304 



SODA-SOLAMINE. 



Bicarbonate of soda This salt is obtained with 



ease by suspending a solution of common carbonate 

 of soda over a brewer's fermenting tun during the 

 fermentation of beer. It crystallizes in oblique 

 rectangular prisms. The taste is feebly alkaline. 

 It consists of 



Carbonic arid, 

 Bod* . 



\\Utrr, 



5-5 

 . 4- 

 1-123 



10-625 



Phosphate of soda is prepared by saturating phos- 

 phoric acid (obtained from burned bones) with car- 

 bonate of soda, and setting the concentrated solu- 

 tion aside to crystallize. The crystals are oblique 

 rhombic prisms, of about 67 50': taste saline and 

 strong. It effloresces with great rapidity when 

 exposed to the air, becoming white and opaque. It 

 is readily soluble in water. It consists of 



Phosphoric acid, 

 Soda, . 

 \Vater, 



4-5 



4- 

 14-625 



23-125 



As the taste of this salt is simply saline, without 

 any thing disagreeable, it is much used as a purga- 

 tive, chiefly in broth, in which it is not distin- 

 guishable from common salt. It is also employed 

 by the chemist in assays of minerals with the blow- 

 pipe. 



Borax, or biborate of soda. This salt is sup- 

 posed to have been known to the ancients, and to 

 be the substance denominated chrysocolla by Pliny. 

 At any rate, it is mentioned by Geber as early as 

 the seventh century, under the name of borax. It 

 is brought from the East Indies in an impure state, 

 under the name of tinkal, enveloped in a kind of 

 fatty matter, now known to be a soap, with soda 

 for its base. When purified, it takes the name of 

 borax. When pure, it presents itself in large hexa- 

 gonal or octagonal crystals, of which two sides are 

 much broader than the others. It is white and 

 transparent; specific gravity T74. It converts 

 vegetable blues to green. Its taste is sweetish and 

 alkaline. It is soluble in twenty times its weight 

 of water, at the temperature of 60, and six times 

 its weight of boiling water. When exposed to the 

 air it effloresces slowly and slightly. When heated, 

 it swells, loses about four tenths of its weight, 

 becomes ropy, and then assumes the form of a 

 light, porous, and very friable mass, known by the 

 name of calcined borax: in a strong heat, it melts 

 into a transparent glass still soluble in water. 

 Borax consists of 



Boracic acid. 



Soda, 



Water, 



Large quantities of borax are made in Great 

 Britain from boracic acid imported from Tuscany. 

 Borax was formerly employed in medicine as a 

 sedative, and is still used to form a gargle. It 

 great utility, however, consists in its application a u 

 a flux in soldering, and in the fusion of siliceous 

 stones for the formation of pastes, or artificial 

 gems, and for the glazing of pottery. 



SODALITE; a name originally given by doctor 

 Thomson to a mineral discovered in West Green- 

 land, by Sir Charles Gieseke. It is crystallized in 

 regular dodecahedrons, and also occurs massive 



colour green, translucent; hardness about that of 

 'eldspar; specific gravity 2-37. It was found by 

 doctor Thomson to consist of silex 38-5, alumine 

 27 '48, lime 2-7, oxide of iron !, soda 25-, muriatic 

 acid 3-, volatile matter 2. This mineral has since 

 seen found in transparent crystals, and crystalline 

 masses, among the lava of Vesuvius. With the 

 sodalite, mineralogists now associate several sub- 

 stances formerly believed to be distinct, but whose 

 principal differences are confined to colour and 

 mechanical composition: these minerals are the 

 following : Hauyne, Lapis-lazuli, Saphirin, Spinel- 

 Ian, jybsin, and Jttnerite. 



SOEMMERING, SAMUEL THOMAS VON, M.D., 

 born in 1755, at Thorn, son of a physician, was a 

 distinguished German naturalist. He passed the 

 last years of his life at Frankfort on the Maine, 

 where he died, March 2, 1830. He distinguished 

 himself by his writings De Kasi Encephali et 

 Originibus Nervorum Cranio egredentium (Gotting- 

 gen, 1778, 4to.); De Corporis Humani Fabrica 

 (Frankfort on the Maine, 1794, 4 vols.); Tabula 

 Sceleti Feminini, with descriptions (Frankfort, 

 1797, et seq.); and Abbildungen des menschlichen 

 Auges (Frankfort, 1801, et seq.), &c. Soemmering 

 has rendered many services to science. 



SOFEES, OR SOPHIS; the professors of 

 Sufism. (q. v.) 



SOFFIT A, in architecture ; any timber ceiling, 

 formed of cross beams, or flying cornices, the square 

 compartments or pannels of which are enriched 

 with sculpture, painting, or gilding. 



SOFISM. See Sufism. 



SOHO; a celebrated manufactory of Messrs 

 Boulton and Watt, near Birmingham, established 

 in 1764. The construction of steam engines, and 

 other heavy iron machinery, is here carried to great 

 perfection. A coining mill, erected in 1788, works 

 eight machines, and is capable of striking between 

 30,000 and 40,000 pieces of money in the space of 

 an hour. The impression on both sides is received 

 from one blow, and the machine itself disposes each 

 piece, and removes it after it has received the 

 stroke. 



SOILING, in agriculture; the practice of sup- 

 porting animals of various kinds, in the 'summer 

 season, with green food of different sorts, cut daily, 

 and given to them in racks, in the houses, stalls, 

 or yards, instead of sending them to the fields. 



SOISSONS ; a city of Fiance, in the department 

 of the Aisne (Isle de France), sixty miles north-east 

 of Paris ; population, 7765. It is an episcopal see, 

 and contains a cathedral, a royal college, twelve 

 churches, &c. Soissons was the residence of the 

 early Frankish kings, and before the revolution, it- 

 was the capital of a district, called Soissonnais. It 

 was anciently called Noviodunum, and afterwards 

 took the name of Suessiones, and Augusta Sues- 

 sionum, from the people. 



SOLAMINE; a substance which M. Peletier 

 has procured from the solanum mammosum of the 

 Antilles. It is also found in the berries of the S. 

 nigrum, as well as in the leaves and stems of the 

 S. dulcimara. To obtain it, ammonia is poured 

 into the filtered juice of the berries, when a grayish 

 matter falls down, which is to be collected on a 

 filter, washed, and treated with boiling alcohol. 

 The solamine precipitates from this by evaporation. 

 It is an opaque, white, somewhat pearly-looking 

 powder; without smell; very bitter; fusible below 

 212 Fahrenheit; decomposable at a higher tempera- 

 ture; insoluble in water, ether, oil of olives, and 





