In this process, which is worked by Price’s Candle Company, superheated steam is employed as the heating agent. The paraffin, or ‘BELMONTINE,’ as it is called, is the last product which distils over.
4. (From PEAT.) The various processes which have been suggested for obtaining paraffin from peat, turf, &c., are similar in principle to Young’s. The great point is to conduct the distillation at as low a temperature as possible.
Prop. A white, hard, translucent body, melting at 110° Fahr. and upwards, according to its source, and burning with a bright white flame. It has great stability—sulphuric acid, chlorine, and nitric acid below 212° exerting no action upon it. Dr Anderson states that its composition and properties vary with the source from which it is derived. With respect to the melting point, this variation is very remarkable. Thus, Young’s paraffin, from Boghead coal, melts, according to the observations of Dr Anderson, at 114°, while that from Rangoon petroleum (‘belmontine’) melts at 140°, and that from turf at 116°.
Uses. Paraffin is now largely used for making candles, for which purpose it is specially adapted, being a most elegant substance, and surpassing all other candle materials, even spermaceti, in illuminating power. Its property of not being acted upon by acids or alkalies renders it suitable for stoppers for vessels holding chemical liquids; also for electrotype moulds. It is not acted upon by ozone, so that it has been employed with great advantages in experiments on this body for rendering air-tight the joints formed by the union of glass tubes. As it contains no oxygen, it might be employed to protect oxydisable metals like sodium and potassium from contact with the air. One use of paraffin candle-ends will commend them to the ladies of the household—a small piece of paraffin added to starch will be found to give a gloss and brilliancy of surface to the starched linen that can be obtained by no other addition.
PARAFFIN OIL. See Oils.
PARAL′YSIS. Syn. Palsy. A loss or considerable diminution of power of voluntary motion, or functional action, of any part of the body. In its most usual form one side only of the body is affected. It not uncommonly seizes the lower extremities, or all parts below the pelvis; sometimes the arms only; and occasionally a part, as one side of the face, one eyelid, the tongue, or the muscles of deglutition. In these cases the speech frequently becomes indistinct and incoherent, and the memory and judgment impaired, whilst the distorted features assume a more or less revolting aspect.
The causes of paralysis are various. It may be occasioned by pressure on particular parts of the brain, the spinal marrow, or the nerves; by poisons, the long-continued use of sedatives,
local injuries, the sudden suppression of profuse and habitual evacuations, and by whatever tends to greatly relax or enervate the system. It may also be a consequence of an attack of apoplexy, or it may be symptomatic of other diseases, as scrofula, syphilis, and worms. When it is of a distinctly local character it may arise from excessive use or undue employment of the part or organ. That of old age is, probably, a mere consequence of the failing nervous energy of the system being unequally distributed.
Palsy usually comes on with a sudden and immediate loss of the motion and sensibility of the parts; but in a few instances it is preceded by a numbness, coldness, and paleness; and sometimes by slight convulsive twitches. If the disease affects the extremities, and has been of long duration, it not only produces a loss of motion and sensibility, but likewise a considerable flaccidity and wasting away of the muscles of the parts affected.
When palsy attacks any vital part, such as the brain, heart, or lungs, it soon terminates in death.