In the year 1831, 23,000,000 gallons of spirits were made in the United Kingdom, equivalent to the consumption of 1,500,000 quarters of grain, and for that year and the four preceding years, there were imported annually 2,000,000 of quarters of foreign barley.
| In | 1832, | 20,778,521. | gallons paid excise duty. |
| 1834, | 23,397,806. | ||
| 1836, | 27,137,000; | of which 14,000,000 were Irish. |
We may add to the last quantity, 3 millions of gallons at least on the score of smuggling, in licensed and illicit distilleries; making 30 millions to be the frightful amount of whiskey consumed by the British people, independent of other intoxicating liquors.
DOCIMACY, from the Greek Δοκιμαζω, I prove; (Docimasie, Fr.; Probierkunst, Germ.;) is the art by which the nature and proportions of an ore are determined. This analytical examination was originally conducted in the dry way, the metal being extracted from its mineralizers, by means of heat and certain fluxes. But this method was eventually found to be insufficient and even fallacious, especially when volatile metals were in question, or when the fluxes could absorb them. The latter circumstance became a very serious evil, whenever the object was to appreciate an ore that was to be worked at great expense. Bergmann first demonstrated, in an elaborate dissertation, that the humid analysis was much to be preferred; and since his time the dry way has been consecrated chiefly to the direction of metallurgic operations, or, at least, it has been employed merely in concert with the humid, in trials upon the small scale.
After discovering an ore of some valuable metal, it is essential to ascertain if its quantity and state of combination will justify an adventurer in working the mine, and smelting its products. The metal is rarely found in a condition approaching to purity; it is often disseminated in a mineralizing [gangue] far more bulky than itself; and more frequently still it is combined with simple non-metallic substances, such as sulphur, carbon, chlorine, oxygen, and acids, more or less difficult to get rid of. In these compound states its distinctive characters are so altered, that it is not an easy task either to recognize its nature, or to decide if it can be smelted with advantage. The assayer, without neglecting any of the external characters of the ore, seeks to penetrate, so to speak, into its interior; he triturates it to an impalpable powder, and then subjects it to the decomposing action of powerful chemical reagents; sometimes with the aid of alkalies or salts appropriate to its nature, he employs the dry way by fire alone; at others, he calls in the solvent power of acids with a digesting heat; happy, if after a series of labours, long, varied, and intricate, he shall finally succeed in separating a notable proportion of one or more metals either in a pure state, or in a form of combination such, that from the amount of this known compound, he can infer, with precision, the quantity of fine metal, and thereby the probable value of the mine. The blow-pipe, skilfully applied, affords ready indications of the nature of the metallic constituents, and is therefore usually the preliminary test. The separation of the several constituents of the ore can be effected, however, only by a chemist, who joins to the most extensive knowledge of the habitudes of mineral substances, much experience, sagacity, and precision, in the conduct of analytical operations. Under the individual metals, as also in the articles [Metallurgy], [Mines], and [Ores], I have endeavoured to present such a copious and correct detail of docimastic processes, as will serve to guide the intelligent student through this most mysterious labyrinth of nature and art.
DORNOCK, is a species of figured linen of stout fabric, which derives its name from a town in Scotland, where it was first manufactured for table-cloths. It is the most simple in pattern of all the varieties of the diaper or damask style, and therefore the goods are usually of coarse quality for common household wear. It receives the figure by reversing the flushing of the warp and woof at certain intervals, so as to form squares, or oblong rectangles upon the cloth. The most simple of these is a succession of alternate squares, forming an imitation of a checker board or mosaic work. The coarsest kinds are generally woven as tweels of three leaves, where every thread floats over two, and is intersected by the third in succession. Some of the finer are tweels of four or five leaves, but few of more; for the six and seven leaf tweels are seldom or never used, and the eight leaf tweel is confined almost exclusively to damask. See [Textile Fabric].
DRAGON’S BLOOD; (Sang dracon, Fr.; Drachenblut, Germ.) is a resinous substance, which comes to us sometimes in small balls of the size of a pigeon’s egg, sometimes in rods, like the finger, and sometimes in irregular cakes. Its colour, in lump, is dark brown red; in powder, bright red; friable; of a shining fracture, sp. grav. 1·196. It contains a little benzoic acid, is insoluble in water, but dissolves readily in alcohol, ether, and oils. It is brought from the East Indies, Africa, South America, as the produce of several trees, the Dracæna Draco, the Pterocarpus santalinus, the Pterocarpus Draco, and the Calamus Rotang.
Dragon’s blood is used chiefly for tingeing spirit and turpentine varnishes, for preparing gold lacquer, for tooth tinctures and powders, for staining marble, &c. According to Herbenger, it consists of 9·07 parts of red resin, 2 of fat oil, 3 of benzoic acid, 1·6 of oxalate, and 3·7 of phosphate of lime.
DRUGGET, is a coarse, but rather slight, woollen fabric, used for covering carpets, and as an article of clothing by females of the poorer classes. It is now-a-days nearly superseded by coarse cotton goods.