COSMOS POMADE (J. Pohlmann, Vienna), 11⁄2 parts white wax, 3 parts spermaceti, 2 parts castor oil, 8 parts almond oil, 2 parts glycerine, 9 parts extract of mignonette, 1⁄2 part eau de Cologne. (Hager.)
COTARN′INE. A crystallisable substance obtained from the mother-liquors of opianic acid. It is basic, very soluble, and bitter. Hydrochlorate of cotarnine is soluble and crystalline.
COTO BARK. A bark said to be imported from the interior of Bolivia, and thought by Dr Wittstein to belong to a lauraceous or a terebinthinaceous plant. In one specimen examined by Jobst was found a yellowish-white crystalline substance with the biting taste of the bark, which Jobst believes to be its active principle, and to which he gives the name Cotoin. Another sample, however, analysed by Jobst in conjunction with Hesse, failed to yield any cotoin, but gave instead a crystalline mass which consisted principally of three crystalline bodies, to which these chemists purpose applying the names paracotoin, oxyleucotin, and leucotin. Dr Gietel reports that he made trial of the bark therapeutically with some patients in the general hospital of Munich, and the results he obtained were such that he regards it as a specific against diarrhœa in all its varieties. Sometimes he administered it in the form of powder, and at others in that of tincture, the latter being made in the proportions of one part of bark to ten of spirit. He gave of the powder 1⁄2 grain four to six times a day, and of the tincture 10 minims every two hours. Herr Burkhart, similarly making trial of the cotoin and paracotoin instead, was equally successful as far as regarded its anti-diarrhœic action, paracotoin, however, exercising a slighter effect than the cotoin. Herr Burkhart administered paracotoin either in powder 1⁄10th of a gram, with 1⁄6th of a gram of sugar every three hours, or 1⁄2 a gram rubbed up as an emulsion.
COT′TON. Syn. Gossypium, L. The cotton of which textile fabrics are made consists of hairs covering the seeds of certain plants belonging to the natural order Malvaceæ, or the Mallow family. Our commercial cotton appears to be derived from four distinct species, viz.—
Gossypium arboreum. The tree cotton, an Indian species. Unlike the other cotton plants, it has the dimensions of a small tree. The cotton-hairs are remarkably soft and silky, and are woven by the natives into very fine muslin, used for turbans by the privileged classes only.
Gossypium Barbadense. The ‘Barbadoes’ or ‘Bourbon cotton plant.’ This is the species which yields all our best cotton. In the small American islands which fringe the coast from Charlestown to Savannah, this plant has produced the celebrated ‘sea-island cotton,’ which is unrivalled for the length of its ‘staple,’ its strength, and silkiness.
Gossypium herbaceum. The common cotton plant of India. It produces the Surat cotton of commerce.
Gossypium Peruvianum or acuminatum. A species supposed to be indigenous to America. It furnishes the South American varieties of cotton, as Pernambuco, Peruvian, Maranham, and Brazilian.
Identif. See Linen.
Dyeing. The fibres of cotton have nearly the same affinity for mordants and the colouring matter of dyed stuffs as linen, and may be treated in the same manner. See Dyeing, Linen, &c.