132 QUASSIA monds." Pure quartz is largely employed in the manufacture of glass, and is commonly ob- tained for this purpose in the form of sand ; but metamorphic quartz rock of a granular structure and crumbly consistency is also used. (See GLASS.) Varieties of quartz of a cellular texture and great tenacity are used for mill- stones, the roughness and hardness of their surface and sharpness of the edges of the cells giving them a powerful grinding capacity combined with durability. (See BUHRSTONK.) Quartz veins with few exceptions form the gangues in which gold is found in situ, and it is probable that most of the gold which is ob- tained from alluvial and drift deposits came originally from the quartz veins. These gold- bearing quartz veins intersect various meta- morphic rocks, such as chloritic, talcose, and argillitic schist, hornblende schist, gneiss, por- phyry, and sometimes granite. (See GOLD.) QUASSIA, a bitter drug, the properties of which, it is said, were first made known to Europeans by a negro slave named Quassi ; the tree producing it was named Quassia amara by Linnaius, and belongs to the simarubecs. Its wood is intensely bitter, and is sold in bil- lets 2 to 4 in. in diameter. The supply of the drug originally came from Surinam ; small quantities are exported to Europe, and under the name of Surinam quassia it is still used in Germany and France. Toward the end of the last century it was discovered that a tree known in Jamaica and neighboring islands as bitterwood and bitter ash had properties al- most identical with the quassia; being much more abundant and in much larger pieces than the Surinam drug, this has almost entirely sup- Bitterwood (Plcrsena excelsa). planted it, and, though afforded by a differ- ent tree, the drug is called quassia. The tree is picrcena excelsa, an allied genus in the same family with the other, having the general ap- pearance of an ash, inconspicuous, greenish flowers, and black drupes the size of a pea. QUATREFAGES DE BREAU The wood is imported in logs, sometimes a foot thick, with a smooth brittle bark; it is kept in the form of chips or turnings, which are nearly white when first cut, but become yellowish by exposure ; it has no odor, and a strong, pure bitter taste, which is imparted to water and to alcohol. A neutral substance, to which the bitterness is due, has been separated and called quassiine. The properties of quassia are those of the simple bitters, and as a medicine it is adapted to cases of dyspepsia and the debili- tated state of the digestive organs which some- times succeeds acute disease. Animals have been killed by concentrated preparations of the drug. A sweetened decoction is some- times used for poisoning flies. It is given in the form of cold infusion and in tincture. Bitter cups or quassia cups were at one time very popular ; these are goblets turned from the wood, which quickly impart a bitter taste to wine, water, or other liquid placed in them. The decoction was formerly used in England by some of the brewers as a substitute for hops, but this is now prohibited under severe penalties. QIATRE BRAS. See WATERLOO. QtATREFAGES DE BKEAII, Jean Louis Armand de, a French naturalist, born near Valleraugue, department of Gard, Feb. 10, 1810. Ho gradu- ated doctor in medicine and science at Stras- burg in 1829, published papers Sur les aero- lithes (1830), and De I 'extroversion de la ressie (1832), and, while assistant professor of chem- istry in the medical faculty at Strasburg, wrote extensively for scientific periodicals. In 1838 he was appointed professor of zoology at Tou- louse, in 1850 professor of natural history in the lycee Napoleon, in 1852 member of the academy of sciences, and in 1855 professor of anatomy and ethnology in the museum of natural history. Among his publications are : Considerations sur les caracteres zoologiques des rongeurs (4to, 1840) ; De V organisation des animaux sans vertebres des cotes de la Manche (1844); Recherches sur le systeme nerveux, Vembryogenie, les organes des sens et la circu- lation des annelides (1844-'50); Sur Vhistoire naturelle des tarets (1848-'9); Sur les affinites et Ifs analogies des lombric* et des sangsues (1852) ; Souvenirs d'un naturalisle (2 vols. 12mo, 1854; English translation, 2 vols., Lon- don, 1857) ; Unite de Vespece humaine (1861) ; Metamorphoses de Vhomme et des animaux (1862; English translation by II. Lawson, 1864) ; Hisioire naturelle des anneles marins et d'eau douce (1865 et seq.) ; Les Polynesiens et leurs migrations (1866); Rapport sur les pro- gres de V anthropologie (1867); Le vers d soie (1869) ; Histoire de Vhomme (1869 ; English translation by Miss Eliza Youmans, New York, 1875) ; Charles Darwin et ses procureurs fran- cais: etude sur le transformisme (1870); La race prussienne (1871); and, in conjunction with E. T. Haury, Crania Ethnica : Lescrdnes des races humaines decrits et figures (1875 et seq.).
