Book I. 



VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. 



223 



into Europe. It has been brought, however, even in its milky state, by being confined from the action of 

 the air. If the milky juice is exposed to the air, an elastic pellicle is formed on the surface. If it is con. 

 fined in a vessel containing oxygen gas, the pellicle is formed sooner. If oxymuriatic acid is poured into 

 the milky juice, the caoutchouc precipitates immediately. This renders it probable that the formation of 

 the caoutchouc is owing to the absorption of oxygen. Caoutchouc, when pure, is of a white colour, with- 

 out taste and without smell. The black colour of the caoutchouc of commerce is owing to the method ot 

 drying the different layers upon the moulds on which they are spread. They are dried by being exposed 

 to smoke. The black colour of the caoutchouc, therefore, is owing to the smoke or soot alternating with 

 its different layers. It is sort and pliable like leather, and extremely elastic, so that it may be stretched 

 to a very great length, and still recover its former size. Its specific gravity is 09335. Gough, of Man- 

 chester, has made some curious and important experiments on the connection between the temperature 

 of caoutchouc and its elasticity, from which it results that ductility as well as fluidity is owing to latent 

 heat. Caoutchouc is not altered by exposure to the air. It is perfectly insoluble in water ; but if boiled 

 in water for some time its edges become so soft that they will cement, if pressed and kept for a while close 

 together. It is insoluble in alcohol, but soluble in ether. It is soluble also in volatile oils and in alka- 

 lies. And from the action operated upon by acids it is thought to be composed of carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and azote. It seems to exist in a great variety of plants combined with other ingredients. It 

 may be separated from resins by alcohol. It may be separated from the berries of the mistletoe by means 

 of water, and from other vegetable substances by other processes. It is said to be contained both in opium 

 and in mastic; but from these substances it cannot be extracted in sufficient quantities to make it worth 

 the labour. It is applied to a great many useful purposes both in medicine and the arts, to which, from 

 its great pliability and elasticity, it is uncommonly well adapted. In the countries where it is produced 

 the natives make boots and shoes of it, and often use it by way of candle. 



1491. Cork. The substance known by the name of cork is the outer and exfoliated bark of the Quercus 

 Suber or cork tree, a species of oak that grows in great abundance in France, Spain, and Italy: but to 

 prevent its natural exfoliation, which is always irregular, and to disengage it in convenient portions, a 

 longitudinal incision is made in the bark from the root to the top of the stem ; and a transverse and cir- 

 cular incision at each extremity. The outer layer, which is cork, is then stripped off, and to flatten and 

 reduce it to sheets it is put into water and loaded with weights. The tree continues to thrive, though it 

 is thus stripped of its cork once in two or three years. Cork is a light, soft, and elastic substance, dis- 

 tinguished by the following properties: — Its colour is a sort of light tan. It is very inflammable, and 

 burns with a bright white flame, leaving a black and bulky charcoal behind. When distilled it yields a 

 small quantity of ammonia. Nitric acid corrodes and dissolves it, changing its colour to yellow ; and finally 

 decomposes it, converting it partly into an acid, and partly into a soft substance resembling wax or resin. 

 The acid which is thus formed is denominated the suberic acid, and has been proved by the experiments 

 of Lagrange to be an acid of a peculiar nature. It seems probable that cork exists in the bark of some 

 ot'.er trees, as well as that of the Quercus Suber. The bark of the t/'lmus suberbsa assumes something 

 of the external appearance of cork, which it resembles in its thickness, softness, and elasticity, and in its 

 loose and porous texture, as well as also in its chemical properties. Foureroy seems, indeed, to regard 

 the epidermis of all trees whatever to be a sort of cork, but does not say on what grounds his opinion is 

 founded. 



1492. Woody fibre. The principal body of the root, stem, and branches of trees, is designated by the 

 appellation of wood ; but the term is too general for the purpose of analytical distinction, as the part 

 designated by it often includes the greater part of the substances that have been already enumerated. It 

 remains, therefore, to be ascertained whether there exists in the plant any individual substance different 

 from those already described, and constituting more immediately the fabric of the wood. If a piece of 

 wood is well dried and digested, first in water and then in alcohol, or such other solvent as shall produce 

 no violent effects upon the insoluble parts ; and if the digestion is continued till the liquid is no longer 

 coloured, and dissolves no more of the substance of the plant, there remains behind a sort of vegetable 

 skeleton, which constitutes the basis of the wood, and which has been denominated woody fibre. It is 

 composed of bundles of longitudinal threads, which are divisible into others still smaller. It is somewhat 

 transparent. It is without taste and smell, and is not altered by exposure to the atmosphere. It is inso- 

 luble in water and alcohol ; but the fixed alkalies decompose it with the assistance of heat. When heated 

 in the open air it blackens without melting or frothing, and exhales a thick smoke and pungent odour, 

 leaving a charcoal that retains the form of the original mass. When distilled in a retort it yields an em- 

 pyreumatic oil, carburetted hydrogen gas, carbonic acid, and a portion of ammonia, according to Four- 

 croy, indicating the presence of nitrogen as constituting one of its elementary principles ; and yet this 

 ingredient does not appear in the result of the later analysis of Gay Lussac and Thenard, which is, car- 

 bon, 52-53 ; oxygen, 41 "8 ; hydrogen, 569 ; total 100. 



1493. Charcoal. When wood is burnt with a smothered flame, the volatile parts are driven off by 

 the heat, and there remains behind a substance exhibiting the exact form, and even the several layers of 

 the original mass. This process is denominated charring, and the substance obtained charcoal. As it is 

 the woody fibre alone which resists the action of heat, while the other parts of the plants are dissipated, it 

 is plain that charcoal must be the residuum of woody fibre, and that the quantity of the one must depend 

 upon the quantity of the other, if they are not rather to be considered as thesame. Charcoal maybe ob- 

 tained from almost all parts of the plants, whether solid or fluid. It often escapes, however, during com- 

 bustion, under the form of carbonic acid, of which it constitutes one of the elements. From a variety of 

 experiments made on different plants and on their different parts, it appears that the green parts contain 

 a greater proportion of charcoal than the rest ; but this proportion is found to diminish in autumn, when 

 the green parts begin to be deprived of their glutinous and extractive juice. The wood contains more 

 charcoal than the alburnum, the bark more than both ; but this last result is not constant in all plants ; 

 because the bark is not a homogeneous substance, the outer parts being affected by the air and the inner 

 parts not. The wood of the Quercus Rbbux, separated from the alburnum, yielded from 100 parts of its 

 dried substance 1975 of charcoal ; the alburnum, 17'5 ; the bark, 26 ; leaves gathered in May, 80 ; in 

 September, 26. But the quantity of charcoal differs also in different plants, as well as in different parts 

 of the same. According to the experiments of Mushet, 100 parts of the following trees afforded as 

 follows : — 



19-2 

 18 -4 

 17-9 

 17-1 



16-4 



1494. The properties of charcoal are insolubility in water, of which, however, it absorbs a portion when 

 newly made, as also of atmospheric air. It is incapable of putrefaction. It is not altered by the most 

 violent heat that can be applied, if all air and moisture are excluded ; but when heated to about 800 it 

 bums in atmospheric air or oxygen gas, and if pure, without leaving any residuum. It is regarded by 

 chemists as being a triple compound, of which the ingredients are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 

 Charcoal is of great utility both to the chemist and artist as a fuel for heating furnaces, as well as for a 

 variety of other purposes. It is an excellent filter for purifying water. It is a very good tooth-powder; 

 and is also an indispensable ingredient in the important manufacture of gunpowder. 



1495. The sap. If the branch of a vine is cut asunder early in the spring, before the leaves have begun 

 to expand, a clear and colourless fluid will issue from the wound, which gardeners denominate the tears of 



