ICE 



I LI 



ice, 80 as to freeze and consolidate 

 the mass, otherwise the crevices 

 should be filled with small or broken 

 pieces. If the house has been filled 

 early, it is customary to leave it un- 

 covered until the new year, so as to 

 add to the mass as it settles during 

 February. As soon as the winter is 

 passed, the top should be well cov- 

 ered with dry leaves or straw. A 

 ladder is used to reach the ice, and, 

 placed upon it as soon as necessary, 

 it remains during the season. Snow, 

 well rammed, keeps well, especially 

 if water be frozen amid it. 



Some houses are made with a 

 double lining, the outer being of piles 

 and the inner of plank, the space be- 

 tween them varying from four to 

 eight inches, and filled with pounded 

 charcoal, sawdust, dry tan, or leaves 

 well rammed. In this way a nun- 

 conducting pit is made that will keep 

 less quantities of ice very perfectly. 

 Such a house may even be made 

 above ground, if surrounded with a 

 thick mould of earth, and kept free 

 from w-et and well drained. 



The uses of such a house are ap- 

 parent : meats, liquids, butter, fruits, 

 are preserved ; but, besides these, in 

 silk raising, it affords the means of 

 delaying the hatching ; scions may be 

 kept back, and, above all, the ice is 

 invaluable in the sick-chamber in in- 

 flammations. 



ICE PONDS. Any natural lake 

 or accumulation of clear water will 

 furnish fine ice ; but where that is 

 wanting, a temporarj' dam thrown 

 across a spring branch will soon pro- 

 duce a suflicient amount of water. 

 Where the operation of taking ice is 

 carried on on a large scale, the sur- 

 face is cut by a plough of suitable 

 construction, and thus the removal 

 assisted. The Boston dealers take 

 only the transparent ice ; they have 

 any accumulation of snow shaved off 

 by skim-coulters a few days before 

 use, and the thickness of the real ice 

 is rapidly increased afterward. The 

 largest blocks are preferred for sto- 

 rage ; and as they are cut of the same 

 size, they can be laid in the house 

 iike courses of masonry. 

 411 



ICELAND SPAR. Calcareous 

 spar. 



ICHNEUMON FLIES. Small hy- 

 menopterous insects, which lay eggs 

 in the bodies of aphides, caterpillars, 

 and other insects, and even in the 

 eggs of these ; the young eat and de- 

 stroy the creatures in which the (}gg 

 is deposited. The /'/>. represents a 

 common species {Tragus fulvus). 



ICHOR. A thin, purulent, and 

 acrid discharge. 



ICOSANDRIA, ICOSANDROUS 

 (from eiKOai, twenty, and avTjp, a male). 

 Flowers with 20 stamens. 



ICTERUS. Jaundice ; hence icte- 

 rokl, yellowish, like the colour of the 

 skin in jaundice. 



IDIOPATHIC. Independent of 

 other diseases. 



IDIOSYNCRASY. A peculiarity 

 of constitution. 



IDOCRASE. Volcanic garnet. It 

 crystallizes in a square-based prism 

 of a brownish colour, and is found 

 massive. Composition of the Vesu- 

 vian : silica, 35 5; alumina, 33 ; lime, 

 22-25 ; iron, 7 5. 



IGASAURIC ACID. A vegetable 

 acid found in plants yielding strych- 

 nine. 



IGNIS FATUUS. A luminous me- 

 teor seen over marshes ; it consists 

 of marsh gas (light carburetted hy- 

 drogen) inflamed. 



IGNITION {iromignis,fire). Com- 

 bustion, burning. 



ILEUM. The lower portion of the 

 small intestines. 



ILIA. The lower sides of the ab- 

 domen ; hence Uxac, iliacus, related 

 to the ilium. 



