Mr. Boyle tells us a most beautiful yellow may be procured, by taking good quicksilver, and three or four times its weight of oil of vitriol. Drawing off in a glass retort the saline menstruum from the metalline liquor, till there remains a dry snow-white calx at the bottom. On pouring a large quantity of fair water on this, the colour changes to an excellent light yellow.
Lighter Yellows.—Take three or four sprigs of eld, and two chips of young fustic, about the size of half a crown; boil them in six quarts of water for two hours; put down all your stuff together. You may then put in half a thimbleful of the best madder, and the same of turmeric; let them boil smartly for five minutes, and then draw a part for the first shade. It must be divided into four parts; let it boil ten minutes; lift out and draw; follow on by adding a whole thimbleful of each for the second, and one and a half thimbleful for the third, and two of each for the last. This is the only bright yellow I could get to stand, and is the best for foxes. You may dye hog’s fur in this if it be very white.
Another Recipe.—Take two large handfuls of laurel leaves, nice and green, the same with ivy tops, and half a pound of weld. Put your weld in the bottom, and some of laurel branches to cover the weld, and lay your mohair nice and thin over the laurel; then cover with the ivy, and put the remainder of the laurel on the top; put on your wooden frame and your lid, and fill the pot with water, and boil it as long as you please, and you will get fine rich soft yellows. Do not boil too long at first, or omit to draw soon, as you will lose your nice golden colours, and others, for the drake’s. This will not dye hog’s fur, but is a fast colour.—Ancient Recipes.
Yellowhammer, s. A bird.
The weight of this species is about seven drachms; length six inches; bill dusky bluish; irides hazel; the crown of the head, throat, and belly, are of a beautiful bright yellow; the back part and sides of the head tinged with green; the breast, in some, is marked with reddish-brown; quill-feathers dusky, the primores edged on their exterior webs with greenish-yellow, the secondaries with rusty-brown, those next the body, the greater coverts, and back, dusky, deeply margined with the same, the latter dashed with green; the rump and upper tail-coverts tawny-red; the tail a little forked, dusky, edged with greenish-yellow; the two outer feathers marked with white on the exterior webs; legs yellow-brown.
The female has much less yellow about the head, and the colours in general less vivid. The yellow hammer is subject to some variety in plumage. We have a specimen in which the whole head and neck is of a light yellow; some of the quill-feathers and scapulars white; and the under parts and rump pale yellow. The young birds have no yellow about them when first they leave the nest.
This is one of the most common indigenous birds of this country; if it were more rare, its beauty would be less disregarded. Its song, however, is as little attractive as that of the common bunting, possessing only a repetition of the same note five or six times successively, terminating in one more lengthened and shrill. In winter they assemble in flocks, with other granivorous birds, and pick up the scattered grain dispersed by the bountiful flail, and not by the master of the hoarded sheaves, who knows too well the value of his auriferous store. It does not breed till late in the spring. The nest is generally placed near the ground, in some low bush or hedge. It is composed of straw and various dried stalks, and lined with fine dried grass, finished with long hair.—Montagu.
Yellows, s. A disease in horses.
This disorder takes its name from the yellowness of the eyes and mouth; the urine is high-coloured; dung small and slimy: pulse quick and sometimes very weak. The horse appears exceedingly weak and languid; sometimes in such a degree that he reels when led out of the stable; he eats but little, yet is generally rather thirsty. This disease generally requires in the first place copious bleeding, being evidently of an inflammatory nature; this is denoted by the membranes of the eye appearing red instead of yellow, and by the pulse being rather strong as well as quick, and sometimes by the breathing being a little quickened. I have seen, however, the membranes of the eye exceedingly red, while the pulse was so feeble as to forbid bleeding; most commonly, however, it is otherwise; and, as a general practice, it is safer to bleed freely at first. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the bleeding; this is generally the case when we are prevented, by the apparent debility of the animal, from bleeding copiously at first. When the heart and the brain are oppressed with blood there is always great stupor and debility, and generally a pulse that may lead the inexperienced to avoid bleeding; but, upon taking off a gallon of blood, the pulse, in such circumstances, will often feel stronger; and, if the blood be examined after it has become cool, it will be found rather firm, and with a thick coat of buff or size on its surface. Immediately after the bleeding throw up a clyster, and give the following ball, and six hours after the ball the following drench, and another clyster:—
| BALL. | |
| Calomel | 1 drachm. |
| Barbadoes aloes | ½ ounce. |
| Ginger | 1½ drachm. |
| Oil of caraways | 20 drops. |
| Castile soap and treacle enough to form the ball. | |
| DRENCH.—ONE DOSE. | |
| Epsom salt | 6 ounces. |
| Carbonate of soda | 2 drachms. |
| Warm water | 1 pint. |
| Castor oil | 4 ounces.—Mix. |