718 
WHEY. 
day only (Table II.), and that at an expense denoted 
by 2 (Table IITI.), that is, this velocity is obtained 
at an expense of cent. per cent., and so on of others. 
It is not affirmed that the conclusions derived in this 
manner are strictly accurate in every case that may 
occur, but that they are approximations, which will 
be found useful in making estimates of animal per- 
formance, not far from the truth. 
WHEEL-DRAG. See Drag. 
WHEEL-PLOUGH. See Provex. 
WHEEZER. See Brokun Winn. 
WHEY. The liquid of milk which remains 
after the abstraction of the curd for sweet-milk 
cheese, or after the separation in any other way 
of the main portion of the milk’s caseous and 
butyraceous principles. It is properly identical 
with the serum of the milk, but it also comprises 
small and variable unseparated portions of the 
caseum and the butyrine; and it varies widely 
in constitution according to the different species 
of the milk, or according to the different condi- 
tions of the same species, and according also to 
the manner in which the main bulk of the ca- 
seum and the butyrine are separated. Its chief 
constituent as to bulk is water; and its other 
proper constituents are lactic acid, sugar of milk, 
and several salts. See the articles Mix and Lac- 
tic Acip. The sugar of milk gives it its sweetish 
taste, and may readily be separated from it by 
evaporation, and is manufactured on a large 
scale in Switzerland, and applied to pharmaceu- 
tical purposes, and in particular is the vehicle of 
all the granulated medicines of the homceopa- 
thists. It has not a strong saccharine taste; but 
it yields by distillation every product obtainable 
by that process from vegetable sugar; and if it 
be dissolved in water, clarified with the white of 
egg, and evaporated in the usual manner, it will 
form delicate white crystals. The odour of its 
empyreuma resembles that of benzoic acid. The 
mucic acid found in all gums occurs in sugar of 
milk, and formerly took from it the name of sac- 
cholactic acid. This acid, when pure, is obtained 
in the form of a white powder; it decomposes 
the chlorides of barium and calcium, combining 
with the bases after they have absorbed oxygen; 
and it forms two sets of salts with soda and pot- 
ash, and nearly insoluble salts with the metallic 
oxides. 
Whey is used in the families of many farmers 
as a beverage; it is also used, on many farmeries 
in Scotland, for making a very palatable and 
wholesome variety of oatmeal porridge; and it is 
commonly given as both food and drink to cows, 
horses, and hogs. The whey obtained from the 
milk of three or at most four cows will, with a 
very small supply of other food, raise a young 
pig, from April till December, to a weight of from 
12 to 25 stones; and, if the creature belong to 
any ordinarily good breed, will render its pork of 
very fine quality. In some slovenly dairies, 
whose business is currently managed in an ig- 
| norant or unskilful manner, butter is extracted 
from whey. If the curd is set and the whey 
WHINSTONE. 
taken off at the proper temperature, the butter 
that can be extracted from the whey will not 
indemnify the labour in collecting it. But if the 
milk is too hot when it is coagulated, or the 
curd too roughly handled, such a portion of the 
butyraceous matter will go off with the whey as 
it may be proper to collect. This is bad economy 
in itself, and also does great injustice to the 
cheese, for whatever butter is found in the whey 
is robbed from the cheese. 
WHIMBREL.—scientifically Vumenius Phoo- 
pus. A British bird of the longirostrous family 
of Gralle. It is a congener of the curlew, and 
very closely resembles that bird in at once 
plumage, haunts, and habits; but is considerably 
smaller, and very much less abundant. It is 
called in some districts the half-curlew and the 
jack-curlew. It is occasionally seen in many 
parts of our shores in winter ; but is most plenti- 
ful in May and in autumn. The male measures 
16 inches in length,—the beak 3 inches; and the 
female measures about 18 inches in length,—the 
beak 3$ inches. The flesh is of similar excel- 
lence to that of the curlew. Whimbrels feed on 
worms and insects; and uttér a cry or note which 
resembles a quick repetition of the articulations 
“tetty, tetty, tetty, tet.” The eggs are pear- 
shaped, 2 inches 5 lines long, 1 inch 8 lines broad, 
of a dark olive brown colour blotched with darker 
brown, and four in number. 
WHIN. See Furzs. 
WHINCHAT,—scientificailly Rudicola rubetra. 
A British bird of the warbler group of Passerine. 
It is a congener of the stonechat, and very much | 
resembles that bird in at once appearance, haunts, 
and habits; and it takes its popular name of 
whinchat from its partiality for the furze. It 
darts with undulating flight from bush to bush 
of furze in a thicket or on a moorland pasture, 
and always perches on the uppermost twigs of a 
bush; and pours out its song either from that 
position, or while hovering in the air over it. It | 
appears about the middle or end of April ; and it 
becomes fat, and a desirable object for the gour- 
mand, in August. 
molluscs, and berries. 
pale brown and very dark brown; over its eye 
and ear-coverts is an elongated streak of white; | 
its throat and breast are delicate fawn colour; | 
and its belly is pale buff. The nest is generally | 
built. on the ground; and is formed of mosses and 
bents, and lined with fine bents and other grasses. 
The eggs amount to five or six, and have an uni- 
form bluish green colour, with some minute 
specks of dull reddish brown, and measure 9 | 
lines in length and about 63 in breadth. 
WHINSTONE. Any crystalline or unstrati- | 
fied rock except the quartzose and the granitic. 
The name is a popular one, and very loosely used, 
and has different latitudes of meaning among 
different persons and in different districts. It 
It feeds on worms, insects, | 
Its total length is rather | 
less than 5 inches; its neck, back, smaller wing- | 
coverts, and the top of its head are a mixture of © 
