N. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Good nutmegs should be dense, and feel heavy in the hand. When they have been perforated by worms, they feel light, and though the holes have been fraudulently stopped, the unsound ones may be easily detected by this criterion.
Nutmegs afford two oily products. 1. Butter of nutmeg, vulgarly called oil of mace, is obtained in the Moluccas, by expression, from the fresh nutmegs, to the amount of 50 per cent. of their weight. It is a reddish yellow butter-like substance, interspersed with light and dark streaks, and possesses the agreeable smell and taste of the nutmeg, from the presence of a volatile oil. It consists of two fats; one reddish and soft, soluble in cold alcohol; another white and solid, soluble in hot alcohol. 2. The volatile oil is solid, or a stereoptène, and has been styled Myristicine.
NUT OIL. See Oils, Unctuous.
NUX VOMICA, a poisonous nut, remarkable for containing the vegeto-alkali Strychnia.