Colchicum is a genus of autumnal-blooming plants of the family Liliaceae which includes the meadow saffron. Many of them are very handsome, the colours being mostly purple or white, and the flowers similar to crocuses. The colchicums are natives of southern Europe and western Asia.
From a small corm or bulb buried about 15 cm deep, and covered with a brittle brown skin of the meadow saffron there rises in the early autumn a tuft of flowers having much the appearance of crocuses, flesh-coloured, white, or even variegated. They soon wither, and the plant disappears until the succeeding spring, when some broad leaves are thrown up by each corm along with a triangularoblong seed-vessel. The plant is acrid and poisonous, and cattle are injured by eating it, but it yields a medicine - colchicin - valuable in gout and rheumatism. Research Colchicum
Brillat-Savarin was a French author and magistrate. He was born in 1755 at Bellay and died in 1826. Although he wrote works on political economics, archaeology, and duelling, he is now known only by his famous book on gastronomy, the Physiologie du Gout, published in 1825. Research Brillat-Savarin
Claude Lorraine (real name Claude Gelee) was a French landscape painter. He was born in 1600 at Charmagne, Lorraine and died in 1682. When twelve years old he went to live with his brother, an engraver in wood at Friburg, went from him to study under Godfrey Waats at Naples, and was afterwards employed at Rome by the painter Agostino Tassi, to grind his colours and do the household drudgery.
On leaving Tassi he travelled in Italy, France, and Germany, but settled in Rome in 1627, where his works were greatly sought for, and where he lived much at his ease until 1682, when he died of the gout.
The principal galleries of Italy, France, England, Spain, and Germany are adorned with his paintings; that on which he himself set the greatest value being the painting of a small wood belonging to the Villa Madama (Rome). He excelled in luminous atmospheric effects, of which he made loving and elaborate studies. His figure work, however, was inferior, and the figures in many of his paintings were supplied by Lauri and Francesco Allegrini. He made small copies of all his pictures in six books known as Libri diVerity (Books of Truth), which form a work of great value (usually called the Liber Veritatis), and much esteemed by students. Research Claude Lorraine
Trimethylamine is a tertiary amine, that occurs in herringbrine and the blossoms of hawthorn. It is chiefly obtained as a product of the distillation of the nitrogenous residue left in the preparation of sugar from beetroot. It is a gas with a fishy ammonia-like odour and a strong alkaline reaction. When heated with hydrogen chloride it yields methyl chloride. It is used for preparing pure potassium carbonate from potassium chloride and has also been used in medicine as a cure for gout and rheumatism. Research Trimethylamine
Uric acid is a crystalline substance found normally in small quantities in urine in combination with sodium, potassium, and ammonium as urates. It is present in larger quantity in various diseases, particularly gout. Uric acid is formed from the breaking down of muscular tissue and organs, and in the process of digestion. Research Uric acid
Salmon and trout is London Cockney rhyming slang for stout (beer).
Salmon and trout is London Cockney rhyming slang for snout.
Salmon and trout is London Cockney rhyming slang for gout.
Salmon and trout is London Cockney rhyming slang for a tout. Research Salmon And Trout
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Bishopweed
