of the turnip crop. It is usual to give it a heavier 

 dressing of dung than the turnip receives, and this on heavy soils, 

 which it rather affects, may well be put on in the autumn, thus leaving 

 for spring time less occasion for anything beyond mere surface harrow- 

 ing and stirring. The best way to prepare the land is, after a sufficient 

 cleaning and stirring, to lay it up in ribs or drills at least 30 inches 

 wide, to cart on 10 to 20 tons of farm-yard dung, per acre and cover it 

 up before winter, by splitting the drills with the double mould-board 

 plough. If this is not done till spring time, then before the dung is 

 covered, it is well to sow broadcast whatever artificial manure is added ; 

 as, for instance, 3 cwts. of guano per acre, or 4 or 5 cwts. of a super- 

 phosphate, or blood manure. The splitting of the drills covers up 

 this artificial dressing, at the same time that it gathers it somewhat 

 together in the drill on which the seed is to be drilled or dibbled. 

 Seven pounds of the seeds are needed per acre, and they may be soaked 

 for a day or two in water before sowing, if it be desired to have an 

 early braird. If drilled a row comes up along the top of each drill, 

 and is afterwards singled out to intervals of 15 or 18 inches. If 

 dibbled, three or four of the seed capsules are thrust into the soil with 

 the half-closed hand, which holds them, so as not to place them deeply, 

 and soil enough is laid upon them by a sliding half-pressure of the 

 foot. The mangold seed is easily buried ; half an inch of soil is more 

 than covering enough. The seed thus comes up in bunches, the in- 

 tervals between the rows are horse-hoed, and the intervals between the 

 bunches are hand-hoed, and the bunches themselves are singled out by 

 hand as soon as they are 2 or 3 inches high. Repeated horse-hoeings, 

 and another hand-hoeing constitute the summer cultivation ; and after a 

 moist season, on good land well manured, a crop of 40 tons per acre is 

 not an unusual produce. At the intervals of 80 inches and 18 inches 

 respectively between the rows and the plants, about 11,000 plants may 

 be expected per acre, or about 5 tons for every single pound the plants 

 may average in weight ; and 8 Ibs. a piece is not an impossible average 

 weight to attain. 



Among the sorts are the red and yellow, and white, as to colour, and 

 the globe, long, and bulged, as to shape. 



The long red Elvethatn which has a bulged shape is one of the best ; 

 the globe mangolds are probably the best for retaining their juice and 

 freshness till a late period in the following year ; for this is one principal 

 advantage of this root, that it retains its value all through the summer, 

 and is thus a most valuable food to keep for those awkward periods in 

 a droughty season, which sometimes intervene between the successive 

 forage crops on which the farmer depends for the continuous feeding 

 of his stock. The mangold has hitherto been regarded as rather physio 

 than food if taken early in the autumn ; and there is an impression 

 against it too as to its unfitness for breeding stock ; there is also a 

 feeling that it exhausts the land more than turnips for the ensuing 

 grain crop. 



On the first of these points we have now ample experience of its 

 perfect safety however early it be given as food, the only thing needed 

 as precaution being that it should be grated rather than cut in pieces, 

 and mixed with chaff of straw and hay, rather than given whole, along 

 with uuchaffed fodder. The root-graters, which of late years have 

 come into general use, are admirably adapted to this treatment of the 

 mangold root, and any proportion between the succulent and the dry 

 food may be thus adopted 'quite apart from any power of selection 

 on the part of the animal thus fed, which may thus be provided with 

 food just in the proportion needed to keep their fasces of the right 

 consistence. This root, when thus gradually given to cattle, or sheep, 

 or swine, may also be safely given to them when in breeding condition. 

 It is a sudden change of food which is injurious to animals in that 

 state, especially if it be from comparatively dry to succulent food. 

 Mangolds are very succulent, but if .animals arc gradually accustomed 



a a 



