Literary notes about residuum (AI summary)
In literature the term "residuum" functions as a versatile metaphor, denoting the remainder or by‐product left after a process of transformation or refinement. It appears in scientific and technical contexts to refer to the tangible leftovers of a chemical reaction or industrial extraction, as when boiling water yields a solid residuum [1, 2]. At the same time, the word is employed in more abstract or moral discourses to suggest that what persists—be it legal wisdom inherited over centuries [3] or an unavoidable accumulation of sin and merit shaping human destiny—is as significant as what is actively produced. This usage highlights the notion that every act of creation or dissolution leaves behind a kernel that continues to influence subsequent developments [4, 5, 6].
- (nearly), but using boiling water, avoiding ebullition during the evaporation, and powdering the residuum.—
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I by Richard Vine Tuson - Opium, exhausted by coction with water, the residuum treated with spirit of wine, and the mixed tincture and decoction evaporated to an extract.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II by Richard Vine Tuson - This is the accepted principle of International Law, a residuum of the concentrated wisdom of many generations of international legists.
— from Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812Volume 1 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan - In cases of those that are reborn, there is always a residuum of sin and merit for which they have, in their earthly life, to suffer and enjoy.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 - 3. 'The Populace,' the 'vast raw and half-developed residuum.'
— from A History of English Literature by Robert Huntington Fletcher - When one ore is abstracted and purified, the residuum subsists in that primeval quarry in which it originally lay.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
