Curing. An ordinary sized ham requires nearly three weeks, if wet salted, and about a month if dry salted, to cure it perfectly. At the expiration of this time they are ready for smoking. Mutton hams should not lie in pickle longer than 12 or 14 days.
Cooking. Hams should be put into the water cold, and should be gradually heated. A ham of 14 lbs. will take about 4 hours, one of 16 lbs. will take 61⁄2 hours, and one of 20 lbs. about 51⁄2 hours, to dress it properly. “If it is an old ham, it should be soaked for 12 hours previously.” (Soyer.)
Pres. Most grocers and dealers in hams enclose them, after being smoked, in canvas, for the purpose of defending them from the attacks of the little insect, the Dermestes lardarius, which, by laying its eggs in them, soon fills them with its larvæ; or maggots. This troublesome and expensive process may be altogether superseded by the use of pyroligneous acid, applied by means of a painter’s brush.
HANDS. Dirty and coarse hands are no less the marks of slothfulness and low breeding, than clean and delicate hands are those of cleanliness and gentility. To promote the softness and whiteness of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or those abounding in oil, should alone be used, by which means CHAPS AND CHILBLAINS will generally be avoided. The coarse, strong kinds of soap, or those abounding in alkali, should for a like reason be rejected, as they tend to render the skin rough, dry, and brittle. The immersion of the hands in alkaline lyes, or strongly acidulated water, has a like effect. When the hands are very dirty, a little good soft soap may be used with warm water, which will rapidly remove oily and greasy matter. Fruit and ink stains may be taken out by immersing the hands in water slightly acidulated with oxalic acid or a few drops of oil of vitriol, or to which a little pearlash or chloride of lime has been added; observing afterwards to well rinse them in clean water, and not to touch them with soap for some hours, as any alkaline matter will bring back the stains, after their apparent removal by all the above substances, except the last. The use of a little chloride of lime and warm water, or Gowland’s lotion, imparts a delicate whiteness to the skin; but the former should be only occasionally used, and should be well washed off with a little clean water to remove its odour. Glycerine employed in the same manner renders the skin
soft, white, and supple. The use of a little sand or powdered pumice stone with the soap will generally remove the roughness of the skin frequently induced by exposure to cold. The hands may be preserved dry, for delicate work, by rubbing a little club moss (LYCOPODIUM), in fine powder, over them. A small quantity of this substance sprinkled over the surface of a basin of water will permit the hand to be plunged to the bottom of the basin without its becoming wet.
HANG′ING. In cases of suspended animation from hanging, the assistance must be prompt and energetic. The body on its discovery should be instantly relieved from the state of suspension and all pressure about the throat. The remedial treatment chiefly consists, in the severer cases, in cupping the temples or opening the jugular vein, and so relieving the head of the blood which is accumulated in its superficial veins in consequence of strangulation. When the body is cold, friction, and the other means used for restoring the animal heat in drowned persons, should be resorted to. See Asphyxia and Drowning.
HARD′NESS. Compactness; solidity; the power of resisting abrasion. Mineral substances are frequently distinguished and identified by their relative hardness. This is ascertained by their power to scratch or be scratched by one another. A valuable table on this subject will be found in the article on Gems.
HAR′MALINE. Syn. Harmalina. An alkaloid, forming yellow-brown crystals, discovered in the seeds of Peganum harmala. It has a bitter astringent and acrid taste, is soluble in alcohol, and forms yellow, soluble salts with the acids. It has been proposed as a yellow dye. By oxidation it yields another compound (harmine), which is a magnificently red dye-stuff, easily prepared and applied. The seeds are produced abundantly in Southern Russia.
HAR′NESS POLISH. See Blacking, &c.
HARTS′HORN. Syn. Cornu cervi, C. Cervinum, Cornu (Ph. L.) L. The “horn of the Cervus elephas” (Ph. L.) or stag.