AUXILION. A packet of small plasters for the painless and radical cure of corns. Each plaster is to be worn for about a week, and then the horny pustule is to be removed with a sharp knife. The plaster is a compound of 1 part of resin plaster and 2 parts of lead plaster, and is likely to promote the removal and solution of the thick skin of the corns. (Hager.)
AVA. Syn. Kava-kava. The native names of the root, a species of piper, the piper methysticum, cultivated in Tahiti, Hawaii, the Society and Tongan Islands, the natives of which make it into an intoxicating drink. It is said to have been used in France with excellent effect in gonorrhœa; and a tincture of it has been strongly recommended both for external and internal administration in gout. “For medicinal purposes it is used in the form of infusion,” a drachm of the scraped root being macerated in a quart of water for five minutes. Its action appears to vary with the amount taken; in small doses it is generally stated to act as a stimulant and tonic, but when taken in large doses it produces an intoxication which differs from that caused by alcohol, in being of a silent and drowsy nature accompanied by incoherent dreams” (‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ August 19th, 1876, which consult for further information.’)
AVE′NA. [L.] The oat; oats.
AVE′NIN (-nĭn). Syn. Avena′ine* (ăv-e-) Aveni′na, &c., L.; Avénine, &c., Fr. A nitrogenous compound, analogous to, and probably identical with, casein, obtained from oats, and on which its nutritiveness chiefly depends.
Prep. The grain, reduced to the state of powder or meal, is washed on a sieve, and the milky liquid, after being allowed to deposit its starch, is heated to about 200° Fahr., to coagulate the albumen; when cold, acetic acid is added as long as a white powder falls, which is AVENIN; this is collected on a filter, drained, and dried by a gentle heat.
AVEN′TURIN, Avant′urin (-ū-rĭn; -vŏng-tōō—Knowles and Smart). [Eng. Fr.] A beautiful iridescent variety of rock crystal, minutely spangled throughout with yellow scales of mica (AVENTURIN, A. QUARTZ). A variety of felspar (A. FELSPAR) of somewhat similar appearance is found in the Continent and the Peninsula, of which the finer kinds are called A. ORIENTALE and PIERRE DE SOLEIL by the lapidaries. Both varieties are now imitated by the glass and porcelain manufacturers. See Glass, Glaze, Paste, &c.
A′VIARY (-ve-). Syn. Avia′′rium, L.; Volière, Fr.; Vogelhaus, Vogelhecke, Ger. A place for keeping birds; generally applied to an enclosed space or building in which birds are kept, or bred, on account of their rarity, plumage, or song; and not for food.
Situa., &c. For exotic birds, a place should be selected where the temperature can be maintained at a proper degree throughout the year, and which is well protected from the weather. This is commonly done by choosing a space attached to the summerhouse or hot-house. When the aviary is only intended for birds of climates similar to our own, any part of the open garden may be chosen, and a portion closed in, either with trellis-work or wire-work, or netting; care being taken to provide, in some easily accessible portion of it, full protection from vicissitudes of weather and season. Nor must cleanliness, and due ventilation and protection from foul air or noxious fumes, be left unattended to.
AVIGNON′ BERRIES (ăv-veen-yong). French berries.
AV′OIRDUPOIS′ (ăv-ĕr-du-pois′). The common weight of 16 oz. or 7000 gr. to the lb., used in these realms for all kinds of goods, except jewelry and the precious metals, and medicines in dispensing, or as ordered in the ‘British Pharmacopœia’ of 1867.