Angostura Bark is the aromatic bitter medicinal bark obtained chiefly from Galipea officindlis, a tree of between three and six metres high, growing in the northern regions of South America, of the natural order Rutaceae. The bark is valuable as a tonic and febrifuge, and is also used for a kind of bitters (Angostura bitters). From this bark being adulterated, indeed sometimes entirely replaced, by the poisonous bark of Strychnos Nux Vomica, its use as a medicine had been almost given up by around 1900. Research Angostura Bark
Archil or orchil is a red, violet, or purple colouring matter obtained from various kinds of lichens, the most important of which are the Roccella tinctoria and the Roccella fuciformis, natives of the rocks of the Canary and Cape Verde islands, Mozambique and Zanzibar, South America, etc, and popularly called dyer's-moss. The dye was used for improving the tints of other dyes, as from its want of permanence it could not be employed alone. The aniline colours largely superseded it. Cudbear and litmus are of similar origin. Research Archil
Brazil-wood a kind of wood yielding a red dye, obtained from several trees of the genusCaesalpinia, of the order Leguminosae, natives of the West Indies and Central and South America. The best kind is Caesalpinia echinata; other varieties are Caesalpinia brasiliensis, Caesalpinia orista and Caesalpinia Sappan. The wood is hard and heavy, and as it takes on a fine polish it is used by cabinet-makers for various purposes, but its principal use is in dyeing red. The dye is obtained by reducing the wood to powder and boiling it in water, when the water receives the red colouring principle, which is a crystallizable substance called brazilin. The colour is not permanent unless fixed by suitable mordants. Research Brazil-Wood
Communism is a political system in which major industries are operated by and for the benefit of the entire society, as opposed to the benefit of a small number of shareholders or the owner. Often dismissed as an unworkable system by opponents, communist societies function splendidly among less industrial people such as the Chiquitos of South America, however the system is very prone to being wrecked by individual greed. Research Communism
The Congress of Verona took place in 1822. It was a meeting of envoys of the great European powers to consult respecting the disturbances in Spain. Their project of interference for the sake of restoring Spanish power in the revolted colonies of South America was what led to the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Research Congress of Verona
Cusco-bark also known as cuzco-bark is the bark of Cinchona pubescens, which comes from Cuzco, in South America. It contains a peculiar alkaloid called cusco-cinchonine, or cusconine, which resembles cinchonine in its physical qualities, but differs from it in its chemical properties. When applied medicinally it excites warmth in the system, and was therefore formerly recommended to be given in cold intermittents and low typhoid states of the system. Research Cusco-Bark
The Gulf Stream is a well-known oceanic current, so called because it issues from the Gulf of Mexico. It owes its origin to the fact that the westward moving waters of the tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean, encountering the eastward projection of South America, become divided into two currents, one setting southwards along the Brazilian coast, and the other northward past the mouths of the Amazon and Orinoco, into the Caribbean Sea. It then enters the Gulf of Mexico, and thence emerges through the Channel of Florida as the Gulf Stream. Its course is next to the north and eastwards, in a direction parallel to the coast of the United States, past Cape Hatteras, along the southern edge of the 'great banks' of Nantucket and Newfoundland (between the meridians of 48 and 60 degrees west), after which its course as a distinct current is less obvious.
In the earlier part of its course, especially when rounding the extremity of Florida, the Gulf Stream forms a well-defined current, distinguished by its high temperature and its deep blue or indigo colour. On account of the descent of the Polar or Baffin Bay current along the coast in a direction opposite to that of the Gulf Stream, the water on its inland side is colder than that to the eastward of it. The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and this cold current sometimes amounts to 20 or even 30 degrees Fahrenheit
The velocity of the Gulf Stream varies with its course. Within the Florida Channel it attains a mean of 65 miles per day, this sinks to 56 miles off Charleston, becomes 36 miles to 46 off Nautucket, and 28 miles to the south of the Newfoundland Banks; 300 miles to the eastward of Newfoundland its movement is hardly perceptible. At the bottom of the Florida Channel the observed temperature is 34 degrees that of the surface from 80 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Research Gulf Stream
A hemisphere is half a sphere, especially one of the halves into which the earth may be supposed to be divided. It is common to speak of the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, the former, also called the Old World, comprising Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, etc; the latter, North and South America, etc. The boundary between the two is quite arbitrary, and a more natural division of the earth is into the northern and the southern hemisphere, the equator forming the dividing line. Research Hemisphere
Abbreviations
Research Angostura Bark
