11 



COBALTINK. 



COCA. 



Gray Cobalt occurs massive and crystallised ; primary form a cube ; 

 colour grayish tin-white ; streak grayish-black ; lustre metallic ; hard- 

 ness 5'5; specific gravity 6'466 ; fracture uneven ; cleavage indistinct. 

 The massive occurs amorphous and reticulated. It is found prin- 

 cipally at Schneeberg in Saxony, and is used in the manufacture of 

 smalt. 



Earthy Cobalt occurs massive, amorphous, botryoidal, pulverulent, 

 ic. ; colour yellowish-brown and bluish-black ; specific gravity 2 to 2'4 ; 

 the fracture of the massive is earthy and dull, but polished by 

 friction, aud yields to the knife readily ; when heated on charcoal 

 gives an arsenical odour, and a deep blue colour with borax : it is 

 found in Hesse, Saxony, Bohemia, and also in Cheshire and Cornwall. 

 Piilplutret of Cobalt occurs yellowish-white and steel-gray; streak 

 gray ; it is amorphous or botryoidal, and externally brilliant ; fracture 

 uneven. According to Hitsinger it consists of 



Cobalt . 43-2 



Copper 14-4 



Iron 3-53 



Sulphur 88-50 



Earthy Matter '33 



99-96 



Arienia>e of Cobalt Cobalt Bloom Red Cobalt occurs fibrous, 

 massive, and crystallised ; primary form an oblique rhombic prism ; 

 colour various shades of red passing into crimson ; sometimes 

 grayish ; translucent, transparent ; it is soft, light, and flexible ; 

 specific gravity 2"948 ; the massive variety amorphous, botryoidal; 

 structure fibrous, radiating ; before the blow-pipe emits arsenical 

 odours, and tinges borax blue : it occurs in Saxony, Bohemia, Scot- 

 laud, and Cornwall, Ac. 

 Analysis by Bucholz : 



Arsenic Acid 37'9 



Oxide of Cobalt 39'2 



Water 22"9 



100 



H></l>halt of Cobalt Red Vitriol is of a pale rose-red colour, and 

 occurs investing other minerals, in small masses and in stalactites ; 

 the masses are semi-transparent and crystalline; it is soluble in 

 water ; translucent ; lustre vitreous, often dull externally : it occurs 

 among the mining heaps near Hanau and in Salzburg. 



COBALTINE, an Arsenical Ore of Cobalt containing sulphur. It 

 is of a silver-white colour inclining to red. It is found in Sweden, 



iay, Siberia, and Cornwall. 



COBITIS, a genus of Fishes belonging to the Abdominal Mala- 

 cofterygii and family Cyprinidist. This genus includes the Loaches, 

 fishes generally of diminutive size, which may be distinguished by 

 their having the head small ; mouth but slightly cleft, without teeth, 

 and furnished with barbules on the upper lip ; body elongated, 

 covered with small scales, and invested with a mucous secretion ; 

 ventral fins situated far back, dorsal fin placed above them ; gill- 

 openings small ; branchiostegous rays three in number. 



C. barbatula, the Loach, Loche, or Beardie, is common in most of 

 our running waters. It is about 4 inches in length, and of a dirty 

 pale-yellow colour, mottled with brown ; its upper lip is furnished 

 with six barbules, one of which springs from each corner of the 

 mouth, and the others are situated on the fore part. 



Like fishes in general which have barbules, the Loaches feed at 

 the bottom of the water. The species above described spawns in 

 March or early in April, and is very prolific. 



C. tirnia (Linn.), the Spilled Loach, or Groundling, is a far less 

 common species than the above ; its form is more compressed ; the* 

 barbulea are very short, and consequently less conspicuous : the 

 principal character however consists in its having two spines, one 

 before each eye. From this character and some other differences of 

 minor importance, this fish, and several others having the same 

 structure, have been separated from the true loaches, and now con- 

 stitute the genus Bolia of Mr. Gray. 



The Loaches are extremely restless during stormy weather, when 

 they generally rise to the surface of the water, which from their 

 restlessness is kept in constant agitation. 



COB-NUT or HOG-NUT, a name given in the West Indies to the 

 fruit of a species of Omphalea. [OMPHALKA.] It is also applied to 

 the larecr forms of the cultivated Hazel-Nut. [CoRYLCs.] 

 COBRA. [VIPEBIDA] 



COCA, the dried leaf of Erythrosrylon Coca, is one of those stimu- 

 lating narcotics which belong to the same class with tobacco and 

 opium, but is more remarkable than either of them in its effects upon 

 the human system. The plant is found wild in Peru, according to 

 'ig, in the environs of Cuchero, and on the stony summit of the 

 >;in Cristobal. It is cultivated extensively in the mild but 

 very moist climate of the Andes of Peru, at from 2000 to 5000 feet 

 above the sea : in colder situations it is apt to be killed, and in 

 warmer districts the leaf loses its flavour. 



A detailed account of it is given by Poppig and Sir William 



T in the ' Companion to the Botanical Magazine,' whence we 



extract the following information. It forms a shrub from 4 to 8 feet 



high, the *' 1 with whitish tuburcles, which appear to be 



formed of two curved lines set face to face. The leaves are oblong, 

 acute at each end, 3-ribbed, on short petioles, with a pair of intra- 

 petiolary brown acute stipules. Flowers in little fascicles ; peduncles 

 sharply angled ; calyx 5-cleft ; petals oblong, concave, wavy, with a 

 jagged plaited membrane arising from within their base ; stamens 

 10 ; styles 3 ; fruit a 1-seeded oblong drupe. 



Erythroxylon Coca. 



The effects of this drug are said to be of the most pernicious 

 nature, exceeding even opium in the destruction of mental and 

 bodily powers. The coca leaf is chewed by the Peruvians, mixed 

 with finely-powdered chalk, and brings on a state of apathy and 

 indifference to all surrounding objects, the desire for which increases 

 so much with indulgence in it, that a confirmed Coca-chewer is said 

 never to have been reclaimed. Poppig describes such a person iu kJs 

 usual graphic manner : 



" Useless for every active pursuit in life, and the slave of his 

 passions, even more than the drunkard, he exposes himself to the 

 greatest dangers for the sake of gratifying this propensity. As the 

 stimulus of the coca is most fully developed when the body is 

 exhausted with toil, or the mind with conversation, the poor victim 

 then hastens to some retreat in a gloomy native wood, and flinging 

 himself under a tree, remains stretched out there, heedless of night 

 or of storms, unprotected by covering or by fire, uncouscious of thy 

 floods of rain and of the tremendous winds which sweep the forest ; 

 and after yielding himself, for two or three entire days, to the occu- 

 pation of chewing coca, returns home to his abode, with trembling 

 limbs and a pallid countenance, the miserable spectacle of unnatural 

 enjoyment. Whoever accidentally meets the Coquero under such 

 circumstances, and by speaking interrupts the effect of this intoxi- 

 cation, is sure to draw upon himself the hatred of the half-maddened 

 creature. The man who is once seized with the passion for this 

 practice, if placed in circumstances which favour its indulgence, is a 

 ruined being. Many instances were related to us in Peru, where 

 young people of the best families, by occasionally visiting the forests, 

 have begun using the coca for the sake of passing the time away, 

 and, acquiring a relish for it, have, from that period, been lost to 

 civilisation ; as if seized by some malevolent instinct, they refuse to 

 return to their homes ; and, resisting the entreaties of their friends, 

 who occasionally discover the haunts of these unhappy fugitives, 

 either retire to some more distant solitude, or take the first oppor- 

 tunity of escaping when they have been brought back to the 

 towns." 



The immoderate addiction of the Peruvians to the use of this 

 drug is such that their forests have long since ceased to be able to 

 supply their wants ; and the cultivation of the plant has been carried 

 to a very great extent, not only under the Incas, but beneath the 

 local government of the Spaniards, who seem to have been no more 

 able to resist the temptation of a large revenue from the monopoly 

 of this article than European nations from the consumption of 

 ardent spirits. It is snid that in the year 1583 the government of 

 Potosi derived a sum of not less than 500,000 dollars from the con- 

 sumption of 90,000 to 100,000 baskets of the leaf. The cultivation 

 of Coca is therefore an important feature in Peruvian kusbandry, 

 and, it is added, so lucrative, that a coca plantation, whose original 

 cost and current expenses amounted to 2500 dollars during the 

 first 20 months, will, at the end of 10 months more, bring a clear 

 income of 1700 dollars. Poppig states that Coca has now become 

 a sort of necessary evil ; that thousands of persons would be 



