PICROTOXINE, is an intensely bitter poisonous vegetable principle, extracted from the seeds of the Menispermum cocculus, (Cocculus Indicus). It crystallizes in small white needles, or columns; dissolves in water and alcohol. It does not combine with acids, but with some bases, and is not therefore of an alkaline nature, as had been at first supposed.
PIGMENTS, VITRIFIABLE, belong to five different styles of work: 1. to enamel painting; 2. to painting on metals; 3. to painting on stoneware; 4. to painting on porcelain; 5. to stained glass.
PIMENTO; Myrtus pimenta, or Jamaica pepper; consists, according to Bonastre’s complicated analysis, of:—
| Shells or Capsules. | Kernels. | |
|---|---|---|
| Volatile oil | 10·0 | 5·0 |
| Soft green resin | 8·0 | 2·5 |
| Fatty concrete oil | 0·9 | 1·2 |
| Extract containing tannin | 11·4 | 39·8 |
| Gum | 3·0 | 7·2 |
| Brown matter dissolved in potash | 4·0 | 8·0 |
| Resinoid matter | 1·2 | 3·2 |
| Extract containing sugar | 3·0 | 8·0 |
| Gallic and malic acids | 0·6 | 1·6 |
| Vegetable fibre | 50·0 | 16·0 |
| Ashes charged with salts | 2·8 | 1·9 |
| Moisture and loss | 4·1 | 4·8 |
| Pimento imported for home consumption, in | 1835. | 1836. | |
| Duty—British possessions, 5d.; foreign, 1s. 3d. | Lbs. | 344,458. | 400,914. |
PINCHBECK, is a modification of [brass]; see that article and [Copper].
PINE-APPLE YARN and CLOTH. In Mr. Zincke’s process, patented in December, 1836, for preparing the filaments of this plant, the Bromelia ananas, the leaves being plucked, and deprived of the prickles round their edges by a cutting instrument, are then beaten upon a wooden block with a wooden mallet, till a silky-looking mass of fibres be obtained, which are to be freed by washing from the green fecula. The fibrous part must next be laid straight, and passed between wooden rollers. The leaves should be gathered between the time of their full maturity and the ripening of the fruit. If earlier or latter, the fibres will not be so flexible, and will need to be cleared by a boil in soapy water for some hours; after being laid straight under the pressure of a wooden grating, to prevent their becoming entangled. When well washed and dried, with occasional shaking out, they will now appear of a silky fineness. They may be then spun into porous rovings, in which state they are most conveniently bleached by the ordinary methods.
Specimens of cambric, both bleached and unbleached, woven with these fibres, have been recently exhibited, which excited hopes of their rivalling the finest flax fabrics, but in my opinion without good reason, on account of their want of strength.
PINEY TALLOW, is a concrete fat obtained by boiling with water the fruit of the Vateria indica, a tree common upon the Malabar coast. It seems to be a substance intermediate between tallow and wax; partaking of the nature of stearine. It melts at 971⁄2° F., is white or yellowish, has a spec. grav. of 0·926; is saponified by alkalies, and forms excellent candles. Dr. Benjamin Babington, to whom we are indebted for all our knowledge of piney tallow, found its ultimate constituents to be, 77 of carbon, 12·3 of hydrogen, and 10·7 of oxygen.
PIN MANUFACTURE. (Fabrique d’épingles, Fr.; Nadelfabrik, Germ.) A pin is a small bit of wire, commonly brass, with a point at one end, and a spherical head at the other. In making this little article, there are no less than fourteen distinct operations.