The liquid, evaporated in a water bath, is left to crystallise. If necessary the crystals are purified by recrystallisation. They should be kept in well-closed flasks.
Sodium sulphovinate crystallises in hexagonal tables, which are slightly unctuous to the touch, and very soluble in water and in alcohol. If heated in a capsule they give off, at 120°, the alcohol which they contain in combination. They become gradually deprived of bitterness. Sodium sulphovinate ought not to contain sulphuric acid, nor have an acid taste. It should not be precipitated by barium chloride, and especially by soluble sulphates. The possession of either of these properties is a proof of faulty preparation, and that a portion of the sulphovinic acid has been decomposed. In such a case it should be rejected.
Sulphovinate of soda is said to be a very effective, and by no means unpleasant, saline aperient, and to be unattended with subsequent constipation. The dose is from 5 to 6 dr.
Sodium, Tartrate of, and Potassium. KNaC4H4O6.4Aq. Syn. Tartrate of potassa and soda, Rochelle salt, Seignette’s s., Tartarised soda†; Sodæ tartarata (B. P.), Sodæ, potassio-tartras (Ph. L.), Sodæ et potassæ tartras (Ph. E. & D.), Soda tartarizata,†, L. Prep. (Ph. L. 1836.) Take of carbonate of sodium, 12 oz.; boiling water, 2 quarts; dissolve, and add, gradually, of powdered bitartrate of potassium, 16 oz. (or q. s.); strain, evaporate to a pellicle, and set it aside to crystallise; dry the resulting crystals, and evaporate the mother liquor that it may yield more of them. The formulæ of the other colleges are nearly similar.
Prop., &c. Large, transparent, hard, right rhombic prisms, often occurring in halves; slightly efflorescent; soluble in 5 parts of water at 60° Fahr. Its “solution neither changes the colour of litmus nor of turmeric. On the addition of sulphuric acid, bitartrate of potassium is thrown down; on adding either nitrate of silver or chloride of barium nothing is thrown down, or only what is redissolved by the addition of water.” (Ph. L.) By heat it yields a mixture of the pure carbonates of potassium and sodium.
Potassio-tartrate of sodium is a mild and cooling laxative.—Dose, 1⁄4 to 1 oz., largely diluted with water. It forms the basis of the popular aperient called SEIDLITZ POWDERS.
Sodium, Vale′′rianate of. NaC5H6O2. Syn. Sodæ valerianas (Ph. D.), L. Prep.(Ph. D.) Dilute oil of vitriol, 61⁄2 fl. oz., with water, 1⁄2 pint; then dissolve of powdered bichromate of potassium, 9 oz., with the aid of heat, in water, 31⁄3 pints; when both solutions have cooled, put them into a matrass, and having added of fusel oil (alcohol amylicum—Ph. D.) 4 fl. oz., shake them together repeatedly until the temperature, which first rises to 150°, has fallen to 80° or 90° Fahr.; a condenser being connected, next apply heat so as to distil over about 4 pints of liquid; saturate this exactly with a pint, or q. s., of solution of caustic soda, separate the liquid from the oil which floats upon the surface, and evaporate
it until the residual salt is partially liquefied; the heat being now withdrawn, and the salt concreted, this last, whilst still warm, is to be divided into fragments, and preserved in well-stopped bottles.
Obs. This salt is intended to be used in the preparation of the VALERIANATES OF IRON, QUININE, and ZINC.
SOILS. These are classified by agriculturists according to their chief ingredients, as loamy, clayey, sandy, chalky, and peaty soils. Of these the first is the best for most purposes, but the others may be improved by the addition of the mineral constituents of which they are deficient. Sand and lime or chalk are the proper additions to clayey soils, and clay gypsum, or loam, to sandy and gravelly ones. Clayey soils are expensive to bring into a fertile state; but when this is once effected, and they are well manured, they yield immense crops of wheat, oats, beans, clover, and most fruits and flowers of the rosaceous kinds.