Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/94

88 BORA BORAX and it contains two fine Gothic churches and two hydropathic establishments, one of winch occupies the former abbey of Marienberg. The town has some trade and manufactories of cot- ton, tobacco, and leather. BORA, hatliiii'iiia von, the wife of Martin La- ther, horn at Loben, near Merseburg, Jan. 29, 1499, died at Torgau, Dec. 20, 1552. In her youth she was placed in the Cistercian convent of Nimptschen, near Grimma, in Saxony. Here she read some of the works of Luther, which inspired her with great enthusiasm, and she applied to him for aid in leaving the cloister. Through the instrumentality of Leonhard Koppe, a native of Torgau, Luther succeeded in securing the escape of Katharina and eight companions on the night of April 4, 1523. They fled first to Torgau, then to Wittenberg. As their parents refused to take them home, Lu- ther provided for them as best he could. Some of them found employment as teachers, others married. Katharina became an inmate of the house of the burgomaster of Wittenberg, and on June 13, 1525, Luther married her. After his death she had the friendship and aid of Christian III., king of Denmark, and John Frederick of Saxony. She left three sons and two daughters. BORACIC ACID. See BORIC AOID. BORACITE, or Borazite, a mineral occurring in crystals imbedded in gypsum and anhydrite in Hanover, Holstein, and France ; also impure in the salt mines of Stassfurt. It was formerly supposed to be composed of magnesium borate, but recent analyses have shown that it also contains chlorine. According to Potyka, a fair average sample has the following constitution : Magnesia 26-19 Oxide of iron 1-66 Boric acid 61-19 Chloride of magnesium 10-41 Water 0-94 BORAGE (lorago), a plant and the typ- ical genus of the order boraginacece. Calyx 5, rarely 4- parted, and persis- tent ; corolla hypo- gynous, monopetal- ous, rotate, 5, rarely 4-cleft, imbricate in aestivation ; stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla, ex- serted, alternate with the segments of the corolla; an- thers oblong or lan- ceolate, extrose, con- niving in a cone around the style, awned ; ovary 4- parted, carpels or nutlets 4, 1 -seeded, 1- 100-39 Borage (Borago offlcinalis). celled, distinct, seeds exalbuminous. Herbs or shrubs with alternate, exstiputate leaves, usu- ally rough ; flowers in spikes, panicles, or co- rymbs, rarely solitary in the axils. B. officina- lis originally came from Aleppo, but is now thor- oughly naturalized in central Europe and Eng- land. Corolla blue or purple, sometimes white, or with different colors on the same stem ; tube of the corolla with emarginate rotate scales ; nuts ovate-oblong, ribbed, the ribs denticulate. The plant was once in great repute, being reckoned one of the four cordial flowers, with alkanet, violets, and roses. A decoction of its leaves with honey was used as a pectoral medi- cine, and the drink culled in England cool tankards is made of the succulent, mucilagi- nous stems. The juice contains much nitre, and to this is probably due the cooling quality of the plant. The young and tender leaves are used for pickles or as a salad, and hence borage is much cultivated in some cities of Europe. BORAX (Arabic, burak), a salt first men- tioned by Geber in the 10th century; its chem- ical nature was discovered by Geoffroy in 1732. It is largely prepared from the natural product boric acid, and is itself found native in various parts of the world. The anhydrous borax, or borate of sodium, has the formula Na?B 4 O 7 , and is composed in 100 parts of boric anhydride (B a O s ) 69-05, soda (Na0) 30-95. It is found native in some Alpine lakes, in the snowy mountains of India, China, and Persia, in Cey- lon, and especially in the lake of Teshu-Lumbu in Great Thibet. This lake is distant 15 days' journey from a town of the same name, and it formerly furnished large quantities of borax. Is also occurs in still greater quantities near Potosi in Bolivia; in Pyramid lake, Washoe co., Nevada, and near Columbus, Esmeralda co., in the same state ; also in Borax lake, California. The supply at the last named places seems to be inexhaustible. Formerly a large quantity of the borax formed by the spontaneous evapora- tion through the sun's heat of the waters of borax lakes, was imported into Europe under the name of tincal, tincana, swaga, or pounxa. It appears in small hexagonal crystals more or less flattened out, either colorless or having a yellowish or greenish tinge, with an earthy crust. It has a greasy feel, and smells like soap. The crude borax was first refined in Venice, where for a long time the process was kept a secret. Afterward it was also refined in Holland. At Lake Clear in California, 250 m. N. of San Francisco, where 4,000 Ibs. of borax per day is produced, the muck which contains it is obtained by dredging, dried in the sun, and the borax dissolved out and crys- tallized. The purification of tincal may be ac- complished in various ways. The oldest method was to place it on a wire sieve or bolter and wash it with a lye containing 5 per cent, of soda so long as the liquor ran through colored. This removed all fatty substances that might adhere to it, forming a very soluble soap. Af- ter allowing the borax to drain, it is dissolved in boiling water, 12 per cent, of crystallized