Images de page
PDF
ePub

BUTLERAGE OF WINE-BUTTER.

edited with notes by W. Hepworth Thomson (Cam- the Scythians, Thracians, and Phrygians, whilst bridge, 1856, 2 vols.). These lectures are remarka- the Romans obtained it from Germany. In Southble for their great learning, eloquence, and depth of ern Europe, at the present time, B is very sparingly judgment. Besides his lectures, there have appeared, used; and in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Southern Sermons, with a memoir by the Rev. Thomas Wood- France, it is sold by apothecaries as a medicinal ward (Dublin, 1849); Letters on the Development of agent for external application. The amount of B. in Christian Doctrine (Dublin, 1850); Letters on Roman- cows' milk (q. v.) is about 4 per cent., though the ism, (Lond. 1850). kind of pasture, quantity of milk, and general conBUTLERAGE OF WINE, as described by Black-dition, influence the relative quantity of the several stone and Stephen, is a very ancient hereditary duty ingredients of milk. In the extraction of B. the belonging to the crown, and is otherwise called the mik is allowed to cool, and the cream which rises to prisage of wines. This duty is taken notice of in the the surface is skimmed off, and put into a large, Great Roll of the Exchequer, 8 Richard one, still ex- deep, earthenware vessel, where it lies for several tant. Under the right to levy it, the crown could days till enough has been collected for a churning. take two tuns of wine from every ship (English or Any difference in the exact mode of treatment of the foreign) importing into England twenty tuns or more, milk yields a B. with some peculiarity or other. one before, and one behind the mast; which, by Thus the B. and cream of Devonshire, which are charter of Edward I., was exchanged into a duty of famed for their superior richness, owe this in greater two shillings for every tun imported by merchant part to the mode of manipulating the milk, and not strangers, and called butlerage, because paid to the to the special character of that fluid, or to the king's butler. richness of the pastures in those districts. The milk in Devonshire is not allowed to cool slowly, as elsewhere, but is at once placed in large deep pans, and carefully heated. A scum quickly rises, which is pushed to the side; and whenever the allowed to cool in the ordinary way, when a good deal bubbles of steam appear, the milk is removed, and of the milk thickens to the consistence of B., and is skimmed off as the celebrated Devonshire clouted cream. In England, the B. of Epping and Cambridge is highly esteemed, and in every part of Great Britain, the Dutch B., in a salted form, is very largely consumed; indeed, three-fourths of all the foreign B. consumed in Great Britain is imported from Holland.

BU'TOMUS, a genus of aquatic plants, of which one species, B. umbellatus, is frequent in ditches and ponds in England, Ireland, and many parts of Europe, but is very rare in Scotland. It is popularly called Flowering Rush, and is one of the plants to which the praise has been assigned of being the

[graphic]

Butomus umbellatus.

most beautiful in the British flora. The leaves are all radical, 2-3 feet long, linear, triangular, their sharp edges sometimes cutting the mouths of cattle, whence the generic name (Gr. ox-cutting). The scape, or flowering stem, is longer than the leaves, terminating in a large umbel of rose-coloured flowers, readily distinguished from those of all other British plants by having nine stamens, six in an outer, and three in an inner row.

BUTTER (Ger. butter; Fr. beurre; Lat butyrum) is the fatty substance present in the milk of the mammalia, and capable of being extracted from it. In ancient times, the Hebrews seem to have made copious use of butter as food; but the Greeks and the Romans used it only as an ointment in their baths, and it is probable that the Greeks obtained their knowledge of the substance from

In order to separate the B. from milk, re course is always had to the process of agita tion in CHURNS (q. v.). The principle involved in each and all of the forms of this apparatus is the thorough agitation of the contents, so as to cause the rupture of the minute fat globules present in the milk, and the incorporation or kneading of these ruptured fat globules into larger or smaller masses of butter. The cream is strained through cloth into the churn, to remove any foreign matter; and the agitators being set in motion, the friction of the movement, combined with the admission of air, and the chemical changes it induces, raises the temperature of the whole contents. At one time, it was thought that one great object of the agitation was the admission of the oxygen of the air, which becoming thoroughly incorporated with constituents of the milk, combined therewith, and, as a consequence, led to the separation of the butter. It is found, however, that B. can be obtained from milk by mere agitation, without the admission of the oxygen of the air. At the same time, in the ordinary way of churning, oxygen does play a subordinate part by combining with the sugar of the milk, and forming lactic acid, which in its turn sours the milk, and separates therefrom the caseine (q. v.)-cheese-matter-in minute clots or flakes, yielding what is commonly called sour or butter milk. The process of churning must be conducted at a medium rate. If too quickly performed, the B. is soft and frothy, and is said to be burst; whilst when too slowly made, it is highly tenacious, strong tasted, and badly flavoured. When all the B. has come, which is known by the particles agglutinating into irregular masses, the B. is made by taking the lumps, and well washing and kneading them on a wooden board in a tub of pure spring-water till all the butter-milk has been expressed; it is then divided into the requisite size of lumps, fashioned into rolls, or moulded into forms, and usually stamped with some device. In

BUTTER-BUTTERFLY.

the making up of the B., the hands of the operator must be scrupulously clean, and be free from the slightest taint of soap. Persons who are subject to moist hands should never knead B., as it is very liable to be contaminated by the slightest foreign matter, especially animal secretions; and it is better always for the operator to wash the hands with water containing some oatmeal before commencing. So important is this source of contamination regarded in America, that every endeavour is made to get quit of manual labour in working the B., and a wooden butter-worker has been invented, and is largely used there. When newly prepared, the B. is called fresh or sweet B., and is of a yellow colour, which is well known to be deeper as the pasture on which the cows have been fed is richer, and hence the poorer kinds of B. are often artificially coloured with a little arnotto (q. v.), and rarely with the juice of carrots.

A large quantity of the B. sent into market has more or less common salt added, for the purpose of preserving it. For use within a week or two, the proportion of common salt employed is about half an ounce to two pounds of B., though, where it has to be kept for some time, as much as one ounce of salt to one pound of B. is used. The incorporation requires to be carefully and dexterously done, so that the resulting material may be uniform; and the better plan is to add only a portion of the salt at a time, and to knead and re-knead the B. till the whole is thoroughly mixed. When the less amount of salt has been employed, the result is powdered B., and the larger quantity yields salt butter. Much of the latter is closely packed in small wooden firkins or kits, and occasionally in stoneware, and sent into market. Great care must be taken to have these kits, and indeed to have every vessel used in the preparation, as clean or sweet as possible. Constant rinsings with cold water, and scaldings with boiling water, are resorted to. Attention must likewise be paid to the atmosphere of the apartments in which the milk is first placed, and in which the subsequent operations go on, as a tainted atmosphere always tends to injure the quality of the marketable commodity.

The adulterations liable to be present in B. are an undue proportion of salt and water, and these run up occasionally to upwards of 33 per cent., or one-third of the total weight. Another adulteration is the presence of lactate of zine, derived from the milk being placed in zinc pails and basins, from the impression that by some imaginary electrical influence an increase in the amount of cream will be the result; but though this is not attained, yet the milk tending to form lactic acid, the latter attacks the zinc vessel, and forms lactate of zine, which dissolves in the milk, and thereby contaminates it, imparting an unpleasant taste, and, when present in larger quantity, leading to violent spasmodic vomiting. When B. is allowed to get old, it becomes rancid, and tastes and smells disagreeably. To some extent, an acid is formed, called Butyric Acid (q. v.). The use of B. in diet will be considered under FooD and NUTRITION.

BUTTER, in Chemistry, is often applied generically to any substance of the consistence of B., and is therefore used to designate palm, cocoanut, shea, and nutmeg oils. It is also applied to certain metallic substances which have an oily aspect and consistence resembling melted B.; thus we have B. of antimony, bismuth, zinc, and tin.-BUTTER of antimony is a thick, dense, oily compound, produced by acting upon the native sulphuret of antimony (SbS3) by concentrated hydrochloric acid (HCI) and heat, when the oily chloride of antimony (SbCl,) is formed. See ANTIMONY.

BUTTER, Rock, a mineral which may be regarded as a variety of Alum (q. v.)-an iron alum, appearing as a pastry exudation from rocks that contain alum or its constituents, particularly alum-slate and other schistose rocks. It occurs at Hurlet alum-work, near Paisley, Scotland, and in a number of places on the continent of Europe. It is not unlike butter in colour, varying from yellowish white to sulphur yellow. It is rather greasy to the touch, and is easily broken in pieces.

BUTTER TREE, a name given to several tropical trees, of different natural orders, the fruits of which yield concrete fixed oils, having the appearance and used for the purposes of butter. The B. trees of India and Africa belong to the genus Bassia (q. v.). of the natural order Sapotacea; the B. trees of Guiana and Brazil to the genus Caryocar (q. v.), of the natural order Rhizobolacea. The Oil-palms (q. v.), and the Cocos butyraceae (see CocoA NUT), may also be regarded as B. trees, although not generally receiving that name.

BUTTERCUP. See RANUNCULUS.
BUTTERFISH. See GUNNEL.

BUTTERFLY, the common English name of all the diurnal Lepidopterous (q. v.) insects, corresponding with the genus Papilio, as originally defined by Linnæus, but forming many genera in the most recent entomological systems. Butterflies exhibit a great similarity in almost all respects to other lepidopterus insects, the common characters of which will be found in the article on that order; but are distinguished even more than the rest of them generally, by brilliancy of colouring, which in butterflies also belongs to the under as well as the upper side of the wings, whilst the beauty of moths and hawk-moths appears chiefly on the upper side. Accordant with this circumstance, is the further peculiarity, that almost all butterflies, when at rest, usually hold their wings erect, the under side being thus chiefly exhibited; whilst the other lepidopterous insects, when at rest, hold their wings in a horizontal or somewhat inclined position, and some have them wrapped round the body. Butterflies are also the only lepidopterous insects which have no spines, bristles, or hooks on the margins of their wings, by which the second wing on each side can be attached to the first, but both when flying and

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Various forms of Scales (highly magnified) from the Wings of Butterflies.

at rest, have all their wings quite separate. The manner in which the scales of the wings are imbricated, gives those of butterflies a smoother appearance than those of moths and hawk-moths. The antennæ of butterflies are generally simple, slender, and elongated, and terminated by a little club. Their caterpillars have always sixteen feet (see CATERPILLAR). The pupa or chrysalis is angular; is seldom enveloped in a cocoon; is generally

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

BUTTERFLY.

suspended by the tail, by means of a silky substance,, species produce several broods in a year, as the often to a leaf or twig, but is sometimes supported eggs in summer may be hatched in a few days. The by bands around the middle; and generally exhibits more or less of that golden colouring from which both the names aurelia (Lat. aurum) and chrysalis (Gr. chrysos) are derived.

[graphic]

Butterflies are found in all parts of the world; they are to be seen during the sunshine of the brief summer extracting nectar from the flowers even of Greenland and Spitzbergen, but they are most numerous in the warmest regions; where, however, many of them live chiefly in the shade of moist foliage, in woods and jungles. Dr. Hooker, describing the scenery on the banks of the Great Runjeet in the Sikkim Himalaya, says that 'by far the most striking feature consisted in the amazing quantity of superb butterflies, large tropical swallow-tails, black, with scarlet or yellow eyes on their wings. They were seen everywhere, sailing majestically through the still hot hair, or fluttering from one scorching rock to another, and especially loving to settle on the damp sand of the river edge, where they sat by thousands, with erect wings, balancing themselves with a rocking motion, as their heavy sails inclined them to one side or the other, resembling a crowded fleet of yachts on a calm day.'

Butterflies possess no small power of wing; some of them, indeed, of which the wings are comparatively thin and delicate, are inferior in this respect, and have a sort of zigzag flight; but others soar in the air with a steady and continuous motion. Shortlived as they are all generally believed to be, some of the tropical species perform wonderful migrations; concerning which, however, nothing but the fact is yet well known. Frequently,' says Sir James Emerson Tennent in his work on Ceylon, the extraordinary sight presents itself of flights of these delicate creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow hue, apparently miles in breadth, and of such prodigious extension as to occupy hours and even days uninterruptedly in their passage, whence coming no one knows, whither going no one can tell.'

The number of species of B. is very great, and the arrangement of them has been found difficult, chiefly upon account of the great similarity in all important respects which prevails among them all. They are divided, however, into two well-marked sections, of which the first is characterised by having only a single pair of spurs or spines on the tibia (or fourth joints of the legs), placed at their lower extremity; whilst in the other section, the tibiæ of the hinder legs have two pair of spurs, one pair at each extremity. This distinction, seemingly unimportant in itself, is accompanied by other differences. The second section of butterflies may be regarded as forming a sort of connecting link between butterflies and hawk-moths. A few British species belong to it, but the species are generally tropical, and some of them, found in tropical America, are remarkable for their rapidity and power of flight, and for the migrations which they perform, besides being amongst the most splendid insects in creation,' a resplendent green, inimitable by art, relieving the velvet black of their wings, and varying with every change of light. The beautiful iridescence of the wings of these and many other butterflies is owing to the peculiar position of the scales.

Some groups of butterflies are remarkable for the imperfect development of the first pair of legs, so that they are generally described as having four legs instead of six.

The eggs of butterflies are deposited on the plants, the leaves of which are to supply the food of the caterpillars. In cold and temperate climates, the eggs deposited in autumn are not hatched till the following spring; but it is believed that many

1.

Eggs of Butterflies, highly magnified. Egg of Queen of Spain Fritillary (Argynnis Lathonia) 2. Egg of Peacock Butterfly (Vanessa Io); 3. Larva of Large Garden White Butterfly (Pieris Brassica), in the act of bursting from the egg; 4. Egg of same insect, ready to hatch, shewing the head and curved body of enclosed caterpillar through the transparent envelope.-For these illustrations we are indebted to Westwood's excellent treatise on British Butterflies.

caterpillars of each species are generally confined to some particular kind of plant, the leaves of which they devour; their ravages are well known, but the excessive increase of their numbers is in part restrained by many enemies, and by none more than by the ichneumons (q. v.) and other insects which deposit their eggs in them, and the larvæ of which feed on them. The annexed cut represents a common species of B., with its larva and pupa; an account of B. transformations will be given under INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS.

[graphic][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small]

Butterflies vary in size from less than an inch to almost a foot across the expanded wings. The largest species are tropical. Some of the species are very widely distributed: Cynthia cardui, of which the caterpillar feeds on the leaves of thistles, is found not only throughout Europe, but in Egypt, Barbary, Senegal, Cape Colony, Madagascar, China, Java, Australia, Brazil, and North America, being, in fact, one of the most widely distributed of all insects. The geographical limits of other species appear to be very restricted. The diversity of colouring is almost endless, but a prevalence of certain hues, or of certain modes of the disposal of them, is observed throughout large groups. The

« PrécédentContinuer »