811 



ICELAND MOSS. 



ICHTHULIN. 



628 



cations of Paris. During the hard frost of December in that year, 250 

 carts were employed for 10 days in conveying ice to these buildings. 



A remarkable traffic has sprung up in America, namely, the transport 

 of ice to various parts of the world. In the East Indies the artificial 

 formation of ice has been long carried on, as the only means of cooling 

 beverages and food. The ground near Hoogly, about 40 miles from 

 Calcutta, is formed into shallow troughs ; into these troughs, on a 

 layer of straw, are placed pans of porous earthenware. Shortly before 

 midnight in the winter months, and when the wind happens to be 

 blowing from the north-west, a little water is poured into each vessel 

 or pan ; and if all the circumstances are favourable, a film of ice is 

 found in each pan on the following morning, which ice is collected and 

 stored with the utmost care. The selling price of this ice at Calcutta 

 wag formerly about sixpence per pound ; but the Calcutta inhabitants 

 were surprised by the arrival, in 1833, of a ship from the United States, 

 laden entirely with ice, which was offered for sale at three-pence per 

 pound, and was understood to yield a good profit, even after paying all 

 the expenses of a long voyage. Since then the price has been much 

 lowered, and ice hag become a regular article of shipment from 

 America. The idea of this trade had occurred to a Boston merchant, 

 Mr. Tudor, twenty years earlier ; but it was only by much patience 

 and perseverance that he overcame the various difficulties. 



The trade is now chiefly in the hands of the Wenham Lake Com- 

 pany. This company purchased a lake of pure water, and the 

 surrounding land, at Wenham, about eighteen miles from Boston ; 

 they built storehouses, and formed a railway from Wenham to Boston. 

 The lake is very deep, and is supplied solely by springs, which issue 

 from its bed. During winter the ice which forms on it is very thick, 

 clear, and compact. When the ice is about a foot thick, a number of 

 men, hones, and machines are set to work. The ice is first swept 

 scrupulously clean ; an ice-plane is drawn over it, to cut away a layer 

 of loose or imperfect ice ; an ice-plowjh is drawn over it, to cut a groove 

 across the lake ; and other machines are successively employed, until 

 the ice is removed from the lake, in solid blocks weighing from one to 

 two cwtg. each. They take two acres of lake surface into operation at 

 one time ; this will yield, at the average thickness, about two thousand 

 tons of ice ; and forty men, assisted by twelve horses, will cut and stow 

 four hundred tons of this in a day. The company's store-house, near 

 the lake, is built of wood, and has double walls two feet apart : the 

 intervening space being filled with sawdust ; twenty thousand tons of 

 ice can be stored in this building at one time. The company convey the 

 ice to Boston on their own railway, and thence transmit it to various 

 part* of the world. Large store-houses have been formed in many 

 part* of the United States, as well as in London and Liverpool. So 

 many are the establishments now engaged in this trade, and so im- 

 portant has it become, that the ice-farms of the states of Massachusetts 

 and New York are reputed to be equal in commercial value to the rice 

 farms of Georgia. Boston is the great storehouse, containing sometimes 

 as much as 300,000 tons of ice in store at once. About 10,000 persons 

 altogether are supposed to be concerned in and with the ice-trade of 

 America, and about 6,000,000 dollars of invested capital. 



A curious project was started a few years ago, for sending a steamboat 

 to Newfoundland, to tov> hiane an iceberg; an iceberg of 10,000 tons 

 would, it was conceived, pay the expenses and yield a good profit. 



There have been many projects for producing ice artificially by 

 rarefaction, by evaporation, by the contact of freezing mixtures, and 

 by other means ; some of which are described in the articles FREEZIKO ; 

 ixo APPARATUS; FREEZING MIXTURES. 



ICELAND MOSS, botanically Cetraria ftlandica : Medical Pro- 

 pertie* of. This lichen, commonly termed Iceland moss, though native 

 of the higher mountains of the northern part of Britain, is procured 

 mostly from Norway and Iceland, on the lava of the west coast of 

 which latter country it abounds and attains a large size. It is imported 

 through Hamburg. " The thallus is erect, tufted, olive-brown, paler 

 on one side, laciniated, channelled, and dentato-ciliate ; the fertile 

 lacinia very broad ; apothecia brown, appressed, flat, with an elevated 

 bonUr." (Hooker.) The apothecia are very rarely developed on the 

 thallus in Britain, save on the mountains of Beu-na-bord in Aberdeen- 

 shire, and the imported specimens rarely have them, probably from 

 being gathered in a young state ; for this lichen is too important an 

 article of food in northern countries to be allowed to grow to matu- 

 rity. When dry, it has scarcely any odour, and the taste is bitter and 

 unpleasant. The powder or flour is of a whitish gray. 



'Jjhe analysis of Berzelius gives as its constituents starchy matter of 

 a peculiar kind (lith'iiin), 44'6; bitter principle (cetrarin), 3'0; un- 

 crygtallixable sugar, 8'6; chlorophylle, 1'6; extractive matter, 7'0; 

 jrum, !V7 ; bitartrate of potass, and tartrate of lime, along with phos- 

 phate of lime, I'D ; amylaceous fibrin, 36'2 ; and inulin. 



The bitter principle, or cetrarin, may be separated by digesting the 

 in cold water containing l-16th of carbonate of potass (some 

 affirm l-300th to be sufficient) for twenty-four hours. The whole is 

 then thrown upon a sieve, and the liquid drained off. Thin liquid, 

 when evaporated, yields a whitish principle, extremely bitter, very 

 soluble in ulclil, particularly when boiling, and ether; sparingly so 

 in water, MMfU oiN, and creasote. This principle may also be sepa- 

 rated by animal charcoal, according to Peretti. (' Annalen der Phar- 

 maoie/vi. p. 94 1.) If the lichen be steeped in distilled water, and 

 once or twice heated in the water up to 180 Fahr., most of the bitter- 



ness is removed. (Pereira.) When this is removed, the starchy 

 matter differs little from wheat-flour in nutritive properties, though 

 Olasson asserts that a soup prepared with it is twice as nutritious as 

 one made with flour. (Sparmann, ' Voyage,' iii. p. 129, note.) Certain 

 it is that the inhabitants of Norway, Lapland, and above all, of Iceland, 

 use it extensively as an alimentary substance, the latter regarding it aa 

 the gift of " a bountiful Providence, which sends them bread out of the 

 very stones." Dr. Henderson (' Tour in Iceland ') says that a porridge 

 made of this lichen-flour is to a foreigner not only the most wholesome, 

 but the most palatable, of all the articles of Icelandic diet. It is sub- 

 mitted to no other preparation than repeated steepings in cold water, 

 drying, and powdering ; after which it is either made into cukes or 

 boiled in milk. Unless it be steeped, it is both offensively bitter, and 

 also to many persons purgative ; hence it has been called lichen catltar- 

 ticttg. (Borrichius, ' Act. Hafnien.,' 1671, p. 126.) But cattle turned 

 out to browse on it in spring, though at first purged, ultimately become 

 fat. (Boerhaave.) Owing to its intensely bitter taste, as it had uot 

 been previously steeped, Sir John Franklin, even when pressed by 

 hunger, could not use it, though the tripe de roche suited well. (' First 

 Journey to Shores of Polar Sea,' 4to., p. 413, 414.) 



The excellence of Iceland moss depends upon its freshness and 

 freedom from accidental impurities, which should be carefully removed 

 before it is used. In its natural state, that is, while still containing the 

 bitter principle, it is tonic, stomachic, febrifuge, demulcent, and nutri- 

 tious. It has acquired a high reputation, not merely as an article of 

 diet, but as a medicinal agent in consumption and chronic diarrhoeas, 

 and dysenteries devoid of inflammatory states of the intestines. To 

 obtain benefit from it, the use of it must be jwrsisted in fur a long time. 

 This constitutes at once a difficulty in the employment of it, and casts 

 a doubt on the exact nature of the cases in which it is said to have 

 proved serviceable. The unpleasantness of the bitter it contains ren- 

 ders it unpalatable to most persons, and also its heating qualities unfit 

 it for those who have either much general fever, or a state of sub-acute 

 inflammation of the stomach, a very frequent condition in genuine 

 phthisis pulmonalis. Hence there is every reason for suspecting that 

 in the instances where it has been used for a long time and proved 

 beneficial, the disease was chronic bronchitis, in which bitters and 

 demulcents are extremely useful. To disguise the disagreeable flavour 

 many expedients have been had recourse to, such as uniting it with 

 chocolate or cocoa, and flavouring it with orange-flower water, &c. (A 

 full account *f these may be found in Hufeland's ' Journal,' August, 

 1824, p. 126, from the pen of Dr. Oppert. Many forinulie may be 

 found in Geiger, ' Pharmaooposia Universalis.') The only officinal form 

 in Britain is the decoction, which is frequently made the vehicle of 

 medicinal agents. Cetrarin has been given in a separate form as a 

 succedaneum for cinchona bark, and, like many other very bitter articles, 

 is of considerable efficiency in agues. Many substitutes for Iceland 

 moss have been proposed ; one of the best of which i the Carrageen or 

 Irish moss (Pucng eritput). This, when the brackish taste is lessened 

 by repeated steepings in cold water, forms an excellent jelly, much 

 relished by consumptive patients, and much cheaper than any other. 

 The Slirla pulmunacea, or lung-wort, is of unquestionable efficacy in 

 some cages of asthma. But none are so palatable as the Ceylon MM 

 (Fuou amylacetu). This can be procured not only from Ceylon, but 

 abundantly from the east coast of Bengal. In the form of jelly, soup, 

 lozenges, or other mode of preparation, it not only agrees better, but is 

 more relished than any jelly, either animal or vegetable. It is to be 

 hoped that it will become a regular article of commerce. 



All the Iceland moss imported into Britain is not used for medicinal 

 purposes ; much is employed in baking ship-biscuits, as those into 

 the composition of which it enters are said not to be attacked by 

 worms, or suffer much from sea-water. In Saxony, in time of scarcity, 

 it is advantageously added to wheatcn flour. In some countries it is 

 employed in brewings. 



1CHNOGRAPHV (from ixxos and yptufni), a representation of the 

 groundwork of a building. The ichnoyraphy of a building i.<, in fact, 

 what is more commonly called the plan, or ground-plan : as the wtlm- 

 yraphy is the elevation. 



ICHTHIN. An albuminous principle extracted from the yolk of 

 the eggs of cartilaginous fishes, such as the ray fish. It has the 

 appearance of white transparent soft grains, insoluble in alcohol, water, 

 and ether. Hydrochloric acid dissolves it without violet coloration, 

 which distinguishes ichthin from albumen. It contains : 



Carbon ....... 50'9 



Hydrogen 6-7 



Nitrogen 11' 7 



Phosphorns (!) 1'9 



ICHTHIDIN. [ICHTHULIN.] 



ICHTHULIN. An albuminoid substance found along with ichtliiditl 

 iu the roe of certain species of fish. It is precipitated by the addition 

 of water to the expressed fluid of the roe. Ichthnlin when first pre- 

 cipitated is viscous like gluten, but it afterwards becomes pulverulent. 

 It cuntaing : 



Carbon 



Hydrogen 

 Nitrogen . 

 Sulphur , 



Pnoiphorui (!) 



62-5 

 tt-0 



15-2 



1-0 



6 



