Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/280

25°] BEN Flowers of Benzcine, or Benzoic acid : this chemical production is obtained in a cheap and easy way. invented by Mr. Scheele; hi process is as follows: Take on; dram of the salt of benzi and dissolve it gradually in three ounces of boiling water 3 then ; ; the liquor, while hot, imo a glass vessel which has previously been heated ; let it stand till the crystals j,re formed, and afterwards care- fully decant the solution, and se- parate all the salt, by repeated gentle evaporations and crystalli- zations. As, on account of their extreme lightness, flowers of ben- zoine cannot be easily reduced to powder, it is advisable to preserve ihern in the form of a fine precipi- tate. When properly made, they have an agreeable taste and a fra- grant smell. Spirit of wine dis- solves them completely, as well as water by the assistance of heat. In order to keep them suspended in the latter medium, sugar must be added, and, in that state, they may be easily formed into a bal- samic syrup. In diseases of the breast, from twenty to thirty grains were formerly administered, and held in great estimation as a pec- toral and sudcriric medicine ; but they are at present seldom em- ployed, except as an ingredient in the well-known paregoric elixir, and likewise in the camphorated tin&ure of opium. As a perfume and comic tic, the solution of flowers of benzoir.e still maintain their reputation at the i ilette ; though, we believe, that their efficacy is not superior to the crystals of lemon juice, or even the obtained from the ashes of bean-straw, and t: at their agree- able oiiour is the only superiority which they pcrbL'as. BEN Animal Benzoine, or a Salt of* similar properties to that obtained from the Siyrar benxo'e, L. has lately been discovered by the French chemists, in the urine of different animals, especially horses, from which it may be precipitated in a white powder, bv adding only a small proportion of muriatic acid, or spirit of salt. But this lenzoic acid has been found in still greater quantities in the urine of cows and horses, in which bay and straw had been soaked. Hence, near cow-houses and stables, where great numbers of cattle are fed, it may be easily manufactured in the large way, by combining this va- luable acid with . lime, and after- wards precipitating it by the ma- rine acid, which will effectually remove the offensive smell. Probably the urine of all herba- ceous animals contains the ben- zoic acid in abundance; as it ap- pears to be chiefly derived from the sweet-scented spring grass, or Antkoxanthum odoratum, L. This fragrant substance has likewise been discovered in the urine of in- fants, by M. Scheele : he, how- ever, observes, that he could pre- cipitate it in considerable quanti- ties, only during that stage of in- fancy when there existed no phos- phoric acid, or similar salt in the urine; or, in other words, while the phosphoric ingredients were em- ployed by Nature in the formation of bones . This remarkable pheno- menon abo proves, that the ben- zoic acid is actually generated in the animal economy ;. because the first nourishment of infants, the mother's milk, does not appear to contain it. Hence the French chemists have endeavoured to ex- plain the cause of the rapid forma- tion of bones during early infancy; because