Sachet, Sponge. Syn. Sacculus spongii, Collier de Morand. Prep. Muriate of ammonia, chloride of sodium, burnt sponge, of each 1 oz.; mix, sprinkle the powder on a piece of cotton wool, and quilt between muslin, in the form of a cravat. To be worn constantly in goitre or bronchocele, renewing it every month.
Sachet, Stomachic. (Fuller.) Syn. Sacculus. Prep. Mint, 4 drm.; wormwood, thyme, red roses, each 2 drm.; balastines, angelica root, caraway seed, nutmeg, mace, cloves, of each 1 drm. Coarsely powder the ingredients, and put them into a bag, to be moistened with hot red wine when applied for flatulence.
SACK. (From SEC, Fr., dry.) A wine used by our ancestors, supposed by some to have been Rhenish or Canary; but, with more probability, by others, to have been dry mountain—vin d’Espagne; vin sec—(Howell, ‘Fr. and Eng. Dict.,’ 1650). Falstaff[140] calls it ‘sherris sack’ (sherry sack), from Xeres, a sea town of Corduba, where that kind of sack (wine) is made. (Blount.) At a later
period the term came to be used as a general name for all sweet wines.
[140] In Shakespeare’s day sack was occasionally adulterated with lime, as we learn from Falstaff’s speech to the Drawer: “You rogue, there’s lime in this sack.”
SAF′FLOWER. Syn. Bastard saffron, Dyer’s s.; Carthamus, L. The florets of Carthamus tinctorius, a plant cultivated in Spain, Egypt, and the Levant. It contains two colouring principles—the one yellow, and the other red. The first is removed by water, and is rejected. The second is easily dissolved out by weak solutions of the carbonated alkalies, and is again precipitated on the addition of an acid. This property is taken advantage of in the manufacture of rouge, and in dyeing silk and cotton.
The most lively tints of cherry, flame, flesh, orange-red, poppy, and rose colour, are imparted to silk by the following process, modified to suit the particular shade required:—The safflower (previously deprived of its yellow colouring matter by water) is exhausted with water containing either carbonate of soda or of potassa, in the proportion of about 5% of the weight of the prepared dye-stuff acted on; the resulting liquid is next treated with pure lemon juice until it acquires a distinct and rich red colour; the silk is then introduced and turned about as long as it is perceived to take up colour, a little more lemon juice being added as may appear necessary; for deep shades this is repeated with one or more fresh baths, the silk being dried and rinsed between each immersion; it is, lastly, brightened by turning it for a few minutes through a bath of warm water, to which a little lemon juice has been previously added. For flame colour the silk should receive a slight shade with annotta before putting it into the safflower bath. For the deeper shades, when expense is an object, a little archil is commonly added to the first and second bath. See Catharmin.
SAF′FRON. The prepared stigmata or stigmas of the Crocus sativus, or saffron crocus. There are two principal varieties known in commerce:—
1. (Saffron, Hay’s.; Crocus in fœno, C. Hispaniolus, Crocistigmata; Crocus—B. P., Ph. L., E., & D.) This consisted of the stigmas, with part of the styles, carefully picked from the other parts of the flowers, and then dried on paper by a very gentle heat, generally in a portable oven constructed for the purpose.
2. (Cake saffron; Crocus in placentâ.) This, professedly, merely varies from the last, it being compressed into a cake after it has become softened by the fire, and being then dried in that condition. The ‘cake saffron’ of commerce is now, however, mostly, if not entirely, composed of safflower made into a paste with some sugar and gum water, rolled out on paper into oval cakes 10 to 12 inches long, 9 or 10 broad, and about 1⁄8th of an inch thick, and then dried. “I can detect neither saffron nor marigold in them.” (Dr Pereira.)