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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
I'ODINE, n. [Gr. resembling a violet.] In chimistry, a peculiar substance recently discovered by Courtois, a manufacturer of salt-peter in Paris. It is obtained from certain sea-weeds or marine plants. At the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere it is a solid, apparently a simple substance, at least hitherto undecomposed. It is incombustible, but in combining with several bodies, it exhibits the phenomena of combustion; hence it has been considered a supporter of combustion. Like chlorine, it destroys vegetable colors,but with less energy. Its color is bluish black or grayish black, of a metallic luster. It is often in scales, resembling those of micaceous iron ore; sometimes in brilliant rhomboidal plates, or in elongated octahedrons. Its taste is acrid, and it is somewhat poisonous. It is fusible at 225 deg. of Fahrenheit. The color of its vapor is a beautiful violet,whence its name.
A
nonmetallic element, of the halogen group, occurring always in
combination, as in the iodides. When isolated it is in the form of
dark gray metallic scales, resembling plumbago, soft but brittle, and
emitting a chlorinelike odor. Symbol I. Atomic weight 126.5. If
heated, iodine volatilizes in beautiful violet vapors.
* Iodine was formerly obtained from the ashes of seaweed (kelp or varec), but is now also extracted from certain natural brines. In the free state, iodine, even in very minute quantities, colors starch blue. Iodine and its compounds are largely used in medicine (as in liniments, antisyphilitics, etc.), in photography, in the preparation of aniline dyes, and as an indicator in titration. Iodine green, an artificial green dyestuff, consisting of an iodine derivative of rosaniline; -- called also night green. -- Iodine scarlet, a pigment of an intense scarlet color, consisting of mercuric iodide. -- Iodine yellow, a brilliant yellow pigment, consisting of plumbic iodide. | ||||||||