360 CARBON. 



% 



effluvium from clothes, &c. by being wrapped in them. "It also 

 sweetens bilge water." 



(t.) Malt spirits, distilled from charcoal are deprived of their disa- 

 greeable flavor ; if too much charcoal is used, the spirit is decom- 

 posed, as is vinegar also. Charcoal, for this purpose, is prepared 

 by heating it red hot in a furnace ; it is then ground in a mill and 

 barrelled or put to immediate use by having the spirit placed over it. 



(u.) Eight or ten pounds of the spirit macerated for eight or ten 

 days on two ounces of charcoal, is improved in flavor. 



(v.) Water become putrid in casks, is restored by filtration 

 through charcoal, especially if a few drops of sulphuric acid be added. 



(w.) The odor of alcoholic solutions of resins and balsams is not 

 destroyed by charcoal, although their color is ; essential oils do not 

 lose their smell. 



( a?.) Distilled waters and many vegetable tinctures, and litmus, 

 and indigo, and other lakes and pigments, become colorless when 

 their aqueous solutions are filtered through charcoal. 



(y.) Gum-resins, as opium, assafoetida, &ic. suspended in water, 

 lose their odors. 



(z.) Tainted meat is restored by rubbing or boiling it with charcoal 

 powder ; and if daily renewed, it preserves meat from putrefaction. 



(aa.) The inside of water casks is charred to preserve the water 

 from putridity in long voyages, and the ends of posts to keep them 

 from rotting. 



(bb.) The facts under (t.) and (u.) are true of rum and other 

 varieties of ardent spirit. 



(cc.) Proper proportion is essential to success in these experiments. 



(dd.) The same portion of charcoal, if re-ignited, may be used 

 repeatedly. 



(ee.) Minimal charcoal is a more powerful antiseptic than vegeta- 

 ble ; it is obtained by calcining bones in close vessels.* 



(ff.) Charcoal, if undisturbed when in the act of being formed, 

 preserves the organization of the substance from which it is derived; 

 " the wire marks of paper and the thread of linen, are still seen with 

 distinctness," after being carefully burned. 



Grains of wheat and rye charred in Herculaneum, by the volcanic 

 eruption, A. D. 79, were easily distinguished from each other, and 

 an arrow head has been charred so as to preserve the form of the 

 feather. ParJces. 



(gg.) The charcoal of the heaviest wood requires most air, and 

 gives the most heat, and is best fitted for the reduction of metallic 

 oxides ; " while lighter wood preserves a glowing heat with a less 

 draught of air." If wood be stripped of its bark before it is carbon- 



* Ann. de Chiin. 79, 80 ; Jour, of Science, IV, 367. 



