From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA small measure expressed as a fraction of a drop.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342.
Historical definition
Carena is the twentieth part of a drop.
Meaning
The definition gives a relative measure: one drop divided into twenty parts. It does not state the size of the original drop or identify a modern unit of volume. A conversion to a fixed number of millilitres would therefore require information not supplied by the dictionary.
Karena provides a related spelling in the inventory. Such variants should be linked so a reader can recognize the measure in different passages. For historical interpretation, preserve both the fraction and its unit rather than rounding it to a familiar modern dose.
Places to read
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Carena ; compare Karena