Word: alkalis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...city smoke. Physicians called it "anthracosis." But modern chemistry shows that the black stuff is not carbon. It is a complex "heterocyclic" compound which does many things that carbon does not - e.g., it gives off an animal smell when burned, swells up in jellylike masses when placed in alkali, forms colloidal (finely subdivided) solutions, turns white and fluffy when acted on by alkali plus chlorine. Therefore, concluded Dr. Georgine A. Moerke of Detroit's Municipal Tuberculosis Sanatorium, though some sort of lung irritation may be involved, the black lung deposit is not pure carbon breathed in from outside...