DESICCA′TION. Syn. Exsicca′tion. The evaporation or drying off of the aqueous portion of solid bodies. Plants and chemical preparations are deprived of their humidity by exposure to the sun, a current of dry air, an atmosphere rendered artificially dry by sulphuric acid, or by the direct application of heat by means of a water bath, a sand bath, or a common fire. Planks and timber are now seasoned, on the large scale, in this way, by which a condition may be produced, in 2 or 3 days, which on the old system is barely attainable in as many years. “Endeavours were made to enforce the importance and value of the desiccation of woods to the builder, cabinet maker, architect, and civil engineer, so long back as 1843, but without success. Since that period certain persons have availed themselves, commercially, of our ideas and experiments on the subject, without any acknowledgment, either verbal or pecuniary.” (Cooley.)
DESTEM′PER. Syn. Distemper. Colours ground up with size, gum, or white of egg, and water, as in scene painting. The art of executing work in distemper is called ‘distemper painting.’
DETER′GENT. An agent having the power of removing offensive matter from the skin. The name is now generally restricted to applications that tend to cleanse foul wounds and ulcers.
Detergent, Collier’s. Prep. From liquor of potassa, 2 fl. dr.; rose water, 51⁄2 fl. oz.; spirit of rosemary, 1⁄2 fl. oz.; mix. One of the best applications known to free the head from scurf, when the hair is strong and healthy.
The head should be afterwards sponged with clean, soft water.
DETONA′TION. See Fulminating Compounds.
DEUTOX′IDE. See Oxides.
DEUTSCHE SIEGESTROPFEN—German Triumphal Drops (Schmidt). 480 grammes of a brown fluid with an agreeably sweet spirituous and aromatic taste, containing in a hundred parts five parts of the portion soluble in weak spirit of cloves and orange peel, 29 parts sugar, 36 parts alcohol, and 30 parts water. (Wittstein.)
DEW-POINT. The temperature at which dew begins to form, as observed by a thermometer. It varies with the humidity of the atmosphere.
DEX′TRIN. C6H10O5. Syn. Starch gum, Dextrina, Dextrinum, British gum. A soluble substance resembling gum, formed by the action of dilute acids at the boiling temperature, and by infusion of malt, at about 160° Fahr., on starch. It is also formed when potato starch and some of the other farinas are exposed to a heat of about 400°. See Diastase and Gum (British).