WORM TEA. A preparation sold in the shops of the United States, and much used, consisting, according to Brande, of spigelia or pink-root, savin, senna, and manna.
WORM′WOOD. Syn. Absinthium (Ph. L. & E.), L. The flowering herb of Artemisia Absinthium, a well-known plant, indigenous to this country, and largely cultivated for medicinal
purposes. It is a bitter tonic and stomachic, and also anthelmintic.—Dose, 20 to 40 gr. of the dried herb, either in powder or made into a tea or infusion; in dyspepsia, dropsy, scurvy, sympathetic epilepsy, &c. See Absinthine and Absinthic acid.
WORT. The technical name for the fermentable infusion of malted grain.
The strength of worts is ascertained by means of an instrument termed a saccharometer. “Brewers, distillers, and the excise, sometimes denote by the term ‘gravity’ the excess of weight of 1000 parts of a liquid by volume above the weight of a like volume of distilled water, so that if the specific gravity be 1045, 1070, 1090, &c., the gravity is said to be 45, 70, or 90; at others, they thereby denote the weight of saccharine matter in a barrel (36 galls.) of wort; and again, they denote the excess in weight of a barrel of wort over a barrel of water equal to 36 gallons, or 360 lbs. This and the first statement are identical, only 1000 is the standard in the first case, and 360 in the second.” (Ure.) The last is that commonly adopted by the brewers.
According to Dr Ure, the solid dry extract of malt, or ‘saccharine,’ has the specific gravity 1·264, and the specific volume ·7911; “that is, 10 lbs. of it will occupy the volume of 7·911 lbs. of water. The mean sp. gr., by computation of a solution of that extract in its own weight of water, is 1·116; but by experiment, the sp. gr. of that solution is 1·216, showing considerable condensation of volume in the act of combination with water.” The quantity of solid saccharine or sugar in a wort may be determined in the manner mentioned under Syrup.
“According to the compilers of the tables accompanying Field’s alcoholometer, 1·8 lb. of saccharine is decomposed for the production of 1% of proof spirit; but according to our experiments, the proportion of saccharine named is rather below the true equivalent.” (Cooley.)
The rapid cooling of worts is an important object with the brewer and distiller. On the large scale, the old system in which shallow coolers are employed, with all its numerous inconveniences and accidents, is now for the most part abandoned, being supplanted by the method introduced by Mr Yandall, nearly 40 years ago. This consists in the use of a ‘refrigerator,’ which is an apparatus so constructed that any hot liquid may be cooled by about its own volume of cold water, in a very short space of time. The principle is that of passing the two fluids through very shallow and very long passages, in opposite directions, being essentially that of a ‘Liebig’s condenser’ on a gigantic scale. The apparatus may consist of zigzag passages, flattened tubes or convoluted curves, of any convenient shape, so that they possess little capacity in one direction, but great breadth and length. A refrigerator, having the passages for the fluids 1⁄8 of
an inch thick, is said to require a run of about 80 feet. The success of this method is such as to leave nothing more to desire. See Brewing, Fermentation, Malt, &c.
WOUND. Syn. Vulnus, L. A solution of continuity in any of the soft parts of the body, arising from external violence.