the distillery from the town, it has somewhat the appearance of a fortress. A massive stone gateway bars the entrance, and heavy walls encompass it. But when once admittance is gained the sternness of the approach vanishes. Great buildings loom aloft, but they have all a bright look; trees are on every side, and handsome garden plots, and clinging ivy, relieve the monotony of the high square structures. Here, I believe, is the largest still in the world—certainly the largest in Ireland. No work was in progress at the time of my visit, save the work of repairs and the storage of coal. Here, as at North Mall, water gives considerable aid in driving the machinery, a canal having been raised after considerable engineering difficulties and much expense. The vast works of Midleton Distillery cover over eight acres. It was a hot July day when I paid my visit, not at all the day to attempt remarkable pedestrian feats. Will it be forgiven me, therefore, if I forsook Irish whisky for Irish hospitality? Under the very shadow of the tall manufactory, yet altogether hidden from it, there is a luring lawn, a cool shrubbery, and an elegant villa radiant with flowers. Is it not more pleasant to lounge through conservatories than to climb staircases, to drink iced claret cup than to sip raw spirit, or to examine the points of a horse than to note the intricacies of machinery? Beyond the garden and the tennis court and the conservatory is a grotto, so cunningly placed that none but the initiated can find it; the air there is deliciously cool, a luxuriant growth of honeysuckle and dog rose and fern surrounds you, and at your feet is a spring of as pure water as ever mortal tasted. With pleasant society, and chat and gossip to while away the time, will it be deemed strange that I stayed there until it was impossible to see more of the distillery, and that it would only be possible to catch my last train by a hard and almost break-neck gallop?” See Gin, Spirits, and Usquebaugh.
WHITE AR′SENIC. Arsenious acid.
WHITE-BAIT. The Clupea Latulus (Clupea alba, Yarrell), a very small and delicate fish, common in the brackish waters of the Thames from April to September. When fried in oil it is esteemed a great luxury by epicures.
WHITE COPPER. See German Silver and Packfong.
WHITE HEL′LEBORE. Syn. Veratrum (Ph. L. & E.); Veratri albi radix, L. “The rhizome of Veratrum album, Linn., or white hellebore.” (Ph. L.) A powerful acrid cathartic, emetic, and sternutatory. It is now seldom exhibited internally, and its external use over a large or ulcerated surface is not unaccompanied with danger.—Dose, 1⁄2 to 2 gr. of the powder, made into a pill; in gout, mania, &c.; or 1 to 3 gr., carefully triturated with 12 or 15 gr. of liquorice powder, as an errhine, in amaurosis,
&c.
WHITE LEAD. Syn. Fine white, Flake w., Carbonate of lead, Ceruse, Magistery of lead; Cerussa, Plumbi carbonas (B. P., Ph. E. & D.), L. Made by suspending rolls of thin sheet lead over malt liquor, or pyroligneous acid, in close vessels, the evaporation from the acid being kept up by the vessels being placed in a heap of dung, or a steam bath.
Obs. Commercial carbonate of lead, however prepared, is not the pure carbonate of lead, but always contains a certain proportion of hydrate. It is generally largely adulterated with native sulphate of baryta (‘heavy spar’), and sometimes with chalk. The former may be detected by its insolubility in dilute nitric acid, and the latter by the nitric solution yielding a white precipitate with dilute sulphuric acid, or a solution of oxalic acid or oxalate of ammonia, after having been treated with sulphuretted hydrogen, or a hydrosulphuret, to throw down the lead. “Pure carbonate of lead does not lose weight at a temperature of 212° Fahr.; 68 gr. are entirely dissolved in 150 minims of acetic acid diluted with 1 fl. oz. of distilled water; and the solution is not entirely precipitated by a solution of 60 gr. of phosphate of soda.” (Ph. E.) The solution in nitric acid should not yield a precipitate when treated with a solution of sulphate of soda.—Used as a superior white paint, and, in medicine, as an external astringent, refrigerant, and desiccant. The particles of carbonate of lead prepared by precipitation, or by any of the quick processes, are in a somewhat crystalline and semi-translucent condition, and hence do not cover so well as that just noticed. The following are some of the varieties of ‘white lead’ found in commerce:
1. (Dutch white lead.)—a. (Finest.) From flake white, 1 cwt.; cawk, 3 cwt.—b. (Ordinary.) Flake white, 1 cwt.; cawk, 7 cwt. These form the best white lead of the shops.
2. (English white lead.) Flake white lowered with chalk. Covers badly, and the colour is inferior to the preceding.