Carbon: C; at. wt. 12.010; at. no. 6; valence 4. Occurs in 3 forms: (1) Diamond-hardest substance known; (2) Graphite or black lead; (3) Amorphous carbon, such as coal, lampblack, and the various forms of artificial carbon.

Carbon, amorphous. Carbon black; carbon activated; carbon, decolorizing. By the term "carbon black," several forms of artificially prepared carbon or charcoal are designated, e.g.: (1) Animal charcoal, obtained by charring bones, meat, blood, etc.; (2) Graphite or black lead, obtained by incomplete combustion of natural gas; (3) Lamp black, obtained by burning various fats, oils, resins, etc., under suitable conditions; (4) Wood and vegetable charcoals (charcoal, activated).

Use: Numbers (1) and (4), e.g., Norite, Carboraffin, are used chiefly for clarifying, deodorizing, decolorizing and filtering. The others are used as a pigment for rubber tires; for printing, stenciling and drawing inks; for leather; stove polish, phonograph records, electrical insulating apparatus. Charcoal, activated (from the destructive distillation of various organic materials) and purified aniinal charcoal are used in medicine.

Med. Use: Deodorant in dressings for foul wounds and in plaster casts. Has been used as an antidote for various poisons (mercuric chloride, strychnine, phenol, and mushrooms), intern. for hyperacidity, to absorb fermentive gases and for diarrhea.

Vet. Use: Extern. in foul wounds. Intern. in dyspepsia, flatulence.