the top. In kilns constructed in this way, it is observed, fewer coals are necessary, in consequence of the great degree of reverberation created, above that which takes place in kilns formed in the shape of a sugar loaf reversed. Near the bottom, in large kilns, two or more apertures are made: these are small at the inside of the kiln, but are sloped wider, both at the sides and the top, as they extend towards the outside of the building. The uses of these apertures are for admitting the air necessary for supplying the fire, and also permitting the laborers to approach with a drag and shovel to draw out the calcined lime. From the bottom of the kiln within, in some cases, a small building called a horse is raised in the form of a wedge, and so constructed as to accelerate the operation of drawing out the burned limestone, by forcing it to fall into the apertures which have been mentioned above. In other kilns of this kind, in place of this building there is an iron grate near the bottom, which comes close to the inside wall, except at the apertures where the lime is drawn out. When the kiln is to be filled, a parcel of furze or faggots is laid at the bottom, over this a layer of coals, then a layer of limestone (which is previously broken into pieces, about the size of a man's fist), and so on alternately, ending with a layer of coals, which is sometimes, though seldom, covered with sods or turf, in order to keep the heat as intense as possible. The fire is then lighted in, the apertures; and when the limestone towards the bottom is completely calcined, the fuel being considerably exhausted, the limestone at the top subsides. The laborers then put in an addition of limestone and coal at the top, and draw out at bottom as much as they find thoroughly burned; and thus go on, till any quantity required be calcined. When limestone is burned with coals, from two bushels and a half to three and a half, on a medium three bushels of calcined limestone, are produced for every bushel of coal used. A line-kiln, on an improved plan, has been erected at Closeburn in Dumfrieshire, by Monteith. Instead of the wide and shallow circular kiln, these kilns are elliptical and deep. Some parts are added to it which are found of most important use. The first is a kind of roof or cover. The disadvantage of the want of some contrivance to protect kilns in stormy weather, has been long felt, and many attempts have been made to apply some kind of cover, but, we believe, none with such success as that used at Closeburn. The next addition is having castiron doors below, at the opening where the kiln is drawn. There is a grating through which the ashes fall while drawing the kiln, which makes that operation a much less disagreeable employment than formerly; and the ashes and small lime thus separated are excellent for agricultural purposes. There is often a great loss of fuel, from allowing lime-kilns to cool when there is no demand; all that is necessary to be done is, to shut the cast-iron doors, above as well as below, and the dampers in the chimneys. The heat is thus preserved, and fuel saved, by keeping the kiln hot, to be ready for use as soon as wanted. Farmer's Magazine, vol. xvi. p. 134. Booker's lime kiln (Dumfries Report, p. 594), is of an oval form, twenty-two feet high, two feet wide at the bottom, nine feet in the middle, and gradually contracted to three feet at top. It is lined with brick, and, instead of being covered with a dome, Booker adopts a cover of cast-iron with a vent in it, which cover is placed on a ring of three feet diameter, built into, and fixed on the top of the kiln. The cover, by moving on a pivot, is easily thrown off when the kiln is to be charged, and, being put on during the process of calcination, it both increases the draught of air through the kiln, and, by acting as a reverberatory furnace, is attended with a considerable saving of fuel. QUART, n. s. Fr. quart, of Lat. quartus. The fourth part; a quarter; the fourth part of a gallon; a quart measure. Albanact had all the northern. part, Spenser. When I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quart pot to drink in. Shakspeare. You'd rail upon the hostess of the house, And say you would present her at the leet, Because she bought stone jugs and no sealed quarts. Id. You have made an order that ale should be sold at three halfpence a quart. Swift's Miscellanies. QUART, in English measure, the fourth part of the gallon, or two pints. QUARTAN, n. s. Fr. quartaine; Lat. quarThe fourth day ague. tana. Call her the metaphysicks of her sex, A look so pale no quartan ever gave, Dryden. QUARTATION, n. s. Lat. quartus. A chymical operation, defined below. although three parts of silver be so exquisitely In quartation, which refiners employ to purify gold, mingled by fusion with a fourth part of gold, whence the operation is denominated, that the resulting mass acquires several new qualities; yet, if you cast this mixture into aqua fortis, the silver will be dissolved in the menstruum, and the gold, like a dark powder, will fall to the bottom. Boyle. QUARTATION is an operation by which the quantity of one thing is made equal to a fourth part of the quantity of another thing. Thus, when gold alloyed with silver is to be parted, we are obliged to facilitate the action of the aquafortis by reducing the quantity of the former of these metals to one-fourth part of the whole mass; which is done by sufficiently increasing the quantity of the silver, if it be necessary. This operation is called quartation, and is preparatory to the parting; and even many authors extend this name to the operation of parting. See Assay. QUARTER, n. s. & v. a. QUARTERAGE, QUARTER-DAY, QUARTER-DECK, QUARTERLY, adj. & adv. QUARTER-MASTER, N. s. Fr. quartier, of Lat. quartus. A fourth part; a part of the heavens considered as divided into the cardinal points: hence, region; district; division; station; abode: particularly military station, cantonment, or abode; hence a military cry for mercy, i. e. to be sent to the captors' quarters; mercy; friendship; kind treatment; a measure of eight bushels: to divide into four parts; divide in any way; station; lodge; diet; bear as an appendage to herald in arms, see below: quarterage is a quarterly allowance: quarter-day, one of the four days in the year on which rent is usually paid quarter-deck, the short upper deck of a ship: quarterly, containing a fourth part; or once in a quarter: quarter-master, he who regulates soldiers' quarters. No leaven shall be seen in thy quarters. Exodus. It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Shakspeare. Macbeth. I'll give thee a wind. -I myself have all the other, And the very points they blow, And all the quarters that they know, Where is lord Stanley quartered? -Unless I have mista'en his quarters much, His regiment lies half a mile South from the mighty power of the king. Friends, all but now, Id. Shakspeare. In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom Mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quartered by the hands of war. Id. They do best, who, if they can but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs. Bacon. The first, being compounded of argent and azure, is the coat of Beauchamp of Hack in the county of Somerset, now quartered by the earl of Hertford. They had settled here many ages since, and overspread all the parts and quarters of this spacious conHeylin. tinent. The soil so fruitful that an acre of land well ordered will return 200 bushels or 25 quarters of corn. Id. Thou canst defend as well as get, And never hadst one quarter beat up yet. Cowley. He magnified his own clemency, now they were at his mercy, to offer them quarter for their lives if they gave up the castle. Clarendon. His praise, ye winds! that from four quarters blow, He fed on vermin; Hudibras. He used two equal ways of gaining, By hindring justice or maintaining; To many a whore gave privilege, Id. And whipped for want of quarterage. However rarely his own rent-dayes occurred, the indigent had two and fifty quarter-daies returning in his year. The moon makes four quarterly seasons within her little year or month of consecution. Fell. Holder. Observe what stars arise or disappear, And the four quarters of the rolling year. Dryden. Id. Supposing only three millions to be paid, 'tis evident that to do this out of commodities, they must, to the consumer, be raised a quarter in their price; so that every thing, to him that uses it, must be a quarter dearer. Locke. The quartermaster general was marking the ground for the encampment of the covering army. Tatler. The sons of the church being so much dispersed, though without being driven, into all quarters of the land, there was some extraordinary design of divine wisdom in it. Sprat. You have quartered all the foul language upon me that could be raked out of Billingsgate. Spectator. When the winds in southern quarters rise, Ships, from their anchors torn, become their sport, And sudden tempests rage within the port. Addison. The usurer would be very well satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present Id. moment and next quarter-day. Suppose the common depth of the sea, taking one place with another, to be about a quarter of a mile. Burnet. To the young, if you give any tolerable quarter, you indulge them in their idleness, and ruin them. Collier. From the obliquity of the ecliptick to the equator arise the diurnal differences of the sun's right ascension, which finish their variations in each quadrant of the ecliptick, and this, being added to the former inequality from eccentricity, makes these quarterly and seemingly irregular inequalities of natural days. Bentley. Mr..Wharton, who detected some hundreds of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his lordship. Swift. The quarter-deck is that above the upper-deck, reaching forward from the stern to the gangway, Falconer. and supports the carronades, &c. QUARTER, in dry measure, is, eight bushels. QUARTER, in heraldry, is applied to the parts or members of the first division of a coat that is quartered, or divided into four quarters. QUARTER, FRANC, in heraldry, is a quarter single or alone; which is to possess one fourth part of the field. It makes one of the honorable ordinaries of a coat. See HERALDRY. QUARTERS, WINTER, Sometimes mean the space of time included between leaving the camp and taking the field; but more properly the places where the troops are quartered during the winter. The first business, after the army is in winter quarters, is to form the chain of troops to behind a river, under cover of a range of strong cover the quarters well; which is done either posts, or under the protection of fortified towns. Hussars are very useful on this service. should be observed, as an invariable maxim, in winter quarters, that the regiments be disposed in brigades, to be always under the eye of a general officer; and, if possible, let the regiments It be so distributed as to be each under the command of its own chief. QUARTER BILL, a roll or list, containing the different stations to which all the officers and crew of the ship are quartered in the time of battle, and the names of all the persons appointed to those stations. QUARTER OF A SHIP, that part of the ship's side which lies towards the stern: or which is comprehended between the aftmost end of the main chains and the sides of the stern, where it is terminated by the quarter pieces. On the quarter may be defined an arch of the horizon, contained between the line prolonged from the ship's stern and any distant object, as land, ships, &c. Thus, if the ship's keel lies on an east and west line, the stern being westward, any distant object perceived on the north-west or south-west is said to be on the larboard starboard quarter. QUARTERS, a name given at sea to the several stations where the officers and crew of a ship of war are posted in action. The number of men appointed to manage the artillery is always in proportion to the nature of the guns, and the number and condition of the ship's crew. The lieutenants are usually stationed to command the different batteries, and direct their efforts against the enemy. The master superintends the movements of the ship, and whatever relates to the sails. The boatswain, and a sufficient number of men, are stationed to repair the damaged rigging; and the gunner and carpenter wherever necessary, according to their respective offices. The marines are generally quartered on the poop and forecastle, or gangway, under the direction of their officers; although, on some occasions, they assist at the great guns, particularly in distant cannonading. QUARTERS, HEAD, OF AN ARMY, the place where the commander-in-chief has his quarters. The quarters of generals of horse are, if possible, in villages behind the right and left wings, and the generals of foot are often in the same place; but the commander-in-chief should be near the centre of the army. QUARTER GUNNER, a petty officer under the direction of the gunner of a ship of war, whom he is to assist in every branch of his duty; as keeping the guns and their carriages in proper order, and duly furnished with whatever is necessary; filling the powder into cartridges; scaling the guns, and keeping them always in a condition for service. The number of quartergunners in any ship is always in proportion to the number of her artillery, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four guns. A QUARTER MASTER, in the army, is an officer, whose business is not only to look after the quarters of the soldiers, but their clothing, bread, ammunition, firing, &c. Every regiment of foot and artillery has a quarter-master, and every troop of horse one. QUARTER MASTERS, in a ship of war, are petty officers appointed by the captain to assist in the several duties of the ship, as stowing the ballast and provisions in the hold, coiling the cables on their platforms, overlooking the steerage of the ship, keeping the time by the watch glasses, and, in turn, overlooking the purser's steward in his delivery of provisions, &c. QUARTER MASTER GENERAL is a considerable officer in the army; and should be a man of great judgment and experience, and well skilled in geography. His duty is to make the marches and encampments of an army; he should know the country perfectly, with its rivers, plains, marshes, woods, mountains, defiles, passages, &c. even to the smallest brook. Prior to a march, he receives the order and route from the commanding general, and appoints a place for the quarter-masters of the army to meet him next morning, with whom he marches to the next camp; where, having viewed the ground, he marks out to the regimental quarter-masters the ground allowed each regiment for their camp: he chooses the head quarters, and appoints the villages for the generals of the army's quarters: he appoints a proper place for the encampment of the train of artillery: he conducts foraging parties, as likewise the troops to cover them against assaults, and has a share in regulating the winter-quarters and cantonments. QUARTER NETTING, a sort of net-work, extended along the rails on the upper part of a ship's quarter. In a ship of war these are always double. The interval is sometimes filled with cork, or old sails; but chiefly with the hammocks of the sailors, so as to form a parapet against the enemy's small arms in battle. QUARTER SESSIONS, a general court held quarterly by the justices of peace of each county. This court is appointed by statute 2 Hen. V. c. 4, to be in the first week after Michaelmas day; the first week after the Epiphany; the first week after the close of Easter; and in the week after the translation of St. Thomas a Becket, or the 7th of July. This court is held before two or more justices of the peace, one of whom must be of the quorum. The jurisdiction of this court, by 34 Edw. III. c. 1, extends to the trying and determining of all felonies and trespasses whatsoever, though they seldom, if ever, try any greater offence than small felonies within the benefit of clergy, their commission providing, that if any case of difficulty arises, they shall not proceed to judgment, but in the presence of one of the justices of the courts of king's bench or common pleas, or one of the judges of assize. But there are many offences, and particular matters, which by particular statutes belong properly to this jurisdiction, as the smaller misdemeanors not amounting to felony, relating to the game, highways, alehouses, bastard children, the settlement and provision for the poor, vagrants, servants' wages, apprentices, &c. The records or rolls of the sessions are committed to the custody of a special officer, denominated the custos rotulorum. In most corporation towns there are quarter-sessions kept before justices of their own, within their respective limits, which have exactly the same authority as the general quarter-sessions of the county, except in a very few instances. QUARTER-STAFF, n. s. Quarter and staff. A staff of defence: so called, perhaps, from the manner of using it; one hand being placed at the middle, and the other equally between the middle and the end. So says Dr. Johnson: Mr. Thomson, more probably, from quarter, a district, and staff; the quarterstaff being once a badge of authority amongst foresters. His quarterstaff, which he could ne'er forsake, Hung half before, and half behind his back. Dryden. Immense riches he squandered away at quarterstaff and cudgel play, in which he challenged all the country. Arbuthnot. QUARTILE, n. s. Lat. quartus. An aspect of the planets, when they are three signs or ninety degrees distant from each other, and is marked thus Mars and Venus in a quartile move My pangs of jealousy for Ariet's love. Dryden. QUARTO, n. s. Lat. quartus. A book in which every sheet, being twice doubled, makes four leaves. Our fathers had a just value for regularity and systems; then folios and quartos were the fashionable sizes, as volumes in octavo are now. Watts. QUARTO-DECIMANI, an ancient sect in the Christian church, who taught that Easter should always be celebrated according to the custom of the Jews, on the fourteen day of the moon in the month of March, whensoever that day fell out. And hence they derived their name quartodecimani. QUARTZ, in mineralogy, a genus of siliceous earths, chiefly composed of silica. According to Kirwan, the quartz are in general the purest of the siliceous kind. Cronstedt gives the following characteristics of it:-1. It is generally cracked throughout, even in the rock itself, whereby, as well as by its own nature, it breaks into irregular and sharp fragments. 2. It cannot be easily made red hot, without cracking still more. 3. It never decays in the air. 4. Melted with potass, in a due proportion, it gives a more solid glass than any of the other siliceous stones. It is met with in clefts, fissures, and small veins in rocks; it seldom forms large veins, and still more rarely whole mountains, without a mixture of heterogeneous substances. M. Magellan remarks that quartz is one of the principal kinds of stone which contain metals. In some of the Hungarian veins the gold is so minutely dispersed that it cannot be discerned by the best microscopes before it is separated by pounding and washing. The width of the veins, some of which are half a fathom, and some still more, repay the trouble and expenses, which the small quantity of gold would not otherwise counterbalance. Near Lauterberg, upon the Hartz, are veins of this stone from one to three fathoms wide, consisting of a loose sand, in which they find the copper ore in nests. Rock crystals are generally found upon or among quartz, and are to be met with in all parts of the world. The greatest numbers are furnished to the European countries from Mount St. Gothard, in Switzerland. Professor Jameson divides this mineral genus into two species: rhomboidal quartz, and indivisible quartz. 1. Rhomboidal quartz contains fourteen sub species. 1. Amethyst. 2. Rock crystal. 3. Milk quartz. 4. Common quartz. 5. Prase. 6. Cat's eye. 7. Fibrous quartz. 8. Iron flint. 9. Hornstone. 10. Flinty slate. 11. Flint. 12. Calcedony. 13. Heliotrope. 14. Jasper. 3. 2. Indivisible quartz contains nine sub-species. 1. Float-stone. 2. Quartz sinter. Hyalite. 4. Opal. 5. Menilite. 6. Obsidian. 7. Pitchstone. 8. Pearlstone. 9. Pumice-stone. See MINERALOGY. QUASH, v. a. & v. n. French casser; Belg. quassen; Ital. squacciare, quassare; Lat, quasso. To crush; squeeze; subdue; annul; make void. 'Twas not the spawn of such as these That dyed with Punick blood the conquered seas And quashed the stern acides. The whales Roscommon. Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels quashed, Waller. A thin and fine membrane strait and closely ad hering to keep it from quashing and shaking. Ray. Our she confederates keep pace with us in quashing the rebellion, which had begun to spread itself among part of the fair sex. Addison's Freeholder. The water in this dropsy, by a sudden jerk, may be heard to quash. Sharp's Surgery. QUASI CONTRACT, in the civil law, an act without the strict form of a contract, but yet having the force thereof. In a contract there must be the mutual consent of both parties, but in a quasi-contract one party may be bound or obligated to the other, without having given his consent to the act wherby he is obliged. For example: I have done your business, in your absence, without your procuration, and it has succeeded to your advantage. I have then an action against you for the recovery of what I have disbursed, and you an action against me to make me give an account of my administration, which amounts to a quasi contract. QUASSIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and decandria class of plants; natural order fourteenth, gruinales. It was so named from Quassi, a negro slave, who discovered its virtues: CAL. pentaphyllous; petals five; nectarium, pentaphyllous; there are from two to five seed cases, standing asunder, and monospermous. There are three species, the amara, simaruba, and excelsa or polygama. 1. Q. amara grows to the height of several feet, and sends off many strong branches. The wood is of a white color and light; the bark is thin and gray the leaves are placed alternately on the branches, and consist of two pairs of opposite pinnæ, with an odd one at the end: all the leaflets are of an elliptical shape, entire, veined, smooth, pointed, sessile, on the upper pagina of a deep green color, on the under paler: the common foot-stalk is articulated, and winged, or edged, on each side with a leafy membrane, which gradually expands towards the base of the pinnæ: the flowers are all hermaphrodite, of a bright red color, and terminate the branches in long spikes: the bractea or floral leaves are lance-shaped or linear, colored and placed alternately upon the peduncles; the calyx is small, persistent, and five toothed; the corolla consists of five lance-shaped equal petals, at the base of which is placed the nectary, or five roundish, colored, scales; the filaments are ten, slender, somewhat longer than the corolla, and crowned with simple antheræ, placed transversely; the receptacle is fleshy and orbicular; the germen is ovate, divided into five parts, and supports a slender style, longer than the filaments, and terminating by a tapering stigma; the capsules are five, two celled, and contain globular seeds. It is a native of South America, particularly of Surinam, and also of some of the West Indian Islands. The root, bark, and wood, of this tree have all places in the materia medica. The wood is most generally used, and is said to be a tonic, stomachic, antiseptic, and febrifuge. It has been found very effectual in restoring digestion, expelling flatulencies, and removing habitual costiveness, produced from debility of the intestines, and common to a sedentary life. Dr. Lettsom, whose extensive practice gave him an opportunity of trying the effects of quassia in a great number of cases, says, 'In debility, succeeding febrile diseases, the Peruvian bark is most generally more tonic and salutary than any other vegetable hitherto known; but in hysterical atony, to which the female sex is so prone, the quassia affords more vigor and relief to the system than the other, especially when united with the vitriolum album, and still more with the aid of some absorbent.' In dyspepsia, arising from hard drinking, and also in diarrhoeas, the doctor exhibited the quassia with great success. But, with respect to the tonic and febrifuge qualities of quassia, he says, I by no means subscribe to the Linnæan opinion where the author declares, me quidem judice chinchinam longe superat.' It is very well known that there are certain peculiarities of the air, and idiosyncrasies of constitution, unfavorable to the exhibition of Peruvian bark, even in the most clear intermissions of fever. In these cases quassia may often be substituted with success.' 6 2. Q. excelsa, or Q. polygama, was named by Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Dr. Wright, pricrania amara. It is now, however, always ranked under quassia. It is very common in the woodlands of Jamaica, is beautiful, tall, and stately, sometimes being 100 feet long, and ten feet in circumference, eight feet above the ground. The trunk is straight, smooth, and tapering, sending off its branches towards the top. The outside bark is pretty smooth, of a light gray or ash color, from various lichens. The bark of the roots is of a yellow cast, somewhat like the cortex simaruba. The inner bark is tough, and composed of fine flaxy fibres. The wood is of a yellow color, tough but not very hard. It takes a good polish, and is used as flooring. The leaves are sub-alternate; the small leaves are in pairs, from five to eight, standing opposite to each other on short foot-stalks, and ending with an odd one. They are of an oblong oval shape, and pointed; the ribs reddish, and the young leaves are covered with a fine brownish down. The flowers come out in bunches or clusters from the lower part of the last shoot before the leaves, and stand on round foot-stalks. The flowers are small, of a yellowish green color, with a very small calyx. The male or barren tree has flowers nearly similar to the hermaphrodite, but in it there are only the rudiments of a style. The fruit is a smooth black drupa, round shaped, and of the size of a pea. There is but little pulp, and the nut covers a round kernel. These drupæ are generally three, sometimes two, and often only one, attached sidewise to a roundish fleshy receptacle. It flowers in October and November, and its fruit is ripe in December and January. Except the pulp of the fruit, every other part of this tree has an intensely bitter taste. In taste and virtues it is nearly equal to the quassia of Surinam, and is sold in London for the quassia amara; and it may be safely used in all cases where that drug has been thought proper, whether as an antiseptic, or in cases of weakness in the stomach and bowels. It may either be given alone, or joined with the Jesuit's bark. The The 3. Q. simaruba is common in all the woodlands in Jamaica. It grows to a great height and considerable thickness. The trunks of the old trees are black and a little furrowed. Those of the young trees are smooth and gray, with here and there a broad yellow spot. The inside bark of the trunk and branches is white, fibrous, and tough. It tastes slightly bitter. On cutting or stripping off this bark, no milky juice issues, as has been mentioned by various authors. The wood is hard and useful for buildings. It splits freely, and makes excellent staves for sugar hogsheads. It has no sensible bitter taste. The branches are alternate and spreading. leaves are numerous and alternate. On the upper side they are smooth, shining, and of a deep green color; on the under side they are white. The flowers appear about the beginning of April. They are of a yellow color, and placed on spikes beautifully branched. fruit is of that kind called a drupa, and is ripe towards the end of May. It is of an oval shape, is black, smooth, and shining. The pulp is fleshy and soft; the taste a nauseous sweet. The nut is flattened, and on one side winged. The kernel is small, flat, and tastes sweet. The natural number of these drupe is five on each common receptacle; but, for the most part, there are only two or three; the rest by various accidents prove abortive. The roots are thick, and run superficially under ground to a considerable distance. The bark is rough, scaly, and warted. The inside when fresh is a full yellow, but when dry paler. It has but little smell. The taste is bitter, but not very disagreeable. This is the true cortex simaruba of the shops. This tree in Jamaica is called mountain damson, bitter damson, and stave wood. On examining the fructification, Dr. Wright found this tree to be a species of quassia. Under that name he sent it to Europe, and Linnæus adopted it into his system. There are male flowers on one tree and female flowers on another; and this is invariably the case in Jamaica. Most authors who have written on the simaruba agree that in fluxes it restores the lost tone of the intestines, allays their spasmodic motions, promotes the secretion by urine and perspiration, removes that lowness of spirits attending dysenteries, and disposes the patient to sleep; the gripes and tenesmus are taken off, and the stools are changed to their natural color and consistence. In a moderate dose it occasions no disturbance or uneasiness; |
