GOL 



GOL 



Pagans, it is thought by most learned men 

 that they acknowledged but one God ; 

 and that the many different divinities 

 worshipped by them were but attributes 

 and actions of one and the same God. 

 This may probably be true of the wiser 

 Heathens ; and, indeed, there are many 

 strong and beautiful passages in Pagan 

 authors, to prove that these acknowledg- 

 ed but one God. Thus Pythagoras taught 

 the unity of God, and defined him to be 

 a mind penetrating and diffusing itself 

 through all the parts of the universe, 

 from which all animals receive life ; and 

 Plato called God the being which is ; and 

 whenever he mentions the Deity, it is al- 

 ways in the singular number. 



GOGGLES, in surgery, instruments 

 used for the cure of squinting, or that 

 distortion of the eyes which occasions 

 this disorder. They are short conical 

 tubes, composed of ivory stained black, 

 with a thin plate of the same ivory fixed 

 in the tube's ; through the centre of the 

 plates is a small circular hole, about the 

 size of the pupil of the eye, for the trans- 

 mission of the rays of light. These gog- 

 gles must be worn regularly and con- 

 stantly, till the muscles of the eye are 

 brought to act properly and uniformly, 

 so as to direct the pupil straight forward. 



GOLD is a yellow metal, of much 

 greater specific gravity than any other 

 body in nature, except platina. It is soft, 

 very tough, ductile, and malleable ; unal- 

 terable and fixed, whether exposed to the 

 atmosphere, or to the strongest heat of 

 furnaces. The most powerful burning 

 anirrors are said to have volatilized it ; 

 and it has been driven up in fumes, in the 

 metallic state, by flame urged upon it by 

 a stream of oxygen gas. The electric 

 shock converts it into a purple oxide, as 

 may be seen by transmitting that commo- 

 tion through gold leaf between two plates 

 of glass; or by causing the explosive 

 spark of three or more square feet of 

 coated glass to fall upon a gilded surface. 

 A strong heat is required to melt it, 

 which does not happen till after ignition, 

 Its colour, when melted, is of a bluish 

 green ; and the same colour is exhibited 

 by light transmitted through gold-leaf. 



The limits of the ductility and mallea- 

 bility of gold are not known, and its tena- 

 city exceeds that of any other metal. A 

 gold wire of one tenth of an inch dia- 

 meter requires 5001b. weight to break it. 



The method of extending gold, used by 

 the gold-beaters, consists in hammering a 

 number of thin-rolled plates between 

 skins or animal membranes. By the 

 weight and measure of the best wrought 



gold leaf, it is found, that one grain It 

 made to cover 56 square inches ; and 

 from the specific gravity of the metal, to- 

 gether with this admeasurement, it fol- 

 lows, that the leaf itself is -^^^ parts. 

 of an inch thick. This, however, is not 

 the limit of the malleability of gold ; for 

 the gold-beaters find it necessary to add 

 three grains of copper in the ounce to 

 harden the gold, which otherwise would 

 pass round the irregularities of the new- 

 est skins, and not over them ; and in us- 

 ing the old skins, which are not so per- 

 fect and smooth, they proceed so far as 

 to add twelve grains. The wire which is 

 used by the lace-makers is drawn from 

 an ingot of silver, previously gilded. In 

 this way, from the known diameter of the 

 wire, or breadtli when flattened, and its 

 length, together with the quantity of gold 

 used, it is found, by computation, that 

 the covering of gold is only one-twelfth. 

 part of the thickness of gold-leaf, though 

 it still is so perfect as to exhibit no cracks 

 when viewed by a microscope. 



No acid acts readily upon gold but the 

 nitro-muriatic acid, called aqua-regia, and 

 the oxygenized-muriatic acid. The sul- 

 phuric acid, distilled from manganese, 

 has some action upon it : as have likewise 

 the pale nitric acid, and the phosporic 

 acid when boiling. Chromic acid added 

 to the muriatic enables it to dissolve gold. 



The small degree of concentration of 

 which the oxygenized-muriatic acid is 

 susceptible, and the imperfect action of 

 the latter acids, render aqua-regia the 

 most convenient solvent for this metal. 



When gold is immersed in aqa-regia, 

 an effervescence takes place with the 

 escape of gas ; the solution tinges animal 

 matters of a deep purple, and corrodes 

 them. By careful evaporation, fine crys- 

 tals of a topaz colour are obtained. The 

 gold is precipitated from its solvent by a 

 great number of substances. Lime and 

 magnesia precipitate it in the form of a 

 yellowish powder, Alkalies exhibit the 

 same appearance ; but an excess of alkali 

 redissolves the precipitate. The preci- 

 pitate of gold obtained from aqua-regia 

 by the addition of a fixed alkali appears 

 to be a true oxide, and is soluble-in the 

 sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids ; 

 from which, however, it separates by 

 standing, or by evaporation of the acids. 

 Gallic acid precipitates gold of a reddish 

 colour, very soluble in the nitric acid, to 

 which it communicates a fine blue colour. 



Ammonia precipitates the solution of 

 gold much more readily than fixed alka- 

 lies. This precipitate, which is of a brown, 

 yellow, or orange colour, possesses the 



