304 PHOSPHORUS 



such specific sores as canker in the feet of horses and foot-rot 

 in sheep. Milder solutions and citrine ointment are good 

 remedies for eczema, especially after heat and pain have been 

 subdued and desquamation has set in, and are usefully 

 alternated with tar preparations. With good feeding and 

 alkaline washes, they are applied in those cases of pityriasis 

 not uncommon amongst cattle in poor condition. They 

 destroy lice and other skin parasites, and the cryptogamic 

 growths of ringworm. Being easily absorbed, if too freely 

 applied they induce the usual specific effects of mercury. 

 Diluted with olive or almond oil, or lard, citrine ointment re- 

 lieves irritable, swollen, discharging conditions of the eyelids. 



PHOSPHORUS 



A solid non-metallic element obtained from Calcium Phos- 

 phate. (B.P.) 



Phosphorus is prepared by the digestion of bones in 

 sulphuric acid ; the acid calcium phosphate remaining in 

 solution is evaporated, mixed with charcoal, and distilled, 

 when phosphorus comes over, and is condensed under water. 

 Two allotropic forms occur. The first is wax-like, easily cut 

 with a knife, of a yellow-white colour, volatile, readily 

 oxidisable and inflammable, luminous, and soluble in carbon 

 disulphide, eighty parts of olive oil, twenty-five parts of 

 chloroform, and in sixty of oil of turpentine. It is an irritant 

 corrosive poison. The second prepared by keeping the 

 yellow phosphorus for a considerable period at a temperature 

 of 450 Fahr. in an atmosphere of carbonic anhydride or 

 nitrogen is red, amorphous ; at ordinary temperatures has 

 little affinity for oxygen ; is not volatile, luminous, or soluble 

 in carbon disulphide ; heated to the boiling point it reverts 

 to the vitreous form. It is innocuous when given by the 

 mouth, but both forms are poisonous if injected under the 

 skin. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Phosphorus is an active member of 

 the group of pentad elements, comprising nitrogen, antimony, 

 arsenic, and bismuth. Phosphorus is slowly dissolved and 

 absorbed, unchanged, but best if in finely divided form or 





